I'm still here and still at it.

Hello everybody, just popping into Blogger World to let you know I am still here and still at it. I have been training consistently and pretty much injury free over the winter and now into spring. Building upon last years late summer and fall training I continued to up my long runs throughout the winter and soon found myself running on the trails and hill laden roads in the Gould Lake Conservation area. I eventually worked my way up to a 3hr. run covering 25kms and with some nice climbing thrown in. It was great to take my running to a new level distance and time wise and with the added bonus fun of tracking my elevation gains I can easily see how people get addicted to this stuff.

In January I ran in the 3rd Annual Dion Snowshoe Race held in Frontenac Park. I was happy to place 7th female and taking a bunch of minutes off my previous years time although the near perfect snow conditions certainly helped out there. The snow had just fallen a few days before and the conditions could not have been more perfect for the race. Unfortunately we didn't have alot of snow for the remainder of the year so the snowshoe season was brief and all subsequent races in the series were cancelled. The race itself was well suited to my training in Gould Lake and I was able to run every hill where in years past I had walked a few. I fell in with a great group of women early in the race who pulled and pushed me every step of the way through the single track course and it was perhaps one of the most enjoyable and satisfying races I have ever run.


The early spring weather soon had me springing into my 5km training mode again. Derrick began to give me pacing rather then heart rate targets for my tempos and it took alot of work to inch those paces down. Some days I thought the legs were never going to come back to spinning the way they had only 8months prior. It really gave me a new respect for anyone who trains for long distances but races the shorter ones as well. The short distances really do require speed specific training to get the legs back into quick turnover mode and those early interval sessions were tough on my confidence and just plain butally tough. Luckily I have a coach who knows all of this and slowly but surely week after week, tempo run after tempo run, interval workout after interval workout he/we were able to inch those paces back down to where I am feeling hopeful about running some good 5kms this year.

Speaking about 5kms, I will be racing in my first one of the year this Sunday. I have expectations for the race but unlike previous years they do not revolve around what the clock says when I run over the mat at the finish line. The expectation or goal that I have for this race is to run it, to feel it, to respond to it, to live it. I won't be wearing a watch to tell me how well or not well I am doing so all I will have is my perceived effort, my gut instinct, my inner voice to guide me. I feel like I have so many things to still learn about racing that I can only learn by getting into one and giving it my all and be willing to learn and maybe make a mistake but also hopefully gain some insight or a speck of wisdom I can carry forth with me to the next venue.