This morning, I did a very pleasant 14K run at an LSD pace (6:42 mins/km). The weather was 16C, cloudy, and quite humid. Not bad weather for running in September, though I would have preferred, as always, something warmer.
Yesterday I did 10.5K at an easy pace. This has been my pattern since last Sunday’s half marathon – a 10.5K day followed by a 13K or so day. I’m not training for anything, so I’m just enjoying myself on these runs. I want to use this period of easy running to find a relaxed and natural form that will carry me into next year’s long runs and races.
So I think I’ll continue this way until the nasty weather and the snow come, when I’ll really have to adjust my running style and schedule. I’d like to do one longish (25K or 30K) road run as “season finale,” maybe in mid-November, before I’m forced to consider moving to treadmills and maybe a track. (As I’ve explained in a previous post, I want to continue running and training in my Fivefingers KSOs. Even the thought of putting on conventional running shoes now gives me the howling fantods.)
In mid-December, I’ll start training for the 100K ultra I want to do in early May 2010. (If all goes well, I’ll do the ultra in a pair of brightly-coloured VFF Bikilas.) My cousin Malcolm in South Africa, who’s done the Comrades 90K Ultra a number of times, has been kind enough to send me a Comrades training program, which looks formidable but doable. It’s a 20 week program, and the Toronto 100K Ultra is on May 1, so that means that my training program will start on December 1.
For the time being, though, it’ll be easy runs, getting longer for a while, with no real goal in mind except to put some kilometers in my legs. And enjoy the decent weather, for as long as it lasts.
Barefoot Journey 