Went out last night, clear skies, cool air, and did the first tempo run in quite some time. Legs felt great, could easily have run faster, but lungs were a limiting factor. i will have to do some more faster running between now and my half at the end of April so i can judge my pace accurately for the distance. I feel good today, slight twinge in the left Achilles. How is your training going?

I've slowed way down over the winter which may or may not be good, but I was having some piriformis issues that appear to be better. I joined a RR half-marathon clinic and they are almost up to my mileage but I have had some breathing issues at the beginning of my runs and there isn't anyone in the group that runs at my pace. The cold and wind seem to really bother me. We have started hill training and I am enjoying pushing myself on the hills. I've signed up for Harry's Spring Run off 8k and Sporting Life 10k. Looking forward to them. And SO happy the ice and snow are gone!!!

I can't complain. I had a nasty calf strain that basically tanked the last half of February for me but March has been great so far. Not much tempo yet as the calf is still dodgie and I have a groin strain from last December that still flairs up every now and then. Just taking it easy and slow and it's working for me. After today I will have run more kilometers this March than any month ever. Hoping to get to the point where I can push the tempo a bit more by the time warm weather comes around.

.........its all just a warm up for the fall raceing season.

Yeah, you have fun with that. lolol

The evenings are getting nice now, Finemess, a good time to run. I have had some scheduling problems as my wife does tax preparation, so a busy time of year, and I try to help[ with the phone and answering the door, but I am way ahead of last year and starting to feel more confident that I will be prepared in time for Hartwell. Ruth, is your group too slow for you, maybe you could do faster runs or hills on your own and use the group runs as easy miles? Simon.

Ruthie, Our paces are very similar. I normally do a long run every nine or ten days and you are more than welcome to join in. I would love the company. My routes are all mapped publicly, very public areas such as streets and well used trails, very safe. I'm sane and very happily married, so no worries about axe murderer or creepy hit on you guy. The biggest caveat is that I do produce my share of snot rockets and I do tend to swear at cyclists and motorists that veer too close. My routes are all loops that begin and end in the Lawrence / Bathurst area. Today, for example, I'm doing 22k at somewhere between 7:15 - 8:00 per k. Based on my last week or so I'm guessing it will come in pretty close to 7:45, with the last half being a bit slower as it is mostly uphill. Here's a link to a typical long route for me. I'm running this one this afternoon, in fact. http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/ca/on/toronto/519123813052341509 My schedule is such that I work til around 4:00am every night ( the main reason I don't race, I can't run anywhere at 8:00am ) so I don't get everything done and get ready to run until 3:00 or 4:00 pm. That time is bad for some people but I always see plenty of people on the trails so it must work for a few, lol. Anyway, if you want to join in either today or any other time drop me an email at blindfish@ymail.com. MTA: I didn't mean that just for Ruthie. I love running w/ people but rarely find someone willing to grind out k's as slowly as I do. But if anyone wants to come along on one of my runs, please feel free to email me and we'll set it up.

Hey Simon My post was pretty vague on the speed so could have been interpreted either way. Regarding pace.....Hmmmmm..... Log says I ran 108.3 miles in time of 15:47:00 equivalent to a pace of 8:45/mile. Conversion: Using 1.6x for miles to km I get 173 km. 15:47:00 x 60 minutes = 928.2 min / 173 km = 5.35 min/km Something can't be right here. If you look at my speeds in the Workout section I'm running 12 - 13 minute miles. Anyway, I do run slow - that's just me. Someday I may surprise myself... MTA smilies

tried to read all the math up there and got confused...reminds me how appreciative I am of Eric's work... I had a really bad run on the TM last Thursday, so much so that I thought an extra day off on Saturday would be good too. Went out in the rain on Sunday and had a great run (getting soaked and all) - shins still acting up a little but maybe the running gods thought they'd be nice to me on my birthday. Doing 6:1s and after the first one I consciously forced myself to slow down and I still managed to go quicker than usual...I think I'm going to ignore the TM from now on! Surgery seems to be healing well. I took a short session with my workplace's yoga teacher on Friday and I can do most of the stuff using a fist with my right hand instead of flat so I start yoga tomorrow at lunch too! I'm very excited about that. Follow up with the surgeon in three weeks to get the final okay for hockey! (first game tentatively scheduled for April 27 in case you're interested in some mediocre hockey )