The weather abruptly turned cold, wet, and windy last week (welcome to Alberta), and our Hypo Half Marathon group began our long slow distance run on Sunday, November 24 with trepidationbecause the forecast was calling for winds gusting up to 80 kph.But we managed to squeak out our 12K right before the wind (and freezing rain!) started up, and enjoyed a post-run coffee at the Remedy Café. Our route was one we’ve run often, especially in the summer: from the Edmonton 109St Running Room store west down Keillor Road, across the Quesnell Bridge and through Buena Vista park, past the Valley Zoo and around the short side of Hawrelak Park, up Emily Murphy Hill (I ran the whole hill without stopping to walk halfway up like I used to last summer, woo hoo!), and back through the University of Alberta campus to 109 Street.
Tackling the Track On Monday evening, as usual, I dropped my girls off at their cultural class in Parkdale, the sketchy area where I’d been assaulted during a run several weeks ago. Last week I ran there again, and though I had switched up my route and thought I’d conquered my fear, I just didn’t feel like running in that area again. Instead, I took my run inside to the track at the nearby Commonwealth Stadium Recreation Centre. I don’t have much experience with indoor tracks, and it was a surprise to me that it was only 250 metres around, since I’m more familiar with standard 400m outdoor tracks. I thought this was pretty small until I was discussing it later with a running buddy who regularly uses the indoor track at his local YMCA, which is only 100m, so I guess I shouldn’t have complained. My goal was to run 5K steady, but I just couldn’t fathom having to run 20 times around the orange blandness of the track without shaking things up a bit, so I ran a 1.5K warm up (6:30min/k), then 5 X 250m speedwork (5:00min/k) with 250m cooldown in between each, then finished the rest of my 5K back at cooldown pace. I loved i! I gotta admit that it was pretty fun charging down the track, passing slower runners and walkers and feeling like a speed demon (which I most definitely am not). On Tuesday, I ran outside again. It was still windy: what would have been an ok -9C (16F) turned into -15C (5F) with the windchill, and the hat I chose didn’t cover much of my forehead. I hadn’t put any Vaseline on my exposed skin, either, and spent most of the run regretting my life choices. I vowed to use a gift card that had been collecting dust in my bedside drawer to buy a better toque. Hills, Goals, and Too Much, Too Fast Wednesdays are Hill nights with the Hypothermic Half Marathon training group. Our clinic instructor, Rick Hurdle, decided that the two minutes we’d been running up hills so far might be a little shy of our recommended 400 metre distance, so he increased the time to two minutes and thirty seconds. This week we ran four times for 2:30 minutes up Walterdale Hill, with walk/slow jog breaks in between on the way back down. On Thursday, our weekly running clinic had a presentation on motivation and goal setting for runners given by KONA competitor Dr. Sarah Latonas. Sarah is originally from Edmonton but works as a medical resident in Calgary these days, so it was a special treat to hear her talk about what goals have worked – and not worked – for her in her distinguished running and Ironman career. She had great and highly entertaining stories about her successes and failures, and how most race results can be turned into a success depending on your goals. The main takeaway I received from her presentation was to have multiple goals for every race, ie. a ‘Perfect Race’ goal: what do you think you could achieve if the weather, your physical fitness, your training, etc all you’re your way; a ‘Good Race’ goal: what do you think you could achieve on a day where everything is fairly average, the weather is ok, you run ok, nothing catastrophic happens, etc;and a ‘Worst Case’ goal: what would you be satisfied to achieve if the weather is crap, you get a cramp, the terrain is more hilly than you’d expected, you’d had a terrible sleep the night before, etc. This type of goal setting is what I’ve been following for the past few years on my own, but I’d couched mine as GOLD/SILVER/BRONZE goals, which I think is pretty much the same thing. After our presentation, we went out for a steady run through campus and back up Saskatchewan Drive. My pace was about 5:55min/k, which is a pretty typical steady run pace for me, but my right Achilles tendon started burning about halfway through, and my legs felt like lead. I think starting speedwork and ramping up the hill training at once is what did me in: a typical ‘trying to do too much, too fast’ mistake that can quickly lead to injury. So I think it’s bye bye to speedwork for now. Next Monday I might try one of the treadmills at Commonwealth instead. Week 8 (Nov 24-Nov 30) Training: Training Schedule: Nov 24 Nov 25 Nov 26 Nov 27 Nov 28 Nov 29 Nov 30 12K LSD OFF 4 Tempo 4 Hills 5 Steady OFF 4 Steady What I ran: 12K LSD 5 X 250m 5 Tempo 4 Hills 5 Steady OFF OFF
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AuthorKathy Istace runs and races in one of the coldest cities on earth. Archives
December 2020
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