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

Today I had an appointment with an Athletic Therapist to discuss my hips and knees and to give me some options on how to correct them.

Well it turned out that one of my legs is shorter than the other so he fixed that somehow, it seemed like he stretched it back to normal but I am sure there was more to it than just that. My hips can get better and stronger with more stretching (I am so bad for it)plus some core training, but my knees are in a world of their own, apparently there isn't much I can do about it. My problem is that my knees pronate and it is just how my body is, there is nothing I can do or change to make them straight. I am ok with that though since with my "deformed" body, I was still able to make it to Boston.

So now this guy will pass on the info to another guy who will make up a care training schedule that will work with my running training schedule and then hopefully by April I will be in more shape and be able to run a better marathon.....pain free.

It has been quite a while since my last blog on here. I wasn't really training for much but now that my more serious training is starting I figured why not start this up again.

Since my last post back in June I have continued running here and there running a few races here and there and also getting a few more PB's. I ran a 10K on Canada Day with a PB of 46:44 (I still can't break that 45min!). In September I ran a 1:41:42 Half Marathon, another PB for me and then in October I ran another 10K in support of the Ottawa Hospital. Since then I have just been going out for some runs with friends.

We have been quite lucky this year with our weather and the lack of snow that are paths for running are all still open. Today I ended up running 22K, not too sure how that came to be since just last week it was only up to 18K. I felt good going out, I kept my pace up but was quite tired coming back especially through the Experimental farm where it is all open space and like running through a wind tunnel. My fingers even froze up on the way back, I guess it is time to get out some more winter things. In the end I ran the 22K in 2hrs and 11min.

My full training will start in January and I will also be starting with some more core training. There are a few more races I have in mind to help with my training leading up to Boston. Some I will race and some I will just run.....maybe.