Alright, I’m doing it 1/2 at Bluenose this year! What? But you said it was too early in the season for a half! You said this year was for olympic triathlons? Yeah well I lied and it is! Plus it’s the 15th anniversary and I have a big surprise to reveal for this Bluenose weekend! And if you pay more money AND do two races you get a second medal! Sign me up!
I’m starting to get the hang of this blogging thing after a year. So I decided to add a weekly post, a short one, after this one to update ya’ll and you know motivate my skinny butt to get out there and train. And to reveal and build suspense for my big surprise. But it’s a IRL (in real life) non Internet click bait surprise involving real people so I can’t spill the beans until after the race. They’ll be shorter posts for the most part but they’ll also include details about a couple of new senior runners taking on their very first 5k! What? That’s right my mom and stepdad (mostly step dad) have decided to cross run a race off their bucket lists!
What I’m thinking for this race season
For a great post on how to plan a race season check this out! But using that as a guideline I’m prepping for an olympic this year in the last half of July. I’m hoping to get that done in about 3-ish hours so running a half in over two will go a long, long way to getting my fitness level to where is needs to be. My longest long run in half training will have me on my feet about that long. That and the two medal thing, yeah, take my money! I’ve done the 10k at bluenose for the last two years including raising $3000 for the brain tumour foundation last year but I’m itching for something different, something bigger this year.
Last year my olympic triathlon training went off thee rails for a variety of reasons and I want through the 4 stages of grief about it. About 4 weeks in the race got moved up, 8 weeks moved up. Then I used denial, I can find another one… then blame, my cousin’s wedding got in the way. But really not having a race really held me back from accomplishing my goals. That an my knee might have derailed me anyway. Once I complete the 1/2 on the 20th of May I’ll take a week off then have 7 weeks to get to where I need to be for the big one! I plan to focus on swim and bike training in those weeks. Plus Michelin tire trot again this year, who can resist a free race?
Running coaching person is me
Intentionally awkwardly worded as I am not an actual run coach. But I will be doing the 5k on Saturday with my stepdad and potentially my mom, as long as my sister isn’t giving birth, and training with them. Mom is going to train anyway just in case she can go, exciting! Since they are both retired I plan on making them bend to my schedule… but I’m going to get them to do a couch to 5k program. I want them to each do one solo run a week but I’ll do the other two with them potentially making them drive me home after if I run there. I wrote a bit about it in a race recap my mom did with me but I would love for them to make some healthier lifestyle adjustments because I love those crazy kids!
Getting prepared
Training starts on the 25th! I haven’t been running a whole lot in January only logging 35 km because work has kept me moving a lot, 2 truckloads of gravel in buckets a lot, but also cold, snow, busy teaching schedules and some dramatics about all that. But I’ve been busy base building for the last month and I’m back up to three runs and about 20 km a week now. I printed off my Realistic 1/2 Marathon Training Plan and added all of the dates to the schedule so I’m rearing to go! I have completed a number of training plans in the past and I’m fining myself weirdly relishing this last week of apparent nothingness before it all starts again. Am I alone in that or is cherishing that last week before training ‘normal’?
I also went out and bought some brand new kicks. The thing about 1/2 marathon training specifically is that it takes about as many km as a pair of sneakers has on them. So if you start in a new set they’ll be dead on race day or you’ll be breaking in a new pair. A few months ago I switched to Asics from Adidas but this past weekend a snowy frostbite 5 miler had me digging out my old Adidas trail runners with over 500 km on them. I usually have two pairs on the go a set of higher quality race shoes I use for long runs and spadework and a cheaper more trail-is pair for junk miles and slippery days as well as the odd trail run. So I bought a pair of those this week on sale. Once I log about 100 km in them you’ll all see a review here. They are the Asics gel venture 6 so stay tuned!
A couple of weeks ago I also bought a ‘Bluenose’ outfit at Joe Fresh that’s super cute, you’ll have to stay tuned to see that though. No that’s not the big surprise, I’ll be wearing it in training to make sure it works well, I just need the weather to warm up first! Finally I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to squeeze in all that running and somedays I’m going to have to eeeekk GET UP EARLY! Saturday and Sunday runs are no problem, I think I’ll do my Wednesday speed work at night since it kinda tuckers you but Tuesdays and Thursday easy runs might have to be at sunrise, especially when they get longer. For a whole host of practical 1/2 tips check out this post! It also includes a training plan excerpt!
Sweat Sweetly 