Mississauga Marathon Training Week 6!

Now that I'm past the build up weeks of my Jack Daniel's marathon training plan, I've decided to update my weekly progress because I know you all want to read about it! This will help me to keep score on the bad and good runs and also serve to keep me blogging more regularly.

Weeks 1-3 were pretty good weeks. I ran 58, 60 and 61k in each of the first three weeks. I stalled in week 4 and 5 due to snow and illness (I spent Christmas Day in bed, sick to my stomach!!!). Week six was the official start of the Running Room marathon clinic so I wanted to do my best to get back into the swing of things.

Monday December 30: 
My first run in the YakTrax Run's which I got for Christmas. This was a tricky run because of the snow and ice and uncleared paths/sidewalks, but I did notice a difference with these devices on my feet. I had a few other essentials on my 10k trip around the neighbourhood and felt good to finish in an okay time of 1:01:28

Tuesday December 31:
The weather wasn't the best, so I headed to the gym and hit my first #embracethesuck tempo run on plan. I ran 4x (4 min tempo @ 4:45/km or 7:41/mi, 3 min active rest). In total I ran 8k and this allowed me to finish the year at 2,500km total run. My time was 44:54. Then we traveled to Collingwood where Ken's brother lives with his family to take in the kid's New Year's Eve celebration at Blue Mountain resort. It was a lot of fun!

Wednesday January 1:
No running, but I did trudge up and down a very cool tobogganing hill with the kids for a few hours!

Thursday January 2:
Back at work, so I hit the gym treadmill for the first run of the day (5k) and then hit the mat for crunches, planks, and push-ups. This was the first group clinic night, so I headed right from work to the Running Room and meet up with new and old faces while we talked about our goals. The marathon and 30k Around the Bay groups are combined and we have two great leaders in Bobby and Chris. Despite the -30c weather, most of us headed out for an 8k run which brought my total to 13k on the day and 1:16:13 total time. It also resulted in a makeup malfunction! It may be cold, but I still sweat!

Friday January 3:
I did not want to run at all. AT. ALL. I hauled my ass to the gym at lunch anyway and got on a treadmill. Then, the sound system wasn't working so I couldn't hear my trashy TLC show (Say Yes to the Dress). Then I pulled the emergency stop! GRRR!!! However, when I started up again I noticed that the woman beside me was doing a learn to run, run/walk type program, but had bad form. I gave her some tips and told her a bit about my own journey (I used to only run through one commercial at a time!). She kept her form good from then on and I decided to run my last two KM at Half Marathon race pace (5:00/km or 8:00/mi). The run ended up being a good one after all. 8k, 0:45:33

Saturday January 4:
Patty had mentioned that she was going to run 20.14k on the first Saturday of the year and of course I was eager to join her in the fun. Sam, Phil, Emma and Elaine also joined in the run which took us out along Spruce Ave in Burlington, around a loop and back. When we got back to the park where we were parked, I was with Phil who was struggling a bit despite some quick final KMs. I was only at 18k, so I headed out along Lakeshore to complete the 20.14k. I got back to the cars before anyone else and had fun yelling silly things to them while they finished. 20.14k, 1:59:24

Sunday January 5: Rest

I ran a total of 59.14km (out of 68km planned) and spent 5h47m32s running. The next two weeks don't look much better for hitting my distance either. I hoping to get at least 43k in this week and 25k in next week. Why will my mileage be so low? Because on Friday morning, we are driving to Buffalo, flying to Florida and on Saturday we board this for a week!

Disney Fantasy

I've run 18k so far this week, and hope to get another 5 in tonight with 20k tomorrow (I'm off work). Then I hope to run 2x10k on the boat and the Castaway Cay 5k!

Look for a full trip report once I'm back! Until then, stay warm and enjoy your runs/training.