Nice easy recovery run

It being the Victoria day weekend I felt I should do at least a little something in the yard. Cleaned out some of the dead stuff, mowed and trimmed lawn, then raked. Not the brutal de-thatching raking, just the normal light raking to clean up cut grass and leaves. I had a great sleep last night and didn't feel too creaky this am, and the lawn work was a good wake up stretch.

Just after that I slathered on some sunscreen and went out for my recovery run. I had always thought "recovery run" was an oxymoron, but it was just what I needed. Nice and easy. It was a beautiful day for it, warm but not too hot, and a periodic nice breeze. I walked to the 37 street path and headed north. The plan said 90 min max, but I wanted to go a bit further if possible, with a max time of 2 hours. Anything over 90 minutes and I'd walk 10 and 1 if I had to. My feeling was that I'd had a good warmup, I wouldn't be pushing it, and my wonderful massage therapist is coming over this afternoon.

At the bridge over the Elbow in the Weasel Head (57:30) I turned around, walked a minute and a half while I snarfed the last chunk of Cliff's bar. I was back to my starting point in 1:56 total time. The trip back was one minute longer than the trip there, and I'll attribute that to the hill on the way out. I was aiming to keep heart rate in low 120's, but the trip back, especially last 45 min or so it seemed to be in the 130's. Still, my breathing was never laboured, and I didn't get any complaints out of my calves. Toward the end my IT band was getting a bit tired. The pace felt steady and natural. I easily could have kept going, though I was out of liquid and was beginning to get hungry. With a little better nutrition planning, and some aid stations for water, I could have kept going for a while longer. Another hour longer?

Lots of people out for a ride, some runners, and one incredible roller blader. Girls, you are sorry you weren't there. Seriously tight abs, great legs, and going like the devil was right behind him. Don't worry, I had some eye candy as well. For a while I was singing "The Girl from Ipanema" to myself. I digress. Saw a guy in a Speed Theory jersey on his bike, but didn't get a good look at him. Looking forward to reading the blogs from Penticton!

13.8 K according to mapmyrun
1:56
126 Avg heart rate
144 peak hr
103 min hr
1878 calories