Sunday, April 28, 2013

2013 Forest City Road Races Half Marathon - 1:40:47

Well, not a personal best, but only 30 seconds off (less than 1.5 seconds per kilometre)! Once again, I didn't have anything left in the tank. My legs were sore and tired from the hills and the last one up Talbot St. to Central Ave. just did me in. But, all-in-all, I was pleased with the run. And just being 30 seconds off my PB -- which was when I was in possibly the best condition of my life -- ain't bad.

My GPS was quite a ways off the measured course, so my splits, below, are not accurate. The GPS had me covering an extra 190 metres -- which would easily account for my 47 seconds needed to hit my 1 hour 40 minute goal. So, keep in mind that the splits are about 3 seconds _slow_ from the actual measured course:

4:39
4:33 (downhill - Queens Ave.)
4:42
4:42
4:36
4:39
4:38
4:41
5:02 (uphill - St. James St.)
4:49
4:45
4:44
4:46
4:49 (uphill - Windermere)
4:42 (downhill - Windermere)
4:42
4:49
4:42
4:49
5:03 (uphill - Talbot St.)
4:47
4:09 pace for 289 m.

According to my GPS, my average pace was 4:44 per kilometre -- so right on my goal time of 1:40. But I new from the first kilometre marker that my GPS was "off", so really there are no excuses. I simply didn't have the gas in the tank.

As my pre-race regimen, I loaded up on spaghetti last night, and had a big bowl of ice cream as well. In the morning I had a big bowl of mini-wheats, and then a bagel and medium black coffee before the run. That seemed to do me okay -- I just had one Clif Block during the run itself, and I wasn't starving by the end.

One thing that I learned from Coach Brian at the Around the Bay race was to drink a bit of water and then splash a bit in my face to wake me up. Definitely worked!

Anyhow, that's it for serious races for a couple of months!


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Speed work turned into a pace run... 7 miles

I'm going to try to race the Forest City Road Races Half Marathon on Sunday. The ideal result would be a sub-1:40 half, which equates to 4:44 per km (7:35 per mile). Coach Brian's advice for tonight's speed work was to do 2 miles of warm up, 3 or 4 miles at half-marathon pace, and then a mile or two of cool down for a total of 7 miles.

We did the standard 1 mile warm up with the Runner's Choice gang, so I only needed to do 6 additional miles -- roughly 9.6 km. Here are my kilometre splits:

4:48 (1 km warm-up)
4:56 pace (600 m. warm-up)
4:38
4:48
4:40
4:35
4:44
4:36
4:37 pace (467 m.)
5:03 (1 km cool-down)
4:57 (622 m. cool-down)

The overall average was 4:45, so quite acceptable considering the warm up and cool-down are included in this average. I was very comfortable running at the warm-up and cool-down pace, which tells me that even if I'm struggling in the half, I should be able to knock off a 5 minute kilometre pace.

It was sort of warm tonight (best guess is 15 degrees C.) so if it is cool on Sunday morning, I should be in good shape. Right now the weather forecast is for a low of 8 degrees and a high of between 16 and 18 degrees. The race starts at 8 am on Sunday, so it should be on the cooler side of that range. Let's hope!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Long Run - 19.2 KM (11.9 miles)

Today I screwed up the route. Instead of printing the 13.1 mile route, I printed the 13.1 K route. So I had to improvise to try to get in the entire half-marathon distance, as was my plan. Looking back at it, I was about 2 km. off. Here is the route I did.

My GPS crashed because of low battery about 1 km into the route. I had thrown it into my bag a few days prior and neglected to verify that it was fully charged. So, all I know is that for the first 6 miles, my pace as 5:13 per km -- which is right where I wanted to be for a training run. And then for the last few miles, all I know is that Chris Lanooy and I were running very strongly together. It was a perfect morning for a run (for me).

Lots of hills with this route -- so I'm not sure if I can pull off a PB or not. Last year I was 1:41:40 and my previous personal best was 1:40:18 -- so something close or achieving PB would be great, and I just hope I'm faster than last year!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Speed Work - 6 x 1 mile repeats

Because of the intense rain last week, Jenny and I missed last week's speed work session. So, this week I had move from 4 one-mile repeats two weeks ago to 6 this week. I was targeting 7 minute miles. Here are my splits:

6:56
7:01
7:07
6:55
7:05
7:01

So, on average, 7:01 per mile -- close enough!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

20 km Long Run

Today we did a long run around north London and then navigated our away past the flood areas along the paths beside the Thames River towards Springbank Park. I turned around at the rowing club to make my way back to Goodlife.

My pace was fairly healthy -- typically just over 5 minutes per kilometre -- throughout the run. So, not bad for a training run.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Long Run - 23K

Today we did a long run. I say "long" -- but because I'm just training for the Forest City Half Marathon, it wasn't nearly as long as the run many of the others in the group did (22 miles was the longest I heard -- Bernie Leforte).

Mine was an out-and-back route -- through the park system to Boler Road in the Byron community of London, and then up to the corner of Boler and Southdale Roads. About 11.5 km -- so 23 km there and back.

Now, I just wanted to do 22.6 km -- the equivalent of 14 miles -- so I just walked-jogged the last 400 m. to get back to Goodlife Fitness where we started.

Here are my splits:

5:05
5:09
4:59
5:07
4:46
5:12
5:10
4:47
5:12
5:13
5:18
5:07
4:52
4:45
4:57
4:44
4:53
4:59
4:51
4:59
4:55
4:59
5:09 pace (679 m.)
6:54 pace (409 m. cool down)

So for the 22.68 m. that I ran at a long run pace, my time was 1:53:32 for an average pace of 5 minutes per kilometre. Not bad for a training run.

I continued to concentrate on running on the front part of my foot and using my foot as a spring. It worked well for the first 18 kilometres, but by then I was getting tired. My left foot was quite sort at the end of the run, but was feeling better by 8:30 in the evening. Definitely will take some gradual easing into this new style of running.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Speed Work - 4 x 1 mile repeats

Tonight we did a mile of warm-up, and then 4 x 1 mile repeats (with a 2:30 break in between each repeat) at Gibbons Park in London. It was cool out -- roughly 4 degrees C. -- and with a wind from the north. But, overall, I felt good and relatively strong the whole way. I did most of my repeats with Bernie Laforte -- who had to continue on and do a total of 7 because his marathon was approaching soon. Anyhow, while I was targeting 7 mile repeats, I came in ahead of pace each time. Here are my splits:

6:56
6:54
6:58
6:44

As you can see, I pushed it for the last mile -- and felt good pretty much the whole way. Less than a month until the Forest City Half!

Monday, April 1, 2013

Long run - 12 miles.

Today we just did a 12 miler around north London and then down the trails along the Thames River to the former Guy Lombardo museum and then back to Goodlife Fitness. Jenny and Jed joined us today, which was great. It was a good day to run. Around 4 degrees and the rain held off until the afternoon. Gordon Ball and I ran back from the museum and averaged around 5 minute K's. My goal for this run to was to run on the balls of my feet instead of my heels or mid-sole. I need to strengthen them for the Forest City Road Races at the end of April where I'll likely do the Half Marathon.