4.44 mile Pace Run - Went very well!

It was cooler today, and that certainly helped my run. Roughly 19 degrees C. with a bit of very light rain. I ran home from the office (much of it downhill), targeting 7:49 per k. But I couldn't go that slow! Here are my splits:

7:34 (flat)
7:35 (flat to downhill)
7:37 (downhill)
7:40 (uphill to flat)
7:38 (flat to uphill - 0.44 miles)

7:36 average pace. Considering that I would have been pleased with a 7:49 pace, I was super-pleased with this result.

5.68 Mile Tempo Run around Gibbons Park

We had an interesting route today, in preparation for a bunch of folks doing a race tomorrow night. I treated it as a tempo run, though, and it went okay. Definitely not flat, but it worked out okay Here are my splits:

8:28
8:28
8:27
7:35
7:30
7:31 (0.68 miles)

I was looking for 7:30's for the second half of the run, but that first mile at "tempo" had significant uphill (from the park, uphill on St. James St. to St. George) and I couldn't quite hit my times. But I was pleased with the remainder of the run.

8:01 average pace for the full distance.

Easy Run - 4.42 miles (from home to work)

It's been just over 12 hours since speed work -- hardly enough time for my muscles to recover. But I know that I have a tempo run tomorrow, so the extra 8 hours of rest before that run could make it go better. And since I really didn't have to push and particular pace on this run, I figured it would be better to have a "bad" easy run in the hopes I would have a "good" tempo run tomorrow. This route is mostly uphill, so it definitely isn't easy from a topology perspective. Here are my splits:

8:42 (mostly flat)
8:31 (a bit downhill, a bit uphill)
8:44 (uphill)
8:41 (uphill)
8:33 (0.42 miles -- mostly flat)

Not great, and I was drenched at the end, but I'll take it.

Speed Work - 6 x 800 m. repeats

Sounds easy -- just 4.8 km of total "speed" pace. But by the time we were done, it was all I could do to come close to my target pace.

I was hoping for a pace of 6:30 per mile or roughly 3:15 per 800 m. Here are my splits:

3:09
3:18
3:18
3:19
3:17
3:19

So the average for all 6 repeats was 3:16.7 per 800 m. Not great, but not terrible. I finished all 6 repeats, though, which isn't bad considering I wanted to bail at 5. My general mode, now, is that I keep doing the repeats until my time totally falls apart on one of them. Then I pull the plug on he workout, because that is when injuries are most likely to occur.

Looking back at January, my times have definitely improved so far. Back then I did 5 x 600 m. repeats in a tiny bit over 2:30 per repeat. Straight line extrapolation would put that at 3:20 per 800 m. or 4:10 per kilometre. So knocking these off consistently in less than 3:20 (and outside, not on the track) is pretty good.

Long run - 13.5 miles in the heat

Today, it was a challenge to just get through the 13.5 mile long run in London. We took it easy, stopping at most water stops along the way. Here are my splits:

8:55
8:54
8:30
8:34
8:46
9:06
9:12
8:48
8:38
8:32
8:34
8:34
8:43
8:38 pace (0.51 miles)

Overall pace was 8:44.

It was about 29 degrees when we finished and muggy throughout the entire run. The only saving grace was that because we were running along the paths beside the river, there was a fair bit of shade along the route. Jenny led the way back for the most part. The heat wasn't a problem for her.

Anyhow, nothing to brag about, but we got through it.

5 mile "pace" run...

The goal today was to do a short warm-up run, and then 5 miles at marathon pace. If I want to do the Corning Wineglass Marathon in 3:25, I need to be hitting 7:49 per mile x 26.2 miles. Here were my splits this morning:

2:47 (8:58 pace) 0.31 miles
7:43
7:48
7:50
7:48
5:46 (8:20 pace) 0.69 miles

My average pace for the entire run was 7:53.

I had to walk after the third mile, and it took everything I had to complete the fourth. I felt like I was going to puke afterwards. The lose gravel along much of miles 1 and 2 didn't help my speed, and the wind in my face on that last mile definitely didn't help either. So I got my 5 miles in, but only 4 were at pace, and I had a walk break in between miles 3 and 4.

Good thing its early in the training!

8 mile Tempo Run - 3.5 miles at pace...

Jenny and I joined the Runners Choice Marathon Training Group at Gibbons Park for a run down to the former Guy Lombardo Museum (now a library or community centre or something). Anyhow, it was 4 miles there and 4 miles back. I ran with John DePutter and Jenn Vording for a good chunk of the way, although they left me in the dust for the last mile. My goal was 8:30's out and 7:30's back. And eventually I'd like to get to 8:20s out and 7:20s back. Here are my split paces:

8:17
8:14
8:10
8:11
7:22
7:25
7:22
7:50 (1/2 mile)
8:22 (1/2 mile)

7:53 average pace. So the good news is that I couldn't go slow enough to do 8:30s -- and on the way out, I was actually closer to 8:15s. The bad news is that the run back was mostly upstream. I had to take a break at the forks of the Thames (about 2.7 miles back). And then after I did the hill at the north end of Harris Park, I had nothing left to get my pace back down to the 7:30 range. I took a walk break and then jogged back at 8:22 pace.

It took me a while to get used to my Garmin Forerunner 210. Every time it flipped over to a new lap, it was like it was starting the calculation all over again. It would take me until I was halfway through the lap before I could trust my lap pace.

Easy Run - 3 miles...

I took my dog, Cooper, on a 3 mile easy run. So it was a little slower than usual as there were lots of little stops along the way! Here are my splits:

10:05
9:12
9:12

for an overall pace of 9:30 per mile. I was still sore from the Speed Work I had just done the night before, so I was a little stiff getting going, but stretched out of it after the first mile or so.

Speed Work - 6 x 600 m. Repeats

Today was the first _actual_ speed work session of the 2013 summer marathon training program with Runners Choice. We were at the track at TD Waterhouse Stadium. We did a 600 m. run (1.5 times around the track) and then a 200 m. (2 minutes) rest before doing the next speed laps. Here are my splits:

2:15
2:21
2:23
2:25
2:25
2:25

I was aiming for 2:15 per 600 m. (0:45 per 200 m. segment) but I couldn't reach it other than the first repeat. My average was 2:22.

Comparing these times to previous sessions, there is good and bad. Compared to June 2011 when I was training for what turned out to be my personal best, I'm slower by 1 second per 600 m. (2:21/600 m.). But if you compare it to January of this year, I'm significantly faster (an average of 2:32 for 5 laps).

Long run - 18 kilometres in Ottawa

My sister, Donna, and I were in Ottawa for a visitation for my Uncle Bernie Pelletier this weekend. We stayed at her daughter Brittany's place, who lives with her boyfriend (fiancée?) Dave. The visitation was at the west end of the city -- actually, pretty close by one of our client's houses, home inspector Ron Bouwmeester.

I went out for a run that took me past the Prime Minister Stephen Harper's home at 22 Sussex Drive, and Governor General David Johnston's place and up to Parliament Hill. It was a very pleasant run.

I wasn't pushing the pace at all and certainly could have done more. In total, I did 18.2 kilometres at an average pace of about 5:35 per kilometre (11.3 miles at 9 minutes per mile). While it wasn't boiling hot, it wasn't cool either. So I was drenched with sweat by the end of it all.

Not a tough run, but certainly long enough.

Tempo Run: 6.5 miles...

Today my goal was to do my first "tempo" run of the session. The idea was 3.5 miles "out" at a slower than race pace, and then 3.5 miles "back" at a faster-than-race pace. I didn't quite make the "back" part of it. I was looking for 8:20 out and 7:30 back. Here are my splits:

7:49
8:09
8:13
8:10 (pace - 1/2 mile)
7:25
7:26
7:50
(I walked the last 1/2 mile).

My average was 7:51 per mile for 6.5 miles. But I was falling apart at the end. It didn't help that there was a strong wind from the north that was going to make that last 1/2 mile hellish. But I had nothing left.

So, not the greatest way to start the tempo runs of this training session!

Easy run - 3 miles

Went out early today -- 6:45-ish. 3 miles easy. Here are my splits:
8:40
8:08
7:48
Overall average, 8:12 per mile. Again, qualifies as easy, but I was sweating profusely at the end.

First Runners Choice Marathon Training Clinic of the Summer 2013

We had our first session, starting at the Honest Lawyer in London. We went out for a 8.7 km run after John's introduction to the clinic which we knocked off in about 44 minutes. (I screwed up my GPS half way through) Anyhow, that equates to about 8:10 per mile. It was supposed to be an "easy" run, so I guess that qualifies -- but, as usual, I was drenched in sweat by the end. I had to slow down the pace for the second half of it, but felt strong for the last kilometre or so. I ran with a new Half Marathon clinic participant, Joe, and also formally met Blair, who I'd seen out before but had never met personally.

"Long" run - 10.6 miles

Jenny, Brian and I went out for a long run today. We just aimed to be "out there" for about 90 minutes, including water stops, so we weren't out to set any land speed records. The first half of the run went fine for me, but the second half I was really not having fun. Must have been getting warmer, because it felt like my feet were lead, and I was drenched in sweat. Overall, we did 10.6 miles in 1 hour 22 minutes of running time, which equates to 7:44 per mile. Hmmmm... maybe that was it! That's not a half bad pace, really. Kudos to Jenny for keeping up with us! It was about 24 degrees C out there, but not too muggy. Nonetheless, I can feel the heat affecting me.