This weekend’s LSD was 16km. That’s a distance I haven’t run since last September, so I was a wee bit apprehensive about how it would go. Saturday’s shakedown 6km steady was on the treadmill at Variety Village and I ran it a bit too fast because I was short on time.
See my previous post about how speed is the enemy of runners, especially early in the marathon training program. The result of Saturday’s speedy steady run, combined with Tuesday’s way to fast tempo effort was some tight calves and shin splints.
I’ve always suffered through shin splints in the first few weeks of any ramp up in mileage. I was determined to avoid them by slowing down…so much for that plan. Lesson learned.
On to Sunday’s 16km. It was a great route that avoided most of the winds and icy sidewalks. We hit a bit of a headwind for about a half a kilometre, but other than that it was smooth sailing.
The uphill start to the route that comes with almost all the runs we do out of the Commerce Court Running Room meant it took a bit longer for my legs to loosen up. It was a common complaint in our little pace group.
By the halfway point we were up to Bloor and looking forward to tailwinds and downhill finishes. I took a gel at the one hour mark and immediately felt the effect. We kicked the pace a bit and kept it up all the way to the store.
The pace was perfect – 6:02/km according to my Garmin. I’m trying to keep those Sunday runs above 6:00/km this year and so far it’s working out nicely.
Bonus? Checking the Garmin log, I noted that we ran a negative split – first half was about 30 seconds slower than the second half.
Weekly Wrapup
Totals for the week: 38km (145km so far in 2012).
On tap: 6km tempo (Tuesday), 10km tempo (Thursday), 6km steady (Saturday), 16km LSD (Sunday).
Lessons learned: Slow. Down.
Onwards! 96 days until Vancouver.
