creature from the track lagoon

The rain continues. If I didn't have a race coming up, it'd be tough to get out the door for runs. But the Chilly Chase 15K draws nigh! Toward that end, i logged a soggy four mile run yesterday morning, and a track workout with a friend this evening. She's following a pretty serious half marathon training plan, so I followed her guidelines for the workout, since I'm still learning the ropes. We ran "mini michigans"; the workout looked like this:

warmup

800m @ marathon pace (8:15)

1600m @ 15K pace (7:37)

800m @ mar. pace

1200m @ 10K pace (7:23)

800m @ mar. pace

800m @ 5K pace (7:06)

800m @ mar. pace 

400m @ mile pace (6:21)

800m @ mar. pace

cooldown

The paces in brackets are my "goal paces." They're based on my *probably too optimistic* goal time for the Chilly Chase - 1:11:00. I'm pretty confident I can race this 15K in under 75 minutes, but 71 - my "A" goal - might be expecting too much. It's not an arbitrary goal. A 71 minute 15K would set me up for a projected 3:35 marathon - the BQ time for my age group. Of course, I have zero plans to BQ in 2014. I just want to survive my first full marathon. However, reaching roughly that level of fitness at the shorter distances would still be pretty cool. 

Anyways, back to tonight's track workout: it was windy and pouring rain (yet there was still one lonely walker on the track.. track-walking-i-don't-get-it) but my friend and I completed the workout. Unexpectedly, I nailed all of my goal paces EXCEPT the mile pace. No surprises there - i have a small build and flagging confidence, so I don't do well with sprints. Anyways, here's some data: 

My marathon pace "recovery" laps are actually too fast. They should have been at an 8:15 pace, but they're consistently closer to 8:00... Maybe if I'd run those slower, I would have faired a little better with my mile pace lap... You can see from the splits that I missed that pace by a full 20 seconds. Weirdly, I'd still say the toughest interval was the 800m @ 5K pace. 

I also went bouldering earlier in the day - only my second time back after a three or four week climbing hiatus over the xmas break. It felt good. I'm still far weaker than I was in the fall, but I felt more confident today than I did went I went on Monday evening.

I'm already freaking out a little about how I'm going to manage to fit marathon training around my class and teaching schedule this semester. I won't write about that now, though. I need to get some studying in before I fall asleep tonight. Goodnight all!

Back to Rain

I guess I can't complain about the weather here in Vancouver, considering what it's like for the rest of the continent right now. We were spoiled last week - blue skies and mild temps - so the return of the rain today was not exactly welcome. Oh well, it IS Vancouver, after all.

Went out Saturday morning with a big VanRun group for 11km, then again on Sunday for a couple of hours on the Badon Powell trail in North Vancouver. I hadn't been on the trails for six or eight weeks and had totally lost my trail legs, so it was a very challenging run for me. Actually, it turned into a more of a power hike. Much of the trail was quite technical, and at my current ability level, I wasn't able to run all of it. Rolled an ankle once, but no tears and only very minor swelling that evening. My quads are still killing me, two days later. Here's a photo Brent snapped:

A bit of a goofy shot (I'm sort of blinking...) but you can see how nice the weather was.

I got to see the film Desert Runners that evening with some members of the group. I really enjoyed the film, and was totally inspired - but I'm not running a desert ultra any time soon!

Today I ran about 11km. Nothing spectacular. Wasn't too worried about pace, but the splits worked out pretty well.

Knock on wood - so far my watch has been working fine since I tried the master reset. *please* stay that way!

Happy New Year

Hello, 2014. I can't believe how quickly the last year passed, but I'm looking forward to all that 2014 has in store. Starting the New Year off with an Unofficial 5K PR:

 This time is from the annual Brita Resolution Run 5K. I ran it last night with my mom. Well, my mom did the walk - but she did a great job. It was her very first 5K, and she was pretty nervous, but she kept a good pace throughout, and even jogged the last 100 metres. So proud!

I'm very happy with my time, as well. We had really great conditions - it was about -2 or -3, and a very light snow was falling, but there was hardly any wind.  The run was in the evening, and the park was lit up for the holidays, so the route itself was really beautiful. The paths were fairly clear, but there were a few icy patches, and one of them took a runner down right in front of me. He bounded right up again, and STILL beat me - an amazing recovery effort. I pushed pretty hard, and felt strong until the last 500 meters. At that point, I switched into my highest gear, and REALLY started to feel the effects of the thin Calgary air. I was gasping and seeing stars, but I held on to that pace until I passed under the finishing arch. According to the volunteers, I was the first place female! It was a fun run, so there were no chips, and I have nothing but the volunteers' words to verify that, but I hope it's true. In any case, I managed to beat my previous 5K time by ten or  eleven seconds. I think that means I can run my next sea-level, no-ice 5K under 22:30.

My dad was waiting at the finish line, and my brother held a seat in a nearby pub. My dad and I walked backwards through the course to join my mom for the final stretch of her walk. Afterwards, we headed over to the pub for a drink, and then the snow really started to fall. It was a wonderful evening. My mom had so much fun, too, and we both appreciated having the dad & brother there for support. My dad got a good photo of my mom and I before the gun - I'll get the image from him and post it later.

I'm going to wrap up this post now, wishing everyone the best for the new year. I think it's going to be a good one!

Holiday Update

Best of the season to all. I'm writing from Calgary, AB, where I'm spending the holidays with my parents. Thus far, we've  had a relaxed and restful holiday - exactly what each of us needed.
I've been doing lots of running, and the weather has even cooperated. The first two days of my stay were quite cold. It was about -9 C for my first run in Calgary:

And -18 C for this run:

My watch has been acting up - not communicating with my HRM very well. I suspect the static from my wool base layer is causing some issues... It's also been buggy about satellite connectivity, and often freezes when I turn it off/on or try to upload data. It's less than a year old - not cool! Anyways, onward with my runlog:

Fortunately, after the 22nd, the weather warmed up significantly. Since then, it's been absolutely gorgeous out. 2 C and sunny for this long(ish) run:

I can assure you, I did not run my warmup mile at a sub- 8:00 pace - just the watch acting up. The splits after that are accurate, though. Mile 6 is quite slow because it was up a long, icy hill. I had to take pretty tiny strides to avoid slipping. Actually, that describes the approach I've been taking with my Calgary runs more generally: slow & cautious. I was relieved to realize that there is in fact oxygen up here. I was worried about that - I'm used to running at sea level, and I'm at about 4000 ft now. I do notice it during my warmup, but once my heart rate increases, I feel pretty much the same as I would in Vancouver. 

One more run to report - a  cruise around my parents' neighbourhood on Christmas day: 

The plan is to head down to the river today and run 12-15K, depending on how I feel. Strained a couple of my toes taking off out of a snow bank the other day, so my foot's a bit sore, but I'm still able to run on it. Also really missing my foam roller. That's all for now! Merry xmas & Happy New Years.

Xmas is coming

Been eating waay too many xmas cookies.
Anyways, in prep for the higher mileage in the next few days,
kept it an easy run (1hr) and then did some weights.

I swear - its Spring

Easy 1hr recovery run.
Wow, it was warm and beautiful outside.  Who would have guess it was winter!!
Did some weights after too ... another double workouts in the books

LSD ...

Long Slow Distance ...
2hr15min ... no idea how far I went (don't really care either)
Intensity was Zone2.
No injuries and no swearing - a good run in my books.
Had fun getting lost in the trails of Stanley Park - quite empty and quite tranquil.