Day 20

Soaked up the Olympic vibe, or a good chunk of iron, or something...

I had a great run today. I think the last time I had one so exceptional was in August.
No muscle soreness, no stiffness, nothing, just a bit of fatigue (I hadn't slept much) which went away as I got into the run. It felt good. It's been so long since a run felt that effortless.

My husband skated the Canal this morning, before the crowds hit it. I was a bit lazy in getting out, and still skateless; I had figured on doing 40 minutes, maybe 60 if I felt good. I felt good. After about five minutes, I got bored being on the same old path I've always been running on: 20 min out, turn around at the construction, etc.

So I got on the ice. It was a bit of a yard sale out there, but fortunately we've had a few light dustings of snow, including one still going on, and the plows hadn't gone to the very edge. There was a great rough strip next to the wall with hardly anyone on it. The snow falling also made the ice itself comfortable to run on, where there wasn't a layer of older snow.

I made note of my watch, meaning to turn around at the 30 minute mark. well, at 27:XX, I decided to go to the end of Dow's lake and turn around there, but I kept the border on my right, meaning that I would have to cross the Canal to get back...but I didn't. I went on to the locks, and then back on the opposite side, all the way down to the other end, and back around again until I was where I had started. I stopped my watch at exactly 1:30:00. no joke! It was a bit of a shock.

I'd covered only 8.5ish miles, but there was a fair bit of weaving and running slower on ice, and I had to stop to walk a couple of times to get through the crowd...at any rate, I'm really really pleased with it. This is the sort of run I'd do before the whole gluten trial thing without much fanfare or cause for concern, an average run...I'm not quite recovered yet, I'm still slightly muscularly weak, but this run was a huge step in progress.

This is bad news for the dog, though...he's not on the Canal. I might be ditching him more often because it's much more interesting to run on it than beside it.

I'm pleased to see many more food vendors on the Canal this year...sadly, I can't eat most of that stuff, but it's still better that there's more to eat than fudge and Beavertails. I might have fries next time.