Pandemic Running Thoughts (Comments Welcome)

Oakville Half Marathon Race Recap
After months of training and having some starts and stops due to injury, I finally ran my first race since May 2017. And that race wasn't really fully trained for, so I'd say that the Oakville Half Marathon was the first race on my road back from a variety of things that ailed me that I had been able to really train for.

To recap my training, I've been spending the summer building to the Hansons Marathon Method and have built from about 5 miles a week in May after having a foot injury for most of April (peaking at 16.3 miles in the first week of April) to a high of 28 miles two weeks before the half marathon. I've also built up to 6 days of running a week (although some weeks I've missed a run here and there). After a week of rest and a few short/easy runs towards the end of the week, I'll jump into Week 5 of the Hansons Beginner program, running 25 miles, so I'm not going to have to jump up between weeks 4 and 5 of their program the way their program is designed normally.

That said, I haven't been going full-on with speed training. It's been mostly slower mileage designed to build up my base and increase running efficiency, which I've described in a post above.

My goal time was 2:20 for the half marathon but I've also been experiencing some GI issues and a
hemorrhoid
that was extremely uncomfortable for the past couple of days.

I woke up at 5 am, had some naan (NO FIBRE) and water and got in the car at 5:45. The drive to Oakville was quick on an early Sunday morning and I stopped at a Tim Horton's (open 24 hours) one exit on the highway (still in Oakville, and just about 2 km) from my destination to use the washroom and pick up another bottle of water. I then got back on the highway and exited where the designated parking for the race was. I got my gear together and walked to the shuttle bus area.

For a smaller race (about 700 registrants for the half marathon, but more for the 5K and 10K races) the logistics were pretty good. There were ample buses coming in and the wait wasn't too long with the line always moving.

The bus ride was about 5 minutes and after disembarking and walking the rest of the way to the start/finish area (in a fairly well appointed city park by the lake where the race expo was), I found myself in the line for the porta-potties. I figured I should stay in line and took care of business before dropping my baggage and it was a good idea, as I came out a little later, the line was much longer!

The organizers staggered the race times so that the 5K started at 7am from the 5K mark in the 10K loop, the HM started at 7:30 from the start/finish area and the 10k started at 7:45 from the start/finish area. Apparently, they couldn't get permits for their planned route and decided to make the HM runners run the 10K loop twice with an extra km early on looping around a school grounds.

We have a municipal election coming up this month and the current mayor of Oakville's slogan was "Keep Moving Forward." It was as fitting as a motto as I could think of.

Oakville Mayor.jpg

The weather was cool (about 50 degrees) and cloudy and was threatening rain but the overnight rain had stopped by the time we were getting started. We went to the starting line to get ready to go. There was no corral system for such a small race and I situation myself towards the back as the clock got going.

Oakville start.jpg


At 7:31am, we got under way!

Mile 1 - 11:49

I set off at a pretty easy pace. I was being passed all around me (even by an older guy who was powerwalking most of the time) and it was tough to stay within myself and let it feel easy. I noticed immediately that my legs were feeling dead and had no spring to them. My calves were already fatigued and I was truly wondering if I should keep going. I did. Although I didn't really tell myself that the feeling would pass, it was more a "you've signed up and paid your money, so just keep going." Keep moving forward. I picked up my pace a bit after passing the 1K sign.

Mile 2 - 10:57

In this mile, we went into the roundabout school "extra mile," passing the 3k marker towards the end of the loop. I was starting to feel better and by this time, the pack had loosened up and I wasn't being passed by everyone and their grandfather. That would change

Mile 3 - 11:13

At the end of the loop, we rejoined the main course and the 10Kers were now all around us and passing left and right. They looked so energetic and springy in their running. I thought to myself that if I was only running 10K, I might be able to maintain their pace. But I needed to save it. It was around here that I finally started to get into a groove and my legs felt like they had a bit more spring to them.

Mile 4 - 11:05

This wasn't an interesting course to run. Sad to say. A lot of election signs. At the 6km mark, I decided to get back to my long run strategy of inserting periodic walk breaks for 30 seconds (or so). I did this every km to the finish.

Mile 5 - 10:52

Again, not much to say. At this point I was in the groove but there weren't many people on the course to cheer. It was either in mile 5 or mile 6 (around 8.5-9km in the course) there were a group of people who I think worked for a gym or personal training company that was a sponsor of the event who were all out, wearing black and with big black, professionally done signs. They also had a band so that was pretty fun.

Mile 6 - 10:44

At this point, I had started to increase my speed a bit, pushing for negative split. Coming through the turn off for the 10k finishers (down a driveway to the park, about 100 metres), it started to get lonely as the 10K runners tailed off and it was just me and the back-of-the-pack HM'ers continuing on. They had some gels around the 11k marker and I grabbed a few, having forgotten to buy some before. They were using "Honey Stingers" and the taste was very sweet but ok. Since they were using a low-carb sports drink, Nuun, I figured I'd need some energy for the end.

Mile 7 - 10:29

More lonely running. I was counting down the kilometres. 9 to go, 8 to go . . .

Mile 8 - 10:49

Why was this mile slower? I can't remember. It may have been that I had a couple of walk breaks that slowed me down. I was really starting to feel my legs fatigue and my breathing get tougher. I felt a twinge in my right hamstring around the 12k mark but it didn't hurt at all and wasn't presenting a problem.

Mile 9 - 10:34

I was really pushing here. But nothing was really memorable. I ate(?) a second gel here around the 15k mark. I started really counting down the km here and was ready to push for the finish in the last 5k.

Mile 10 - 10:39

Push push push. less than 5k to go. You can do it! Ugh. Why is this so hard? At this point, I was telling myself that my legs know what to do. Just shut off the brain and let the legs do it.

Mile 11 - 10:17

Even with my walk breaks, I've been able to increase my pace but things were starting to really get tough. Mind over matter. I had heard on a running podcast that the mind plays tricks on us -- that we only have enough energy to get to the finish line and then the brain shuts the body down -- so that's a fun thought, knowing that, since I had just a few km left, the brain would keep my legs going.

Mile 12 - 10:14

A net downhill over this mile helped as we swung back down to the lakeshore for the last bit. The group of cheerers in black were still there and that helped give me a burst of energy.

Mile 13 - 10:29

Almost at the finish and not quite there. I saw the 2:30 pacer up ahead and was determined to catch her.

Mile 13+ - 10:10

It was the thought of catching the 2:30 pacer and passing her (she told me to leave her in my dust), maybe about 1/10 of a mile from the finish. I saw the clock seeing the 2:30 on it, knowing that I would probably break that mark in my chip time and finished the race, walking to collect my medal and grabbing a banana.

Final official time: 2:29:38.1

Oakville after.jpg

I really felt like I had left everything on the course today and found the ability to run farther than I had suspected at faster paces.

My Strava had my distance at 13.8 miles, so I obviously didn't run the tangents but it seems to be a little on the high side compared to RunKeeper when using the GPS. I wonder if Strava's use of GPS is more sensitive, counting the "wobbles" back and forth more than RunKeeper's.

Also, Anyone know how to get Strava to display seconds in the summaries of runs? Right now, it just displays hours and minutes. Weird.

Anyway, while I didn't hit my goal, in hindsight, I think my goal was a little too ambitious. Since my "easy" pace was between 12:30 and 13:00 min/mile and my "tempo" runs were in the 11:00 min/mile area (and I hadn't really done much speed training), being able to run the whole race with an average pace 10:45/mile was actually pretty good and the fact that I could peak late in the race and run a negative split was also encouraging.

I felt exhausted at the end but I didn't feel any injuries and I feel fine today. No lingering pains, nothing sharp or acute. Just soreness and tiredness that is to be expected. Maybe a little bit of a cold that I'm coming down with.

So that's the half marathon! In the books, hardware earned. And the race shirt actually fits me (don't get me started on the races where even the XL is too small)!

On to get Mickey's medal in January!
 
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Thank you! How was your race?

Despite starting the race with a tight calf and having issues with my music halfway (I can’t run without music), I had a good race. Next up, Scotiabank. It’s a much bigger race. I did the HM last year and definitely not as boring as Oakville. You should sign up!
 
Despite starting the race with a tight calf and having issues with my music halfway (I can’t run without music), I had a good race. Next up, Scotiabank. It’s a much bigger race. I did the HM last year and definitely not as boring as Oakville. You should sign up!

I've been listening to podcasts lately but I actually turned on the music for most of the Half in Oakville. Hope your calf got better or feels better since you've finished!

I've done the Scotiabank a couple of times (the half twice and the full about a decade ago -- still my PB and will be for my foreseeable future) but I'm not quite ready to run another HM in 3 weeks! Right now, I'm taking it easy for a few days!
 


I wish I took it easy yesterday. I went to a bootcamp class and just about died!

I am thinking of running my first non-Disney marathon next year. What would you recommend? Scotiabank, Goodlife or Mississauga? Someone suggested Ottawa as well. Your thoughts?
 
I wish I took it easy yesterday. I went to a bootcamp class and just about died!

I am thinking of running my first non-Disney marathon next year. What would you recommend? Scotiabank, Goodlife or Mississauga? Someone suggested Ottawa as well. Your thoughts?

Well, I've done Scotiabank and I thought it was pretty good. There's a lot more lakefront time there than in Oakville and it's really cool seeing the elites coming back towards you as you're running the out and back along Lakeshore (unless they've changed the route, but that was a highlight for me).

The year after I ran Scotiabank, I registered for Ottawa (which is in May), but couldn't run it because I was having back issues (and this was when I was in shape, running the marathon in under 4 hours!). I've never done Mississauga or Goodlife, mainly because I've never really been ready to train during the winter for a spring marathon. I might try to get on next year after WDW, mainly because I want to try to keep my fitness level up, but I've usually used the spring for shorter races, like the Sporting Life 10K that goes down Yonge St.
 
Well, I've done Scotiabank and I thought it was pretty good. There's a lot more lakefront time there than in Oakville and it's really cool seeing the elites coming back towards you as you're running the out and back along Lakeshore (unless they've changed the route, but that was a highlight for me).

The year after I ran Scotiabank, I registered for Ottawa (which is in May), but couldn't run it because I was having back issues (and this was when I was in shape, running the marathon in under 4 hours!). I've never done Mississauga or Goodlife, mainly because I've never really been ready to train during the winter for a spring marathon. I might try to get on next year after WDW, mainly because I want to try to keep my fitness level up, but I've usually used the spring for shorter races, like the Sporting Life 10K that goes down Yonge St.
Thanks! I'll have to look at training plans and see how things will fit into my schedule. I don't do well in the heat so that's also a consideration.
Apparently at the Goodlife marathon, you get a HUGE medal.
 
Thanks! I'll have to look at training plans and see how things will fit into my schedule. I don't do well in the heat so that's also a consideration.
Apparently at the Goodlife marathon, you get a HUGE medal.

Yeah, the heat killed me this summer but it made me realize how much better I run when it's cooler and I appreciated the weather on Sunday.

A HUGE medal? Well, that makes it worthwhile! As a member of Goodlife, I've always wondered if I get a discount on their marathon.
 
Just a mini-update. I got back on the treadmill yesterday for a couple of "miles." and felt good taking it easy. Today I'll run 3 miles in the brisk autumn air and then head with my wife to get her a pair of shoes for her attack on the WDW 5K!

In general, I think my recovery from the HM has been very smooth. Sunday was rough with two gigs following the run that involved standing in uncomfortable shoes for long periods of time. Super duper. Monday was an improvement and there was some residual quad soreness on Tuesday but walking to and from the bus when going to work felt good. Wednesday I felt back to myself with a spring in my step but still took the day off.

A couple of more easy runs to finish out the week and then Sunday I begin the "real" marathon training.
 
15 Weeks until WDW Marathon
Wow. 15 weeks to go until the Disney Marathon. It really starts to hit home when you put it like that.

Sunday: Oakville Half Marathon - I've already talked about that.
Monday - off
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - was supposed to run 2 miles but thought I had given myself Wednesday off.
Thursday - 2 miles - 27:13 - on treadmill. very slow.
Friday - 3.19 miles - 40:32 - 12:42/mile - felt comfortable and easy. Avg HR was 113
Saturday - "3.5 miles" - 41:01 - 11:30/mile - This was weird. It said I did my first mile in 11:00 minutes but I didn't feel like I was going anywhere near that fast. i think there was a GPS glitch and my total distance was more like 3.1 or 3.2 miles.


Oh well.

Coming up:

Sunday: 5 miles
Monday - off
Tuesday - 5 miles
Wednesday - off
Thursday - 4 miles
Friday - 5 miles
Saturday 4 miles

This week coming up corresponds with Week 5 of the Hansons Marathon Method that I'm tinkering with. All of the mileage this week is easy and then things get ramped up with a speed workout and a tempo workout next week.
 
14 Weeks Until WDW Marathon
Bit of a quick update... been busy the last couple of weeks.

Sunday October 7 - 5 miles at 12:25/mile - going easy. was pretty good.
Tuesday, October 9 - 5 miles - 12:21/mile - this was a bit fatiguing as the T+D jumped to 145 as the weather warmed up for a few days.
Thursday, October 11 - 4 miles - 12:28/mile - There were a lot of hills as I ran outside of my normal route. The first two miles were mostly downhill, the second two were uphill (out and back).
Friday, October 12 - 5.2 miles - 12:12/mile - This was feeling pretty good but it might have been a bit fast for an "easy" run. I ran an extra .2 miles because I'm feeling like Strava (as opposed to RunKeeper) is shortchanging me distance on the GPS. The difference on the half marathon was .7 miles, so I think I want to occasionally add about 5% of the distance.
Saturday, October 13 - 4.1 miles - 12:19/mile - Still in the same range. Kind of fighting a cold.

For the next week, Speed and tempo workouts start and mileage ramps up A LOT. I'm cutting mileage in a couple of places from the plan which would jump from about 23 this week to about 39 next week. I'm going to try to get it to about 30-32 to make things a bit more tolerable and keep from getting injured. But this is where the rubber meets the road and the work to get my legs ready for the marathon starts.
 
12 Weeks Until WDW Marathon (oops, got my count wrong)
I was hoping to have some better news for this week of training, the first one that incorporated harder workouts, or "SOS" (Something of Substance) workouts, as readers of @DopeyBadger will know. With a big mileage jump on the books for this week, I was actually planning to dial some of the mileage back but my schedule and other issues soon made that unnecessary.

Sunday, October 14 - 5 miles at 12:47/mile - This was tough. Was supposed to be 6 miles but I cut it short due to dead legs and fatigue.
Monday, October 15 - 0 miles - supposed to be 4 miles but I just couldn't do it with some unexpected stuff going on during the day. I also knew that I had a full day on Tuesday with no time to start speed work, so that was pushed to Wednesday.
Tuesday, October 16 - 0 miles - No time before work to run on a track (and it wouldn't have been daylight either) and no time after. I deferred the Tuesday speed workout to Wednesday.
Wednesday, October 17 - 4.75 miles + -- The GPS data on both Strava and Runkeeper were problematic as I ran on an indoor track at the university near me. The original plan in the Hansons Marathon Method was to do 12x400m intervals with 400m recovery intervals after a warm up and cool down. They also say in the book that you can cut down the 12 intervals to 8 if you want to shave some mileage from this tough week, so I did my 8 400m intervals with a goal time for each interval at about 2:26. I shorted my 1 mile warm-up by about a mile and the way the track was configured, I could get my active laps right around 200m each (so I did 2 laps for each interval), but my recovery laps were on the outer lane of the track, at about 234m per lap. I decided to do 1 1/2 laps for each recovery interval. Interval times: 2:30, 2:34, 2:18, 2:29, 2:25, 2:21, 2:27, 2:22. Not a bad spread but the fact that there's a 16 second spread, that would actually be a 64-second spread in paces for a full mile, which is way too much. Overall this was a tough workout and i cut my 1-mile cool down about 234 metres short (one lap of the track) because I was hella tired.
Thursday, October 17 - 3.9 miles - 52:55 - 13:15/mile - An easy run. I ran down by the lake but was still feeling the effects from the speed workout. Took it really easy.
Friday, October 18 - 7 miles - 121:57 - 11:42/mile - Tempo Run (trying for 11:00/mile) - 1m WU, 11:02, 10:44, 10:36, 11:40, 11:31, 1m CD - This was somewhat tough but the route forced me to stop for 15-30 seconds at times (and one time I couldn't stop the timer, I believe they were in mile 4/5, Mile 5 also had significant uphill portions) for traffic lights. Not bad. Was a little tough but it's only going to get tougher.
Saturday, October 19 - 0 miles. This was scheduled originally for 8 miles but I was planning to shorten it to 6. Walking to catch the bus to go down to work, I twisted my ankle and there was a little bit of soreness for the rest of the day. I decided to rest Saturday so I could do my long-ish run on Sunday (which I did).

Total miles: 21(ish) miles

This week:

Sunday: 8 miles - easy
Monday: 4 miles - easy
Tuesday: Speed - 1m WU, 8X600m (I might knock it down to 7 intervals), 1m CD
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Tempo - 1m WU, 5m Tempo, 1m CD
Friday: 4 miles easy
Saturday: 6 miles easy
 
12 Weeks Until WDW Marathon (oops, got my count wrong)
I was hoping to have some better news for this week of training, the first one that incorporated harder workouts, or "SOS" (Something of Substance) workouts, as readers of @DopeyBadger will know. With a big mileage jump on the books for this week, I was actually planning to dial some of the mileage back but my schedule and other issues soon made that unnecessary.

Sunday, October 14 - 5 miles at 12:47/mile - This was tough. Was supposed to be 6 miles but I cut it short due to dead legs and fatigue.
Monday, October 15 - 0 miles - supposed to be 4 miles but I just couldn't do it with some unexpected stuff going on during the day. I also knew that I had a full day on Tuesday with no time to start speed work, so that was pushed to Wednesday.
Tuesday, October 16 - 0 miles - No time before work to run on a track (and it wouldn't have been daylight either) and no time after. I deferred the Tuesday speed workout to Wednesday.
Wednesday, October 17 - 4.75 miles + -- The GPS data on both Strava and Runkeeper were problematic as I ran on an indoor track at the university near me. The original plan in the Hansons Marathon Method was to do 12x400m intervals with 400m recovery intervals after a warm up and cool down. They also say in the book that you can cut down the 12 intervals to 8 if you want to shave some mileage from this tough week, so I did my 8 400m intervals with a goal time for each interval at about 2:26. I shorted my 1 mile warm-up by about a mile and the way the track was configured, I could get my active laps right around 200m each (so I did 2 laps for each interval), but my recovery laps were on the outer lane of the track, at about 234m per lap. I decided to do 1 1/2 laps for each recovery interval. Interval times: 2:30, 2:34, 2:18, 2:29, 2:25, 2:21, 2:27, 2:22. Not a bad spread but the fact that there's a 16 second spread, that would actually be a 64-second spread in paces for a full mile, which is way too much. Overall this was a tough workout and i cut my 1-mile cool down about 234 metres short (one lap of the track) because I was hella tired.
Thursday, October 17 - 3.9 miles - 52:55 - 13:15/mile - An easy run. I ran down by the lake but was still feeling the effects from the speed workout. Took it really easy.
Friday, October 18 - 7 miles - 121:57 - 11:42/mile - Tempo Run (trying for 11:00/mile) - 1m WU, 11:02, 10:44, 10:36, 11:40, 11:31, 1m CD - This was somewhat tough but the route forced me to stop for 15-30 seconds at times (and one time I couldn't stop the timer, I believe they were in mile 4/5, Mile 5 also had significant uphill portions) for traffic lights. Not bad. Was a little tough but it's only going to get tougher.
Saturday, October 19 - 0 miles. This was scheduled originally for 8 miles but I was planning to shorten it to 6. Walking to catch the bus to go down to work, I twisted my ankle and there was a little bit of soreness for the rest of the day. I decided to rest Saturday so I could do my long-ish run on Sunday (which I did).

Total miles: 21(ish) miles

This week:

Sunday: 8 miles - easy
Monday: 4 miles - easy
Tuesday: Speed - 1m WU, 8X600m (I might knock it down to 7 intervals), 1m CD
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Tempo - 1m WU, 5m Tempo, 1m CD
Friday: 4 miles easy
Saturday: 6 miles easy

Great job on the week!

You might try and make sure you take those easy days REALLY easy. Like ignore a pace goal, and really just aim for something where you barely feel like you're trying. You want to be careful with an easy day ever feeling tough.

Something else to consider is that when runs have to be cancelled throughout the week, I would focus on replacing them with the easy days. That way you can still continue to build the cumulative fatigue without slamming yourself with multiple hard days.
 
Great job on the week!

You might try and make sure you take those easy days REALLY easy. Like ignore a pace goal, and really just aim for something where you barely feel like you're trying. You want to be careful with an easy day ever feeling tough.

Something else to consider is that when runs have to be cancelled throughout the week, I would focus on replacing them with the easy days. That way you can still continue to build the cumulative fatigue without slamming yourself with multiple hard days.

I'm definitely focusing on slowing down the easy days this week. But so far it's feeling pretty good (although I just finished the speed workout today and have a day off tomorrow) and I've been thinking of the miles on easy days as "recovery miles." You'll see in the next update that I've slowed the pace way down. I also think that some of the fatigue on the easy days was still due to the half marathon a few weeks ago. The Sunday in which I cut short the 6-miler down to 5 miles was just 2 weeks out from the HM and I've realized that there might have been some recovery from that race still going on.

But this week, so far, so good!
 
Great job on your race.

I've found that I can learn a lot from others by seeing the different ways that they deal with races. For so long I've always obsessively focused on my plan and didn't fully understand the concept of letting the race come to me.
 
Great job on your race.

I've found that I can learn a lot from others by seeing the different ways that they deal with races. For so long I've always obsessively focused on my plan and didn't fully understand the concept of letting the race come to me.

Thanks very much (and welcome!)!

In the case of my last race, (the Oakville Half Marathon), I was a little more chill about hitting a goal. Most of the training I was doing was "building the base" for the marathon and, while I did run some faster runs as tempo runs (usually the middle three miles of a 5-miler), I really wasn't focused on any speed training. Just building distance and getting in more days of easy running to get the miles under my belt.

I did have more ambitious goals (particularly to get myself boosted up a corral for WDW Marathon) but when I saw how the race was going, I realized I wasn't going to hit that goal and just focused on the race itself, feeling the miles and (as much as I could), enjoy the experience. Since it wasn't an "A" goal race, I think that I could afford to be a little more chill about things. I was also using the HM to really remember what it's like to extend those distances beyond, let's say, 10 miles.

That said, I'm tempering expectations for WDW Marathon. I've seen how someone as dedicated and experienced and knowledgeable as @DopeyBadger can do everything right and still miss his goal time or even the time that his data shows that he should expect to be able to run. There are so many variables in the marathon and marathon training that just one thing being off (weather, how we feel on a particular day, pacing at the beginning of the race) can throw off our expectations.

I'm expecting to beat my time from 2017, and I'm looking to take at least 15 minutes off my time (hopefully more). It's my first marathon since WDW 2017 so I'm not going to be more ambitious than that, and it's been a long road getting over various injuries since then, and I'm still trying to manage a weight gain since (I'm probably about 10-15 pounds heavier now). Obviously weight loss is a goal, and I've definitely been paying more attention to my diet in the last couple of weeks but it's also been a long road training my body to support the increased weight without getting injured (fingers crossed). But my training plan has way more miles (especially slow ones) than when I ran WDW in 2017 and I'm feeling strong right now and am optimistic that even though the training is harder than it was two years ago, it's preparing me better.

So, that's a long response! But thanks for chiming in! Hope to see you in January!
 

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