Back to Work

The end of my holiday break is upon me and, as always, it never feels like it was enough. I certainly don't feel reinvigorated to "get back at it" as far as work goes, but perhaps it will hit me when I get to my cubicle in the morning.

Perhaps...

The past week was a bit of a surprise for me running wise because I didn't know if I'd be able to manage to run every day given the up in the air plans that we had. Ultimately it all worked somewhat well and I didn't miss a day, though it was dicey at times. The highlights of the week were the nice mid-week long run with the running group where I managed 19.3km on January 1st. A great way to start 2014! Also, the treadmill runs, all three of them, were a good test of the higher mileage and Lydiard theory of running. I am now able to run quite comfortably at 5:00/km pace (8:00/mile), something that a month ago would have put me into anaerobic mode within a few minutes I think. The benefits of daily running at a comfortable and aerobic effort, with some variation in effort and distances covered throughout the week, are clear and were never in doubt really. It's just nice to see the results already.

In the end I managed to cover 107.91km (67 miles) on 9hr17m25s of running. A few weeks ago I ran a similar distance for the week and it took me 32 minutes longer to cover the slightly shorter 107.67km. All good stuff!

• Monday: 16km, 1:23:43, 5:14/km, 145bpm (slippery and cold, throat still sore, low on energy)
• Tuesday: 12km, 1:05:50, 5:29/km, 139bpm (so slick out, snow falling, snowed overnight, sidewalks a disaster)
• Wednesday: 19.3km, 1:39:07, 5:08/km, 142bpm (feeling better, 9km alone before group run, sidewalks a bit better)
• Thursday: 16.6km (treadmill), 1:20:16, 4:50/km, 143bpm (seven repeats of 5 min @ 7.5mph, 5 min @ 8.3mph with 5 min @ 6.5mph at either end. That's more like it! )
• Friday: 12.33km (treadmill), 1:00:01, 4:53/km, 144bpm (progression run of sorts, warm up for 5 min @ 6.5mph, then 15 min @7.6mph, 15 min @ 8.0mph, 10 min @ 7.6mph. Felt pretty good on this one!)
• Saturday: 8.5km, 48:16, 5:40/km, 133bpm (end of day at cottage, tired, once it got dark I called it quits as it felt very unsafe on the dark country roads)
• Sunday: 23.1km (treadmill), 2:00:12, 5:13/km, 136bpm (progression-plateau run, started with 6.5mph and went up by 0.2mph every ten minutes, then held it at 7.5mph for a full hour before a ten minute cool down at 6.5mph. Washroom break at 60mins as treadmills stop there automatically at the gym)