This has been a great weekend for meeting up with people, instead of being locked away in an office. I haven't mentioned it yet, but I was out for a nice run Thursday, 3K in 21 minutes, in great weather. Then another run run on Saturday, 5 K, 34:30, in great weather. This run felt really good. I was actually aiming for a 7:30 pace, nice and easy, but my legs didn't want to run that slow. They felt pretty light and strong for the whole run. Stretched after, lots. Should I mention BBQ rack of lamb?
Have you noticed the great weather so far? It has been, with an awesome sunrise and sunset. Here's just a few shots. Gotta love Alberta clouds at dawn and dusk.
Sunday was a long planned mega-swim with buddies. A few years ago I tried to swim 10 K, and made it to 7. You can read about it here. I'm pretty sure the changes to my stroke are what is causing the shoulder issues, so I'm going to dial back the distance for a little while, but try to maintain pace.
The idea today was to go 2 hours. (My shoulders twinge just thinking about it, even now.) My first couple K were nice. Slow and trying to take it smooth and easy. For 3rd K I put on the fins, and did some kick and backstroke. In between each I took a sip of energy drink. Note to self, drinking anything, in a pool, with nose clips on, is very difficult. I took a break after 3 K, (1 hr almost exactly)then bravely headed off, aiming for 4. My arms fell off at 3.5. I did the last 500 m a combination of backstroke, and very slow front crawl. Then water ran to fill out the time till the swim club kicked us out of the lanes.
My one buddy swam 6 K, then water ran to get to 2 hours exactly. But she wasn't done. My other buddy exceeded her expectations, shattering her previous records for time and distance! What a champ.
We walked over to the Perk for a coffee and treats, along with a perfectly lovely chat. I love times like those. The bonus is to see a local, non-chain place doing really well. Every table was full, and there was a constant stream of people coming in. Eventually I'll try the chocolate cake the violates the don't eat anything bigger than your head rule. It will probably provide dessert for several days.
Eventually we bailed out and got on with the rest of our day. My one buddy went back into Talisman to get onto the elliptical machine. I think she said something about 2 or 3 hours more but I wasn't sure.
Straight over to meet up other buddies for brunch. MORE lovely chat, catching up with them. Then over to see their new house. They just moved in and it's full of boxes. We were talking about it on the way home as I was trying to put my finger on what I didn't like about it. Then I realized the problem was it didn't look lived in yet. I've been friends with them since shortly after moving to Calgary, and their separate homes, then their various homes together have always had a strong sense of place, of identity. I've always liked visiting them.
In other news, Linda has gone through a huge big bag of soil, amending the garden beds. Her new plants are voracious, and the soil has dropped. It's been hard work for her, toting, digging, pulling, pushing. All good workout material, and the plants will be even more beautiful next year.
I really shouldn't read work emails at 4am, but I couldn't sleep. Some big wind gusts blew through with spatters of rain about 2:30 and I never really went back to sleep. That probably didn't help the swim.
Tomorrow is looking really nice. If it's not too windy I might head out for a bike ride, maybe even down Road to Nepal, if my legs are up for it.
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