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!