Longer jog tomorrow/yesterday

Yesterday, I was tired and merely walked with the dog.  Today, we jogged/walked for almost 38 minutes in the annex.  This was the loop I wrote about earlier.  I walked up a couple of the hills, and the dog took a couple of stops, and we took a small detour, and generally we were slow, but I think that there is still enough trail to almost fill a half-hour at an honest clip, and there are still a few paths that we have to explore.   I'm grateful to have this within a few minutes' walk of the house, especially since there is not much else within a couple of miles.  The main forest isn't much larger as it turns out: the longest way around the forest without backtracking is about 45 minutes.

While we ran, the climate changed from cool clammy to warm clammy, the high humidity squishing me.  I was sleeved in a thin barrier of moisture, the once remote atmosphere pushing against every inch of me with insistent dampness.  Oh, I guess this will be a humid summer, if not hot as well, and it will start relatively soon.  This got me worrying (again).  But then I remembered the last summer I ran in Ottawa, which turned out to be enjoyable once I embraced the tropical feeling.  I do like saunas and steam rooms, why not the same general effect while running?  I will be covered in sweat and I will feel warm for at least half of the year.  There's no reason to push myself unduly, or to go without adequate water (loops = drop point)...I will turn into a sodden mess, but I will be at relative ease.  Even if I sign up for a race this year, I can treat it more like an experience.  However, I have no plans yet apart from not re-experiencing heat exhaustion. 

Although, I would like to run again during the 7:00-8:00 am time frame.   All my runs until this morning have been later, I think, but this one was during what passes for rush hour here, and today it involved at least one train.   It was quite noisy with whistles and whirring and I really liked it.   Jogging through the deserted forest and hearing the distant clamour of traffic made me feel as though there was a large city just beyond.  Once I'm done with Nature and Exercise, I can roll down the hill and grab a snack on my way to a quick shower, and then knock out a few other errands or go to work depending on the day and schedule, maybe a nap on the bus or subway on the way back, then a stop in a cafe or bar or whatever with a friend or two, then check out a new store or restaurant or block, maybe some grocery shopping, just a few things because I walk by umpteen stores every single day, and a short walk home, fling the perishables in the fridge and myself into a bed.  Sometimes it's very tiring, sometimes I end up very sleep deprived, or jostled, or accosted in some rude fashion, but it's altogether energizing.

But maybe I'm a stress junkie?  Maybe not having the large city beyond the forest will prove to be a valuable detox?  But it's such a relief to pretend it's there.

Next time, I'm going to run the annex loop in the other direction to avoid a particularly steep downhill--it hurts less to slip going uphill.  I didn't fall this time, but the debris underfoot was not trustworthy!  These paths are semi-abandoned and mostly covered in pine needles and leaves.  Fortunately, there is hardly any undergrowth.  The worst path is #1--one section of the path has a bunch of little trees growing in it.  Spindly things, but some of them are as tall as me.  The odd thing about this path is that it seems to end up besides someone's backyard (have I written about this before?) but there is a No Horses/No Bikes park sign at the trailhead.  At one point, this was intended to be a proper path, they cleared it and they even put up the substantial wooden sign, but now there are trees growing in it and a backyard spilling into the start, leaving clutter like a hockey net and a pile of bricks in front of the trailhead.  But maybe there is egress to the road.  I'll check it out more closely later.

I will write about the Proctors later.