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CHECKMARK ✓

Running Journey Unfiltered:
​Motivation・Facilitation ・Reflection

17/52

4/30/2017

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Week 17 Recap

May is just around the corner and as a monthly ritual, I curated this upcoming month's running playlist. Compared to the typical head thrashing, heart pumping beats, I decided to throw some chill down tempo tracks as well. It really came in handy especially since it's been a hectic week down at my nine to five.

This past week's theme was mostly all about trail running! I fell in love with last Sunday's trail run at Seaton Hiking Trail so much that I went back this past weekend yet again but not so lost this time around (after learning how to read the trail markings properly from my brother ?...) This kept the drive and momentum going for me leading up to the MEC Trail Race ONE from this morning. All in all, it was a good week with a massive (at least for me) 430m elevation accumulated.
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Going into this race, I had no expectations but with the attitude of a surprised child going to a candy store and have all the surprises reveal before my eyes. It was refreshing considering that the pressure to attain a stellar performance was lifted off my shoulders - especially since I come to accept that I am more so built for road running rather than power grinding through the trails and mountains. In the end, that sustained pace and strategic slow downs on elevated roads got me a decent 5:20/km pace and still managed to rank in the top 10 for the male gender. Fun and all, but the harsh reality for me is that I still have significantly more training to go in anticipation for the ultra 50K up in Blue Mountains come July. To put things in perspective, my Seaton run yesterday of 20km and today's MEC 15.2 km run only tally up to 35km and I still have to somehow managed to grind out an extra some odd 15km within a set hard cut-off mark of 10 hours.

One thing that was in mind while running today was: 
"Respect the hills"

Regretfully, I was somewhat ignorant about it beforehand as I looked up the elevation metric on the Strava segments thinking that "it's only 15 km and it doesn't look that bad." I was wrong. No trails are necessarily easy and today's thunderstorm when I left the house certainly did not make the muddy grounds any easier to run while running up.

Lesson learned.

This week, I will be back on the hard concrete and asphalt so that I can take it easy on the legs and not have it take on a heavy toll for consecutive weeks.

That's it for now, cheers - M.W.
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16/52

4/23/2017

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Week 16 Recap

This past week has been especially eventful, particularly the Team Running Free team meeting during the midweek and discovering a trail path perfect for trail running training just couple minutes drive away from home.
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Team Running Free 2017 Members
Ever since applying for member late last year, I knew for a fact that I was signing up to join a group of inspiring, like-minded personnels from various age ranges and lifestyles. And boy am I ever glad to be accepted to immerse myself with this running community. You see, it is the group support from everyone and sharing their expertise that further fuels my desires to keep pushing my personal running ambitions to the next level. This is further sedimented by observing the crazy amounts of dedication and training all logged onto the closed Strava Team Running Free group. If I can implement the same amount of commitment as they do while also juggling normal daily grinds, who knows just exactly how much better I can self-improve upon! For those looking to join the team, I do encourage checking out Team Running Free's page for more details. 
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Looking ahead from the cliffside
I made a my first ever visit to the Seaton Hiking Trails in Pickering this past weekend. I was repeatedly told that this area was very suitable for trail running training and ultra-marathon training. The deal breaker came from the Strava activity feed of some of the local runners that I follow. There is decent distance, with up to 12.9 km one way, and drastic elevation changes that gave my thighs a good muscle burning. Mind you, the last time I did trail running was back in July of last year when I tackled the North Face Endurance Challenge Half-Marathon up in Blue Mountains, Collingwood. This Seaton trail is much welcomed but is also a stern reminder of always to respect the hills - no matter how easy it may sound or by figuratively determining the difficulty solely by metrics. I know my legs will agree with me on that the very next day after. That's just one part of the equation until you have to also consider the weather conditions and the grounds. I thought I was well equipped by bringing my pair of Salomons and a water belt with a gel pack... that is until I stepped into some extra muddy paths and realized that I did not bring any change of cloths after the run 😭  Nonetheless, I very much enjoyed the run especially since I was running in tranquil area with no competition and strictly running for the sake of enjoyment. Perhaps, this will gear me up for the upcoming MEC Events Trail Race ONE up in Heart Lake this upcoming Sunday as well as future trail races like the 50K that I mentioned from before.

I also look forward to find more trail running locations within the Greater Toronto Area and share my experiences with you as I find them. A recent online article from MEC introduced "Where to Go Trail Running Near Toronto" and I plan to do exactly just that in the weeks or summer months to come. Do you have any suggestions of any other running routes? I would love to hear from you! Cheers, M.W.
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15/52

4/16/2017

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Week 15 Recap

This past week has been mostly productive especially with the Easter Holiday and deciding to take work off on Thursday to make it an extended four day long weekend. In short, more time to go out for enjoyable runs!

The first half of the week was mostly running in accordance to weather conditions for the week, namely not trying to get soaked by those unpredictable isolated April showers. Secondly half of the week was simply getting out there and soak up some nice mild, sunny weather. As a result, I managed to stack up yet another 70 plus km week. Highlight run of the week goes to the rare downtown Toronto waterfront run. I have been itching to do this for quite some time, especially since majority of the other runs in this area (including the Race Roster Spring Run Off at High Park last week) were technically race and I never really had the mindset to genuinely enjoy the surroundings and lake breezes. One thing I certainly didn't anticipate is the strong wind gusts and head wind. I suppose that is good for training though...
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What's Next

Preparations for my first ultramarathon is now under way! I plan to further add running trails close to the Markham-Durham area as well as within the Toronto area into my existing road running train log. Second to that, I have signed up for the smaller scaled trail races as samplers of what to expect and to sustain my paces while enduring for more than 6 hours? This is why thank god for the MEC Toronto Trail Race Series. I ended up signing up for RACE ONE that is happening later at month end (Sunday, April 30th, 2017) up in Heart Lake Conservation Area in Brampton. I also signed up for a second race - RACE FOUR later this year in October 1, which is essentially a reminiscing "victory lap" of my high school cross-country races. All in all, three months of time available for some quality elevation training and going to the gym for some serious lower body workouts.

Rest week ahead for me this week after completing another three week cycle of racking up some mileage! Cheers, M.W.
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