It's been a while since I blog'ed about how my training was going for #STWM 2015. My life got busy and sucked out all the free time I use to have. It did not stop the training though. I am still on target to run in #STWM 2015.
I missed my last few long run's - Mostly due to races that I had signed up. The Night race was really fun this year. The weather was opposite of last years cold and wet night. It was super hot and even at 8pm humid and hot. Luckily I was not running 10K this year and it was just 5K.
The other race that I ran this Sunday was the B&O Yorkville 5K. The swag this year was again really good, actually better because I can use everything from it already. This run was really memorable. I reached on time but for some reason I thought that race started at 10:00am. So I ignored all the people lined up for the run went inside and took a stroll. 5 mins later heard the noise of people running and only to find that they were removing the barricades put for the race.
Finally this Sunday I got back to my scheduled long run's and it was 18K. I was slow but I was lot better than I was at this stage last year. There is a slight pain in the calf muscle but this time it is mostly due to the long run and no injury. I also had a busy day after the run and over body is recovering faster. This time we went a bit more west for the long run. Normally we would do the loop around Bloor and Bathrust to keep the distance on west short. This time it was all along the scenic MTG trail. It was really fantastic morning to run, with cool breeze and sun in the sky. I even took a selfie when I turn'ed around.
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. 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. |
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