This month

June is o-v-e-r. The Summer Solstice has been and gone - it feels like

what should be a proper summer has started.

new boots

However, as I've complained before June has been wild! Tons of rain, soggy, and generally yucky weather. I have fallen in love with my hot water bottle and don't care who knows it. I finally caved and bought myself some wellingtons. They don't have the same feel as my running shoes and aren't as comfortable. But my feet are dry and that's all that counts sometimes.

decoration on canal

And I didn't get to run as much as I wanted to for the usual reasons - turns out chasing an active preschool while breast feeding 

really makes it difficult to get out of bed at 6 am. The weather has out and out sucked, leaving me with very little will to run. I hate making excuses, but sometimes they seem really valid, y'know?

sidewalk art

Another factor has been that Thomas hasn't been the healthiest of little people. He's been in and out of the hospital a number of times over the past month and I've had a difficult time organizing myself and my runs around hospital stays. T seems to be over the worst of it, he's such a happy little guy. We've had a bunch of drs appointments and have a couple more over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully everything checks out and we can head to Canada on a high note.

ain't she sweet?

For my last two runs, I ran with Emma. I realized how much I missed  running with someone the other evening when I went out with Emma (8.5 miles, thankyouverymuch) Not usually a fan of running at night - mostly because I can never quite get the whole what to east before hand right -  but Emma was going and I tagged along. Tagged being the operative word. I knew she was a powerhouse but sweet jasper! That woman can run.  I had fun and she asked me along for a second run this morning (10.5 miles). Running with someone is such great motivation - thanks, Emma! (On a side note, as we chatted about the news of the Tom Cruise / Katie Holmes divorce I realized that I remembered discussing this while running in Ottawa, summer of 2005. I obviously need a better quality of talking points.)

One change that I've made recently is cutting out the dairy products. I came to the conclusion that one of the reasons always feel so crap is that I eat a lot of dairy. So, that's gone and I'm eating a "mostly" vegan diet (occasionally eating some fish). It feels great. I find I have a lot more energy and my stomach isn't bothering me as much. Will I be able to give up seafood? I have no idea but I am seriously debating this. 

Lastly, I'm waiting for Scott Jurek's Eat and Run to show up on my door step. He's really inspiring and seems like a down to earth, nice guy. Compared to Dean Karnazes who comes across like a raging frat boy (have I ranted about Karno yet? If I haven't, I must ...). Anyhoodle, I hope to have the book in my grubby little hands by Tuesday and I am excited.

June's wrapped. 

the best awful

running in the rain

It's been a slog lately. The motivation hasn't been high. I don't have any races planned until October, the weather sucks, I've been cold, tired, miserable and my running has suffered.

This morning was pretty much the same. I struggled to get out of bed, couldn't find my buff to cover my head from the elements, and really didn't want to go. I even started running in the wrong direction!

But, somewhere along the way all the wrong things became funny. And fun. I felt strong, fast, and free; like a kid playing in the rain. A really great, awful run.

Olympic torch

Olympic relay support trucks I passed while running, sponsored by Coke (do serious athletes drink Coke? really?)

Some running

Here are a couple of photos from some less then stellar runs that I've done in the past couple of weeks.

    

Unhappy with my time last month, I am not really that motivated. It's like, I want to run - I spend extraordinary amounts of time reading, thinking, planning and dreaming about routes, training plans and races. But ... while I want to do them the idea of training isn't that appealing. Which sucks.

I'm usually ok in this. I can talk myself around by simply starting to run and it comes back like a memory. Maybe it's the weather and being fed up with being sick and cold and tired. Dunno. I hope it comes back soon.

Anyhoodle, I've signed up for a couple of races: The Bupa 10K around the downtown. Bupa also has a kid's event which I'm thinking of enroll Calum in.


Fun Fact recipes from runners world magazine are fantastic. I've been making two of the soup recipes from their March issue and they have become fast favourites.