Sunday, February 12, 2006

 

Only 103 days to go

Well, with 103 days to go before the Blackfoot 100k race my confidence is waning as an injury seems to be percolating. Yesterday I ventured out for a 25 mile run and had to bail after about 11 miles because of some nagging pains in my right thigh adductor. A few years ago I had problems with the left adductor, my physio attributed it to running in the snow when the footing was quite tenuous and the adductors had to work overtime to keep me on my feet. She got me started with some weight training to deal with it and I haven't really had problems since.

Yesterday would have been OK except for the bottom 150 m or so of Garbage Hill. It was loose blown in snow about 4-6 inches deep. I think the combination of the hill and the crappy footing caused the cramping to start. Or at least that's my theory and I'm likely to stick to it :-)

After what I thought was 5 repeats on the hill I decided to start heading back toward home. The plan in my head was that if I got back to Wellington Crescent and the thigh started calming down I would carry on with the rest of the run. The dull ache continued all the way down Strathcona Street and over the bridge as well. Although it wasn't a show stopper in terms of pain, I have got to a point that I don't want to push into the pain zone and risk a serious injury. So I turned left onto Wellington and headed for home. The total run was 11.18 miles in 1:53:01.

I have really been fighting the urge to pick up the pace on these long runs, I have to keep telling myself that I'm not training for a 3:20 marathon but a 10:30 100k, so slow and steady is the way to go! Until I get my Garmin 205 in the next few weeks, I'm basing my pace on my heart rate.

The year to date mileage is 256.5 km. I created a map of virtual run from home to the west coast at gmap-pedometer, a great site for figuring out your runs. I'm just about at Oak Lake.

D.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

 

How to create a bottle of ice

This morning didn't seem that terribly cold, but it did help to prove my theory that Gatorade doesn't freeze as easily as plain water. Yesterday it was -24°C when I started out, this morning it was -25. I only took water as I wasn't planning on being out for a super long run. After about 45 minutes, the bottle was frozen right up, I couldn't get any water out. When I got home and was able to screw the lid off, there was about 10 mm of solid ice plug at the top, forming a shape that was, well, interesting ;-) Yesterday the gatorade just turned slushy over the course of 3 hours, some bigger chunks, but nothing larger than a smartie or so.

On Sundays I run with my learn to run clinic group that I am teaching. The routine is to run there, do the 20 minutes or so with them and then to an extra loop on the way home. Today, not including the run with the clinic was 7.69 miles in 1:18:21.

I've finally updated my stats for the year so far, and it's not so great, only 219.2 km logged so far, but I know I forgot to write in at least one long run. Somewhat zany thought to consider that I'm going to run just less than half that distance in one race... yikes :-)

D.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

 

Go long and come back with icicles

This mornings long run began at 8:20 am when the temperature was -24°C with almost no wind and a bright sun. It was the first time this winter that I had to worry about my balaclava. I had almost forgotten how much I dislike the feeling of being gagged by that bloody thing. It does, however, keep the heat in which is a good thing.

In anticipation of the Blackfoot, which is on a hilly course, the goal this morning was to introduce some hills into my long run. Being Winnipeg, that means Garbage Hill, or as a fellow I ran with a few years ago called it, Sunshine Hill. As a sidebar, this is the site of a landfill that was covered over in the 50's and is now a park that straddles a residential neighborhoodd and heavy industriall zone. In a bit of serendipity, I discovered that it is almost exactly 1/2 a mile from bottom, around the loop at the top and down again. My goal in setting out was to do each repeat in about 5:00.

Being a bit of a sucker for punishment (afterall, I am trying this ultra thing) I decided that the hill repeats would be part of my long run, so I ran there, 3.6 miles from home, then did 6 repeats up & down. I've always found that I was good at holding a pace, and this morning, I was within a few seconds of 5:08 for each of the six repeats on the hill. It was a good feeling knowing that I still had that internal pace sense, something I was worried had lapsed with the pathetic training of 2005.

All told, I did 18.5 miles this morning in 3:10:48, and feel good now that I have some food and a latte in me. Still some blistering problems on the left foot, but nothing that I really felt during the run. The icicle forming under my chin on the balaclava reminded me that it was winter.

Now time to relax a bit and prepare to eat some more tonight :-)

D

Thursday, February 02, 2006

 

Tempo Thursday

Tonight was a treadmill tempo run. I find the treadmill is a great tool in that it forces you to hold a pace. I warm up with 2 miles at an easy pace, then bump up the treadmill to 7.5 mph, increasing by 0.2 mph after each mile for five miles. A slower mile to cool off then some upper body weights. Overall, a great workout that I'm sure I will feel in the morning.

The numbers: 8 miles in 1:04:55, with the 5 miles at tempo pace in 37:37.

Some minor blistering on my left foot, but that spot is always getting rubbed raw; something I need to manage better.

The bed beckons now.

 

The start of the journey

Here is the beginning...

I decided to start this blog as a means of being accountable to those around me supporting my training. In slightly less than 4 months (113 days) I will have hit the start line of the Blackfoot 100km ultra-marathon; a task that seems somewhat daunting to me right now.

Let's see where this journey goes...

D.

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