Marathon Training - Week 7

Rest in Peace, Pepere.

My father in law passed away on Wednesday, so we had to make the sad trip to Cape Breton for the funeral. It was nice to see all of the family together, but of course, sad that it had to be under such circumstances.

The Hypo Half was this Sunday, which I was registered for, and the marathon training run distance was 23km this week. I had good intentions of running the 23km on Sunday morning along the Cabot Trail, but it didn't happen. I did get out on Saturday afternoon for a run. I should have run the 23km then, but by the time I felt like I could, I couldn't let anyone know that I'd be gone for three hours instead of one. We were so far back in the woods, there's no cell service.


Monday - 1.8 km This was my mile rest day and some weights. After running 19km the day before, I had some itchy legs. I had a "need for speed", I called it. I managed 60 seconds at 8mph.

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. We had ice quakes over night. They kept me up a lot. Scared the crap out of me. I thought the house was falling apart. With the little sleep that I had, I thought I was going to be much slower for this tempo run than I was. I managed to maintain a 6:16 / km average for the 6k. I'm quite pleased with that.

Wednesday - 5.3 km. Hills training started tonight. The roads are still pretty crappy, so I ran these on the treadmill. 1km warm-up. 4 x 500m @ 6%. 1 km cool-down. These were all over the place. I couldn't find a pace I could maintain for all 4 reps, or even within one rep. I started out too hard and couldn't recover enough to maintain an even pace. But they are done. Next week will be 5 reps, but I will try a different pace to maintain.


Thursday - 8 km. This was our clinic discussion and 8km steady run. The nutrition information was interesting. I didn't really learn a whole lot, just reinforcing my opinion on food. A second opinion so to speak. I do wish she had spoken more about running as a vegetarian though. A couple of things that she did discuss that I didn't realize, is that fats act as an anti-inflammatory. I will definitely research this some more. She also mentioned that she wasn't able to train for a marathon using whole foods. (That may be putting words in her mouth, but that's basically the jist of what I got from it) That's disappointing. But what she said does make sense. The manufacturers of sport drinks and sports nutrition have put the research into getting the right mix of ingredients, nutrients, vitamins and minerals to make things work, so go with it.

The 8 km run was 5 laps around the Bedford Place Mall. This was basically the only route where the roads were semi clear. It was a nice night for a run. I sure do enjoy running in the cold. Yea, I'm a freak, I know.

Friday - 1.6 km. We were heading to Cape Breton early, early this morning, so I was up at 5 am to get this done.

Saturday - 6.75 km. I managed to get a run in this afternoon after the funeral. It was a very well needed run to get the cobwebs out of the attic. Gorgeous day on the Cabot Trail.


Sunday - 6 km. Headed home today. It was a very long and stressful couple of days. I didn't get the 23 km run, but when I got on the treadmill, I was only planning on running a mile, so I'm glad I had enough in me to run what I did.

Week 7 - 36 km run this week 

             - 355 km run in 2015
              - 1.2 lbs GAINED this week. Sooo many carbs this weekend. 

              - 8 lbs lost since January 1. 

              - 22 lbs to lose to goal. 11 weeks to go.
              - Streaking 459 days and counting
              - Alcohol free for 51 days. 
              - 30 minutes strength training this week.