There’s a little over one week left before the ENDURrun, and I don’t feel at all ready. My running has suffered again over the last week; I either didn’t have time to fit it in, or the ones that I did fit in, sucked. Yesterday I went out at lunchtime to do a 10km tempo, with two tough hills in it. It was rough; weather was humid, and I just didn’t have the gas to do that kind of aggressive running.

I am still high from Saturday morning’s 29km run. For me, it was one that reaffirmed things for me, that I have not lost my way, and still am on track in my training. I broke it in two pieces; a 19km LSD run with Cheryl, and then a 10km progressively faster run, Cheryl accompanying me on bike. The first part was good; nice and slow and easy. The pace was about 30 seconds slower than what I’m supposed to be doing, but that’s okay.

I had a great hilly 10km run last night with my running partner, the kind of run that was tough, but not too tough. It reminded me of some of the reasons why I enjoy doing this as a sport. As I’ve posted, I’ve had some motivation problems with my current batch of training, and have sought the advice of my closest friends and family. The advice I’ve gotten seems to fall into the following categories:

I’m having a hard time with the training this week. My slight injuries are almost nonexistent these days, and yet I just can’t seem to get myself motivated to train. I can barely get out of bed for work, never mind get up at 6am to go run a tempo. I’m in a funk, and need to get out before all the work I’ve done up to now is shot.

Here we are, some 43 days away from the ENDURrun, and I have only done a handful of meaningful training sessions. It’s been very difficult to get back into training mode after the Mississauga Marathon. I did the requisite 2 weeks of rest and recovery; it took that long for my legs to stop hurting. But I had lingering knee and foot issues, issues that still bother me today. My knee was the one that worried me the most.

Hello. Long time no blog; since January, when I started training for the Mississauga Marathon. I had a long fall/winter layoff of running, and now needed to get back into it to achieve my goal of 3:30 or better. Fortunately, i did achieve what I wanted with that race, finishing in 3:27. Without getting into too much race report detail, it was a perfect day all around. The weather was cool, I had no gear issues, no stomach issues, no issues of any sort (other than a bad case of nerves).

This week was not an easy one to start training in. Sunday’s run was a cold run down by the lake in Ajax on an unmaintained Waterfront Trail. We (Cheryl and I) eventually bailed and ran the roads. Monday was my first Monday night Yoga session, which went well. I think yoga will be a good fit on Mondays, especially once the Sunday mileage creeps up into the 20km+ range. Wednesday’s run was awful; outside was a big snowstorm, so I decided to do the run on my treadmill.

Ah, the start of another training cycle. How many times have I done this now? I can’t count how many. The “working sessions” figuring out the schedule. Adding new elements to the training; things to try out. Re-assessing the gear situation; do I need any new shirts/shorts/tights/thermals/runderwear/jackets/hats/etc… The excitement of yet another goal, another stepping stone on the way to Boston glory… Except this time, I felt none of that. Mostly just dread.

Welcome to my blog, my online journal of facts, features, and otherwise mindless drivel that I think some people may be interested in reading. I’m using this primary as a way to journal my ongoing quest to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I’m hoping to put updates in here on a weekly basis, so keep tuned via RSS, or check back here periodically. A little bit of background history: I started running in summer 2004, taking a Running Room Learn to Run Clinic.

A running blogger I follow, Amanda Loudin, is asking her readers to join in and list their #yearofrunning13. She asked us to answer 6 questions that look back on our past year of running. Best Race Experience I wasn’t happy with many of my race experiences this year, but one that I guess I can say was the “best” of the lot was the Night Race that took place in Toronto the first week of September.