Running lessons: There are times when I should know better

Shubie Duck Pond

It was a grim long (really long) slow run today. I probably should have known better than to attempt it. I awoke with a tight right hip and leg after too few hours of sleep and the weather was hot, humid and unsettled. To make matters worse, my knee is continuing to act up after its encounter with a rock a few months ago. Nonetheless, I changed into my running clothes and headed for Shubie Park intent on covering 18-20k. In the end, I settled for 15. Fifteen long, sweaty kilometres of dragging my sorry butt up and down hills. It wasn't pretty.

To make matters worse, it wasn't even a good day for taking photographs. The winds were so strong, it was hard to get a clear shot of anything.

Lake MicMac

But did I have the good sense to stay home and give my poor body a break? Of course not. By 50 years old, you'd think I'd have learned a thing or two but I guess not.

The trouble was I was tense and wound up after awakening at 4:00 in a cold sweat. You see, my laptop crashed yesterday afternoon. "Irritating", I thought at first, "but not a major disaster." After all, I hadn't used it for much besides surfing the internet the past couple of years.

Until 4:00 am, that is, when I awoke with the sickening realization that all my Garmin training files were on that laptop and I hadn't backed them up. To be clear, those files were my only record of where, when, and how fast I'd run for the past three and a half years.

I know. Dumb, eh? Why would any sensible grown-up woman store her only training records on a 5 year old laptop without making a backup. Good question.

To be fair, my laptop had always been completely reliable. Sure, it cranked more and more slowly over the years, but it always got where it needed to go - eventually.

I'm still hoping I'll be able to use a hard drive enclosure to recover the data (don't I sound techie?) but  I've no idea if it will work and it may take a week or more to get the enclosure I need. In the meantime, I'll be worrying and wondering why I sometimes do such really stupid things when I should know better.

Like forgetting to make a backup copy of all my training records.

Or going for a long run when what my body needs most is to rest.

Fortunately, the day turned out better than it started. When I finally stumbled back to the house, Husband was waiting with news that my brother and his boys were dropping by for a visit. Sweet! And, after hearing my tale of woe, he took pity on me and offered to make a toasted tomato sandwich that I could eat in the bath.  Double sweet!  Fed, watered and soaked, I even had time for a quick nap before the boys arrived. Good thing since the two littlest ones are astonishingly energetic!

The youngest impressed the heck out of us with his Spidey impersonation.

While his big brother showed off his extensive climbing and acrobatic skills.

After letting the boys burn off a little energy at a local playground, we wandered over to visit the ducks and geese at Sullivan's Pond, became acquainted with a neighbour's pet rabbit, hunted for horse chestnuts, and ate ice-cream before they headed home. In short, it was a perfect afternoon.

Now, time to quit feeling sorry for myself and tackle a few chores. There's nothing I can do about my laptop tonight and other projects await - like writing posts about our European adventures, for instance. I promise I'll get to them soon. In the meantime, here's one of my favourite shots from Paris.

Extra points if you know where it was taken! :-)