Base Training

After months of training with long runs, tempo runs, hill, intervals, etc. I have entered a phase of "dialing it in" to get a good solid base of running until the end of January when I begin to train for the Blue Nose Marathon. Running slower, 2 min per mile slower than my goal marathon pace, is much harder than I would have thought. I was expecting these runs to be a "walk a park", however, running at a slower, consistent pace is proving to be an unexpected challenge.

I have also transitioned running primarily on a treadmill, much to my chagrin. The roads and sidewalks of Halifax, NS are currently encased in ice and just present too much of a danger presently to risk running outside. That said, the forecast for the next few days is looking for a warming trend.... so perhaps my confinement is going to end soon.

Today's run was "OK". I did 5.5 miles at a 9:20 / mile pace. These base runs are extremely boring, no change in scenery and the pace I am running is so slow it takes a long time to even do a relatively short run. I am also one of those people that likes to push themselves when it comes to physical activity. That said, I had reached a point in which my body was telling me it needed a break. So the hope is that working through this low intensity period will provide dividends when I rev things up starting in the end of January. My lack of experience provides me with nothing to base this assumption on, however, everything is an experiment at this point and if this doesn't work I will just have to try a new approach if I enter a Fall marathon.