Finished the week...

trail
Originally uploaded by yumkerun.

with a 10K run with R. We ran west and the picture here is of the boardwalk near Ontario Place, when we had about 3K left..

Weekly total: 66K

Year to date: 674K

Friday...

Was very tired so I did a quick 5K before work. In a week and a day, i'll have my first race of the season, the Sporting Life 10K. Frankly, my knee is feeling weak and i'm not sure I can pour it on for the total distance. I may change a few things, like breaking in my racing shoes, or doing better stretches for my knees, but I feel like I'm more in the half marathon training mode. In short, I don't feel like personal bests are in the cards for the next two weeks. Well, I just run cause I love to do it.... nuff said.

Why I run..

Well, for one thing, I live on the waterfront. I have a great view of the water from my balconey, so when I look out there, I usually see a few runners, cyclists. Yes, sometimes I'm guilted by it. Anyways, today, did the Cherry Beach run, and the pic here is where I started... 10K. waterfront
Originally uploaded by yumkerun.

Sun rising...

Was a chilly morning so I needed an outer shell. Did my 10K on quiet streets, just a few people heading in for work.

Old trails

I've been avoiding my 10K run to the western waterfront, heading toward High Park. Mostly, it's because the city has decided to rip up a portion of the trail and make it into a parking lot.. Well, today, I decided to do it, which meant running about 1K on gravel and grass. Not bad, though. New scenery, a good view of all the rowers out there to train on the calm morning waters. So, I did 10K while favouring my knee.

Still winter or something?

Very windy, very cold. Plus, the wind was blowing directly against Frank and I as we did a 21.1K long run to the Beaches (or Beach... okay, it's not the Beach) and back.

Stats
Time: 1:53:23
Avg. pace: 5:22 per K
Best pace: 4:33
Fastest pace: 13.2k/h

Guess who's back...

Drizzle, 7 degrees, windy... just the type of day most runners avoid.. Not me today... Did 10K city route up to Bloor. Feel winded, feel like the cardio is back, feel like i'm getting back into shape.. Next, the long run...

Weekly total: 71K (woo hoo!)
Year to date: 608K

Good running week so far...

I have two weeks till the Sporting Life 10K and I'm happy with my mileage. During my runs in Nice last week, I could feel how the lack of running had hit my fitness levels, but with this week, I think I've got my cardio and fitness back. And with morning runs and warm weather, that helps too. Now, I have to think about speed...

Today, did a 10K city route up Bay to Bloor, west to Bathurst and back. A cool 10 degrees but not a lot of wind.

Okay, mornings it is..

Did a 5K on the waterfront this morning.. Too much to do for work and I thought I could use a shorter one in in anticipation for a big weekend run. So, after barely running, I've put in my sixth straight day... hmm, so much for increasing mileage by 10% per week...

Warm morning

I'm told it'll reach 20 degrees today.. of course, i'll be at work. In any case, I did do yet another morning run, 10K, the city route and the water route. A very good run. I forgot how much I liked running in the morning so I could start off the day and sort out my thoughts about work or nothing in particular, while getting my body revved up..

Boston

Ah, the holy grail of marathon running, at least for the recreational runners like myself. Boston. Yesterday, while I was at work, it was running so I missed all the action (it's usually on Boston TV stations that I forgot to tape at home with my time shifting). Anyways, here's the commentary. Speaking of running it, if I were to qualify for it, I'd need a blistering 3:10 marathon. Um, yeah, right.

Did my first weekday run in awhile. A 10K run to Cheery Beach as I did yesterday. Took it at a leisurely pace, not that I could have run it any faster. Love morning runs

Training run..

Did a 10K with my GPS, came in at about 46 minutes. Did Cherry Beach and back on this sunny afternoon, about 13 degrees again. I didn't feel like I could push the pace any faster, and was running about 4:30 kms... Don't know if it's because I haven't run much in the past month or that I've entered my first three-day running stretch...

Long run..

Wow that felt good. 8 degrees and partly cloudy. For once, I started a long run with an easy pace.. then the other runners on the path let me focus on pacing, breathing and just matching their strides... Then I started to get bored and felt I had a lot left. Did the Ontario Place run and back, then off to Cherry Beach and back, giving me 16K

Resolutions

1. To run more in the next week than I have in the past two. Done
2. To do a long run in the next week of 15K or more Done
3. To try a morning run since the weather is better. Done

So, all I was able to achieve, running wise, was to run in two countries. Oh, and my Nice runs were done with my trail runners. Not very efficient for running on pavement as they felt very heavy.

I did an 11K run today, and ended at St. Lawrence Market, where I bought 1) fresh pasta and spicy tomato sauce 2) two bunches of basil so I can make pesto 3) Yummy chicken sandwich at Portugese place... they make the best sauce you'll ever...

Weekly total: 27K
Year to date: 537K

Really Nice running route

So here's where we went running in Nice.. it's a very long sea-side path.

Vacation over...

Got back yesterday from my two-week vacation. R and I did Paris, Berlin, Nice and Paris again.

Running wise, the intention was to go out for frequent runs. But long walking days (10+hours of hitting the pavement/concrete in my trail runners made our legs very tired) and a bout of food poisoning made me take it easy.

That was until we got to Nice.. about 13 degrees, cool, and sunny! and best yet is their Sea side boardwalk that goes on for at least 10K. On Tuesday, we went out after doing our laundry and we did 7K. I ran half of it with R, doing a slower pace, and when we turned around, we pointed at the top of a slight incline about 3K away and R said 'go, run!', so I took off and did a tempo run.

Lots of runners in Nice. I suspect it's the perfect place to run, although I wonder if there are more places to run other than by the water. They also had a half marathon in a few weeks so I figured many were in training. A few people were doing intervals in the evening. On Thursday, we did a different run in the morning, and ended up with about a 6K run.

Anyways, so that leaves me with very little mileage in two weeks. The scedule for the next three weeks will be interesting. I have the May 7 Sporting Life 10K and the Mississauga half marathon a week later. So today, I just get my mileage back up big time. I really have to get a few long runs in.

Packed and ready to go

Well, no running today or yesterday. So much to do. Anyways, bad week for running again, only logged 22K this week. When I come back, I'll have to hit training harder..

I'm bringing my running gear to Europe. I've read that there are good trails to do in Paris and Berlin.. and, of course, Nice. So hopefully will get some mileage out in the Old World.

Weekly total: 22K
Year to date: 510K