Training Log Archive: xc-racer5

Secretly, the past few weeks of exams and no running were just me tapering for this run...

Nice run from home to my brother's house in Enderby. Started off up the road from home, then right through the industrial park, then followed the road past the golf course and up to the Canoe Creek map. Cut across along some deactivated logging road/quad track to the powerlines. Looks like the area has been getting a little bit of use by some dirk bikers and atvs, not so much that there are ripped up trails, but there were quite a few tire tracks. Got to the road under the powerlines, turned right and followed it until it hit private property. I then continued to follow the road, I didn't even have to jump a fence, there was a nice hole in it. It was just a short little cut through private property to get out to a public road, and the property is not inhabited. There's this weird concrete foundation with some concrete walls slightly hidden in the forest, but I didn't go investigate any further, so I guess I'll have to go back sometime. Popped out onto Hall road and followed that until it hit Deep creek road. I hadn't really decided on my route from here, I had the option to bail out to the highway and run the highway, or I could add a little bit of distance and take some backroads that I didn't know where exactly go. I was feeling adventurous and the weather seemed to be okay (at that point), so I decided to take Mallory rd and try to figure out how to wiggle along the backroads to get to Enderby, without going way out and around. I'm not sure if I've ever been on Mallory before, it's quite a pretty road. I followed it until it hit Gardom lake road, then took a left to follow the lake. About this time, it started raining. Got past the lake, then took a right onto Glenmary, which I thought ran all the way through, but I was wrong (partially). About a km along Glenmary, there is a sign that it is the end of the road. Now I know Glenmary as the road that goes down into enderby, so I pulled out my phone to check a map, and it does go exactly where I thought, there's just a hole in the middle of it. Apparently, one can get through on some trails, but I didn't know this, so I went back out to Gardom lake road, and took the next road down to get up to Glenmary. As I got back out onto Gardom lake road, the rain turned into hail for a few minutes, which was cool. It then turned back into rain, which was far more pleasant (if still quite unpleasant). I continued running up towards Glenmary, got one more brief bit of hail, and a bit of lightning right above my head, which was exciting. It was about 3 seconds away, but I never saw any strikes hit the ground, so I wasn't very worried. The rest of my run was quite uneventful, the weather cleared up, I didn't get lost, I even found my brothers house with no problems, it was great. My half-marathon time was 1:55, which I was quite pleased with, especially considering that I wasn't really trying to run super hard. I guess there's nothing like a bit of hail to make you run fast, even if you know you still have ten km until you could possibly get inside, and hail never lasts more than a few minutes (around here at least).
Altogether, quite a nice run, only got lost once and only got caught in one hailstorm. Ash was trying to convince me that I should sign up for the Kal lake 50km next week and run it with him, but I'm not sure I would make it 50k, my legs were done after 27, I pretty much just had lunch and slept on my brothers floor all afternoon. Would be kinda fun to run 50k though, maybe next year...

Joined a bunch of first year engineering students + 1 com-sci student on the field for a game of ultimate frisbee. Haven't done any sprinting at all recently, my lungs felt like they were going to explode, but they didn't. Hadn't thrown or caught an ultimate frisbee for a while, but I still remember how to do both, I'm still better at catching though, that hasn't changed. Also, it's great fun to chase after anything thrown in vaguely your direction. I'm pretty good at sprint starts and changing directions, so I can get to some throws that nobody expects, which is fun. I only dove once, and I didn't even catch the disc, which was disappointing. Did get a nice bit of grass burn on my elbow though. It was quite enjoyable, I was thinking about going for a run today, just to do something, but this was definitely exercise, and it was nice to do something different for a change.