Half Training Ver 2.0 - Week 4

Week 4 already? Really?

I think this must be the first week that I actually did ALL of the runs I was supposed to do!

We've had great weather this past week, so it was ideal for running. I had 5k scheduled for Tuesday. We had some snow on Monday, but it was all clear for a Tuesday run. The worst thing about running in the snow is using my ice spike things. The work amazingly well, but they squish up the front of my sneakers, which makes my toes bump on my sneakers and they get sore.

See the 2 dents in the toe of each shoe?

Anyway, the weather was beautiful! Not freezing, and not overly windy either. I planned to do the beach route twice, but after the first one, I wanted to keep going, so I did the River Rd route, which would bring my total up to 6 instead of 5. Needless to say, the run felt great, although I didn't take my garmin so I'm not sure of my time

My second run of the week was on Thursday, and I did 5k at lunch time. This was another post-snowstorm run, and it wasn't as pleasant as Tuesday's! I ran the beach route twice, and as I was heading down to the beach, I felt like I was flying, and I was like, aw, this is a great run! But then I turned around, and the wind BLASTED my face. The snowflakes were hitting my face so hard they were stinging my cheeks. But, because I'm badass and hardcare (Ha! riiiight) I stuck it out and finished the second lap. Again, no garmin, so no time.

For this weekend, I had 10k on the schedule. I checked the weather early Saturday morning, and the weather looked perfect for the whole weekend. Hovering around zero, sunny and not-hurricane-force winds, for a change. That morning, I started cleaning up the house and by noon I was exhausted. Like, all I wanted to do was nap. So, this morning (sunday) I woke up, and a leisurely breakfast of coffee and 2 eggs with a slice of ham in a tortilla. (Little Fox calls this a bree-tow). I sat down to watch the hockey game, and knew I wouldn't be able to sit there, agonizing over every play and goal. So, I went running instead.

The first 5k of my run (from home to the Anne museum) was about 45 minutes! LOL My friend was texting me, I was getting game updates, I was distracted by the scenery, I was tip-toeing around ice, and there was one heck of a headwind. I had to laugh when I checked the time, and texted my friend to tell him to only text me if something exciting happened in the game.

I took this about 3k into my run. Ice at the shore and on the horizon.

After a quick refueling snack of almonds and chocolate chips, I got my head in the game and ran for home. I got home in about 30 minutes, which is a typical 5k time for me, and was able to watch the last 10 minutes of the hockey game (YAY CANADA!).

I'm glad I have the routes mapped out here, so I can run without my garmin. For my long runs from this point on, I'll have to take it because I'm not sure of any distances beyond 10k. But it was nice to run today without a timer, and be able to really enjoy the weather.

Also, it FINALLY cleared up enough to allow me to try out my new runners... Brooks Ghost 6. I like them. Honestly, I didn't feel like I was running on a cloud or anything, but they felt light and comfortable enough.

I'm feeling pretty good about this week's runs. I am still MUCH slower than I used to be, but I'm also not pushing myself like I did last summer. I figure if I take it easy-ish during my training, I will be able to push myself a bit more during the race. 

Also, I was thinking about this summer's races. My goal half marathon will be the Blue Nose, which is early in the season, so I thought I'd choose a goal race for later in the season. I think I'm going to try the 10k trail race at Brookvale Park in August (Brookvale is the ski park here in PEI... I know, I was surprised we have a ski hill too!). I just have to find out if there are any good training trails around here so that I don't have to travel to Brookvale every week to train!