Friday I did another 10K on the road, down the second to the Schmidt farm and back again. This time it was a little cooler , about -6C with a gusty breeze and a bit of snow! The snowmobile trails are open , the route I normally take in the summer is where the goes. The had just groomed it , it looked pretty solid so I thought I would give it a try. Well I was wrong ... its was harder then running in powdery sand... back to the road. There was a light dusting of snow so it was a little bit slippery , just had to mind the hills a little bit more. Running back I started to get a little cold. My muscles felt stiff , when I got home my legs were red ! Next time I am going to layer my legs too. Running back I noticed that my tracks weren't covered as I neared home. I have been working on technique , trying to land under my body. I though that this was shortening my stride but I was wrong , I was surprised at the distance between the foot prints. It kinda feels like I am shuffling along when landing on the balls of my feet. The stiffness brought on by the cold slowed me down a bit and I came in just over the 48 minute mark... couldn't have ran any further without dressing a little warmer! After the run I dropped in the Hot Tub....I usually pour a tall glass of milk but we were out so I opted for a beer instead . Boy you want to talk about a cheap drunk !!!!!!

Sunday I was working , been real busy at work lately so I was surprised to get away. Did an easy 16K run on the treadmill. This is the longest run I have done since late October . It felt great , even though it was the treadmill I got into that meditative state at around the 10K mark ! Felt like I could run forever .... I ran about 3K off in LA LA land not even realizing that I was running . The pace was fairly easy , at around 5:10 /km . I was entertained by my heart rate , kept it in the 130-140 range !

Tuesday after work I jumped back on the treadmill ! It was Fartlek day , did 800x5:13/Km then 200 at 3:45/Km. did this until I hit the 10K mark! Running like this made me feel like I could break 40:00 .... best was May 2007s Trillium where I broke 45:00 for the first time. I varied the elevation from +2 to -1 . It helped to break the monotony of the indoor run. Kept an eye on the heart rate too . Each set I did it pegged high ... mid 160s to low 170s then dropped back to the mid 140s in recovery ! I can see where this sort of a run weekly will help to increase the speed .

I am going to keep this sort of distance / mix going through Jan/Feb . Come March I am going to try to speed things up again preparing for the first 10K in May although I ultimately want to run more , run further ! I haven't done a Marathon yet , gained a ton of respect for distance over the Summer . I could do it today but I am toying with the idea of doing a 50ker before the 42 !

Ron.