Sunday, May 16, 2010

Three Weeks Way Up, One Week Down Now!

Bring on the recovery week! Not since I've started adhering to the three weeks on one week off plan have I looked forward to a recovery week this much. To be blunt, I need it.

Today I ran my longest training run of the year at 22km and it was tough. I didn't go particularly fast or anything, crossing the half marathon mark at 1h57m and change, but the cumulative effect of the three longest mileage weeks of my life in a row has definitely taken a bit of a toll. This week I completed 58.5km, while the previous two weeks came in a 55km and 56.3km respectively. To reiterate, I'd only had one 50km+ week all of last year (51km last July) and another one this year back in April (50km). Add to that the fact that I've been avoiding any and all carb drinks and the like and my legs have felt like lead the entire week. Today I did bring along a bottle of Gatorade and I hope it helps me recover faster. I started sipping at the 5km mark and then took a drink every 2km after that until I ran out at about the 17km mark. I refilled my bottle at a water fountain in Riverdale Park and that got me the rest of the way home. I wish I'd never worn that long sleeve shirt though as I was overheating after about 3 or 4 kilometres, but I never did take it off.

Anyway, I am very happy with these three weeks. Two weeks from today I will be running the Ottawa Half Marathon and hope to treat it as a great training run. I just want it to feel better than today's run, even if it ends up being slow.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I had to run through massive clouds of black gnats as I entered the Leslie Spit, and then, as I neared the stairs at Riverdale Park in the Don Valley trails, I got dive bombed by a red winged redbird! The bastard attacked my head and then flew away making an awful lot of noise. I'm glad that I was wearing a hat. Silly bird.

Come to think of it, this was a strange day for animal encounters. Just as I started out on my run I ran past a woman admonishing her dog for shitting on someones lawn because she "didn't bring a plastic bag!". Not the dog's fault you dumbass! Later in the run, as I was running along the trails in the valley, a dog got loose from his master's leash and went after my legs. Not cool. At least he wasn't that aggressive. Then, as I was coming out of Riverdale Park I heard another dog owner yelling at his dog for taking a shit while HE didn't have a plastic bag. Honestly, was there an idiot dog owner convention in town or something?

Labels: , ,

2 Comments:

Blogger Ace said...

Ahhh sweet recovery week, we love thee... grats on some great mileage and a well deserved break.

May 17, 2010 at 10:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Vava!! My feed isn't working with your blog. Just finally caught up on all your happenings. You are going to do really well in 2 weeks.

As for your legs and recovery, are you doing recovery runs at a nice slow pace? If not, they may help you feel better.

May 22, 2010 at 7:58 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home