The Off Season!

Oh hey!

It's the off season!

Yep. I'm done for 2014.

My next race isn't until March 2015!!!

I can hardly believe it myself. I won't be in formal training for anything until January when my cycle kicks up again. This doesn't mean that I'm going to take any time off, but I am going to to ease myself along without worrying too much about hitting ALL. THE. WORKOUTS.

Off season? New SHOES!

Let's be honest. I was burned out last year when I started my plan at the end of November. I was eager to start and hit workouts but by March I was DONE with training.

And of course, let us not forget the Plantar Fasciitis which was the biggest KILL-JOY of the entire season.

Speaking of which, this past Sunday, I felt the foot flare up again. Nothing too bad, but something to get checked out. I spent last night with my heating pad and I'm going to try to get into physio this week for sure.

I took the entire week off after Hamilton and hit last week eager and ready to train again. And I was super surprised with how it all turned out:

Monday: 7k in 38:57. Okay, a lovely little pace. Must be the early morning or the week off or the cold or something. Core work in the evening.

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 5k at Goodlife after a day long off-site meeting and before a Leafs game in a corporate box with my client. I kept increasing the pace ever km and ended up with my final KM at sub-BQ pace. 27:11

Thursday: Rest

Friday: NO MEETINGS!!! The return of the lunch run. I hit the gym again. Ladder up: 8k with each mile faster: 6.4, 6.6, 6.8. 7.0, 7.2. Things felt great. Right where off season should be.

I need to cut my bangs or grown them or just rock this awesome ponytail forever

Saturday: CRAZY day, hockey, hockey pictures, hockey game, surprise 40th party for a friend. I fit in 5.15k around the block after watching KONA and I almost managed a progression: 5:35-5:24-5:20-5:06-5:08. Total: 27:19. Feeling so good!

Sunday: MORE HOCKEY PHOTOS. Then my mum fed me breakfast. Then, fueled on bacon and eggs and pancakes and memories of KONA, I went out for my long run of 11k. I realized around 9.5k that if I pushed, I'd finish in an hour. I pushed harder, ran a 4:59 final KM split and finished 59:33. Then I went to our town Santa Parade and then grocery shopping. Its all so EXHAUSTING

Off season week one: 36.16k in 3:18:18 and one session of core. I hope to get in more this week. In fact, the rest of off season looks like this:

Click for larger

Oh, you probably want to know about my 2015 plans too, eh? Well, come back again sometime and I'll tell you. Likely within the next week. Let's just say that this Saturday's workout will set up a lot of them.