As suggested last week these past 14 days were spent with a serious run focus. I only managed to get in the pool for one swim and only 3 hours on the bike this week. That’s a lot less than normal, especially since it was supposed to be build week 3 (biggest volume and intensity) with the triathlon club. I had to opt out of a few fun workouts as a result.

The run goal of making 84 km (two marathons) this week was threatened a bit by the outrageously cold temperatures on Monday and Tuesday and Tuesday’s runs were done inside which is monotonous and I feel like is a bit tougher on my knees than the outdoor variety. Highlights were a 1 hour 13 minute ten mile run on Saturday in slushy conditions and an 2 hour 57 minute long run today in falling snow on top of the nicely frozen slush from the previous night. This long run was the longest of my preparation and was 32.3 kms in length. I think I’ve got nutrition sorted and am very glad that there will be water stations along the way on race day as almost all of Edmonton’s public drinking fountains are shut off for the winter and it’s tricky to rink enough on these long runs. I’m also doing 100 calories of shot bloks every 40 minutes along the way and am implementing that strategy on all of my runs longer than 10 miles during training.

I’m feeling good albeit tired and experiencing some muscle soreness. I’ve got one run left that I would consider to be a tough one this Wednesday and then it’s really taper time as nothing left is too difficult before things get really tough between 10 and 11:30 am on April 4; the race starts at 8 am. I will be shooting for 3:20.