Sunday, August 31, 2014

16 Mile (24.56 Km) Long Run - A tough run in heavy humidity..

I don't do well in humidity. But, still, you'd think by now after doing runs up to 24+ miles in this training session, a 16 mile run wouldn't be a challenge on a humid day. But you'd think wrong. It seems everyone was being challenged. I just took it easy and ran with Bob Ripley the entire run. Bob was happy with the run -- it was a fair bit faster than he's done generally. Here are our splits:

5:29
5:26
5:39
5:25
5:29
5:30
5:25
5:18
5:20
5:25
5:52
5:46
5:46
5:32
5:13
5:24
5:41
5:42
5:33
5:23
5:25
5:24
5:41
5:44
5:45
5:38 (pace for 560 m.)

We took LOTS of water stops. I drank a cup of water at every chance I got and I was still dehydrated at the end. Our pace, overall, was 5:32 per kilometre. Today, I'll take it!

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Excellent 9 mile tempo run from Gibbons Park

Tonight, the Legendary Marathon Training Coach, John Ferguson, had us doing a 9 mile tempo run. This was the same run as last week, which did not go well for me. But this week was different. Several degrees cooler and virtually no humidity. When I started the run, I felt cautiously optimistic, but by the time I hit the turn-around point (across the walkbridge to Thames Valley Golf Course), I really wasn't sure how it would work out. Erin Visser ran with me for the first couple of kilometres. I was targeting 4:35 per kilometre. Here are my splits:

5:37
5:42
5:19
5:13
5:14
5:17
5:18
4:34
4:35
4:33
4:30 (up Terry Fox Parkway!)
4:32
4:37 (through Harris Park!)
4:27

By any measure, this was a very successful run. I felt strong the whole way. I didn't stop at any water stops. My average pace on the way back was 4:32.61 (7:19/mile). The only time I've run a 9 mile run better was in October 2011 (before my personal best marathon) when I did the first 7 km back in 4:31.14 -- but it was a much different route. (http://blog.brucelamb.com/2011/10/tempo-run-149-km-448-average-pace.html). And this was much faster than my March 29 2012 run (http://blog.brucelamb.com/2012/03/hamstring-treatment-week-20-tempo-run-9.html) when I did it in 4:36 per km and my July 25 2013 run ( http://blog.brucelamb.com/2013/07/9-mile-tempo-run.html) which was 4:35 per km.

It was a good day!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

5 x 1 Mile Repeats on a Humid Day in Gibbons Park

Coach John Ferguson told us to go easy tonight. 31 degrees C before we started, plus the humidity (I heard "feels like 40+ degrees" today on the radio) meant that things could go sideways pretty quickly. He told us to do the first repeat at marathon pace (7:50/mile) -- but we couldn't go that slowly. Here are my splits:

7:20.67
7:14.18
7:13.02
7:10.08
7:00.80

After the first mile, I targeted 7:30 per mile, but I still couldn't go that slowly despite the fact that I was breathing hard. For the last repeat, though, I really wanted to get under 7 minutes -- and probably would have if I hadn't had to do a 180-degree about face a the half mile mark to run back to the starting area.

So, a tough night to run, but we made the best of it. Quite happy with the result!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Long Run - 39.41 km (24.5 miles) from Wharncliffe & Briscoe to Port Stanley

Today was the 2nd of 3 Port Stanley runs. Bernie LeForte and I started out at 7:20 AM from Wharncliffe Road at Briscoe and started making our way towards Port Stanley. It was supposed to be a hot humid day, but while I was still overheating, the temperature reached about 22 degrees with a bit of a breeze from the south and overcast. So, as August runs go, the weather wasn't awful. I was targeting 5:17 per kilometre (8:30 per mile). Here are my splits:

5:50
5:35
5:20
5:13
5:11
5:15
5:17
5:16
5:18
5:21
5:15
5:20
5:18
5:08
5:07
5:23
5:23
5:23
5:15
5:13
5:22
5:17
5:16
4:59
5:40
5:28
5:39
5:27
5:19
5:17
5:16
5:19
5:17
5:33
5:31
5:03
5:10
5:22
5:22
4:53 (pace for 410 m.)

Total time: 3:30:06. Average pace: 5:20. So pretty close to my target.

I took extra long breaks in the second half of the run, though, just to cool down. My daughter Karen gave me a couple of extra "in-between" water stops at the 2K marks between the last two water stops and the finish at Port Stanley. She had wash cloths in ice water which did a great job of cooling me down. So, by the end, I finished reasonably strongly.

Was it a great run? No. But it was a good run, and I finished the distance so I'm happy.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Tempo Run - 9 Miles. Didn't go well...

Tonight was a bit humid and about 25 degrees -- so I wasn't sure how our 9 mile tempo run was going to go. I found out pretty much as soon as I made the turnaround back to Gibbons Park from the walkbridge to the golf club: Not well! I was targeting between 4:30 and 4:35 per km. Here are my splits:

5:28
5:13
5:15
5:17
5:18
5:16
5:16
(Turnaround)
4:32
4:32
4:41
4:42
4:54
5:33
5:17

My average pace was 5:06, which doesn't sound terrible. But my legs felt like lead and so by the time I hit the water stop at the forks (which my original plan was to skip), I was just trying to hold it together. Steve Dixon paced me back for those last 2 kilometres which we just did as a cool-down.

So, pretty much par for the course on a warm, slightly muggy day!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Speed Work - 4 x 1 Mile Repeats

Tonight, Coach John had us doing our first set of mile repeats. We were to do 4 repeats with a 2:30 break between each repeat. I was aiming for 52 second 200 splits (6:56 per mile). Here are 1 mile splits:

6:55.14
6:51.82
6:53.74
6:51.08

So I beat my goal with every lap and was able to push it for the last repeat. My average was 6:52.95 per mile -- almost identical to the average I did in April 2013 (6:53 even).

It was a good night!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Excellent 35.38 km (22.1 mile) Long Run

Today, Coach John had us start with about a 1.6 mile out-and-back in Gibbons park, and then we continued our regular circuit down to Boler and Southdale, over to Wickerson, an out-and-back along Baseline to West Del Borne, back into Byron, up to St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary (Sanatorium & Oxford), and back through the park to Gibbons again.

Marc Labreche, Brian Kilborne and Bernie Laforte let me tag along. They had a very healthy pace all the way back. Here are our splits:

5:44
5:51
5:46
5:34
5:21
5:18
5:20
5:18
5:18
5:24
5:15
5:22
5:34
5:36
5:34
5:21
5:01
5:32
5:05
5:03
5:12
4:59
4:55
5:14
5:02
4:49
5:06
5:07
5:10
5:05
5:10
5:02
5:00
5:08
5:04
4:48 pace for 380 m.

Note that we were considerably faster coming back then we were going out -- and the last 10k were basically a gradual uphill from the far west end of Springbank Park

Average pace 5:16/km over 35.38 kilometres. I'll put this in the books as an excellent run!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Awesome 13 Mile Tempo Run...

Today was unseasonably cool -- about 18 degrees C. - so I was cautiously optimistic about how tonight's run would go. We went from Gibbons Park out to the end of Springbank Park, up to the centre of Byron at Boler and Commissioners Roads, and then turned around to come back at a faster-than-marathon pace. I was looking for a return pace of between 4:35 and 4:40 -- believing that this would be realistic to hit on our longest tempo run of the training. Here are my splits.

5:46
5:19
5:18
5:14
5:16
5:11
5:11
5:14
5:07
5:16
5:43 pace for 340 metres.
4:32
4:43
4:35
4:39
4:34
4:40
4:40
4:34
4:34
4:49
4:33 pace for 410 metres (1:52)

On the way back, I took one short 2 minute (or so) break at the forks of the Thames. Other than that, it was a straight run back to Gibbons.

My pace for the second half of the run was 4:37.8 (7:27.3 per mile)-- so right between the 4:35 and 4:40 I was targeting.

Overall, for 20.76 kilometres, my time was 1:43:04 -- 4:58 per kilometre.

Looking at the run a year ago (although my hip had been talking to me that week), it was much better this year -- better than 30 seconds per mile faster this year.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

A very wet 6 x 1K speed work...

We were just in the middle of our warm up for our 6 x 1K repeats tonight when the heavens opened up and there was a deluge of rain that came down. While it didn't stop us from running our repeats, it didn't exactly allow us to run our target paces either. I was hoping for anywhere between a 4:05 and 4:10 per kilometre pace. Here are my splits:

4:13
4:22
4:18
4:17
4:11
4:21

An average of 4:17 per kilometre -- so, roughly 6:54 per mile. Not what I wanted, but not awful either, considering that my shoes were carrying about 2 lbs of water each!

Sunday, August 10, 2014

18 Mile Long Run, with 9 Miles at Marathon Pace

Today we did our long run from Gibbons Park out to the "swaybacks" (hills) at Wickerson and Southdale Road, and then back. The Legendary John Ferguson wanted us to do a pace run for the 9 miles back to Gibbons Park. I was originally going to target 4:55 kilometres on the way back, but when I met up with Marc Labreche and Brian Kilborn at the halfway mark, they wanted to do 5 minute K's back, and I was fine with that.

It was a relatively hot day. When we started, it was about 18 degrees C. but when we finished it was around 25 C. But there was little, if any, humidity. On the way back, though, I stopped every chance I got -- the regular spots, plus Saturn Playground -- and I was having some GI issues (both during the run and afterwards) so I had to stop extra long to address those issues.

Here are my splits:

6:09
5:43
5:30
5:27
5:27
5:25
5:24
5:26
5:24
5:35
5:27
5:11
5:09
5:14

5:15
5:02
4:43
4:58
4:59
4:52
4:59
4:59
4:57
4:59
5:00
4:57
4:55
4:56
4:39 (pace for 0.3 km)

My average pace for the 'pace' part of the run was 4:57.48 per kilometre -- so pretty close to the 4:55 I was originally targeting. The heat was an issue, but not as bad as I thought it would be. On the other hand, I did get some extra-long breaks because of my GI issues which allowed me to cool down more than otherwise would be the case. GI issues or no GI issues, my legs felt strong at the end, which bodes well. My average pace for the entire run was 5:12, which also bodes well.



Thursday, August 7, 2014

9 mile (14K) Tempo Run from Gibbons Park

Ran with Marc Labreche for the majority of this run. Here are our splits:

5:35
5:19
5:24
5:05
5:14
5:17
5:19
Average Pace: 5:19

On the way back we were targeting 4:35 per k. I didn't have my GPS with me, so I wasn't able to track our pace during the run.

4:39
4:29
4:25
4:27
4:42
4:39
4:43
Average Pace: 4:34.85 (7:22.5/mile)

Close enough!

Average pace overall was 4:55/kilometre -- basically marathon pace for 14 km! And about the same time as the excellent run I had last year on the same course: http://blog.brucelamb.com/2013/07/9-mile-tempo-run.html

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Speed Work - 1K Repeats x 6

During the Civic Holiday long weekend, I didn't get a long run in. So, I thought with my muscles all nice and relaxed and repaired, I'd have a great speed work session tonight.

BUT. But, I did a mountain bike ride yesterday morning. And then played a couple of chukkers of polo in the afternoon. So by this morning, I had lots of sore muscles. So much for being repaired!

Anyhow, I figured I'd go out tonight and do our 1 kilometre repeats at a target pace of 4:10 (50 seconds per 200 m. segment) with a 2 minute break between each repeat.

Here are my splits:

4:07
4:09
4:07
4:09
4:10
4:04

My average pace was a bit under 4:08 per kilometre. The best comparison I could find was from 2011 (http://blog.brucelamb.com/2011/08/1-km-repeats.html) (4:07.33 for 6k, 4:08.7 for 7k) so I'm pretty happy with the run.