This week is the last week of our training for next half marathon. I had something else lined during the Chilly Half so cannot sign up for the goal race. The training was really good and I am a lot better runner than i was when I ran the #STWM last year. 
We missed our last long run due to extreme cold and so had to cut it short. Nevertheless we did few 18K run's which is normally the max people train for half and than leave the few last Km for race day. I am sure I can finish the distance of 21K now with out being exhausted. I am dead at the end of long run but the recovery is much faster. I think part of it I have to attribute to weather. Running in cold weather is lot easier than running in Summer. As wrong as that sounds its the truth. People who struggle to breathe do find winter running hard but other wise winter running is lot less taxing on the body. If you religiously follow the dynamic and static stretch routine before and after the race there is a good chance you won't get in-juried in winter.  Summer with the heat and humidity body looses water so fast and than muscles cramp and tighten up much faster. 

I am thinking of signing up for the Good life Half in may. I am not sure what my schedule will be than so I cannot commit to it yet. I am going to continue to train for it and keep racking up the distance. I am going on a break for 2 weeks. I really wanted to do a race in Paris when I was going to be there. Unfortunately they don;t run as much in winter there. 

To make up for the distance from Sunday I can twice a day when I could. I could not cover the full gap of distance but it was good. I also started the strength training routine. Again the break for next 2 weeks might reset lot of things but I hope it does not. 

Not much to write again. Will be back to training in 2 weeks. 

Today it was supposed to be the last long run before the race. We were supposed to do 20K. For the first time this winter we had to respect mother nature and skip that. Winter was its peak today ,it was -27C and with wind chill it felt like -44C. I knew this before so I was layered with 2 t-shirts and good fleece running jacket and 2 trousers. Double sox , cap buff and gloves and still I could feel cold inside as soon as I stepped out of  my car.  I really was hoping that no one run's today and I was only going because I had to show up. To my surprise one person from my clinic was there. But the learn to run clinic was there as well which was really surprising to see. We all talked about how bad it is outside and decided not to stay out too long and run the 3K with learn to run clinic.  The plan was to run towards sunny side and not face the wind. We went east on Wellington to Parliament and I ran back to Yonge and hopped on to my car back home. 
Going east good once we started to run back the wind gust once in a while would go all into my lungs and the buff covering me was not good enough to hold it. 

We might do the long distance run tomorrow, the temperature is not big concerns but tomorrow the wind might be lot less. Overall this week was not bad considering that it was just 2 weeks from race its ok even if we miss our long run. I need to find a new half marathon race to run. I won;'t be doing the Chilly half mostly because I won't be there in town that day. I really want to run a destination race now and tried to find a race in Paris and Zurich but seems like they don;t run much in there winter. 
Garmin 610 could not lock the GPS today the cold really froze it and so the distance was off. It does not matter because we did not run the full distance anyway.

This week I have started my strength training routine, need to get more cross training days. I want to make the most out of the spring this year. Once the summer sets in running does get really hard. At the same stage when I was preparing for my last Half Marathon I was dead and injured. This time around I am feeling good and I am really looking to continue long distance running past the race day.  Not much to write about the route today.

It was a hell of day today for running. It has been snowing in Toronto since Saturday and I knew that it was going to slushly and slippery and it was exactly like that when I started today;s run. Given that it snowed all night the route had to be in city to avoid the trails which don;t get cleaned that fast. The route covered all the neighbourhoods of Toronto. We started from Financial district to Fashion district to Liberty village to Parkdale and than all the way east to Cabbagetown and leisleville. It was fantastic and may be should do it when the weather is good. It was fun and slow upto Roncessville but from there on the freezing rain started and soon my eyelashes' were collecting ice. They would stick so often and after a while I could not clean it because ice was all over. My jacket had thin ice sheet all over and the gloves were frozen.  

About when I hit Dundas and Bathrust I was thirty and so went for my water bottle only to find it as one solid block of ice. I tried opening the lid but it was blocked. Thought of stopping at timmes to grab water but I did not want the ice on me to melt. Once you get wet in cold weather its really hard to shake the cold off. Dry skin you can cover and run. My shoes were a mess I stepped into so many ice cold puddles and it was rock solid ice on foot. 

Here is how today route looked. 

Should one run when you are sick or no? I had this question about a year ago in summer. I always find that if I stay home when I am sick I get more sick and so I always try to get out. Last time I was really sick I decided to run the fever out and it was something people suggest they tried and the results went both ways. I think running with fever of flu really helps to get you breathing and gets lungs working at full capacity. I did take a advil/tylenol to get over the weakness. Nevertheless getting back to what happened last time I ran through the cough and apparently that sometimes is bad because you lungs pulls it deeper inside and makes your life hell,. So as much there is no harm running when have flu be careful with the simple cough. It can cause some bronchol infections which are hard to get rid off. So this time I rested for a whole keep skipped all the runs completely. To be honest I felt really bad some days when I was sick and just sitting on couch, so went for a walk on couple of days. Nothing extreme. I was worried that when I join the routine again it would set me back with respect to others. Luckily no one ran so I was good. 

The weather this week was no so great we had few really cold evenings and today;s run was not great either. The wind on some streches was really bad. My nose almost froze , my water bottle froze so could not hydrate. Hopefully it will good next week. 

With my job changing and no idea where I would working next (location wise), I am not sure if I will be able to stay with same group going ahead. I am going to miss the Chilly Half marathon and might have to pick a new race later in the year to make up for this one.I am thinking of doing good life now. Lets see..

Here is how today;s run went.