You know your getting fitter when

You get home from your workout and you still feel like cutting the grass. Of course I might have been motivated by the fact that we're leaving on holidays in 5 days and it has to get done. But at least I still have the energy to get it done. When I first started running again 4 years ago this would not have been possible without serious strain to the body. Anyway it just nice to be able to do things and still have energy left. That's got to be a big reason for doing all this exercise.

Tonights run was in three parts. First part on my own to get my Peak run in; second part with Jo-Anne for her 20 minutes and then my regular Monday commitment with the Running Running and the Learn to Run clinic. A busy couple of hours. It was nice to run with Jo-Anne.

Nuitrition was good today. Had lunch at the Table which is a vegetarian buffet which we like to call our fast food place. Every thing is ready as soon as you arrive and its good for me. Lots of really great salads. Helps process the big steak (insert smile here) I had on the barbeque last night.

Tomorrow is back to Peak for strength and conditioning and my runs. Hopefully the rain is finished by the time I head over there tomorrow.

Morning weight:- 199.6 lbs

Planned workout:-
- 60 min mid zone 1
- 3 k with the Learn to Run group at the Running Room

Actual Workout:-
- 35 min mid zone 1 on my own
- 20 min low zone with Jo-Anne
- 3.2k with the Learn to Runs

Another weekend passes

This weekend had its highs and lows for running. Friday was my regular day off, Saturday was a Peak Centre day and Sunday was my long (hot) run.

My nutrition on Saturday was really good. The workout went well and I felt amazing on the run. Sunday was not the same story. I felt off right from the beginning. Not to panic, this was a really good opportunity to run under less than ideal conditions. I think because of the heat and humidity I was dehydrated before I even started. Fortunately, I took a route with lots of water fountains. I did find it harder to consume my calories, so again another challenge to work through. I think in the end I did consume enough calories. Nonetheless, I was glad to be done at the end as this one was simply hot.

We started our summer Yoga class Sunday afternoon. Do I ever need it. Even with regular stretching, there are a number of areas that just don’t get stretched the same way we do during the yoga class. I think it comes down to the fact that we don’t stretch for 90 minutes after a run but that’s how long the yoga class is. What’s going to be a shame is that we’ll mix the next two Sundays because of holidays.

Have to keep this short as work is calling for the day. Back to a regular run week after last week’s rest week. The rest week was nice.

Morning weight:- 199.6 lbs

Workouts:-
Saturday
- 15 min warm-up
- strength and conditioning workout
- 35 cool down(schedule total run 45 minutes)

Sunday
- 15 minutes low zone 1
- 85 min high zone 1 (9.8 km/h – 10.8 km/h)
-20 minutes low zone 1

Ended up warming up by taking the ‘Learn to Run’ group out at the Running Room first. This was a very, very slow warm-up which is an ideal way to start. Went out for the scheduled run after the warm-up.

Where did all the humidity go :-)

Finally in the last couple of days the humidity has broken. It’s been warm but not over-whelming. The mood change at the running room on Wednesday was quite noticeable.

You can really see how the body is not working as hard. Tonight I was out for an hour and my average heart rate (137 b/min) was lower than my old runs use to be. You almost feel guilty as if you’re not working hard enough. I was running at the correct speed, so yes I was working hard enough. I think in general you just feel better without the intense humidity.

This week is a real struggle to get my blogging in as the Tour de France has started. I’ve watched that race for many years now and it never fails to draw me in. I’ve been taping the live coverage every morning and watching in the evenings. Some nights I have to fast forward through a lot to fit it all in. I always listen to the pre-race commentary, the last 10-k and as much of the middle as can be fit in. Tonight I’ve only got about 30 minutes to see the last 10k and anything else.

My weight hovered at 200 lbs Tuesday and Wednesday. Today it finally dipped down to 199. I need to be consistently bringing it down bit by bit. Although the weight loss was good this morning, I did not eat as much as I should have last night after my workout. I got to bed last night (after watching the tour) and realized that I was still hungry. When that happens, it usual takes me a while to get to sleep. Last night was no exception. I was fortunate in that I had some flexibility this morning in my schedule and was able to start the day a little later. It’s a fine line with getting the right nutrition at the right time. Last night was off. Today has been really good not surprisingly.

Workouts:
Tuesday
- 35 min warmup
- Strength & condition program (start of new month)
- 45 min cool down (missed 5 minutes of a planned 50 minutes)

Wednesday
- 10.5 k Average 11.7k/h
- 7 k mid to low zone 1

Today
- 60 minutes zone 1 over a rolling course

Morning Weight:- 199.0 lbs

Easy miles tonight

Nothing tough again tonight. Still in recovery mode. In fact the whole week is a rest week.

Ran with Jo-Anne for 20 minutes for my first run today. This easier pace is actually a really good transition into my runs. I remember readying last year that the Kenyans always start really, really easy for their training runs. This has always made a lot of sense to me.

The second run tonight was my regular run taking out the Learn to Run (LTR) clinic for 20 minutes. We were all really happy tonight that we missed the rain. After we all arrived at the Running Room tonight the rain came down in torrents. Anybody that was outside would have been just drenched. The rain gods were on our side however as the rain let up by the time we were ready to go. The group ran a nice steady pace which makes my job a lot easier as everyone stays together that way.

My Peak schedule had me doing 45 minutes on my own. After the LTR clinic I went for another 40 minutes all in zone 1. I was moving better today but was happy that it was an easy day. Maybe two easy days right after a race is not a bad thing. This time this has really worked well for me.

Back to work tomorrow and to Peak tomorrow night for my strength and conditioning workout. Off to bed to make sure I get some good sleep tonight. Sleep has got to be paramount this week.

Workout:-
- 20 minutes sub to low zone 1
- 20 minutes low zone 1
- 40 minutes mid zone 1

Sunday group run

Some days are just tougher than others. Yesterday was one of days.

It wasn't because we ran hard; we didn't. It wasn't because we ran long; we didn't. It was definitely humid but not too hot yet. Mentally it was just a hard day.

In total we ran 15 k and that was quite enough for me. We started with a larger group which was nice. Some wanted to go further. Mel and I kept it to 15 k. Others did the Bank Street bridge for 17k and Dave was looking to go 20 or 21k.

The day after a race is always a funny day. Physically I felt fine but I know that my body still needs to recovery. The micro-cellular damage from racing always takes a couple of days to recovery from. Still, all-in-all its better to run the day after to shake out the lactate acid and to get the legs ready to get back to regular training.

Later in the day we were lucky enough to be invited to a great barbeque. The location was right along the Ottawa River which was really beautiful yesterday. A few of us got in for a short refreshing swim. The waves were crashing over our heads once we got out a bit further. Makes me realize how much I miss swimming.

Definitely ate too much at the barbeque. It was just all so good. I’ll have to be cautious with that over the summer as the scale showed a three pound difference this morning. By tomorrow most of that will be gone but it was still a lot. Need to keep focused on my weight loss goal.

Morning weight (Monday):- 204.2
Sunday Workout:- 15k zone 1

Canada Day 10k Race

Beautiful morning and a surprisingly great result. The day started out not too hot which was just fine with me. Had the race been any later in the day I’m sure the heat would have been a problem. Running in all the heat of the last few weeks has helped a lot.

I thought for sure that I would run no better than 46 or 47 minutes today. I’ve done no speed work or given any specific focus to the 10k. I ended up running 44:57.3 today.

This results I think goes to show that all the hours I’m putting in with the Peak program is helping my overall fitness. In particular today I felt very strong on the short hills on this course. No big hills just lots of little rolling hills.

I went through the first k in the 4:38 gun time which I thought was a good start, not too crazy. I was not quite realizing that that was in fact closer to 4:32 chip time. When I hit the second k in a total of 9:02 chip time I was pleasantly surprised. At this point I was still feeling quite good.

Now here’s the dilemma. My Garmin 305 tells me that I ran 62 meters past 10k. If this had been the Garmin 301 I would have said that it lost the signal a few times. The new 305 however has been quite good a keeping my position and not losing the satellites. Also I always try and run as close as I can to the shortest path. So I think that the distance must have been off by some. Whether 62m or not is up for debate but it was certainly a bit more than 10k.

Why all the fuss about the distance? 4:57.3 is exactly 0.1 sec longer than my PB. It makes it clear to me that this was in fact a PB today. And that’s the part that is such a shocker. Thank you Peak.

Now today was also fantastic for a second reason. My wife ran her first official 5k today. Not only that, she did really well. What was also great was that there was enough time between my 10k and her race for me to run it with her. That was really nice. Her official time was 34:16.1 which is better than a 7 min /k pace. Way to go Jo-Anne.

Off to the Running Room tomorrow for medium length run. Not too long as I’ll need some time for recovery from today’s race.

Morning Weight:- 201.4 lbs
Workout:-
- 4k warm up
- 10k race
- 5k cool down