A "DNF" and then a better idea!

   I tried to take advantage of the almost spring-like temps we had a couple of days ago by heading out for another run yesterday. I did this in spite of the fact that it was raining and that I'd already been warned about all the puddles. Rain has never bothered me and puddles you just run around!
   Well, I blew it, big-time.
   There WERE tons of puddles and I COULD have just run around them except for the fact that there were two foot drifts of wet snow bordering every single one of them. I then decided to just run on the road. I had done this successfully a few days ago when the weather was much colder and the roads were snow packed, every time a car came along I would just run off to the side in the looser snow.
   Yesterday, however, that looser snow was now slush and not much fun to run in. This pretty well eliminated running on the road (from a safety standpoint, not my favourite thing to do anyway) so I ended up aborting the run altogether.
   This was kind of too bad because I felt like I had all this energy going for me. For the brief moments when I had good traction and no fear of cars, it was good!
   So today I came up with Plan B.
   I figured I could go to Springbank Park and run there. Big wide roadways and pretty well zero traffic. This would also offer a slightly less hilly 5k run than the one I'd been running lately in my neighbourhood. I got there in the late afternoon and the park was not particularly busy, a handful of walkers and runners and parents with kids and toboggans. As I'd suspected, the running was much better there. If I hadn't had my phone on the inside of my running jacket I would have posted some pics, particularly of the Thames River, which was very swift-flowing with masses of ice chunks barrelling along.
   I ran the same 5k route as I did in the summer, basically an out-and-back around the northern (?) end of the park. One thing I didn't allow for was the fact that, because I was running so close to sundown, the temperature would drop so dramatically. It was still comfortable to run in but the patches of wet pavement I encountered on the trip out turned to near-ice on the way back. Anything which looked wet had to be regarded as slippery now.
   All in all, though, a good run and I managed to shave another couple of minutes off the 5k times I've been running lately (albeit on a hillier route) and I managed to complete the run without stopping, as well, another bit of a bonus.
   At home later on, I checked in on the website for the London Honda Road Races. This is a series of six races pretty evenly spaced out from the spring to late October. I ran in one this past September and my plan for this year is to run in all of them. You get a pretty good choice of distances to run in and I now have my sights set on a 10k on June 22. Running a 10k is my primary running goal for 2014 and this will give me ample time to ratchet things up a bit. I also took a peek at a couple of 10k training plans which I plan on tailoring just a little to suit my current schedule and needs.
   Ratcheting things up will also mean an increase in mileage. It was about this time last year that I began to increase the mileage gradually one day a week (my long day) and had it up to 9k before the PF hit. In the interim (with some sports medicine, appropriate shoes and orthotics behind me), hopefully I've learned my lesson!
   Nice touching base again, happy and healthy running to you all!