So now what?

Hey, I'm still alive! And actually feeling pretty damn good! Assorted thoughts, coming up:

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Random fact: I ran the half marathon at Barrelman faster than I ran my first ever half back in 2012. And also faster than my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th half marathon. Kind of nice to have that comparison of my progress! Although the 4th one isn't really fair since I sprained my foot during the training and used it as a training run rather than racing it.

Yes, I have taken the hat off since the race. Once or twice.

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(people who know me: um, are you going to talk about that new bike?)

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One of the things I thought about a lot leading up to Barrelman was how the recovery would go. I found, through the summer, that race recovery from tris feels pretty quick (certainly faster than running races that last the same amount of time). But I always have that awful recovery process after the Mississauga Marathon in the back of my mind.

Fortunately, it went pretty smoothly. The Monday night after the race was rough, but it was just standard post-race muscle soreness. No scary injuries or worrying aches and pains, just my quads and hamstrings letting me know how hard they worked. By Thursday I was feeling normal, and now I'm back to running and biking and feeling good.

Angry Lake Ontario. No swimming there until next year!

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(but what about the new bike?)

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So the big goal of the year is done, but I have one more goal race left for the year: a half marathon. I'm going to attempt a new PB. Note I say attempt. I'm pretty much in the best shape of my life right now (half ironman training is awesome), but I won't really be doing any specific training before the race at Niagara, because frankly I'm kind of burned out on speedwork and effort and all that jazz. In fact I'm sort of going the complete opposite direction and running painfully slowly to keep my heartrate in that aerobic zone. Right now I'm pretty sure this is going to be a replay of Hamilton last year - go out at PB pace for 12k or so, then blow up. But hey, I won't know unless I try!

Some days you just have to wear funky pants.

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(Get to the new bike already!)

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Then I move into training for next year, basically by spending the entire month of November (and much of December) keeping things easy. Easy easy easy SUPER easy. I need a little recovery/base building, and now is the perfect time to start experimenting with low heart rate training. I'll commit to 6-8 weeks of that and see what happens, then decide if I want to continue.

Planning!

Hopefully I can get back to the pool soon, too. My lunch hour pool is closed until January, which is making it really difficult to fit in swim workouts! I miss open water.

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(seriously, are you not going to talk about that NEW BIKE??)

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I did accomplish a big goal this weekend - my first ever imperial century ride! (um, that's a sensible thing to do when you are supposed to be training for a PB half marathon attempt). 165 km of good times. Zindine asked me to join him and a couple of other lovely folks from his tri club, and we went from Georgetown up the Forks of the Credit and then over to Cambridge and then all the way back. It was super fun! And I felt a lot better through the ride than I thought I would (the route helped, with lots of nice downhill towards the end). Key, of course, was Irina acting as our support crew and appearing with bananas and water at the perfect moments.

All photos via Irina! This was one beautiful ride. The fall colours are spectacular right now.

With Zin at a bakery stop early in the ride, but after conquering the Forks of the Credit. Happy the hardest hills were done!

What am I even doing here??!! Perhaps contemplating the magical bananas Irina gave us at 120k. Perked everyone right up!

Great group for the ride! Looking happy because only 40k (hahahaha) to go!

BIG thanks to my husband on this one - he not only was stuck with the kids all day while I gallivanted around the countryside, he cleaned pretty much the whole house while I was gone. AWESOME. Love that guy.

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(BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BIKE?)

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Next year's plans are largely still up in the air. The only sure thing right now is ATB, to get that damn sub 2:45. Then I'll probably do a spring 10k (maybe Oakville?), and then it'll be tri season again!

Tri season is very much a question mark. Before Barrelman I was considering focusing on sprint distances next year, but now having done long course I'm not sure I'd happy with that (the bike leg is just so short...). And it's hard to choose races - to some extent I want to revisit the same races again, to see how I can improve, but then I also want to try new ones. And all of this has to be balanced with my work and family life. So it's all a bit complicated. Stay tuned.

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FINE. There's also this.

Yeah. I got a new bike.

Let me just reiterate how awesome my husband is for going along with THIS craziness.

Like a little kid on Christmas morning.

Her name is Epona, after the Celtic horse goddess, and also a character in a book I loved as a kid who had a white horse. I figure a horse goddess would probably be pretty cool with bicycles. (note: I changed her name! Update coming on that. Hey, it's my bike, I'll do what I want.) She's definitely a far different ride than my road bike; the position is completely different, I'm having to re-learn how to climb hills, and the bar end shifters are definitely taking some getting used to. And I don't have any of the hydration accessories yet to let me take her on long rides.

But oh, the speed! Hot damn can we ever go fast.

I've made a few tries for that QOM. Took 19 seconds off my best time first try with the tri bike!

So I'll be squeezing in a few rides before it gets too cold. And getting seriously pumped up for tri season next year!

Might have to pay another visit to this generous apple farm, too!

Around the Bay: Post race and what comes next

So, a week out and I'm feeling well recovered. After the nightmare that was marathon recovery last year, I'm always relieved when race recovery goes smoothly and with no unpleasant surprises!

It turns out there IS a finish line photo of me - the photo company added some more pictures and there it is. I'm going to stick with the artists's rendering in the race report, though, just because it's so awesome.

Meh. I prefer my Paint version.

Now that my winter goal race is done, how do I feel about the training that I did? Basically awesome. Using Run Less Run Faster for my run training and Trainerroad for my bike training worked really well. The run results are obvious - I did in fact run less (a lot less) and then run faster! I just wish I hadn't had to alter so many of the speed workouts - I don't think I got the full benefit of the plan. Next winter I'm going to look more seriously at how to get access to a treadmill, because it would be really nice to have the option of doing intervals and tempos inside when the weather isn't cooperating.

Just because I ran less doesn't mean I worked any less hard, though, as having my ass kicked on the bike by Trainerroad 3 times a week turned out to be, I think, pretty key to my success. Plus I downright enjoyed it! I've been outside twice on my bike in the last couple of days and things are feeling promising there - I definitely feel stronger and was seeing some encouraging speeds coming easily on the longer ride I did on Friday. However the weather has turned unpleasant again, so not sure when I'll be out on the roads again.

Mmmmm, Strava trophies. Admittedly slightly wind assisted, but I'll take them.

So now what?

1. Finish recovering. As they say, one day per mile raced.

I took Monday and Tuesday off completely, mostly because I wasn't physically capable of doing much else. So much quad pain. I'm relieved, however, that the only thing that hurt was my quads - after Mississauga last year is when I developed that ongoing case of hip bursitis that came and went for months afterwards. This race, thank goodness, was just run of the mill DOMS. Albeit some of the worst I've ever had.

Wednesday I went for a swim at lunch, which was wonderful. Swimming is one hell of a recovery workout, I have to say. I used the pull buoy for most of it, taking the legs out of the equation entirely, and when I got out of the pool my legs had gone from about 90% to 95%. Awesome. More swimming! More I say!

Like I said above, I got out for a couple of short bike rides on the roads. I had Foxy tuned up and she feels fantastic. Can't wait to do more of that!

Run in the sunshine. It was still pretty damn cold that morning, though.

Over the weekend I did a couple of short easy runs, and my legs are feeling good. I wouldn't want to add any speed right now, but I'm feeling great. I'll continue to play it by ear for the next week on the run and just do what I feel like doing.

Then, it's...

2. Triathlon training time!

I'm still working out the exact details, but my A goal race for the summer will be the Goderich Olympic triathlon in August. I'll do a few other races along the way, but that's the big target and everything will be focused on that goal. Which means I have to figure out how to train the three sports.

Swimming: For now I'll aim to get to the pool twice a week. I'll be ordering a wetsuit soon and getting into open water when the tri club starts those swims. My goals for the swim this year are pretty much just to survive it, so I'm not going to worry about too much about anything other than getting in some swim time and being comfortable in the water.

Cycling: Outside ride time!!!! Almost there! However, given that whole 'family' and 'work' thing I have to also do, I'll still be doing a lot of rides on the trainer. This week I'll start the Sustained Power Build plan to give me some structure. Then hopefully Trainerroad will have released their long promised Oly tri plan that I can use for the final 8 weeks of preparation. Given kid obligations most of my weekday rides are likely to be on the trainer.

Run: Keeping it laid back for April - I'll continue to run 3 days a week, and probably throw in some speedwork from the RLRF 5k plan later in the month. Not officially or hardcore training, but I have a feeling I'll actually miss the speed when I'm not doing it. I have a 10k race at the beginning of May and a 5k planned for mid-May that I'll use to benchmark, and then I'll start the Run Less Run Faster 10k training plan at the end of May to prepare me for the 10k run at Goderich.

So, I have a loosely organized plan, and I'm getting excited for the summer! All subject to change, as getting in three sports worth of training is definitely going to require some flexibility.

In a holding pattern

Still keeping things easy right now. Although my hip has been feeling better, there's occasionally still a bit of twinging going on. Essentially every day I ask my legs, are you cool today? And I pay attention to the answer. Last week was the first since the marathon where all 5 days I wanted to run my legs said Yes, we're cool with that. But no speedwork or hard hills or tempo efforts until everything feels 100%. So while I'm not officially training for the fall yet, my thoughts are turning that way, and I think next week I should be comfortable starting an actual plan. With speed and tempo and all that good stuff. Oh, and I've started registering for races. Watch the sidebar (I have an irrational rule that I won't put a race on the sidebar until I've paid for it, which is why Road 2 Hope isn't up there yet even though I plan to do it).

From here.

I did end up with 70k total last week - 25k on the bike, 45k running. Highest running week since the marathon, with no ill effects, so that's a positive. Last year I kind of abandoned bike cross training because it just wasn't fun, but somehow this year the bike is really appealing. It might just be that I'm a lot more confident sharing the road with cars, which means I can ride more interesting places. Or maybe it's all those pushy triathletes tempting me to become a multi-sport athlete. They seem to have an awfully good time.

Here's some random photos to liven things up.

Back to 5 am run club, which at least comes with the bonus of sunrises.

Seeing the girls off on Patty's birthday run - I was cycling that day, which is why I look like even more of a giant than usual, since the cleats on my shoes make me taller. And the driveway slopes down.

Sweet rocky running on the Bruce trail. Love this stuff.

The mighty Saugeen River in Grey County. The husband and I are getting really into the idea of seeking out new running trails when we travel. Ottawa in August will be fun - we'll definitely be getting in at least one run while we are there.

Very high pedestrian bridge in Hanover, Ontario.

The latest addition to my running playlist:

So now what?

So the big one is done (at least until I lose my mind and decide to run an ultra). Marathon. Done. Boom.

Now what do I do, other than annoy people with constant talk of how I ran a marathon? (I RAN A MARATHON! Want to see my medal?)

Short term

Goal 1: Recover. Fully recover. Take it easy until the end of May. Don't go doing anything stupid. Let the body heal up and relax. I did a short easy run this morning - first one since the race - and my quad strain seems to have healed up, but there's something unpleasant going on with my right knee (the one that was nagging me during the marathon). I'll try another easy run on Tuesday, and if it still feels weird I'll make a trip to physio this week to try and get a handle on what's going on there.

Gorgeous morning for a run, even with a wonky knee.

Goal 2: Diet stuff. This is not a food blog and likely never will be, but I do know that I can't eat the same quantities now as I was during peak training weeks. I'm going to keep an eye on my weight for the next little while, not because I care overly much about the specific number, but to make sure I've got my diet in line with my actual current energy needs. Expect a few photos of giant salads on my instagram. Also my husband got me a fancy blender for Mother's Day, so it's smoothie time.

There are a terrifying number of blades in this blender.

Goal 3: Assuming good physical recovery (possibly a major assumption considering how bad my leg felt today!), I'd like to see what sort of 5 and 10k times I might be able to lay down. I've got two races tentatively planned for June, and we'll see what happens:

Moon in June 5k: looking for a new PB at this one. Basically, get as close to 24 as I can. It's a PB friendly course, but it also starts at 9 pm, so it could be great, it could be a total horror show. I did run sub 25 here last year (and finished 3rd for my age group!), so I don't think the 9 pm start will be much of an issue. My husband has been suggesting he pace me, but his PB is 23 flat so I'm worried running with him would lead to my legs blowing up at around km 3.5. We will see.

MEC Burlington race 3 10k: Likely not an ideal course for a PB attempt (hello Northshore hills), but it's only $15 and why not.

I may run the Canada Day 5k again, I haven't decided. If I crap the bed at Moon in June I'll definitely run it, but if I hit a decent time I may not bother with Canada Day. I hate how part of the race is run on sand, and it always seems to be unbearably hot. Despite the fact it's my current 5k PB I can't say I love the race overly much, although I do like the Canada themed medals.

Medium term - the fall

Sub 1:50 half to qualify for an Around the Bay corral. I only have to take 1:19 off my Chilly Half time to hit this, so it feels a little wimpy to make that a main goal. So I guess the secondary goal for this fall is to get as far under 1:50 as I can manage.

The Believe bracelet was for the marathon (and it was helpful, several times during the race when things got tough I touched it to remind myself to believe I could do it). The Achieve bracelet is for my fall races.

The plan to get there involves a lot of hard work through July and August, and then two halfs in the fall. Most likely the Oakville half (where I hope to bag the sub 1:50) and then Road 2 Hope in November (where I will try and take 2-3 minutes off whatever time I get at Oakville). That gives me a nice long stretch in between the two halves so I can recovery properly and race both flat out.

Long term aka so when's the next marathon?

Yeah, so I definitely want to take a run (HA HA HA) at a sub 4 hour marathon. If I can get fast enough at the half distance before my next marathon training cycle, maybe even take aim at 3:50. However, marathon training takes a shitton of time, and I'm not sure when I'll be mentally prepared to tackle that again, or when I'll be comfortable having my family's life revolve around my training again. Maybe next spring, but maybe not. Lots of time to make that decision.

Blog plan

Since I know y'all wait with baited breath for my next 2000+ word post. I'll post race reports for the various things I have going on, and then start doing weekly training updates again at the beginning of July. Or whenever I feel like I have stuff to say (which, let's face it, is likely to be soon. One thing I miss about teaching is the captive audience who had to listen to me Tell Them Things. I do enjoy telling people things).

So, what's on the schedule for everyone else? I could totally be talked into other races for the fall. Like, say, the Run for the Toad, if anyone else wants to do it?

Mississauga Marathon 2014: Post race

A random assortment of post race stuff. If you somehow missed the epic race recap it's here.

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My poor knees! My legs felt surprisingly good Sunday afternoon/Monday, but my knees, yikes. I was starting to think the 'running will ruin your knees' contingent were right all along. But by Monday afternoon they were significantly better, and they now feel normal again.

Assorted ice packs to give the knees some love.

Monday afternoon was when my quads joined the party with some lovely DOMS. It was definitely a fun couple of days of dreading stairs. Although this, surprisingly, wasn't my worst post-race recovery - that honour goes to the first time I did Around the Bay, didn't train enough for the race, and then couldn't walk for three days. With this one I wasn't moving real fast, but walking felt OK. If the zombie apocalypse had happened Monday morning I could have escaped the shamblers, but fast zombies would have caught me no problem.

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Monday I came home from work to find a surprise in my mailbox. Thank you Amy! Slapped that sucker right on the car (after I worked up the energy to tackle the stairs outside the front door. stupid stairs).

Yes, I'm one of Those People. I earned that sticker, damn it.

And my TRX trainer brought my flowers! How sweet is she! Especially considering I haven't been to class in over a month, what with tapering and such. I'll be back, it's almost tank top time and the guns need some love.

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So the photo company for the race has a page with infographic type stuff, including some statistics. Nothing too exciting except for this:

You can find this by clicking the 'photo' link on your sportstats results page and then choosing 'more stats'.

Since there was no timing mat with 5k to go I assume they are calculating that based on the last timing mat at 25k. The numbers make sense to me if they are talking about the final 17k - we passed a lot of people in the late stages of the race, and I don't remember being passed more than a couple of times. I'm rather pleased with this; even though we ran a massive positive split (our second half was six minutes slower than our first, yikes), the course past 25k was really tough thanks to that wind. I remember a lot of people really struggling and doing the death march as we got past 30k, and I had to ignore them to avoid getting sucked in. I've been a death marcher at Around the Bay, it's no fun.

Also, one of the three people who 'passed' me in the last 17k? AMY. All our splits through the entire race were identical except somehow she hit the timing mats at the end a tenth of a second before I did. Sneaky, Amy, very sneaky.

Amy up to no good, clearly sneaking across the finish ahead of me. I'M ON TO YOU.

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Looking at my finish line pictures tells another story. Note the guy in white:

I managed to nip him at the end and finish ahead of him. And possibly wrecked his finish line photos (hopefully he got a few without me being all ME! YAY ME! in them).

Again Amy and I with the freakishly synced up form.

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So what's next. Still resting and recovering. That ache that developed in my right thigh during the last 2k of the race is still there. Getting better, but it's worrying me a bit. Considering heading off to the doctor to rule out a stress fracture if it doesn't resolve in the next couple of days - the symptoms don't really fit (my Dr. Google degree suggests it's more likely a mild muscle strain, along the same lines as what I had in my calf pre-Chilly half), but after what happened to Krista Duchene I kind of don't want to take any chances! I definitely won't be doing any running until my leg feels 100%. I got my bike out and cleaned up tonight, so if biking doesn't aggravate whatever is up with my leg and the weather cooperates, I might try some easy rides over the next few days.

Big Red is ready to roll (obvious bike name is obvious)

I also find myself doing a whole foods/clean eating sort of thing right now. It wasn't a deliberate choice, but after the heavy carb load before the race I am carbed out, man. It's been all salads and protein and good fats since the race, and I'm going to stick with that for a while since it does feel better to eat that way. I'm also supplementing calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin C for recovery purposes.

Big lunch salad.

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What's next? I'm signed up to run Sulphur Springs in a few weeks, but that will be a run for fun and not a race per se. And I have the Ride for Heart 75k at the beginning of June, again for fun. After that, not sure. Kind of depends on this leg thing, so I don't want to make any plans until I know what's going on there. Once that's settled it'll be time to start thinking about short term race goals for June, and then the fall and fall goals. Stay tuned!