4.5K Continuous: Let the training begin!

Today I got the shove I needed to get me into the game again.   My registration in the half marathon clinic (Online through the Running Room) and my registration for the Vancouver Half Marathon both happened today.

I was playing around with the online clinic and pulled up my training plan.  JS and I decided to aim for 2:15 as our goal on this race so I studied the plan intently.  Seeing that it was just a 4K tempo run scheduled for today - as soon as my girlies were in bed, I pulled on my running gear and headed out the door.

Speed work has never really been a friend of mine.  Doing speedwork on the unshoveled walks of Langdon is practically suicide...so I opted for a 4K continuous run instead.  The goal was to keep my average page under 7 min/k

The town was so quiet tonight.   I think I only passed one vehicle and 3 people walking their dogs.  I would have brought my dogs with me, but we've already touched on how speedwork in Langdon is suicide (Yellow Girl loves to run but I can't hold her 4 min/k pace for more than a couple of minutes).

In an effort to play safe - I wore my orange pylon coloured jacket from the 2010 Resolution Run, reflective BondiBand and my little headlamp (of course my Black Diamond one decided to hide when I decided to do a spur of the moment night run).

I wanted to avoid the highway at all costs so ended up running up and down the streets on the west side of town.   Boring but effective.  Toward the end the wind really kicked up and I got a bit of a strength workout plowing into a wall of air.   That same wall pushed me home when I was at my most tired.   I ended up at 4.5K and an average pace of 6:56/k   GOAL ACHIEVED!!!

Tired and windswept a half hour later...this pic shows the fluorescence of the jacket better...

 

I'm so proud of me for getting out there on a weeknight.   It's been a very long time since I've been able to convince myself to run during the week in the winter!