Did 5k Thursday evening. Did it slow. Going to try and do 10 slow miles tomorrow, but it looks like there's going to be a ton of rain so i might do it at the gym. Haven't been there in a while. I'm thinking of targeting a half marathon at the beginning of November which would leave me with about a month of solid training.
Normally around this time of year, I'd be blogging about the film festival. I decided this year I wasn't going to do it. I was supposed to have a heavy work related thing this week, but that ended up being settled about a month ago and with other things that popped up i just didn't think I was going to have the time. I did decide yesterday to try and get some tickets to films for today and last night but there wasn't much selection left. I did end up seeing an interesting film called se xy killer. No, it's not a T&A film, but a black comedy. Funny stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNnLxyH-cRQ
Movies...
on Saturday, September 13, 2008 at 10:25 PMRegistered for Boston...
on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 9:10 PMKinda.
Ironman?
on Monday, September 1, 2008 at 8:16 PMDidn't do as much running this past week as I would have liked. It seems the extra week I got for a work thing just means that i get another week of no running. I managed a 5k run yesterday at 9:24 pace and then managed another 10.2 miles today @9:14 pace. I turned off the autopause on the new garmin and didn't manually stop it and it seems to have measured the distance okay. The first mile was a bit long which i think was caused by not having locked onto enough satellites, but the distance seemed to be okay for the rest of the run.
It's a bit disheartening to read about everyone going into their peak marathon training whereas I've been relegated to doing recovery runs. It's been a bit tough to get motivated to get out there with nothing really to train for. I still would like to do a half this year to try and PR and it shouldn't be too hard to beat my half PR time of 1:35:04 since I've been able to run faster times during the first half of marathons.
Congratulations to Mike who did his first ironman yesterday! This got me thinking about the ironman again. I set out to reach a goal of running Boston before I turned 35. I had this backup goal of doing an ironman instead if the Boston qualifying thing didn't play out. I always considered it to be one or the other. I never thought it would be a possibility that i might be able to do both, until last night. Ironman-Louisville 2009 is perfectly timed and is one week before i turn 35. Hmmmm, of course, there's the whole issue of learning to bike 112 miles and swim 2.4 miles. But hey there's a whole year to train for that!
Oh yeah, Boston 2009 registrations start on Wednesday!!!!
Men's Olympic Marathon
on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 10:45 PMWow what a race. They went through the half at 2:05 pace. That's crazy considering the heat and humidity. I can't believe how fast they go. I was watched the live feed from the stadium and watched every runner finish. Last place guy who actually finished was from Japan and he looked like he was just shuffling along. i timed how long it took him to do the last 200m which was about 45s. That's still faster than I do my intervals at.
Well the marathon inspired me to do a long run today so i tried for 10 miles. I did the same 10.2 mile loop that i''ve done in the past and that i've measure in google earth. I took the garmin 405 again for a spin. I've only had a handful of runs with it so i'm still trying to get a feel of how it works. It measured the course as being 10.11 miles which is a bit short. I think it may have something to do with me stopping the garmin. I liked the autopause feature on the old garmin and it would stop about a second after i stopped running, but i find the autopause feature on the garmin 405 doesn't work so well as it takes a couple of seconds to register and even when i'm stopped, it will sometimes start up again. I've been using the start/stop button to pause, but i notice when i map the route that each time i stop and restart, it skips (doesn't record) about 20 m of the route which probably accounts for the missing distance. Since I had to stop a couple of times because of my HR and traffic lights, the gaps add up. Will have to try again without stopping or maybe trying out the autopause feature again.
I averaged 8:52 pace for the 10.2 miles. HR was higher than it normally would be, but i guess 
that's expected. HR spiked a couple of times and I had to stop a few times to let it come back down. Speaking of HR, i forgot to mention one thing about the wisdom teeth extraction. When I was getting prepped, they hooked up a HR monitor to my finger and the nurse had a puzzled look on her face and reached for my wrist to take my pulse manually. She asked if it was normal that I had a low HR. I said yes, that it's probably less than 50 cause I run a lot. She then told me that the meter was saying it was 37. wow. i've never had my HR that low.
Still being lazy...
on Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 9:57 AMHave only been able to do one 5km run this past week which I did today at about 8:10 pace. It was tough. I remember being able to crank out 15 miles at below 8:00 pace back in peak condition. Those were the days... I've been overloaded at work with something that's due next Friday so no time for running, but we got a bit of a breather with a one week extension so i might try and squeeze a few more runs in this week.
Men's olympic marathon is tonight. Don't you dare miss it!
Update
on Monday, August 18, 2008 at 11:25 PMWell been over a week since i last posted. recovery has been fine. I have these big black holes where my wisdom teeth used to be and it's been hard to eat for fear of dislodging the black scabs. Ran on Saturday for 6 miles, tried to go very slow considering it was my first run in 2 weeks and a week after the oral surgery extraction but still had to walk for bits. Ran today for about 4.5 miles at 8:45 pace. Just watched Simon Whitfield win a silver medal in the olympic triathalon. He seemed to be out of it with about a km to go but dugg deep and sprinted to the end and took the lead with about 200m to go, but you got to give it to the German for hanging tough and out sprinting him. Man thought Simon was going to win the gold. Would have been nice since he's my age and it's nice to know that us older guys still have it in us.
Survived.
on Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 11:06 AMI survived the wisdom teeth extraction. I had a generally positive experience (so far). Got some laughing gas and then was injected with general anesthesia. I don't remember a thing. The next thing I remember was waking up in another room and the nurse changing the gauze in my mouth.
I don't remember even giving them my credit card or signing to pay for the procedure. My dad had driven me to the office and on the way home, I was searching through my wallet for my drug plan card so I could get the prescription for pain killers filled, but it wasn't there. I'm sure it should have been there cause I had checked the night before. I told may dad that I would have to go home to get my drug card before I could get the presription filled, but he then told me that I had already given it to him while at the office. I don't have any recollection of that either. Weird.
So bleeding has almost stopped and there isn't any swelling and other than the one Tylenol 3 I took abut an hour after the procedure which they told me to do, I haven't needed to take another one (knock on wood). I'm suprisingly not hungry considering that the only thing I've had to eat in the past 24 hours was a small jar of baby food this morning.
If recovery continues to go this well, I may be able to start running again next weekend. They say the worse is 2-3 days after the procedure so I'll have a better idea on Monday.
Wisdom Teeth
on Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 10:10 PMWell tomorrow's the big day. I'm getting my wisdom teeth extracted. I haven't done any running at all this week and i suppose it's for the best. I've been trying to put on some weight since I'll probably be on an all liquid/all painkiller diet for the next couple of days. I'm pretty skinny to begin with so I can't afford to lose too much weight.
Dental procedures don't generally phase me. I've had root canals, fillings, even had some work done on my jaw bone a while back and none of it really worried me. I think it dates back to getting my first root canal when i was 14 or so. Someone had told me it would be the worse pain in the world, even worse they child birth and it ended up being that the procedure didn't hurt at all. I wasn't really worried about the extractions until early this week when people started asking me about it and telling me about complications that people they knew had endured. I did some googling and that's the worse thing to do as you only get search results of people that had horrible experiences. If you're looking for something humurous, go onto youtube and do some searches for "wisdom teeth aftermath" and see some funny videos of people doped up.
I've pretty much accepted that i won't be able to run for another two weeks after the procedure so thoughts of doing any racing this fall are now on the back burner. I'll just be happy to try and get back into an acceptable running shape before the winter sets in and hopefully I'll have recovered.
Look at the pretty maps...
on Sunday, August 3, 2008 at 7:39 PMDid 18 mile long run this morning with one mile at marathon pace effort. According to my brand spanking new garmin, it says I did 18.19 miles at 8:25 pace. You can see the route and data here. I mapped it out on google earth and it says i did 18.29 miles. Interesting. My older garmin would always over predict, but this 405 is underpredicting. I'll have to try a few more runs with it to see if this is going to be common or not.
I only originally intended to do 16 miles, but extended it a bit. I probably won't do a long run next week since I'm getting the wisdom teeth extracted on Friday so i wanted to put in a long run to see how the endurance is. I had thought about 10 miles in of maybe trying to push this to 20 miles, but since i haven't done any long runs more than 15 miles for quite some time, i figured it would be better to stop at 18.
I've kinda been in no mans land in terms of marathon training. I haven't been doing enough on my long runs to properly train for a marathon, but i'm doing enough that if I wanted to i could easily ramp up. I've been thinking about when the "point of no return is" for marathon training. What is the minimum amount of time that would be necessary to prepare for a marathon and run well? Pftiz has a 12 week schedule so i guess that's a start. I'm starting to enter the point of no return for several marathons. the Toronto waterfront is 8 weeks out, Chicago is 10 weeks out and the other Toronto one is 11 weeks out and the Hamiton one (which is nearby to Toronto) is 13 weeks out.
I'm thinking that considering my recent history that i could probably get by this time around with 7 weeks or so, that is, one month of solid training and a three week taper.
Buying stuff...
on Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 10:29 PMOne little wrinkle with the "merger" at work has been that we are getting a new dress code. It's always been casual and on most days I would be wearing jeans and a t-shirt. That's changing as starting next week, we are now supposed to be doing "business casual". i had to go out and expand my business wardrobe today so that people wouldn't realize how limited my business attire really is. I've been putting this off for weeks cause I hate shopping for clothes.
I still think I need to buy some more clothes tomorrow. Since I'm in a spending mood these days, I decided to plunk down some more money and buy a Forerunner 405 today. It's different. It has a touch sensitive bezel and it's a bit awkward to use. I much prefer the feedback that a button push gives. Will try it out on my long run tomorrow. I think I'm going to do it on the waterfront so that I can observe the huge piles of garbage that will have been left from the Caribana parade today.
Oh yeah, I did about 7 miles GA on Friday and a 6 mile recovery run today.
No motivation
on Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 9:06 PMDid a 6 mile recovery run today. Did not run at all since the race on Sunday. I"m having a hard time with motivation without any race to train for. It's just very tough to force myself to get up in the morning to run, when I really don't need to.
A while back, I mentioned that the l aw firm i work for is "merging" with another. It's still hasn't happened yet, but supposedly will happen "soon" . They did let us in on some of the new benefits we will be receiving though. One benefit was a $600 gym membership reimbursement per year. But I later found out that it was applicable to any fitness activity. My first thought was: Race entry fees. Assuming an at par US Dollar, I've paid $567 in race entry fees this year which includes 3 marathons, two 10k's, one 8k and three 5k's. Yikes.
Free magazines?
on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 11:19 PMWorking in the intellec tual proprety field, I don't exactly condone this, but there an interesting website that posts scans of different magazines in a somewhat readable format. They have different types of magazines available one of which is Runnrs World. They also have some biking magazines amongst others. Can't see how this is in any way legal, but it's an interesting concept.
You can see it here.
10k race report
on Sunday, July 27, 2008 at 6:23 PMRan a 10k race this morning. Finished in 42:04 which is 4 seconds slower than I wanted and 2 seconds slower than my unofficial PR for the 10k set while doing the first 10k of a 15k race. I'm okay with it if the course is right since it still beats my true 10k time set back in 2006.
I was the first overall male!! As you can probably tell, there weren't any real fast people racing this. To give some perspective, there was a half marathon being run at the same time and the winner of the half had a faster overall pace than the winner of the 10k. BTW, the winner of the half did this while pushing a jogging stroller. In fact, the first 4 finishers of the half had a faster overall pace. Anyhow, i didn't come in first overall in the 10k as a woman beat me by 14 seconds to take that honour. I have no problems with that. I get the feeling though that she wasn't really going all out and could have easily have gone faster. The winner was actually one half of a pair of twins. The other twin finished behind me in third. The twins race together and wore matching outfits and were easy to pickout in the crowd. There are also much faster than me since they have done sub 40 minute 10k's and sub 1:30 half's before.
The oirignal schedule had the halfers going at 7:00am and the 10kers going at 7:15. I wanted to get up and eat a bagel at 5:00, but didn't until 5:30 or so. I thought it might be too late to eat a bagel so i downed a gel instead. Left home at about 6am for the 30 minute drive out to the race. Taking to heart previous comments about me depending on HR, i wanted to run this by effort but still record the HR for reference. I was scrambling in the morning to find some electrical tape to cover the HR reading on my watch. The best i could find were some file folder labels, but I ended up forgetting them at home.
Arrived with about 30 minutes to spare and picked up my bib and chip. The start for the half was delayed however as a wicked thunderstorm had come through the previous night and flooded and knocked down some trees on the trail. The city decided this morning that they couldn't let the race use the trail since it was now a hazard. This affected the half course, but not the 10k course. They rejigged the course and decided to have the 10kers and halfers start at the same time, but have the halfers do the 10k route twice, plus add a little bit to the half route to make up for the extra 1.1km they would have to run. Starting the race, i set myself not too near to the front. it took me about 8 seconds to cross the start line. One thing I knew was that I had to stay behind the twins since i knew they were faster than me. I had hoped to run this in just under 42 minutes which is 6:45 mile pace or about 4:12/km
Start out at what feels like a nice easy pace. Pass the first km marker in 4:01. Whoops a bit fast. Keep motoring right along and pass the 2nd km mark with a split time of 4:02. Sometime during the 3km, I pull up behind and end up passing one of the twins. 3rd km split was 4:01. The pace felt sustainable, but based on my past expereince with the 5km and doing 4:00min/km pace, I wasn't sure that it would be a good idea to hold this pace. By this time, I had banked about 30 seconds of time which was quite a bit when you think about it. I slowed down during km 4 to try and get back to the proper pace. If I could hold 6:45 pace the rest of the way, even with a bit of a fade, i could comfortable finish in under 42 minutes. KM 4 was in 4:14. The km markers after this were all screwed up and the split times were all over the place. I had no idea how much time I had to make up or afford to lose. For example, I passed the 8km mark of 31:41 which can't possibly be right since it means I could have averaged 8 min/mile pace (5:00min/km) for the final 2km and would have finished in under 42 minutes. I was certainly going faster than 8min/mile pace. With about 800m to go, I turned on my kick only to be surprised when I got to the finish line and the clock was already over 42 minutes.
So I finished 2nd overall, first male overall and won a $25 gift card and a 
little trophy. I'm sure I would have finished faster than 42 minutes if the km splits were more accurate. I'm not entirely certain that even the first couple of km which were clocked in at 4:00min/km were accurate. I probably should have worn my garmin, which I did last year and was thankful that I did cause the course was mismarked last year too. I think I may use the $25 gift card to partially offset the purchase of one of those new forerunner 405's.
Also, if I had known that I would have had a legitimate shot at finishing first overall, I would have started closer to the start and kicked for the finish a little earlier. As it turns out, the difference in the first place finishers chip time and mine were only 10 seconds which I think I could have easily made up. Mind you, that's assuming that the first place finsiher ran the same race. It's more than likely she could have outkicked me if she needed to.
I'm hesitant to call this a PR yet since I'm not entirely certain that the course is 10km long. I tried to plot it on google earth and it might be 10km but it really depends on the exact location of the turnaround points which I'm not quite sure where they were located. I'm hoping that someone will upload the race to Motionbased so i can find out.
The stats:
| Lap | Lap Time | HR Max | HR Avg |
| 1 | 04:01.3 | 183 | 172 |
| 2 | 04:01.9 | 183 | 179 |
| 3 | 04:00.7 | 185 | 182 |
| 4 | 04:14.1 | 186 | 185 |
| 5 | 03:21.1 | 187 | 185 |
| 6 | 04:28.2 | 187 | 186 |
| 7 | 03:28.5 | 188 | 187 |
| 8 | 04:05.2 | 187 | 186 |
| 9 | 10:25.1 | 188 | 187 |
Finish time of 42:04 which is 4:12/km or 6:46 pace. Maximum HR reached was 188 which I suppose could have been a few beats higher if I had pushed more, especially towards the end. No HR spikes which is good though the HR monitor wasn't getting a good reading right at the start.
So that's it for summer races. I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled in about 2 weeks and I'm sure I won't be in great racing shape shortly after that.
Terry Fox
on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 10:33 PMTuesday: Did about 6 miles total including some intervals around the track. Did 1200m, 800m and 2x400m with a 200m jog recovery in between of about 1:40. Did these all at faster than 6:18 pace which is what I was doing my VO2Max intervals at in the marathon buildup. Hopefully this means I've improved my fitness back to where it was leading up to the marathon. I tried to do this workout about a month ago and struggled to maintain 6:40 and 6:45 pace so that's good. I've also lost the couple of pounds I've put on but I think that's more due to me increasing my mileage as of late. I'm still eating junk food. Yumm!
Thursday: Did 2x400@6:13 pace, 4 strides, 2x400@6:05 pace, 4 strides and 2x400@6:35 pace. The last 2x400m intervals I tried to do at 6:45 pace which I'm guessing is my 10k pace but they were a little fast. 6:35 pace felt relatively easy, but that's only over 400m. I can barely hold that pace over a 5k race so I know I will have to be slower come Sunday.
As for the race on Sunday, I'm looking forward to be able to witness a bit of history. Terry Fox was a Canadian runner who had his leg amputated due to cancer who set out to run across Canada in 1980 in the hopes of raising money for cancer research. Unfortunately he only made it about half way before the cancer returned and passed on shortly thereafter. The original aid van that accompanied Terry and his run has been found and restored to it's former glory and is being showcased at various locations across Canada this year and it will be at the race on Sunday.
Week in Review
on Monday, July 21, 2008 at 10:50 PMWednesday: 10.2 miles @ 8:26 pace
Thursday: 5.4 miles recovery
Friday: About 6 miles total including 3x1 miles at LT pace
Saturday: 3.1 miles @9:24 pace
Sunday: 15.6 miles @8:19 pace
Last week's run's were blah. Tried to do a 5 mile LT run on Friday, but couldn't get up to it. It was too humid and i was dehydrated. Managed to do 3x1 miles with about a lap of recovery, first two in 6:55 and last one in 7:00. Didn't get out till noon on Saturday and it was way too hot and humid. Sunday was freshing cause it rained the entire run. Forgot how enjoyable it is not to worry about having to take in enough fluids to compensate for water loss through sweating. Managed a total of just under 50 miles for the week.
This upcoming week is a taper week for a 10k I'm doing on Sunday. Will probably just do a couple of intervals sessions to work on leg turnover and hopefully get accustomed to 10k pace which I'm hoping will be 6:45 pace which put me in a little under a 42 minute finish time.
Weird Dream
on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 8:49 PMI don't seem to be getting enough sleep lately. In the peak of training, i was able to get by on 5-6 hour a sleep. Nowadays, i wake up tired even when i get 7 hours of rest. I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that I had ran a sub 3 hour marathon and came in 2nd overall only to be disqualified (along with the first place finisher) because we somehow skipped a mile. Strange eh?
So my intention this morning was to try and get out and do a 5 mile LT run. Almost perfect weather. Cool and not windy, but I just couldn't get up to speed today. Did a slow 2 mile warmup and then was able to put out one mile at about 7:15 pace, but couldn't go any faster. I guess I haven't quite recovered from the 5k race on Sunday. It could also be because my brain thinks I ran a marathon last night. I can't say for certain. I ended up doing 8 miles today which included some walking.
I'm going to try and get to 40 miles this week and run for 6 days. I will probably reattempt the LT run on Friday.
Nissan 5k Report
on Sunday, July 13, 2008 at 3:02 PMShort story is that I finished in 20:25 which is a bit slower than the time I ran last week. Go figure. I felt that I paced this race a lot better though, albeit with a bid of a fade in the middle, but not because I went out too fast, but because there was a wicked head wind. Weather was overcast and there was a bit of a drizzle at the start. Other than the wind, it was pretty good racing weather.
Having learned my lesson last time, I didn't want to be anywhere near the front at the start of the race. Race starts and everyone seems to be going out at the right pace. I hit the first km marker at 4 min flat. Perfect pacing. One issue I had was that my HR spiked during the first km. I had warmed up as best I could, but was afraid this was going to happen. I got through the race last week with no issues, but today the HR would remain elevated for almost half the race. I pulled up behind a bunch of people that seem to be going at the right pace and cruise along passing the 1 mile mark at 6:26 which is again perfect. Continue along with the 2nd km at 4:01. Shortly after the 2km mark, the field splits up with the 5k people turning around and the 10 mile people continuing on. Unfortunately all the people I was pacing off of were doing the 10 miler so once I hit the turnaround there were only a couple people in front of me and around me. Once we turn around there is a headwind that caused me to slow down. With my HR still spiking, it was hard to gauge the effort. The few stragglers that were doing the 5k with me were all slowing down too much so I had to pass them. 3km split is 4:13. My HR settled down shortly after the 3 km mark. 4km split is the slowest of the race. I was running this km alone though I could hear footsteps behind me. I think a bunch of people were using me to block the wind. Bastards! 4km split was 4:18. Last km would turn out to be my fastest, but even so, about three guys (who I think were the ones using me to block the wind) passed me in the final km. Geez thanks guys. Tried to hold them off, but was basically running as fast as i could and they ended up passing me. Last km was in 3:53.
| Lap | Lap Time | Pace |
| 1 | 04:00.3 | 06:26.7 |
| 2 | 04:01.4 | 06:28.5 |
| 3 | 04:13.1 | 06:47.3 |
| 4 | 04:17.8 | 06:54.9 |
| 5 | 03:52.8 | 06:14.7 |
Other than the portion where the HR was spiking, maximum HR was again 193 which was right at the end. Again I faded at km 3 and 4 though I think it had to do with the wind. I have to work on pushing in these km harder though my HR for km 4 averaged about 190, so i'm not sure I could have gone much faster. I think it may be a sign that my LT has slipped a bit. I may try another one soon, but I think I have to build up my LT and endurance before i do. Maybe in the fall.
Another 5k attempt
on Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 11:15 PMTuesday: Did about 6 miles including some VO2Max intervals around the track. Did only 3x800 and 2x400m. HR was spiking all over the place and I was just out of energy. I think it may have had something to do with bad sleep.
Today: Did a little over 9 miles which included 4 miles at LT pace. It was very cool today. Started 
out at 14C which was refreshing. Headed over to the track to do 16 laps of LT which I ended up averaging 6:51 pace for. I did these at the track cause I wanted to throw in some intervals at 5k pace after to try and get used to the feeling of running 5k pace on tired legs. I was only able to handle an 800 and then 2x400m at 5k pace afterwards. Needed to use walking recoveries cause I was pretty tired after each rep.
Signed up for another 5k race this weekend. Will try again for sub 20. Hope to be able to go out at the proper pace this time and hold on. I think this will be my last 5k attempt at least for this summer. I will next try a 10k at the end of July to hopefully break 42 minutes and then I get my wisdom teeth pulled!! Yah!!!! Depending on how that recovery goes I will probably then start training for a fall half. I haven't decided on Chicago yet, but it's looking more likely that I won't do it this year.
Week in Review
on Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 11:43 PMTuesday: 10km race, most of it at LT pace.
Thursday: Did 7 miles total including a couple of laps around the track at 5k pace to calibrate my foot pod.
Saturday: 5km race
Sun
day: 15.6 miles. Today was warm. Did a 10.2 mile loop and then a 5.4 loop to arrive at the total. I had to slow down and walk towards the end. My HR was spiking. Back in April, I could do the 10.2 mile loop with just one bottle of gatorade, come back home, top up the fluids and then head out again. Trying to do that now is a lot harder with the warmer temperatures. I averaged 8:47 pace for the 10.2 mile loop and 9:25 for the 5.4 miles which included the walking bits.
So i've been looking at the Garmin 405 again. Two weekends ago, I was trying to find some place here in Canada that sold them online, but they seem to be sold out everywhere. When I went to go pick up my race kit on Friday, to my surprise the Running Room had the 405 (without the HR strap) in stock. I would have boughten one the previous week if I had known however my online research discovered that Polar now sells a GPS accessory for my current watch. Basically, the GPS add on sends outs to the watch the same informaton as the foot pod except it uses GPS to determine speed. The watch doesn't even know it's being used with a GPS device. I'm thinking that's probably the best way to upgrade since it would allow me to keep using my current watch and HR monitor as well as the Polar software which I use to log all my runs. I'm just trying to find out how accurate the instantaneous pace is before I commit. I know that Garmin's have really bad instantaneous pace measurements and if the Polar has the same problem it may not be worth it to upgrade.
Rebecca Run 5k Race Report
on Saturday, July 5, 2008 at 5:22 PMDid 5k race this morning. The Rebecca Run is a 5k race I've done before. It's organized to raise awareness about Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Race kit was stuffed with quite a bit of material, including a technical T-shirt, though a lot of the stuff was for women. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the leg shaving razor they included though. I tried shaving my legs once in high school (for a swim meet) and I ain't doing that ever again. Letting the hair grow back is TORTURE.
Still wasn't sure if I was in sub 20min shape, but decided to go for it anyways. Still not quite familiar with the 4min/km pace yet so I ran this with my foot pod which I had calibrated on Thursday for that pace.
Anyhow arrived with about 45 minutes before the start and did a very brief jog warmup and a couple of accelerations to 5k pace to check to see that the foot pod was working okay. Probably about 15 minutes warmup tops. The last time I did a 5k, I spent about 30 minutes warming up and I think that was too much.
The race runs around a park with narrow trails and it's important to start near the front if you want a good time. Thankfully, they were telling people that were at the front who shouldn't have been at the front to move back. The running surfaces for the race are a little mix of everything. The first little bit is on pavement, then switches to a dirt trail and then to a boardwalk, back to a paved trail and then onto crushed gravel and then onto pavement again. We had to do a second loop of part of the course so we had to do the crushed gravel thing twice.
So the race starts and I try to hold back a bit. Right off the bat, there was a group of people to run with so I start off behind them and they seem to be going at a good clip. Onto the dirt trail and boardwalk and i kinda felt like the group was holding me back a bit. The trails and boardwalk were just too narrow to pass at this point. The group finally goes into single file and I pick up the pace to try and drop them. Pass this first km marker at 3:49. As usual too fast. Foot pod measurement is way off though and measures it as being 966m. One problem with the foot pod is that it's sensitve to the type of surface it's being used on. Switching from pavement, to trail, to boardwalk confuses it and so the measurement is off.
After the 1km marker, I'm basically running by myself. The people ahead of me are way ahead of me except for the first place woman who was about 40m or so ahead. Try and slow down a bit, but the effort is definitely feeling tough. The 2nd km is entirely on pavement and I run that in 3:58. Foot pod measures the distance as being exactly 1 km. Pretty accurate. By the end of the 2nd km, my HR is in the high 180's. One thing I wanted to do in the race is to try and keep the HR above 185 for most of the race.
About 3/4 of the third km is on crushed gravel which doesn't exactly give good footing. Plus I kinda feel myself starting to fade. The third km marker was misplaced and I hit that with a split of 5:22. Shortly after the 3km marker, we pass by the finish line for the first time, but we still have to do the gravel loop again. The 4km marker was short and I hit that split at 3:06. For the two km together, I averaged 4:14/km or 6:48 pace. Looking at the split I see I have to makeup about 13 s to go sub 20, but it just wasn't in me today. I did set out to catch the first place woman who was ahead of me which I was able to do. In the process, some guy came blowing by me in the last km to finish at least 18 seconds ahead of me. That sucked. The last km I did in 4:08.
| Lap Time | HR Max | HR Avg | Dist(km) |
| 03:47.8 | 186 | 169 | 0.966 |
| 03:57.6 | 189 | 186 | 1 |
| 05:21.6 | 189 | 188 | 1.265 |
| 03:05.9 | 190 | 189 | 0.716 |
| 04:08.0 | 193 | 190 | 0.978 |
So the footpod didn't fare too well with the varying surfaces. The fade over the course of the race probably didn't help much either since for most of the race I was running at a pace that the foot pod wasn't calibrated at. Final finish time of 20:21 though it's probably 2 s faster or so cause I wasn't right at the start line and they didn't have chip times. Averaged 6:33 pace. Was able to keep the HR up for most of the race and topped out at 193 right at the end.
Interesting thing was that I came in first in my age group! I got a medal and a book about Lance Armstrong as a prize. The book has a picture of Armstrong on the front and I originally thought it was the book written by him, but it appears to be a motivational book written about him.
So my first ever age group first place finish, except for that time two years ago when I was robbed of a first place finish overall. I still don't like where my VO2Max is as I just couldn't take in enough oxygen to make the legs go any faster. I also would have liked to see how I would have done if I had run the first km on pace, as I think it would prevent me from going into oxygen debt which would then highlight my lack of VO2Max ability which produces my nice patented 5k fade.
There's another 5k race next weekend and I was thinking of doing that in another attempt at sub 20. It takes place at the same time as a 10 miler that I did last year. it's quite crowded, but more people means more people to pace off of. These races are starting to add up though and I have to start half marathon(maybe full?) training at some point if I expect to PR in the half in the fall. I seem to be in perpetual taper mode for these 5k's as I'm afraid to put in too much mileage the week before the race. Even if I get in a 15 mile long run tomorrow, I will only have done 30 miles for the week.
Run for Canada 10k Race Report
on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 7:38 PMHappy Canada Day to all Canadians and Canadians at heart!
I did a 10k race this morning. I had thoughts of maybe trying to set a PR this morning. Unfortunately I slept in a bit and didn't leave until 7:00am. The race was at 8:00am downtown and it would take me about 30 minutes to drive there. The staging area is at Ontario's Place. I thought I'd be smart (which turned out to be a dumb idea) and try and park about a mile away from the main parking lot in which there was bound to be a line-up. I had hoped to pit stop at a local park on the jog over to use the restroom which would allow me to arrive at the race with about 15 minutes to spare. Unfortunatley the doors on the bathroom were locked and so I had to do the porta-pottie lineup when I got there. So by the time I've finished my business there's only about 5 minutes till the race start. I wanted to get close to the start line, but it was tough to get in since they had fences around the startline and it was packed. I started walking towards the back until I saw some free space and jumped the fence and waited for the start. I was kinda expecting them to sing the national anthem with it being Canada Day and all but they didn't. Oh well.
The race starts and it takes me over a minute to cross the start line and I had much difficulty trying to get up to speed. I was weaving in and around people. The first 400m were okay since I could run on the grass and pass people but then the road goes into this chute like area with fences and there were just too many people and I had to slow down. No PR for me today. Once we past the chute, we get out onto the road with oncoming traffic, I was able to start getting up to speed again and hit the 1st km marker at 4:29 which I was surprised with since I felt like I was going much slower.
Shortly after the 1km marker, I pull up beside C who I'd met at the Scotiabank marathon last fall. I saw him at a couple of races I did last year and struck up a conversation after the marathon last year where we had both bombed at trying to go 3:10. Anyhow, I wanted to see how his running was going and slowed down to his pace. He was going much slower than he normally would. As it turns out, he had hurt his knee and was pacing a friend today. I spent about half a km chatting with him and then continued on. Hit the 2nd km marker at 4:31 which again surprised me cause I thought it would have been much slower. The surge after my brief chat sent my HR spiking. I've noticed that this seems to occur when I suddenly change pace drastically. Maybe if I had warmed up properly, this wouldn't have occurred. Anyhow, I run the entire 3rd km with HR spiking and have a 4:19 split.
Shortly after the 3km marker, the HR returns to normal. The rest of the race is pretty uneventful, pulling off of a couple of km in the 4:20's and a couple in the teens. I really tried to turn it on in the last km trying to pass as many people as I could and managed a 4:00 min km split. Finished with a final time of 43:24 with a 53s negative split. I probably could have gone faster, but with the slow first two km and then the HR spiking, I didn't want to burn myself out since I have a 5k race this weekend.
| KM | Lap Time | Pace |
| 1 | 04:29.2 | 07:13.2 |
| 2 | 04:31.2 | 07:16.5 |
| 3 | 04:18.9 | 06:56.7 |
| 4 | 04:22.9 | 07:03.1 |
| 5 | 04:26.5 | 07:08.9 |
| 6 | 04:22.6 | 07:02.6 |
| 7 | 04:14.9 | 06:50.2 |
| 8 | 04:22.6 | 07:02.6 |
| 9 | 04:16.5 | 06:52.8 |
| 10 | 03:58.7 | 06:24.2 |
Average pace was 6:59 but this was a bit off considering the first two slow kms. Chatted with Kenny after the race and jogged back to my car. I had paid $10 for parking thinking that this was going to be cheap considering today was a public holiday. Unfortunately, this would turn out to be too much. Ontario Place was offering parking in the morning at the site for only $5 and even the park which is about .5 miles from Ontario place and is normally full had hourly $1 parking which probably would have only been $2-$3 for the race. Feeling like I had been ripped off, I decided to spend a couple more hours at Ontario Place. The race kit had come with a pass to Ontario place which normally would cost $30, so to try and justify the parking cost, I decided to head back to Ontario Place. Thankfully, the $5 parking they were offering was only valid for the morning and they jacked up the price to $12 by the time I had gotten back. I kinda felt vindicated, but still ripped off.
Anyhow, the shirt is a bit weird since they had the bib number printed on it which means you had to wear it during the race which is a bit of a taboo. I really like the design of the shirt. It's supposed to be modeled after what the Canadian athletes will be wearing in Beijing at the Olympics. The shirts were a bit on the large side. I normally would wear a medium, but got the small which fit pretty good.
Also the medal was really cool. Made by the Canadian Mint (they make our coin currency), the medal was also designed (i think) to follow a Chinese theme by looking like an ancient coin. Here's a closer look.
You have to imagine that it's all shiny like a brand new quarter would be.
Happy Canada Day!
Packing on the pounds...
on Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 11:25 AMDid a little over 5 miles on Friday with some track running. Did 1200m, 800, 2x400m and 2 strides. Tried to run the 1200 and 800 fast but was out of breath. Averaged about 6:40 pace for the 1200m and then 6:45 pace for the 800.
Yesterday, I tried to do an easy 10 miles in the evening. I ended up walking chunks of it. It was hot, I was dehydrated and the street meat sausage I had eaten about 3 hours prior was starting to come back up, if you know what I mean.
I went downtown yesterday to pick up my race kit for the 10k on Tuesday. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I won't be able to PR on Tuesday. I would need to average about 6:45 pace to PR. My recent 5k and the crappy track workout has indicated that the slacking off I've done in recent weeks has come back to bite me and that 6:45 isn't too realistic. It probably didn't help that I've unintentionally gone on a M&M's diet this past week. I was joking around that I was going to be all lazy this summer and put on some pounds and it looks like I'm doing exactly that. I think I've put on 1-2 pounds since the marathon which may not seem like a lot, but I can definitely feel it.
Will try and do 7 miles today with some strides and rest tomorrow and then figure out a reasonable pace for Tuesday. I also signed up for a 5k next weekend. I did this about a week ago, cause I wanted to get the early bird discount. Don't think that 20 minutes is reasonable for that race, but I might be able to PR.
Tagged...
on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 9:47 PMSo I was tagged by Sonia.
Here are the rules as explained to me. Copy the rules (or your version of them) and the set of questions onto your blog post, provide your own answers and then tag 5 new people. If tagged, you’ll find your name at the end of this post. To be sure everyone tagged knows they’ve been invited to play, go to their blogs and leave them a comment notifying and referring them to your blog for details. Lastly, once the chosen have answered the questions on their own blog, they should come back to yours to tell you.
Here are my responses.
1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?
10 years ago, I had just graduated from University and was gainfully unemployed. Running? Hadn't heard about it nor considered it something I would ever do.
2. What is your best and worst run/race experience?
Best – Easy enough. Qualifying for Boston this spring.
Worst – Last fall, hitting the wall in my first BQ attempt and having every muscle in my legs cramp up forcing me to walk most of the last 7 km.
3. Why do you run?
I started because I remember someone telling me that I was putting on weight. This was around 2000/2001. I've always been this skinny guy and the fact that someone was telling me that I was starting to get big was a bit of a wake-up call. I was only about 160 pounds or so and went on a diet and decided to do some running to get some exercise in. Now a days, it's just something I do for fun and gives me time to clear my mind. It's me time. I guess this is why I rarely run with other people as I enjoy the solitude.
4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?
Best – Don't start out too fast in a race. Even with a constant reminder, everytime I start out too fast, i end up paying for it in the end.
Worst – Run with ankle weights as it'll make it seem easier to run when you take them off. This doesn't work AT ALL.
5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
See this blog post.
I won't tag anyone else, but if you want to let me know and I'll post a link.
Yesterday: Did a little over 9 miles including 4@ LT pace. I've been doing my LT runs around the track lately but realize that this has been handicapping my pace sensing abilities. I headed to the shopping mall in the morning to do my 1 mile LT loop. Pace was surprisingly consistent with the following splits:
| 06:56.4 |
| 06:55.8 |
| 06:55.9 |
| 06:56.6 |
HR seemed about right though my HR spiked on the last mile. I had to push hard through the final mile to maintain pace.
Today: Did 3 miles recovery.
So sent my deposit in to Marathon Tours for Boston accommodations for next years marathon. The prices that MT are giving are ridiculously cheap compared to what is being offered through any other site and the cheaper hotels from MT are already getting filled so I thought I should do it sooner rather than later. I probably should have done this a month ago, but when you have 11 MONTHS till the actual race, you usually expect that you have some time left. This got me thinking of whether I should book a hotel for Chicago in the fall. On the flight over to Chicago back in 2006 my seat mate was telling me that she booked a last second room at a reasonable rate. She said that the hotels get so many cancellation in the last two weeks prior to the marathon that it's easy to wait until the last second to get a room. This seems believable, but I don't like leaving things to chance.
Speaking of trips, have you seen the latest Where the Hell Is Matt video? Check it out. Makes me smile
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
Here's the low def Youtube version. I love the song, and tried to buy it but amazon won't let us Canadians buy it online. :(
Week in Review
on Monday, June 23, 2008 at 7:05 AMDid 2.5 miles on Friday which included 3 strides. On Saturday, I did about 3 miles warmup and 
cooldown and the 3.1 mile race and yesterday, I did 15.9 miles at about 8:33 pace. Last 4-5 miles were done at about 9 min/mile pace, a bit tough. I had to guestimate my lap splits during the run, but I ended up mapping the route afterwards to figure out my pace.
5k race report
on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 5:18 PMDid a 5 km race this morning. Basically did not come close to the 20min I was aiming for. Finished in 20:53 which is still slower than the unofficial PR or 20:48 that I set in the first 5k of a 15km race. Damn! Course wasn't as hilly as I thought though there were a few very small 5m hills or so with a steep grade. I basically went out too fast as I tend to do. They didn't have km markers and I didn't wear any speed sensing device so I basically had to run by feel which is usually a disaster for me. Prior to the start, I met up with a Running Mania forumite, Ray, who I recognized and chatted with him a bit. According to his race report, his garmin splits were 3:47, 4:08, 4:11, 4:14 and 4:05.
There was a very small field so i basically started right at the front. The race started and the faster guys zoom out ahead, I headed out at what I thought was a comfortable pace. Since I was ahead of Ray, this pace would end up being faster than 3:47/km pace which was way too fast. Shortly after the 1 km mark we make a turn off a bridge and I glanced back to see that I had built up about a 10-15m lead on Ray which probably means that I had probably done 3:40 pace or so. From that point on, it was just a matter of trying to hold on. I hit the turnaround at 10:07 (6:31 pace) which doesn't look too bad. Ray had caught up to me right at the turn around and then passed me. I just tried to hold on but was fading pretty bad. The second half I did in 10:46 which is 6:56 pace, my LT pace.
Max HR that I hit was 187 in the first half and 189 in the second half right at the end. Averaged 186 during the second half. Will have to work on getting this higher. I think I have to work on my VO2Max as I think I hit my ventilating limit. I just couldn't push any harder though my legs felt fine. I averaged 6:43 pace for the whole 5k which is what I was kinda looking to do in the 10k in a week and a half. I hope that this was just a bad running day.
So not quite what I was hoping for. Will try again for a sub 20min 5k this summer. There's another 5k next Saturday, but that's going to be 3 days before the 10k I'm doing on July 1st so that's probably not the best race to do. There's a 5k, the Saturday after that, but it would mean only a 4 day recovery from the 10k race. Not sure if that's a good idea either.
oh yeah, the race actually is in a nice setting. Waterfront trail with a bit into the forest. Some small hills to keep you honest and it was good weather. The finish line was a bit disorganized as it really wan't a "race". It was more of a fun run since they didn't record the finish times and therefore don't have official results. Would have liked to see markers on the course though.
Running faster.
on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 11:50 PMDid about 8 miles this morning including 6x600m at the track with 90s jog recoveries. Wanted to do these at about 6:25 pace or so.
| Lap Time | Pace | HR Max |
| 02:21.6 | 06:19.8 | 179 |
| 02:20.8 | 06:17.7 | 182 |
| 02:20.3 | 06:16.3 | 182 |
| 02:23.9 | 06:26.0 | 183 |
| 02:21.9 | 06:20.6 | 184 |
| 02:22.6 | 06:22.5 | 182 |
So most of them were a bit fast which i'm not sure is good or bad. I haven't quite figured out what a comfortable "fast" pace is yet. I'm still pretty sure that faster than 6:20 pace is a little beyond my acceptable discomfort level for an entire 5k. Will gun for the 20 min 5k though. My only fear is that the course is hilly. The course is down by the water and it an out an back, but I'm getting the feeling that it goes up an embankment and then back down. Also it looks like it's going to warm up a bit on Saturday morning. Note quite hot, but warmer than it's been these last few days.
Will probably do a 2 miles tomorrow morning with a couple of strides to prep.
Cool is cool!
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 9:53 PMSo we've had some really weird weather as of late. We had thunderstorms for several straight days. I took a day off from work on Monday and went to the zoo where I got pelted by a hail storm amongst other things. Largest chunks of hail I've ever seen. Some of them were about the size of a small gumball.
So the weather has gotten a bit cooler as of late. It's about 10C in the morning's which is perfect running weather. It allows me to go outside in shorts and a t-shirt and I don't generate too much of a sweat. My runs over the last two days have been good not having to worry about the heat.
On Tuesday, I did a little over 9 miles including 3@LT pace. Did these again around the track. 
First lap was quite slow at about 7:15 pace. Though I didn't plan it this way, it ended up being a progression run The first 4 laps (1 miles) were done at 7:01 pace, the next 4 at 6:54 and the last 4 at 6:51. I didn't like that the HR kept climbing of the course of the run, but I realize now that the reason for this was that I was gradually speeding up.
This morning, I did about 6.5 miles @ recovery but it included 6
strides. I've noticed that my cadence rate has dropped off a bit over the past few weeks. I noticed leading up to my last marathon that strides really help to improve cadence. With the 5k coming up, i thought it would be a good idea to do some strides now to prepare. It might be a bit too late to derive any benefit from them, but it's a good mental trainer. My HR was way down for this. Probably averaged about 9:25 pace for the non strides part. I'm going to try practicing some 5k running tomorrow around the track. I'm curious as to what the HR will be since it's still going to be quite cool.
Slowing Down
on Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 9:15 PMSo i'm signed up for a 5k race next Saturday. I thought it might be a good idea to head to the track yesterday and practice 5k pace. My last few marathon training cycles, I've done VO2Max intervals at what I'm guessing was my 5k pace of 6:20 which would put me in a 19:40 or so finish. Considering the cut back in mileage as of late, I don't think that's doable. Even during peak marathon training, I was never quite sure that I could stretch those 1 mile intervals at that pace to 3.1 miles. Instead, I decided to aim for 4 minute km pace (6:26 pace) which would put me in a 20:00 finish.
Did a 3 miles jog warmup to the track. Got there and there was no-one around. Had the track all to myself. Tried to do 5x1km at 4:00/km pace.
First one I did in 3:55 (6:18 pace) which was a bit fast. Did a short recovery jog of 200m and then put down a 4:02 (6:30 pace) split for the second one, but I was feeling pretty pooped after that one. Ended up doing walking recoveries after that of about 2:45. Remaining splits were 4:08 (6:39 pace), 4:06 (6:36) and 4:09 (6:41). HR maxed out at 190 during the second one, but topped out at 188 or 189 for the other ones. That interval session really sucked. Did slow job back home. Total for the day was 9 miles or so.
Today, I headed down to the lakefront to get a long run in. I haven't been down there for a long 
run since last summer so it's been a while. While driving down there, I saw them setting up a bunch of traffic cones on the road. It looked like they were setting up for a race, but i'm usually pretty in sync with the races that are going on in the area, but I hadn't heard of this one. I looked it up later and it was a Father's day 5k race. Anyhow, back to the run. Did about 15.3 miles today and averaged about 8:40 pace for the whole thing. This was my longest run since the marathon more than a month ago and it showed. The first half was alright, but I was starting to fade towards the end. Was a bit warm at the end. I should probably try and start my runs earlier to try and beat the heat.
So total for the week was around 39 miles. Will try and do a LT run on Tuesday and maybe a short Vo2Max workout on Wednesday/Thursday to prepare for next Saturday's race. May have to re-evaluate my goal of sub 20 depending on how the runs go this week.
Short LT Run
on Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 7:37 AM
Did a little over 8 miles yesterday including 3 at LT pace. Went to the track to run laps. Ending up trying to keep the HR below 180.
LT laps were as follows.
| Lap Time | HR Avg | Pace |
| 01:40.5 | 165 | 06:44.3 |
| 01:40.9 | 175 | 06:46.0 |
| 01:41.4 | 178 | 06:48.0 |
| 01:43.6 | 178 | 06:56.8 |
| 01:43.7 | 178 | 06:57.2 |
| 01:44.1 | 179 | 06:58.8 |
| 01:45.8 | 180 | 07:05.7 |
| 01:46.5 | 179 | 07:08.5 |
| 01:47.7 | 178 | 07:13.3 |
| 01:46.7 | 179 | 07:09.3 |
| 01:45.8 | 180 | 07:05.7 |
| 01:44.1 | 181 | 06:58.8 |
Started out okay, but pace started to slow down towards the back end. I haven't done an LT type run in over a month so this was kinda expected. It wasn't that boring since there was lots of activity at the track. High school soccer teams were out practicing and lots of kids playing on the track. Makes me wonder how I ever could ever deal with running solo over the winter.
Update
on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 11:25 PMRunning this past week was sporadic at best.
Last Tuesday I did 8 miles total including some intervals at the track at about 10k race pace which I"m guessing is around 6:35 -6:40. Did 2x1200m, 2x800m, 4x400m, 6 strides.
Thursday: Did 6 miles at 8:20 pace
Sunday: Did 3 miles. TOO HOT TO RUN!!!
Today: Did 6 miles. Don't know about pace.
Last week didn't have much time to do much else. A work thing that I thought was due Monday actually ended up being due on Friday. I didn't actually find this out until Wednesday morning and I was working on the assumption it was due on Monday for the past month or so. Late nights. Didn't have any energy to do anything on the weekend. I'm surprised I even got out to do 3 miles.
So this week marks 18 weeks until the Chicago marathon. I will basically start a marathon training program since at least it's something to aim for but I'm almost certain that I won't be doing it which I guess is an admission of defeat. I was thinking it might be reasonable to try and go for 3:15 since that would qualify me for the 2010 Boston marathon, but I really have no desire to train heavily over the summer. Right now, I'm going to focus on the shorter stuff and speed, but still try and do a moderately long run over the weekend.
Let's see...
on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 11:11 PMStill kinda busy at work.
Okay so did 6 miles last Thursday. Ran that at a General Aerobic pace of 8:18. That was tough. First non-recovery run since the marathon three weeks ago.
Did 5.4 miles of Recovery on Saturday at about 9:40 pace. That was also tough. Much warmer than normal and was sweating buckets. Guess I haven't acclimatized to the warmer weather yet.
Did 12.1 miles yesterday @ 8:50 pace. Wasn't too bad. I had really tried to drink a lot of fluids on Saturday to prepare for this run and to prevent dehydration.
Total for the week was 23.5 miles. Going to try out some track work this week. Will try and cut back the pace by about 10% or so to take into account the blood donation a little over a week ago.
I think I'm going to try and do a 5k race on June 21 and the Canada Day 10k to hopefully get some PR's out of the way. I've been looking around trying to find a 10k training plan and boy do they look strange. Having done nothing but marathon training for the past 3 years, these training plans with short runs and nothing but intervals look alien to me. Long run of 12 miles. You call that a long run??
Busy...
on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 10:27 PMDid 9.4 miles on Sunday at a recovery pace. Wanted to take it easy after the blood donation on Saturday. I've been real busy at work these past few days and havn't done any running. will try and get out for a short run tomorrow morning just to loosen things up. I haven't been stretching and my legs muscles are starting to tightening up.
Update.
on Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 10:00 PMDid 5 miles recovery on Wednesday, Friday and today. Will try and maybe squeak out a 10 mile long run tomorrow.
Donated blood today. It's been well over a year since I last gave. All this marathon training had me reluctant to give up my red blood cells. I guess that's changed for the present time. Next is to try and schedule getting my wisdom teeth removed. More lost red blood cells. Oh Joy!
I've been looking at hotels for Boston in April of next year. It's never too early to start planning. Umm, why are they charging $400-$500 a night? Geez, it's going to be one expensive trip...
What's next?
on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 11:18 PMDid 6 miles recovery on Sunday. Wanted to do a 5 mile recovery this morning, but just wasn't motivated to get out of bed. I've been trying to plan what I want to do for the rest of the year running wise. I signed up for the Chicago marathon but I'm having second thoughts about that. I considered signing up for the Twin Cities marathon in Minnesota since it's supposed to be one of the better big city marathons around, but that filled up within the past day or so. Considerign that I've already done two marathons this year, I may forgo a fall marathon this year.
I'd still like to race a couple of shorter distances to get some PR's. My half marathon PR is about at the same pace as my marathon PR. That needs fixing. There's a Canada Day (July 1) 10k race that I'd like to do. At the race expo, last week, I saw a poster for the Pearson Runway Run which is a 5k race on one of the runways of the big city airport here in Toronto. That sounded neat, but unfortunately that filled up recently too.
Decisions, Decisions...
Race pics!
on Saturday, May 17, 2008 at 11:00 PMDid 5 miles recovery on Wednesday and 3 miles recovery today. Will probably try and squeeze in 6 miles recovery tomorrow.
Race pics from the race last Sunday. Let's see. Here are five pics of me looking at the ground.
Fooling around in photoshop, i made this animated gif of the first four pictures so it looks like I'm running.
Action Shot (sorry for the size)
Finish Line Pic. Kinda looking at the ground.
All Done. It's hard to see,but I have a dead bug on my nose.
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