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Today is my mother's 77th birthday - happy birthday Mum! This morning when I went running, Peter came with me and walked in the opposite direction and took photographs of this and that.

This is me running the upwind leg of the circuit. Not very high off the ground but good form! Arms at a good height, feet straight. I suppose the feet could be a little farther apart - not so single file - but it seems to work for me. As I have said before, I'll never win a race (too slow) but I happy that I'm just out there.
I'm wearing my pink Manolo says: Super Fantastic! t-shirt and have decided that the water bottle belt is a good idea.

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Today wasn't as difficult as yesterday - maybe it was the egg. This isn't becoming a running blog but it's where I'm putting things for now and it's what I have to write about. Today, I ran past an older Oriental man who was running even slower than I was. I may "enjoy" running and I may even keep at it but win a race, I will never do. I thought about how old he might be and figured he could be about 60. He didn't seem as old as 70. But he was out there, going around the circuit.

I also felt proprietary about the park as I was running around it. The construction was banging on beside the park - lots of new condos going in. And even though the workers won't be living there, it was good to see people about. There were people walking circuits in the park as usual. And a parks maintenance guy was out with a loader of some kind, spreading what might have been fertilizer on the playing fields. It was as I ran by him and nodded hello that I felt like I belonged there. Interesting.

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And again. Only today was tougher. I still ran 20 minutes but it seemed to be more of a struggle. I suppose it could have been the water I took with me for the first time. Since I'm outside for less than 30 minutes, I haven't been taking water. Yesterday, I resurrected the Running Room water bottle belt but to carry the camera. Today, I took a tiny 340 ml bottle of water. I cinched it pretty well so it didn't move around a lot but still, it was there. I drank 240 ml of it during the cool down walk which is good for me. I'm not a huge water drinker.

It could have been the stiff west wind that slowed me down on each leg of the circuit. The internet says it is gusting to 35 km/h and it was threatening to blow my hat off each time I ran west. However, I decided to have a boiled egg on toast when I got home, as I might need some protein too.

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And again this morning. But you should have seen me rationalizing why I didn't have to. I started with the fact that I'd fallen asleep last night in front of the tv at 8:30. Obviously I needed my rest. This morning, I let myself sleep in until 7:30 ( I have been getting up at 6am all semester and see no reason to stop even though I am not now teaching). So I thought, I won't go running - it's too late and I have other things to do. Then I thought, I could go get my hair cut this morning and that involves a bike ride (only about 15 minutes one way but still). And I have to shower off the hair when I'm done so that would mean too many showers. And on I went until I just got up and went running.

While I was running, I rationalised that I only needed to run two circuits because of the bike ride later. But I just kept going and then there I was, past the end of the third circuit and still running to the 20 minute mark. So I did it again! I even found the Running Room water bottle belt that has two zippered compartments on it and brought my camera to take pix of the beaver damage in the park. So, even though it is almost 10 am, I feel pretty virtuous and I still have time to go get my hair cut.

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Ran again today! This time each circuit was about 5:45 - a little under 6 minutes. I ran until I went past the start of the circuit and since it was at 18 some minutes, I kept running until I got to 20 minutes. So I was out there about 3 minutes less than yesterday. Good stuff. No Body Flow class this morning so I did about 15 minutes of "my yoga" in the living room. I have never taken a "real yoga" class but I have learned a lot from Body Flow and from this book we got. I do four choreographed sun salutations, based on Body Flow. Then I do "hip openers" which is just a few pigeon poses interspersed with down dogs and quad stretches. Then I do a balance track - some floating half moons, the warrior on one foot whatever that one is, dancer poses. Then pilates for abs and back - core work. Each section has a song that I play so it gives a sense of timing to it all. Now for a shower and my second breakfast. Mmm.

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I started running outside (as opposed to on the treadmill) on Saturday. That day, I started with one minute of running, one of walking for 5 minutes and then I launched into just running. I ran for 14 minutes without stopping and then I walked for another 10 to cool down. I was pleased because I didn't remember ever having run for 14 minutes without walking. Sunday, we walked the park. A circuit walking takes about 10 minutes. Running a circuit takes between 6 and 7 minutes. I felt the running in my quads mostly, but also in the rest of the legs, the butt and my sternum, which had to move in and out more than usual to accommodate more rapid breathing.

Today, I decided I would run again. I started and went one circuit and then two and finally, I kept on going to make three full circuits. I stopped a little short of three because there were these two people walking ahead of me as I came in to the end of the third and I didn't want to sprint past them and then stop dead. Why I should care what two strangers think, I don't know but I do, so there it is. Anyway, I did my nearly three circuits in 18:30 minutes. When I stopped, this time I checked my pulse and it was at 140. 220 - 50 = 170 times 75% which is probably high for me as an intermediate = 127, so I was well over my target heart rate but not gonna die.

I continued on and walked a fourth circuit so I was outside for 30 minutes all together. In about 5 minutes, my pulse was down below 100 so I am happy about that recovery rate. Tomorrow, I am having lunch in Manotick which is about a 30 km round trip, so that will be my aerobic exercise tomorrow. Now, I am going to go to the gym and do a 60 minute class of yoga and pilates to get all my stretching in.