That's more like it!

My 19k run earlier this afternoon was much better than last week's 18k debacle...I guess sleeping in my own bed and not fighting off a cold/flu really does make a difference.

In addition, the sidewalks and bike/walking path along the Canal was free of ice and only had a few small puddles, so there was no need to climb snowbanks or leap over large pools of water to avoid getting soaked. And it was warmer today (+5C) and very little wind....it was a perfect day to run and it felt awesome being out there!

I started with 5k at a 5:05 minutes per kilometere pace, then upped it to a 5 even pace for 4k, followed by 3k at  a 4:55 pace, 2k at 4:50 per km and then 1k at 4:45. I was able to hit all my paces and maintain them, in fact I had to watch that I didn't run too fast. It was the complete opposite of last week when I struggled to reach my desired pace and maintain it. I felt strong throughout and could have run faster.

At the 15k mark I slowed to a 4:55 pace for 2k and then ran the last 2k at a 5:05 pace. I felt strong at the end of the run and could have run much longer. Time for the run - 1 hour, 34 minutes and 17 seconds.

More importantly today's result helped boost my confidence. It's encouraging to have such a strong run at the end of six consecutive days of running and the day after a 7k run that included 2k of hill repeats. Total mileage for the week - 52.2k.

This week Ian is going to incorporate some strength training exercises into my training plan to help make me a stronger runner. I'm interested in seeing how if this will help lower my race times and to see how sore I'll feel at the end of the week. I haven't done any strength training in about a year.

I also bought a new pair of indoor shoes as my old ones had more than 600k on them. Ian would like me to slowly transition into wearing racing flats for my races and using a lower profile shoe for training. So I abandoned my usual Nike Air Moto shoe for the Nike Lunar Max 2 shoe as it is a lower profile and should help encourage a more mid to front foot strike. I'm anxious to try out my new shoes...they're kind of cool looking too...black top with red around the sole....they just look fast! :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week.