Sunday, March 20, 2011

Bossy Bessie from Broadway

So today was a special day. Not only being officially the first day of Spring (yay!), but was also the coveted "Pancake Run", held by the Denman Running Room here in Vancouver. This is a long-standing tradition during the course of training for the Vancouver Marathon, where the different Running Rooms in the lower mainland converge to Denman, and have the opportunity to run part of the Vancouver Marathon course. It is always an interesting day, as you have the opportunity to catch up with some old friends, as well as run with people from all corners of the lower mainland.


I came to the event with an agenda, and frankly, I will not apologize. Primarily, it was to make it clear from the very beginning, that I was going to focus on pace and not participate in a 32km hammerfest. For many, this is the first crack at the longest distance in the program, and the longest they have ever run. For me, it was an opportunity to get one of my biggest workouts, without being completely blown apart because the pace was too fast.


I recognized within the first 300m that I had to speak up and fast or else it would have been too fast a pace. There were others who jumped in and backed me up to focus on working together to ensure that we maintained the 5:45/km pace. I have to admit that my old bossy ways surfaced, and quite frankly, it was like a visit from a good old friend. Hehe.


Things went well. In fact, I think it was one of the best runs I've had this training schedule, largely due to the fact that we were consistent in our pace. The weather was awesome and I didn't forget any nutrition, so things were great. No chafing as well. In all, it was a 20-miler success story.


Following the run, I put on the fancy-dancy new compression socks. I feel so.... compressed. We'll see if all this hype of 25% faster recovery is factual, or a bunch of ballyhoo. I will keep you posted.
So I am off to get cleaned up, do much of nothing, and then Chinese Food with Aunty Anne! Ciao!

No comments:

Post a Comment