Feeling it again

Last Updated on Monday, 24 August 2009 07:55 Written by The Virtual Runner Monday, 24 August 2009 07:50

I’ve tracked my virtual run to date (23 Aug 2009) using Google earth and since 29 Mar 2009 my route has taken me past Ottawa, Ontario and past North Bay and Sudbury.  I’m still on Route 17 and I’m now running along the shores of Lake Superior and the virtual views are lovely.

My distance covered so far on my meandering virtual run across Canada is 2352 kilometres (1462 miles) and I’m happy to say that my motivation and drive is returning.

I’m now running in parts of my home country that I’ve never been to in real life.  The first 27 years of my life were spent in Canada and the farthest west I have ever been is Oshawa and that’s because that is where I was born.  The farthest west I have been and can remember is Ottawa.

I will see the rest of my own country in time and I’ll see it as a tourist and I’ll bring my son and wife from the UK.  I don’t know when or how but those are things to plan for the future.

I do get asked by a lot of people over here in the UK if I plan on moving back to Canada and the truth is, no I don’t.  I’m happy here in the UK and I’ve got a lovely wife, son and daughter.  I’ve built a life for myself in the UK and I enjoy it here.

As for my motivation returning, it might be linked to changing my trainers to my next new pair and because I registered for a marathon.  I was losing my motivation and it was partly linked to sore feet and achilles after runs.  The other day I decided to move on to my next pair of trainers that have been sitting in the bottom of the closet waiting for me.  I had bought two pairs of Adidas Supernova Sequence trainers (for the price of one) and I think I’ve only got about 400 miles out of them.  That’s not too bad considering I’m a heavy runner at around 15.5 stone (217 lbs).  I still can’t believe I was more than 18 stone (252 lbs) at my heaviest.  And I’m sure I was even heavier than that because at my fattest I never weighed myself… the shock would’ve been too much!

I feel much better now with my new trainers and my marathon goal.  I’ve even slowed down on my easy and long runs in order to facilitate the longer distances I’ll be doing.  All of the training plans I’ve seen for marathon distance have the average pace (for me anyway) much slower than what I have been running.  I suppose it makes sense as I will need to slow down in order to cover the whole 26.2 miles without breaking down.

As for non-running related matters, my wife is still as lovely as always and supportive of everything I do.  My son is still the cutest and the most clever little boy in the world.  My daughter and her husband are doing great.  My best friend Rob is back in contact again (kind of) and travelling around Canada on his own little adventure.  My laser eye surgery is next week (02 Sept 2009) and I’m getting excited.  We’ve got a nice little weekend holiday coming up and when we return I’m getting lasered!

That’s it for now.  I’m still running and I’m feeling it again.  I think that many people go through ups and downs in their training and not just for running either.  I’m just glad I’m feeling it again.

What you get for Kayanos

Last Updated on Tuesday, 31 March 2009 09:06 Written by The Virtual Runner Tuesday, 31 March 2009 08:49

I paid £115 for the Asics Kayano running shoes that I returned to the Sweatshop on Monday.  Reason?  Two for one Adidas running shoes.  I couldn’t pass that up, especially as my current Adidas Supernova Sequence trainers have done so well.

So, armed with my £115 store credit I headed off to the Sweatshop on Monday and after another gait analysis and about 35 minutes I walked out with this stuff:-

Not bad for £115 I think!

I’ve been taking it easy for two days and there has been zero running going on.  I’ll report more tomorrow or something about what’s been happening etc.