Well, I've been training for 6 weeks now and although I haven't put in anywhere close the the miles I should have according to my training program, I feel I'm ready to run 21Km in two hours or less. Last Friday, on our way to the lake, Nath dropped me off 18Kms away and I ran in. Unfortunately some coyotes thought I smelled good and decided to follow me to see if I'd make a good meal. I started my run a little late and by the time I had 12Km done it was too dark and the coyotes were about 100 to 200ft to my right following me in the field. Since I could not see very well anymore and they were sounding a little more close I decided to call Nath for a pick up. She got to me at Km 14 so I never got to do the whole 18Km but it was still a good run with a little bit of adrenalin boost in the end.
On a different note, during our return trip Sunday, we saw a tornado touch the ground about a mile south of the highway we were travelling on. I was towing the trailer so it was a little unnerving trying to get out of the way and beyond the reach of the storm cloud that produced that tornado. It lifted from the ground less than a mile away from the road and we were clear the rest of the way. Another little boost of adrenalin for yours truly this weekend.
Back the the running, I ran a quick 6K today at lunch. It took 31 mins and I had an 87 sec negative split so I'm happy I can still push hard. Heart rate only went up to 180bpm but then I averaged 150bpm on the outbound 3K so I could have pushed a little more. My only concern for the half is the total distance on the legs. I have not run more than 14Km this year because of my abs (groin) injury and the "frickin" coyotes. Last week I went with my boss to run hills at a place called garbage hill here in Winnipeg. I guess it used to be a landfill but now it's a beautiful park on a grassy hill with a paved road that goes up to the top and then a gravel trail down the other flank. From one side to the other, it's 700 meters so an out and back is 1.4Km. We did seven (7) repeats plus a warm up of 1.5Km around the entire park. That 11.3Km was the best training I've had in a long time. My legs were burning but it was a good burn that will allow me to get more out of them when the time comes on my half marathons and the full Manitoba marathon in June.
That's it for now. I'll write again after the Winnipeg Police Half Marathon this coming Sunday May 2nd. Wish me luck.
