What a summer. We've had weeks straight of chilly fog and rain punctuated with glorious sunny days that are hot and humid. It took about 2 weeks to get used to it but I think I've finally adapted so I don't feel like I'm going to collapse during a sunny afternoon run. As for those rainy days, well, I've been spending much more time than I'd prefer in the gym indoor track, but at least I'm still running.
I've taken on a new training plan, designed to make me faster. It's been doing wonders thus far, my overall average speed is down to 5:50 per km, which is amazing, since I swore to myself over a year ago I would be the happiest runner alive if I could just maintain a 6:00km for longer than 3 km.
My brother is running is butt off in Vancouver. He told me it's pretty easy for him to get out and run with all of the new places to see and the gorgeous weather they've had. I just tell myself all the rain and humidity is just making me a stronger runner ;-) He plans to run his second marathon (ever) in a few weeks at the Victoria Marathon. His goal is to BQ, but we'll see. They do say that a runner typically makes the biggest gains during the second marathon though...
One last thing. I had my birthday last week and my husband and daughter bought me a hydration pack (which works wonderfully on the trails and I will use from now on for runs longer than 2 hours!!) and my mother treated me to an afternoon at the spa :-) When it came to pedicure time I warned the lady she'd have to break out the industrial sander. She laughed it off but after a minute asked (in the most polite way possible) what happened to my feet. I laughed and told her my small toes were broken during a caving expedition and the large calluses under my toes were from running in minimalist shoes. A wide-eyed "Ohhh" was the expression and she got to work. My toes look just lovely now but there wasn't much she could do for the calluses. Ah, the drawbacks of running in VFFs. Plod on!
