Going Long

Beautiful, sunny, (kinda) warm morning this morning.  Got out on a fast, flat route and felt excellent out there.  The new shoes are working, so my normal, little, pre-warmup aches and pains seem to be forgotten for now. 

I need to find a new pair of running gloves, though.  I guess I left my old pair on the GO bus to Hamilton on Sunday morning.  :-(  I hate it when an integral piece of clothing goes missing. 

I took fleece mitts out with me this morning, and they were way too bulky and sweaty for this time of the year.  I'll have to wait until the winter winds howl to bring those puppies out again. And then I'll have to put the GoreTex outer shell mitts on over them.   Brrrrr!  Not looking forward to those mornings.

First week of hills this morning.  Four repeats on the steepest switchback I could find in the neighbourhood.  Elevation difference of 53 meters over 503 m distance, or approximately 10% grade. 

It felt good to go out and attack the hills, but I really am astounded that my RR schedule says that hills should be done at Tempo pace?  That seems pretty out of reach.  Especially when I get to 10x repeats over the next six weeks!  

With warm up and cool down I managed 9 k at 6 min/km pace, which is a good workout for me.  We'll see where I go from there.

Clinic night, and only three takers this evening.  Ran with a new partner who's at a diffent pace that I am - but it was nice to have someone to talk to.  A lot of early morning solo runs makes me realize how chitchat makes the kilometers roll by.

Another warm day in Toronto, so running this evening was a real treat.  The view of the night skyline from across the western beaches toward downtown was quite stunning.

I'm adding a 10k Friday run to the routine starting this week.  It will help get some extra distance under my belt as I train for the sub-4 race at the end of January.  As I always seem to end my blog entries . . . "We'll See".  :-)

Ran home from work this afternoon, and it was a good workout.  I couldn't get any satellites on the Garmin because of the tall buildings downtown, so I thought I'd run at a brisk clip and try to figure out my pace on the go.  I do have some idea of the landmarks/distances in my head, so I figured it would work.

After about 2 k I realized that I was way ahead of pace, but settled in for what seemed to be an easy effort.  The only problem I had was restarting after waiting for a long traffic signal at Lakeshore and Parkside.  It felt like my bag o' bones just didn't want to get moving again.  

The other issue I've been having is my post-run stretch.  If I end up at the store after a run, it seems like I take more time stretching everything out.  I'll work against the wall, do some calf raises on the edge of the sidewalk and go inside to do some floor stretching.  If I end up at home after a run, I don't have the same routine. 

This has got to change, as most of my runs are now early AM ending up at home.  With the higher milage of the marathon schedule, I'll need all the stretching I can get.  *Bonus*  I scheduled my first massage in a month and a half for next week.  Ahhhhhhh!

I was a bit sore from the enthusiastic 10k commute home yesterday, so I went out for an easy 6k around High Park. 

Took Alex with me in the double stroller, and she advised me that her boots are not warm enough.  Off to boot shopping this afternoon . . .