Jan 31

Sunday is usually my long run day but since I did my 62.5 laps/25k yesterday I went out for some hills this morning. I wasn't feeling that good today I had a stitch on my right side for most of the night and during my run as well. I did a nice slow 2.3k warm up at about a 6:00 pace then I started my hills and could really feel the stitch coming back again. I tried some deep breathing but it didn't help too much. So my 5x hills were a bit slower than last week but I did want to get through it. I did each hill at about a 5:30 pace. I took a longer break between each one hoping that it might help with my situation, but no. I made my cool down a bit longer mainly so I could finish the run with a 10k run so my cool down was 2.7k at a 6:00 pace. I was so happy to finish that run.

My total distance for January ended up being 267.74k Which is pretty much running from Ottawa to Trenton, Ontario.

Jan 30

I am switching up my runs the next few days so instead of doing my LSD on Sunday I opted for going with the guys to the dome today to do it. The only thing was that we had to be at the dome by 7am because we had to be out of there by 9 so that the Ottawa Lions Club could use it. My LSD was a 25k run, that is 25k of going around and around and around the 400m track, a total of 62.5 laps. You probably thought I was crazy for running out in the snow squall the other day, well I think this is a new level of crazy. I don't think I will do my LSDs there too many times but it was nice to run in shorts and no wind. Always some positive in there.

I did go over my limit of the 2 hours we had there but I was so close to finishing that I figured I would keep going until they kicked me out, that came when I had 2.5 laps left, fortunately they said it was okay to finish since I was close to the end of it anyway. My average pace for the day was a 5:41 which is actually where it should be.....for once. The best part of an early morning run is the breakfast afterwards especially the coffee, for some reason it always tastes better after a run.

My total distance for the week is 90.67k (mainly because of 2 LSD runs in the week).

Jan 29

Today I am supposed to run an easy 7-9k but looking outside and seeing everyone bundled up and then checking the weather network and seeing that is -19 with a windchill of -33 I kind of decided that the risk of frostbite was not worth it and so I stayed inside my nice warm house. I may try to make it up on Monday but we will see how cold it is then.

Jan 28

Another speed workout down and only 80 days left now until Boston, it's going to go by so fast I just hope I'll be ready, yet calm for the race.

Tonight's work out I was dreading most of the day, I didn't really want to go out in the cold, snow and wind that I heard howling from the inside of the nice warm house. At times during the day when I looked out the window I couldn't even see the backyard fence, and I had to run in this? I did go, but also wore many many layers. It wasn't as bad as I thought. The 2.8k warm up was actually nice, that was because I was running with the wind to my back for it. Once we got to the Transitway for our speed intervals I noticed the wind, I had to do 3x 1600m which I did at a 4:30 pace then 4x 800m which I did at a 4:20 pace. Then I finished it off with a 1.8k cool down all into the wind. The worst was the return trip of the speed which was head on into the wind, at times I thought I was going backwards, and I had to do this how many times? CRAZY!!!!

I changed my stride a bit as per my coach's request and I did notice a change it was a bit more tiring for my legs yet a more relaxed feel (if that makes any sense) he says that if I continue to do it this way then I should be able to use up less energy during the race and go a little faster, I just have to get used to running this new way. It felt good so I'll try it out for the next few runs and take it from there.

My total distance for tonight was 12.77k

Jan 27

A nice 13k run tonight. It wasn't that cold either, a bit damp but still pretty warm for a January night. The roads and sidewalks were pretty good until near the end of the run when the temperature started to drop and everything got a little greasy. I did almost the same route as last week minus 2k. Near the end I had to go up a hill and that's just where the wind was coming after me and a dog also decided to say hello, at least that was at the end of the run. I was still a bit fast during this run, it's hard to run slower but I did slow it down a bit from last week, my pace tonight was a 5:05. I will get to the right pace one of these days.

Jan 26

Dome night! Tonight's workout consisted of tempo intervals, so I started with a 2k warm up (5 laps) then started my real workout. I ran 4k (10 laps) at a 4:30-4:45 pace and then I ran that 4k again, followed by a 2k cool down for a total of 12.5k. I decided to run my tempo a bit faster than last week and I could tell, it wasn't as easy and comfortable as before which is a good thing, I'm supposed to be going a bit harder than my LSD and steady pace but not as fast as a speed pace. I will try to keep it in that range the next time too. Overall I felt good at the end of it and there were cookies!

Jan 24

Today was a long run day, usually I meet up with my RR companions but this time they were all in the Ottawa Hypothermic Half. I considered running it too as a bandit but I needed to get 27km in and after running the race I don't know how willing I would be to do the extra distance. So instead I decided to run here in Richmond, the night before I found a route via Google maps and thought I would try it out. The route consisted of a lot of farmlands around me so there wasn't a whole lot to see but it helped because there wasn't a whole lot of traffic either. I saw some horses, cows and heard a rooster crowing at one point too. My main fear was if there were any coyotes out in the bushes. I was thinking about what I would do if I did run into one, I'm not sure if I could out run one, luckily I didn't have to deal with it.....this time.

I at least remembered to bring my Ipod with me (something I forgot when doing my hills yesterday), so Stuart McLean kept me company for my over 2 1/2 hour trek. He is a Canadian writer and usually broadcasts his stories on the local CBC radio station, he also has them available as podcasts and so I download them weekly. He is quite funny with his Dave and Morley stories and I actually laughed out loud a couple of times, it was nice to be distracted from my run and taken to another place. Next week hopefully I will be back with my running guys because even though it is nice to run on my own (and powerful too knowing I can do it), it is always nicer to have some company.

My total for today was 27.05km at a 5:44 pace.

Week of Jan 19-23

I know I haven't been posting as I would have liked but I don't have the time to run at night and then write about it when some nights I get home pretty late. This week should be better since I have the week off from work. So instead I will give you my weekly update this time.

Tuesday I ran at the Dome again where I started with a 3k warm up and then continued with 2 sets of 3k at my tempo pace which this time was a 5min/km then did another 3k cool down for a total of 12.75k It felt good but I may have to change my pace a bit I'm still playing around with that.

Wednesday I had a 15k run in my schedule so I went to the RR after work and was happy to have a running partner for that night as 1. it is dark at night still and 2. I don't know too many 15k routes but we worked it out and took a few extra loops where we needed to and it came to exactly 15k, we averaged a 5:09 pace, I think I may have to slow that one down a bit because the next night is another hard run.

Thursday I have my clinic night with K2J and we do our hard speed workouts. I did a nice 3k warm up followed by 2x 1600m speed at a 4:30 pace, then a 5 min break. Next was 4x 800m speed at a 4:30 pace, then another 5 min break. Finally 4x 400m speed at a 4:15 pace and then a nice 2k cool down. Like I said a hard run night.

Friday I was supposed to do a 7-9k easy run. I got home and didn't feel like going outside for a run so I decided to run on the treadmill instead. I have no idea what equivalency a treadmill is for pace compared to my Garmin, so I played around with it a bit and even looked on google for some ideas but in the end I found I forgot to switch it over to km from miles and so I ended up running 11.26k at a 5:15 pace. Oops!

Now we are on to Saturday. I started my hills today, found a nice hill that is almost exactly 500m going up and going down. I also found a good place to park that is far enough to give me a decent warm up and cool down. I ran a 2.2k warm up then 4x hills (up and down continuously) at a 5:15 pace then a 2.3k cool down for a total of 8.5k This weeks total distance came to 70.28k

Now I can take it easy before my long run tomorrow morning.

Richmond Road Race

This morning I ran another 10K race hoping to finally break my PB and get a 45min finish time. It was nice having the race in Richmond because it was just down the street from where I am living and also it didn't start until 10am so I actually got to sleep in a bit on a Sunday morning. I haven't done that in many weeks. It was a surprising warm day, for January that is, a nice -4 or -10 with windchill. There were even a few crazies out there wearing shorts, not me though, I am always cold so I decided on tights and a jacket which was just right for me.

I had to start a little bit faster to get away from the crowd but then settled into a nice pace of 4:34, I stopped once at the water station (the 5K mark) for a little bit then headed up the hill and never once did I look back. I felt good and strong throughout the race and finished with a time of 45:39 my best yet and finally got that magic 45 number. I don't have all the stats from the race yet but I do know that I was the second female in my age category which entitled me to a new pair of Smartwool socks. I love new socks!

My stats for this race are as follows:

I was 53rd out of 199 participants
7th out of 89 women
2nd out of 23 in my age category

Jan 14

I started my Boston clinic tonight with K2J Fitness, it is a group run in Barrhaven so only about 10 min from home. It is more along the line of a coaching group and I think that is about the level I'm at now with my running. I learned that already I have to change a few things in my schedule, I will no longer have my speed workout on Tuesdays at the dome but instead I can do a tempo run there. I will be doing my speed intervals on Thursday nights with my group and getting feedback as I go along. I still don't have my schedule yet with them and I am anxious to check it out and see what is in store for me.
Tonight I ran a 2K warm up then I did 6X 800m repeats where I was able to stay at about a 3:30 pace, next was 4X 400m repeats I was able to maintain a 1:40 pace then a cool down to equal it out to 11.14 km for the night. I am not sure if my pace for the intervals were where they should be but I'll find that out later. I think that for this week I am going to take tomorrow off since I did 3 nights in a row of hard workouts this week already and I have my 10k race on Sunday.

Jan 13

Hills! That's right, it has now begun, we all know that Boston is known for their hills, not just their up hills but mostly their down hills as in almost the whole first half of the marathon.
We started off with a warm up on the way to the hills in the neighbourhood then ran 6 hills up enjoying the run down too as a recovery. I found it a bit tough but I guess that's what you get for doing a speed workout the night before. Then we headed back to the store for a total of 10km.
Tomorrow I start with a new running group to help me get ready for Boston. They will be setting me up with a running schedule to follow, I'm not sure what to expect but I hope it will help me achieve my new goal and get through the marathon.

Jan 12

Today is Tuesday and that means Dome day. A later run but I really look forward to it because 1 I got to run inside and 2 I got to do speed. Basically, I ran 10 laps (4km) as my warm up at about a 5:30 pace then I got to do my 100m speed intervals (10x) and finished it off with 10 laps (4km) cool down for a total of 12.5km. This week felt much better than the last one, probably because I had better footing on my Sunday run and so my knee was thankful for that. Tomorrow will be hills.

Jan 10

Today was an okay day for my run. We met early at the RR for our 22K run and it was cold (-16 but felt like -23 with the wind) and there was wind. My toes were frozen at the beginning and stayed that way for the first 5K then I started to get some feeling back into them. My balaclava stayed up and over my nose pretty much for the whole run.

We started by running a 10K loop so we could get back to the store for a water and pee break before heading out again, usually the water freezes if we carry it and that is no help at all. The first 10K went well and seemed to have not taken so long. The second half I was getting tired and had a hard time lifting my legs, but I had to push myself through it, afterall this is one of our longest distances in a while because of the weather being quite crappy the last few Sundays. I think next time I should bring some gels with me again as that could have helped me, if not physically than maybe mentally. We only ended up doing 20Km, actually I did 20.1K and that .1 is nice to have and I will keep it in my books.

Next Sunday I will running the Richmond Road Race, a first for me but a nice 10K just down the road from where I am.

Jan 6

Another 10K down and added to my mileage for the year. I want to increase my mileage from last year which didn't seem like much, maybe I forgot to input some of them but I don't know so now I am religiously adding them up, training for Boston should help with that too. My 10K tonight was much nicer to run than it was on Sunday (same route). The weather was about the same (-15 with windchill) but at least this time the sidewalks were plowed so no more knee high movements. It helped that we started off into the wind which allowed us to have the wind push us back to the RR and somehow the lights were being nice to us by turning red right before getting to them giving us little rests along the way. Tomorrow is my last free Thursday until the big day so I will enjoy it and then worry about having some "me" time later, after all it's not everyday I get to go to Boston.

Jan 5

I had my first "real" run at the dome today. I will be going every Tuesday from now until April 19th. I say it was my first real one because it is only the second time I've been there and I now know a bit more of what I should do. I meet up with a bunch of the guys and we all head out there, some of them have a different routine while there but that's what makes it good to go because even though we are not all at the same level or speed we can still push and encourage each other. The only thing I don't like about the dome is that my Garmin doesn't work as acurately as when I am outside.

I brought my Ipod with me this time and found it really helped to keep me focused. I started with 10 laps of 400m each (4K) for my warm up. It was so hard to start the running and I am glad I did such a long warm up because then I felt good to go. Then we changed direction and ran 10 sets of 100m for some speed intervals (another 4K) until it was time to cool down although I probably should have done another 10 laps I only did 5 laps (2K). I really wanted to see the end of the gold hockey game.

Tomorrow I believe I'll be running 10K outside so it might feel like 20K, we'll have to wait and see how much more snow we will get before then.

Getting There