July 2023

So June 2023 had some odd weather with a severe drought and forest fires to start the Summer, then passive rains. Those rains continued all Summer long it seemed. But we still got some good sporting in! Here's some highlights.

Luckily the month started with the parkrun Canada Day run. We wore our red and had a blast on our favourite local 5K run. 

  

I got a new pair of the latest On Running Cloud Stratus. This is one of their more cushioned long distance shoes. First off, I love a good white shoe, so Yes on the looks. Coming from the Cloud Go, the Stratus was a heavier shoe, but is designed so well, you don't really notice it while running. I find the cushioning softer than the Go (which to be fair is still one of my favorites). The Stratus would go on to be my main Summer shoe for long runs and it served me well. I never felt too beat up after 30+ km runs.

We had a family trip to Colorado. I'll say that running there can be tough coming from sea level, but I do tend to adapt pretty quickly. You just need to hold back on the top end effort a little bit.  But while I do get my runs in, I have to get some hikes in as well as the views are amazing.  

A nice ridge line near Loveland, Colorado.

A great, no amazing view from Pike's Peak.  Also, I was amazed at how altitude from sea level to say 1500m is tough, but then stepping it up to 4300m is another thing altogether. I even took an O2 saturation reading and my levels dropped with from 90 at 1500m to 82 at 4300. I did a little breathing work and managed to get it back up, but it would certainly take some time to adapt to that on a consistent basis. 

Coming back from Colorado, I decided to start to ramp up my long runs. With no concrete Fall racing plans, I thought that having a good strong base of distance and hills would allow me more options. I could go long, or cut back and use that endurance to try out some faster short racing again. Getting back into the 30+ km running range after a year away from that went really well, even with the spike in humidity we got all Summer long.

I had been noticing this list of parkrunners with the most first finishes and saw that I was working my way up the list. So I kept working at it and by the end of July, I took over the top spot. This list is more about consistency than anything else. Obviously to get into the top end of it you have to run parkrun a lot, and generally push yourself to your best each weekend. It doesn't mean I get a first finish every time, far from it. But I do show up a lot.