Leg Preservation

(also known as the day I learned that Cookies do not a good pre-long run breakfast make.)

Today's final long run before Harvest half ended up being a colossal comedy of errors.  Thank goodness no one was there to see it go down.

First - I overslept.  I was supposed to meet Tina at Eau Claire at 8...meaning I had to leave my house by 7.  And I hit snooze.  And then woke up at 6:39.  Wandered downstairs to my phone and it turned out Tina had woken up sick and wasn't going to be able to make it.

Briefly, I contemplated crawling back into bed but then decided I would rather get the run in.  I checked the weather and it said 13C.  Yep - tank top weather.  So I put on capris and a tank.

Then I grabbed some cookies for the road and headed out before my bed could kidnap me again.

Yep - that would be my first mistake.

But DAMN were those cookies good.  And how was I to know that a handful of oatmeal raisin cookies wouldn't be the same as a pre-run bowl of oatmeal.

Ok - so then I get to Glenmore Landing and I take off my jacket so I can put on my hydration vest.   Uh yeah...13C = not so much tank weather when the wind is howling on a late September morning.  Made me wish I had put on my new Oiselle long sleeve instead.  Luckily, I always keep a set of arm warmers in my running bag (might be time to start winterizing my running bag so I have more appropriate gear...

After a pitstop at McD's...and still looking pretty skeptical about the whole choice of clothing thing...

I was ready to hit the pathway.  Boy, was I cold...and so not feeling like running.  Funny how my bed could call me so hard from 30 kms away...

I figured if I could start fast, I might be able to finish fast and just be done.  HA!  No mater which way the path meandered, I was running straight into a strong headwind.  Heck - there were whitecaps on the reservoir!

and the blurring below isn't because I'm running - it's because the wind kept blowing the leaves and trees...

Fall is well and truly upon us in Calgary.

That pathways were thankfully quiet and I could just plod along.

Unfortunately, my pants didn't want to stay put (clothing choice mistake #2) so I was needing to stop every kilometre to yank them up.

So the whole run went something like this.  Run, get tired of pushing into the wind, stop to yank up pants, walk, text Tina (who was keeping me company), try running again.

At around 4k, my shoe came untied - I am having so many issues with this happening this year.  I've NEVER had my shoes come untied in previous years, but 2013 has been the year of the untied shoe...

By halfway through (which took me about 50mins), I gave up all pretence of calling this a run.  I was walking this 10k and, quite frankly didn't care.  I turned around about a km from the canoe club and headed back.

The birds were all out and laughing at my ridiculousness...

Some silly guy was out on the water trying to row in the wind...pretty sure this is the rowing equivalent of hill training...

I caught a glimpse of some pretty hilarious spiking in my shadow so stopped again for a selfie...I was bored and ready to be done but not willing to run...

After I passed Heritage park, I decided to try to run it in...the funniest part of this whole walk was that when I did run, I was carrying on a pretty nice pace - usually around 6 min/km.   But I was only maintaining it for like 4 mins at a time...

Case in point - I got about halfway and then saw this...and walked some more. Looks like the flood changed the shoreline and nobody told the shrubbery.

In the end, I had a mediocre sunday stroll.  But I got 10k in...

Hopefully this is the last run before Harvest Half where I feel like this:

I'm just going to call it "Leg Preservation" and hope for the best next weekend...

Lessons learned:

• Take the time for a decent breakfast...especially when you no longer have anyone waiting for you.  Cookies are not a good substitute, even if they do contain oatmeal and raisins.
• Be prepared for the weather to be different than the temperature leads you to believe.  By mid-Sept, I should have had a few different options/layers.  I should know better.
• Invest in more capris with drawstrings...wait, that's just a note for next time I go shopping...
• Actually try.  Yeah - I was pretty lazy.  I probably shoulda tried harder.  Then again - sometimes you just need a rest day and getting the distance in is all that matters
• Tapering still sucks.  This is the first goal half I've had in a while...actually trying to taper properly is hell.

The Garmin Geekery