Having posted about disappointment recently as per my DNF at Terwillegar and my wonky calf muscle, it is only fitting that I post about today's success as well.  Again, I am posting my experiences for the benefit of beginners who are uncertain of what to expect.

So in today's recovery run with a calf tensor on, I started out slow and cautious, but ended up feeling not too bad and running 11 kilometers with an average pace of 6:03 per kilometer, which was a negative split by a few seconds.  Most of the run was flat country roads, with about 2.5 kilometers of bush trail, but it too was fairly flat and not at all technical.

Am I happier than I was last Saturday?  You bet.  Is my calf muscle healed? Not a chance that I'm trusting it to be healed.  I can tell it is far from 100% and I need to continue to protect it for the foreseeable future.

The bottom line is that I made the correct call on Saturday to quit the race before I made a bad calf muscle worse. If I had…

I do not see many posts about failures, which I think is a disservice to runners who are just starting out with their new lifestyle.  I most frequently see posts about fun runs, and how good it is, and what a great experience a certain race was.  This is for the most part good.  But I would like to redress the balance and post something about failure.  I want to do this because for those who are just starting out in their running lifestyle, it seems like no one ever has any problems.  I know this is not actually true, we all have lots of problems, but I am going to assume a beginner might feel somewhat out of his or her league once they hit that inevitable disappointment and has feelings of failure.

As you may already know, I failed to finish my race last weekend.  It was supposed to be a 16 kilometer trail race consisting of two 8 kilometer identical loops.  I had trained for it as always, and I was aiming to finish with an average pace of somewhere between 6 and 7 minutes…

Thanks to Kam and all volunteers who keep making these runs better and better. DNF today (calf muscle rebellion near the end of the first loop) and am disappointed in that but I'll make it up at Sunridge. I've got the speed, the strength, and the endurance, now all I need is a new calf muscle! Oh, yah, I've also got attitude. No way this is keeping me down. Attitude. Yah.

I know that I am back on my game (so to speak) when I plan for a fairly short run but run much longer and feel incredible! I am happiness when I am running, and after a few set backs like knee surgery, I am starting to feel that love and happiness again. There was a time, not to long ago, when I didn't want to get up in the morning and run and didn't have the motivation to run in the afternoon. Now, I again jump out of bed early in the morning (I am an early bird,) get dressed (of course,) put on my shoes and head out the door. If I had a bad night or if my son did, that was the ultimate excuse not to run the next day and that again has changed. I am so happy that I am getting back to myself---I missed me and happy that I am back!

I LOVE running and being a runner!

I realized something the other day, something that was quite profound, yet it took me a while to figure out---I like training by myself. Even though I was a instructor for the half and full marathon clinics with the Running Room, I prefer to train and run by myself. It is not that I don't like people and enjoy conversations, but I feel the need to talk and discuss things with person or persons I am running with and focus less on running. I am training for a few big events and I like this time for myself, just me and my thoughts. After all, there is little time for myself currently in my life with a very active 4 year old, a career, and school/courses. Running is the time where I can have a conversation with myself--even out loud, and get to know myself a little better. It is not that I don't enjoy others company, just at this point in my life, I need to enjoy my own company more. So, please don't take offense when I don't show up for a run or when asked if I'd like to run with you,…

Today's run was a two lap run.  Each lap was 7 km in the North Saskatchewan River valley in Devon, Alberta just 30 km south west of Edmonton.  This is the 5 Peaks trail route.  The trail is located on the south side of the river and so is much colder and wetter than the sun-drenched north side.  But the trail has been drying out nicely and although there are some sections which give you pause and you have to slow down due to the wet muddy conditions, it is quite runnable.  I ran the two loops in 1:56:34 for an 8:08 per kilometer average pace.  The elevation change for each loop is 1050 meters (3444 feet), or 2100 meters (6889 feet) for the two loops I did of course.  The elevation changes and technical single track sections on the wicked downhills are what make this one of the toughest trails anywhere.  I took these elevation changes directly from the on line 5Peaks trail map and I have no argument with the accuracy of this map.  The link to this map is…