Royal Victoria Marathon (9-weeks out)

The calm before the storm; I think that phrase best describes my recent week of training. After a reasonably solid two weeks, I used the last seven days to recoup. Truth be told, I don’t feel like I needed the break. Apart from a tight back (which I’m taking care of – thanks Jaymie), my stride feels comfortable and relaxed, and I’ve been managing to log some decent sleep. I suppose it’s better now than to have it forced upon me.

I have a tendency to take each day as it comes, never looking too far down the road. I believe this to be a good quality, particularly when I’m my own coach. That said, it wasn’t until late in the week then that I noticed what lay out in front of me. Four of the next five weeks are monstrous, the bread and butter of my marathon preparation and they’ve snuck up on my like the damn rabbits to my vegetable garden. Perhaps there was some reasoning behind that scheduled rest?

As for the last few days, well, the week rounded out as it started… with some relaxed easy running. I had considered swapping Saturday’s w/o for a 5k track race on Friday evening, but when my sister volunteered to baby-sit, Ally and I took the opportunity to get out of the house (together) for what felt like the first time in months, perhaps longer.

Saturday morning rolled around then, and it was with some trepidation that I drove down to the Oak Bay Track and started a light warm-up. Three weeks earlier I had run a similar session, only this time around I was to add another repeat, 5x1200m at 5k pace.

I don’t know why, but I was nervous about starting the workout. I jogged on the spot for a moment, shook my shoulders out, toed the line and the rest was history. In the end, the session turned out to be quite boring or at least to dull to write much about. I felt like I had a metronome beating inside me, and very uncharacteristically for me chose not to check my splits. Rather I concentrated on a controlled comfortable effort and when I finished I felt I could’ve run at least one more: 3:59, 4:00, 3:57, 4:00, 3:59.

The highlight of the week though was yesterday morning. Carter picked me up and we drove out to Thetis for a great trail run. I can’t remember the last time I was out there, obviously too long.

Here’s to the week ahead and a some solid running, happy trails!

Training:

Wednesday: easy 42:02

Thursday: easy 43:48

Friday: steady 57:02

Saturday: 1:07:55 with 5x1200m (400m) 5kP

Sunday: easy 1:19:40

Weekly mileage: 5h36’43”, +/- 78k or 49 miles