Marathon Training – Week 3 – Galloping Goose
I’m currently up in Victoria for the Labour Day long weekend. Yesterday I did my long run along the Galloping Goose trail out from Victoria to Thetis Lake and back. The trail was great although there were portions with very little shade which was rough since it got pretty hot on the way back. My legs and feet held up well until mile 15 but after that it was a slog to get home. That means my leg threshold is moving up though and that’s what matters. I had 3 Clif shot gels and 20 oz of Gatorade out of the road. My energy was good throughout so I feel as though I have my nutrition needs pretty much under control. That’s one less thing to worry about!
| 25/08 | XT | Pilates |
| 26/08 | 6.5 miles | Tempo run: 4.5mi @ 8:34/8:31/8:33/8:33/8:21 min/mile |
| 27/08 | XT | Pilates |
| 28/08 | 6.0 miles | Easy run: avg 159 bpm, 10:54 min/mile |
| 29/08 | - | Rest Day |
| 30/08 | 18.0 miles | Long run: avg 170 bpm, 10:57 min/mile |
| 31/08 | 4.0 miles | Recovery run: avg 156 bpm, 11:11 min/mile |
| Total | 34.5 miles | YTD: 806.7 miles |
I should also mention that I had a great tempo run on Tuesday. My last few tempo runs haven’t felt so good but this time I was able to tune into a “comfortably hard” pace and maintain it. I stopped after 4.5 miles (as was on my schedule) but I felt as though I could have gone for longer. Also check out my heart rates on Thursday and Sunday! They’re less than 160 bpm which is perfect for easy and recovery runs. My long run heart rate was ridiculously high (probably partly due to heat) but I’m choosing to focus on the positive here. It’s nice to have a solid training week in the bank!
Marathon Training – Week 2 – Specificity
My first run of this training week was a 2×1mi speedwork session. I was aiming to do those two miles in about 7:54. I didn’t look at my Garmin during the speed miles and somehow I managed to go under my goal pace to 7:37 and then 7:39. So it seems I can do speedwork at or faster than goal pace but not tempo runs. I have no idea what this means. In the end I paid for the effort with tight/sore hamstrings for the next few days. I did a warm-up mile and some light stretching but I guess it wasn’t quite enough before picking up the pace. I’ll have to do better at that as the number of repeats increase.
Sunday’s long run took me back to part of the Lake Washington / McGilva / Galer / Madison / Interlaken section of the Seattle marathon course (approximately miles 19-23 on the course). That’s my plan for dealing with the late Seattle hills: specificity training. I’m going to run the hills every week I can and hopefully by the time the race rolls around they won’t seem so daunting or so big! This week I made it until mile 12-13 before my legs started to seriously protest. The thought of blueberry/banana pancakes got me through the last mile! I was pretty much toast for the rest of the day though. I napped “Allison style” for about 2 hours in the afternoon. Then I spent the rest of the day watching the last day of the Olympics including the men’s marathon which was very exciting. CBC had great coverage and of course, since I’m on the West coast, NBC pretended they were showing it “live” a few hours later.
| 18/08 | - | Rest day |
| 19/08 | 6.0 miles | Speedwork: 2×1mi in 7:37/7:39 min |
| 20/08 | XT | Pilates |
| 21/08 | 6.0 miles | Easy run: avg 164 bpm, 11:17 min/mile |
| 22/08 | - | Rest Day |
| 23/08 | 16.2 miles | Long run: avg 168 bpm, 11:08 min/mile |
| 24/08 | 4.0 miles | Recovery run: avg 161 bpm, 11:09 min/mile |
| Total | 32.2 miles | YTD: 772.2 miles |
Good Times in Thunder Bay
Last weekend my family went to Thunder Bay to attend my cousin’s wedding. My Dad spent the majority of his childhood growing up in Thunder Bay. I think the last time we were there as a family was in 1986 on the way back to Ottawa from Burma. I was up twice during my undergrad to play basketball against Lakehead University in 1998 and 1999. That’s where the fans sang “Cecilia” while I tried to shoot a foul shot during a game. I missed.
The journey started on Wednesday afternoon when Dad and I drove up to Vancouver from Seattle. On Thursday morning we conveened with Alli, Nic and Matt in the Vancouver airport for the trip to Thunder Bay. Our routing was geographically inefficient since we first flew to Toronto and then flew back westward to Thunder Bay. As I recall we couldn’t get a good connection through Winnipeg which would have made more geographical sense. We arrived in Thunder Bay and headed strait to my uncle’s house to join the rehearsal dinner. Things were winding down by the time we arrived but we still managed to take the largest Cotton Cousins photo ever taken. It includes all 6 cousins with the surname Cotton and a couple of significant others but it still missing one branch of the family. Maybe someday we’ll find a really large staircase and get everyone together!
The wedding was on Friday afternoon and it was lovely. As often happens, we had some time to kill between the wedding ceremony and the wedding reception. First we took a bunch of family photos at the church. Then we went to a local sporting goods store in downtown Thunder Bay to buy Alli a new softball glove. The store was probably 90% full of hockey equipment but did have a good selection of gloves. The salesperson who helped us seemed surprisingly unphased by us showing up in all our finery. In the end Alli did get a glove (that matched her dress) so the trip was a success.
After the softball glove shopping we drove through town to see the houses where Dad lived when he was a kid. Then after some down town (and Olympic watching) it was off to the reception. One of my favourite moments was when Trish thanked her Dad for coming out of the Bush for her wedding (see: The Wabakimi Project). Cindy, Alli and I also managed to not catch the bouquet. That’s a tradition I’m just not all that into. Cake, however, is a tradition that I’m into and it was delicious.
On Saturday morning I went on a 14 mile run. After a nap (and more Olympic watching) we headed over to Trish and Glenn’s place for an open house. I don’t know how they had the energy to have 100 people over the day after their wedding but it was great to have more time to visit! On Sunday we began the long trek back home. The rest of the photos from the weekend are here.
Congratulations Trish and Glenn!
Marathon Training – Week 1 – Running in Thunder Bay
I can now list Thunder Bay on the list of cities in which I’ve run. I was in town for my cousin’s wedding and had a 14 miler on the schedule for the morning after the wedding reception. Thanks to the Thunder Bay Recreational Trails website I was able to make out a 7 mile route almost strictly on paved trail from my hotel to Lakehead University. Matt joined me for the outward portion of my run and I met my Dad at the turn around point for a water/gatorade refill. The trails were great but it was a hot morning and the run took its toll on me. I was hurting by about the 10th mile. My heart rate was ridiculously high but I’m willing to blame that on not enough sleep, the 3 drinks I had the night before and of course the heat and lack of shade.
| 11/08 | - | Rest day |
| 12/08 | 6.0 miles | Tempo run: 4mi @ 8:31/8:27/8:40/8:33 min/mile |
| 13/08 | 6.0 miles | Easy run: avg 164 bpm, 10:45 min/mile |
| 14/08 | - | Rest Day: fly to Thunder Bay |
| 15/08 | - | Rest Day: Trish’s Wedding |
| 16/08 | 14.2 miles | Long run: avg 170 bpm, 11:26 min/mile |
| 77/08 | 4.0 miles | Recovery run: avg 155 bpm, 11:29 min/mile |
| Total | 30.2 miles | YTD: 740.0 miles |
The other highlight of the week was watching the women’s Olympic marathon on Saturday night. Going in I was a little worried about how much coverage there would be but as it turns out between NBC, CBC and SRC I barely missed a minute. I was crushed when Deena Kastor had to drop out and I was inspired by Paula Radcliffe pushing through to the finish. I can’t run a single mile at the pace that these women ran 26.2 and yet I felt a real connection with what was going on half way around the world. So cool. I can’t wait to watch the men’s race next weekend!
Marathon Training Starts Tomorrow
On November 30 (16 weeks from today) I will be running the Seattle Marathon. This will be my second marathon and this time my goal is to beat 4 hours. That means taking more than 25 minutes off my previous finish time while running on a more difficult course. Aim big, I say.
Below you can see my training plan (or view it as a pdf here). It’s a home brew plan based on several Runner’s World Smart Coach programs. I didn’t choose a pre-made program because I needed to adjust for a 12 day vacation in September, the Victoria Half Marathon (a tune-up race for me) in October and a Vegas trip in November. I didn’t want to run my last 20 miler in Vegas so I moved it to the following Tuesday (I have the day off for Veteran’s (Remembrance) Day). Then I decided to use a “phase shift” so that in November my training weeks will run from Wednesday – Tuesday instead of my usual Monday – Sunday. The process of creating the training plan was actually quite enjoyable and I’m confident that this plan will get me to the starting line in good shape.
Stay tuned for weekly training updates and general marathon obsession for the next 4 months!!
Vancouver x2x
This is almost 2 weeks late but I feel like I need to do a post about the weekend my family spent in Vancouver before Dad and my birthday. This was titled the “x2x” weekend because we were celebrating the birthday when I turned x years old and Dad turned 2x years old.
The first weekend event was Bard on the Beach on Friday Night. Bard is a very cool experience. We had tickets but there are no assigned seats so we got there early to line up. While we were in line we had a delicious picnic packed by Allison and Michelle. While waiting we given a brightly coloured pieces of paper on which to write our names. Then when the doors we went into the tent and taped our names onto our seats of choice. Then we had time to enjoy a glass of wine and the view. On Friday night we saw Titus Andronicus (a play none of us had seen before). It was, um, a very good presentation of the play. The truth is that it’s not really a happy story and there are a lot of deaths. I’m more for the use of a red handkerchief to represent blood than actual fake blood so I spent a good part of certain scenes looking away from the stage!
Saturday morning started with watching the Individual Time Trial in the Tour de France. We had a lazy morning and then in the afternoon we did birthday presents. Normally birthday presents would take about 10 minutes but not this year. My family went way overboard! Inspired by my “30 on 30″ theme they got me 30 presents! On top of that, all the presents had something to do with the number 30. The full list is here. Some of my favourites were: a fleece blanket that was 30 square feet, 3 pairs of toe socks for running (for 30 toes), an SPF 30 bucket hat and 30 Lindt chocolate eggs. It was so much fun. Apparently my they’d been working on this for months and it involved many emails, cross-country shopping and I can only assume a spreadsheet. Here I am very excited about getting to open 30 presents!
On Saturday evening we went back to Bard on the Beach to see The Tempest. Things were a bit different this time around because it was one of the “Bard-B-Q & Fireworks” night. At intermission we were treated to a salmon barbecue dinner and then after the performance we had coffee, dessert and a prime private seating area to view the Celebration of Light fireworks. It was such a cool night. We also managed to take a nice family picture before the show.
On Sunday morning (after watching the last stage of the Tour) Mom, Dad, Matt and I headed to Granville Island. Matt and I did a nice easy 5 mile run while Mom and Dad went for a walk. Then we poked around some toy stores, a seafood store and stopped for a morning coffee. We ended up sitting around long enough that it was time for lunch. So we headed over to our favourite Granville lunch spot for sandwiches and yam fries. The afternoon was pretty low-key as everyone was in need of a rest.
Sunday evening was Dad and my “official” birthday dinner. We went to the Watermark Restaurant on Kits beach. We had a nice meal with a lovely view of the sunset. It was a wonderful wonderful weekend. The full set of photos are here and of course it couldn’t end without taking another Cotton Cousins (and friends) photo.
