Old Man Playing A Young Man's Game

   Yesterday was a run day.
   So I ran.
   My ass off.
   Up and down a warm, sweaty gym floor, chasing around (and being chased by) a bunch of young ball hockey players in their twenties and thirties, all of whom play pretty well every single week of the year. And not just running but stopping and starting, twisting, turning, reaching, sliding, and diving. Running forward, backward and sideways.

Not me last night, but me back last summer. I'm the player in red on
the far left, bending over to hopefully prevent a pass...

   I was there at the suggestion of Charles, a young ball hockey player I've known for a few years who runs a couple of different teams in the London Ball Hockey Association. I'd been asking around for the past few weeks in an attempt to find a team to play on this summer and it was Charles who got back to me. He runs a night of pick-up ball hockey Tuesdays at a secondary school here in London and he thought it might be kind of cool if I showed up and played. This, then, would give him an opportunity to see what kind of player I was.
   The results of the evening were kind of a mixed bag. It's always a bit of a challenge to play with and against a bunch of players you weren't familiar with and and it took me some time to find my way and feel comfortable. What happens is you find out which guys have "moves" and which guys have "shots" and you either cover them more closely (if they're on the other team) or you make sure you get them the ball (if they're on your team). 
   All of this I think I did well enough at. For the life of me, though, what I couldn't do was catch up to the damn ball on one-timers. A one-timer occurs when someone passes you the ball in a good scoring position and, rather than cradling it and moving around with it, you immediately fire it at the net without even stopping it first. And this I could not do, all night long. There were probably about six separate opportunities for me to take beautiful passes and convert them to dangerous shots on net and I flubbed every single one of them. I would take this energetic wind-up and then the pass would go right through me. Prior to the game starting, I knew it might take awhile for the hand/eye co-ordination to kick in and I was prepared to whiff on a few near the beginning, I just never expected it to last the whole game!

Once again, not last night but several summers ago.

   Today, I am as sore as hell. My back and legs have stiffened right up and my knees this morning barely supported me. It was my first day back at work after a 5-day Easter weekend and, as long as I more or less kept moving, things weren't all that bad. Sitting for twenty minutes at a Timmy's was probably not a good idea but the rest of the day was go, go, go and that really helped. The other thing that wasn't a good idea was sitting down for the length of time it took to write this blog post.....
   So it is likely that I will be back playing with the same group of guys next Tuesday. Prior to the game I'll need to do a little work on one-timers, that's for sure. As well, I think I'm going to need to change the running routine a little, these leisurely 5K's I've been doing as training runs don't quite cut it on the ball hockey floor!
   

Why "Ragged Cap Runner"?

   Why the name "Ragged Cap Runner", you ask?
    It  does seem like an oddly inappropriate moniker for a running blog, I'd be the first to admit.
   The name came to me perhaps over a year ago as I was writing a blog post and I wanted to end the post off with a fairly flippant, toss-away line to describe myself. I happened to be looking at a picture of me wearing the cap I almost exclusively wore at the beginning of my running career. I saw a runner who was wearing a ragged cap and, all of the sudden, "ragged cap runner" popped into my head. And I kinda liked it!

The cap, before it became "ragged"!

   I never thought about it much after that, but as I became more and more dissatisfied with calling my blog "Strides", the more and more "Ragged Cap Runner" seemed to appeal. Hence the switch.
   Here's why it's actually an appropriate title.
   I identify with that old, sweat-stained, torn-up cap. It is rough around the edges in much the same way that I am, at this stage of my life. I'm in my sixties now and and have lost some of the lustre we all lose as we age. I've got aches and pains I never used to have, loose skin has appeared, wrinkles abound and the skin is marked. The legs are generally willing but they sometimes struggle with a mind that is not. And vice-versa.
   It's a body which has seen much and done much, though, and the ragged cap symbolizes all of that. It has seen a lot of golf, it has seen a lot of sand and it has seen a lot of blistered and nicked fingers. It has traveled most of the way across Canada. Like me, it is old and tattered. But you know what? It still works fine and so do I!

Out With The Old, In With The New!

   So the change has been made! Goodbye to "Strides" and hello to "Ragged Cap Runner"! Woo hoo!
   I'd been thinking for a long time that I was more than overdue for a change so I spent a little agonizing time this weekend and got 'er done. Many thanks to Crystal Rhyno (go ahead, click on that and see what happens!) for her advice and PicMonkey for help with re-arranging pics, after all that I was all set to go! For some reason or other, I actually feel more like blogging now, so here goes.

Like I said, a beautiful day for a run! That's the end of my driveway,
I REALLY enjoy getting back to it!

   Went for a run today! Just a short one but the Easter weekend weather's been awesome and it was up to about 16C here in London and beautifully sunny all day so off I went.
   I only ran 5K but that's sort of what I do these days. I am going to try and start incorporating longer weekend runs in the very near future, next weekend maybe. Took a handful of walk breaks but that's nothing new either. I could actually run a whole 5K if I paced myself but I'm also attempting to run some harder stretches and I just find that I need about thirty seconds to recover after most of those. So be it!
   I managed to get a look at the official results of the Downtown 5K race I took part in this Good Friday. It was kind of one of those good news/bad news sorts of things. The bad news was that I came in last out of the guys and fourth last overall. Got beat out by an 8-year-old boy and an 80-year-old man! The good news was that I ran almost the identical time in the same race last year. Another year gone by and I'm not slowing down is how I look at that! This also acts as a huge motivator, knowing there are that many people to catch!

Time For A Change, I Think!

   Okay, after much consideration, I think "Strides" is going to disappear!
   Sometime soon, my running adventures (as infrequent as they sometimes seem to be) will hopefully re-appear as a blog entitled "Ragged Cap Runner". And you may end up seeing something like this as the title page.

   Firstly, though, I need to figure out the best way to do it. 
   Is it just as simple as going back into Blogger to the layout section and changing the title and the pic? Or would I be better off starting a new blog and just importing the old posts?
   I have no great desire to switch to WordPress or anything like that, not a real "techie" here, for sure. Tips or suggestions?

   "Strides" seemed to make wonderful sense at the time but in the intervening years it has become to feel more and more generic and less "Brian-specific". On top of all that, if I'd known at the time that there was a running store called "Strides" as well, I wouldn't have named my blog that!
   And I was being quite honest when I asked for suggestions up above! I'm pretty sure that a few bloggers out there have made similar changes and I would welcome any input!
   Until the next time, happy and safe running! 

Downtown 5K Race Recap

   Well, it's been almost two and a half months since I last did a blog post and, given my age, I'm sure a couple of you may actually have wondered if I passed away but I am still alive and kicking! And, occasionally, even running!

Yep it was cold---can still see a little snow
from last night!

   In fact, this morning I took part in the Downtown 5K here in London. It's the first race this season in the London Honda race series and, for me, it got off to a pretty good start. The for me part is important because I have this suspicion I may have been the last male out on the course and my time was around 38:33 or something like that, godawful for a 5K but, given that my goal was to break forty minutes, I considered it a success! 
   This was also my first time racing in quite a while. For various reasons I missed the last two races of the series last year, once because work took me out of town rather unexpectedly and the other because I rather disgracefully punked out. So be it.

The finish line---note the winter wear

   Today, though, I actually felt like running. The legs felt good and the mindset was where it needed to be. Given the training times I'd been doing lately, finishing the race in under forty minutes seemed like a reasonable goal.
   I knew that somewhere along the line I would need a walk break or two (or maybe even six) and I toyed with the idea of scheduling them. In the end, though, I decided I would run as hard as was comfortable and take a walk break only when absolutely necessary. As well, I would only walk long enough to catch my breath a little and then I'd start running again.

Runners begin assembling

   Well, for the most part, that plan kinda worked. It got me in under forty and, although I think I might have been the last guy out there, I certainly wasn't the last person....
   It was a chilly run, winter seems to have returned to Ontario in the last few days and the race time temp was about -2C. Not too much of a breeze, though, so it was manageable and no danger of overheating. The police officers on the course and the volunteers all did a good job of keeping us safe and motivated. 

The start line was right beside City Hall.
If I were a civic reporter who also liked to
run and then blog about it, I would likely
spend a lot of time here...

   As per the name of the race, we ran on the city streets downtown, basically a 2.5K loop that we ran twice. I'm not really a huge fan of those kinds of courses, you run until you get back to the finish/start line and then they make you do that all over again. Psychologically, it's a bit of a killer and you see the same scenery all over again. All in all, though, it was a fun race and it was nice to get back into it again! The next race in the series is the Run for Retina on April 10 (quick turnaround), which has been a fairly high profile race here in London for awhile and one that I've always thought I'd like to run. Now I get to!

All lined up ready to go! Sorry, no "aftermath" pics! (gotta
get me a pair of shorts like THAT guy's....)

   
   

Catching Up and A Bit Of A Photo Dump

   When I take a look at my Blogger stats and discover that there were zero pageviews today and zero pageviews yesterday, I take that as a bit of an indicator I need to get off my butt and get blogging again! (the irony, of course, is that I blog on my butt...)
   So, winter has finally arrived here in London, Ontario. While many other parts of Canada have been enveloped with snow and sub-zero temps, we have been blessed with unseasonably (and mildly disconcerting) high temperatures. Christmas Eve, it was actually hovering in the mid teens (high fifties, for those of you who do Fahrenheit!)
   Because of this, the late fall-early winter running has been awesome!
   Lately, however, I find that most of my running has been relegated to the weekends---it seems that by the time I get home from work, there are either too many other things to do or I am simply too tired. The change back to standard time also would have me running in the dark, not my fave thing to do anymore. This, of course, will not do and I hereby resolve to force myself to get out there on the occasional (and regular) weeknight.
   The scales tell me that the holiday season was not as bad as it has been in years past but they have also gently reminded me that all is not as it should be and that it's time to get back to work. Sound familiar, anyone??
   I suppose a significant thing to report is that I seem to have fallen off the vegetarian wagon. Well, I didn't actually fall off, it more or less exploded from underneath me, bits and pieces of the wagon flying all over the place. I, of course, am struggling with this, but that's probably a whole other blog post...
   I have also decided to take a slightly different approach to my running. There was a time back in the fall when I was running pretty regularly and my times for the 5K (my distance of preference) were dramatically falling. This, of course, took much effort and it got to the point where I was totally exhausted at the end of a run and if I hadn't bettered my time by at least a few seconds then it was also a wasted run. It got to the point where I was dreading going out, knowing the stress I was about to put my body under. This was probably foolishness.
   My new approach now has me going out for a run with no expectations whatsoever as to what my time might be. I also try and run slowly enough that I can do the whole thing without need of a walk break. This has meant really slow runs! My hope, though, is that by not scaring myself into not running, that I will actually get more running in. Then, gradually (and hopefully), the times will come down all on their own. This sounds do-able!
   Okay, so now for a bit of a photo dump~random pics from the last few weeks, some of which have nothing to do with running!
  

First run in the snow this winter!

The incredible "Penis Potato"---further proof of the ravages of GMOs....

Two of my stepsons now have vehicles. This is what our
2-car driveway looks like, every other week!

The amazing "Upside-Down Backwards Book" You can read about it here

Puffer decided to come to rest on top of our pile of Santa hats---so we took advantage of the opportunity!

Cat and Buddha(s)! Woke up from a nap, looked down and this is what I saw!

My regular 5K run happens to take me past this house every time
out. This also happens to be the house my wife grew up in and is just
a bit of a reminder while I'm out running as to how lucky I am!

Back in the summer, we decided to totally -re-do our front garden.
There used to be all these big bushes we could string our Christmas
lights on but now, with all the bushes gone, we needed to improvise.
So I took some dead evergreen branches from our backyard and
"planted" them in our front garden. Then I hung Xmas lights from them!
Kind of a Charlie Brown sort of theme!


  So there you have it, a bit of an update and a handful of pics I might have used in blogs past, if I'd ever gotten around to it! And while I'm at it, would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year and hoping that 2016 brings only wonderful things!

Wherein I Encounter A Viking Ship (But No Hobbit House)

   I finally headed out for a run today, after a little over a month of only occasionally throwing in a long walk or two. My only goal when I left the house was to run---it didn't have to be fast and it didn't need to be continual. All I really needed was to run.
   This was kind of a refreshing approach because any of the last runs I'd done that month ago were all performance-based. I'd been desperately wanting to get my 5K times down and, slowly but surely, that's what was happening. And then I stopped running. Not sure why.
   It's still very autumn-like, weather-wise, here in London and today was a great day for running. I wore shorts and just a couple of layers up top. For some reason the top of me gets cold much faster than my bottom half and I need to be warm at the beginning of a run but still be mindful of the fact that I will warm up, eventually.
   There are a couple of cool things I wanted to be able to show you all today so I took just a bit of a detour from my usual 5K route. I wanted to show you the little hobbit house but when I ran by there was a pickup parked right in front of it, so that was kind of a no-go. Too bad, too, cuz I had to run up a freakin' hill to get there.
   There is, however, a miniature Viking ship right around the corner and I was able to get a pic. I'm a little far away due to the fact that there are no sidewalks on that side of the street . As have most viking ships, it's fallen into a bit of disrepair, its sail lies, bedraggled, atop its stern.

   From here, I just continued to run along at my very slow speed and was kind of loving it. I did time it and it ended up being a little over 42 minutes. I could not have run any more slowly but that was fine with me!

   I needed to make sure I took pics today because Crystal of Running With Rhyno fame had strongly suggested I run yesterday. But I whined and fussed and she said I could run today but needed to provide pictorial proof. So here it is, Crystal! Even a tiny bead of sweat on my left cheek, a bit of a foggy-breath effect, and a dilapidated Viking ship in the background...

   I can always tell when I've gotten into a better headspace with my running---I feel like going out again the same day. Today was one of those days because tonight I definitely feel as though I could run again. My plan is to hopefully feel like that again tomorrow and to maybe go hunting for that hobbit house I told you about!

A happier-looking me!