Boston 2013
April 12, 2013 1 Comment
The hay is in the barn!
Since I haven’t blogged in forever, I am feeling a little rusty. But not in the running department. I feel great and for the first time in a long time I am heading into the marathon weekend knowing I am ready.
The training cycle for Boston 2013 was a step up from last year with the addition of a coach. Hey, I never said I was an expert. I figured why not enlist someone who has progressed from where I am to a level I would like to be at. The schedule was fierce and relentless and having a coach checking up on me to ensure I was following the plan definitely helped. I stepped outside my comfort zone in a few areas that I usually don’t. Like running when tired for one. Sure, in the past I have put serious effort into the speed workouts but this time I persevered and ran many more miles. Some people may call them junk but we’ll see if they have in fact built endurance and the ability to fight hard right to the end of the race. Read more of this post
After a 5 week break from running, I got back out there and managed to get in 6 solid weeks of training. There was really no rush to get back to 1000% but I had been looking forward to ‘The Toad’ for the whole year and I also wanted a little redemption from my DNF at The Limberlost Challenge. So in that 6 week cycle, I got back to 3 80k weeks and a few long-ish runs of 29, 36, 33 and went into race day far less fit than I would like to be, but confident that could get around the 12.5 k loop 4 times in about 5.5 hours. 
As I progressed through a recent bout of ‘Life Sucks because I can’t run’ I kind of got to thinking that when I do get back on the road, or trails, I would appreciate the ability to do so, as much as ever. I also vowed to continue to find different ways to make running & exercising, fresh and exciting. Longer trail races are definitely something I want to do more of. I am going to run The Run For the Toad 50k race at the end of September and next year, I plan to do more races like this. 
That title was directed at me. Well, it wasn’t spoken but implied in the eyes of a driver as I stepped in the way of her car.
Living, as a runner in Toronto is a pretty good thing. Especially for those that live anywhere near the Waterfront. Finding routes that are visually pleasing, challenging and relatively traffic free is not an issue. We are actually a bit spoiled as there are an abundance of pretty decent routes that take you through Toronto’s park-lands. These are multipurpose routes that host runners, walkers, cyclists roller-bladers and more. It is rare to traverse any of these routes and not come across other active souls, regardless of the time of day. The fact that you can get a good workout in without battling the hazards of traffic (collisions as well as the pollutants inhaled) is much appreciated by all that make use of these trails. 
After what was more or less my best spring of running ever and a Summer that was going strong and a great outlook to the rest of the year, my running came to a complete stop. Plans to continue my running streak ended at day 183 with an ankle that needed a couple of days off after the 100k Ultra in June. I was feeling better and healed up – ready to run the
One reason I continue writing these reports as a sort of diary to myself, to look back upon and help remind me of the little things that you learn with each one. I don’t really expect people to be super excited and anxious to read them so I don’t post them to quickly following the race, as I once did. For this race, so many people are intrigued by the Ultra distance of 100k, and have been asking so much about it, I guess I have to get on this before it all slips my mind. 
Although this is a goal race of sorts, in so much as I have a goal, to run it and finish it, and hopefully so in 11 hours or less, it is not a goal race for which I have dedicated a large amount of time to.
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