She massaged. I whimpered. Lots.

Sunday was a painful day, in a good way. My well beloved massage therapist that moved to Canmore, and if you live there and are very nice to me, I will give you her contact info, referred a therapist to her clients. Yesterday was the first massage from JL. My goodness. And. Holy Cow!

She worked me over good. I needed it. You know how many therapists slide their fingers along a muscle, and the pressure builds, and then releases as they slide past a trigger point? JL stops on the trigger point and hoooooooooollllllllllllllllds it there. She doesn't just work along the muscles, she also works across them as well. I hadn't thought there were any issues with my right shoulder, but she found lots of tender spots. In general my left side is tight as a guitar string, and the right considerably more relaxed. She worked me over for two whole hours. She'll be back next Sunday.

Today started with a nice swim. I had a lane to myself. Solid warmup, then 500 m timed, though I wasn't trying to be fast, just steady and smooth. I wanted to see where I was. 9:49. A few times I'd have the water feel, and would swoosh along. Then I'd lose it and thrash along for a while, then get it back again. Good cool down. Stretching in the pool. Then about a half hour of core work in the dive tank with a bit of deep water running. My legs aren't liking that much for some reason.

Coffee after with my buddy SKH. Then hanging out at home waiting for packages to arrive and job phone calls. The new iPhone bumper fits nice and makes it a bit easier to hang onto the phone. Oh, and I'm planning to ride with another buddy on Friday. Let me know if you want in. Easy ride.

It is a totally beautiful day out there. Summer weather. Seriously. +20 C (68 F) Right after the UPS gal came I was dressed and out there. Walked to warm up, then started with an easy easy run. And wow did it ever feel good! My legs relaxed and moved well. I think I've lost a bit of cardio fitness, but not much. Ran at varying speeds, going totally by feel, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. Walked to cool down. I was out for just over an hour. Stretched after, and even did some plank of my own free will, a whole minute's worth.

And just for my faithful blog readers, and because Neil took a bunch of photos of the east end of Fish Creek park, I took the iphone with me to take some photos and video of the west end of the park during my run. I'm going to find it tough to believe you have nicer scenery where you run. Enjoy.

This is where I start on the 37th St path, looking south.

This is the view from the very west end of the park, at the top of the hill, looking west.

This is near the top of the hill, looking south east. Just beyond the top of the far  hill there is more city.

I took a slight detour onto bridge two. This is looking downstream.

The path runs through mixed forest. Bear in mind this is within the City of Calgary.

Every now and then, you can see Fish Creek. The large mounds of gravel are from the floods of a few years ago, when the river changed its course in many places. In one place the river bed moved over 100 m.

More mixed forest, some nice evergreens. It smells so nice along here.

Some birch.

 Just as you leave the forest and come to the parking lot at the bottom of 24th St, you see these trees. The camera really doesn't do justice to the colour against the sky.

Video link if you want to go there directly or send it to your friends. Because, doesn't everyone want to see what Fish Creek Park looks like? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m96gG_U7u_Q

Oh, and the aero bars. Nobody mentioned a word about them. I guess I'll hang onto them for a while longer. Maybe all my local blog readers either have aero bars already, or are tall. Anybody have any interest in a satellite radio I found, still in the box?