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