FINALLY! After a horrifically long winter that is still sort of hanging around, we have *finally* had some decent weather in Toronto. The very last day in March was beautiful, so I yanked on my running gear and headed out.
So it was about 6 degrees, sunny, and I had some vague idea that I was going to head down the Don River Trail. This was a mid-distance run day, so I had to get in about 7 kilometers.
With all my devices connected (Garmin, iPod with Nike+), I was ready to go!
I first headed out through Cabbagetown since the area is really pretty and the houses are quite beautiful.
Made it down to Riverdale Park West…
…where it turned out to be totally soaked. I couldn’t take the path to the left because it was flooded and the baseball pitch was equally muddy and soaked. That little plank in the bottom right shot? Total saviour for getting across to the dry-ish pitch. Then I had to climb through the soaked dug-out to get to the other side and up to the bridge. Eesh. I’ll be avoiding this park until this city is a lot dryer.
Off the bridge and onto the trail, where hopefully it’d be smooth sailing for a long while. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad, but there were some flooded areas that caused a few problems.
I think this section is right before the trail loops back to the downtown core. There were a decent number of runners and cyclists out on the trail as well. I love running past other runners as they come towards me – there’s always the mutual recognition of “hey you, you’re doing a good job out there exercising!” – whether it’s a nod of the head, a wave, or a full blown smile, it’s always nice and super encouraging!
My favourite part of this trail is where it crosses the train tracks and then runs parallel to them. I used to rollerblade on this trail to work every day when I worked in the Beaches and there were a few times when the train would cut you off and you couldn’t cross. OR, the fun times where you’d race the train and try to beat it to the crossing! This sounds more dangerous than it actually was… because this is so close to downtown, the train was barely crawling along the tracks. Still fun though.
Finishing up along the trail alongside the Gardiner Expressway.
And headed right into the heart of downtown to run back to the apartment.
Job done = 7.3k completed.
I spoke about tea the last time I blogged about a run so you’re going to think I do this every time, but I really don’t. That being said, I recently tried out Peaches and Cream from David’s Tea and it’s by far the best flavour I have by them. I could go on and on about it, but really… just go get some. It’s delicious and helps to rehydrate after my run.
I’m hoping the weather stays good in Toronto and doesn’t drop into the negatives again. The bright sunshine was really, really nice on this run.
Since I was still somewhat active, it became a matter of watching what I ate. The first 20 or so pounds came off predominantly from cutting down portions (No, I didn’t need that second burrito!), however I also picked up running during this time. The best thing I ever did was pick up a Nike+ foot pod and sensor for my iPod. Tracking and monitoring my runs was hugely motivational. It also showed me that I couldn’t run nearly as long or as far as I thought I could and so that became even more incentive. We started out running 1 or 2 kilometers and eventually built it up. Finally hitting 5k was a relief as that’s what I felt I should’ve been doing all along.