Friday, August 28, 2009

Winnipeg and back

Second Half of August 2009

After the ½ Marathon I felt really good, I think I came out of it under the impression that if it had been a flatter course I could run faster!!! So I decided to up the mileage little as I’ve been finding it difficult to get in those big weeks of training that is needed for a good Marathon, rather at staying at my consistent weekly mileage of between 60 and 70 miles a week. My wife and son went to Winnipeg for a week which meant that I could now stay in bed longer in the mornings and still get my 2 runs in a day. I was to follow them out to Winnipeg later in the week. I got in some good runs, however I may have over extended myself as the recovery has been a little slower this week, and I haven’t been as enthusiastic about training as I normally am. So I decided to take this week as a recovery week, so very little and light training only until Sunday when I’ll do my long run.

While in Winnipeg I was noticing that my I was running much faster than my usual pace and it all felt easy, trying to slow down felt hard though and going from 3 minute per K speed to 3:30 minute per K speed kind of felt like going from easy jogging to walking.

On the Friday I ran a loop that I’ve been using for almost all of my training while in town, in and around St. Vital Park, but this time I included a stretch of the Bishop Grandin Greenway(?) this a new stretch of path that runs alongside the highway. It’s here that I found that I was motoring along faster than my normal training pace, which was a good thing as the next day I wasn’t able to run due to our son deciding that he didn’t want to nap during the day and family gatherings, until I put him in a carrier called an Infantino(sp) then he slept for about 2 hours by which time I could’ve gone running but then the guests had arrived so it was too late.

The next day I ran my long run also on a normal training route that I’ve been using. Going from my Father in-law’s place over to the University and out to St. Norbert and back, except that this time I kept going past the floodgates through Turnbull and on towards Ritchot. Going out was easy enough so I turned around at just over 17K. But coming back was hard, nothing to do with the course as it was pretty flat, mainly to do with the heat and me having only one bottle of Gatorade with me. By the time I got back to St. Vital Park I was done, there was nothing left; I just wilted in the heat. I think there was about a 15 – 30 second difference per kilometre in the two halves. The temperature was about 26’C.

This week as I say has been a very slow week due to a couple of things that I have no control over. On Monday I was up at 5:00am (Winnipeg time) to catch a flight back to Edmonton and then on Tuesday morning I got a call from work just before 6:00am as there was a problem with one of the branches on Wednesday I had an early appointment at Canada place and then had to pick up the family at the airport after work in the evening, so I’ve been short sleep for a couple of days and this just added to the tiredness that I was feeling overall. I did manage to run Tuesday night, but felt like crap. I got two runs in on Thursday and Friday 2 X 40 minute runs.

Although on Saturday I was thinking of riding My Mountain bike for a bit – although not sure yet as the Temperatures are supposed to be up around 29’C for the next couple of days.

Anyways Happy running

Monday, August 17, 2009

August 17th 2009
This post has been a long time coming as things have been getting a little crazy the last couple of weeks. We decided to sell our house, which can be pretty stressful and when we sold it we didn't have a place to move into plus the fact that through all of this I'm trying to train for a Marathon.....its no wonder I have Grey hair :)

The last couple of weeks of training have been going pretty smoothly with the mileage starting to creep up to appropriate levels. I decided that rather than have a set amount of mileage to do every day I would go by time.

So far this month it has worked out well - next month may be a little different though as there is a lot of Cross Country running in town with both the Saucony/Athletics Alberta Race Series and the Frank McNamara Wednesday Fall Race Series. I'm hoping to use both of the leagues as part of my build up to Dublin in October.

Here is an example of My training plans for August / September / October

Monday = 30 minutes + Yoga am
Tuesday = 60 minutes am (inc 6x3mins building to a max of 10x3mins with 2mins AR*) + 40 minutes pm easy
Wednesday = Yoga am + 90 - 100 minute run home (with some Tempo paced running)
Thursday = 60 minutes am + 40 minutes pm easy
Friday = 60 minutes am + 40 minutes pm easy
Saturday = 90 minutes (inc 6x6minutes building to a max of 10x6minutes with 4mins AR*)am + Yoga pm
Sunday = 120 minutes building to 160 minutes am + Yoga pm

In September /Early October - I'll be running the XC races rather doing two days of intervals and will be doing my mid week long run on a Thursday instead (at an easy pace). Since I'm also doing a Half Marathon in Mid September I'll be doing that instead of a long run.

*AR = Active Recovery

Notes - There is a lot of Yoga on the schedule, as this is a good way to stretch and you need to balance the running with a lot of recovery. Most of the time this will be me and a video tape or DVD, but I will try to get in at least one class a week depending on how things are going.

Races in August - Intact Edmonton 1/2 Marathon

Yesterday I ran the Half Marathon and set a new PB for that distance. I finished in a time of 1:17:48 (gun time) I felt pretty good throughout the race, the Newtons performed as I've come to expect them to which is amazingly. I wish I could tell you about the Kenyan guys that won, but the closest I got to them was standing behind them at the start line. I think I might have seen them once on the course over near 149th street, but those guys run so fast I might have been imagining it.

I saw Jonathon at the start also and then maybe one more time in the race, but hes a couple of minutes faster than me. What I as happy aobut more than anything was the fact that I ran three minutes faster than I did at the Red Deer 1/2 Marathon. A second thing that made me feel good about the race was the fact that I didn't cut back on any mileage ,so there was no tapering for yesterdays effort, it was a replacement to a long run.

Whats next?
I'm entered into the Rotary Half out in Stoney Plain on September 13th, I think I'll be running most of the Wednesday night XC races, plus at least one of the Saucony/AA series. depending on how all of this goes I'll also try and do the Devon Turkey Trot 10K before heading to Ireland.

Happy running
Niall