Summertime play

The goldfish are quite fearless and even nip at my fingers and toes looking for something to eat.
Relaxing in the ccol pond water after my runs is nice on the legs and helps cool down the whole body at the same time. Our summer is so short we need to enjoy what little we get, despite some hot humid days that are tough if trying to exercise and follow a demanding running schedule. I know just 5 short months ago dressing in about 5 layers plus vaseline for good measure that complaining about a little heat was the furthest thing from my mind!

I've got a few more runs to report in on since the last post with no major problems to speak of with the legs and joints except for an occasional tight achilles, usually the left one and mostly just when I've been sitting for too long. It did get a bit painful at the begining of a few runs this week but after stopping and stretching a bit more I was able to continue without further problems. I do some light stretches before each run as I wait for the Garmin to connect to the satellite world but should be doing more regular stuff in the evenings while watching TV etc.

On Friday I took the afternoon off and then proceeded to get some yardwork done with Jo which included some digging and dragging patio bricks around in the warm sun. Delayed my run till after supper which is not always a good ideas since running on a full stomach doesn't make for a great run. Nevertheless, the temps were cooler and there was a light rain and after 4-5 miles the pace picked up as the stomach felt better. Ended up getting my scheduled 13 miles in 1:47 (8:13 pace) and felt better than expected after the tough double on Thursday.

Saturday was just an easy 7 miles but it was a warm humid day here even early in the morning. Drank water, wet slow and had to stop to stretch the achilles in the 1st mile. Finished with a nice dip in the pond and then spent the rest of the day avoiding the heat, sitting in the shade of the gazebo watching the hummingbirds fight/play around us. Even got a little more yardwork done and am slowly checking things off the 'honey do' list!

Oh yes, Saturday is the end of my 'week' with a new record weekly mileage total of 82 with avg pace of 8:13 and with 11hr 15min running time. My current YTD mileage is 1820 which on looking back over the years is way ahead of where I'm usually at for the end of July. I read an interesting article on overtraining last night and plan to monitor myself very carefully over the next several weeks leading up to Wineglass. It's a fine line we sometimes take trying to improve our fitness and then getting overeager with the races and testing before we're fully ready. Note to self: 'keep your eye on the prize'.

Today, Sunday, July 30, 62 days and counting. That's only 9 weeks less a day Andrew and Marc! The evil plan out of good ole Pfitz was for 16 miles with 12 at MP, fun eh? I was up early without an alarm at 6:30 but was in no rush to get going today. It had really cooled down overnight from about 30C to 13C (55F) with a nice northerly breeze (more about 'that' later). After a relaxing but light breakfast of coffee, juice and cereal with fruit I was good to go about an hour later. Started off the run with an easy but hilly jog down to the Blockhouse and back home.

Replenished the water bottle and 1/2 mile later I began the required torture test on the flatest roads we have around here going out of town along Bayside. You can judge for yourself the lack of even terrain that we have in the Garmin plot below. It's either up or down and precious little steady flat ground which can make keeping an even pace a bit difficult. And then to make things even more 'fun' the 1st 6 miles of this 12 mile out and back effort were into a noticeably strong headwind. Barely managed to make the turnaround in 45:00 which was exactly on 7:30/mi target pace. After the turn the effect of the now 'tail' wind was noticeable and the pace dropped to about 7:20 with less effort except on the uphills. Finished the 12MP in 89:10 which was 50 sec to the good and then completed the 16 with an easy 1 mile warmdown. The cooldown was later in the pond!

Some of the gory details from the Garmin for today's 16 miler with 12 at marathon pace (7:30/mi). You can see my variable pace in blue and the nice 'flat' terrain in green. Began the paced effort beginning at mile 3 with the target pace of 8mph. They say that these MP runs are as much psychological as they are physical and I definitely agree with that. As long as I'm careful going into these runs, ensuring that the diet, sleep, rest day before is take care of, then it's usually just a matter of getting on the road and 'doing it'. But it's hard, especially on your own against the watch and then again it's eventually that way in a race as well. On the other hand if you do enough of these and slowly progress them over the training cycle as my 'plan' has me doing then the pace and effort should be pretty well locked in by race day. We hope...

Tommorow is a REST day and this coming week is one of HOLIDAYS! Yes!!!