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.