Half Marathon Training – Week 7 – Half on Sunday
This week I did my usual pre-race taper of one five, four and three miler.
| 19/04 | - | Rest day |
| 20/04 | 4.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:17 min/mile |
| 21/04 | 5.0 mi | Tempo Run: 3mi @ 8:32/8:32/8:23 min/mile |
| 22/04 | 3.0 mi | Easy run: avg 9:58 min/mile |
| 23/04 | - | Rest day |
| 24/04 | - | Rest day |
| 25/04 | 13.1 mi | Half marathon race day |
| Total | 25.1 mi | YTD: 383.9 miles |
I have decided to take a fairly low key approach to Sunday’s half marathon. My main goal will be in finish in under 2:00. On a good day I think I could get closer to 1:55 but I’m not fussed about it. I want to save something for the Sporting Life 10K I’m running next weekend because I’m definitely going to make a PB attempt there. My 10K PB of 54:02 is from 2006 and is the weakest of my PBs so its just asking to be broken. The other issue is that I’ve actually never seen 80% of the Waterloo course and I know there are some hills. The race director sent out an elevation chart (below). There’s a total of 109m (358 ft) of climbing which isn’t too bad but it’s definitely not flat.
So my plan is to start slow and try and settle into a groove somewhere between 5:27 min/km and 5:42 min/km. Tune back in on Sunday or Monday for a race report!
Half Marathon Training – Week 6 – Run with Alice
I had a rough start to the week. It was a busier than average work week which left me pretty drained. By Thursday’s run I was really dragging. In fact, I decided to cut the run short by a mile because my legs just were not feeling up to it. I don’t think it’s an injury; my legs were just super tight and sore. I’ll admit I haven’t been great about stretching over the past few months so I may be paying the price now.
On Saturday I did an easy run with my friend Alice. Alice has taken up running this year after giving birth to her beautiful daughter Lillian last October. She’s been kicking some serious butt and will also be doing the Waterloo half marathon next weekend. You can read all about her running (and mothering) journey on her blog. So on Saturday I biked out to Alice’s house and then we did a 10.6km run from there. We had a great time chatting about family, nutrition, work and everything in between. Oh and it snowed/hailed during our run! We ran on country roads which is a real treat. One of the things I like about living in Waterloo is how quickly you can be out of town and in the countryside.
The Waterloo Half Marathon is now 7 days away. Currently the forecast is for rain, a low of 9 overnight and a high of 16 for Sunday. I’m not too bothered by this. Of course I would prefer 10C and sunny but I’ll run in any weather. I think the biggest problem would be wind not rain anyway. I’m going to spend the next few days reflecting on my current fitness and coming up with a plan for the race. Of course, I’ve been known to race the best when I have no plan so maybe I shouldn’t bother!
| 05/04 | - | Rest day |
| 06/04 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 9:55 min/mile |
| 07/04 | 6.5 mi | Speedwork: 3x1mi in 7:59/8:03/8:01 min |
| 08/04 | 4.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:18 min/mile |
| 09/04 | - | Rest day |
| 10/04 | 6.6 mi XT |
Easy run: avg 13:33 min/mile Cycling: 17.9km to and from Alice’s house |
| 11/04 | 8.0 mi | Long run: avg 10:13 min/mile |
| Total | 30.1 mi | YTD: 358.8 miles |
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Half Marathon Training – Week 5 – Typical
Hmm, it’s Sunday night and I’m trying to remember how training went this week. I’m pretty sure it was the usual story: tough tempo run on Wednesday, a decent long run on the weekend and a few other easy runs thrown in. Yes, it was just a typical training week.
| 05/04 | - | Rest day |
| 06/04 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:10 min/mile |
| 07/04 | 6.0 mi | Tempo run: 4mi @ 8:47/8:46/8:37/8:30 min/mile |
| 08/04 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 9:53 min/mile |
| 09/04 | - | Rest day |
| 10/04 | 4.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:06 min/mile |
| 11/04 | 10.0 mi | Long run: avg 9:51 min/mile |
| Total | 30.0 mi | YTD: 328.7 miles |
In other news, on Wednesday I found out that I did not get into the NYC marathon via the lottery this year. Although I can’t find any data to support this I had estimated the chance of getting in to be approximately 25%. I plan to enter the lottery again next year. At the very latest I’d be able to run NYC in 2013 as long as they let you in during year four if you’ve been rejected through the lottery for three consecutive years. My current tentative plan is now to run the Road2Hope Hamilton Marathon in November as my fall marathon. It’s fast, small, close and late in the fall allowing for maximal training. Then in January 2011 a few friends and I have signed up to do the Walt Disney World Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge. That’s a half marathon on Saturday followed by a full marathon on Sunday. Crazy.
Half Marathon Training – Week 4 – Recovery
I took last week pretty easy: just a couple of mid week five milers. I went up to Toronto for Easter so I did Friday’s 9 miler with my friend Laura. We did the run in the late morning and got caught by surprise with how warm and sunny it was outside. We ended up walking the last 5km because although we were doing OK neither of us wanted to get heat stroke. We both got a bit of a sunburn on our arms but we had enough water with us to avoid any major heat troubles. It will take a few weeks to get acclimatized to running in temperatures above 20C. On Sunday we did a double workout because we’re awesome. I did 3 miles on the treadmill followed (a couple hours later) by a 30km bike ride. This was my first trip out on my new bike and it was great. I’m definitely looking forward to incorporating more cycling as cross training into my schedule this spring and summer!
| 29/03 | - | Rest day |
| 30/03 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 9:29 min/mile |
| 31/03 | - | Rest day |
| 01/04 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 9:57 min/mile |
| 02/04 | 9.4 mi | Long run: avg 14:39 min/mile (walked last 5km) |
| 03/04 | - | Rest day |
| 04/04 | 3.0 mi XT |
Easy run: avg 9:40 min/mile Cycling: 30km avg ~20 km/h |
| Total | 22.4 mi | YTD: 298.7 miles |
Half Marathon Training – Weeks 1-3 – Turning a corner
I just might have turned a corner in the last three weeks.
First, let me summarize February. I ran a total of 82.0 miles (132.0 km) during the month of February. This is a fairly low number for me but actually it was composed of three fairly solid weeks of 25+27+30 miles and then one week totally off while I was on vacation in Whistler (at the Olympics!).
I had intended to jump right into Half Marathon training with the Ryan Hall program during the first week of March but it just didn’t happen. The combination of jet lag and poor weather conditions meant I couldn’t get the speed work and tempo run sessions in during the work week. Frankly, the program just seemed overwhelming. I’d been feeling a bit lethargic and I was having some pain and tightness on my right side. Not really the best place to be starting into a hard core training program.
So moved on to Plan B. I’m now doing a more conservative Smart Coach training program for the Waterloo Half Marathon at the end of April. I’m not making any big goals for this race but three weeks in to the program I can say that while I’m far from PB shape I’m feeling a lot better than I did in February.
Week 1
Wednesday’s tempo run was the first hard run I’d done in months. In the past I’ve done tempo runs at around 8:30 pace. Given I was coming off months of slow running I was just happy that all the tempo miles came in under 9:00. Over the next few months I’d like to see my tempo pace drop but I’m going to be patient and trust it will happen eventually.
During January and February I did most of my runs on the same stretch of bike path and sidewalks that were cleared of snow. By Saturday warm temperatures had gotten rid of most of the snow around here I decided to revisit some local paths/trails that I hadn’t run on since the fall. There were some very muddy sections and also some icy sections so I walked when I needed to. I didn’t look at my watch once during the run because I wanted to run by feel. I felt really good until about the last 1.5 miles at which point I started to tire. I probably should have taken a gel or something to keep my energy up.
| 08/03 | - | Rest day |
| 09/03 | 4.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:22 min/mile |
| 10/03 | 5.0 mi | Tempo run: 3mi @ 8:54/8:56/8:37 min/mile |
| 11/03 | 4.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:16 min/mile |
| 12/03 | - | Rest day |
| 13/03 | 9.0 mi | Long run: avg 10:47 min/mile |
| 14/03 | 4.0 mi | Recovery run: avg 10:47 min/mile |
| Total | 26.0 mi | YTD: 218.3 miles |
Week 2
We had glorious spring like weather during this week. We also went onto Daylight Savings Time which meant I moved my runs from early morning to late afternoon to avoid running in the dark. On Tuesday it was 15C and sunny so I ran in shorts for the first time this year! I might have been a bit overexcited for my speedwork on Wednesday because I went out way too hard during the first mile. I have no business running sub 8:00 quite yet! I was in Ottawa for the weekend so I did my long run on one of my favorite all time running routes along the Rideau Canal. Once again I avoided looking at my watch and took a few walk breaks. This time I consumed about 100 calories during the run which I think helped me finish much stronger than the previous week’s nine miler.
| 15/03 | - | Rest day |
| 16/03 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 9:55 min/mile |
| 17/03 | 5.0 mi | Speedwork: 2x1mi in 7:46/8:10 min |
| 18/03 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:06 min/mile |
| 19/03 | - | Rest day |
| 20/03 | 4.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:17 min/mile (treadmill) |
| 21/03 | 9.0 mi | Long run: avg 10:28 min/mile |
| Total | 28.0 mi | YTD: 246.3 miles |
Week 3
By this week I was starting to feel like I was definitely back in a groove. Wednesday’s tempo run was a good challenge. I managed to average an 8:33 min/mile pace over the four miles which is faster than I expected to be able to pull off. There was a fair bit of variation in my splits because I ran two laps of a two mile course which meant some miles had a headwind and some had a tailwind. Saturday’s long run was tough. I just didn’t feel like myself for the first half of the run. I think it was a combination of and indulgent dinner on friday night and a lack of sleep. Things improved eventually and I got the 10 miles done. My hip flexors were tight on Sunday so I took things easy for my recovery run.
| 22/03 | - | Rest day |
| 23/03 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:11 min/mile |
| 24/03 | 6.0 mi | Tempo run: 4mi @ 8:28/8:42/8:24/8:38 min/mile |
| 25/03 | 5.0 mi | Easy run: avg 10:01 min/mile |
| 26/03 | - | Rest day |
| 27/03 | 10.0 mi | Long run: avg 10:24 min/mile |
| 28/03 | 4.0 mi | Recovery run: avg 10:44 min/mile |
| Total | 30.0 mi | YTD: 276.3 miles |
I’m feeling much more positive about the Waterloo half now that I’m through these first three weeks of training. Next week will be a recovery week and after that there will only be three more weeks of training before the taper week and the race!
January Update
I ran 88.0 miles / 141.6 km during the month of January. This is less than I’ve done in previous years but this year I’ve had to run through a “real” winter. Seattle winters had their share of challenges (dark, windy, wet, wet and wet) but they didn’t have -20C temperatures and killer windchills. I’ve now managed to accumulate the necessary winter running gear and feel like I know have the winter thing sorted out. The funniest thing is that I’ve been running in my downhill ski mitts. This makes me look like a boxer.
I’ve mapped out my running plans and goals for the first half of 2010 below.
- January: Base training, get long run distance up to 10 miles (check)
- February: Two more weeks of base training, one week off while in Whistler, then start spring training program
- March: Work through the Ryan Hall half marathon training plan
- April: Continue training plan, run Waterloo half marathon (race-simulation long run)
- May: Sporting Life 10K (go for a PB if recovered from Waterloo half), Toronto Women’s half marathon (going for a PB and sub 1:50:00)
- June: Recover recover recover, possibly run a half in NOTL at the end of the month for fun
That’s the plan.
2009: Running Year in Review
While 2009 was very much a year of change for me, running was a reassuring constant in my life. I ran a total of 1255.3 miles or 2020.2 km last year which just a bit more than I ran in 2008. Part of me wishes I’d taken a break in December and hit 2009 km right on the dot!
Highlights of the year included bidding farewell to Seattle with a personal best in the Rock n Roll half marathon and then showing Ontario I was back by running a personal best in the Toronto Marathon alongside my good friend Douglas. All told I set four personal bests and won my first ever age group award. That will be a record that’s hard to repeat.
As for 2010, I’ve already committed to two half marathons and a 10K in the spring. I’m also looking forward to another fall marathon where I hope to finally come in on the short side of four hours. Finally I’m toying with the idea of running a 25K trail race in the fall. There’s lots to look forward to and many miles more to run!
Fun Run Report: 2009 Santa Shuffle KW 5K
Last Saturday morning I ran the local Santa Shuffle 5K. It was an untimed “fun run” so everything was pretty free and loose. There was no official start or finish line and Santa counted down the start. I’d say there were about 150-200 runners at the event. Looking around, I really couldn’t gauge how fast the crowd was. There was a lot of technical gear being worn but it was cold so the cotton t-shirt metric wasn’t really useful.
The course was two loops around and through Waterloo Park. The loop was sort of funny because it actually crossed itself at one point. I’m glad I wasn’t in charge of directing traffic there! As soon as Santa said GO! a group of really fast runners broke away. I could see at least two women in the group and probably six to eight others. My goal was to run sub 25:00 so I set my Garmin to lap each km and focused on keeping my pace just below the 5:00 min/km mark.
My first km came in a 4:39 which was a big quick so I focused on holding a steady hard pace. I was passed by a women in the first km but I never let her get more than 20m ahead of me and eventually reeled her in about 5 minutes later. The course was quite twisty in parts and after the second km I was running alone although I could see two men about 40 and 80 m ahead of me.
During the second loop I started to really feel the effort. I made a turn just after the 3km mark and the volunteer there told me I was the something-th female. I really couldn’t tell what number she had said. I was just excited to hear a comment like that. I’ve never run a race where I’ve been in a position to hear a ranking! I figured I was probably running in fourth or fifth and just keep chugging along. My main goal was not to get caught from behind by the woman I’d passed. I had no idea how much of a lead I had on her but I wanted to trick myself into thinking she was close.
I tried to turn on the jets in the fifth km, hold off any one that was behind me and push to the finish. My Garmin hit 5km as I crested a hill about 200m before the course actually ended. I ran down the hill past some spectators and someone holding a clipboard, figured I’d crossed the invisible finish line and hit my Garmin. My km splits were:
4:39/4:52/4:49/4:40/4:53/0:56
My Garmin mapped the course at 5.2km with a finish time of 24:49. My cumulative time at my 5km split was 23:53 which would make this my third fastest 5km (out of ten). I have decided not to record this among my official finish times though since the course wasn’t certified.
After the race the runners went back to the Waterloo Rec Complex for snacks. I passed the volunteer who had told me my placing and she asked me if I’d held onto my spot. I told her I had. Of course I didn’t know what place that was but I was starting to suspect that maybe I’d come in third because (1) why would she ask me if I’d held onto fourth or fifth? and (2) one of the women who I thought had been in front of me had actually finished in a few minutes after me.
Back at the Rec Complex there was hot chocolate, coffee, fruit and granola bars. At the awards ceremony I was announced as the third place woman! I now am the proud owner of a Running Room bronze medal! I know it was just a fun run and it was a small race but I’m still quite pleased with myself.
Warsaw, Poland
We arrived in Warsaw via train from Krakow. It was early evening by the time we checked into our hotel so we headed out towards the Old Town to explore a bit but we didn’t get too far because it started to rain quite soon after we’d left. Instead we dashed into the closest restaurant around for dinner. During dinner we saw the most ridiculously huge ice cream sundaes being delivered to customers. We were too full to indulge in any ice cream that night but little did we know that Warsaw is some sort of ice cream capital.
The hotel we stayed at in Warsaw was a bit swankier than our previous hotels and lived up to the Cathy and Cecilia European breakfast trifecta: smoked salmon, nutella and cappuccinos. We were in breakfast heaven.
In the morning we had a half day tour of Warsaw. We had a driver and a guide for this tour since we visited some sights that weren’t within walking distance of our hotel. We visited a former summer palace of one of the Polish kings, a monument to the Jewish ghetto that was destroyed by the Nazis and the Royal Palace. We also had a late morning ice cream while on our tour at what our guide told us was the best ice cream shop in Warsaw. We thought we’d be able to remember this particular shop because it had “Lody” written outside which we assumed was the shop name. It turns out lody means ice cream in Polish so this wasn’t exactly a distinguishing characteristic! There was literally an ice cream on every corner in the Old Town. Below is a picture of the Mermaid statue that sits in the center of the Old Town Market Place. Unlike Krakow, Warsaw was almost entirely destroyed during WWII. Here’s an image what the market place looked like in 1945.
In the afternoon we walked through the Old Town into the New Town and visited the Maria Skłodowska-Curie museum. The museum is housed in the building where she was born. Although the collection wasn’t large it was very interesting. I guess Mom and I must be big Marie Curie’s fans because we visited her tomb in the Pantheon when were Paris two years ago
As a side note the Dalai Lama had lunch in our hotel on this day. We secretly think he might have been staying there too but we have no confirmation other than miscellaneous security looking guys hanging around in the lobby. Also we were unable to visit the ballroom at the Royal Castle because he had received honorary Warsaw citizenship there earlier in the day.
We had a very leisurely second day in Warsaw. It was the last full day of our vacation and were were all about underachieving. First we lingered over a multi course breakfast. Then we walked down Warsaw’s “Royal Way” for an hour until we reached the Park Łazienkowski where there are both peacocks and squirrels. Our guide on the previous day had been very excited about the prospect of seeing squirrels. We spent about an hour in the park (relaxing and working on a cryptic crossword) and then walked back to our hotel for a late lunch of salads and cappuccinos.
In the afternoon we read and napped (well one of us napped, you can guess who). Later we went for our dinner at a traditional Polish restaurant in the New Town and then stopped off to buy ice cream cones which we ate while sauntering back to our hotel savouring our last night in Europe.
The next morning we were up early to have breakfast and then catch our ride to the airport. We flew to Frankfurt and then on to Ottawa. While the airline agent was checking my passport before admitting me to the waiting lounge he actually noticed that today was my birthday and wished me a happy birthday! I was impressed. Dad and Alli had flown in from Vancouver arriving in Ottawa about 30 minutes before us so they were there to great us when we arrived.
Krakow, Poland
We flew from Vilnius to Krakow via Warsaw on LOT airlines. The flights went smoothly and we arrived at our hotel at about 6pm. We took a short orientation walk around the Old Town and then set about finding somewhere to eat dinner. We settled on a small vegetarian restaurant where Mom had kofta curry and I had a mexican stew. Dinner, with water, rang in at about 12 CAD which set a new record for cheap eats!
As at all our previous stops we were excited to check out breakfast on our first morning. This hotel got points for having the largest coffee cups and nutella. After breakfast we set out on a private walking tour of the Old Town of Krakow. Several of the usual stops on the tour were closed because they are churches and don’t allow visitors on Sunday mornings. However, we had an excellent guide and she gave us advice regarding which churches to visit in the afternoon. We were able to visit the Wawel Cathedral which was used for coronations of kings since the 13th century. We also saw where Pope JPII lived when he was a bishop in Krakow and Wawel Hill which is the site of a castle. Interestingly Krakow was not destroyed during WWII so it has maintained much of its character.
After our tour we had lunch at a local “Milk Bar.” These were canteens run by the state during the communist era providing cheap filling meals to the poorest citizens. There are still a few remaining. We split one order of cheese/potato pierogies and one order of meat pierogies. Given that we were in Poland it seemed that eating pierogies was a necessity. After lunch we visited the church of St Francis (above) which had very impressive Art Nouveau stained glass work and St Mary’s Church with an impressive high alter. After being on our feet for the day we retired to our hotel room to recharge with a cryptic crossword.
The next morning we went to visit the Wieliczka salt mine. The mine was operational from the 13th century until 1996. You can only enter the mine with a guide but instead of goining a large English group we had arranged to have our own guide for just the two of us. This was nice since we were actually able to hear the guide and we were able to move slightly faster than some of the larger groups.
We visited the upper three (of nine) levels of the mine and reached a maximum depth of 135 metres. There were many chambers in which the miners had carved out statues depicting folk stories and kings etc. There were also several chapels and of course a restaurant and souvenier shop. Below is a statue of Nicholas Copernicus carved out of salt.
In the afternoon we walked out of the Old Town and into the Jewish quarter. Later we went back to our favourite vegetarian restaurant from the first night and went to a church for a one hour classical concert featuring Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
The next morning we visited the Czartoryski Museum which holds a collection of various items from Etruscan to Egyptian to Polish artifacts. The main attraction is the Da Vinci painting Lady with an Ermine which I enjoy because the subject’s name was Cecilia. Then we got some Krakow “bagels” and headed to the train station to catch our train the Warsaw.