Race Week

It's hard to believe but my race season begins this weekend in Peterborough as I have 1/2 Marathon Race on Sunday. My last race was a full marathon in December and since that time I've been following a strict training program in preparation for the Mississauga Marathon in May. As much as I love running, I find that having a race to compete in gives me just the motivation I need. I have 3 races before the Marathon (Peterborough 1/2 Marathon, Around the Bay 30K in March and a 26K Trail Race in April)
I like the fact that each race I will be doing will be progressively harder and this should prepare me well for my next Marathon.

With regards to this race, this morning I had a great 10K race and used plenty of mental imagery along the way. I kept thinking about how the race was going to play out for me and ran a few Kilometres at my expected race pace (sub 5 minK).

This weekend I also dowloaded some new songs onto my MP3 player. I can listen to just about anything from AC/DC to Gwen Stefani. Three songs that I have included for this race are "Snow" by the Chili Peppers, "Not ready to make nice" by the Dixie Chicks and "Holiday" by Green Day. Sometimes when I'm running and a great song comes on I feel like I'm dancing instead of running.

I'm keeping my eye on the temperature for this weekend and right now it looks like it will be fairly decent day with around a high of 6C and a slight chance of rain. Having run in -20+ temperatures for the last few weeks I'll take any weather above zero right now. Winter running certainly slows you down as you have to wear extra layers of clothing. I doubt I'll be able to break out my shorts on Sunday but you never know......