It's that time of year again where we get to celebrate not just birthdays and Valentine's Day, but also our wedding anniversary, which usually means a mini weekend break for a change of scenery during the long, cold winter months. This year, we tried so hard to find a mountain retreat somewhere at a reasonable price, but spending $300 a night to just sleep in a bed for a few hours seemed completely unreasonable, and we certainly weren't willing to spend that kind of money, supporting local or otherwise!
In the end, we went back to our trusted destination - the Holiday Inn Express in Calgary. We've stayed here many times since leaving Calgary and heading back to visit, and being close to Fish Creek Provincial Park, having access to so many nearby dog parks, and being just an hour's drive to the mountains, it's the perfect location for us without breaking the bank. They are also very good in terms of accepting dogs, and as yet, we have never had a problem taking our three pups with us.
We hadn't really got any plans for the weekend except for me to do the Nose Hill parkrun on the Saturday morning, before heading out to the mountains to do some videoing and then have a nice picnic over a campfire somewhere.
We arrived on the Friday afternoon, and having walked the pups at the Sue Higgins dog park, I headed out for my long run. Yes, I did an 16 miler on the Friday night, running through an old favourite in Fish Creek, and heading out to my old stomping grounds in the south east of the City where I used to live. It was great running through Fish Creek, and I had forgotten just how wild Calgary can be until I saw a couple of coyotes quite close to the pathway, and then a herd of deer about 100 yards away from me as the sun went down over the distant mountains. It was a great run, I felt fantastic, and it was so nice having that change of scenery for my run.
Saturday saw an early start as we headed out to Nose Hill for the parkrun. It was nice to do a different parkrun for a change, and it was great being back at Nose Hill - a place I used to frequent regularly when living in the area. I really wanted a good run there, but having got stuck behind some joggers that were blocking the pathway at the start, I ended up finishing in one of my slowest times for a 5k which was disappointing and frustrating. The route was quite a good two looped course, not flat but certainly not as hilly as it could have been, and I definitely think that I could run much faster next time, even with the snowy conditions. The event was quite well attended and I was kind of hoping that some old friends could have been there, but I guess everybody is just so busy these days and I didn't see a single person that I recognised.
Straight after the parkrun, we grabbed a coffee and bagel from Tim's and headed out towards Canmore. We hadn't really decided where we wanted to go nor what our plans for the rest of the day were going to be, but as we drove westwards, the skies started to clear, and at the last minute, we decided that I would do a hike up Ha Ling whilst Andy and the pups would spend some time at the dog park.
The hike up Ha Ling is only a couple of miles, but it is extremely steep, especially towards the top, and given that there was snow and potentially ice on the trail, I wasn't even sure I would make it to the summit. I had been up the mountain a couple of times before but never in the winter months, and in all honesty, I wasn't really prepared for a last minute hike such as this in terms of the gear I was wearing. I had plenty of warm clothing so that didn't really bother me, but I only had my Salomon Spikecross rather than winter hiking boots, and I kind of felt like I might need something with a better grip as I got towards the top.
It was a beautiful hike with blue skies and fantastic views, and whilst it did get a little hairy at teh summit thanks to deeper snow, steep slopes and gale force winds, I did ok and the spikecross served me well. We did get another video out of the hike, and as ever, you can watch that on my YouTube channel by clicking here.
We were heading back home on Sunday again, but not before I sneaked in another awesome 10 mile run around Fish Creek Park, where I was once again greeted by an abundance of City wildlife. It was a great morning and a wonderful weekend break, but it was also time to head home to get ready for another working week.
The good news is that the following weekend saw us taking another two night break away from home, this time at Pigeon Lake.
Pigeon Lake is only an hour or so drive from home, and with a friend having organised a group run that would complete a circumnavigation of the lake - a distance of around 50km - I really wanted to join them and experience running on a frozen lake. The original plan had been to spend a night camping in a hot-tent, but the closer it got to the weekend, the colder the weather appeared to be getting. When first looking at camping, the overnight low was expected to be around -7c but by the Friday, we had a huge dump of even more snow, and temperatures were expected to be around -18c overnight. The thing is, had it been just Andy and I camping, I'm pretty sure we would have had all the gear to keep us warm, but we would also be taking the pups. I refuse to do anything that would make the pups unhappy or miserable, and I'm sure that camping in those kind of conditions would not have been appreciated.
So instead of the camping, we ended up booking a cute little cabin in Norris Beach, which was perfect for our mini weekend break - it meant I could still join the group run, whilst Andy and the pups could stay nice and warm in the cabin and watch a few movies together.
the run on the Saturday started at sunrise, and eight runners set off from Pigeon Lake Day Use Area to run around the entire lake. Last year, the group had ran most of the route actually on the lake, but having had so much snow this past winter, there was a good couple of feet of snow on teh lake, you couldn't even see the ice beneath, and it was one heavy going slog whenever we ended up running on the water. This meant alternating between the lakeside summer village roads and the lake - a kind of hybrid version - which wasn't quite as exciting, but was still a great winter adventure.
Things started really chilly but soon warmed up, we got to see friends' cabins and meet their families, we got to hear about childhood memories from a friend who had spent much of their childhood in this area, we got to see Bird Shit Island (sadly minus the flag!), and we got to run about 8 miles on the lake for a total of 47km or 29 miles, which took us a good 6 hours or so. At the half way point, we were greeted by Brian Wallace - organiser of the River's Edge Ultra Running Series - who provided us with food and hot drinks, and Andy was also there with the pups who had a good run around and a play whilst we munched on food and drank hot chocolate.
It really was a most perfect day, and I was happy to head back to the cabin afterwards, have some good hearty food, and to snuggle down for the night with my awesome little family. It was time to head back home again by Sunday, but I was sure to head down to the lake before we left so the pups could have a play out there, and then on arrival back home, I got in another 10 miler on what was another stunningly beautiful sunny day :)
It's now Wednesday evening, and all that energy and enjoyment disappeared within a matter of 24 hours - on Monday afternoon, I started to feel stuffy and had a tickly cough. Things were still the same on Tuesday morning and whilst I didn't feel ill per se, I knew I couldn't go into work in case it was Covid. I did a test, and it came back positive - yes, after two years of avoiding it, the virus has finally got to me.
In all honesty, I haven't felt that ill. I've had a stonking headache, my nose is either stuffed up or extremely runny, I felt drained of energy last night and earlier today, and the dry tickly cough I had is now producing quite a bit of phlegm. And yet this past few hours, I have started to feel much better and more like my old self again - whether things will reemerge again overnight I don't know, but I'm kind of hoping that I'm over the "worst" of it now.
Of course, getting Covid means that I haven't ran this week, and likely won't do for a few more days. I'm sure I could, but given that this is a respiratory disease, I'm with my coach Paul in that I need to give my body chance to recover from it, and not put undue pressure on myself. The plan right now is to just recover, take a few easier days, and then build back up into my marathon training in about 10 days time. I'm good with that and I'm sure it won't be that detrimental to my marathon plans - the rest might even do me the world of good.
But for anybody reading this that hasn't yet had Covid, my experience so far is that it feels like a mild version of the flu, although - as things stand - it only lasts a couple of days. We'll see how things go over the coming days though, and I will of course update you next time.
For now though, thanks for reading, and happy trails and waggy tails to you all :)
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