So the long-weekend getaway was tough on the old schedule. I ended up running every day while on the trip, but ended up cutting 2 different runs short and had to change around things due to travel problems.
We got up to Niagara Falls by late afternoon on July 4th, and decided to go out for a mini-run just to see the area and the sites. I had been there before a very long time ago, but my wife never had. It ended up being pretty hot, I didn't realize it until later but it was actually the hottest recorded temperature that I have ever run in:
I have been trying to confine most of my running in the early mornings to get out before the really bad heat. I have a large number of runs that start with the weather in the 70s or higher, but this was only the second run that I have had with an 80+ degree day. Ironically enough, the other one also was in the late afternoon, which is not my normal running time.
The difference here, with this run starting at 6pm, the temperature actually probably dropped from the 81 degrees as time went on, where most of my runs only get hotter. Such as this morning's run started at 75 degrees for me at 6am, but by the time I was done running 15k, the temperature was actually around 78 degrees and by the time I actually got through the door it was 80. The other thing that I have to realize is running in the morning is so much more humid than the end of the day. This July 4th run had humidity of only 66%, where my run this morning had humidity close to 100%, so today's run was actually much tougher on me weather wise than this "hotter" run on the 4th.
The bigger issue we found though was in a tourist trap, by 6pm, there literally is nowhere to walk, much less run. My wife visibly got annoyed by the people that were literally everywhere. We ended up having to play obstacle course just to run around and see the sites. Not really their problem, since it is kind of ridiculous for us to try to run during that time of day at Niagara Falls. I ended up cutting this run short due to the circumstances, and my wife and I then cleaned up and went to find somewhere for dinner and went off to enjoy the fireworks.
The next morning though, I got out before 6am, let my wife sleep in and enjoyed a nice and cool 10k that I ran along the Falls. Since it was morning, the humidity was higher, but I found running by the falls, the mist rose up and completely covered me, which was very very comfortable and helped me cool off. At that time of morning, almost nothing is open so I got to run pretty much anywhere without having to dodge people.
The next day, we spent in Toronto and took a nice early morning run together of the area. We just ran 3 miles, but got to run through some nearby parks and a local farm that was right in the middle of the city oddly enough. We ended up walking another 5-6 miles later in the day as well, so had a pretty active day while seeing the sites.
Sunday morning was the 5k race, and we got medals for completing it! Just our second medal that we have received from races. There was some good and some bad from the race though. The bad is that I have come to a conclusion that my wife just does not race well when I am running with her. She ends up putting way too much pressure on herself and it becomes counter productive for her run. I was purposely trying to be supportive of her and not pressure her any more than she already felt, but she just buried herself under the weight of the pressure on top of herself and got very frustrated. This is actually the second time we've tried this and both times with the same result. So lesson learned I suppose, that does not work very well.
We can run easy runs together, but I won't pace her anymore in races.
The good of the event was that it was a really really cool event. It was all kinds of events actually that morning together. Various Triathlon distances (Sprint and Olympic as well as an easier triathlon that they called try-a-tri for beginner triathlon competers.) They had various kayak races, duathlons, 10k, 5k, 2k races, etc. Since neither my wife nor I had been to see such an event before, we went to watch the start of the Olympic Triathlon to see all of the people out in the water for the start. My wife is half-joking that I should get into that next, but that is a little more than I am ready to start trying to bite just yet.
I was supposed to run 9 miles on Sunday and had planned on doing it when I got home from the trip, but we hit every possible construction site imaginable on the way home and it basically doubled our return trip. I didn't get home until about 9:30pm and it was getting dark. You couldn't pay me enough money to run 9 miles on a treadmill, so I just put it off til this morning instead. It makes a mess out of my schedule for this week as today was supposed to be an off day and I have a speed work day tomorrow, so I am now going to see how I feel tomorrow morning. If a little tired, I'll probably make tomorrow a rest day and push most of the week back, skipping one of my 4 mile runs mid-week. Who knows! I'll figure it out as I go I guess.
Overall, the trip was great, and had a good time, but the damage when we got home was that my weight was +3 pounds from when I left. Now we did eat out every meal, but didn't really go super overboard, at least not 3 pounds worth, so most likely that is just a change in my schedule plus perhaps extra water retention from sodium causing the weight to read high. My guess is by tomorrow morning or the next day it will be back down to normal again.