Weekend in Washington...

Hi Everyone,

Did my taper long run around the mall in Washington DC today. Great fun! Temperature in the low teens which meant for running in a short sleeve shirt and a baseball cap. The scenery was great! The Lincoln, WWII, Washington, Jefferson and FDR memorials, twice!!! And I capped it off with Einstein!! Albert, bloody, Einstein!!!!















OK, so, today's plan called for 10 or 12 km - I compromised at 11. The route below is all screwed up because I didn't turn off my watch properly at the end of the run. I ran 11 km in 1 hour and 18 minutes. The WGG met me at the Lincoln Memorial and then we walked over to take the above picture with Albert!

This LSD, like all others to follow it, will be dedicated to someone or a group of people. This one is dedicated to my old friend Don Campbell and as such the song of the day reflects our history. The song is Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick by Ian Drury and the Blockheads. Just leave it alone...

Next blog will come Tuesday! First race of the season is next Sunday in Burlington. It all comes down to this!

Paul

White Punks on the Run...

Well, as a blog title it doesn't work that well but I bet you know what the song of the run is.

That's right, space cadets, it is the fabulous Tubes with White Punks on Dope - renowned for it great opening rift, sardonic lyrics and great beat. Super song to run to.

Next run on our taper is Sunday's run and for me, it will be monument running around the United States National Mall in Washington DC.

Be brave!

Paul

7 km in Leslieville

Just a quick update tonight. Nice 7 km run, taper starting so the numbers go down a bit on a weekly basis.

Song of the run: Rough Boys by Pete Townsend. Great song from the Empty Glass album - great album.

Back at it tomorrow!

Paul

19 km on the Leslie Street Spit

Hi Everyone,

Got my wires crossed this morning and screwed up the route. I was supposed to run out to the lighthouse on the spit and then turn around and come back but the entrance to Tommy Thompson Park appeared to be closed so I kept going and wound up at Cherry Beach. Oh well, doesn't matter as the distance was covered and, aside from a bit of chaffing, all is well.

Song of the run is House of the Rising Sun by The Animals. Great song from what I am discovering is a really good mix on my iPod Shuffle. Sometimes you get lucking putting these things together.

Next up, Tuesday night!

Paul

9 C in February!

Hi gang,

Out and about again this evening, running a modified version of last night's 10 km run down to 8 km.

Beautiful night for it, a bit damp but 9C - I was in full spring running gear. Nice hill along Kingston Rd which I ascended with a solid pace. We followed up our run with a trip to St. Louis for dinner and a brew! Outstanding.

Song of the Run is Free Four (one of my top five running songs) by Pink Floyd but with special mention going to Success by Iggy Pop - dedicated to someone special out there.

Back at you on Sunday!

Paul

10 km Tempo run in Beaches and Leslieville

Hi everyone

Good run tonight. Weather was great, roads were clear and the route was simple yet challenging. Had to walk a little bit on one particular very long hill but aside from that, this was one of the better nights. Improved my 10 km time a bit from last week as well.

Song of the run happened to be on while my glasses fogged up give the same effect: Cory Hart's Sunglasses at Night.

Tomorrow night an 8 km steady run.

See you then!

Paul

After skipped long run, an easy 7 km.

Hi Gang,

Not feeling great on Sunday - lung issues, may not have taken alergy meds - so I skipped the 20 km long run. Will have to get in this week's 22 km. Tonight an easy 7 km run but my GPS watch missed a bunch of it - c'est la vie.

Song of the run, Paul McCartney's 1985 from the Band on the Run album.

Blog you again tomorrow.

Paul

4 cold km along Lakeshore (and 4 warmer ones back)

Hi everyone

So, tonight I added a further 8 km to my weeks efforts. I am now at 41 km for the week and won't run again until Sunday. Consider this, however, I have just run in a week slightly less (1.2 km less in fact) that I will have to do on a Sunday morning in late May. It is a long road ahead but I must admit to being pumped for it.

Tonight's Marathon Clinic lecture was on goal setting and it was advised that we set three targets for each race: Worst case, Likely and Ideal. I am only going to list hear what I consider worse case for each of the four races I have planned. So, here we go:

• Chily 1/2 Marathon: 2:25
• Around the Bay: Finish
• Prague 1/2 Marathon: 2:22
• Ottawa Marathon: Finish

Anyway, now two days off, including my last Saturday with no running and next week we go up by 5 km.

Blog at you soon!

Paul

10 km Tempo run along Lakeshore

Hi everyone,

First Wednesday Run night with the Marathon group - a 10 km tempo run. Tempo runs are at 85% of your race speed with no walking breaks (other than stops for traffic lights, of course). This is the longest tempo run I have completed in a couple of years and, I have to tell you, it was tiring but I have a real sense of accomplishment in doing it.

Recently, the instructor of my 1/2 Marathon Clinic asked us all to provide our top five running songs and this evening, the fifth choice on my list came up as I finished the run. So it gets the nomination for the Song of the Run - Back on the Chain Gang by the Pretenders.

Back at it tomorrow night with the Marathon Clinic.

Paul

Short 6 km run through Leslieville

Hi everyone,

A little shorter run through Leslieville this even - actually passed really close to home midway. Nice night for it, a bit cold at -10 but Jupiter, the Crescent Moon, Orion and the brightest star Sirius dominated the night sky. Clear, great star visibility.

So, the kilometers are adding up - 23 so far this week with another 18 or so to go. Less than 4 weeks to the Chily 1/2.

Tonight's song of the run was Deep Purple's classic Lazy. I dedicated to the folks from the Beaches Running Room 1/2 Marathon clinic who are anything but!

Paul

17 km that felt like 25!

Hi everyone,

Out for an 18km run this morning with the running room but things didn't go quite as planned. With the fresh snow last night and some of the cleanup from Wednesday's dump, some of the back roads were impassible and we ended up walking a lot in the first half. After which we changed the route to main roads but that shortened the entire run by about a km.

Anyway 17 km, with a reasonable pace of 7:48 given that I walked about 1/4 of it. I can live with this.

Song of the run: Jimi Hendrix, Purple Haze.

Yesterday, I started cross training again with Mike Fong. A fair bit of upper body and core followed with a lot of stretching. I will be cross training weekly, on Mondays, starting on the 14th. That week I will also introduce a fifth day or running and that will be my schedule, only Fridays off, until May 29th.

Blog you all again on Tuesday!

Paul

8 km Steady Run

Well,

What a difference a day makes! Today with the roads much clearer, I completed an 8 km run along Lakeshore Blvd with the Beaches Marathon Clinic group - lovely run and a good time. This week I really increased my running distance covering just a tad under 38 km with four runs. Next week it will be just a bit more and then the week after I will phase in a fifth weekly run and the distances will start to approach 50 km per week.

Today's song of the run: No Sugar Tonight by the Guess Who.

Sunday we are back with a 18 km LSD run, followed on Tuesday by 7 km, Wednesday by 7 km and Thursday by 8 km. Then we get into the home stretch for the first race of the season, the Chily 1/2 Marathon in Burlington Ontario.

Update you again after Sunday's run (and a much needed nap!).

Paul

Hard run in the snow

Just a quick update - we only did 5 km this evening. Great route around the Beaches but terrible night for running.

Not only that but my iPod was discharged so no song of the run!

Back at ya tomorrow!

Paul

7 km before the storm...

Hi there,

We are facing a massive snow storm this evening, perhaps up to 30 cm. For all my African friends, I may post pictures tomorrow.

Tonight was a 7 km run through the Ashbridges Park area - nice, a bit cold when running north where the winds were coming from. With this run under my belt, I have 25 km so far this week (Tuesday!) and I have another 18 to go. That assumes that I don't run Saturday, which I am supposed to do, but the effort of going from around 30 km a week up to nearly 50 is probably more than is good for me and I do want to remain injury free so I will introduce Saturday runs starting next week and ramp them up to the full 6 km they should be.

So tonight's song of the run was the classic Sweet Jane by Lou Reed and the mighty Iggy Pop came in with a close second on Success!

Update again tomorrow night!

Paul