Happy New Year!

10 days late with that. Guh. I’m glad my inconsistency in posting to this blog hasn’t crept into my training!

After missing a few runs over the holidays (I opted to spend the time with my family instead of on the icy roads of Ottawa – it was lovely), I’ve been back at with a vengeance here in Dartmouth: I logged 114k in my first week of 2012, including a 32k-er on Sunday with Alex. That’s heavy mileage for me, but it’s feeling good. And the week included two threshold workouts (6-minute mile stuff), so I’m not just grinding garbage miles – there’s some quality in there as well. I just hope I don’t do anything stupid and wreck myself! It’s still a long way to Toronto.

The winter here has been very kind to runners. Normally, snow and ice would have me off the trails and roads and onto the dreadmill by now, but December’s snow has disappeared – dissolved in rain and plus temperatures – and January has brought only a dusting so far (although it’s snowing as I write this!). I can’t remember ever running on clear trails in Shubie in January – but I’ll take it. As always, the north Atlantic giveth and it taketh away, so I’m not expecting these glorious conditions to last – I’ll just enjoy them while I can.

I should tie up a loose end from last year. In my last entry about my year-long virtual run across Canada, I was partway through Manitoba. So where did I end up? 

After a grand total of 4182.5k of dragging my sorry corpse across space and through time, I’m a stone’s throw from the Saskatchewan border! Crap. If I hadn’t dumped those runs in Ottawa, I would’ve run clear across 5 provinces for the year. But no. I’m stuck in Kirkella, Manitoba, a town that, when you google it, comes up on the website GhostTownsCanada.ca. I think this is the gods telling me that choosing to spend time with family instead of running is a very bad idea.

Kirkella, MB -- little hamlet on the prairie

Oh well. If only I’d listened to my brother and chosen to go through Ottawa instead of Kingston and Toronto – if I’d gone the northern route, I would’ve ended up past Regina! How much more impressive that would’ve been! (I wish there was a font for sarcasm – or at least an emoticon – sigh)

I’ll have to think about a new goal for this year’s mileage. Suggestions?

Anyway... here’s hoping that 2012 is a great year – and that the end o’ the world-ers are as wrong as usual!