A 3-Hour Tour

After breakfast today we packed a lunch, filled up the water bottles with ice and water,  and set off on the bicycles to do a tour.

We did have a couple of different maps of trails in the various municipalites in this general area we call Victoria... and we started out well... but my goodness, some of these trail interchanges are not marked at all and we ended up doubling back a couple of times to look for routes we should have taken. (And yet, in other areas, the signs are abundant and in places you wouldn't really need them... who decides these things?  Not the user, surely.)

But it didn't matter... the point was just to go for a nice long bike ride...

We cycled on paved paths that wound through parklands farmlands, and suburbs, and on narrow gravel trails through wooded areas adjacent to a small river.  And we rode on some suburban streets and across wooden tressles that used to be rail beds.

It was wonderful!

We rode across this bridge...

And looked down to an alternate crossing. 

We did 3 hours and 15 minutes of nearly continuous riding with only a 5 minute break to take these pictures, and further along, a 10 minute break to eat our lunches.

My quads were pretty tired by the time we got back so I made sure to drink lots of water and s - t - r - e - t - c - h .

I think that this cycling is making my legs stronger and will help prepare me for longer runs.

Does that make sense?  Any thoughts or advice about that?

This afternoon I have mapped a 6-mile run for me to do tomorrow morning, around the neighborhood, while The Captain is away doing the cleanup as his varnishing project is complete.

I am nervous about it, but pretty excited, too.

My Virtual 5 km Race and Picking Berries

Last night I was looking on the web for a virtual 5km race that I could take part in today, but couldn't find anything specific. I ended on on the Spark People site and signed up to do my own virtual 5km race during this calendar week.

So, today after The Captain left to do work more on his boat varnishing project, I checked my route on classic map my run.. then laced up my Sauconys and off I went.

The route I chose is a 5.0 km route around this hilly neighborhood, that I have run a few times in the past, so just to change things up a bit, I decided to do it in reverse.  That left me a short steep hill at the end, but I thought that would be better than having that steep decline at the start.

I started out pretty speedy for me, I thought, and was enjoying the lovely morning and thinking about my Chi Running technique... checking my stride or my arms or my feet every few minutes.  It felt very odd running my route in the wrong direction.

I seem to have developed the bad habit of licking my bottom lip when I run.  I am a mouth breather and so run with my mouth open, the biggest smile you can imagine across my face... but that does stretch my bottom lip a bit and I guess it must get dry.  I have caught myself licking it occasionally and it is quite annoying to me.

The last 1 km of this route is a not-so-gentle uphill ... note to self... get out the Chi Running book and see if Danny Dreyer has anything to say about running uphill!  I would normally just shorten my stride and sorta run on the balls of my feet up this hill, so I did that, and went for broke!

Then I hit the short and steep little dirt trail that allows me to cut through a greenbelt area and get to the end of my route.  Whew!

All done and it was 36.5 minutes.  Not a PR but not a bad time at all for me in this hilly area and what I was really the most pleased about, is that I did it with no walk break at all.

W3 R36.5 W3
stretch 5 minutes

When I got back to the house, I enjoyed a glass of chocolate milk, and then a banana, while I stretched and cooled down.  Sara is right, chocolate milk is a great after a run.  Normally I would make a smoothie so this was just a smoothie with the banana on the side!

After I bathed and changed my clothes, The Captain arrived back from his work on the boat.  We had lunch and while we were eating, I spotted this brown bunny outside in the yard.  I took this pic through the window so I didn't scare him off....

And then after lunch we went for a walk to pick some blackberries.

The berry patch we chose today is about a 20-minute walk from the house and along a path we biked on Saturday.  Everyone is raving about the abundance of the berries this year... I guess there has to be some benefit from that wet Spring we had here.

It didn't take long to fill up both our 1-pint containers.  Why is it that the biggest berries grow just out of reach?

Do you pick berries?

How do you like to eat them?
Sometimes right off the vine is the best!

Healthy Portable Power Bars

Today I posted my friend's recipe for these Healthy Power Bars on my food/recipe blog,

We can begin to feed...

They are full of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, oats and slightly sweetened with honey and brown sugar.  I don't normally have all these ingredients on hand so took the opportunity to visit the bulk food section in my favorite local market.

The are very portable and I have been enjoying one lately after I run.  I keep them in the freezer and just take one out to thaw before I head out.

Hope you like them too!

Saturday Busyness

The day started out just as the past few Saturdays have....

I do so love blackberry season.

And this morning there was a special treat waiting for me in the breakfast nook...

These hibiscus blossoms must have opened during the night!

After breakfast we got out the bikes and set out for a ride on some new-found trails that join up with one of our favorites... so we rode till it ended in a park on a small, beautiful seaside cove... shell and rock beach and just gorgeous.

We covered some mighty hills, and I was so glad to have such low gears on this bike I am riding.  And I have to say, I discovered some muscles, too... just above my glutes and I certainly put them to good use, powering up the hills!

We rode an hour and 40 minutes, total, and my legs were wobbly by the time we got back so  I did a few good stretches and then made a smoothie with the last of the blackberries and part of a banana.

I spent the better part of the day doing food prep for a lunch we are hosting tomorrow... the next door neighbors here are the folks we have been house/kitty sitting for, these past 2 winters.  We have invited them to lunch and I am going all out on the food - really like these folks and I want it to be special for them.

Finally done at about 3:30 p.m.... so decided to do a strength workout before I headed to the tub for a bubble bath.

I got out my 8 lb dumbbells and did about 20 minutes of upper body/arm/core work.

10 each of:

• bicep curls
• tricep kickbacks
• overhead raises
• lateral raises
• upright rows
• delt raises

15 pushups

Repeated that a second time, then:

• 20 bicycle crunches
• laying quad lifts, 30 per leg
• 20 reverse curls
• 20 bridges
• side planks, 15 seconds per side
• full plank, 45 seconds

A huge glass of water... and off I go to soak.

August Goal #2 √

This morning we got up very early and had breakfast and by 8:00 a.m. we were in the car and headed downtown to take care of my second August running goal.

During Victoria Marathon weekend, there is a 8km road race.  It is an out-and-back that starts downtown on the Inner Harbour at a ferry terminal, winds its way through a trendy highrise neighborhood, and eventually flanks the waterfront along the Strait of Juan De Fuca, which is the border between Canada and America.

I wanted to run that route.  And that was my #2 running goal for this month.   Yesterday I gave The Captain a choice... we could run it today or we could run it next Tuesday.  He chose today.

I didn't want to fight for a parking space downtown so we agreed to leave the car at the turnaround point, and run the route backwards.  That would mean running uphill the last 2 km but it's not severe and really not very far.

I carried a bottle of water for us to share and off we went... we decided not to run on the road, which, of course, is the actual race route, but on a paved path nearby.  It meanders a bit and the first kilometer is through an off-leash area and it is always fun for me to meet and greet the pooches that are out running and playing with each other.

I was happy that there was no wind today.  Somtimes it howls so strongly up the Strait that is is hard to walk against.  But it was a beautiful, sunny morning and just the right conditions for a run.  There was a cruise ship in port, and such a nice day for the tourists to be out wandering around, too.

I was practising my Chi Running technique and it is beginning to come more naturally to me.  I was able to talk to The Captain as we ran along together, and only occasionally mentally check my form.  It was supposed to be a s-l-o-w run but for the most part my heart rate was over 85% of my max as it just seemed so easy to keep that pace and I felt like I was just gliding.  I am sure that the shorter stride I am using with the Chi Runnning technique is to thank for that.

It felt easy.  I didn't feel any fatigue in my legs at all as I wasn't overstriding, just coming down on my feet as I propelled myself along.  I could really feel that I was using my core and I think my lower abs were getting a workout too.

We did the first half in 32 minutes.  Then turned around and headed back.  It was a bit slower, even though I maintained the same heart rate, because it was uphill.  A gentle slope that I never really noticed in the car driving on the road, but definitely there and very noticeable as I travelled it on foot!

And then I remembered that I was carrying water and so grabbed the bottle out of my waist pack and handed it to The Captain to open.  I had been enjoying myself so much, and talking so much, I had forgotten to have a drink!  We did knock it back though, just as we finished running the last kilometer, back in the doggie park.

I mixed us a vanilla Gotein to share as we stretched and then we ate some fruit and an oatbar.  I was glad I had taken a change of shoes - some flipflops, and a towel.  Being sweaty while running is great... aftwerward, not so much.  The Captain was smart enough to take a clean Tee along and was thankful for that.

After my shower, back at the house, I mapped the route in more detail and see that we completed 8.2 km. 

W2 R68 W3
stretch 6 minutes

So now my August running goals are complete.  Will have to find something a bit more challenging for September.