A Goodfeathers shakedown

I made a new friend in the park today, an unlikely friend. No, not one of the rubbies that likes to frequent the park all day and all night, but a Canada goose. A real Canada goose.

Now, you’ll notice I said “unlikely” there’s a reason for that. For as long as I can remember, I have been freaked out of these creatures. Seriously, for the most part, they’re nasty little buggers just waiting to hiss and attack, and they travel in gangs and outnumber anyone and anything that crosses their path, and they constantly poo everywhere – nobody likes a runny bum!

But today, the oddest thing happened. I went to eat my lunch and read my book underneath my tree. It’s been my tree for all of two days, ever since I discovered it yesterday when I sought refuge from my lunch-hour baking to write a letter to a girlfriend of mine … it seems the only time I have spare time to do things like read and write letters and make phone calls anymore is at lunch; I’ve just got to figure out how to get my laundry machine under my tree 😀

So I’m sitting there reading and I see this lone goose start walking my way, and instantly my back goes up and I’m all like oh crap, it’s getting closer and closer, but then, all of sudden, it gets spooked and runs up the trail next to my tree. So I go back to my book, but look up a few seconds later and see a gang of geese coming my way. Oh crud.

I tried to be all nonchalant and continued reading my book, but it was pretty much impossible by this point. I was almost like one of those aforementioned geese: Pooing my pants. They were practically circling me, I had nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. And even though they were just munching the grass, you never know when these damn things are gonna crack and attack. After a few minutes though, “Bobby” saw something in the distance and they went to investigate. Phew. Close call.

I went back to reading my book and I’m not sure how many minutes passed before I looked up again, but when I did, the loner goose  (who I’ve since named Undergoose) was plopped down under the tree not even five feet away from me. And I didn’t freak out. I kind of liked having Undergoose around me. We sat there for about 15 minutes together (me reading, he lounging) before I had to go back to work, and when I got up, he got up too.

TONIGHT’S RUN:

• 7 p.m. BG before: 9.0 (this was after a Kind bar that I only gave half bolus for)
• Distance: 5 km
• Average pace: 7:02 (recovery run)
• Time: 35:17
• 8:30 p.m. BG after: 7.0

For tonight’s clinic we had the owner from Innovative Fitness going over the importance of stretching (his name was Yoshi = very guru sounding … or Super Mario Bros :D) but because I didn’t take notes, I can’t quite remember all that he said. I’m really hoping to get a Coles Notes version from the store or the clinic leader. I’ve always been a firm believer in stretching, and love gaining new tips on it to see if I’m doing it right and if I’m allotting enough time for it, etc. But I never really thought of why stretching is so good for you – like the fact that a good stretch after a run will lengthen your muscles that have just been squashed down by the pavement to give you more efficiency when you get back out on the road again. That info alone should be enough for all runners to get on the stretching bandwagon!

Yoshi also talked about the benefit of doing a pre-run warmup, for about 3 to 6 minutes, which involved leg swings and lunges and a whole lot of balancing manouevers, which kept resulting in me falling over – I have absolutely no balancing abilities! Yet another thing to work on…

Do you stretch after a run and how much time do you take to stretch?