Plan for MDI

At long last, I've formulated a plan of sorts for MDI. It's very detailed just because I like to be told what to do, even if it's just me saying so and even if I choose to ignore my own advice. The basic workouts come from a 3 part series on Training and Racing within your Personal "Marathon Zone" by Guy Avery from Sept/Oct 2006 to Jan/Feb 2007 in Marathon and Beyond.



It took some work to figure out the details but I think I came up with a challenging but manageable plan for me. I have a series of races (in green) that are meant to be milestone tests or to replace workouts, including a marathon where the plan is to do 18 miles at goal pace before shutting down the engines. It's divided into 3 x 6week periods with 2 of the 1st 6 weeks (in blue) already behind me. There's a fair amount of goal pace running and long runs with fast goal pace finishes (I know Andrew will love me for that) but nothing too different than what I've done in the past. It should be interesting to see how it goes.

The past week was good as far as the running went but way too busy otherwise and no time to blog much about it.

Sunday - no long run due to the Father's Day race directing so just did 5.5 miles when I had time later in the day
Monday - an easy 5 miles but very slow feeling tired and stressed
Tues - 10+ miles with Garmin going wonky but it was hot and slowed at the end
Weds- 8 mile fartlek with 1, 2, 3 minute efforts with 2-3 easy bits and then repeated. Felt good but legs got tired and right hammy was complaining.
Thurs- med long 14.5 miles in 2hr doing loops around town and several water stops at the town square. Finished off with a quick dip in our fishpond.
Fri- 8 miles at an easy pace around town but then upped to tempo effort to beat the thunderstorm home
Sat - 9 miles, again at an easy pace around town with a few strides at the end

Weekly total of 60 miles in 7 runs and 8hr 15 min on my feet.

Sunday - a new week starts but Andrew was away so it was a pair of long loops in town with each a mirror image of the other. 18 miles in 2hr 30min exactly and heartrate at 128 avg. The run started like death warmed over and improved slightly for the 2nd loop but I then died again at the end as I tired in the last miles.

Today was another rest day (hate to miss them like I did last week).

Have a great week!

St. Andrews Father's Day Race - race director's cut

Sunday, June 17th, 2007 was mostly one big blur. When you are co-race director, even in a small one like this with only about 100 people entered there are so many small details that keep you distracted and the whole thing just flashes by.

We had a perfect St. Andrew's-by-the-Sea day. Sunshine, mild temperatures, light breeze and lots of happy smiling faces.

The 1.5 mile kids lined up. Isn't that little guy so cute? They all managed to complete the distance in very impressive style. One little girl was late for the start and then ran it with her Dad and submitted the time after. She was very disappointed to miss her start but happy to participate.

And they're off! I love the way kids can run so freely.

Their effort and determination was amazing to see. The overall winner was not the older kid too. The results are here on the RunNB website.

Next up were the big people, no less intent and determined but still smiling and happy.

Here's a great artistic shot by my co-director showing off a runner and the Algonquin resort hotel which was also one of our larger sponsors.

A scenic shot around the 1/2 way mark. Remember this race is run entirely inside the town of St. Andrews.

A shot down the 'Back' Street just seconds after the race start. Did I say it was a perfect day? Except maybe for the fact that I didn't get to run it. Maybe another year but I found it was too much the one year that I tried to do both. Just have to grin and bear it; besides it's a little giving back to the race community that I like to do.

Race wise we had no glitches at all. It was a good race but the overall leaders separated quickly and were more or less decided after the 2nd mile. The 5 mile results are here and the winning time of 26:46 was quite impressive but well off the course record of 25:33 (amazing with the crazy hills we have in the middle). We took a ton of pictures and they are also posted on the RunNB website. The timing and race results were all available within 1/2 hour of the last finisher using our old manual system of recording times and then entering them in a computer. We had a ton of prizes and lots of trophies and ribbons with most everyone going away with something of value.

It was a great day but I was glad it was done. I took some time later in the day to get my run in but was too late to do a long run. More on that later. Have a good week!

Woo Hoo!

Great news on the home front with my daughter Steph finally getting accepted into the Atlantic Veterinary College or AVC at UPEI. This was her third attempt at getting in and might have been her last try but now that she's made it we're very excited and happy for her. Steph is a life long animal lover and has always wanted to be a vet since she was very little. She now has the opportunity to work hard and achieve her dream. The road ahead will be long and difficult because the program is very demanding but she knows this and is well prepared to do well. You can visit and congratulate Steph at her blog where she also does some occasional running!

In fact I'm told that Steph will also be running in our St. Andrew's Father's Day race which we're putting on tomorrow. This will be the 29th edition of this 5 mile race and it goes around the perimeter of our beautiful little town. Its over a route that I run on most days but usually without 'the hill'. Here's the elevation profile. The kicker is in the last mile!

I've been busy today doing last minute things for the race like checking my computer registration forms, gathering food and drinks, checking on a few sponsors, etc. I even took time to fit in my run where I ran both the 1.5 mile kids loop and the 5 mile main loop with a can of spray paint in my water bottle holder so I could spuce up the faded course mile and kilometer markings (don't tell). Hopefully all will go well in the morning. We never know how many are going to show up with numbers in recent years varying from about 50-150 runners (it's just a small out of the way race ;-).

A quick update on my running for the past week:

Sunday - 17 miles in 2:34, a bit slow and tired with sore feet from all the running I did on concrete last week in Halifax/Dartmouth

Mon - rest

Tues - 5.5 easy with an unusually early 7am start because I was doing a long drive with my Mom to Bathurst and back in the same day. She's back in the chemo circle once again but we're hopeful the new drugs will work better this time around. Ended up driving for about 12 hours and was exhausted by the end of it.

Weds- 6mi dragging my butt run (I wonder why)

Thurs - 8 mi fartlek-y run with 10x1min surges with 1:00 rest but found out later I'd misread the workout and should have done 2-4min rests. Oh well avg pace was a decent 7:3x.

Fri - 10 mile in the heat of the day (8:01 pace); the sun actually came out and the temps shot up to the mid 20's (70'sF) would you believe? Nothing for you southerners but hard on us Canuks! I drank 2 bottles of water and was dying at the end.

Sat (today) - 10 miles running and marking our race course. Slow pace with all the stops and starts.

Total of 56 miles in 7hr 40min for the week and I still don't have a plan written down! Next week will be more of the same with a tempo run and maybe some cruise repeats but don't know how I'll do the long run with Sunday being a write-off due to the race director thing happening.

Wish me luck and have a great week! Summer officially starts on June 21 at 18:06 hrs which is also happens to be the longest day of the year (or at least the longest daylight hours) !

Ho Hum

18 weeks to MDI

Still running but hardly training, yet...

Blogging has been a bit of a chore for some reason lately and so it's getting left on the back-burner.

More numbers: 48 miles last week in 6 runs with the longest at 11 and one 10k race

Sunday: 17 miles to start the week out right.

Time to figure out a plan.

Cobscook 10k

Hey, the boys are back in town!! It was great to see both Marc & Andrew at today's race.

This was the pre-race get together because it was our last chance to see Andrew (see his race report) before he went tearing off into the fog/sun with the lead pack to a 2nd place overall. Actually there was no fog but he did go out quickly while Marc and I hung back and tried to gab a bit. However, it's kind of hard to run a 10k and talk at the same time so this only lasted for a mile or so. We chatted with the 1st lady for a bit and then after the 5k in about 21:30 we split up as Marc pulled ahead. This was a tough hilly 10k and no excuses but my legs just couldn't go any faster today. I guess the lack of any speed work and the effects of Cabot Trail were the main culprits. Nice to finish (in under 45min) and then schmooze with the boys and Andrew's family. Jo also made the trip today and got to visit some of my running haunts as we drove part of the Boyden Lake route.

It was a great day for a run and nice to have the Three Blind Moose back together again. We hope to get together again for some long runs before MDI. Have a good week!

Cabot Trail weekend- even more gory details

Ouch, ouch, ouch! It's now Friday, 6 days later and the legs are still complaining! Did a short 30 minute stumble on Thurs and a 40 minute crawl today. Still hoping to get that 10k in on Sunday with Andrew but it may just be an easy run at the back at the pack. Well, back to the trail...

Did I mention the 6.2 k uphill climb? Remind me never to do this leg ever again! The first bit was only a moderate grade but it soon became single file, extremely steep climbing, just trying to stay on the heels of the yellow runner in front of me and to keep the heartrate from climbing to much over 90% of max. The last time I did this leg my goal was not to walk a step but this time it was just to survive in one piece and so when I found that power-walking was just as fast as running, well... it was powerwalking. Nobody passed me and I passed a few people doing this.
Our team was doing the 1st water stop on this leg and the theme was Welcome to Studio Nine (in honor of leg 9) complete with red carpet treament, music and screaming fans. No walking going through this section!
After the water stop it was still another 2-3k of climbing before it finally leveled off for a bit. By this time I had made friends with Mr Yellow who was from Fredericton, NB and we cruised along at a good pace while looking out for moose. Didn't see any, just lots of tracks along the road. We were also amazed at the amount of snow in the ditches at the top of the mountain.

Next came the hard part (for me), the trip down the other side which is about the same length and steepness as going up. Despite my best efforts at going with the force of gravity, leaning down, running on the dirt on the side of the road, I was soon flapping my way down the crazy grade. I'm happy to report that very few people passed me that weren't again re-passed on the less steep parts. One lady went flying by us (still with Peter, he has a name now) and we gave her some encouraging comments but received no reply. We later re-passed her and again said, good job, keep it up but no reply. The next thing I knew I was pounding down the next grade with her right on my heels (literally) this went on for nearly a kilometer and she even clipped me once, and still not a sound! I should have got her number but then she suddenly dropped back and I didn't see her again. Here are the geeky Garmin details for the run; two things, its a big hill and the HR stayed up there for the most part.
The last few k was just more pounding, trying to get the thing over with and was running back and forth with Peter and another runner. At this point it was almost totally dark but you could see the lights and music of the welcoming finish line for the leg. My teammates were waiting for me with my only request for the end of the run, a nice hot cup of coffee! Boy, did it ever taste great! We then went into the restaurant and had a nice greasy meal since our runner for the next leg was not able to go due to injury.

On to the next leg where our new recruit in the red horns had a smashing time. Do we seem to be having a good time? Do you seen any people that aren't smiling in any of these pictures?
Followed by two more runners doing their night leg. Can you tell the sweaty one who just finished from the one ready to go?
And here is the insane water stop at leg 14 by the Viking team! Can you believe this in the middle of the night with loud music, lights, dancing Vikings in full armour, passing out water to the poor unsuspecting runner victims? Notice the skeleton hanging from the bow. They won the prize hands down!
And here is our happy runner, glad to be done being greeted by the team.
Next up was Martin whom I caught tying his shoes. Are you sure those are double knotted we asked?
And yet another runner, who was so relieved to be done. The waiting around can be very painful, especially for the newbies and we had quite a few this year. You know they all want to come back though don't you?
And here's our final runner (also called Mike) in a neck and neck sprint for the finish at the end of the final leg. The lady (Mike had another name for her) pushed him right to the line but her got her in the last strides. Way to go Mike!
What fun!
The finish line team at leg 16. Can't wait to do it again next year but no mountains for me, please!! Happy running ;-)