Week 13 - 02/04/2019 Build up Week

The weather finally let up for the start of the week.  We started off this week with a some speed work.     A run buddy of ours is training for her first full marathon in the spring, so we have decided to join in on her workouts.

The workout was planned at 1 km @ 5km race pace 1 minute rest followed by 500m 1 minute rest, 500m with 2 minute rest repeated 4 times.  We only mustered up 3 repeats before calling it quits.  It all seems awful when doing the workout, but always thinking you could have done more after.

No Jackets

Happy Chinese New Year Tuesday.  Another nice day to get out for a run with my buddies before a flight off to London.   We took it back on the road for a speedier run than normal run for me.   They managed to get me to average a 6:27min/km pace for almost 9 km. It's one of my fastest runs in this training cycle.  Speed seems so much harder now since I've gotten used to the trails.  Look what you get from Garmin for logging a run on this special day.  I should try to run more often on holidays.

I had planned to try to squeeze in a quick run while in London, but things didn't go as planned. My cousin had purchased tickets to see Avenue Q. Avenue Q is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics.  The layover is so short but I forged on and was able to enjoy the nice day. I spent the morning walking through the busy shopping streets of London.

Shopping for the Family

I was so distracted with the nice day and shopping that I lost track on time. I made it back to the hotel just in time to head straight back out to meet up with my cousin for dinner and the show.

New Wimbledon Theatre

The show was HILARIOUS!!! I laughed until my tummy hurt. If you ever have the chance to see it, you must go get tickets.  It is not for kids and may be offensive to many, but oh boy,  I was crying in my seat.  It ended up being a late night. I opted to sleep in before my flight instead of running to save my legs for the long back to backs runs when I got home.

Friday after dropping the kids off at school, I met up with my training buddies to head out to the trails.

Fuel for the Day

The weather had been terrible during the week.  It had started warm with rain showers, which then turned to frigid temperatures with 60 km per hour winds.  We drove out to the trail head hoping to run the first of our long runs in the trails.  We knew it would be a hard run as soon as my friend tried to drive into the parking lot. It was a skating rink and the car didn't stand a chance to even make it into the driveway.  We ended up parking on the side of the rural road and ran up and down the road for 39 kilometres.  It was the only way that we would get the mileage in as the forest was not an option.  The country road was gravel and the plow eventually came along and graded the road.  We stayed on the road as it was between the tall trees of the forest that was able to block the 60 km/per hour winds. 

As my friend said, "it was an ugly run"

Saturday morning at 5:30 we were back out to run the roads with the whole gang. It nice to have all everyone to keep the pack moving.  I was only able to finish with 30km.  I was limited on my time so finished 10km short.  This does make me nervous because I feel like I haven't built up enough mileage, but I am hoping that I can catch up the week after. 

Saturdays are always super busy here for us, so my runs are always limited.  We jam our weekends with our kids extracurricular activities.  It's all about finding a balance.

We celebrated Chinese New Year with my family Saturday night with a giant feast.  I quickly forgot about all the miles logged and stuffed my face.

Thanks for reading.  How was your week? Hows' your training coming along?