The Boston Marathon has turned out not to be possible for me. I spent three months babying my knee (after just barely beginning to run regularly in the fall) and still, within a month of starting marathon training it was as
Zwifting on a Stac Zero
Yeah, a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have had any idea what the title of this post meant either. But for the past week, after more than a year of waiting, it’s become a part of my daily life. Well, at
BQ
The stars aligned, and I had a really good race. In my last post I said “I would be happy, now four years older and well on the far side of 50, if I could better my 4:24 time from
Ready to Taper
T minus ten days to the marathon. Because the training schedule I’m using has a short taper, and I further offset it by two days to fit my weekly schedule, I still technically have one more tempo run to do. But I’m going
Fitting the miles in (Week 15/18)
This week is proving very difficult to fit my training in. I’ve had to give up cross-training on the bike because I’m out of town. But a combination of meetings, symphony rehearsals, performances, driving across the province and the impending onslaught of Music
PRs
Ah, I was right. I’m getting faster! My weekend run was a 14.5k tempo run. It was sunny and I was feeling good, running at a moderate exertion level. About 5k into it I checked my Garmin and noticed that
Marathon Training Week 12
Oh boy this past couple of weeks has been tough. First I pulled part of the soleus muscle in my right calf. And then within hours I got sick. It’s all good now, but it’s been a heck of a couple of weeks. When
Marathon Training: Week 10
This week: First truly long run (23k) done. Fifth and final set of speed intervals done. These were big mental hurdles for me, especially the speed intervals. The speed interval training I’m doing reminds me of the Couch-to-5k program I used
Marathon Training: Week 8
Eight weeks down, ten to go. Nearing the half-way point my training. That would feel like a big accomplishment, except that training is always back-heavy. The second half contains most of the hard work. Deep breath. The weather has been crazy
Avalanche run
As soon as I left home I could hear them: shells exploding, dropped by a helicopter as part of avalanche control efforts along the highway. So I wasn’t surprised to see a line of cars waiting to be given the all-clear
Marathon Training: Week 6
I’m proud of my 28 black boxes. They mean I have done some sort of aerobic workout (running, biking or both) every day for the past 28 days. My total time spent exercising is going up by about an hour a week,
Something of Substance
This is where I really start training. It’s no longer about just building mileage through daily runs. SOS stands for “something of substance” and it refers to runs that have a particular training focus. There will be three of these
The trainer
Well thank goodness. I was just getting sick. That was why I was feeling so tired. Two days and three nights of low-grade fevers, aching legs, headache and fatigue. Then … nothing. My immune system seems to have won. So, this
Cumulative fatigue
It’s a good thing, supposedly. At least in this case. But I’m feeling it today! The idea is to train your body for endurance without doing outrageously long or difficult workouts, but by simply doing them frequently enough that your
Here I go!
I took the plunge the other day and signed up for a marathon at the beginning of May. The idea had been rattling around in the back of my head for at few months and I didn’t feel like I was