Category: running

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Race Recap: Kyle’s Krusade 5k Virtual Race

While I had initially planned on using the Yeti Snowshoe Race as my 5k for the Kyle’s Krusade Virtual Race (to Lisa of RunWiki.org’s great excitement), its cancellation left me looking for another 5k I could use.  The Training Plan said that Monday was to be a 5.6km run, so that would have to do.

The days had been cold of late, but my 16km run on Sunday had gone well so I decided to Race with a Capital ‘R’… even though there was no-one else there.  If young Kyle had to fight cancer, could I offer any less than an all-out effort?  I hoped for a sub 25 minute finish, but I had a few factors against me: I had left both my Garmin and my water bottle belt at home.  I’d be relying on my Endomondo app to track my pace and distance.  Figuring that I’d be working hard, I skipped a thermal layer, and didn’t bother with face protection.  I can’t say that it was a mistake overall, but it did make the start a little uncomfortable.



As I ticked off the kilometres, I stayed under 5 minutes per kilometre, which was what I needed to stay under 25 minutes overall.  My lungs were burning a little, and some of the sharp turns were not ideal for ‘racing’.  You can see the fatigue (and incline) kick in on the 4th kilometre, and for a few minutes I thought I’d have to overshoot my starting point due to some kind of miscalculation, but I heard the 5 km indicator right as I got to the intersection.  24:39, a personal best.

Me with my Race Bib after it’s finished


I want to thank Lisa for devoting her time and effort to such a worthy cause.  Not everyone wants to do this kind of organization and logistics for the enjoyment of others.  Kyle’s Krusade Virtual Races can be done all through February and you can do 5k, 10k or even a half-marathon.  Or you call simply donate… just follow the links!

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Gear Corner: Hoorag Review

Disclaimer: I was provided a free sample by Hoorag in exchange for a review.  I was not asked to write a positive review and these experiences and opinions are my own.

Being outside especially while exercising can carry a lot of demands for clothing and accessories.  You need to keep sweat out of your face and eyes.  You need to tie back your hair.  You need to protect your face and/or neck from the wind, or from the sun.  Hoorags claim to be the better bandana.

My first run in a Hoorag was an easy run with a couple of hill repeats in light drizzle, just above freezing temperature with 20 km/h winds.  I wanted head insulation, but didn’t feel like I’d need my winter hat or any other face protection, so I wore the Hoorag ‘Bandana’ style.

Pic not taken on run day.

It felt comfortable and did a good job of keeping me warm enough – I never felt the cold.  It’s breathable so I didn’t overheat either, and it stayed on without me having to fiddle with it.  I think it even looked OK on the day… this pic notwithstanding.

When temperatures dropped below freezing, I considered wearing it ‘Balaclava’ style (think ninja-mask) but I couldn’t get it to work… I ended up with extra material around the eyes mostly.  That’s OK, because I’ve always wanted to look like Strider-Hiryu…

…minus the threatening sword…

The ‘Face Mask’ style is my favourite way to wear the Hoorag.  I grew up using ‘Tube Sarves’ to protect my face (especially mouth and nose) from the cold and wind.  The problem I always had was that the elastic was on only one end of the tube… wear the elastic at the top of the scarf and it cuts into your face – uncomfortable.  Wear it at the bottom (the better choice) and the top of the scarf is somewhat loose and not protecting your face as well as you’d like.

Hoorag doesn’t have this problem – it’s stretchy top to bottom but both ends have a gentle elastic.  I could get it to hug my face however I wanted; I got a peak right up to the bridge of my nose, but it sloped down past my cheekbones far enough that it wouldn’t interfere with my earphones if I wanted.

If I did any really heavy breathing (like sprints or hills), I found it interfered with my breathing and I would get gassed.  The good news is I was usually warm by that point, and I could easily pull it down to my neck (known as the ‘Neck Gaiter’ style).  On one occasion the moisture trapped in it from such breathing got flash-frozen when I pulled the mask away from my face; other than that, I like wearing it this way and do so for most of my winter runs.

I did try wearing a balaclava once for contrast; the full face mask is the protection of choice for the coldest of cold weather.  Wearing a balaclava means extra headaches putting on headphones, and I found it interfered with my field of vision too, so I prefer the Hoorag, though if it gets cold enough, I wear both!

as well as a hat.

The Hoorag can be worn in ladies’ styles too. When I asked my wife to model it, she was a little overly concerned with how she’d look, and more pertinently: “When was the last time you washed that thing?”

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Half-Marathon Weekly Training Recap: Hanging On By My Fingernails

I’m writing this under pretty extreme sleep deprivation so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.  I missed a lot of training opportunities, and cross-training was the big victim.  Here are the running miles I put in:


Date 1/27 1/28 1/29 1/30 1/31 2/1 2/2 TOTAL
km 11.9 6.4 8 7.2

33.5


A total of 33.5km compared to 34.8km expected.  Not bad, but I really don’t like not getting my cross-training in.  We’re fighting colds and ear infections in the house, and I had some corporate training to attend too.  

  • Sunday’s run was in my old neighbourhood which was fun.

  • I did the Tempo Run on Thursday.

  • Saturday I did my 7.2km pushing the Chariot with the Lightning Kid.  Afterwards he kept me company for some foam rolling.  Best run of the week!


UPDATE: I’m also bummed that the Yeti Snowshoe Race was cancelled due to an extreme thaw this week.  I’m going to do 5k on Monday as my Kyle’s Krusade race.
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Half-Marathon Training Weekly Recap: The Write-Off

Due to the capricious nature of cold and flu season, I missed running and cross-training from Monday to Thursday this week.  I don’t want to bore you with the details, but nights without sleeping sabotage both evening workouts and early mornings, and attending doctor’s appointments and such takes out my regular lunch slot too.

I tried to make up a little by running an indoor duathlon today.  I wanted to hit my tempo run from the plan, but I shorted the warm-up from a mile to half a mile before hitting the main tempo section.  Skipping the cool down, I jumped straight into a 40 minute spin class, then did another mile on the treadmill using a ‘random hill’ program in the Merrell Trail Glove/Minimalist shoes, to try and focus a little on form.

I haven’t figured out how I want to tweak this weekend’s schedule to make up for last mileage, and I’m also nervous about a race I signed up for before the Chilly Half Marathon… I’m doing a snowshoe race!  It’s going to be the Yeti Snowshoe Series ‘Sport’ Course (5k) at Blue Mountain.  The Race Calendar Page has been updated accordingly.

In the lead-up to planning this race, and signing up for it, my wife asked me: “When was the last time you snowshoed?” (I love that she didn’t ask me if I’d EVER snowshoed…). The answer? A sheepish “Junior High”.  I’m fully prepared to make a fool of myself on this event, yet according to this video from Canadian Running Magazine, as long as I’m careful, I should find myself getting the hang of it.  Starting off slowly and carefully is always standard operating procedure in a race.

I’ve chosen to use this race as a 5k ‘virtual run’ for a cause started by Lisa of RunWiki to help ‘Kyle’s Krusade’:

Kyle’s Krusade Virtual 5K, 10K and Half Marathon is a race anyone, anywhere can participate in. You can walk, run, push a stroller, do it with a group or by yourself. The registration for this event is $10 a distance, you can sign up for one, two, or all three distances. 100% of your entry fee will go to The Talbert Family Foundation’s Kyle’s Krusade fund. In turn, to assist with the exorbitant costs associated with having a child with Cancer, they give 100% of their donations directly to the O’Connor family. – From the RunWiki.org website.

Please consider doing a run (and donating of course) in February to help the O’Connor Family.

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Half Marathon Training Week Recap: New Distances

Looking back at the week in training that was:

  • Saturday was the long run, in some very warm weather for the season.  To avoid mud, I stuck to side-walks so my joints and Achilles tendons took more than the usual amount of pounding, I’d have to say.  I was conservative on the way out, and more aggressive on the way back.  Going slow feels weird because I have a time goal in mind for the race, but I think the structure might be paying off…  14.3km done.
  • We were out late seeing the movie Les Miserables, and Shark Boy didn’t get to bed on time either, so Crossfit on Sunday was sacrificed.  Taking a rest day was probably smart.
  • Monday continued to be mild, but I figured it would be dry enough to run on trails.  Almost right, my shoes got wet (though my Salomon XR Missions have done some good water protection for my feet this season) and at least once I had to wipe a big, heavy clump of mud off the soles.  I hit the prescribed mileage, and the pace was slow as recommended (6:34min/kim)… at least on average.  I think I did some walk breaks and speed bursts to keep that average pace.
  • Tuesday was meant to be a Trifecta Tuesday with an early morning swim, plus strength and 1 more activity that I hadn’t decided on (maybe Yoga), but when I got to the gym, I found the pool crowded, and I had forgotten a towel; I went home and had breakfast with the family instead.  I managed to make it to the Etobicoke Olympium at lunch.  The Olympic (50m) pool had been cut in half for lane swimming, but though there were a lot of people there too, the lane etiquette was roundly observed, and it was no problem getting a good workout in.  In fact, I did my longest pool workout swim with 2.3km including drills, 4x75m intervals, 4x200m and another 4x75m.
  • Wednesday was my favourite run of the week.  The trails were dry and the sun was out.  I managed a 6:04min/km pace, and I began to see how a 2 hour half-marathon might be possible.
  • On Thursday, I did a Cross-training session in a group exercise class.  PB Freakin Fit is run by Personal Best (who manages our corporate gym) and is structured much like a Crossfit Workout of the Day (WOD).  Due to the equipment available and the space used, a lot of modifications need to be made.  This workout was a warm-up of jumping jacks, skipping, jogging on the spot, then a countdown: run across the room and back then do 10 push-ups, repeat with 9, 8, 7 push-ups right down to 1.  The first main set was 5 rounds for time (RFT): 20 Frog Jump Squats, 10 Renegade Rows with Mountain Climber, and 20 Hindu Pushups.  The second set involved AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 10 minutes of 20 ski-jumps, 10 burpees with dumbbell shoulder press, and 20 wide-stance prisoner squats. I can still feel the effects as I write this on Sunday.
  • Friday was a tempo run on the treadmill; new distance (2 miles/3.2 km) at a speed of 6.8mph with a 1 mile warm-up and cool down
    • I took a rest day on Saturday, and on Sunday, in spite of freezing temperatures and 48 km/h winds, I got a new distance of 16km or 10 miles.  That’s more than I’ve run in one sitting in at least 3 years.



I took a weigh-in toward the end of the week: 200lbs. Not great progress but heading in the right direction…


This was a week of new frontiers of distance, and I love seeing and feeling the progress.

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Gear Corner: Review of the Yaktrax Pro

While putting a lot more running miles in the snow, you can’t help but wish for more traction.  I used to have a pair of traction devices (the brand name of which I can’t remember now) that I could put on the soles of my shoes.  They were made of rubber which would hug the outline of your sole, and had little studs on the bottom for gripping snow and ice.  The problems were:

  • The studs felt funny when you weren’t on soft snow.  When you run in the suburbs, you’ll be running over cleared sidewalks sometimes too.  Whenever I was on harder surfaces, I could feel the little cleats pushing back into my feet, like some annoying acupuncture.  I’d actually take them off and carry them or strap them to my running belt if I could see there would be cement for an extended stretch.
  • The little studs could break off.
  • Besides the elasticity of the rubber hugging the outside of the shoe, there was nothing keeping them attached.  I eventually zoned out on a run, noticed one of them was missing, backtracked for nearly a kilometer, and gave up on trying to find it.  I threw the other one in the garbage.


Still, I don’t think I can keep running in the snow without a little help, and based on a little research, more people seem to swear by Yaktrax than any other.  I like the idea of Yaktrax, which puts steel spring coils running horizontally across the soles – I figured that would feel nicer than little pointy bits under my feet.


Yaktrax Run

I went to my local Running Room to buy a pair.  I saw they have a model called the Yaktrax Run, but that had the pesky studs under the ball of the feet, so I stuck with the more basic, classic Yaktrax Pro.
Yaktrax Pro

I was really happy to see that strap on top, which would prevent me from losing them on the run, but how would they feel?  Would they work?  I took them out on a 12km run.

What I noticed:

  • Running on cement or pavement did feel better than with the studs.  You do notice the coils, but they’re not wholly unpleasant, just different than running without.
  • If the snow has been packed down by other people walking/running/skiing on it, and the terrain is flat, IT FEELS LIKE THERE’S NO SNOW AT ALL.  The feeling of running on my usual trail was indistinguishable from when it’s dry.  I step and move forward without any sideways lateral slipping, or lack of traction.
  • Going uphill is still tricky.  As soon as the trail climbed a little, I had to step more carefully again and remember that running in the snow is still simply different, Yaktrax or not.  I do think they helped me get up the hill (and back down again), the difference just wasn’t as stark as on the flats.
  • They can give you a little overconfidence.  When the snow got deeper I simply carried on.  There, the problems go beyond slipperiness and beyond what the Yaktrax can help you with.  Deeper snow means wet shoes and feet, and the resistance of pushing snow aside as you stride.  Another rude reminder that the snow changes your run.


The way this particular run turned out, I hit the deep snow at the furthest point from the start, and having to slow down nearly ruined my schedule; I wanted to be back home in time to go to a haircut appointment.  In spite of the fact that it was supposed to be a long, slow distance run, I hauled it on the way back, and ran nearly a minute per kilometer faster.  The Yaktrax held up fine; that doesn’t mean that you can use them for speed work necessarily, but I got a reasonable variety of paces out of them.  If you’re going to run in snow and/or ice, these are the product I would recommend.

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Half-Marathon Training: Week 2


I haven’t made weight loss an explicit goal, but I figured if I followed a regular training plan (with a higher volume of exercise than I’d been doing previously) and I watched what I ate (mostly avoiding sweets and booze, with better portion control too), some weight should come off.

Oh well…


That’s pretty much what I peaked at during the full holiday craze. I was active during the holidays (relatively speaking), and I felt like I didn’t sin too much, but still I have nothing to show for week 1. Like I said, I didn’t make it an explicit goal, so I won’t get stressed out about it, but I think I’ll try to monitor it in the weekly training posts for posterity’s sake. Having a few less pounds to drag across the finish line should make me faster come race season though…


I actually ran my long (12.2km) run on Saturday rather than Sunday, because on Sunday, I tried Crossfit (see my review here).  It was clearly a beginner session, because we also took the kids tobogganing that afternoon and I was able to pull them along and up the hill.

After 7 straight training days, I took Monday off.  This was more difficult than I thought, because I was feeling really good and strong and able to take on the world – everyone was posting motivation messages for ‘Motivation Monday’ (including me!).  Still, the rest day should be observed; it’s just that the rest day is usually forced upon me by life interfering with my plans…

I moved Monday’s 5.6km run to Tuesday, and I found the missing Blackberry!  Incredibly, it still worked, which means I’ll be able to recover my contacts and other info.  Since it was Trifecta Tuesday, I also did 47 pushups from the 100 push-ups app and a Yoga workout before bed.

On Wednesday I did a 7.4km run on pavement.  I was pretty pleased with my pace.  I could almost feel myself getting faster and stronger.

Due to some early morning toddler wake-up problems and a re-scheduled meeting, Thursday ended up being a rest day, unless you count air-guitar and dancing in the living room with the kids before dinner…

I did my tempo run on the treadmill on Friday; I used an incline of 1.5 and it felt fine. A mile warm-up at 5mph, the tempo run of 1.5 miles at 6.8mph and a mile cool-down (again at 5mph).



Though I’m pleased with my running and mileage this week, I am a little disappointed with strength and cross-training. Cross-fit was tough and a great workout, and the re-structuring of the week was probably what threw everything else into disarray. I should try to figure this out since this weekend will probably also involve a Saturday long run and Sunday Crossfit.

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Half-Marathon Training Week 1: Winter Wonderland

When I finalized my training plan for the Chilly Half-Marathon, I knew it meant starting right away… the Christmas holidays weren’t over yet, and order had not yet been re-established.  Whatever, no fear, no excuses.

Shark Boy had done a great job of mastering downhill skis from the safety of our backyard (with his wonderful mother’s excellent tutelage and supervision) and we had wanted to take him to Centennial Park for some more advanced training… possibly even get him on the magic carpet.  The training plan said do 11.2km on Sunday, but since I knew Sunday would be a write-off with driving to Collingwood, Saturday would have to be the day.  Plan A was to run with the Lightning Kid in the Chariot during Shark Boy’s ski lesson but when we arrived at the ski area, we were surprised to find that they weren’t open and we would not be permitted to try skiing nearby even without using the lifts…

I was frustrated; it was only day 1, and my plans to run (which already took a great deal of effort and organization) were already in the trash.  I wanted my wife to be able to take a nap after a rough night of kid wake-ups, and I didn’t see how it could all work… and we were still looking for a way to give the kids some fresh air and activity.  Taking Shark Boy tobogganing was a good option for him, and pulling him up the hill was good exercise, but not the same as racking up the miles I needed.

He wanted to pull it up himself… twice out of what felt like 100 times.


By the time we’d gotten home and had lunch, we got Shark Boy down for a nap, and I decided to take Lightning Kid out on the sidewalks (which were only partly cleared of snow) and do my best.  Out the door we went.  He fell asleep fairly quickly; but I found the going difficult.  Not only was pushing the extra weight an extra effort, but I had little traction, and the wheels of the Chariot would get stuck in deeper snow – getting unstuck from a snowbank or three gave Lightning Kid a rude awakening.

In the end, it took me an hour and 20 minutes to get 9.2 km done… 2k short of my goal, but given the extra challenges, I put it in the win column.  That’s going to be a theme this week, if not the entire winter season.

Long Run: Finished!


Sunday was spent driving north to Collingwood in search of even more snow; we made good time and tried to find the tubing hill at Blue Mountain for some family fun – this hill apparently no longer exists though Shark Boy and his mother got to do a few runs on a borrowed snow saucer-type deal.  We thought we were experts on the area, as we came up a lot when we were dating and early in our marriage, but either 1.) there have been changes, or 2.) having kids screws with your brain, especially the memory parts.  By the end of the weekend, I felt better oriented in case we try it again, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  We stayed with some friends who have a chalet there, and also a baby, so no-one was too shell-shocked by diapers or crying and whatnot.


On New Year’s Eve Day, Shark Boy got a real skiing lesson on the hill complete with magic carpet lift.  The Lightning Kid slept in the car, and just as he woke up, and I started putting the Chariot back together for a little run, I got a text message that Shark Boy and his mother were heading back so that he could have lunch and a nap… best to stay ahead of the fatigue when downhill skiing, I always say.

Once everyone was back inside, I got the chance to do a run. Our hosts told me about a trail I could access; they figured there had been enough people tramping it down to make it feasible for running. Again, I tried to take it easy and manage expectations. The trail was beautiful, but it did get difficult where it was actually marshy beneath the snow – I had to use my dance-y feet to keep from busting through ice into deep puddles.


Getting to the trail meant running on slushy roads, which wasn’t any easier. Still, the air was brisk, and I was accomplishing what I set out to do.


New Year’s Eve was quiet to say the least. While we stayed up to midnight, I started getting a little infatuated with the idea of falling asleep in one year and waking up in the next…

For New Year’s Day we opted to get our cross-country ski on, just before making the return trip home. I’ve skied with the trailer behind me lots of times, but I was finding it much harder so I did a little math. I used to count 20 pounds for Shark Boy with another 22-25 pounds for the Chariot totalling around 45 pounds or so. Now, I’ve got an 18 lb Lightning Kid to add to the load with Shark Boy coming in closer to 35 lbs these days. I was really digging in my edges and using all my strength to get up the bigger and steeper hills. Before I got this week started, my wife asked if cross-country skiing could/would count toward weekly mileage for running and I said no… only running is running, and while cross-training is beneficial, counting it instead of the runs I’m supposed to be doing will lead to me not doing much running at all. Still, I can’t help but think there’s more than a little cross-over between the two sports, and I’m struggling to get every prescribed kilometer…

Wednesday I was back in the office, and I brought plenty of warm gear (including a Specialized cycling jacket my wife gave me… kept me feeling good!) and managed to get my 7 km. Keeping my footing on the trail was challenging, and I found my upper body making a lot of lateral movement to compensate. It was also slow, of course.


That evening I noticed my legs felt a little thrashed, and the next morning there was a lot of stiffness in my lower back and hips. I wasn’t sure if I was going to take a rest day as my ‘X’, or find a lighter way to cross-train. By lunch, I opted to do some weights for strength, but instead of the usual where functional movement recruits a lot of lower body and core, I did simple old fashioned weight lifting to focus on my chest, back and arms.

Friday was tempo run day, and given the havoc the snow had been wreaking on my pace and technique, I opted for the dreadmill/treadmill.

Pros:

  • I had the water I needed without needing to ‘carry’ it
  • I hit the paces I wanted on both Warm-up/Cool Down (7:27/km) and the main set (5:30/km)
  • I got to use my iPod Classic.  It has a hard-drive so it’s usually no good for running, but it has WAY more of my music on it than any other device.  Putting it on the console shelf worked fine, and I got to listen to this: Conscience Killer – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Cons:

  • Boredom.  It kicked in before I had finished my first mile.
  • Danger! The boredom resulted in me looking at the TV Screens above.  Well, there was a good chance I was going to do that anyway.  While staring, I drifted laterally and nearly flew off the thing!  While breaking my neck falling off a treadmill doesn’t seem like the MOST humiliating way to die, I really don’t want it to be because I was checking out highlights of sports I don’t follow or even worse… Kimye.


Let’s look at the week’s summary compared to the plan:

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Total
date 12/30/2012 12/31/2012 1/1/2013 1/2/2013 1/3/2013 1/4/2013 1/5/2013 km
actual km 9.25 4.5 X 7 X 4.66 OFF* 25.41
planned km 11.2 5.6 X 7.2 X 4.8 OFF 28.6
comment actually saturday xc ski 6.5km weights *See below 29.9 with skiing


I came up a little short on kilometers, but overall, I’m pleased not to have missed any workouts, and do be doing what I set out to do.  Saturday is supposed to be a rest day with next week’s long run occurring on Sunday, but given my plans for Sunday (stay tuned! I’ll give you a hint, it’ll put the Cross in Cross-Training) I may move my long (12.8km) run to Saturday and take Monday off.  Wish me luck!

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Building the Half-Marathon Training Plan

Back when I signed up for the Chilly Half Marathon, the only goal I gave myself was to make sure my running mileage was on the rise.  Let’s see how I did…


Not great, but I seem to be OK with 15km a week, which has been the starting point for a lot of half-marathon plans I can remember seeing in the past.  Though I couldn’t think of any specifically, and I wanted lots of room for strength training or other triathlon cross-training, I started with one I came across from Mary-Liz Johnson of Oh To Have The World On A String seen below:





Her Wednesdays have a mile of Warm-Up and Cool Down (WU & CD) along with a tempo run.  Also, 2 days a week of strength training.  Nice, but it’s in miles!  Metric system please!

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Total
1.5KM WU & CD
4.8 6.4 X 6.4 X OFF 6.4 24
4.8 6.4 X 6.4 X OFF 8 25.6
5.6 6.4 X 8 X OFF 9.6 29.6
5.6 7.2 X 1.6 X OFF 11.2 28.6
5.6 7.2 X 2.4 X OFF 12.8 31
6.4 7.2 X 3.2 X OFF 14.4 34.2
6.4 7.2 X 4 X OFF 16 36.6
6.4 7.2 X 4.8 X OFF 12.8 34.2
5.6 8 X 4.8 X OFF 16 37.4
5.6 8 X 6.4 X OFF 19.2 42.2
5.6 8 X 3.2 X OFF 8 27.8
4.8 2.4 X REST 30MIN 20MIN Rest 7.2


Ah, that’s better.  I’ve replaced “Strength” with ‘X’ for cross-training.  Here, X can be:

  • Swimming
  • Yoga
  • Rowga
  • Strength Circuit (especially the Matrix!)
  • Bootcamps/Exercise Classes


You’ll notice that Tuesdays are primed to be Trifecta Tuesdays with cross-training.  The plan is starting to take shape.  When I attended the TRX class with Ignition Fitness, Tommy Ferris advised me that the best thing I could do to improve running (with a view towards increasing mileage to the half-marathon level) given a family man’s limited schedule would be to have easy runs every, single, day.  Which was pretty much the opposite of what I wanted, but still, the idea stuck in my head.  What I would like to try to do is add 10-20 minutes on the treadmill after every cross-training/strength session I do at the gym.  This will mean having to be efficient in my strength sessions (which I’m all about anyway) and this kind of ‘brick’ structure to the workout comes naturally for a triathlete anyway.

Still, the program isn’t right yet.  Taking Fridays off doesn’t make a lot of sense, and weekends with the kids sometimes interferes with long runs.  Then I read Fitness Cheerleader’s training plan and she points out there’s only 10 weeks left, not 12!  After shuffling and croppiing out the first weeks:

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Total
1.5KM WU & CD
12/30/2012 11.2 5.6 X 7.2 X 1.6 OFF 28.6
1/6/2013 12.8 5.6 X 7.2 X 2.4 OFF 31
1/13/2013 14.4 6.4 X 7.2 X 3.2 OFF 34.2
1/20/2013 16 6.4 X 7.2 X 4 OFF 36.6
1/27/2013 12.8 6.4 X 7.2 X 4.8 OFF 34.2
2/3/2013 16 5.6 X 8 X 4.8 OFF 37.4
2/10/2013 19.2 5.6 X 8 X 6.4 OFF 42.2
2/17/2013 8 5.6 X 8 X 3.2 OFF 27.8
2/24/2013 REST 4.8 X 2.4 X REST OFF 7.2
3/3/2013 RACE




Uh-oh.  I should be getting in almost double the mileage I currently am (I wish ‘kilometrage’ was a word) doing weekly  While these workouts don’t have much in the way of designated structure (speed work, hills) that’s OK  because those objectives can be tough to achieve in snow and ice anyway.  Knowing me I’ll incorporate small amounts to keep myself entertained whether it’s Fartlek (speed play) during the weekday runs or taking on an extra hill here or there.

Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point advocates a flexible training plan.  I’ll need elements of this, because the demands of the kids and work (never mind my own health being under threat of cold and flu season) will cancel some workouts.  Shifting them around from one day to the other will help, and any extra distance I rack up on the treadmill on ‘X’ days needs to count.

I want to finish in two hours (2:00:00) so according to this handy pace calculator, these should be my paces:

Your easy run training pace is: 6:35/km
Your tempo run training pace is: 5:30/km
Your VO2-max training pace is: 4:58/km
Your speed form training pace is: 4:36/km
Your long run training pace is: 6:35/km – 7:25/km
Your Yasso 800s training pace is: 4:06 / 800m


The easy and long run paces are the only ones of real interest.  Wednesdays I can either use the ‘Tempo’ run pace or my actual planned race pace which would be more like 5:42/km; it’ll have to depend how I feel.  If we get any cross-country skiing done on weekends, I’ll have to count that as an ‘X’, get some kilometers in on a Tuesday or Thursday instead (see? Flexibility) and then hope for the best come race day.

Whew! Figuring that all out before the new year felt like more work than actually running the plan!  Maybe not…

Do you like using a plan that someone else has figured out for you, or customizing? Or are plans for chumps?

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A Winter 10k Race

I’ve mentioned before on the blog that I participate in a running group at work.  Each season’s session ends in a race, meant to be the culmination of the now-complete training regime.  I was looking forward to the race just as much as I always do, though I knew I’d missed more training runs than I would have liked.

The race was scheduled for Friday, December 7th, and on Thursday night I dreamt of running.  I was going fast, and it felt good… effortless.  Which is a great way to head into a race day, I have to tell you.  I was still struggling with the right way to wear my Jaybird Freedoms, but I did get lucky, and though I was nearly late for the race start, I got them locked in, and was able to focus on running instead of fiddling with electronics.

We started the race, and I got off to a fast start.  Maybe a little too fast, but it’s hard to beat yourself up (even after the fact) because I was having fun.  Around the 1.8km mark (the course is approximately 2.5km out and back performed twice) this unfortunate scene was visible.  Luckily, I had seen the crime scene tape on my commute in, Googled it, and warned everybody that it would be there so nobody would waste time rubbernecking.

Completing the first leg, I still felt good, though I realised my speed would need to be adjusted to keep from crashing. I also took off my hat and gloves and had a few sips of water from the cups provided (I was wearing a water belt, with an empty water bottle – OOOPS).  Off I went on the second half; I soon realised it was only men who were braving the 10k – BOO!  One of our faster runners Mr. N (who recommended me the Jaybird Freedoms) had been acting as a pace bunny for another runner, but apparently that was only for 5k, so he soon passed me; what are you going to do? The guy’s an Ironman!  I had been chased by Mr. B for the entire race.  Mr. B has been faster than me on just about every training run, but our speeds are comparable, and I like and admire the guy because he doesn’t seem like a ‘natural’ runner and has built up his speed through hard work… he’s gone from being a non-runner to 10k in a little over a year (I think).  At any rate, I still wanted to beat him that day.  

For me, being chased is better motivation than being the chaser, so I managed to keep a lead.  Mr. B told me later that he felt like he was 100 yards behind me the entire time – from my perspective the lead varied more than that, still we were both happy to finish around 49 minutes… me just under that, him seconds over.

It was a great day to be outside running, a day when all the little elements you need for a good run (body, music, gear) came together, and the perfect springboard to launch into training for the Chilly Half-Marathon!