16504

16504... That is my BIB number for ING Miami Marathon. It is a bit weird, I usually look forward to a race, but this one I am not really feeling yet. I haven't run in over a month now, afraid that if I start running too soon I will allow the bronchitis to come back. I still have a bit of a cough but maybe the laziness has taken root after a month of not running. Chilly temperatures are not helping either... I will have to get off my butt soon if I want to stand a chance out there in Miami. I did get confirmation that my entry was bumped down to a half, but despite what a lot of people say, a half is not ONLY a half, it's still a respectable distance. I may decide at the last minute to cheer on the racers and forego the medal, who knows.

For all of those interested, Ray the DC Rainmaker is hosting another giveaway. This one is really worthwhile: a 310XT Garmin ForeRunner! So head on over to Ray's giveaway post and comment, blog, tweet and facebook all about it to get more chances!

Halving Miami

Thank you all for your kind words and your thoughtful advice. I have requested to have my registration switched to the half in Miami. I am doing much better now but not well enough to run yet. Hopefully I can start running again later this week and be in decent shape for Miami, otherwise I may skip the race altogether :(

I do have that itch to go out but it would not be wise yet.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 to everyone! You may have seen my tweet already... I wanted to wish everyone all the best for the New Year and lots of PRs and PBs, races, inspiring runs and goals fulfilled. I hope everyone will be happy and have success in all their endeavors and of course, peace on earth!

As for me, I've been very quiet on the training front. That cold I thought I had back in mid December was actually a bronchitis that I am now recovering from (antibiotics, nose spray, inhaler and syrup are part of my daily medication regiment). I've been resting as much as possible to make sure this goes away quickly and I am not sure what to do with Miami. There is a cruise at the end of the race that is non-negotiable but I'm thinking about reducing the distance to a half. It would be a shame to travel to Miami and not run the full course, but with no decent runs in the last 2-3 weeks and only 4 weeks to the race, I'm wondering how much I can rely on muscle memory come race day. I'll see once I am better where the break has left my endurance before I take a definitive decision.

Take care and, again, all the best for 2011. I've met some wonderful people online that inspired me and I hope to continue to build these relationships and give some back over the next 12 months for all that I have received.

Overtrained + C4C

I've been suffering a bit from a cold and I tried to continue training during and I realized that I am really overtraining. Wikipedia lists the following symptoms for overtaining:

• Persistent muscle soreness (Delayed onset muscle soreness)
• Persistent fatigue
• Elevated resting heart rate
• Reduced heart rate variability
• Increased susceptibility to infections
• Increased incidence of injuries
• Irritability
• Depression
• Mental breakdown

Okay, I may not have all of them but I definitively have fatigue, infections and more soreness than usual. The cure has many options from reducing the amount of training to reducing the intensity or doing cross training. I'm not quite sure how to mix up my training with Miami coming at me furiously (less than 6 weeks away now) but I will try to reduce the intensity and maybe even cross train on the bike instead of the shorter medium runs.

This week I did not accomplish the 80km that the training plan wanted. I did finish my 21k tempo but I cut short every other run and ended up with a 19k long run yesterday. The mind just wasn't in it and with the body recovering from a cold, the endurance wasn't there yet either.

Time for Cans for Comments. Christmas has just sneaked up on me this year. I hope you guys realize that it is next Saturday! The malls were crazy yesterday, it took us more time to park than we spent shopping. We got everything we need so let's make sure that less fortunate families also will, comment early and comment often. For each comment, I will give a non-perishable food item to charity.

PS: Thanks to Dalla for the beautiful picture!

Weather woes

Phew, what a weekend. The weather took a turn for the worse here in Ottawa yesterday with Freezing rain, snow and regular rain all mixed up. It looks like all that beautiful H2O has frozen overnight to create very dangerous sidewalks. I'm glad I went for my long run on Saturday morning. The knee didn't complain too much during the run but there is definitively something going on with my mechanics right now, I feel a bit sorer and tighter than I would expect and some muscles I didn't know existed are sore. I think it's because of the snowy/slippery sidewalks, makes for a much more difficult run than dry pavement. The 32km long run took 3h01m, which is about where I want to be for the easy runs. I'll try to rack up the kilometers this week to sync back with my training plan but with the weather we've been experiencing, I'm not sure I'll have enough time with good weather to put in the required 80km...

Thank you for the (1) comment on the Cans for Comments, look for it again this week!

Cans for Comments + Benched

Holidays are fast approaching and while I've been slacking off on the Cans for Comments since September, now is the time to make up for it. It's a simple concept, you comment on this blog post and I donate a can (or other non perishable item) to a local food bank. I'll spice things up for the month of December and add that if you are a blogger and do a C4C on your blog, I'll make your comment count for 10 cans, just mention your blog in the comments. Here is a picture of my last contribution when my friends at foodiePrints made me realize that I skipped over a few months.
Running news aren't that good lately. I had a sensitive left knee that was quite worse than the usual soreness. I decided to bench myself for a while. I could easily have blamed the weather or some other cause. The Truth is that I am not that sad to be benched and get a bit a a break even though I realize that I'm falling behind in training and that Miami is only 7 weeks away.. I had a good stationary bike session on Monday and expect to get back on the road for a short test run tonight... Hopefully it's nothing serious and I can get back to business quickly, I have a 20 miler planned for Sunday after all ;)

Winter Running

Winter is coming fast to Ottawa. While the last few days have been a bit warmer, we've had some snow and ice already. Last Friday's run was a typical winter run and as is the case with most runs, I thought of great topics to blog and one of them was how beautiful it can be running in winter. Unfortunately by the time I got home, all my eloquently composed sentences just drained away like the sweat in the shower. One sentence that I remember had something to do with how magical it can be to turn the music off and appreciate the beauty and stillness of a frozen and desolate landscape with nothing else than the crunching sound of a thin layer of ice breaking under my feet. It sounded better at the time with the moon shining over the freezing water of Dow's lake. I do love running in all kinds of conditions and appreciate the variety of conditions that running in Canada gives me.

Winter running can be scary especially to our southern neighbors who right now are blogging about bundling up for their runs in 40/50 Fahrenheit. The trick is layering up and knowing what works. After a few times only, I had learned to add or remove layers as required. I am always amazed at how comfortable I can be running with so little gear, as long as I don't stop or slow down I am usually okay. Slowing down or speeding up to maintain the body temperature can also be quite helpful if the layering are not quite adequate.

I'm pretty happy that I am back within my training plan this week. While I did shift a few things around doing a 10k and a 16k instead of two 13k runs, the total weekly mileage is exactly where it needs to be. Last Sunday's slow and easy 32km run was also quite fast, especially for the last 7km where I met up with the Frontrunners and got too excited while talking to notice that we sped up significantly :) As a result I've been the sorest I remember being in a long time after a training session.