Getting it done…

Three solid weeks of base training and one to go before the month is out and I start training proper!

Run week and bike weekend

Bike week and run weekend

Run week and Sunday and a bike on Saturday

Still lacking a little in consistency apart from the last week.

Right now I am enjoy the hospitality of Ottawa, Canada, but working on Pacific time which means I stay up late and then get up early-ish and can run for an hour and be back in time to start work at 8:00am, it kind of works!

Yesterday’s ride was unorthodox as I rented a hybrid and toured around the city and out into the Gatineau region which is a large park:

My steed for the day!

I ended up a little lost and was helped out by two local ladies who demonstrated that famous Canadian friendliness and who got me back on track and took me up a nice climb where I was treated to the view below, the lake is named after a family who settled nearby rather than its color!

Pink Lake

As we rode out of the park I realized there was a bike race so I decided to loiter and watch a couple of the laps, it was 11 x 9km loops so I watched a couple of loops, aware that I needed to get my bike back in time.

Up close and personal….and then aerial from the freeway bridge

Today’s run was a little test of my pace as I put down a 8 miler with 4 miles at tempo pace:

2m warm up; 8:18, 7:52
4m tempo; 7:47, 7:34, 7:36, 7:47
2m cool down; 8:16, 7:45...oops!

Not the fastest 8 miler I have run and I will need to drive those 7’s down to hi 6s to get to my target 1:30 Half Marathon

So as the month wraps up I will transition onto a 3 month training plan using the FIRST method which I have used successfully for training for a 10k last year where I shaved off nearly 4 minutes…this year I need to shave nearly 8 minutes over double the distance! Doable…let’s see!