Baby explosion

I just found out what happens when a baby doesn't poo for 3 days. No, the baby doesn't explode. But there is an explosion of a different type.

6 more days

I just want to get this marathon over with... But instead, I need to agonize for 6 more days.

Knee problems

When I woke up last Tuesday, my knee was feeling kinda funky. So I decided to play it safe and skip my run.

Yesterday (being Wednesday), my knee felt fine so I did my usual workout of a short easy run. Everything felt fine.

Today, I had a tempo run scheduled. Everything was great until after my run. Now it's stiffening up, and I'm nervous about my marathon in 1.5 weeks. I don't think it's injured per se, just hurt a little bit. I hope there's still plenty of time for it to heal up and not re-injure during the race. I need to stay injury-free until my 50 mile in July.

Running in the heat

I had my last long run today in preparation for the Manitoba Marathon in two weeks. The forecast said it was a high of 16, so I thought everything was going to go my way. I was wrong.

It turns out it was quite a bit warmer, and quite a bit sunnier than forecasted. Had I known how far off they were, I would have scheduled my run first thing in the morning instead of over lunch. After 12 miles, I knew things were going wrong. My heart was racing, despite my relaxed pace. I had also stopped sweating. I still had about a litre of water left in my water bladder, but every time I took a sip my stomach turned. I already bailed out of one run this training cycle, and I wasn't ready to bail on another one.

Fortunately, my running route takes me through the University of Manitoba. I paused my workout and dashed into the first building I ran by. The air conditioning was heaven-sent. And for some strange reason, this building only had water fountains on the third floor (eep!). This cool-down was going to have to be earned. Managed to cool myself off by dunking my head in the water fountain and standing on an air conditioning vent until I had goose bumps. Heading out with my now cooled-down body, it didn't take long before I started suffering again. With only 3 miles left in my run, I had to take a walk break in a shady section in the hopes I'd cool off again.

With 1.5 miles left, I broke down. I stopped running and rested in the shade of a tree beside the sidewalk. Fortunately, I was able to drink again without my stomach turning. And I felt my heart rate slowing down. After about 5 minutes of resting, I managed to run back home at a normal pace.

I celebrated my failed long run with a punishing ice bath. Good thing Christine & Bean were out of the house, or they would have had to endure my screams of icy pain.

Slowwork and Speedwork

Had a bad run on Sunday. Went out with the intention of completing 20 miles, but only got 13 done. A combination of lack of food and heat caused my downfall. Ah well, that's the way it goes some times. Unfortunately, now I'm getting the urge to "make up for it". I know that's the wrong thing to do, but I'm also feeling like I should be increasing my mileage up into the 70s. So I'm going to start slowly increasing my Saturday runs from 10 miles to 20.

As for speedwork, I again went to the Roadkill speedwork session at the Grant Park track. It was still rather warm this evening, so I took things a bit easier than on previous weeks. Apparently, I wasn't the only one doing that. I still managed to finish the workout, despite feeling rather sluggish. I guess even a bad speed workout is better than no speed workout.

Doh!

Just learned that a BQ in my age group is a 3:10. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to run that fast. I think 3:20 may be doable with a lot of training, but those next 10 minutes would be insane for a fat man like me. :)

WPS Half Marathon 2010

This last Sunday, I ran in the 2010 Winnipeg Police Service half marathon. This has been a year of great improvement in my running. And my result in the race proves that. I started off with a goal of 1:45:00, which would have been a PB by over 6 minutes. I ended with a time of 1:43:43! And the last mile was my fastest ever (even in training). I still had lots of fuel left in the tank at the end of the race. So maybe I'm in better shape than I thought I was?

Punching the numbers into the McMillan running calculator, it shows that I should aim for a 3:38:44 marathon. Yikes! That would be over an hour faster than my last marathon. And it's dangerously close to BQ territory (I would need a 3:20).

It's hard for me to get my head around the idea of me being a fast runner. I've always thought I had better endurance and guts than speed. Maybe it's time I started re-evaluating myself? If I get close to my McMillan time, then I'll probably pour on the training and aim for an early spring marathon with the goal of getting a BQ. Which will leave the rest of the season for accomplishing that goal if I fail on my first try. If I do get a BQ, then I'll be at Boston in 2012. But all this Boston talk is still a ways out. I need to concentrate on getting a sub-3:45 at the Manitoba Marathon first.