Okay so I know in my last post I said I was done with events until the PEI Marathon, but we all knew that wasn’t going to happen, right?
Desmond Baglole Scenic Road Run
Last weekend I ran the Desmond Baglole Scenic Road Run in Millvale. 15K of beautiful Island red clay roads and hills, hills, hills! It was a really beautiful event. Very challenging. The route starts off on a 3km hill and then it turns onto a beautiful red clay road through the trees and it goes up and down and up and down for 6km and then it’s pretty much a perfect down grade through the trees to the finish. I loved it. It was at around the 6km mark where I saw the lead runner on his way back from the turnaround point. As we all passed each other there was a constant string of encouraging words between runners. It was awesome. Definitely makes the HO list!
Port-A-Potty on a pickup. Seriously. Now that’s pretty hilarious.
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A girl walks into a physiotherapist’s office…
So my physiotherapist asks me how it’s been going. I tell him, then he starts assessing me again; lie down, stand up, do this, do that, you know, the standard stuff. Then he starts massaging me and I’m loving it. I’m thinking this physiotherapy thing is pretty awesome. But then he goes into the whole poking and twisting “Does this hurt” thing and then he brings out the roller and I’m making all these crazy ouchy faces and it all gets pretty funny. All that to say, and joking aside, the physio is going really great.
Speaking of physio… our dog Chester has been a huge support. I’m sure some of you dog owners can relate.
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Training Update
We’re in week 12 of training for the PEI Marathon. How is your hill training coming along? Are ya loving them hills?
I’ve been running hilly routes, but not doing repeats. Are they equal? I don’t think so. Repeats are like doing reps at the gym, and there’s a whole mental strength thing that goes on when you run hill repeats. The mental part is much harder than the actually running part. I think they are important and I should be doing them. I’ve been running 4 times a week and am definitely seeing improvements to my form and speed thanks to the physio.
I am definitely feeling a bit looser, I’m concentrating on form a lot, and my speed has increased. I just have to learn how to manage running faster so I can sustain it. I am all over the place with my speed at this point but that will get better. I did a little bit of speed training this week. My plan was to run out 3K slow and then boot it back, but I ended up going out too fast and doing the reverse. Two years ago I ran a 6:25 pace and now I hover around the 5:25-5:40 range so I’m seeing improvement and am very pleased.
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Long Slow Run Sundays
I had a great 21.5K LSR with my running buddies at Run Club. I have been running events instead of my LSR Sundays and although I am seeing definite improvements in my speed, I need to concentrate on slowing down for Sunday runs.
Are you running your Sunday runs slow enough? Do you find yourself running too fast during your Sunday runs too?
Here is a great article about How to Calculate Your Long Run Pace. It’s an important part of our training to do a long slow run once a week.
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Awesome TED talk about the Beirut International Marathon
May El-Khalil: Making peace is a marathon
What I keep learning over and over is that running is about so much more than running. So many non-runners don’t get why we do what we do, but if you run, you get it. It’s not really about the act of running, it’s about what the running gives you. I run for the joy it gives me on so many levels. The TED talk video is all about that. The power of running is amazing.
So this week I’ll leave you with this video and a simple question;
What does running truly give you?
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“Running is what I do. Running is what I love. Running is—to a large extent—who I am.”
— Scott Jurek, American Ultramarathoner
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