I Feel Happy of Myself

Rain. Nothing but rain. This is June in Nova Scotia. June gloom.

Three straight days of damp can make my motivation mildew -- sometimes I need a pick-me-up to get me out the door and into the rain for a run. This video works great. Check out the pure expression of that rush that comes with achievement. Hilarious stuff.



Now tell me -- doesn't the kid sound like the Asian kid from Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Awesomeness!

This video got me out the door today to run a fartlek in the park with Alex (a fartlek, Finnish for "speed play," is a multi-paced run where you increase and decrease your speed depending on how you feel). We were like kids, splashing through the huge puddles at 3:20/k. It was one of the best runs I've had all year. Goes to show that poor weather doesn't necessarily mean poor running!

Running in the pouring rain definitely makes me happy of myself! Rock and roll!

How the Miles Pile Up

This may seem a little obvious, but when you run 6 days a week, the miles pile up.

The web site that I use to keep my running log -- Running Ahead (which I highly recommend) -- automatically tallies my mileage not only for the week but also for the year and for all the time I've been recording my runs on the site. Now, I've never really been interested in my mileage beyond my weekly totals, but tonight, for whatever reason, I wondered what the number that represents my yearly tally means.

When you're on a road trip, logging miles is meaningful in terms of getting to your destination. But I've never thought of all the miles I run from day to day as accumulating in a meaningful way beyond simply providing base fitness.

But what if I stacked those runs end to end? Where would I end up?

First, to give me a sense of proportion, I mapped out how many kilometers it is from Dartmouth to Kingston, Ontario (where I grew up) -- it's 1,535km. This is a trip I've made many times by plane, train, and automobile, so I've got a feel for what it means to cross this much territory.

So where do my runs stack up?

Well, according to my Running Ahead log, I've done 1,890km so far this year. That puts me way past Kingston. In fact, if I were running across Canada, it would put me just north of Barrie. Have a look (you can click on it to make it bigger):


Pretty fun, eh?

This got me thinking: so how far is it from Dartmouth to Vancouver? 6,112km (according to Google maps).

Since I started recording my runs on Running Ahead on Sept. 21, 2009, I've logged 6,297km. This means that in a little over 1.5 years, I've run clear across Canada.

That's oddly motivating to me.

So for fun, I'm going to track my progress across Canada weekly and see how far I get this year. There's no way I'm going to go 6,000km this year, but I'm curious to see where I end up!

Any guesses??

Lunenburg Muffin Run 2011

It was a near-perfect Lunenburg morning – high overcast skies to keep the sun off, no wind (so the colourful houses reflected perfectly off the bay), and just a touch of heat and humidity, although not enough to be oppressive. It was a great morning for running.

My race plan for this one was simple: enjoy it. And I did. Maybe a little too much.

After a lengthy wait on the start line, the horn went off, and the usual happened – a few young kids took off like it was an 800m race, while the grisly old 30-somethings like me held back and tried to establish the pace early.

Through 1k, I was running with Ray and Rob (two fellow Antiques) and there was still a fair amount of traffic in front of us. I wasn’t wearing a watch, and I was just taking it easy, trying to keep it fun. After 1 mile, we hit the big hill, and (as usual) the race took shape here. The kids who’d gone out like crazy starting coming back, breathing hard. By the top of the hill, Ray had dropped back, and Rob and I were still together, working on passing as many guys as we could.

On the long straight stretch along the back bay, Rob decided to surge. He normally runs under 16 minutes, so he has way more capacity than I do, but this was his first race back after a stress fracture in his foot, so he was just testing the waters. He quickly ate up a couple of young runners and eventually manoeuvred himself into third. I caught a couple of the young runners on the straightaway and got into 5th.

The last k was uneventful, but it was pleasant. I never pushed the pace, even though I knew the guy in front of me was struggling. I just sauntered along, smiling and waving at the volunteers and the people cheering – who smiles and waves during a race?? Silly.

Anyway, I crossed the line (still smiling) with a 17:28 – a good 30s slower than last year. Oops. It was good enough for 5th, but it certainly wasn’t one for the record books. In fact, the race was won with only a 16:53 – often, that won’t even get you top-five. It was a slow year, for sure.

One thing the race did do for me, though, was make me hungry again – and not just for muffins -- it also made me hungry to get faster. I’ve been lollygagging and mailing in my efforts and the result has been poor performances. As a tempo run, today was good – but this was a race, so I should’ve raced it.


Oh well. It was nice to get back up to Lunenburg – nice to see Ray win the women’s division and to see my friends Steve and Thomas run huge PBs and to see fellow Antique Mike come second in the Master’s division. It was also very nice to gorge on homemade muffins!!! The muffins really do make this one of the best running events in the province!

Hooray for running! Hooray for muffins!