I am in week 3 of my training for #STWM 2015. Till now its going good. For a change I biked more this week than I ran and part of it was due the day off on Canada Day. My Ride to work and back has got much faster now. It use to take my 90 min to ride back from downtown. Now I am almost close to 55min. This is close to time it takes for my ttc ride. I am going to continue biking as long as I can without affecting my training for STWM.
My strength training session are also going well. To my surprise i had to do hill training as part of strength training. I had to run up the hills at Christie pits. I was lot steeper than most of the hill training I have done as part of running. It was as opposite I had to take long strides and push as opposed to short and steady strides. It was not fun and to add to that I had to carry sand bags up and down. 
My legs were sore like hell but I still was able to finish my Sunday run. It was a horrible run with the hot and humid climate and to add to that I picked a long sleve t-shirt. I need to shop some short sleve running gear soon as I am using them a lot more now. 

I guess it has nothing to do with running but the drive to Sunday's run was really bad. HOV lanes for Pan-Am games and construction and road closures really make the drive a pain. It took an hour to ride back which normally takes 20 min.

Here is how the run went.

This is 2nd week in a row I was able to do more than just running. I was able get 2 good bike rides and also get my strength training session too. I am happy with the way training is progressing. Now only need to stay away from over training. I do have very tight calf muscles so this week its time to relax a bit and lit things loosen up a bit.

 We also managed to got bike ride for a lunch on one of the weekdays it was nice. The weather that day was not too hot and it was cloudy so it was comfortable riding the bike in afternoon.

The same time I also stilling trying to move the step challenge to next level and I need to top the 100K step challenge. I might miss out again this week , yesterdays rain spoiled some plans and kept me indoors for longer than I expected.

Here is how the bike ride went. We went all the way east to Leslie street and than up north to Broad view and Dundas. It was nice park there . We picked up Burritos; on the way for lunch.  I am still trying to get at least 50K a month now on my bike.  With running and strength training sessions I have only one day left for bike riding and that's' why I have to scale back on the mileage. Here is how the bike ride went.

For the run we ran the same route as last week and went west along Queen's Quay to Ontario place and back. It was really good tain the rain had turned into a nice mist and it was nice and foggy with slight wind. Here is how today;s run went.

As much as I dislike running in hot and humid weather I started my next #STWM training. I tried mixing running with other activities but none keep me motivated as much as running. First week was strangely hot and humid and the first run which was 3K was really hard. I had run like 8K on Sunday when it was lot cooler and it went lot better than the 3K run in downtown stop/go traffic.
The group is lot smaller this time around and with so many running rooms and Nike/Lulumon/Tribe running groups people choose what is close to them and so its all spread out. I see most of them when we go for runs just different groups. Still quite a few people form last years clinic are running again this year. As always I am sure as time goes people will drop out and especially in summer I can understand why. Its the time schools are off and probably the short period to camp or to to a beach in Canada.
Sunday's run was back to regular #STWM route we went along MTG trail and it was good. Quessquay is finally construction free and it looks nice. The new bike lanes are really great and no surprise it was packed with bikers and runners. Yesterday I over did my core strength training as my trainer pushed me a lot and I am sure after this run its going to make things worse on Monday. I hate when the dom"s pain kicks in and it makes getting up so hard. I guess it all for good cause so I have to live through this pain.

For last few weeks I have also been trying to get 100K steps a week and with running I am sure its going to easier as I keep doing this. It was fun when I would go out for a run or walk just to get the step count in to 3. I hope this week I can repeat that as well.

Here is how today's run went.

My foot injury which started at the end of winter seems to have healed now. I also took some time off and tried to strengthen my quads and glutes. All the rest and training has helped a lot. I ran 8K twice this week and both runs were good. The pace has dropped a bit but that normally takes care of itself as training goes on. Both my shoes New Balance 880v4 and 890v4 are done now , I can feel every pebble and crack on the street. I got ~500K on each and I guess its time to shop a new pair. I was going to wait for 880v5 but there is no new of it coming to market any time soon. I saw the 890v5 in the store the other day might pick it up on Wednesday. 

I have also started biking once a week now at least and for last few weeks I got close to 30K rides which helps cross train. I think that also has helped . We are planning to do ride at least once a week and try to slowly increase the bike distance by taking different routes. I want to balance running and biking and slowly increase the weekly mileage.

Today's 8K run was really good. Weather was perfect not too hot and not too cold for a run. We went all the way west to Strachan and than to Trinity Bell wood Park and back. I never run through the park actually never went inside during day time. It was nice to see people running walking around in the park and the community out there in uniquely different.  

Here is how today's run went.

This was probably the worst I ever trained for a race. Even for my learn to run 5K  was training more regularly. My vacation job and than the injury made it worse. I still don;t know what it is. The diagnosis went from muscle irritation to plantar factitious to stress fracture. I had to scale down the long distance run and limit runs to under 10K. 
Today's run showed no sign of pain and discomfort and it was great. With the lack of regular training I was sure that I was not going to run any faster and the time was exactly as my last 10K run. I also switched my shoes. Since I did my last half in Oct 2014 I have been running on my New Balance 890v4. The shoes are great and I have almost run 500K on them. I went back to my New Balance 880v4 which are bit more cushiony than 890. I think that did make a difference in today's run. 

The weather has been so good this week and I went out without  a jacket. 2 Mins out I realized it was bad idea and so went back to get a light jacket. Its really hard to dress in this weather because I knew after 20min I was going to be hot in the jacket. Luckily the cold wind kept blowing throughout the course and it was a great run all the way to the end. 

This was my first race with Garmin 920Xt and it was good , the distance was exact 10K and it was in sync with all KM markers.  Here is how the run went.

Another week of training has gone by and this Sunday we were supposed to do 18K.  I was going to decide if I should sign up for Good life half marathon based upon this run. I was really not sure if I can run another half with so less training. I guess I was wrong the training for Chilly half in winter was worth it and I was able to run the 18K today. Around 14K my foot pain again started to bother me. I almost thought of taking a street car and going home. But a short pause was good to get me going again. 
I decided to not run run the Harry's 8K in high park, mostly to avoid hills. To my surprise we had run across high park and the hills really killed me. I wish we had not run through high park just to avoid hills. 

I also had to visit my physio this week to see if the foot pain was plantar fasciitis.It was hard to diagnose and I get why that is so. I need to continue to use my foam roller a lot more especially on my calf muscles. The outer muscle connecting to bottom of foot seems to have some irritation and I need to address that this week.

Garmin 920XT has worked really well for last 2 weeks. I got few runs on it now and all the time GPS lock was really quick and so was the GPS accuracy. The distance matched what it shows on google maps. So over all it is really a great buy. I am also wearing this all day for last 2 weeks and I have charged this only twice. 

Not much to write today here is how the run went.


 

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.