Jacques Cousteau, take 2

I always feel better once I get out the door.
Saturday morning run along the Rail Trail.

I am such a nerd!  After reading my blog post from Friday, Kristjan emailed me to tell me I got the punch line on the Jacques Cousteau story wrong!  So before I get into anything, I need to rectify that situation.  I know why I subconsciously did it.  I hate it when I tell people that I run and they call it jogging.  Jogging suggests that I'm barely breathing hard.  At least to me.  I run.  Hard most of the time.  And I'm a hot mess when I'm done.  So anywho, back to Jacques Cousteau.

So Kristjan and his friend are training for a 10K race that they entered.  His friend runs too fast and is done by 5K and he tells her she has to slow it down.  So they're leisurely running down Queen Street West in Toronto one day and a car passes and someone yells "Jacques Cousteau" out the window.  They can't figure out what that means and continue to run along.  His friend eventually has a ah ha moment and says, "They didn't say Jacques Cousteau, they said, YOU JOG TOO SLOW".  Much funnier than the way I first told it!  Thanks for the edit Kristjan:)

Back to me now.  Life has returned to normal here at the Costa residence.  My hubby's sick with a bad throat this weekend and the boy has Impetigo. Good times.  My weekend consisted of running errands, and just running.  I got out the crock pot and made a great beef stew yesterday with some red wine and lots of root veggies.  It was yummy.  Today on the menu we have curried chicken with sweet potato and rutabaga.  I'll have all my meals prepared for the week.

Friday was a rest day for me running wise.  I did trek on out to Peterborough to visit a young lady I work with out there.  On the way home, I drove into a major snow storm that crippled the highway and caused a 70 car pileup.  I was in front of that accident, but seriously?  It was brutal to drive in and I haven't felt that scared driving ever.  I wanted to stop on the side of the road but then thought that I wouldn't be seen and someone would run right into me.  It was bad.  I couldn't see five feet in front of me.  I luckily made it out of Durham, and the snow had let up by the time I was in Scarborough.  A slow drive back to Hamilton, but I took my time.

Mr. Blake and I hanging at Phillips Automotive.
The best mechanics in the GTA!

Before I drove to Peterborough on Friday morning, I stopped into my mechanics for an oil change. I ran into a very nice gentleman there and we were talking about running and television.  He mentioned that he was a teacher for 35 years and retired recently to help care for his elderly mother who sadly, had recently passed away.  He looked familiar to me and I asked him where he taught.  He taught at Woburn!  My alma mater.  Now I never had Mr. Blake for English, but I definitely knew who he was.  He was a great teacher and I would have loved to have had him teach me in high school!  Everyone loved Mr. Blake!!!!

Yesterday I ran 6K.  I was procrastinating all morning.  Hubby was sick in bed, and I was going to use that as an excuse not to go out, but knew I could not do that.  I had to go.  I have to be just as regimented with my running as I am with my eating.  And for whatever reason, regardless of how short the distance is, Saturdays are my hard to get out and getter done day.  I made hubby get out of bed and lie on the couch so he could supervise the boy while I ran.  Felt so much better once I was out and running.  I always do!

This morning the Back of the Rat Pack Girls were only three.  Monica, Tanya and I.  We were going to attempt 18K even though we were supposed to pull our long run mileage back to 12K this weekend.  We made 16.5K before all three of us became plagued with some sort of ache or pain. Monica was having knee issues, Tanya's legs were feeling like lead, and my toes cramped so badly at 16K that I had to stop running to loosen them up.  I'm hopeful that my physio appointment tomorrow will shed some light on my aches and pains.

My piriformis muscle is feeling MUCH better, but my crampy toes are an ongoing issue when I do long runs.  And I can feel a sharp pain in my left calf today.  I was supposed to see my massage therapist on Friday, but he had to reschedule due to a family emergency.  I will see him this Thursday coming and I'm really looking forward to it.  I need some good stretching done!  But I should get off my ass and start stretching myself.  I'm sure I'll be given stretching exercises by the physiotherapist that I'll have to do daily.  That's exactly what I need.  Someone telling me that if I don't do A, B and C, that I won't be able to run.  That is all the motivation I need to smarten up and take care of business!