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?

Week 9 Back to Work

Yeah!!  The kids are back to school this week which means this mama is also back to work.

With the kids back in school, I was able to get back to training. Monday was speed work with 5x400m with rests in between finishing with a nice slow 3km cool down around the block.  It was nice to be back out and the weather was looking up.

Fuel Post Speed Work

Tuesday, I met up with the gang again for a nice solid road run.  It had been a while since I had run road.  I was sad to see how slow I've gotten from running in the trails. I got used to the slower pace and many stops.  My buds were kind to me and let me run at a slower pace than they were used to, but I was panting to keep up with them. I can't believe I was dying to hold a 6:28 min/km.  It was a tough pill to swallow, but I will just have to work harder to get my speed back.

I flew out that evening to London for work and arrived Wednesday. I took a quick nap then headed out to shop as my kids gave me a list of goodies that they needed and then met up with my cousin for dinner and drinks. We headed over to one of our favourite Ramen spots for Truffle Ramen. It was to die for and worth every single calorie.

Cousin in London

Kanada-Ya

I woke up early Thursday morning before my flight home and headed out to Regent's Park for a quick run. The sun was just starting to peak and many runners were already out. It was nice to be able to run in capris and not winter gear for a change.

Many Routes Through the Park

Got back in time for long runs with my buddies. Friday was the start of an extreme cold alert that was moving into Southern Ontario.

Friday, we headed into the trails for 5 and a half hours in -23 degree weather.  It was not nice at all. It was awful. The skies were clear, but the icy trails were covered with fresh snow which made footing hard.  We went up to the Durham Forest and explored two new sections.  We were supposed to be in the woods for 6 hours but called it quits after 5:30 with 31 km's completed as we were frozen and needed to thaw out.

So cold, my iPhone died :(

Saturday, it seemed to be a bit warmer, -12 with the windchill and I headed back into the trails. We went to trails just south of us and it was surprising to see the difference in the trail conditions.  There was little to no snow, but still ice on many parts of the trails.  Finished with 22 km.

Crazy Ski Hill for Repeats

Week 9 done with 75 km's. Still kind of low and will try to pick up the next few weeks. How was your week?

Vacation /Week 3 Antelope Canyon Training

This past week was the first of my 2 weeks of vacation.  We didn't actually go away on a holiday, but I was looking forward to being home. I was excited to get ready for the Christmas Holidays and to be able to train everyday at home and not skip out on workouts because I would be on the airplane and jet lagged.

Monday, was pouring rain. I was hoping that it would let up for our speed workout, but that DID NOT happen.  We all showed up and ran loops around my buddy's home. The distance is just short of 1 kilometre.  We did a lap warm up and ran 4 loops and 1 lap for cool down. We were all soaked to the core. It was just short of 37 minutes, but we were all done. Finished off with 5.82 km.

Tuesday could have been a lazy day, but I called up a buddy who is always willing to run and thank goodness I did. She got me out and was able to squeeze 10km out of me. We were still jumping puddles from the rainfall the day before.  It was a nice and comfortable run. I've gotten so used to running slow that I must remind myself to push again and embrace the pain. Having a quick run let me spend some quality time with my mama the rest of the day.

Wednesday was back in the trails for some hills. We decided to go into the Rouge National Urban Park.  I just learned recently that it is the largest urban park in North America and it is literally in my backyard. There are many trails through the park and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the Toronto area.  It is easily accessible by public transportation and also has parking and visitor centres.  There are also guided walks that you can get more information about from the link above.

This trail offers many lookouts of the city and surrounding areas. I was happy that it was cold enough for it to snow instead of rain. There are many different route options when in this park. My buddies opted for routes with hills which are good in the long run, but I still whine and complain.  One of the many highlights is the climb up what used to be a ski hill.....

Truth be told, I only was able to run part way up the hill and spent most of time huffing and puffing way up.

We decided that Thursday would be a day off so that we could rest up for our long run planned for Friday. I was thrilled to have the day off.  We decorated the house and the tree. The kids were thrilled and I was happy that the kids have finally figure out the step ladder and are tall enough to get the decorations somewhat evenly spread out on the tree. 

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Friday was going to be the longest run for this training cycle. 20 miles was planned, but we decided that we would try to do at least one of our two long runs in the trails since our race would be in the trails. 20 miles on trails is very different from road. We decided to just try to average out the amount of time it would take us to run 20 miles on the road and spend that amount of time in the trails. So, 4 hours was what we agreed upon. We went 20 minutes just north of us to Durham Forest. I couldn't believe how much snow they had. 

Trail Map

Snowy Trails

After 4 hours in the trails, my watch told me that we had only covered 23 km. I was so deflated and sad. I couldn't believe that we only covered so little distance, but it did put things into perspective.  I am going to have to push harder. I am usually the last one trying to catch up to my buddies. It's always hard for me to know how hard I should be working because I want to make sure that I can keep up for the duration of the run. It is something I am still learning. Pacing myself to have enough energy to keep going, but also to work at my highest potential. The weather was quite ideal. There was not much wind and the snow on the ground was more like packing snow, so it had grip for our shoes. I'm sure we were sweating under all our layers, but we were not uncomfortable.  We all had our packs with enough nutrition for the time spent. I had two 10 ounce bottles of Hammer Perpetuem. My friends had Hammer Sustain and Skratch.  We had some gel bites and other goodies packed away.

I was quite tired after the run and made it home just in time to pick up the kids from the bus stop still in my run outfit. I had spent most of the day in the trails. Thank goodness for time off.  

Saturday was back in the trails bright and early.  Since it is now much darker in the early mornings, my friend and I do some hill repeats on the main road into the trail head to kill some time before the sunrise so that we can get some mileage in. I have to be back home fairly early take take my kids to their weekend activities. 

Headlamp is a must

With our headlamps and flashlights we ran almost 7 km of hill repeats before heading into the trails

Still Dark

I've run this trail quite often and have taken the kids in here, so I feel quite comfortable on this trail. I still often have no idea how far I've gotten or how much further I need to go.

When light finally Appears

I am constantly checking my watch to try to figure out when we need to turn back as this is an out and back run for us.

I'm sure there was Something chasing Me

My friends like to to out further than I would like to, so that I will push harder to rush back to make it back to the car.  I'm happy to know that they believe in me, but I always want to cry when I'm pushing as hard as I can to make it back. I imagine bears chasing me down so that I can catch up to my friends.

Thankfully I made it back to the car for 8:29 and rushed home to bring my little to basketball for 9. The kids greeted me with excitement as they woke up to find our elf.  She was back with Advent calendars for them to help them with the countdown to Christmas. I had spent the better part of the week trying to remember where I had hidden her. Thankfully, I found her the night before. 

Sunday is family day for us. We head to church and took the kids to the mall to see Santa. The kids are getting older, but they still seem to want to believe and visit him.  Thankfully, it has been the same Santa for the past 6 years. 

Mall Santa

Hope you all had a great week. We ended our week with a beautiful concert performance by Heritage at our church, performing classic Christmas carols.  Here's a short clip.  

How was your week? What are you Christmas traditions? Are you training for anything or on a rest period?

Thanks for reading