Bumps in the Road

I know it's old news but my number for the PEI 5k was very appropriate given my recent birthday. The race was very low key for me and I made an effort to not make an effort or to 'race'. My time was 23:57 according to the official results and I came in 29th overall and 3rd in the 50+ crowd (not that I was keeping track). This was an improvement of some 1:30 since my July 1 5k and my focus today was to go at a nice steady pace that didn't put me into oxygen debt (no gasping) and to not have to take walk breaks. The dirty details for the run are all here but the mission was accomplished and I didn't even respond to being passed in the last 100m.

The next day was scheduled 15 mile long run around Boyden Lake with Andrew and Jon, seen here enjoying the remnants of my cake at the end of the run. Notice that I lost my shirt during the run due to 'nipple' issues and the humidity. Normally I wear protective bandaids to prevent the bleed but I had neglected to remember this (and I also needed to shave)! For a really funny version from the woman's perspective check out Runnrgrrl's post on this subject which had us cracking up over Andrew's new jokes. Anyway, nice run, good fun, walk breaks every 15 minutes despite complaints from A and a great way to top off a 43 mile week.

Speaking of 'bumps' this past week has been tough due problems in the form of dental work and the resultant lack of running. The week started off nicely with the Sunday long run (above) and then a nice fartlek run of 8 miles on Tuesday doing my favorite 1-2-3-4 minutes hard/easy using progressively slower paces as the time/distance increased. It's a great workout you can run on any course adjusting the efforts to how you are feeling on the day. However, later in the day I didn't feel so great after my dentist had at me, doing some surgery in preparation for some implants down the road. And worse news was no running for 72hrs (insert appropriate !&#%$)! Plus pain killers, antibiotics on a 6hr schedule and resulting lack of sleep and you get the picture that my running week was shot. Just a couple of easy runs on Friday and Sat allowed me to squeeze in a measly 32 miles.
Fast forward to yesterday's long run around Boyden with Andrew. This time we did the full 17 mile loop and it was a beautiful day, though a little warm and humid for these 2 northerners at about 20C. Despite taking proper precautions with shaving and band aids my shirt still came off mid-run as I started to overheat and my heartrate was getting elevated. All this seemed to help was the deer flies which were out in full force and were able to get better spots to attach. This turned out to be a difficult run for me in the last few miles as my energy levels waned despite the walk breaks every 20 minutes or so and lots of fluid intake. I'm slowly getting my endurance back but this run was hard on me and I took the rest of the day off to recover, mostly on the couch in the horizontal position.

Next week we're hoping to introduce Trevor to the wonders of Boyden as we attempt to do a 20 miler, which will be my 1st in this training cycle and Trevor's 1st ever as he trains for his 1st marathon. We're hoping for nice weather and good fun all around. Andrew will bring the jokes and I'll be bringing the extra drinks and brownies.

Also coming up this week is the Calais 5 mile international race on Saturday. It's a very unique course with 2 international border crossings and a challenging hill at mile 3-4. My plan is to again 'not race' but to put in a steady controlled effort with no walking and to save my energy for Sunday's long run. Wish me luck and have a great week!