That was mostly better than expected

If you've been reading lately you'll know I've been feeling a bit meh about the half marathon today. I had signed up for the full meal deal, but after a brutal winter and inconsistent training I dropped down to the half.

A digression here, kudos to the race organization for allowing this! It's so sensible and straightforward I don't understand why every race doesn't allow it. There is no way I could have faced a full marathon today.

The important part of the day for me was to meet up and hang out with buddies before the race. I knew I'd be running alone, so some company first was good. My legs weren't hurting, but neither were they thrilled and ready to go on a perfect day for running.

I started fine, planning to take periodic walk breaks when I felt the need. I was a bit dismayed to find the first break happening about 3 K, on the bridge over Memorial going into Bridgeland. From there on the walk breaks happened much more frequently. It was a bit odd. Nothing was actually hurting, and I had lots of wind, but my legs did not want to run.

It was a bit of a suffer fest going through downtown. Long port-potty lines and beginning to feel the need. Walking lots. About 11.5 K (14 St and 12 Ave) the line was short. While waiting the police escort cleared the way for the marathon leaders. Wow, just wow.

There was a spring in my step getting out onto the course again. Maybe losing a Kg or so had something to do with it. I started running, and most astonishing for me, passing people. Lots of walking people, but lots of running people too. From there I ran the entire way to the finish line with only two really short walk breaks of a few steps each, mainly to slurp fluids when my bottle got low.

The finishing chute isn't that wide, and it curves. Two women decided that was a time for a side by side walk, and getting around them without tripping was a bit of a challenge. I crossed 2:42:33, which avoids a PW by a few minutes. When I consider that race was in Fernie, cold, raining, up a mud pit mountainside, it shows how unprepared I was for this.

The best moment of the race was the pipe band starting up just after the centre street bridge. I love me a good pipe band. Thanks guys!

The really worst moment of the day? Going through the Earlton LRT station on the way home. It was hot and stuffy and smelled gross. I had to swallow a few times. By the time I got to Southland I was so happy to get out of the LRT, and just sit on a bench for a few minutes. I've been shuffling ever since, except for a very nice nap early this afternoon.

I'm happy I finished, happy that it wasn't any worse, (and I expected worse) but I've got to start preparing for these properly. First thing is to recover from this.
Second is to start working on core strength. There were some exercises in the latest Impact magazine that I think I'll start doing.
Third is to figure out what's going on in my back and legs that causes this chronic tightness.

There is lots of other news, mainly around the back yard. That's another blog post. Linda is planting lots of flowers.

That almost click feeling

No secret there are parts of my body unhappy with me. I've been struggling with tightness, stiffness, and minor pain for a while, in spite of stretching, rolling, and other alleviations. It's mainly quads and ITB, but I think the real source is my low back.

Tonight I was downstairs doing some twists, trying to relax into them, breathing to that part of the body as my lovely yoga instructor would say. It was almost a little frustrating because I could feel that it was almost going to go. So close, and yet so far.

In the past I've sometimes tried to push that, and regretted it later. I had a chiropractor that liked to work on my low back, and that terrified me. It turned into a strength contest because I couldn't relax. I know my low back and hips are a bit locked up, or something. It's making me very nervous about my Sunday half marathon. But the stretch was good, overall. I'm feeling better. Perhaps a good night's sleep will relax things a bit more, and I'll get the elusive CLICK!

One of my co-workers asked if I was a bit worried about heading into a long run while not feeling 100%. I certainly have not had the training I'd like to have, and I could wish my hips and knees were happier with me. But there's lots of times I've headed out for a run feeling worse, and had a perfectly nice run out of it. I'm quite confident that I'll be able to chug through the race without further injury because I'll be paying a lot of attention to how things are feeling. I'm quite willing to dial it back to a walk, though sometimes walking hurts more than running.

Sunday will be fun. There's going to be a ton of people there, and I'll even know some of them. I'm going to try to get there between 6 and 6:30 and meet up with people, though pre-twitter I didn't have much luck with that. It's supposed to be nice weather.

All I need to do is make sure I don't beat myself up doing some of the necessary yard work on Saturday.

Might I see you at the Calgary Marathon? How did you get from the almost click, to the nice good click?

The speculation has been feverish!

Feverish, I tell you! 

Here's what the glass sculpture looks like assembled, at long last. This is a story decades in the making. The guys are still out there at well past 7pm, trying to finish up. I think there will still be 3 sections of fence to go, but that's a different part of the crew.

Here's what it looks like, amid the construction. They guys are spooked about working near it. More photos later in the full sun.

Last run before race

Even though I like to say I'm tapering, one has to have been training to taper. What I've done over the last bunch of months can't really be called training. Not properly. Still, my legs were feeling pretty good today, and it was beautiful out. This will be my last run, I'm pretty sure, before the half marathon next Sunday.

This is what running should feel like. I was feeling a bit slow to start, but that was actually at my long run pace, and it just got quicker without really trying. I had decided to run whatever pace my legs wanted. It ended up looking like this.

At the end I was beginning to feel a bit of a twinge in my knee and hip so I didn't push it. I have no idea how a half marathon will work out a week from now. None at all. I certainly hope to not to set any personal records, especially the personal worst for this distance. If I was forced to pick a time,  I'd say I'll finish about 2.5 hours at best.

I suppose I should go look at the route, and figure out how I'm going to get to the start line. Package pickup is going to be early Friday afternoon, if anyone wants to do a meet up at the Expo. I know some of my buddies are SO EXCITED to be doing the race, and I certainly wish them well. I'm a bit more meh about it, though maybe it will bring back the racing mojo. I haven't raced for quite a while now. In fact my last race was Chinook half iron in 2012 in a craptastic 7:17.

Here's a better picture of our tree.

There has been an excavator living near the tennis courts across the green space. I had no idea what they had been working on till yesterday. I could see a small herd of kids in what looked like a mini skate park. And so it was. My run started today after checking it out. If this is what it takes to keep the kids off the streets and out of mischief, all the better.

The cats treat the laptop quite differently. Curtis resents it when he wants a lap and I'm using it. Celina just curls up on top if I let her, and tries to push it aside. Today she was snoozing in my lap, and didn't mind the laptop being put on top of her. Not even when I was finishing up this blog.

We have a plant!

The back yard reno's are going full steam ahead. We got some plants yesterday, and let's just say there was a mixup in the order, and leave it at that. The various people involved hope to get it resolved on Monday.

No running today, other than zooming around doing errands. Maybe I'll run tomorrow, which is today for many of the people reading this. My legs are feeling much less cranky, though I should go downstairs and work on them a bit. Somehow the race is here a week from now. How can that be? I am bib number 4612.

The back steps are almost complete. It's much nicer walking up and down these, than the big steps I had built.

You can see our tree. It and the dirt came today, and needs a bit more work settling everything together. They have a couple blocks in the wall to go, then the topper stones. Much of what you see below will be patio, done out of black slate.

If you are planning to go to the quilt show, keep an eye out for Linda. She will be attending with her sister, and it's probably best to stay out of their way. They tend to get excited at seeing all the quilts.

I'm such a tease

Nothing like a couple crews working in your back yard to make the day go by fast!

Fitness this week is short. Swam Tuesday, pretty good. No running. A quad/ham pummeling on Wed followed by a wonderful yoga class. The om's were the best ever. Did I mention no running? Even though it's totally gorgeous weather.

I was a bit of a tease yesterday tweeting a close up photo of the fence. Here's a better shot of the fence as seen at dawn this morning.

One of the flower boxes at the back of the house. They measured perfectly to have it fit just under the overhang.

This is where the back steps are going to go, done out of the same block.

The guys hard at it a few minutes ago. More fence being built, and working on the big flower bed. The fence between us and our neighbor is essentially done. He has been watching the crews like a hawk.

In other news my buddy Jeff helped me move the old sofa bed out of the media room. Amazing how much bigger it looks now! Now we can settle in nice and comfortable to watch a movie.

I was pretty sure there was something else I was going to mention, but it's gone. Oh yes, a rant about Facebook. Later. Don't be looking for a lot of Facebook activity from me. Not going to log in via mobile at all.

The dandelion dominator

And there she is, hard at it, digging them out, imposing her will on the lawn, repressing guilty living creatures only trying to grow,  ruthlessly rooting them out and leaving them to wither in what little sun we have today. The heat of her merciless glare killed many others, and if the grass hadn't been so wet from the recent rain, the fire department might have show up purely has a precautionary measure. There was a whole green garbage bag of dandelions and other weeds before I went for a run, and she was still at when I got back.

In the meantime I was busy trying to get the garage at least somewhat organized. What with big cardboard boxes, the back yard renos, and some other stuff, the garage is full, and not with our car. Canadian garages usually need a big day of cleaning sometime in the spring anyways, just to dig all the crap out of them that have fallen off the car over the winter. This was just a pre-cleaning. A before and after pair of photos for you.

If it wasn't for the glass the car would have lots of room, and the glass will be gone soon. There's still a lot of junk lurking along the sides, but at least I can see the floor again.

Part of the task was to finish tearing apart the cedar lattice that used to be our back fence. It turns out that an IKEA box makes a surprisingly sturdy work bench. Who knew?

The firewood supply is much larger now, and much more neatly organized. The bonus out of it all is that I only got a couple slivers.

The tear apart was spread over 2 days. This was my view Sunday afternoon, just as I started wrapping up. I timed it pretty good, getting only a little damp putting the last bit of stuff back in the garage before the real rain hit.

A cat photo or two for your amusement. Celina is showing off her tawny spotted tummy.

Curtis savaging his string.

With all the activity outside, Celina has been working on her supervisory skills. The message is clear, I should get back to work, and stop fooling around with the camera.

Speaking of the cats going cold chicken on the food supply. The jury is out on how they feel about our home made food. Still looking for the actual recipe.

The run was pretty good today. About 4 K, about 28 minutes. I don't really believe the distance. The map is well off where I ran, so I won't publish it here. The pace graph is all over the place. Overall, my legs felt pretty good once I got going. They were very heavy at first. If anything my left calf and hamstrings were the unhappy bits, and my right knee and hip were fine.

Even knowing the half marathon in a couple of weeks is going to be an easy training run, my training has been shite this year. I can't remember the last time I ran that distance. So I'm a little spooked by it, and hope it all goes well.

Another 4 day weekend comes to a close. I got the garage back into almost civilized shape. I got some work done on the novel. I got a couple runs in. I had a very peaceful Saturday, doing little more than being a mostly horizontal space for cats. Two wine kits bottled, and another one started. All is good.