Cold Comfort
Never fear, I'm still here! Yes, I figured I needed to pun around a bit since there isn't really a lot to report on. My training has been smooth and steady, without any real disruption due to the shifting weather conditions. Rattle-Me-Bones may have been warmer than last year, but things flip-flopped the other way for the Santa Shuffle this past weekend. Though I'd still say that conditions were better at this year's race than they were last year. I'll take snow and windchilled temperatures over ice from freezing rain, anytime. It was still nice to beat last year's time, even if it was more likely due to the conditions having improved, rather than me.
Training has been going well, especially now that I have partners to run with once more. I volunteered as the pace group leader for those pursuing a goal of two hours in the Hypothermic Half, but we've sped up our pace to train for 1:50 instead. The differences in the training paces is pretty small, and anyone more interested in a two-hour finish will still be ready for it come race day.
It's been a lot of fun to group-lead. I was already doing some of it last winter, and luckily the official group leader didn't mind me doing so, but it's nice to be more in charge of my training. I do have to be considerate of those I'm leading, but it also means that I won't cut corners or train too fast. After all, I am supposed to be relaxing and recovering. It certainly helps the group if I am in an enthusiastic and encouraging mood. It looks like this winter is coming on harder than it did last year, so those who are new to running in the cold and snow will need me to be a confident leader.
The Thursday-versus-Tuesday issue that I brought up in a previous post no longer worries me. I believe that the next clinic will be returning to the Tuesday nights, and I'll be more than happy to do quick tempo runs once again, but for now the steady runs have been going well on Thursday nights. And it's nice to go into the hill training sessions on Wednesdays without being quite so tired from a run the night before. That's pretty much become the theme for me this time around: keep things easy. This is my protracted recovery from PEI, before I make another attempt at the National Capital marathon.
Towards that end I've already volunteered to group lead the four hour group for the full marathon clinic. My original clinic instructor will be leading that clinic this time around, and he's very happy to have me as one of his pace group leaders. For all that I intend to finish under four hours myself next May, I don't want to mess with the routine that got me my sub-four-hour finish last year. I just hope he schedules a couple of the long runs from downtown, because I know it really helped me to have rehearsed every part of the race course. As a group leader I'll be more able to put forth the suggestion, if it doesn't look like he's going to do it.
Anyways, that's about all there is going on right now. I've just been dashing through the snow, and smoking it up and down the hills as best my traction will allow. The holidays will disrupt things a bit, as there will be no clinic night during the holiday week, and I'll be visiting my parents the weekend before Christmas. I might even miss the clinic night right before the holidays as we might be going out to see a show then. But this is all pretty much echoing how things went last year, the only difference being that my group will have to lead themselves for the workouts that I am outright missing. Still, now that I've been running with them for a while, I know there's at least one or two people who are strong enough to take up the leadership position in my absence. And I could set up a workout for the cancelled clinic night, if people from my group are available that day. I think I'll bring this up with people on our steady run tonight, so that we can work something out. I just have to confirm the show, first.
Training has been going well, especially now that I have partners to run with once more. I volunteered as the pace group leader for those pursuing a goal of two hours in the Hypothermic Half, but we've sped up our pace to train for 1:50 instead. The differences in the training paces is pretty small, and anyone more interested in a two-hour finish will still be ready for it come race day.
It's been a lot of fun to group-lead. I was already doing some of it last winter, and luckily the official group leader didn't mind me doing so, but it's nice to be more in charge of my training. I do have to be considerate of those I'm leading, but it also means that I won't cut corners or train too fast. After all, I am supposed to be relaxing and recovering. It certainly helps the group if I am in an enthusiastic and encouraging mood. It looks like this winter is coming on harder than it did last year, so those who are new to running in the cold and snow will need me to be a confident leader.
The Thursday-versus-Tuesday issue that I brought up in a previous post no longer worries me. I believe that the next clinic will be returning to the Tuesday nights, and I'll be more than happy to do quick tempo runs once again, but for now the steady runs have been going well on Thursday nights. And it's nice to go into the hill training sessions on Wednesdays without being quite so tired from a run the night before. That's pretty much become the theme for me this time around: keep things easy. This is my protracted recovery from PEI, before I make another attempt at the National Capital marathon.
Towards that end I've already volunteered to group lead the four hour group for the full marathon clinic. My original clinic instructor will be leading that clinic this time around, and he's very happy to have me as one of his pace group leaders. For all that I intend to finish under four hours myself next May, I don't want to mess with the routine that got me my sub-four-hour finish last year. I just hope he schedules a couple of the long runs from downtown, because I know it really helped me to have rehearsed every part of the race course. As a group leader I'll be more able to put forth the suggestion, if it doesn't look like he's going to do it.
Anyways, that's about all there is going on right now. I've just been dashing through the snow, and smoking it up and down the hills as best my traction will allow. The holidays will disrupt things a bit, as there will be no clinic night during the holiday week, and I'll be visiting my parents the weekend before Christmas. I might even miss the clinic night right before the holidays as we might be going out to see a show then. But this is all pretty much echoing how things went last year, the only difference being that my group will have to lead themselves for the workouts that I am outright missing. Still, now that I've been running with them for a while, I know there's at least one or two people who are strong enough to take up the leadership position in my absence. And I could set up a workout for the cancelled clinic night, if people from my group are available that day. I think I'll bring this up with people on our steady run tonight, so that we can work something out. I just have to confirm the show, first.