February 18-24

Monday (16km)
69 minutes with Chris. I ran out to meet him on Western Road, then looped around EOA, and back to my apartment. It was slippery and wet, but not as bad as yesterday. I was feeling sore, so it was not very fast.

Tuesday (13km)
53 minutes with Chris from campus. This was not a very good run, and it is a bit of a stretch to call it 13km (but probably balances with yesterday's underestimate). We went south from campus on our Wharncliffe route. South of TD Waterhouse Stadium, the bikepath was flooded and frozen over. We crashed through the ice for a few steps before Chris went to one side and I went to the other. I slipped and landed hard on my back. It was really jarring. I had to walk a few steps before I was okay to run again. Later, Chris had to dash to a washroom. We had to cut the run short so that we made it back for trivia in time. I sure am looking forward to bare sidewalks again.

Wednesday (workout - 19km total)
Good, long workout. 5k tempo on a 1.25km loop, then 3x1k (with more than 1:1 rest to work), and 2.5k tempo to finish. On the first tempo, I did my part, leading much of the way. Chris Nagle was on my shoulder the whole way. Chris Smith fell off after the second loop, and I honestly thought he had stopped. I was surprised when he trucked us down in the final 300m and finished strong with us. Splits were 4:32/4:25/4:25/4:25 - pretty even. 17:47 total, which I felt quite good about in these conditions. On the 1ks, I was a little cautious because of the slightly slippery roads, and went 3:18, 3:12, 3:11. The two Chrises were several seconds ahead of me on each km repeat. On the second tempo, Chris Smith pushed the pace from the beginning. I fell off with about 500m to go, but moved to within a stride of them over the final 200m. 4:16/4:08. Pretty solid. I was happy with this workout. I resisted the temptation of a mid-afternoon piece of cake and felt better because of it. My diaphragm was sore, though - possibly because of the cold?

Thursday (13.5km)
I did a light weight workout in the morning before school.
I had forgotten my watch at home and Chris's does not work, so I am not sure how long we ran for. I guessed it was in the mid-50 minutes. It was not a fast pace. Chris got into a shouting match with the driver of one car because I had intentionally slapped it as we ran past - the driver had practically entered the intersection on a red light. We also had to take a few stops for Chris to mark his territory. We were up in his neighbourhood. I have decided that my sore diaphragm from yesterday is more likely a pulled abdominal muscle. I'll try to monitor it over the next couple of days.

Friday (OFF)
I slept too late to get in a run before school, and was busy in the evening. I had to take an unscheduled rest day.

Saturday (15km)
62 minutes with Chris from his place. We did the Adelaide trails for the first time in several months. The ice in some parts were four inches thick. We stopped to play with it for a couple of minutes before moving on. I did some weights and core in the afternoon. My abs felt fine during the run, but were really sore in the evening. Still the muscle pull, I think.

Sunday (11km)
My first bad workout in a while. I did a short warmup with Dennis, then sat in a car for 30 minutes as Chris and Ben started their tempo run. Dennis and I hopped out at their 8k mark. I was feeling good for the first two km, but when we turned south onto Hyde Park around 5k, I started to have a lot of trouble with the wind. My legs were tight, and my shoulders were feeling really sore. I quit at 8k. The lesson here is to not do a weight workout the day before a Denfield run.

Total - 87.5km. Not an impressive total. I need to stop missing days and get into a better morning routine so that I can do a Friday run.