Sunday, February 15, 2009

14km - Another Record

Today was yet another milestone for me in my brief running "career". I went out for a 14km run, which is 2k longer than my previous record set last Sunday. I mapped out a route using Google Pedometer that took me down to the Beaches, a wonderful part of Toronto that is nice to visit for us, but way too pricey to ever actually contemplate living in. There's a great boardwalk down there, and though I didn't end up running on it this time I will definitely incorporate it into future excursions.

The run was pretty good, all things considered, though I must admit that the motivation was lacking for some strange reason. It was a weird feeling actually - a part of me was very into the run, or at least the satisfaction that I knew would come with completing it. Another part of me was having real trouble with the whole getting out the door, and the distance was a bit daunting too. I finally told myself to just start running and not think about it too much, and that did the trick.

The first half of the run was pretty easy and it was either flat or downhill. Perhaps that's why I was having reservations, for what goes down must come up, right? Anyway, I am still amazed how much ground one can cover in 14km, and it will be pretty cool to be able to run clear across the entire city and back when I work up to those really long 30k+ distances. The second half of the run presented me with a lot of hills, a couple of which were quite steep. The second half of the Around the Bay 30k has a big hill in it, so this type of thing will be important to do in preparation for that race. The hills slowed me down, naturally, but I recovered better than expected and in the end I managed the 14k in 1:19:01 for an average pace of 5:38/km. My fastest kilometre came in at 5:19 (the third one of the run and down hill for sure) while the slowest one was 6:02 (up hill, and the only one that went above 6:00 pace). The average heart rate was still in the 140's at 149bpm, and the max was a pretty high 185bpm thanks to one of the hills.

In sum, the run was great despite my waning motivation at the beginning. It was sunny, not windy, and pretty decent temperature at -6C when I started. By the time I finished I think it was closer to -2C. I ended up taking the boys down to the Beaches in the afternoon for a few hours because it was so nice out and we had a great time throwing rocks in the water and such.

Garmin don't lie.


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7 Comments:

Blogger Mel-2nd Chances said...

glad you got out the door to enjoy the day... it was a wonderful day for a run today :o)

February 15, 2009 at 4:07 PM  
Blogger Marci said...

Great job Vava and great pace!

February 15, 2009 at 4:16 PM  
Blogger Andrew is getting fit said...

I've found the same thing when it comes to crossing the city. It's pretty amazing how far you can get in an hour or two or three of running!

February 15, 2009 at 7:10 PM  
Blogger FLYERS26 said...

Nice job and pace! Gotta run the boardwalk next time!

February 15, 2009 at 8:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well done. I can totally relate to your mixed motivation. There have been many days when I am all excited to go run and then when it come to doing, I just don't want to!

February 16, 2009 at 7:47 AM  
Blogger BeachRunner said...

Bravo Va-va-voom!

February 16, 2009 at 12:51 PM  
Blogger Aron said...

awesome job on another distance pr!!!

February 16, 2009 at 1:22 PM  

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