Week 4 Antelope Canyon Training, bring on the Christmas Parties

I can't believe that we have been training for 4 weeks now. But, my body is definitely starting to feel it.  I had enjoyed the week at home the week before and was looking forward to this week as well. There was also a sense of urgency as I knew it was my last week off before heading back to work. I was trying to make sure I had everything done for the holidays and the family before flying out for the next two weeks.

Training has been coming along. I actually ran every day this week except for Sunday

Monday speed session was awful and that's just me being honest. I don't like speed work. I always want to die and I know that you should push yourself hard, but many times I give up before I even start.  Feeling like you want to drop dead and puke at the end of every lap is not what I enjoy any more.  I am hoping that I will embrace it again. We met up at my friend's place to run laps around the school. We did one warm up lap and then 4 laps around the school. We ran one of our friends home and finished with another lap and a cool down.

Laps are just under 1km

Tuesday was pretty much a write off. Husband bought us a new t.v on the Black Friday weekend and delivery was scheduled for today, but the window was ridiculous, 9-5. Seriously,  who sits around the entire day waiting for a delivery. I was rather disappointed as he had bought the television from Costco and I would expect better service.  I decided to use this day as a catchup day and rest. However, I got restless and ended up running for an hour slowly on the treadmill while watching Netflix. The delivery ended up being a complete mess and we would never recommend Costco for this service again.

Wednesday was a gorgeous day..

Sunrise

My buddy was free for a run so we met up for a quick easy run on road and trails of Milne Park

Rouge River

Milne Park

It was quite wet and soggy as the trails did not have a lot of traffic in parts. We ended up forging our way off the trails for part of our run.

We also discovered bike repair/aid stations that the City of Markham had placed at certain trail heads entering the paved parts of the trails. The stations had tools as well as a bicycle pump for anyone to use free of charge.

Fixit Station

Thursday was to be an easy day but I just had to take advantage of having the week off, so I was able to convince a buddy of mine to meet up with me for an easy 10km.  Have I mentioned that this awesome run buddy is a grandma in her 60's and can run the pants off of me. I was struggling to keep pace with her. I would have considered this my tempo run :)

Friday was long run 1 of 2. The training plan calls for 15 miles. We had decided that it would equate to about 3-3.5 hours in the trails. We headed back up to Durham Forest to explore the trails. As we were running through the trails, we commented on how lucky we were to actually live so close (20 minutes drive) to some of these trails that we run in.

It was the coldest day of the week on Friday and I was not sure how to dress as it was the first super cold day of this training cycle.  

Felt much Colder

The trails were covered in snow, but there were bike tracks that we were able to follow along to the section markers.  My toes were frozen and all I could think about was whether or not to tell my friends. I figure they were just as cold as I was and since they didn't say anything.  All I could think about was what would happen if my toes froze... would I have to amputate them?  Thank goodness after 4 km's of running before I could start feeling my toes again.  The trails were quiet and we only bumped into 1 cyclist.

Fat Bike Treads

We found new trails that we had not run in before and ended up a the base of a local ski resort. If you look closely at the map, you can make out 2 ski resorts on the right side. The ski resorts had their snow making machines working hard to get ready for a weekend of skiing.  Tough run and was exhausted when we finally finished.

That evening the run squad had our Christmas get together. We got to just chill and relax. I've been so blessed to have met these ladies. We have spent many miles pounding the pavement and exploring trails. I am lucky to call them my friends.  It was so nice to be able just to catch up and chat since most of the times I'm trying to keep up with them and barely able to speak because I'm so out of breath.

Missing a few Ladies

Saturday, I was up nice and early to get in long run number 2; 11 miles.  My buddy picked me up at 5:30 and we were off to start in the dark. It was actually a bit warmer than Friday's run, but not by much. The light snow was pretty, but my legs didn't want to move at all. My buddy and I usually run the road which is a pretty big hill for about an hour to kill some time while the sun comes up.

Rouge River

Fresh Snow

Hair is frozen

Are we done yet???

Sunrise and Stairs

This run was actually really nice with the fresh snowfall. Even though my legs were toast, my buddy was nice enough to keep the pace and keep me moving. The whole idea of having the 2 back to back long runs is to run on tired legs and I was definitely feeling it today. All I wanted to do was to walk, but we both had to be home at 8:30 to get to our mom duties, so I had to get moving.

After a day of driving the kids to all their weekend activities, we headed out to Rockwood to another Christmas party.  I was so happy to be done with Week 4 of this training cycle that I just ended up passing out by 9pm. Thank goodness for sleepover parties where you can just eat, drink and fall asleep.

Kids and Ugly Sweaters

Mom's 

Dad's

Finished week 4 with 72.86 km, 2 Christmas parties and a full belly. Vacation is now done and back to work next week. Mileage will go down as I will be flying for 2 days out of the week.

How was your week? Do you run in cold weather? Do you like it? Anyone racing this week?

Thanks for reading... :)