Training Log Week 17 – Kick ass 29km run

Monday: rest

Tuesday: 3 hour kayak lesson*

Wednesday: 6km run

Thursday: 1 hr bike ride**

Friday: 29km run

Saturday: rest (back injury)

Sunday: rest (back injury)

* Capsize recovery!

** I scouted out a local trail near my house to see if I’d feel comfortable running the trail alone. It goes through a heavy industrial area then to a very heavily forested area – don’t think I’ll be running that trail alone. I did discover this cool tree-platform though:

Things that went well this week:

• I had an amazing 29km run on Friday. Had lots of energy and my fastest kilometer was my last kilometer! Surprisingly I had no mental fatigue on this run.  Things that went well on the run:
  • For the first 2 hours I didn’t listen to music, I just paid attention to my form, stride, and breathing.
  • I had a nice pasta dinner 14 hours before the run and a nice solid 8 hours of sleep (OK, so that wasn’t on the run but were contributing factors to an excellent run).

Lessons Learned for Next Time:

• Lately on my long runs, my arches have been sore towards the end of the run. I decided to try the 29km run in my former running shoes, Brooks Glycerin 9, which have more arch support. This was a huge mistake. By km8 my right knee started to ache (never hurt in my other shoes)  – so I swallowed an ibuprofen and kept on going. Lesson learned, I will stick to the my Inno-8 Road X 238 shoes during the marathon.

• So, Vancouver is a city with a lot of trees – it’s beautiful here. However, sometimes tree roots end up lifting sidewalks. Well, I stumbled on one of these sections on the 29km run on Friday and injured my back.  It’s not a big injury, there’s just some inflammation. Massage therapist says “no impact sports until it fully heals”. Which will hopefully be by Saturday, when I will run 32km. Yay! Only one more long run to go and then taper time!