6 weeks down, 7 to go. I was thinking this race was a lot closer than that, so maybe I can breathe a little easier when I finish a 30km run and wonder how I will be able to do another 20km on top of that! Now that this week is done I feel good about it, but there were some days I was struggling a bit with motivation. I started the week feeling really stuffed up and miserable, which finally started getting better towards the end of the week, and is now almost gone. I shuffled a couple of runs around, but managed to hit all the training I had planned (surprisingly!) Having a race goal definitely gives me the motivation to run when I don’t necessarily feel like it!
I took Monday off to let my legs (and my sinuses) rest after my 30km run the day before. Tuesday I did my planned 8km road run around my neighbourhood. I was really happy with my pacing and heartrate. I managed to sustain a 4:15/km pace while not pushing my HR over 150.
Wednesday was supposed to be hills, but I was feeling my worst that day and ended up just doing a 6km road loop close to home. Again I focused on maintaining a steady pace and was happy with the result. I started using a Suunto Ambit GPS on this run (actually ran with my Garmin 305 and the Suunto for review comparison data) and was really happy with it. A little different than the Garmin so it will take some getting used to, but it worked great. I will be posting a review after I spend some more time with it. If you click here, you can see my Movescount page with all my Suunto data.
My hills got bumped to Thursday which was a good choice because I felt a little better when I headed out to my favourite uphill gravel road for some repeats. I warmed up with few km’s of singletrack and then got to work. I ended up doing 8 trips up the road which is 500m long with a 50m rise. Definitely not a mountain, but its as good as we get around here in Ontario. Its a gated service road with no traffic so there is almost always other people out there running and riding it – almost feels like a gym sometimes. I felt good and my 8 repeats was the most I have ever done in a session. When I got home, my wife wanted to run 5km so I ended up joining her and running another 6+km. Like a little extra money in the bank!
Friday was my usual 20km road/asphalt path run. I was a little worried about how my legs felt (mostly from the downhills on Thurs. night) but knowing Saturday was a rest day I figured I could just get it done. It was an OK run – nothing special but I did it!
Sunday was my favorite run of the week. I was doing 30km on the trails again, but for once the weather was great. I got an early 7AM start due to a full Sunday family schedule and It was much cooler than it has been and mainly overcast which made it feel great. I banged out my first 22km and then met a friend who is getting into running/trail running and finished the last 8km with him. This helped me to focus on my pacing (and I think it helped him push his a bit!) It was a great way to finish out the run and I definitely felt like I had more km’s in my legs at the end (a good sign!) I was also happy because I took a risk and wore a brand new pair of Salomon SLab WIngs 3 shoes and had absolutely no issues with them over the distance. They’re a couple of models out of date, but I was really happy with them.
This is my last week of training at home before we go on vacation. I am really looking forward to getting in some big climbing runs while we are out west, but a little nervous about how to keep the training going while away. Its a family trip so running is not going to be my focus, but I still want to get some km’s in. Of course, I’ll keep you posted!
Coming up this week is:
- Monday – 8km road run
- Tuesday – rest
- Wednesday – 6km trail race
- Thursday – 10km road run
- Friday – Travelling
- Saturday / Sunday – not sure!
Wow! You’re clocking up the miles.
Yeah 82km last week. Definitely my highest volume so far!