Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Still Alive and kicking

Here I am sitting in Orangeville by the pool, beer in hand, supper about to be served and still no post fothcoming with no Internet access as of late. First a quickie recap of the running (not training) as of late.

Friday (Aug 18)- took the afternoon off and did a 12 mile roundabout route in St. Andrews and then off to PEI for the big move.

Sat- 8 miles PEI on Confederation Trail and then pack up the daughter, stuffing (literally) all her stuff in our van and U-haul trailer. Where does she get all this stuff? Followed by a slow nervous drive to Truro where we unloaded without damage to any of the 'stuff' and no personal injury either. Spent the night at the landlord's luxurious B&B since the apartment was not prepared for us and he took pity on our situation.

Weekly total of 69 miles but no speedwork, just running this week. YTD is now 2022, a new career high for this early in the year.

Sunday (Aug 20)- 18 mile route around Truro while my daughter and wife unpacked, then a 5hr drive home

Monday- 8 hr travel to New Bedford, NH for my work course and no run since it was a rest day

Tuesday - up at 6am for 10 miles of hither and thither along busy suburbian highways and by-
ways (yuck)

Weds - another early morning aimless 10 miler, this time more in the downtown area (more yuck)

Thurs - repeat of above, another random run with trusty GPS to find my way back to the hotel. Included a noteworthy double loop of a huge graveyard (1 mile per loop). It was very peaceful in the early morning.

Friday - 15 hours of driving from Maine to St. Andrews and then back through Maine to Ottawa, no run, rest day I guess...

Sat - Ottawa long run of 18 miles after playing telephone tag with Hunter. Never got to actually talk to him, maybe next time I'll have more time to pre-plan and co-ordinate a running meeting. Followed by a 6 hour drive to Orangeville in central Ontario north of Toronto.

Weekly total of only 67 miles, missed a couple of runs and shortened others due to work and travel. Still feeling a bit draggy and no speedwork at all this week (again!). Hope to get on track next week in more ways than one. I really do think that that marathon of 2 weeks ago did set me back slightly.

Sunday (Aug 27)- 10 mile slog on tired legs, wonder why ?? Shortest long run in awhile and certainly not the 18 miles with 15 at MP! I guess the long run on Sat will have to suffice for this week while I continue to recover.

Monday (today) - rest day, relax, help Oma with a few chores, chopping trees and electical stuff

Tues (Aug 29)- 9 mile with 10x800 planned, my 1st real workout since the training marathon. Slept in till 830am today and took my time getting prepared for battle. After a 1.5 mile warmup jog this effort was completed on an actual track which the good old GPS confirmed was 1/4 mile per loop when run in the counter-clockwise direction. The watch actually ran about 20 yards short going the opposite way, likely because the watch (on my left arm) was then more or less in the next lane over during the run.

Started out the repeats at a conservative pace with the first at 3:17, followed by a 3:08, then a 3:11. Managed to complete them without much difficulty averaging 3:14 for the 10 repeats. Could have done more but was glad to stop when I did and then finished with an easy jog back to the start for a total of 10 miles. I'd be curious to see how this workout predicts my marathon result and will try it again in a few weeks to see how it compares.

Rest of the day was just an easy fun vacation day with a nice hike in a beautiful local park, Mono Cliffs which is only a few miles out of town. We have some great pictures but no way to upload them until this weekend when I get back to St. Andrews.

Happy Running!

6 comments:

Andrew said...

Good to hear you're alive! I'd still call your efforts "training" even without the speedwork. Especially the 18 milers. I understand the 'slog' nature of those runs away from home. Sometimes it's hard to get all the pieces together in a new environment.

Too bad about this weekend. Are you coming over for the Salmon race the weekend following?

Thomas said...

Running around a graveyard early in the morning would definitely freak me out.

Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

since when is an 18 miler not training????

Sounds like a lot of running to me, wow 2002 is just awesome and very impressive.

Dubs said...

Wow - I thought you were getting a lot of good runs in. Nice that you were able to make time with the travel.

I'm with Thomas - that would quicken my pace!

Legs and Wings said...

Running when away from home is always a challenge for sure. Good to see you squeezed some miles off! Hope you've had a great summer in St. Andrews!

Phil said...

Great week of running considering you weren't home. I'm very impressed.