Not really an ending or a beginning...
Despite the ups and downs of the holidays and the thermometer, training continues. Weather's been the only extenuating circumstance to hamper things. I've only missed one scheduled group workout, though sadly it was the store's holiday group run. I tried my best despite extreme snowfall to get there, but was ultimately failed by the public transit system I use to get myself around town. If I had run to the store I might have gotten there in time to meet up with the few who made it out to that run.
Weather cannot be argued with, but it can be compromised with. For another recent run, a Sunday morning long distance one, was also curtailed by extreme weather conditions, just days before my mishap with the buses. We were supposed to do 16km, but the forecast was calling for a record snowfall over the course of that day, and it was already starting in the morning. So, I proposed that we do 4km loops around the area of the store, so that we were never more than a few kilometres from the store, which would give us the option of cutting the run short any time we passed the store, depending on the worsening weather conditions. This had the added benefit of a touch of psychological preparation for the clinic's goal race, which is done as a series of four out-and-back loops in the Central Experimental Farm, such that we will end up running the same track eight times. It's great for keeping track of split times, but it can seem a bit boring and annoying to pass the start/finish so often. Anyways, we ended up only being able to do two loops (half the intended distance) because of a bit of a whiteout condition that developed as we were heading back to the store to finish the second loop. We still were pretty proud that we had gotten out there and done something, rather than skipping the whole session.
Over the holidays, I once again joined the Running Room in Pointe Claire for a Sunday morning run while visiting my parents. They are once again three weeks behind Ottawa in preparation for their Hypothermic Half Marathon, so their workout was a little farther than mine was scheduled to be. Just like last year, they elected to run to top of the big hill in Île Bizard and back, so it was really nice to actually have some clue as to where we were going again. And I met up with someone intending to take the spring marathon clinic back at my store, and was interested in joining my pace group. She'll probably find us slower on the long runs than the Pointe Claire store takes them--I am glad I just visit those speed demons once a year!
The Resolution Run on New Year's Eve was another PB for me, where I actually knocked off a couple seconds from my PB at RMB two months ago. It was great to run it without the injury I endured at last year's event, and the weather was really nice to us, too. Plus we got to see some of the fireworks the NCC had scheduled for the early evening. The cherry on top of it all was that I was able to get a ride home early enough that we could attend a wonderful party later that evening where I shared my fresh triumph with friends (and got tipsy).
2007 was definitely an amazing year for my running, but with training for the Hypothermic Half Marathon climaxing with less than a month to go, it's hard to really say that this is a new beginning. My running year really culminates with the National Capital Race Weekend every May, though I doubt I'll take as long a break after this year's marathon as I did last year. I have the first half of 2008 firmly planned out vis à vis running...but I just don't know what my autumn goal race will be, so that throws the second half of the year into a very strange and unsettling state of limbo. I don't think I'll be able to decide that until June. I'd like to do the PEI marathon again, just so that I can do it more successfully than I did it this time around. I'd also like to do a race in Montreal sometime soon, possibly the half marathon in September (traded with a long distance training run for the PEI marathon, perhaps).
But then there's Athens, my dream race, and intended second honeymoon. We want to return to Greece, and that race is going to be my excuse to do just that one day. The thing is, I really want to repeat the PEI marathon, to wreak my revenge on it, so to speak. But it is too close to the Athens Classic Marathon to go for the full distance twice in one season. So, Athens will probably have to wait. Doesn't mean I can't shake my autumn up a bit, like I will be doing this spring with the Around the Bay 30km Road Race in Hamilton taking the place of a 29km LSD run at the end of March. Hmm...perhaps the second half of 2008 is taking shape earlier than I thought within the mists of the future.
Weather cannot be argued with, but it can be compromised with. For another recent run, a Sunday morning long distance one, was also curtailed by extreme weather conditions, just days before my mishap with the buses. We were supposed to do 16km, but the forecast was calling for a record snowfall over the course of that day, and it was already starting in the morning. So, I proposed that we do 4km loops around the area of the store, so that we were never more than a few kilometres from the store, which would give us the option of cutting the run short any time we passed the store, depending on the worsening weather conditions. This had the added benefit of a touch of psychological preparation for the clinic's goal race, which is done as a series of four out-and-back loops in the Central Experimental Farm, such that we will end up running the same track eight times. It's great for keeping track of split times, but it can seem a bit boring and annoying to pass the start/finish so often. Anyways, we ended up only being able to do two loops (half the intended distance) because of a bit of a whiteout condition that developed as we were heading back to the store to finish the second loop. We still were pretty proud that we had gotten out there and done something, rather than skipping the whole session.
Over the holidays, I once again joined the Running Room in Pointe Claire for a Sunday morning run while visiting my parents. They are once again three weeks behind Ottawa in preparation for their Hypothermic Half Marathon, so their workout was a little farther than mine was scheduled to be. Just like last year, they elected to run to top of the big hill in Île Bizard and back, so it was really nice to actually have some clue as to where we were going again. And I met up with someone intending to take the spring marathon clinic back at my store, and was interested in joining my pace group. She'll probably find us slower on the long runs than the Pointe Claire store takes them--I am glad I just visit those speed demons once a year!
The Resolution Run on New Year's Eve was another PB for me, where I actually knocked off a couple seconds from my PB at RMB two months ago. It was great to run it without the injury I endured at last year's event, and the weather was really nice to us, too. Plus we got to see some of the fireworks the NCC had scheduled for the early evening. The cherry on top of it all was that I was able to get a ride home early enough that we could attend a wonderful party later that evening where I shared my fresh triumph with friends (and got tipsy).
2007 was definitely an amazing year for my running, but with training for the Hypothermic Half Marathon climaxing with less than a month to go, it's hard to really say that this is a new beginning. My running year really culminates with the National Capital Race Weekend every May, though I doubt I'll take as long a break after this year's marathon as I did last year. I have the first half of 2008 firmly planned out vis à vis running...but I just don't know what my autumn goal race will be, so that throws the second half of the year into a very strange and unsettling state of limbo. I don't think I'll be able to decide that until June. I'd like to do the PEI marathon again, just so that I can do it more successfully than I did it this time around. I'd also like to do a race in Montreal sometime soon, possibly the half marathon in September (traded with a long distance training run for the PEI marathon, perhaps).
But then there's Athens, my dream race, and intended second honeymoon. We want to return to Greece, and that race is going to be my excuse to do just that one day. The thing is, I really want to repeat the PEI marathon, to wreak my revenge on it, so to speak. But it is too close to the Athens Classic Marathon to go for the full distance twice in one season. So, Athens will probably have to wait. Doesn't mean I can't shake my autumn up a bit, like I will be doing this spring with the Around the Bay 30km Road Race in Hamilton taking the place of a 29km LSD run at the end of March. Hmm...perhaps the second half of 2008 is taking shape earlier than I thought within the mists of the future.