Week in review

Phew, the week flew by. After Tuesday's track workout, I did a quick 8km (38:44) on my lunch time on Wednesday. On Thursday, I ran in to work for a 24km workout. At first I thought it would be real slow and after 10km, I started experiencing sensitivity in my right knee. After a brief painful moment where my knee felt like it was being pricked by a needle, everything calmed down and I was able to reach some good speed and get to work in time for my meetings with a time of 2h03 (~5:10m/km pace). Funny enough, my knees haven't felt better in weeks since that workout. I guess something needed stretching and that brief painful moment was just that happening. I'll keep an eye on them still.

Today, Sunday, was the long run. The weekly ritual for all long distance runners. I had a 35km to do and I really didn't feel like it. I got out of bed (15 minutes later than planned) and, after a bit of procrastination, hit the road. Whoever arranged this perfect running weather for Ottawa has my full gratitude. Low single digit temperature with sunny skies made the difficult distance easier to handle.
I ran into quite a bit of wind, but that's all right, it will just end up making me stronger, I guess. I usually cruise through the long slow runs at an almost tempo pace. I recognise the value and benefits of the slow run but I just don't like feeling sluggish. I didn't really have a choice today as the combination of kms already in the bank, poor nutrition and fairly late bed time yesterday made the engines cringe when I tried to push past a 5:45m/km. The fact that yesterday's thai dinner was really not enough to fuel me for the entire duration became really obvious after km 25 where things started slowing down even more. I finished in 3h26m (5:55m/km pace, not bad for the conditions).

With a total of 85km this week, I'm tracking pretty good to the training plan. I wish I has been a bit faster today but my legs feel great so that's definitively a positive aspect. Next week's long run is back down to 32km even as my total remains 85km. I'll have to look back at last year's summer routes. I used my old winter routes on the road this week since I was too busy to design a scenic route through the numerous and beautiful paths and parks available around here.

In the mix today was Sun Project's Zwork, Daniel Belanger's Nous, AC/DC's Blow up your video and OOOD's Breathing Space.