Day 57

Today was fun--I've been trying to figure out a good way to get to my practical next week. I already know how to get there by bus and on foot/bike, but I decided that there had to be a slightly shorter way. After clicking for a bit on runningmap.com, I figured out a promising route which would cut off about a half mile. It was more complicated, but it seemed like an interesting challenge.

It's been drizzling all day so far, and I had second thoughts about going running, but it happened anyway and shortly after we took a wrong turn. We weren't completely lost and I regained the route without really noticing the detour. I was feeling good and was really surprised to see my timer say 29 minutes seemingly a few minutes later. What? where did the time go? I was nowhere near where I needed to be, so I thought. In fact, I wasn't too far off! I started going the way I should have gone, down a bike/footpath, but then reconsidered, wandered around a bit more, then decided to head home a way I knew, all the while wondering how in heck I'd lost so much time. Was I abducted by aliens? Did my watch jump ahead again? (This hasn't happened in a while, and I sort of doubt that it will happen again now that the excess electrical tissue/node in my heart has been cauterized, but who knows?) Anyway, it was sort of a bust but I ended up going back via part of the way I knew, which was boring. I briefly regretted not having my practical at another hospital, one which is about the same distance away but via a nicer route, I think, but then I remembered that the hospital I'll be working at has much nicer facilities, newer machines, windows in the department, plus I did my first practical there and they'd asked me if I was coming back which was nice--I would just have to go home and figure out where I went astray, and stick to the boring route if need be.

We ended up running for 1:10....not too far off from the hour I'd envisioned, but where the heck did we go? LOL. After some more clicking on runningmap.com, I figured out that we'd run about 7 miles at least...lost a bit of time waiting at some long lights, so not bad. I felt great. It was a nice change to not know where I was for a while. I miss that. I don't do much wandering in Ottawa because I'm lazy and know where most things are already, I have a bunch of running routes that are virtually stop-light free, plus I live downtown and it's mostly grid. But perhaps I need to get lost more. I used to wander all over the two posts we lived on before this--the residential areas were boring, but there were some neat non-restricted industrial-type places, stuff like old depots and what not, and forest. Each place had some forest with trails. Fun, fun! And before that, we were in Colorado Springs and I was all over that trying to find all the trails, and before that was Seoul, which was AMAZING. It's really hard to actually get lost in Seoul. It's so hilly, there's only so many places that roads could go. When in doubt, I went downhill and eventually found a sign indicating the nearest subway stop--many of these signs were in English, and I could read Hangul anyway (it's phonetic), so easy-peasy. And there were so many hills/mountains/parks close to subway stations, so I could get off at one stop, wander on some trails, and go down whatever way I fancied. Plus, I was a member of a good harrier group and we ended up running goodness knows where chasing the leader/trail--at one point, we ended up running OUT of a zoo. I have no idea how we got in. So I got to wander at least once a week, and maybe that's good for my mental health.

I still feel charged up from this morning's run! Not sure how the dog feels about it, so maybe I'll try to keep things simpler tomorrow for his sake. lol

Update--now I'm really stoked. While I was checking to see where I'd gone astray, I found an even more promising route, pretty much like the other but a bit shorter and less complicated. It wasn't clear, though, if it was possible--some of it was along one of the transitways, and I knew part of that part had sidewalks, but wasn't sure about the other portion. So I went out for another jog, for a 1/2 hour and, yep, there are sidewalks. Woohoo! Now all I have to do is try out the whole route because I'm still not sure about the other end. Maybe on Thurs or Fri...I'm a bit nervous about my practical already without worrying about getting there. I'll probably take a bus and/or walk the first day or so because I don't want to start off by needing a shower. haha