Harry's Spring Run Off 2013

Goal: 56min 57 secs (7:07/km)

Actual time: 55min 20 secs (6:55/km)

So to start, I'm extremely happy with my time. First time in a race that my pace has been under 7 minutes per kilometre!!

I ran this race with a bunch of my co-workers. 4 of us ran the 8K, 6 people ran the 5.

Pre-race I met up with a couple of daily mile friends. Nice to meet people in person.

I started out the race with one of my co-workers. We originally thought we'd be running similar paces, but I think I was pushing his pace a bit. We both managed the first big uphill on kilometre 3. He ran it, I walked it to save my energy. I think my plan worked out a bit better as he was pretty spent. We split up just after that.

Loved running through the park. Lots of volunteers out yelling encouragement.

The big hill that takes up the last 400m of the course was killer. I ended up walking up it with the intention of running to the finish line. My legs were pretty jellyish even with walking, but ended up crossing the line with arms in the air. Was very happy to have beaten my goal.

My splits for this run:

Km 1: 6:30
Km 2: 6:20
Km 3: 6:23
Km 4: 7:28 (took an extended walk break)
Km 5: 6:28
Km 6: 6:38
Km 7: 7:11
Km 8: 7:34

Clearly I faded towards the end. This was a good reminder for my upcoming  half not to go out too fast. I think I'll stick with the 2:30 10/1 pace bunny to keep me on track.

Happy 8k'ers

Things I liked about this race:

• Swag: medal, great shirt and a beanie!
• Beautiful course
• Well organized
• Not too big
• Easy to get to by transit
• Started at 10! Some of my co-workers were complaining about getting up early but I've never had a race start so late before.
• Great volunteers

Things I didn't like as much:

• Hills!! Need to train better for them next year (will definitely be doing this one again!)

Race Day!

First race of the year for me!

This is my first year running Harry's Spring Run Off and my first 8K race. I entered this race with a bunch of my co-workers. It's the first race for most of them.

I'm looking at this race mainly as a testing ground for my upcoming half marathon. I'd like to run this at my goal half pace (7.07/km) or faster so I'm hoping for 56:56. According to MacMillan running calculator, if I can run a 2:30 half (which remains to be unseen) I should be able to do an 8K at 53:23. This would put my overall pace at 6:40/km which would be a bit of a stretch for me, especially with the hills on this course.

Either way, I'm just going to have fun, enjoy High Park and do whatever I can to make sure everyone else from my group has a good time.

8K and A Plateu

I went out yesterday and did my 8K run - for real this time! I mapped it out before I went. Nike+ is now overestimating the distance. According to mapmyrun.com, the route was 8.05K and Nike+ says it was 8.15k. Ah well, better than running 7K instead of 8k.
Yesterday's run was super slow, but I really need to focus on adding distance rather than my speed. I kept thinking how this time last year, I was running 2 - 3 km so I've come a long way.
Today was my weigh in day - I seem to be stuck at 153 pounds. The scale has been hovering between 153 to 153.8 for the past 5 weeks. My food tracking has been good, but I'm thinking that I might not be eating enough. I usually finish the day having ate between 1560 - 1590 calories, but maybe I should aim more for 1600 - 1700. I am exercising 6 days a week, so maybe my body is hanging onto the weight. I'll increase it a bit next week and see what happens.

Saturday

I was too tired out to blog much yesterday.

Saturday morning, the husband and I trekked out to go to a race & event expo. I was hoping that some of the races would be offering discounts to register, but no such luck. I didn't find anything that I didn't already know about.

The husband, however, is pretty keen now to do a Spartan Race which looks a bit insane. It's a 5K but with the added fun of crawling through mud, jumping over hot coals, gladiator style fighting. I wanted him to do a race with me at some point, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.

I came home than set out on my long run for the week - 8K. Weather was absolutely perfect, 15C, sunny, tiny bit of a breeze. It was my first time out this year in a t-shirt so my arms got a bit of sun.
I kept up 4-1 run/walk intervals for most of the run with a slightly longer walk break around 6K and then picked it up a bit at the end. The whole run took about an hour which is pretty much what I expected. I finished off both water bottles from my fuel belt and ate some sport beans as I went.

I spent 20 minutes stretching when I got home but I was still sore last night. I'm feeling better now as I had an amazing sleep. Cure for insomnia - run for a long time.