7 weeks to go

We ran to Dundarave in West Vancouver on Sunday. Along the seawall in Coal Harbour, through Stanley Park (trails on the way there, causeway on the way back), over the bridge, down to the West Vancouver seawall to Dundarave and back again. When I mapped it out it was about 14 miles. Took us just under 2hrs 20min. It was a nice day and I felt pretty good, but I didn't really want to run very much further. I took 2 gels, after an hour and again about 45 minutes later. My favourites are definitely vanilla, apple cinnamon and strawberry kiwi by Carboom. So much better than any other brand. They are made with fruit puree whereas many others use brown rice syrup for sugar and I don't like the taste of it. I have a recipe to make my own gels... it's on my to-do list.

I ran last week once in Victoria along the water and through some old familiar neighbourhoods. I did a bunch of lunges after the run and they made my legs so sore!! Maybe I should be doing more of those!

I also found an ashtanga studio in Victoria and went to mysore morning practice while I was staying there. They have a really nice space in an old building right downtown. I used my new Manduka mat and I love it!! No bunching or stretching and it felt really solid.

Next week is a long run - 22-24 miles (a marathon is 26.2 miles). The group is running 12-14 instead and will go longer the following weekend (because of the holiday weekend). I'm away the following weekend and would rather do it here so I've got to figure something out.

I've signed up for the Edge to Edge marathon on June 8th. I'm really excited about it. It's 5 weeks after the Vancouver marathon (12 weeks from now!) which I think (hope) should be long enough to recover. Then hopefully it will be hiking season! Looking forward to the grind opening - I wonder if we'll be any faster after all this running.