Half-Marathon Training Weekly Recap: The Write-Off

Due to the capricious nature of cold and flu season, I missed running and cross-training from Monday to Thursday this week.  I don’t want to bore you with the details, but nights without sleeping sabotage both evening workouts and early mornings, and attending doctor’s appointments and such takes out my regular lunch slot too.

I tried to make up a little by running an indoor duathlon today.  I wanted to hit my tempo run from the plan, but I shorted the warm-up from a mile to half a mile before hitting the main tempo section.  Skipping the cool down, I jumped straight into a 40 minute spin class, then did another mile on the treadmill using a ‘random hill’ program in the Merrell Trail Glove/Minimalist shoes, to try and focus a little on form.

I haven’t figured out how I want to tweak this weekend’s schedule to make up for last mileage, and I’m also nervous about a race I signed up for before the Chilly Half Marathon… I’m doing a snowshoe race!  It’s going to be the Yeti Snowshoe Series ‘Sport’ Course (5k) at Blue Mountain.  The Race Calendar Page has been updated accordingly.

In the lead-up to planning this race, and signing up for it, my wife asked me: “When was the last time you snowshoed?” (I love that she didn’t ask me if I’d EVER snowshoed…). The answer? A sheepish “Junior High”.  I’m fully prepared to make a fool of myself on this event, yet according to this video from Canadian Running Magazine, as long as I’m careful, I should find myself getting the hang of it.  Starting off slowly and carefully is always standard operating procedure in a race.

I’ve chosen to use this race as a 5k ‘virtual run’ for a cause started by Lisa of RunWiki to help ‘Kyle’s Krusade’:

Kyle’s Krusade Virtual 5K, 10K and Half Marathon is a race anyone, anywhere can participate in. You can walk, run, push a stroller, do it with a group or by yourself. The registration for this event is $10 a distance, you can sign up for one, two, or all three distances. 100% of your entry fee will go to The Talbert Family Foundation’s Kyle’s Krusade fund. In turn, to assist with the exorbitant costs associated with having a child with Cancer, they give 100% of their donations directly to the O’Connor family. – From the RunWiki.org website.

Please consider doing a run (and donating of course) in February to help the O’Connor Family.