Spring Please Stick Around

Man, if this weather is to be short-lived then it's a major tease! We've been blessed with such nice weather over the past four or five days that it's hard to believe we are still technically in Winter. In any case, I am loving it.

Case in point, I would normally go at lunch to the gym and climb onto the treadmill for a run in the 6-8k range. Today I did go to the gym, but after doing a bit of core exercises and stretches I walked right past those belted beasts of burden and out into the glorious sunshine.

This wasn't completely spontaneous, mind you, because I did bring the Garmin to work with me for just such an eventuality, but it did feel great to be going outside, and in shorts too!

I ran straight down to the lake shore, negotiating traffic, pedestrians, and lights the entire way. Once down there though it was smooth sailing and I had an awesome run. Lots of others were out running and at one point a group of three popped out in front of me and were running at a decent clip. I decided to just see if I could follow them since their pace was not too different from mine, and this also offered me the opportunity to not worry as much about the route I was taking. Having never run down by the harbor before I just assumed that these runners knew where they were going. We meandered around all the boardwalks near the water for a while before I had to let them go because it was time for me to get back. Someday I will definitely have to find a group to run with because it seems easier somehow.

In the end I ran 8km at a relatively good pace of 4:59/km (8:01/mile). This was definitely faster than I'd intended to run, but it felt pretty good to just run and I can't say it was particularly stressful to maintain this pace or anything. The Garmin seems to have gotten confused while I was running in the downtown core on account of the tall buildings, and in particular in the second kilometre (4:13/km pace) and the last kilometre when it recorded that I was running at 6:14/km. I guess those two average out, but it does annoy me that the GPS stuff gets so affected by buildings. Looking at the map it sure seems like the Garmin is totally losing it - a max speed of 699.5km/h? Yeah, real accurate...

Upon returning to the office I iced down my knee, just in case, having also remembered to bring another ice pack into work given that somebody stole the one I had left at work for the past few weeks (who would steel an ice pack, honestly?). I definitely look forward to more of these lunchtime runs, of the outdoor variety, as the weather continues to improve. Spring is just the best season, isn't it?