Half-marathon training – Week 8 – Big mileage
Because I’ve sort of taken the last two weekends off (to run the 5K and then go skiing) my mileage jumped big time this week: 17.5 miles (28.2 km). As I look at that number it seems ridiculous to me that I actually ran that far in one week. But it’s really true: 4m on Tuesday + 4m on Thursday + 3.5m on Saturday + 6m on Sunday = 17.5m! I also swam on Wednesday for some impact free cross training.
I was pretty happy with this week’s Sunday “long run.” I did 6 miles in about 60 min. Realistically this is a faster pace than I’ll run the half-marathon at (which makes me wonder: should I be running my Sunday runs at a slower pace?) but it felt good. Although I probably wouldn’t have run that fast had it not been cold, raining and getting dark!
Half-marathon training – Week 7 – I didn’t hurt myself skiing!
Week 7 started off right on schedule. I did 3.5 miles on each of Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I decided to mix things up a bit and did a sprint work out on the IMA 1/9 mile track. I ran a mile to warm up and then did four 1/9 mile sprints with cool down laps in between and then finished with another mile of jogging. I’m not convinced that sprint training is really going to help me over the half marathon but it was fun. My weekend runs were replaced by downhill skiing in Whistler. After watching all the Olympic skiing crashes I’m very relieved that I didn’t wipe out, injure myself and mess up my half-marathon training. My mileage is really going to start increasing over the next few weeks as I get into the real meat of my training schedule.
Whistler long weekend
This past weekend my father, sister and I went up to Whistler for a long weekend full of skiing and Olympic watching. Dad and I left Seattle early on Friday afternoon, picked up Allison in Vancouver and after the required Timmy’s stop in Squamish we made it to Whistler in time to pick up our rentals and get a good night’s sleep before our first big day of skiing.
My downhill skiing history since high school can be summarized by one word: sparse. In grade 13 I almost separated my shoulder skiing during March Break. Then I took a long skiing hiatus (for one thing it was a banned activity when I played basketball at Waterloo) until 2002 when I skied two days at Whistler after visiting UBC. I was at Whistler this past Christmas but during that trip Matt and I snowboarded. So this past weekend was basically my second time on downhill skis in the past eight years.
My rentals were a pair of K2 “Lotta Luvs.” Allison has skied on these before and she informed me that in fact the skis didn’t need me – they could do all the work on their own and I just had to point them down the mountain. That was exactly the type of skis I wanted to be on!
On Saturday morning we were in the Whistler gondola line at 8:15am. It was a beautiful day for skiing. It was clear and sunny and the conditions were pretty good. There wasn’t any fresh snow but the base was well groomed. We had been warned that it was going to be quite cold but that turned out not the be the case. Allison and Dad did a good job of showing me around the mountain and keeping the pace slow enough that I could keep up. I am a much better skier than snowboarder (probably because I started skiing at age 13 and have only going snowboarding three times) so it was nice for me to actually get off the super easy runs!
I felt good skiing but I was beat on Saturday night. We went out for dinner in the village, then did a little shopping and I was in bed by 9pm!
On Sunday we decided to ski Blackcomb. At lunch we think we had a Ross Rebagliati (the 1998 Olympic gold medal snowboarder) sighting. Allison spotted him from across the dining hall. He is a Whistler resident so I think there’s a good chance it was actually him.
We decided to ski a half day on Monday. We went back to Blackcomb and were the first non-staff people up the lift that morning. I don’t remember how many runs we did but it was a lot. We also stopped a lot less and Dad just kept checking over his shoulder to see that I was keeping up. For our last run we went from the top of the 7th heaven chair all the way to Blackcomb base without stopping!
We were back in the condo just after 11:30am to watch the start of the gold medal game in women’s hockey between Canada and Sweden. We ran around, had showers, returned our rentals and finished packing during the first and second periods. Then we went down to Whistler Town Square where they had a jumbo TV set up showing the game. We found a table at a restaurant overlooking the square and settled down to watch the last period. Here are Allison and I ready to cheer on Team Canada.
Team Canada beat Team Sweden 4-1. I have to say that watching Team Canada win an Olympic Hockey gold medal outside on a clear winter day in a future Olympic city was a pretty special experience. After the game we hit the road for the long drive back to Vancouver/Seattle. It was a great weekend. There are more photos posted on my flickr account and an almost duplicate set up on Allison’s account.
Torino 2006
In our 3B term during the fall of 2000 Laura and I decided that it would be neat to watch to Sydney Olympic opening ceremonies live at 4 am EDT. We managed to convince Douglas and Matt to join us by bribing them with a homemade breakfast. Since then I’ve kept the tradition of watching all Olympic opening ceremonies live and combining them with a host nation themed meal.
The Torino 2006 opening ceremonies were live at 10 am PST on Friday. One of the great things about grad school is that our schedules are pretty flexible and 8 of my friends were able to come over and watch with me. I got to introduce a number of Americans to the CBC coverage since NBC did not do a live broadcast. Since the Olympics are in Italy this year I served manicotti and spaghetti for lunch. We also had a few bottles of Italian wine (before noon!) and enjoyed some gelato for dessert. It was a great way to kick off the games!
Half-marathon training – Week 6 – Love ‘em or leave ‘em
This week instead of my usual Saturday cross training and Sunday long run I took Saturday off in order to “taper” for a 5K race on Sunday – the Love ‘em or Leave ‘em Valentine’s Day Dash at Green Lake. A few of my girlfriends and I ran the race together this morning. My time was 27:35 which is a 30 second improvement over my Jingle Bell Run time from December. The most amazing thing is that my mile split times were 9:39, 8:37 and 8:29 which means I actually sped up instead of slowed down during the race. Really my friend Rebecca (who ran NCAA division 1 track when she was in college) set the pace and I just focused on keeping up with her! The race was a lot of fun but the best part might have been the delicious post race Sunday brunch we went out for!
Learning to pack light
As you may recall one of my resolutions for 2006 is to learn how to pack light. Last week my Dad sent me a link to the website onebag.com. It’s a website …
“offering exhaustive (some might say exhausting) detail on the art of travelling light, living for an indefinite period of time out of a single (carryon-sized) bag.”
It’s a great resource for pack heavy types like me. I particularly enjoy the detailed, annotated packing list although the Rick Steves website has a good one too.
I have a number of trips coming up in 2006: I’m going back to Ontario for Spring Break and several weddings this summer and there’s a trip to Europe in the works for September with various family members. I think it would be fantastic if I could just bring a carry-on for these trips. The first problem is that I don’t have an appropriately sized bag.
I think the best solution for me would be a large backpack that just fits under the carry-on size restrictions (21.5” x 15.5” x 9” on AirCanada). I’d like something in the 40L (2500 cubic inches) range that preferably weighs only a few pounds since the carry-on weight restriction is 10kg. If I get serious about this I’ll probably just make a trip to REI armed with a tape measure. For now though it’s just nice to imagine how it would feel not to be lugging around a huge bag!
Half-marathon training – Week 5 – Hydration is key
This weekend I had to cancel a trip to Victoria due to a crazy windstorm and the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl. At least I can take some solace in the fact that I had a good training week.
This week I ran a total of 12 miles (3.5/3.5/5) and cross trained on the stationary bike and in the pool (finally!). I used my new hydration waistpack (similar to this) for the first time this morning. Once the distance hits about 4 miles I really need to hydrate during the run. I was a bit worried that the waistpack would be bouncy but it seems OK and it’s definitely better than carrying a water bottle in my hand. I also tried eating a gel during my run this morning. I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of gels. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I find them too sweet. However they are a quick way to get calories in and since I can’t really eat solids in the middle of a run they’re not a bad choice. I think it’s important to work out a hydration/feeding pattern during my longer training runs so I’ll be prepared for race day.