Summer Forecast: Hills and Dogs

I spent the weekend at the cottage and, as will hopefully be the norm for the Summer, ran my Sunday 12km on the rural roads. My biggest worry is strange dogs running out at me as I run past, and getting lost. One of these things I can plan for, the other I might have to buy some sort of repellent spray and carry it with me. (Luckily, the only canine I had to contend with was rather loud and scary, but remained within the limits of his property's boundary despite the lack of fencing. Whew!)

But the other thing I will definitely have to contend with is the HILLS! We acquired this little shack/hovel last Fall and it sits on a lake at the top of a hill. It's high enough that my ears always pop when we drive up there, but I recognize it's not actually that high up. Nevertheless, for the injury prone runner who is used to relatively flat terrain the hills around this lake are a bit of a challenge.

Case in point, as I ran my easy 12km run in the beautiful countryside I stumbled upon a major decline that I easily traversed, but recognized that I would have to get back up on the way home. I wasn't carrying anything with me, preferring to run with no extraneous contraptions (i.e. no water bottles, no iPods, no fuel belts, no cell phone, etc.). In this instance it didn't matter, but in the future I might have to carry some of the above. Had I done it this time I would have snapped a photo of the hill as it really did surprise me how long and steep it was, but alas, all I have is the elevation profile from Garmin Connect:

When looking at the above I am aware that it simply doesn't do the hill justice. That or I am really out of shape. Perhaps a bit from each of column A and B?

Anyway, it was surprisingly a good run, though my heart rate went higher than I'd have liked due to both the hill(s) and the weather (which was rather warm, sunny and humid). With this being the shortest (or one of the shortest) Sunday runs I will do all Summer it means that I will likely encounter more than just one of these types of hills on my long runs. I look forward to the challenge, discovering new territory, and hopefully getting stronger, all the while keeping a keen eye on that heart rate to ensure that I am not over stressing my pathetic "system". Next week I hope to see just how things will pan out as I have a 21km run on the schedule.

Here's to not getting lost or bitten!

Week 1 Is In The Bag!

The easiest week of marathon training is now officially behind me! I'm not as excited as that sentence may lead you to believe. My left quad is still sore from those pesky Strides and I have a bit of pain in each heel that slowly goes away throughout the day, but is a definitely debilitating when I first wake up. More rolling and stretching is required, and I think I need to start paying more attention to my diet.

This morning was the last run of the week and I had planned out the 19km route I'd run for my Medium Long effort. The key on this one was to stay in the proper pace range the entire time and follow Pfitzinger's instructions to start out 20% slower than planned marathon pace and speed up until you do the second half of the run 10% slower than planned marathon pace.

Although not perfect I think I managed quite nicely, thank you very much. My average pace ended up being 5:03/km (definitely between 4:57/km and 5:24/km) as I finished my 19km in exactly 1:36:00. All this despite the fact that I included some hills in my run, so that makes it even better:

The climbing and descending meant that my pace wasn't very steady. The 1st and 9th splits were too slow (5:42 and 5:26 respectively), but given that the first one is a warm up and the ninth was up a steep hill for a big chunk I'll take it. I also went a bit too fast on a few splits, but all except the last kilometre were only a few seconds faster than 4:57/km and these were as a result of some downhill running as I was trying to hold back without braking too much. The last split was the fastest of the lot at 4:43 as I was trying to just get home by then.

In summary, the Week 1 plan called for 52km total and I ran 53km since I messed up the first run. And other than the first run I was on target with my pacing for the most part. Good times!

Recovery Week My Foot!

So, this is supposed to be my last easy week given that marathon training starts on Monday. But apparently I don't know the meaning of "recovery" or "easy" since I am feeling it from all the running and stuff. Add to that the higher temperatures, lack of sleep, and constant go-go-go non stop work and family obligations and you have yourself a recipe for one tired runner.

After the weekend of baseball where we got home very late on Sunday after the boys lost in a tight Semi-Final battle following two extremely closely contested games just to get there I was wiped starting the work week. Monday was OK given that all I had on tap was leg weights, which I managed at lunchtime. Monday evening brought baseball practice for Owen so the boys and I trekked across town and back, getting home quite late yet again. Once more I had trouble sleeping.

Tuesday morning my alarm went off at 5:15am and I awoke to the sounds of driving rain, lightning and thunder. As I contemplated going out for my run I convinced myself that this was still recovery time and that I would have time to run later, perhaps during warm ups prior to yet another of Owen's baseball games.

Well, that's what I did. What I didn't count on was the heat and humidity! +29C (84.2F) doesn't sound so bad, but when the humidity brings that up into the mid 30sC (high 90sF) this Canadian is still not used to it! I ran around Markham and felt like a fish out of water. This town is not made for runners and is your typical suburbia hell where sidewalks are sparse, end without rhyme or reason, and subdivisions are enclosed by major roads and highways trapping you into running around in circles in front of houses dominated by garages that seem more important to the structures than the living space itself, which I can only assume exists and is relegated somewhere to the back of the compound.*

I did manage to jump a fence at a golf course at about the 8km mark to take a leak in a porto-potty and it was a tough slog from beginning to end. I probably ran faster than I should have on what turned out to be 11km (4:57/km, 7:58/mile) and definitely felt the effects of dehydration afterwards. I polished off my water bottle really fast and was upset to find that the water fountain in behind home plate was not functioning! What a joke. Needless to say we got home really late and were eating dinner at 10pm. Not good for sleeping...

This morning I woke up again to the sounds of my alarm radio at 5:15am and had a tough time getting out of bed. I managed to be out and running at a little past 5:30am, but could tell this was going to be one of those days. You know how sometimes you feel like you are going to have a bad run and things turn out really well? This happens to me all the time, but this morning was NOT one of those times. I felt like it would be tough going and it ended up being tougher than I expected.

I ran down to the Beaches and out to the end of the Boardwalk before hitting some of the hilly streets on my way back home. Well, it was warm and humid already and I was forced to take a short break up Lee Avenue, then another at the top of the very steep Brookside Drive. The last three of four kilometres were a slow and difficult mess as I shuffled myself home. I was definitely feeling the effects of my previous run and this was NOT what recovery week was supposed to be about. If I don't watch it I will enter marathon training exhausted. In the end I did run 15km and my pace was not terrible, but a bit erratic (5:14/km, 8:25/mile).

Here's hoping I can catch up on my hydration and rest before Monday. The hydration should be easy as I can drink water to my hearts content at work. The rest part may be a bit more of a challenge as there is no break for me this week. Every evening has something else that we have to do and leaves me eating late, going to bed later, and sleeping poorly. Oh well, such is life with two busy boys...

* Disclaimer: I suspect those who live in suburban subdivisions have many positives to impart about their choice of accomodation and I don't mean to insult anyone, but I can't imagine living in such a neighbourhood myself. I love being downtown for all sorts of reasons. One of which is that my commute is a 20 minute bike ride. Another is that I don't need a car to go and buy food. Nuff said.

More Hills in The Beaches

Last night after work I took the boys to Taylor Creek Park for some running and a change of pace from the track. Although Malcolm did not have a very good time of it we still managed to run 3km along both paved and dirt trails. Owen and I thought it was fun, but I think Malks was just running low on calories and I will have to remember to bring a snack for him next time.

This morning it was more searching for hills by yours truly. Similar to Wednesday morning's run I headed off to The Beaches and ran nice and steady until the end of the boardwalk. That's where the hills start and where the real workout occurred. My goal was to run based on perceived effort and pretty much ignore pace as much as possible. That was a good goal, in my opinion, but a couple of the hills still had my heart racing. They are steep! In any case, I did get what I asked for and ran up and down quite a bit in the middle of the 16.5km (5:13/km, 8:24/mile average pace) run. I can't help but think that this type of running will really pay off in the long run (no pun intended).

This weekend will be busy and I'm not sure how I will fit in my runs as Malks and Monica are away at Beavers Summer Camp and I am with Owen at a baseball tournament. I'll figure something out...

The Search Continues

June got off to a good, if a bit tough, start. I had little trouble getting out of bed this morning, which was surprising since I woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep for at least an hour. But when my alarm went off at 5:20 I didn't do the usual lying around for fifteen minutes before finally getting up.

The run was another experiment in searching out some hills. I know I have to incorporate them into my runs, but given that for most of the past three years I was just happy to be running I generally found that running on relatively flat ground was challenging enough. The occasional hill here and there would come up, of course, but I really didn't try to seek them out except when I ran a few long run loops that took me down into and then up out of the Don Valley two or three times. Even then I'd only hit one big hill two or three times, that's it.

Anyway, Toronto is not blessed with any mountains or anything, but ravines do cut across the city all over the place. As a result there are some hilly parts that make for good rolling terrain and it's these types of neighbourhoods that I am looking for within running distance of my house. A place known as "The Beaches" is one such place and that's where I ran this morning.

When running to The Beaches in the past I'd head for the boardwalk and then retrace my steps, thereby only running up the one hill I had to run down on my way to the shoreline. Today was different because once I reached the end of the boardwalk I didn't just turn around. Instead, I headed north up one hill, cut across Queen Street for a bit, then went north again up another hill, ran down a hill along Kingston Road, and then hit a couple more hills on the way up Woodbine Avenue. These are not mountains or anything, as mentioned above, but they did provide a good test and made my 15km run quite tough (5:01/km, 8:04/mile average pace).

The elevation profile was decent. I think there are more challenging hills to be had in The Beaches. I'm just not ready for them yet.

Laps of Withrow Park

Since Owen's baseball practice was cancelled due to the weather my plans to run some hills at High Park went out the window. Instead, I decided that hills should still be the order of the day and I picked Withrow Park as my destination in the evening. As I listened to the Yankees broadcast while they played the Jays just down the road (I and NOT a Yankee fan, but their play-by-play on the radio is very entertaining so I tend to check it out often) I trotted around the park.

Things went pretty well and I didn't feel all that taxed. I'm sure hills will help, but I'm curious if running them slowly is beneficial. I'll have to give it a chance I guess.

The hill up Logan Avenue on the West side of the park is not all that steep or long (about 350m by my calculations), but I ran the loop a total of eight times before heading home. The total on the day was the desired 15km and I managed it in 1:18:46 for an average pace of 5:14/km (8:26/mile). Not speedy, but a bit hilly. I'm still recovering from that nasty cold that hit me over the weekend so this was a definite step forward.

The elevation profile looked like this: