Run Focus

It was a fantastic week of run focused training, I managed to tick off 58kms during a week when the wind was averaging 40kms/hr and the snow returned on Friday and Saturday. I had to be a bit flexible with my schedule but Amber and Ryder were away from Wednesday to Sunday so I had quite a bit of free time. I missed them terribly but I fell into a groove of training and taking care of Harley and the time passed really quickly. This was the first time I felt like my run shape was starting to come back and I was really excited to see what fitness gains this would bring.

I started off the week a little conservative a 10k run with Harley in about 40mins, then 5k Tuesday with 2x1kms intervals thrown in there- it was extremely difficult with the wind blasting you in the face and that's why I kept it to 5k. By Wednesday I couldn't handle another fight with the wind so I did a tempo 8k on the treadmill and held 10.5M/hr so I was feeling pretty good about how things were progressing. Thursday I met Robert at his work for some more 1km intervals and he was doing the same run focus but instead of feeling stronger as the week went on he was starting to break down. We managed to bang out 3x1km at about 3:33-3:39 mins/km pace for a total of 7k and I was feeling so good I took Harley out for another 5k with a couple more intervals thrown in there. On Friday I couldn't believe how good I felt and I probably overdid it a little bit, seeing that the week was almost over I decided to do the regular Friday swim 20x50m, bike 40k at a tempo pace, then run 8kms on the treadmill. By the time I was done all of it, I was DONE... I laid around trying to think how I was going to recover for tomorrow's run. I was hoping to do a 13 miler but there was no way feeling like this.

Saturday I woke up still feeling a bit rough but decided to meet Bart at the Multiplex for a treadmill run at 8am. If I was still going to run I would rather get it over with early. I hopped on the treadmill and tried to ease into it but I could tell my legs were absolutely toast. I know it was from the bike the day before and I should have just kept it to running and swimming but my ego got the best of me and I caved to the desire to try to keep doing all 3 sports at once. I managed to slug out 15kms in an hour but it was not pretty and afterwards I felt like death. I laid around for the rest of the day and just recovered.

All in all however I'm really pleased with my week, I'll do one more run focused week at the end of April and hopefully that will get me into race readiness. I'd like to do a couple 'race pace' kms on the actual course so I don't go out too hard like I always seem to do. If I can nail down that 3:43 mins/km pace and hold it I should have an excellent result, if not it'll be another 10 mile sufferfest.

Back in the Groove

Well after the never ending winter, the weather stayed in the -20'c to -25'c for the entire month of March it seems like it's finally broken. It's starting to feel like spring again and the snow is very slowly melting away. Ryder and Amber were very sick for the past week and there wasn't a lot of sleep going on in our house but Amber's recovered and Ryder is just a little stuffy. Training has gone pretty well for me under the circumstances and I've had some solid swims, 1/2 decent indoor rides and some tough runs. The running is the toughest to take because I've been feeling invincible on the treadmill and did a 1:18.03 21k the last week of March but as soon as I got outside WOW, it was tough. True the trails are still icy and the wind has been howling but I thought running 4:00/km would feel a lot easier. It's not that I don't feel like I could do it but when I do have an outdoor run my legs feel like I just finished a marathon. I know I just need more outdoor runs and I'll adapt but it's tough to take mentally when I'm gearing up for a race in 5 weeks. I'll get there I'm very confident of that but I need to put in a couple run focused weeks to jump start it, that will be this week and the last week of April, first week of May. The Brian Harms 10 miler is on May 11th and it's a new course this year so I think I can break my 2010 PR of 58:45 and finish around 58:00. It's a flatter and faster course and I need the confidence for the upcoming race season, this year is shorter faster racing so to get a good start would set me up for a great year. A week later is the Jasper training camp and the following week is the Press run 1/2 marathon so if things go well and I prepare properly I should have an excellent May. I think it would be tough to break 1:16 in the 1/2 but to do a sub-1:20 would be a fantastic result for me, post injury. We'll see how training goes in April and if I can have some solid runs, paced properly then I'll have an excellent season.