Longer Intervals

Tonight we took to Waterloo Park for some longer intervals: run hard about 500 m and then recovery run back to the starting point. Repeat.

Total distance covered at tonight’s workout: 10 km

New Shoes

Tonight after work, I went to the Nike Store to buy a new pair of shoes. Really, I just got a new pair of the shoes I already had: Nike Structure Triax 12.

I was hoping to find a good deal, but instead it was pretty much regular price. I’m sure they were a bit less than if I purchased them in a regular running or sport store, but they weren’t clearance and there wasn’t any “buy one get one half” type sale. Oh well. I needed new shoes, so I got new shoes.

Tonight’s Run (in the new shoes):
Distance: 5.5 km
Weather: 23 C, very humid, felt like 32 C

A few days behind in my posts

I spent the weekend camping with my family at Charleston Lake Provincial Park. I did some kayaking, hiking, running, swimming, biking, and walking. I had intentions of running both Saturday and Sunday, but after Saturday’s 10 km run on a difficult trail and all of the other activities listed above, my body did not want to run again on Sunday morning. I decided to sit, have a coffee, and relax for a while before having breakfast and then packing up our site.

Since I didn’t do a long run on Sunday, I decided to do it after work yesterday (Monday). I got out for a 16.25 km run last night and it was tough since I was tired and my shoes are also pretty much done. So.. I need to go shopping for shoes again.

Intervals

Tonight at the clinic, we ran out to the track (1.6 km) to do a short interval workout. We ran hard 200m and then had a 200m recovery run back to the starting position. This was repeated for 20 minutes, followed by a couple of easy laps around the track before we headed back for a cool-down run back to the store.

It was another rewarding workout with lots of sweat and tiring legs. I’m truly enjoying this clinic.

Total distance of workout was 7 km

Dirty Dash

This morning, I ran the first annual Dirty Dash trail/cross country race in Waterloo. The race involved running through a meadow, grass trail, dirt rail through a forest, river (both a section straight down it and another area where you just crossed it), more dirt trail with a large hill that ended up quite muddy, and finally, a mud pit just before the finish line.

I ran the 8K distance (there was an 8K, 4K, and a 1K kid’s fun run) and it was the toughest 8K I’ve ever run. It was very hilly and running with soaking wet shoes is also another new experience. Since the 8K course was a 2 look version of the 4K so all (except the mud pit) was done twice.

The mud pit was longer than I expected and you had to go under all of the flags above the mud, so crawling was pretty much the way to go. I crawled through the pit, went to stand up after going under the last set of flags and my shoe got stuck as I tried to move. I fell back down, pulled my foot out of the mud, and moved on my way, passing through the finish area.

I placed 3rd in my age group today. Needless to say, the times were slower than most races as there were more obstacles and with so many people running on a narrow trail at once, there were some delays on the first trip into the river. It was a lot of fun today and I’ll definitely do this one again next year!

There will be some photos and another point of view (photographer’s point of view, that is) on Ryan’s blog in the next few days.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 8km
Weather: 24 C, felt like 29 C

Hills

Tonight’s “Quality Workout” with Runners’ Choice was hill training. It was hot out tonight and the workout was tough, but rewarding. We ran out to Columbia Lake and worked on three different hills there, with increasing difficulty from one to the next. We had some nice, ice cold, water waiting for us at the 3rd hill, which was refreshing, and after we ran back to the store, we had melon and a good discussion on nutrition. All in all, it was a good night of training.

Tonight’s Run - Hill training
Distance covered: 10 km
Weather: 29 C, feels like 37 C

Car Camping Weekend

Ryan and I went camping at Guelph Lake Conservation Area this weekend. It was a relatively last minute trip as we decided and booked it just a couple days before going. The car was loaded without even really going through any of our camping items, so a couple things were missing,but nothing too important (didn’t have a dish cloth, so a potholder was used instead).

I had intended to go for a shorter easy run on either Friday night or Saturday morning, but we got to the park a bit later than planned on Friday evening and after a very loud evening (other campers, some of who were kicked out that night) and after an animal ran right into the side of the tent in the middle of the night, and a couple of girls decided to walk by talking, laughing, singing, etc LOUDLY at 4:30 am (they were kicked out) I was not bright-eyed or bushy-tailed at 7am, so I stayed in bed.

Saturday became a cross-training day with lots of walking, swimming, paddling, and a bit of hiking.

Saturday night was much quieter, but we did still the skunk waking us up by walking along the edge of the ten (on the edge of the tent floor). I guess we invaded his walking route. He didn’t bother us, though, just woke us up a few times.

I did get out for my Sunday run today. This morning, I went for a 15 km run, a good portion of it on 2 trails, one being the Speed River Trail. It was sunny and hot, so I was very glad to be in shaded trails for about 9km of the run. I had an enjoyable run, but really wanted to jump straight into the lake from the dam, when I was running across it. I resisted, of course.

It was a quick weekend, but a good one. It was quite a contrast to our camping up in Algonquin the previous weekend. But as they say, variety is the spice of life.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 15 km
Weather: 25 C, sunny, not much wind.

First Quality Session

Tonight, in the heat and humidity, was the first Quality session of the Marathon and Half Marathon group’s summer/fall session.

We met up at Runner’s Choice and after a bit of announcements, group info, etc we headed out to run to a local park. Once we arrived at the park, the night’s workout was explained to us. We each had a partner (we’ll call each partner P1 and P2) for the workout. Each of the P1s went out first to run (staggered start) a loop around the park, when P1 returned the start, they tagged P2, who then ran the loop. So, you ran hard around the loop, came back, had a break to have some water while your partner ran the loop and then it was time to do it again. We did this around 8 times each before we ran back to the store for some nice cold, fresh watermelon! Great session!

Today’s Run:
Quality workout that totalled up to 5km on my Garmin.
Weather: 30 C, feels like 37 C

I did it!

I got up just before 6am today, headed out for a run, and actually completed the distance that I had planned!

Lately, every time I’ve attempted to run in the morning, I’ve gone back to sleep for a bit and then cut my run short. But not today! I was out by 6:15 and I ran 10K just like I wanted to.

Now to just make this a habit.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 10 km
Weather: 20 C, no wind

I had a week off… but not really.

A week off running, yes.
A week of doing nothing? Definitely not.

Ryan and I just got back from Algonquin Park late Sunday night after a 4-day trip to the interior. We actually stayed on the same lake the whole time this year so that if we wanted to stay put for a day, we could, but if we wanted to go out paddling all day, we could pack a day pack and head out, coming back to our already set-up site.

So… seeing as I was camping on a small island, I did not do any running out there. Instead, I was paddling, swimming, and climbing up and down the hill to get from our beach to our tent.

I’ll have more on the trip, as well as pictures of the trip, on my photo blog next week or the week after (I have a few other photo things I need to finish up before I start looking at the Algonquin photos).

Today’s Run:
Distance: 3.5 km
Weather: 22 C, feels like 30 C, wind 6 km/h