Ottawa Weekend

That was a quick weekend! Not running wise (though that went OK in the end), just the amount of time we spent in Ottawa was almost equal to the amount of time it took us to drive there and back!

We left Toronto on Friday night and arrived in Ottawa at midnight with two tired kids. The drive was fine and we didn't hit the usual bottlenecks along the 401, which was nice.

On Saturday morning I got up fairly late (8am or so) and started getting ready to run. Then at the last minute a running partner emerged in the form of my lovely wife and we set off on a nice 5km recovery run along the Canal! I don't have many opportunities to run with her and it's always nice to be able to do so. We watched as the numbers of skaters on the Canal multiplied while we ran and it looked like perfect weather for such activity.

After the run we set off with the boys to skate on the world's largest skating rink and had a great time. The weather was absolutely perfect! Other years we skated while it was totally freezing, but this time we lucked out. It was sunny, just a bit below freezing, and the ice was hard and smooth. Awesome time!

On Sunday morning I set off on my own for my long run. It had snowed a bit overnight and the paths along the Canal were not as bare as the day before. This made sections of the run much tougher to navigate than I'd have liked, but that's how it goes in Canada during the winter I suppose.

My intent was to just run steady and not make this too hard. I've tended recently to run my long runs too fast and I really need to slow down a bit to allow my distances to increase without risking injury or burning out. On that front this was a perfect run. I only hit a couple of lulls where I felt my energy sag, but other than that things were really good. I ate one package of Gu Chomps throughout the run and I'm guessing that helped.

At 18km I bumped into an old friend of mine that I definitely did not expect to see. It was great to see her and we chatted until we both were freezing. She was running in the opposite direction so we didn't even consider running together. Anyway, after that break I finished the last six kilometres for a total of 24km, my longest training run since before the marathon last September! Even though I was consciously trying to slow down I still managed to run at a decent pace in the end (5:07/km, or 8:14/mile). It also marks the highest weekly mileage in a long time at 67.15km (a little over 42 miles).

A great way to finish off a week of running. Now I'm ready to start another.

Catching up

Boy, it's been a busy few days on my end and I am behind on the blog reading and writing. Since blowing a tire on the highway on our way to Ottawa we had a nice weekend of spending time with family and skating on the canal. Also, I caught up with a friend from my grade school days, who now has a three-month old baby boy and was brave enough to meet up with us for some skating in -14C temperatures on Sunday morning. Her little guy slept through the whole thing, nicely sheltered in a stroller!

The world's longest skating rink was nice and solid on account of the cold and we had a great time! There was no lack of space either:



We also hit a great bead store on Bank Street because Owen wanted to make a necklace for his granny as it was her Birthday. The necklace turned out awesome, though it was a bit tough for the little guy to choose the beads he wanted given the massive selection (and this picture captures only a fraction of what was available):



I took Owen back out on the canal on Monday morning as well to get some more skating in before hitting the road back home. There was one last piece of pie left from the weekend and (for some strange reason) someone (who will remain nameless) decided to pack it in a Ziploc bag for the trip back home! If you've never enjoyed a bag of pie, you've never really lived:


Monday evening proved busier than I'd anticipated as another old friend of mine, this time from my undergrad days, called last minute that he was in town from the west coast on a last minute business trip and could we get together? Unfortunately he was staying in the west end of the GTA, about a 45 minute drive in a part of Mississauga that I find completely devoid of any redeeming qualities, and it didn't make sense for him to stay with us for it would put him too far away from where he needed to be the next morning. I drove out to see him anyway and we had a good time catching up over dinner.

Then, on Tuesday, I was back at work and got in a lunchtime swim: 2000m in 30 minutes. I also did some chin ups (8-8-8 pull and 8-8-8 chin) and a few hip flexor things. I haven't run in over a week, but am thinking of heading out tonight as the knee seems to be pretty much pain free except for one spot right at the bottom of the kneecap where it hurts when pressed. Anyway, it's supposed to be freezing tonight, but I'd like to make it out for a short run and hope that it happens.