So in order to get back into running and to find that focus I so enjoy and the camaraderie, I signed up for the 2016 Marathon clinic hosted by City Park Runners and coached by coach Dan. I've been in the last 3 and they've been a great way to get in the mileage for training in the dead of winter and to also connect with a social group. The clinic is held every Tuesday for 20 weeks which is organized by our coach Dan who sets up the workouts (which are 90% speed workouts) while he encourages the clinic runners to join in the free running meet-ups on Thursday night and Saturday morning to supplement in the clinic training and to get in the much needed mileage to run a marathon or 1/2 marathon distance.
This year's training will go in nicely for either the Winnipeg Police Services 1/2 marathon or the Fargo Marathon, which seems to be the race a lot of the members will be attending as a group this year. I'm still very undecided as I've run the Fargo the last 2 years and they are great races, with the after party even better with the gang. I'll see how I feel in the next month or two before I commit as my main motivation for wanting to run the Fargo full is to prove to myself if I can come back strong doing sub-4 after a frustrating year last year, especially with the volume of training I put in.
Anyways, the first week of the clinic is always a 5km time trial. It's a great way to figure out your base. The only caveat is, you're running in sub-zero temps with layers and the footing is always very slippery but it doesn't or shouldn't stop you from doing your best. Although you can be sneaky and sandbag the run and when the spring time trial happens you give 'er and should see a huge improvement...but why would you sell yourself short like that?
One of the new things I got this year, along w/ my buddy Osty is a Stryd device . We wanted to see what this new power metric is all about and it pairs well with our Garmin devices. I can't say I know what the hell I'm doing when I look at my stats, so I'm learning to run on my feeling instead of the feedback from the Garmin and Stryd.
Wk1-Time Trial
So those are the 2 outputs from Garmin and Stryd and what's interesting to me at first glance is you can see where I was powering through and slowed down and finished strong. I think I can speak for most runners, that we always, always start off way too fast. And I knew I was running faster than intended and adjusted as I was ploughing through. The hardest part is keeping yourself in check when you're running with a group or against people, thinking you can keep up, speed up or just hang on. At the "horseshoe" part of the course is called the Formal Gardens and you can tell from the color I was starting to lose power and I remembered while in that moment how I was fighting internally to NOT quit even though that voice in my head kept nagging me how much 'easier' it would be to just slow down a bit. But I always remember that in order to get better, to get past that ceiling, you will have to dig deep and that digging is going to suck. So during the last 150m as every muscle in my body was screaming and I was trying to calm down that voice of self doubt, I squashed that ever present self-pitying dude that always wants you to quit and just powered through. I always tell myself that that pain is always temporary.
So my time trial time for 2016 was 27:15 which when I looked back at last year's 2015 time trial of 24:47...is actually not that bad considering I haven't been running as much the past 3 months and I'm really out of shape. The 27:15 hurt a lot, but this is promising as it's a good base to start off in the new year.
Wk 2 - 1Km Intervals
Week 2's training to me was an exercise in mental and physical control. We were basically doing 1km intervals where we run 1km at our 5km pace then take it down 30 secs on the way back and repeat for 30mins. It was -33C/-24F which is basically hell super frozen over 2x. It was too cold to keep an eye on my Garmin as I was more focusing on keeping myself upright and running in good form and mentally always telling myself to speed up during the 1km interval and slow down on the cool down run. Unlike last week where I was sucking wind, this week my pacing was around the 9:20/mile mark which is comfortably hard for me but during the cool down I didn't want to slouch run. I kept mindful of keeping my form erect and shoulders relaxed and that contributed to getting better and stronger as the intervals wore on.
I don't really have any words of wisdom to end this entry. I'm just happy I'm able to run again and I'm happy doing it. The one important thing I noticed is after my run and especially during my run there is no "FEEL OFF" feeling. I haven't looked at my blood pressure the last 3 weeks and I guess I should, but for now there is none of that lethargic pain I was feeling. I'm not going to worry about my stats or worry about comparisons with other people (even though we ALL do it) I just want to be able to run well enough to be able to keep up with Dr. Phil, Paul, Lori, Ted and pretty much most of the regulars. But I know that's going to take time and right now, I have plenty of it run-wise. :)
