Acura 5k report

The 5k race from two weekends ago. Signed up for this at the last minute. Was intending to use this to get some experience. Based on past experience, the first 5k of my racing season tends to be a disaster (see 2009 and 2008 and 2007). I was expecting this race to be no different. Prepared for this slightly differently. Day before, I did a very short, very slow recovery run with 6 strides towards the end. One thing I did differently was I did it at the end of the day about 12 hours before the actual race. I think this may have helped.

Arrived with plenty of time. Wanted to do a proper warm up so with 20 minutes to start did a slow 1-1.5 mile jog with 3 short strides. Moved into the starting corrals with 5 minutes to go and bumped into Kenny and Lee. Goal was to try and go for 20 minutes, though realistically I thought that breaking 21 minutes was going to be a challenge.

So the gun goes off and I start out at a fairly controlled pace. Usually, I'm in a panic during the first km trying to weave around people, but this time, if I got stuck behind someone, I just hung back a bit until an opening appeared. I was trying to use my garmin to ensure that I was pacing properly and though it looked like I was right on pace, I ended up being a bit too slow in the first km hitting it in 4:07. The first little bit is under the elevated freeway so it's possible the GPS signal wasn't too great. The other thing was that the HR spiked during the first km which is usually a sign of tougher things to come.

I had thought of slowing down after the HR spike and doing the 10 miler instead, but thought I'd try to see how far I could go with the elevated HR before I started to feel like crap. Motor along and hit the 2nd km marker at 4:14 though I think I pushed the lap button a bit late since I was running through an aid station and tried to get some water in my mouth (which didn't work too well). It was probably around 4:10 or so. Hit the turnaround and head for home. 3rd km is in 4:05, but this was actual short due to my previous error so it's probably more like 4:09. So to this point, I've been fairly consistent with the pacing and the HR is still spiking. 4th km is usually where I start to fade and this was no exception, though it wasn't as bad of a fade as it normally is. I usually get this feeling of just wanting to give up during the 4th km, but I didn't get that feeling this time. Sure it was tough, but a sustainable type of tough. There were a couple people ahead of me and I just sort of tried to catch them and passed 3 or 4 people during the stretch. Even so this was my slowest km at 4:14. Last km, try to pick up the effort a bit, and end up with my fastest split of 4:06.

4:07
4:10
4:09
4:14
4:06
Total: 20:46 (6:41 min/mile)

So fairly consistent splits and all this with the HR spiking.  I should probably mention that I still haven't gotten back my heart stress test results yet and won't know till the beginning of August.  At least with this, race, I  now have a gauge of a 5k pace I can hold with the HR going crazy. This was also with almost no VO2Max training.  I did 4x800m 6:20 pace five days before the race and that was it.  I'm keen on trying another 5k since I'm pretty sure that if the HR didn't spike, I could maybe break 20 minutes or at the very least try and set a new PR (20:21 PR),but 5k races take a little too much out of me and end up messing up the marathon training.  Only time I would consider it would be on a Saturday since it still allows me to get a long run in on Sunday.  There was a 5k race this Saturday I was thinking of doing, but it's a first time event on a new course. It starts with a hill at the start and then it's all downhill.  I'd rather race on a certified course, but they are hard to find in this area.  One of these days, I may just try and do a 12.5 lap time trial at the track and see what happens.

Niagara Falls Marathon Race Report

(edited to correct half split time which was based on gun time not chip)
So I decided to run the Niagara marathon. It basically came down to either Niagara falls or Hamilton which is a week later. I thought that Niagara would be more influenced by weather and Hamilton had the faster net downhill course, but in the end I choose Niagara because it had more aid stations. From their website, Hamilton only had 12 whereas Niagara probably had over 20.

Signed up for the marathon on the Wednesday before the race, which was the last day one could register due to immigration reasons. Apparently they have to send a list of the participants to both Canadian and US immigration to make sure you're name doesn't set off alarm bells. I ended up staying at the Sheraton by the Falls. I had wanted to stay either there or at the Crown Plaza since these hotels were right by the bus pickup on race morning. I didn't want to be walking any distance on race morning. I ended up having to stay two nights at the Sheraton since they required a two night minimum and it was actually cheaper to stay for two nights there than to stay for one night at the Crown Plaza.

Evening before the race, i partook in the race sponsored pasta dinner which was being held at the Crown plaza. It started at 5pm, but i thought that was a bit too early. I ended up eating at around 6:30pm. Ended up sitting beside a tall lanky guy from just outside of Chicago. Made a bit of small talk and started talking about races we had done. I was trying to get a feeling for how fast the guy was and pretty much decided he wasn't a fast guy since he didn't talk about qualifying for Boston and he had done a bunch of smaller races. I asked him what his goal time was and he said: "Around 2:35". Yikes, guess i was wrong. He ended up finishing fourth overall in just under 2:40.

Two tables over from us were sitting the Smiths (Tara Quinn and Andrew), the husband and wife team that ended up winning the race. Was very tempted to try and get a picture taken with them, but decided to let them be.

Think I had about 4 plates of pasta, not full plates mind you, but I was defintely stuffed when i headed back to my room.

Was in bed by 10:30pm and set the alarm for 6:30am. Ended up waking up at 6:00am. Ate a bagel with peanut butter at about 6:45am with some water. Left my room and headed down to the bus at about 7:20. Boarded the bus for the little over hour bus ride to Buffalo. Got held up a bit at the border cause some of the people on the buses in front of us didn't have the right documents. My bus was filled with a Japanese tour group who had come to do the marathon which probably meant the US immigration guys were a bit more cautious with our bus. Arrived in Buffalo at the Art gallery at around 8:45 and had about an hour to kill before the race start. wondered around a bit seeing what passes for art these days and ended up chatting with some of the pace bunnies. As it would turn out there was no 3:15 pace bunny this year.

With about half an hour to go, I headed out to do my warm-up. For marathons, i usually just do some light jogging for 5-10 minutes. But this time, my goal was to try and get my HR to spike. I've had this problem before but I've had it happen enough times that I've realized if i can get the Hr to spike during warm-up and then allow it to come back down, it usually doesn't bother me afterwards. When I did my half a few weeks ago, i had the same problem with the HR spiking during the warmup but once it came back down, it didn't happen again. So i was able to get it to spike and then come back down which i thought was good, but i think i did the warmup too early cause i was basically standing around for 15-20 minutes afterwards and would end up with the Hr problem during the race.

So i wander to the startline and ask around a bit and find one guy who's going for 3:15 so we line up together and start the race. Decided to leave the garmin at home though i did run with my HR monitor which i've found useful for gauging effort in the past.

Race starts and the first little bit is a bit confusing in that you do a big loop that has you retracing the first little bit of the race which means you pass the 1 mile marker a few hundred metres into the race not realizing that it's only vaid once you've completed the first loop. Buffalo tends to get a bad rap as being a bit of a dump, but the area we were running in was quite nice with some nice homes. Not a lot of spectators, but wasn't really expecting them on the US side of the border.

Mile 1: 7:20
Mile 2: 7:21

Pass the first mile marker at 7:20 which is slightly faster than the 7:27 which i was hoping for. Fall into a bit of a rhythm and am clicking along. My HR is tad high at about 175 which was concerning me a bit but i figured it could be the adrenaline and the start of the race. During the 2nd mile, the one thing i had feared occured which was my HR spiked. I passed the 2 mile marker also a bit fast at 7:21. At this point, i was trying to figure out whether i should stop to let it calm down or just continue on. it was still a bit early in the race so i thought i could handle a mile or two with the HR racing.

Mile 3: 7:19
Mile 4: 7:18

During these miles, I let my 3:15 companion go. I didn't actually slow down, but he started to speed up a bit. In the end, it was for the best. I wanted to be able to stop if I wanted to and didn't want to be dragged into someone else's pace. The HR thing was starting to worry me. I was able to do 12 miles during a marathon pace run a few months ago, but i'm pretty sure that i couldn't maintain this type of HR the whole way. In fact, looking back at the marathons that have sucked, i think it may have been cause my HR was racing. I don't have the HR data to prove it, but i'm fairly certain that was the reason. So at this point, I was thinking that maybe i should stop to let it calm down. I ended up deciding to wait until after the bridge cause the effort up that might cause the HR to go racing again.

Miles 5-6: 14:34 (7:17 pace)

The peace bridge and crossing the border happens somewhere during miles 5 or 6. I had kinda feared the bridge since the elevation profile on the website has this thing as a steep hill, but it wasn't as bad as i was expecting. It was still a hill, but it's over with pretty quick and is immediately followed by a very long gradual descent which drops you to lower than where you began the hill. Though good from an elevation standpoint, there was a really strong headwind on the bridge.  I had to grab my hat a couple of times to keep it from blowing off. The wind wasn't really noticible in Buffalo, but it was clearly felt here out in the open.  So I missed the mile 5 marker which was presumably on the bridge since i was looking at the ground. After the bridge, we did an out and back in Fort Erie. At some point, i looked down at my watch and realized that the HR had returned to normal.  Yah, I wouldn't need to stop.  But in order to make sure it wouldn't spike again, i had to make sure that i maintained the proper pace.  By this point, I had caught back up to my fellow 3:15 pacee who was now running with a bit of a group.  There was a bit of a head wind in the out portion, so i tucked in behind the group and let them lead the way.  Coming back it was nice to have the wind at our back.

Mile 7-8: 14:46 (7:23 pace)

having tucked in behind a group, I missed the mile 7 marker.  Seemed to hit the paces properly.  The group I was going with was motoring right along and I was starting to settle into a groove.  I had carried a gatorade bottle with me all along drinking diligently. I've done enough marathons to realize that I can never get enough fluids from the aid stations unless there are a heck of a lot of them where i can grab two or three cups at a time (like in chicago) so it helps to bring along an extra bottle. 

Miles 9: 7:29
Miles 10: 7:17
Miles 11: 7:27
Miles 12: 7:32
Miles 13: 7:27
Mile 13.1:  1:36:42 1:36:34

Miles 9 to the half way mark went by without too much incident.  The group I was running with slowly started to pull away.  We were running into a bit of a head wind after mile 10 and though i would have liked to have stuck with them to block the wind, I was clicking on at my expected pace and had close to a minute banked so i decided just to run my own race.  The other 3:15 guy stayed with me for a while but i passed him somewhere shortly after the 12 mile mark.  Hit the half way mark at 1:36:42 1:36:34 which averaged 7:23 7:22 pace.

Mile 14: 7:25
Mile 15: 7:24
Mile 16: 7:26

So passing by the half way mark, we are running due west into a direct westerly wind.  It wasn't that strong but still noticible.  I had banked 48 seconds ahead of 3:15 pace and even more if you factor in that Boston needed 3:15:59 so i decided at this point to just run by HR and slow down if the wind dictated it. 

Mile 17-18: 14:55 (7:28 pace)
Mile 19: 7:38
Mile 20: 7:23

One thing was that the mile markers coincided with the aid stations which was a bit problematic since one had to grab a cup of water, hit the watch split and then drink This required a bit more dexterity than I was capable of and i ended up spilling lots.  Over the course pf the race, i took three gels, half a gel at a time, but i don't really remember where. . 

Mile 21-22: 14:52 (7:26 pace)
Mile 23: 7:32


Mile 26.2:  24:01 (7:30 pace)

Don't have much else to comment about the last little bit of the race.  I just sort of chugged along.  I had a couple of spasms in my calves a couple of time, but nothing really sustained.  I found that the markings for the half marathon helped since it gave me another opportunity to gauge how far ahead I was.  For example, I knew when i passed the 9 mile mark of the half, i had exactly 3.1 miles (5k) to go.  Also the 10k markers were present which helped during the last 5k (it's an out and back course from the finish line) so at that point, i stopped hitting the lap button on my watch since i was getting more feedback by using the km markers from the 10k route than the mile markers on the full route.  I should mention there is a nice downhill after the 25 mile mark.  Picked up the pace right at the end and crossed the finish line in 3:14:24 averaging 7:25 pace overall.

First Half: 1:36:42 1:36:34 (7:23 7:22 pace)
Second Half: 1:37:50 (7:28 pace)
1:08 1:16 positive split.

Closest I've come to a negative split in a marathon while racing.  Probably could have gone a bit faster in the 2nd half, but was only looking to BQ so I'm happy with it. HR (and elevation profile) looks as follows.I seemed to have averaged 171-172 during most of the race which was about 4-5 beats higher than what i had averaged during the marathon pace run last week.  This seems to be consistent when i raced back in 2008 where I average about 163 for the MP run and then ended up averaging 168 during the actual race.

Didn't have too great of race pics.  Not looking for or smiling or waving at the camera.  I guess that happens when you're racing for time.  Here's one of me near the end where i look like i'm motoring right along.

That's it.  Spent the extra day in Niagara where I couldn't have asked for better weather.  I leave you with a few pics from Niagara Falls
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Getting cooler...

Thankfully the good thing about the taper is that my runs are shorter and there's less of them. Week so far has been 7 miles with 6 strides on Tuesday and 8 miles with 3x1600m repeats on Wednesday. I was kinda scared about yesterday's run. After being a bit too slow for the 1200m repeats two weeks ago and finding the 600m repeats last week a little on the tough side, i wasn't sure that I was going to be able to do the 1600m repeats at the right pace. managed to do them at 6:32, 6:27 and 6:23 pace. This was a tad slower than I've done these things in the past, but my HR also seemed a bit lower. Mind you the lower HR could also have been a result of it being really cold.  Had to pull out my fleece top and running pants on for this run.  The other positive thing is I was able to do this with jog recoveries. When I've done 1600m repeats in the past, I've always had to walk the recoverys.

The one good thing about working downtown is that I can attend the expo tomorrow for the Toronto marathon.  It's two blocks from where I work so I'll probably check it out at lunch time and hopefully be able to get the battery replaced in my HR watch.  Speaking of which, I think I'm going to wear the HR monitor to bed again and see if it's much different from the last time I did it.

Happy Turkey Day!

It's Thanksgiving day up here in Canada today and a day off both from work and training. This past week of training went fairly well as follows.

Tuesday: Little over 8 miles which include 5x600m at about 6:20 pace. Ran this with the garmin. Since the sun hadn't risen yet, i ended up running this with the garmin so i could use the backlight button to figure out my 200m splits. Kinda missing my HR data though. I have the big 3x1600m repeat session this week so i'll probably run with both to see where it's at. I'll be able to get my battery changed in my HR watch this Friday.

Wednesday: 5 miles recovery at really slow pace. Probably close to 10 min/miles.

Friday: Little over 4 miles which included 6 strides. Did this in the rain in the evening. Wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. Strides felt smooth and fluid. It seems that strides never feel fluid for me until the taper.

Saturday: Little over 8 miles done which included a little under 5 @ LT pace. Pfitz had a tune-up race planned, but there weren't any races nearby so i did some LT laps around the track. I had meant to do 5 miles or about 20 laps. Actually i wanted to do 20.5 laps cause 20 laps is only 4.97 miles and i clearly wanted to go over 5 miles. I ended up miscounting and ended up at 19.5 for 4.85 LT miles. Did the first 11 laps (2.73 miles) at about 6:56 pace and then did the last 8.5 laps (2.1 miles) at 6:49 pace. HR wasn't getting a good signal for the first 10 minutes or so of the warmup.  Liking that during the LT portion, the HR did the plateau thing which means it gets to a certain point and then plateaus which seems to imply that the effort is sustainable. First 11 laps, the HR plateaued at around 173 and the last 2 miles, it plateaued again at about 178/179 when i increased the effort.

Sunday: Longish long run of 17.5 miles at 8:01 pace. Did two loops which I know are exactly 12.1 and 5.4 miles respectively. They say you're supposed to maintain intensity while cutting back on mileage during the taper so i wanted to run this by HR trying to keep it just below 160 which would force me to maintain a good effort. i did but found that some of miles were a bit faster than i would have liked.

So you're probably all waiting to anxiously know which marathon I've decided to do and to be quite frank I'm still not completely certain.  I would say that it's about 80% chance that i'm doing the Niagara falls full and a 20% chance i'll do Hamilton the week following.  At the beginning of last week, I had given some thought to doing Toronto which is next weekend.   I wasn't sure that with all the commuting, whether I would be able to get my runs in and was afraid i would lose too much fitness, but with the runs getting a bit shorter during the taper and me getting use to the commuting thing, that idea was quickly kiboshed. Right now, the one thing that concerns me is the weather and more importantly the wind.  Niagara is a point to point course in basically a northwestern direction which means if there's a head wind, you're in for a long day.  I've been keeping an eye on the weather in Niagara this past week and it seems the wind generally comes from the southwest which isn't too bad.  There were a couple of days where the wind came from the north for a few hours which is a bit of a concern.  Right now they are predicting winds from the east for race day, but i think it's too far out for those to be dependable.    Looks like it will be a week of the marathon decision.  In any event, I'm going to reserve a cancelable (is that a word?) room in Niagara for race weekend and hope for the best.

Half marathon race report

Pfitz' plan had a tune-up race scheduled for last Saturday. It's often difficult to find suitable tune-up races on Saturday in this area, as most races are on the Sunday. Luckily for me, there were a couple of options. There was a local 5k or 8k down by the waterfront and there was a half marathon up in P ort Perry. It's been a while since I've actually raced a half marathon. My last PR in the half was set 3 years ago at this half. Since that time, I've run the first half of 3 marathons at a faster time than my official half PR, so it needed updating.

The P ort Perry half had an interesting premise this year. They set out to be "carbon neutral" by trying to offset the carbon footprint by avoiding paper advertising, encouraging on-line registration and using renewable and recyclable race amenities. One interesting thing they did was they had hand made bib numbers made out of recycled paper with little seeds embedded in them. The point of this was that you could then bury the bib in your backyard and it would grow into something.  Not sure what the seeds are supposed to grow into, but this was a neat concept. We also got a shirt made of bamboo-blended material.  The material is a bit stretchy, not sure if it has wicking properties though.

I had meant to purchase some gels on Friday after work, but I had a fairly long day and by the time I got back home, i had completely forgotten.  When I finally realized, it was too late to visit the running stores and i ended up at the local pharmacy where they didn't have gels but they had sharkies which are like little gummy bear like things that are in the shape of sharks. So bought a couple packages of these.

Arrived at the race with about 45 minutes to go to start.  Picked up my stuff and got all set and with about 30 minutes to go, tried a couple of the sharkie things which i didn't like cause it gets stuck in between my teeth.  Knew that I wasn't going to be able to race with these things so i basically downed an entire packet, picked the stuff out of my teeth and washed it down with water. Did a little bit of a slow warm-up with a couple of accelerations. Had the HR spike during these, but was able to get it under control and thankfully, it didn't reappear during the race. With about 10 minutes to go, i downed a half bottle of gatorade and then one last pit stop and off to the start line i went. 

Now i don't have much experience with racing halfs.  3 years ago, i ran the half at about 7:15 min/mile pace which just happened to be the pace I was doing my LT runs as part of my Pfitz training plan at the time.  Since I'm now doing my LT runs at 7min/mile, I thought that this would be a good target to aim for.  The one thing I do remember about the course is that is keeps you honest because it's really hilly.  It's constantly rolling and there are some steep hills.  With that in mind, i decided to not bring garmin along since trying to maintain even splits on a hilly course is a good way to be frustrated. I did wear my HR monitor though.

They had a timing mat at the start line this year unlike in previous years which means that one can get an accurate "chip time".  I decided to start a little ways back to prevent me from going out too fast as I tend to do.  Hit the first km at 4:25 which is about where I wanted to be. After the initial crush of people near the start, I passed three people and ended up being passed by one. The markers after this were a little all over the place, so i didn't really know how far ahead or behind I was at any given point, so i just tried to maintain a steady sustained pace for the race. For the most part the race went as planned.  The roads were a mix of ashphalt, dirt roads and gravel.  Had to be a bit cautious on the gravel bits.

Weather was pretty good.  They had predicted overcast skies, but it ended up being sunny and the course doesn't have much in the way of shade.  It was a little windy at times.  Water stations were fine, though they were using plastic cups which were hard to pinch and drink out of. I ended up spilling a lot of the stuff on me.  I guess the plastic was recyclable as opposed to wax covered paper cups which presumably aren't. I found the best way to drink out of these was to slow down to a jog for a couple of steps, chug the liquid and then continue on.  The finish line can be a bit cruel for those that haven't done the race before.  The race starts and ends at a local fairground with a horse track, but the finish and start lines aren't in the same place.  So you come into the fariground and see the start line, but then you are redirected and have to run across the middle of the track and then around half of it to the finish line.  Probably an extra 400m of running required.

Some pics of me finishing. 

and shortly after the finish trying to catch my breath

Final finish time of 1:31:55 which was 7:01 min/mile pace which is what I had originally intended.  I ended up using HR to gauge a lot of the effort. I was a bit surprised early on that the HR was only just above 170 but I see now that the watch was not picking up a good signal.  It only started to register after 4km or so. In general tried to keep it between 175 and 180 which is where i usually like to run my LT runs at. At least, this somewhat confirms for me that i've been doing my tempo runs at the right pace and intensity. I tried to step it up for the last two km, cause I knew it was going to be close to going sub 1:32 but these splits were basically right at 7min/miles which means even though i felt i was going faster, i wasn't.  Don't think I could have raced this much faster.

I ended up placing 4th overall, but 3rd in my age group.  I just entered this new age group the week before and this certainly was a rude awakening.  If the race had been a week earlier, i would have come in first in my age group by over 4 minutes.  In the end, it didn't matter since the first three finishers overall ended up winning prizes and with no double dipping, I ended up winning the prize for first in my age group even though i was technically 3rd.  $10 cash and another t-shirt. This was a pleasant surprise as typically there are a lot of fast people that run this race.  Two years ago (when they last hosted this race), 16 people went under 1:30, whereas this year only one did.

Being a tune-up race for marathon training, i plugged this half time into all the race predictors and they say that 3:15 for the marathon is doable, but that 3:10 is probably not.  Now 3:10 might still be possible if I pick a nice downhill course which i'll probably end up doing, but it's looking like 3:15 will be the goal for this fall.

Week in Review

Little over a week since I last posted.

Last Sunday: 20.4 miles at 8:28 min/mile. I had meant to do this faster and up until 16 miles,  I was doing fine.  But i was dehydrated towards the end and started to slow.  Was able to put down the last .4 miles at a LT type pace which give me some confidence. 

Tuesday:  8 miles with 5x600m with 90s recoverys.  Repeats were done in about 2:21 which is about 6:20min/mile pace which i'm hoping is my current 5k pace.  Still thinking about trying to go sub 20 minutes before the end of the year. I've been thinking of trying one as a tune-up race, but i'll most likely wait until November. 

Wednesday: 11 miles at 8:04 min/mile pace.

Friday: No running. I was supposed to do a short 4 mile recovery run with strides to prep for a race on Saturday, but this was the day that I went down to visit my new office.  Took public transit and had to leave home by 7:15 and arrived at the office at about 8:10.  A little too early.  Even if i leave a bit later, i'm not sure if it'll be possible to get the run in before i leave once i move downtown permanently.

Saturday: Raced a hilly half marathon in 1:31:55 (7:01 min/mile pace), a PR and finished 4th overall. Race report to come.

Sunday: Did 19.1 miles at 8:50 pace.  I had originally wanted to do about 18 miles to get to 50 for the week and with the hard race done the previous day, I wanted to run this slow. Spent most of this at recovery HR.  Started out at Edward's Garden and ran down to the beach and back.  I ended up doing 19 miles since I needed to pitstop for a water refill and the only place close by that I knew of was at the beach where I would normally start out my waterfront runs.  Splits and route.  The annual Terry Fox run was on in the park for the first half and it was nice to have lots of company. Second half of the run was harder since it was almost all uphill.  I wanted to try and do the last mile at marathon pace, but didn't realize that it was a steady uphill climb and the effort seemed too much.  Legs felt heavy.  I gave up on the marathon pace about a third of the way into the last mile.  Done.  My calves are sore right now and my abs are a bit tender. Think I need to work a bit on my core.  Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow.

Pondering marathon pace

It's coming to that time where i should probably nail down what fall marathon I'll be doing.  Right now, if i continue the training plan as is, i would be doing the one in Niagara falls.  A week early is the Toronto one and a week later is Hamilton.  With several weeks left to go, it would be easy to adjust the schedule now.

There are a number of different factors that I'm considering.  I've done the Toronto one before.  Have not done either Hamilton nor Niagara.  Weather is always a factor.  During the spring, I had intended Hamilton to be the main goal, but it's on November 1 and with the weather getting cooler now, I'm starting to think that Nov 1 might be too late and too cold.  The other variable that has come into this is what goal time do i want to attempt.  3:15:59 is my BQ time for next year and i would like at a minimum to obtain that, but a part of me wants to take a shot at going sub 3:10.  A (small) part of me has always been nerved that I needed to use that extra 59 seconds that Boston gives you to qualify. Being the numbers geek that I am, always seeking precision, I've found myself  feeling a tad guilty when telling someone I've qualified for Boston by running a 3:10 marathon when in fact it was 3:10:23. I know it's only a 24 second difference but the engineer in me just is bothered. Anyways, I figured that if I went for 3:10, i would need the extra 2 weeks of training.  I had also decided i would only attempt 3:10 if I was absolutely certain that I was more fit than I was back in May of 2008 when i ran that 3:10:23, which leads me back to my training.

This past week of training looked like this.

Wednesday: 12 miles with 7@LT pace.
Thursday: 6 miles recovery
Friday: 12.1 miles
Saturday: 6 miles recovery

The Wednesday run is the big Pfitz training run that I usually dread.  Back in the first few weeks of the plan when one is struggling to put down 4 miles at an LT pace, I always look forward in the plan and wonder how the heck am I ever going to do 7 continuous miles at the same pace.  Started off with two very slow recovery miles and then started into it.  LT miles went off as 7:12, 7:04, 7:00, 6:57, 7:03, 6:56, 6:51.  First two miles felt hard.  Probably not warmed up enough. HR spiked on the 4th mile.  I had noticed that my HR was less than 170 for the first 3 miles when I usually try to keep it between 170 and 180 for LT runs.  I tried to increase the pace during mile 4, but this caused the HR to spike. With only 3 LT miles left, I ended up just running through it and the Hr dropped back to normal within a mile after me slowing down.   I'm still trying to figure out if there's anything that i can do to try and prevent this.   I've read that this can be caused by electrolyte imbalances and lack of sleep so i've been trying to make sure those are addressed by eating salt pills and going to bed relatively early.  This run has me thinking that in regards to fitness, I'm probably very close to where I was back in May 2008.  At the time, in the week leading up to that marathon, I did 3.5 miles at 7min/mile pace on a track and averaged a HR of 167-168.  Based on the info before the spike now, i think i was probably averaging about the same and this is still with about a month of training to go. 

The Thursday recovery run was done at 9:04 pace.  I'm starting to like recovery runs.  I try to work on my cadence and don't have to worry to much about tiring out.  I try to consciously run these slower than 9 min/mile and am always interested in where the HR is.  For these, it was lower than 140 for most of the run.  This i like.

The Friday run was a 12 mile General Aerobic run.   I started slow and gradually built up the pace over the course of the run. No HR spike. Towards the end, did a couple of sub 8 min miles and finished with one mile at a 3:15 marathon pace (7:26 min/mile).  Interesting thing was that the average HR during that last mile was around 160.  In the past, this would be the maximum HR that i would have during a long run.  That I might be able to hold a 3:15 marathon pace at this HR kinda has me thinking that 3:10 isn't out of the realm of possibility.  I kinda wish my HR hadn't spiked during that marathon pace, 30k race a few weeks ago cause it sure would be nice to have a little more data to support that goal.

Today my recovery run sucked.  I did 6 miles at over 10min/mile.  I weighed myself before the run and my weight was down to where it would be after a long run so i knew i was dehydrated.  Did 3 miles of a little faster than 10 min/mile, HR then spiked, walked for about a mile and then did 2 more at slower than 10min/mile.  I guess you have to have these types of runs every now and again to keep you honest.

Long run of at least 20 miles tomorrow.  Will probably try and do a tad on the fast side.

Hope everyone enjoys their long weekend!

30k Race Report

Did the Midsummer Nights Run 30k which was held last night.  The race was at 5:30pm.  I did this race back in 2006 when it started at 8pm.  I wasn't sure how to prepare for this.  I ate some spaghetti and meatballs for breakfast at around 8am but didn't really stuff myself.  Sipped on gatorade for most of the day and then had an apple fritter with a small Tim Horton's ice capp at about 3:30pm. Probably should have had a bit more solid food, maybe a bagel or something for lunch, cause i was starving after the race.

Pfitz' plan has 15 miles planned with 12 at marathon pace. 30k is 18.6 miles, so the plan was to go out at my BQ marathon pace until the timing mat at 21k (around 13 miles) and then slow down to long run pace for the rest of the way.

Met up with Kenny ahead of the race where we decided to try and pace each other.  Also met twitter friend leehewitt before the race while waiting in line at the portapotties. I think I must have used the portapotties 4 times before the race. One of the consequences of having an all liquid diet for most of the day.

The race starts.  One thing that I've come to learn about myself is that I need a very gradual increase in pace in order to avoid my HR from spiking.  On most of my training runs, i will start out at 9:30 min/mile pace or slower and gradually increase to whatever pace I'm trying for on that day.  Even when coming to stop at a traffic light, i have to ease back into it.  If I start too fast, I think my body gets over anxious and goes into a fight or flight mode and the HR spikes. I think this is probably why i have difficulty with shorter races.  Things were going okay for the first 2km, the HR spiked shortly thereafter and would remain that way until i stopped for a breather at the 22km mark. 

Most of the first 21km went by without much fuss.  Kenny and I had the odd conversation, but not easy to do for any length of time when doing marathon pace.  One particularly interesting thing was I had a fly go up my nose.  On runs, I've had bugs fly into my mouth or get jammed in my eye, but I've never had the pleasure of having a bug fly up my nose.  This happened somewhere between the 9 and 10 mile mark.  I was trying  to figure out the best way to get it out.  I contemplated the snot rocket thing, but i've never tried that before and didn't want to risk being covered with mucous. In marathons, i will usually carry some toilet paper in a little ziploc baggie in case i need it.  I didn't  bring it today and as Murphy's law would dictate, I needed it.  So for the better part of a mile, i was forced to solely mouth breath for risk of inhaling the damn thing into my lungs.  Thankfully, there were some empty portapotties on the route shortly before the 11 mile mark where i was able to grab some toilet paper and finally blow my nose.

Hit the 21km mark at 1:35:56 which is 7:21 min/mile (4:34 min/km) and at that point let Kenny go as I slowed down.  I was hoping that the slowdown in pace would cause the HR to get back under control, but it didn't so shortly after the 22km mark I came across the a washroom and water fountain and stopped to try to get the HR under control, use the facilities and take a gel.  One way i've learned to do this is via the Valsalva maneuver.  This involves holding ones breath and bearing down.  This has worked in the past, but it can't be done on the move since the holding breath thing and tensing up the whole body is kinda difficult to do while running. Doing this, i was able to get the HR back to normal.  I lost a minute and a half for the pitsop and that included a bathroom break. From that point on, I maintained long run pace through most of the rest of the race.  I  picking up the pace in the last two km and did the final km at LT pace. Finish time of 2:22:39.

Here's the HR chart with the spiked portions. Split times and course route for the race can be seen here.

Fairly happy with this race.  Kinda wish I had warmed up a bit more prior to the race cause i think it would have prevented the HR spiking thing.

Some nice swag from this race. Long sleeve technical T-shirt.  Made sure to get the small this year, since my previous experience with the new balance shirts are that they are way too big for their size.   Huge medal.  This year they encouraged people to bring their own bottles for the race to try and save the enivornment.  I just thought this was a way to cheapen out on the provision of cups, but to their credit, they took it even further in not providing bottled water at the end of the race in plastic bottles.  Instead, they handed out stainless steel water bottles filled with water.  Nice!  And lastly, for those that have done the race before, they gave out Mortal-pins that contain the total mileage that you've done as part of the race over the years.  Having done the 30k and 15k in previous years, i got one that said 75km.

Oh yeah and one last thing I received was bug bites.  Mosquito bites on my neck and upper back. Itchy. I have to remember to wear bug repellent when I do evening races.  This is the second evening race I've done where the mosquitoes have gotten to me. 

Sleepy HR

Yes I know I'm weird and a nerd.  I wore my HR monitor to bed last Friday and did again last night.  I wanted to get an idea of where my resting HR is these days.  I did this a couple of years ago and it was about 45.  Based on the graphs, it seems to be at 43 today.

 

Friday

 

Yesterday

I only ended up wearing it for about 3 hours each time.  I wasn't sure if the 43 was right last Friday since I thought it would be lower, so I decided to do it again.  I had intended on wearing the monitor the whole night, but I woke up unexpectedly after about 3 hours and decided to just take it off to save some of the battery.  There were times the HR dropped into the lower 40 and even into the high 30's but i think 43 is the more consistent HR when it wasn't spiking on both days so that's probably what the HR is.  I'm not worried about the HR spiking parts.  The HR only jumped for very brief moments and i've been reading the HR can fluctuate during the night depending on one's breathing pattern and what stage of sleep one is in.

General Aerobic Runs

Tuesday: Did 6 miles of recovery which included 6 strides.

Wednesday: Did 12 miles of "General Aerobic" running in the morning and averaged about 8:45 pace. Wanted to keep this kind of slow because I have to do 6 miles of LT on Friday as part of a 11 mile run. Today was the first day in over a month that there was garbage pickup and it looks like people have been hoarding their smelly garbage for that time cause there were certainly some places that I had to hold my breath. Not nearly as bad as running by the dump drop off site a couple of weeks ago but still pretty bad.

"General Aerobic" is a term that Pfitzinger uses, but unfortunately he doesn't define very well in the first edition of his book "Advanced Marathoning". He says it can be anywhere between recovery pace and tempo pace. I was googling around and found that there are some excerpts from the second edition where he now defines them more explicitly and it appears that the proper pace for these GA runs is actually slower than long run pace. I guess the point is to just get the miles in at a relaxed pace and depend on the long runs (both normal and marathon pace) to build stamina.

Weekend Run in Review

So the weekend runs break down like this.

Saturday: Did 7 miles including 8 strides. Did most of the miles slow. Was going to see if I could maintain 8 min/mile pace at HR of less than 160, but didn't feel up to it.

Sunday: 20.4 miles @8:17 min/mile pace. Drove downtown to do this. Forecast was predicting warm humid weather and I thought it would be cooler by the lake. It was fairly pleasant. It was overcast, about 20C, and there was a nice cool breeze coming off the lake. I had wanted to start really early, like at 7:00am or so, but didn't get started till about 8:30. I finished the run at just about the right time, as the thunder storm started just as i was finishing up. Barely made it back to my car before the torrential downpour of rain started. Details of the run can be seen here. I'm fairly certain from this run that i can maintain a pace of 8 min/mile at a HR of less than 160. This is of some significance since this is the type of fitness I had leading up to my PR marathon last year and I still have a good 9 weeks of training left before the taper for my fall race.

It's been about 5 weeks since I ran along this route and they've changed some things during that time. They added a new paved section to the route around Ontario Place. I followed my typical route and ignored the sign warning me to detour, only to be faced with a concrete barrier in my path a little ways down. Did my best steeplechase impersonation while vaulting the barrier. They also removed one of the water fountains that I like to use at the half way point which PO'd me a bit.

I tried out my Injinji socks again. I bought a pair a couple of years ago, but didn't like them because of blister issues. I've used them a couple of time recently during recovery runs with my nike frees and they seem to have worked okay so i tried them out again on my long run. Had a blister problem again, but it's in a weird place. I usually get blisters as a result of the shoe rubbing up against my toes, but with these socks i get a blister on the inside of my toes as a result of my big toe rubbing up against the inside of my left second toe. Never had that problem before. I think the socks I have may be too small. Maybe I'll try a larger pair.

So total for the week was 53 miles. I've been toying with the idea of trying to slowly ramp up to somewhere in the 60's, as opposed to topping out at 55 like the Pfitz plan says. It's easily doable by just running on one of the two rest days that the 55 mile plan offers in a week.

Looking at HR

Gotten all my runs in for this week as planned. Thought I would document some HR stuff.

Tuesday: Did a little over 10 miles with 5 miles at LT pace. Averaged 7:04 pace for the LT portion. Did them around the track. It was about 20C in the morning to start and it was a struggle to roll out of bed in the morning to get this done. I'm sort of disappointed with the pace on this. I had thought I would be able to maintain this consistently below 7 min/mile especially on a flat track, but I think the relatively warm weather kept me from being able to hold the right pace. The effort felt harder than the 5 mile LT run I did last week on a non-flat route yet the pace was slower. The HR stayed below 180 which is where I like to keep it for LT runs, but don't like that the HR was constantly increasing throughout the LT portion. I normally like when it reaches 180 and then stays there for the entire run as it basically means that it's sustainable. Now it could just be that 5 miles was too short to see the plateau effect and the warmish weather may have contributed to it cause I was sweating buckets towards the end so who really knows.

Wednesday: Did 4.1 mile recovery run at 8:52 pace. It was relatively cool for this run at less than 15C. HR for recovery runs I've always tried to keep below 150 and a pace of no faster than 9 min/miles. I had no trouble keeping below 150 and it was lower than 140 at times. Pace however was 8:37 which is a bit too fast. If it wasn't for the slow first mile done at 9:26 pace, the average pace would have been much faster. I was comparing this to the HR during the Ottawa marathon where I was doing 8:45 pace but my HR was in the high 160's. I am in much better shape than I was back then.

Thursday: Could not force myself out of bed in the morning so ended up doing my 11 mile run after work, but wasn't feeling the greatest. I had eaten two lunches today. Lately, I'm famished come lunch time and ended up eating at noon, only to find out that some of the co-workers were taking a visitor out to lunch at 12:30. Not wanting to be anti-social I joined them with the intent of only nibbling on some of the Chinese food they were ordering, but I ended up having an entire second lunch. Needless to say, I was super stuffed this afternoon and my system had not quite processed it by the time of the run so I carried the bloated feeling for most of the run. First three quarters weres done slow and picked up the pace for the last quarter. Two interesting things to note are that HR was higher though pace was slower for the first three miles then the recovery I did yesterday (it was the same three mile route). Probably due to it being warmer and me being heavier. Second, based on the data from the end of the run, I think I can maintain a sub 8 min/mile at a HR of less than 160 though I"m not entirely sure cause I didn't wear the garmin today. Will have to test out this theory on Saturday.

I've been kinda wondering what my resting HR is these days. Last year when I got my wisdom teeth pulled, the nurse said it was 37. This was just after what I would guess was my peak fitness point. A couple of years ago, I wore my HR monitor to bed and it was 45 (i know I'm weird). I'm going to try wearing it to bed tomorrow to see what it is. I'm guessing probably around 40.

Whitby 5k Race Report

Did a 5k race yesterday and tried to break 20 minutes, but as usual, was not able to do it. Short story is 20:25, but i think the course was short so it should be slightly more, maybe 10 to 15s more.

I arrived with about an hour to race time to pick up my bib. By the time I had changed out of my work clothes and pinned the bib on, there was about a half hour to go. Went out for a short warm up. Ran out onto the course to check to see if the course was marked. Warmed up for about 20 minutes with some strides and then headed back to the start line. One reason why i picked this race is that the start line and finish line are at the same place and that in the past, they've always offered chip times which allows me to start not too close to the start line. Unfortunately, this year they decided to use manual timing which means i had to start close to the start line, which usually results in me going out too fast. In order to avoid this, I ran with the garmin and my HR monitor watch. I was going to use the garmin to pace me for the first mile and then i was going to ignore it for the rest of the way.

So i lined up close to the front but not right at the front. It probably took me a second or two to cross the start line. Motor along initially trying to keep an eye on the garmin to monitor pace. Pass the first km marker, hit lap on my watch and it reports a 3:45 first km even though garmin says I was right on target. Course was mismarked. Keep motoring along and garmin beeps and says I did a 6:20 first mile which is slightly faster than the 6:26 pace i wanted but things felt good. I continue on and pass the 2nd km marker and it reports a 3:32 km. Now at this point, I know for certain that the course is mismarked and I decide to ignore my watch for the rest of the way. Looking back, the HR monitor indicates that the HR spiked shortly before the 2km mark. I basically tried to ignore this and continued running. There weren't a lot of people doing my pace and I ended up passing 2 people during km 2 and 3. During km 4 I got passed by 1 guy who may or may not have been one of the 2 people I passed earlier. With 1km to go, I seem to have gotten a second wind and try to increase the pace a bit. Finish with a time of 20:25.

As I said before, Im pretty sure the course is short. They used a new course this year compared to what it was in previous years. Garmin reported a distance of 4.99 km but this includes about 40m of walking after the finish line so the actual course is shorter. Funny thing is that the guy who ended up winning broke the course record and won a $200 bonus. I bet the race director now regrets not marking out an accurate course with the extra 40m now.

So the data from the race can be seen here.
Looking back at the HR data, my HR stayed spiked from about 2km through to almost the end of the race. It returned to normal with a little over a minute to go. Other than the HR spiking part, I hit a max of 193 which is what it was last year. The HR spiking thing causes me some concern. I've been reading up on it and it seems to be a form of exercise induced tachycardia. When it happens, the heart becomes less efficient at pumping blood which would sort of explain why i slowed down during the middle to late part of the race. I was able to pick up the pace at the end, but don't know if that was because the HR was returning to normal or it was just guts that allowed me to do so.

The route was fairly nice, but off near a wilderness type area with a lot of brush which means lots of bugs which means lots of big bites which mean lots of scratching the day after. As Ned Flanders on the Simpson said about mosquito bites, "Mmm mmm! Sure are fun to scratch! Satisfying!"

Exploring

18 miles in 2:37 (8:43 min/mile pace)

So today I had wanted to do about 18 miles. I'm getting pretty bored with my around home route and the waterfront route is getting a tad repetitive as well. I started driving downtown a few years ago for some of my long runs because i was training for the waterfront marathon. It is a bit of a hassle to drive down but I enjoy it. With a 10 mile race downtown today, i knew getting down there to my normal starting location was going to be a bit of a chore so I decided to try out the local trail system. I did some planning and my intent was to try and get down to Edwards Gardens which Google Earth says is about 9.5 miles from my home. I figured I could run down there and refuel and then head back.

With the relatively cool weather of late, I wanted to see if there were any water fountains on the route and if not, I wouldn't risk dehydrating since I'd still be able to survive with only one refill. I ended up losing my sense of direction and didn't quite get down to my final destination. I took a wrong turn and ended up running through an industrial park and stopping at a convenience store to buy a bottle of water. Route can be seen here.

Ran into the HR spiking problem again. It started right after i came to a fork in the trail and i stopped trying to figure out which way to turn (BTW, I turned the wrong way). When I started back up again, HR spiked which continued on till i stopped at the convenience store to buy water. I didn't really realize the HR spiking at the time, since the HR was at about 170 which isn't out of the ordinary for me. When it spikes, it's usually in the 180's or higher on a long run. On the way back, the HR was no longer spiking and i gradually increased the pace. Looking at the chart, I didn't realize the huge elevation gain and loss on this route. No wonder, it felt like I was working so much harder on the way back even considering the slight increase in pace.

So this was definitely something I think I could do again. The tree cover keeps the sun off and there's enough traffic on the trail to keep things interesting. There was only one fountain on the route that I could see at the 5 mile mark which I think is about perfect since if I had actually gotten down to Edward's Garden at around the 10 mile mark, it would mean that I could refill the water bottle every 5 miles or so. I was also thinking that I could drive to Edward's Garden and run from there to the south. Hopefully the elevation loss and gain wouldn't be too bad from there.

So I signed up for a 5k race this Friday. This week is supposed to be a cutback week for marathon training so it fits into the training well as I can treat it as a bit of a taper week. I plan to do about 10 miles on Tuesday, 7 miles or so on Wednesday with some 800m repeats and then the race on Friday. I'll figure out what to do next weekend depending on how the race goes.

Have a good running week all!

Run the Lake 5k Race Report

I've previously done the 10k that's part of this event. This was the first time I've attempted the 5k. I arrived to a steady downpour of rain and blowing wind and had some reservations about running it. Picked up my bib and a timing chip. I think this was the first time they've used chips. They had previously timed it manually. Did a bit of a warmup, not much, probably about 10 minutes or so with some all out strides. My HR was spiking which i usually find happens when i suddenly start exerting a lot of effort. I was eventually able to get it to settle down prior to the race start and then lined up, trying to jog in place to keep the HR from dropping too low. By this point, the rain was coming down lightly, but there was a heck of a wind coming from the west. Since it was an out and back course, the first half went directly into the wind.

As usual, the goal was to try to maintain 4min/km. The km markers were off so the splits aren't quite right. First km was about on pace. Garmin measured it as being 1.02km and a time of 4:02 which was 3:57 pace. Now usually, the first km one is jockying for position and you don't really feel the effort level, that comes during the 2nd km.

During the 2nd km, the effort level was a bit much due to the head wind. I tried to tuck in behind a few people, but they were all going a bit too slow, so i had to pass them. 2nd km marker was measured as being 964m, with a split time of 4:12 which was 4:21 pace. Oh well, there goes the sub 20 attempt. I was having trouble with my hat as i had to keep my head looking at the ground to keep it from blowing off. I should probably have flipped it around so the bill was at the back. I normally wear hats to keep the sweat from getting into my eyes, but on such a short race and the fact that it was fairly cool with the wind, i probably didn't need the hat.

3rd km includes the turnaround and has a generally uphill. There was a group of about 5 or 6 people that passed me at this point. I should have tucked in behind them, but it seemed like they were doing quite the pace and i wasn't sure i'd be able to keep up. Looking the finish times, they finished around the 20 min mark so in hindsight, I should have stuck with them. Once I hit the turnaround, the wind now became a tail wind and the going got a lot easier. The marker for this was way off. It measured 1.13 km with a split time of 4:53 for a pace of 4:19.

4th km was much faster. With the wind at my back and a gentle descent, I got a second wind. The 4th marker was measured as being 969m with a split of 3:57 which was 4:04 pace.

Last km was Ok. I played back and forth with one guy. He ended up passing me for good with about 200m to go and I just didn't feel like trying to pass him again. The last split measured as being 964m with a split of 4:01 for 4:10 pace.

So overall time was 21:06 which was 4:13 pace or 6:47 min/mile. The highest the HR got was 188 which was during km 4 where I averaged 186. My average was less than 185 for all the other ones. I know that my max is probably around 192 and I'm not sure how much extra speed I could have obtained by maxing the effort level. I came in 3rd in my age category and won a medal! There were only three people in my age category, but hey that's not my problem. I'll take what i can get. You can see the race here.

I was able to average 6:46 pace for a 10km about a year ago, so this is somewhat frustrating. Of course at this point last year, I had just come off of BQ'ing and a good marathon training cycle and had a lot of endurance. Now, not so much with the junk milies that I've been putting in while readying for my Boston and Ottawa marathon fun-runs.

I was thinking of trying again next week, and though I probably could have run it a little faster, the truth of the matter is that I'm pretty sure I could not have raced it a minute faster to get below 20 minutes. As a result, the sub-2o attempt will have to wait a little while until I can get my LT threshold back to a level similar to where it was last year. Not sure how long it'll take, but I'm hoping that a month of marathon training will be sufficient.

Little bit of a setback

Hit a little bit of a stumbling block. Did a little over 7 miles on Thursday. Plan was do 9 or so that included a 4 mile LT run and rather than do it at the track like I have been the past little while, I headed to the 1 mile route that i've used in past years around a local shopping mall parking lot. On the 2 mile jog over there, i noticed my right achilles was tight but i figured it would loosen up. Started into it and managed 7:08, 7:03, 7:05 and 7:01 mile splits with the achilles continuing to bother me. Once that was done, i slowed down to a recovery pace for one more lap where my achilles started to really ache. I then proceeded to limp back home.

I guess the three days of running in a row totaling 22 miles with two kinda hard workouts wasn't a good idea after a relatively light 14 miles of running the previous week. I think I've narrowed the issue down to some trigger points in my calf that are causing my achilles to be overexerted so i'm trying to kneed those out using the Stick. I had this same problem in my left achilles while trying to ramp back up after Boston. You'd think i would have learned by now. So it's been two days of rest with lots of icing and then try for 10 miles tomorrow at a slow pace.

Happy (inter)National Running Day

Hope people went off for some sort of physical activity today, preferably a run of some sort.

Did 6 miles recovery today.

Yesterday, my two week training quest to try and break 20 minutes in the 5k started. i headed to the track to do 5x1000m at 4:00min/km with a little over 2 minutes of recovery between each. I figured that if I couldn't get through this workout at this pace then i had no shot at being able to maintain it over 5000 consecutive metres in 2 weeks. Started off with 3 miles at recovery pace and then launched into it.

Lap Time	Pace	HR Max
03:56.2	06:20.1	184
03:56.8	06:21.1	216
03:55.8	06:19.5	191
03:57.2	06:21.7	192
04:00.1	06:26.4	190

HR spiked during the second one, but settled back down during the recovery period. Was just barely able to get through this workout. HR topped out at 192 during the 4th one which is I think the highest I've ever been able to get it during a training session. I was able to get it to 193 during a 5k race last year. The last repeat was tough.

Can I get to 20 min? Maybe. I was looking at the course and it doesn't look too favourable to a PR though. The course is on one of the runways at the local airport and consists of two out and backs. You start in the middle, head down one way, do a hairpin turn, run back past the start/finish line, run down to the other end, do another hairpin turn and then run back to the finish line. So with the two turns, I'm not entirely sure that this race will allow me to get where I need to be. However, all is not lost though, as there is another 5k race at the end of June which i think is probably better to try and go sub-20. It's a fairly fast race as 39 people last year broke 20 minutes whereas only 5 people were able to do it at the airport run. It also will give me a whole month of faster paced training which has been severly lacking from my routine.

Angus Glen 10 Miler Race Report

So things went according to plan.  Got to the race fairly early to stash my stuff.  They had lockers for everyone and not just crummy lockers that you would find at the gym.  These were nice and spacious.  This golf course hosted the Canadian Open back in 2007 and they have little name tags on top of each locker, presumably because this is the locker that the individual used.  My locker was used by Tag Ridings.  Ever heard of him?  I haven't either.  I ended up googling him and you can find information on him here. Weird thing is that he was born one day after i was.  Uncanny eh?

Vijay Singh locker was also just across from mine.  I thought that he won the tournament that year but apparently he came in second.  I did a little searching for Tiger Woods, but couldn't find it.  Apparently he didn't play that year.

So the plan was to do 10 miles first and then get back to do the 10 mile race for a total of 20 for the day.  I decided to head out for 5 miles and then turn around and come back.  First 10 mile route is here.  A couple of things I wanted to try.  The first was to to try and run with the camera phone in a holdster.  Ended up putting it in my waistband so that it fit into the small of back.  Here are a couple of pics from the first 10 miles.  The neighbourhood and houses are great looking.   If you're looking to buy a house, this one is for sale.  Close to a really nice park.

I wanted to time the first 10 mile run so that I would get back just as the race was starting.   I ended up getting back about 5 minutes before the race started which was good since I wouldn't cool down.  Another thing I wanted to try was to not have to use the restroom for the 20 mile run today.  I have only one fear in being the pace bunny in Ottawa and that is that I would have to stop to use the restroom at some point.  With my two pee break performance last week, i wanted to see if i could survive a 20 mile run with limited liquids and no requirement of a restroom break so I did not carboload or water load the day before. 

So the race starts.  Actually they had waves of starters which worked a lot better than I thought it would.  They had waves based on 10k times and everyone seemed to seed themselves correctly.  Being ever so meticulous, last night I had punched in a 8:45 pace for 10 miles into McMillan and got a 10k time of just over 52 minutes so I decided to start in the 49-52 minutes wave since i guessed everyone in that wave would be doing round 8:45 pace. 

The rest of the race went without incident.  I was trying to maintain an 8:45 pace, but most of the splits were slightly fast.  The course was really hilly.  The hills were short, but they were really steep.  I thought I had read somewhere that there would be a 5 mile timing mat, but there wasn't.  My plan was to run a negative split which I think I did, but I'm not entirely sure how much of a negative split cause the garmin didn't follow the course exactly and it read the course as being a bit short.  I tried to do an LT km right at the end, but there was a killer hill.  It was still my fastest km, but it was more like marathon pace.  Final time of 1:24:41 for an average pace of 8:28.  The course route is here.  They had a pretty good BBQ lunch afterwards. Angus Glen puts on a half marathon and 10k in the fall and they put out a good spread of food there also.

I didn't need to use the restroom during the race, but I was pretty dehydrated afterwards.  I drank one bottle of gatorade over the first 15 miles of todays run with the occasionaly extra cup of water handed out at the aid station.  My HR was higher than it normally would be for a long run.  This could have been do to a lot of things though as i ran 10 miles yesterday and didn't drink or eat a lot.  I got a whole bunch of pictures from the race today.  Some of them are below.