Thetis Lake, Health and Friendship

My run today was one of the more pleasant and invigorating this month on two accounts, company and location. Carter swung by (with his lovely wife Aviva) and picked me up shortly before 11:00, allowing for a glorious and relaxing early morning.

After arriving at Thetis Lake, we discovered to our annoyance the rear passenger-side tire embedded with a screw. Bugger. For a brief moment, we debated the idea of changing the tire now vs. post-run, only to close the car doors and scamper off into the woods.

The park was established as Canada's first nature sanctuary in 1958 and offers fantastic undulating trails through swamp, Garry oak, Douglas-fir and lake ecosystems and provided me ample training ground when preparing for the Knee Knacker two years ago. Today, we re-traced a good portion of the Stewart Mountain 10-mile Cross Country Challenge, which features many a puddle, branch, rock and stream on a very runnable wilderness trail. The added challenge today (in addition to the flat tire) would be navigating the numerous trees that had fallen down during one of the cycle of storms to hit the coast this month.

My legs and spirit were in good health and although my AHR was lower then yesterday, that may be misleading given numerous detours. I think the real test for the pins will be next week when I try some up-tempo 1’ & 2’ intervals. Today though, was all about health and friendship two things I’ll be sure to raise a glass for in the days coming. After completing his law degree this month (congratulations), Carter is dedicated to regaining some of his former glory (see M25-29)and health having committed to running a spring marathon (more on that in the weeks to follow) and Ironman Canada in August 2007. I for one will be looking forward (& over my shoulder) to his company in the weeks to follow.

Training: Although on Tuesday, I’d considered an easy 1/2 to 1 hour jog for today, given where I’m at with my training/recovery, I’d easily substitute a trail run with friends, 1:20:18 on soft west coast trails, AHR 129, MAX 154