Jemez

Ottawa Race Weekend 2011

2011-05-30T17:31:00.004-04:00

Race weekend 2011 was a different experience from last year!

On Saturday evening I ran the 10k with my daughter. We had a lot of fun, keeping a steady pace and enjoying the experience. A couple of people who saw us said they couldn't believe how relaxed the two of us looked, and asked if the other runners around us got annoyed. Not that I noticed, although it's possible that making a phone call while passing people might have gotten some rude looks. J went hard the last few hundred meters, and I actually had to work to keep up. My right Achilles was sore while running, especially for the 1st 5k, probably because the dog got his tie out behind my ankle and took off running a couple days before the race.

Saturday night I worked extra-hard to make sure I drank enough - water. I didn’t get into bed until near midnight, so 5:45 didn’t seem like enough sleep. My goal was to come in under 1:40, with hopes of breaking my best half time of 1:38:08. I went to get into the starting corral 15 mins before the race, but couldn’t find any entrances. The only entrance I saw was back around the 2:15 pace bunny. I hopped over the fence in the middle of my corral, and then realized there were lots of other people with the same problem. The corrals were jammed, and looking around it seemed like I should be farther forward, but I couldn’t move.

The temperature was ok (around 18C), but it was very humid. At the start it was clear they’d done a lousy job of placing people, there were a huge number of slower runners in front of me. For the first 3 km, I was constantly passing people. Even though I was only a few seconds per km slower than I wanted to be, I was working much harder than I should have been, my heart rate was over 180 (with my max at 190), hitting 185 at one point. I found this really frustrating, but at 3k decided I needed to relax, the crowds had probably only cost me around 20 seconds and I had a long way to go. Good thing, since I was passing people the entire way.

At the 9km mark I missed a water station, I was running past all the gatorade tables waiting for water, and then suddenly no more tables. This was a worry, but nothing to do. After that I stuck to gatorade. I hit 10km in just over 47 mins. One of my favorite race moments: Somewhere around 14k I heard someone I was passing say “Do you think there’s underwear under there?” I looked ahead and saw someone bouncing along in a very short skirt, and as far as I could tell the answer was “no”. Another runner commented that it was getting hard to run, and I decided it was best to keep passing.....

At 16km it started raining, lightly at first, then hard. This was ok, since I was finally getting into a decent groove & the rain cooled me off. The crowds were impressive in the last few km, it was raining hard but people were still cheering hard. My final chip time was 1:37:48, and I actually felt pretty good afterward.

It does seem like race weekend has gotten to the point where the organizers aren't able to deal well with the number of runners, but it is great having the city pay this much attention to running once a year.

Boston Marathon 2011 Race Report

2011-04-22T12:43:00.002-04:00

All in all a great weekend, and a positive experience.

Saturday, we went to the expo first thing. The expo was fun, I bought a few things, and my wife & kids decorated the 1 mile to go sign. From there we headed an hour north into New Hampshire, to pick up a new dog. He’s a rescue dog from Tennessee, thought to be around 2 years old and a Samoyed-Siberian mix. He looks like a white wolf with blue eyes. I had a hard time with him at first, he pulls like a sled dog when he’s on a leash. While it was all I could do to control him outside, inside he is incredibly calm and gentle.

My sister dropped four of us in Hopkinton by the starting line at 7:30, and we headed into the building overlooking the start. This was a great location, the office we were in was being used by the motorcycle cops who lead the race, by the TV crew filming the start, and by other security details for surveillance. We were the only runners in the office, and were treated like absolute celebrities. It was great being able to watch all the groups starting from the windows.

For Boston I was wearing Adidas Boston 2’s, and my soft running orthotics.

A bit after 10 we headed to the starting line, and got into our corrals. Joe was with me, Steve was a couple corrals farther up. I was hoping to hit 3:30, but was determined not to destroy myself like I did last year in Ottawa. To do that I wanted to hit the half in 1:44-1:45, ease up on the hills, and then see if I could pick it up the last 5 miles. Joe was aiming for 3:45, Steve for 3:30. Right over the start, Joe took off like a rocket. I held back, and was hitting 8 minute miles right away. A lot of people were passing me.

I hit the 5k mark in 25:09, high 5-ing kids along the way. I saw my whole family just past 5k, high 5’d the kids, kissed my wife, patted the dog. As I started running again, someone shouted “Hey, was that your girlfriend?” No, I said, we’ve been married a long time (as usual I can’t do math while marathoning). “Good he said, since 3 other people did the same thing after you!” I laughed, and told him we’d been married long enough that it was ok. “OK, he said, what about the 10 people who stopped to pet the dog?”

One of the best things about Boston was the interactions I had with other runners. I spoke to people from Canada, Washington State, Arizona, Oregon, Chicago, Ohio.... I even spoke to someone who is planning to run a race in the Jemez (Jemez marathon?) soon. Also, the crowd support was amazing. I had my name on my shirt in big letters, and all day people were shouting encouragement, chanting, etc...

OK, back to the race. Between 5 &10K I figured out that 3:30 wasn’t likely. I wasn’t running quite as fast as I wanted, but because of the number of runners it was hard to just pick up the pace. I’d planned to drink every 2 miles, but the tailwind was making it feel hotter than it was. I was drinking almost every mile. Wellesley was a riot, I did give kisses to a couple of students (with my wife’s permission), and ran along the row high-5ing everyone. I hit halfway in 1:45:22, just a bit slow.

Then came the Newton hills. The first one seemed long, but right after this I saw the family again at the 17 mile mark, just waving this time. The rest of the hills went pretty well. Heartbreak was challenging, but knowing it was the last big one went a long way, the mile that included heartbreak took 8:26. By this point I was passing lots of people walking. At mile 21 I decided to pick up the pace. I managed about a half mile at the faster pace, but just couldn’t sustain it. My new goal was to make sure I finished without walking, but even this was tough. The thought in my head was that I should be happy, this was as fast as I could manage on this race, on this day.

There was a definite change in the tone of people calling my name now, from the early “You are rocking it” variant to “Don’t give up!”. I was thrilled to see the Citgo sign, and kept plodding on tired legs. Looking back, my pace only slowed to around 8:30 for the last 5 miles, but I felt really lousy. As I turned onto Boylston, I caught up to Steve (he saw me, I was oblivious) and we ran it in together. Steve managed around 3:36, Joe was at 3:46.

My final time: 3:34:46.

In the walk from the medals to family meeting, 7 different medical people walked with me to check and make sure I was ok, when I asked one she explained that I had a “far away look on my face”.

Apart from my quads being very tired/sore for the last 6 miles, nothing else bothered me during the race. My shin and right Achilles were a bit sore after, but this is by far the best shape I’ve been in following a marathon.

9 Run Run

2010-10-24T09:37:00.007-04:00

Note: I didn't keep this up to date during last year's training cycle, and regret it. I had some nasty injury issues, and the original reason I started writing this was to track those, and (hopefully) how I resolved them. I'm hoping to keep this more up to date as I train for Boston.

9 Run Run Race Summary

We’d been looking at a forecast of mixed rain and snow, and temps close to freezing. The night before the race, they forecast got updated: cold and sunny. Perfect. I didn’t have a solid goal. I’ve only run one half marathon before, and that was 3 years ago. So my PR was around 1:43:45 at the halfway point of a full. My plan was simply to try to knock at least a couple minutes off that. I’ve been in PT on my Achilles for a couple months, but my PT cleared me to run hard.

The temp at the start was right around freezing, rising a few degrees during the race. It was very cold waiting to start, but I figured that meant I’d dressed right (shorts and my thinnest long sleeve tech shirt).

I felt great at the start, and even though I was running a bit faster than planned, my heart rate looked reasonable so I decided to just hold the pace as long as my HR wasn’t going too high.

The wife & kids were by the side of the road about 3.5 km in, cheering loudly. As we approached, another runner came up next to me and asked if he could hang out there and pretend they were cheering for him. We had a good laugh about that, and started running together chatting a bit. He was aiming for around 1:40. We ran together for around 15 min, but then he fell back. At this point I knew the pace was solid, and my HR was around 90% of max.

The km’s were just clicking away, going really smoothly. Around 11 km I came up behind someone I’ll just refer to as ‘mucus boy’. He was going a bit too fast to pass, a bit too slow to fall back from. And he was spewing mucus from multiple orifices about every 15 seconds. THIS was hugely annoying. After a couple km’s of this show, I decided I needed to get past mucus boy, and then ease up in a position where he’d have to work to get around me.

Once I was past mucus boy I wanted to make sure to put a bit of distance between us (HR: 92%). The last 7 km were on the trans Canada trail. I was concerned about water in this stretch, so I went out last night with the family and we marked some trees & a signpost with duct tape. My awesome wife then went this morning and put water bottles under the trees. I only needed one bottle, but I figure I should have a few options. In my mind, I’d just swoop through, grab the bottle, and run on.

Reality doesn’t always match our plans. As I went for the bottle, I realized it was very uneven by the tree. Plus I was going full speed, while losing my footing and bending down, at a large metal pole. But did I slow down? Nope. I tried to hold pace and grab the bottle. Of course, I lost my footing on a rock, tried to get back onto the trail, and wiped out. As I went down I had just enough time to think that my race might be done. Then I hit the ground on one hand and one knee. Thankfully, I had gloves on. Thankfully nobody stepped on me. I managed to get up again, and keep going, with several people checking to make sure I was ok (HR: 95%).

I didn’t look at my knee. I didn’t want to know. It didn’t hurt much, but I had no doubt it was bleeding. Surprisingly, I got back into my pace almost immediately, and passed the 4 or 5 people who passed me when I was down. Shortly after this, the guy I’d been with earlier came up to me, chatted for a minute, then passed. I ran behind him, for a few minutes and then came up alongside. He told me that he’d been about 50 feet back for the previous 10 km. He said that when I went ahead he decided that he had to keep me in sight, and this got him through. And then he asked if I was ok, since man, that was one impressive fall.

Staying with him definitely kept me on pace for the rest of the race, I was determined to finish with him - he was too. I crossed the line in 1:38:08. As expected, I had a fair amount of dried blood from my knee down my shin.

One day later, I'm feeling pretty good. My left quad is a bit sure, and the shinsplints that I've had also in the left leg is there too. I'm a bit sore above my left Achilles, but that's typical since it is a bit short since being repaired. My right Achilles feels perfect.

Ottawa Marathon, 2011

2010-06-07T13:15:00.001-04:00

Background: I ruptured my left Achilles in 2002. I tried running again, but developed tendinitis in my right Achilles, and was advised by my doctor in 2004not to run anymore. When my daughter wanted to run a 5k in 2007, I went to a sports doctor, who cleared me to run, as long as I took it slowly. I had a great time with my daughter, and continued running. After my 1st half marathon in 2008, I decided to try to run a marathon - a goal that I assumed was dead after my Achilles rupture. I did my 1st marathon in May 2009 with a goal of hitting 4:10-4:15. I finished in 3:56, enjoyed the whole thing, and the last 2 km were the fastest I ran. Right after the race I started thinking about trying to qualify for Boston, needing to hit 3:30:59. My thought was that this was at the outside boundary of possible.

I trained using my own plan, hitting four 50 mile weeks at the peak of training compared to one 40 mile week in 2009. The right Achilles has been a problem all the way through training though, and was bugging me the days before the race.

We were in a panic here all week about the forecast : Mid to high 80's F, unbroken sun. Then there was a last minute improvement in the forecast, but nothing like what we got. We wound up with a completely cloudy day, starting temp around 60 at 7AM, rising to 65 at 11 - perfect.

I wound up doing the same thing as last year before the start: Having to hurry to bag check, then into the corral as the national anthem was playing. I found the 3:30 pacer, and went up to chat with him. I explained I hoped to qualify for Boston with 3:30, and would try to follow him for as long as possible. He told me that he's in about 3:10 shape, so this was a pace that he uses for a lot of his workouts. He told me that he's run Boston 13 straight years, and absolutely loves it. Then the gun went, and it took us about a minute to get to the starting line. My plan was to break the race into 10 km sections, aiming for around 49:40 for each. I assumed that at that point I could hold my pace to the finish, which would get just under 3:30. The goal was BQ, and even though 3:30:59 would do it, I didn't want to mess with that, and hoped to come in under 3:30.

The first 10km is a loop through Gatineau Quebec, and has a few rolling hills - not enough to cause problems, but people always comment that it is hillier there than they expect the 1st time they run the full or half here. It didn't take long to be cruising along at pace, but the 1st 3 kms were very crowded. I eased back a touch and found that about 30 meters behind the pacer was much more spread out. So I just kept following him from that distance. One thing that was clear early though was that the pacer was fast. I hear so many people say their goal pace feels easy in the 1st 10 km, and it occurred to me about 5km in that this was not happening. Now a lot of the people around me sounded & looked like they were working harder than I was, but the pace still wasn't easy. I could feel my right Achilles, but it was clear to me that it wasn't an issue. Also it was fast, not hugely so, but enough to notice. But, I stayed in my position a ways behind the pacer. First 10 km split, 48:50 - Too fast.

At the 11 km mark, I decided I needed to run my own race and let the pace group go. I never saw the pacer again. So, I eased up to my target pace, and enjoyed this stretch. Around 13 km I passed a flower shop, where I resolved to buy flowers for my wife next week if I BQ'd. The route this year added a fairly sustained hill at the 18 km mark, I was ready for this, and slowed to around a 5 m/km pace (8/mile). Split for the 2nd 10 km section was 49:33 - perfect. I hit the halfway point in 1:43:47. Feeling good, with a bit of margin.

The third 10 km started fine, and I was holding a steady pace. I saw the wife & kids at the 24 km mark, high fived the kids then stopped to give my wife a quick kiss. Wife was floored that I stopped (I figured it would be good luck). At 26 km I realized the party was over. My left quad started to hurt, and I got a minor side stitch. Focusing on breathing dealt with the stitch fairly well, but the quad was more of a worry. I ruptured this quad 20 years ago, and it does hurt during longer races, but this was early to be feeling it. I was still right on pace, but started to slow a bit. I told myself I just needed to push through, I've done plenty of runs longer than 26k, and hopefully this would pass. So, I set a goal of getting to 30 km to re-evaluate. I finished the 3rd 10km section in 50:15 - too slow, and I realized I was using my margin.

30-40km sucked. No way to sugarcoat it. I knew if I could just hold that 5 m/k pace till the finish I'd make it, but if felt like I was working WAY harder than 5 min pace. At 30km I told myself only 1 hour if I hold that pace, and I pretty much counted down ever km marker like that. At 32 km I resolved never never never to do this to myself again. I also decided that I was probably finishing this race on the ground, the only question was which side of the finish line I'd be on. During this stretch my other quad started to hurt, and one foot felt like it wanted to cramp (or something, really weird feeling in the foot). Right Achilles hurt. Left (repaired) Achilles however felt great! With 5km left to go in the race I was getting dizzy, and my arms were tingly. It was all I could do to hold something resembling a reasonable pace, but coming out of each water station I was having a hard time getting my pace back up. I finished the 4th 10 km section in 50:33.

At this point I realized I was in trouble. 2.2 km to go, under 1.5 miles. I was very lightheaded. My quads & achilles were in a lot of pain. The crowd was huge but I couldn't even turn to look at them for fear of falling if I turned my head. The last 20 km had chewed up my margin. And if I missed a BQ by 2 seconds after stopping to kiss my wife she was going to feel hugely guilty (no matter how many times I explained that it was 100% ok, and totally my fault). But I couldn't get my pace up, or do the math to figure out if I even had a shot. There's a sign at 750m to go, and when I checked my watch I was convinced I couldn't get there. The next sign at 500m took forever to arrive, and it still seemed too far. I couldn't even look to try to find my family. At 200 m to go I heard my daughter screaming, I was breathing as fast as I could, pumping my arms, and I STILL couldn't get my pace under 5 min/km. With 200m to go my watch said 3:29:30, and I botched the math and convinced myself that it would take me 2 minutes. I was gutted, but made myself push as hard as I could As I approached the line, I looked at my watch, and realized I'd made it. Final time: 3:30:36 (I had 3:30:42 on my garmin). Several people that I know saw me in the home stretch, and say my form was still good, but that I was breathing really hard, and clearly incredibly focused.

I wobbled as soon I got over the line, two medical people got my arms and helped me into a wheelchair. I stayed there for about 5 min, then with some help got up, and started towards the recovery area. I definitely was in pretty much the worst shape of anyone in the recovery area, but what this said to me was that I'd left it all on the roads.

So, I'm putting Boston 2011 on my calendar, but planning to set a goal of somewhere between 3:50 & 4 hours and enjoy the experience. My guess is that will be my last marathon, and I'm good with that.

Update: The 3:30 pacer finished in 4:09. Apparently his calf cramped at the 25 km mark, and he took some ibuprofen, iced it, and limped to the finish. I actually passed someone at around that point hollering to a medical station to ask if they had ibuprofen, but didn't realize it was the pacer.

The Marathon

2009-05-24T15:42:00.007-04:00

Background:

Back in my 20’s (and early 30’s) I frequently said I’d run a marathon someday, but not until I felt like I could do it in under 4 hours. Then, seven years ago I ruptured my left Achilles tendon, had a horrible rehab, and said it was clear that I would never manage a marathon. A couple of years after the rupture, I tried running a few times, and developed tendonitis in my right Achilles. My doctor told me not to run anymore, and for a couple more years I didn’t. Then I went to see a sports Dr, who told me she thought I could try running lightly, get PT, orthotics and start gradually. I did start slowly, and last year I ran my first half marathon in 1:51. I’ve continued to have some pain in my right Achilles, but not as bad as when I saw the sports Dr, and my feeling was that if I was ever going to run a marathon, this was the year.

Training:

I’ve been training since January, using a modified Hidgon Novice 1 program, modified to add another 20 miler, and one very low mileage recovery week after the first 20 miler.

I set my goal to 4:10, and was planning to run at 5:55/km (9:32/mile). This seemed like a conservative goal, but in the last weeks I’ve wondered if I could hit it, some of the runs have been tough (but the weather has been brutal this spring too).

The Race:

I couldn’t believe how nervous I was yesterday. My wife said I looked green – and I thought I was hiding it well! I was worried about everything, and just wanted to get started. I did sleep some, but not much, and got up at 3:45 to have breakfast 3 hours before the 7AM start. Last minute panic, I realized I was on the wrong side of the barricades from the bag check, and had to jump the barricade, and run to the bag check as the national anthem was being sung. When I got back in (jumping the barricade again), I realized I was lined up too far forward. I did move back some, but wound up around the 4 hour crew.

The start was ok, and as expected a lot of people were passing me. Just before 10:00 in, I heard what sounded like a heard of elephants coming behind me. Turned out is was a 4 hr pace bunny, doing a 10 min run, 1 min walk, and just after passing me they started to walk. I moved left, and saw another 4 hr pace bunny, doing a continuous run. As the 4 hr bunnies & crowds moved in front, I decided to see how their pace would feel, so I started to run about 30 meters behind the big mob of 4 hr runners. It was nice there, lots of space since most people around that time seemed to be flocking to the bunnies, and I stayed there for a while. I hit the 10k mark at 56:22, about 3 min too fast, but feeling great. So I kept following the pace bunnies, wondering what the average pace should be for that goal, and held that position until the 20 km mark. Around 13 km my right Achilles started to hurt, but it never really got much worse than it was at that point. The second 10 k took 56:54, I was hit the halfway mark with an average pace of 5:35/km(9:01/mile).

Just after the 20 km mark, I realized I had slowed, and picked it back up to a comfortable pace. This is when it got strange. I passed both 4 hr pace bunnies and their crowds. Now I was worried, but feeling good, and there was lots of space in front of the 4 hr crowd too. The third 10 km took 55:44, and I started to pass lots of runners. At this point I was waiting for something bad to happen, I didn’t really think I could hold that pace. The next 10 km took 56:11. I was dog tired at this point, but knew I could make it. My average pace in the second half was 5:25/km (8:44/mile) – a negative split!!! My finish time (chip) was 3:56:51. I had a smile on my face from about the 10km mark till the finish, and kept hearing people yell at me to keep smiling. It was a great day.

My legs are very sore now, and my right Achilles isn’t happy with me, and is swollen and a bit red. So, I have no idea if this will be my only marathon (hope not), but if it is, I can live with it.

Five Days Left

2009-05-19T11:29:00.000-04:00

Five days till race day and I'm feeling pretty good. Nervous sure, but physically pretty good. I've had heaps of energy on my last couple runs, 12 km Sunday, 5 km this morning. There's still a bit of a twinge in my right Achilles, but it isn't bothering me during my runs. I'll plan to keep icing it every evening, and doing some stretches during the day. It doesn’t really feel any different than it did when I started training, so I'm hopeful that it won't be an issue.

The forecast for Race day is currently around 5 degrees C at 7AM, with a high around 20 degrees. I'm trying to figure out how to dress for the start. I tried doing my run this morning in shorts and a singlet, with the temperature at 4 degrees C (wind chill of zero). Short summary: I need more clothes than that at the start Sunday, my arms and hands were frozen.

Again with the Shinsplints

2009-04-24T14:35:00.002-04:00

I went out for a tempo run Wednesday evening. The plan was to go 15 km, 4 km easy up to the trans-Canada trail, 7 km tempo on the trail, 4 km easy. The tempo pace should have been at 5:25-5:30/km. We had some rain Tues & Wed, so the path was a bit soft. Being my usual bone-headed self, once I got into the tempo portion I picked up the pace, and was running around 5:10/km, then 5:05/km, finally was running around 4:50/km. At the turn around point I was heading into a fairly stiff headwind.

Somewhere around 9 km, my left shin got very painful. The rest of the run wasn't much fun. I'm sure this was a result of going too hard.

I'm kicking myself for not writing down what I did to rehab my other shin in March, but I'm going to try to write it all down now. I found that it took about 3-4 weeks until I was completely comfortable on it again.

1st, icing:

I used a dixie cup frozen, and rubbed it over the painful area for about 10 minutes. I did this daily for about a week.

2nd, stretching:

I found some articles mostly in the forum post linked below, the ones I used were:

Lie down on back, extend 1 leg up in air, wrap towel around ball of foot holding onto both ends of towel. Pull one side of towel and it will turn your foot that direction, hold for 30 sec. Pull on other end of towel turning foot opposite direction, hold for 30 sec. Do several times a day. Your ankle is staying at about a 90 degree as you turn the foot inward or outward and your leg is extended straight up. (3x/day)
Calf stretches against a wall (2x/day)
Eccentric calf stretches on the stairs (2x/day)
Sitting stretches: While sitting lift legs onto toes, hold 2 sec, drop feet down then raise toes off ground, hold 2 sec. Do this for about 30 seconds (many times/day).

3rd, Slow Down:

I did my 1st run 2 days after the pain started, but only 5 km on the treadmill and very slowly (6:15/km). I didn't do any runs faster than easy pace for the next 2 weeks.

----------------

Runners World Shin Pain Forum Post

32 km

2009-04-21T12:00:00.000-04:00

I did my first 32 km (20 mile) run last Sunday. I kept the pace down, and it took me almost exactly 3:15. I was quite surprised by how tired I got around the 14 km point, but this gave me a good chance to try out a Roctane. The Roctane gave me exactly the kick I needed. All in all the run was pretty uneventful, yes I was more tired than I wanted to be, especially in the last 10 km, but I never felt like I was going to need to stop.

I had Gu's at 6, 15, and 24 km, and think that's about the right spacing.

27 times two

2009-03-29T10:39:00.003-04:00

I spent last week in San Diego. I did 3 runs there, heading from the convention center north along the harbor. All of my runs started by 5:30 AM (ouch), and I did 6 km, 13 km, and 8 km. The views on the 1st two just before sunrise were amazing. When I had a view to the south, I could see downtown across the harbor, surrounded by the glow of sunrise. There was a crescent moon just over downtown as well, it was absolutely remarkable.

Then I did a 27 km run yesterday. I felt really sluggish the whole time, which seems consistent with the 6:12/km pace I put in.

The 54 km I did last week is a new record for me.

Shinsplints

2009-03-17T17:22:00.001-04:00

On Sunday I did a 24 km run, my longest run ever. Almost everything went well, with the exception of my right shin. My shin was a bit sore for the 1st couple of km, then stopped bothering me. Everything seemed fine until around 16 km, then my shin started to hurt a couple of inches lower than the initial pain. The second time around it was much more uncomfortable. From that point until the end, my shin continued to hurt - not badly enough to slow me down, but it was pretty uncomfortable. The run took me 2:25, and the second half was a bit faster than the 1st. My shin was sore for the rest of the day, I did ice it, wrap it, and take some Vitamin I.

Yesterday I did a lot of stretching, and iced it again. That seems to have helped some. I ran 6 km on the treadmill this morning, and my shin wasn't too bad. I'm planning to take tomorrow off from running, and then run again Thursday. Hopefully Thursday will be around 12 km.

Brutal

2009-03-11T22:30:00.002-04:00

Tonight was one of the toughest training runs I've ever done. I should have paid more attention to the Weather Network's "Wind Warning," that was in big bold red letters on their website. The temp was just below freezing when I started, with the wind coming down from the N-W. I headed north to start off into the wind, and almost gave up after 2 km when the lid of a trashcan flew past me in the opposite direction, at waist level. Signs were blown down all over the place. My left quad and right ankle were quite sore. It dawned on me near the end that the reason I was getting so sore was that I was constantly off balance. At one point with the wind at my back, I was actually slowing myself down, rather than pushing myself forward. I did the full 11 km that I was planning on, but it was just brutal.

Checked when I got home. Wind was at 50 kph, with gusts up to 90.

Schedule

2009-03-10T11:47:00.006-04:00

I've been following one of Hal Hidgon's Novice marathon schedules for the last couple of months. I've modified it a bit by adding an extra 2 weeks to give me one more 28 km run, and one really easy recovery week. I've also modified it a bit to account for the fact that I'll be out of town for a week, and don't think a 26k run is possible while traveling.

Here's my current plan (distances in km):

Back to Training

2009-01-29T16:01:00.000-05:00

I've circled the 2009 National Capital Marathon on my calendar.

I'm training now, using a slightly modified version of Hal Hidgon's Novice marathon plan. I'm changing one run per week into a tempo or race pace run, and instead of running 3 days in a row mid week I'm going to put an extra rest day in.

It's too early to say whether this is a realistic goal, but I should know more in a couple weeks - I have a 15 km run this weekend, 16 km next.

Assuming I manage to complete the training, I'm going to use a conservative time goal, probably around 4:15.

1000 km+

2008-11-18T13:10:00.003-05:00

Not much time to write recently, but I feel the need to pat myself on the back. I passed the 1000 km mark for 2008 with a 15 k run on Nov 8. This is a pretty big jump from the 500 km that I ran in 2007.

I've had a hard time getting back into a 3x/wk routine, partly because of time & partly because of a bit of lingering pain from my July ankle sprain. I did run 3x last week, and plan to maintain that for the rest of 08. I've also started some daily ankle exercises.

This week I've also been doing a bit of reading on marathon training plans. If my ankles are feeling good at the start of January, I'll probably start training for a May marathon and see how it goes.

1 month since sprain

2008-08-06T10:52:00.002-04:00

I sprained an ankle one month ago today. Not a horrible sprain, but I did feel some tearing, and had a 2" long bruise on the outside of my heel a few days later. I've been meaning to post an update since then but.....

I tried to do a couple of easy 5k runs around 2 weeks after the sprain. The 1st was ok, but after the 2nd my ankle was quite sore. At that point I abandoned thoughts of a September half marathon.

I got my bicycle out of the basement, and figured I'd need to use this to maintain some level of conditioning. My commute to work is 21 km each way, so between my 1st route finding ride and twice to work last week I cycled close to 120 km last week. Not bad, since I hadn't ridden in about 2 years!

I also did an 8.5 km run on Sunday, at around a steady state pace. My ankle was a bit sore towards the end, but was ok the next day. So, there seems to be a bit of improvement there, and hopefully in about a month I can be back to a normal schedule.

Hot 10 Miler

2008-06-16T17:08:00.002-04:00

I did my first 'long' long run since my half - 16 km on a hot afternoon. The temperature was only 27 degrees C, but it felt much hotter on the roads. The 1st couple of kms felt great, and hence I was running too fast - around 5:30/km. I then kept a pretty steady pace around 5:45/km until I turned around at the 8 km mark. Up till 8 km I could tell I was working, but it was ok. When I turned around it suddenly felt astonishingly hot, and I just felt the energy drain away. The run back felt really long. Plus my water was way too warm to be enjoyable.

Looking at my time/km from that point on its like a slow ramp up, with every single km a bit slower than the one before. Looking at the data after the run, the other fun thing is that as I was slowing down, my heart rate was increasing steadily, until it hit my max rate about 200 m from home.

All in all not a fun run after the midpoint, but nothing was too sore either during the run or today.

Half Marathon Race Day

2008-05-25T18:20:00.003-04:00

We got downtown early, and even though it was still quite cool out it felt like it was likely to be a warm day. I made a last minute change from a tech shirt into a singlet. I found out last week that a friend was running, and aiming for the same pace, so we decided to start together. We made it really clear though that if either of us wanted to go faster, we’d just take off. My goal for the half marathon was to do it in under 2 hours, and I was hoping that hitting a 5:30/km pace would be a good pace. I was pretty nervous yesterday and today about whether I could hold that pace for the whole race though. I wanted to do the 1st 2 km at a 5:40 pace, for a bit of time to warm up, and since I knew that the crowds would make it hard to set my own pace. Before the race they announced that there were 10,000 runners starting the half marathon today.

We got a pretty good start, and didn’t really have to do any weaving through traffic at all. We saw someone fall just a bit behind us after about 500m, and I slowed almost to a stop, but people seemed to be doing a good job of getting her back up. Yesterday someone almost got trampled in the 5k, and I was pretty upset to see nobody slowing at all to help. It only took us about 3 minutes to settle into a good pace. I knew we were going a bit fast, and sure enough the first km took 5:18. OK I said, we’re going too fast, we should ease up a bit. The second km took 4:56. At that point I decided that I was feeling really good, and would see what I could manage, but that I absolutely needed to ease up a bit and focus on effort level. So we kept knocking off km’s, running at around a 5:15/km pace.

The run through Gatineau went pretty well. There was almost no crowd support there, just the occasional curious looking onlooker. But as we came back over the bridge to Ottawa around the 9km mark the crowds picked up. Our gun time at the 9 km mark was 49:00. From that point on there were people cheering all the way in. There’s a long stretch along the canal from around km 10-15, and we saw several people down getting medical help along here. It was really feeling hot, the sun was just blazing. Then we finally went up to a bridge to cross the canal, and I was sure I was going to make it. I kept feeling good, and we kept up the pace, and were even going a few seconds per km faster from kms 10-16.

Across the canal we picked up the 1:50 pace bunny, and were around her and her group a lot at that point. At km 17 I picked up the pace a bit more, almost losing my friend in the process. Km 17 took 4:53, but after that I slowed back to about a 5:05/km pace and there was my friend at my elbow again. Someone in the crowd gave me a freezie here, it looked so inviting but when I tried to eat it I thought it was coming back up. Someone else gave me an ice cold water bottle – much better. With 3 km left to go, I started to feel worn down. My legs really wanted to stop. The 1:50 pace bunny was telling her people they were right on target, and to go ahead, but looked to be seriously hurting. My Garmin told me that the 1:50 pace bunny had little chance of finishing in 1:50. At the 19 km mark, we left the 1:50 bunny behind, but I was starting to seriously hurt. I tried reminding myself of the 2 km last stretch of one of my runs, but that didn’t help at ALL. But I was hanging in and holding the pace, km 19-20 took 5:09. The rest is a blur, I was dead on my feet, but wasn’t willing to stop. The last km seemed to take forever, but I was convinced that slowing down would only prolong it at this point, and I was NOT willing to slow down. With 500 meters to go I was having a hard time imagining running that far! The crowd was great here though, the bleachers were packed with people. My friend gave a burst of speed in the last 50 m, and finished 2 seconds in front of me. My final chip time was 1:51:11. I honestly feel like that is as fast as I could possibly have run it, there was barely enough left in the tank to get me to the recovery area.

My final pace (Garmin) was 5:11/km or 8:20/mile.

53 Commandments

2008-05-22T09:16:00.002-04:00

I really like the following, from this link:

The 53 Runner’s Commandments
by Joe Kelly

1. Don’t be a whiner. Nobody likes a whiner, not even other whiners.
2. Walking out the door is often the toughest part of a run.
3. Don’t make running your life. Make it part of your life.
4. During group training runs, don’t let anyone run alone.
5. Keep promises, especially ones made to yourself.
6. When doing group runs, start on time no matter who’s missing.
7. The faster you are the less you should talk about your times.
8. Keep a quarter in your pocket. One day you’ll need to call for a ride.
9. Don’t compare yourself to other runners.
10. All runners are equal, some are just faster than others.
11. Keep in mind that the later in the day it gets, the more likely it is that you won’t run.
12. For a change of pace, get driven out and then run back.
13. If it was easy, everybody would be a runner.
14. When standing in starting lines, remind yourself how fortunate you are to be there.
15. Getting out of shape is much easier than getting into shape.
16. A bad day of running still beats a good day at work.
17. Talk like a runner. “Singlets” are worn on warm days. “Tank tops” are worn to the beach.
18. Don’t talk about your running injuries. People don’t want to hear about your sore knee or black toe.
19. Don’t always run alone.
20. Don’t always run with people.
21. Approach running as if the quality of your life depended on it.
22. No matter how slow you run it is still faster than someone sitting on a couch.
23. Keep in mind that the harder you run during training, the luckier you’ll get during racing.
24. Races aren’t just for those who can run fast.
25. There are no shortcuts to running excellence.
26. The best runs sometimes come on days when you didn’t feel like running.
27. Be modest after a race, especially if you have reason to brag.
28. If you say, “Let’s run this race together,” then you must stay with that person no matter how slow.
29. Think twice before agreeing to run with someone during a race.
30. There is nothing boring about running. There are, however, boring people who run.
31. Look at hills as opportunities to pass people.
32. Distance running is like cod liver oil. At first it makes you feel awful, then it makes you feel better.
33. Never throw away the instructions to your running watch.
34. Don’t try to outrun dogs.
35. Don’t trust runners who show up at races claiming to be tired, out of shape, or not feeling well.
36. Don’t wait for perfect weather. If you do, you won’t run very often.
37. When tempted to stop being a runner, make a list of the reasons you started.
38. Never run alongside very old or very young racers. They get all of the applause.
39. Without goals, training has no purpose.
40. During training runs, let the slowest runner in the group set the pace.
41. The first year in a new age group offers the best opportunity for trophies.
42. Go for broke, but be prepared to be broken.
43. Spend more time running on the roads than sitting on the couch.
44. Make progress in your training, but progress at your own rate.
45. “Winning” means different things to different people.
46. Unless you make your living as a runner, don’t take running too seriously.
47. Runners who never fail are runners who never try anything great.
48. Never tell a runner that he or she doesn’t look good in tights.
49. Never confuse the Ben-Gay tube with the toothpaste tube.
50. Never apologize for doing the best you can.
51. Preventing running injuries is easier than curing them.
52. Running is simple. Don’t make it complicated.
53. Running is always enjoyable. Sometimes, though, the joy doesn’t come until the end of the run.

Tuesday Run

2008-05-21T09:22:00.003-04:00

I ran 6 km yesterday, 3 km at an 8 year old pace, 3 km at around 6:00/km. It was a pretty easy run, but I did feel like I was working a bit harder than I expected to. I'll be doing a 4 km run tomorrow, as my last run before race day.

They've improved the forecast for Sunday, getting rid of the showers. The weather forecast now calls for a high of 23 and partly cloudy.

Carbo loading begins today.

I came across a couple of good links on nutrition & carbo loading:

Carbo-Loading

Endurance Secrets

10k + 2k

2008-05-19T18:38:00.002-04:00

I did another 10 km run yesterday at an easy pace, then another 2 km with Krash. Everything felt good. The combination of the Thorlo socks and the Mizuno's seems to have solved my fit problem, so I think I should be ready for race day now. I'm planning on a couple more short runs this week (5-8 km) just to keep my muscles moving.

The forecast for Sunday is looking pretty good: A high of 22 deg C, and occasional scattered showers.

Two More

2008-05-15T14:19:00.000-04:00

Two more done.

I did an easy 8 km run on Tuesday, and a 7.7 km fartlek run today. For today's run I did 4x 500 m intervals in around 2:20 each during the run. The schedule had me doing a short tempo section, but I decided to have some fun and put in just a little bit of speedwork. This seemed like a good time to put in a bit of fast paced running, since my next 3 runs will all be at a slow pace.

I'm down to 10 days till raceday, so I don't think any training I do now will really increase my conditioning. I'm mostly just trying to keep the rust off.

20 km !!!!!

2008-05-12T14:26:00.002-04:00

I did my 1st 20k+ run yesterday: 20.2 km in just under 1:59. Its two weeks to race day, so that was my last long run. This was the 4th run I've done over 10 miles, and by far the easiest. I was really tired at the end of all the others, this time I actually felt really good at the end. I'm really happy about that, I was waiting for the long runs to start feeling easier. I did have some tightness around my left heel, that was pretty constant up until the 13 km mark, then eased up. I went out the Trans-Canada trail, that was a really nice relaxed place to run. Very nice to have no streetsweepers to avoid. I kicked up the speed a bit after around the 15 km mark, but I did keep the speed under 5:40/km.

Thorlo socks combined with my Mizuno's seem to be giving me a pretty good fit plus I like the extra padding of the Thorlo's. I was kicking around whether to wear my Mizuno's on race day. I've pretty much settled on them now, since they are noticeably lighter than my other shoes.

My legs are a bit tired today, but nothing is out-of-the-ordinary painful. I'm a bit surprised that I didn't have any pain at all in my left quad, either yesterday or today.

I'm moving into a bit of a recovery mode now, dropping my mileage down a bit this week from last.

Race pace preview

2008-05-09T09:00:00.002-04:00

I ran 12 km at a 5:29/km (8:50/mile) pace after work yesterday. I've been wondering about whether doing the half marathon in under 2 hours was realistic, I figured that the best way to get a handle on it would be to run about half the distance at the pace I'd need to run and then see how I felt at the end.

I did my Mansfield route. I ran the 1st 2 km a bit slower (5:40) as I want to do in the race, then settled into my pace for the rest of it. The last 10 km was actually at a 5:25/km pace, so I could see my average pace coming down as I ran. It felt good, it was a hard workout but I wasn't destroyed at the end. I think I should be able to hold that pace through the race, but I guess I won't be feeling great at the end.

In hindsight, I should have put that run in on Tuesday, to have a bit more rest time before Sunday's long run.

Foggy Morning

2008-05-01T14:43:00.003-04:00

Interesting running conditions this morning. I was on the road by 6, and it was 1 degree C and foggy. There was a little dusting of snow, and everything was wet from last nights rain. I started off on the roads heading north. As I came around the first corner I saw that the sun was just up and was an amazing shade of orange. It was really spectacular, it actually made me (almost) happy to be outside rather than comfortably sleeping.

I headed west on the trans-Canada trail, and went a couple of km farther than I have before. This part was great, the trail goes through a swamp, with a pond that had about a dozen Canadian Geese in it. There was steam rising off the water, and it was totally calm with the trees & geese reflected in the water. Let the record show that this was very close to as nice as being in bed would have been.

The total distance was 12 km, including 5 km at a 5:18/km tempo pace. The total run took me 1:11.

Final note: Another of those pesky street sweepers passed me right near the end, I really think they might be after me.

Street Sweepers

2008-04-29T11:53:00.002-04:00

My legs felt dead all day yesterday, I wasn't sure how I was going to pull off an 8k run this morning. I had thoughts about pushing back to lunchtime or after work, but the schedule just wasn't going to work for either of those. The next two weeks are the last hard weeks I have before race day, and I don't want to mess them up.

So I dragged myself out of bed. The temperature was around 1 degree C, but the wind chill was lower, and on one section it was really blowing. I trudged down the road at about a 7 min/km pace. I felt very sluggish but I was moving. On the road heading north two street sweepers passed by in my lane about a minute apart - I usually trust cars to give me space (especially in the morning) but something about street sweepers gives me the creeps. Go figure.

I did settle into a decent pace after a couple km, but it was a slower pace than normal. No pain in either achilles during the run today - I'm hoping the difference isn't that I was wearing my old Nike's today. I'm planning to start Thursday's run with 6 km at the same pace, this should give me a good comparison between the shoes.

19 km

2008-04-27T20:56:00.002-04:00

I ran 19 km late this afternoon. It was supposed to be this morning, but the bug that I've been fighting off this week continues to be a bit disruptive. It was about 5:00 when I was finally able to hit the road.

I was supposed to run 18 today. This wasn't one of those 'I felt good so I went another km' deals. This was a mapmyrun.com sucks situation. Mapmyrun.com shows a road in Richmond that crosses from Huntley to Shea Road. So as I ran down Huntley I was looking, and looking, and looking, and the realized I'd definitely gone too far, and I turned onto the next street. I worked my way through a neighborhood and eventually found my way to Shea, after going about an extra km. Note that google maps does not make the same mistake as mapmyrun, so in the future I'll stick with the far superior gmaps pedometer for route planning.

I did the run at a 5:55 per km pace. My right achilles was a bit sore around 12-13 km, and again a bit later, but it did ease up again along the way. All in all it went pretty well, but I'm spectacularly tired now.

Cough

2008-04-24T22:30:00.002-04:00

Woke up with a cold this morning. I knew I was getting sick yesterday, so I decided not to do my morning 8k. But since today was scheduled to be the last run of an easy week I wanted to get it in, so I went out after work. The pace was ok, and I was glad to get the run in. I have a couple of days off now before going long on Sunday, I think I should be back at 100% by then.

49.1 km

2008-04-19T10:27:00.004-04:00

I ran 5 k easy yesterday, and 2 k really slow today. That put my weekly running total at 49.1 km (30.4 miles). I'm including the two 2k runs done with a 6 year old at about 8 min/km in that total.

Right now everything feels pretty good, and next week is my monthly easy week.

Tempo plus Pace

2008-04-18T08:32:00.003-04:00

Tempo day yesterday. As usual, the tempo run was a hard workout. I did 3 km easy, followed by 5 km at around a 5:10/km tempo pace. The tempo part was a real struggle, it was an out and back and the first half had a slight climb and headwind. The second half should have been easier, but I was thrashed from the earlier part. I did about 3 km on the way back at a 5:25/km pace to get a feeling for whether I could run that pace when I'm tired. I actually wanted to do 5:40 on the last 3, but just can't seem to get myself to that pace. The total run was a bit over 12 km.

It finally warmed up here, 21 degrees C yesterday! I was able to do my first run of the year in shorts and a t-shirt.

I'm scheduled for 5 km easy today, which I can hopefully do after work before big-time carbo-loading.

Up Early Again

2008-04-15T13:19:00.000-04:00

This morning's run totally reminded me of my previous experiences with early morning running. It was all I could do to drag myself out of bed, get out the door, and stagger down the road. I just hope it was early enough that none of the neighbors saw me starting off, since it definitely wasn't pretty.

I did run 9.6 km, and after about 3 km I got into a decent comfortable rhythm. Today was supposed to be run at an easy pace, and there was pretty much no chance of running at anything faster than that.

No pain in either Achilles today. I did have a bit of a sore quad and tightness in my calf muscles, but that was probably just leftover from Sunday's run.

Another record

2008-04-13T19:53:00.003-04:00

I set an impressive new personal best today: Most Gu’s consumed on a run (2). Once again, Gu good, Sportsbeans bad.

It was the longest run I’ve ever done in distance as well, 18 km. The run took an hour and 50 minutes, and I’m still feeling pretty tired. I was pretty focused on trying to keep my heart rate down today, to make sure I wasn’t pushing too hard. I was aiming for around 140, but making sure it was under 150 the whole time. On my 16 k run a couple of weeks back my heart rate was averaging 152 over most of the run, today it was at 141 until the last few km.

Today was the first time I've felt really comfortable in my Mizunos for a full run, so maybe I've finally got them broken in properly.

I don't like Sportsbeans

2008-04-10T20:37:00.005-04:00

Today was my weekly “faster than easy” pace run. Today I did 11.5 km after work, with 7 km of it at 5:28/km. That’s around the pace I’d like to be able to do the half in. It went pretty well, but I’m not convinced I can hold that pace for the full race. I guess the good news is I’m not convinced that it’s impossible either.

I tried sports beans on today’s run. Conclusion: I don’t like sports beans. I can’t run that pace and chew beans at the same time, I just felt tired and out of synch every time I popped a bean. I wound up saving about half the beans till the pace part of the run was done.

My right ankle was a bit sore today, but didn’t seem to be particularly bothered by the run.

Up with the roosters

2008-04-08T17:56:00.001-04:00

Early morning running has really never agreed with me. Yes, we could debate whether my definition qualifies as early, but whatever. When I've done this in the past, I've always felt very sluggish (but also pretty heroic for being out there so early). As much as I enjoy my lunchtime runs, their length has turned into a problem. At this point my typical mid-week run lasts anywhere from 50 minutes to upwards of an hour. The reality is I'm away from my desk for the run duration plus an extra 25 minutes, and then land at my desk not having eaten lunch. My mid week runs are going to have to migrate to either early morning or after work.

I decided to try my easy day before work, I set the alarm for 6:05, only snoozed once, and actually managed to get myself out of the house around 6:25. I made an effort to go really slowly, but did get into a pretty typical rhythm after about a km. I went for 9 km, in 54 minutes. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. I had to rush a bit to stay close to schedule, but was at work just about 15 minutes later than normal (thanks for making my lunch sweetie!). I'm not sure if I could do a tempo day in the morning and survive the workday, but this seems ok for the easy runs.

Another long run

2008-04-06T15:10:00.003-04:00

The schedule today said to do a 10 km long run, but it was a ‘flexible’ 10. My intention was to back off to 8 k if I was feeling sluggish, or go a bit longer if things felt good. The weather was perfectly sunny, and about 5 degrees C.

I wound up running out to the site of the ‘historic’ Mansfield Township. I didn’t realize that there was such a place until I came to a weather-beaten sign indicating that I was passing it. The sign said a lot more than that, but I didn’t stop to finish. In any event, this sign was on one of the most perfect running roads I’ve ever found. It goes through farmland , which is always a plus, since there is almost no traffic. But unlike most other farm roads in the area, this road is paved. I was passed by about one car every 5 minutes, and almost all of them moved far enough over that I didn’t need to break stride.

I went a total of 14 km today, at an average pace of 6:00/km. I didn’t feel like I was working nearly as hard as I was a week ago.

Wet Recovery Run

2008-04-04T12:58:00.002-04:00

I really don't run at my recovery pace much. The training plan I put together has been along the lines of quality not quantity, with three runs/week most weeks. But I did put in a 4th run for a few weeks, to bump my weekly mileage up closer to the range where most half training plans say it should be.

Which brings me to today's recovery run. I was quite tired after yesterday, and today's forecast wasn't offering any encouragement. As I was lounging in the hot tub around 11 last night I actually decided my best bet was to get up and run in the morning, before the rain started, so I set my alarm early. Right. Then I thought maybe I'd skip it for the day, quality not quantity, right?

At lunchtime I decided I might as well go. It looked like snow when I decided to go, but by the time I got out there it was rain mixed with snow, with the temperature right at the freezing mark. I did a very slow 5k at my recovery pace. As expected, my legs were still sore from yesterday.

This was the longest week I've had since I returned to running. I ran 38.5 km this week, with a total time spent running of 3 hours, 49 minutes, 56 seconds.

Hard Tempo

2008-04-03T13:35:00.003-04:00

I did 10k today at lunchtime. It was a tempo day, so I did 30 minutes at my tempo pace of around 5:15/km. That was a seriously tiring workout. I was hungry at the start, which didn't help matters. About 3km into the tempo part I was really feeling it, but after a couple of minutes of wondering if 30 min at tempo pace was too much, my energy level rebounded. I did add 4 strides to the end of my workout during the cooldown part of my run.

I was actually going to do 1 km cruise intervals instead of the constant tempo pace, but once I got going I remembered why I hate intervals. I was constantly looking at my Garmin to see when my first 1 km lap was up. At around 900 m it dawned on me that if I did the workout I was planning I could look forward to 30 minutes of staring at my watch. Also, I had a hard time with the early pace, and was running most of the 1st km way too fast (around 4:45/km). So, I went back to the 30 min tempo run.

Rainy Day

2008-04-01T17:04:00.002-04:00

I did a 7 km run today at lunchtime, in the rain. I did it today at a 6:01/km pace, once again faster than intended. Today I had an excuse though, since I knew I was late for something. Part of me thought I should stick the the 6:15 pace I wanted to be running, since the something I was late for was called at the last minute over lunchtime. The other part thought I should just pick up the pace. My legs were a bit heavy, and my left quad was a bit stiff - but really it wasn't bad. Even the rain wasn't too hard, and it did seem to convince the cars to be more polite than normal.

Saw an interesting article in RW last night on things to eat while running. I'm tossing in the link here so I can find it later.

RW Foods for Energy

16 km

2008-03-30T19:48:00.003-04:00

I did my 1^st ever 10 mile (16 km) run today. I did it at an average pace of 6:01/km, which is a bit faster than I’d planned. My legs are pretty tired, but nothing feels too bad right now. It was actually a bit harder than I expected, the last couple of km felt really long.

Today’s run is definitely the longest I’ve ever run, both in time and distance. Before starting to train for the half marathon, my longest run involved getting lost in the Swiss countryside. I’m not sure exactly how far that one was, but it took 1:15 and at the time I figured about 14 km. Also, on my long Swiss run, I didn’t run the whole time, since I wasn’t exactly sure how long it would be.

Orthotics

2008-03-27T13:19:00.007-04:00

To conclude easy week, I did a 7 km run today. I decided to try running without my orthotics, to see how it felt. I'm still not sure. It felt pretty good, but like there was just a bit of extra tension on my achilles. The upside was having less weight in my shoes felt great. I was running about 15s/mile faster at the same heart rate. I'd love to be able to run the race without the orthotics. But I probably won't - I'll try it only if I'm able to do a couple more runs without them with no problems.

I loved my music choice today, Radiohead In Rainbows. Just the right length and beat for an easy 7 k.

Long Run Schedule

2008-03-26T12:59:00.007-04:00

When I first put my program together, I was considering two options for the last pre-race push to longer distance. I was leaning towards sticking with Smartcoach, but also looking at Galloway’s training plans.

Smartcoach sticks to the 4 week blocks, with the longest long run of each right before the recovery week, but all 3 long runs within the block are close to the same length. So, my long runs would be 9, 9, and 10 miles over the next 3 weeks, followed by an easy week. Then they would be 10, 11, and 11 miles, followed by an easy week before the race.

Galloway has a different approach, alternating each week between the long run and a short run during the 8 wks prior to race day. The Galloway schedule goes (in miles) 9.5, 4, 11, 4, 12.5, 4, 14, 5, race. I like that this would get me to 3 runs over 10 miles, plus the alternating long weeks should decrease the chance of injury.

I'm kicking around thoughts of combining these two programs, with the alternating long runs from Galloway, and the 4^th week being all easy runs from SC. If I use the Galloway approach, I’ll drop the distance of the long runs a bit, since I’m planning on my longest being in the 18-20 km range.

I was playing around last night with my handy excel schedule maker, and here’s what my schedule looks like if I use the alternating weeks (click to expand).

Easy

2008-03-25T20:17:00.002-04:00

I took a different approach to today’s 6km easy run. Since this is my easy week, I focused more on my heart rate. I wanted to keep it under 140 for the entire run. This went pretty well, I didn’t manage to keep it under 140 the whole time, but did keep it there most of the time. This helped keep my pace closer to where I want it than focusing on my pace has.

Easy Week

2008-03-24T15:04:00.003-04:00

The training program I've been following is based loosely on the Runners World SmartCoach. I adapted it to replace its speed work with runs that are more beneficial for a half marathon training program, but kept its weekly long run progression, and approximate weekly mileage.

SmartCoach divides the training into 4 week sections, with the 4th week of each section being an easy week - lower mileage and all runs at the easy pace. This was one of the things I really liked about SmartCoach. This week is one of my easy weeks.

I ran a bit over 34 km last week, and on Friday I felt like I didn't need the down week - but my 7 km run yesterday reminded me of why the recovery week is necessary. I didn't really have the energy that I've had during my long runs. I also did a bit of a hard kick at the end, but really wasn't able to sustain it as long as I thought I would. So into the easy week I go.

Tempo

2008-03-20T12:58:00.003-04:00

Today was one of those days where there were lots of reasons not to run. Somebody dropped a 1:00 mtg on my calendar. I was feeling off today. My right achilles has been just a touch sore for the last day. Then someone dropped an 11:00 on the calendar, and someone else asked me in mid conversation if I had a headache, since I didn't look good. So, I started thinking maybe I shouldn't run...

BUT, I decided to give it a shot, and maybe just do a short easy run today, instead of the planned tempo run, and do the tempo run tomorrow. So I asked to get the 11:00 rescheduled. About a month ago I had a day where my achilles was a bit sore, and I decided that I was going to have to see how it responded to running, since there's no other way I'll ever get to the half (or other unspoken larger goals).

The 1st couple km were ok, so I decided to do the 5 km tempo part at the slow end of my tempo pace. Really, this was me not wanting to run tomorrow as much as anything. The problem with this plan is that I have a hard time running at the slow end of my tempo pace, I wound up right in the middle (5:18/km). It was a bit more work than normal. I cut it right at 8km, as The Plan says. I did find myself thinking about tossing on another km, till I realized that if I did, I wouldn't have time for lunch.

There were a few times on the run today when my achilles had just a bit of an ache, but they passed quickly.

CrossTraining

2008-03-19T22:19:00.001-04:00

I did my crosstraining today. The Schedule has me doing this on Wed or Fri most weeks, but I kind of consider it optional. So it has gotten pushed out of the way by reality for the last few weeks.

I decided to do it today, partly because I felt a bit of a side stitch during last Sunday’s run, and I know the xt workout can help prevent that.

My current cross workout is pretty light:

10 minutes rowing (2 km)
Abs workout
Chest machines
One handed curls
Leg presses

The entire workout only takes about 35 minutes, so there isn’t much excuse not to do it.

New Shoes

2008-03-18T13:20:00.002-04:00

I bought a pair of Mizuno Waverider 11's from Runner's Warehouse. Today was my easy run day, scheduled for 5k, so I gave them a try.

The fit is a bit different from my Nike 30-40's, they are a bit looser; they also are noticeably lighter. I was feeling my achilles a bit during the 1st 2k. Not too painful, but I really don't want to even get the least twinge out of it.

At around 2.5 km, just about 100 m past a dead-end turnaround, a colleague passed me heading out. I hate being passed. In this case it was someone who I know is a slightly (?) stronger runner than I, but I decided to see if I could hold off being passed at least for a little while. I've gotten much more conservative in my old age though, I only picked up the pace about 35 seconds per km. I was surprised, the new pace felt great, it really didn't feel like I was outside my easy zone. After I picked up the pace I settled in, and didn't notice my ankles at all. I did need to sprint for about 50 m at one point to get through a traffic light, and the new shoes felt awesome when I was going flat out.

My schedule this week called for 5k today, 8 Thursday, and 3 on Friday. This is the 1st time I've added a 4th run into a week. I tossed an extra 2 km onto today's run in case I decide the Friday run is a bad idea.

14 km

2008-03-16T19:53:00.003-04:00

My long run for this week was 14 km. I did it today in a 6:08/km pace.

My left achilles had a bit of a twinge in it this morning, but didn't bother me during the run. I was feeling really sluggish today, but once I got moving it was ok - a Gu around 7 km helped too.

It was very windy, and when I realized the wind was coming down from the north, I scrapped my plan to run south. It seemed like a better idea to have the wind at my back for the 2nd half of the run. So, I ran up into town, and as much as possible tried to stay inside the neighborhoods where the wind wasn't as nasty. Then around the 8 km mark I turned onto a straight shot south. This worked great, I felt awesome running with the wind behind me! My legs felt a bit heavy at the end, but not too bad.

Half Pace

2008-03-13T13:58:00.003-04:00

Today's run was intended to be at my (hopeful) half marathon race pace. I called these runs race pace in my original training schedule. After putting that together, I found a workout called a Steady State Run which is pretty much the same thing. The Steady State Run is done at a pace that you could run for 20-30 km in a race situation. In training these are done for between 25 and 75 minutes. For me this pace is between 5:26 and 5:35 min/km.

The total distance was 10 km, with 6 km at the race pace of 5:25. Next time I do one of these I'm going to make sure to slow down to between 5:30 and 5:35. I did this outside at lunchtime. It was cool (around -7 C) and a bit breezy, but the sun was nice and the roads were dry. It took me a while (about 2k) to get used to the pace, but after that it wasn't too bad. It was a hard workout, but I wasn't destroyed afterwards.

More on tempo runs

2008-03-11T12:55:00.005-04:00

A friend sent me a question about tempo runs today. She's a first time half marathoner, and her training program called for her to run two tempo intervals of 1600 m.

I suppose this is ok, but I think its overcomplicating things for a first half. As soon as you start putting intervals into your mix, you are forcing yourself to look at your watch a lot more, adjust your pace a lot more, etc. If you plan to really race the distance, then intervals, speed work, and such make sense, but for the casual racer they aren't going to add anything except complication and likelihood of injury.

I think that training for your 1st half you need 3 paces: Your long (or easy) pace. Your tempo pace. Your planned race pace. Part of the training is getting comfortable at these paces, and learning to keep your pace fairly steady. To get comfortable at these paces its important to do some runs at each pace off the treadmill. The tempo pace is the fastest pace of the three I've listed.

For the tempo runs, start with 20 minutes at your tempo pace or a distance that will take you around 20 minutes. Always warm up at least a mile at the slow end of your easy pace first, and cool down at least a km at the same pace at the end. So, if your schedule calls for 5 miles, and the 20 minute tempo portion will cover 2 miles, run 2 miles easy, 2 miles tempo, 1 mile easy. When you are comfortable doing the 20 minute tempo portion, increase to 25 minutes, then 30, 35, and finally 40 minutes.

OK, what pace should you run? The tempo pace should be a pace you can hold for an hour. Great, how do you know, if you're running 20 minutes?

If you have a Heart Rate Monitor, use the best-runnning Karvonen calculator to figure out your Zone 3 Heart Rate. But you should know your pace. Use the McMillan calculator, or add around 20-25 seconds per mile to your 10 k race pace.

More info on tempo runs is in these links:

Runners World Article

Runner's Resource

Snow

2008-03-09T14:02:00.005-04:00

I managed to do all of my long runs outside this year - until today. Two feet of snow fell yesterday and last night, and there was no way I could go out there - or at least run out there.

So off to the treadmill. Today was supposed to be 12 km, but I wound up doing 8 miles (13 km), and increased the treadmill incline to 2% for the last km. Total time on the treadmill was 1 hour 21 minutes. I watched TV for part of it, but wow, its amazing how bad the new Terminator series is. I watched CNN for a bit, but finally just listened to music for the last 20 min. Hopefully thats the longest run I have to to inside.

After the run I spent some time on my new favorite crosstraining: Snow Clearing.

Tempo run

2008-03-06T13:30:00.004-05:00

Today's my tempo run day. Strictly speaking, in my schedule Thursday is 'anything faster than long pace' day, but in reality these are planned to be tempo runs. If I'm finding that these aggravate my ankles I'm planning to drop the tempo pace.

There's a lot I like about the Runners World Smart Coach, but from what I've seen it is unrealistic regarding its faster tempo workouts. My personal opinion is that there is no place for speed workouts, hill workouts, or overly long tempo workouts in a first timer’s half marathon training. That opinion is based on the correlation I've observed between me doing these workouts and me getting nagging injuries (100% correlation, if you're wondering). So, when I put my schedule together, I used Smart Coach to determine weekly mileage and long run distance, and then ditched all the speed workouts, and absurdly long tempo runs.

For my tempo runs, I've started with 20 min at tempo pace, with the additional km at the easy pace, around 2/3 before the tempo portion, 1/3 after. I’m now doing 25 min at tempo pace, which is around 3 miles. Today’s run was 8.4 km total, 2 km easy, 5 km at a 5:16/km pace, 1.4 km easy. It was quite slushy/snowy on the roads which made it harder than it should have been. In any event, I'm finding the tempo workout to be the hardest one on my schedule.

I had no idea 3 Days Grace would get me in trouble! I suppose if I mention that the White Stripes ‘Seven Nation Army' got me moving today I risk finding out that it is really about Attila the Hun sacking some pristine village on the Danube, so I guess I won’t mention it.

Easy Day

2008-03-04T13:25:00.003-05:00

I really like the McMillan running calculator. The McMillan web page is geared more towards competitive runners than someone trying to complete his 1st half, but the info on their web page about paces and workout types is great. These are my target paces based on my 5k time (24:44).

Today was my 'easy' day, scheduled for 5 k. I've had a hard time keeping to my easy pace, I always seem to drift to slightly faster paces, and then wind up more tired than I should be at the end. Both ankles were sore last night (actually my legs in general were sore), and I was a bit worried that the training might be too much; I was very determined to keep the pace in the right zone today.

The weather looked pretty nice today, about -5 C and sunny. The wind kept it cooler than I expected though. I changed the display on my Garmin to display average pace on the main screen last night, this helped me keep the pace where I wanted it. Everything felt good today, no pain at all. Not sure why, but Pain by Three Days Grace made me feel good today. Anyways, since I was going slower than normal, I had extra energy and wasn't ready to stop at 5. I wound up going 7k, at a 6:12/km pace.

Night Run

2008-03-03T10:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday’s run was quite different than planned. I’d hoped to go out for a 12k in the afternoon, but wasn’t paying enough attention to schedules. As it turned out, I wasn’t able to get out of the house till 6:30. The temperature was at around -5 C as I was starting, and since there had been some melting during the day the shoulders were slick.

My ipod decided to start acting up, about a minute into my run it crashed. Well, I reset it, and it crashed again. For the 1^st 3 km I kept taking off my gloves (brrr) resetting the ipod, holding it while it rebooted, having it crash, deciding I’d run without music tonight, then after a few minutes decide to reset it again, etc. The fact that I had a new playlist I wanted to listen to wasn’t helping my attitude. Anyways, after about the 5^th reset I tried a different playlist and it worked fine.

I ran up into town, traffic was pretty light so it wasn’t too bad running on the road. I came out of town at around 6 km on some backroads towards home, and this part was fantastic. Up until then I hadn’t realized that it was a perfectly clear night. I had about 25 minutes on this stretch, with no streetlights running under the stars. I started hearing a clunking noise next to me at one point, took me a few minutes to realize it was the water in my bottles freezing.

I ran 12.5 km, at a 6:03/km pace. I was a bit concerned about my right Achilles last night, but none of my assorted injuries are too sore today.