Going Long (again) in 2024

5 Easy miles on the indoor track.  Still colder outside than a penguin's butt in a sled rut, but looks like we may finally get some warmer temps by the weekend.  Hope so!

5 easy miles on the indoor track.

Speedwork on the treadmill.  4 miles at 6:44 pace, with 800's for recovery in between.

Pushed hard and did it, feeling strong to the end.  Experimented again with drinking HoneyMaxx - no issues there.

Used the treadmill at the gym instead of mine at home - for sure mine is measuring too fast.  The last time I did speedwork on it, I could barely keep up.  I'll have to see if I can adjust it properly.

5 easy miles on my treadmill.  Finally calibrated it - was running about 1/2 mile/hour faster than shown on the display.  Much better now!  No lingering effects from yesterday's speedwork, although I did take some ibuprofin for the iliopsoas - not that it was any worse, but it nags on sort of an ongoing basis.

5 easy miles on the indoor track.  No issues.  

Tomorrow, I plan on running my long run outside -  maybe.  It's warming up to just below freezing, which makes it good, but they are also callling for about 3 inches of snow tonight.  So, I'll wait until the morning to see how it looks before I decide.

14 mile long run - outside!  It felt SO good to be out there after a long winter of running indoors.

First, the weather.  It basically sucked.  It snowed lightly all night, and was still snowing a bit, off and on, when I left.  I wore sunglasses because it looked like it might clear, but it never really did.  But they did help keep that bitterly cold North wind out of my eyes.  Yikes, it was bad!

Temperature at 7:20am when I left was minus 12 C with a windchill of minus 20.  That's 10 F and -4 F with windchill.  So, basically it was a lot like Grimsby a couple of weeks ago, except there was no wind in Grimsby and it was sunny there.  I ended up dressing the same, and it was warm enough - mostly.

The wind was strong and gusty, out of the North.  Fortunately, my route only took me 1.5 miles North.  The rest was East and West, and sheltered.  That 1st 1.5 miles, however, was pretty bitter.  Cold face and cold hands.  I was okay after I turned the corner, however.

The roads were not plowed yet, but I ran where cars had packed it down and it was fine.  Quite icy (glare ice, actually) in the tire ruts, but just over from that it was like packed snow.

Second off, nutrition.  I wore my nutrition belt with four containers of HoneyMaxx, and brought one powerbar gel.  I drank the HoneyMaxx every 2 miles, except at 8 miles where I consumed the gel.  I'm glad to say that I had no GI issues.  I do look forward to warmer weather for my nutrition experiments, but then again, the Hamilton marathon is in November and won't likely be too warm.  After I use up my last 2 gels, I'm going to switch to GU Gels and see how they work for me.

Finally, my body.  The run itself was great.  I was supposed to run the 14 miles at 8:35/mile and I pretty much averaged that pace miles 2 - 11.  The 1st mile was a bit slower at 8:49, and the final three were a bit faster at 8:25, 8:22 and 8:11.  Overall, I averaged 8:32, finishing the run just shy of 2 hours.

My old friend Iliopsoas was there for most of it, and is still complaining a bit 5 hours later.  Towards the end, I noticed my hamstrings were tight (not sore) so will pay more attention to them and will foam them out tonight.  And I had an odd pain for a few miles in the instep of my right foot.  Nothing there now, and I suspect both that and the hamstrings were due to the uneven running surface, the slippery road where I had to pay extra attention, and the times I had to run in deeper snow on the shoulders whenever a car came by.  I'll see how those body parts play out in my Monday run.

So, I'm hopeful this is the new trend - being able to run outside for at least my long runs on Saturday.