The Birthday Bender

So Saturday I did my last long-ish run before the race. I was supposed to do 16km but I went out so late and had so much to do on Saturday I cut it short. I ended up running about 14.5km which is still alright. The massage work I had done on Thursday really helped. My hips and glutes felt looser which is huge. I'm sure I could use a bit more work but it's going to have to do for now. My run felt good, really easy. My average heart rate was bang on and my pace was close to 5:30 /km's which is awesome. I'm hoping I can comfortably hold 5:05-5:10 /km's on race day which would put me under 1:50 for the half. I'd be happy with that for my first effort of the year.

Saturday night was my big night out for my birthday. Boy oh boy did it EVER get messy. But it was a blast. I definitely can't drink like I used to be able to. I think that is a function of 1) becoming leaner 2) being out of practice and 3) just plain getting older! I'm still kinda feeling it today and it's MONDAY for Pete's sake. Ah well, it was a GREAT time and I still have the entire week to recover. I'll be popping cold FX and vitamin C all week just to make sure I don't get sick.

After this race, I'll start to incorporate some new leg exercises as well as more consistent cycling. It might be time to start doing some bricks as well. But we'll see...maybe closer to April.

Things to think about for the next phase!

Taper Time!

Cue MC Hammer, "Hammer Time" Dance.....

So I'm officially in my taper. Of course I'm feeling like total garbage right now. I've been super stressed over the last 3 days, I've got a splitting headache and I feel like I'm fighting a cold. My runs this week have been next to non-existent. I'm supposed to run 16km tomorrow but we'll see if that actually happens. I might just run 12-13. It's going to be a BIG weekend outing wise (concert tonight and BIG birthday celebration tomorrow) so I don't want to kill myself.

I've also "officially" added to more races to my 2011 calendar. I'm doing the Harry's Spring Run off on April 2nd and then I've signed up for my "A" race - the Scotiabank Half. I was also thinking about signing up for the Zoo Run but I'm going to wait on that. We are looking at renovating our house this summer and the end of September might be a very busy time for us so we'll see.

The Game Plan

I decided to focus on the half marathon distance after my dismal performance at the Scotiabank Marathon last year. I figured a solid year of racing the half marathon distance would get me mentally and physically ready to tackle the full again in 2012. Which is exactly what I'm planning on doing. I also needed to gain some strength in my legs. I usually start to feel fatigue and soreness in my legs about an hour and 15 minutes into a run. My lungs can go forever but my legs seem to tire out well before my lungs give out. I figured some time in the gym would be just what I needed to rectify the situation. Normally I would work out 2 times a week and run 4 times a week. This time around, I decided to scale back on the running to 3 days a week and add a 3rd weight workout. I would have no room for junk mileage. I'd be doing one long run and 2 shorter runs that would involve either intervals, tempo or hill work. The long runs would alternate between easy efforts and a combination of easy and race pace efforts. This plan also involves over distance training, which means I'd run more than the half marathon distance during my long runs. I did 2 over distance runs, one of 22km and the other was 24.5km (should have been 25km). Each of those over distance runs had a race pace segment in them. Anywhere between 30 - 50 minutes @ 10km pace. Between this and my additional weight training I've definitely noticed an increase in leg strength. In two weeks, I'll find out if this little plan worked.

Here We Go

Yes! Another Blog! More crazy tales of adventure as I attempt to complete another half marathon hat trick AND attempt to break my half marathon P.B. that I set 7 years ago. Why? Because I'm turning 40 and I love a good challenge.

Races on this year's calendar so far:

Chilly Half Marathon - March 6th

Toronto Women's Half - May 29th

Scotiabank Half - October 16th - that is my A race.

The summer will see me back in the sprint distance tri scene. It's been a couple of years since I've done any so I'm looking forward to it!