January 21-27

Monday (15km)
64 minutes with Chris. I was overdressed - I took off my gloves by the end. It was not a fast pace because of the extra clothing, and I was a little cautious with my footing. We went south from campus on Wharncliffe to Base Line Rd., then came back on Wortley and Talbot.


Tuesday (12.5km)
Last night I had thought about getting up to go to the gym in the morning, but my bed was too comfortable. I'll go again on Thursday. The Thursday/Sunday routine is working right now.
52 minutes with Chris. The footing was bad. Not a very fun run. We cut it short. I could feel the wind blowing through my shirt, and I was complaining more than I should. We went up around his neighbourhood where we could run on the streets, but nothing was plowed. Whatever.


Wednesday (workout - 18km total)
A lot of snow had fallen since last night, and London snow removal being as bad as it is, the footing was poor. During the warmup, I said to Chris Nagle that this was going to suck, but on the bright side, I do like to complain. He laughed and said that this must be bittersweet for me. Yes, it was. I actually had a very satisfying workout. I consciously shortened my stride and increased my turnover to make up for it. I took only two bad steps where I felt my wheels turning. For the first repeat (4 loops of 1.25km, so 5km), Chris Nagle and Chris Smith led the first loop, and I was feeling good so I traded the work a bit. On the third loop I started to push the pace, and I pushed hard in the final 600m. We had 4 minutes recovery, then did it again. Chris Nagle was coming off of a few weeks of low mileage, so he had trouble on the second loop, but Chris Smith and I worked really well together and finished together. The first 5k was 18:20 (9:20, 9:00 for the two halves), the second 5k was 18:11 (9:11, 9:00). This was supposed to be a little faster than half-marathon effort. In better conditions, I definitely would have been there. I am starting to string together a few good workouts in a row, which is something I haven't done in a while. I'm quite happy about that. I am feeling sore tonight already though. I'll have to be careful if I go to the gym tomorrow.


Thursday (13.5km)
Ran from school with Chris for 57 minutes, on the route east of Richmond. Just over halfway into the run, a woman stopped and yelled at us about something I've had many people yell at me in the past, and the way she stopped made me think that she was going to ask for directions. But no - she offered us tickets to the London Knights game. The catch: it was starting right then. If we had only a little more warning... I would looove to go to a Knights game. A few minutes later, we both regretted that we had not taken the tickets.
Short weight and core workout afterwards.


Friday (17km)
This was a disappointing run. I was aiming for 80 minutes of 4 minute kilometres. After a short warmup, I was hitting that pace. I went on the bikepath through Springbank Park. I soon had to take a pit stop, though. Fifteen minutes later, I needed to make another one. My stomach stopped feeling well, so I jogged it in from there. Total time was 71 minutes. I am not normally a good morning runner, which might explain my trouble today.


Saturday (15km)
There was some fresh snow, so footing was not great, but Chris and I still set a good pace - we did 62 minutes. I ran from my house, he ran from his, and I met him 12 minutes into my run, and ran the last 12 on my own. We did the route behind Brescia College because we could get on the streets and off the sidewalks. We saw Dennis just as we were splitting up at the end of the run and talked to him for just a minute before moving on.
Short weight and core workout afterwards. I was not able to do as much as on Thursday.


Sunday (workout - 15km total)
More fresh snow. I had a late night last night and was not looking forward to the run today. I did a short warmup before starting the tempo run out at Denfield (northwest of London) with Chris Smith, Nagle and Ben Perks. The footing was not good for the first 6-7km. I really did not expect to finish the workout. Once the footing got better, though, I was able to feel comfortable again. I never led, but I was no longer lagging a few steps off the leaders. I did 14km, in 52:58. That is a 3:47 average (aiming for 3:45), but our splits were all over - from as fast as 3:38 to as slow as 3:58 (for our first; second slowest was 3:55).

Total - 106km. Almost 50% more than last week. I see no problem with that.