Going Long

OK run this morning.  The weather (mostly) held off, only a few raindrops and ice pellets near the end of the run.

A rather blah route - all the way down Queen St from Parkdale through West Queen West, Queen West, Downtown then Queen East.  Down Parliament St and all the way back on King St.

The office towers blocked out my GPS signal for a few kms in the heart of the city, so I really wasn't sure what my meterage and pace were really like.  I had a feel that I hadn't done enough when I got back to High Park, so I extended by 3km up Windermere and finally returning to the store by Bloor St.  Still 1km short according to MapMyRun, which I just input my run on.

23k was a bit of a respite today.  Back up toward 32k in the next couple of weekends.  Only a few weeks after that will be the RSR Marathon & Relay.  Stay tuned . . .

I've missed several Tuesday mornings in a row, so it was good to get out there and do a Tempo run early in the week.

After the rain, snow, ice that's been around for most of the past three weeks, it was kind of eerie to be out on completely dry streets!  We had a bit of a thaw on the weekend (9C/50F) so it was very sure footing, even in the darkness of 6 am.

Alas, the outlook is for 5-10cm of snow tonight, so I may need to break out the YakTrax tomorrow morning. 

I see only four more weeks of full running on my schedule, followed by a week of tapering before race day.  Doesn't seem possible how fast the last three months have flown by.

A rare Wednesday night appearance for me at the Running Room.  The snow was a bit much this morning, and so I figured I'd get out in the evening when the roads were mostly wet, vs mostly slippy!

Had a great run with Neb and Paul.  Neb has such a great cadence, pace and outlook on "the running thing".  I like talking with him a lot.  Paul is on the mend from chickenpox, so he's still we'll below 100%. 

It was great to sit with Victoria, then Dee and Scott and just catch up.  One of the problems of running without my peeps is not following what everyone is doing.  That should change when the next clinic starts up at the end of January.

Hills tomorrow.  Yip yip yip!

The last clinic night for a couple of weeks, as there will be no meeting on Christmas night or New Year's night.  It's making me realize that I'll have to go out of my way to make sure that I get out for my runs over the holidays.  It shouldn't be a problem, as I have most of the next two weeks off work . . . but lethargy DOES set in.

So, I said goodbye to hills for another couple of months tonight.  Did 8.5 loops of my hill routine, and maintained an even pace throughout.  Just me and Serena tonight, the rest of the group have done an "extended-bail" until after the holidays.   I think they live far from the store, and it's hard for them to get there for practice.  I hope they're doing homework on their own . . .

Saw EG for a minute at Starbucks this evening.  She's talking about coming back regularly in the new year.   A promotion at work put her MIA since September.  She signed up for Around the Bay already, so she'll have to get it together to complete the 30k at the end of March.

Dee was talking about the Sporting Life 10k tonight.  I'm a bit queasy about putting a 10k run in during the marathon schedule when I'll be at much higher long run distances.  I guess it might break up the monotony, but then again, it could be an injury-inducing mistake.  I have to think on that a bit.

15-25cm of snow on the way, beginning in the AM and lasting all day.  I need to put 10k in sometime tomorrow, and I'm wondering when will be a good time.  We'll see how things look in the morning.