The first crocuses arrived last Tuesday, bright gold flowers poking up from a pile of disintegrating maple leaves. A few steps away, even more: purple and white, and then another mound of white crocus striped with lilac streaks. I spotted them on my run home, just a few hundred feet from our house. We live in a more rural area with farms and empty fields across from us. In these vacant areas, patches of flowers sprout from the side of the road, each plant an indicator of the changing season.
Here in the Fraser Valley, the first flowers to show themselves are crocuses, followed by snow drops, violets, deadnettle and daffodils (some propagated bulbs, others native to the region.) A few weeks later, trillium pop from the forest floor while wild cherry blossoms create pink wonderlands. In late March cascara leaves and red elderberry take off, dwarfed only by the vibrant fushcia flowers of salmonberry.
We’re in the midst of all of this blooming now and it’s like waiting to take that first deep breath of spring after having held it through winter. Sure, we escaped some of it, but you know it’s still winter when the shorts haven’t come out (that happens around 60°F or 15°C in Canada and we’re not there yet!)
Training in early spring requires gloves and a rain jacket tied around the waist lest the weather changes, but it’s an otherwise beautiful time to run. That’s only being further reinforced as I read Terry Tempest William’s new book, The Glorians. In it, she describes the early days of the Covid pandemic, how she felt isolated and scared but clung to the beauty of life around her. In a dream, the word glorian came to her and she began to use it to describe moments of grace and joy, of pausing and observation. “A Glorian is an encounter. A Glorian is a meeting with élan vital. A Glorian is a moment of grace,” she says.
While you could argue these moments are best seen while walking, or even better, simply sitting, I think Glorians can also be gleaned during runs. Especially if you can press pause on the audiobook or podcast or music and tune into the world around you (which I know is harder said than done, especially during long, solo miles.)
In the spirit of looking for Glorians, I wanted to see what I could uncover during a typical week of training.
Monday
This is typically either my full rest day or my cycling day. Instead, Nick and I packed up the car with winter gear and made a day trip to Manning Park to go nordic skiing. A Glorian in itself! To say we are unexperienced is an understatement—I grew up skiing and snowboarding but only have one memory of going cross country skiing and that’s going back at least 23 years. Nick, on the other hand, has only ever skied twice, downhill.
We quickly learned we had no idea what we were doing, but the frigid air was refreshing and we had the track fully to ourselves.
Our nordic skiing adventure didn’t last very long but it was still worth it to experience our first and maybe only snow of winter. Because of the short duration, we decided to go for a short hike around Lightning Lake as well.
The Glorian: seeing a place you know so well blanketed in a layer of snow and therefore fundamentally different; the clash between the familiar and the strange.
Tuesday
The majority of my coaching calls and meetings fall mid-week, so I kept this close to home. Our local area has great gravel paths and mellow trails so I ran a mile on road before hooking onto the trail system. This was also the day that I spotted the crocus! 12 miles.
In the late afternoon I completed my double, running easy miles around our neighborhood. 4 miles.
The Glorian: crocuses and daffodils springing up from a pile of leaves on the side of the road. Also, transforming a humble vegetable (the cabbage) into an extraodinary meal.
Wednesday
Nick and I headed south so I could run on the Interurban trail in Bellingham while he accompanied me on bike (Nick is currently dealing with some heart issues that preclude him from running as much right now.) My workout was 4 rounds of 4 x 1 minutes at 5K effort with easy 1 minute jogging between repeats and 3 minutes jogging between rounds. It rained the entire run. 14 miles.
We picked up a prescription, restocked groceries and retrieved our mail from our Washington mailbox on the way home.
Back at home, I got in a strength training workout and then hopped on the treadmill for a 30 minute uphill treadmill session before taking a call in the sauna 2.5 miles, 2000 feet of climbing.
The Glorian: how rain transforms a forest, making it softer and somehow more sacred.
Thursday
We had an appointment in the city so Nick and I ran at Pacific Spirit Park, a beautiful system of trails on the west end of Vancouver. We worked at a cafe in Kistilano before the meeting. 10 miles.
In the late afternoon, I headed to our community recreation center for more strength training before utilizing the community hot tub for a heat training session.
The Glorian: the sun streaming through the forest and bathing elderberry shoots and indian plum flowers in a golden light.
Friday
We met up with our friend, Matt, for some easy miles along the Port Coquitlam dyke. The Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley have hundreds of miles of flat gravel dykes to walk, run or bike. I had lunch with my dad, then had a quick session with my physio to address my hip issue (that is no longer an issue!) 9 miles.
The Glorian: friendship and how unpleasant weather conditions disappear when you’re enjoying time with people you like.
Saturday
We crossed the border for the second time this week to run in the Chuckanuts! The Chuckanuts are particularly popular through the winter and early spring when higher elevation trails are still covered in snow.
I had more mileage to run than Nick so he dropped me off a few miles before the trailhead and I ran four miles of Interurban before meeting up with him. We happened to run into Kristina Randrup at the trailhead, so ran a few hours with her, too. 24 miles, 5000 feet of climbing.
The Glorian: camaraderie in a shared goal (run a lot of miles on a gloomy day!)
Sunday
Despite the time change, our friend, Josh, drove up from Bellingham and met us at our house before we carpooled to the North Shore. Weather forecasts had predicted snow, but it was a glorious day! Nick and Josh biked next to me (with Cashew in Nick’s basket) as I ran, running the reverse of a popular Lynn Valley/Seymour loop. 18 miles.
We followed this up with lunch at Chau Cafe which calls itself “cozy Vietnamese.” The Golden Temple Soup with lotus root, taro and bean curd in a turmeric-coconut broth is a must!
The Glorian: a rough-skinned newt! Blueberry bagels as a mid-run snack! The world coming alive again with spring!
Training at a high volume year-round requires joy, and while a part of me would probably run in circles if I had to, finding ways to revitilize training with new trails, people to run with, and little moments of discovery make it much more special.
It goes without saying, but I highly recommend reading The Glorians. Have you noticed any Glorians in your own life?
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.