I woke up this morning, ready to run.
Until I heard the rain beating down on our roof. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.
The weather had (sort of) cleared by 9:30. And I had book club at 1, so I needed to get my run in, regardless 0f the weather. I suited up and headed out, planning to do the 15k long run on my schedule as 10 and 1s, just as I was told. The Don Valley Trail was partially underwater for the first couple of kilometres, making my route a bit of an adventure. But it as mostly clear beyond Bloor and I settled into a (albeit slow) groove. At the one hour marked, I fueled up on pineapple Gu (it was in my Christmas stocking and it was disgusting), turned around and headed home.
This run was a bit of a slog. I felt tired and underfueled. But I knew I was in good enough shape to do it and any setbacks I was having were just mental.
Oh running. What a mind meld you can be sometimes.
Then my toe started to hurt. It doesn’t feel serious — yet. It feels like it just needs to be cracked. Hard. It might be tendonitis. It might be my shoes. It might be nothing.
We’ll see.
The run: 14.7k in 1:57:53
The route:
I have never followed a structured running plan (still pretty new to running), but I’m curious about the importance of 10s and 1s? Is that because you will be running your whole marathon using that strategy? I have heard a lot of people do this. Just wondering!
Yes, that’s the thought, you’re supposed to run your long runs using the same strategy as your marathon plan. Since this is my first marathon and I’m not super fast, it’s the race strategy that makes the most sense to me! Right now it honestly seems silly when I do it (I;ve run 15k a hundred times without 10 and 1s) but I bet once the long runs creep up to 30k, I’ll be grateful!
Ah that makes sense. I was just curious because I saw you did your long run the weekend before without taking the walk breaks with your friends, but I can definitely see continuous running getting harder as the distance increases!
Are you signing up for any other races this year?
Yeah I didn’t take any walk breaks in the 13k and apparently that was a no-no. But since it as for only 8k, I’m not too worried.
I plan to do the chilly half in burlington and around the bay before the marathon. After that, I’m not sure. I’ve done Midsummer’s the past two years so I might sign up for that again!
Are you planning on any races this year?
I signed up for the Sporting Life 10k in May. It’ll be my first race EVER (unless I sign up for something else before that as well) and I am terrified. I don’t really know why. I know I can run the distance but I guess I just really want to do well and be able to run it faster than I can run 10k now. That shouldn’t be a problem since it’s months away and I have plenty of time to improve, but I’m still nervous!
It’ll be great!! Sporting Life was my first-ever race too. It’s super non-competitive and there’s a ton of people doing it. There’s something really cool about taking over Yonge Street that way.
Are you running it with anyone?
I’m not sure, I think a friend of mine might be signing up too, but I’ve actually never run with anyone for anything. I always think everyone will be faster than me haha
I think joining a run club or something could be fun. I know Lululemon does weekly runs at each store. Have you been to anything like that? Or ever done one of those running room clinics?
You don’t have to run with them, but it’s fun to have someone to warm up and celebrate with afterwards! That’s key!
I’ve never done a running group a la Lulu or Running Room. I have a group I call “pubruns” which is people I know through publishing in Toronto and we run together about once month. It’s fun and super casual.
And I did this thing in the summer called FitStreets, which was a running-based boot camp with random people and liked that too — in fact, that’s how I found my running coach, But I get you, I’m terrified of showing up to a random group and everyone being so much faster than me.
I say do it once. If it sucks, don’t do it again.
And if you want to come to pubruns, let me know! The “publishing” part of it is becoming less and less necessary!
That sounds fun! Definitely let me know. You can email me too runningandlifting @ gmail . com and let me know if you ever want company on a run. Judging from the maps of your runs, we don’t live too far apart 🙂
Sounds good! I’m always down for a buddy run! I live in Corktown, just across the river!
I’m near Broadview and Danforth!
So close!