Most Boring Run Ever (maybe)

You know how sometimes even the seemingly easy runs, both on the body and the mind, turn out to be excruciatingly boring? Thankfully these occur rather infrequently for me, but today was one of those days.

After two slightly faster 8km runs this week, and two leg strength sessions, my legs were tight. In particular my left calf, which worried me a bit having felt that twinge/cramp/tear in the past that results from ignoring just this type of soreness. So, I headed off to the gym at lunch (rain and cold outside) to get on the treadmill for what was supposed to be an easy and slow, steady run.

Well, the run was slow and steady (8km at 6.8mph and 2.0% incline, or about 5:28/km pace not adjusting for the incline), but definitely not easy on the mind. I was clock watching within the first five minutes and couldn't stop, try as I might. That 44:08 of running felt like a lifetime. A slow, easy, boring lifetime...

Is it possible that I am actually looking FORWARD to an off day?

Hmmm...

Registered, and Funky Data

First, I registered for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, set to go on September the 26th of this year. Yup. The deed is done. I just hope it works out better this time around than the DNS from last year...

Second, the Garmin gave me more funky ass data on today's run home from work. I won't even bother trying to evaluate what the hell is going on, but seriously people; can't this friggin device compensate for tall buildings somehow?! I mean, there's more than a few on this planet where people run and use Garmin devices.

Sheesh.

I did end up running 8km at a pace that was a bit too fast (5:02/km average, with the last kilometre at 4:32), and I'm sure to pay for it later. Mental note to self: next two runs this week must be slow and easy!

Oh yeah, I also did some upper body weights at lunch. There's a six pack hiding under there somewhere. Maybe.

Spring Please Stick Around

Man, if this weather is to be short-lived then it's a major tease! We've been blessed with such nice weather over the past four or five days that it's hard to believe we are still technically in Winter. In any case, I am loving it.

Case in point, I would normally go at lunch to the gym and climb onto the treadmill for a run in the 6-8k range. Today I did go to the gym, but after doing a bit of core exercises and stretches I walked right past those belted beasts of burden and out into the glorious sunshine.

This wasn't completely spontaneous, mind you, because I did bring the Garmin to work with me for just such an eventuality, but it did feel great to be going outside, and in shorts too!

I ran straight down to the lake shore, negotiating traffic, pedestrians, and lights the entire way. Once down there though it was smooth sailing and I had an awesome run. Lots of others were out running and at one point a group of three popped out in front of me and were running at a decent clip. I decided to just see if I could follow them since their pace was not too different from mine, and this also offered me the opportunity to not worry as much about the route I was taking. Having never run down by the harbor before I just assumed that these runners knew where they were going. We meandered around all the boardwalks near the water for a while before I had to let them go because it was time for me to get back. Someday I will definitely have to find a group to run with because it seems easier somehow.

In the end I ran 8km at a relatively good pace of 4:59/km (8:01/mile). This was definitely faster than I'd intended to run, but it felt pretty good to just run and I can't say it was particularly stressful to maintain this pace or anything. The Garmin seems to have gotten confused while I was running in the downtown core on account of the tall buildings, and in particular in the second kilometre (4:13/km pace) and the last kilometre when it recorded that I was running at 6:14/km. I guess those two average out, but it does annoy me that the GPS stuff gets so affected by buildings. Looking at the map it sure seems like the Garmin is totally losing it - a max speed of 699.5km/h? Yeah, real accurate...

Upon returning to the office I iced down my knee, just in case, having also remembered to bring another ice pack into work given that somebody stole the one I had left at work for the past few weeks (who would steel an ice pack, honestly?). I definitely look forward to more of these lunchtime runs, of the outdoor variety, as the weather continues to improve. Spring is just the best season, isn't it?

Say What?

Seems like Blogger is deciding to throw a wrench into my otherwise mundane blogging world and is telling me that FTP publishing will no longer be supported as of May 1st. I don't know what all that crap means, but it sure smacks of effort.

I'm not a fan of effort. Especially when it is required of me! I would like to keep this little spot of mine on the web going, but if it it starts to look like more than the least amount of attention is required then it will be difficult to justify. I think I'm far enough along in my running to stay motivated without the need to update the blog and such, but it still provides a good reason to ensure that the runs get done. At least I have until May 1st to figure out what all this means...

As far as effort goes, this past week has been the highest mileage week to date since last Summer when I went down with injury. After a nice 7km on the treadmill on Tuesday, I did the usual walk to work and run home thing on Wednesday where I added another 8km to the total. On Friday I stayed home with one of the kids who was suffering from a fever and so I took my run outside at the end of the day for another 8km. On that one I managed two things: 1. I wore my new Asics GT-2150s for the first time, and 2. I put in two faster kilometres, the first at 4:27/km (7:10/mile) and the second at 4:21/km (7:00/mile). These felt pretty good actually, and my heart rate did not go up as high as I though it might, so I was quite pleased with the effort. My ankle was a bit sore on Saturday and so I gave myself a full day off. We took the little one to the Toronto Zoo while the bigger on was away at Winter Camp.

Saturday night the little one went for a sleepover at my Dad's so that I could take the wife out for a nice dinner to celebrate her recent birthday. Let's just say that the dinner was AWESOME and I ate a tonne, with a few drinks to boot.

Sunday morning I woke up with a small headache and slowly dragged my ass out the door for a planned 15km run. I ran from home down to the lake and out around the Leslie Spit. As I was running out on the Spit I realized that my run would either end up being a bit longer than planned or I would have a few kilometres to walk at the end. I decided to just keep going, and stopped running at 17km not wanting to push it any further. I only had a half-kilometre to walk the rest of the way, and that was probably a good thing.

The total for the week was 40km, which is a nice round number if I say so myself. I should probably run a bit less this week to give my legs and ankle a bit of a break, but if things are feeling good then I might inch up towards the same total next week.

In any case, I am on track to average 35km for the month of March, as planned.

Now off to my Dad's to rescue the small loin-fruit...