January 29th 2010

Hi There,
Well it’s been an interesting week or so since I last spoke to you. I took some time off from work and trained a little more than usual, I didn’t however get out and ski at all. Instead I decided since it was so nice that I would ride my bike out on the road. I ran in the morning and then rode out towards Devon in the afternoon. Thinking that it would be warmer in the afternoon than the morning. I had forgotten that my left foot gets frozen out on the bike… it’s been awhile since I last rode my bike in the winter. On one of my spins my foot wasn’t that bad, but on another one it took almost an hour for me it to warm up afterwards. I had also forgotten how much clothing you need to wear while out on the bike, more than I would wear while out running in similar temperatures. One of the things I like about cycling this time of year is that drivers almost always do a double take when they see you.

I was reading on the Irish independent website about how the cold snap that they had in Ireland during January had caused some of the country’s top runners to head to warmer climates so that they could train properly without the risk of getting ill due to the cold or injured due to the snow and ice on the ground. This made me laugh, and I seriously thought of emailing the reporter that wrote the piece about what it’s like to run outdoors in Edmonton during the winter. I mean Ireland had approx two weeks of the kind of weather we have for 4-5 months of the year, only in Ireland would snow bring a country to its knees.

So far in 2010 I have changed my mind as too which events I would concentrate on, and depending on how things shape up I think that this year will be a marathon heavy year with (right now I’m thinking) 3 marathons. I’m thinking of both Calgary and Edmonton, although they are only about 10-12 weeks apart that I’m not sure how that will work out. I’m thinking Calgary as it’s the provincial marathon championships and then I heard on the grape vine that the course for this year’s Edmonton marathon is changing to a flatter route than the previous year’s course. So we’ll see how that develops, I’ve spoken to a few people about the Edmonton marathon course and they reckon that it is much harder than Boston, which I’d believe as running up MacKinnon ravine can’t be easy after having run 18 or miles.

I read Nate Jenkins blog pretty regularly and as you may notice he always posts his training from the previous week, it gives you a good idea of how a professional runner trains, he always has a summary of the week and some pretty good quotes at the end of each posting. But what I like most about Nate’s blog is that he takes time to reply to people that shoot him any questions. So I thought that I would try to include my mileage per week and break down some of the workouts as I thought it would give you an idea how a not so professional runner trains. Please bear in mind that running (as much as I love it) is only a hobby for me as I work full time and have a family to look after and provide for, before I can head out running.

I’ll start next week with the mileage, my weekly mileage (until the snow melts) is about a steady 100K per almost every week. The only thing that changes are the length of the intervals and whether I run a hill workout or a tempo workout that week. Due to work and family commitments I’m limited in the amount of time during the week that I can put into my running.

Anyways thanks for reading
Niall