A Quick Update

I haven’t posted anything on this blog in months, so I thought today was a good day for a quick little post.

I started a photo update post last week, but haven’t finished it yet. I will hopefully have that done this weekend.

So… it’s Thursday night, which means I was out with Runners’ Choice tonight for a workout. It was hills on Longfellow tonight. I ran from work to the store, as usual, then ran with the group from there.

On the way to the store tonight, there were crows flying everywhere! I had to take a photo to share, so here it is (sorry it’s not very good):

The hill workout consisted of a couple of longer, gradual hills, and one shorter but steeper hill. I did the sequence of 3 hills four times. Total distance covered from leaving work until I was back at the store after the workout was 9.4 miles. I was happy with that, especially since I haven’t really run much this week. It was good to get a decent run in tonight.

And now it is time for me to get some sleep.
Goodnight.

Cold but calm and clear

Today was my first real winter run of the year. I busted out the winter running clothes and even brought my face mask, just in case (it ended up just staying loose around my neck. I wore my fleece lined gloves instead of my regular gloved (but still ended up with cold fingers, even numb & painful twice during the run.. should’ve had mitts), and my colder weather running toque instead of the thin one. Yep. I was ready for winter.

I headed to Runners’ Choice for the group long run, but left the house a little later than I had meant to. I managed to arrive at the store just as the rest of the runners were heading out the door. I ran and chatted with other runners (while constantly tapping my numb fingers with my thumbs to get the blood flow going) up to our first water stop, where I attempted to pop open the top of my fuel belt bottle, but it was frozen shut. I did, however, however, manage to screw off the top and have a drink. On our way again, I ran with a few people who were planning on running 16km then when they turned, I went straight to add a bit of extra distance. I still had 2 people to run with for a short while longer, but ran the last 10 km of my run by myself.

Aside from the occasional bouts of numb fingers, I had a very good run this morning: the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the roads were clear of snow and ice, and free coffee and treats were at the store after the run. You can’t complain about a morning like that!

Today’s Run
Distance: 19.31 km
Time: 1:58
Weather: –14 C, wind N 6km/h

A Quick Summary of a Week Gone By

It’s been a while. I apologize. I will now quickly bring you up to speed on my running over the past week-ish.

My running consisted of:
- indoor mini reverse triathlon (30 min run, 10 min bike, 15 min swim)
- 2.5 hour evening-time icy run
- hills with the group at Runners' Choice 
- rainy 12 km run (but at least it was nicely above freezing and I could wear a hat instead of a toque!)
- 3 hour run that started out nice and sunny, ended up dark, had some clear stretches, some very snowy stretches, some ice, slush, and some puddles

And now it’s my day off.

First Quality Workout Since Vacation

Tonight, I went to Runners’ Choice for the Thursday night Quality session of the Marathon Group. We ran did a ladder workout tonight, starting with 1 minute hard, 1 minute recovery, then up to 2 min, 3 min, 4 min hard segments with 1 minute recovery between each, then back down. This whole set was done twice.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 12 km
Weather: –1 C, felt like -6

Run 2 of 2

Tonight was the Quality Workout at Runners’ Choice. We headed out for some 400m repeats on a nice paved path. It was great to have a workout with no cars and a nice wide path that was clear of snow. It was a nice tough workout, running hard for 400m and then easy for 400m and repeat 6 to 12 times.

Tonight’s Run:
Distance covered: 13 km
Weather: –4 C, felt like –9 C

First Day

Today was the first day of the Winter/Spring Marathon group at Runners’ Choice. The group was bigger than the fall group, with a lot of first time marathoners and half-marathoners. It’s going to be a good season.

It was a cold, but very nice morning. The sky was perfectly clear and the sun was strong. It was a perfect winter morning for a run.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 15km
Weather: –11C, felt like –19C

Last Session

Last night was the very last Quality Workout session of the season for the marathon group at Runners’ Choice. We had a good night doing intervals at the park. The next session for this group starts in early January. I’ll be certain to join at that time, too because I signed up for my first full marathon! I’ll be running my very first full this coming May and I’m looking forward to training with the group.

Finally, a week where I covered over 50km!

It’s been a while since I’ve done it. In fact, this was my biggest mileage week all year! I covered about 52 km.

Since my last past, I had my Quality Workout night at Runner’s Choice on Thursday. I ran from work to the store and then headed out for the workout, so I covered 11 km total that night. Our workout consisted of intervals at Waterloo Park.

Yesterday morning, I got up and headed out for a nice easy morning run, not too early, but not too late (9am). I covered 6 km yesterday.

Now I just need to keep it up.

Speed Work

Last night was speed work with Runners’ Choice at Moses Springer Park. It was a good, hard, quick workout. We ran to the park, then once we were there, partnered up and the first person would run hard around this triangle of trail and grass and then come back and tag the partner. Partner would then go around and tag the first person again when they got back. So, you run hard, then have a short break, then run hard again. We were to do this 5-10 times, so I did 10.

Total distance covered: 6km

Running to go Running

Today I ran from work to Runners’ Choice for Quality Workout night. It’s not that far, just about 2.5 km, so it only made sense. I had to run with a backpack strapped to my back, though, so that made it a bit more difficult. I’m sure I looked wonderful as I showed up at the store all sweaty before we started our workout.

Tonight’s workout was a race simulation type workout. We warmed up (even though I was already nice and warmed up) but running a few km to the trails where we were doing our real workout. We did 10 km at a bit faster than easy run pace (to simulate the start of a marathon), then 10 km at goal race pace, then a final 5-10 minutes at “shut up and run” pace (to simulate the run to the finish line with any remaining juice you have left). After I finished this, I did 5 hill repeats, then headed back to the store.

Today’s Run:
Total distance covered: 14.25 km
Weather: 19 C, sunny

Reverse Duathlon

Last night was another “Quality Workout” night at Runner’s Choice. We were to meet up at Bechtel Park at 6pm and then start our workout. I rode my bike from work to the park (6km), then did the workout (8.5 km of trail running 3 min hard, 1 min recovery, repeat), then I biked home (5 km). 

So, I did bike-run-bike: a reverse duathlon. I can’t say that was really my plan, but it was a fantastic workout.

ENDURrun

Yesterday, I ran Stage 1 of the 8 day, 7 stage race. I was part of a relay team for Runner’s Choice. Stage 1 was a half marathon on a nice course starting in Conestogo following roads and trails over rolling hills. The weather was good (except for a nasty headwind for a while near the end of the race) and race organization was fantastic. The group of runners are great as well. I find that at so many races people don’t really talk to one another. This race is an exception. There is a group of 50ish runners who are taking part in all 7 stages, completing 160 km over the week. They become a bit of a tight-knit group.
I’m considering doing the whole ENDURrun next year, but we’ll see. I’m going to watch a stage or two more this week and cheer on the runners. I’ve given myself a deadline of the end of January to decide if I’m going to sign up for the Ultimate Challenge.
Click here to see Ryan’s photos from Stage 1.

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

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

Marathon/Half Marathon Clinic

Yesterday, I signed up for the next clinic at Runner’s Choice. I decided that I needed something to get me out running my long runs consistently on the weekends and people to give me a swift kick into doing my speed work, so it seemed like a logical idea. Now to train hard and to run a super-fast half marathon this fall!

Today’s Run:
Distance: 11 km
Weather: 16 C, sunny