A week and a half to go

I’m getting excited for Vegas! I’m now at the point where I check the weather daily to see what race day is supposed to be like. A couple of days ago it said that the expected high was 16 C, but now it says a high of 9 C with a low of 2 C. I know that it’s likely to change again, seeing as there’s still a week and a half to go.

This week, I’ve kind of stopped following my training schedule and have started just going out for runs of whatever distance and pace I feel like running. I’ll do my speed workout tomorrow as per schedule and my weekend long run as per schedule as well, but my regular “easy runs” are being mixed up a bit. It’s kind of fun.

Monday morning I ran 10 km, this morning I ran 5.5 km. I may run again tonight… who knows?

Today’s Run:
Distance: 5.5 km
Weather: –2 C (felt like –6 C), wind 11 km/h

Morning in the Park

The sun had recently risen; the frost had not yet melted, giving the grass a snowy look. I looked to the pond, which was covered in a morning mist. The sun illuminated it. As I ran past the island, I watched silhouettes of ducks swimming gracefully through the mist and a swan grooming itself near the shore.

It’s not very often that I see Victoria park like this. Normally there are many people walking and cycling, kids playing, and cars driving by. But this morning I was out early enough to enjoy it without the hustle and bustle, but late enough to have light.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 18.5 km
Weather: –3 C, sunny, wind 6 km/h NW

I got distracted

I got up this morning at 6:30 with plans of running 8km before work. I went into the living room, put my Garmin in the window to find satellite reception, went onto the computer to check the weather, but found that Ryan had started a blog post our Shoot the Thrill Photography blog, but that it wasn’t published yet. He had asked me to write the blog post yesterday, but I forgot to do it, so I went through what he wrote, changed it slightly, added some links and published the post. Then I looked at the time and it was 6:57. Oops. So… my run was shortened. But then again, a short run is better than no run at all.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 4 km
Weather: 17 C, cloudy

Morning Runs

I have trouble getting up early and going for runs. I keep telling myself that I’ll do it, I set my alarm, I wake up in the morning, but I almost always end up going back to sleep.

This morning, my alarm went off at 6am, I turned it off, laid back down on the bed “for a minute” but then when I looked at the time again, it was 40 minutes later. Oops. So, my 8K run turned into a 3.5K run and I’m going to end up getting to work a few minutes later than I had planned today.

How can I motivate myself to get up earlier? And how can I have more energy to run in the morning? This morning I found myself practically dragging myself. I want to be able to train in the AM and I want to be able to train fairly hard. Any suggestions?

Today’s Run:
Distance: 3.5 km
Weather: 14 C, wind W 11 km/h

Short run before work

I got out this morning to run 5.5 km. It’s tough for me to get out of the house early for a run. I wake up, see the darkness outside, and immediately want to go back to sleep. Today I forced myself up and out, but it did take me a while. I had plans of getting up at 6 and heading out for my run, but I actually started my run around 6:45.

Today’s Run:
Distance: 5.5 km
Weather: 2 C, no wind

Against the wind

As I ran this morning, Bob Seger sang in my head. “Still runnin’  I’m still runnin’ against the wind.”

At least I planned it so that I’d be running against the wind for the first half of my run, which meant with the wind for the home stretch.

Distance: 6.82 km (as per the Garmin)
Weather: –3 C, feels like –10 C; wind 24 km/h