1/week

That's one run after getting home from work. It's a start. Next week I'll try to squeeze in two. The weather has remained uncomfortably warm (29C right now), which dissuaded me from taking the dog, and then guilt and laziness conspired to keep me off the treadmill.

Today was a catch up day. I caught up on sleep and then the dog and I caught up on miles, 12.8ish of them. We started a bit later than I'd wanted, about 8:45, and headed down. Our run was nearly cut short a few blocks later. I thought I made eye contact with an old lady wearing glasses and driving a deep red Chrysler 300, I think....I remember seeing an impressive grill get closer and closer for ages during a split second stretched out interminably. We were moving out of her way but we seemed so slow; I looked up and finally locked eyes with her and her eyes gaped in panic and still she rolled toward us. She had a stop sign too, and she usually stops on a dime beside it, I guess, at which point we'd be under the back seat. Fortunately, we mostly got out of her way in time and she stopped a few inches from my dog (and was going pretty slowly by that time, too), and I was so bemused to see such a sweet-looking white poodle haired granny driving so much car, plus I was actually kind of concerned that it was too much excitement for her too, that I didn't toss my water bottle at her.

There is far less traffic here than back home, but drivers here are also more complacent and distracted, not to mention decrepit. I see people walking for exercise, and a bunch of kids out, but I don't think anybody does it for commuting willingly. My "walk" to work has become a bit of a curiosity even though it's not quite a mile. That's nothing, even considering the hills.

Anyway, the dog and I escaped unscathed although I'm actually fond of the Chrysler 300. If there had to be a car to flatten me, that might be the one I'd pick. We'd rented one in Nfld and it was very comfy and also an amusingly incongruous beast to roll up into small former outports. Too bad the gas mileage isn't that generous.

We ran down a slightly different way, which made it slightly longer, but it was essentially the same route as the other recent long runs, including the large hill. This time, I found more comfort on the smaller hills and thus ran up all but two of them by the time I got to the large one. We did stop a few times for stream breaks.

The geography here is new to me: limestone rock which has been eroded in some parts, particularly by water, resulting in a bunch of hills and creeks, some ponds, etc. I haven't memorized all of the streams yet, which would be a difficult task because they wind about erratically and actually sink into and out of the ground randomly. Most of them are rather sunken, too, hidden largely from view until nearby. I've been thinking about opportunities to let the dog cool off mid-run because most shorelines in Ottawa were inaccessible or restricted or whatever, but the more I run here, the more random streams I find. I suppose many of them will dry up in the summer, but maybe we'll get enough storms to keep things fresh. After all, this is summer weather already!

This time, we'd run a bit more (and a few more hills) before coming to the big one, and it was pretty hot by that time....getting to the peak was tiring. However, there were a bunch of inspirational saying written in chalk on the pavement. Stuff like "arms strong, legs strong, you strong" or a quote from The Help "You is smart, you is kind, you is important"....some of it was written bottom up so I was somewhat mystified by stuff like "Distance the Go" but eventually it made sense. And it helped. This was promotion for the upcoming 5 trails Half Marathon, which I think I'll experience. Maybe even run. It would be my hilliest 1/2 marathon yet, and I'm kind of out of shape, but it doesn't matter how slow I am.

Fortunately, during the race, the hill is much sooner, about 3 miles in, and I was thinking about how to relax during some of it. I got to a certain point without breathing hard which I think would be a good goal during the race; I've run the hill enough times now that I can break it down into less daunting chunks. That didn't quite help as much as I would have liked today, but I was kind of put off by a guy mowing the grass along the sidewalk today at the top--the loose grass underfoot was kind of slippery, and the noise and the smell were annoying. It didn't help to see some guy motoring merrily along the path on a riding mower while I struggled up it!

The chalk messages misled me a bit. Apparently, during the race, you can ring a bell at the summit. The mown grass obscured some of the chalk and so I thought I was at the summit when I was about 20 feet shy of it. Not such a big deal.

At the bottom of the hill was yet another stream. We stopped there, and at another stream a few blocks from home, then walked the final bit.

I am now thinking of other routes for the future. Not so much races as just places.

Lilacs

Everything is in full bloom, I think...I'm not familiar with some of the flowering bushes and trees here, especially the weeping willow type with the pale pink-purple blossoms. Many pleasant surprises here.

It wasn't pouring rain or much above 20C this afternoon, so I grabbed the dog as soon as I got home and we hit the hills not only because we have no choice in terms of hills, but because he is such a good boy and need to catch up with the smells (news).

We ran a 2.75 loop that we've run before, so I was prepared for the little series of little but steep hills on a particular street. I am still not used to feeling so out of breath! The only way I can avoid it is by walking uphill in some places. Fortunately, the less steep portions are becoming even less steep, and I'm catching my breath more quickly after the tougher bits.

I jogged on the TM afterward to loosen up, then did what I remembered of one of Z's old routines.

was going to run yesterday evening, but...

I guess my jog/walks to/from work were enough! Instead I recharged for today. I owed the dog a significant outing or adventure of some sort: due to the rainy weather this week and my lack of energy and my husband being swamped with work, the dog hasn't been getting much daily exercise. :( I

We got out of the door at about 8 am and jogged down the back lane and then down on 5th. My original plan was to run the 8ish mile loop with the large hill, but when it came time to turn right at the bottom, the grass on the other side looked so green. This is the truth. After a week of solid rain, the faded straw colours have turned into bright greens and purples and yellows and other eye-searing vibrant stuff. The humidity has risen too, and I suppose I'm in for a steamy summer because I'm about to sit and study in shorts and a tshirt on the back deck, and it's March, but hopefully I will be able to enjoy the heat again. Meanwhile, my head is swayed somewhat by all this green, and so we kept running. The road curved more than I'd noticed and instead of turning right to go west, we turned right to continue going south, and eventually we got to a road I recognized.

This part was far out enough that sidewalks were intermittent; we had a few lovely strolls across lawns and fields. The ground was still too damp for running, and the dog appreciated the smells anyway. There was one smell which I caught: this road is enough of a highway to have fast food, and I caught a whiff of it, a delectable combo of saturated fat and salt which triggered all sorts of cravings. The smell is well engineered to do this, and I reminded myself that the food itself is calorific, for sure, but otherwise lacking what I need and truly want. The smell is so persuasive, though! I couldn't even tell where it was coming from; I passed a gas station and a Walmart as well as a minor league grocery store, but no fast food joints. Does McD or BK or whatever emit a beacon for miles? It eventually faded and we got to 20th, and we ran up the hill.

It was easier this time even though we had a longer run up to it. I was worried that the larger loop would result in a larger incline; fortunately, though there was more up and down, there wasn't a greater drop for the large hill. I'd already started at the lowest point before the big climb. This time, I tried to run with short quick strides, feeling a kind of gear like efficiency about my hips, and that helped, as well as being more familiar with the hill, especially the false summit. It's not really a super big hill, about 200 ft of elevation in 0.9 of a mile, but it's got a particularly steep section that I was unprepared for last time. I'm not sure I'll ever get comfortable with it, but the next step will be to run it in the opposite direction, from a lower drop about 275 ft below the summit, I think.

Gradually, this thing will shrink, hopefully! I guess I'm lucky--at home, I'd have to go a ways into the Gatineaus to get the same elevation change, and I don't know I'd be able to find it in one short stretch.

Now I'm thinking of other hills I've been on, mainly the surprisingly steep ones in Seoul (the large one close to one of my apts went up about 700 ft in little over a mile, and there were plenty of higher hills--my calves were rock solid during my time in Korea!), and the massive ones in Colorado. Surely these puny little ones here shouldn't be such a trial! Guess I got soft.

total: 11.75 miles.

.

I am still on days, starting at 6:30 am, although, I've clocked in for the last three days at 6:31 am. LOL
Resetting my internal clock by not eating anything past 5:00 pm Sunday allowed me to wake up feeling fresh and alert on Monday, but I cannot keep to that eating schedule, and as a result I have had a string of groggy zombie mornings. Nor did I manage to run after work. Tues and Wed, pouring rain, and today it was too warm for the dog, and then a storm came...I got on the TM to see what I had: not much. I got off after ten minutes. My legs felt like an impossible combination of hollow and heavy.

However, I wasn't quite ready to quit. Recently, I found out that Zuzana Light, the host of my old favourite internet workout site, bodyrock.tv, has a new thing going: ZWOW. The url isn't at my fingertips, but the videos are on youtube. I couldn't do all of the workout (she has considerably more upper body strength than I), I gave it a fair go, and it went better than I'd expected. Maybe next week, I will be able to do more than jog/walk to/from work.

I found out that I will be on days until about May 1st; I will have to adjust to it. I was hoping that I'd be done with it this week. The evening shift is much easier for me in terms of energy level and fitting in exercising and studying.

4 more miles

Not with the dog, though, because he doesn't like rain. Nor do I so two of those miles were on the TM, and they felt really nice. It was a short and sweet run.

I'm a bit sore from exercises yesterday, burpees and that kind of thing.

The trail of tears

Today: 4 miles on the TM. Nobody else in the house is interested in running, not even the dog.
Yesterday: epic adventure! We were at the beach! In the woods! In the fields! On dirt roads!

My husband planned this run; he wanted to check out the trails by a lake that isn't too far (50 minutes?). We took the backroads to get there and at one point ended up on a gravel road with signs that originally said "Gravel Ends" but were edited to read "Dead End". I am apparently an optimist because I'd thought that the gravel would return to asphalt; my husband was curious to see if it was just a prank; the dog was asleep. The gravel indeed ended at an overgrown dirt road with fallen branches all over it.

We eventually got to the lake and started to run. A few minutes later, I was feeling pretty horrible, out of breath and feverish. After a few more minutes, I told my husband I had to walk; I told him to go ahead, but I was feeling off and needed to collect myself. This was not-so-coincidentally up a steep hill, which he was more than willing to walk up. During the ascent, I remembered that I had had a flu shot on Thursday and was probably feeling its effects. This realization made me feel better enough to continue running once we were at the top. Except for a short portion in a zone, I never felt good, but the discomfort became mild enough to mostly ignore.

This section of the trail went up and down forest hills and along the sides of fields. It was an interesting combination of terrains, and it makes sense: why would someone till a hilly field?

Eventually we got close to the lake again and we walked over to let the dog drink and cool off; we drank some water as well, though not from the lake. This was a really nice spot. The lake was large enough to be clean, not murky or slimy like smaller lakes and ponds, and the coast was somewhat rocky but still wide and clear enough to walk on. Our stop was after about a half hour of running: my husband was stopping his timer for the walk portions and for this sit-by-the-lake portion.

Eventually, we got going again. We ran through more woods, through more fields, and at about 59 minutes of running, we were at a road that lead back to the lake. Should we turn around here? I was feeling well enough that I suggested that we go an extra 10 minutes just to get over the 2 hr run barrier, but this wasn't the best decision. The portion of the trail ahead of us was kind of boring, as well as less-tended and through more overgrown and wild fields: we got a bit scratched up from the sharp grasses but that was nothing compared to the ticks. Lots and lots of ticks. We didn't realize this until we turned around and stopped again by the lake and saw a bunch of ticks on the dog.

(In total, we must have pulled off three dozen ticks in various stages. Most of them hadn't latched on, fortunately. The dog does have tick repellent on! I had a few ticks on me and my husband a few more than that...no bites, fortunately.)

It was hard to resume running after another lakeside sojourn, but after a short walk along the lake (oddly enough, this stretch of shore was littered by onions!), we picked it up again and both I and my husband got into a lovely zone for a couple of miles or so: the path at this point was forest, but light forest with plenty of light and little green plants on the ground, and the path itself was not too rough. At one point, we we went around a curve into a patch of sunlight and I entered into a perfect moment. My discomfort was numbed by endorphins and I was with my loved ones and the path felt so gentle and soft; a second or two after that, a cloud obscured the sun and it wasn't the same, but that abrupt close encapsulated the moment wonderfully and, well, perfectly. I have had very few perfect moments that I still remember because most of them trailed on and out too gradually, I think.

We returned to the first lakeside spot, pulled more ticks off the dog, ate and drank a bit, then finished the final return portion, with the steepest hills. Eventually, we decided to walk the last mile because the fields at this point were well-mown but the equipment had created little ruts that were tiring to run on--the dog was eager for another gear, though, because there were deer in the fields now, big healthy bouncy ones.

We had been out for a while!

This called for hamburgers, and we were twenty minutes away from Local Burger. I offered to forgo the trip in case my husband wanted to get home sooner, but the proposal astonished him. Not go to Local Burger? Madness.

We got our burgers; the town, a college town, was crawling with people wearing green and a few degrees of drunkenness. Ah, uni days! It was the perfect day for St. Patty's Day revellers too, nice and sunny and not windy. All of us got a good dose of Vitamin D.

a perfect spring day

It is 21C, but we had hotter temps up to 29 C this week, and so today feels more refreshing, but not in a crisp spring day way due to the humidity, cloudiness, and approaching storms. Rather, this is what I think of as a spring greenhouse day: the air and all of its smells and moisture and heat hugging the ground closely, bright green foliage further brightened by the light-filtering clouds, and, above all else, rampant germination. Everything's growing. This isn't the stagnant sauna of summer. I walked home today through the perfumes from various tree blossoms and the nurturing dampness of a seed tray.

The heat earlier in the week is an excuse for not running as much this week, I guess. The other factors were the time change (and ensuing sleep issues), and starting a new job.

I don't usually handle the spring forward thing very well, and since I started the training for a new job on Monday, that compounded the fear that I would sleep through my two alarms, and so I mostly went through just one sleep cycle per night, I guess. I'd sleep solidly for three hours, wake up, and then just keep waking up at ridiculously short intervals, for hours. Eventually, on Wednesday night, I was able to sleep for five hours straight. Last night, I woke up again after three or so hours but was able to go back to sleep for another three. It did not help that my work start time shifted from 8:30 to 6:30 am during this week. Ultimately, I will be working mostly, if not all, evening shift, but for now I'm doing first shift. I really like the job and am thrilled to have found one so quickly here, btw, but I'm not a fan of sleep deprivation, nor of the early morning start either because it kind of wrecks me for the rest of the day. I come home and it's like whaaaaa? already almost evening? and I'm useless. Whereas, if I start at 2 or 3, I can get a lot done before then, including the all-important post-lunch nap. This paragraph seems like a product of inadequate sleep, but I'm not really sure yet.

Also, I'm on my feet except during breaks, so I had to get re-used to that. I'm not sore, but running does not appeal to me at all.

So, assuming I don't take a spin through the greenhouse this afternoon, my runs have been 2 X 1ish mile/day: to-from work, with some walking uphill. the hills are steep--the walking counts! LOL. Pretty dismal!

Edit: I forgot about the flu shot and blood tests, and the mild touch of food poisoning...it was a jam-packed week!

Hopefully, things will go better next week.

highs and lows

Yesterday's run was unexceptional but still tiring: just over 7 miles with the dog. I walked up a few of the hills and avoided the big ones altogether. The dog was mailing it in too and reserved his energy for the end. He suddenly jumped/flinched--maybe he was stung but I couldn't find any bumps or swellings--and then he backed up against the first tree we came to and defecated. Most of it stuck to the tree. Was it Art? A canine poultice of some sort? This is the first time he's done something like this and I'm mystified.

This morning, it was pouring rain. Nobody's cup of tea. I took to the TM for my longest TM run ever: 1:40:00 (ten-ish miles, I guess). I put on a CD that I didn't remember playing before...it's part of a 7 disk set of club music, and some of them I've played quite often during workouts but not this one. Turns out that I didn't like any of the tracks until the 9th and 10th; I guess I'd forgotten that.

The first 30 minutes of the run were dull mentally and physically and then the endorphins started to flow and I felt better. The songs on the CD gradually got faster, and so I gradually pushed up the speed. Time passed and eventually the CD ran out after about one hour and twenty minutes. It had been mostly underwhelming. I switched to the last CD in the set which has the quickest tempos. I adjusted the treadmill speed, still keeping to an easy effort, still breathing easy, but moving.

And then, after a couple of tracks, something seemed to unlock. I felt like going faster. Near the end of the workout, I pushed the speed the highest I've ever pushed it up yet, in the middle of the 3rd of 4 "zones"--I have no idea how fast or slow anything is on this TM because I still haven't replaced the batteries required for the display--but this was fast enough for me to open up my stride and get on the balls of my feet. It felt pretty fast except for the lack of effort. It was delicious and disconcerting.

I pushed the speed up a bit higher and waited to trip and get flung off the back of the TM. A minute later I was still on the belt; the song switched to one with a higher tempo. After a few minutes, I'd fall apart, surely, but 3 minutes into the song, I was still feeling effortlessly fast. It was bizarre. I still wasn't breathing fast. This felt faster than a 800m repeat, but easier even though it had gone on for longer. How long would this last? There were springs under my thighs keeping me aloft.

I don't know because I decided to stop soon after. I valued the experience too much to smash it closed, and I started to worry that, if I let myself go until I fell apart, then I would be able to recapture only that falling apart, and not the fluidity and grace before. I'm not a graceful person, but I felt graceful and buoyant during that 3-4 minute interval; I've been striving for feelings of efficiency for awhile, but never grace because I've never felt graceful before while running.

This has also given me a new perspective on speed work, the shorter faster interval one pushes through during training. I haven't been doing any speed workouts at all because I figure that the hills are more than enough, but maybe I can incorporate some speed work during some of my treadmill runs. Oh, incorporate is the wrong word: rather, invite. Only when I'm feeling good, and without force.

This type of consideration reminds me of my time as a classical musician/student: my goals were always more mechanistic than they perhaps should have been. Could I play this passage perfectly at 120 bpm? Ok, how about a bit faster? And, always always always, how do I get it feeling so smooth and automatic that I could just let it go? I performed a bunch of virtuosic pieces, practised them until I could unleash them reliably close to perfection (and a few renditions were perfect), close to the recordings that the audience members had at home, but I never realized until later that I could have made things a lot more exciting by pushing closer to uncertainty, wrestling the performance to a precarious point. Sometimes this happened accidentally and it was so intense and vivid. But this isn't what I or most of the audience members wanted anyway, nor is this what I want from running right now. Sometimes, yes, I want to push out of the safe zone into the unknown, but not now. I want things to be easy.

The run ended up being about 1 hr 45.

the magic 8 mile

This morning: 2 easy miles with the dog, some walking uphill during that one. Can't escape the hills! We went up and down the creek path; I don't think I've mentioned the extension yet. Yes, the path actually goes further, along the river, but this part has been barricaded closed since we moved here. I'm hoping it's at least 1/2 of a mile further. Meanwhile, until the flood season passes or they finish construction (I'm not sure quite what's going on), we will have to wait.

This evening: 8ish miles on the treadmill. I started at dusk and the room gradually grew dark. At first, I felt a bit of discomfort and I could not get into a good groove for awhile. My legs were tired and heavy. The hilly 8ish mile run took a chunk out of me, and eating wheat accidentally finished the job. Turns out that the Neapolitan ice cream we've been eating for dessert this week has wheat in it. ?!!! Yeah, there's wheat in some ice cream flavours--I've given up my favourite flavour, chocolate chip cookie dough--but Neapolitan should have sugar, cream, strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate, and that's it! This wasn't a cheap brand, either. At least I'm not feeling any pain, just heaviness; my guts felt a bit sore after the tough run, but I'd figured that the monster hill had torched my abs or whatever.

Anyway, I started jogging pretty slowly on the TM because I wanted to ease into it. After about 20 minutes, I was able to increase the speed, bit by bit. The room gradually grew darker, and the music grew louder, and eventually everything else receded, including discomfort. I pushed the speed up higher and higher, very gradually because I wanted to keep the run easy, but as I loosened up and the music sped up (it's a remix CD with tracks that successively get faster in tempo), I was able to do more. I couldn't get into this groove that's been happening recently, where I feel like I'm hardly moving and the base of my spine is suspended in space, but I got into another groove where my stride opened up, at it felt good. I couldn't see where the speed setting was anymore, I could barely see my feet, I was just going. It felt good by the end.

4 legs v/s 2 legs

The dog had the physiological advantage today: higher VO2 max (roughly 4X mine), and an extra set of legs which apparently do not grant an advantage in some situations, such as extremely long runs in hot weather, but definitely help him get up the hills. I was gratified, however, to hear him breathing more forcefully than usual at one point. This was during the beginning of the run on a bunch of little hills. I was feeling pretty good at this point.

Essentially, I decided to run a slightly larger loop that still hit the largest hill in town (with the option of doing the 2nd largest and steepest). I thought I knew what was coming up.

The sidewalk situation was excellent. I've gotten used to running on the road on a bunch of the streets here, but there are a few that are pinched in between hills with hardly any shoulder. None of those were on this run. When the sidewalks ran out, I was left on a wide and straight suburban street with fields in the distance. We were sort of on the edge of town. The street was appropriately named: Limit.

My favourite environment is probably open fields; I'm also intrigued by deserts, but I feel most energized among a bunch of different grasses under a large sky. Right now, there is some green but still a lot of dead vegetation and the humidity is low...it's my kind of climate. I am aware that spring will come and turn everything green and eventually steamy, which should be ok if I manage to have the same easy attitude toward summer running this year as last. But, for now, I get to gaze at miles of dead grass and hopefully I will soon get around to running fully out of town and into it (my ambitions are pointing in that direction, which is several directions actually, and I still have to figure out which will be the best).

Anyway, we saw fields in the distance and ran up the street to the major street with the wide footpath and the hill. We'd gone up and down a bunch of hills by this point and I wasn't sure if we were close to the top--at first, we appeared to be, and then we rounded a slight curve which hid the truth.

My legs died. It wasn't painful or especially bad, more comical, really. I just couldn't move very much. At one point, I felt almost as if all the energy had drained out of my legs in one swoop. If my legs could faint, they did then and there. What was really going on? Some sort of mass muscle revolt or spasm? Some large-scale electrolyte upset? Would this actually turn out to be beneficial in some way? I kept jogging ever so slowly. There was a guy walking ahead of me and for a while I doubted I would catch him. Meanwhile, the dog was trying his best to jog extra slowly for my sake. He was doing fine.

We eventually got to the top and I almost recovered during the jog down to other inclines; I appreciate more and more how the large hill flattens all the other hills. I was feeling beat by the end of the run, too beat to really distinguish between a slighter uphill and slighter downhill. Funny how getting kind of broken can make it easier to keep going.

Total 8.15 miles.

wasted effort

Not in running, but in yard work: there is a small fish pond in the backyard and this morning I pulled out all the plastic debris and left it on the side to dry. This is a high wind day, though, 50-70+ km/h), so I imagine everything is back in the fish pond now.

2 miles with the dog this morning, and maybe a bit more on the TM this evening.

one of those runs

Today I had the right music and the right muscles and the right pre-run snack: a homemade brownie.

I jogged for 80 minutes on the TM and it felt really natural and good right from the start until just past an hour; I stopped to drink some water and couldn't find the same groove after that. But for an hour, it was almost perfect.

I wish I could describe it better, and I wish even more that my muscles will recreate it more eloquently.

the other hill

It was a slow start; I didn't feel like running this morning, but I had to take the dog somewhere. Finally I convinced myself that it wouldn't be too hard to run on the creek path, but when we got there, the prospect was boring, so we kept running. The sidewalks ran out so we ran on grass until we came to a cross street that I knew had sidewalks. I didn't know how far it went, though, and eventually it ended at a T intersection. It seemed more prudent to go in the direction of home, and after a bit of uncertainty, the street met another street which I recognized. And this street had sidewalks, but these eventually ran out and the street curved up a hill without much room on either side of it. My first inclination was to turn back, but I was feeling pretty good by this point; lately, I've been feeling the sort of efficiency that comes with running more, and it's become almost enjoyable to run up the hills with this added strength. I guess I've finally gotten used to the hills here.

We went up the road. A few times, we had to stop to step aside for cars, but these were welcome breaks. After the curve, there was another curve and more hill, and so on, and finally we ended up at the top, where there was a large cross street that I recognized. This had a generous sidewalk and an amazing view. I could see the large hill that we've run (suffered) up a few times.

In short, I'd found the even taller hill in town. We coasted down and I enjoyed the feeling of being transported somewhere else...it was one of those places that looked like another place, and though I'm enjoying this place, I also liked the change.

We wound up close to the first large hill, at the foot of the steepest ascent. We made it halfway up before I had to stop. It's a ridiculously steep slope; it's hard enough walking up it, and it felt like I was hopping up it rather than running up it...there must be some sort of benefit in running up it, but I'm not exactly sure what beyond cardiovascular stress. That incline is probably too steep even for steep hill sprints.

We got to the top, I enjoyed the view, and then we ran home.

A surprisingly good run for a low-energy morning. 9ish miles.

cheese!

There are quite a few local cheeses here, as it turns out, and some of them have become part of my diet.

We decided to run in Ottawa, Kansas--yes, there is an Ottawa, Kansas--which is a small city (town?) with two trails going through it that were formerly train tracks. We couldn't figure out how to get to one of them, and the lady at the visitor centre didn't know either, but she helped us find the other one.

It was not a good run. My legs were heavy, and then my guts started to complain. Probably the issue was the stevia drink we shared on the way over--this thing sat on the counter during the detox diet and then I guess we felt we had to drink it, but it was so sickly sweet, I didn't have a lot, but it was too much. The discomfort grew during the run and eventually eclipsed the heaviness of my legs, enough to push a bit more and finish the run sooner, and then I actually got into a good groove of sorts. My innards were still iffy, but otherwise I was running very smoothly and, man, why can't I run like that all the time? It took about an hour of discomfort until I got to that zone.

That happens occasionally, a foul run yields something surprising. That chance is enough reason to push through the many other foul runs that stay foul.

We ran 9.5 miles in total.

Later on, I jogged 3.5ish miles on the treadmill.

Day 11

I am haunted by past cheeses, that first bite of Epoisses, the perfect Saint-Andre someone brought to one of our cheese potlucks, the crystallized salt tang of a 6 year old Gouda...actually, most of the cheeses I've been craving have been of the creamy and slightly (or more than slightly) odoriferous type, although I'm also missing Parmesan on popcorn. Since our snack options are limited, we have been eating a lot of popcorn, which can be a healthy snack with grapeseed oil and a bit of turmeric or fenugreek...I've been experimenting, but nothing can take the place of Parmesan!

Please excuse the withdrawal pangs. One more day! We might end the detox diet tomorrow evening if we go out.

Anyway, I (mostly) jogged 3ish miles with the dog this morning. It's taken this long to realize that the creek path has two ends and starting an out-and-back run at the end that isn't on the other side of a large hill is easier. really? I can't believe I haven't thought of this earlier, particularly since that end is closer to my house. It makes for a shorter run, and the entrance isn't as dramatic, but it's easier. We jogged around a bit elsewhere too for kicks.

This evening, I returned to the treadmill. I decided I was going to run for an hour and take water breaks every 20 min--this treadmill looks like the great great great grandmother of all other treadmills, and its disconcertingly shallow cup holder has missed out on a few generations of progress, so I have to keep my water bottle on the floor and stop the treadmill to drink. This is ok.

I turned the music and hopped on. The CD in the player is still the Spacemonkeyz thing which has a nice mellow beat and tracks of approximately 5 minutes in length; halfway through the first track, I took off my stopwatch and dropped it on the floor. No numbers! None! New game! I would run until the CD ran out, and I would bump up the TM speed a notch with each new track until it started to get uncomfortable or whatever. The treadmill has a knob which slides up and controls the speed from 0 to ?, and it's a continuum. It's not 0.25 min/mile or whatever faster, it's just faster; I don't know if the thing follows a linear equation even. I was embarking on a voyage of sensation and I would feel the difference. I had no idea how long the CD was nor how many tracks there were; no matter, I would concentrate on how I felt, and not how much more I had to run. And never mind stopping for water, that wasn't an option now. I had to keep going.

My legs were heavy at the beginning but after 4 or 5 tracks, I was feeling pretty good. I'm slowly finding my comfort zone on the treadmill, which feels biomechanically smoothest in the middle of what is labelled "Fat Burn". How fast or slow this is, I have no idea except that it feels sort of around 9 min/mile (or 8 min/mile when I'm feeling really good), still comfortable, still easy, but a little more push than wafting along at 11 min/mile or whatever I do when I'm feeling especially undriven.

I got to the middle of "Fat Burn" by the 7th track and I stayed there until the 10th. Something about that speed felt very comfortable. And then I figured I should slow down a bit and cool off, loosen up, but this imperilled comfort and so I pushed the speed back up to almost where it had been.

And then, sometime within the 12th track, the mental wheels started to loosen. Just how long is this CD? Worst still, there was a false end in the middle of the 12th track, and once the music restarted, I could not relax. I kept looking back at the CD machine timer. How long is this track going to be? Where the heck are we? That feeling of following a route for the first time which develops a disorientating elasticity, but with music. The longest song ever. My mouth was becoming pretty dry.

Sorry for all of the cheese withdrawal-induced italics.

Well, track 12 finally ended after more than ten minutes, and with it, the CD. I was not prepared. I stopped the treadmill, picked up my watch, saw that I was about a minute shy of 70 minutes, and resumed tread milling at the slowest jog-walk ever. 70 minutes! I think that's the longest I've ever been on a TM.

I'm counting that as 7 miles. I drank some water finally and it tasted so good. Now, if plain old lukewarm water that's been sitting in a plastic bottle for hours can taste that good after only 70 minutes of self-denial, how good is cheese going to taste after 12 days? I hope I don't take a bite and taste nothing but bacteria, the veil cruelly ripped asunder and so forth. Lots of things have gotten ruined by a revisit after a hiatus. I used to love love love blue raspberry flavour, for instance, but the last time I tasted it, I was reminded of scented markers and making a banana-scented ester via distillation and recrystallization and other steps in a lab with a fair share of stained glassware and chemicals that came from bottles that looked older than I. Please, let cheese not be on the list of disillusionment.

My husband has a lot of CDs that I haven't heard; I might be exploring other soundscapes in the future. The idea of running until the CD ends appeals to me for some reason; I guess it supplies some of the discovery that the treadmill does not provide.