The Next Round

Hard to believe that my spring "A" race has come and gone already.  Of course, I'm already making plans for my next adventure.  I had some lingering leg issues going into Boston which surprisingly didn't get worse as a result of the race but, they were still kinda hanging around and I figured that if I didn't deal with them now, then things would just get worse.  So Thursday morning I went to Pivot to see Mr. Fix-It a.k.a chiropractor and A.R.T practitioner extraordinaire, Peter Lejkowski.  He did some tests to figure out where the issue was stemming from.  Turns out, my left hip flexor was so tight, my leg couldn't fully extend.  There were also several tight spots along my left leg.  After an excruciatingly painful A.R.T session I left feeling sore but better.  My range of motion is definitely better on my left leg now.  I was holding off on registering for a May half marathon until I figured out what was happening with my leg.  I was tempted to run on Thursday night but I was quite sore from that mornings treatment so I decided to give myself a bit more rest.   I'll test it out on a run tomorrow.  If all is good, then I'll be signing up for the Mississauga Half on May 5th.  Nothing like leaving it to the last minute!  I was torn between doing this or the Toronto Half.  I know a lot of folks that are running both the full and half in Toronto (Brian at Pavement Runner and Krysten at Darwinian Fail being a couple of them, holla!) but, the start line is a pretty big pain in the butt for me to get to from where I live.   Mississauga on the other hand, is MUCH easier to get to, therefore it would be much easier for me to convince G to drive me to the start, ha ha.  However, I will be working the Toronto Marathon Expo from 10 am to 1:00 pm at the Running Free booth so it's kind of the best of both worlds.  If you're at the expo make sure you come by and say HI!

Since the weather has FINALLY warmed up, G and I headed outside for our first ride of the season.  We went up to Bolton which is slightly north west of Toronto.  We usually park at the local community centre and ride from there.  There's a 90km route that we like to do to Belfountain and back but given that it was our first ride and neither one of us has that kind of cycling fitness just yet, we only did part of that route.  It's hilly enough to be challenging on the way out but speedy on the way back.  I quite enjoy riding out there.  The scenery is lovely (lots of horse farms) and there isn't too much traffic.  I held my own quite nicely.  Usually G rockets off ahead of me but I managed to stay on his wheel for most of the ride.  I did most of the ride in my big chain ring, which is another rarity for me and, it didn't feel hard.  All those squats and deadlifts I did over the winter must have helped!  Anyway, it was an absolutely fabulous morning to be out.  The sun was shining and the birds were singing.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I can't wait to get back out and do it again.  Good thing since I've got my first triathlon of the season in a month!  Cycling is going to have be a regular occurrence in my training schedule now. 

The view up the road while G had a "nature break"

My legs aren't hairy, honestly!

This is what my May and June are shaping up to look like race wise:

Sunday My 5th:  Mississauga Half Marathon (hopefully)
Sunday May 26th:  Woodstock Sprint Triathlon
Sunday June 2nd:  Bread and Honey 15km
Saturday June 8th:  Binbrook Sprint Triathlon
Saturday June 22nd:  Welland Sprint Triathlon

Yeah, that's a whole lot of racing, especially in June.  But what better way to celebrate the summer than to get out and enjoy it being active?

What races have you got coming up?  Do you have your summer racing all planned out?