Ethan Cannon

Another run in Langley. Went along a power lines trail, on bridges over streams, through thickly wooded areas, up and down hills, and through a cool garden. Happy Canada day eh.

I had just finished an 11-mile hike so I decided to keep it chill. I hadn't felt the altitude much on the hike but did on the run. Plus I was just very tired. Ran around some trails in Manning park.

Felt somewhat tired again today, which was too bad because today's run was really great. It was chilly out (41 degrees when I left) but I was fine. I essentially ran a loop around beautiful lightning Lake, finishing on rainbow bridge. 

Ran to the beach of Victoria, BC. I was going to then run to a lighthouse, but ended up spending a long time running all sorts of loops on trails around Beacon hill park.

6:00 flat pace, including 5:48 pace on the way back. What a great cap to an excellent week of running. I made a mistake and turned onto the wrong trail after starting out on the galloping goose trail. It ended up being a beautiful trail going through nature and quiet neighborhoods. 

7:05 pace. A slow Monday morning on the Hillcrest route. 

6:50 pace, Coal mine. 

Run in the Redwoods!

Run in the Redwoods. Trillium Falls. 

6:55 pace via Foothill road. Tired.

Last run of the trip and hopefully last run with these shoes. Not a great day to travel, because my plantar fasciaa are swelling up. I ran with my brother on a trail up in the mountains. 

6:58 pace, Como classic except a slight detour since one of the fairgrounds gates was closed. For the first time this year, smoke was bad enough to warrant a mask but not bad enough to need to run inside. 

6:48 pace, Diagonal to St A parkway. Not sure why I don't do that specific route more often. As durable as I feel like the triumphs are, it was really nice to have on a new pair today. Toasty outside but doable. 

Yikes. I did a 6 mile progressive tempo run from the M bridge along WRR to Lake street. At the time I thought I had run 5:20 pace overall although it looks like it was actually 5:23 pace. The rain was coming decently hard but no wind. Just slow. I felt like I couldn't get my legs moving at all. I think it has just been a while since I've done any distance-oriented workouts, and I have a lot of work to do to get in marathon shape! 

Always fun to run in the rain though. 

Surprisingly fast 6:36 pace, especially becuase I started pretty slow. East river road. Very cold morning by July standards, this is probably as close as I remember it getting to being in the 40s. Unfortunately, plantar fasciaa hurt the whole time. Need to take care of that. 

6:38 pace, farmer's fields. 

I've turned my attention to a possible fall marathon, and recognized that prior to today, I had run just 2 LRs of 18 miles or more this year, compared to about 8 by this point last year. I knew this needed to change, and am proud of the 19.86 miles I ran, especially given the circumstances. It was only 68 degrees when I left but there were literally like clouds from the humidity. Well before the halfway point, my shirt was saturated with sweat. Not too far after halfway, my shoes were saturated with sweat. I stopped for water at least 5 times, and still, I weighed myself before and immediately after, and had lost 6 pounds!! A gallon is a little over 8 pounds of water. Thankfully at least it was overcast the whole time. I had planned to do a little tempo on the way back but just felt gross (knee and plantar pain on top of that) and just coasted home. 5:54 pace overall. That's about what I did a couple years ago on my 23 miler which was longer, but with the weather and the slower course I ran today, I'd say it's a wash. I took the Raymond ave way to ERR which allowed me to go down at Hidden Falls and make it past the parking lot at Crosby Farm. Since my 23 miler had me running along ERR the whole way until Crosby, there was one area I don't think I had ever been to today, and some more trail I had only done on a bike ride last fall. 

Just under 7 minute pace. This was my first time going west on Dinkytown greenway in about a month, surprisingly. 

6:58 pace, Como classic. Overcast and quiet day and humid enough to get soaked. 

6:49 pace. Absolutely drenched in sweat. On the bright side, I was thrilled to go on the recently reopened stone arch bridge! Actually, I kind of like that variation of my west river north route. I pushed one of my kids in the stroller and realized that the reason it has been harder recently has to do with the two of them together weighing a lot. This time, this one was pretty chill so we didn't need to stop much.  

Well, you can't always ask for perfect weather. It was only like 70 degrees again this morning and yes, it was very humid, but I'm surprised at how soaked I've gotten. It's really gross. I took a cold shower for the third day in a row and can feel my body emenating heat after my runs. I also think it affects my performance once I lose enough water. 

Today I tried a unique workout. I used the dirt track for the first time. It was ok, not the best but at least doable. It's also right by the highway which I don't like. I thought I would try to get in lots of volume and expose myself to a few stimuli. So after a short warm up, I started with a tempo mile, winding my way up and down hills through the St Anthony neighborhood. Then I jogged downhill about 0.3 miles to the dirt track, where I ran an 800. Next, I ran "uptempo" up the Hendon hill until it is mostly level when it crosses Fulham. Immediately thereafter, I would start another tempo mile. I did this circuit 4 times. Tempo miles were in 5:19, 5:08, 5:04, 5:13. 800s were in 2:25, 2:25, 2:26, 2:25. Felt tired and gross, hoping to be able to build my confidence at some point. This was probably a good workout though. 

We evaded the smoke through last night but it was bad this morning. Treadmill run, which interestingly was not as bad in terms of heat/sweat as my runs the past few days have been. Plantar fasciaa were fine during the workout yesterday but bad today. 

Once again, I felt the need to go long or go home. And once again, it was a furnace outside. Dew point was I think 70 when I left. It stayed there as the temp increased on a sunny day on the Gateway. I was dripping with sweat after just a mile or two and honestly not enjoying it as much as I wish I had. Lots of people on the trail today. Three people complimented my pace (not that I care). Someone gave me a banana and someone else offered to pour cold water on my head at the turnaround (which I wish I had said yes to). On the way back, I just tried to get home in one piece, and while it hurt, the splits show that the wheels never really fell off. But I did stop sweating as much, for one reason or another which was nice. Splits: 4:17, 6:18, 6:09, 5:57, 5:57, 5:57, 5:54, 5:52, 5:51, 4:03, 4:17, 5:49, 5:51, 5:58, 5:54, 5:51, 5:58, 5:56, 5:57, 3:40. Overall, 5:55 pace. I had a string of 8 straight miles which were as fast or faster than the previous one, totally unintentionally. Glad the smoke is gone!

6:58 pace, quiet day on Como classic. It was like 70 degrees but felt so nice compared to previous days. 

Smoke is supposed to come in again so I thought we might as well get out while we can. I did the same route as last week through Stone Arch bridge to west river north, but this time the whole family came. 

Forecast is calling for smoke for the next several days, so I was grateful that this morning the air was still clean enough to do a workout. I ran a route similar to something I have already done this year. I started at the intersection of Buford and Gortner, then ran through the fairgrounds (using them while I can!) and popped out on Como, running to the intersection with Cleveland. It was maybe 5 seconds short of 2 miles I think. I ran 10:21, 10:10, and 9:52, with <2:30 rest in between. Reps 1 and 3 were more downhill. I think today was evidence of the importance of warming up. You shouldn't drop 30 seconds off a 2 mile rep. Clearly, I wasn't ready to go yet that first rep. It's fine because I was trying to get more workout volume, but for a race you wouldn't want to do that. 

Day 1 of smoke