Reverse Regional Park II

February 14th
I ran the reverse regional park loop for the second time. I was encouraged from the post of the day saying that it was nice weather for a run. As the day progressed the snow began to fall more. Before the snow got too deep I decided to get out there and run.
I had the plan to run the same distance as last Wednesday. The only difference was instead of running to the school and up to the hospital, I took the street before. I don't think that the distance changed much from the little detour, maybe 100 yards.
I began with a moderate pace, and tried to keep a faster pace toward the regional park. When I got to the park I checked my watch and I was below 9 minutes. I thought that was faster than the last time I ran, but I would have to maintain good form in order to keep the same overall time as last week.
Again the regional park trail was frozen, and covered in snow, so I took the closest possible route back to the paved trail. I ran this towards the parking lot, and felt myself getting a bit sluggish at this mid-way point. I had to really talk myself into turning it back on, and getting ready for the second half of the run.
On Cure-Portier it felt like a wind was blowing against me, and I noticed a slight incline for the entire stretch. There was still daylight because I started my run a little earlier than last week. This also meant that the traffic was lighter which helped me feel safer.
I made it back to Jacques-Cartier just about when I wanted to according to on my crono.. Just before 23 minutes. I would still have to hold it together to finish up where I wanted to. This is where the traffic lights could slow down my time. I waited through an entire stop light and knew I still had 5 minutes to make it to the finish to keep the same time. I think this helped me speed up earlier than last week, and really push to the finish. The turn at the Shell station was where I got a huge breath of gasoline. It was the same last week, but I tried to make it though with shallow breaths.
I knew I was almost done, and had just one more turn to go. I kept speeding up until the last 200 yards was a full out sprint. When I finally reached the school to stop my watch I was pleased to have the time 30.50, 5 seconds faster than last week. I was exhausted and did a brief warm down walk through the parking lot. I was thinking why are those 5 seconds so difficult to shave off.. I'll keep at this course through the season..

The Mountain.. Freeze

Feb. 12 .Beautiful, sunny, and bright!
I am missing 2 posts.. Feb.7th, at the St.Lambert park and surrounding neighborhood. Also, the 9th. A reverse loop here to the Regional park, through it, and back before school day-care was finished!.. Both those are worthy to note, but I wasn't inspired to post.

Today was Beautiful! The plan was to meet at the Statue at 9:30, and I was glad that I made it there with a couple minutes to warm-up. There is so little traffic on Sunday mornings, and it is definitely a time that I don't mind to drive! I thought I would barely make it in time before I left, and then after the bridge I knew I would be alright.
When I showed up, I knew I was a couple minutes early, and I would have to begin warming up as soon as I opened the car door to the -14C weather. I am always a little tight after a drive, and the first few minutes of warm up are just to loose some of my stress I carry. I found Mr. Lambchops in the front car of the line I parked in, and I got him to leave his heater in his car. It was great to see him again! We are really well matched in the group, (same ave. speed) and we enjoy the hills.
So, we just ran to keep the blood flowing, and when we got back to the Monument We saw Joe Boxer, and his dog waiting to start. We all thought that there would be a couple more there, but after a few minutes of waiting we opted to leave.. It was -14C, and we were all cold. So we started out up the trail together.
The trail was frozen packed snow, and the footing was much easier than the snow trail in the regional park. There were only a few spots of black ice before the upper parking lot. These spots were only a problem for me on the way downhill when I slipped a couple times. I was really cautious though, and avoiding a spill.
At the top loop I met up with Silly Sally and her friend and training partner. And after the completion of the loop we stopped to get another friend of hers to make it 6 for the way down the mountain.
It was a nice run, and the company was great! I am always happy to get out and run the Mountain, and see the nice views form the top. The total time was 1 hour 19 minutes, at a comfortable pace. Thanks to the running group for sharing the nice morning!

Park, Pool and Nearby Traffic

February 5th
I was able to run in the park that I have seen time and time again.. Everytime I am passing it from the Highway, and I look over to see how the park is set up, and who is taking advantage of the day. I fianlly had my day, and it turns out that this place is really nice for a quick run, if you are interested in that kind of activity.
Since I was new to the park, I was not sure what to expect, but I found the trail and was happy to see that the snow and ice were almost absent. The park is completely covered in snow, and it was fun to see some people out there enjoying the late afternoon winds with a huge kite! The other visitors were there to walk with their dogs, or a loved one.. and a few loners.
I had never run the trail before, and I wasn't sure where it would take me, and how deep some of the puddles might be. One of the people finishing up their walk told me that the trail was fine, and I should be fine with just running shoes. So I set out, past the first ice puddle that connected to the parking lot, and ran around the first turn. That is about the first puddle that I saw, and instead of slowing too much, I thought I could just navigate my way while running, and I ran right through part of slushy ice water, and I started thinking of how miserable the race conditions must have been this morning for some of my other friends that had choose to run them ( the Ottawa Half marathon, and the Ile Bizard 5k, 10k). It was really nothing to complain about compared to how I imagined the races.
The last puddle through the park was the longest one, and I thought about turning back instead of running through a 3 inch deep puddle and soaking both shoes with the ice water. So I tried to go around it into the park on the snow. However, that was much worse, and the slush would have gone into the tongue of my shoes and continued to drain for the rest of the loop. I was able to find the best solution.. The ice along the trail edge was still stong enough to hold my weight without me falling through. It ws thicker on one side than the other, so I would navigate my way along the ice bank each loop, and try and remember where to step.
The first loop was obviously my slowest with the brief stop, and detour into the snow, and each lap I found myself speeding up, and gliding better though different parts of the trail. I was impressed with each lap getting faster, and decided to try for four laps total. My fourth lap I was able to shave off nearly 20 seconds from my 3rd, and I finished the training run with a total time of 31.27. I still haven't measured the distance but it was really close to 4.1 miles from my experience of calculating distance.
So that's what it means to have a negative split.. Your second half of the run faster than the first. It felt good to get out there and do it! I will be back there in the near future, and work on getting the time down below 30 minutes in the following season!! Wish me luck!.. thanks