And so the countdown begins!

Saturday:
Did 4 mile recovery run. Uneventful.

Sunday:
Did 21 miles today!

Mile	Split		Mile	Split
1	08:50.2		13	08:36.3
2	08:11.4		14	08:17.6
3	09:30.7		15	08:35.5
4	06:53.5		16	08:36.0
5	07:59.4		17	08:28.8
6	08:33.0		18	08:35.7
7	08:27.1		19	08:41.9
8	08:29.5		20	08:39.7
9	08:42.5		21	08:03.5
10	08:21.7
11	08:34.4		Total	2:57:43
12	08:35.3

These were garmin splits which I manually recorded on my HR monitor. I felt kinda silly wearing both the garmin and another watch to monitor my HR. I don't think anyone noticed. It was a great day for a run. Weather was nice and cool. Miles 3, 4 and 5 seemed a bit screwy but that was most likely due to loss of satellite signals. I speeded up for the last mile just to see if I could handle it. Overall pace was at about 8:30.

Though the taper has supposedly officially begun, Pfitz's plan still has a few interesting wrinkles yet to come. He still has a 16 mile long run scheduled for next week the day after a 8-10k tune-up race and a 12 mile run one week prior to the marathon. That doesn't sound like a taper schedule to me! His plan has got me this far with some very encouraging results, so I suppose at this point there's no point in deviating from the plan. I'm "all in" as they say in poker.

21 days and counting...

Training Update. Sept 25- Sept 29

The cool temperatures are here. I'm waiting for the temperature to warm up before I head out on my 4 mile recovery run this morning. Here's an update for the week.

Tuesday:
Did 5 mile recovery run with 6 strides.

Wednesday:
Did a little over 10 miles with 4x1200m @ 5k pace. Split times were:

04:59.6

04:56.3

04:58.4

04:59.2

I ran into some HR strap problems at the beginning, but by the time I got to the track, it had sorted itself out. I can honestly say that these VO2Max things seem to be getting easier. Now it could just be that the Yasso 800's that I did on the weekend made this interval workout feel puny by comparison, but I like to think it's because my fitness is improving. I'm looking forward to the 1600m interval workout in two weeks.

Friday:
Did 10 miles at about 8:30 pace. I tried the garmin today for the second time and it seemed to be off in measuring distance. I usually run the first few miles of my "around the house" route along the same path where I know where the 1 and 2 mile markers are. The garmin has been right on with the distance the last time I used it, but today I ran past the mark and then an additional 30 seconds before the autolap function was triggered. I thought it may be that my HR monitor was interfering with the satelite reception since this was the first time I ran with both. Going to try it again today to see if I have the same problem. It was quite cool during the run at about 8C. By the time I got back home, my fingernails were a nice shade of blue.

4 mile recovery today and then 20+ miles tomorrow and then taper time! I wish all you Chicago hopefuls good luck on your 20 milers this weekend. Enjoy it cause you won't be running that distance again until October 22!

Scotiabank Marathon pictures.

I camped myself out on a bridge and took some pictures at the Scotiabank marathon.

Elites racing!








Ed Whitlock. 75 year old marathoner who did 3:08:34.5

Michal the joggler who set a new record for juggling (2:57:52.2 gun time) while running a marathon.

Blogland's very own Joggler Perry!

Training Update. Sept 22- Sept 24

Friday :
Did 4 miles recovery with 6 strides. Used the garmin for the first time on a run. Pretty cool.

Saturday:
Pfitz has planned a tune-up race for today. There really wasn't anything nearby within a reasonable driving distance so I did a Yasso 800's workout. For those that don't know, yasso 800's are designed that depending on how long you can do 10x800m intervals in minutes:seconds will equal your marathon distance in hours:minutes. Thus if you can do 10x800 in 3:30 with 3:30 recoverys then you can do a 3:30 marathon. My goal was to do them in 3:15 since McMillan says that Yasso 800's overpredict your race time by 5 minutes which would put me in line with a 3:20 marathon finish.

Split times and HR were:

03:11.2

03:09.8

03:15.2

03:12.0

03:12.2

03:12.9

03:13.7

03:13.3

03:13.1

03:13.6

All I can say is that those things are torture. Basically take how you feel at the end of a 5k race and then repeat it 5 times. Crap those things hurt. My HR maxed out at 190. I had planned on trying to go all out on the very last 200m of the session to see how high I could get the HR, but I was sucking wind so bad that I couldn't force myself to run faster.

Today:
I went down to watch the Scotiabank marathon today and had a 17 mile run scheduled for after it. I did about 18.5 miles. I ended up trying a new route today that was far hiller than I'm used to. Not sure of pace, but I would guess that most of it was done at slightly less than 9 min/miles with portions at 8:15 or so. Hard to tell because of the hills. I was quite sore afterwards and very hungry. I ate two Burger King combos and was still hungry.

It's now official!

Other than the training, I only had one last logistical thing that I had to do prior to the marathon and that was to book my flight which I did about 10 minutes ago.  So now I'm officially in and there's no turning back!

I decided early in training that I would decide on what marathon pace I would do, 1 month prior to the marathon which day happens to be tomorrow.  After my pace run last week, I was pretty okay with running at 7:45, but part of me now thinks I can go faster.  My recent half time suggests that 7:40 is doable based on the McMillan calculator and Daniels VDOT tables predict a 7:33 marathon pace.    I'm not sure what is reasonable.   I'm going to do a Yasso's 800 workout this Saturday and I'm going to try and aim for between 3:10 and 3:15 per 800m interval.  I'm also planning a 10k race on October 7 which I'm hoping to do in under 43 minutes.  If I can do both of these things, than I think 7:40 pace (possible a bit faster) will be my goal.  I'm pretty sure that the Daniels 7:33 pace is a bit too ambitious though.

5 weeks to go training update

Tuesday:
Did 8 miles including a VO2Max workout of 5x600m. Split times are:

02:28.8

02:28.9

02:28.5

02:29.2

02:27.6

These were done slightly slower than the last time I did this workout. But realizing that these things are going to get pushed to 1200m and then 1600m, I thought it would be best to get used to the 5k race pace that Pftiz says I should be running these at. My HR was way down for these things compared to last time which could mean that I'm improving, but it could also be due to the fact it was cooler or that I ran these slower.

Today:
Did 11 miles at a little over 8:30 pace. I've been running lately in my Sauconys again which I had thought last week were basically worn through. Thinking about it a bit more it didn't make sense. I had jsut run a half and done a 15 mile long run with no shin problems in them and then all of a sudden I do some track intervals and my shins were screaming. So I tried a recovery run in them last Saturday with no shin problems and I've been using the Sauconys since (including the marathon pace run on Sunday). The heel on the left shoe is still worn down, but I've been trying not to heel strike so much and I think that by doing this it's improving my form allowing me to run faster. I think that by switching between the sauconys and my old Adrenalines, I should be able to stretch them out till the taper where I'll start using my marathon day shoes.

As for my marathon shoes, I headed to the running store after work today to try and buy them. I've decided that I'll be running in the Brooks Adrenalines. They didn't have my size though. I did however buy some new Powergels to see what they taste like and if they can be dispensed from the packet easier than the old one. I've gotten use to the Gu's now which I've been using lately, but think that the powergels might be better for me since they have more sodium in them. I also bought ..... a GARMIN. Okay it's not the fancy 205 or 305, but is the cheap Forerunner 101. It can't upload to a computer and it uses AAA batteries, but I've really been craving for something that will tell me how far I've gone that doesn't require me to recalibrate it every time I change shoes. Since I'm going to be swapping shoes more often now, it only made sense.

Survived the weekend!

Well I survived the weekend. Saw 6 movies on Saturday which worked out better than I thought. In order to get ready for my marathon pace run on Sunday, I ended up eating a small plate of food court pasta for lunch and then bought a half dozen bagels which I ended up snacking on for the rest of the evening, washing it down with a bottle of gatorade. Not exactly the tastiest way to carboload but it worked. Generally liked most of the movies I saw. Can't say I had a favourite as they were all good in their own kind of way. The only real "movie star" I got to see live was Sigourney Weaver who was at the screening of Snow Cake in which she plays an autistic woman. She puts on a great performance. I don't know if the movie will get much screen play (especially in the US) since it's based in a little town in Northern Ontario but if you get a chance to see it, do so.

Ms. Weaver's the one on the right

I ended up getting home at about 2:00am in the morning, though probably didn't get to sleep until 3am. Turned off the alarm and ended up waking up naturally at about 8:30am. Decided to drive down to the waterfront to run. Pfitz had a 17 mile run with 14 miles at marathon pace planned. I ended up doing 18.5 miles. I did about 14.5 miles at marathon pace which were sandwiched between 2 mile warmup and cooldowns. I averaged about 7:45 min/miles for the marathon pace portion which I think is just about right in terms of a pace that I think I could reasonably hold over 26.2 miles. Also my HR seemed to be in the right zone for a marathon pace run which for me was to keep it below 170. Hopefully this will carry forward till race day.

I hadn't done a long run by the lake in over a month since my first 20 miler. The interesting path that they were building which had been converted from a road is all gone as it seems that it was just a temporary thing. That doesn't make any sense to me. They spent a bunch of money laying down sod, and planting and watering flowers to give us a feeling of what it would be like when they eventually got around to building it and then they go rip it all out and convert the thing back into a road. Go figure.

I'm supposed to do another tune-up race this weekend with a 17 miler on Sunday. I think I'll skip the race this weekend and head to the track and do a Yasso 800 workout. I'm debating whether I should register to run the Scotiabank half marathon this Sunday as part of my long run. It's a bit pricey though at $70. They are apparently still looking for pace bunnies for the full, one of which is the four hour bunny. I seriously considered volunteering for this since they give out a whack of free stuff (entry, shoes, shirt, socks, cap and shorts), but in the end decided against it. I don't want to jeopardize my number one goal which is October 22 to get a bunch of free stuff (which I'd probably have to declare on my income tax form anyways..)

Quick Update

Gonna try and squeeze in 6 movies today. I've tried to do this in the past with very little success as I end up sleeping through portions of the movies. I'm guessing that today will be no different.

Friday: Did 11.5 miles. Was supposed to do 12. Had to cut the run short due to GI problems. Eating nothing but junk food and hot dogs the day before didn't sit well with my stomach. Run was tough. My runs have been feeling pretty crappy lately. Not sure of my pace. since I had to move the footpod around on my shoe since it was cutting into the shoelaces and I didn't get a chance to recalibrate. Polar says I was doing 10 min/miles which I'm pretty sure is wrong.

Today: Did 5 miles recovery.

Tomorrow: I have planned 17 miles with 14 miles at marathon pace which at the moment is 7:45min/miles. I'm worried about this considering my crappy runs this past week and that I somehow have to squeeze in a carboload somewhere between my 6 movies today. Will see what happens.

Falling off the wagon.

Yesterday, I was supposed to do 8 easy miles, I ended up doing zero. I had woken up in the morning and was still a little sore from the race and long run on the weekend. I've read about people trashing their quads at Boston due to the downhill portions and I think that's what I was suffering from. I hadn't done any hill training and to suddenly do a half marathon with some steep downhills probably in hindsight was not a smart idea. I decided to skp the morning run and try and do it in the evening. I got back from work, ate dinner and thought that I'd head to the gym at about 9pm for the 8 mile run (it was raining) At about 7pm, I decided to take a 1 hour nap and the next thing I know it's 1am in the morning. Oh well.

My main goal for the Chicago marathon was to average a 7:45 min mile and to finish with a time of 3:23. My recent half marathon estimates that I'm now in 3:20 shape. I have to admit that a part of me wants to back off on the training and coast into Chicago and perhaps subconsiously, my brain has figured out a way to do that. I know that I have to keep pushing to see how well I can do and not just meet some arbitrary goal that I had set several months ago, but I got to admit that the motivation is waning a bit.

Having said that I got up in the morning today determined to do the VO2Max workout that was planned. 9 miles with 5x1000m @ 5km pace. The universe of course decided it had to rain on my parade by literally raining on my parade. It was pouring outside. Even so I headed out with a 3 mile warmup to the local track. My left shin was giving me some pain, but I thought it was jsut stiffness. I started into the workout and did the first km in 4:10 and then did the second in 4:17 which was way off my expected pace and my shin was hurting even more. I realized at this point that I should stop as I was going to risk hurting myself. I ended up walking home. I thought at the time that the shin pains are being caused by the Saucony shoes which have worn down and are changing my running gait. I still had my trusty old Adrenalines which are getting close to their 300 mile limit, but the tread still looks okay, so I ended up retrying the VO2max workout after work. That worked out much better. Split time including recoverys were:

Lap Time	Max	Avg
04:00.0	183	174
01:55.9	182	156
04:03.3	186	177
01:58.3	185	160
04:05.6	185	178
01:58.3	185	159
04:06.9	186	179
01:58.5	186	161
04:07.6	187	179

No shin pain. In total I did about 4 miles in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. It's 9 miles total as planned albeit split over two runs.

As for the film festival, I'm enjoyed most of the films I've seen so far. Now in years past, the film festival has offerred at least one movie with titalating subject matter. Movies that come to mind are 9 songs and Twentynine Palms. This year was no different with the movie Shortbus featuring real sex (which also includes between people of the same gender). For some reason, I don't think that this will be generally released in theatres. I really looking forward to tomorrow as I have 4 films planned which includes The Fountain.

Half Marathon report

I did a Half Marathon on Saturday. Finish time of 1:35:04 which I'm elated with since I thought it would be tough for me to do 1:36:15 which McMillan says I should be able to do if I wanted to run a 3:23 marathon which represents the half way point between my current marathon PB and my BQ time. McMillan now says that I might be able to do a 3:20 marathon.

The weather did not start out great. About 5 minutes before the start of the race, it started raining. Thankfully it tappered off pretty quickly. The course is run on paved streets and mostly on country dirt roads which weren't too great after it had recently rained. At the end of the race, the back of my calves and shirt had mucky mud on them. The course has a few hills, but the part that was scarry were the MONSTER downhills (see elevation chart). I'm pretty good at picking up the pace and using gravity to glide down hills, but the downhills on this course were tricky. The ground was slightly wet to begin with and the few downhills were quite steep and long. I ended up having to consiously slow down going down these things cause I didn't think I could maintain the fast turnover and speed for the whole length of the downhill. I also decided to run with my HR monitor to give me some feedback on what my HR should be like running at LT pace. My HR was a bit high during the start of the race, topping out at 187 at one point but this was gradually brought down to under 180.

Contrary to what they said on their website, as it turns out they had markers at every km so I didn't need to use my polar foot pod. Here are the splits. (I missed one of the markers)

KM	Lap Time	Pace		KM	Lap Time	Pace
1	04:23.7	07:04.4		12	04:27.1	07:09.9
2	04:13.4	06:47.8		14(2km)	08:58.0	07:12.9
3	04:37.7	07:26.9		15	04:00.8	06:27.5
4	04:33.4	07:20.0		16	04:22.8	07:02.9
5	04:27.0	07:09.7		17	04:33.7	07:20.5
6	04:35.4	07:23.2		18	04:36.1	07:24.3
7	04:39.1	07:29.2		19	04:31.0	07:16.1
8	04:33.9	07:20.8		20	04:32.9	07:19.2
9	04:44.3	07:37.5		21	04:31.2	07:16.5
10	04:50.4	07:47.4
11	04:31.0	07:16.1		21.1	1:35:04	0:07:15

Average pace of 7:15 min/mile. I've made a lot of progress over the past year. My previous PB for the half which was set last November was 1:45. I also had an unofficial PB of 1:42:42 which I had set during the first half of a marathon in the spring which I also beat. The other neat thing is that this pace is actually faster than my pace for my PB in the 10k which was set the week before I started this training plan back in June! I have a 10km race planned for my final tune-up race on Oct 7, so it'll be interesting to see what I can do at that point!

Training Update

Friday. Did 4 miles with 6 strides on in preparation for race.

Saturday: Did half marathon race. Final time of 1:35:04. Race details to come.

Sunday: Did 15 miles at a slow pace.

Today: Rest as I'm sore as hell.

I was thinking of backing off the training a bit this week. I'm considering skipping the VO2Max portion of Wednesday's workout since my lower calfs, shins and ankle are tight and sore. Hopefully all my legs need are a good rest day.

I purchased my current shoes back at the end of July, though only started using them full time a few weeks ago. I purchased them cause I was looking for a shoe with a bit more longevity than my previous favourite shoe the Brooks Adrenaline. I had hoped that the Saucony's would at least last me till the taper which is still about 3 weeks away so I was disappointed to see that the rubber on the heel of one of the Sauconys is starting to wear to the point that the soft spongy material underneath is exposed. I really liked the shoe. it was quite comfortable and didn't give me any blister issues at all even when wet. The wear is only very brief at the moment and I'll try and stretch it out for another two weeks. But it looks like I'm going to have to buy two new pairs of shoes soon. One to finish the training and one for race day since I like to run a marathon with a pair of shoes with about 50 miles on them. I'm haven't decided what shoes to buy yet as I like the fit of the Sauconys but the Adrenalines seem to get better wear and are a tad ligher.

Week 12 of 18 begins

Yesterday: Did 8 miles with 5x600m VO2Max workout at track. Split times were as follows

02:29.8

02:29.9

02:25.6

02:26.6

02:25.7

The track I use in the morning has a lot of "elderly" people who like to walk around the inside lane, even when it's pitch black outside. It makes trying to do interval workouts tough with the weaving and bobbing. But I guess they have as much a right to use the track as i do, but i find it annoying.

Today: Did 11 miles. Until now my training plan had scheduled either a rest day or a recovery day after any workout that was moderately difficult (ie: tempo or VO2max). Today was the first day I did a semi-long run after doing a hard workout. First couple of miles were tough where I was struggling to maintain even my slow long run pace, but after mile 4 or so, I guess my legs got warmed up and running seemed easier, the so called second wind. If only I could get that without having to struggle for a few miles.

I plan on doing a half marathon race this Saturday. The only reason I want to do a half is really to set a PB since I've set one in the 5k, 10k and full already this year and it looks like I won't have another chance this year after running Chicago. I'm trying to figure out how fast I should run it though. I'm thinking between 7:20 and 7:35 min/miles which I think is doable since I averaged 7:15 during a 7 mile LT run last week. The course website says that the course is only marked every 3km. This might be a bit problematic for me since I'm pretty much a stat junkie that is a slave to split times. I may have to run with my Polar foot pod which to give me pacing feedback which I've never done in a race before.

BTW, today is my birthday!!! I turned the ripe old age of 32. Only three more years and my BQ time drops by 5 minutes. Woohoo! Something to look forward to!

Film Festival and Training

I was downtown at 7:30am this morning to line-up to pick-up my tickets, even though I already knew what movies I had. The box-office opens at 10:00am.  Why would someone line-up for 2.5 hours to pick up tickets, you ask?  Well it's not the line-up to pick up tickets that I (as well as everyone else that was down there) were worried about, it's the second line-up that forms for people wanting to exchange tickets that one is trying to avoid.  The only way you can get into that line, is if you have first have your tickets.  In total, for the two lines, I ended up waiting a little over 3.5 hours.  That's actually pretty good.  Last year, I think I must have waited 5 to 6  hours.

I ended up getting 17 of the 20 movies I chose and ended up picking up tickets to 2 others for a total of 19 tickets. I also have one voucher for another movie.  I'll play it by ear as to what I'll use the last ticket for.

I missed three movies that I wanted to see being Babel, Little Children and The Last Kiss.  These three movies are coming out in theathres so it's no big problem.  I generally won't pick movies that are coming out in theatres but Babel and Little Children are generating a lot of buzz as being Oscar material.  In addition, another reason to see these at the festival is that the director and the cast usually will come out to support the movie so it's a chance to see movie stars.

I decided to take off 2 days being Monday the 11th and Thursday the 14th.  I ended up picking movies to try and accomodate my training schedule which includes a half marathon race (maybe) this Saturday and a 17 mile long run the day after. 

So without further delay, here is the movie and training schdule.

Friday, September 8
4 mile recovery run w/ 6 strides in the morning
6:45 pm   7 ans

Saturday, September 9
half marathon @ 10:30am
3:45pm    Fido
6:00pm   Cages

Sunday, September 10
17 mile (maybe shorter) long run in the morning
3:00pm   Pan's Labyrinth
6:15pm   The Killer Within
9:00pm   Shortbus

Monday, September 11
Rest day
11:45am   Shame
2:45pm   All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
6:30pm   True North
8:30pm   Out Of The Blue

Thursday, September 14
Rest day
9:30am   This is England
12:00pm  Black Book
3:00pm   The Fountain
6:00pm   Snow Cake

Saturday, September 16
5 mile recovery
9:30am  Exiled
12:00pm  The Banquet
3:30pm   Severance
6:15pm   Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
11:59pm  Sheitan

I have a 17 mile run with 14@ marathon pace scheduled on the 17th which shouldn't be too bad if I sleep in.  

The TIFF website has a list of bloggers who are writing about the film festival.   I wonder if I should add myself to that list.  Hmm then I would probably be expected to write reviews for all the movies.  Nahh. 

I noticed that in one of the blogs, someone posted a picture of the lineup.  I'm actually in this picture.  Can you guess where??  (Where's waldo indeed)

Two 20 milers down, one to go

Thursday: Did 12 miles General Aerobic Running @ 8:30min/miles.

Saturday: Did 5 miles recovery

Today: Pfitz has 20 miles scheduled for today. I got up at about 6:30 this morning and after having Ernesto dump rain on us all day Saturday, I looked outside to only see more rain. I was dreading the thought of doing 20 miles in the rain. It was still early so I thought that I would go join the Running Room group today since misery loves company and they were scheduled to do 20 miles today also. So I head over to the store at 8:30 and walk in and notice the signs for the walkers, 5k, 10k and half groups. Hmm no marathon group. I ask the lady behind the counter about the marathon group and she tells me that they already left. It seems that lately because of the heat, they've been starting their runs at 7:30 in the morning. Crap. I thought that since I was already there, I would just grab a route map and do it myself, but not knowing the locations of pit stops was going to be a problem so I'd rather be with a group that's done it before. I then thought about joining the half group but they were only doing 16k which is only half the distance I was going. I would basically have to run another 16k by myself. In the end, I jsut decided to go back home where I could do a 20 mile route that I was familiar with. It seemed to work out okay in the end since it stopped raining at about 10am which meant I was relatively dry for most of the run whereas I would have been drenched if I had started earlier.

This was the last long run of the endurance phase of Pfitz' training plan. I've noticed over the past few weeks that my pace for my long runs has been creeping up slowly. With the speed work and races phase now beginning I thought it would be good to try and run this at a pace slower than I've been doing lately at 9 min/miles to concentrate on building some endurance since it looks like I won't be able to do this again for a couple of weeks. 20.7 miles done. Only one more 20 mile run to do. This was a 56 mile week which is the highest mileage week that Pfitz has planned. It's all downhill from here. yah!!

By the way, I found out what movies I'm going to see at the film festival. I picked 20 films and only ended up getting 17. They have a lottery system set up to distribute tickets and I was unlucky this year. 75% of the people in the lottery were ahead of me. I have to stand in line tomorrow for what I expect to be three hours to try and use up my last three tickets. Oh joy!!

Last LT pace workout!!

I just spent the last 4 hours reading movie summaries for the film festival. I have to drop off my movie picks tomorrow after work, but I'm having a really hard time trying to decide on which days to take off.

I did 12 miles with 7 @ LT pace this morning. I remember looking at todays workout at the beginning of my training and wondering how I would ever be able to do 7 continuous miles at LT pace. I guess I've come a long way since that time. I wasn't sure this morning how this was going to work out after reading about Bob's trouble with his own LT run and recalling my miserable 12 mile long run a few days ago. The run actually went surprisingly well.

Lap	Lap Time	Avg
3	07:23.2	163
4	07:25.7	168
5	07:17.0	170
6	07:15.6	172
7	07:13.1	173
8	07:08.5	174
9	07:02.3	175

The HR was about perfect and I managed negative splits for all but the first mile and actually managed a PR somewhere in there since my average pace for this LT run is actually faster than my 10km PR. My knee is still giving me a bit of a problem though. It doesn't hurt during the run, but it's sore afterwards.

This was the last LT training run for this training session, though I do intend on doing both a half and a 10km as tune-up races so I will obviously have to revisit LT pace for those things. After this week, I enter the "Race Preparation" phase of Pfitz' schedule which moves away from threshold and endurance runs to speedwork and races. I hope the body holds up till taper time.

Film Festival!!

I did 6 miles this morning (@ recovery pace) with 6 strides. I have 12 miles scheduled for tomorrow with 7 @ LT pace. I carboloaded today so should be fueled up for tomorrow morning.

I also picked up my Toronto Film festival package today. I've only started flipping through the 400 or so pages of movie descriptions. I gotta pick 20 movies from a huge list that fit into a reasonable schedule. I'm hoping to take only two vacation days which would eat up about 8 movies or so. The remaining 12 will have to fit into weekends and evenings.

One movie that I've been interested in is The Fountain, which is directed by Darren Aronofsky who directed Requiem for a Dream and Pi, two films which I really enjoyed. Another movie that is getting a lot of buzz is Babel which stars Brad Pitt. I think that both of these movies will be coming out in theatres since they are both supported by big movie studios so if I don't get to see them, it's no big loss, I'll see them eventually. Will let you all know the final schedule once I've had a chance to digest it all.

Crappy Long Run

So I had a crappy long run today. Supposed to be scheduled for 14 miles, but only ended up doing 12.5. After my MP run last week I thought that 14 would be a breeze. I got cocky and thought that I would try and tackle a hilly long run route which I haven't done at all this training session. Pfitz plan doesn't have any hill training which suits me just fine. i hate hill training. Anyways the combination of the hills, warm humid temperature, me not carboloading and the whole running in the morning after spending two weeks of running in the evening, led to a pretty sh?tty run where I was exhausted by the end of 12 miles.

Pfitz' plan has tune up races scheduled that start in two weeks. I've been looking at an 8km race that fits in quite nicely for the first tune up race, but I'd rather race a half which is also taking place on that day. I've heard that the half is a bit hilly which is why I tried to run some hills today. The half is a little more than what Pfitz recommends. He wants at most a 15km race and after reading Zeke's words of caution about racing a half while injured (my knee's giving me problems), i'm starting to think that the half may not be a good idea.

Film Festival

Thursday:  Did 5 miles at recovery pace. 

Today:  Did 8 miles at GA pace with 8 strides. 

My left knee has been giving me some problems lately.  I think it may be an after affect of having gone out too hard and for too long last saturday.  Thank God this is a recovery week.   I've been walking around for a couple of days with a knee brace to give it some support, but don't know if it's helping any. 

I bought some ticket passes to the Toronto Film Festival.  I've done what they call the "Festival Pass" in years past where you get to watch up to 50 movies over the course of a little over a week and found that it really screwed up the training.  2 years ago, I skipped a week of training which caused me to suffer during my first marathon attempt.  i did the festival pass thing again last year, but I had started my taper by that time for a late september marathon so it worked out okay. 

This year I've already used up about half of my alloted vacation days for the year and I still have vacation days that I need to use for Chicago, but still wanting to partake in the festival, I'm going to take a 2 or 3 days off to see some movies.   The schedule's not out yet so I have no idea what movies I'm going to try and see or even what days I'm taking off.  We shall see!

VO2Max Workout

Did my first VO2Max workout for this training session today. By the end of my work day, it started raining. I considered going to the gym to do them on a treadmill, but how do you measure 600m on a treadmill that displays miles? It was only a slight drizzle so I ended up going to the track. Jogged over to the track which is about a mile away as a warmup and started in. The plan has 5x600m intervals at 5k race pace with 90 s jog recovery. I had planned on doing these at 6:45 min pace which translates into about 2:30 for each 600m split. Splits and HR chart are (including recovery times):

Lap			Lap Time
2			02:19.7
3			01:38.4
4			02:24.4
5			01:32.1
6			02:24.1
7			01:33.3
8			02:23.9
9			01:28.6
10			02:24.1

Not including the first one, they were all done at a fairly consistent split time of 2:24 which translates to just under 6:30 pace. Don't think I could have run much farther though. Looking ahead, I see that the plan calls for 1600m intervals during the taper. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to maintain this pace for those things. Got to slow down a bit next time. HR topped out at 186 during the last interval which I think is pretty good considering that it was only 5x600m intervals. I'm hoping that when I do the longer intervals, I can use these VO2Max sessions to get a good idea of my max HR.

For those doing Chicago, I'm sure that you've probably read the email about the course now being up on the website (if you haven't go look at the interactive one, it's cool) and the voting on the t-shirt. I don't know about you others, but I like design number 2 better. It is a bit "busy" in terms of the graphic but I think it would make a better marathon t-shirt that I'd be proud to wear. The other design looks okay, but rather bland by comparison.

8 miles general aerobic

After running in the evening for most of last week, I was eager to get back to doing my training in the morning.  Set the clock radio for 6am, but forgot to actually turn on the alarm, so i ended up sleeping in which meant I had to (and will have to) do my runs in the evening this week.

Today was 8 miles.  It was fairly anti-climatic after having just run 30km at marathon pace on the weekend.  My legs today were kind of lethargic and my left knee is slightly sore. 

After having fussed about my expected marathon pace last week, I'm currently now fussing about my 5k pace.  The reason is that tomorrow is the first VO2Max workout of this training session for me.   The training plan calls for 8 miles total which includes 5 sets of 600m intervals @ 5k race pace.  Fooling around with the McMillan Calculator, I think a reasonable goal is to try and do these at 6:45 min/miles.

30 km race report

I did the inaugural 30 km Midsummer nights run last night.The short story is I ended up finishing in a little under 2:26.

The long story... After my carboload breakfast, I wasn't sure how to eat for the rest of the day. I ended up skipping lunch and eating a Tim Hortons apple fritter + small coffee at about 2pm and then a bagel with PB and jam at around 5:30 to prep for the 8pm race.

The weather seemed to co-operate. Though there were predictions for rain, it never really materialized, though I was starting to worry a little when there was a brief rain shower on the drive down.

Arrived with about 45 minutes to start time where they were handing out awards for those best dressed. People were dressed as fairies and butterflies, amongst other things. I ended up going in a bland white shirt. Picked up my ankle chip where I also received a clip on blinker and two glo-sticks. I also had brought along my bicycle blinker which I had planned on clipping to the back of my shorts.

The race started on time and it was still fairly light outside. I usually don't run races with my HR monitor, but since this was technically supposed to be a training run, I decided to wear it. I didn't wear my foot pod though as I was going to rely on the markers for pacing feedback. At the beginning of races, I have a tendency to get caught up in the flow of people. My original plan which was to start out at a slow long run pace quickly went into the crapper. I didn't see the first km split and passed the 2km mark at 9:16 which translates into a 7:27 min/mile. Yikes, though this could have been due to inaccurate markers. I tried to slow down a bit for the third km, and did, but still no where near the pace I wanted to be at that point. I then proceeded to start the marathon pace portion of the run even though I had already been running marathon pace up until that point.

The course was interesting. There's a mix of running on roads, paved trails, dirt trails, steel bridges and boardwalks. By the time I got to the Leslie spit it was dark and as I feared it was not lighted and I found myself stumbling at times due to the uneven footing because of the unexpected speed bumps. The dirt trails were worse where the uneven footing led to a couple of occasions where I almost turned over my ankle.

I hit the half way mark at 1:11:22 which averaged a 7:40 min/mile pace. One beef I had was the km markers. I found that the km markers were way off at points so it was hard to judge how fast i was going. Also it was so dark on the spit, you couldn't even see if they had km markers. As a result, after I hit the 15km mark, I didn't see another marker until 25km which means that for 10km, I had no idea of how fast I was going. Split times based on markers were:

km	HR Avg	min/mile		km	HR Avg	min/mile
2 (2km)	162	07:27.0		12	177	07:49.8
3	168	08:17.8		13	180	07:00.4
4	171	07:15.8		14	178	07:13.4
5	171	07:55.2		15	180	06:48.3
6	174	07:53.6		25 (10km)	175	07:54.8
7	175	07:49.1		26	175	09:00.3
8	174	08:16.2		27	171	07:13.6
9	176	07:43.8		28	174	08:09.7
10	177	07:08.6		29	173	07:56.5
11	174	08:45.0		30	175	08:21.5

I passed the 25 km mark at 2:00:32 which averaged a 7:46 min/mile pace. At this point, not only had I completed the Pfitz mandated 15 mile long run, but I did it all at slightly faster than marathon pace! For the last 5km, i tried to slow down to long run pace, but these were all still pretty fast. Final time of just under 2:26 which averaged to 7:50 min/mile! I had only intended to do 12 miles at marathon pace, but ended up averaging that for the whole 30km!

I'm not sure what to make of my HR. It seems a bit high for marathon pace, almost in LT range. I've never measured my HR during a marathon so I'm not sure how to interpret it. Can I continue to maintain this HR and pace for another 7.6 miles? This is complicated by the fact that it was humid and a bit warm, so my HR on a cooler day (such as on race day in Chicago) should be lower. I did finish with what I felt was a lot left in the tank so hopefully this means that the training is going well.

It was an interesting experience. Several complaints I have were the markers, and that there weren't enough marshalls. There were points were it was difficult to know which direction to go. Though it didn't affect me, several of the aid stations ran out of cups for some of the slower participants. Overall I enjoyed myself though I don't know if I do it again.

I didn't get home till midnight and didn't sleep at all last night. My HR was still racing. I've got bags under my eyes right now and feel like crap. Hopefully I'll be able to catch some sleep this afternoon. On the postive side, my legs feel great.

Since I skipped a 6 mile recovery run this week, but did do an extra 3 miles during the race, I'm at 45.7 miles for the week. I may head out for a recovery run tonight just so that I can reach the 47 miles that Pfitz has scheduled for this week.

I hope everyone else's long runs went well, especially those of you doing marathon pace runs based on Pfitz for Chicago. Thanks for reading.

Race Day, not really!

I did 6 miles at recovery pace with 6 strides on Friday night starting at about 9:30pm, just to get the feeling of what it was like to run  at about 10:30pm. 

I just finished a breakfast consisting of two plates of pasta to try and carboload for the 30k race tonight. 

I'm not going to be racing this, but will be using it as a training run.  Part of the run I'll be doing at marathon pace which I think will be between  7:50 and 8min/mile.  The plan for the race is to do 3 km warmup at long run pace, 20km @ marathon pace, 3 km long run pace and then 5 km recovery which should have me finishing in just under 2:40.  That's easy for me to say now, but once it actually gets dark, I may end up having to modify the plan. 

I'm going to be running in my new Sauconys which up until now I've only done recovery runs in.  I know you're not supposed to try anything new on race day, but the adrenalines are getting close to their 300 mile limit and I'm not sure they'll be able to give me the support I need for another 18 mile long run let alone one that includes 12 miles @ marathon pace. The Sauconys haven't given me too much of a problem yet, so my fingers are crossed.

Also the forecast is predicting a slight drizzle of run which means we won't be running by moonlight.  On the positive side, it will hopefully be keeping the insects away!

14 miles in the evening

Did 14 miles after work and it was tough.  This is the first time I've done anything other than a recovery run in the evening and I ended up having to gut it out towards the end.  My legs aren't used to having to move so much after a long day at work.  On the plus side, my HR is still quite low. 

Recovery Run

Well all, I decided to sign up for the 30km race this weekend.  I don't think I'm going to race it though and will probably just do marathon pace for about 2/3 of it.  One thing that concerns me is trying to run in complete darkness.  Part of the course is on a piece of land that juts out into Lake Ontario.  I've run on this part of the course before and know that there are SPEED BUMPS there.  I've never run there at night and can't remember if there are street lamps there, but I sure as hell hope so.  Otherwise I can see a lot of people doing face plants into the cement.   I never really noticed this part of the waiver before and am not sure if they added it just for this race but feel that it's particularly relevent  to running in the dark.

I assume any and all risks associated with the event; including but not limited to, falls, contact with other persons or objects, the effects of weather, traffic and course conditions.

Anyhow, I figured that the easiest way to move up my training schedule by a day to accodate the Saturday race is to just skip a training day this week.  It's not too bad since of the 5 runs scheduled, 3 of them are recovery runs.  I'll just skip one of the recovery runs which I'll probably partially make up for in having to run an extra 3 miles on race day.  Also I normally run in the morning, but will try to get my runs in after work for the rest of the week to get the body used to running in the evening. 

Having said that i did 6 miles at recovery pace starting at 8:30pm.  By the time I finished it was dark. 

Does anyone have any ideas on how to properly carbo load for a race in the evening?  Normally I would eat a good pasta dinner the night before a morning race and that would give the body a good 12 hours or so to have it processed.  If I tried to do that, it would require me to eat a pasta dinner at about 7:00 in the morning.  I don't think my stomach would handle that too well. 

One 20 miler down, two to go

Recovery run of 5 miles on Saturday.

Today, I did the first of three 20 mile long runs that my marathon schedule has planned. Ran down by the waterfront again. My initial plan last night was to do the run around where I live since it was going to be cool and I wouldn't need the cooling effect of the lake. I decided to go down cause I didn't want to miss the chance to see the Dragon Boat World Championships which are taking place today, nor the new waterfront trail that Yumke has been blogging about. The new waterfront trail is pretty neat. I don't know if it's a permanent thing but they've blocked off about a 1.5 mile stretch of road for the trail. The trail used to be a road so they had police officers at each intersection doing point duty to make sure that no motorists decided to mistakenly drive their cars onto the new trail. That was great with one small problem. Most runners will run through the red lights since there's very little traffic. The intersection is at the end of the street and the only traffic across the path are cars trying to get into the parking lots of establishments on the lakefront. I found myself having to stop for the red lights because there were cops there. I don't know if they were going to hand out jaywalking tickets but I didn't want to chance it. I noticed that several other runners were having the same problem as at each red light, there would be a runner jogging in place!

Pace was pretty good. Towards the end, I thought I had a lot left in the tank and decided I would try and do the last 2 miles at LT pace for a fast finish run which I picked up from a Runners World Training Plan. I ended up backing off though cause I didn't think I'd be able to finish it.

I've been recently considering my goal marathon pace as Pftiz has a marathon pace run scheduled for next week. My initial goal was 8min/mile. I think that may be conservative. My secret wish is to be able to do 7:45 since that would result in a 3:23 marathon which is half way between my current PR and 3:10 which is my BQ time. However I think that's a bit too optimistic at this time.

There's a 30km race next weekend and I'm trying to decide whether I should use it to do my marathon pace run. Drawbacks are that it's in the evening and it finishes in the dark. It's a bit pricey at $69 and it's an 18 mile run whereas Pfitz only wants me to do 15 miles w/12 @ marathon pace. It would also require me to rejig my schedule a little to accomodate the fact that it takes place on saturday. Pluses are that I get a technical shirt and water stations and that there are quite a lot of people registered for it so it should be a fun experience.

Week 8 complete. This was my highest milleage week ever at a little over 56 miles. I hope that everyone's long runs (or races) went well!

Tempo Friday

Did a tempo run this morning in the cool weather. 11 miles with 6 at LT pace. My splits for the 6 miles are:

Lap	Lap Time	Avg
3	07:41.7	159
4	07:30.3	167
5	07:23.0	170
6	07:25.5	170
7	07:21.5	172
8	07:16.1	171

I've had a tendency to start these LT things at too fast a pace which leads to a quick first mile. I tried to slow down my effort so that I would be on pace for the first mile, but as it turns out, it was a bit too slow. My HR has been way down the past couple of days and todays was no different. If you compare this to the LT I did 3 weeks ago or even the one I did last week in the super hot weather, my pace was a bit faster but my HR was way down. Todays tempeature was 13C which is close to the optimum marathon running temperature of 12C. I ended up picking up the pace throughout the run cause it didn't feel like I was doing tempo pace. As you can see, my HR rose and fell as I encountered hills which shows that I seem to partially recover during the run. I'm thinking that with the cooler weather coming that I should focus my pace for these things at 7:15 rather than the 7:30 that I currently am doing. Unfortunately Pfitz doesn't have another LT run for another 3 weeks so it'll be a while befor I can find out.

Coolness continued.

Did 12 miles yesterday morning in the cool weather. Pace was much faster than normal and HR was way down. I'm not certain, but I think I could have probably done marathon pace at the upper end of my long run HR of 160 since I was averaging about 8:20 min/mile at a HR of less than 155.

The plan for tomorrow morning has 11 miles with 6 at LT pace. Forecast predicts 13C for the morning which is almost perfect running weather. I'm kinda worried about it though since I've never done 6 miles at LT pace in training before. I have done a 10k at a slightly faster pace, but when that was over, i was able to stop. After tomorrow's 6 miles at LT pace, I'm still going to have to run another 3 miles!

The Pfitz plan is tough this week since it has the 11 miles (with LT pace) tomorrow, a 5 mile recovery run on Saturday than a 20 mile long run on Sunday. This week's mileage is the 2nd most of the training plan and I'm surprised my body is still hanging on. Knock on wood.

Coolness is good.

Headed out this morning for a 6 mile recovery run with 6 strides. I haven't run in a temperature that was less than 20 C for 2 months now. Hardly worked up a sweat. It felt great. I'm actually looking forward to tomorrows 12 mile run in the morning to see what my HR and pace are like at these cooler temperatures since it'll be a good indication of what I might be able to do during a marathon in October. What I'm not looking forward to is having to get out the door at 5:30 before the sun has even come up.

Nice day for a long run

Today was a nice day for a long run. I drove down to run by the lake again. The forecast was calling for some cloud cover so I didn't bother with sunscreen. It started out kind of cloudy but the clouds quickly disppeared. The plan calls for 18 miles today. My split times were pretty good. Slightly faster than I usually do but the cool weather was keeping my HR down so I maintained the pace. It was only towards the end when the temperature was rising that my HR was passing 160 which caused me to slow down slightly.

One thing I worked on today was my turnover rate. The general rule is that one should try and maintain a cadence of 180 steps per minute or having your right (or left) foot hit the ground 90 times per minute. I can usually do this at my tempo pace, but it gets difficult for me to do this at long run pace. I'm usually at around 80 to 82 which is too slow. Today I tried to get it up to 85 and I think it was partially responsible for my increased speed at a lower effort.

I used Gu's again and i think the taste is growing on me. I find them a bit more "cohesive" than Power Gels, meaning I can squeeze them into my mouth and it tends to stay together which is then easily swallowed with a bit of water. Power gels immedily start to break up in your mouth especially when you start drinking which sometimes means you get stuff stuck in the corners of your mouth. While taking a Gu at a water fountain, a guy on a bike started asking me about the gels and I ended up talking with him for 5 minutes about nutritional stuff.

Now my beef of the day. Yesterday was the Caribana parade by the lakeshore and it was a complete garbage dump around certain sections of the trail. There were styrofoam boxes, uneaten beef paties and just a general mess of garbage everywhere. I don't understand why tourists just think they can drop there garbage anywhere they want. Do these people do this at home?

Week 7 complete. About 51 miles. Tomorrow's a holiday. I'm going to try and get to the pool to do some cross-training (finally).

Treadmill music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

Enjoy!

Plane flight

Did 7.5 miles today including 8 strides Average pace of around 8:30 min/mile. Pfitz's plan is a bit strange this week as up till now it's been recovery runs of up to 5 miles the day before the long run which Pfitz has at 18 miles for tomorrow. Next week schedule is also a bit different as it has the tempo run on Friday, whereas it's always been on Tuesday's and there's a recovery run on tuesday in which I'm not really recovering from or for anything. Also next week is the first 20 mile long run.

I've started looking at flights to Chicago. Up till now, though I've paid the registration fee, booked vacation days and a hotel, and did all this training, a part of me always felt that if I had to bail I could and all I would be out is the $100 entrance fee. However the determining factor will be booking my flight as I'll probably empty out my frequent flyer account by booking the flight on points. At that point there will be no turning back. I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out when I should fly over.

Though I've done three marathons, I've never had to travel anywhere to do them. My initial thought was to fly over Saturday morning. I could get a good nights sleep at home and carbo load on Friday night, but I'm thinking that it would make for a hectic day on Saturday of getting to the airport, flying over, checking into the hotel, getting my race kit and doing whatever the heck else I have to do the day before the race. I think I'd like to fly over Friday, but am not sure if I should try and do it after work or whether I should just take that day off and fly over early afternoon. There are positives and negatives to both. If I travel after work, I'll get caught in rush hour traffic, probably won't have an opportunity to carbo load and my sleep that night might be a bit off. If I travel during the day, I have to take that day as a vacation day which I'd rather not do since i only have a few left. Decisions, decisions....

Mileage buildup

I forgot to set my alarm this morning and ended up sleeping in which is probably for the best. I did do my Pfitz mandated 11 miles after work though at around 8:50 pace. It was a lot cooler than's it's been and my HR was way down. Averaged a HR of about 155 for the entire run and that included about 1 mile at 8 min/mile right at the end.

I did part of the run around a local track and a guy who was walking around it asked me slow down so he could talk to me and started telling me that I shouldn't be running on the asphalt because its going to make my ligaments weak. I didn't want to argue with him so i just thanked him and went on my way. It did get me thinking though. I'm beginning to feel a bit of discomfort in my left knee. It's not painful yet, but if I try to do weight bearing one leg raises on the knee, I can't. It just doesn't seem strong enough. Maybe I should be doing some weight training for the legs. This Pfitz plan is a lot of mileage. My max that I've ever done in a week is 54.5 miles which I did once while peaking for a previous marathon. This Pftiz plan I'm doing, only has a max of 55 miles once also but has me doing 54 miles next week as well as 4 other weeks at 50+. I'm really beginning to wonder if I can handle all this mileage...

Damn weather!

I'm back from Houston. 4 mile recovery run scheduled today. Got up early at 6am hoping to use the gym at the St. Regis. Unfortunately they only had two treadmills and they were both occupied. Don't you just hate that! Thought about waiting around, but figured that if I was going to do 4 miles, there would be other people that would be waiting for me and would likewise be pissed off.

I checked outside and it was hot and humid, but there was a tad of a breeze, so i decided to chance it. Drank a bottle of water and headed out. I'm pretty used to recovery pace at around 10 min/mile so with no foot pod mesuring device, I took my old fashioned watch with two hands and thought I would head out for 20 minutes and then turn around and come back. There's a main road that runs by the hotel and so I thought if i stayed on that I would be fine. The problem I encountered though was that the street I was on didn't always have sidewalks and with the bushes, I really had to run close to the road. So i ended up detouring through some residential areas, just hoping that I wouldn't get lost. After 20 min, I stopped and turned around. Here is the route. A little over 2 miles one way which is just about perfect for my recovery pace.

Got back to the hotel and was dripping in sweat. My shirt, shorts and hair were just super damp. Here's a tip for you all. Don't wear grey shorts if you going to sweat a lot cause it shows quite a bit. I didn't want to actually go into the hotel cause I was afraid of dripping sweat all over the floors and carpet, so I ended up walking around out front trying to evaporate as much of the dampness as possible. One of the bell hops/vallet's was kind enough to offer me a bottle of water which I gladly accepted. After cooling down and strecthing a bit, I continued with the rest of my day.

Left Houston with no problem, and landed in Toronto with no problem. We had apparently just beat the thunderstorms in, but we must have been taxi-ing for about 15 minutes and when we pulled up to the gate, the T-storm had started which unfortunately means that the airport calls a red-alert and so the ground crews can't be outside and we can't disembark from the plane. We ended up spending 1.5 extra hours on the plane, about 100 feet from the gate just waiting for the damn weather to pass. The flight crew was telling us that if we had been 15 minutes behind schedule, we would have had to land in Cleveland instead. It was actually pretty interesting cause the pilot was allowing people into the cockpit to see what it looked like which is a rare occurence these days.

Houston! We have a problem.

10 miles scheduled this morning with 5 @ tempo pace. Got out the door at 6am and the sun wasn't even out and the temperature was 27C. I usually go out the door with a handheld water bottle filled with gatorade, but thought it might be wise to being an extra bottle of water, just in case. The 2 mile warmup was uneventful though it was quite humid. Started the tempo run, a bit fast and finished my first mile at 7:20, 2nd mile at 7:30 which is basically the pace I wanted to maintain, but the third mile was REALLY tough. I ended up doing it in 7:39, but felt like crap towards the end of it and not sure whether I could continue for another 2 miles, I decided to stop for a 2 min break. After which I finished the run. Not sure what the split times for these last 2 miles were cause I forgot to hit the lap button, but the 2 miles took me 15:30 which is about a 7:45 min/mile, but I was really slowing down towards the end. After that, took another extended break and then I finished the last 3 miles at the slow end of my long run pace. Hopefully this weather will pass soon cause this crappy weather is making my runs feel horrible, almost to the point that I'm starting to doubt whether I'll be able to run a strong marathon.

On another note, I'm going to Houston today! One of my collegaues had a meeting down there tomorrow, but had to pull out at the last minute. As the only other person that was involved with the file, I get to go instead. I only found out I was going yesterday and I'm only going for ONE DAY, but I get to stay at the St. Regis. Temperature looks way too hot down there. I'll probably have to do tomorrows recovery run in the gym.