Thursday, March 31, 2005

Change of plan

Last night I was planning some hills but decided to do a hilly tempo run instead. It was good to get out in shorts again and I was actually a little overdressed with my jacket on. The other problem was the pizza I ate right before the run. When will I learn.

Today's run was planned to be a short 4K but with the lingering cold I can't quite shake and the pouring rain today I decided to add that mileage to tomorrow's run when the forecast is for sunshine.

It looks more and more likely that we will be holding a beginners clinic at 789 Don Mills Road again, let me know if you're interested and I'll finalize the details.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Another excuse

Another long gap in my posts but this time it's because I've been sick. Anyway, I seem to be over the worst of it so it's back to updating the blog.

I was really sick on Wednesday/Thursday/Friday of last week so I didn't do any running but on Sunday I went out to pace the marathon clinic for 19K and hopefully do a couple more K when finished. I felt pretty crappy after the 19K so I decided to cut my losses and take the extra rest.

The weather has been becoming more spring like over the last week and Tuesday it was a beautifully sunny 15°C so I went out for an easy 5K with my work neighbour. We went south on the Don trail for the first time since the ice and there were a ton of runners out. A great run all around.

Tonight's plan is to do hills with the marathon group again.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Spring...Is that you?

After the weekends 30K race my legs weren't feeling too bad but a little stiffer than usual so I wasn't looking forward to today's 6K recovery run too much. The sun was out and the temperature was around 5°C so it was a great day for a run.

Ran my usual route down in the Don Valley and it was great apart from the odd puddle from the run off. I felt like I was running pretty easy but my time was surprisingly quick.

It's good to see so many other runners out there too even though I know they haven't been around all winter. I know they are probably suffering way more than I am!

Monday, March 21, 2005

Result from Around the Bay 30K

As always, I super-analyse my results and even though I wasn't all out racing this one, I did pretty well.

Total 30K - 2:46:23

10K - 58:04
15K - 1:25:08
20K - 1:52:24
30K - 2:46:23

10-15K - 27:04
15-20K - 27:16

1st 10K - 58:04
2nd 10K - 54:20
3rd 10K - 53:59

1569/3570 Overall - 44%
1174/2021 Men - 58%
188/281 Age Grp - 67%

For full results check here.

Feel free to post your results in the comments.

He's Back

First of all my apologies for the lack of entries over the last couple of weeks. I took a week off and headed to Mexico and unfortunately when I returned I found my house had been broken into and my computer stolen but anyway a LOT has been going on so here's a summary.

While I was in Mexico I only got around to running once but it was a great run. There was a Mayan ruin just 6K from my resort so I headed out early with extra water in hand to see if I could find it. It was probably mid 20's and it felt hot considering my previous run had been below zero but off I went. I ran inland with a brisk wind coming at me and found the ruins exactly 6K from the resort. I spent a while walking around and taking it all in and there was not another person around. All you could hear was the wind and the birds. I'll post pics once I've uploaded them.

The way back seemed a lot hotter with the wind not cooling me down as much and it getting to mid-morning. I actually resorted to 10 and ones after the first 3K. and I went through over 2 litres of water on the run.

My next run was planned to be a chilly 34K Sunday run. I took the marathon clinic guys out for 23K and then headed out to do the rest. I think with the lack of running for the previous 2 weeks, plus the cold, plus having a cold, plus all the stress I had since returning from Mexico gave me the perfect excuse to cut the run short so I ended up doing about 27-28K. I then went to the store and bought a new pair of Air Perseus seeing as I was still having problems with my Adidas Atlantas after breaking them in for 345Km's. The plan was to have the Nikes ready for the flying pig marathon.

Last week I was out much more consistently. 6K on Tuesday, 6K on Wednesday with the Marathon clinic who were doing hill training and then 6K again on Friday. So far 18K on the Nikes felt pretty good. The temp last week was much better than before I went away. It was up above zero most days.

Sunday was the around the bay 30K road race which is in its 111th year making it the oldest road race in North America (3 years older than the Boston Marathon). The weather was a bit crappy with some snow and sleet and pretty strong wind coming off the lake in Hamilton.

My plan was to use this as a training run and come in at around 3 hours. I also wanted to try to have a negative split which I managed. I'll post my actual numbers in another entry but I finished the race in 2:46:23 and was passing people like crazy from the last killer hill to the end.

This week I will be pushing the mileage back up for the last time before Cincinnati. Only six weeks 'til the pig!

Flying Pig Marathon.