With less than two months to go before my departure for the Gambia and with three great training races just around the corner, I thought it may be time for another training update to let you know how my preparation to run across the Gambia is going.
Needless to say, I have been running a lot! After laying down a solid base in January and February, I have spent the last couple of months increasing my weekly mileage to over 100 kilometers. At first, this increase left me feeling tired and with heavy legs, but by now the body has adjusted and I am feeling fantastic!
Increasing the mileage also meant adding another running day. While I often just managed to get out for five runs each week, I have been consistently getting six running days in each week for most of March and April.
On one of those running days, my workout consists of a 13 kilometer run to the office followed by another 13 kilometers at the end of the work day for the commute home. Even on those days, my legs have been feeling good and I will now begin to add a second day per week to do this double workout.
In addition to running lots of mileage, I have also introduced some quality runs. On Tuesdays, I either join the gang at the track or I do a solo tempo run. It’s been fun mixing it up a bit! Since the snow has melted in the Gatineau hills, I’ve also gone back to doing more trail running, which around here equates running hills. At first, my body was not happy with this change, particularly since all the city running this winter was flat, but now I have started to adjust to this as well.
Next weekend, I am looking forward to heading to St. Catharines with Team Love4Gambia to run the Chocolate Race 10 miler. Since this will be just a training run, there will be no taper and Sunday’s race will cap off yet another 115 km week. Then on May 18th, we will be heading for Halifax to join the Team for the Blue Nose Marathon and the weekend after, I will also be taking in the Ottawa Race Weekend with Team Love4Gambia. These two marathons will also just be training runs to get some long mileage in while in good company of a few thousand other runners, including our amazing team members.
Due to a shoulder injury from a silly fall at the start of the ski season, all my cross great cross training plans came to naught. The shoulder is still causing pain and have not been able to ski or do yoga. Even strength training options are limited, since many movements still cause discomfort. The MRI I had last week should shed some more light on what’s going on, but fortunately this has not had an effect on running!
It is hard to believe that in two months from now, I will be running in the Gambia! I really look forward to the experience and to meeting many wonderful people on the journey across the country.
I am really grateful that my body has adapted so well to the increased training load while getting little rest due to pressures at work and lots of time spent fundraising. I am even more grateful to the support of the many donors, our Team Love4Gambia members running in the Blue Nose, Ottawa and Chocolate Race weekends, my amazing sponsors Mizuno, Aerobics First and Gatorade and to my training partner (and general partner in crime!) Marc! Thank you for your continued support!
Andrea
