Weekend Warrior

Yikes!  That's the highway???

Joy here...Saturday morning came with a vengeance.  Despite my best efforts not to whinge about winter, as I was brushing mountains of snow off my car just to be able to move it, and as I was driving on the highway as a car spun 180 degrees to be facing the wrong way I did my very best not to curse to the white, snowy skies about the rank injustice of the world.  I tried my best not to be jealous of the millions of people worldwide for whom winter is nothing more than a picturesque scene on a Christmas card.  I gave it to old college try NOT to think of all our friends in Malaysia and Australia enjoying the hot weather.

Needless to say, I failed.

But I shan't bore you with the nature and ferocity of my rant.  Instead I'll skip over that part and get to my workouts.

The whole world is the same colour of white.

I'll let you imagine the drive to the indoor dome amidst the still falling snow, and I'll let you fill in the blanks to flesh out exactly the tone and timbre of my comments as I drove.

Once you've fully imagined that, now imagine me turning into the snow-filled parking lot and manoeuvring the car between two snow banks, rocking it into ruts like a cradle and putting it into park, and then envision us in the dome, jackets, boots, scarfs, and mitts discarded as we get ready for our workout.

My workout--after the drills which included hurdles!!!--was 10X1min, so I ran 10 sets of 1min efforts at my race pace with 30 seconds between that.  So around and around the track I went, averaging just over 200m for each 1minute set before taking it easy and walking for 30 seconds (um, just for the sake of comparison, if I was running 200m in around 46secs, Usain Bolt did it in 19.19secs...I guess I have my work cut out for me!).

Keep those eyes on the road, Joy!

In the end, my average for the workout was 5:25min/km for those 1min "on" sections, which is a little humbling at this point because it's a lot slower than I'd like to be for basically 10minutes of running.  Back in October 2010 when I ran my first half marathon, my average pace was 5:12min/km.  So I've got a long way to go.

But the good news is that I'm at least on track (pardon the pun).

Then on Sunday (one day before a week of travelling, which gives me more of a chance to whinge that I will also refrain from pursuing), I hopped on the bike in the trainer and knocked off a high cadence workout given to me by Coach Andrew.

I still find the high cadence drills to be tough...my legs somehow seem happier to turn the pedals slowly but with more force rather than in a lighter gear but much faster.  I think it's just a matter of training myself...so that's what I'm doing...or so I hope.

And now I have to go and pack my bag after hitting a Saturday and Sunday workout like a good, little weekend warrior to head out of town, first to Winnipeg and then to Toronto...let's hope I don't fall off the wagon entirely!

Over and out,
Joy