Sunny weekends and new shoes

It's been nearly 2 months since signing up for my local trail running clinic, and I have to say I'm enjoying it more and more. My participation has been greatly limited because of my busy schedule, but now that coaching is done until at least September, I have a bit of breathing room and some time to get out and train.

I was never a runner as a kid or teen... as a guy who suffered from exercise and allergen-induced asthma, I would start wheezing and hacking after about 5 minutes of sustained activity. I was always a bit out of shape because of this, and didn't ever consider myself particularly athletic... that title went to my older brother who played more sports and was better at them (except maybe badminton and golf... now, the golf thing is definitely in his favour). Not only was it laborious, but I was always quick to blame my struggles on the asthma and was never particularly interested in figuring out ways to get past them... it was always a crutch on which I readily leaned.

Since high school, though, my asthma symptoms have greatly faded to something that rarely bothers me. I suffer more from seasonal allergies now, but I've learned how to control my asthma through controlled breathing and I've got some pills to battle the sneezing and eye itchiness. So after being lazy and never doing anything more than once or twice-weekly rec volleyball, K and I did the two months of bootcamp last fall.

This was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Although we stopped going and bought gym memberships afterwards, I've been much more ambitious when it comes to personal fitness since we did it. And now that I'm running with an organized club and training for what I consider a "real" race (25k cross-country trail race in 6 weeks time), I probably feel better than ever. Sure, I haven't really done any cross-training or workouts since, well, January at the gym, the running thing is awesome. Yesterday we did over 2 hours and 16kms through a local creek greenway. One of the girls in the clinic took some pictures...

You may not have guessed, but I'm the one on the left. And there's more...

I was going to point out some serious irony in the next picture, but it's sideways and won't work very well. On the inside of each of these kilometre markers, they stamp a sponsor who maintains the trail. We began our run yesterday morning at the 8km marker, came to the end of the trail (the 16km marker) and ran back. The ironic part is this: the sponsor for Kilometre #16 is: Springfield Funeral Home! I guess I was a little nuts to do this cross-country running thing. But I thought it was hilarious.

Since I'm the youngest person participating in this training clinic and the only male that is actually training for the race (our fearless leader "D" is an ultra-marathon champ, is 60, and outruns me without any problems), I've needed to challenge myself, which is why "D" is such a good guy to have along... I need a chase rabbit, and he does a great job of doing just that.

I don't know how I'll finish at the race, but I'm hoping to do it in under 2 hours and 50 minutes. Is it realistic? I'm not too sure, but I think so. Regardless, the next 6 weeks are going to be full. Wish me luck.

T

Oh, and I forgot to show off my sweet new shoes!!!