Footie

Actually, soccer as we call it in North America. In two days, one month of soccer heaven begins as most of us in the northern hemisphere in the New World ignore the fact that the beautiful game will enrapure the rest of the world. Yup, World Cup...

But, of course, I live in Toronto, where Little Italy, Little Portugal, Koreatown and every pub with a somewhat British name will be packed... We, well, some of us, love our soccer.

Which, for this runner and soocer fan, provides this problem. England is playing Paraguay at 9 a.m. this Saturday, which means that this runner will either have to wait till 11 a.m. to to his long run in the midday heat, or hit the streets at 7 a.m. so he can be rested and ready to watch Gerrard, Owen and Rooney (okay, maybe Beckham too) too their thing...

Did my 10K this morning and was about to run 5K after work, but my friend Fitzy called and offered dinner at my favourite Italian resto where I got carbs and he chatted the owner up about World Cup. Then we went to his place to play a few matches on Fifa 2006.

My life will be ruined in the next month. Marathon training and football....

Why runners are crazy: Reason 666

0606meds
Originally uploaded by yumkerun.

Okay, I haven't actually made up 665 reasons, unless I count each kilometre i've run so far this year and add a few hundred more. Yes, it's June 6, 2006.

The meds pictured here made up the strange cocktail that I fed myself yesterday while battling a cold, a fever and allergies. I like to tackle my sicknesses by symptoms thus the antihistimine, the chest decongestant and the pain killer.

As a funny aside, at the runners' expo for the Mississauga half marathon, I picked up 3 bottles of Advil for free. I distinctly remembered telling myself that there's no way I'd need that many painkillers. All I can say, 24 hours after I was in the fetal position in my bed battling the chills and the heat, is "thank god I had three packs"

Anyways, why am I crazy? Well, I called in sick yesterday, which is something I rarely do (something like four times in six years) and yet after work, I felt I should go for my run. To spare details, my sinuses were relatively clear, my chest was also relatively, and my muscles were probably benefiting from 2.5 days of rest and all those painkillers... yum... pain...killersssss.

Set out on a 10K jog out to Cherry Beach, but about 2K in, I decided that all my muscles hadn't been stretched and that I should settle for a shorter run. So I did a 6K jaunt through the city. Threw in a good tempo run for 3K.

And reason No. 667? I'm ready to go out again tomorrow morning. And maybe after work, just to get the mileage back...

Crazy talk.

Wet and wild run

It was time for my long run and I made plans with Jelly to meet. She was planning a 10K run, and I wanted to do a 20K. I would run about 7K, meet up with her, do 10K, then finish off 3K by myself. Easy, right?

Not so.

Well, I was late getting out of my place, so that was bad thing number one. Second, it started to rain. Not a lot of it, in fact, it stopped after a few minutes.


I was running late to meet her at her place (picture here) so I cut a few corners -- and a few Ks -- from my intended route. We started running east on Gerrard and it was a great run. Ran by my old university, my old apartment, the old Chinatown (yes, a lot of old stuff) and the old, rundown neighborhood around Carlaw, an area that I think is a few years yet from being invaded by land-hungry prospective home seekers.

By the way, my Garmin lost signal after 4K, so it was useless for the next 8 or so Km.

We turned onto the Lakeshore, where I took this picture of the route. You can see it's pretty gloomy, but it's nice to get a cool day once in awhile.

We split at Queens Quay and York, and I went home, dropped off my hydration pack and windbreaker, then set out to finish my 20K run. I had a feeling that if I did 6K, that it would make up the distance I lost at the beginning of the run.

Then it rained. Not cats and dogs, but of smaller domestic variety. Fact was, I was getting soaked. But it was fun! I splashed into some puddles, avoiding others. There was also a 10K walk/run on the waterfront, so it was fun to look at the last walkers come into the last K. The Running Room volunteers found it amusing perhaps that i was running with shades on a cloudy day and without a hat. If you're wondering, the shades are more stable than my glasses and R. took my hat a week ago and I forgot to retrive it from her.

Anyways, a soaked 6K later, i was at home. I ran the last 6K as a tempo run.. very powerful finish to a long run.

I did a gmap of the Intended route and the Actual route and guess what? I almost ran exactly 20K. Amazing.

We went to St. Lawrence, where Jelly, R. (who ran 5K by herself) and I had yummy pasta. Then Jelly and I split a veal and eggplant sandwich. As I said, and Jelly agreed, it was the "best meal ever."

Weekly total: 66K
Year to date: 910.5K

Found my track...

Well, I always knew it was there. There's a beautiful track at Central Tech high school, but now with the beauty of google maps, I know it's a 400 metre track.

Ran by it this morning on my 10K city route run. Next week, I'll probably start using it to do some interval and speed training. It's perfect, with about a 4 K warmup to get to the site.

Alcohol and early mornings...

A night of drinking means that when the alarm goes off at 6:16 a.m., you do nothing but lament the fact that you didn't drink any water before you went to bed and thanked god that running was purely a voluntary effort.. Well, that is before my marathon training begins on June 19th.

But did manage a 6K run after work. Also did 10K city route on Wednesday.