Hey Iain, in December I had just finished c25k and was running the track at the gym. In late Jan I got a treadmill....so been about 2 months on it with a couple of road runs in there too. Slacked off some between then and a couple of weeks ago so I went back and started from wk 4 of c25k so I could get back up to speed for a 5k I'm planning on running at the end of April.

50cm (almost 2 feet) of snow coming tonight folks. It's gonna be brutal. wk5 day 1 on the treadmill tonight <twirls finger> lol. Hope everyone has a good day!

Hey all,

I have felt like a slug for days.  Did an okay 6-miler on Friday, but then Saturday I didn't run at all, just sat around watching shows I'd taped and "carbo-loading" (translated: eating too much).  Yesterday my excuse for not running was my long shift at work.  It was an easy shift, and I spent most of the day sitting.  This morning I just felt like my blood had all turned to lead and I didn't want to do anything, but I went out and slogged through 4.5 miles.  I seem to be in a slump.  Took me 47:50.  I've done it in 45:00.  Oh well.  It was windy in parts, probably gusting to around 25 mph.  Not horrible, but definitely enough to affect me.  Almost blew my hat off a few times.

I did order myself the Garmin 205.  Kind of looking forward to that

Wow Doug, 2 feet of snow!?  Ugh.  Time to break out the X-country skis!  Friday is the first day of spring.  Hope Mother Nature is listening!

Nico

Michael - I love it! I think it'd be a blast to run with all of you, even if virtually. Sign me up!

Don

Doug! That is some seriously bad weather - 2 feet of snow. Good for fun but bad for running. Best of luck with your buildup to the 5k!

Nico - good work ordering the Garmin, have you owned one before? The most i've got is a basic sports watch - nothing fancy like a HR monitor or GPS. I'd be looking forward to it too hehe.

Michael. Triathalon wise I haven't been swimming in a very long time so I may find the same with it - i'll probably have a few goes at it later in the year and see how much I can do. Then go from there. I'm sure I can tackle the cycling, but it's just having enough time to train for three events!

I love the virtual half-marathon idea! Mine is 5th October so looking at last years it fits in the time frame (first weekend of October onwards), which means i'll definitly be up for making a team =D Keep us up to date!

No running or workout for me today - pure rest!

Just off topic. I ran 6 miles yesterday and felt seriously hungry all day! Is that normal? It's the most i've run before. I'm eating around 1900 calories per day and didn't stray over much (if at all yesterday). I had a light breakfast, sandwich+fruit for lunch and a decent size dinner but still felt hungry! I don't want to eat more because if I aren't burning all the calories I think I am then it's going to end in weight gain! Any comments appreciated!

I do know what you mean about the HR. I kind of feel like I know if i'm running too hard now and I think i'd get caught up in numbers if I started reading my HR. Do like the idea of been able to go wherever, especially if your on a route and decide to take a detour because your bored - i've been tempted but without decent navigation it's pretty much guaranteed to mess up your run!

Thanks for the comments on the food.  I've had a google, looks like my weight gives me 740-800 calories used in a 6miles run! Quite a lot, more than expected in fact. Made up for it tonight by having 4 tacos!!! (using up food before I travel home for easter haha!) 

Hi everyone. Just checking in before Val sends the Mounties after me.

Today I did four miles on one of the hotel's dreadmills. It wasn't awful, but I was happy to be finished. I had to get into the gym before 5:00am in order to secure a treadmill. There are four, but the hotel has just shy of a trillion rooms. Fortunately, my body's still pretty well calibrated to east coast time, so my body just thinks I'm going running at 7:00am. By the time I got through my four miles (HHNS W23D1), there were something like three or four people waiting for a treadmill. I'm gonna have to get in there at 4:00am on Thursday just so people don't throw me out the window because I'm hogging a treadmill!

I'm another Garmin convert. I love having the HR monitor, even though I don't spend any time checking it while I'm running. I just use the info on average and max heart rate after the fact to get a sense of my fitness level. Every now and then I'll wear the HR monitor to bed and keep the Garmin on the nightstand so I can check my heartrate first thing in the morning. That's supposed to be a good indicator of whether or not you're overtraining (not so far!).

As far as the virtual half marathon, I've been taking a look at the FIRST half-marathon training program on runnersworld.com, and I think I might give it a try. Right now, I'm doing the Hal Higdon Novice Supreme marathon training program, but that's mostly because I'm too lazy to find another plan. (For some reason, I seem to think it's harder to find a training plan than it is to run 15 miles. Weird.)

Well, it's off to the first day of conference sessions. Should be interesting. Hope I can stay awake....

Enjoy your week, and run well!

Don

Yeah, Iain -- this place is a little crazy. There's a fitness room with four treadmills for a two-building hotel. I'm setting my clock for 4:00am so I can get on a treadmill tomorrow, too. Good thing I'm still on eastern time.

I've decided to drop HHNS and make the jump over to the FIRST plan. My half-marathon is in ten weeks, and that's exactly how long this plan is. I missed today's speed work, but I'll do my tempo run tomorrow. That'll be a three-mile run at a 9:37 min/mile pace (my 5k PR is at 9:14 min/mile). Zowie!

Saturday I have a 5k, but the plan also has me on a 6 mile long run. I figure I'll just run the course in reverse (or twice) to get in the full workout.

The heart rate thing is all about getting a true resting heart rate. As I understand it, your heart rate right after you wake up, but before you've gotten out of bed would provide the best measure of your "true" resting heart rate.

Today's conference sessions were pretty good. The only problem with good sessions is that you get lots of good ideas, which means lots of post-conference follow-up. Just making more work for myself, I'm afraid.

Don