Mississauga Marathon Training Week 9

Ahh training week nine. The first 90% week. The first week with intervals. The first real race of the season.

Did I mention that the Polar Vortex was sticking around? I'm amazed that I got it all in!!!

Monday January 20: First run back from vacation and I slogged through in the cold yet again. It was a slower run, but at least I got the planned distance in. I was helped by the fact that the sidewalks were mainly clear. 10k, 1:00:01

Tuesday January 21: My very first interval session of the cycle. I missed the 3x1000 session when I was on the cruise. The plan called for 5x1000 at 4:26/km (7:08/mi) with 3 minutes active rest. I was NEVER, EVER able to nail this workout in the summer. I didn't bother attempt this outside, instead I headed to the gym to bang this out on the treadmill with a cheat sheet so that I didn't have to do any math at all. I decided to change the rests into 500m and allowed myself to slow down as much as I needed (walk) during the period of rest. With the exception of stepping off twice in the last interval for seconds to drink, I nailed this workout! 14k, 1:18:48

I hate that gym treadmills go into cool down mode after an hour. I get why it happens, but hate it. Do you know how much those last 1.94 miles sucked? Also compression socks + 0415 = difficult.

Wednesday January 22: I had to travel to Windsor for a funeral and I got home by 5pm. After six plus hours in the car plus an emotional day, I needed a run and I needed a quick one. The plan called for 8k and I did it. 44:03.

Thursday January 23: I wanted to get a double in so that I could get my LSD run in on Friday night and then take Saturday as a rest day pre Sunday race. So, a slow reverse route of Wednesday's run before work. 8.01k, 49:52. After work, I headed right to the Running Room and listened to a chat about the WALL and how to avoid it. Then we all hit the polar vortex to run the 8k as planned. I started with the lead group, but around 5k in I had to lag back and even walk a bit. I was just tired after 20k in 24 hours. Due to stop lights, I eventually caught the group again and finished within 10 seconds of them. 8k, 47:59

Friday January 24: I didn't want another run in the cold. I wanted a drink. So I opened a bottle of white and forewent my run.

Saturday January 25: I wanted to sleep in (please note, "sleeping in" is waking up with my 3 year old, Fergus at 0613), I didn't want to face the cold AGAIN, plus it was snowing. So, I went to the gym and did something I've never done before. 20k. ON. THE. TREADMILL. 1:57:51

I know! I can't believe it either. This run was really helped by Cosmo TV. Sex in the City and Dirty Sexy Money kept me more than entertained. I have no idea why Dirty Sexy Money was cancelled.

Sunday January 26: The 35th annual Robbie Burns race. Report to follow. Despite not racing, I managed a 5 second personal best. I also was able to break out my custom shirt. 8.05k, 42:21

And I was a Scottish-Canadian Ninja!

And of course, I was a #runnerd! Thanks to Emma for the photo!

Total KM: 76.07 (47.27mi) Total Time: 7:20:55 Average Pace per KM: 0:05:48 (0:09:20/mi)

So, my biggest week ever and it went really well! The best part? I get to do it all again this week! WooHoo!?

Oh, and I raised a whole whack load of money for Make A Wish Canada I'm now at 34% of my total $3,400 target! Please click the link and donate if you can!

Excuses, excuses

Last night, my training plan called for me to run 7x400m intervals at the track. Originally, I was going to meet up with my friend Sarah to just do an easy run for 8-10k and hit the intervals later in the week, but she cancelled and I realised that I should just get them out of the way.

The problem was that I really, REALLY didn't want to.

I thought up every single excuse under the sun (and then ridiculed myself for them).

-I had a tetanus shot yesterday and my arm hurt (oh, princess!).

-Fergus hasn't been sleeping well and I was tired (poor muffin!).

-It would be almost 9pm by the time I got home and then I'd have to shower, make a lunch for Alasdair to take to camp and be too wound up to sleep until 11pm, thus making me tired for when Fergus woke up in the wee hours (again and again) (life just isn't fair!).

Of course, I got dressed as soon as I put Fergus to bed and headed out for the run. I decided to run to the track and then see how I felt. I figured I could just do the 10k easy I would have done with Sarah if nothing else.

50m into the run (when I had to stop to tie up my pants tighter as they were falling down), my legs felt like lead and I almost started into my 6k route instead of toward the track. That's when I really told myself to suck it up and kept heading for the track. Somehow, in the next 2.9k I managed to convince myself to get the intervals completed.

And so I did. I also only allowed myself to walk 20 seconds on each recovery lap, so that my heart rate didn't dip too much in the 400m rests.

I was aiming to hit 2:00 time (4:45 pace) per lap and I think I did rather well, considering I ran 7 hill repeats the night before:

1:54 (4:37)
1:57 (4:43)
1:56 (4:43)
1:57 (4:47)
1:57 (4:47)
1:59 (4:51)
1:58 (4:48)

I was really and truly spent by lap 5. I kept talking to myself throughout. I was telling myself to run tall, to keep my hands loose and not to cross my arms over my midsection while running. I used my arms to pump the strides in the last turns. By the time I was about 75m from starting my final lap, I was giving myself a pep-talk about lap 7:

This is the end of your zoo 10k. If you run this in under 2minutes you'll get a time under an hour. This is the last 400m of Hamilton. You'll break 2h10m in you run hard here

I pushed and pushed and ended up getting around the track in under 2 minutes.

Then it was 3k back home.

I was tired and running easy, happy to have gotten the laps in when I noticed that I would be able to best my 10k time from the 2009 Zoo Race if I just bumped my pace up a bit by 30 seconds. So, I did! I made sure to hit the lap button at 10k exactly and was very pleased when I got home to find a 2m33s PB of 1h00m31s.

Not bad for a night where I almost didn't even run.

Intervals!

I ran my second set of intervals last night. I ran 5x400 with 400 recovery's in between. It was difficult.

It was the first time I was able to go to the high school track to get the intervals completed. Last week I ended up at my parents house and while they watched the kids, I ran at my old elementary school, but the track is just a paved path, not quite 400m long. That first week ended up being okay though as those four repeats let me know a few things.

1. I can run intervals
2. I can run them at a 5 minute pace per KM

My intention this week was to run them when we got home from our annual August long weekend camping trip on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I was unable to do so as I was not feeling very well at all and ended up in bed right after the baby (at 7:30!). I think the sore throat I had combined with being kept awake until 2:30am the night before (due to a boisterous Euchre game at a neighbouring site) caught up with me and I just crashed.

Thursday rolled around and we got back to normal life, including hosting a play date and I decided that I'd run to the track for sure (about 3k) and turn around if I wasn't feeling up to intervals.

After the baby was in bed, I headed out into the lovely setting sun and 25C temperatures toward the high school. I got there and there was a Men's League Flag Football game in progress, so I decided that an audience of strangers would be enough motivation to push through the 5x400s (with 400m recoveries).

Somehow, I ended up averaging 416m per lap, but I am very pleased to say that I did it!

Time per lap (pace per KM): 1:52 (4:30)-1:55 (4:34)-1:57 (4:44)-1:58 (4:44)-1:55 (4:45).

I am having a hate/love relationship with this type of training so far. I hate running them, but love seeing the great times!

The run home (which I extended to get a full 10k in), was slow and difficult. I was bang on a 7:00 per KM pace and am glad I took my time. Can't wait to see how I fare next week with 6 repeats!