Week 40: Review

It's nearly been a year since I ran my first half marathon, and reading over the many posts from others running this year's Scotiabank races brings back a lot of good memories. I had initially intended to run the half again this year as a tune-up race for the full at the Goodlife Marathon in mid-October. Unfortunately, the injury messed up those plans so I didn't get to head out and race this morning.

Either way, sports injuries are part of the equation in any running schedule and learning to work around problems is an important lesson along the way. As annoying of a speed bump as it was, it only took a couple of weeks to clear up so I am thankful that it didn't end up being something more serious. I did lose some fitness between the downtime itself and having to be careful building back up, however I'm still in relatively good shape so it's just a minor setback. If it wasn't for the close proximity to the race itself, it likely would have just slowed me down a bit.

While my intention to get my marathon time down to 3:20 didn't pan out, I did manage to get a Triathlon in despite the problems and that will form an important foundation for my base training over the winter. After this morning's 10 miler, my heart rate is beginning to fall back into the normal range so the fitness is comming back. If it continues along this trajectory, I'm hoping to be able to race the half marathon in October's race and potentially put the summer's training to use there as well.


Getting back to the point, the running sessions this week went quite well. I'm starting to add speedwork back into the equation, and ended up bumping my long run this morning to about 10 miles. While the heart rates are still higher than I'd like for my normal paces, they are coming down so I'm getting back into the swing of things. I might give a short tempo run a shot this week to see how that goes, however I'll have to play it by ear.

I did have a few annoyances with the footpod cutting out on me this week, but after a bit of testing it appears that it's just the battery going on me prematurely. I've had a few issues on and off since I replaced it last month, so it's likely just a matter of a cell that was sitting on the shelf for too long and was depleted to start with. I'll have to head out and look for a replacement, although given this experience I'm likely going to be looking for a better shop to buy them from in the future.

Cycling-wise, I only ended up getting one session in on Friday due to weather. That ride was also a bit shorter than planned (50K vs. 80K) due to scheduling issues, but the weather was great so it was an enjoyable ride nonetheless. This coming week looks like it's going to be a bit dodgy as well, but I'm going to have to focus on working around it a little better so that I can at least get in two decent rides.

With respect to swimming, I managed to get my two sessions in as planned. On Tuesday I did a number of 750m sets, and on Thursday I did two 750s and a 1000m set to keep myself comfortable with longer distances. Fortunately, thanks to Melanie I managed to find a decent Triathlon swimming clinic and will be starting it tomorrow evening. I missed the first session at this point, but there are still nine weeks left so there is plenty of instruction left. The swim is by far my weakest discipline, and an opportunity like this to improve my technique will likely do me more good than anything else.

Week 40 Totals:
Running: 48.3km (30.0mi)
Walking: 3.5km (2.2mi)
Cycling: 50.2km (31.2mi)
Swimming: 6.7km (4.2mi)
Total: 108.7km (67.5mi)

Year to Date:
Running: 1,948.9km (1,211.0mi)
Walking: 202.4km (125.8mi)
Cycling: 3,172.2km (1,971.1mi)
Swimming: 59.9km (37.2mi)
Total: 5,383.4km (3,345.1mi)

As noted above, this week is likely to be pretty unstable in the weather department so I may need to move things around a bit. I've got a tentative plan lined up, but it's going to depend on when I can get those cycling sessions in. I'm also flirting with replacing Tuesday's speedwork with a tempo run to test out the legs, but I'll have to see how I feel at that point.

Mon 50K Ride, Swim Clinic
Tue 2mi Swim, 5mi Recovery w/6x100m
Wed 30K Ride (if weather permits), 10K Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 6mi GA
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 80K Ride
Sun 11mi (17.7K) LSD