138 posts tagged “distance running”

I managed to get all of my mileage in this week: 60K.  All runs went pretty well and I generally ran the same route with only slight variations on direction or "side" of the canal.  I am suffering from a minor case of "bloody nipples" thanks Thursday's run in the rain and forgetting my BodyGlide.

Ran a total of 23K during a recovery week.  I missed two runs this week due to business travel.  My week of running included a run with my boys in the jogging stroller (which was very hard work) and a run thru Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg.

I am slowly making strides to reintegrate running into my weekday schedule.  Most of my runs are along the Rideau Canal from work.  This week I ran 40K and racked up 80K for the month of April.

Ran a 6.77 km route around my neighbourhood in 39:49 (5:53/km).  I had expected that today would be warm, somewhere around the freezing mark, but for this run it was -15C with a ~10km/h wind.  It was a good solid run with most of the sidewalks cleared with compact snow.

I ran this one today wearing my brand spanking new Dryline Mitts from Running Room.  I wasn't too impressed with the $40 price tag but these mitts were exactly what I was looking for and I was not able to find anything like them anywhere else.  They preformed great on the run.  They work well to keep the wind and water out and layer well with a pair of lighter running gloves.

Ran a total of 27.86 km this week, with all of these runs along the Rideau Canal.  The canal is now open for skating and there are still plenty of folks running along and on the canal this time of year.  I missed one run this week, on Wednesday, due to a snowstorm.

• Mon, 5 Jan 09 | 7 kms in 38:57 (5:33/km) during a light snow at -5C. First winter run along the Rideau Canal.
• Tue, 6 Jan 09 | 8.16 km in 46:01 (5:38/km)
• Thu, 8 Jan 09 | 5.82 km in 32:59 (5:40/km).  First run with new YakTrax Pro traction assist slip-ons.  They worked pretty well.
• Fri, 9 Jan 09 | 6.87 km in 39:10 (5:42/km).  Coldest run of the week; -17C or nearly -30C with windchill.

It's time to shift back to metric.  I got back into running about four years ago while living in the US and thus it was natural to monitor my running using miles:  26.2 miles for a marathon, 9:09 min/mile to run a four hour marathon, etc.

Now that I am back in Canada, I have already found it a bit difficult to continue using imperial versus metric.  When running the National Capital Half Marathon last May, I had expected to see mile markers in addition to the kilometre markers; there weren't any.  I have recently subscribed to Canadian Running Magazine and while the magazine is full of great Canadian-centric running articles, it sticks to metric at all times.

So long 26.2; hello 42.2

Here are my running stats for 2008.  The six graphs to the right side show my distance, pace, and HR stats in monthly and weekly format.  I might manage to add a run or two to the stats before Thursday but I cannot imagine it will change the numbers too much.

Yearly

• Number of runs: 117
  
• Distance: 1293.1 kms
  
• Time: 4d 23h 27m
  
• Races: 2 X Half Marathon
  

Monthly

• Highest mileage: 256.91 kms in January
  
• Lowest mileage: 6.73 kms in December
  
• Average mileage: 107.8 kms
  

Weekly

• Highest mileage: 68.34 kms in April
  
• Lowest mileage: 0 kms a bunch of times
  
• Average mileage: 24.9 kms
  

Average

• Distance/run: 11 kms
  
• Time/run: 1h01m16s
• Pace: 5:34 mins/km
  
• HR: 150.43 bpm
  

I managed to set a Half Marathon PR in March (1:35:02 at the Seaside Half Marathon) and also ran at the CF National Half Marathon Championships in May.  Both of these races were pretty good for me but unfortunately I missed out on many other races this year.

I started to compare my performance to 2007 but it got too depressing :-(  It is pretty easy to see from the graphs that I started out fairly well but things fell apart after May.  My running started to suffer this year as a result of my relocation back to Canada and subsequent business travel associated with my new job.  I am ever so slowly getting back into the swing of things with my job, so I hope I can get back to running in a number of local races.

I finally managed to get out for a run this morning.  It was a simple four miler but it marked my first "winter" run this season.  The conditions were great for the quick adventure: just below freezing, partly cloudy, and the roads/sidewalks generally cleared.  Since I am not used to running over ice yet, I did take it pretty careful over the icy sections.

With the current Boxing Day sales and the fact I am on Xmas vacation, I plan to head over to some local outdoor and running stores in the next few days to pick up some additional cold weather running gear.  I would like to grab a pair of windproof mitt shells, a warmer run pant, and a pair of waterproof oversocks.

I have started looking at the local race calendars for 2009 to figure out an appropriate training schedule.  I now need to figure out what my business travel schedule may be.  I hope to run a number of these four milers over the next few weeks to ramp up and then back to my regular work-week training runs.

So my wife came through for me this Xmas and bought me the rubiTrack runlog software for my MacBook (see previous post).  It was quite simple to port over my run data from both SportTracks and Garmin Training Center.  I still plan on using Garmin Training Center for a back-up but SportTracks and TrailRunner are now out.  For those that have followed my posts for awhile, you already know that I am a bit obsessed with keeping my run data in multiple forms as I previously suffered the loss of six months of non-archived data.  I have already purchased my 2009 Moleskine Weekly Planner for the harcopy version of my log.

After a number of training walks over the past weeks/months, the boys and I took the "Rocket" (AKA our new Trek GoBug) for it's maiden flight run this afternoon.  It was a successful, albeit short, trip.

Seeing that the weather was cool (-5°C) we bundled the boys up, added the rain hood to cut the wind, strapped them into their seats (which was a bit tricky with all their winter gear on), and headed off.  While steering the Rocket was allot easier than I had thought it would be, it did take some time getting comfortable pushing the stroller.  I was worried that the boys would get cold but they stayed warm for the trip and kept me entertained with a rather long game of "I spy."

In the end we took an easy 3.5 mile run around the neighbourhood.  Good times.

Pretty pathetic week for running.  I only got out for a single four mile run this week.  Living in the frozen north again, I am finding it rather difficult getting used to running in sub-freezing conditions.

I hope to get in run tomorrow.