Back into the swing.....

Sorry folks, but does anyone else after a race take a bit of a break? My 15 km was last wednesday and I took until after the weekend off. I know, I know maybe a bit too long but is it ok for a bit. Was back at it on Monday and Tuesday with a couple of short runs, about 3 miles and took around 26 mins, than on Wednesday I had a modified stairs class at work. They incorporate stairs with lunges, and kind of a boot camp feel to it. It was pretty good as today I can barely move, quads and legs are really tired plus upper body from some pushups. Tonight was my first night with both the kids alone as my wife and mom went to the Kenny Chesney concert in town tonight. I had a bit of a scare with Emerson (almost 5 months) but got her calmed down enough and back to sleep in time for Blake's (2 yrs) bath and bedtime. Gotta admit I think my wonderful wife has them on a pretty good routine. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I can relay them. They are two of the happiest kids I know, I know I am a little biased too!! Hope to squeeze in a run tomorrow during the day, on Saturday we have a wedding and Sunday wanted to take it easy but I will definately try to get one in as well. Back at it again on Monday or Tuesday with a long run as well. Let me know what everybody's been up to?

Happy Canada Day!

Well it's Canada Day and what does that mean......that's right my 15 km race this morning. I got up bright and early as I couldn't sleep (does this happen to anyone else before races???). Left my house and took the train to the Legislature grounds where it was being held and got there about 40 minutes before the start, which was good because I didn't know where I was going. Turns out that the 5k and the 15k were starting at the same time and I was near the beginning of the line, where the 5 K'ers were mostly. But I didn't realize this until I started out at a faster pace than I had planned on. I figured I would stay with them for a bit and see how I felt and surprisingly felt really really good all the way through the race (well almost). At the start of the race we went down a big hill to get to the mostly flat course, and subsequently we had to go back up that hill to finish off the race. I passed a couple of people going up and was really pushing it and for a brief second thought I was going to have to stop and either walk or collapse, but I could see the finish and pushed through it. It felt great! My wife and 2 kids (Blake and Emerson) were waiting for me and it felt pretty good to see them, my son (2) had a maple leaf flag tattoo on his face and was pretty excited. I thought that anything under 1:30 was ok, but really wanted to be around 1:23-1:25, I surprised myself with my final time.

Total Distance: 9.28 miles
Total Time 1:17:06
Lap times (1 mile laps):8:07, 8:25, 8:11, 8:21, 8:33, 8:18, 8:10, 8:14, 8:17, 8:58 (final 0.28 mile)

About 1 min/mile faster than I was training, but like I said I felt really good right from the start. I kind of settled with a couple of guys who were at this pace and it stuck with them. I'm a little disappointed in myself as I slacked off on the training but am still pretty ecstatic about my time, next training I will try some speed work (thanks for the advice)!!

A Quick one....

Just a quick note today......
Went for a quick run today, 2.8 miles in 25:07. Not too bad, I was running a little late with work and what not - anybody have plans for the weekend? Running wise? I plan on going for a long run as a bit of a tune up for next Wednesday (July 1) run of 15 km. I was thinking of going about 8-9 miles, and than on Monday only a couple of miles, Tuesday off and hope to be primed for the early (7:20 am) start. Take care.

I'm Back!

Just a little hiatus over the last couple of days - we went camping on the weekend and unless you count some drinks around the campfire as physical activity that is all that we were doing. The kids had a great time as did we but it is also good to get home as well. Not very much fun as we started painting our fence last night, by the time the two little ones go to bed and we get set up we only have a couple of hours daylight to work (8-10:30 or so) but it is started and we will do some every night provided no rain, and it feels good to get back into running as well.

I went to a spinning class yesterday at lunch and boy do my quads feel it today. I am hoping that my supplementing some classes like these it will help with both my running and shedding a couple of pounds. Today was a pretty good run, I told myself I wanted to do 6 miles and ended up with 6.24 miles with pretty good times. There is a mile marker at one point on the trail so I sprinted for 1/4 of it and eased up for 1/4 followed by sprint for a 1/4 again. Wasn't really trying to to speed work but it worked pretty good.

Total distance: 6.24 miles
Total time: 54:08 minutes
Avg. min/mile: 8:41 min/mile
Laps: 8:32, 8:25, 8:16, 8:44, 8:14, 8:59, 2:54 (last 0.24)

Fairly inconsistent but I was trying a couple of things out, the little bit of 'speed' work I did I could really feel it. Anybody with any tips for increasing speed?

Garmin back on line (sort of)

As I mentioned before I am borrowing my sister-in-laws Garmin and I never knew how much I missed it before. The company that was fixing mine just sent me an email saying that mine has been shipped so it should be here very soon. Anyways today's stats......just a note the Garmin never found a satellite until about 2:30 into my run but none the less it doesn't matter as I'm just training and it's more important that I got out there and ran right?

Total distance: 4.27 miles
Avg: 9:32 min/mile
Laps (1 mile) - 10:32, 8:35, 8:46, 8:56, 3:54

Keeping in mind the first mile was actually around 8:30 as the Garmin didn't register and the last bit was also on the stairs at the end and I was at 14:14 pace.

Changing it up a bit....

I have to! Doing both running and the burn at nights it was wearing me out way too much. I will do at least one intense activity most days and see how it goes. Thursday morning I don't know what happenned with my alarm but I ended up sleeping in and missing the hills. but that night I did do level 2 and felt great. Friday at noon (still Garmin less, I'll get to that in a moment) I did about 6-6.5 miles and took about an hour, no watch either but that is my rough estimate. Took saturday off, we had friends of ours daughters 1st birhtday party and Blake had an absloute blast, played all afternoon with some other kids - fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept in until 08:30 and today he napped for about 3 hours so I knew he was tired. I got up this morning with him, had breakfast and than went for a run about 9:30. My sister-in-law is letting me borrow her 305 model (currently she's on the IR from running) and found out that I missed it more than I thought. I love the Garmin!

Running stats -
Total distance - 7.28 miles
Total time - 1:07:10
Lap times (1.0 mile) - 9:13, 8:55, 9:19, 9:05, 9:13, 9:16, 9:22, 2:44 (end lap)
Avg. - 9:13/mile

Just 1 Day Off!

Well it will be my second day off in the last 4 of the shred - just couldn't do it tonight. With my yard needing some work it had to be done. Did the shred last night, along with a run at noon - followed by the last half of the spin class that was going on. One of the instructors (Gina) waved me over when I was coming back from my run and it felt pretty good. Missing the Garmin like crazy, but some good news - my sister-in-law's ankle has been bugging her and she is down from Ft. McMurray this weekend and she is lending it to me! THANKS AWESOME! And to boot it's a 305 so an upgrade for me! Have the hills in the morining - better get some zzzz's.