Hey all,
Training has been going pretty well. I haven't been putting in huge hours, but very consistent week in week out. This week and the next may be a bit different. I looked at the past two weeks and it seems like I'm getting into a cycle of more bike, vs more run. One week I'll get in 5 runs and 3-4 bikes, then the next week 5-6 bikes and 3-4 runs. Swimming has been a solid twice a week, which I know I shouldn't expect much, but I'm actually improving!!! I'm getting close to where I was in the pool. I'm able to start pushing some workouts, I did a toughy yesterday with a main set of 10x200 @ ~ 1:40/100 pace. My weight is down a bit more too!! Wow that makes a difference, both for my run speed as well as my layering lol I'm right on my all time low weight and wayyy lighter than I usually am this time of year.
Last week friday I did the amble with the angus 5k! I feel I didn't do the half mary justice so with some prodding from a friend or two I entered this fun run. It would give me some indication as to where exactly my run speed was at as well as give me another good tempo. My friend from work Reinier picked me up in the morning, yes friday morning before work. Weird eh? That's a first for me, running a race before work. It was still dark as we did our warmup around prince's island park(that's where the race started). Even as we lined up to start and ran off it was still dark. It was really cool that all the "fast" runners stayed home for this so I could enjoy some time in the spotlight. I ran out with the lead group, one which included Mike(a friend of Reiniers and a fellow triathlete). But the grp soon put maybe 20 yards on me. I counted maybe 5-6 just ahead of me, not close enough to latch onto.
Arg I hate being in "no man's land" it's so important in a fast race to be able to run with a grp, mentally it's just so much easier right? After they got the gap and we headed through a few turns, some snowy parts and the first mile marker(6:10 right where I wanted to be) I realized they weren't gaining anymore. I could even see Mike(he'd beat me easily in the half mary I did from my last post) so I kept them on target. We were headed west along the bow, then up a short hill onto 14th st. This is where I took a good chunk out of their lead and got into the grp just as we headed onto the bridge across the bow. It seemed like some of them faded a bit so I moved to the front and continued on. There were also some icey patches especially once we'd crossed and ran down the bank, back onto the bow pathway headed back east. There was 5-6 of them when I joined, but here's where it started to break apart and I was able to move to the front. One of them had also moved further ahead, he was too far up to catch.
Once we hit 10th street we crossed over on the road, then looped around and ran back across to the north side again on the footpath. Weird, lots of corners and with some icey patches. We really had to slow down, especially when in a grp. This is where I lost site of our leader?? I wondered if he dropped out or took a wrong turn? Anyways we continued on, I guess I was leading at that point, but not too long as some young teen came by me. I was content just to run on his shoulder. I was hurting, but I'd pretty much kept a even pace through out the race. Then we crossed the two bridges by Oclare, the guy I was running behind almost made a wrong turn, I corrected him. We heard as we crossed that we had finished 2nd and 3rd. So I guess buddy that cut the course did cross the finish? Mike came across just after us in 4th and confirmed that the leader had cut off at some point. Oh well, it was just a fun run, my time was 20:30 as the course was long, 5k time was 19:07 according to my calculations. The goal was to break 19 and with some snow, turns, and ice I'm really happy with that. What's next??? More hard running, I'd really like to PB at the police half in spring, we'll see that's a tough course. Out of my running pb's that seems like the first one to tackle. Long RR eh?
Oh and of course Merry Christmas to all you blogger folks and have a happy New Years. Stay safe and don't drink an drive. Cheers,
DP
