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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Week 1 CPR Time Trial

Late in 2013 I decided to take my training seriously. I wanted to run with a plan and a coach that will give me some guidance and whom I can bounce ideas off of. I don't need a constant pat on the back but I do respond well to drills, planned workouts and I'm open to learning new things. I know that running is a skill and that is something I'm working on in my own time, but I wanted to be in a group setting with workouts that have a purpose.

Last year my friends Tyler and Sean signed up for Marathon and Half marathon training that was being provided by my running store, City Park Runners and I can tell they benefited greatly from the clinic as I noticed they were both faster over the summer and Osty's endurance was monstrous. So for 2014 I decided to sign up. The clinic is coached by Dan Mitchell whose a Phys Ed teacher and an experienced long distance runner who has completed over 14 full marathons. He also works at the store and runs with the run club on our Saturday LSD's. I like his run style as it's fluid and something I try to emulate.

Tonight was the first night of the CPR clinic. There is a group of 30 of us with only 7 or 8 males and it's a mix of experienced runners to first timers. I feel we have a great group and there is no ego as we are all trying to strive for one thing...and that is our personal bests. I liked how before the clinic started we all had to fill out an introduction sheet that asked about our experience and what we want to gain from the clinic as the clinic workouts are a periodization type training that will prepare us for individual races that fall between May 1st - June 30, 2014. For me, I am planning my training to peak for the Winnipeg Police Services 1/2 marathon (May 4, 2014) and the Fargo full marathon (May 10, 2014). I want to say that my goal for the Fargo Full is to complete it in 3:50:00. I'm going to run in a couple of 1/2 marathon races and shorter distance races (5-10km) to help me tune up and prepare my body for the stresses of racing. At least that is what I'm saying right here and now. I'm going to lay out my strength and conditioning program in the next couple of weeks to outline how I plan on running injury free.

We did a warm up at the Zoo parking lot then a 5km time trial. Weather was -22.5C with a wind chill of -31C. For the first 1/2 I kept in stride with Osty and Red(Tyler) and by the time we got out of the Roblin Blvd parking lot I picked up the pace and passed them and kept my pace up through the formal gardens. It was very slippery coming out of the last km, as one of the runners (Caroline slipped and fell in front of me. She was ok, thank goodness). The last 200m I was picturing myself in the final stages and really started to give a kick and I could feel I was going full anaerobic. Overall good first day for me.

Dynamic Stretches:
Arm circles
High knees
Butt Kicks
Grape vine
Lunges
Toy soldier
Hacky-sack

Workout:
* 5km Time Trial: We will be running a 5km loop of Assiniboine Park. Runners are encouraged to run at a pace at which it is just becoming difficult to have a conversation with the person beside you.

Split
Time
Distance
Avg Pace
Summary24:21.04.855:00
14:55.51.004:55
25:03.41.005:03
35:03.11.005:03
45:03.31.005:03
54:15.10.854:59

I felt my splits were pretty good and even though the footing wasn't ideal, I think this time trial looks promising for good future performances.

After the time trial, we headed back to the store and laid out our yoga mats and did cool down and core workouts. I've been preparing my body for this prior with strength training, but I still put in the hard work necessary to keep my strength up and more for injury prevention as I find that when I'm strong, my body can withstand a lot of the beating your body can take through endurance running, especially staying upright.

So I plugged in my time trial numbers into McMillan Running Calculator:
Current Time:
Distance
Time
Pace/Km
800m
3:08.8
-
1Mi
7:00.6
5Km
24:20
10Km
50:32
1/2 Mar
1:52:40
Mar
3:57:06
5:37



Goal Times:
Distance
Time
Pace/Km
800m
3:03.2
-
1Mi
6:48.0
5Km
23:36
10Km
49:01
1/2 Mar
1:49:17
Mar
3:50:00





And I took down the workout paces. This is only a loose baseline for my training paces as we're training in winter conditions which don't really reflect equally to what I'd be ideally racing in, but it's a good start at figuring things out.:

ENDURANCE PACES
Easy Runs
Long Runs

Recovery Jogs
STAMINA PACES
Tempo Intervals

Tempo Run

Steady State Run


Saturday, February 1, 2014

Another cold LSD

Stress can be a big deterrent to running well and even though I run so I can get away from the stress of everyday life, there are moments when that stress just doesn't want to let go no matter how far you run.

Today was one of those days, I woke up early to get myself ready for my morning LSD with CPR, and normally I go downstairs to log into the computer to see what the temperature is and then kind of just go from there. But as I sit down in front of my computer, nothing is responding, I do a hard shutdown on the computer and when it finally boots up, I can't get onto the wireless internet. I started getting all flustered and worked up because I couldn't get onto my computer that instead of doing a light stretch and getting something to eat, I was banging away trying to get the wi-fi to connect and it WAS BOTHERING ME.

I looked at the clock and realized I only had 1/2 an hour to get to the store and I didn't even warm up the truck. So I dropped everything I was working on with the computer, threw some bread into the toaster and then got myself dressed for a cold run as I checked on TV that the temperature with out the windchill was -37C. I had to pick up Aggie from her house too so it was going to be a quick drive.

Once I arrived at the store, that computer problem was still on my mind. I ran with my friend Tyler as Osty had a hockey thing for his son and Tyler and I ran with the main group, reaching Misercordia hospital in decent time. As we were making our way back, I ran into Aggie as I crossed the bridge back. Tyler kept running ahead, he thought I was running with some other girl and decided to leave me alone...talk about a miscue. Anyways, Aggie was frozen, and I could tell she was a bit stressed out running in such cold weather, she was wearing a puffy jacket which overheated her and on the way back, she was very cold from the westerly windchill. So I told her we'd do the run one block then walk one block, and we did that all the way back to the store. I'm lucky I work all of my cold weather gear along with this Kodiak thermal shirt that I picked up at Walmart along with my Hind top and Nike Thermal jacket which helped, but man...it was still a stiff cold wind coming at you and I was wearing a pair of wool gloves and not my leather mittens, which my hands were frozen heading back.

The run was done and getting to have brunch at Qualico centre was fun with the CPR gang. And starting this Tuesday I'm getting all ready for my Marathon clinic.


I guess the good thing about running was even though I wasn't as focused and I let my stress get to me, getting those eventual miles in, no matter how fast or far ended up taking away the stress that was eating away at me....things eventually did work out as when I got home, I noticed my computer connected to the wi-fi network. Wow, first world problems...not connecting to the internet.