Going Long (again) in 2024

4 miles at Tempo pace today.  Flamed out after 22 minutes for some reason - heart rate was way too high.  Had to pause for a couple of minutes and then finished.  Not happy about that.  Hopefully just a temporary glitch - had no problems with it last week.

8 easy treadmill miles; 70 minutes running time.

Same routine as yesterday:  8 treadmill miles.  Running time of 70 minutes.

12 mile long run, which I took outside today.  Colder than I thought - the sports drink and water I was carrying on my belt froze solid by mile 2, so I went the distance without hydration or nutrition.  It was -14C/7F, but with very little wind, so I didn't expect it to feel quite so cold.  I was wrong.

Anyway, I kept an average pace of 7:30, so covered the 12 miles in just under 1:30.  Didn't feel particularly difficult, except that I was thirsty at the end.

And now that I'm showered and all thawed out, I'm heading into town to participate in my 1st polar dip - will be jumping through a hole in the ice on Lake Ramsey early this afternoon to raise money for the Special Olympics.  I'm not sure what will be worse:  running 90 minutes in the cold (even my teeth froze!), or jumping into an ice covered lake for a few seconds.  I'll soon find out.

I took it outside again - stunningly beautiful ... thick fog rising from the snow, and the trees were laden with a heavy hoar frost.  So was I when I was done!

Ran an easy average pace of 8:19, for a running time of just over 58 minutes.

Speedwork on the treadmill today.  Three x 1 mile repeats at 6:25 pace with 600 recoveries.  

My first outside Tempo run this training cycle.  I've been finding my Tempo pace challenging on the treadmill, and so wanted to see how it felt on the road.  It went okay, mostly.

4 miles, aiming for a 6:50 pace.  I wasn't very consistent.  My splits were 6:51, 6:45, 6:42 and 6:34.  However, within each split, I was all over the map, running as fast as 5:14 at times.

Mile 2 was the most difficult.  Of course, I had to come to a screeching stop when a dumb dumb pulled his truck out of the driveway without looking.  That threw my rhythm off.

Then in mile 3, my shoelace came untied.  That never happens - weird, because in my cool down mile, the other lace did the same.  Odd.  Anyway, going from tempo pace to a complete stop and then bending over to tie a shoe lace is not a good idea.  Very light headed.

Then in mile 4, I discovered the side streets I use at that point were an icy mess.  Still, it was my fastest split somehow.

Anyway, all in all, a good run.  And it gave me a shot of confidence that my race pace goal is still doable in May.  As a bonus - my knee felt fine.  It started to ache after my massage on Monday.  Yesterday's rest didn't seem to help much, and it was still achy this morning.  But it didn't bother me one bit while running, and the ache seems to have gone away.

8 easy miles outside; average pace of 8:38 for a run time of 69 minutes.

Icy!  I had to be careful to avoid the bare pavement, as it was slick with a thin coat of ice due to freezing rain.  Fortunately, there is a wide band of sand on the road sides from the winter ssanding.  It was okay as long as I ran on it.

7 easy miles outside.  The thin layer of ice melted, so no slipping and sliding today.  Easy pace of 8:33 for a running time of just under one hour.

12 easy miles outside on the Linden Rd. Loop.  Most of it is now bare pavement - just a few icy patches here and there.  The trails are still impassable, so I have to stay on the roads, but it won't be long before everything opens up.

Average pace of 8:21 for a run time of just over 100 minutes.

7 easy miles outside on my BAC route.  Average pace of 8:30 for a run time of 59:30.

Absolutely stunning sunrise, and I was running right into it for 2 miles at its peak.

Speedwork on the treadmill today.  

5 x 1000 @ 3:57/km pace with 400 recoveries.

Tempo (race pace) work out - didn't quite go the way I would have liked.  Darn wind!

A strong East wind.  Well, I didn't think it was too bad during my 2 mile warm up, but when I turned East, it really hit me. It doesn't look bad on paper:  45 km/h/27 mph.  But for some reason, it hit me hard and really sapped me.

Anyway, I ran the wind miles at 7:06 and 7:11.  Not terrible, but it sapped me.  I ended up stopping to get my wind.  Then I finished the final three at 6:54  6:44  and  6:45 (on pace).  Those were easy, because the wind was either at my back or cross side me, and I even laid off so as not to go too fast.

Anyway, average pace of 6:56.  

Temperature wise, it was great: 1C/34F.  Ran without my outer vest for the 1st time this winter, and my fingers in the thin gloves did not turn numb.  All good!

So, I'm still left wondering if my 1:30 Half goal is too ambitious.  I'll need some race pace runs that are consistent and more comfortable before I know for sure.

Eight miles easy on the BAC route.  Running time of 1:08:20 for an average pace of 8:32.

8 easy miles; 8:19 pace average for a running time of 1:06:32.

Back to vest, mitts and touque.  A strong and very cold north wind.  My 1st and last miles were into it, and it was bitter.

42km/h (26mph) wind and -18C (-1F).  Brr.  Clear skies at least!

13 mile long run on the Linden Road loop.  Average pace of 7:36 for a run time of 1:38:50.

Cold, again.  And a bit of a north wind.  -13C/8F    -20C/-5F with the windchill.

So as not to have my sports drink freeze up again like last time, I wore the belt right next to my skin under my 2 layers.  That worked well enough to keep it from freezing,  But getting to it while wearing those big mitts was a challenge, so I made a full stop twice in order to get to it.  Ah well.

I just got some Injinji glove socks - I really like them.  Ran in them yesterday and today.

8 easy miles; 8:36 pace for a run time of 1:08:50.

Cold out still;  -19C/-1F.  Have to thaw myself out now.

Speedwork on the treadmill.  6 x 800 @ 6:23 pace with 400 recoveries.  No problem - felt strong throughout.

5 miles at Tempo (race pace) of 6:48.  Easier to hit the pace this week without that strong headwind.  Splits of 6:58  6:51  6:49  6:41  and  6:40.

Gorgeous full moon setting as the sun came up.  Cold - still just -11C/13F with a wind chill of -21C/-5F.  The wind WAS strong, but from the North, so never really in my face except for my warm up and cool down miles.  Blowing at 33-44 kph, or 20-28 mph. 

8 easy miles - managed to get them in before the snow storm hits us later this morning.

8:41 pace for a running time of 1:09:30.

Almost got hit twice.  One idiot blew through a stop sign without even slowing down.  I saw him coming and stopped, otherwise he would have hit me.

Then another idiot backed out of his driveway at some speed without looking both ways.

I guess it's a full moon!

7 easy miles on the treadmill; major dump of snow yesterday and during the night.  About 25cm/10 inches.  The roads are most unpleasant this morning, so I opted for the safer choice indoors.

12 easy miles; pace of 8:40 for a running time of 1:44.

A bit messy in a few places still after the big storm, but mostly it was clear roads for running.  A bit colder than I anticipated - I only got to drink about 2/3 of my sports drink before the rest of it froze.  Still, the sun coming up was nice, until fog rolled in at around mile 7 and pretty much blotted out everything.

8 easy miles.  8:27 pace for a run time of 67:38.

Now into the second half of my formal training program; 9 weeks left until my Ottawa race.

Nice morning for running, even with the fog.  Virtually no wind, very quiet, and a reasonable -8C/17F.

Speedwork on my treadmill this morning - 5 x 1000 @ 6:23 with 400 recoveries.

This was my final speedwork session in this training cycle.  My Mondays now switch to what the Hanson's call "Strength Sessions" ... longer segments run ten seconds faster than race pace.

5 miles at tempo pace of 6:52.  Very little wind, so pretty good conditions.

Hard, cold rain today, so I took it to the treadmill for my easy seven mile run.