Race Report: 2010 Hamilton Marathon
Pre Race
I awoke at 4:40am on race morning and launched into action. This was not nearly as painful as it could have been because it was the night we went off daylight savings time and thus only felt like 5:40am to my body. I quickly made some oats and tea for breakfast, gathered my pre packed bags and hit to road to Hamilton at around 5:10am. The drive was uneventful and I arrived at Confederation Park around 6:15am. I was able to pick up my race bib and shirt, make a quick pit stop and immediately board a waiting school bus for the ride up to the finish line. While on the bus I ate a banana with some peanut butter and drank about 300mL of water. The start line was at Saltfleet High School (or as I prefer to think of it, Star Fleet High School) and the runners were gathered in the gym waiting for the start. I settled into a comfy spot at around 6:45 am and had 1.5 hours to kill before the start of the race. The time passed quickly and soon enough I had checked my bag, listened to the national anthem and found myself heading over to the start line.
In the start corral I met up with the 4:00 pace group. I spoke to the pace bunny and he said that his plan was to run a 5:30 pace stopping to walk for approximately 30 seconds at each aid station (which were supposed to come every 3km). I suppose that would have worked out to a 5:41 average but I didn’t think it was the plan for me. Basically I didn’t think I could manage a 5:30 pace even with the walk breaks. So I decided to go it alone and try to average 5:41. I planned to walk through aid stations but expected that my natural variation in pace would account for any time lost there.
1 – 10km: 0:57:05 (avg 5:43 min/km)
The race started and we headed out of the school parking lot and out onto country roads. My first freak out occurred in the first kilometer when I realized that I couldn’t feel my toes. This happens when my feet get cold but I guess I hadn’t realized that my feet were that cold! I reasoned that as I ran they would warm up and the feeling would return. Despite the fact that I started right behind the 4:00 pace bunny and was averaging exactly a 5:41 pace I got passed by literally hundreds of runners in the first few kilometers. I resisted the urge to speed up and focused how good it would feel to pass runners in the later stages of the race. My nutrition plan was to take 100cal gels at around the 8, 16, 24 and 32 km marks. I also had 4 eload electrolyte caps that I planned to take in the second half of the race. I took a gel in the ninth kilometer and just kept cruising along.
11 – 20km: 0:56:47 (avg 5:41 min/km)
Most of this quarter was run on an out and back section of country roads. It was here that I truly appreciated how fast the field running this race was. In my previous races I’ve been around the mid pack but in this race I was definitely closer to the back of the pack. I saw the race leaders go by and the eventually the various pace groups went by heading in the other direction. The 3:20 and 3:30 pace groups were particularly big. In fact the 3:30 group looked like an army of fitness. There was a bit of a headwind in this section so I was very happy when I made the turn and got to enjoy a tailwind for a change. My pace was fairly consistent in this section ranging from a 5:30 – 5:49. I took a gel around 17km and continued to take water and/or eload at each water stop. I don’t usually train with eload but it definitely tasted weak to me.
21 – 30km: 0:55:35 (avg 5:34 min/km)
The half way point was not officially marked. After I hit the 20km mark I looked approximately 100m up the road and created my own half marathon mark. When I hit it I looked at my watch and it read exactly 2:00:00. So goal 1a was accomplished. I had not gone out too fast but I wasn’t feeling as good as I would have hoped for only being halfway done. My right IT band was hurting and I just didn’t feel springy. My cardio was feeling fine but I really wasn’t sure how I was going to muster another half marathon out of my legs. Truth be told I’d had some concerns about my right leg going into the race. In last last few weeks of training I’d had sporadic problems with my ankle, calf and quad. I’d start the run with some tightness that would tend to go away after a few kilometers but it wasn’t consistent. I took my taper quite easy but I had three pain free runs in the week before the race so I thought I was good to go.
During the 23rd kilometer we entered the Red Hill parkway and started descending. My first downhill kilometer split was 5:08. I wanted to take advantage of the downhill without thrashing my quads too much. The fun part of running on the highway was that I really got to focus on running the tangets on the course and I was very happy to be on nice smooth asphalt. Once again my right ITB was not happy though so I made the tactical decision to stop monitoring my pace. My thought process was that I would still push myself to run hard but I didn’t want to risk getting down on myself if I started to see my splits getting higher and higher. We came off the highway in the 29th kilometer.
31 – 40km: 0:57:34 (avg 5:45 min/km)
During this section of the course we were running from the highway to the lake along miscellaneous city roads. It wasn’t a particular scenic route and since I’m not familiar with the city I really didn’t know where I was at any given time. Granted I didn’t really care that much at this point. Eventually we made it to Beach Drive which is one block over from the shore of Lake Ontario for the second out and back portion of the route. At this point the distance was taking its toll on the field and my fellow runners were definitely slowing down and taking more walk breaks. I resolved to only walk at water stations but I was struggling to maintain focus and block out the pain in my hip.
The turn back occurred at approximately the 35 km mark. This water station had no eload which I was unimpressed with but the volunteers were enthusiastic. The route back was on a multiuse trail right along the shore of Lake Ontario. I was now 7km from the finish and felt a little revitalized. I realized the the pain in my hip, while not enjoyable, wasn’t getting any worse so if I could just run through it I’d still be able to finish strong. I kept picking off runners and trying to run as fast as I could.
40 – 42.2km: 13:47 avg 6:16 min/km*
When I hit 40km I looked at my watch for the first time in over an hour. Honestly I didn’t know what I would see. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d been on pace for a 4:10 finish. As it turns out I saw that a sub four hour finish was still in reach. When I hit my lap button at the 41km mark my total time was 3:52:26. I was totally thrilled because I though I had about 7:30 to run the last 1.2km and that was totally doable. I saw my friend Laura in the last kilometer and gave here a wave feeling pumped that I was going to achieve my goal. We kept running along the trail for quite a while and then all of a sudden took a right hand turn onto a gravel pathway. I could not believe we were running on gravel this late in the race (and this was coarse gravel not nice smooth gravel). I kept looking for the 42km sign but it never came. When we turned off the gravel I got my first glimpse of the finish line and it looked so far away. I glanced down at my watch and saw that I now had less than a minute if I was going to break four hours and judging the distance to the finish line I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I was crushed. How did this happen? I’d been running hard all this time. It didn’t make sense.
I ran strong through through to the finish sprinting the last 100m (generating quite a cheer from the crowd). When I crossed the finish line I hit my Garmin and it read 4:00:49. Darn!
Post Race
After crossing the finish line I doubled over in exhaustion and was immediately grabbed by a friendly medical volunteer. I told her I was fine and just needed a minute. Laura found me and the medical volunteer was satisfied I wasn’t going to pass out on her (although she did mention my hands were cold). I grabbed a banana and a hot cup of lentil soup and Laura and I sat on the grass surveying the sceen.
*According to Laura at least one of the pace bunnies that had finished ahead of me had missed their time and commented about the last last km. According to my Garmin last 1.2km of the course were actually 1.6 km long and it took me 8:21 to cover the distance. If the distance was 1.2km that would be a 5:44 pace. If it was 1.6km my pace would be 5:02 which is much closer to how I felt I was running. There was been much discussion of this long finish on various running websites and discussion boards. In the days after the race the race director released the following statement:
“The Marathon course has been certified and is accurate. However, during course set up the km markers on the Red Hill Valley Parkway were short by 400m, resulting in the last km being 400m further.”
I suspect the error might have occurred around the 28km mark since my 27th kilometer was measured (by my Garmin) at only 840m. The total distance measured by my Garmin was 42.3km which is certainly reasonable given the margin of error of GPS unit and the fact that I may not have run the most direct route from the start line to the finish line. So at the end of the day I’ve accepted that I ran a 4:00:48 marathon but I’m a little upset I had my excitement of finishing in sub four hours crushed at the very last moment.
I feel good about the fact that I only ran a 48 second positive split and a personal best is nothing to be disappointed in. I’m also glad that I was able to push through my ITB problem but clearly its an issue that needs to be addressed. I’ve decided to take 7-10 days completely off running. My plan for the next two months is to do enough training to complete the Goofy Challenge but I definitely will not be running that race with a time goal.
Hamilton Marathon Training Graphs and Goals
In less than 24 hours I will be toeing the start line of my fourth marathon. The excitement and nervousness has definitely hit me. I think I’m well trained for the race and I’ve assembled my list of goals for Sunday.
- Goal #1: Finish in under four hours
- Goal #1a: Go through half in 2:00 – 2:01
- Goal #2: Set a new personal best (<4:02:21)
- Goal #3: Finish happy and proud
I would really love to get the four hour marathon monkey off my back. I think I’ve got a good chance to meeting my first goal but I also know anything can happen on race day. Fortunately it looks like the weather will be on my side: variable cloudiness, low/high -3/7C, wind W 15km/h. As per usual I’ve been chanelling my nervous energy into making graphs. To start with I have my weekly mileage over the last 13 weeks. I only missed one run during the entire training cycle (a tempo run in week 12) so the graph looks quite pretty.
Last year I made a graph comparing the 16 weeks leading up to each of my marathon. It wasn’t really feasible to add a fourth set of data to that graph so I had to do something a little different. Here’s what I came up with: a panel chart. What I think is most striking from this graph is how much more training I’ve done this year than last year. The different is mostly more than ten weeks out from the race but I’m hoping the increased volume will help me.
I’ll try to do a quick post on Sunday with at least my finish time and then stay tuned for a blow-by-blow race report early next week!
Goofy Training – Weeks 10-13 of 22
Yesterday evening I completed my last training run before Sunday’s marathon. I’ve been a bit of a slacker when it comes to training updates so today I have four weeks of summaries all in one post. Tomorrow I’ll post my marathon goals and a few pretty graphs that I’ve made to summarize this training cycle. My focus right now is on hydrating, eating well and staying relaxed.
Week 13
I did my usual race week set of 4, 5 and 3 mile runs. It’s worked for me in the past so I see no reason to do anything differently. I decided to skip swim class on Wednesday because I didn’t want to push too hard. Also last week I got a cramp in my right calf and it actually hurt the next day so there was no way I was risking having that happen again. Wednesday’s tempo run was great. Overall I’m feeling good although I will admit to having some tightness in my right leg. It’s not too bad and it’s not consistently a problem so I’m hoping some good stretching and the foam roller will put me on the starting line in good form.
| 01/11 | - | Rest day |
| 02/11 | 6.5 km | Easy run: avg 5:59 min/km |
| 03/11 | 8.0 km | Tempo run: 5km @ 5:14/07/08/14/00 min/km |
| 04/11 | 5.1 km | Easy run: avg 5:58 min/km |
| 05/11 | - | Rest day |
| 06/11 | - | Rest day |
| 07/11 | 42.2 km | HAMILTON MARATHON RACE DAY! |
| Total | 61.8 km | YTD: 1754.5 km |
Week 12
This was the week that I gave midterms in both the classes that I’m teaching. I also had a grant application due on Friday. So having to submit the grant, and prepare, administer and grade the exams on top of my usual to do list didn’t leave as much time for running as I would have liked. In fact I missed my mid week tempo run. I’m of the opinion that once a run is lost it’s lost for good so I didn’t try and squeeze it in later in the week. I just reminded myself that the last time I set a half marathon personal best I barely ran in the two weeks before the race.
| 25/10 | - | Rest day |
| 26/10 | 8.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:23 min/km |
| 27/10 | XT | Triathlon Swim Training: 90min |
| 28/10 | - | Rest day |
| 29/10 | - | Rest day |
| 30/10 | 15.0 km | HORROR HILL RACE with Alice |
| 31/10 | 5.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:14 min/km |
| Total | 28.0 km | YTD: 1692.7 km |
Week 11
This was the last high mileage week in marathon training. It was also the week that I surpassed the 1000 mile mark in my year to date training. This was almost exactly one week later than last year (Oct 10, 2009). My last long run of 32 km went fairly well. I did fade a bit but I held it together without too much trouble.
| 18/10 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:09 min/km (passed 1000 miles!) |
| 19/10 | - | Rest day |
| 20/10 | XT | Triathlon Swim Training: 90min |
| 21/10 | 13.0 km | Tempo run: 10km @ 5:29/37/26/18/15/20/25/07/09/4:44 |
| 22/01 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:16 min/km |
| 23/10 | - | Rest day |
| 24/10 | 32.0 km | Long run: avg 6:20 min/km |
| Total | 65.0 km | YTD: 1664.7 km |
Week 10
This was the week after Thanksgiving and there’s something about having a Monday holiday that makes me feel like I’m playing catch-up for the rest of the week. It didn’t help that I went out of town for the weekend so I had to squeeze my long run in after work on Friday evening. It wasn’t ideal but I got it done and it freed me up to do an easy run on Sunday with my friend Laura. Good times.
| 11/10 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:30 min/km |
| 12/10 | - | Rest day |
| 13/10 | 13.0 km XT |
Speedwork: 4x1mi (0.5mi recovery) in 8:03/8:11/8:14/7:47 Triathlon Swim Training: 90 min |
| 14/10 | - | Rest day |
| 15/10 | 26.0 km | Long run: avg 6:26 min/km |
| 16/10 | - | Rest day |
| 17/01 | 10.0 km | Easy run: 5km avg 7:52/6:28 min/km |
| Total | 59.0 km | YTD: 1599.7 km |
Goofy Training – Week 9 of 22
I’m home in Ottawa this weekend for Thanksgiving so I did my 32km long run yesterday around the National Capital. I mapped out a route that took me along the Rideau Canal, Ottawa River, Pinecrest Creek and Experimental Farm pathways. I took things fairly easy stopping to snap a few pictures along the way and taking a 1 minute walk break at every second kilometre. That being said, I still managed to pull this run of 20 seconds per minute faster than my last 32km long run two weeks ago in Kincardine. Once again, my legs tightened about two thirds of the way through the run but I was able to maintain a decent speed and finish the run strong. The Hamilton Marathon is now four weeks away. I’ve been dutifully doing my training but I haven’t really thought too much about the actual race. I’ve got two more hard weeks and maybe I’ll address race issues during the taper.
In other training news I seem to have recovered fairly well from last week’s trail race. I’ve also started taking a Triathlon swim training class once a week. It’s more of a swim club where the instructor/coach puts together a 90min swim workout and everyone just does it getting advice and help along the way as needed. I really enjoyed the first class so I’m happy to have this cross training fixed in my schedule. I never posted last week’s training table so here are the week 8 and 9 summaries.
Week 8
| 27/09 | - | Rest day |
| 28/09 | 10.4 km | Hill Run with Alice: avg 8:41 min/km |
| 29/09 | 5.0 km | Easy run: avg 5:58 min/km |
| 30/09 | - | Rest day |
| 01/10 | - | Rest day |
| 02/10 | 25.0 km | RUN FOR THE TOAD 2:47:19 (avg 6:49 min/km) |
| 03/01 | - | Rest day |
| Total | 40.4 km | YTD: 1475.2 km |
Week 9
| 04/10 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:27 min/km |
| 05/10 | - | Rest day |
| 06/10 | 13.0 km XT |
Tempo Run: 10km @ 5:42/45/39/15/18/26/31/27/20/00 Triathlon Swim Training: 90min |
| 07/10 | 10.0 km | Easy run: 6:06 min/km |
| 08/01 | - | Rest day |
| 09/10 | 32.5 km | Long run: avg 6:12 min/km |
| 10/10 | - | Rest day |
| Total | 65.5 km | YTD: 1540.7 km |
Goofy Training – Week 7 of 22
More than 24 hours later I think I’m still riding a high from my first 32km/20mile run of this training cycle. I did my long run up in Kincardine and it went really well. The plan was to do a “long slow distance” run. So there was no pressure to run at a particular pace and the goal was just to get the distance in. My legs started to tire around 20km and got progressively tighter up until about 24km. At that point they seemed to reach a steady state and I was able to run the last 8km fairly comfortably. I also ate a bit more during this week than during last week’s poor performance. For the record I had 2 packets of oatmeal, a banana and spoonful of peanut butter before heading out and then gels at 8, 16 and 24km.
This week ended a big three week training block of 55+60+65km. Up next is a recovery week. It’s a bit of a strange week though since I’m doing a 25km trail race on Saturday as my long run. I’m going to do 15-20km of easy mileage during the week as a mini taper for the race.
| 20/09 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:26 min/km |
| 21/09 | - | Rest day, Yoga for Runners |
| 22/09 | 13.0 km | Tempo Run: 10km @ 5:32/36/37/17/26/28/26/22/20/02 |
| 23/09 | - | Rest day |
| 24/09 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:18 min/km |
| 25/09 | - | Rest day |
| 26/09 | 32.6 km | Long run: avg 6:33 min/km |
| Total | 65.6 km | YTD: 1434.8 km |
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.
| 13/09 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:23 min/km |
| 14/09 | 12.0 km | Speedwork: 3x1mi in 7:58/8:03/8:04 mi |
| 15/09 | - | Rest day, Yoga for Runners |
| 16/09 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:25 min/km |
| 17/09 | - | Rest day |
| 18/09 | 28.0 km | Long run: 15km @ MP (avg 5:45/6:01/6:08 min/km per 5km) |
| 19/09 | - | Rest day, Yoga for Runners |
| Total | 60.0 km | YTD: 1369.2 km |
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!
| 06/09 | XT | Cycle: 34.1 km, avg 20.8 km/h |
| 07/09 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:11 min/km |
| 08/09 | 11.0 km | Tempo run: 8km in 5:26/29/30/19/26/21/19/04 min/km |
| 09/09 | 10.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:15 min/km |
| 10/09 | - | Rest day |
| 11/09 | 24.0 km | Long run: avg 6:43 min/km |
| 12/09 | - | Rest day |
| Total | 55.0 km | YTD: 1309.2 km |
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.
| 30/08 | - | Rest day (ankle recovery) |
| 31/08 | - | Rest day (ankle recovery) |
| 01/09 | 8.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:31 min/km |
| 02/09 | 8.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:18 min/km |
| 03/09 | - | Rest day |
| 04/09 | 12.0 km | Easy run: 10km @ MP (avg 5:43/5:36 min/km per 5km) |
| 05/09 | 8.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:16 min/km |
| Total | 37.0 km | YTD: 1254.2 km |
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.
| 23/08 | 8.0 km | Easy run: 6:19 min/km |
| 24/08 | XT | Swimming: 2000m |
| 25/08 | 10.0 km | Tempo run: 7km @ 5:23/5:31/5:26/5:12/5:14/5:02/5:01 min/km |
| 26/08 | 8.0km | Easy run: 6:15 min/km |
| 27/08 | XT | Yoga |
| 28/08 | 24.0 km | Long run: avg 6:37 min/km |
| 29/08 | - | Rest day |
| Total | 50.0 km | YTD: 1217.2 km |
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!
| 16/08 | - | Rest day |
| 17/08 | 9.0 km | Speedwork: 2x1mi in 7:34/7:52 min |
| 18/08 | 8.0 km | Easy run: avg 6:12 min/km |
| 19/08 | XT | Swimming: 2000m |
| 20/08 | 20.0 km | Long run: avg 6:33 min/km |
| 21/08 | - | Rest day |
| 22/08 | 8.0 km | Easy run: avg 7:06 min/km |
| Total | 45.0 km | YTD: 1167.2 km |