Training Update

If I hear one more person complain about the heat I think I will blow a gasket. I remember all too well how cold this past winter was and even though I never missed a run, I certainly prefer this weather over that.

What I love about this time of year is that I get to run as the sun gets up. I actually get a kick out of the fact that I get to see the sun rise every morning.

Yesterday my workout consisted of doing 5 hill repeats up the Rossland hill at the corner of Westney and Rossland. It is a 2.5 mile run to get to the hill so I used that as my warm-up and subsequent cool-down afterwards.

The total amount of time it took me to do all 5 sets including the slow run down the hill was 20 minutes. It was a very tough 20 minutes that’s for sure. I was very happy with the fact that my 5th set was the fastest one of the 5. I was able to keep my pace at about a 4.5 minute/KM. My main goal was to keep myself as upright as possible and really use my arms to keep my legs going. I was also trying to work my quads so I would make sure that my stride was high and long.

As I “trotted” home and that IS the best way to describe it as my legs were feeling very heavy, I thought about how I seem to have a good start and a good finish but somehow in the middle I stumble. It is something that I really want to work on as this will be very important for my race in September.

It is hard to believe that I won’t be doing a race until August 8th (Dirty Girls Trail Race) so I’m thinking about entering a smaller race like the Durham ¼ marathon at the end of July. I could use that race, or another similar one, to gauge how my speed is coming along.

Today I will be doing the equivalent of a running trifecta. I will be doing three different runs with three different people all at three different paces. Two of these will be in the trails. It will be interesting to see how tired I am at the end of the day.