Pain-free Long Run

The plan was to head into the city and meet up with my runner girls.  We were going to loop the reservoir then stop at Heritage Park's new cafe, grab coffees and walk back to our cars at the Landing.

Funny how life has a way of making other plans.

Fast forward to this morning.  After a very restless night with Doodle - both girls woke up puking.  Ugh.  Buh bye long run with my pals.  Hello small hope of a local long run...if I could find a long enough route. 

As soon as they went down for an early nap - I hit the road.  The country road, that is.

But not without a false start. 

Mistake #1 - wore my Nikes, completely forgetting why I don't wear them anymore
Mistake #2 - new water bottle belt.  Shoulda known better because I couldn't get it to size small enough.
Mistake #3 - Phone left on coffee table

So 0.6km in - the new water bottle popped out of the belt and smashed open on the path.  The arches on my shoes were killing my feet.   I still didn't realize I'd forgotten my phone.

So back home I went.

Off with the shoes.  Ditch the belt.  See my phone on the table.

But the false start did afford me the time to stretch a bit.

Then I strapped on my 2 bottle fuel belt, my Asics and shoved my phone in a pocket.  Then if was time to go for real.

I started out along the path by the dank little canal at the end of our street.  A kid was bouncing pebbles off the ice and it tinkled like little bells.

Then on the edge of town, I met up with the first of my gravel roads for the day. (That house is my favourite house in all of Langdon.

In the end - all gravel roads really look the same.

My trusty Asics (oops, still haven't cut the timing chip off from my marathon last fall)

Crossroads

6k in and feeling fine (how do y'all like my new headband?)

Fuel.  The funny thing about this picture is that I don't normally fuel with gels.  Last year they really upset my stomach so I switched to Fig Newtons.  Unfortunately - this is the first run since my marathon where I needed to take fuel...and the Fig Newtons we had were from October and therefore inedible.  But I had 2 gels.  Didn't bother my tummy at all this time.

Consulted the map to make sure I was on track.  I left a 2nd copy of this with Hubby in case I wasn't back within 2 hours (I ended up texting him to extend that deadline)

Anybody need a dresser?  Nice solid wood one that obviously fell off somebodys truck.  Needs minor repairs...  (If you need a vacuum - it appears these guys move was rather tragic...the vacuum was in too gory of shape to be featured on this blog and may not be restorable to working order)

Ah flat flat prairies and endless Alberta sky.

Mountains in the distance.

Part of my plan was to run alongside an irrigation canal.  But when I got there I was greeted by this:

after testing to make sure it wasn't electric - I quickly hopped over (shh - don't tell the owners of that gate that I trespassed).  Especially since not 20 paces in, I saw this:

One thing about city runs is that you aren't often met by shotgun shells.

The path along the canal was flat and pretty uneventful.  They haven't opened the river gates up yet so it had no water...

Just thought it was a pretty pic

This horsey was so curious about me.  He would stare and then take 2 steps in my direction then stare some more.  I hoped he'd run over and join me, but no such luck.

Ok - I all good at 10 or 11K...but, as you can see - I was being swarmed by mosquitoes.  Luckily they don't take donations of my O-.  Notice the tank.  It was soooo warm out there.

To pass the time without tunes - I counted cans and bottles (and tallied up the return I would have gotten if I'd collected them - turned out to be $2.30 by the end of the run)

and then I was home. 17.38K in 2.5 hours.  I walked A LOT.  But I made it pretty pain free.  My knee did make some groans a couple of times but nothing that would cause me to stop and quickly went away.  IT band was fine for the whole run.

 My Route

And the Garmin geekery - lap times.

The girls were still sleeping when I got home.  

All in all, I felt pretty good on this run.  I took a lot of walk breaks (hence the sheer number of photos), but I focused on just getting in the miles and not caring how slow they went as long as they didn't hurt.  I really liked the solitude on the country roads.  I only passed maybe 4 cars the entire time (it's pretty deserted around here) and if I had to go to the washroom - I'd just drop trou and go (sorry TMI) - no need to run in discomfort when no one is around to see your lady bits. :P  

It's nice to have a change of scenery once in a while and get out there on your own.  IN a couple of months the birds and bugs will be swarming too thickly to run through (and those damn red wing blackbirds will be back...grr)

After the run and a shower - I drove to Chestermere to get a lovely hour long massage of my legs.   It was really nice to have someone pull the kinks out of them.  I think I am going to make that a regular thing.

So that was today's long run.  Feels good to be back.  I REALLY needed this run.  Now I am off for a little TNT Reunion - some of the girls from my Nike 2010 team are all going for dinner with one of the girls who recently moved out of province (she's in town for a visit this weekend).  Can't wait to see everyone!

Ta ta for now.  Happy running - especially if your long run is still to come this weekend!