Hills by Accident

Yesterday was one of the warmest days so far at 20C, so I thought it would be a good day to work on getting acclimated to the warmer weather in preparation for my goal race. So I headed out on my long run in the sun and heat. Hard to believe 20C is considered hot, but hey, I live in Canada! Plus it was dry... I had to run in that weather given that we had record-setting rainfall in April.

Two years ago I ran the 10K at Race Weekend. We had no warm weather leading up to the event, so the 20C+ plus weather on race day was a shock to the system! I wanted to take advantage of yesterday's weather to experiment with my hydration needs and clothing. I was also lucky that it was my cutback week, so it was a long run on the shorter side of things at 12K.

I ran on the bike path along the Western Parkway to Island Park. This is the middle of the half marathon route, though it'll be run on the road and not on the path. When I reached Island Park, I was 5K in, so I figured it was an opportunity to finally try the path on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. I ran across the Champlain Bridge... man, that sidewalk is narrow! But it wasn't crowded, so I was able to enjoy the views of the rushing water, the vistas of downtown Ottawa and the noise of the rapids with the birds flying overhead.

I turned right onto the bike path on the Quebec side and ran right along the water. I followed the cyclists in their team gear, figuring they'd lead me back towards Hull. All was flat for another KM or so... but the last 3K? Rolling freaking hills. And steep ones to boot. I hadn't meant to do a hill workout, let alone such a challenging and aggressive one. It was pretty much up-down-up-down, complete with hairpin turns, until I hit Terrasses de la Chaudière. Oye. At least I know where to go if I want a killer hill workout now instead of doing hill repeats in front of the tourists at the locks by the Bytown Museum.

As a result of the accidental hills workout, my left calf is NOT happy today. By the looks of things, it's just a calf strain. I'm icing/stretching as much as I can in an effort to get it back to normal ASAP. My mileage peaks these next two weeks at 37K, with long runs of 20K before I taper. I can cutback the mileage if I need to, but obviously I'd rather not do it unless I absolutely have to.

Overtrained or under iron

I am exhausted.

Aside from that, my legs feel dead about 3K into a run. My pace is reasonable, so I know it's not me starting out too fast or too fast a pace. On my 18K long run on Saturday, I was pulling from an empty tank by the last few KM, with the last KM being a very tough slog. Mind you, I shouldn't have left a hill for the end of my long run - that was a really stupid decision. But even then, I had to really push myself to finish that run and not pack it in at 15K. When I woke up on Sunday, I looked pale and sallow, with very dark circles under my eyes. I get wanting a nap after the run, but I feel way more tired than I think I should be. Certainly there's different food/nutrition/hydration tweaks I could make, but this feels different.

My pace on shorter runs is suffering, too. But my heartrate is okay and my body temps are normal, if not a bit lower than normal. I ran 7K at a reasonable pace, and I'm so tired today that I need toothpicks to keep my eyelids open. I'm tired and winded walking up a flight of stairs.

Am I overtrained? I doubt it. I'm doing reasonable mileage and mileage increases, with reasonable paces. I've got lots of rest days. My only specialty workout is hills, and even then I'm only able to do 4 or 5 repeats and I'm so beat afterwards that I want to stop running. In the Fall I was up to 8 or more repeats and felt strong. The thought of adding in speedworkouts makes me want to puke... I can motivate myself to run hills because I enjoy the challenge of the workout.

I'm thinking that maybe I'm anemic. I got my last panel from October and the hemoglobin was on the lower end of the spectrum, but still in the acceptable range for an adult. I've significantly increased my mileage since then. I think I need a doctor's appointment, stat.

National Capital 5K Race Report

On Saturday I ran the National Capital 5K. I ran this race last year and really enjoyed it, so I decided to run it again this year. Seems like a pretty good reason, don't you think?

This race was one of many events organized on Saturday by Somersault - a local running/triathlon event organizer. There were about 100 people or so in the 5K, but over 1,200 participating in the day's events, which ranged from the 5K to an Olympic distance Triathlon.

Saturday morning's weather was perfect! No wind, clear and about 10C when I left the house. My friend Jen and I headed down to the race together. We parked at Brookfield High School, about a 10 minute walk to the race start. We picked up our kits and I rushed back to the car to drop off our stuff, as there was no on-site bag check. I really have to make that suggestion next year, as there's no on-site parking and I ended up doing the trek to/from the car twice. Hey, at least it was a good warm-up!

The race started promptly at 8:30. A lot of runners started out too fast and this course will make you pay. Knowing that, I started further back in the pack and tried to hold my pace and avoided weaving if possible. It's pretty much all downhill on the way out and all uphill on the way back. I saw one woman pushing her kid in a running stroller... a very ambitious undertaking on that course! This year's route was adjusted slightly due to construction at the turnaround point. Organizers added in a little jut out halfway along the course. I wasn't a fan, but there wasn't much they could do.

The course itself is quite narrow, as it follows a bike path along the scenic Rideau River. A good portion of the run is through a forest. I really like the route as it's entertaining to run and I don't get bored easily.

Overall, I had a good run. I felt strong on the hills, which is what I'd trained for. I didn't improve my best time on the course, but conquering the hills was a really rewarding experience. I managed to pass quite a few people in the 2nd half of the race, including the woman with the kid in the stroller, who faded quite a bit in the second half.

I finished in 33:35, 9/12 in my AG. The 10K winner finished just ahead of me. Man he was fast.

My next race is the Fall Colours 10K. I might sign up for the Army Run 5K, but I haven't decided yet.

What a week

Oh there was certainly something I wanted to write about. But I totally forgot!

This week has been absolutely insane. Our local music festival, Bluesfest, is on. I volunteer there for 6 shifts of 4 hours each. Then hubby meets me and we watch a few shows. We've seen some great ones so far, especially Basia Bulat and Arcade Fire. Passion Pit was awesome, too.

On top of that, work has been nuts, too. I've been working lots of overtime. Thankfully I'm on vacation next week... but the first four days involve a trip to the Baltimore area to visit friends. I need to pack! But I'm definitely looking forward to a change of scenery and a change in running routes.

Tomorrow I plan to get up early to run my hill training. Last week's hilly run didn't go so well, as it was way too hot and I was tired and slightly hungover from the night before. Not a good recipe for a good training run! I missed my Thursday run this week thanks to the craziness at work. I can definitely say I'm looking forward to getting back to a normal schedule again.

Humbling Hills

All is well in running land. I got up early on Sunday to head out for my first workout involving hills. I ran for 15 minutes, walked for 1. Then ran up the steep hill and walked down it twice. The I ran for another 10 minutes and ran up an even steeper hill at the end of my run. I nearly keeled over when I reached the top!

I have to say that I felt pretty out of shape by the end of that workout. I plan to do this each weekend to improve my running on hills, as my regular route is pretty much flat as a pancake and my next two races involve more than a nice gradual incline over 2 or 3 metres!

The rest of the time I'm just taking it easy. Today I'm planning to run 30 minutes and I'm hoping to do it without needing walk breaks.