Congrats to everyone who ran the Vancouver half/full marathon!!
I heard the weather was great and the new course was quite scenic. Hope recovery is going well for everyone!
I finished my first light tapering week which went pretty well – no pains or aches so far *fingers crossed*. This coming week, I will taper more aggressively and might do one short tempo run to keep legs fresh. But basically the hay is in the barn, now I just have to keep healthy and rest up before the Ottawa marathon (which is in 2 weeks yikes!).
Last sunday, I did my final long run with the last 14mi at marathon effort. I wanted to do that hard long run untapered after a heavy week of training to assess my fitness for Ottawa. It was a tough run for sure but I finished the run feeling pretty good and felt I still had some left in the tank. The marathon effort portion came out to 4:40/K which is about 3:16 marathon pace. Since I ran it at Parc Maisonneuve, which is relatively flat, my ABC goals for the Ottawa marathon are:
A: Sub 3:20
B: 3:20
C: PR (Sub 3:32:55 haha)
(D: if weather is too hot, fun run!)
Well, I think this will be my last post until after Ottawa. Bearing disaster, I should be done by the time those on the pacific side are awake on May 27 haha!! See you all on the other side!
Apr 29 to May 5
Sun – 2:30 easy
Tue – 1:30 /w 1K-1mi-1K-1mi at 10K effort
Wed – 2:00 easy
Thu – 0:50 recovery
Fri – 1:30 easy
Week Total: 8:20
May 6 to May 12
Sun – 2:30 /w 14mi at marathon effort
Tue – 0:50 recovery
Wed – 1:45 easy
Thu – 0:45 recovery
Fri – 1:30 /w 5×1.2K at 10K effort
Week Total: 7:20
*I almost forgot: GOOD LUCK to everyone at the Vancouver half and full marathon next week!!
My last few weeks have literally been a bit of a roller coaster.
Temperature here was warm (20+C) for a week and suddenly dropped back to ~0C. Coupled with the general fatigue from the last few weeks of hill training/tempo runs, my body told me it was time to take a few easy days and battle the flu. Here is a quick recap:
Apr 8 to 14
Sun – 3:00 easy (3gels did make it feel easier)
Tue – 1:30 easy
Wed – 1:50 /w 8x500m hills
Thu – 0:45 recovery
Fri – 1:30 easy
Sat – 0:45 recovery
Week Total: 8:35
That sunday solo long run went a little too long – I got a bit lost since our RR marathon clinic of 3 is just down to me now. One got injured and another will be doing the half instead 
Apr 15 to 21
Sun – 2:00 /w 11mi at marathon effort (temp was too hot, decided to cut it short)
Tue – 2:00 easy
Wed – 2:00 easy
Thu – 0:50 biking with BIXI
Fri – 1:50 /w 25x200m hills
Week Total: 7:50 (8:40)
Being a heavier runner for my size, heat is one of my worst enemy. So I ended up cutting my long run short that sunday. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the runners that ran the entire boston marathon in that blazing heat on monday. Big Kudos to Alan, Michael, Brian and others I havent met for their heroic effort at Boston!! (Yes, I did track you guys in my office haha!)
On the following friday, I didn’t want to venture in the downtown core, because of the student protests, so I found a short hill near my apartment and just wanted to get in 5K worth of hills to finish off my “abbreviated” hill training. Though it was only 200m, I must say it was daunting to count all 25 of them and it hurt physically and mentally just as much as doing 10x500m hills.
4 weeks left
Sun – 2:00 easy
Tue – 1:20 /w 4mi tempo
Wed – 1:45 easy
Thu – 0:45 recovery
Fri – 1:50 /w 4x1K at 10K effort
Week Total: 7:40
With the sudden cold weather, I came down with a cold last saturday – yea I know that 25x200m hills wasn’t such a good idea after all… So this week has been kind of an easier week to let my body recover.
Seeing that there is only about one more week of training before tapering begins, I started to sharpen with some speed work and ran on the track for the first time since last October. I did 4x1K at what I recalled was 10K effort with about 2 min jogging in between. The splits were 3:59, 4:00, 3:59, 4:03. i think the effort felt just right – it felt like working but not straining at the same time. The track is pretty far from my apartment, so I had a long warm-up and cooldown. It started snowing on the way back – WTH happen to spring Montreal??
Anyway, to wrap up, I am really looking forward to tapering since Nancy is visiting soon! Just two more long runs and a few tempo/speedwork sessions…
I don’t really celebrate easter but after a long run, I get the occasional crave of wanting to chow down one of those Lindt Easter chocolate bunny… Mmmm
Easter holiday aside, I had a pretty good two weeks easing back into training and I am really happy that I feel recovered from the 30K race with no aches or pains.
Since I was feeling pretty fresh by last sunday, I decided to do a long run of ~20mi. I wanted to do it completely by effort and would only drink water the whole way to see how my body feels. Although I got quite hungry and the miles toward the end reminded me a bit how the last 10K of a marathon feels, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was right after the run that I felt cravings to munch on a high-carb and protein-rich chocolate bunny…
This week, I also resumed doing hill repeats and a tempo run. Wednesday, our RR clinic gave us a steep 600m hill at 7.5%. So a bunch of us decided it was a bit too much and we cut it short at 400m (there were some cars crossing after 400m anyway). Friday, I did a fartlek session of roughly 40mins. It felt good to put out the fast leg turnovers again and finally to get in a proper tempo run since January.
A shoutout to the folks running Boston from Broadway RR in the coming week. Best of luck!
8 weeks left:
Sun – 2:19 30K race
Tue – 0:25 recovery
Wed – 1:00 easy
Thu – 0:45 easy
Fri – 1:30 easy
Sat – 1:00 easy
Week Total: 6:59
7 weeks left:
Sun – 2:45 easy
Tue – 1:40 easy
Wed – 1:40 /w 5x400m hills
Thu – 0:45 recovery
Fri – 1:40 /w 40min fartlek
Week Total: 8:30
*Update: Race report by the winner Reid Coolsaet, a Canadian Olympic marathoner going to London this year. Great read for mortals like myself haha!
This past sunday was my second time doing the Around the Bay (ATB) 30K race. I enjoyed it overall and I am not ashame to admit it, I like their crowd support, nice long sleeve shirt and classy finisher medals haha! Plus, it’s a good tune-up race for those who are training for a spring marathon on the east coast. It was also a great opportunity for me to catch up with a few friends – special thanks Mark for letting me crash on your cozy couch and Kevin for driving me to Hamilton on an early sunday morning. You guys are awesome!
Prerace: Coming off a foot injury from Feburary’s half marathon, I took it pretty easy with the three weeks of build-up that I had for this race. In between, I did two hill training sessions of 4-5x400m and one 28K long run three weeks ago. The hardest run I did in this mini training cycle was an untapered 30K run with last 10mi at marathon effort two weeks ago. I was a bit surprised that those last 10mi averaged to 4:36/K and I felt I had plenty left. Based on that run, I thought I might have a shot at 2:15 if I raced the 30K. But knowing I am still undertrained on hills (the last 10K of ATB is quite well-known for its hills) than I was at this point last year, I left the option of just treating this as a training run if things go sour and took this chance to experiment with fueling strategy before Ottawa.
Race Day: Woke up around 5am, showered and hitched a ride from Toronto to Hamilton at 7am. We arrived around 8am and I quickily checked my bag with about an hour to spare. Temperature was a little warmer than usual this spring and it was already 12C at the 9:30am start time. I proceeded to the ritual of washroom trips and warmed up with about 5min of very easy jogging. With about 15mins until the start, I took two gels and my plan was to take only water and one gel every 30mins to see how my stomach will feel. I lined up about 100 people behind the 2:15 pace bunny and was about to find out how this will play out.
First 10K: 45:11
The first section of ATB is slightly downhill and I just focused on letting gravity do its job. I took a gel somewhere at 7K and tried my best to practice gulping water from paper cups while maintaining a good pace. I don’t remembered much here since I was on auto-pilot most of the time and just try to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of Hamilton.
Second 10K: 45:10
The second section of ATB is basically flat with a few rolling hills. I took gels around 13K and 19K but I began to feel very bloated and felt these side stitches like a sharp pain in the kidney area. At this point, I was still feeling okay effort-wise but the side stitches were becoming uncomfortable.
Third 10K: 49:23
The last section of ATB is the hilliest section. I could feel my effort increased dramatically and by 23K, I knew I didn’t have the stamina to keep pace on the big hills still coming up and 2:15 was out of the question. I ditched my plan of taking my last gel at 24K as the gels seem to aggravate the side pains and decided to save my legs and just jog the rest of the way back.
I finished 2:19:44 which is over a minute slower than last year. I knew I was undertrained for hills and endurance-wise. Had this been my goal race, I would have cash in all my chips and fought until the end to try to PR. But it would have taken about two weeks to recover and there aren’t too many weeks to go until Ottawa. So I don’t have regrets on how things turned out. It was also good to find out that aggressive fueling strategy doesn’t quite work for me. I am not sure if the side stitch was caused by too much sugar from the gels but I will definitely stick to taking gels less frequently for Ottawa marathon.
So far, my legs are recovering well. I will take it easy this week and hopefully get some solid training done in the next few weeks.
Winter here must be short this year. Yay for La Nina or is it El Nino?
The weather has been nice for the last few days. Seeing that squirrels have come out of their tree huts, I take it spring must be just around the corner. The tricky part about this time of the year is the occasional ice that forms over night. So I usually opt for running in the morning/afternoon so I can spot those devil patches of ice.
Last sunday, I went to the RR at Place Ville Marie for the long run. Since the marathon clinic consists of a total of two newer runners (Giovanna and Jodie) and myself and coupled with the fact that the clinic leader has to look after the store and doesn’t come out on the runs, it can get pretty lonely out there on the long run. I do try to stay with our “big” group of 3 by running my own pace and turning back to the group once in a while. Though, I do miss having a pace group to run with.
Anyway, we were scheduled to do 19K but since I felt I had a pretty good base from the winter and with the 30K race coming up, I ended up going a bit longer. Wednesday turned out to be our first hill training. I haven’t done hill intervals in ages but it felt pretty good to build some stamina back with a modest 4x400m hill session. Overall, it’s been a good week resuming training for Ottawa. And since my foot seems to be holding up okay, I will start back up tempo next week.
11 weeks left:
Sun – 2:30 easy with RR
Tue – 1:30 easy
Wed – 1:50 easy /w 4x400m hills
Thu – 0:45 recovery
Fri – 1:50 easy
Week Total: 8:25
PS: I thought to share this video about running form I found online the other day – it’s pretty good.
