Week 4: Review

It was another pretty hostile week weather-wise, although not nearly as bad as last week. While there was some cold to deal with, there wasn't too much snow so it was just a matter of wearing the appropriate clothes and fighting through it. Further, as the temperature rose above freezing this week it helped to melt away a lot of the snow we've accumulated over the last few weeks. As such, I was able to execute all of my running sessions this week at the correct pace. This was especially important on Tuesday, as four of the days eight miles were at a tempo pace that would have been difficult to maintain on snow-covered paths.

In addition, today's 14 miler went quite well (completed in 1:51:38) as the weather cooperated for a change. Temperatures were relatively comfortable in the -11C range, there was little to no wind and the roads and sidewalks were mostly clear. To add the extra mile, I worked in another decent sized hill (about 600m/5% up and ~300m/-9% down) along with a few other minor modifications to fill in the difference. As this was new ground, I was very careful to control my speed; managing a 4:57/km pace and an average heart rate of 151bpm (65% HRR). Mixed with the favourable weather, this translated into a relatively comfortable run.



As for cycling and walking, scheduling was again a little complicated this week so I failed in get all of the scheduled sessions in. With that said, I did push a little harder on my cycling sessions this week to try and make up for the lost mileage. I will naturally have to focus on getting them all in this week, but we'll have to see how reality lines up on that front ;)

Weekly Totals:
Running: 64.3km (40mi)
Walking: 15.4km (10mi)
Cycling: 60km (37mi)
Total: 140km (87mi)

Year to Date:
Running: 261.9km (162.8mi)
Walking: 85.4km (53.5mi)
Cycling: 335.0km (207.9mi)
Total: 682.6km (424.2mi)

This upcoming week is a modest increase, with an extra mile on Wednesday and again on Sunday. While I was a bit concerned about how well I'd deal with the mileage increase, things went quite well this week so the 15 miler next week shouldn't be too challenging. The one thing I will have to start worrying about is the nutrition aspect, as my mileage is beginning to get to the point where it will be necessary to take in fuel during the race.

Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Cycle
Tue 8mi (12.9K) w/10x100m
Wed 30K Cycle + 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 10mi (16.1K) Steady
Fri 50K Cycle
Sat 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 15mi (24.2K) LSD