Training Log Archive: Bash

What an amazing day for the Toronto Marathon! Brilliant sunshine and temperature rising to over 10C. It was a great day for running, but for me, it was all on sidewalks in my street clothes. More on that shortly.

Rather than watching the start, I parked near the top of the Hogg's Hollow hill, around 4-5 km into the marathon. Great view of the sea of runners coming out of North York!



Bender came by, right on pace for a 3-hr marathon - yay!



The 3:10 pace bunny showed up soon afterward, and not far behind him were 'Bent and Goose! Aacck - too fast! It was the first marathon for both of them, and they had decided to run it only five days ago. It was too late to do real marathon training, so they mostly just tapered.



Then I drove downtown with the plan of parking near the finish, then meeting the boys at the 21 km mark with full bottles. I was also going to take their extra layers from the start of the race. But the traffic was so snarled in downtown Toronto that I ended up parking some distance away, and I ran for 15 minutes to the corner of Wellington and York where I was supposed to meet them. (Ouch, I didn't have the right shoes for that.) I got there just before Bender - phew. The boys still seemed to be the same distance behind the 3:10 pace bunny, so I guess that's the pace they ran for the last 16 km. They looked relaxed and seemed to be having a blast.



I walked up to the finish line at Queen's Park. The winner came in at 2:29, and there were only 5 runners under 2:45. Bender sailed in at around 3:08.



Goose had told 'Bent to go ahead at 40 km, but they still finished 6 seconds apart! 'Bent's time was 3:18:52, well ahead of his 3:30 Boston qualifying time - woo hoo!





The guys didn't even have the decency to look tired afterward. They'd been aiming for 3:20, but it looks like they should set their sights higher if they do another one (other than Boston, which isn't so good for PBs).

Event: Ottawa Orienteering Club Rogaine
 

I interviewed someone for an article in Bolton this morning, then parked 'Bent's van behind Leanimal's office and ran back to Palgrave! I'd been thinking about doing the Toronto Half Marathon tomorrow while Goose and 'Bent do the full marathon, but the late postponement of the CN MTB-O event meant that I would have to go to the Running Expo in downtown Toronto to enter the race in person, since the online registration was closed. I figured that I'd save $80 and just run my own half-marathon (+ 400 m). My time was sloooow, but it's a very hilly route, mostly on trails, with a significant net climb.

Route was Leanimal's office to Hwy 50, back to Goose's Corner, then over to the Humber Valley Trail, which I followed for its full length, finishing where the rail trail meets Humber Station Road. Then rail trail to Duffy's Lane to the Bruce Side Trail by Crash's place, then home. I had my only face plant of the day on the Bruce about 2 meters west of Duffy's Lane. Crash probably heard it. I'd been running much of the day without being able to see the roots, rocks or trail surface due to the multi-coloured carpet of leaves. I'd had one half ankle turn and left the trail briefly on two occasions, but the only place I tripped was on a section of trail that I've probably travelled a thousand times!

It was a spectacular day to be out in the woods - brilliant sunshine and the final weekend of awesome autumn leaves. I was a little overdressed, but otherwise felt good until the final few km when I was really dragging and looking at my GPS a *lot*.

So now I'm all set to be support crew for 'Bent and Goose at tomorrow's marathon!

For those who may not have heard, the Caledon Navigators have postponed this Sunday's MTB-O event until 2009.

Hilly 5K trail loop in Palgrave West. The autumn forest was spectacular in the late afternoon light - wish I'd brought my camera. The cold air felt fantastic. I'm such a princess when it comes to warm weather.

Unfortunately, Caron broadened her horizons over the summer. Painful new exercises have suddenly appeared in her workouts with explanations like "I saw this on YouTube" or "This comes from Brazilian Martial Arts". And we haven't even progressed to the *really* scary time of year - after she's got us all broken in... Nice to have 'Bent there tonight.

Tonight's yoga included a lot of shoulder stretching. Ouch, my shoulder *likes* being locked in one place.

Since a few people have asked about it, I'll mention it here... After a good 4-year run, we will not be holding the Tree Huggers AR End-of-Season Party this year. I hope that someone else will take up the torch, as I would love to attend as a guest some time!

I ran around our block on a beautiful autumn day - a nice hilly route on country roads. Now I know how the road bikers feel - a cargo van veered onto the shoulder toward me, and the guy driving it flashed me a silly grin. Yeah, he's hilarious.

I was trying to keep the pace up, but not expecting much due to my sore knee, the remnants of my cold, my 4 extra pounds, and my reduced training level since the spring. I haven't found all my previous log entries for this route, but today's time is the lowest I've found so far, which is a pleasant surprise. However, I think I felt more exhausted at the end of today's run than I usually do.

Rodney Yee's Yoga for Flexibility. Need to do more of this!

'Bent and Goose decided this afternoon to do the Toronto Marathon next weekend. 'Bent has been sick, so he's not sure whether to start training or start tapering. Since he had very little free time today, we did some race pace intervals on the Bruce Trail - 2, 3, 4, 3, 2. Other time was warm-up, cooldown and in between.

My knee is still bugging me, atlhough I think it's improving. In any case, it's time for my leg strength exercises after a long hiatus.