Half Marathon Training - Weeks 11 and 12

I didn't update last week, because I didn't run. On Sunday evening, we went out for chinese food. On Monday at lunch time, I ate the leftovers. On Monday at 4pm, I was suffering from the worst bout of food poisoning I've ever experienced. By tuesday morning, the digestive part was better (manageable), but I was feverish and exhausted. I slept all day, wrapped in a blanket on the couch by the fire. Wednesday and Thursday I still couldn't bring myself to eat much. After that, I basically gave up for the rest of the week.

Which brings me to Week 12. On Monday, I went out for a 6k run. It was the best run I'd had in months. Warm, not overly windy, not wet or muddy (or snowy!). I started out with one pair of tights, a long sleeved shirt, and my jacket. After the first 2.5k, I took my jacket off, shoved it in my mailbox, and finished my run. I felt so free with no bulky layers!

On Wednesday, I went for a short 3k. It was SO windy that day! I had to run really hard but still felt like I wasn't moving.

On Thursday after work/school, we drove to my mom's in Nova Scotia. I had my long run planned for friday morning, and had a route all figured out. I was REALLY looking forward to the run. I slept in my running tights so I'd be ready in the morning. I woke up early on friday morning, and had some of my mom's muffins for breakfast. My route too me down mom's road, and then along the Lahave River to Bridgewater. I wanted to run across the train bridge, and then run up oward my old high school as far as possible.

It was a bit colder that I anticipated, and my thighs and butt were frozen by the time I made it to the end of the road. Fun Fact: It is exactly 1 km from my mom's to Mo's store. I loved running along the river. My Garmin stopped tracking at once point because I went down a path to a little park right on the riverbank. I didn't notice at the time. Oh well.

It didn't seem to take very long to get to the mall, and I was feeling really good. I texted my friend Pat because I'd be running past his house, and I wasn't sure what side of the road the sidewalk was on. I waved as I went by on my way to the train bridge.

 

I stopped when I got across because I felt a blister developing on my toe. I put a bandaid on, and kept running. I made it to my High School in about 45 minutes. Fun Fact: My bus ride to school took 45 minutes. I'd be an awesome runner by now if I had just skipped the bus to run to school everyday! I kept going and stopped when I unexpectedly ran out of sidewalk. I crossed the road to watch and listen to the rapids. I'd never seen them from that vantage point before. It's funny how I never appreciated it until I moved away!

When I reached the school again, I noticed that my Garmin stopped tracking. I stopped it, and restarted it, but I had no idea how long it had been or how far I had gone. So, to play it safe, and to make up for the distance I lost from my planned route when the sidewalk ended, I ran up river a bit when I got back across the train bridge.

 

I don't remember ever being on that part of the trail or that far up river on that side before. The river was high, and loud. The trees along the bank were flooded. The traffic on the overpass was loud too. For some reason, being under an overpass always freaks me out, but I stopped long enough to get a photo of the graffiti.



I was starting to get a bit tired by this point. My thighs were sore and tired. I started taking more walk breaks (other than for photo ops!). I texted Red Fox and facebooked my mom to let them know where I was and when I expeced to be home. I kept on keeping on, and when I passed the mall, I thought, ok, I'm almost-almost there (and also, where did hat WIND come from?!). With about 3 or 4 km to go, I thought... "oh... this is the wall". And then my dad called! I chatted with him for a few minutes, and that helped me recoup. When I got to Mo's I knew I only had 1km to go! My legs were exhausted when I got to Mom's but I felt great, and really enjoyed the whole run. I'm unsure of my actual distance, but I think it was about 18km. My pace was about 6:35/km, which I feel ok about.

Sometimes, a change of scenery is a wonderful thing!

Half Training Ver 2.0 - Week 10

Another crazy week! On Sunday, the weather was supposed to be bad. We got more snow, freezing rain and crazy wind. When I woke up on Monday morning, we had no power. The freezing rain was still falling, and our tree limbs were cracking and crashing to the ground. Obviously, I didn't run that day! The details are for another post, though! (Coming right up, for thsoe who missed them on Facebook).

The weather/roads stayed terrible, and power stayed off until Wednesday night. On Wednesday, we finally gave in and went to a hotel for the day and night so that we could get some work done and be warm. There was a pool, so Little Fox and I went for a swim. I swam laps and tried some pool running (even though I didn't have a belt). My muscles felt wobbly when we were finished, so I figured it was a decent work out in place of the running I missed in the first half of the week.

I was finally able to run on Thursday. I had to go to Summerside for groceries to replace everything from our fridge and freezer, and I thought it would be a good oportunity to go running at the track again. The roads had so much snow and ice on them that there were places where the road was only one lane. I didn't want to risk getting hit by a car or run over by a snowplow/snowblower. I stopped at Credit Union Place first, and ran the track for 30 minutes. I'm not sure how many laps or km that was, but based on my usual pace, I'd guess 5 or 6k. I noticed I wasn't pushing myself very hard, so I started doing some pseudo-intervals. I ran 3 or 4 laps at an easy pace, and then ran hard for 2 laps. I did that about 4 or 5 times, and felt like I accomplished something when I was finished!

I planned to run my long run on Saturday, but the weather was calling for MORE freezing rain, so I postponed til today (Sunday).  I spent some time this morning putting some more songs on my ipod, and charging my garmin a bit (not enough, apparently!). I hit the road at about 10am, with 16k on my schedule. I wanted to stick close to home because I knew the roads were cleared enough for me to run safely, so I basically ran the River Rd and Cape Road a few time each until I reached 16k.

Cape Road was the only road with snow/ice/slush. This was the worst section. Not so bad!

I felt pretty good at the beginning. By about 4k, my quads were starting to feel tired, and knew I'd be struggling by the end! At 5k, I paused my garmin, went inside for a quick pee-break and to get a pebble out of my shoe. Wow, is that ever annoying when you're running!! At about 8k, Red Fox drove by after a trip to town, and gave me a much-needed banana.  I did the first 8k in about 52 minutes (I think?), and felt pretty good about that time. Kilometres 8-12 were ok, but windy. So windy, in fact, that I was blown off the road! The last 4 kms were killer. My thigh muscles were SO tired and weak, and I had to take some walk breaks, but I got it done! My garmin gave me the low-batery signal with 3k left, so at 15k I stopped it, and then started it again for the last km. Just in case.

See the 3 footprints in the mud? That's where I was blown off the pavement.

 

My total time was 1:43:23, with an average pace of about 6:30/km. I feel pretty good about that, considering I had to take walk breaks during the last 4k. My legs were killing me when I finished, and I had a pseudo-ice-bath halfway up the driveway. It felt SO good, and if my butt hadn't been so cold, I would have sat there much longer!

Now I understand why people do ice baths. It actually did feel really good on my legs!