Weekly Recap + Why Guelph Running Love

Wow, seems like a long time since I have been on here typing a post. We have been busy moving and I have been sick more time in the last 6 weeks than I can remember. But you can rest assured I worked hard to recreate this commercial each time I was sick:

I'm sure if you ask Lexie, she will inform you did a great job.

This has been a huge running week in the Hanna house. We both had personal distance records with our long run on Saturday (16 miles or 26 km each) and I (Leigh) had the highest volume running week I have ever had, running a total of 39 miles (63 km). We both managed to escape it relatively pain free, as we were both in good enough shape to get 8 miles of hills in the this morning. Type A Lexie did the hill workout as described in our training plan. I just ran around and found some hills to go up and down. That is probably a good analogy to how we both approach life in general.

Here is how our week broke down:

Monday: Lexie - 8 hilly miles, Leigh - 4 Treadmill miles
Tuesday: Lexie - 4 Treadmill miles, Leigh - 7 miles (2 on treadmill at marathon pace, 5 outside)
Wednesday: Lexie - 7 miles (3 at Marathon Pace), Leigh - 4 miles
Thursday: Lexie - Cross train, Leigh - 8 Treadmill miles
Friday: Lexie - 4 miles easy (after working nights! what a stud!), Leigh - Cross training (hockey)
Saturday: Lexie - 16 miles, Leigh - 16 miles
Sunday: THIS!!

It was certainly good for our running confidence to make it through such a high mileage week without any significant issues.

I wanted to take a second to share with you why Guelph is a great place to be a runner. Now there are lots of reasons, but since my name is not Letterman, and Lexie is much prettier than both Paul Shaffer and Rupert I am just going to give you my top three reasons Guelph is a great place to run.

Number 3: These Guys!

Eric Gillis (right) and Reid Coolsaet (left) were two of the three Canadians that represented Canada at the Olympics in London. They both ran the Marathon and happen to train in Guelph (with the number 2 reason Guelph is a great running city). We have seen them running around town before (see what I did there?) but I had an ultra cool experience on Saturday. I was out on my long run, and as your can imagine/know, running for 2.5 hours solo can be tedious but it was huge boost to see Eric Gillis about halfway through. For some reason seeing a olympian running by you gives you a little boost. Not enough of a boost to catch up, but a boost none the less.

Number 2: An Awesome Track Club!

Guelph is home to one of the premier track clubs in the country. Without boring you with details, Speed River TFC has produced and worked with numerous olympians, CIS Champions, NCAA Champions, and is a sought after destination for a lot of Canada's top runners. The reason I think this is so cool is because it means that for weekend warriors like myself there is always a lot of interesting running related stuff going on around town, including seeing olympians. Very cool.

and finally: Drumroll Please............

Number 1: Lots of Trails!

Lexie might not like this part because she runs at times when its not really safe to run on trails, but one thing I love about running in Guelph is the myriad of running trails I can choose when I need to cover lots of distance. For someone who loves variety, Guelph offers it, lots of green space and parks means lots of place to run that isn't all concrete. Now if I can just get the dog owners of Guelph to keep their pets on a leash.

Hope everyone has a great week. I'm on March break which means lots of time to run, relax, and do stuff around the house!

-Leigh