Blue Mountains Training 2010

Some photos from the trip

Running while sick

Regular, moderate training could boost immune system function. My immune system was strong in January when Beata and Robert where fighting viral infection and in February when many people from my work had suffered. I have accredited my running for the fact that I was virus free at that time.


Vigorous exercise such as a long or tempo run temporarily suppresses the immune system up to 24 hours after exercise. And this is what had happened to me before my race.

I had my planned a long training run of 15 km on Wednesday, 10 days before my 5K race. I knew on the next day that I have some kind of infection, but it didn't stop me from running. I went for a 4 km easy run, after the run I went to the sauna. In the past I did try to use the sauna to prevent infection - it had worked in the past, but not this time.

I had moved my Saturday training to Sunday, hoping that I would give my body enough rest. I had run 7 km of the planned 11 km. I still was sick. My important weekend training didn't go too well. I have decided to boost my Monday workout a little bit. I knew I wasn't feeling well enough to increase the distance so I have decided to make this run more intense. It wasn't a great idea. I felt quite well during my workouts, I could breath easier, cough was suppressed, but a few hours later I had a sinus headache, runny nose, chest congestion, cough..., you name it. And you thought training was only good for you.

I knew that my body needs rest so it can concentrate its resources on fighting the illness, but my desire to do well doing the race was stronger. So instead of the planned easy week before the race I wanted to make up for the low quality training of previous days. I went strong on Tuesday - 4km, Wednesday - 10 km hills and speed workout, Thursday - 4 km easy and Friday - 6 km hard tempo workout. I was really sick at this point. What is the point at which you should rest and not train? As a novice runner I wasn't sure if I should run on Saturday before the race or should I rest completely. Because my cough was strong I had decided to not run on Saturday.
I woke up early on Sunday. I couldn't sleep too well because of my cough. I took a generous portion of anti-cough medicine. I was ready for the race.

Winter Running

I used to run 20 years ago. It was just for fun and not very regular. In November of the last year I have started to run with a goal of running a marathon in the future.
Initially I didn't know when it will be. I want to make my running safe, injury free and pleasant. I am not going to rush. I am planning to run full marathon not earlier then in 2008. I would like to run my first marathon below 4 hours. To run marathon comfortably in such time my preparation would require running many kilometers and it means that it is huge time commitment.

For this year I have set a goal of running 5 km, 10km and 1/2 marathon races.
I have already registered for 5 km race, Frosty 5K in Burlington, on 04 of March. My time goal is to make it below 22 minutes. My dream goal is to make it in less than 20 minutes, but I don't think that it will happen this year. So far I am running over 30 km per week. My longest inside run was 16.85 km and my longest run outside was 10 km. My current log is posted on coolrunning.com.

I have also registered for 10 km race, Canadian Tire 10K in Mississauga, on 12 of May. My goal there is to run under 50 minutes. It isn't very ambitious, but I think is reasonable for the first time.

My biggest race of the year will be 1/2 marathon, Niagara Falls International Marathon 2007, on 28 of October. 1/2 marathon starts and ends in Canada. My goal is to make it under 2 hours. Full marathon starts in USA and ends in Canada. I think it is the only marathon starting in one country and ending in another. I am hopping to run this race one day.