Week 4 - CPR Interval, Tempo, LSD and Everything inbetween

February 25, 2014
Cold...

Ran the Hypothermic Half on a cold Sunday morning past, went into work Monday and didn't run, and the following Tuesday I ended up running with Osty and a co-worker whom Osty and I run with regularly named Rob during lunch time.

Since it being cold...river is obviously frozen, so we ran down the river, only doing a short 4km to shake the legs out and get in preparation for the evening's speed work. As we got to the river bank, the wind was blasting furiously into us and it was biting. Even dressed appropriately, you can feel the wind burning against your exposed skin. But it was also sunny, so when we were running on the river alee from the wind, the glaring sun would really heat you up. It was an odd mix of hot and cold running down the river, but Osty was very mindful of not running too far.

CPR Interval 400mx10

400m run at 5km pace then walk 200m 10x.

This was hard and with the weather and the icy ground it made these intervals even more challenging. Keeping the pace even through all 10 intervals was the test and I felt at least through the first 7, the last 3 was really a challenge but I felt I was still on pace. Too bad I didn't program the workout, but I at least know I got the workout done.

 February 27, 2014

CPR Tempo Run

This whole winter has been brutally cold. But tonight, even though it was 'only' -23C with a wind chill of -35C, it felt uncomfortably cold. Part of it was my layering was different from what I normally run in, this time wearing a H/H baselayer, then my merino wool top with NorthFace wind stopper jacket. I kept the pace slow in the beginning then gradually ramped it up, really going for it on the last 2km. I ran with Osty and Erick and tonight was Osty's night as he had the pace nailed, especially at the 6km mark, Osty and Erick were blazing down the forest and I was barely keeping it together. Other than the bitter cold, the run was good. I was happy with my splits as I kept it fairly even at an Avg Pace of 5:47 min/km.

March 2, 2014

CPR LSD

Normally the LSD (Long Slow Distance) run is on Saturday's. Osty posted this Facebook post about Saturday's weather going down to -50C with the windchill, making it a perfect time to run. That one post garnered a huge thread that was calling out all of the members of the run club and the clinic runners. I already told Osty waaaay before hand that I was not going to run that morning as I was volunteering for my daughter's gymnastics competition and...well...it was -50C. Yeah it would've been cool to show up and run it and have a story to talk about in July. But asides from the volunteer work, I really didn't want to risk any injury to run for the sake of running...even if I was appropriately dressed. I responded in the post that I would live to run another day.

And so that day was the following Sunday. My sister Cherry told me she had a family school function at Assiniboine park on Sunday afternoon. I told her I'd come by and see if she needed any help and do my LSD from the park onwards. It was nice that Cherry ran with me for the first 5km, it was still cold (-31C) and Cherry told me her main focus was to not stop, I kept the pace manageable but not insulting for her as when we rounded back from the Duck Pond, she went into the shelter to warm up and I carried on and did the 10km route CPR does on Tempo Thursdays. I was really happy with my splits on this as after the 10km mark I realized I was doing negative splits. I kept that feeling going through the end of the run focusing on finishing that kinetic chain. 

After the run I felt good...no soreness or aches and I did a cool down and foam roll when I got home to flush out the muscles...yeah...even core work (in case coach Dan is reading this).

Progress report February 2014

With the start of the Marathon training clinic, I was able to get in a decent amount of mileage for the month of February. I'm trying not to obsess over the numbers, but when you're trying to improve in endurance sports, you can't help but look at the statistics to see how far you've come and to help determine where you need to be.

So far I've run with very little pain. Yes the aches of running still do rear it's ugly head, but the effects start to minimize the more you get out there and your recovery time gets faster. I've become more mindful of my form mentally taking stock of what's going on during the run like an onboard car computer. It truly is all pain management once you start tackling more and more mileage.

Count:	13 Activities
Distance:	126.51 km
Time:	13:32:28 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:	152 m
Avg Speed:	9.3 km/h
Max Avg Speed:	12.0 km/h
Avg HR:	146 bpm
Max Speed:	109.1 km/h
Max HR:	186 bpm
Max Avg HR:	146 bpm
Avg Run Cadence:	86 spm
Calories:	9,139 C
Avg Distance:	9.73 km
Median Distance:	9.46 km
Max Distance:	20.81 km
Avg Time:	1:02:30 h:m:s
Median Time:	57:53 h:m:s
Max Time:	2:03:54 h:m:s
Avg Elevation Gain:	12 m
Median Elevation Gain:	5 m
Max Elevation Gain:	102 m
Elevation Loss:	167 m
Avg Elevation Loss:	13 m
Median Elevation Loss:	5 m
Max Elevation Loss:	104 m
Max Avg Run Cadence:	89 spm
Max Run Cadence:	120 spm

*Some notables...My run cadence has stayed the same, but I'm attributing that to the winter and how different your stride is with the ever changing ground, I'm going to work on getting my cadence up closer to the 88-90 SPM. I really haven't gained too much Avg Distance from last month, but again that's due to the winter and how cold it's been and I'm not really running for the sake of running as I'm more concerned about putting in the quality in my runs with getting more speed, but this all takes time and I'm hoping that when spring finally comes and the roads and trails finally become clear of the damn snow, my progress will start to ramp up.