Napa Marathon Report

Sorry for the delay. I have a lot of things that I wanted to document so sorry for the length. Much of this is really for my own benefit as I did a couple of things which I want to try and recall for later.

Just some background info about the expo. Fairly small. Only seemed to have local vendors from around the napa region. I ended up buying a pair of Asics 2130's for $80. These shoes are about $50 more expensive in Canada and that's before taxes. I had a flexibility test done. My hip flexors and IT Band are tight, which I already knew. I also had a lung test. My lung age is 30. Race kits were a nice heavy duty gym type bag in a choice of two colours. Had a few samples and a water bottle in there. Also got a long sleeve technical T-shirt. Pretty good swag for the fee that was paid. Pasta dinner was fairly standard fair. Salads, bread, pasta. They also had wine and beer . It's the first time I've attended a race organized pasta dinner so I'm not sure if the presence of alcohol is standard fair or not. Here's a pic of that steve had taken of me and him at the Expo.

Night before the marathon, I found myself at Target buying a few things for the following day. Bought some garbage bags, some bottles of gatorade, some masking tape and some multi coloured labels. The garbage bags were for warmth on race morning which I could toss if need be. I would only need one, but they obviously don't sell garbage bags in one-packs. The remaining items were for the gatorade. The Napa marathon has a unique feature in that they will place bottles that you give them at special tables every 3 miles or so. Usually you would only see this for elites at most marathons. I decided that I would carry a full bottle of gatorade with me at the start and have another full bottle waiting for me at the half way mark. I was able to handle this last fall so I decided I would carry a bottle for the whole race. Back in 2006 in Chicago, they seemed to have aid stations every mile and each aid station was long enough that I could get two cups if I needed. I wanted to try and simulate that liquid intake that occured in Chicago but since Napa only had aid stations every 2 miles, it would be necessary for me to carry my own. In any event, I wasn't sure how many people were going to be using the "bring your own drink" table so I bought a bunch of things to make a little pink flag for my gatorade bottle so I would be able to pick it up without searching too much. Just before heading to bed, I used my foam roller and The Stick to give my legs a good working over. Focused on the hamstrings and the quads. Retired at about 10:00pm

So race morning I got up at about 4:00 and started munching on a bagel with peanut butter and jam. I also downed one gel and some water. One benefit to staying at the host hotel is that they would bus us directly to the start line. In practice you didn't really need to stay at the host hotel since they didn't check to see if you were allowed to get on the bus or not. My bus was one of the first to arrive which meant we got first crack at the portapoties.

I packed 7 gels which as it would turn out was way too many. One of them was for comsuing just before the race. Of the remaining 6, I think I only ended up comsuming 3 of them. I also brought along some salt pills. I had carried 6 of them in a little plastic pill box. I've been reading that loss of electrolyes can cause cramping and so I wanted to try and avoid any cramping issues by taking these salt pills.

Standing around at the start, I found myself being quite cold. It was probably around 7 or 8C but the wind was really whipping around. I had stripped out of my warm up gear and put on the garbage bag and was wandering around trying to keep warm. I used the facilities one last time about 5 minutes before the race start.

The Start
The Napa marathon isn't chip timed, so in order to get a good time, you need to actually be close to the front which would seem to be a bit of a drawback but when you consider that no timing mat at the start also means you don't actually have to cross the start line, it evens out in the end. By the time I had finished my business, the start line was packed so I ended up starting to the left of the start line with a whole bunch of others. I didn't actually hear a gun or anything go off, but I jsut saw everyone start running so I started also. First mile I try to take it nice and easy. Didn't want to start out too fast. I was carrying too much crap in my shorts and it felt like they were going to fall down. I grabbed the draw string on the shorts and yanked on them. I would end up having to do this throughout the first half of the race. Goal for the race was 7:27 mile splits. I notice while I running that the wind which was really blowing around at the start is almost directly at our backs. Pass the first mile at 7:27. Exactly on pace.

Mile 1: 7:27

I decided to take a swig of gatorade after every mile since this is what I tend to do on my long runs. I was using a Poweraid bottle since it had a nice flip top on it. I had some trouble closing it at first and started to worry about wasting energy. Nerves I guess. Sometime during mile number 2, I start to pull off the garbage bag which I had started the race with. I had warmed up sufficiently and figured I would no longer need it. Since the first aid station was just after the two mile mark, I could toss it then. It was a bit tougher than I thought since the garbage bag was really stretchy. Got to remember to buy cheaper garbage bags next time. When I had finally got the garbage bag off, I realized that I had forgotten to take off my neck warmer and put it in my warm up bag. I really didn't want to toss it since it's the only one I have. I thought of maybe wrapping it around my leg or my arm or shoving it down my shorts or something, but I ended up deciding to just leave it on my neck since that's where it's designed to be. Here's a pic of me in the early part of the race. You can see the neck warmer. I like this picture cause both my feet are in the air and it looks like I'm motoring right along. Do mile two in 7:18.

Mile 2: 7:18

During mile 3 is when I really start to notice how much the wind at our backs is really helping us. This wasn't some sissy breeze but a really strong wind at our backs. There were a couple of gradual hills and I could swear that the wind was actually pushing me up the hill. Someone close by remarks about this and it was at this point that I started rethinking my goal. Hit the mile 3 marker in 7:25.

Mile 3: 7:25

So it was at this point that I decided that I would try for 3:10. Since the course is pretty much a point to point course in basically one direction, the wind was going to be at our backs for most of the race. I was already a bit behind pace due to the slower first few miles, but with the downhills coming up, I was sure that I could make up the time. I also started to notice that there is a severe camber to the road. On the straightaways, it wasn't so bad since you could run down the centre of the road, but the camber around the turns was quite severe and you couldn't compensate for it by running down the centre cause the whole road was sloped. Kinda like a turn in a nascar oval. Not quite as severe, but definitely noticiable Do miles 4 and 5 in 7:05 and 7:06 respectively.

Mile 4: 7:05
Mile 5: 7:06

After mile 5, the mental math indicated that I had basically caught up to where I wanted to be. I would now try and focus on running 7:15 splits the rest of the way. By this point, I had gotten a feel for the people running around me. Some had gone out too fast who were breathing hard. I knew they would fade. Others seemed to be moving right along. Next three splits were pretty much on pace. I took my first gel during mile number 7 to coincide with the aid station. Next 3 splits are pretty much on pace.

Mile 6 : 7:14
Mile 7: 7:09
Mile 8: 7:09

Even though the course as a whole is a net downhill course, the first half rolls up and down. There was a woman (who ended up winning the masters category) who would pass me on the uphills and then I would pass here on the downhills. You can see here in the background of the picture. We would flip back and forth throughout the race and would end up finishing withn 10 seconds of each other. During mile 10 is when I took my first salt pill, again to try and coincide with the aid station. It was kinda awkward since I had to tuck the waterbottle into my arm pit and pry open the pill box and then try and extract one pill from the very small box while I was wearing gloves without spilling the rest, all while doing 7:15 pace. I took my second gel shortly before the 12 mile mark. The next couple of miles through to the half are a bit on the slow side, but I'm still on Boston pace. I pass the half mark at 1:35:18.

Mile 9: 7:15
Mile 10: 7:20
Mile 11: 7:20
Mile 12: 7:25
Mile 13: 7:16
Half mark 1:35:18

Shortly before the 14 miles mark, I run through the aid station and pick up my gatorade bottle with the little pink flag on it. I turn down the offer of fluids since I had the gatorade bottle, but in hindsight I think I should have taken some water. It was shortly after this that I started to encounter the feeling of a side stitch. I don't think it was a true side stich as much as a stomach problem. I had really been overloading on the electrolytes and I don't think the stomach contents were quite dilute enough with the salt pills, gels and gatorade I had been taking. It was at this point that I decided that Boston wasn't in the cards. I could still run, but there was a small feeling of stomach unwellness. I continued on to the 16 mile aid station and comsumed only water at that aid station. Upon reconsidering my goals, I figurered I would try for the orignal goal of 3:15 or at the very least to try for a PR. I knew that my PR pace was 7:31 and since I had run the first half at 7:15 pace that I would try and maintain at a minimum 7:45 pace the rest of the way to average out to 7:30.

Mile 14: 7:19
Mile 15: 7:15
Mile 16: 7:47

I had a 3:15 pace band on so I knew what times I needed to stay ahead of that. I ended up slowing down a bit for the next few miles, partially to account for the few small hills and to partially try and recover from the stomach cramps. It was also during this time that the sun started bearing down on me and i was getting a bit warm. The first half of the course had some shade, whereas this portion is all out in the open. I think I took my second salt pill somewhere during these miles.

Mile 17: 7:57
Mile 18: 7:32
Mile 19: 7:56

Passing by mile 19, I was still 70 seconds ahead of 3:15 pace. Mile 20 had the longest hill of the marathon which consisted of a one mile gradual hill. This mile was done in 8:18. Mile 21 contains the remaining bit of a hill and then is followed by a downhill. Mile 21 was done in 7:45. I passed the 21 mile mark at 2:36:18 which is exactly the time I needed to be on 3:15 pace.

Mile 20: 8:18
Mile 21: 7:45

The next couple of miles though would be my undoing. During mile 22, i felt something in my left foot. It felt like a small stone or something had gotten in there and was rubbing up against the underside of my big toe. It was really starting to bother me. I tried kicking the foot against the ground to maybe try and dislodge it but it was staying fast. I considered stopping to try and remove it, but that would be a waste of time. I continued on. I dumped my half filled gatorade bottle at the 22 mile aid station. Mile 22 was done in 7:47.

Mile 22: 7:47

I had slowed down during mile 23 cause my foot my bothering me. I found that if i turned my foot a certain way, I could reduce the pressure on the big toe, but I was running very inefficiently. Most of the marathon had been run on the Silverado Trail in a southeasten direction. Mile 23 turns right off the trail in a southwesternly direction. Unfortunately, since the wind was coming from the NW, this now meant that for the first time in the race, I would now face a headwind. That first little bit into the wind was hard. Not feeling it at all during the race and then suddenly encoutnering it caused me to slow down significantly. Mile 23 was done in 8:22 which was the slowest mile in the race.

Mile 23: 8:22

By this point, I was pretty sure that 3:15 was not going to be doable and that the PR was looking to be a bit suspect also. Mile 24 continued onto into the wind and then turns southwest again making the tailwind present again. I had mentally decided that once I passed the 24 mile mark, I would try and turn it on to the finish line since it would only be about 15 minutes of suffering to the finish line and the possibility of still PRing. Mile 24 was done 7:56.

Passing by the 24 mile marked, i just couldn't get the will to turn the speed back on. My mind had settled into a comfortable pace with the wind at my back. Mile 25 was done in 7:48.

Mile 24: 7:56
Mile 25: 7:48

Mile 26 then turns back in a southwestern direction which means directly into the wind again. The course then winds through a neighbourhood and then finished at a high school. I thought about sprinting right at the end to pass a guy that was just ahead of me, but I decided not to since I had been using him to block the wind for me in the past mile and I figured he deserved to finish ahead of me.

Mile 26: 8:07
Mile 26.2 1:36 (8:00 pace)

So that's it. My calfs didn't cramp up like they did previously and I didn't have to stop to pee and I ran the whole way so I'm happy with that. I think I handled the on-the-fly change of game plan fairly well. The thing in my shoe turned out to be a bit of lint in my sock that had bunched up at the wrong spot at the wrong time. I'm sure that the PR would have been possible if I hadn't encoutered that at the 22 mile mark. I've got to look out for that stuff in the future.The post race party was okay. They served hot soup with bread and had massages available.







Hmm, looking back, I wished I had appreciated the scenery a bit more. When I took the opportunity to look around, I really think this has to be one of the most scnenic marathons around. I think I spent most of the time worrying about pace and turnover to really look around. If I ever do this again, I would take a camera along and take pictures everywhere.

Spent a couple of days in Napa. Did a couple of wine tastings and went on a hot air balloon ride. Then spent a day in san francisco. I have pictures, but unforunately i tried to upgrade the BIOS on my notebook computer yesterday and the damn thing wont start now. :( I think I'm going to have to pull the hard drive out to get at the pictures.

So I landed Wednesday morning to be greeted by a snow storm. I'm sitting at home right now with about 10 inches of snow that had fallen overnight with more to come. I hate winter.

[edited to replace water marked pics]

Napa Marathon Done

3:17:54 finish time. A little slower than I wanted, but I'm happy with the time. Race report to come.

Today is a new day.

Friday was a pretty bad day in terms of travel. Let's see. I arrived at the airport at 7:30am to check in and was told my original flight to Chicago had been delayed. This would of cause me to miss my connecting flght to SF given that I only had 35 minutes to make it. They rebooked the flight to san franciso. Passed through security and immigration and checked the status only to find that they decided to cancel the previously delayed flight to Chicago. Stood in line at the United counter to get both flights rebooked.



The new itin had about 1.5 hour layover which was okay. However, the flight to Chicago was then subsequently delayed. Did some mental math and it seemed to be okay if the flight actually left on the new time so I boarded the plane and then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes and then go through deicing. By the time we lifted off, I was pretty sure I was going to miss the connecting flight. Here's a crappy cell phone pic of the shore of lake michigan.





The only possibility I had was that the flight out of Chicago had also been delayed. As we were taxiing on the runway, I checked the status of the other flight on google and and found that it was running late. By the time I had gotten off the plance, they had closed the boarding gates for the other flight so I was going to miss the flight, BUT, a repreive occured in the form of a non-functioning plane. They ended up having to take everyone off the plane and putting them on another one which means I could now board the other plane, but in all likelihood, I wasn't going to get my luggage to come with me. This was pretty much the only option I had since the next two flights to SF were full and I didn't want to have to land in SF at some ungodly hour and then have to drvive 1.5 hours to the hotel. So landed in SF and as expected, my checked luggage didn't make it.


If I didn't have my luggage, it was still okay since I had all my running gear in my carryon with the exception of socks which I could buy anyways. THe only problem was I had no idea how to get to the hotel. I had brought along my automotive GPS and programed it with the address of the hotel, but it was in my checked bag. Doh! So I used the crappy rental highway map I had and drove along the highways hoping that Iwould eventually see a sign that said "Napa", whcih worked for most of the trip. I got into Napa and then had to cave and use the GPS navigation feature on my blackberry to actually get me to the hotel. I'm sure I'm going to get a lecture from the accounting department where I work about racking up a ridiculous amount of roaming data transfer charges, but I didn't have much other choice. ANyways I got here at just before 11pm (2 am Toronto time remember) and then conked out. Only got about 5 hours of sleep. Thankfully they delivered my checked bag to the hotel this morning and it's now sitting in my room. Apparently, it was sent back to Canada after the little mixup in chicago.

Had lunch with Steve today who drove out to Napa to meet me. Learned a bit more about his condition which I find very facinating. Slowly adding more bloggers to the list of people that I've actually met. Steve's doing a marathon in a few weeks in walking style so wish him well.

So I'm heading down to the pasta feeed in about half an hour, watch a little tv and then turn in for the night. I've decided I"m going to try for 3:15 tomorrow. I think 3:10 is a little unrealistic for me and since I can't register for boston this year anyways, there really isn't any pressure to try and meet that goal. Running a 3:15 now would accomplish two goals. If I can meet 3:15 now, it sets up as a minimum the potential of qualifying for the 2010 boston marathon since that will be my qualifying time then so at least I know that come fall I should be able to run it and also it would represent a 2 minute or so PR which I think is quite achievable considering the paces I've been doing in training.

The weather for tomorrow is looking okay. Starts out at 7C and finished at around 13C for a 3 or so hour marathon. Looks like it's going to be a sunny day though which may cause the temps to be a little warmer. It's going to be a bit warmer than i'm used to but I"m hoping that all the treadmill running as of late in the warmness of the gym will have acclimitized me to it.

Thanks all for the comments. I appreciate them all. I'll be thinking of you all as I run tomorrow.

Waiting at the airport...

so it looks like i didn't have to worry to much about making the 35 minute connecting flight since they decided to go cancel the first flight anyways. Apparently Chicago is getting hit pretty hard by old man winter and all flights in and out of there were delayed. So I'm sitting right now at the airport in Toronto waiting the extra two hours until the flight takes off.

Damn.

Boston registration for this year is closed now. Oh well. Life goes on.

Going to Napa...

So I'm heading to Napa! I'm leaving Friday and have no idea what I'm going to do when I get there. I've a bit worried about a 35 minute period in which I have to make a connecting flight in Chicago though. It was with either this or me having to catch a really early flight out or spend triple the airmile points to catch a direct flight. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I get there so I"m basically winging the whole holiday.

Running since Saturday was uneventfull. I decided to do my 12 mile long run on Sunday outside. It warmed up a bit and the sidewalks were clear. i realized that I haven't run outside in two weeks and figurered I should get one done before the race. I did the same route I did a few weeks ago of12.1 miles and it took me about 1 minute longer, but my HR was about 5 beats higher. The run a few weeks ago was before I got sick.


Yesterday, I did a 6 mile recovery run at the gym and today I did a 7 mile GA run with 2 miles @my Boston pace. The Boston pace portion was done at a HR of under 170 for most of the run which is a good sign. When I did these last fall before my first BQ attempt, it was closer to 177. Of course the running on the treadmill is a bit different than running at the track so it may not be a fair comparison.

I'm still trying to decide if it's worthwhile to go for another BQ attempt or to try and scale back to something a bit more modest. If I hadn't got sick, I would be trying for sure, now I'm just not sure.

Still deciding...

So I still haven't decided if I'm going to Napa next weekend. I still haven't booked a flight yet.The reason being that I've been trying to figure out if I'm coming down with a cold or something. I've not feeling completely okay and have a bit of a feeling of unwellness. I've been trying to figure out if it's me just recovering or if it's me on my way to something worse.

So this past week for training was pretty uneventfull and consisted of:
Tuesday: 7 miles recovery
Wednesday: 2 miles recovery, + 4 miles (6:48 pace) + 2 miles (7:13 pace)
Friday: 5 miles recovery with a few 45 seconds bursts at 6 min/mile pace

These were all done at the treadmill at the gym. I switched into a new pair of shoes and it's been causing me a bunch of weird pains in my legs and I've been giving myself some painful massages over the past few days. I'm planning a 12 miles long run tomorrow at the gym so hopefully things will be okay for the run.

So I requested to take next Friday and the following Monday and Tuesday off. I'm not sure that it'll be granted since it is quite short notice. It usually hasn't been a problem in the past, but with the recent merger at work, they may be doing things differently now.

MoreTreadmill Running

Did 17 miles inside. It's not so boring with the televisions if they're actually showing something interesting. Today interesting distraction was "America's Best Dance Crew". I'm sure it would have been even more interesting if I could have actually heard the music they were dancing to.

Anyhow 17miles done. Started out at 6.5 mi/hr (9:13 pace) for 2 miles, bumped it up by .1 mi/hr after that every mile until 7.5mi/hr (8:00 pace). Maintained that pace for 4 miles then did 2 miles@ 8.3 mi/hr (7:13 pace) which is my Boston pace. An older guy was using the treadmill beside me and his treadmill kept picking up my HR monitor signal and I think he thought he was having a heart attack when he saw the 150 show up on his treadmill! I had to explain to him the problem. The Boston pace portion was done at a HR of about 170, though it was getting to around 175 right near the end. I think I get excited when I realize that I only have a couple minutes of running left and it shoots the HR up. Anyhow the 170 HR is a good sign cause that's what I think my HR should be while doing marathon pace which means that it might be possible to go for the BQ attempt. I'm just not sure that I've done enough LT running to improve the stamina required to hold it for 26.2 miles though.

Again I noticed with my run today and the recovery run yesterday that I seem to be nailing a 180 cadence. I think it may have something to do with me spending time stretching after each run. Before I would just do a couple of quick stretches, but this past week, I've really focused on trying to stretch my hamstrings using different methods. Depending on how I point my foot while stretching, I've found that I can increase the stretch on the hamstring.

Lastly congratulations to Ryan who set a PR and BQ'd at the Last Chance for Boston marathon!

Recovery Run

5 mile recovery run at the gym today. I considered doing it outside since it was bright and sunny with no wind but a little bit cold at -7C. Started out at 6.5 mi/hr for 2 miles and then bumped it up by .1 miles every mile after that. I've been thinking that it's better if I do my runs indoors to get me used to running in warmer temperatures. I think it'll be easier to adjust from running in warm temperatures to running in cold than vice versa. Speaking of which, the long range 14 day forecast for the night before the marathon is a low of 3C which is actually pretty good. I have to wait until tomorrow before I can get an estimate of the high on the actual day of the race, but it's looking to be no higher than 15C which is about perfect marathoning weather. Hoping that there's no wind or if there is that it's a tail wind.

So went to the little get together yesterday and everyone at the new firm seems genuinely friendly and looking forward to the merger. I still have some doubts myself. The other firm is moving into new downtown office space in the autumn of 2009 at which time we will then join them. This means that it's going to require a bit of a commute for me.

Happy V-day!

Headed back to the gym again to try and do some intervals on the treadmill. Did 3 miles warmup at about 9:15 pace and did 3x1miles @6:18 pace. Was panting pretty bad on the last one. Then finished it up with 3 and a bit miles @ 9:00 pace for a total of about 10 miles. These intervals were done at a pace that was about what I did last fall so I'm hopefully in the same shape that I was in last fall.

Took another step towards running the marathon. Booked a hotel. Lucky enough to get a room at the host hotel but it's $209 a night for 3 nights. It's not even the peak season! That's crazy. I can always cancel it without penalty which is good. I may try and get a cheaper room somewhere if I can find one. Still looking at flights. I just might have enough airmile points to cover the flight if I don't mind taking a red eye home. Not sure if I should make a real vacation of it and stay a couple extra days. It seems a long way to go just to run a race and not do anything else.

Turnover

Did 5 miles of recovery on the treadmill today. Ran in the Nike Free's again. I'm not sure what happened but I was able to get my cadence to 180 while running at a pace of 9:15 min/mile. I can barely do that while doing LT pace. I think the combination of the Nike Free's and me having done an LT run yesterday caused my muscles (and brain) to remember how to turnover quickly.

There's been an interesting turn of events of work. As some of you may know, I work at a l aw firm but am not a l awyer. The firm is a very small boutique that specializes in i ntellectual property. Well we were told on Monday that we are "merging" with another much larger full service firm. In essence, we were bought. I'm not sure what to think. We have all been invited to attend an "informal" get together at the other firm on Friday where there is supposed to be "no agenda". I guess we'll see.

LT run

So I'm still considering the marathon in 3 weeks. Decided today to try to see if I could hold an LT pace for what I should be running for a BQ time since I'm still thinking there's a possibility of a longshot attempt at a BQ.

I did a 15km race back in August and averaged 6:49 pace so I thought I would try and see if I could hold that pace for 4 miles at what my LT heart rate should be of less than 180. Most of my LT runs lately on the treadmill have been at 8.6mi/hr which is about 6:58 pace. Had to do it at the gym today cause the weather outside is just a nightmare. I did a 4 mile warmpup and then set the treadmill at 1% elevation and 8.8 miles an hour for a 6:49 pace. The HR hit 181 a couple of times towards the end but i seem to have handled it okay. I was thinking of trying a simulated treadmill 10k race on Saturday to see if I could hold a pace which would translate into a BQ time. But I don't want to bite off more than I could chew since I haven't done any interval running in a while. Trying to suddenly do 6:30 to 6:35 pace might be a bit of a shock to the legs and I don't want to risk an injury.

Also you'll note that I've kinda changed the blog back into semi-anonymous mode. There's a reason that I'll probably let you in on in a little while but there's a need for me to be a little bit unsearchable.

On the treadmill...

10 days since my last post. Whoops. So I recovered from the cold and I've cut back on the mileage and squeezed in a bunch of shorter runs. Basically, since my last post, the runs have went like this:

Feb 2: 5 mile recovery
Feb 3: 14 mile long run
Feb 5: 5 mile recovery
Feb 6: 4.5 mile GA with 2@ LT pace
Feb 7: 6 mile GA with 4@ LT pace
Feb 9: 5 mile recovery
Feb 10: 20 mile long.

So today I did something I've never done before. A 20 mile long run on the treadmill. Longest previous treadmill run was 16 miles. Wasn't quite as boring as I thought it would be. Had to take the treadmill route cause it was windy as heck today and really cold outside. I'm in no mood to try and tackle the weather outside. It was also quite mild on Saturday and all the snow and crap turned to slush which just refroze this morning the sidewalks nice skating rinks. It's been a tough winter so far. Apparently, we've received as much snow this winter as we've received in the past two winters COMBINED and winter is not even over yet and there supposed to be another 10 cm coming on Tuesday.

So you might be wondering why I did a 20 mile long run today. Well I'm rethinking my decision not to do the NAPA marathon on March 2. I don't think I can BQ, but I think I might be able to PR. I was PO last year with not being able to PR and if I can PR now it would leave me a few months to build up to a solid base prior to attempting another marathon cycle for the fall. I'd like to try and get to a base of about 50-55 mile prior to starting marathon training, which would allow me to hit 70 miles/week or so for peak mileage. Since 55 miles in the past would have been my peak mileage, I think I'm going to need a couple of months to get the body use to it.

Sick...

No running since the long run on Sunday. I've gotten a cold and it's hit me pretty hard. I took yesterday and today as sick days from work. I had contemplated going to the gym to try and get some miles in but I figured that most people there wouldn't appreciate me spreading my germs around. I'm pretty sure I picked this cold up at the gym last Wednesday after my LT run since I started getting a bit of a sore throat on Thursday. I've been reading some stuff online about gym germs and it ain't pretty. Will try and do a shortish recovery run later today outside. Forecast is predicting a dumping of snow for tomorrow so it looks like I may have to head back to the gym on the weekend.

So you're probably all wondering why I've been doing marathon pace runs and 20 mile runs and 7 mile LT runs. You'd think I was training for a marathon or something. Well, in fact, I am or at least was. I signed up for the Napa valley marathon on March 2. I did this back on New Year's eve. This was going to be the last possible chance of getting to Boston 2008. Pretty nice, net downhill course. Officially, this marathon doesn't bill itself as being able to be used to qualify for Boston 2008 since the cut-off date for boston registrations is march 1, but I've been reading online and it seems that some people in the past have used it to qualify for Boston in the same year. Anyhow, I don't think I'll be running it since I don't think I'll be able to recover from this cold and get back into marathon shape by March 2.

Trying now to figure out what to do. With the pressure off for a winter marathon I can do a bunch of things which I had been holding off such as getting my wisdom teeth pulled and blood tests. With that out of the way, I can then focus on building up a base for a fall marathon.

Long run

I woke up after getting about 10 hours of sleep which is good. Was going to go out for a run and went to the bathroom to weigh myself and saw that I was only 141 pounds, which is light for me. I was dehydrated. Rather than risk trying a 20 mile run while being dehydrated, I ended up waiting till late afternoon to do the run. Carbed up and drank plenty of liquids in the morning and afternoon.

Wasn't too sure how the run was going to be considering the crappy recovery run yesterday and I still have a sore throat. Ran this by HR, trying to keep things between 155 and 160. I did a 10.2 mile route that I've used in the past and I did it twice. The second time I did it in reverse to mix it up a bit. Garmin says the first loop was 10.28 miles done in 1:26:49 and the second loop was 10.32 miles in 1:29:14. Based on this, it appears that Garmin overestimates distance by about 1%. Based on the true distance, I averaged 8:31 pace for the first loop and 8:45 pace for the second. Weighed myself after the run and I was 141 pounds which is the same weight I was in the mornin. I'm glad i didn't do this run in the morning cause I'm sure I would have suffered big time if I had.

Coming down with something...

Friday: Thursday, I was felling the start of a sore throat. I think the LT run on Wednesday took a lot out of me, but I was still feeling pretty good come Friday. Did 12 miles outside after work. I had wanted to do it in the morning but it was hard to get up. I did 12.1 miles at about 8:15 pace which was good considering a lot of it was on snowy sidewalks. The last 8 or so miles were done at 8 min/mile pace. Was felling pretty good on this run.



Today: Headed off to the gym to do a 5 mile recovery run with the Nike Free's. I really didn't feel all that well. I guess the 12 hour recovery between my last run and this one didn't help. I tried to slow down as much as necessary to keep the HR in check, but that didn't work. I started out at 10min/mile, but the HR got over 150. walked for a bit and reset the treadmill to 10:30 min/miles. Was just barely able to keep the HR below 150. It's run's like this that humble me. My run on Tuesday was also a recovery run at the gym but my HR was less than 140 for most of the run while doing 9:15 pace. I'm heading off to sleep now to hopefully try and get some recovery for my 20 mile run tomorrow.

Nike Free's

Tuesday: Went to the gym to do a 6 mile recovery run. I was also supposed to do 6 strides, but those are kinda hard to do on a treadmill. I ended up doing 5 miles recovery and 1 mile at an LT pace of 6:49min/mile. Decided to try running today with a pair of Nike Free's. I've been looking lately at information on improving running form and the subject of running barefoot came up. I bought a pair of nike free's about two years ago and I wore them for one weekend and ended up with sore ankles so they've been sitting in my closet ever since. I thought I would try them on a recovery run at a nice slow pace. First couple of miles my feet hurt in the strangest places, but it seemed to get better and was even able to handle the 1 mile at LT even though I wasn't planning on doing it. The shoes really force you to forefoot/midfoot strike and increase your leg turnover. Even running at recovery pace, I was turning over at 170 when I would normally just barely get over 160 using regular shoes. I think I'll start doing my recovery runs in these things.

Today: Went back to the gym to do 12 miles with 7@LT pace. Started out with 2 really slow miles at about 10min/mile pace and then started in at 8.6mi/hr (6:58min/mile). Maintained that for 5 miles and then bumped it up to 8.7 for one mile and then 8.8 for the final mile. HR rate seemed to be in a good zone for this and is actually a bit lower than when I did 6 miles at 8.6mi/hr about 1.5 months ago. Finished up with 3 miles at various paces. It's weird cause my leg turnover seemed very low for this, only at about 170 which is what I was doing the day before for my recovery run in the Nike Free's.

Cold and Windy

Plan for today was 15 miles with 12 @ marathon pace. Had thoughts about doing at the gym but with the sidewalks free of snow, I wanted to toughen myself up by doing it outside. -10 C but lots of wind whipping around so I wasn't entirely sure if it was in or out.

Decided that I would do a quick three mile warmup returning home and then if i didn't want to do it, i would go to the gym. Dressed up quite warmly. One interesting thing to note was I used some chapstick for the first time this season. I like the plain kind with no flavour to it. I know that it typically comes in a black tube. I picked one up at a convenience store a couple of weeks ago and just shoved it into my jacket pocket. I only opened it today and noticed that the contents were pink! The label had these ruby red lips on the them which I guess means that they're for women. I'm pretty comfortable with my masculinity, so I put it on anyways since it was all I had. I did check to see how it looked in the mirror though. You could hardly tell. I guess this is how it starts. Next thing you know, I'll be wearing women's underwear!! Maybe not...

The three mile warmup went okay and so i thought it would be okay to do the MP portion outside. Rather than try to aim for a specific pace, I ran this using HR as a guide. Goal was to keep the HR less than 170 and let the paces fall where they be.

Lap Time	HR Max	HR Avg
07:10.3	203	169
07:25.6	172	167
07:28.1	172	169
07:27.9	172	167
07:26.1	173	168
07:28.9	171	168
07:26.4	170	167
07:43.2	170	165
07:37.4	172	166
07:19.3	172	168
07:36.6	170	168
07:29.4	172	168

These are garmin splits which I don't quite trust. Garmin says I did 15.3 miles total, but the two routes I used were exactly 3 and 12 miles so I only did 15 miles total. I also got to try my fancy water bottle with the kicker valve which worked out great. No clogged nozzles with frozen gatorade which I had problems with last winter. It was getting a bit tough to get liquid through the nozzle towards the end of the run, but I could still drink from it. When I got home, there were ice crystals forming in the bottle so I think the kicker valve did it's job.

Winter is back...

Wednesday: Headed to the gym after work to do 10 miles including 5x1000m intervals. Didn't actually get there until 9:30pm or so and was there until they closed at 11pm. The treadmills at the gym have an interval button where you can input a jog speed and a run speed and you can switch between the two speeds by jsut pushing the button. I set the run part to 9.2 mi/hr (6:31 pace) and the jog pace to 3.5. Did three tries at that, but it seemed that my HR wasn't getting too high. (HR spiked on second interval) Wasn't even hitting my LT HR which is usually around 180 or so. I bumped up the pace for the last 2 intervals to 9.3 mi/hr (6:27 pace) where I was just barely able to squeak over 180 for the last 30 seconds or so of the interval. Then ran a few more miles to get to 10 total.

Thursday: 12 miles on the schedule again in the evening after work and didn't start out until late. Did it outside. Got through about 9 miles okay until i started getting intestinal cramps. Had to walk for about half of the last few miles. Only did about 11.5 miles.

Today: 6 miles recovery with 6 strides. Back to morning running and back to the high HR. Even though this was at recovery pace, this felt tougher than it normally would.

Well winter has returned and it's -12C outside right now. There's no snow on the ground which is good. I wanted to try and do a marathon pace run tomorrow morning outside but I'm thinking it might be better to just do it at the gym.

Running in the Evening

Did 5 mile recovery run this evening. We got a couple cm's of snow that partially melted and then refroze so some of the sidewalks were covered in ice. For the whole 5 miles, I averaged 9:50 pace which is really slow for me. My HR was way down. I usually like to keep it just below 150, but I was less than 140 for most of the run. I've noticed lately that running in the evening allows me to run at a lower HR than I would otherwise. I think it has something to do with me being all carbed up by the time I get around to running in the evening whereas morning runs I tend to do on an empty stomach having not eaten anything for a good 9 hours or so.

I'm going to try and do some 1k intervals tomorrow evening. The ice means the track is out of the question so it looks like I'll be trying to do them at the gym. Haven't tried intervals at the gym before so this will be a learning experience.

Update

Tuesday:
5.4 miles recovery @9:15 pace

Wednesday:
Ever have those runs where you feel you can go forever. Well that's what this run felt like. 12.1 miles @8.35 pace with the last mile @7:20 pace.

Saturday:
Was supposed to do 11 miles with 6@LT pace on Friday, but didn't get to it so I did it Saturday morning. Wanted to get to 50 miles for the week so decided to do the 11 miles in the morning and a 5 mile recovery run in the evening. Headed to the track in the morning to run 24 laps. My normal shopping mall parking route wasn't an option since they still have HUGE mounds of snow that have been shovelled into my regular 1 mile route. With the nice run on Wednesday, I decided to see if I could handle just under 7:00 minute pace for this since I pulled that pace off 5 weeks ago at the gym. First three laps were okay for pace but the HR was a bit too high. Tried to continue at that pace and pulled off a few 7:03 to 7:10 for laps 4 through 8. Lap 9 however had me beat where I pulled off a 7:15 pace lap. By this point, I had done 2.25 miles but was gassed. Decided to take a short breather and then run the remainder using HR as a guide trying to keep it less than 180. The remaining laps were between 7:20 and 7:30 pace which isn't too great. I think my form has gone into the crapper. Normally when I do LT's my cadence is close to 180 or so, but I could barely get it to 170 for this. I think the lack of strides is making me run sloppily. Did 5.4 miles in the evening at recovery pace.

Today: 18 miles. Ran basically the same route I ran last week but was able to do it about 3 minutes faster for 8:50 pace.

Got to 51.9 miles for the week with 34 miles done in the past two days. Nice!

So been kinda busy at work this past week. I got a new crackberry. I've been using the old blue one for three years which is the equivalent of bringing out one of those brick sized cell phones and could hear people snicker when I would bring it out. Not anymore, I got a fancy new one with a camera and a GPS built in. Missed my run on Friday because I was playing with it. There's some interesting "stuff" going down at work which unfortunately I'm not entirely privy too. I haven't been there long enough that the boss will confide in me, but I've been there long enough to see that things are changing. A co-worker of mine who joined a year after I did quit just before Christmas and I'm thinking that he had the right idea...

Getting warmer

Took Friday and Saturday off from running to try and let the soreness in my leg go away. I've been using the Ultrasonic device that I bought last year these past few days to help make the pain go away. I was never really sure it did anything as it's not like a massage where you immediately feel better right after. The pain just kinda goes away with time, but that might be just due to other thinks like cutting back on running and icing that I also tend to do when I'm injured. I think it's doing something but I'm just not sure.

I managed 18 miles today at 9 min/mile. Didn't want to push too hard because of the leg. Plus I was worried about bonking since I didn't eat much on Saturday and basically went 16 hours prior to the run today without having eaten anything. Weather today was about 5C which is a great temperature to run in, but just not so great when there's lots of snow on the ground cause it starts to melt and you just end up with big puddles of water and slush everywhere. It supposed to get up to 10C over the next couple of day with some rain. I'm hoping that it's just enough to melt the snow at the track so I can do some intervals since I haven't done any in a while. 39 miles for the week. Plan for the upcoming week is to try and get to 50 miles again which will include a 6 mile LT run at some point.

So I no longer have my non-functioning Forerunner 205. It was returned yesterday. Actually I was going to try and get it exchanged for one that worked, but they didn't have any more in stock, so I ended up exchanging it for one of those car GPS units. I think that this works out for the best since I'm really keen on getting the new Forerunner 405 when that gets released.

Forerunner 405

I commented last week that I thought garmin was going to release a new GPS model in the new year. Well guess what?? Forerunner 405. Read and drool!

Injury

Went to the gym yesterday and did 5 miles @6.5mi/hr (9:13 pace). I wanted to do 11 miles today starting out at 6.6 mi/hr and increasing the pace by 0.1 after every mile until I got to 7.6. I ended up stopping after 5 miles. The reason being I've been nursing an injury for the past week or so. During a couple of the runs last week, I kinda turned over my ankle a couple of times. It didn't really bother me at the time but I think I strained a ligament or something cause it's been kinda uncomfortable to run these past few days. There's this dull achy pain around my left Achilles tendon, but it's not the Achilles tendon. Hopefully tomorrow's day off will help with the healing process. I'd still like to get a 17 mile long run in this weekend so I'm keeping the fingers crossed.

First Race of 2008

Plan for today was to do 10 miles today with 5 at LT pace. There was a 9 km "Hair of the Dog" race downtown by the beach which works out to about 5.6 miles so the plan was to go down there and register as soon as possible and then do a quick 5 mile warm-up followed by the race. Unfortunately due to the weather and some snow, I didn't actually get down there until about 40 minutes until start and didn't get a chance to warm up.

So to give you some background (from wikipedia), the "Hair of the Dog" is a short saying for "the hair of the dog that bit you" and comes from medieval times when it was believed that if you were bitten by a rabid dog that you could prevent the onset of rabies by placing a "hair of the dog" into the wound. Of course, we know today that's just silly. In modern times, the "hair of the dog" is meant to be a hangover cure and considering that the race is on January 1st, the race is appropriately named. Supposed the "Hair of the dog" is to refer to curing the effects of a hangover by simply drinking more alcohol. Now that just makes perfect sense!

Anyhow so back to the race. It was windy, snowing and the running path which comprised a paved trail and a boardwalk was covered with snow, and not just that light fluffy stuff, but that dense packing stuff that turns into ice when it's compressed when you step on it.

So the race started and I was moving at what I thought was an okay clip but not so great considering the not so great footing. Passed 1 mile (according to Garmin) at7:23. I was basically following this guy in front of me since he seemed to know where he was going. Unfortunately he was jumping back and forth between running on the boardwalk and running on the trail that runs adjacent to it. He leads me out of the beaches area and we pass the 2nd mile mark at 7:44 which I realize is a bit too slow for my liking. By this point, we're on a part of the trail that I'm familiar with since I've run on it before and so I decide to pass him. The trail then turns adjacent to this side road and I decide to jump onto the road to gain a bit more traction. I hit the turnaround point at about 21 minutes flat where they have these little cups of water, OJ and peach schnapps (hair of the dog, remember...). Grab a cup each of the alcohol and water and head for home. Mile 3 split is 7:32. At this point, I've decided to run on the trail again and the lack of traction is causing me to slow down again. Mile 4 is 7:37. Continue on and pass a couple of people and Mile 5 is at 7:26. I pull up behind this one guy who must have heard me coming cause he then takes off like a jackrabbit and I can't keep up. Finish the last .54 miles in 4 minutes flat or 7:30 pace. Garmin says the course was only 8.9km which could be true considering I have no idea if we were following the right path or not. Not sure of my official time or placing since I didn't try looking for any results after but garmin says 41:45 but it's probably closer to 41:50 since the garmin auto paused when I stopped at the turnaround to drink some fluids. So overall pace was around 7:34 min/mile. This pace seems to be my maximum "running on snow and ice" pace since this was almost the same pace (7:36) that I did a few weeks ago during a 10 mile race with similar conditions.

Afterwards stuck around to eat some food and watch the awards ceremony and then headed home. I still had to do 5 miles to get me to my 10 miles for the day which I did just a little while ago at around 8:45 pace.

Going to try and do a recovery run tomorrow morning to get back into morning running habit. It's supposed to be super cold tonight so it might be that I end up doing it at the gym tomorrow evening.

2007 Done.

Well here it is, December 31, 2007. Did 6.2 miles on Saturday with three miles done at LT pace and the rest at long run pace. Did 17.4 miles yesterday at about 8:45 pace. Total for the week was 54.2 miles.

Time to reflect on what was learned over the past year and see how I did. It was at this time a year ago where i was reflecting where I was at and setting goals for 2007. Unfortunately none of my goals from last year were met so I guess looking at that is a bit of a downer. I did kinda set these unofficial PR's in the 5, 10k and half as part of longer races:

5k-20:48 (1st 5k of 15k race)
10k-42:02 (1st 10k of 15k race)
half - 1:33:20 (1st half of marathon)

It would have been interesting if I had done a couple of these distances to see how well I would do but I guess that'll be in the new year. Of course the elusive marathon PR and obvious BQ was absent for this year, but I'm hoping that'll come sometime next year. I did do 9 races this year but only really two of them were done in peak condition and as an all out effort. The rest were either training runs or where I was in pretty bad shape. Races were a 5k, 10k, 15k, two 10 milers, two half's and two marathons.

My mileage this year was slightly down from 2006's total of 1865. Total was 1825 miles for 2007. I've been reflecting a bit more and think that it might be necessary to up my mileage a bit to something in the 60-70 mile per week range. I think I've basically plateaued for speed doing the 55 mile per week thing so the next jump in performance may need to be a result of an increase in mileage.

As for races in 2008, I do have plans for a winter marathon and maybe another BQ attempt in the next few months just so that I can try and get to Boston 2008. I'd really like to be there since the woman's Olympic trials are there this year and it would be neat to be a part of it. But alas, want-ing and do-ing are two different things. For now, I've removed the countdown timer since I'm still not sure what the plan is or what marathon I'm doing. I did splurge and register for a US marathon in the next couple of months, but that's just to force me to train. Not going to tell you all which one it is yet, since I may change my mind at some point. Final decision will have to be based on how the training goes over the next month or so.

I also have plans for a fall marathon, not sure where yet. I realized that if I get a 3:15:59 in a fall marathon next year, I will have qualified to run Boston in 2010, but that's a long way off, so the hope is still to gun for 3:10:59 in 2008.

Of course there will be a lot of little races that I'll do next year, including a 9k race tomorrow, maybe. I'm thinking of doing as an LT run. I've had a hard time trying to do LT runs lately and I think it would help if I had some people pushing me (not actually "pushing" me like I'm on a sled; you know what I mean)

Anyhow, here's to 2007 and may all your wishes and dreams and goals for 2008 be met. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Finishing up the year

Got a couple of running related gifts this year including a Garmin 205! The prices of these things has just dropped over the past year which kinda starts making me think that Garmin is going to introduce a new model in the new year and they're trying to clear out some of their inventory. Now I can get all those neato satellite pictures of my runs and things. Only problem is that it seems to be DOA as the thing doesn't charge up or turn on and yes I did read the manual. Going to try and get it exchanged.

So running for this past week has been pretty good. I did 10.2 miles on each of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, doing the exact same route each time. Averaged 8:30 pace on Tuesday, 8:15 pace on Wednesday and did a longish recovery run at 9:25 pace on Thursday. I think this is the first time I've ever done three straight days of double digits runs. I'm going to try and do a faster LTish thing tomorrow for about 6 miles or so and a longish long run on Sunday. I passed 1800 miles for the year with my run on Thursday and add to that the 20ish or so miles this weekend and I'll be about 40 miles short of the 1864 miles that I was able to put down last year. I don't think this is too bad considering I was injured for part of this year it and I only went through one real marathon training cycle.

Treadmills

So I'm starting to hate running on the treadmill at the gym. Went to the gym on Wednesday to try and do 9 miles and ended up doing only 5. Wanted to try and do a 7 mile LT run Thursday and only ended up doing 5miles total with only 3 at LT pace of 7:06 pace. Treadmill running is getting boring. They've added these new hi-def tv's which is good but the only way to get sound is to plug earphones into the side of the machine and the wires get in the way of the arm swing. I think the new layout at the gym isn't the greatest since there really is nothing to look at other than the TV. Before you could look at your form in the mirror or at least watch other people but since all the treadmills are now in a row, it's not possible to do either.

Did 10 miles on Friday outside at about 8:35 pace. Was going to try and do 16 miles today as a long run but slogged through about 10 and called it a day. My HR is definitely higher than it has been in the past. Total for the week was about 43 miles which is cheating a bit since the 14 miles I did on Monday was actually supposed to be for last week.

So I'm thinking of bailing on the idea of a February marathon. I'm not liking the thought of putting in higher mileage in this winter slushy stuff and the treadmill running thing is just going to keep getting more boring so I'm thinking of just putting in maintenance stuff over the winter.

Not sure if I'll post again prior to Christmas so Merry Christmas all!!

Gym run

Didn't get out for a run on Saturday like I had planned. Sunday was basically a lost since we got about a foot of snow dumped on us. I'm taking today and the next three days off of work so I decided to try and do a long run at the gym today since most of the side walks still aren't clear.

The gym has finally opened up their new area. They've relocated the cardio and weight equipment down to where the pool and whirlpool areas used to be. But they've really packed all the machines in there and they didn't even move it all since they're still renovating another area where they expect to add more treadmills. I think there's only half the number of treadmills that they had previously. I have a feeling that come January when people start making their new years resolutions that this gym is going to be packed. Also, because of the renovations, they now have this convoluted way of getting to the locker room that requires one to walk through the shower areas which feels kinda weird. Plus everyone is tracking their dirt and muck from outside onto the shower room floor which isn't exactly the cleanest.

Anyhow, it's been 9 days since my last run. Looking back, I haven't skipped that many days since I skipped two and a half weeks back in April due to an injury. I wanted to do a long run today and started in at 7mi/hr (8:34min/mile) and almost ended up quiting after three miles since I just wasn't feeling right. Decided I'd quit after the 7 miles and ended up pushing the pace a bit right at the end of the first hour to 7.5mi/hr. Stopped, got off the treadmill to drink some water and then convinced myself to do do another 3miles to push the total into double digits. By this point I think I had gotten my second wind and I ended up doing another 7 miles for a total of 14 for the day. I did the last two miles at 8.3mi/hr (7:13 pace).

Not too happy with the HR since it was over 160 for portions of the run, considering that previously I was able to run 30 seconds per mile faster with the HR below 160. But I guess it's kinda expected considering the week off.

Looong week

Well it's been a very long week for me. Trying to survive on 4-5 hours of sleep a night. As I expected no running for me and no time to do much of anything else. I had intended on doing a short run this morning, but considering that I just woke up about half an hour ago and I 'm meeting the parental units for brunch (today's their anniversary) in about half an hour, that's not going to be possible. I may try to get a short run in later today, but depending on how it goes, I may go a bit longer. We're supposed to get a big dumping of snow tonight so running outside tomorrow might be a tad difficult.

Busy Busy Busy.

Was supposed to do a run on Friday, but I didn't get much sleep Thursday night. The LT run still had my pretty agitated. I guess it's true that you shouldn't do exercise before you go to sleep. So the plan had a 20 mile run for Sunday but I have a pretty big work related thing this upcoming week and based on past expereince of having to prep for it, it was going to be impossible to do it on Sunday. I decided to bail on trying to make up the Friday run and so I did the 20 mile run on Saturday night. Did 2 10 mile loops around my home which allowed me to refill my water bottle and use the little boy's room.

Lap	Lap Time		Lap	Lap Time
1	08:46.9		12	08:28.5
2	08:22.6		13	08:27.9
3	08:21.2		14	08:20.1
4	08:15.0		15	08:18.9
5	08:24.8		16	08:18.6
6	08:09.6		17	08:28.2
7	08:21.3		18	08:30.9
8	08:09.9		19	08:29.5
9	08:36.4		20	08:27.5
10	08:13.4		21	01:48.5
11	08:25.7

Lap times were pretty consistent. This was a comfortable pace, but I'd still like to be doing these faster. Total for the week was only 37 miles. I'm starting to rethink whether a February marathon is going to be possible since my training is really starting to get crappy. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be able to any runs until next weekend and I've already been skipping training days so I have a feeling my fitness isn't going to be so great come February.

I'm still reading everyone's blogs, but since I tend to do it at work lately, I haven't commented a lot. I'm still trying to keep this blog away from my work peeps and I have no idea what things they monitor there so I try not to acknowledge my blog in any fashion while at work.

Happy running all!

LT Run

Had my office "Holiday" luncheon today. We used to have a full dinner party where we could invite guests but my company has grown quite a lot since I started there and the size of the party got a bit too unmanageable and presumably quite expensive so now we just have a Lunch where only the employees attend.

So the plan today was supposed to be 1 mile intervals at 6:20 pace but I was still kinda PO'd that I skipped the LT run last week so I decided to do that instead. I'll try and work in some strides for my General Aerobic run tomorrow to compensate. Wanted to do it in the morning, but I'm still having difficulty getting up, especially considering that it means having to drive over to the gym at 6am in the morning since the snow and ice is preventing me from doing my LT runs outside. So lunch finished at4pm and I headed to the gym about three hours later still feeling quite full.

I decided today to try something different. Most of my gym runs start off being uncomfortably warm and only after I've built up some sweat to assist with cooling do I seem to get into a groove. So I decided to pre-wet my shirt to help with the initial cooling and that seemed to help bunches. It was cold and clammy and just generally icky putting it on, but once I started running it didn't bother me. The goal was to do 2 miles warmup and then 6 miles at 8.6mi/hour or just under 7 min/miles. Got through it pretty good and the HR didn't creep up as much as it normally would and remained at or below 180 for the entire run.



Normally I would run on the treadmill with a 1.0 grade elevation but I've found that I end up using the exact same muscles each time which causes them to get sore so I let the treadmill pick random elevations this time. Hopefully that'll add enough of a mix-up to prevent my legs from getting sore.

Knee ache

Just got back from doing 9 miles outside at about 8:45 pace. Most of the sidewalks were clear but there were a few places where I almost turned over my ankle. I think I'm going to try and do my long runs and general aerobic stuff outside rather than on the treadmill. I'll probably have to do the LT stuff and intervals inside though which I'm not looking forward to.

So my left knee was aching quite a bit yesterday. I didn't get a chance to cool down or stretch after getting kicked off the treadmill on Sunday and I think it led to tight hamstrings which usually causes me knee pain. I was thinking of making an appointment to see my A.R.T. guy but it got me thinking a bit. At the race two Sundays ago they didn't have the normal massage therapist but rather they had a chiropractor there. While checking out their setup, I noticed they had an A.R.T. manual so I signed up for the service thinking that I would get a free A.R.T. treatment. I explained to the nice chiropractor the symptoms of my knee pain and after feeling around on various parts of my leg, she ended up doing chiropractic adjustments on my knee and hip. Completely different from what my normal chiropactor would do. So who's right? Trying to find out a bit more about the chiropractor, I plugged her name into Google and I found out that she is quite the accomplished runner and has ran sub19 minute 5k's. Suddenly her opinion seems a lot more credible considering that she is a pretty good runner and is way faster than me. Her practice is a bit out of my way so I probably can't get treatment from her clinic, but it's caused me to think that maybe I should look around for another chiropractor.

Getting Tougher

First off congratulations to Jen and to Quinto Sol for setting PR's at CIM!

This past week was tough to get running.

Last Tuesday I did 8 miles on the treadmill at the gym. Did a first mile @ about 9min/mile pace and then tried to do the rest at 8min/mile but was feeling a bit pooped at the 3 mile mark. SLowed it down to 8:15 pace or so for mile 4 and then slowed it down again to 8:30 pace for the remaining 5 miles. Probably not too recovered after the semi hard race on Sunday.

I didn't run on Thursday or Friday even though I was supposed to. Thursday was supposed to be a moderately difficult 6 mile LT run at 6:53 pace, but I just didn't feel like it. Skipped the Friday run also. Not too good.

Headed to the gym on Saturday in the hopes of doing the 6 miles LT run that I had skipped, but that went kinda blah. Did 2 miles slow and then wanted to do 6 miles at 7 min/mile pace. Got through about 2 of the LT miles and then had to stop to walk for 2 minutes. Tried to do another 2, but bailed after only one more mile. Gave up on that.

Yesterday, we got dumped on for the first snowfall of the season. With the relatively light 5 miles on Saturday, I wanted to try and do the 18 miles that I was supposed to do for a long run. Left home at around 9:00am in the morning but my brain clearly wasn't working cause it was pretty clear that since the sidewalks and roads weren't clear and there was a good couple of inches on the ground that I wouldn't be able to do the run. Bailed on that and went to the gym later in the afternoon to get my run in. For some reason, I had thought the gym closed at 8pm when in fact it closed at 7pm. I thought it was kinda weird that I was the only one left at 7pm . The maintenance guy seemed kinda pissed when he stormed over and told me I had to go at 7:10pm. Whoops. Anyhow I was able to squeeze in 16 miles on the treadmill.




What I find kinda interesting is that during the 2nd hour, my HR seemed was a bit lower than it was during the first hour even though the 2nd hour was 0.1 mile/hour faster than the first one. During the last little bit I was trying to ramp up the speed to 7.5 miles/hour but I had to stop after 2 miles cause of the maintenance guy. I think it may have something to do with whether I'm getting proper cooling. The first hour I typically find very uncomfortable, but by the 2nd hour I've usually built up enough of a sweat that my body starts cooling down a bit. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Tagged. Part II.

The recent tagging also reminded me that I was tagged a few months ago by Jen. Co-coincidentally enough I also have a draft of that tag that's been sitting in my draft's folder for a few months. Sorry.

Jobs I've Held:
Life guard
Secretary
IT guy
Data entry technician
Ceramics lab technician (got to play with dirt all day)
Chemistry lab technician
Engineer-Air handling systems
Currently work at a law firm.

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
Back to the Future Trilogy or basically anything that involves time travel.
Hoosiers
Forest Gump
Any Jack Ryan films (eg. hunt for red October, etc.)

My Guilty Pleasures:
Chocolate covered almonds.

Places I Have Lived:
Ontario:Toronto, Ottawa, Waterloo

Shows I Enjoy:
Lost, Heroes, Simpsons, Family Guy, Numb3rs,

Vacation Spots:
BC: Vancouver
Quebec: Montreal, Quebec City
Alberta: Edmonton, Calgary
New Brunswick
PEI
London, England
Paris, France

Favorite Foods:
Italian

Websites I Visit Daily:
Google (reader, search engine, gmail), Digg

Body Parts I Have Injured
Knee, ankle, shoulder, pretty nasty scrape on my forearm when I was learning to in-line skate backwards about 10 years ago.

Awards I've Won:
I don't think I've won anything as far as I can remember

Nicknames I've Been Called:
Franco

I won't tag anyone else but if you want to play along consider yourself tagged.

Tagged. Part I

Ok so Sonia tagged me with the following game:

The Rules of the game: Link to your tagger, and post these rules on your blog. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.Tag 5 people at the end of your post by their names and links to their blogs. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

Umm, this is actually kinda easy cause Sonia tagged me a few months ago to reveal weird things about me and I had this post sitting as a draft for all these months and I forgot to post it...

In no particular order:

1) I have a British Passport. My dad was born in Britain so I inherited the British citizenship from him. I've been using a British passport ever since I can remember. I had to cave this year and get a Canadian one since it makes entering the US a little easier. If I try to enter with a British passport, they retina scan and fingerprint me. Umm, no thanks.

2) I normally go by the name, "F rancis N g", but I usually race under my full name which is much longer. Why? Well there's another guy who's also named F rancis N g who lives in my area who is way faster than me. I'm talking a 1:21 half marathon faster than me. Though, I have no problem with people confusing me for someone who can run a 1:21 half, I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate my crappy times (relatively speaking) tainting his good name.

3) I'm a published scientific author. I had a journal article published shortly after I did my undergrad degree. It's hardly anything to write home about and it's not even a real peer reviewed article, but just a 1 page "rapid communication". I'm the first listed author. Unfortunately, they spelled my last name wrong. Oh well! I noted the other day that someone actually cited my paper. So my incorrectly spelled name appeared in someone else's article. That's neat.

4) I'm a fan of the show Wonderfalls. Ever heard of it? If not, you're not alone as the show was canceled after 4 episodes were aired. I didn't actually hear about this show until after it was canceled, but found it interesting since a lot of it was filmed here in Toronto. In fact, trying to find a hobby, I developed a website that outlines some of the filming locations. Okay go ahead and laugh at the site since I know next to nothing about web design, but thought I'd get what information I had out there. By the way, if you can find the DVD set, I highly recommend the 12 episode DVD that tells a pretty full story.

5) I started this whole marathon thing back in 2004 with the sole intent of doing one before I turned 30. I had it all worked out and was going to do the Quebec City marathon a little over a week before I turned 30. Unfortunately, a business trip to England the week of the marathon derailed that possibility, though I did end up doing my first ever race while in England. I came in 156th place in a 5k race and felt like I was going to die at the end. I ended up doing the Toronto marathon about a month and a half later. Not having met the goal of doing a marathon before I turned 30, I decided I would either try to qualify for Boston or do an ironman before I turned 35 and that's where I sit now.

I really don't want to tag anyone else, but if you want to go ahead and I'll post a link to your blog.

Update

Gotta start thinking of better titles for these posts.

Wednesday: Did 8 miles after on the dreadmill. Most of it was at 8 min/mile. It went pretty well with my HR being much lower than it normally would be. I was feeling so good that I cranked up the speed to my LT pace of 6:48 min/mile was about 3/4 mile right at the end. Really surprised that the HR barely got up over 170 for that last portion since it should be closer to 180 at that pace though it may not have been enough time to get the HR up.



Thursday: Went back to the gym to do the exact same run again of 8 miles at 8 min/miles. Unfortunately I don't think I had quite recovered from the previous days run cause even though my pace was exactly the same, my HR was about 5 beats higher and drifting over 160 for most of the second part of the run.


Sunday: Did a 10 mile race today. The race took place on most of the same path where I did a half marathon during the summer. The race starts out at a marina which for obvious reasons is not getting too much use at this point in the year. My original plan for this race was to try and do the first half at my Boston pace and than to gradually increase my pace to LT pace. When I arrived at the race they made us park at a local hospital about a km from the start line and while walking there I got a first glance at the trail and I realized my plan was going to be tough since the paths were covered with ice.

So the race starts and the first little part runs down a drive way which is covered with ice to join a paved trail which is also covered with ice. Since the first part of the trail runs beside the road, everyone bypasses the trail and ends up running the first little bit on the road which probably added a couple of seconds to the first mile. When the route rejoins the trail, there's ice everywhere and everyone is basically running in a single file on the edge of the grass on the trail. I passed the first mile marker at 7:52 which is much slower than I would have liked. I continue on and miss the 2nd mile marker, but pass the 3rd mile marker with a lap time of 15:26 which is 7:43 min/mile pace which is still a bit slow. I think most of this is do to the runners having to run in a single file to navigate the ice properly.

By mile 3, it certainly felt like I was working much harder than i should be. Maybe it was the not being full recovered after my runs on Thursday or Friday or it could have been the shock to the system of running in 0C weather after running in the nice comfortable indoors. Whatever the reason, I'm pretty sure the marathons i did a few months ago felt much easier in comparison by the 3 mile mark. From this point on to the 5 mile turnaround point, I was basically running a 7:30 min/mile pace and working a bit. Good thing is I was passing people who seemed to be working harder than me so I guess I was not alone. Hit the turnaround point and headed back and that's when I noticed the wind while running by the lake. I guess I didn't notice it running in the out portion, but it was quite breezy while heading back. Pushed through the wind and was able to maintain pace. I guess I had another extra gear but I just didn't know it. Anyhow, I finished with a time of 1:15:58 for an average pace of 7:36.

Update

Guess I should update my blog. Last week was pretty boring. After doing calf raises last week, my calfs suffered DOMS for most of the week.

I did 9 miles last Monday at a pretty good clip. Faster than 8 min/miles

Did 8 miles on Thursday which included my first attempt at an outside LT run in a while. Tried for 5 miles @ 6:50 pace and was okay for the first 2 miles but slowed down a bit for the third mile and finished that in 6:58 but was pretty tired after that mile so I ended up stopping for about 2 minutes and then finished the last two at the proper pace.

Went to the gym on Friday and did 8 miles at 8 min/miles.

Did 16 miles on Sunday. Averaged 8:30 pace for it. I'm supposed to be doing these at 8:09 pace, but it's tough trying to build up mileage and speed. I'm really not sure how I'm going to be able train outside through the winter. I've found that this past week has been a bit of a chore to get outside to run which is not fun at all.

Did 7 miles yesterday. Most of it was probably at around 8:15 pace with a few strides thrown in. This week is supposed to be a recovery week with no hard stuff. I've been thinking of doing a 10 mile race this weekend as a training run as I'd like to get another LT run in of some sort.

Update

Did 8 miles last Thursday at about 8 min/mile pace.

Did 14 miles yesterday outside. Run yesterday felt tough. Did the first half at about 8:30 pace since that felt comfortable. Last training cycle, I would have just ended up running the whole thing at about this pace, but yesterday I tried to force myself to run closer to 8 min/mile for the second half of the run. I have to try and get to a point where 8min/mile feels comfortable.

I also did some calf raises yesterday to try and build up some calf strength. I'm going to try and work in some cross-training this time. I've been thinking of buying a Bosu ball to help with core stability. They seem quite pricey.

Finally!

Finally got outside for a morning run today. 2 C outside. Woke up at 6:00am, but took me half an hour of lying in bed before I was able to do it. Plan called for 7 miles with 2x1600m @6:23. I ended up aiming for 6:20 since that's what my last VO2Max session back in September was at. Even though it's been a while since I've done any sort of interval work, I figured I should be able to handle it since they had 800m jog recoveries (rather than the 2 minutes that Pfitz uses) and I only had to do 2 of them.

Lap Time	HR Max
06:20.6	185
06:19.0	187

My shoelace started to come undone during the second one which was causing my footpod measuring thing to flop around so that's why there's a big pace differential on the second one. This HR and time is about the same as when I did it last time so that's looking good. These things are supposed to drop down to 4 of these at 6:12 in twelve weeks. It's only a mesely 8 seconds over a mile, but that seems like a lot.

So I've been trying to figure out which February 17 marathon to do. There are a handfull on that date. Basically looking for a flat and fast course with coolish temperatures. There's the Last Chance for Boston that I've previously mentioned. There are two in Florida being the A1A marathon in Fort. Lauderdale and the Breast Cancer Marathon in Jacksonville. The later is a first time event and first time events tend to have issues. I'm also considering the Myrtle Beach Marathon in South Carolina on February 16. Anyone know how the humidty is in Florida in February?

Gym run

I think this was the third time I set the alarm for 6am and the third time I bailed on the morning run. This is going to have to change soon. If I can't bother to get out now in the morning, I'm not sure how I'll be able to do it in the middle of winter.

I headed to the gym after work to get in my 9 mile run today. I think my body is getting use to running at the gym now. I haven't been running on a treadmill since the spring time and my HR measurements were all out of whack last week I think. I started this first mile at a 9 min/mile pace and then bumped it up to 7.5 mi/hr (8min/miles). My HR wasn't getting close to 160 where I think it should be so I thought that maybe the treadmill wasn't calibrated right so I ended up switching to the same treadmill that I was using last week. I was able to maintain my HR below 160 for the whole run and there wasn't any sign of the HR creep. It stayed fairly constant for the whole run. I think I"m going to have to either choose to do my runs in the gyn or outside. It seems my body has adapted to running inside for now, but swtiching to running outside again might be a bit of a shock.

Towards the end of the run, I was coming down with a bit of a GI issue and was trying to hold it in. This started to preoccupy my mind and my HR actually started to drop . Hmm interesting. If I could only use this to my advantage in a race some way without having to fear the risk of an "incident". Maybe I should wear a diaper??

1st week done

The plan called for an 8 mile run on Friday which I was going to do in the evening since I did a LT run the Thursday night the day before, but I didn't get back home till late and my stomach was still full from going out so I tried to do it Saturday morning. Still wasn't able to do it and ended up going in the afternoon. Averaged about 8 min/mile with a couple of strides thrown in. Strides felt weird. Definitely have lost the speedy feeling while doing them which makes me kinda worried about the track intervals that the plan wants this week.

Did 12 miles on Sunday afternoon also at about 8 min/mile. The last training cycle, I think I got lazy on my long runs and was doing my longs runs at a fairly slow pace. This cycle I'm going to try and aim for 8min/mile and hope that by the end of this cycle, I'm doing faster than 8 min/mile.

I've been reading up on the Runner's World Run Less Run Faster book which outlines the FIRST training plan. The plan says to only run three times a week but to also do two cross-training sessions. The book is mostly about the FIRST plan but also has a lot of good running information in general and contains cross-training workouts which most running books seem to ignore. The one thing that I like is that it gives a fairly detailed plan and paces depending on what one's Boston time is. It also gives guidelines about one should be capable of before one attempts one of these plans. For a 3:10 marathon, they suggest that I should be able to run either:

1) 19:30 5k
2) 40:50 10k or
3) 1:30:25 half

They also say that I should be able to complete one of the following track workouts:
6x800m @ 2:52
5x1000m @ 3:37
4x1200 @ 4:24 or
3x1600m @6:01

I'm pretty sure I can't do any of the above at the moment. The last track workout I did during my previous Pfitz cycle had me doing 3x1600m intervals @ 6:20 so trying to knock 20s off that is highly unlikely, so it looks like the FIRST plan is not quite feasible at the moment.

Going to try and get out tomorrow morning for a 9 mile run. I'm going to have to be able to do it eventually...

LT Run at the gym

Second day of training and second day that I set the alarm for 6am to get out to do my 7 mile run with 4 @LT pace. This was also the second day that I couldn't force myself out of bed this morning. There's something about waking up in the morning and seeing complete darkness outside that just causes me to not want to go outside. It doesn't help that it's also sub 10C. I'm hoping that the switch from daylight savings time this weekend will make it a bit brighter in the morning next week.

So I did my run this evening at the gym. I haven't done a continuous LT run or more than 1 mile since August or so. The fastest I did my LT runs during the last training cycle was at about 7 min/mile. A 15km race that I did back in August suggests that I might be able to do 6:50 pace so that's what I aimed for this time since it matches what the training plan wants me do. I started with one mile at 9min/mile, bumped it up to 8min/mile for 1 mile and than did 2 miles @8.7mi/hr (6:53 pace) and then 2 miles @8.8 mi/hr (6:49 pace) and then one last mile @ 8 min/mile.


I hate doing anything other than long runs on the treadmill. I end up sweating like a pig and dripping sweat all over the place. Not too happy with the fact that the HR kept rising over the 4 miles @ LT pace. It maxed out at 188 which I think is way too high. My max is around 195. The high HR might have something to do with the fact it was warm in the gym. I'm definitely going to try and do my next LT run outside cause trying to do them at the gym is just too uncomfortable.