Longboat Training Kicks Off

January saw the introduction of new training sessions for Longboat runners. Two of the workouts were aimed at preparing runners for the Robbie Burns race next Sunday (January 24th) while the third is a long run over a hilly route in west Toronto. While the training sessions are open to all Longboat members, a core group of runners are making use of the sessions to prepare for early season races.

Wednesday nights traditionally feature a club run along the Martin Goodman trail that hugs the shore of Lake Ontario in Toronto's south end. So far this year the run has evolved, for some members, into a long fartlek session of 6 minutes on and three minutes off, which equates to about a mile for the faster runners. Because it's still early in the season, these sessions are targeted at just under anaerobic threshold pace. A similar session was held on Fridays at High Park, where runners ran mile repeats at a comfortably hard pace, working up to a maximum of 5 repeats. The repeats were run clockwise around the ring road and featured a slight hill at the end of each mile, so the runners appreciated the recovery (2 to 3 minutes).

The Long run was set up to allow runners a common indoor meeting place (important in Canadian winters) from which to start. We eventually settled on the local YMCA and we now have routes ranging from 13km to 28km and a core group of runners out running the various routes. The main attraction, from a training perspective, if not from the runner's perspective, is the number of hills that can be included in each route. Even the shortest route features several significant hills, whereas I have yet to figure out how many hills are on the 28km route. The upshot of it all? Excellent training for leg strength and early training for the hills in the Around the Bay race at the the end of March.

It has been an inspiring first two weeks of the year and I'm really looking forward to some good performances this season. Congratulations to all of you that have bought into the training; I hope you will get the results you deserve.