Late October

I know, not much of a title, but I don't have a whole heckuva lot to say. My training has been sadly lacking due to fatigue and overwork, and I've been struggling to get out running even twice a week.

I have not been able to keep up my end of the bargain in my October Challenge to do a minimum of 30 minutes of cardio per day, but I have tried hard to at least do my stretching and calf/shin strengthening on the days that I don't run. I'm planning to continue with this more reasonable goal for the month of November, which is quickly approaching.

On a brighter note, I've had several great runs, two good ones in a row in fact, and I am seeing some serious improvement in that area. I went for physio once a week during the month and I think that has helped, in addition to 10-15 minutes of stretching twice a day. I suspect that having 2-3 days off between runs is also beneficial. ;) Who knows, maybe I should start following Erik's method and only run once a week. LOL...

So here's what I have accomplished in the past two weeks.

Oct. 11 - 11km hilly bike ride just before dark. 30 min.

Oct. 12 - weights - 30 min

Oct. 13 - 3 km run

Oct. 14-16 - Meetings, stayed home sick from work 1 day, did stretching, theraband.

Oct. 17 - 40 min trainer ride, 18km

Oct. 18 - 6 km run 1/2 km walk WU and CD

Oct. 19-21 - overworked, fighting bug, fatigue, parent-teacher interviews till late, stretching, theraband.

Oct. 22 - 5.75 km run, 300m walk WU and CD

Oct. 23/24 - Felt crappy yet again, stretching, theraband.

Oct. 25 - 8 km trail run, 1.3km walk WU and CD

Oct. 26 - Oct. 28 - Still struggling to get through the day.

I am now up to 3 min heel strike and 1 1/2-2 min forefoot now, but I should have run yesterday or today and I have not. Maybe tomorrow, we shall see, but I suspect I'll be up with my son in the middle of the night again. If his fever spikes, he has nightmares so I have to get up and stay up until he falls sleep again.

So - I'll keep you posted.

No worries, there are always blips on the screen. I'm just happy it's the off season and I can afford to miss training days right now. I'll get back to the normal (??) KG soon enough. :)

World Wide Festival of Races 2009

Well, my original goal was to do a half marathon, then I downgraded to a 10k like last year, finally on race day, I settled for a 5k run without a walk break. I don't think I've done 5k without a break since my tri, and even then, I had to stop and stretch my ITB 3 times during that race.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon, we drove down to the greenway path along the creek. I did a really good stretch before I left home, then I walked by the creek for about 600m to warmup. The weather was cool but sunny and I was wearing my tights, my long sleeved tech shirt under my lovely new Sugoi bike jersey. Also had my headband on because I'm prone to ear aches. The air temp was about 8C, 46F.

It's the end of my second week of my Couch to Forefoot Running program so I was doing 5 min heel strike and 1 min forefoot today. I usually only do 3km for my CtFR program but I decided that since it's the WWFoR, I'd go for the whole 5k, what the heck!

I started my garmin after my warm up and ran a steady 5k on the flattish gravel path. It would have been nice to do 6:00 per km but I was a bit slower than that and didn't want to push too fast since I was running 2 km longer than usual. I was wearing my zensah shin sleeves but forgot my ITB strap. I felt all sorts of niggling aches and pains but tried to stay loose and most of them went away after a bit.

I still feel weird and a little off-balance when I'm doing the forefoot/midfoot running and it feels more restful to go back to heel strike when the one minute is up. I'm going to do 4/1 this week coming up and then I'll bump the FF to 2 min per session the following week. Maybe doing longer will help.

My pace was steady for the whole run and my final time was 32:37. It's certainly not a blistering pace, and it's a full 6 minutes slower than my 2 best 5k times, but I was very happy none-the-less because I ran 5k without a walk break AND I had no significant pain during or after. My pace was 6:31 per km, or about 10:30 per min.

I walked about 600 m after the run and did a really thorough stretch while waiting for Erik to get back from his longer run. I kept my shin sleeves on until my shower. I had planned to put them back on but forgot. I didn't ice after my run because I felt fine. Luckily, I feel good this morning because I really should have iced no matter how I felt....

So - I am super happy but guarded because I've been here before and I know that I am always only one run away from trouble so it's important to stick with the plan no mater how great I feel.

Rough plan for the CtFR Program for the week starting:

Oct. 12 - 4/1
Oct 19 - 5/2
Oct 26 - 4/2
Nov. 2 - 3/2
Nov. 9 - 2/3
Nov. 16 - 2/4
Nov. 23 - 2/5
Nov. 24 - 2/6
Dec. 1 - 2/7

I will adjust and adapt as time goes on. Goal is to be doing at 5/1 or 10/1 forefoot by Christmas.

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As for my October Challenge update:

Oct. 5 Ran 4.2km at 9pm just so I could get the 30 minutes in

Oct. 6 Busy day, only did 3X20 crunches and 3X10 situps, and 15 min stretching routine. Really felt the crunches/situps - it's been awhile since I have done them and they felt really hard. My shoulder's still sore 5 days later.

Oct. 7 Another hectic day - having trouble getting time to workout. Went for a 30 min brisk walk and did my stretching again.

Oct. 8 Took my gear to school and ran 3k with the kids at noon. This worked really well and I realized it would be the best way to get my 2 weekly runs in - do them at noon! Starting next week, I will definitely be doing that. I can do an extra km or two if want as well. Felt pretty good after the run as well.

Oct. 9 I took a rest day. Too much happening after school today anyway.

Oct. 10 Ran the WWFoR 5km. Actually did 6.2km in 42:37 if I include my warmup and cooldown.

Oct. 11 Today. Haven't decided what I'll do today but I'll definitely do something. Bike? Gym? Swim? We shall see...

I hope your training is going well! Thanks for reading...

October Challenge

Well, it's the off-season for me and I need a challenge. Carlos, The Jackal, was telling me how he gets 10 hours of cardio a week and it got me to thinking that I really do need to get more cardio now that the season is over. I doubt I can do 10 hours a week (or should I say I choose not to), but I think 30 minutes for 6 days a week is doable. It'll be hard though - some days I cannot find an extra minute in the day and I really don't like to do cardio too late in the evening or it affects my sleep. But, I will try. If I miss a day, I'll make it up by doing extra on the weekends.

Lybbe and stplatt are both taking the challenge with me and so far, they are doing better than I am. I ended up bailing on the first two days of the challenge due to one thing or another at work. A stressful situation that have been more or less resolved now, caused some sleepless nights, and I couldn't get up the energy to do cardio in the evenings on those days. But this weekend I made up for it.

Oct. 1 - nothing

Oct. 2 - nothing

Oct. 3 - 42 min run - 20 min rowing - 15 min elliptical - 20 min stationary bike. 30+15 min stretching/yoga (90 min total cardio and 45 min stretching)

Oct. 4 - 30km 1:35 easy bike ride, 30 min stretching/strengthening

Here are a few pics from my 75 km ride last weekend.

Here's the 3rd largest airplane in the world.

An alkaline dust storm on Robert's Lake.

Riding along the windy boardwalk.

More to come later. I gotta catch some zzzz's right now....