This week was my last chance to get some solid training in before the upcoming taper. I logged a solid 12 mile long run and my first 30+ mile training week since May. Race day is now one week away. All that’s left to do is to stay healthy (lots of piriformis muscle relaxation and don’t catch a cold or do something silly like sprain my ankle while walking down stairs), eat well, and log a few easy runs. I really need to pick a goal race pace too. Right now I’m torn between 9:09 min/mile = 5:41 min/km (a 1:59:55 PB half marathon) or something more aggressive like 8:46 min/mile = 5:27 min/km (a 1:55:00 half marathon). I’m going to have to think about that.

Next Sunday hasn’t quite come up on all the long range weather forecasts yet so I’ve decided to hold off on obsessive weather watching until Tuesday or Wednesday. I’m hoping it will be about 10C, cloudy and calm on race morning. That means racing in shorts, a long sleeved technical shirt and maybe a pair of throw away gloves. Of course rain and wind are very possible so I’ll have to be prepared for that. I’m going to be taking the sea plane to Victoria though which limits my total luggage to 25 lb so I’ll have to pack light. We’ll see how that goes!

The last two weeks have been low in terms of miles run but high in terms of living. Yesterday I got back from 10 days in Europe (Copenhagen and Paris) with my mother. I’ll post more about the trip later but for now I’ll just give the running summary.

Week 11

I managed to squeeze a weekday 12 mile long run in before flying off to Denmark. Before leaving I studied a map of Copenhagen to try and find a possible running route. As it turned out our hotel was only few blocks away from what looked like a great 4 mile loop. Sure enough, when Mom and I walked over to check it out there were lots of runners on the path I’d found. So later that day I did 3.9 miles on a dirt path around “Copenhagen’s Lakes”. The Google Earth screenshot of my route is below. It was like a cross of running along Ottawa’s Rideau Canal and around Seattle’s Green Lake. There were lots of people out for a late Sunday afternoon stroll and plenty of Carlsburg being drunk on park benches. Public beer consumption is totally legal and civilized in Denmark. It was a great run and I even managed to do the last mile at tempo pace just for fun.

Week 12

Mom and I took sightseeing in Paris pretty seriously. That is, we covered some serious ground and probably averaged just under 20,000 walking steps per day. Even so I did manage to do two runs based from our Rue Clar neighbourhood hotel. This first (blue line) was a 3.0 miler along Seine. The second (red line) was a 4.7 miler in the park below the Eiffel Tower. This was a slow run but it was an absolutely great experience. Mom and I really enjoyed staying so close to the Eiffel Tower. We had a picnic dinner there one night which included my first public drinking experience.

There are two weeks to go before the Victoria half marathon. It remains to be seen how much cardiovascular fitness I lost over the past 10 days. My plan is to get a few easy runs, one tempo run and one 10-12 mile long run in this week before I start the taper next week.

The weekly update is coming a bit early this week because I’ve finished my training runs for the week. I’ll be taking the next two days off as a mini taper for a 5K I’m running on Sunday.

The week started out a little rough. Speedwork is always difficult for me and 4x1600m is about as hard as it gets. I was a little disappointed with my splits but they’re only a bit slower than the last two times I did this workout. I’m chalking it up to a hotter temperatures and a lack of sleep. Tuesday’s run also wasn’t particularly stellar. I just wasn’t really feeling it. I got a side stitch and my legs felt heavy the whole time (probably a result of Monday’s speedwork). However, I made up for Monday and Tuesday in a big way this morning.

I woke up early so I could get some green tea, oats and a banana into me before I headed out. I thought about doing a big Green Lake – Lake Union – Burke-Gillman – Ravenna loop but in the end I decided to keep it simple and just do laps of Green Lake. I don’t usually post my training run mile splits but these are pretty impressive.

Mile - Pace (min/mile)

   1 -  9:52

   2 -  9:44

   3 - 10:32 (incl 1 min walk break)

   4 - 10:05

   5 - 10:30 (incl 1 min walk break & gel)

   6 -  9:52

   7 -  9:55 (incl 1 min walk break)

   8 -  9:27

   9 -  9:26 (incl 1 min walk break & gel)

  10 -  8:31

  11 -  8:38 (incl 45 sec walk break)

I averaged 10:09 min/mile for the first five miles. That’s a bit quicker than a usual long run for me but not really notable. I was feeling great at that point so I decided to pick up the pace a bit. Things got really crazy in the last 3 miles when I decided to try and run at half marathon race pace (9:09 min/mile = 1:59:55). I averaged 8:52 min/mile for the last 3 miles. I was really rolling in miles 9 and 10. Mile 11 was a bit more of a struggle but I tried to imagine I was finishing a race. Over the 11 miles I averaged 9:41 min/mile. I’m sure I’ve never averaged less than 10 min/mile for a long run before. This run was a great confidence booster. A 1:59:55 half marathon actually looks doable and if everything aligns right a few minutes less than that might even be possible!

On Friday of this week I moved from my Wallingford apartment where I’d lived for 4 years to an apartment in Green Lake. Moving is tough. It pretty much turned my life upside down for a week so it’s amazing that I managed to get all my running workouts in last week. I didn’t get any cross training in but I did carry a lot of boxes on moving day! All in all it was a good work of training. I realize though, now that I’ve moved, I’m going to have to create a new repertoire of running routes. Of course, most of them will still involve laps of Green Lake!