It feels good to go back and reflect on where your training started, where you started to slip, how you picked yourself back up again and where you are going.

January and February started pretty solid. I was finding my way back into a regular training program and building my cardio back up. Then March happened, I slipped and headed out to Mexico for #springbreak. In April, the weather was not as beautiful as Mexico and I didn’t want to head out for runs in the cool weather and lived in slack city. May is here. The weather is picking up and I have a spring in my step. The goal was to pick my running back up and pace a friend through the Sporting Life 10K. I ended up falling back in love with the sport – recap to come!

So now, with my running spark back, I’m looking to the next 20 weeks of training and I’m excited about it. The most humbling part is that I am not as fast as I use to be. Interval  runs are going to be my new best friend, long runs, easy runs, weight training and stretching are all coming back. In any training plan, it’s important to have short term and long term goals. My short term is running the Toronto Waterfront 10K and my long term goal is to run a sub 1:50 half-marathon. It gives me something to work towards and I will continue to push myself to be a #goalgetter.

It’s also important to be honest with yourself and look at how much you have run in 2017 – even if it hurts a little to see the real numbers. The only way to get better is to beat who you were yesterday. I like to keep a monthly calendar so I can see my daily progress. It feels good to check off when you’ve crushed a workout and remind yourself that you are killing it.

Bring on the next 20 weeks – I’m ready for it!

Run less, run faster. Those words have been what I have been going by lately in my training. Injuries happen and they usually do when you are overtraining. Overtraining happens when you do too many hard runs, strength workouts and you leave little time for your body to rest in between. The other factor is life stress. You could be running yourself down outside of training and when you get to your run, you are too exhausted to even complete your run. Last week, that was my life. 

  
I’ve been extremely cautious during my training journey to not overtrain but at the same time, not undertrain. I work long days, have a long(ish) commute to work and I try to fit in seeing all of my friends and family on my spare time. Oh right, and half marathon training. 

I headed out for my long run of 11 miles last week and stopped at 2 miles to walk. I realised, I was burnt out. I was too exhausted to go on. I started moving at a slow pace and still just couldn’t do it. I ended that run at 3.70 miles. I felt defeated. It’s not in me to quit but I wasn’t quitting. – I was training smart and listening to my body. There is a huge difference. When you push yourself too hard, you risk injury, sickness and can set your training back a lot farther than one run. And, sit was 3.7 more miles than I did before I left. Sometimes you need to scale back. 

Scaling back. I started scaling back my runs per week. I run 3 times a week. A long run, a hard run and an easy run. Easy runs is where I have been known to struggle with. I love to push myself past my limits but I know that even the elites run a casual slow run. My favourite way to do this is by running with my friends who are new to running. The great thing about it is that, I have so much energy during these runs and can talk my running partner through the run. I keep the motivation up by making the time pass by and I get that easy pace in which is necessary for recovery, technique and it’s fun to help someone learn to love running. My long runs have also taken a huge benefit to running less and I run my long runs faster. They feel easy  easier. 

A few years ago, I thought running everyday, clocking a lot of hours and running around the same pace during every run was important. It’s not for me. Every body is different and requires a different training regime. I’ve learned that my muscles need more time to recover. I also need to eat every 2 hours throughout my day to keep myself fuelled. 

Run less, run faster. It works for me. It doesn’t make me less of a runner for not clocking a million miles a week. I will take my quality runs over the quantity runs and maybe one day I will be able to run a marathon a day for an entire year.