Well its been almost a month since the Valley Harvest marathon and now my recovery phase is officially complete. I finished it today with a 16k run around the loop here in Millwood. This evening, thought about today's run and couldn't help but smile a little. The schedule called for an 8k workout run but I changed my mind earlier in the week and pencilled in a 12k long run. Yesterday, I changed it again and decided to run for 1:30 and see how far I go. Why the changes? I wanted to build up my weekly mileage so next week when the real longer distances start, it wouldn't be such a shock to the system. I wound up running 16.2k in 1:31 on a pretty hilly loop and felt great doing it. No pain anywhere despite wearing minimalist shoes (Merrell Road Gloves). It feels awesome to know that you could have stretched a run to 20 or 25k without giving it much thought or even felt sore afterwards. Having perfect running weather helps immensely to. I ran a "ho hum" 16k at a 5:39 pace and have no muscle pain to show for it at all. I think I've actually become physically fit, I've never been fit for my whole life. SWEET!
I had a great recovery phase, felt good for all my runs and even got to set a personal best 5k time of 21:46 at last weeks Runway Run. That beat my previous personal best of 23:24, set back in April during the Lung Run. I guess my next goal time will be to run a 5k in under 20 minutes for the 2013 Lung Run in April.
I took on two new things during this recovery that I haven't before. I tried my first spin class at 360 fit in Dartmouth and I've also hired a trainer once a week as well. I really enjoy doing both. My training night is Monday and I do the spin class on Tuesday night. I believe both will help my overall fitness and will help me get to my 2013 goal of becoming a Boston Qualifier. As of right now here are my planned runs for 2013.
February - Hypothermic Half, Dartmouth (I've never run a half before so I wanted to add it to the list, shooting for 1:40-1:45)
April - Lung Run (shooting for sub 20 minutes)
May - Fredericton Marathon (sorry, no Bluenose this year, I want to find a flat, fast course as a "tune up" for a fall attempt at qualifying. shooting for 3:35)
August - Navy 10k (ok this is just for fun)
October - Wineglass Marathon, New York (this will be the ONE, shooting for a 3:20)
I know, I've set the bar pretty high but I'd rather aim high and miss than to aim low and hit.
Last week my running coach came up with a Hypothermic Half training schedule that will also build up to Fredericton as well. He had to make some tweaks to the schedule due to my training and spin class but I think the changes are manageable. The biggest difference is that Tuesday and Wednesdays runs will be swapped. That means I now have to get up at 5am on Tuesday to get my 5k recovery run in before I go to work. Thats not so bad now, lets see what happens when the weather turns for the worse. I may have to bite the bullet and go to Goodlife (ick!!) to run on a treadmill (double ick!) occasionally. I can't picture running a 3 hr run on a treadmill.
Here's how it'll all pan out
Monday - trainer
Tuesday - am - recovery run, pm spin
Wednesday - long, easy run
Thursday - workout run
Friday - rest, yes i said rest!!!! my fav day of the week.
Saturday - recovery run
Sunday - Long run
So, tomorrow is the official start of the Hypothermic Half marathon training program. After 3 weeks of short runs, except for today, I'm itching to get back out there doing 50-70k a week. Will I be this excited in January in the ice and snow? No friggin way but I'll still be hauling my ass off the couch and going out there.
Onward and Upward
