A lovely run…

Easy Run- Distance : 7.20 miles

Time : 1h08min30sec

Average Pace : 9.32/mile Max Pace : 8:08

My throat was scratchy and I was feeling sicky when I went to bed last night, so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the evil coldness. Luckily since today is a holiday, Monsieur Fish was home meaning I could sleep in a little and run later in the day. I think the extra sleep did me a world of good, and even though I was feeling really tired I forced myself out the door.

So glad I did, because I had a really great run – felt strong and full of energy (which if you’d seen me this morning would have been surprising!). Took advantage of the daylight to run on a train in the forest and it was just beautiful with all the yellow leaves. Because I’m usually an early-morning runner, I really enjoyed seeing all the hikers and cyclists on their trails, enjoying the afternoon off.

Only downer for the day: because it was a holiday and I slept in, it was impossible for me to do any yoga with Monsieur Fish and Guppy under-foot. Bah.

I have been loving listening to these crafty podcasts during my runs. I only recently discovered them, so I downloaded a bunch of them and they’ve been alot of fun.

No Run Mondays

Strength Training: 45 minutes

Up until about two weeks ago, I was following an excellent running plan from the book
The Daniel’s Running Formula by Dr. Jack Daniels (which I highly recommend). On that programme I was running Monday mornings, about a 6 mile recovery run after my 10 mile Sunday run. While I think the plan was great, I do think that I need to force myself to take at least one day off (which I wasn’t doing much of the summer), so, I’m opting for Mondays. I hope I can stick to it. I think once I get into my marathon training and have more significant Sunday runs of 15+ miles, it’ll be much easier to not run on Mondays.

In other fun news, I began coming down with a cold yesterday afternoon…geeze, maybe running for an hour and a half yesterday through the pounding rain had something to do with that? I hate the humidity here!

Sunday = The Long Run (everything relative)

Long Run Duration: 1h40m28sec Distance: 9.25mi Pace: 10:50/mi average

Time of day: 7:20 a.m. Weather: Torrential rains, strong wind gusts, 9c

Sunday Numbers 40.7 total miles, 3 strength training sessions, 1 yoga session (boo)

I have never run through such pounding rain for so long. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy running in the rain and often joke that “if it ain’t rainin” you ain’t trainin’” (makes me feel cool). This was a downpour like I’ve never seen in the morning, but I had no choice – Monsieur Fish was to be gone to record in Paris by 9am, so I had to get going.

Mile 1 – I had to stop to wring out my beanie & gloves.

Mile 4- Took off gloves because my hands were so cold & puckered I figured they weren’t helping.

Mile 5- For a split second wished I was not running.

Mile 7- realized how unbelievably heavy my camelback was from soaking up all the rain (as it was mostly empty).

This was supposed to be a 10-mile run, but there was a moment where I could turn off the route and come home, and I did, even though I wasn’t at the 10-mile mark. I was done.

I weighed my clothes, you know, just for fun, and they came in at 2.4K. My shoes came in at 1.3K. No wonder it sucked.

I did learn some valuable things from this run, though, like carrying an extra pair of gloves in a plastic bag to change into, and maybe some socks, too.

All in all, a good run making the best of a bad weather day.

Dusting off the training blog…

When I started this little training blog last Spring as a companion to my primary blog Musings From The Fishbowl, I was hoping that it would help me feel a bit more connected to other athletes via my training and also to connect with other Sporty Vegans. After a bit of a hiatus (not from training, but from sport blogging), I’m back with big plans and loads of ambition. I’m all about the Paris Marathon in April 2009!

I’ve been wanting to run a marathon since I began running in September of 2005, but was first held up by an over-training injury (due to my zeal, like so many new runners), and then life just getting in the way, being concerned about not having enough time to properly train, feeling “safer” with the smaller distances of the half-mary, etc. I have decided that enough is enough and I am going for it, and am hoping to use this training blog to help me organize my thoughts and training better.

I have a regular training log at Running Ahead, but cannot figure out how to make it public or to link it to this blog – if anyone has any suggestions on that I would be most thankful!

I’d also like to send out a big merci! to Jen, my favourite tri-athlete and yogini for sharing her groovy icons with me!