So, stuff.
I was reminded this morning that I haven't posted nearly as much as I'd intended recently. I'd make a promise to change, but we've been there before.
A couple weeks ago I started to construct a post in my head detailing everything I was doing in that very full week. But then realized that it mostly seemed Important and Interesting only because I was right in the middle of it; looked back upon from this remove, it kinda blends together.
But I've been up to a lot, and for once, not in a "spending 140 hours a week at work" way. I've been on "vacation" (by which we understand: 50 hours a week) for a month; really ever since the Climb for Wilderness on April 21st. Work's piling up, though, so my vacation's coming to an end, and I am slowly lowering myself back into the meat grinder.
Ok, enough awkward metaphors.
The aforementioned full week was centered around a birthday. I held a party! I think it was my first birthday party (not including the one that got postponed by 4 months) in about 2 decades. I made food. The leftovers lasted a week. I still have some homemade ricotta left. It will probably disappear soon. It goes well on pasta.
(The farmer's market down the block from the office just today opened for the summer, so I ate dinner there. Ergo no pasta tonight. Maybe Friday.)
I also made a lamb Tagine. Om nom nom. My parents were in Africa for a month, so my mom bought a tagine from the suq and gave it to me for my birthday. V. Pretty. I was inspired to break it in at the party.
My parents also got me a Roomba (and gave it to me 6 weeks in advance - long story). I love it. The cats hate it. No cat-riding-Roomba videos in the near future from me it would seem. Ah well. I was tickled pink by the section in the booklet titled, "Register Your Robot." Truly we live in the future.
I'm a bit ahead of the game plan for saving up for 2016, so I blew my lead (and then some; ah well) by buying myself a new bike. By far and away the most expensive I've ever owned. So far I like it (better than my winter bike, though that's not saying much) albeit not quite as much as my old 10-speed. Too newfangled. Too much to go wrong that I can't fix with little more than a multitool. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Maybe. The dude who sold it to me rode across Canada on exactly the same model. It's a good sign.
I had registered to run in the May 6th
Vancouver Marathon. That, um, didn't happen.
Way too busy with work; no time to train at all. So by the time it rolled around I hadn't gotten out to run once since February. I figured there was no point in spending the airfare to go to Vancouver and run a race I probably wouldn't finish. So instead I stuck around town, did some stuff for work, and played in a poker tournament. That didn't require so much training. I won a bottle of wine. A rather nice
Côtes-du-Rhône. I'm happy enough with that.
For the
Calgary Marathon last Sunday, however, I decided I had just enough time to put my ass in gear and get some training in.
So I did. From a cold start.
On May 7th, I ran 20k. On the 13th I ran 30k. On 21st (SIX DAYS before race date. Wtf?!?) I ran 40k. And then on Sunday (the 27th), I finished the marathon.
And that's how you run a marathon on three weeks training. Not... really... the recommended method?
My time was shit, but that's kinda to be expected, and I hardly have it in me to complain. I did, however, almost get a
negative split. That would have been awesome!
Unfortunately I had, shall we say, "gastrointestinal urges." With 3km to go, I realized I had really no choice but to duck into a port-a-pottie RIGHT NOW. *snif* Bye-bye, negative split. But I'll get you next time, Gadget! Next time!
It was still a lot of fun though. It's probably the fact that it's a bigger city, so draws significantly larger crowds, but I much prefer the Calgary Marathon to any of the other ones I've done. The atmosphere is really a lot nicer. Makes me extra bummed that I didn't make it to the Vancouver one (and I probably won't bother registering in following years - the timing just doesn't work at all between the Climb for Wilderness and the difficulty of winter training in general).
I am really looking forward to the
Toronto Waterfront run in October, though!
A week before that, there's also a marathon in Victoria - unfortunately it's the Thanksgiving long weekend, so I'm looking to see if maybe I can do that instead of the Okanagan one (which my result aside, I didn't really like that much), and head out to Kelowna to see my parents on Labour day instead. Or something. I haven't really thought it through very far yet.
And then a week before that, there's one in Surrey... sigh. Too many choices.
And on the topic of marathons, I seem to have done my usual thing and instead of more shorter posts, packed everything into a single epic one. So since you're bored and I have to get back to work, I'll end it here.
porphyre recently posted the following. In addition to being one of the most epically hilarious music videos evar, it turns out to be a great song to run to. The whole album is, really. It has a v. strong and rhythmic beat throughout. Which you can't really, er, beat.
I think I'll stop right there.
Click to view