Race report: Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon 2013

Spoiler alert: this race was awesome!

Saturday my husband and I successfully pawned our children off on some helpful relatives and headed into downtown Toronto. First stop, the race expo. Packet pickup was straightforward, but the expo area was crowded and neither of us does well in crowds of slow moving people (especially when half of them are on their smart phones and not paying any attention to where they are going). So we decided not to do much shopping, although we did snag some free yogurt.

Kind of sad I didn't manage to spend any money or buy any fun new gear. I love new gear.

We checked into our hotel, where we got a free upgrade to a corner suite (fancy!) and a stunning view of the ass end of the CBC building (not fancy!). Headed out for dinner where I had a burger and fries, which I know isn't exactly a traditional pre race meal but it's worked for me in the past.

Yeah, I don't think this hotel is known for its views.

Made sure all my stuff was organized, hung out for a while in the hotel bar with my husband eavesdropping on people, and eventually went to bed. There was some sort of wild party going on on our floor of the hotel, so iDevices to the rescue with some nice ocean noises to drown out the idiots. What the hell is the appeal of partying it up in a hotel room, anyway?

Making sure I didn't forget anything! Flat Emma ready to run. Although she might want a pair of shoes.

I woke up a few minutes before my 6 am alarm, feeling fantastic. I rarely get that good a sleep the night before a race because I'm usually waking up every 30 minutes in a panic that I've slept through my alarm - but in this case our hotel was only 1 km from the start line, so I knew I would have lots of time even if I did miss my alarm. I choked down my preferred pre-race fuel (half a bagel and some caffienated NUUN), messed around for a bit with my iPad, got dressed, and headed for the hotel lobby breakfast to see if I could find a banana. It was quite amusing watching people approach the breakfast buffet - I played spot the runners, who were all stocking up on bananas and oatmeal and leaving the eggs and bacon untouched.

I wanted a strategy for the late race mental suck, and I thought this might be helpful.

I gave my husband my post-race bag of gear, put on my throw away sweater, and headed to the start area to rendezvous with my little brother and various Daily Mile friends. It's always so much nicer to spend those nervous pre-race minutes commiserating with other runners instead of standing around lonely! We unfortunately failed to get any group pics, but people were coming and going from the bag check and I don't think there was a moment we were all there at the same time.

I did remember to grab a picture with Patty, at least! You can find her take on the race here.

The grey and pink coordination wasn't planned, but don't we look great? Team Ruffle Skirts! Although mine only has ruffles on the back.

Patty also let us in on the secret of the bathrooms, aka how to find an empty bathroom close to the start with no line up.

Hello swanky deserted bathroom incredibly close to the corral entrance. Score!

We wandered aimlessly around a bit, went back to the bathroom again, and eventually made our way to the yellow corral to wait for the start of the race.

Start line waaaaay off in the distance.

I was feeling surprisingly warm in my sweater, arm warmers, and gloves while we waited for the start, so with about 10 minutes to go I decided to toss the sweater. After Oh Canada, some booing of Doug Ford, and the start of the red corral, it was our turn to move forward to the start line. At this point my watch lost satellites because I had locked on too early and it had been idle too long (gah!) and I made the hasty decision to also ditch my arm warmers and gloves, so I was a bit frantic as the horn sounded and we were off. The last second wardrobe toss may explain how my watch didn't actually start when I crossed the start line - I SWEAR I hit start, but about 300m into the race I looked at it and saw a big fat 0. Ack.

So basically my watch was totally whacked for the whole race. This, I think, ultimately worked in my favour, since I was able to ignore it and just focus on staying with Patty. She told me our splits after each km and I just worried about successfully dodging the slower runners we seemed to be continually passing.

The first part of the race went by so fast! Every km marker for the first 10k or so seemed to come up way sooner than I was expecting it. There was some decent downhill in the section on Bathurst and we took advantage; I remember Patty telling me some splits that seemed crazy fast, but it all felt pretty easy at that point. And we needed to make up some time after a slow first kilometer anyway. There was one problem - at around 7k the top of my left inner thigh muscle really started to hurt. It was very distracting but didn't seem to be affecting my running at all, so I ignored it as best I could. The kilometers continued to tick by, and other than the sore thigh, I felt great. I was in the zone, not really thinking about anything at all, which is ideal, because it means my brain wasn't bothering me with doubts. I wasn't even listening to music, although I had my headphones in just to keep them in place.

Once we got onto Lakeshore, I could definitely feel the difference in running flat vs. the previous downhill. The pace started to feel more challenging, but still well within my abilities. It was really fun to watch the elites go past in the opposite direction and scream encouragement at them (especially Lanni and Krista, who both broke the Canadian's women's record! So thrilled when I saw that after the race!). It was a nice distraction from the pain in the my leg/groin, and I also managed to spot my brother heading the other way before the two sides of the road separated and we couldn't play 'find our friends' any more. After the 10k timing mat, I felt like I needed a little boost so I put my music on. Which is probably why every time Patty said something after that point I was all WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY? Sorry about that Patty!

First 10k, sort of (since I didn't start my watch until we were 300m in, my splits don't reflect the actual course km markings): 5:21, 5:30, 5:21, 5:10, 5:05, 5:08, 5:10, 5:19, 5:24, 5:16

Official 10k mat split: 53:48 (pace 5:23/km - the 300m my watch missed were fairly slow, due to how congested the first km was)

Hey Patty, wait for me!

Overall, not looking at my pace really worked for me. Not looking meant my brain couldn't be all "OMG WE ARE GOING TOO FAST AND WILL DIE!!!" like I'm sure it would have if I'd actually been able to see some of those under 5:20 kilometers as they were happening. One of these days I will work up the courage to run a 'naked' race with no watch at all.

After the turnaround at 12k on Lakeshore I knew there was an unpleasant hill coming, both because we'd driven it the previous day and Patty pointed it out to me on the out part of the out and back. We made it up fine (focusing on even effort) and our split was I think pretty consistent through that km. Hill conquered!

10-16k, sort of: 5:21, 5:24, 5:21, 5:16, 5:24, 5:24

After 16k, though, my brain was starting to object to this whole running thing. Right on schedule. "This is too fast. let's walk a bit. Oh hey now both of your inner thighs are hurting, you better stop. Let's just slow down. Just for a few minutes. Let's walk a bit. C'mon. Just for a minute or two." I kept glancing down at 'believe' written on my hand and thinking, no, I'm going to keep going. I believe in my training. I'm doing this. 5k to go. Less than half an hour. I can do this.  4k to go. 20 minutes, I can do this.

We kept going. It hurt, but we kept going. If Oakville and this race have taught me anything, it's that I need to have a mental strategy in place for the late stages of the race.

17 & 18k-ish: 5:27, 5:13

I knew Paul had said he would be waiting around 19k to cheer, and I latched onto that. Just get to Paul. Look for Paul. Don't think about how much this hurts. And then I spotted him and freaked out, waving my arms in the air like a total idiot, but seriously, I was so happy to see him! It really gave me an energy boost, so thank you Paul!

Under the Gardiner - photo swiped from Paul.

 19 & 20k or so: 5:21, 5:21

Finally, we turned up Bay St towards the finish. I swear it felt like we were running over sand at this point (especially since it was uphill, OMG why is there always an uphill at the finish???), and I have no idea how fast we actually went because between the Bay St. tunnel and the tall buildings, my watch freaked out and recorded some really bizarre stuff. And Patty's watch couldn't deal with it either, so we have no idea. There were markers for 500 meters to go, 400 meters to go, etc, and they DID NOT HELP. Every one of those 100 meters felt like the longest 100 meters of all time.

21.1k: ???? my watch claims 4:50 but it also seems to think we were about 150m west of where we actually were and then we levitated over a bunch of buildings to the finish, so clearly that's not right.

That's the best of a terrible, terrible set of photos. Yikes. 

Crossing the finish felt a little anti-climactic because I had no idea on our time. Patty said we were under 1:54, so yay, but it wasn't until my husband met us as we came out of the finishing area that he confirmed I'd run 1:53:57. 'A' goal achieved!! I have to give a ton of credit to Patty for this one, she believed I could run with her even when I wasn't convinced it was remotely possible, and I don't think there's any way I would have run sub 1:54 without her there to push/pull me along. Left to my own devices I would have gone for 1:55 and possibly cheated myself out of over a minute (or more) on my time. Thank you Patty! Having someone to run with makes such a huge difference.

Chip time: 1:53:57 (PB by over 4 minutes!)
Category place: 136/776 (17.5% - this is blowing my mind, I still think of myself as a mid-pack runner)
Gender place: 893/5371 (Patty was 892nd, I knew I should have tripped her when I had the chance)
Overall place: 2947/10093

Post race - sweatier, but happy. Once again I had my medal on backwards. You'd think I'd learn to check that before we take pictures.

The finish area was kind of insanely crowded and I was starting to get cold, so I said goodbye to Patty and headed off with my husband to walk back to the car. I also managed to steal Patty's sunglasses. That'll teach her to finish a race one second ahead of me.

Nathan Philips Square finish area and the funky bike sculpture in the background. Can you spot Sam and Nicole?

Ran into Sam and Nicole, talked briefly about our races but we were all tired and holy crap, when not running it was cold! So we headed our separate ways to find our cars and head for home.

Hello salted caramel hot chocolate, with your nice hot cup to warm up my freezing cold hands.

Things I liked about this race: Hello new PB! I enjoyed the course, other than that stupid hill at the end. Really fun. The t shirt is great. Decent crowd support along the way, especially the drummers at the Ex. Some amusing signs ("You are running this city better than Rob Ford" "You know you want me" held by a guy dressed as a bottle of beer). Running along Lakeshore back towards the city with the CN tower in the distance was pretty cool (even if that was a bit of an 'oh shit we have to get past there to get to the finish it looks so far' moment).

Not a particularly impressive kit overall, but the shirt fits very nicely. I demand more samples of products I will never buy!

Things I didn't like: The crowd at the finish - too many people waiting for runners blocking the runner's exit so things started to back up. I think they needed some volunteers to keep the crowd back. Spending the entire race dodging around people; I kind of wonder how much extra distance we ran due to constantly passing people. I had to do a lot of back and forth especially through the first 10k. The woman who almost ran into Patty with her bike when she decided she just HAD to cross the road during a marathon. The cost - it's an expensive race!

Overall I think I prefer to run smaller races where the runners are more spread out and you have a little more room to breathe and settle into your pace. But I would run Scotia again; it's just not going to be a must do every year race for me the way Around the Bay is.

Nice bling. I like how they put Toronto landmarks on the medals (ROM this year).

So what now?

Next up is the Road 2 Hope half marathon, assuming the groin thing is fully resolved (I think it was a mild groin strain of some sort - what am I, a hockey player? It feels better but I have to test it out with an easy run). Then the Downsview 5k because my husband asked me to run it with him, it's his first race, and although I swore no more 5ks until spring, how can I say no to that?

And of course there's this, which I registered for in a fit of post-half marathon PB euphoria...

Wait, what did I just do?

I probably won't do weekly training updates now that my A goal race is over, because frankly even I was getting bored of me the last few weeks. I'll update the blog with race reports (of course) and then probably monthly training updates until marathon training starts. Oh my god, I'm going to train for a marathon. !!!

Fall training 2013: RACE TIME!

And this is it. I've been working towards this race basically since June, although I didn't officially start training for it until July. But it's been the big goal race the whole time, and it's exciting/terrifying that it is finally here. Time to obsess over details like the weather forecast.

Monday's forecast. Rain? RAIN? That's not part of the plan! Fortunately Amy called Environment Canada and pulled some strings to get that changed.

There were a few hiccups along the way in the training (like, say, pretty much all of August). But overall I'm pleased with how this training cycle has gone. The 10k PB a couple of weeks ago in particular shows that I've made progress, and should be able to knock some time off my current half marathon record. Sunday we'll see just what these legs can do!

Training summary since the Mississauga half in May. That's a lot of running. Could have done more interval training, and how did I not have any cut weeks in June or July? Maybe that explains some of the issues I had in August. 

Monday: Thanksgiving Monday, so no work, yay. Easy 8k by the lake, just because I love to run there. It was too beautiful a day to run through the boring late 80s suburban developments where I live.

A little nicer than my closer to home routes. Also fewer hills (bonus).

Tuesday: Rest day. I did a yoga video that has some amazing hip stretches. Fantastic. Find it here.

Wednesday: 6k early in the morning in the rain. Did 2k at race pace in the middle. Felt good. I ran this without music which meant my brain was all "Oh hi this pace? HA HA I DOUBT IT", so when I got to work I made myself a sign to hang over my desk. My brain can be my worst enemy in races, so this is my current strategy to get my mindset positive.

Oh god, did I spell believe right? I hope I spelled it right.

Thursday: Very easy 5k at lunch. I found myself running the same route I used to use for some of my Couch 2 5k runs. That helped put things in perspective - I remembered how it felt each week to make it a little bit further along the path as the running intervals got longer. I remembered how it felt to finish my first 5k run, and then my first 5k race (30:58, thank you very much - that was almost exactly two years ago). Even if I don't reach a particular time goal on Sunday, running has brought so much joy to my life, and it was nice to be reminded of where I started and how much I've accomplished along the way.

Scenery wasn't half bad, either.

And that's it. No more training left to do. Along with Believe, my mantra this week has been Trust the Training. The hay is in the barn, as they say. There's nothing to be done at this point except keep loose, fuel up, and try and get lots of sleep. And make sure my planned race outfit is clean (*runs off to do laundry*). My legs feel strong, and my brain is starting to come around to thinking this might just be possible.

Goals

What are my goals? My last half marathon was at Mississauga back in May, where my goal was to go sub 2 and I surprised myself with a 1:58 - I was convinced going into that race that if I got the sub two it would be just barely. Two minutes under was amazing. In retrospect, however, when I look at the splits from that race, I really think if I hadn't paced it in the stupidest possible way I'd have had a legitimate shot at 1:56:xx. Starting out way too fast will cost you at the end of the race, imagine that. Amazing how pretty much all runners have to learn that by experiencing it themselves. Over and over and over again..

So the big goal is 1:53:xx; roughly a 5:21/km pace. I will be ecstatic if I can hit that; I will be happy if I can go under 1:56. Honestly 5:21/km kind of feels like a stretch, but what have I been doing all this training for if not to go for it? So there it is. I'm going to be running the race with Patty, so I plan to ignore my watch (I'll set it to display calories burned instead of current pace), and just stick with Patty until we either finish the race or I collapse at the side of the road.

Aside from the race itself, I plan to enjoy myself! My husband and I are ditching the kids and will go to the expo together (hoping for some good deals, especially on gear for him now that he's decided he wants to train for a spring half marathon). We'll go out for dinner Saturday (also without kids! YAY!). Before the race I hope to meet up with lots of my Daily Mile friends. Even without a PB running a race is always really fun, and I love doing them. The energy in the air, being around so many other people who share the same passion for this slightly ridiculous sport. It's exciting.

Scotibank half marathon, I'm ready. Let's do this thing.

Fall 2013 training week 15: 1 week to go

TAPER!!!!! Time to fret about whether I've trained enough, check the long term forecast repeatedly, and try and figure out what I'm going to wear for the actual race.

Monday: Rest day. I might have done yoga, but now I can't remember. My troublesome hip was a bit cranky after the trail race/long run back to back combo, so lots of foam rolling and stretching throughout the week.

Tuesday: Lunch run. Easy 7.8k. Not much to say about it really. It was a run.

Used my new gym bag from the Run for the Toad. That was exciting.

 Wednesday: Early morning tempo. No complaints (yes, I am running out of things to say). 2k warmup, 4k at HM pace, cooldown. Splits were 5:19, 5:16, 5:21, 5:19. So pretty much right on.

 Another yoga video in the evening. La dee dah.

Thursday: Can you tell I'm getting eager to just get to the race already? Easy 8k early in the morning. It was dark.

I spent much of the week reading surgical journals for work. Surgical articles sometimes include pictures. I deserved a donut after some of what I saw.

The weird pain in my glute I got at Midsummer showed up again while I was sitting in a meeting, and I had a flash of recognition - sciatica. Damn it. I remember it from the first time I was pregnant. Made an appointment with my physiotherapist for next week to see if there's anything she can do to help. At the moment it only hurts when I'm sitting for a long time and is fine if I stand or run, so at least there's that. Since I mostly work at a computer all day, though, it's not exactly a great development. Maybe I can talk them into a standing desk!

Friday: Rest day. Took my kids apple picking and made a bunch of thanksgiving themed cupcakes.

Saturday: long run with my husband! A first for us. Usually running together isn't an option because for some reason they frown on people leaving small children unsupervised. My brother was supposed to join us too but he got to clean puke out of his car instead when my niece got carsick. You can laugh at him, we did!

Heading out. Perfect morning for a run.

We ran to a rail trail and did a straightforward 13k out and back with a few stops for nutrition and such.  Unfortunately the leaves were about a week past peaking so it was a little less colourful than I'd been hoping, but we still had a great time. 

Couldn't get a good picture of the cows. There were a lot of cows.

 Tried out my planned outfit for scotia, and it worked out well. 

Haven't fully settled on the shirt yet, but the skirt is a winner.

Of course that afternoon was the big family turkey dinner, yay!

Mmm, carbs with gravy.

Sunday: Easy 10k. The plan had been 15 Saturday and 8 Sunday, but my husband had never run more than 12, and I didn't want to push him too far on Saturday. So I cut that one to 13k, and made up the missed mileage Sunday. 

You can't see in the picture that I'm completely soaked from the rain. It stopped when I was about 5 minutes from home, naturally.

One week until the race now. The training is essentially over - some easy runs this week just to keep moving, maybe a few km at race pace just to lock in the feeling, but the hard work is done! I'll do a pre-race post later this week once I'm in full on rest/carb loading mode.

Weekly stats: 48.8k run in 4:50:12. A couple of yoga sessions and lots of time with the foam roller. Race day is almost here!!

Fall 2013 training week 14: 2 weeks to go

The theme of this week was definitely runger (running induced hunger). Seriously SO HUNGRY. And this is just half marathon training - marathon training this winter will be interesting.

Monday: Tempo run. 10k total with 6k at half marathon pace. Usually I do these Tuesday but wanted to shift things around to accommodate my trail race on Saturday. Paces were good (5:21, 5:23, 5:26. Second set a slight downhill grade: 5:10, 5:17, 5:13), but I'm still not entirely sure a) how I held a 5:11/km pace over 10k at Oakville and b) how I'm going to hold a 5:20/km pace over 21.1. Doubts, I have them. Hoping for lots of race day magic!

Compression socks with dress pants? My coworkers don't even ask anymore.

TRX class in the evening. Tiring. Very tiring.

So, really, the real reason I decided not to take a rest day on Monday was that after Sunday's run I was only 3k shy of setting a new monthly distance record for myself. I couldn't resist moving my runs around so I could break the record. After a sucky August, September turned out to be a very good month! I ran 245.9 km in 24:02:08. That's a lot of running - a whole day of running! Add in that 10k PB and I'm very pleased.
 
Tuesday: Easy 9k. Supposed to be 10 but stupid construction delayed my getting to Patty's house so we had to cut it short a km. Probably for the best, Patty might have had to carry me that last km, my legs were Done and I was just really not feeling it. 4 days in a row of running + TRX + too early = Tired.

Well at least it wasn't a 4:30 wake up?

Spent some quality time with my foam roller because my hips felt a bit tight, and I'm going to be proactive about dealing with any possible hip issues. I would rather not spend the next two weeks stressing about a sore hip like I did leading up to the Mississauga half.

A visit to the dollar store to stock up on gloves for the winter. Don't mind that piece of paper in behind there...

Wednesday: REST. Sweet sweet rest. Attempted to deal with The Hunger by bringing lots of healthy snacks to work.

Look at all that healthy crap.

Then I went home and ate a bag of chocolate covered almonds. And possibly also some cookies. Let's just move on to Thursday.

Thursday: Easy 10k before work. I'm starting to recognize the 5am regulars on my usual route. Black Sweatsuit Lady, who tends to scare me half to death because I don't always see her until she's RIGHT THERE. Startled Deer Teen Guy who reacts with terror when I say hello. Baseball Hat Won't Make Eye Contact Lady who never responds to my friendly waves.

No Tall Safety Vest Guy, though. I see him a lot, but not today. He's the one who actually says hello when I smile and wave at him.

You don't need to see my 5 am face. But the new shirt (10k PB reward!) is pretty awesome. It says 'rain wind & snow I would go'. And it's purple, so I love it. Note also my super sexy reflective arm band.

Friday: Rest day. Wore my sweet new boots to work; realized an hour in that new boots the day before  a race is a dumb idea. Good thing I keep about 40 pairs of shoes under my desk so I could change before my feet got blisters!

I have, sadly, pretty much given up on high heels. They make my calves hurt too much now, and that just won't do at all. I'll suffer for fashion, but not if it there's a chance it'll hurt my running.

Saturday: Run for the Toad 50k relay (I ran 12.5k). Race report is coming! I totally logged this as an interval workout, what with all the running up hills.

Loved this from the Toad race kit - bag of Epsom salts. That post run hot bath felt amazing.

Sunday: I was not sure about this run, having run a 12.5k trail race the day before. But Patty needed to get in a long run, and this is supposed to be peak week before Scotia, so I sucked it up and did it. 19k and there's no way in hell I would have run it without Patty to drag me along. But I wanted to make sure I got over 60k for the week, and now it's TAPER TIME! YAY!

I had no idea you could surf on lake Ontario! It was actually really nice running next to the lake with the sound of the crashing waves. Very soothing. Less soothing were the mosquitoes that descended every time we stopped to gel.

Weekly stats: 61 km run in 6:09:25. Trail race and my first relay! Managed a TRX class. The food situation was ugly, though. Seriously I ate so much food this week, and not healthy stuff, either. Hopefully with my mileage dropping I can get back to a reasonably healthy diet, as I know I'll run better on race day if I'm properly fueled.

However, Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend. Mmmmmm, gravy. Maybe I'll just get an early start on the carb loading.

Fall 2013 training week 13: 3 weeks to go

Oh boy, we are getting down to the wire now. Race day transportation issue now resolved: Nicole offered to drive, which is awesome of her, but after discussing with my husband we decided why not book a hotel near the start/finish for Saturday night? That way we can go out for a nice pasta dinner and I don't have to worry about driving in early in the morning. So we'll be ditching the kids with a helpful sister in law and spending the night in downtown Toronto. It should make race morning less stressful, assuming I can find Patty before the race starts! I'm trying to convince him to sign up for the 5k, but no success on that yet.

Monday: Well deserved rest day after the 10k PB. Legs felt surprisingly good, considering; I probably could have gone to TRX class. But I decided I'd earned a day off.

Apropos of nothing, these 100 calorie Wholly Guacamole snack packs are awesome. (what, I didn't take a lot of pictures this week)

 Tuesday: Since Patty and I will most likely run Scotia together (which is TERRIFYING because Patty is planning a 5:20/km pace, but hey, go big or go home.), we met up for 10k with 6k at race pace tempo. At 5 am. Dear god we are stupid. Felt decent enough, considering the 5 am thing, plus the fast 10k on Sunday. I'm not hugely confident that I can hold that kind of pace over 21.1, but I guess you never know until you try. Splits on the 6k tempo were 5:22, 5:28, 5:19, 5:24, 5:27, 5:16. Touch slow, but I blame the 5 am thing.

Should have done TRX and/or kettlebells, but I had a really stressful day and just was not feeling up to it at all.

Wednesday: This was a 'why the hell am I doing this' run. 4:30 in the morning is just too early, especially now that it's not hot anymore. I spent the first 20 minutes thinking about how utterly dumb it was that I got up that early to run. I'm never going to win a race, so what the hell is the point? By the end, though, I felt pretty good. I run because I love to run, and because I want to improve myself. No, I'll never win a race, but I know I can get better, and if that means running at 4:30 am, then that's what I'm going to do.

My faithful headphones completely disintegrated during this run. I guess almost 3 years of abuse was enough for them.

 Thursday: Track. But I wanted to run at lunch and the track at work is technically off limits (not sure how enforced that is - but to be honest, I have no interest in sharing a track with a bunch of varsity athletes). Hit up one of the local trails instead that I knew would give me an uninterrupted and flat 1k. First interval in 4:32, oops. I figured when I saw that number that I would pay for that one, and pay I did. Next three were 4:47, 4:56, 4:56, and then I couldn't finish the fifth repeat - did about 700m at a 4:55 pace and just could not go on. Oh well, it is what it is. Finished a total of 10k and it was overall a good workout.

Fall colour! Is it just me or are the leaves later than usual changing colour this year?

 Skipped strength work again for absolutely no good reason.

Friday: Rest day. Ate SO MUCH FOOD. Must be a peak week or something, I'm a hobbit having 3 breakfasts and still so hungry.

Original image credit.

Saturday: Long run with Patty. We agreed to take this one easy peasy lemon squeezy, since we both felt like we needed a confidence building long run instead of a sufferfest. It worked out really well, and we even did a few faster km at the end - not bad for 23k!

We amused ourselves through much of the run by spotting overdressed runners. Seriously, people, it was 12C - which is NOT THAT COLD. We were both in tank tops, and were comfortable with the temperature. Patty went with a skirt and I was in crops, but frankly should have gone skirt too (I wasn't overly hot in the crops, but the weather was such that a skirt would be been perfect). We kept seeing people in long sleeves, which I kind of get because it is September and we all can't wait to break out our Around the Bay shirts to show off our membership in that particular club, but jackets? long pants? tights? sweatshirts? Y'all be CRAZY.

It will look like this soon enough. As much as I'm getting bored of my summer gear, let's not rush into things here people. (Original image source)

 Sunday: Recovery run 8k. Legs had no interest in the recovery part - every time I glanced at my watch it read 5:3x or 5:4x. Since I seemed to be incapable of slowing down, I stopped a bunch of times to take pictures and keep things a little closer to 'recovery'.

A multi use trail is a such a good use of this powerline corridor. Beautiful spot to run, even if it does have a lot of stupid hills.

Weekly summary: 65.5 km run in 6:28:02. No weight training due to laziness.

One more hard week of training before tapering. Eep. This week features not just my first trail race, but also my first relay, which I am super crazy excited about! The main goal is not to get injured while doing it. And have a lot of fun with my team (Sam, Phil, and Kim).

Fall 2013 training week 12: 4 weeks to go

Decision made: Road 2 Hope it is. I like having a backup race in case my A is a total crash and burn, plus Sam offered to drive (SOLD!). I note no one is jumping up and down offering to drive to Scotia, though. Shit.

Monday: 11k tempo run on the rail trail at work. I always think to myself when I start this run that the grade of the rail trail isn't that bad, and I always get to the turn around and it gets a million times easier and I'm all oh yeah, no wonder the first half felt so hard, it's uphill the whole damn way. Did 2 x 2k tempo sections, plus ran the last few k relatively fast to try and get the feeling of speed into my legs before Sunday's 10k. Splits on the tempo sets were 5:13, 5:09 in the first set, then 4:58, 5:05. Going downhill is easier. Imagine that. Most of the other km were in the 5:30/5:40 range, and I pushed myself on tired legs during the last km to and got that one done in 5:13. Good prep for Sunday's 10k race.

Probably not good that the rail trail deer are so unafraid of people! Below, the elevation map of the rail trail. It doesn't look like it's a hill while I'm running on it, but apparently it is. I think that map really exaggerates it, but whatever, it looks cool.

TRX class in the evening. Some really cruel moves with an exercise ball. Ouch. Trainers are so mean.

Tuesday: Rest. Rest is good.

Wednesday: With no LSD this week due to the 10k race Sunday, I wanted to make sure I got in a decent mid distance run. 14k at 4:30 am, yeah. Running is stupid. It was like a skunk convention, I saw three of them and smelled a fourth (adrenaline dump: that moment where you realize, no, that's not a cat, it's a skunk with its tail raised). Good feeling run, overall, and pleasantly cold out. Almost needed gloves!

Pretty new toys

Wednesday evening I played with my new toys, the kettlebells I found for a ridiculously cheap price at Big Lots. The handles could stand to be more rounded, but considering how little I paid for them, I'm not complaining. I used this video, cautiously so as not to injure myself, and spent a fair amount of time checking my form in the mirror. These make a really nice addition to my home gym - with the TRX, kettlebells, pull up bar, and an exercise ball, I should be able to hit all the major muscle groups pretty well for some good strength training. Although probably not using all that equipment at once. One of my plans for the 'off season', once my fall races are done, is to get in 8 weeks or so of some really quality strength work.

Thursday: Easy 8k at lunch to Princess Point and back. It was humid again (GAH), and I had some delayed onset muscle soreness developing in some very interesting places thanks to the kettlebells, but overall a decent feeling run.

So glad it was overcast, it would been really unpleasant in the full sun.

Friday: Rest! Worried a bit about the quantity of DOMS I was having from that kettlebell workout, crossed my fingers it would be gone by Sunday. Looked at weather. Considered race outfits. Debated ordering a fun shirt from Adidas that I don't really need, but am kind of obsessing over. Oh, and went to work and did all that stuff I'm paid to do.

Looks good, other than the wind. There's always something.

Saturday: Rest! It was nice to wake up on a rainy Saturday morning and curl up on the couch in my comfy clothes with a pot of tea and my iPad. People who don't run may be on to something, yo. DOMS was almost gone from the kettlebell workout Wednesday, thank goodness.

Note sweet Around the Bay shirt and lack of ponytail. Living the dream.

Followed the Zoo Run results on twitter to see how my brother would do, which was fun. He didn't quite crack the top 100, finishing 112th. Considering he's been having some injury issues, I think that's pretty damn awesome! Way to go little bro!

Sunday: Race day. Just a little 10k personal best, that's all. Race report is coming!

Weekly summary: 43.3 km run in 4:05:06. TRX workout and a kettlebell workout.

Not long now before the A race! Peak mileage weeks ahead.

Fall training week 11 : 5 weeks to go

Back on track after the sore hip thing - determined to get over 60k again for the week. The countdown to the Scotiabank Waterfront Half is on!

Monday: another beautiful morning in Chicago. Headed out the opposite direction of the day before and was rewarded with some different, also spectacular views. Did some tempo, but it was really all about enjoying Chicago. I'm now rather jealous of the runners I know who travel a lot - it turns out running is a great way to get to know a place. Goal pace was 5:25/km. 2k warmup, 3k tempo (5:21, 5:30, 5:19), break for a photo op, 3k tempo (5:27, 5:36 - nasty headwind, 5:53 - nastier headwind), 2k cooldown, for 10k total.

Just fabulous. The city, not my weird deer in the headlights expression.

Tuesday: last chance to run in the Windy City. Tired, not great food choices over the previous couple of days, and definitely under hydrated, so I took it slow and took a ton of pictures. The best was that this was the first clear day, so I finally got to see a beautiful Lake Michigan sunrise, and then the way the dawn light reflected off the skyscrapers and bridges - well, I can see why there were a ton of photographers all over the place. Chicago, I will be back! The Chicago marathon is officially on my must do someday list. I ended up running 11.5 very enjoyable km.

Seriously, I could have put like 50 pictures here. So many amazing things to see!

Someday, I'm running this marathon.

Wednesday: REST. So tired from travelling.  So happy to give my kids big hugs and lots of kisses! Felt terrible all day until just before bed I downed a huge glass of water and a glass of NUUN. Felt a ton better and considering I did not wind up having to run to the bathroom during the night, I was clearly pretty dehydrated. Someday I will remember that when feeling vaguely awful, a big glass of water is often the cure.

Thursday: Track. Up early, out the door in under 7 minutes. Very easy jog to the closest track to see just how dark it was (VERY DARK) and then did four 1 km repeats. Super humid which I am so over. Please go away now, humidity. My legs were tired, my brain was tired, and my times on the 3rd and 4th repeat were sucktacular. (4:53, 4:51, 5:04, 5:00). Whatever. Moving on.

TRX Thursday evening since I've been slacking on my strength training. Pistol squats, sprinter starts, lunges, hamstring curls, rows, pushups, assorted planks and crunches.

Friday: Rest day. Much needed.

Saturday: Met up with Amy for a quick 2k, then joined Patty and Sam for another 22k. Perfect weather. One of those gorgeous cool clear fall days that I adore, absolutely the best for running. I even got to wear long sleeves! Love breaking out the fall wardrobe.There was a clear psychic connection between us as we all wore skirts and pink tops - fortunately very different shades of pink, so we didn't look quite as much like a gang (or, god forbid, cyclists) as we could have. Plus Patty missed the memo on compression socks.

Also one of the best feeling long runs I've done in a while. I finished the 24k feeling energized and like I could do more, rather than spending the last 5k convincing myself not to walk. I suspect the second gel at 16k might have had something to do with it, as I've been using only one gel on my long runs recently. That may be a mistake. Overall a confidence building long run. Admittedly the scenery wasn't quite as great as Chicago, but the company was awesome and there was a nice sunrise over the lake and some good views of the skyway from Northshore. It's home and I love it.

Sunday: Easy recovery 8k to bump the weekly total up. One of these weeks I'll get smarter and stop running these in my stupidly hilly neighbourhood.

My pictures after Chicago were terrible this week, so here's my outfit from Sunday. The t shirt says 'RUN', just in case I forget what I'm doing and need a reminder.

Weekly summary: 64km run in 6:21:45. 1 TRX workout. Building up to that pre-race peak!

This upcoming week I'm running a 10k race. Haven't raced a 10k since the spring (where the race featured high winds and a torrential downpour), so I'm hoping for a shiny new PB. I hesitate to put any goals down, though, since that has failed so spectacularly the last two times. So I'm just going to shut up and run.