Slow week

Last week was not a great week in terms of training. I'm probably still in a bit of recovery mode, but I was hoping to start to pick up the hours. I didn't get on the bike at all and missed one swim and one run. But, I did finish it up yesterday with a 17 mile run in 2:10.

It has been sometime since I ran highway 40 towards town. Generally it is a nasty piece of road with a lot of traffic on it due to it being a main road out to the oil patch. But, with it being Saturday I was hoping it would be a little less busy. Unfortunately, the little village at the end of our road, Brule was having it's annual rodeo. Lots of horse trailers and pickups heading in for the weekend event, but they were good about sharing the road.

My run took me 4.5 miles along highway 40 north until I came to highway 16 which heads towards Jasper. This stretch of road starts with a nice long downhill, crosses a narrow bridge (50 seconds of terror!) and then about a mile long uphill. Once I got to highway 16 it is two lane highway with a nice wide shoulder. It heads right towards the Rocky mountains and the views are pretty. I stayed on this until the double lane ends and then made a turn back towards the Town of Hinton. The run back home is always a challenge because mile 17 finishes going back up the hill that was the nice downhill on the way out.

I could definitely feel that run when I was done and there are a few lingering aches this morning.

That run was a bit of a test as I am toying with running the Red Deer Marathon, May 18th. We'll do a couple more tests and then make a decision. I have to register by May 11th so I still have some time.

My Newtons finally arrived....

oops!! Wrong Newtons!

Here are the new shoes....

I haven't run in them yet, but today I might take them for a test spin. It says that you should run short runs of 2 - 3 miles at the start until you get used to running on your forefoot. That shouldn't be too hard as that is how I run, but I will follow the instructions until I get 30 or so miles on them.
The rest of the weekend is going to be spent getting some work done around the house. Biggest job on the agenda today is getting the hot tub repaired. I have to replace some tubing that is leaking. Great thing is it allowed me to buy a new reciprocating saw!
Tonight we will have the kids out for a big pasta supper. Now that Francesca is home for the summer it will be nice to have our Sunday dinners together again. Pasta sauce is cooking as I write this. Smells pretty good!
Have a great weekend!