6 Weeks to Haliburton

This has been an excellent training week. Ever since Limberlost, I've been feeling ridiculously good. I think that I've come to term with the fact that I need to train slow if I'm going to have a good race at Haliburton. Limberlost was, for me, almost effortless. I've been trying to use that same level of effort in training. Also, I've watched "Indulgence", the movie about Anton Kupicka. His stride seems so easy. He has this fast strike rate, but very economical, his feet landing right under him, that makes him look like he's just out for a light jog. Tap, tap, tap,tap... Obviously, he's probably going twice as fast as me when he does that, but what's important is the perceived effort. I've watched other videos, including Josh Cox's 31 mile training run, but those guys are just friggin' flying at close to their marathon pace, which is faster than my 5k pace (WAY faster) so it's hard for me to relate. I'm just not in the same genetic running specie. I just watch in awe.

So I've been prancing around in my "Anton" stride, running slower than ever but still aware that this is faster than I will be running in Haliburton, so who cares? This week's run have all felt ridiculously easy, except for the hill training/tempo combo on Wednesday that nearly did me in. Yesterday's goal for my long run was 4 hours and that's pretty much what I did (3h 53min). I ran a total of 35k on pretty hard surface and although the first 3 hours felt really easy, the last hour was a bit of a grind. City runs over 3 hours are just long, especially  at this point of my training where pretty much every weekend I run long. Thank god for races, where you run on trail and talk to other runners. I guess I could have driven to a trail, but my wife is starting to resent how much time I spend running and I don't want to add the extra 2 or 3 hours required to drive to Rattlesnake point or Terra Cotta. Small price to pay but that last hour yesterday was just such a grind!

Yesterday though, I was actually quite spent after my run and that made me question whether running the 12H race at Dirty Girl next weekend is a good idea. Is running a 50 miler (give or take a few miles) 6 weeks before Haliburton too much for me? Not sure. Anyway, I'm going to go for sure because whatever I decide to do this week, the course is a 10k loop that makes it easy to run whatever distance I decide to run. It's all paid for anyway so might as well enjoy it.

In other news, this week was my first week teaching the "Learn To Run" clinic at the Rosedale Running Room. I have about 15 runners-to-be. This is a true beginner's class and we're not running much yet (7 bouts of 1 min running/2 min walking) but we're going to increase the pressure slowly but surely. Pretty much everybody was there at Monday's class and run, but it was a lot quieter on Wedesday evening and this morning, with about 6 runners showing up for practice. It is a long weekend so hopefully, things will pick up this week. I'm sure prople have run on their own this week.

The group seems quite motivated and people ask a lot of questions so I've been enjoying myself. They keep me busy talking and I keep forgetting to stop after 60 seconds of running.  Too bad I won't be there for the Run for the Cure, I would have enjoyed running it with those who want to try a 5k. Maybe I'll try to find another race around that time.

That'sit for me this week.