A Diary of My Attempt to 5k PB in 2020

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Last Updated on December 23, 2020 by Cory Kawa

With the summer of bikepacking coming to an end, and an injury return to running going okay, I’ve decided to set my sights on a new goal, running a 5k PB in 2020.

As a quick FYI, I’m approaching this post differently than any other post I’ve written before, in that it will be an ongoing diary of my 5k PB in 2020 attempt.

Click here to be taken to my most recent training entry, December 18, 2020 – 5k PB Attempt

I’ve also started breaking out each week into its own separate entry, where I collect the individual posts from the week and sprinkle in some additional thoughts around my approach to training, my future training plans, and where I’m targeting improvements, click below to read about:

• Week 6 – October 5-11 – Refining the plan, incorporating life improvements, and a metric marathon long run.
• Week 7 – October 12-18 – Finding focus, best 4×1 intervals ever, and a surprise running of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Virtual Marathon.
• Week 8 – October 19-25 – Recovery week, leveraging positive thinking to drive future success, thoughts on 80/20 running, and the 2020 Tannenbaum 10k.
• Week 9 – Wisdom Paradox, Caffeine Overdose, and Finding Balance – Lionel Sanders sessions 1 and 2, mysterious back pains, and finding balance.
• Week 10 – Summer in the Fall – Lionel Sanders sessions 3 and 4, unmotivated to motivated, treading close to injury, and summer in the fall.
• Week 11 – Updated Plan, Procrastination, and Mental Toughness – Revising the plan, the impact of procrastination, and 80/20 running vs mental toughness.
• Week 12 – Night Running, Tickr Chest HRM, and the #TTCChallenge – Running at night, a couple of PBs and the #TTCChallenge.
• Week 13 – Rest Week – Examining the joy of running without expectations.
• Week 14 – Losing Performance and the Countdown to Race Day – Finding positives when things don’t go to plan, setting a plan for success, and running the TTC.
• Week 15 – Six Days to Race Day – Looking back on the journey that brought me here, and looking forward to 2021.

Why a 5k PB in 2020 Attempt?

I started running in 2012, ending the season by running my first half at the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon. After that I took a step back, only returning to running in 2014.  

In 2014, I would go on to run a 10k on eleven different occasions, with the highlight being a 49:23 10k, only my third sub fifty 10k ever.

By 2015 running became a way of life, with 63 runs over 10k, and a new PB of 44:27.

By the summer of 2016, I decided to set my sights on a new goal, to break the forty-minute barrier at the Tannenbaum 10k. From September onwards, I trained, and I trained hard. 

As detailed below, despite my training, it wasn’t mean to be, and although I came close, it wasn’t close enough.

On the bright side, I did manage to set PBs in the 5k (19:46), 10k (40:29), and half marathon (1:31:52), times that still hold to this day.  

Then triathlon and specifically the half-ironman took over, the shorter distances became an afterthought, and my in year PBs fell back from their previous highs.  

Where I ran a 19:46 5k in 2016 for each of the next three years, my in year PBs were, 21:04, 20:47, 20:48.  

For the 10k, my in year PBs went from 40:29 in 2016, to 42:54, 42:48, and 42:54 in each of the next three years.

Despite an annual improvement in the half, my 2019 marathon PB of 3:16:08, not breaking forty on the 10k has always eaten away at me.

Well, 2020 changed everything. First, I broke my heel, which took me out of running until July, then COVID hit, which shut down the world and the rest of my plans.

With no races, I managed to pivot to bikepacking, which has been incredible. However, with the cold weather approaching, that too is soon coming to an end.   

Although the return to running has been going well, with no races, no goals, and nothing to motivate me, I haven’t been able to push myself as hard as I would like. The best way to sum up the return to running so far is that it sucks.

And there it is, the reason for the 5k attempt. To seize the downtime created by my empty calendar and to set those long lost PB’s, starting with the 5k in 2020.

If that goes well, I will then target a sub forty 10k in the spring of 2021, as part of my Breaking 40 Project, and then who knows, maybe the Breaking 90 Project later next year. 

How I Set My 2016 PB

As I mentioned earlier, I set my 10k PB in the summer of 2015. By the end of August 2016, the anniversary of that PB was fast approaching, and I was nowhere close to repeating the magic.

In my defence, by the summer of 2016, I was also slowly changing my focus to triathlon, running my first race, the Milton Xterra, earlier that summer, with my first road triathlon, the Georgina Tri, planned for early September.    

It was during my last hard training run for the Georgina Tri that I surprised myself, posting PBs in both the 5k at 20:58 and the 10k at 42:27.  

That surprise 42:27 started my mind racing, fixating even, on what would happen if I went all in.  

The new goal for 2016. To break forty at the Tannenbaum 10k early that December.

Considering I had only broken 45 once before it seemed a little ambitious, but since I had knocked five minutes off my PB in 2015, why couldn’t I knock off another five in 2016.  

Due to the magic of the Internet, and specifically a combination of Garmin Connect and VeloViewer, I have the luxury of looking back and analyzing my approach. It was a simple approach consisting of a 10-12km interval run with 1km splits done at max effort, a 1 one hour run at a hard effort, a long run of no more than 16km, and a day of either biking or swimming.

By the end of September 2016, I was about where I am now, running splits of around 4:10 min/km on my hard interval runs.  

By mid-October 2016, I was progressing, but not as much as I had hoped, with my best 10k threshold run coming in at 43:34, for a 4:21 min/km pace.  

Then out of nowhere, I ran a 1:31:52 half marathon at the MEC Burlington Half, becoming the fourth male to cross the line, only losing third place, and a free pair of earbuds, on the final kick.

What that race taught me more than anything is that race day carries an energy that you can never repeat in a typical training session. If you want to see just how fast you are, and you don’t race, then sign up for one. If you’re like me, you will amaze yourself at just how much faster you can be.

After that race, I was more motivated then I’ve ever been. Knowing I could hold a 4:20 pace for 21k, made the idea of breaking 40 on the 10, seem like an all too attainable reality.  

Throughout November, I pushed harder than I ever had before, but no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t consistently break a 4 minute pace on my all-out intervals.  

I was close and was hoping close enough. With my best run, by far, being a one-hour speed session with six intervals at max effort posting splits of 3:55, 3:51, 3:58, 4:02, 3:58, and 4:06.  

On race day, I came out hard, running the first 5k with splits all under 4 mins, but after the 5k turnaround, the wind hit my face, and I couldn’t hold on, finishing the first 5k split in 19:46, and ending the 10k in a time of 40:29.  

Time’s I’m still proud of to this day.

After that, the half-ironman took over, and with it, my dreams of breaking 40. As I’ve said before, not a day has gone by where I haven’t wondered what could have been.

Summer 2020

After breaking my heel in March, I had to step away for four months, my longest pause in running since 2014 by a wide margin. As I mentioned earlier, and in my August 2020 Month in Review post, returning to running hasn’t been easy. I’m doing okay, but every run feels like a slog.  

September 3, 2020 – 10k Intervals (4x1km Max Effort)

Today was my first real attempt at hard intervals this summer, although I started strong, I faded fast, posting splits of 4:08, 4:12, 4:44, and 4:44.

One oddity that came up is that I don’t think I can trust the HR on my Garmin 935. I posted an abnormally low heart rate for the first 3km, which even continued into my first hard effort before jumping to a more normal range by km number four.

September 6, 2020 – Restoule Fire Trail Run

My regular training routine was put on hold by our first visit to Restoule Provincial Park. I did manage to get in a run up the Fire Tower Trail which included 70m of elevation gain over 2km.

If you’re interested in learning more about the park, it’s beaches, it’s trails, and more, you may want to read my Restoule Provincial Park Camping Review.  

September 7, 2020 – 40k Easy Ride

With a long lag between races and a goal of putting in one more bikepacking adventure later this month, I decided to log a few km’s on the bike with an easy 40k out to Kleinburg and back.

September 8, 2020 – 10k Intervals (4x1km Max Effort)

It was just before this run that I decided to attempt a 5k PB in 2020.  

As I mentioned before it’s always been at the back of my mind, then I came across an Instagram post by @lsanderstri, where he talked about his goal of setting a 5k PB in 2020, and decided why not me.

I was finally motivated and went out hard, and it went well, with what felt like my first real good run since my injury return, posting fantastic splits of 4:02, 4:11, 4:13, and 4:03.  

These splits put me right on track to where I was in 2016, with the only difference being slower rest intervals of 5:00 now vs 4:45 in 2016.

Although it wasn’t my intent, I also put up my best 5k of 2020, running 22:20, putting me 2:35 off my goal time of 19:45.

September 10, 2020 – 14k Long Run

The goal for my long runs is to build out my endurance, without worrying too much about speed. At least for now.

My thought process will be to try to hold a pace that’s about 25% slower than my 5k race pace, putting me just under 5:00 min/km mark.

With this being my first long run since March, I’ve decided to worry less about pace and to instead focus on building out my distance to 16k. Once I hit the 16k milestone, I will then transition to slowly improving my target pace to just under the five-minute mark.

For today, I ran a relatively steady pace of about 5:30, with some higher, and some lower splits. I came out strong running the first 4k under 5:15 each, before slowing down with a couple of middle splits approaching 6:00, before settling down to 5:30 for the final 4k.

Final thoughts on the day, not great, not bad, about what I expect for the first long run in six months.

September 9, 2020 – 80k Easy Ride Through Holland Marsh

Another easy ride, with no goal other then to get on the bike and do some exploring, and maybe get a few photos along the way. If you haven’t ridden through Holland Marsh before, do it, it’s fantastic. To see some picture’s of the day, check out my Instagram. 

It was also after this ride, and once again seeing the Ghost Bike put up for Daniel Bertini, that I decided to put up on a post on bike safety, Ghost Bikes and Bike Safety, by far the most popular post I’ve written so far.

September 14, 2020 – Speed Work at the Track

For today’s run, I decided to mix it up from my standard 4x1km speed workout by trying a workout I came across last year.  

I’m a big fan of the 4×1. It enables me to go all out while still having time to recover. I also use it as a launching pad to either further increase duration by expanding out to 6×1’s or lengthening out the time with 2×2’s or some other variation.  

Today’s variation would change it up in a different way, instead of lengthening the 4×1, the workout had me run a descending distance of 1.2, 1, .8, .6, .4, .2 with an equivalent easy run between each interval, all at max effort.

The thought behind the run was to pick an intensity that would enable me to push beyond my max effort, by mentally knowing that I don’t need to keep anything in the tank for future splits.  

All in all, it went beyond well, with the paces times per split of 1.2 at a 3:50 pace, 1 at a 3:45 pace, .8 at a 3:55 pace, .6 at a 3:55 pace, .4 at a 3:38 pace, and the final .2 at a 3:34 pace.  

With each day that passes, breaking 19:45 in 2020 is seeming more and more like a reality.

September 16, 2020 – 16k Long Run

Today’s run was my first ten miler since 2020, and only my third long run since the 2019 Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon.

My memories of this run were that it didn’t go well, by the 4.5 km mark I felt terrible, it took everything in me not to throw in the towel, really it was just knowing that I had a goal, that made me push on.  

Instead of throwing in the towel I decided to take it slow, and focus on making it to the end.

By the 8km mark, I was back in the zone, not fast, not slow, but feeling like I could make it to the end.

With a mile to go, I felt good enough to give it one final all-out push, running about a minute faster per km, at a 4:30 pace for that last mile. 

While writing this post a week later, the thing that surprised me the most was despite how I felt, I ran well. My average pace for the run was 5:20, meaning that even without that final push I would have finished closer to 5:25, or five seconds quicker per km then last weeks long run.

September 18, 2020 – 10k Intervals (4×1 Max Effort)

Back to the classic, and it didn’t go well.

Building off the success of my track work earlier in the week I went into today’s run with the intent of breaking 4:00 on at least one of the splits and being close to 4:00 for the rest of them.

Instead, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do it. My splits for the day were 4:08, 4:13, 4:16, and 4:19, with a rest break about a minute slower than each effort.   

By the time my final split was over, I was mad, the day felt like a waste. So, instead of cooling down during that final km, I gave one last hard push for the final 500m, posting a split of 4:06, my best on the day.

Final thoughts, a 5k PB in 2020 is not going to be easy.

September 19, 2020 – 100k Milton Long Ride

For my weekly ride, I explored somewhere new today, with a 98km long ride starting at the Milton Velodrome, which took me west up the Escarpment, and through some quiet and scenic backroads, almost to Cambridge.  

I wrote up a full report, with pictures, SoCyclings 95km Milton Escarpment Ride, if you’re interested.  

September 20, 2020 – 5k All Out

After my poor showing on Thursday’s intervals I had planned to do my Saturday ride, take a rest day, then get right back into it with a new 4×1 effort on Monday, 9/21.

Well I woke up Sunday feeling fantastic, the family was out, I was bored, and there seemed like no better time than the present to see how far I have to go to PB in 2020.

The big concern for the PB attempt is where. If I pick a city street it may have lights, if I choose a trail there will be hills, and if I go to the lake it won’t be accessible for my family, and the cheer station support I hope to enlist to cheer me on. I won’t have the distraction of other runners, but hopefully, with strategically placed family, and friends, their moral support will help drive me to the finish.

After a bit to much research, I finally settled on a path that surrounds the various fields at the Concord/Thornhill Regional Park, a 1.3km relatively flat, and quiet loop. 

The run went well, better than expected even, with splits of 4:02.2, 4:08.7, 4:12.3, 4:15.3, and 4:09.6, for a total time of 20:48, tieing my third best time ever, and only 1 second off my second best time ever.  

During the run itself, I felt fantastic, by the 500m mark I was feeling strong, even wondering if today could be the day, then I made a turn, the wind hit my face, and reality set in. Although I slowed a bit as the km’s ticked by, it wasn’t as bad as I would have thought. I even surprised myself by keeping a little in the tank and running my second fastest split on the last km of the day.  

My 2020 PB is now 20:48, leaving me 1:03 to go to set my all-time 5k PB in 2020.

September 22, 2020 – 16km Long Run

I finished Sunday’s session at a mental high. Tieing my third-best time, in the 5k felt good. I am now more motivated and determined to PB in 2020 than ever before.

Although it won’t be easy, the best things in life never are.

To do this, I need to be prepared to push myself harder than ever. That doesn’t mean harder every day, but harder during each max effort interval. If I have one memory of 2016, it was that by the end of each interval I felt like death, but by the end of the run, the endorphins kicked in, and it felt fantastic.

Waking up this morning, I knew that I was running 10 miles, and I wasn’t excited about it. That’s the funny thing about running, I love it, but starting is the hardest part. As the day went on, I only began to dread it more.  

Then the run started, the anxiety went away, and I felt great. I planned to run a 5:15 pace as long as I could keep my heart-rate under or very close to 140bpm.  

I came out strong, running my first 5km all under 5:00 per/km, with a HR right around where I would want it. Although my HR was in range, it was creeping, and my motivation was high, and I wasn’t tired. I now had to shift my focus to dialling it back and keeping my HR below 140, so that my body could build out the endurance I desire.

With a slower pace required to keep my HR in range, I was at a 5:11 pace by the 14.6 km mark, four seconds faster than my goal for the day. Now was the time to finish strong, with a hard kick over the last mile, coming in at a 4:30 pace. Results on the day, 10 miles at a 5:08 pace, seven seconds ahead of plan, and feeling fine.

Thoughts for the day, and on the journey to a 5k PB in 2020. Today I feel good, I’m at a high, now to find a way to keep this feeling going.

September 24, 2020 – 10K Intervals (4×1 Max Effort)

With Sunday’s successful 5k baseline attempt in the books, and a long run that paced better than expected on Tuesday, I came into today’s 4x1k interval session motivated to excel.

During last Friday’s speed session, I didn’t have it. I finished the day much slower than anticipated, and upset for not putting in the effort required to PB in 2020.

If I have one memory from my training in 2016, it was that I gave it my all, every interval, without fail.  

If I want to be true to myself, I sometimes wonder if the reason I haven’t chased the sub forty 10k since then is… it’s the hardest thing I’ve done, and I haven’t wanted to suffer that hard again.

Today I was mentally ready to give it everything I had, and I did. Unfortunately, the results didn’t show it.  

I finished the first km at 4:02, right where I wanted to be. By the second km, I slowed slightly to 4:09, which, with a little wind, I was able to accept. By the third km, things went south with a time of 4:20, followed by a 4:19 finish on the final interval. 

Today was an interesting day, I truly gave it my all, but despite that, the results weren’t there, now the question is why?

Here’s what the data shows:

• 9/22 Temp 22C, Wind 9SSE, Intervals/HR 4:02/159, 4:09/162, 4:20/160, 4:19/164, Day Pace/HR 4:47/151, Training Peaks Overall Fitness/Rest Score 75/2
• 9/18 Temp 15C, Wind 23NNW, Intervals/HR 4:08/149, 4:13/154, 4:16/154, 4:18/153, Day Pace/HR 4:41/144, Training Peaks Overall Fitness/Rest Score 74/9
• 9/8 Temp 16C, Wind 15E, Intervals/HR 4:02/144, 4:11/145, 4:14/149, 4:03/146, Day Pace/HR 4:37/142, Training Peaks Overall Fitness Rest/Score 76/0

From what I can see above, it looks like Training Peaks is showing that my fitness increased, and my body’s overall level of rest going into the day is about the same, so it’s not that.  

If I dig a little further, it looks like the weather was about equal all days, without much difference in wind, so the weathers ruled out. The surprising thing is that on 9/8 I put in the least amount of effort with the best performance, with an average HR of 142, as compared to today’s HR of 151.

Now I’m confused. The weather’s the same, my rest is the same, I’ve even checked over food and sleep, without any noticeable differences, and despite all that, I’m pushing harder with worse results.

Time to go a little deeper and compare to 2016, where I looked at two random interval sessions from the end of September and late October. From what I can see, Training Peaks scores my Fitness/Fatigue in a similar way. In neither of those two sessions did I push myself as hard as I did today, and still my results were better. 

Now I’m perplexed. It just doesn’t make sense. I’m just as rested as always, I’m pushing harder, but I’m continuing to slow.

I had one final idea.

If you’re not familiar with Training Peaks, it’s a great tool that takes your workout analysis to the next level. My favourite feature is a tool that uses a variety of metrics that tracks your fitness and fatigue. I’ve always had my instance setup with my Fitness and Fatigue based on cycling, walking, swimming, and running. The assumption being that each of these sports is hitting similar muscle groups, and it’s worked well enough for me.

What I’ve never done is isolate for a single sport.  

Here are the results of my Training Peaks Fitness/Fatigue grouped by date, overall scores, then isolated for running:

• 9/24/2020, 75/2, 27/-13
• 9/18/2020, 75/9, 25/-12
• 9/8/2020, 76/0, 21/-6
• 10/28/2016, 56/13, 32/6
• 9/27/2016, 55/2, 30/11

Now here’s something interesting, and hopefully its that simple. 

As I mentioned before, I broke my heel earlier this year, forcing me to take my longest break since 2014, only gradually returning to running in early July.

Despite the time off, I feel great, I’ve biked lots, and feel like my fitness is almost as good as ever.

The interesting thing I see is that my overall fitness and fatigue scores haven’t changed much between 2016 and today, if anything I’m in much more better shape.

What has changed is my running scores. In 2016 my running fitness was marginally better then it is today, which makes sense due to my extended absence. What I didn’t expect is the wide variation in how much rest I had going into my runs. Running wise, in 2016, I was well-rested, in early September, I was barely rested, now I’m borderline exhausted.

Hopefully, that’s it, despite feeling fit and rested overall, from a running perspective, I’m not.  

Time to test the theory and take a rest week. 

It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds.

September 26, 2020 – Durham Destroyer Bikepacking

In what will hopefully not be my last big ride of the year I ended up riding the 2021 Durham Destroyer – I’m Not Worthy gravel/bikepacking route, covering 164km of distance, 2km of climbing, and 7km of sand. Full ride report available here, 2021 Durham Destroyer – I’m Not Worthy Ride Report.

September 29, 2020 – 1 Hour Easy Run

I don’t have much to say about this run, other then after the twelve-hour ride that was the Durham Destroyer I’m still sore. Today’s run was really just about getting out there and burning off some of that lactic acid, running a nice slow one-hour recovery run. Hopefully, by Thursday I will be able to up the intensity, while still being mindful, that this week is intended to a recovery week.

October 1, 2020 – 5x600m Intervals

Recognizing that this is a recovery week, in more ways than one, I decided to dial back my normal 4x1km Thursday interval session, and instead replaced it with a 5x600m session at the track.

All in all, it went well, I think.

After the Durham Destroyer, Tuesday’s run was slow, so I wasn’t sure what to expect today.

The confusing part is just how well I went. If I go by the watch’s GPS data, I was terrific, posting all-time records on the 400 and 800m, while also posting four top 3 times for various other distances in 2020.

However, according to Garmin, the local track is about 430m around, if I assume the track is 400m, then I was much closer to where I expected to be today.

Here is what the splits looked like:

Interval	Pace	Avg HR	Adj. Pace
1	3:32	156	3:53
2	3:51	153	4:12
3	3:50	153	4:12
4	3:55	153	4:15
5	3:52	155	4:13

As you can see below, my Garmin has me running the outside loop on each lap, which I know not to be true.

Considering that I felt like I had more to give, I think I need to trust the track and satellite data on this one, and with that time to eliminate those records from the book.

If you’re curious, according to Training Peaks my overall fitness/fatigue for today is 78/0, versus running metrics of 26/-2.

October 3 – 80/20 Running and Two Longish Runs

I’ve spent the better part of this past week reading 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald.

The basic concept of the book, so far, is that generally speaking most people run too fast on their easy/long runs, impeding their ability to maximize endurance and adequately recover.

In the last chapter I read, Matt talked about how 80% of training needs to be in a range slightly below the ventilatory threshold, which for me works out to be between 126-140bpm. The benefit being that by training in this range, your body is best learning how to build endurance. That, by training slightly above this range, your body is neither gaining the benefits of a pure speed workout nor maximizing its ability to build endurance.  

From what I understand, even when training for shorter races, like a 5k or 10k, the focus should be on building endurance, supplemented by speed workouts, enabling you to best hold your desired pace over the 5k.

Really, from what I’ve seen during this current quest, endurance is the issue. I can run sub-four for the first 2kms, but then fatigue kicks in, and my times begin to fall.

Although I may only be halfway through, the general principle makes sense to me.

As I’ve begun to ramp up my training, my focus has started to shift to speeding up my long runs, with the intent being to get my pace back to where I was in 2016.

The focus on trying to replicate 2016 is most likely impeding my training, possibly accounting for my poor showing last week.

Mark’s advice is to focus on HR for your longer runs, thereby ensuring that your staying within the range to maximize endurance. While focusing on pace for your faster or interval runs, since HR can often take a while to adapt.

My goal today was to get in some distance while keeping my heart rate below 140.

Although I wanted to run long today, with being away last weekend for the Durham Destroyer, the focus was instead on family, and with that, I decided to split up my long run into two, one-hour runs.

Morning Run – 12kms 

During this first run, I wanted to stay true to the 80/20 rule, running 80% of it below 140bpm, and the remaining 20% at my current anticipated 10km race pace, slightly below 4:30 min/km.

For the most part that worked out well, with the first 8k at a 5:10 pace and an average HR of 137bpm, the only struggle was controlling my HR on the uphills where I ran much slower than anticipated.

I then transitioned into 2.5k at 4:29 pace with an average HR of 149 bpm, before finishing off with a brief 1.5km cooldown.

Afternoon Run – 12km

As I mentioned before I’m only halfway through the book, so really I’m not even that sure how best to incorporate the 80/20 rule.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my first run probably wasn’t the right way to go about it. That for these endurance runs, I should strictly focus on endurance, and that I should save the hard efforts for at least one speed session and one threshold session per week.  

The new goal will be up to up the distance with easy runs, while pushing myself during the more intense efforts, with the intent of fine-tuning the approach based on the remaining chapters.

With that, I put in another 12km effort, this at a surprisingly faster 5:06 pace, with a lower average HR of 134.

October 4, 2020 – Recovery Run

One of the concepts recently introduced in 80/20 Running was the idea of running an extremely low effort recovery run on your rest days.

The intent of the recovery run is to continue to build up your distance while placing an absolute minimum amount of strain on the body.

According to the book, the key to success is keeping both distance and effort to an absolute minimum. Where a typical low effort run should be in Zone 2, the recovery run needs to be in Zone 1, which for me works out to be between 112-126bpm.

With that, I decided to put in a brief 25min Zone 1 recovery run today.

The hardest part of the run wasn’t so much running slow enough to keep my HR down but doing it in a way that felt natural. By the halfway point, I was beginning to feel like I was on the verge of injury due to an altered gate, shortened step, and unnaturally slow running pace.

The solution, which worked a bit in the end, was to slow my leg speed down, but even that felt very unnatural.

All, in all I’m not sure how I feel about this concept yet, I love the idea of increasing endurance through low km running, but I will need to figure out a way to better manage the unnatural running style.

October 6, 2020 – 4x1km Hard Intervals

Today was a good day, with my best splits of the year when running a 4x1km interval set, including a couple of top 3 finishes for 2020.

Coming into today, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  

After my disappointing set of intervals on 9/24, I’ve been working off the assumption that my performance is heavily influenced by running fatigue.

As you may recall, according to Training Peaks and their Fitness/Fatigue metrics, although my overall fatigue was good, my running specific fatigue was poor and dropping, falling from -6 on 9/8, to -13 on 9/24.

Working off that assumption, I took a recovery week, thereby dropping my running fatigue from -18 on 9/25, to -2 on 10/3.  

After 24km of running on 10/4, my fatigue was back through the roof at -11 coming into today.  

My only saving grace is that with no bike rides last weekend, my overall fatigue is as high as its ever been at a +9.

When looking back, these numbers are essentially an exact match for my 2nd last set of 4x1km Intervals on 9/18.  

Let’s look at the numbers:

• 9/18 – Overall Fatigue +9, Running Fatigue -12, Wind 16NNW
• 10/6 – Overall Fatigue +9, Running Fatigue -11, Wind 19SW

As you can see, the main difference was the wind, which worked to my advantage today. With the route I took, the wind was at my side or back for all my hard efforts.

Coming into today, I decided to implement three changes:

• Slowing down the easy portion of my intervals, with the intent of saving my energy for the part of the run that matters, the speed intervals. Average recovery went from 5:10 on 9/18 to 5:45 today.
• Prior to the run, I took 15 minutes to destress, and relax, laying down, closing my eyes, and mentally preparing me for the hard effort ahead.
• Lengthening my run beyond 10k with additional low effort recovery time attached at the end

Here are the results, comparing 9/18 vs 10/6, broken down by split and HR:

• 9/18 – 4:08/149, 4:13/154, 4:16/154, 4:18/153
• 10/6 – 3:55/151, 4:01/156, 3:58/156, 4:00/156

Records on the day: 

• 2nd fastest 800m in 2020
• 2nd fastest 1km in 2020

It will be interesting to see if I can maintain this success during next weeks interval set and if I can carry the gains into Thursday’s threshold run.  

All in all, today was a good day. Where the 5k PB was beginning to feel out of reach, I am ending today more hopeful.

October 7, 2020 – 4.5km Zone 1 Recovery Run

Another easy/recovery run in the books. Where my first attempt at a recovery run, October 4, felt completely unnatural, today felt much better.

The only other mention is that I’m working out a three-week training plan, with the intent of coming as close as possible to the 80/20 rule, while running under 50km a week. Ideally, I can find a way to do one high-intensity speed session a week, one threshold run, a low-intensity long run, all of which would be broken up by various recovery runs, and ideally some biking. The most difficult part is planning this out while also trying to see how I can incorporate the Burk’s Falls Loop the weekend of the 17th, and my virtual marathon the weekend of the 24th.

For now, the goal is a threshold run tomorrow, probably consisting of a 2km warmup, followed by 8km at a 4:30 pace, followed by a 2-3km cool down. Potentially a recovery run on Friday. A 25km long run on Saturday, and ideally some biking on Sunday.

October 8, 2020 – 6km at Threshold Run

Considering I’ve run 43.5km since Saturday, I felt surprisingly fresh today and was ready to go hard on my planned threshold run. A 1hr effort including a 2km warm-up, followed by 6km at 4:25-4:30 min/km, ending with a 4km cool down.

I’m not sure if it was a result of the lower-intensity running, or not, but I came out feeling fast. The unfortunate part, every time I looked down at my watch I discovered I was anything but.

Not to be dismayed. I knew the warmup didn’t matter, and the key was saving my energy for the hard effort that followed.

For that hard effort, the splits today worked out to be 4:30/141, 4:32/146, 4:29/155, 4:33/156, 4:39/158, 4:28/159.

All in all I’m not sure how I feel about the day, I felt good, I felt like I put in a good effort, but I also felt like my splits were just a bit slower then expected. Where in the past I went on a deep dive, today, I’m going to try not to overthink it.

Overall, I think I like the 80/20 approach so far. I’m running more than I ever have, and feel like I have more to give. My day to day efforts are slower, which mentally makes me feel better, and I don’t seem to be losing speed on the more intense workouts. The only part I fear is whether or not missing out on the long hard runs, will cause me to lose some of the mental toughness or pain tolerance that has carried me through some of my past races.

Records on the day according to Training Peaks include my 3rd highest 20 min running HR for 2020 at 157bpm, and my highest 60 min HR for 2020 at 146bpm.

To end on a positive note, I guess if I’m setting 2020 records, I must be doing something right.

October 10, 2020 – The Metric Marathon

With my virtual marathon only two weeks away, and no runs over 20k, I decided that today is the day for my one and only, long run.

The run today was a metric marathon, 26km through the city, and in a way a partial mapping of my future virtual marathon route.  

The part that always fascinates me about long runs is the mental games they play. I came into the day feeling good, enthused even for the run ahead.

It didn’t take long for the head games to begin.

KM’s 1-7 to the Beltline

By the 6km mark, I was feeling fine, great even, the challenge if any was keeping my pace slow enough to stay in the zone.  

My average grade adjusted split for this section was around 5:20 min/km.

KM’s 8-13 Downhill to the Bloor Viaduct

As I crossed the Beltline doubt began to slowly creep in, with thoughts of your legs are tired, you have still have 17km to go, do you think you can actually do this marathon with so little training?

As I turned into David Balfour Park and the cliff drop down into the Don Valley, it hit me, what goes down, must go up, and I have a lot of uphill in my future. Maybe, planning my longest run of the year with a 13km uphill return to the finish, wasn’t my smartest idea ever.

With that, what should have been the easiest part of the run, quickly turned into the most challenging part. The funny thing is, I knew deep down, that I was fine, that my biggest challenge on race day will just be getting out of my mind, finding a way to shelf that self-doubt, and focus on the run.

My average grade adjusted split for this section was around 6:00 min/km.

KM’s 14-21 – The Climb

As I made the turn onto Rosedale Valley the realization set in, the easiest part was done, the downhill was over, the rest, a straight climb back to the top starting with 80m back up to St. Clair.

What I didn’t expect, it was here that I found new energy, I was moving effortlessly up Rosedale Valley, with one of my best splits of the day.  I began to realize that the only thing I had to fear was fear itself, that it’s never as bad as you think it is.

Although my pace would slow, it was never as bad as it was before, with an average split of around 5:40. Far from the 5:00 min/splits that I want to be on race day, but close enough to be in reach.

KM’s 22-26 The Final Push

I often think of a long run as like a long car ride.  

As you settle into the early part of the ride, you’re not comfortable, you think about the journey ahead, the endless time spent in the car. You wonder, do you truly want to be where you’re going, is it worth hours the time your wasting now?

Then inevitably, at some point when you least expect it, you resign yourself to your fate, you stop thinking about the drive, the lights, the traffic, and you just settle in, the KM’s tick by, and if anything you almost enjoy the journey.  

Then, at some point, you near your destination, you realize it’s almost over, you think about getting out, stretching your legs, the day ahead, and with that those last few KMs are often the worst few KMs. By this point everything is an annoyance, the slow car, the redlight, the minor traffic, the unexpected rest break, it almost seems like your back in school watching time tick backwards as you count down the final few minutes of the day.

I say this because, that’s what this part of the run was for me, relatively flat, relatively fast, but with the knowledge that the end was in sight, I was back to focusing on the pain. Although I was running well, I was checking my watch constantly, counting down the KMs to 26. Every KM seemed like the longest KM, and then it was over.

Final Thoughts

My favourite part about a typical race day is the distractions, the distractions of cheer stations, crowds on the streets, other runners, all these little things that distract me from my own fear and self-doubt.

Today, I was slower than expected. I let fear and self-doubt rule the day. In the end, I did it, my longest run of the year, even finishing with more to give. 

Based on my run today, my race day goals are as follows time/pace, under 3:30/4:59 will be great, under 3:40/5:13 probable, under 3:50/5:27 okay, and anything else, well at least I finished.

October 13, 2020 – 4x1km Hard Intervals

New shoe day.  

Thank you Saucony and Strava for running the “Saucony September 60” last month.

With the 30% off reward I picked up a new pair of Saucony Kinvara’s, the same shoe I PB’d in back in 2016.

They are fast, light, look nice, feel good, and are perfect for short, hi-intensity runs, and races.

Now that the product promo is out of the way, the one I don’t benefit from in anyway whatsoever, let’s get to the run.

Coming into today, I wasn’t sure what to expect. At 53.5km, last week was my highest mileage week in well over a year, probably in my top 10 ever. 

My legs were sore, my day was long, and I just wasn’t in my happy place.  

By 5 pm I threw in the towel. My plan today, go hard, break four minutes on all my splits, while also running 12km, just slightly longer than last week. My justification? If I’m sore and tired, I won’t be able to run hard, the day will be a waste. Of course, if I rest up, tomorrow will be much better.

Instead of feeling relieved, I was angry. Angry at life, angry at tiredness, and most of all, angry at myself for taking the easy way out.

As I’ve said before, perhaps the reason I haven’t attempted a short PB since 2016 “is it’s the hardest thing I’ve done, and I haven’t wanted to suffer that hard again”.

By 8 pm the run was back on, by 9 pm I was off, and fueled by the need to prove myself, to myself. 

The final result? Although it hurt, and I mean a lot, I ended up with my best splits probably since 2016, all under 4:00 mins/km.

Here’s what that looked like, including recent trends:

• 9/18 – 4:08/149, 4:13/154, 4:16/154, 4:18/153
• 10/6 – 3:55/151, 4:01/156, 3:58/156, 4:00/156
• 10/13 – 3:53/151, 3:58/156, 3:57/157, 3:54/156

A few thoughts on the run:

• No matter how bad you feel, you probably feel better then you think, running is mental, your mind will play tricks on you, get out there, you never know what might happen
• Very happy to see improvements week to week with slight increases in speed, despite similar HRs
• My recovery intervals were much better, running closer to 5:35 as compared to last weeks 5:45, with a similar heart rate
• Last week the wind was at my back, today there was no wind, which should make up for this weeks shoe advantage

Final thoughts on the day, I still have a long way to go, but if I can keep getting marginally better, my PB will be in reach.

October 14, 2020 – 5km Recovery Run

Not much to say here, other than, I like the recovery run, after the pain of yesterday, it’s nice to get out there and just enjoy the run.

The only interesting note. Last week, my average split/hr was 6:10/120, versus 5:46/120 today. Perhaps another sign of marginal improvements week to week.

October 17, 2020 – 2020 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Virtual Marathon

You can click here, 2020 Toronto Waterfront Marathon Recap, to read about the return from injury, my PB in 2019, signing up two weeks ago, and the experience of running my first virtual marathon through the much quieter streets of Toronto.

In case you’re wondering. I’m happy to say, I ran my third fastest all-time marathon, in just my third ever attempt. 🙂

October 19, 2020 – 30 Minutes of Zwift

It’s a strange feeling when you wake up in the morning, get out of bed, head downstairs and realize, “I feel my tendons.”

And with that comes the realization that I’m in store for my first real recovery week. Not a light recovery week like the one I took a few weeks back, but a true recovery week of very light efforts and easy runs.  

Coming into today, my feet are swollen, my legs are aching, it’s safe to say I’m sore, I almost wonder if I’ll ever be able to run again.

With the sole intent of trying to flush out some of the lactic acid buildup, I hopped on the trainer for an easy thirty minutes of Zwift.

October 20, 2020 – 5km Easy Run

Going into Saturday, I was overconfident, hoping that the nearly 1,000kms of biking in August, combined with the hard running in September, would be my ticket to the success of a sub 3:30 marathon.

I had hoped that, like last year, I could pull off a miracle, only it didn’t work out that way. I realize now that biking and running are like apples and oranges. Although they share some similarities, they definitely aren’t the same.

Last year I ran, and I ran a lot, my strategy for the half-ironman, was to focus on my strength, to run more, and bike less, and it worked.

After the half, my running dropped dramatically. In its place, the return to hockey happened, along with some hard efforts of single track mountain biking. I now believe that by race day, I probably maintained or increased my leg strength, maintained my leg endurance, and fell into my best pre-race taper ever.

The difference is this year, I came in with lots of biking in August and only a month of running with efforts, leading to legs that just weren’t ready for the demands of 42k.

That’s a long preamble to say… I get it, I ran a marathon on Saturday, and wow, this still hurts, a lot.  

Even though it does, it feels like I should at least get out for a bit, ultimately leading to today’s thirty-minute recovery run, where I felt every bit of it.

October 21, 2020 – 60 Minutes of Zwift

I no longer feel my tendons. That’s good, I think.

When I went into last weekend, my original plan was to head north to the Burks Falls Loop and my first fall colours ride. For various reasons, that didn’t pan out, so I ended up running a marathon instead.

Not wanting to miss out on the colours, I’ll be heading east to head east to Durham this weekend to ride a new route crafted by gravelroad.ca.

It’s going to be good. I’m looking forward to it, but at the same time, I hope I’m ready for it.

I guess there’s no better time than now to ramp up the training a bit more, so I put on some Netflix and hopped on Zwift for an unstructured hour of moderate sustained efforts, including some harder pushes on the climbs.   

I’m not sure how Saturday will go, I’m sure I won’t be myself, but hopefully, I’ll be good enough.

October 22, 2020 – 3x1km Recovery Effort Intervals

So far, so good. The hour on the trainer went well yesterday, with no ill effects to show for it. I’m recovering, of course not as fast as I’d like but recovering all the same.

Today I wanted to run, to push myself just a bit more. Coming off yesterday’s success, I decided to run some light intervals today, consisting of an 8km run, including 3km of light intervals. 

In case you’re new to the blog, my target for 1km intervals is my 5km race pace or just below 4 mins/km.

Today, I dialled it back. Instead of hard efforts, I took it easy, running with just a bit of effort, ending up with a 4:50 average pace, and although my cardio was good with it, my legs wondered how I ever ran sub 4 before :).  

The intent today, remind my legs not to get complacent, to still rest, but not too much.

As I mentioned in my week 7 review, next week I’ll start following Lionel Sanders 5km PB training plan on my hard efforts. Life is going to get tough, and I need them to be ready for it. 

BTW, congrats to the man that inspired this quest, Lionel Sanders, for setting his 5km PB earlier this week. Hopefully, his plan works as well for me as it did for him.

October 24, 2020 – 63km Easy Ride North of Durham

October’s been awesome, with some record fast runs, a surprise marathon on two weeks of training, and some great pacing towards my 5k PB goal.

As great as it’s been, it’s also been lacking in balance. With a laser focus on 80/20 running, and a few surprise changes to my planning, I’ve only managed one outdoor ride this month, a short and fun 10k ride with my kids through the park.

In short, I miss the bike.

Today that all changed when I had the pleasure of joining the man behind gravelroad.ca for a 60k tour of the lands north of Oshawa and Bowmanville.

With quiet roads, incredible scenery, and relentless hills, it’s safe to say Durham doesn’t get the respect it deserves. If you’ve yet to ride here, reach out, and I’ll point you towards a few great routes. You won’t be disappointed.

Thanks for the company instagram.com/gravelroad.ca, looking forward to doing it again sometime soon.

October 25, 2020 – 1 Hour Easy Recovery Run

It’s been eight days since the Toronto Waterfront Virtual Marathon. The recovery week has gone well, and for the most part, I feel okay.

Where I went to bad on Friday with a little tightness in my left knee, after Saturday’s ride, the pain is gone, and I’m almost back to normal.

The final part of my very unscientific recovery plan was planned as a short, long run, consisting of 12k at the upper end of my endurance, aka Zone 2 pace.

Pace wise, the final result… not good, not bad either. A decidedly meh one hour run. I ran a little faster than I should of with an equal split between endurance pacing/hr and dead zone pacing/hr, where, according to 80/20 running, I’m not building endurance or working on speed.

Feeling wise, I’m not going to lie. It felt harder than it should have. Not that I was pushing myself hard, but that my legs still felt a little dead. Another way of putting it, this easy run was not that easy or enjoyable, feeling more like a July run when I just returned from injury than an early October run where everything was beginning to click.

On the bright side, according to Training Peaks and their Running Performance Chart, for the first time in a long time, I’m properly rested.

Next week will be a big week, so hopefully, there’s some truth to that.

October 27, 2020 – No Limits Workout 1 – 6×600

Today was speed workout 1 of 10 of my final push to PB in 2020. The plan, 6x600m at 3:50km (target 3k race pace).

As I mentioned in my week seven wrap-up, the plan for these next seven weeks is to replicate the training plan Lionel Sanders used to set his 5k PB two weeks ago. Let’s just say, it’s going to be intense.

As I prepared for the run today, I decided to do two things.  

First, to leverage the power of positivity. To channel my inner Goggins, to not fear the run, and it worked. Not only did I not fear the pain. I welcomed it. Let’s face it, if I want to PB in 2020, I’m going to need to stay hard and embrace the pain. Pain equals progress after all.

I’ve also been experimenting with taking a pre-workout energizer drink, and for the most part, it’s been good. Whether it’s improving performance, or not, I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s hurting it either. With that, thirty minutes before the run, I decided to eyeball a serving of Vega One’s Pre Workout Energizer, and wow, that was a mistake. Within ten minutes, I was flying, probably more caffeinated than I’ve ever been in my life. I don’t think it hurt the final result. Maybe it even helped it. All I can say is that my head felt like it would explode, and I didn’t like it one bit.

The run started with a brief 15-minute warmup at a slow Zone 2 pace, before the main set began, 6x600m at a 3k Race Pace of 3:50min/km, before closing out with another 15-minute cooldown.

Here’s how it broke down:

Lap	Time	Pace	Max HR
1	2:13.2	3:41	165
2	2:20.0	3:53	166
3	2:23.5	4:00	165
4	2:23.9	4:00	166
5	2:24.2	4:00	165
6	2:26.2	4:03	166

Final thoughts on the run, I came out hard, flying through the first lap. By lap two, I could tell it was going to be a long day. Then positivity kicked in, reframing the thought to, yes it hurts, but in twenty minutes it’ll all be over, asking myself, do I want to know that I killed these twenty minutes, or gave in? It is only twenty minutes after all. Mid-way through lap 4 I was slowing, but not as bad as it felt, I started to channel my inner Goggins, reminding myself to stay hard, embrace the pain, and get through this like a champion. As I rounded into the last lap, I was ready to kill it, but try as I might, the legs just weren’t there.

All in all, considering the dead legs of Sunday, and the pain of last week, I’m happy with it, not my fastest session by any means, but considering it’s coming off a marathon week, that’s okay.

The only issue as I write this, one day later, is my upper back is a mess. Hopefully, only mildly aggravated by some bad form, from pushing it so hard yesterday.

October 28, 2020 – 25min Recovery Run

Not sure why, but wow, my upper back is a disaster today, with debilitating pains radiating across the upper back. Sleeping injury, caffeine overdose, getting old, who knows, either way, it sucks.

October 30, 2020 – No Limits Workout 2 – 5x1k

With the back pain almost gone, I’m now back on schedule and ready for workout #2 of the Lionel Sanders 5k plan, with 5x1k at 5k race pace (target 4min/km) and a three-minute easy recovery between sets.  

Today, the run started with a brief 2k warmup, followed by the main set, ending with a 5k cooldown.  

Interval	Pace	Max HR
1	4:03	161
2	4:13	160
3	4:15	159
4	4:02	161
5	4:08	161

All in all, considering the two days of debilitating pain I’ve been in, not a bad showing. Slower than I’d like, but also, not wanting to reinjure myself, not bad either. Probably the most surprising part was the negative splits on the final two intervals. Where, by virtue of putting just a bit more power into the take-off portion of the stride, it seemed like I was able to generate more speed without much more effort.  

For something that seems so simple, running truly is a perplexing sport, with many a question always running through my head. Did a caffeine overdose lead to back pain? Am I slower this week due to adaptations caused by the marathon? Or, maybe I’m not fully recovered? Or, could it just be the cycles of recovery? 

November 1, 2020 – 14k Trail/Long Run

Wind warnings, rain, and near-freezing temperatures were just a few of the things I was prepping for before my long run today. From late last night through to this morning, the dopamine was flying, driven by constant check-ins to the weather network, hoping that this time, this view, things would be different, the weather would clear, and the run would be easy, maybe even enjoyable.

As I did this, I kept telling myself to get out of this headspace, leverage the power of positivity, switch the narrative, and embrace adversity.

As much as I want to embrace adversity, with wind warnings of up to 80k, coming at me on the hardest, uphill part of the route, I knew it was too much for even the most optimistic version of me I could be.

My original plan for Sunday morning was to join my first group run with the Richmond Hill Trail Runners. Unfortunately, that fell through due to the lousy weather. Instead, I decided to avoid the road, and hit the trails at Sugarbush Heritage Park, hoping the trees would break the wind. 

Running Sugarbush was a mental trade-off, in that I traded the wind for a loop, and I hate loops, simply because it’s too easy to quit, too repetitive, and no matter how visually stimulating I eventually feel like I’m running the Self-Transcendence 3100 Miler.

As I started the jog out of the parking lot and made my way into the trails, everything started to go wrong, my knees hurt, my headphones wouldn’t stay in, the hills, even though mild at first, seemed to be getting the best of me.  

Mother Nature even threw everything at me she could, from calm sunny skies, windy fast-moving clouds, rain, sleet, hail, back to sunny skies, and everything in between. 

The funny thing, as the sun turned to clouds, and then to sleet, and hail, the distraction of the craziness got me out of my head, and what was once hard became almost easy.

As I settled in, the km’s slowly began to tick by, the loop became more manageable, and even though my pace didn’t increase, it didn’t slow easier. By seven kilometres, I didn’t know how I’d make it ten. By fourteen, if it wasn’t for dinner, I’d probably have easily run another six more. 

November 3, 2020 – Zwift the Gorby at 85%

Before I start I just want to say… check this out, starting the day right with my new favourite mug.

I’m struggling to find balance.

Although running has been a struggle these past two weeks, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished and am fully aware of all the hard work I need to do if I plan to PR.

That said, I miss the bike. I miss the long rides, exploring new places, and the struggle of pushing my limits farther than I ever thought possible.

Today was a commitment to not entirely lose everything I accomplished this summer, to put in a mild effort, and maintain some base bicycle fitness for when this is all over.

November 4, 2020 – No Limits Workout 3 – 6km Tempo HM Pace

The goal today: 3-4k warmup, 6k at half marathon race pace, 3-4k cool-down.

The question, of course, what is my half marathon race pace, or at least, what should it be if I’m planning to run 19:45 on the 5k?

For this, I turned to SportTracks Race Time Predictor, inputting two results, my goal 5k time of 19:45 and my last 5k intense effort from the end of September, at 20:45. The result, a target pace of 4:18 to 4:31.

Final result, an average pace of 4:21.4, with fairly even splits of 4:21.6, 4:21.3, 4:19.9, 4:22.6, 4:22.3, and 4:20.1. Average HR around 158 for the set. The best part, it felt effortless.

November 5, 2020 – Recovery Run

Ran with AirPods for the first time and loved them.

I’ve been struggling with all manner of headphones lately, in ear, out of ear, over ear, and nothing stays in, but to my amazement these did.

Update from November 8. Ran with AirPods yesterday, and although they stayed in, it didn’t feel like they wanted to. Tried to run again today and had to take them out after two drops in 500m.

The quest for new running headphones continues.

November 6, 2020 – No Limits Workout 4 – 3 x Broken Mile

Today was a 3 x Broken Mile workout, part 4 of Lionel Sanders 5k plan.. The workout broke down as follows: Part 1 – 2×800, Part 2 – 1×800 and 2×400, Part 3 4×400. With a 1.5min rest between intervals, 2.5min rest between sets.

I’m not sure why, maybe the weather, perhaps recovery, perhaps training, whatever it is, today was by far my fastest session to date, with splits almost all under 3:50km, putting me hopefully back on pace to set my PB in four weeks time.

Lap/Distance	Target Pace	Actual Pace
1/800	3:50	3:41
1/800	3:50	3:50
2/800	3:50	3:51
2/400	3:45	3:45
2/400	3:45	3:37
3/400	3:45	3:45
3/400	3:45	3:40
3/400	3:45	3:40
3/400	3:45	3:52

November 7, 2020 – 40 Minute Recovery Run

I’ll keep it short, with weather like this I can run all day, every day.

November 8, 2020 – 18km Remembrance Day Long Run

Last week I talked about joining my first group run and have been very interested in joining up with We Run North York. 

I like this group because they try to find ways to make their runs fun by exploring new places, oftentimes ones I didn’t even know existed.

Last week, that was a run up to the Thornhill Mini Trains, at the corner of John and Henderson, which I managed to see with my kids this past weekend.

Then this weekend, they ran down to the Manulife Center, where for remembrance day, they’ve placed over 10,000 flags on their lawn, honouring members of the Canadian Armed Forces who have fallen in service during war and peacekeeping missions.

Although I wasn’t able to join the run on Saturday, it did serve as the motivation for what was probably my best long run to date, a solo 18km run on Sunday.  

With 80/20 running in mind, my target was to hold my HR just under 140. I’m pretty sure, based on feel, that if I wanted to go hard today, I easily could have set one of my fastest half marathons to date.  

November 10, 2020 – No Limits #5 – 3x2k Interval 

With two more days of summer-like weather, getting out the door was perhaps the easiest thing I had to do today.  

The plan, 3x2k interval session at my 10k pace, followed by a 3min rest between sets.  

The result:

Set	Time	Max HR
1	4:02/4:08	132/131
2	4:10/4:08	153/164
3	4:08/4:13	161/164

Besides some cramping on the final lap of the last set, everything went to plan. If anything, it almost felt too easy.

FYI, if your running with wrist-based HR in the cold, make sure to tighten your watch as tight as can be. Otherwise, you’ll get the low results you see in set 1.

November 11, 2020 – 7k Recovery Run

I’m not sure why, but remembrance day has always held a special day in my heart. Two years ago, my mom and I had the opportunity to go down to Queen’s Park for the Saturday ceremony, and it was a powerful sight to see.

As great as the ceremony was, the depressing part was just how small of a crowd was there. When I think of all that was lost so that I can enjoy today, it feels like the least I can do, and something I hope to one day do again soon.

November 14, 2020 – 10×400

Where I was highly motivated on Tuesday, this run was a little harder to get started.

By Thursday evening, it was cold, and I was exhausted. Although I wanted to run, I just didn’t feel like I’d be able to give the run everything it deserved, and with what seemed like a good enough reason, the run pushed to Friday.

Where Thursday I just wasn’t in the mood, by Friday I felt fantastic, with fun at the park, a relaxing family dinner, and the cozy comforts of my home.  And just like that, Friday’s run pushed to Saturday.

Two days of procrastination was enough, by Saturday morning, although I knew I was going to run, not a single cell in me wanted to.

As I’ve said before, the hardest part is starting, and sometimes the most important thing is just putting one foot in front of the other.  

By the time I cleared my court, this thing I’d been dreading, this thing that felt like a giant weight on my back, this thing that was becoming one more stress to deal with, became my release valve.

The set today was a planned hard interval session of 10x400m at 1k race pace (3:40 min/km). It went better then expected, running the first five sets at an average pace of 3:29, followed by 3:39 for the next five.

November 15, 2020 – Zwift – 70km El Giro De Rigo

The problem with yesterday wasn’t so much the two days of procrastination, but instead the downstream impact on my 50km weekly running goal.   

The original plan called for a hard session Thursday, rest/recovery Friday, long run Saturday, ideally with a group, then an easy bike on Sunday.  

With forecasted non-stop rain and wind gusts of up to 90km, running outside wasn’t going to happen. Although I enjoy a challenge, dodging fallen trees, powerlines and the like, just didn’t seem like a good idea, plus how do you even dress for that.

Instead, I decided to suffer, to make up for my procrastination, by doing what worked out to be my second longest indoor bike ride ever, the 2020 El Giro Del Rigo.

With Zwift on my iPad and “Darkest Hour” from Netflix on the big screen, I hopped in the saddle for 69.9km of riding, and 714m of climbing, all spread out over 2:42:04.

The ride itself wasn’t physically hard, but mentally it wasn’t easy. That first 20km took forever. The idea of 50km more seemed impossible, then 20 turned to 30, 30 to 40, and just like that, I passed the halfway point and on to the home stretch. As I write this, 7 hours later, although my legs are sore, it’s great knowing that I earned every ounce of that pain.

As for the Darkest Hour, if you haven’t seen it, watch it. It’s a great movie, historically accurate, where it matters, and even includes an Oscar-winning performance by Gary Oldman for his portrayal of Winston Churchill.

November 17, 2020 – No Limits 7 – 5x1k Shorter Rest

Today was another run that almost never happened. With bitter temperatures and forecasted wind bursts of 40km hour, my sense of reason was giving me every excuse not to run. It’s cold, so cold you won’t be able to run fast, it’ll be warm by Thursday, enjoy some time with your family, and on and on.

After writing about the horrors of procrastination, and the need to build resiliency and mental toughness yesterday, I knew as much as I didn’t want to, I had to. That by not running, I would be reinforcing these bad behaviours I’ve been developing, only making it that much harder to start the next time some adversity comes my way.

All-day, I fought this battle to delay, wait for a warmer day, to Zwift indoors instead, and it was mentally draining, both for the internal debate and even more so the fact that I had to come face-to-face to my own lack of resiliency.

So I dressed warm, headed out the door, and in no time at all, I broke free from the cold, worked up a mild sweat, and was hammering through my sets, even enjoying the brisk air, and having the streets to myself.

For this run I ran with a chest based HRM strap for the first time in years. Why you ask?

Well, after more than a few issues these last few weeks with my Garmin 935 poorly tracking HR in cooler weather, I recently ordered and received the Wahoo Tickr Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap. I’ll do a full write-up in two weeks, exploring the why in a bit more detail, as well as the differences I’ve noticed versus my Garmin 935 wrist-based HR, my Scosche HR arm band, and the new Wahoo Tickr HRM Chest Strap.

For now, after one run, I will say I love the responsiveness. The first chart below shows my HR during my first 5x1k set a few weeks back using the 935, versus today’s 5×1 set using the Tickr Chest Strap.

Looking at the charts, I’m amazed at how much more responsive the Tickr is, with no lag in HR as I power through the set.

The set itself, 5x1k at 5k pace effort, a mirror of Lionel’s 5k PB plan week 1, session 2. The two differences, a slightly shorter rest, and a slightly faster target pace of 3:57/km, versus 4:00/km.

The result:

Interval	10/30	11/17
1	4:03	3:52
2	4:13	3:54
3	4:15	3:54
4	4:02	3:55
5	4:08	3:54

Although to be fair I should note that the 10/30 session was two weeks removed from the marathon, and although better, I was far from recovered.

November 18, 2020 – 6.5k Recovery Run

After some adversity training yesterday, today was just a bit easier to get out the door.  

Where yesterday was a battle, dominated by negative thoughts that were willing me to stay home, stay warm, and wait for a warmer day.   Today there was no battle.

As I write this, I remember listening to Joe De Sena, founder of Spartan Races and owner of Tough Mudder, talk to Joe Rogan earlier this summer about a kids camp he ran earlier this year.  The camp’s goal was to create little warriors by putting them through two weeks of physical hell.  During the camp, most of the kids wanted out, wanted to quit, and even begged their parents to get them.  By the end, most of these kids that wanted out were thanking him for the experience, even asking when they could come back again.

I call this out because he talked about how, during the camp, he invited a neurosurgeon to talk to the kids about how when you take on something hard and don’t finish it, it impacts the brain.  When you finish it, it leaves train tracks that make you stronger, more resilient, and all in all better at handling adversity.

I mention this because these last few weeks, I’ve been giving myself excuses, and each day I make an excuse it becomes that much harder to start the next day.  

Then yesterday, as much as I didn’t want to, I broke free of the comfort of my warm home. I put on my thermal tights, my fleece long sleeve, my running jacket, and way too many more layers and stepped out the door, and you know what, it wasn’t that bad.  In fact, to be completely honest, although a little overdressed, it was great.

And there we have it. By facing my fear of the cold and stepping out the door yesterday, I became just a little bit more resilient.  

Today, although I knew I’d be cold, that it’d be dark, that the conditions were less than perfect, that it was okay.  That if I had a positive mindset, it might even be fun.

FYI, last year I read David Goggins’s “Can’t Hurt Me.”, and it’s one of my favourites.  Although I already read the book, now that I’ve started 80/20 running, I find I need a little distraction on my easier efforts, so I recently downloaded the audiobook.  All I can say is the audiobook is even better, with some excellent commentary and Insights by Goggins thrown into throughout the book.  Goggins has a crazy story, from overcoming an abusive childhood filled with way too much trauma to becoming a Navy Seal, then transforming himself into the toughest man alive.  

Final note tomorrow will suck, with session 9 of the Lionel Sanders 5k training plan, and what’s described as the most challenging session yet, with 1k at 3:51 pace, 4×400 @ 3:45 pace, then 1k faster then the first.  If all goes to plan, I’ll be setting some all time PR’s in just a few more hours.

November 19, 2020 – No Limits #8 – Pure Speed

Thirteen minutes and forty seconds, of effort, that’s all I needed for today to be a success.

After going to bed late, waking up early, and feeling exhausted all day, today was nearly a write-off.  But after two successful days of cold weather night running, and a return to warm shorts type weather, my plan was to run, and run hard, for the plan today was promised to be the hardest session yet.

As I write this I’m beginning to wonder, did I self consciously fear the run? Did, I do my best to self-sabotage last night?  Did I purposely have one extra glass of wine and stay up thirty minutes later than normal, so no matter what I’d have an excuse if today didn’t go well? 

That’s where thirteen minutes and forty seconds comes in.  I was tired, borderline exhausted, so I did my best to reframe my mindset away from the hard run, to instead focus on thirteen minutes and forty seconds, barely anytime at all, then it’d be all over.  How hard could that be?

After dinner, I wavered, I’m running, no you’re tired, run tomorrow instead, but it’s nice out, but you’re tired.  Finally, after thirty minutes of this battle, with the window coming to a close, I gave in, knowing that I’d live to fight another day. 

As I announced those words, the anger grew from within, the anger at myself for self-sabotaging, for procrastinating once again into a rough running weekend, and just like that it was back on.  

I downed a Red Bull, cranked, some tunes, and fifteen minutes later was back out the door.

The plan today, 1k @ 3:51, 4×400 @ 3:40, followed by 1k faster then the first.  If all, goes to plan I’ll be setting my fastest 1k of 2020, maybe even targeting my fastest 1k ever.

The result, thirteen minutes and twenty-three seconds of pure speed, including my fastest non-track 400m of all time at 1:22; tying my fastest 800m of all time at 3:00; and coming within 2 seconds of setting my fastest 1k of all time, at 3:48.7.

The splits, by pace, 1k-3:49, 400m-3:32, 400m-3:28, 400m-3:27, 400m-3:39, 1k-3:50.

Lesson learned, don’t self-sabotage, and if you do, no excuses, you’re running anyway’s.

One last note, I’ve learned a few tricks that seem to help with ensuring consistent HRM data with the chest strap. Further testing required, but turning off wrist based HR, connecting with Ant (not bluetooth), and properly wetting the strap, have all led to much better early results on this run.

November 21, 2020 – TTC Challenge Long Run

Although I may have missed the cut-off to make it official, I decided to make my long runs a bit more interesting by undertaking a new personal challenge and running every stop on the TTC by the end of the year.

This morning, part 1, 21.1k from Eglinton West to Union Station to Eglinton, and back again, stopping at all points in between.

The plan for next weekend? A 23km stretch will cover Sheppard – Eglinton – Eglinton West – Sheppard, and back again.

November 22, 2020 – TTC Challenge Long Run

I finished Saturday feeling fantastic. As I went through the day, all I could think was I have a recovery week coming up, and although I’m sure it’s necessary, I don’t even feel like I need to recover.

With that in mind, I decided to head out the door and knock off a 16k stretch of the TTC challenge covering Line 1 north of Sheppard, Line 4 Sheppard to Don Mills, and back again.

As you may notice, my personal goal, as much as possible, with COVID in mind, run loops and save my subway rides for another day.

When I went to sleep Saturday, I was resting easy, knowing that with an early start, I’d be in front of the rain and snow as I woke up Sunday, all that changed, and although hard at first, I loved most every minute of it.

November 24, 2020 – 10km Easy Run

With over 200k of running in October, 165k so far in November, and 65k last week, this week will be my final recovery week before the final push to PB.

The plan for the week, reduce my distance by 30%, targeting 40-45k while keeping my efforts all in and around a 4/10, or just below a moderate intensity.

Where the motivation to run has been a struggle lately, tonight there was none of that.

Although the motivation was there, the legs were not, I started strong, by 2k my knees felt sore, and by 5k in my legs were done, feeling quite similar to how they did after last month’s marathon.

Recovery week, you couldn’t have come at a better time.

The one good thing to come out of the run, a new motivation for my night time runs, run the streets of Thornhill in search of the best-decorated house around.

November 26, 2020 – 1hr/11km Easy Run

The quest to find the best-decorated house in Thornhill continued this time through the Wilshire neighbourhood, where I came across these three excellent candidates.

November 28, 2020 – 5k Recovery

With weather above zero, and freezing in the forecast, the goal today was simply to enjoy it while I could, with a quick easy run, in preparation for another session of running the TTC tomorrow.

November 29, 2020 – TTC Challenge Long Run

The quest to run the TTC continued today with the third leg of Line 1 taking me on a 22.75km route from Sheppard West to Sheppard via Eglinton.

The run today was fantastic, with perfect November weather, and my second fastest half of 2020 at 1:55:43, not that it really counts for much, other than perhaps my easy runs are becoming just that much faster.

Next up, run the Bloor/Danforth, and finish up Line 1 from Vaughan to Sheppard West.

December 2, 2020 – 6k @ 10k Race Pace

From Sunday shorts weather to Monday downpours and Tuesday’s snow didn’t come till Wednesday this week.

After the surprising success of week eleven, with a 5x1k that I finished came in all under 3:55, and a pure speed session, where I continued that success with some record fast times, I was pumped to leverage my rest and come out strong for today’s 6k run at 10k race pace.

The results were disappointing at best, and I’m not sure why. My best guess is that, with no hard efforts, I took it too easy last week and wasn’t in game shape today.

The goal for today, run my second fastest all-time 5k at 20:35 while hitting what I thought would be a highly achievable 6k at 4:07. A little ambitious perhaps, but knowing that I’m weeks away from wanting to run my fastest 5k, almost 45 seconds faster, I’d hoped this would be highly attainable.

The result was nowhere near plan with splits of 4:13, 4:26, 4:28, 4:31, 4:28, and 4:28.

Despite the times, looking back I can see the effort was there, with an average HR mirroring my previous two 6k attempts on the 10/8, and 11/4, just today, the times were not.

If there’s any comfort in these numbers, it’s that I know I’m better than this, that most likely last week was just too restful, and physically I just wasn’t ready for today.

December 3, 2020 – 7k Easy Run

In the interest of mixing things up, I decided to run my first piece of Strava art today, by running my names through the Brownridge neighbourhood.

Unfortunately as I quickly discovered, my memory of how to write in cursive isn’t the best, instead, perhaps like some people, you may think I wrote something else.

December 5, 2020 – 5x800m @ 3k Race Pace

After a disappointing return to speed on Wednesday and a poor sleep last night, today was another struggle to get started.

I ate lunch, had a rest, drank a Red Bull, put on my running clothes, and announced to the family that today wasn’t going to be the day, that I felt like crap, and wasn’t running.

The moment those words left my mouth, I was mad, mad for staying up late the night before, mad for not eating well, for having two glasses of wine instead of one, and mad for being 14 weeks into this attempt to 5k PB, and being utterly manic about it.

With that, I promptly stood up, reminding myself it doesn’t matter what I do as long as I get out the door, and if I do, only then can I quit.

It was cold but sunny, and of course, as it always is, I didn’t feel as bad as I feared I would.

The goal, 5x800m at 3k race pace targeting about 3:50km.

I came out fast, and although it hurt like hell, I was ahead of pace and even felt like I might even be able to maintain it throughout, setting my fastest all-time, non-track 800m PB at 2:57.3, a 3:42 pace.

After a two minute rest, I was back at it, this time finishing in 3:00.0, a 3:45 pace, followed by a 3:52 pace on set 3.

Then the rest went by way too quickly. By the time set four started, the two-minute rest flew by, I was hurting, and starting on a false flat finishing way off the goal, with a pace of 4:10, before redeeming myself with a slightly grade aided 4:04.

My struggles with tracking HR continued today as well, where the Wahoo Tickr chest strap has, for the most part, been fantastic, today it was not. Despite wetting my chest as I went out the door, I experienced complete drop-outs on the first, second, and fifth intervals, with better not perfect performance everywhere else. Perhaps, being lightly dressed in the extreme cold was a factor. I guess time will tell.

December 6, 2020 – TTC Challenge Long Run

Day 4 of my quest to run the TTC took me from Bathurst to Kipling along Bloor, and back along Dundas.

It was cold, it was windy, and I loved every moment of it.

As I look back over these last eight years of training, the “long” is something I’ve rarely enjoyed.

After an hour of running, or maybe two of biking, I’m bored and ready for home.

With more time on my hands than ever before, I had the opportunity to try several bikepacking trips this year, covering some epic routes, including the Durham Destroyer, the Cannonball 300, and the Simcoe County Loop Trail.

The best part of those trips was not knowing what the next turn would have in store, maybe an epic climb, perhaps a beautiful Kodak moment, whatever it was it didn’t matter, because every moment of every day was new, different, and well worth the effort.

As cycling slowly came to an end, I transitioned to high kilometre 80/20 running, and with that, the need for long runs and their related struggles returned, until I discovered the TTC Challenge.

As much as I’ve struggled to get out the door for my hard interval sets lately, what I haven’t struggled with is getting out for my TTC Challenge Long Runs.

I now realize it’s not the “long” I hate, but the monotony of running the same streets, with the same hills, the same lights, and the same everything, every day.

My lesson from this, if you are struggling to get out the door, perhaps it’s time to try something new. For me, the plan had been to try a running group, with COVID that didn’t work out, so instead, it’s been running somewhere new, and so far, I love it. When this is done, I think I’ll even continue to expand the map, perhaps starting with running the major arteries of downtown, then expanding out to different neighbourhoods from there.

With Bathurst to Kipling officially done, next week I’ll move east, running Bathurst to Victoria Park,before completing Line 2 the week after, then wrapping up the final stretch of Line 1 shortly after that.

December 8, 2020 – No Limits 10 – 3k Time Trial

Eleven days to my 5k record attempt.

Today, my first true test, a 3k all-out time trial.

If you’ve been following along you know that after a gruelling fourteen weeks of training, combined with cold, dark nights, I’ve had some motivational struggles of late.

With eleven days to go and the end clearly in sight, there was none of that today.  I’ve eaten well, slept well, and from the moment I woke, I was motivated and ready to crush the day.

I came in knowing that it’ll be hard, ideally, the hardest thing I’ve done in years. But it doesn’t matter because in twelve minutes or less it’ll all be over. 

The goal, a target pace of 3:51/km.

Here’s how it went:

• Kilometre 1 – 3:44 (All-Time PB) – I came out flying with a blistering pace of under 3:40/km for the first 400m.  For a brief moment, visions of an early PB were flying through my head, by 600m reality set in, the new goal, just hold on and break 3:50 on the day.  
• Kilometre 2 – 4:04 – Reality has a way of knocking you down sometimes, what felt fast and effortless for the first km, quickly turned, my legs were dying, my lungs screaming, and my pace slowing.
• Kilometre 3 – 4:10 – As I ran this final km I watched my average pace fall from 3:54 to 3:57 to 3:59, before finally touching 4:00. It was then I got mad, dug down deep, kicked hard for the final 100m.

The result 11:58 or 3:59/km.

Final thoughts on the day:

• Not what I wanted, but understanding that after the recovery week two weeks ago, last week was bad, and so although not perfect, today was a great improvement
• Perhaps not as bad as it seemed, that this will come down to seconds, and according to Strava my grade adjusted pace came in at 3:56.
• Don’t come out too strong, focus on 3:50 and nothing faster.
• 19:45 is going to be tough, but if I keep pushing hard, eat well, rest well, and find the way to hold on, very possible.

December 9, 2020 – 5k Recovery Run

Not much to say here, other then a nice slow run, to hopefully loosen those muscles, build up the endurance, and creep up the monthly running odometer.

December 11, 2020 – No Limits 12 – 4×1 Mile

These last fourteen weeks have been a grind, from the early day highs of having a new goal in place, to the recent lows of transitioning to winter running, and renewed highs of knowing that next weekend it’ll all be over, it’s safe to say that like the weather we’ve both been a little manic lately.  

With a planned effort of 4 x 1.6k at my 5k goal pace with a 2 min rest in-between, today wasn’t going to be easy, with a high of 9, shorts, and my first lunchtime run in forever, it wasn’t hard to get out the door either.

After Tuesday’s fast start, and slow finish, on the 3k time trial, the goal today was pacing, targeting 3:57 per interval, and holding on all the way through.

If you’re curious, here’s a brief look into my mind as I made my way through:

• Mile 1 – 3:58 – It feels like I’m barely running, this pacing thing is really working.
• Mile 2 – 3:59 – This is getting kind of hard, but that’s okay, I’m 3.2km in, and although it hurts, I think I can hold it.
• Mile 3 – 4:09 – My training sucks, this plan sucks, I have no top end stamina, if I can’t hold on for three intervals with rest, how will I ever hold on come race day.
• Mile 4 – 4:08 – Don’t suck, don’t throw in the towel, push hard, and make it count.

It’s safe to say these last two weeks have not gone to plan, perhaps it’s the plan, perhaps it’s my mindset, perhaps it’s running too much, who knows.  

That said, all is not lost, I’m close, I know I am.  When I broke 20 minutes in 2016, I didn’t feel ready either, but race day has a way of working its own magic.  Although I won’t have a crowd or the distraction of other runners, perhaps with the support of family, I’ll still manage to find a way to capture some of that magic once more.

December 13, 2020 – TTC Challenge Bathurst to Victoria Park

The quest to run the TTC continued today with a run from Bathurst Station to Victoria Park Station and back.  

Like last week, it was cold, it was windy, and running the TTC was the best part of my week, so much so, that with my 5k PB attempt only six days away, I was afraid it may even be to my detriment.  

Last week, halfway in some left calf pain started, I pushed through and needed the week to fully recover.  This leads me to the big question for the week, do I risk injury and do the run, or take it easy, saving up for the big day?  With my last recovery week being a disaster I decided to throw caution to the wind, train hard this week, and hope to come into Saturday at peak form, and I’m glad I did.

Where last week I finished sore, today I finished strong, perhaps the best I’ve felt on any long run this year, even posting negative splits for the final 5k of the 23k day.

With Bathurst to Victoria Park officially in the books, I’m down to my final 13 stops, of the 75 stop TTC subway network.  Next week Victoria Park to McCowan and back before the final chapter, the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension.

December 15, 2020 – 3k Time Trial

With four days to go to my attempt at a 5k personal best this week is both about rest and pushing myself just hard enough mentally and physically to find my peak come Saturday.

Last week I set out on two hard sets, a 3k time trial on Tuesday, followed up by a 4×1 mile on Thursday.  Both times I came out strong, only to fall off the rails halfway through, dashing my dreams and breaking my confidence.

With relaxed expectations, I’ve decided to take a step back from the formal plan and instead focus on my weakness, the ability to hold pace, and mentally push through when the going gets tough.

During the 3k time trial last Tuesday,l I came out strong, setting an all-time PB on the 1k for the first km, before crashing halfway through, finishing with a final time of 11:58.

The goal this week, repeat the 3k with a steady near goal pace of sub 4 throughout.

The result, a huge confidence booster, with times of 3:59.5, 4:01.2, and 3:57.5, finishing with a final time of 11:58. 

Two 3k time trials, 1 week apart, both finishing in 11:58, with drastically different results.  The first, a perceived failure where I came out strong and barely held on to break 12, the second with steady splits, and maybe, just maybe, the sign that with the right attitude, the right support, and the right pacing there’ll be a little magic come Saturday. 

December 18, 2020 – 5k PB Attempt

Three months ago I began the quest to set a 5k personal best in 2020.

After fifteen weeks of training, today, December 18, was the big day.

With a goal of 19:45, a baseline run of 20:48 on September 20, to 21:11 today, my 16th fastest 5k ever, it’s safe to say, not only didn’t it go to plan, it was a disaster.

It was so bad I’m not even mad. I know I’m better than this, that today was simply just not meant to be.

Times aside, today was also amazing, filled with many great memories. From my kids doing cartwheels and cheering me on as I did each lap. To my dad pacing me as I made the final dash to the finish. Even my wife being disappointed, that due to perfect weather I couldn’t hold out till Saturday, and she couldn’t be there. The love and support I felt today was incredible.

If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s to always look on the positive side of things. Today I didn’t hit my goal, but the journey has been far from a failure. Over these last fifteen weeks, I’ve pushed myself hard, I’m running more than I ever have, at times ever faster then I ever have, and loving it.

I truly feel that I’m not far off. I also recognize that, unfortunately, the winter weather may not allow another attempt for some time.

What I do know is I’m a stronger, fitter, faster runner than I’ve been in a long time and that I will PB in 2021.

December 23 – TTC Challenge – Shep W to VMC

It’s been five days since last week’s debacle of a 5k PB attempt.

As I reflect back, two thoughts keep running through my mind. I’m not as far along as I hoped to be, but I’m better than that.

As I prepared for last week, I made two fatal decisions.

The rest of this post is available by clicking through to this link, Another Kick at the Can – 5k PB Attempt 2.