Now what am I supposed to do?

I didn't expect them to win the cup, but I didn't expect seven pucks to find their way behind Luongo either. Now my bi-nightly watching of Canucks hockey has come to a screeching, unceremonious halt. I will no longer wake up neighbours with loud yells when O'Brien scores nor when Kane gets a hat-trick (note: the yell sounds very different for those two events).

Every other night I now have three hours back in my life. I am unsure of what to do with this new found time. Watch the Blue Jays? I don't know if they are for real yet, so I will hold off on reigniting what was once a deep passion, complete with two banners on the wall of my room as a (younger) boy. Read a good book, one might suggest? I could, but I will hold off on that until the summer (although I have just started my first Christopher Moore book as a it was a gift from good friends - review to follow).

I guess I could run more? I figure that is likely the best scenario now as workouts are starting to become good again and I need to get my running volume back up. I put together back to back 1:45 long runs this weekend, up to the top of SFU on both Saturday and Sunday. As I just mentioned, my VFAC workouts are starting to go well again, as I went 3:11, 3:02, 3:00, 3:02, 3:00 for 5 x 1k on descending rest at Beaver Lake in Stanley Park. I am nowhere near our fearless leader, Jay, but I looking back at my 4 x 1k workout mere days before I broke my foot last July, the times are very similar - near identical, in fact, except that my heart rate was 10 bpm lower last summer. It is this last piece of information that is the important one; my base fitness is not what was before the broken foot. It is this base that I need to begin to rebuild. Long runs and tempos are what are going to get me to where I would like to be come the end of June. But I have been pleased with my progression over the last few weeks, especially as I begin to feel the ground starting to move underneath me as I run. It has been awhile coming, but I always remind myself that the return to fitness is the hardest part of running. Get through the first five or six weeks and everything starts to feel like it did prior to the layoff.

So now that hockey is done for the season, I guess it is time to get serious about running. Good thing the Canucks didn't make the Stanley Cup final or else I would not have been ready for any races before October. I guess that means I owe the Canucks a thank you. A sad thank you.