Other than "marathon training", not much else is happening these days in the workout department. Sure, I had two glorious days of biking with friends last weekend, including my first slow-mo fall on my P2 in front of three dozen of "serious" cyclists (they all had matching kits, booties and cleat covers), which left me with a couple of colourful bruises, including a big one on my ego. I have no explanation other than the bike did not want to go when I clipped in to go. Imagine that.
I also went swimming a few times, twice with the tri group, and once with a swim coach who's supposed to do a video analysis and pick at my flaws next week. I learned a few tricks and heard some old truths. I did not mind swimming with the group either. Maybe it's a new beginning, despite my old frustrations and fears. I'm giving it another chance over the winter and maybe my brain will stay put and get on with the program. We shall see...
But back to running, I still have this marathon to run in three weeks. I'm still going for the full, even though I had serious thoughts about switching to a half, just to be able to run with Nicole and Sam and make it more fun. But then two other friends of mine are running the full as well, so I'm thinking that we may need each other in the long run, literally. I promised myself that if my legs don't start screaming, then I shall not chicken out. So legs, until then, shut up.
My schedule is not too crazy and although some may think that I will be running this marathon unprepared, I think I know my body better. After all, I ran my first and best marathon by accident without doing any runs longer than 25km. Then I trained for one "properly", with several 30km+ runs an it ended being my worst. I am going for a PR, even if it's just a minute. I think I can do it as my fitness improved a lot in a year and a half of training for triathlons. But if things end up going downhill, aside from the course incline, then I'll reevaluate. One thing for sure, I'm going to carry my magic pickle juice for good juju.
Last week I went on my longest run this year, 24km which I chose to do on the Caledon Trailway, away from the city. Last time I ran there was in the summer during the race simulation day. Initially I thought about going early in the morning, but as my alarm clock went off, I heard the rain tapping on my window and changed my mind. I was afraid of catching a cold by running 2 weekends in a row soaked to the bone, so I postponed it for later in the day, hoping for mother nature to take a break from all the bitching and crying. She did around noon, but we were eating lunch. When we eventually got ready to go, it was 2:30pm and the sky was looking menacing again. It was also cold, so we decided to grab a coffee on the go, but by the time we got to Timmies, the rain started again. Seriously, WTF!
We drove about 15 minutes north to the trail, debating whether to turn around or HTFU it all the way. Once we reached the trail and parked the car, I was reluctant to get out. This was not going to be fun.
Mmmmmm, corn.
Do I really have to get out of the car?
With this guy, it should not be so bad.
We took the picture above just before we started running. The plan was for Zin to do 12km with me, then 12km on his bike, while I kept on running. Not even 30sec after we took the picture though, it started pouring. Are you freaking kidding me? Not even a light rain, but buckets of water. We turned into soaked beans again.
It didn't look pretty anymore. More like a long streak of diarrhea.
My mood took a 360 degree turn and I was ready to strangle someone. The victim of biggest convenience, hubbs. He must have sensed the fumes coming out of my ears because he took off ahead of me to stay safe. The farthest away he was running, the more annoyed I would get because I was feeling so slow and unmotivated and I had no one to share my pain with. Despite the beautiful setting, I did not want to be there, running in the rain, having to jump over puddles to keep my feet dry.
Chasing my hubbs
Leading the way
I kept on chasing him up and down the trail and telling myself that I'd run back to my car and end this misery. But once I finished the first 12km, I could not stop. I was running away from the car again, but this time I was counting the kilometers to the turn around point. Six more, then the last six. That didn't sound so bad anymore. Maybe I could do this, even if the heart wasn't it in. Zin put on his funny attitude, trying to cheer me up. He succeeded for about a minute, then I went back to fighting the voices that were telling me that enough was enough.
Somewhere in that little brain of mine, something was telling me to keep smiling
Especially for this guy, my everything. A gel for another smile, maybe?
The kilometers were going by slower and slower and to add insult to irony, a stitch decided to park itself between my ribs. Hello there little fucker, and no, I didn't miss you. Now, get the hell OUT. Sigh, it didn't listen... stayed there pretty much until the end, just because it could. I pushed through, telling myself that for sure it'll come back during the marathon and then what? Walk, maybe, but what if I didn't need to?
This blog post sounds like a race report already, but trust me, I'm trying to speed up my thinking. It's just that I have a few more pictures and I need more paragraphs to drop in between. Maybe I'll find something interesting to say. Yeah, what about that tiny little snake across the path? Or the beaver dam? And let's not forget the Hwy 10 overpass which I hate with all my guts. If you see my heart rate going through the roof, it's because of it:
Going East
Going West
Okay, I am seriously running out of words here. So much verbiage for a shitty run, it's not even worth it. Just so you know: I DID IT. Ran all 24km. Then, laying on my back beside my car, on the cold and wet ground, I looked at the sky for a while, and didn't regret a single minute.
My coffee was cold, my legs were aching. Hubbs was driving. I was in love again - he was going to bring me back home, to my ice bath, my comfy couch and Breaking Bad.
Oh, look! Marathon training is back! With hills and speed sessions and long easy runs... and more rain than we could have ever asked for. We complained about not being able to make a fire while we were camping because of a total fire ban in the region, but with all the water that got dumped on us since we came back, we could have called all our training sessions "aqua-runs" or "aqua-rides", and I'm not even mentioning the leisure "aqua-walks", not even necessary. Bottom line, training in the rain has been the norm lately and we have the pictures to prove it. ;-)
But first, a bit of running updates. As I mentioned earlier, I started training for the upcoming Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, my first attempt at the distance on this course, a do-over from last year's injury/surgery/death in the family all-in-a-month combo. This may as well be my last marathon for a while since I'll be focussing on triathlons in the next two years, so better make it a good one. Hell, I'm even going to call it my "A" race for this year. With two marathons under my belt, I think I know what to do/change/improve although if I want to go for a PB, it's going to be a whole new territory. One thing I am pretty sure I won't change is putting one foot ahead of the other. But this time, they may be landing a bit differently too.
So far, running has been pretty uneventful, but fun, well... sort of. I ran to the movies (yum, I saw Magic Mike), I ran while being sick and coughing my lungs out (yuck), I ran in heat and humidity worse than a steam room (yikes), I ran in the rain (whee!) and after the bike (ouch), I ran suicidal hills (crazy drivers coming at me!) and recently on the balls of my feet (tough, but I finally found my calf muscles). Last but not least, I ran all these with my hubbs, because he's on his journey to becoming Superman and he runs faster than me and he's pushing the pace when I'm not too cranky. I can't wait to see how my body responds to this marathon training after the swim/bike/run regimen I put it through in the past few months.
By the way, bigger and meaner triathlons will be coming right after the marathon, so my coach is still having me doing swims and bike rides twice a week, plus a brick and strength training. This shall be interesting.
Now, for the bike workouts, as I said before, they've been wet for most of the times. Let's start the picture show. Nobody should complain about wet t-shirts, right?
The picture above was taken during our first ride after coming back from vacation. We'd been completely blindsided by Mother Nature as this pretty cloud moved in towards the end of the ride on our way back and we hadn't seen it coming. 30 seconds after I put away my camera, we were soaked. Hail was coming down furiously and when you are riding as fast as you can away from being turned into a crispy meat stick, it HURTS. For about a minute I thought about ringing a door bell on one of the solitary houses along the road, but decided to HTFU and keep on going, our own house was only 10 minutes away. No incident as you guessed, I lived to tell the tale.
This ride may have been a relaxed one, but with hills occupying a good chunk of my new schedule, the following ride was completely opposite, minus the rain that came to spoil drench the party, as usual.
Armed with a new cog (12-27), I promised I'd return to Horseshoe Hill to test my legs. What better way of doing this other than riding the hill not once, but 5 times in a row? No horse flies in sight this time, I bet they don't like to get wet. We drove closer to the hill and parked our bikes near the Caledon Trailway, then went for a 25min warmup before starting our ascent. For the actual hill repeats, we needed a half a mile long hill, so we chose the top. The rest is history tracked in a chart with lumps of all shapes and sizes, enjoy!
As for the rain, it started shyly during our last repeat, then unleashed in full force to the point that it got us wet enough to skip the shower for the day. Here are some pictures taken at the end of the workout, sorry that they are not more revealing.
Not wet enough
Is this thing on?
Superman!
We really enjoyed the hillfest so we'll be going back for more! Pray for more rain so that the flies stay away.
