Goofy Training – Week 6 of 22

This was the first week of the fall semester so now I’m back to teaching. It’s like someone took my life and turned the intensity up to 11. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but this week was particularly crazy. In fact on Tuesday after a dead laptop, my speedwork session and the first day lectures for both my classes I was so exhausted that I went to bed at 9pm and slept for a solid 9 hours.That’s a lot on a weeknight but it’s exactly what I need during marathon training!

When I ran the Toronto marathon last year that one place I thought my training had come up short was in doing marathon pace (MP) long runs. This year I decided to try and incorporate them into my training and this Saturday I attempted just that. I say attempted because it wasn’t a very successful run. The plan was to run 10km easy then 15km at MP (5:42 min/km = 3:59:59 marathon) and then 3km easy for a total of 28 km. The first 5km of the MP section went OK (avg 5:45 min/km) but then I hit a hill and a headwind and it went bad. I just could not hold the pace. My legs and butt tightened up and honestly, it was a battle just to keep running. My second and third 5km averages were 6:01 and 6:08 min/km. The last three 3km were a bit of a death march.

I’m still seven weeks away from the Hamilton Marathon so I’m not panicking yet. Next week I have my first 32 km (20 mile) long run. I’ll be taking it slow and easy and maybe attempt holding MP again in a couple weeks.

Goofy Training – Week 5 of 22

Another week of training is in the bank and this week’s 55.0 km is my biggest week of the year. Of course there’s more mileage on tap for next week (and the week after that …) so that record won’t last for long.

Initially I was a bit disappointed with the paces I ran during my 8km tempo run on Wednesday. My goal was to average 5:18 min/km but I was only able to average 5:22 min/km and I actually only got under 5:18 in the last km. Hmm. I decided to go back through my training archives and see how I was doing this time last year. In late August 2009, 7 weeks out from the Toronto marathon I did a 5mi tempo run at an average of 8:43 min/mi which is equivalent to 5:25 min/km. So it looks like I’m in the same or a tiny bit better place than last year which makes me feel good.

My long run was a bit tougher than I anticipated it being. Two weeks ago I did the same distance in Stratford and averaged 6:37 min/km even with spraining my ankle. However this week I did the middle 8km on the trails around the Columbia Forest neighbourhood and although there aren’t any really huge hills there’s a fair bit of up and down. In fact some of the inclines have switchbacks so that gives you a sense of the pitch. My legs were in such rough shape that when I got home I actually took an ice bath. Well, not a real ice bath, I didn’t actually use any ice. I did however fill my tub with cold tap water and sit in it for 10 minutes. Brrr. The jury is still out as to whether this helped my recovery but I’ll keep you posted!

Goofy Training – Week 4 of 22

This was a recovery week and my focus was on getting my ankle back in running form. I RICE’d for all of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday morning the swelling was mostly gone and all that was left was a lovely bluish tinge. I certainly took my first two runs back easy and I was hypersensitive to avoiding any cracks or ridges on the pavement. Thankfully my ankle seems to have bounced back and I think I can swing into full on training again next week.

On Saturday I decided to do something a little different and run part of my run at marathon pace (MP). My goal for the Hamilton Marathon is to finish in 3:59:59 which is a pace of 5:42 min/km or 9:09 min/mile. I really need to hone in on my MP so when it comes to race time I can just lock in and cruise. On Saturday I did 10km at MP with the two 5km splits coming in at averages of 5:43 and 5:36 min/km. The pace felt pretty good but of course right now I couldn’t dream of doing it for four hours! But that’s what training is all about. I’m hoping to incorporate MP into a few more of my long runs building up to doing maybe 20 km at MP before the race.

Goofy Training – Week 3 of 22

I roll my ankles all the time. Seriously, it is a near daily occurrence for me. What I don’t often do is roll my ankle, loose my balance and belly flop onto the pavement like I did 18km into my 24km run on Saturday morning in Stratford. It was truly comical. I was doing a shoulder check preparing to cross the street and deposit an empty gel wrapper in a trash bin when my left foot hit an uneven ridge between the concrete curb and asphalt road. From there I hit the ground: left knee, left hand, right hand and belly flop.

Fortunately there were no cars on the road and I was able to at least get up and sit on the curb immediately. Another runner had seen me go down and came over the check that I was OK. My hands and knee were scraped and a bit bloody but it was mostly my pride that was hurt. My ankle felt alright so I decided to try and walk it off for about 400m. I was actually less than 2km from the hotel and I considered bagging the run right there. Once I started moving though my ankle felt about 90% so I completed the run and then launched into ankle recovery mode.

Ironically when I ran in Stratford last year I also had ankle problems and needed my Dad to get me a bag of ice from the hotel restaurant during brunch. By the time I made it down to brunch I must have been looking a little worse for wear because one of the hotel managers brought me an “amuse-bouche” of two crackers topped with peanut butter and jam while I was waiting for my order of blueberry pancakes to arrive!

Obviously I didn’t run on Sunday and I’ll be taking a few days off this week too. My ankle is still swollen and bruised but I don’t have any pain while walking so I don’t think it’s a major injury.

Goofy Training – Week 2 of 22

I got a little distracted from marathon training this week. I got all my running workouts in but towards the end of the week I found myself spending a lot of time thinking about triathlon. Early in the week I discovered that there’s an outdoor 50m pool less than 2km from my apartment. So on Thursday morning I went to check it out and I’m so glad that I did. I do 2000m of freestyle at 7am and felt amazing. In fact I enjoyed this swim so much that I’ve decided that next summer I’m going to try and do a triathlon. After a bit of research I’m seriously thinking of doing the Guelph Lake Sprint Triathlon in June 2011. Sure I’m looking way far in the future but it’s going to give me something to get excited about after the Goofy!

Now back to marathon/Goofy training. I had a full day of socializing planned for Saturday so I decided to do my long run on Friday afternoon. I headed out at about 6:30pm and did a big loop of the northwest side of the city seeking out as many gravel trails as I could find. In particular I ran on the trails on the outskirts of the Columbia Forest neighbourhood for the first time. They were surprisingly hilly including several sections with small switchbacks. I plan to go back at some point and explore the trails within the forest. It was just too dark to head into the woods on Friday night. I’m hoping that will help prepare me for the 25K Run for the Toad trail race.

I’m glad that I’ve hit the 20km long run distance. Next week I venture beyond the half marathon distance for the first time in a very long time!

Goofy Training – Week 1 of 22

I promise this is a post about running not tennis but I since spent last weekend in Toronto with my parents attending the Rogers Cup and I couldn’t resist posting one tennis picture. This is Roger Federer playing Novak Djokovic in the Saturday evening semi-final match. Federer went on to lose to Andy Murray in Sunday’s final.

Now back to running. The first week of Marathon/Goofy training is in the bank. I originally had two mid-week easy runs scheduled but I combined them into one longer run after work on Tuesday with my friend Alice. We’re doing the Horror Hill 15K run at the end of October so we got together to train on the course. It was ridiculously hot and humid but we took it easy, drank loads of water and gatorade and got it done. Actually hot and humid is a good way to describe all my runs this week. I’m finding it very difficult to gauge my pace these days. I’m running slower than I’d like to be but I don’t know how much of that to attribute to the heat and how much to attribute to my fitness level. I’ve been ignoring my Garmin a lot lately and just running by feel. Hopefully by the time the temperatures start to drop I’ll have regained some fitness and I’ll be able to compare my paces to previous training cycles.

Overall I’d give myself a grade of B for this week. I hit my goal mileage of 40km for the week but I didn’t get any cross training in. I just learnt that the city of Waterloo has an outdoor 50m pool that’s open during the summer. How did I not know about this? My goal is to get there in the next week to check it out and get some cross training in.

Marathon and Goofy Training Starts Today

Today is the first day of my Fall 2010 Marathon / 2011 Goofy training program. Of course it was a rest day so instead of running I’m blogging. My target fall marathon is the Road2Hope Hamilton Marathon which is 13 weeks away and Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge is 9 weeks after that. My “home brew” training program is below.

I chose the Hamilton because (1) it was the latest fall marathon I could find in Ontario and (2) it ranked #4 for proportion of Boston qualifiers in 2009. I’m not looking to BQ this year but I might be ready for that in a couple of years so it would be good to test drive course. I have a couple of exciting tune-up races also scheduled for the fall. I’ll be doing my first trail race at the Run for the Toad 25K and I’ll be running the Horror Hill 15K with a friend. Thirteen weeks isn’t very long to get ready for a marathon but I’m going to make it work. My goad for this race is to finally beat four hours. 3:59:59 here I come.

The Goofy is a whole other story. For those uninitiated into the world of running it’s a half marathon on Saturday morning followed by a full marathon on Sunday morning. I’ll be going down to Florida to visit my best friend from high school and then going to Disneyworld with three friends. I don’t expect to be making any PB attempts at Disney but you never know.

Of course this training program is just a guide. I’m already mixing this up this week and doing a long training run tomorrow evening!