16k

On Saturday as I was organizing the house, I remembered that I still hadn't picked up a friend Kyle's road bike. Tara and Kyle are away in the UK for the next few years and Kyle had generously offered that I could use his pretty Trek road bike while they were gone. (What an offer!)

Driving down to the far southern edge of Kitchener only to have to turn around and drive back seemed like a lot, so I had the unwitty idea of running there! I hadn't run farther than 9.4k since the end of May, so this was going to be somewhat of an experiment in terms of how my body would hold up.

It felt great to hunt around the house for my various running stuff: Water bottle, Shot Bloks, shoes, etc. I think what kicked the whole thing off was emptying out an overflowing closet and finding my jogging pants which I trained in for a couple of years. Those pants carry a lot of memories!

As usual, I had some peanut butter and jam toast, and then headed out. The first few hundred yards were interesting as I closely monitored my legs, ankles, feet, and heart, but they seemed to be doing ok, so along I went. I was once again reminded of how much I love 10-1s. It just feels right to stop and walk for a minute after every 10 minutes of running. Your heart recovers, you get to stretch you legs out with a slightly different stride, and then you're ready to get going again.

Overall I had a great time. I was wonderful to be out in the fall colors, and when running I was warm enough to wear just a t-shirt. I ran all of the way down Fischer Hallman to Bleams, and it was neat to see all sorts of things that I've never run past.

When I arrived at my destination, I was feeling a wee bit tired, but not bad. What I did notice was ... chafing! I guess some of the 15 lbs I've gained since May has gone to my thighs because for the first time in my life I could feel my thighs chafing against each other, and it got a bit tender. Once I got home it was apparent how bad it was: A nice rash and very tender, pink skin. Ouch! Too funny that a skinny guy like me can suffer from such a problem.

I even stayed relatively high-energy the rest of the day, which amazed me! I came home and organized our messy garage... but the next two days my legs were quite sore and I was much more tired than usual. Still, not bad!