Fall 2013 training - week 5. 11 weeks to go.

The early morning weather this week felt like it was already October! From heatwave directly into fall? Sometimes I wish I lived in one those places where the weather is basically the same for months on end, but maybe that gets tedious after a while.

(REDACTED: Tedious ramblings about my kid's camp schedules for this week. Trust me, it was boring. NEWSFLASH: A mom sometimes has trouble balancing the demands of work and family! Film at 11!)

A clone would help. But then there would be the inevitable Evil Clone shenanigans, and I so do not have time to hunt down an evil version of me.

Running wise, this was the final hard week before a cut back week. Featuring my first trip to the track in a while, more tempo, and a 21k long run.

Monday: The problem with not running on Mondays is that damn Daily Mile 0. Stuck with it until Tuesday!

Every Monday morning it mocks me.

Home TRX routine in the evening. Not my best effort. Moving on.

Tuesday: 8k Speedwork. 4x1km repeats, with 2 minutes rest in between. The big decision of the day: go to the Good Track, and risk finding it locked, or just go straight to the Bad Track? I went with Bad Track because my husband said Good Track was locked up last week, and who wants to waste time driving between tracks at 5 am?

Bad track has big chunks of the surface missing. Pick your lane carefully at Bad Track.

Warmed up, then ran the intervals in 4:39, 4:47, 4:38, 4:44, cooled down. I stupidly forgot to check what the goal paces were for this workout, and somehow it completely escaped me that, duh, I have a smartphone and could have looked them up before I started. At 5 am my brain takes a while to process anything more complicated than tying my shoes. And that doesn't even go smoothly - had to stop and re-tie them during the warmup. LOSER.

It turns out the goal range was 4:39-4:52, so km 3 was even a second too fast! I'm really happy with how this went - my km repeat times back in April were in the 4:50-5:05 range, so I've definitely gotten faster.
  
I had to share the track (what the hell!! who runs on the track at 5:30 am?) with a kid in baggy basketball shorts who showed up when I was about half done. Kids in baggy shorts (or, god forbid, denim shorts) always turn out to be obnoxiously fast. That's where that 4:38 came from, I was trying to catch up to him before the interval ended. Didn't quite make it.


Wednesday: Midweek mid distance run. 12k mid-easy. Mid. (I am easily amused). Did not see a single other runner or walker or even a pot smoking teenager. Did I miss a memo? Was it some sort of city-wide sleep in day or something?

Just me and the bunny rabbits. So very many rabbits.

And with this run, July officially becomes the record holder for most km run in a month (238.7), edging out out March (235.7). Huh. It seems when you increase the distances on your weeday runs the numbers start to add up! Nice to see my average pace has dropped, too - March was 6:06/km and July was 5:54/km. #numbersgeek #progress

Pretty good month - new 5k PR and an overall distance record. Glad Runkeeper is letting me know about these things.

Thursday: Tempo day. Got up, pouring rain. No matter, I don't mind running in the rain. Get changed, walk outside...see lightening.

Nope. Nope nope nope. Thunderstorms are one thing I won't run in (others being blizzards, ice storms, and storms with really high winds). It was basically already passed over and to be honest I would have been fine to run, but I decided to watch an episode of Orange Is the New Black instead (OMG SO ADDICTED TO THIS SHOW). Packed all my stuff up and took it to work for my first lunch run in months.

And holy crap am I ever glad I did! I hadn't realized how much the 'I'm still half asleep when I start running' thing affects effects slows down my pace on those early morning runs. Even though it was edging into uncomfortably hot out, everything about this run felt way easier, including hitting the tempo paces.

I saw deer and a very nice lady on a recumbent trike I chatted with for a bit because my dad just got a similar trike and I was wondering how she found the rail trail for riding. Interrupted my second km of tempo to talk with her but it was worth it. Goal pace 5:03-5:13, actual 5:07, 5:14 (interrupted to watch the deer and talk to the tricyclist), 5:09, 5:09, 5:07.

Super classy promotional Buff because I managed to forget to pack any of my visors, hats, hairbands, or nice buffs. You are welcome for the free advertising, Polar.

I really wanted to get in a TRX workout, but was feeling unmotivated so searched around on YouTube for a bit and found this TRX workout, which I decided to try entirely because it's only 24 minutes long and 24 minutes is better than none. It wasn't bad! And I learned a new move I'll probably incorporate into my routine, the one-legged plank with leg raise (ouch). Glad I hoisted myself off the couch and got it done.

Friday: Rest day, yay! I know I'm due for a cutback week because I actually enjoyed a full rest day, instead of getting antsy late in the day and wanting to run.

Saturday: Long run day. Met up with Patty to do a 9k run on a trail we wanted to explore. Unfortunately we didn't get very far before it turned into a puddle and grass filled mess, so we had to turn around and then attempt to do complicated math to figure out how far to run to get the distance right.

This will be fun to explore sometime, but not when trying to do a long run and hoping for paved trail!

Then we joined Nicole and Sam to do another 12k. We hassled Nicole about being the only one not wearing a skirt + compression socks (SHUN!!). I don't usually wear compression socks on long runs (I worry about blisters when I'm not wearing my trusty double layered Wright socks), but my calves have been really tight this week so compression seemed like a good idea.

Sam got attacked by a burr bush and I got collateral damage, so that was exciting. I swear that bush jumped onto the sidewalk. It was nice to run on York Blvd when it isn't winter - I'd never done that before, since I've always run York as part of Around the Bay training. It's rather pretty when you aren't constantly having to watch for ice patches.

View from York across the bay. I look at this and can't quite believe I've actually run around that bay!

Nicole wondered at one point why I'm already running 20k+ runs at this point in the training, and I didn't get a chance to answer her on the run. Basically I always, always have issues (largely mental) at the 17k or so point of the half marathon, and I'm hoping by doing lots of half distance long runs I'll have the confidence to run through the 17k suck at Scotia. It's really more of a psychological benefit thing for me right now. Do I need to be doing these sort of LSD distances at this point? Probably not. But I feel better doing them. Plus there's just something very satisfying about a 20k+ run.

Sunday: Easy 8k just to shake things out. Ran it a little fast for an easy run, but it felt good.

When you see a runner standing staring at their watch for no apparent reason, they are probably searching for satellites.

Weekly summary: 58.8km run in 5:40:18. Got in both TRX workouts. This is where I confess I've had a yoga workout in my schedule every week for the last 5 weeks and haven't managed to do a single one. Oops. No wonder my calves and hips are feeling stiff!

Looking forward to getting out on my bike this week - since it's a cutback week I'll replace a run with a bike and keep things easy. I do have a 5k race on Saturday; still considering my goals for that one. I'll put up a post later this week once I figure that out.