Puddles, a long run and a longer time off

It was a happy coincidence that I made a pitstop at my condo after I'd done 12 miles. I filled my bottles, ate a GU and, for some reason, ran BodyGlide through some sensitive parts (yes, nipples). I had seen some grey and dark looking clouds that threatened rain.

That proved to be a smart move. I ran almost 6 of the last 8 miles in rain, and I'm talking about downpour. Raining buckets. I had decided, again nice choice, to run in the city for the last 12K so I was running up a major street with other runners going long running the other way past me.

At one point, with the raining coming down so hard, I sought shelter by a building. A runner who was going the opposite way decided to also duck in as it poured. We chatted. Funny how you can open up to a long distance runner by asking a few questions:

"How long you going today?"
"26K, I'm 23 in you?"
"32K, and I'm at 24K"
"You training for a marathon"
"Yep, Scotiabank, you"
"Doing the Scotia half, the Toronto full, you done Scotia before"?
"Nope"
"Did it last year, great course for half but it can get hot for the full"

Heh, here we are, two soaked runners with quite a few kilometres left in our runs, trading shop talk. We both saw the rain slacken a bit, said we'd both brave it, then we were off. I kept on running and it was a blast, splashing through puddles, having people standing in dry places gawk as I ran by. At some point, I stopped caring about jumping in puddles, I was soaked anyways.

By the last mile or so, the rain stopped and I could see blue skies to the west.

I started today thinking of 15 miles but I knew that since I'd missed a run or two last week, I should start thinking about adding long runs to my sked. So 15 became 20 and I managed to work in 63 miles for the week. That's my first 100K week in quite a while.



Weekly mileage: 63 miles (102K)
Monthly mileage: 175 miles (282K)
Year to date: 1108 miles (1783K)


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My blog has gone quiet for the past week and little while. Last week was a busy one as R's sister got married and, well, there were a lot of fun family functions to be a part of. I'm actually shocked I stayed the same weight giving all the noshing.

Also, some changes on the work front. This is my run blog so I very rarely write about my day job as a journalist. I'll say it now only to note that I have the next month or so off as I recently left a job here for a job here. I was looking back at my blog and remembered blogging about leaving the place I'm returning to almost three years ago.

I've never had more than two weeks off in a row in, say, the last 15 years so having about six is pretty unheralded. I've always had to struggle through summer marathon training where your hours are spent working, commuting and then running. So for the next month, i'll be resting, running, visiting friends, going to DC twice, New York once and working in this passion into middays instead of early mornings or 'after work'.

Hopefully I can get in a few miles while I'm also resting.