Love2Run Canada

Chugging along

2010-11-30T14:19:00.004-04:00

All is relatively quiet here lately as I continue to put in the miles on a 'run as you please' basis with no particular plan or goal in mind at the moment. Not unlike the local deer who seem to have a 'go as you please' attitude when wandering around the town. It's not unusual to see 6 or more in a group just casually walking across the street going from one backyard garden to another.
I was playing around with my data in Sporttracks and came up with this monthly plot of total miles, average pace and average heartrate over the past year. It seems that the trend has been down for the most part which is good and reflects getting in better shape and also getting the iron issue under control. The last month has just been easy running of 30-40 miles per week which is seen in the lower average heartrate and slightly slower pace. This is just fine with me for now until I work out my plans and goal races for 2011. Thinking about a doing a good marathon and another shot at the sub-20 5k but these are both very vague ideas at the moment. The main 'plan' is to just run decent miles to build a good base with a few fun 'efforts' like hills, tempo or progression runs thrown in to keep things interesting.

Meanwhile I continue to log all my runs on the DailyMile site which is a great community of runners and tri-athletes and an easy way to post my day to day activities. You should try it if you haven't already joined in! Hope to see some of you there...

Happy running!

End of the Season

2010-10-27T20:20:00.007-03:00

It's been a busy and good running season for me with 13 races completed. Curious at how my end of season 1/2 marathon pace was faster than my April 5k! Must have been doing some things right!

My goals were achieved at all of the distances except the marathon but I wouldn't exchange the Big Sur experience for any time goal! It's been a great season for me and there have been a few unexpected bonuses like the nice little piece of hardware from this past weekend's race for getting my age group ;-)
But... we're never totally satisfied are we? Take this last race at Moncton Legs for Literacy. It seems that I've yet to learn how to race the 5k. My splits as usual went from too fast, to slow and then to even slower before buckling down a tiny bit before final 'sprint' finish. The overall time of 21:26 was barely faster than the 1st 5k in my last 1/2 marathon race from a week ago! The 1st k in 3:50 was the usual suicidal killer which got me in a hole that was hard to get out of and the rest of the race was basically just hanging on and trying not to get passed.

At least there was no sprint finish required as you can see in the video. Trevor was also here in the same race and got 2nd in his age group! His improvements are amazing over the past year. Results are here.
It's now time for a break from the racing but not from running. I'll be setting some new goals for next year which will include another go at the sub-20 5k and other distances as well. This time I'm going to try to put together a more coherent plan which will come together over the winter as Andrew & I work at building up our base. I might even run a spring marathon before kicking into some 5-10k race training for the summer. This time I won't let little things like a sore back or a long trip on a boat keep me from doing what is needed to get to the goal.

A few quotes to remind you that:

"There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people."
Bill Bowerman

"Train, don't strain."
Arthur Lydiard

Have a great week and good running!

Running Scared

2010-10-18T19:44:00.004-03:00

The horn went I took off like a scared rabbit and never looked back...
Given my recent training or the lack thereof, the pace was suicidal and I knew it...

1st kilometer in 3:56!

I'm running in the KV 1/2 marathon and started faster than my 5k pace! Next k, still downhill in 4:07, still way too fast. 5 kilometers goes by in 21:26, just 24 sec slower than my all out 5k time from 3 weeks earlier! 10k in 44:06, OK slowing now but that's still only 50 secs off my seasons best?

By this point I was getting very worried that the wheels where going to fall off at any minute and it would be a long suffer-fest to drag myself home. So I just carried on going one kilometer at a time, feeling quite good, breathing steady except for the hills, legs feeling so good that I barely felt them. Just waiting for the wheels to come off...

But they never did and I can't explain why because they should have given the suicide start. I really ran in fear from the 10k mark on because I was nearly certain that the pace was way beyond my assumed fitness level and body condition. The hills had an effect on some of my splits but was able to turn over the legs on the downhill and hold the pace. After not being passed for nearly the entire race I did do some jostling over the last few k including a sprint finish which I lost (again) to some young whippersnapper. Heard him coming but couldn't switch gears in time as I finished 11th overall with a very pleasing 1:36:15.

These are my 1k splits vs average pace showing the 'too fast' start, good 1st 10k with some slowing over the 2nd 1/2 but mostly in line with the hills. The results are now posted at the Run NB website and it shows that I was nipped at the line by only 1 second by the 30-something age runner. He'll pay next time!

Again, very happy with the result because the last few weeks had been very poor in terms of training since the 5k race on Sept 26. Immediately after this event my back 'went out' with what felt like nerve pain rather than a muscle pull. As a result I didn't run for 4 days and the weekly mileage plummeted to 20-25 instead of the usual 40 or so and most of those miles were slow and painful as the back complained vigorously. Thankfully it did ease somewhat over the last week and running but not stopping to stretch seemed to be better for it than my normal stretching routine after the 1st mile or two. Maybe being a little under-trained was better than trying to cram a bunch of training in like we all prefer to do? Who knows? The result was unexpected and I'll take it and move on!

Next race is a 5k this coming weekend in Moncton. I'll get a chance to see Trevor again who had a fine MDI marathon last weekend in Bar Harbor. Just have to convince him that he has a BQ or more in him and to start working his way there! Jamie also had an awesome race at MDI which is reputed as one of the toughest marathons on the east coast. He did it in style getting his 1st ever well earned BQ on this great course!

That's it, have a great week and keep on running!

Excuses!

2010-09-28T19:47:00.007-03:00

Excuses? I'm not usually one for making them up and like to take responsibility if things don't go exactly as planned. But I do have a few that I'd like to try... I went fishing on a herring boat and we caught a more than a few fish and the captain was so happy that he wouldn't let me off the boat because I brought such good luck. Actually he did let me go but it's a great picture that I wanted to show off from a recent trip I was on.
On Sunday I ran the 5k at the Fredericton Fall Classic. My final time of 21:02 was decent enough and I placed well but was only slightly faster than my race on July 1 over 2 months ago. You would have thought that there might have been some slight improvement given the training that I'd put in. It appears that the 10 day sea-trip layoff was just too much to make up for.
Maybe, I didn't run hard enough, although it felt hard during the process. My splits were terrible with a fast 1st kilometer in 3:58, followed by a steady decline with splits of 4:06, 4:18 and 4:28 before finally getting my act together a little bit for a final k in 4:09. I don't remember many little details like Thomas can seem to come up with during his races. The weather was near perfect around 10C with little wind and I had a couple of people to draft off during the 1st 2.5k where we were running with the 10k crowd. The turnaround near the 3k mark required a couple of sharp turns and we then ran back against the flow with very few people around me. I was not passed after the 2nd k until about the 3.5k mark when one female high school runner put some distance on me (separate 5k HS race). I almost caught her in the final k when she actually took a little walk break to look around for her competitors but at least it gave me a target to shoot for. My final stretch of the run was good but I was left with the feeling that I had let down a bit too much in the middle and did not push like I might have. Oh well!

Meanwhile, Trevor had a great race setting a personal best and looking good for his upcoming marathon at Mount Desert Island. It's a tough but beautiful and rewarding course and a very well run race that I know he will totally enjoy with his family. We did a nice little warmup jog before the race and talked about him not being sure of how he was going to do. I told him all the training could surprise him with an unexpected result since he's done the work in recent months. Nothing shabby with a nice shiny PB is there Trevor?

However, things went downhill for me immediately on finishing when my lower back seized up just steps after stopping. I hobbled over to the massage tent for treatment which helped but did not alleviate the pain. Where this came from I have no idea and now two days later it's still with me and there has been no running. How can you go from running fast (sort of) to being barely able to walk!? My usual remedies of beer and ice cream have had only minimal effects but I'm trying my best.

Meanwhile there is a 1/2 marathon coming up in a few more short weeks, not to mention a little holiday trip to visit the two sons in Ontario and probably another work trip bouncing from boat to boat. Life does go on! Here's hope the back clicks back into position soon and I'll be back to normal (whatever that is) sooner rather than later.

Have a good week as I'm heading for the freezer now!

No excuses!

2010-09-19T19:58:00.005-03:00

No I didn't ride off into the sunset... but we did have some lovely sunrises.
And no we didn't have to abandon ship, although we did do the drill... It's been a rather hectic several weeks now with my sea trip / research survey taking 11 days out of my running schedule. The weather was ideal until a little hurricane called Earl decided to chase us off the water.
Speaking of being chased, here I am at a recent race, the Hampton 5 miler where I was chased and passed here right in sight of the finish line. I hate it when they hang back for the last kilometer and then make a break for the finish and go zooming by me but I had nothing to respond with. It was a decent time considering my layoff with a 34:40, nearly the same as the Blueberry Run a month before.

So, I'm slowly getting back up to speed and I'm now planning for a 5k race this coming weekend. This was going to be a goal race but with the lack of consistent workouts, realistically it will be another test and a goal post on the way to the finish of the season which is only 1 month away. I'm also signed up for a 1/2 marathon on Oct. 17 and might do another 5 or 10k the week after that.

Right, so no excuses, we'll just have to see what happens, prepare as best I can and hope for the best. Have a great week!

Progress report

2010-08-22T16:39:00.004-03:00

Another weekend, another race to report on. This time it was the Machais Blueberry 5 miler where rumor has it they used to give away blueberry pies to the age group winners! Unfortunately not this year and with a 3rd place in my age category with a 34:44 it was not in the cards anyway. I was still pleased with this result after the subpar 35:42, two weeks previously in the Calais race. 'The shorts' also made another surprise appearance as Coach has yet to hide or burn them on me.
Postrace, here are the Boys of Boyden with Jonathan on the left getting 1st in the 50-59 age group (but no pie). On my left is Austin/Ozzie who place 2nd overall with a 29:xx time at age 56! His son is on very the right and ran a good race in the 35 minute range.
My race was fairly uneventful as I had been forewarned by the hills and allowed it to take me out to a fast start. This was a hilly course as indicated by my splits with a 6:30 1st mile, followed by the next one in 7:30 with a long grinding uphill. At this point I was passed by a very tall runner who I then latched onto over the next mile before finally repassing as his pace flagged. Only one other runner went by me after the 1st mile and this was in the 4th mile which featured a steady climb as I struggled to not go over my redline (heartrate was pushing over 90% for almost the entire race). The race finished with a 1/4 mile downhill which explains the crazy split for the last bit of the race (according to Garmin) and I placed 17th overall with the results now posted here.

My training seems to be progressing nicely and I've added some harder interval workouts with the advice of a local running coach. The plan is to peak for a couple of fall races with the main goal in the 5k where I'm aiming to break my lifetime PB of 20:01. There, it's now out in the open and you can hold me to making the attempt!

We (my coach and I) think this is a doable goal with my most recent 10k indicating a 20:49 as my current fitness level. The workouts so far have been tough but I've managed to do a series of 8x1k repeats in 4:00 avg with good rest between each. This past week I did 5x800+m and 5x400+m on a 440yd track and was successful with average times of 3:09 and 1:31. I use the '+' on the distances because the old 1/4 mile track was overgrown and my Garmin was telling me it was more like 410m and 820m per interval.

This coming week I'll try my speedwork on another track (400m this time) that may be in better condition but then I get a monkey wrench thrown into my plans as I have to go out on a fishing survey for 11 days for work. It's a research trip to work on herring spawning grounds and we'll be unlikely to see land until the trip is over. There might be a treadmill on board but it's hard to say if it will be any good to do hard workouts on. I can always work on my pushups and flexibility?! We'll have to see what happens and maybe the rest break will do wonders both mentally and physically.

Oh yes, this morning's semi-long run of 13.2 miles was interesting in 'running into' a displaced person from Australia looking for directions! Actually he's in training for the Melbourne marathon and was on the return leg of a 20 miler when we hooked up for the last 10k for a nice chat. I even discovered we had mutual acquaintances (he's married to the daughter of someone from our church). We even had a little 'argument' about who was pushing the pace with both of us saying 'I was just trying to keep up with you'. A very nice fellow and I now have a place to stay if we ever go to southern Australia ;-)

That's it for now. It might be awhile before there's much to report on but then again we might catch some unusual fish and I'll have to make a special update.

Bling Bling weekend

2010-08-07T20:29:00.011-03:00

The weekend started out with what felt like a sub-par performance at the Calais International 5 mile road race where I managed a 35:42 where my goal was to go sub-35. On reflection a top 10 finish and 2nd in my age group with some 'bling' to show for it made it a lot easier to take (just kidding). This is a great event with two international border crossings over the 5 miles but the course is tough with hills that take the wind out of your sails and never let you get in a proper rhythm. It's never flat with either up or down and you can never quite get your breathe properly as your either battling one hill or trying to recover a tiny bit on the downhill bits. A friend who is also a local coach who sometimes helps me with my training was also at the race and he took a bunch of nice pictures for the race including a few in my new 'shorts'.

The weather was near perfect with temps in the low 20C range and only a slight wind. I was a little late getting to the race start and had only about 10 minutes to do a short jog for a warmup before we were sent off . Here I am, as I did battle in the early miles with these 2 runners would would eventually finish just ahead of me. The guy just out of the picture was my age group winner and the younger runner kept running into my line and rubbing elbows until finally pulling away.

Looking at my Garmin data after the fact is always interesting especially when questioning yourself on giving the proper effort on the day. Looking at this you'd have to say yes, but is it really possible to give 101% or maybe I need to readjust my maximum heart-rate a notch or two!? It certainly did go straight up and stay there for the duration although the end results were highly variable as seen in the next plot.
You might also get a kick out of my paces which were all over the map and generally followed the contours of this brute of a course (hills remember). Paces from 9 to 6min/mile while going at full throttle is crazy. Eventually the suffering ended and I got to hang out with the other runners and collect my little piece of hardware.

However, schmoozing after a race can also cause other problems which helps to explain the 2nd trophy above. My fast running friend Ozzie mentioned another race on the next day at the Pleasant Point native reserve which happens to be just a stones throw from where we do our Boyden long runs. A few emails to Andrew and we were 'on' for my 2nd race of the weekend instead of a longer run. In fact this event was only 5 miles from where Andrew lives so he got to sleep in today!

This time there was plenty of time for a warmup, as Andrew and I met up 1.5hrs before the race to get a few (5-6) miles in. Surprisingly my legs felt totally fine despite the previous days race. After our little warmup we signed up for the race and went out for yet another 1 mile jog instead of standing around waiting. Eventually the little race (only about a dozen runners but who's counting) was on and I struggled to keep up with Andrew and Ozzie over the 1st kilometer. Eventually I let them go and struggled on, now in 3rd place, while trying to hold onto pace. There were no footsteps behind so it was just me against the clock and my watch and I finished the 4 miles in 27:37 with a slightly better average pace than the day before.
The Garmin analysis shows more of the same highly variable pacing and hills but these hills were much flatter than those of the previous day (only 20-30 ft). I'm still amazed at how well the legs held up and was even more pleased to accept my 3rd place trophy. The morning was finished off with some nice chocolate cake, blueberry pie and coffee before heading home.

It was a great weekend! Hope yours was as well.

10k birthday run

2010-07-24T16:59:00.007-03:00

It's been a nice relaxing few weeks of holidays for me, most recently a few days in PEI visiting my one and only daughter. She's in her last year of vet school and had a little break in her studies so we were able to visit without interrupting her train of thought.

Speaking of which, I'd been thinking but not able to decide what race to run while here for the weekend. Last year I had done the 5k after just a few weeks back running after my operation. But this year the training has been more or less uninterrupted since the Big Sur marathon and I've been slowly ramping up both the mileage and intensity with a scattering of race 'tests' thrown in for good measure. So, 5k or 10k? I've been unable to choose until last night when my 'coach' suggested that I must be ready for a longer race with all the miles in the bank.

So 10k it was, for the Cox & Palmer Run for PEI Prostate Cancer in downtown Charlottetown, PEI. For some reason I was very hyper before this race and had trouble getting my warmup in with a few cursory strides after a 1-2k jog. Once the race started I took off like a scared cat with the 1st k in 4:08 instead of the desired 4:25 which I'd remembered to write in the palm of my hand. The next k settled in a bit with a 4:17 as I matched strides with the 3rd place lady and we rolled along for the next 5k with occasional switching of positions. At the 5k turnaround in 21:42 I was in 14th place and still hot on the heels of lady with the good pace.
The return 5k leg seemed much harder than the 1st 1/2 and I somehow managed to -ve split it by 9 seconds with a 21:33. There was alot of huffing and puffing, trying to stay on my 4:25 pace and eventually my 'lady-friend' (we did exchange a few words) fell off the pace during a slight downhill stretch on this basically flat course. I then overtook a male runner who offered little resistance and slowly drew in the 2nd overall female during the last 2k. She allowed me to pull up to her shoulder but with about 500m to go, pulled away in her sprint finish. You can see my slight increase of speed in the splits but watching from the sidelines it would not have been very obvious to anyone. Here's the downhill finish for your viewing amusement.

Final time of 43:15 (official times now up and I gained 2 seconds!) was a nice surprise and I'll take it as an unexpected 55th birthday present. I've now earned my beer, ice-cream and cake and look forward to a nice meal tonite with the family.

Cheers and keep on running so you never get old in mind or spirit!

Grand Manan 1/2 race report

2010-07-18T07:52:00.006-03:00

For some reason I'm not able to come up with a catchy title for this post so I'll try to stick to the basics. It's not that there was nothing out of the ordinary for this race located on the island of Grand Manan a 1.5hr early morning ferry ride away from the mainland. The fog was so thick today that we couldn't see the wharf until we were within 50 feet of it but unfortunately a cool foggy day was not in store for the race.

Due to the remote location, this race usually has a small turnout of less than 50 runners but it is very well organized. The mid-summer weather out here in the middle of the Bay of Fundy is also 'usually' cool and foggy and the nearly flat route makes this a PR tempting course. As an added bonus they had also revised the route this year with the removal of the 'hill' (only 100 ft or so) in the out and back section for the 1/2.

After my usual cursory warmup of a 1/2 mile jog and stretching we were lined up at the start and sent on our merry way. By this time the fog had burned off and the sun was beating down on us unmercifully with no cooling sea breezes to speak of. Due to the small size of the race I had lined up at the front and went out with the expected race leader doing my best not to get overexcited and pass him right off. Despite trying to hold back the 1st kilometer went by in 4:24 and I found myself sitting in about 3th or 4th spot.

My plan for the race had been to try for 4:40 per kilometer pace which is the predicted speed for a 1:38 1/2 marathon based on my last 5k race. Of course like all other 'race plans' this was out the window almost from the get-go with the 2nd k in 4:35 at which point my Garmin decided to fog up on the inside and thumb it's nose at me (time to just run Mike!) So I just ran by feel trying to stay within myself knowing it was going to be a long hot run. I was almost immediately passed by 2 runners, including the 1st female but I resisted the temptation and just kept plugging away.

By the time I reached the 10k mark in about 46:40 (according to Garmin as the race marked it a bit short) the temptation to cut my losses and stop with the rest of the 10k runners was very strong with the increasing heat. The prospect of 11+ more kilometers at this effort in this heat (and did I mention the humidity) was daunting at best but I found other distractions (roadkill) to keep me going.

But 1st a couple of plots from SportTracks which I've just started to play around with. You can see my heartrate over the course of 13 miles showed a gradual increase which is more likely due to the effects of heartrate drift as a result of increasing body temperature in the humid, hot, still air and not so much from increasing effort (though I'd like to think so). I definitely did push it harder in the last k trying to get 3rd but more on that later.
This is another neat plot from SportTracks showing my kilometer splits compared with the overall average pace of 4:47/km (goal was 4:40). You can see I was under average pace (faster) for the 1st 7k, popped around for the next 4k and then above average (slower) for the next 10k. The final split of 0.2km was my 'sprint' for the line trying for 3rd but wasn't even close.

Some of that popping around was due to my overtaking a couple of slowing runners (roadkill) who had passed me earlier. I chatted with the lead female as I came up on her that "I didn't want to pass her" but she graciously allowed me to go by without tripping me into the ditch. At this point I was just slowing down less than the other runners and by the 16-17k mark I was able to overtake yet another 'cooked' runner who had gone out too fast for the conditions.

Since the final part of this course was a 5.5k out and back I was now able to determine that I was in 4th place overall with a chance for getting into the money for the top 3 men. My next target was only a couple of 100m ahead with about 3-4k to make up this distance. For some reason he ignored my mental pleas to stop and walk but then it seemed he was slowing in the final 2k. I pushed it as much as I was able but there was just not much left to give as I came to the final straight quite a bit short. My final time was 1:40:30 for 4th overall (with Garmin details here) and race results should come soon (here).

So, it was a good effort but not quite the result that I'd hoped for. My target was for a sub 1:38 with a range of 1:35 to 1:40 in my pre-race notes. It was just the heat and humidity that won out today and was not quite the PR course we'd hoped for. Talking with the other runners after the fact, we all seemed to share the same experience, too hot, too humid, no wind, oh well, try again next year.

That's all I got for now. My next race will be in a week's time on my 55th birthday. I'm doing either a 5 or 10k in Charlottetown, PEI, the same race I did last year on a nice dead-flat waterfront course. Wish me luck and good running!!

Canada Day blast off

2010-07-01T20:08:00.004-03:00

Long time no post but I thought it was about time to come out of the woodwork on a special occasion like Canada Day here in Canada. It was a perfect day for running with bright sunny skies and mild temperatures around 18C/65F . After arriving early in plenty of time to pickup my number, find a washroom and do a quick 1k warmup to stretch the legs I was good to go. I started fairly close to the front so as to not have to trip over people during my planned fast start with my eye on one kid with a big hat who tried to show me up here at the same race last year.

Over the past four weeks my training has been rolling along quite well with total mileage in the range of 35-45 miles per week with a longer run of 12-14 miles, one tempo run each week of 5 to 8k, and one speed workout each week with 800's, 1k or mile repeats. I've taken my paces from McMillans tables based on my most recent 10k of 46:00 back in May. My most recent speed workout of one week ago had 6x1km repeats with 800m recovery in an average time of 4:10/k. Granted you don't get 800m recoveries on race day but this workout did give me confidence that I had 'some' speed endurance at least.

So after a crowded start and some weaving about I was able to settle into a reasonable pace with the 1st km in 4:13. The next km was mostly head down going up the main hill in the course as I tried to hang onto my friend John who is a strong masters runner. He helped carry me along to the next kilometer split in a disappointing 4:36 which was the last time I looked at my watch as the lactic continued to build and my main concentration was simply running as hard as possible without 'blowing up'. It was a little deflating at this point to hear the 'pitter patter' of a runner gaining and passing me as I went sailing down the other side of the hill with my legs going as fast as I could make them go. Granted the runner, Mike Coyne, is a top masters runners with ranking in past years with Running Times but he is 5 years older than me and was running the 10k which started 200m behind us! Still it was a little hard to take.

Mike was almost the only runner to pass me the entire race but nearing the last km, more footsteps. The runner must have noted my panic because 'she' then said "Don't worry I'm only running the 5k!" I almost laughed but was able to gasp out that she was in for some competition. We then proceeded to exchange places a couple of times before she pulled ahead for a few meters as we finally neared the finish. As I said before, I had stopped looking at my watch after the poor 2nd km and was amazed to see the 21:00 just ticking over as we approached the line. Final time of 21:14 which equates to an 18:21 and a 70.7% age group rating which made my day. Results are now online and my Garmin story is here with the gory details.

Trevor was here for the 10k today and seemed to have a good day.
He ran solid even splits in my books as I say him cruise by the 1st time at 25 minutes and then finished in 11th overall (even if he got nipped at the line by a 5 year old doing the 5k! ). Sorry about that Trevor but you left yourself wide open for it.

I'm now keen to tweak my training plan for the rest of the summer and have already begun to look at slightly faster training paces based on today's result. The next planned race is either a 10k or 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks depending on how the long runs are going but there is lots of time to decide before then.

That's it for now. Have a great rest of Happy Canada Day or just a great day wherever you are!

Feeding Frenzy

2010-05-30T19:49:00.004-03:00

This was the welcome scene at the end of the latest jaunt around the Boyden Lake area with Andrew and company. Nothing like coffee and homemade chocolate squares (aka Blondies) to cap off a nice early morning 12 mile run.

The running has been going well the past few weeks now that my dental 'problems' are finally behind me and I've been able to get some solid training in. The mileage is slowly creeping up to the mid-40's and I'm now trying to do 2 harder speed days each week. I'll keep at it until the next race tests which are planned in late June with a 5 miler and then a 5k or 10 miler on July 1. The goal races will be in Sept which give lots of time to get ready.
That's all I got for now, the gory details for my daily runs (see plot above) are in the sidebar, but the proof will be in the pudding when I finally get my racing shoes on again. Have a great week!

Running Doags of Boyden

2010-05-23T14:47:00.004-03:00

It's not a typo, doags is a real word according to Wiktionary, which I just discovered through good old Google. Imagine what my grade 10 English teach would have thought of that sentence some xx years ago... fail!

But speaking of dogs, it was the hot topic for yesterday's run on the Boyden Lake roads with good olde Andrew and Trevor. Andrew is finally coming around from his calf/achilles problem and Trevor is winding down for an upcoming leg of the Cabot Trail relay race next weekend. Trevor's comment about midway through our 12 mile loop was something like "This is a nice quiet route but why is it there seems to be more dogs than cars!?" I think he's right. The dogs were all very good with 2 friendly labs looking to go for a little jog along with us but most were tied up and looking for something to bark at . The 2 little terriers, who went completely bonkers as we passed by their territory, at the end of the run were just the icing on the cake! Besides the animals, it was a perfect day for us running doags and we were able to get caught up on each others plans and strategies for the coming months. I won't spill any beans here just to keep up the suspense and will leave it to them to say.

My running is starting to come along with a total of 42 miles for the past week including a nice out and back tempo run on Thursday. This is one of my favorite type runs where I go out for a certain time or distance and then turn around and retrace my steps at a stronger pace and effort. This one was 30 minutes out and 26:30 back for a total of 7 miles at an 8:12 average pace. I always feel energized and refreshed after these and often use them when running with no specific goal in mind for the day. I'm also still on the alcohol free diet, which is a real pain (and I let my dentist know in no uncertain terms) but this should soon pass when I get off the medication. My face is also finally almost back to normal (after 2+ weeks) which is a great relief, as is being on solid food once again!

Besides this, I'm now looking forward to just 2 more weeks of work before a nice little holiday to visit family in Ontario. There will be lots of running and visiting going on as we travel here and there to cover all our bases. It should be lots of fun!

Have a great week and keep on running!

That's More Like It!

2010-05-16T19:36:00.009-03:00

Here I am finishing my 1st 10k of the season today in what felt like a respectable time of 46:09 (at least it was close to my current capability). I made it to the start and ran a more conservative plan this time (not blowing up in the 1st mile) and was 'not' passed by innumerable dogs and 10 year old kids. Results are now up and I have some race pics here.

But 1st a little more backstory... as my dental issues continued to plague me all last week culminating in yet another visit to the 'man' who deemed me a 'problem patient' and prescribed more drugs to fight the infection and swelling. Well the 'drugs' have kicked in and my face is now returning to normal but they had one undesirable side-effect of requiring me to avoid alcohol in any quantity or face severe nausea. The man has no heart! At least I can still eat ice cream!

Last week was up and down as far as the running went with a good tempo run on Tuesday including 3x1000m cruise intervals to test what felt like a good 10k effort. Besides this there was some easy runs and a day off at the instruction of Coach who was of the opinion that I'm rushing back into my training too quickly. On Saturday I managed to get together with my good buddy Andrew for a nice short run on a beautiful little trail in Calais. Andrew is recovering from a calf strain which sounded more like an Achilles strain as we talked it over. Hopefully some RICE will fix him up and we can get back to the Boyden runs again soon!

Back to today's little race... As you can see from the course profile this was not a flat, fast course, in fact it was advertised as 'rolling' with beautiful scenery! Beware when they say rolling! Kinda sounds like another race I did recently which had monster hills to go with the awesome views. We got to the race in lots of time for me to sign up and then scope out the 1st kilometer or so with the initial large incline (with a view of the golf course if you cared). I'm glad I did because it put the fear of lactic explosion into my old legs and helped me to try to hold back.

The 1st conservative kilometer went by in 4:40 and the 2nd with the hill was a well earned 5:00. After that there were some nice downs and ups and I worked at holding an even effort which had the result of my trading places back and forth depending on the up/down with a couple of runners over the rest of the race. One lady in particular (who finished just in front in picture) must have traded places with me 4 times during the race and I didn't want to make a spectacle of myself with a final pass at the line. The 5k mark went by in a nice 22:56 (only 30s slower than the Lincoln 5k fiasco) but I was thinking that I was not happy of doing 5 more kilometers at this effort. More hills and scenery kept me company over the next bit and besides trading places with the lady and getting annoyed with a guy jumping in the race to pace his friend for a mile or so I began to revert to counting in my head to keep the legs turning. The final 2k were a steady gradual uphill grind but I notice that the splits were also the fastest with 4:37 and 4:22 as we cruised into the finish gasping like fish out of water (myself at least).

So, a good race, good effort and I've now got some work to do if I want to get my 5-10k times down to low 20's or 40's by the end of the season. It should be interesting!

Have a great week!

DNS

2010-05-09T15:36:00.002-03:00

I was supposed to be racing a 10k in Fredericton today but my stars were out of alignment. It was the 1st time ever that I paid good money to enter a race but 'Did Not Start' for reasons outside my control (well sort of). I suppose it's better than a DNF because it is unlikely that I'd have made it more than a kilometer or so the way my head feels today.

It all started a week ago when looking at my calendar all was clear and a little 10k run might be an ideal way to start off the spring/summer running season. Checked out the website and yes, a nice flat fast course which would give a good indicator of current fitness to be used to guide my training. Ponied up the money and was good to go. I then began laying out a program of races through the summer with a goal of some faster times by the end of the season in the 5k/10k events. No idea at this point what these times might be but at least I had a plan forming. I even went out on Tues for my 1st fast run in ages with the good old 1-2-3 minute fartlek workout and was feeling ready to do more work.

But it was not to be...

On Weds my 'favorite' dentist called and said "Oh, we have an opening for your dental surgery on Thurs, can you come?"

"Mmmm, but will I be able to run in a race on Sunday 72 hrs later?" I asked.

"Oh sure, no problem" was the receptionist's cunning reply.

I was cornered and had no way out. So Thurs I faced the man once again and he bashed me once in upper jaw and twice in the lower jaw and then emptied my wallet (just like getting mugged?) 72 hours later after many pain killers and ice packs I'm left with a face that looks like I've gained 40 lb overnight and is still not recognizable to myself in the mirror. The only plus to all of this is being able to eat all the ice cream I want because it's hard to eat anything solid.

I had hoped that the swelling and pain would have subsided by this morning but it was not to be after a third very sleepless night of ice packs and trying to get comfortable. As a result about all I could manage this morning was walking down the stairs for more ice and so we stayed home instead of doing a fruitless 90 minute drive. Thus I get my 1st ever DNS instead of the likely DNF if I had actually managed to show up.

My friend Trevor however, did very well (results here) finishing with a PB in the 1/2 marathon of 1:48 and I'm looking forward to his story. I'm thinking the weather was on the cool side but good for running and hopefully it was not too windy and rainy as it was here at home.

On the plus side, my dental surgery schedule is now over with only some minor procedures to come over the next year or so. Also on the plus side, I can plan for the summer without the worry of getting 'mugged' again but first will have to find another race to get me started on the road.

Wish me luck, I need some right now. Have a good week!

Big Sur Movies on the Run

2010-04-26T12:50:00.003-03:00

Movies should be here now...

Pictures are at the same place but more...

Results are here

Tired, sore and contented...

Wow! Big Sur 1st thoughts

2010-04-25T18:46:00.006-03:00

This course/race is all it was made out to be and more. Bart Yasso's comment that if you are going to do only 1 marathon in your life and this is the one to do couldn't be more true. I've run 24 marathons now including 10 Boston's and I'm afraid to say that I now have a new favorite marathon (sorry Ann).
It's going to take me awhile to process what happened today, so just a few pictures and some short comments on the race. I took over 60 pictures and video clips during the race including my favorite here below on the Bixby bridge. My camera guy is funny bossing me around...

I finished with a big smile on my face but it is hiding a lot of pain in those old legs! If you check out my Dailymile or Running Ahead sites where my splits and stuff are stored you will see the obvious story of going out well but then paying a 'price' over the last 6 miles... Final result was a 3:51:13 finish, 538 overall and 46 in age group which was not too far off from the 'attempted' 3:45.
But more on that later after I've had time to process it a bit. Overall, I'm happy with how it went. It's a gorgeous brute of a course that would require some very specific hill work to do well on and it certainly adds 10-20 minutes to your time for a flat course which I now believe.

Now if I could only figure out an easy way to upload all those crazy pictures to my Picasa website... Off to the post race party where I hope to run into another Canadian by the handle of R-Cane runner. Kudos also to Punk Rock Tri-Guy, and Runner's Rambles who also challenged the big hills (there were many hills) of Big Sur today.

Good times and happy days!

Ready to Roll!

2010-04-25T00:37:00.003-03:00

Wow! Words do not describe this place properly. Truly spectacular, amazing, awe inspiring, definitely the Cape Breton of the west! We had time to drive the course from end to end and I'm in for quite an ordeal but plan to enjoy every minute of it. The weather is looking to be great with lighter winds than today, and moderate temps from 10 to 20C as things warm up.

They have a very early am start with the buses leaving from Monterey at 4am for the 645 start. Now freaking out a little bit, worrying about things that will work themselves out in the morning but I'm good to go and ready for action!

See you on the other side...

Heading West

2010-04-18T14:21:00.003-03:00

The bags are packed and all the work is done, including the 'work' work so that I was able to go in the 1st place and the 'road' work so that I'm ready for the fun that lies ahead at Big Sur. This picture is from the ferry in Halifax harbour here on the east coast. At the end of 2 days of meetings we took a break and the ferry across to the city for a nice meal and a relaxing evening out.

Not much happened over the past week workout wise until yesterday when I got my last marathon paced run in and this morning with a last 'long' run of only 12 miles. Both of these runs went very well and give me confidence that my goals are reasonable and achievable. The history of my MP workouts tells a tale of the ups and downs over the past 3-4 months but the key is I'm now running faster with less effort than when I started.
My goal will be to run at an easy effort with a heart-rate range of 130-140 which is 80-85% of max. I'm not going to stress out about the pace but expect it to come in around 8:00 to 8:45 depending on the hills. Today's long run which felt like a nice easy run came in at 8:40 pace with an average heartrate of 132. Again, I'll keep it below 140 so that I don't blow up early on and will take what comes.

Meanwhile, it's the Boston marathon weekend and the weather is looking on the coolish side but it should be good for some fast times. Good luck to Mark, E-Speed, Punk Rock Tri Guy, Runnrgrrl and R-cane to name only a few.

Have a nice week, I know that mine will be awesome (couldn't help but rub it in ) !!

Reality Check

2010-04-12T20:31:00.004-03:00

I ran a 5k race on Sunday. It was a good wakeup call/reality check that I needed to let me know exactly where I am/am not at this point in my fitness and training. I finished way back in the pack with a time of 22:26 which was a considerable improvement from my last attempt at this distance where I only managed 24:00.
A very short race story: you see my memory fades with age...
1st mile was good but downhill and with the wind. However, unlike most of my races where I can find a good pace and not get passed there were runners, dogs, kids streaming past. In the 2nd mile I felt some slowing but was feeling decent and in a nice rhythm, even passing a few runners until the turn back for home around the 3k point. We made a turn up a little hill and into the strong wind which just killed me and I totally blew up! Breathing, legs and HR went all crazy as the pace dropped off and I struggled from here on in for the last 2k. A brutal uphill finish over the last 500m totally did me in as I was passed by more dogs and kids right to the finish. See the little kid in the picture about to nip me at the line! Sheesh! My splits were horrible and also tell the story with 6:44, 7:11 and 8:06 (ouch)!

Still, it was a good attempt at a race and I'm happy with the result considering how the winter has gone for me with my lack of energy problem (now resolved). With my legs finally getting under me I can't be too disappointed because a more conservative even paced strategy could easily have put me under 22 minutes. Looking at McMillan running calculator and others it at least puts me in the 'decent' marathon range of around 3:35 to 3:45. And besides, I've been training for a marathon and not a 5k so we can play on the safe side, slow down, take extra pictures and still run 'well'.

Now if I can just get through this last week of work....

Have a nice week!

21 days, 22 miles

2010-04-04T17:17:00.007-03:00

Time is flying by with just 3 more weeks to go before Big Sur. With spring finally arrived the pond has warmed up and our goldfish are becoming more active, even begging for food. When you put your fingers in the water they like to take nibbles. They haven't had a chance at my legs yet because the temperature is still only about 15C but they will soon. I was tempted to try it after today's long 22 miler but opted out because I was so stiff and sore at the end that it might have been hard to keep my balance on weakened shaky legs.
Meanwhile on the indoor scene, Jo's indoor plants do almost as well as her outdoor ones with new blooms on a regular basis from a bargain buy she got in January. I guess her green thumb works for all types of plants!
As I said, just 3 more weeks to go and training continues to go well. On Thursday I did my last significant marathon paced run with 9 miles at a slightly up-tempo effort. Going into this workout I didn't feel very ambitious but surprised myself once it got going. The route was exactly the same as the previous one on March 18 with an extra mile tacked on the end but the pace was much improved at basically the same effort (heartrate).
Today's last long run of 22 miles went very well, despite not quite 'feeling it' again at the start. Might have been some residual tiredness from the MP run, but the pace was still good, nearly identical to the last long run at 9:07/mile (vs 9:08 for 21 miles) and a lower average heartrate of 131 (vs 133). Mind you I was very tired at the end of the 3hr 20min and the legs had that last miles of the marathon feeling over the final 4-5 miles, but that's what I was out there trying to do. The things you do to yourself in order to be able to run a 'decent' marathon....

Well, that's enough for now, time for some more beer and ice cream. Have a great week!

Over the Hump

2010-03-29T12:57:00.014-03:00

There are just 4 more weeks to go (today) before Big Sur (click here for a great video tour) and it's all downhill from now on. My build has been good but not up to my standards as in previous years due to various issues. There were the usual 'life is too busy' excuses, some unexpected travel, cursed dental visits but the main one was my lack of energy and resulting poor performances in regular training runs. And just to prove that I'm not making this up or 'talking though my hat' (where the heck did that come from?) here is some solid evidence with my average pace per week over the past 15 months.
You can see my 2009 Boston training and race where the paces were in the mid 8:30's, followed by some downtime and run-walking as I came back from surgery. Then things were stable with a slight improvement as I did the PEI marathon in mid-Oct but since then it's been a steady climb in the wrong direction, despite (or maybe because of) the increased training and mileage. While I understand that you have to run easy some times and can't expect training paces and race paces to come together, it has been very frustrating to not see much in the way of training effects over the past few months.

It turns out that part of my 'problem' was an iron deficiency resulting in anemia which my doctor is so far attributing to a diet lacking in red meat and enough of the leafy greens like spinach. He's been checking out the other possibilities which are not so good which might be causing anemia as a result of internal blood losses but put me on iron supplements in the meantime.

{from US Gov Office of Dietary Supplements (would you believe?)}
Iron and intense exercise:

Many men and women who engage in regular, intense exercise such as jogging, competitive swimming, and cycling have marginal or inadequate iron status [1,81-85]. Possible explanations include increased gastrointestinal blood loss after running and a greater turnover of red blood cells. Also, red blood cells within the foot can rupture while running. For these reasons, the need for iron may be 30% greater in those who engage in regular intense exercise [1].

Three groups of athletes may be at greatest risk of iron depletion and deficiency: female athletes, distance runners, and vegetarian athletes. It is particularly important for members of these groups to consume recommended amounts of iron and to pay attention to dietary factors that enhance iron absorption.

I guess I'm in the category of distance runner on a not so perfect diet (too many carbs and not enough protein) but getting back to the hump thing... it seems that those little red pills are finally starting to kick in with an excellent long run last weekend and a decent mile repeat workout this weekend. The repeats went well considering and my running log goes like this:

"Bitch of a workout with 10x1 mile at MP+30sec or so. Weather didn't help with the cold and wind but I had waited all day for it to improve. Started out -11C and very windy in AM. After short warmup got into the drill of 1 mile with .25mi jog rests or ~2:00. Tough going and was starting to feel like cutting it short but ran into A. Cooper who did mile 5-8 with me. Last 2 miles alone were not easy but still reasonable around 8:00 pace then very easy crawl home. Glad this workout is in the books but it was worth doing! Avg pace of 7:57 was an improvement from previous workout."

There are only 3 hard workouts (long run, MP run, repeat of above w/o) and one 5k race left before flying the coup for our nice holiday break. The closer it gets the more excited I'm getting which is a strange because there are no plans to race hard at Big Sur. The plan is to run 'well', have fun, take lots of pictures while enjoying the scenery and the course. The racing part will have to wait until later in the year.

Have a great week and keep on keeping on!

Signs of Spring

2010-03-20T11:48:00.008-03:00

We've had a beautiful stretch of weather the past week or two with temps on the positive side every day and barely below freezing at night. Today was the 1st day of spring for us northerners and I guess the 1st day of fall for those who live way down under! The crocuses are up despite fears that our family of chipmunks might have destroyed all the bulbs last summer. The little beggars had dug up 1/2 the flower beds in their search for every last morsel of food for the cold winter. It seems that a few managed to survive or get misplaced/replanted.
Another sign of spring today was getting my motorcycle out of winter storage much earlier than usual. Typically we can still expect some cold weather and even snow into the month of April but when the sun shines you might as well make hay! I took it for a short spin around town and the old 1980 Gold Wing is still purring like a kitten. The wind even felt warm with the 17C/63F temps!
And on the running side, it seems like I'm finally starting to come around with a bit more 'spring' in my step! This past week of training included a 10 mile pace run where I was able to get the average pace down to 8:19 which was a nice improvement over recent weeks and also from the start of the program. It was a hard run on the roads with a lot of traffic and plenty of hills but I hear that Big Sur has a few hills, so no problem there.

Today's run was 21 miles on the long road out of town with a headwind and more hills to go along with the cool weather (only +2C/35F) but again, I hear Big Sur has headwinds too! It was the best long run of my build thus far and for once I didn't feel exhausted before even starting out. Perhaps those iron supplements are finally having a positive effect. Mind you, I was plenty tired at the end of 3hr 13 min but that is to be expected when you do that to yourself. The pace was nice and steady hovering just around 9:00 until the last 2 painful miles as the legs finally gave out. Only 2 more weeks of heavy training and then the taper which will now include a 5k race in Trevor's backyard. I think he's getting geared up for it, so it will be nice to run with him again.

That's it for now. Happy Spring or Fall as the case may be!

Down but not out

2010-03-14T20:31:00.010-03:00

The final big birch tree is down and here is the view from the garden gate. Luckily I have a good neighbor with a bigger chainsaw than mine and he was willing to bring it down in exchange for the wood. It saved me a lot of work because he had a truck and carted it all away in no time at all. We also did a ring count for the trees, which were all ready to fall over with rot, and they turned out to be about the same age as me. Hopefully, this doesn't mean that I'm also ready to fall over in a heap but the way my running is going lately you never know...

Meanwhile, the running program, as far as you can call it that, is going along slowly. I took Monday off this week because my body was begging for recovery after last weeks 20 miler. The rest of the runs this week were simple easy runs of 4 to 8 miles. Friday was an especially nice day with sunshine, NO WIND, and what felt like warm temperatures of +6C and so I did a few extra miles despite still feeling lethargic. I then took Sat off because of my low energy level, but also to help with the aforesaid tree and other yard work (the fish survived another winter in their outdoor pond, even our favorite, Stubby!) but also to save it for Sunday's tough run.
Speaking of Sunday's run, today was a 12 miler with 8x1 mile repeats at a pace specified as 30-60 seconds faster than marathon pace, whatever that is. Here is the history of these runs since the program started in December and it doesn't look that good with little improvement, in fact more of a decline than anything else since then.

Today's run saw a slight pace improvement over 2 weeks ago but the legs continue to lack any spring or energy. This was despite a rest day on Saturday and a brand new Mizuno Precision trainers, specially purchased for the upcoming marathon. Not sure of what more I can say or do as I've been putting the miles in and trying but just not seeing any results so far.

This tired feeling has been with me all winter and my energy levels are low despite an easier than normal training program. My doctor is on it with me and we think it might just be a diet issue and so I'm now on iron supplements to see if that helps things. He said it may take a couple of weeks to have an effect, so here's hoping! There is only 6 weeks to go until Big Sur and so time is running out if I hope to do any more than just survive the 26.2 miles. Also a small issue of a very busy work with some looming deadlines, meetings and reports due in a few weeks. It'll just all have to come together as it always does.

Have a great week everybody and keep on getting out there!

Stumped!

2010-03-07T21:53:00.007-04:00

Funny, but it just came to me but I needed a good picture and title for my post and stumped it is! It's my newest reason for a running problem or lack of performance this weekend because believe it or not I got 'stumped'.

You see, it's been a hectic last month or so with my work pressure keeping me very busy but I've still been able to get the runs in. The mileage has been good in the mid-40's with this week the highest in awhile at 56 with a tough 20 miler today.
Tough barely begins to describe the survival run that I endured today. Endurance now has a new meaning in my vocabulary as it started out with sore tired legs despite the day off (notice the nice blank space in the graph) yesterday...

But did I take it easy yesterday, rest up, hydrate, stay off my feet for the 1st 20 miler in this training cycle? Oh no, not me! No it was time to get some major yardwork (i.e. Honey Do) chores cleaned up with a couple of very large dying birch trees needing some special attention. Four hours later, they were down, wood was stacked and 2 large 'stumps' were all that was left. The scary part, is there is still another tree waiting but my chainsaw is too small and will have to wait for another day and a bigger power tool.

I didn't feel too bad last night but this morning before my run even started I was massaging my sore hammies from all the heavy lifting they did on their 'day off'. The run went downhill from there, despite lovely sunshine and temps approaching 9C (45F) but the legs just weren't co-operating as 9:30/mi pace was the fastest I could manage. Halfway through the run I made a stop at home for more gatorade and was very tempted to stop and cut the run short. However, thinking of my Twitter friend Mrs. V running a 20 miler at the same virtual time on the west coast kept me going. Eventually, after 3+ hrs of pounding my agony was finally over and the rest of the day has been spent in the safety of my trusty couch. I may even take a day off tomorrow as well.

Anyway, have a good week and keep on running!

Whew!

2010-02-21T19:23:00.004-04:00

It's been busy. I've been saving this picture from our Boyden run 2 weeks ago as it's a classic. Perfect day, mild temps with a light snowcover and apparently good jokes all around. I think the joke here was me telling the guys to 'pretend to run' for the camera which I'd just propped up on a convenient mailbox.
The running/training has been rolling along albeit on the slow and tired side as I've struggled with some of the key workouts laid out in my plan. The mile repeats and marathon pace runs have been sub-par performances compared to previous workouts in the build. For example last week's 6 mile MP resulted in an average pace of around 8:30/mile, nowhere close to the hoped for 8:00/mile which seems to be my 'tempo' pace at this point in time. It's highly frustrating when that used to be my default 'jogging' pace. More work to do I suppose...

At least my weekly mileage is now in the mid-40ies and today's 18 miler was the 1st decent long run since PEI. There was no Boyden meeting this weekend with everyone off in different directions so it was me home alone doing the long run here at home. The weather was ideal (more like April than February) with +1C, light winds and a few snow flurries. Typically we'd expect -10 to -15 and 3-4 layers to keep warm but not today! The run went very well, if not on the slow side, as I just concentrating at keeping good form and not slogging along. It got a little tough near the end at 2.5hrs+ but I managed and later quickly found my trusty couch for the rest of the day.

More of the same is planned in the coming weeks and I hope to get through it in one piece as my work pressure also seems to be ramping up at the same time as my running (so what else is new?).

Have a good week and "Go Canada!" at the Vancouver Olympic games!

Time Flies

2010-02-06T14:56:00.006-04:00

I think there's some kind of conspiracy going on which is keeping me from sticking with my simple training plan for Big Sur. Like all good New Year resolution'ers, the year started off great guns and I was able to put in some decent miles, logging over 40 per week.

And then the wheels fell off...

First the dental surgeon had another go at me and between him, all the drugs, and waiting for the swelling to subside that week was shot... Did I mention that I hate dentists! All they do is cause me pain and anguish and charge alot of money. I'm still waiting for the results which might come in a year or so (they say) so I hope it's all worth it.

And then... I had to make an unscheduled trip up to northern NB for some family business resulting in a 5-6 hr drive each way and no time or inclination to run. I did find time to see Avatar which is quite an amazing movie and well worth seeing but didn't really need to drive 500k just for that.

And THEN...
I decided that a little volleyball would be a nice thing to try out again, especially since I'd received some nice new kneepads as a Christmas present this year. Bad idea. Things were going well for the 1st hour until I got over excited and after one particular jump and spike (into the net) I came up lame with a sore right forefoot. Managed to keep playing for a bit longer but then bowed out and went home early. As a result the foot was sore to walk on for a few days and no running because of it. It must have just been a slight strain because I was able to put in 4 pain free miles on the treadmill today. Hopefully it'll be OK for tomorrow's long run with Andrew.
So, I still managed 150 miles for January and if I try to hold the excuses at bay, then perhaps February will be a better month as far as being more consistent from week to week. The list of excuses seems to be longer than the reasons to run but what can you do but keep trying?

Meanwhile our plans for Big Sur are getting firmed up and we now have our flights, hotel and car rental arranged. We're planning on arriving in San Francisco the week before, spending a few days there and then doing touristy things for a few more days before heading down to Monterey for the marathon weekend. After that, we'll spend a couple more days in the area (with me recuperating) before we have to get on a plane for the 12 hour return flight. It's fun to look forward to though!

Happy running and watch for out that yellow snow!

Chugging along

2010-01-09T13:24:00.005-04:00

A recent email from Andrew asks "Where art thou?"

'I'm still here... '

It's a good question as I've been very quiet on the blogging front lately. Still running most days and logging my runs at RunningAhead (see my sidebar). For whatever reason there just hasn't been a desire to do much in the way of posts with the family home for the holidays. As you can see above we had a new puppy around the house but the little ankle biter has now returned to the Island with his 'mommy'.

Now that the holidays are over I was thinking of doing an annual recap of 2009 and plans for 2010. It was actually a year I'd like to forget with my cancer, surgery and my lowest annual running mileage for the decade of 1530 miles. However, I'm now cancer free and there are things that I'll never forget including my son's wedding and our family vacation in Sweden. A few running highlights included my 10th consecutive Boston and a very pleasant pace-bunny marathon experience in PEI with Trevor. (note that Trevor will be running his 2nd marathon in Houston next weekend and is good to go from the look of his training)

Looking forward in 2010 I'm already training for a spring marathon at Big Sur, which will also be a nice holiday. I have a number of other running goals penciled in the front of my log. They include savoring/enjoying (see Running and Rambling: find happiness) every run, annual mileage of 2010 miles, running the cycle (5k to marathon) for RunNB races and targets for age group performances in the 70%+ range which are where all my old PR's come out. Looking at the target times below they seem quite doable in my good old days but now-a-days it might be a different story.

My training for Big Sur is going along quite well and I'm using a plan from the Big Sur Training Guide which I got with my registration package. It calls for 40-60 miles per week with long run weeks alternating with mile intervals (4-10 miles at 30 sec faster than MP). I'm into the 3rd week of the plan and so far so good with getting the runs in but I've had issues with being tired which are now starting to dissipate as I slowly get in better shape.

So that's all I got for now. The weather outside is still frightful but this is Canada and you just have to grin and bear it or stay indoors and complain about it. I'm sticking with the former camp and plan to meet Andrew in the morning for another Boyden run (with just a few chocolate balls left to be consumed).

Sunday forecast:

-9°C High
-13°C Low

Have a great week and keep on running!

Run for the balls

2009-12-14T19:44:00.005-04:00

It's that time of year again and the many preparations for the season are under way. Lights and decorations, candles, stockings, little tiny reindeer and even tinier pace bunnies (can you spot him?) have now all been hung up with great care. But there is something very important still missing... Is it beer? Ice cream? No, it's chocolate balls!

Part way through Sunday's run with Andrew I let it slip that I had some difficulties getting through the border because of some things (gifts) that were going to be left behind and he immediately determined that we needed to run faster. Mind you with the cold temperatures of -15C we were already moving as fast as we could but we did manage to speed things up a little bit and finished our 13 mile run in about 1:50. A quick dash down to the Strawberry Patch for coffee and we were soon in chocolate heaven! Mmmm, something about running and chocolate just seems to go together.

These tasty treats have been a feature on this blog for many years now and I even revealed the complex recipe of peanut butter, dates, icing sugar, eggs and chocolate in an old post but can't seem to find it right now. Once again, we forgot to save any for Thomas so he'll just have to make his own, or is he still allergic to them?

Anyway, it was still a good if not shorter long run as I'm still having issues with my endurance which will only be fixed by a more regular routine of more running. Of note was my Santa joke which really got Andrew's funny bone and his idea for a new book about the various exploits around Boyden lake. He had an excellent title which I can't remember right now (am I losing my memory?) but maybe he can fill us in with a comment.

So, another short post as I haven't been doing that much but keep on running and enjoy the season.

The Moose are Back!

2009-12-06T20:44:00.006-04:00

It was a great day for a run, once we shoveled our respective driveways and made our way over greasy roads to the usual meeting place at Boyden Lake. We had our 1st real taste of winter overnight with about 5-6 inches (10-15cm) of nice fluffy but sticky snow to deal with.

I was initially little nervous about going out in this and so sent a couple of emails/tweets to Andrew with my waffling noises. Need to check the roads, time to try out the new snowblower, maybe we should wait another hour...

But finally I get this message:

The snow blower is fine...get your maple leaf over here. I didn't drive 5 hours to have a little snow flurry keep you home! Marc

"Uh, OK, yes Sir, Captain Marc!" You see, the missing Blind Moose came up to visit and there's no stopping him once he gets going, and so there was no choice but to get going and make the trek.
The co-conspirators...
I was glad I made the trip and we had a great run, although it seems the running is often secondary when we get together because the stories, politicking, and jokes run fast and furious. They were really bad today with the dog jokes and blond jokes which will never be retold by me on pain of severe punishment and a permanent chocolate ball ban. Andrew did retell his 3rd chicken joke and it was even worse in the retelling. However, I think that Marc did get it because shortly after he was crossing the road and heading deep into the woods (I'm not kidding here).

It was a nice 13ish mile run and we were joined by Jon (what's his name) at the beginning for a few miles and saw Stephanie A just starting out at the end of the run. The roads were a little slushy and the snow kept building up on the soles of my shoes, causing my running style to be more of a scuffle/kick and drag your feet sort of a pace.

Lately my running has been slow, very easy low mileage with only 20-30 miles per week. Curiously my total for last week was exactly 26.2 in 3hr 55 min and Andrew had an interesting theory on this. "Aha, you're in 3:55 marathon shape because your fastest (and my only) 26 miles predict that." I wish that was so, but know that I need to start upping the mileage over the next month so that I can really get started on the training for the spring marathon.

That's all I got, need to run more so I can run more. Makes total sense doesn't it? Have a great week!

Tired

2009-11-22T18:27:00.003-04:00

First, I was taken entirely and totally out of context by Andrew once again. The smallest comment made gets blown entirely out of proportion and I'm left defenceless. And yes, he did choke on his water and it serves him right!

re: Mile 7 comment "My wife wore me out yesterday." - I was raking leaves for several hours and then spent the afternoon cleaning up the garage so we can accommodate up to 2 cars, a motorcycle, power tools and a new snow blower. I spent the evening lying exhausted on the couch and then went to bed early so I could get up early to run with you know who!

re: Mile 8.5 comment "That dog reminds me of my daughter."- I saw a German Shepard dog which reminded me that my daughter is waiting for her new puppy which will be weaned in the next few weeks and is very excited

re: Mile 11.5 comment "I'm glad I kept my pants on."- A very low blow and he really did choke on this. It was a cool morning at about 0C/32F at the start and the light breeze during the return miles made me comment that I was glad I hadn't worn just shorts. Sheesh!

But seriously, it was a good thing that Andrew was with me today or I would have stopped the run after only a mile or two. For whatever reason (and I can think of several but none are obvious to me) it was just not my day today, feeling very lethargic and tired. Despite Andrew's great stories and bad jokes we still ended up cutting the planned 17 miler short to only 12. The chicken jokes as bad as they were deserved retelling at least on poor Ewen's behalf.

Chicken Joke #1:
Why did the chicken cross the playground?

Umm, why?

Because it wanted to get to the other slide!

Ouch, shoulda seen that coming.

Chicken Joke #2:
Why did the chicken cross the basketball court?

Hmmm, should know this. OK, why?

Because it heard the referee call fowl!

Double ouch, groan!!

Chicken Joke #3 will not be retold because I still don't get the punch line.

That's about it, it's been a slow week as I had to take several days off due to the dentist having a go at me once again. The details are too gory to go into, suffice to say that 4 days later my jaw is still sore. Hopefully next week will be better and I can slowly start building my base mileage up in preparation to start training for Big Sur.

Take care, have a nice week and make sure your dog wears their hunter orange when they go outdoors!

Back at it

2009-11-15T14:02:00.007-04:00

Can you believe it?
And I didn't even get a chance to have 2nd thoughts about bowing out. There goes my streak after running this race for the last 10 years.

But at least my Plan B was already in the works and I'd registered for Big Sur a few weeks ago, just to be sure to get in. They have a 4500 runner limit for the marathon and are already near the 50% mark. I already know my bib number of 1981 which is a number I should be able to remember for certain personal reasons.
"If we were told that we could run only one marathon in our lifetime, Big Sur would have to be it." Bart Yasso, Runner's World

I've had a nice little holiday from running and blogging over the last several weeks as I had been out of communication while on a research survey aboard a chartered boat. We worked the waters of the Bay of Fundy for 2 weeks, doing tows with fine mesh nets for just hatched herring larvae as well as the other plankton in the water. Here's a shot of the boat safely tied to a dock but we spent more time bouncing around on the water with little opportunity to run. There was also very little inclination to do so because when I did hit the land it was harder than normal walking a straight line with my 'sealegs' not coverting to 'landlegs' very readily.
I couldn't resist throwing in this shot of a purse seine fishing boat passing by on a not so nice evening which made for a pretty picture at least.Anyway, I'm now back on land for the better part of a week and have put in a couple of short 4-5 mile runs in preparation for today's longer run with Andrew. We did the Boyden Lake loop today for a total of 13 miles and it was really nice to get back into action with my good friend. It was a nice day for a run despite the steady rain with temperature around 12C.

Andrew is now touting a new (conservative!) running plan that will only do base-building work through the winter and then morph into race preparation in the early spring once he decides on a target race. Myself, I'll be along for the ride on Sundays as we do the long runs together. Today's run went surprisingly well for me and we even tossed in some (5 or 6) 20-30sec striders over the last 3 miles. I told Andrew it was good for his fast twitch muscles and he went along with me or at least humoured me and jogged along as I tried to run fast.

That's it! Have a nice week and stay healthy out there!

PEI marathon report

2009-10-21T19:19:00.011-03:00

I'm not sure where to begin. Maybe I'll just start at the start and see where this goes. I arrived at the Brackley beach area about 1/2 hour before the start and only had a few minutes before I ran into Trevor and his lovely wife who also ran the marathon today. After determining that Trevor was going to be totally at my mercy today with no watch or other aids, I hustled him over to the starting area so he could be introduced to the various pace bunnies, all of which we hoped to never see again and did not.
As Trevor so nicely describes in his blog (which has a wonderful blow by blow of the day's run) the course is simply picture postcard perfect if you have time to look around and enjoy the scenery. Here we are a few kilometers in, along the beach where we had to deal with a slight headwind of 10-15mph. Did I mention getting passed by a baby stroller? #$%& relay runners!

Here's Trevor and I at the 12k mark about to unload our sweaty gear on my wife and daughter who took this great picture. We had a great day and for the most part it felt like a nice long run as we just cruised along at a very easy pace. Or at least that's how it felt like to me but I think Trevor might beg to differ on this opinion later on in the race.
You might wonder how the heck we got this picture (about 18k) but a girl we had just passed kindly offered to take the camera off my hands and snapped this decent image of the two of us. Still feeling good from the looks of it. It really did feel easy for the two of us and I was constantly reminding my buddy to slow down or dial it back because I wasn't planning on letting go the reins until the 30k mark.
Woo hoo! Still having fun in PEI, somewhere between 20-30k on the trails.
But I think Trevor was having a harder time as we worked our way through course. Besides keeping his pace under control I kept on him about using different muscles and changing his stride once in awhile. The different terrain and gentle ups and downs of this marathon course make it nice for allowing you to do this but it's still a marathon and it gets to be a long way after awhile.
Thank goodness for the jokes and riddles at each kilometer when you don't have Andrew along for company. Even Trevor had to admit that many of the jokes were Andrew worthy (meaning really corny or bad but still made you chuckle). From 35k to the finish things got a little tougher for me and a lot tougher for Trevor but he never complained except to say that his stomach was bothering him. We worked together to tackle each section of the road and the stupid hills and more of those &%$#@@ relay runners that I kept wanting to trip or at least challenge them to a short sprint and just kept plugging away. I knew the key for getting us in under 4 hours was just to keep moving and not allow any walking and that's how it went.
We crossed the line exactly together but I forgot to check which foot our chips were on and so we got a 1 second differential in our times despite being in step. You beat me Trevor! Just wait till next time!!

It was a great day for a marathon and now 3 days later I'm feeling pretty well back to normal and may put in a few short runs to loosen up the legs a bit. I've been biking back and forth to work (which is only 2k) and the hills aren't bothering me any more. I'm also pretty much topped up on the post-marthon beer and ice-cream and so 'life is good'.

Take it easy on the roads and have a nice week!

PEI

2009-10-18T14:59:00.003-03:00

We did it! 3:56 according to my Garmin and the race info is on my sidebar at RunningAhead.

Great race, evenly paced and I think we're even still friends after all the bad jokes and stories. Fun day and it was 'almost' a breeze though my legs beg to differ right now. Heading home and longer story later...

Cheers!

Winding down

2009-10-16T20:45:00.002-03:00

It`s getting colder here lately and we`re running out of time to get all our chores done before the big freeze. I snuck home an hour early yesterday so I could help Jo out with the pond. I needed to take the pump apart and then get into the hip waders with some warm clothes and move the pond plants around so they can be put to sleep for the winter. It was a long process and I got cold by the end and needed a nice hot shower to get warmed back up.

This week has been really easy with the running as I only did 2 short easy runs to complete the taper for PEI, both of which were run at the progressive paces I`m planning to do with Trevor on Sunday. The runs didn`t quite go as planned and I found it difficult to hold back the pace. We`ll have to pay very special attention to this in the 1st critical 5-10km. Aside from this I`ve been feeling a little under the weather (achey, soreness, bit of a cough, headache) which I`m blaming it on the flu shot I got on Monday. It seems better now but not what you need just days before a marathon.

Forecast Issued : 4.00 PM ADT Friday 16 October 2009 is looking reasonable

Sat

5°C
60%

Sun

10°C
1°C

Tonight: Cloudy. Periods of rain beginning this evening. Amount 10 mm. Wind northeast 40 km/h gusting to 70. Low plus 1.
Saturday: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Wind northeast 30 km/h gusting to 50 becoming north 20 in the afternoon. High plus 5.
Saturday night: Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers early in the evening then cloudy periods. Wind north 20 km/h becoming light near midnight. Low plus 1.
Sunday: Cloudy. High 10.

As long as the winds that another forecast is predicting don`t come to pass we should be all right. May need an extra layer for the 1st 10k or so but from there we`ll be warmed up and will just roll over the beautiful course. Wish us luck but all the hard work has been long done and it`s just time to collect our due reward!

Have a nice weekend!

Back to Back

2009-10-11T11:09:00.005-03:00

It was a beautiful looking morning for a run today but looks can be deceiving when it comes to our fall weather. The starting temperature of todays run was only 1C (33F) and barely warmed up to 3C (38F) about 2 hours later when I was finally done my allotted punishment. At least there was little wind and it made for a couple of nice photos as the sun was coming up over the Bay and across the golf course.

My legs were very heavy this morning as my most recent run of 7.5 miles (just over 1 hour) was only 15 hours old. The thought for today was having a couple of back to back harder (longer than 1 hour) runs that would give my body the last little training impetus needed to get me through next weekend's marathon in good shape. It certainly had that effect as most if not all of the run felt like the 2nd half and/or end of a marathon. It was slow going but I still managed to average 5:38/km pace which equates to a 3:58 marathon that is right on target for what Trevor is shooting for. At least I hope to be able to keep up with him!

So last long run in the books but then what do I see when I arrived back home but these guys!
At least they were on the outside looking in and were eating our neighbors apples instead of Jo's prized garden plants. Shortly after this the mother deer gave a snort and they went bounding away at a slow deer-jog pace, stopping after only about 50m run. Lazy things!

That's it! One more week of pseudo taper (feels like I've been tapering for months) and it's time to play once again. Have a nice week!

My lucky beercap

2009-10-04T15:44:00.007-03:00

I happened to glance at the ground while doing my mid-run stretches during today's long run and noticed this.... that's my favorite beer, good old Maritimes Moosehead. Flipped the cap over and was astounded to read ...
That's crazy! I can use that I thought, "this just has to be my lucky beercap". Slipped it in my belt and it kept my company for the rest of the run. It even clinked me a few times at the end of the run when I was starting to tire and helped me cruise on through what was a tough 17 mile run. Seriously though it was a bit of a lonely run without my good buddy Andrew on a not so nice day. The log said:

'Bit of a tough run due to the conditions of wind and steady drizzle and rain. Ran a steady effort which ended up right on the planned PEI marathon pace of 5:30/k but it got a bit tough the last few miles as the body got a little tired and some mild cramping with the cold. Part of the problem was my shoes were drenched and about 2x the weight! Found a luck charm beer cap which made my day! "

The running has been going much better the last few weeks as my build to PEI is almost complete. I've been getting the long runs in as well as a few more shorter easy runs with a tiny bit of speed included when feeling like it. All that's left is a few weeks of taper and I'll be good to go the distance with Trevor.
On the home front we've been busy getting the yard ready for the winter where the main goal is not to grow things but to keep the evil deer on the outside looking in at all of Jo's tasty treats. To accomplish this we recently started installing a 7 foot barrier that is almost guaranteed to achieve our goal. The only thing missing are motion detectors and searchlights but they can easily be added. But I hear that those deer can jump almost as high as kangaroos! It actually is meant to be nearly invisible from a distance and we hope it will do the trick.
Well that's all I got for now. Have a nice week and be patient out there!

The Long Run Back

2009-09-27T14:39:00.006-03:00

I've been getting complaints that there are too many pictures of someone who shall not be named and so decided to come up with this one of me instead. It was shot at Sandhammaren in beautiful southern Sweden. I remember it was hard to drive more than a few kilometers at a time before we'd have to stop and take in the sights and of course a few pictures.

Which reminds me, I felt a lot like stopping often on today's long run as I prepare to run the PEI marathon but was able to fend off the urge and keep plugging away and it went really well. (33k or 20.5 miles in 3:02 which is 5:30/k or 8:50/mi)

My Running Log entry went like this:

"Last long run before PEI to test out my pacing speed of 5:30/k worked out very well. Some hills and wind slowed me up for a few k but mostly just rolled easily along. 3 bottles gatorade & 1 gel at 16k. Ran into a runner from BC doing a 2 hour run for Kelona but he stopped at hotel after about 1k. Cool and windy, jacket for 1st 1/2 hr, then carried & ditched it at home before heading out of town to finish run. Had some highs and lows during the run but mostly able to stay 'within myself' and not push too hard except for last few k. Good/great run with quick dip in the pond at 13C to cool the legs and prune some plants. Looking great for PEI!"

I'm feeling good about running PEI and am looking forward to helping to pace Trevor through his 1st marathon. Today's run was right on the mark that he's aiming for which is about a 3:50 marathon although his fitness and recent race results point to something slightly faster. Unfortunately I don't see Trevor's results in the Saint John 1/2 marathon today and have to assume he either did not start or had to drop out because of some foot issues that recently cropped up on him. I'm hoping it's only a little bump in the road and he'll be ready to go in just 3 short weeks!

Speaking of bumps in the road, my running and training are finally coming around and I'm almost starting to feel like my old self once again. For most of August and early Sept I was feeling fine (though a little tired) doing regular daily activities but my running was just the pits. I had no energy, was tired from start to finish while running and my heartrates were at levels normally reserved for tempo runs. Thankfully this has at last receded and the easy runs are starting to feel 'easy' and my heartrate no longer climbs as the run get longer. Even on today's long run it stayed relatively low and only climbed slightly over the final few k's as the hills, wind and mileage started to have an effect. I guess it just takes time and patience.

That's it for now. Have a great week and keep putting one foot in front of the other!

The Grainy Picture

2009-09-22T19:53:00.003-03:00

I hope that I won't get in too much trouble for this but after Andrew's 'Grainy' post I just had to show the picture along with the story which he forgot the details of.

This picture was from one of our very nice meals during our holiday in Sweden and the main story was how the Swedish tradition is to eat outdoors in the evening air for as long as possible into the fall/winter. In order to accomodate and make this odd habit more palatable for the customers blankets are provided at the door. At this particular seaside restaurant we couldn't even get inside the door if we wanted despite the obvious empty tables inside. "No, no! Outside only", the waiter told us. So we had a lovely romantic outdoor meal but I was rather chilly in my shorts, sandals and t-shirt with only a small blanket protecting my bare legs. But isn't it a nice picture?

On the running front, I had another great run today. For the first time in a long while I just couldn't wait to get out the door to get running. This was despite a lack of sleep recently and a long day at work but after the wonderful long run I'd had on Sunday with Andrew I wanted to see if it was a fluke. Not! Ran a nice easy 10k along the back streets and trails and even slipped in a single faster kilometer at 4:30/k pace. It felt really nice to float along for a change instead of usual plodding. After the fast k, the legs were a bit tired but recovered nicely and the rest of the run was a nice easy float. Give me more of this and PEI will be a breeze!

Can't wait for my next run... Hope your day/week is going well!

Back in the Saddle

2009-09-20T20:31:00.003-03:00

It's been a long time since I've had the urge/time/desire/inclination to post something here but since we got back from our wonderful holiday in Sweden, it's just been too busy. I'm now back to work full time and this had contributed to a lack of free time but also has affected my energy levels and my running.

For the last month or so my running has been dismal at best and some of the blog titles that I had considered included 'Dead in the Water', 'All Washed Up' and even just plain 'Tired'. My weekly mileage since returning to Canada have been a measly 13, 27 and 25 which does not bode well for doing a marathon in just 4 weeks. Besides not putting in the miles, it has been a tremendous struggle just to get out the door and even the short 4-5 mile runs have been tiring and painful with elevated heartrate and no desire to keep going. But... all hope is not lost and this past weekend has seen a couple of runs that gave me encouragement and a new plan is emerging.

First, Andrew has pulled out of Vermont Green Mountain marathon because of work issues, saving me from pulling out first due to lack of training or commitment. I had warned Andrew of my possible drop out last week but he then beat me to the punch with his announcement during our Boyden 17 miler this morning. So, with no other Blind Moose participating I had little option but to cancel as well. However, today's long run went exceptionally well and gave me hope that I'll be able to run well again someday and so now I'm seriously considering doing the PEI marathon as my plan B. Surely 4 weeks is enough time to get back on track for the training enough to complete it in good shape? What do you think Thomas?? Also PEI will be a great chance to visit my daughter and I might even give Trevor a hand with his pacing for as long as I can keep up with him. Check out his tremendous improvement in his 10k race today.

So that's all I've got. Things are good, even looking up and all is not lost. Have a great week and keep on running!

Quick and Dirty

2009-08-15T12:03:00.003-03:00

A bit of time this morning to relax and cool down in the pond but things are busy as we're about to head off on our trip to Sweden for my son's wedding.

I've updated my sidebar with Swedish weather as well as my Twitter feed and Running Ahead log so you can follow my updates if you're so inclined and have plenty of time on your hands. I can't wait to map my runs in a few more new countries. Do you think they'll let me run around the airport in London?? I can hear my wife screaming already...

The past week has been hellish since my nice long run with Andrew and Trevor. My dental surgery from 2 weeks ago came back to haunt me as my jaw got infected and the whole side of my face puffed up like I had the mumps or something. This all started on Tuesday and put an end to my running for the week as I pumped the antibiotics and tried to rest and heal. Thankfully the swelling has receded and I'm clear for the flight overseas today (not what I needed just now).

So very little running to report as my plan went off the rails for a few days but things are looking up for next week. We have a full week to meet and greet and get to know the other side of the new family and will be staying with Anna's parents who have a cottage on a lake. It sounds like heaven already, relax, visit, run, swim, drink Swedish beer and repeat!

See you on the other side!

Inspiration and perspiration

2009-08-08T14:23:00.011-03:00

If you need some inspiration just watch this video of Joan Benoit running and winning the 1984 Olympic marathon, the 1st time this event was held for women.

It gives me chills to watch this!

Meanwhile, on the perspiration side of things it's been hot here as our summer has finally arrived! It looks like we might get a good 2-3 weeks of summer weather before the fall (which is usually very nice) starts to creep in. Still, the morning temps have been around 11-12C and the highs are only in the mid-20's, which some folks would consider downright cold.

The running is going reasonably well with last weeks mileage in the mid-40's but I had two botched runs due to a combination of heat, humidity and the legs/body not quite yet ready to work as hard as the plan is asking. On Tues I attempted to do 8 miles with 4@1/2 marathon effort but after 2 miles in the 7:20 range I started to overheat in the 25C plus humidity and canned the run jogging home via a water stop in the downtown core.

On Thurs the 'plan' called for a 12 mile progression but it was another 24C afternoon and the legs were just too tired to do any more than slog along for 9 miles including some walk breaks in order to struggle back home. Obviously I'm lacking in both endurance and speed but it's slowly coming back as seen in Saturday's 5 mile non-race.This was my 3rd non-race in the comeback and so I was happy with my race number. It also helps to get a low number by mailing in your entry early for the free t-shirt that goes along with the ridiculous $10 fee. This was the 30th running of this very unique international race but the race director expressed worries as to how long he could continue to put it on due to difficulties with border security. My non-race went exceptionally well as I clocked a time of 40:06, very close to my target of 40 minutes and yet I barely took note of the time except for the mile splits which were all over the place due to the hilly terrain. I was once again nipped at the line but this time by the under 17 female winner and felt proud of resisting the urge to race her. There were about 60 runners which is typical for this race and of note were 3 of top 5 runners in the over 50 category with times below 32:00. The winning time was 30:15 and so Andrew could have had a field day if only he had shown up.
Speaking of Andrew, another reason that I needed to take it easy in my 'race' was the planned 20 mile long run for the next day. Also along for the ride was our new friend Trevor who is training for his first marathon and this was also going to be his 1st 20 miler. I think he was a little worried about the run but his fears were quickly put to rest when Andrew assured him that we always run 'wicked slow'! And so it went, a beautiful sunny but not too warm morning, a nice easy pace which averaged out to 9:20 with the water stops, walk breaks, stretching and of course nature breaks. Trevor is now an official honorary Blind Moose and we hope to entice him out this winter for a true test of endurance (against the elements).
Here Trevor and I are not waving but instead are showing how many miles we've covered thus far and so it takes extra hands. We were starting to get a little tired, maybe even a little loopy as much of Andrew's stream of conversation and jokes were starting to go right over our heads.
A couple of miles later and a bit of extra distance so that Trevor's Garmin would show the correct total (never turn off your watch when tired) and we were done 'like dinner' and ready to suck back some food and drink. A great long run which I couldn't have done this easily with out help from my buddies!

In other news, there are only 6 more days before our entire family heads off on vacation to southern Sweden for my oldest son's wedding. We'll be spending the week prior to the wedding visiting and getting to know his new wife's family and of course getting all those last minute details done. Jo and I are then planning to spend an extra week seeing some of the country before flying back home and my going back to work full time again (Oh noooooo!). I'll be bringing my running gear and am eager to get some new runs mapped with the Garmin but won't be stressing about running every day or following the plan blindly. I can't wait!

So, have a great week and keep on running, it's good for you!

Bumps in the Road

2009-08-03T13:50:00.005-03:00

I know it's old news but my number for the PEI 5k was very appropriate given my recent birthday. The race was very low key for me and I made an effort to not make an effort or to 'race'. My time was 23:57 according to the official results and I came in 29th overall and 3rd in the 50+ crowd (not that I was keeping track). This was an improvement of some 1:30 since my July 1 5k and my focus today was to go at a nice steady pace that didn't put me into oxygen debt (no gasping) and to not have to take walk breaks. The dirty details for the run are all here but the mission was accomplished and I didn't even respond to being passed in the last 100m.

The next day was scheduled 15 mile long run around Boyden Lake with Andrew and Jon, seen here enjoying the remnants of my cake at the end of the run. Notice that I lost my shirt during the run due to 'nipple' issues and the humidity. Normally I wear protective bandaids to prevent the bleed but I had neglected to remember this (and I also needed to shave)! For a really funny version from the woman's perspective check out Runnrgrrl's post on this subject which had us cracking up over Andrew's new jokes. Anyway, nice run, good fun, walk breaks every 15 minutes despite complaints from A and a great way to top off a 43 mile week.

Speaking of 'bumps' this past week has been tough due problems in the form of dental work and the resultant lack of running. The week started off nicely with the Sunday long run (above) and then a nice fartlek run of 8 miles on Tuesday doing my favorite 1-2-3-4 minutes hard/easy using progressively slower paces as the time/distance increased. It's a great workout you can run on any course adjusting the efforts to how you are feeling on the day. However, later in the day I didn't feel so great after my dentist had at me, doing some surgery in preparation for some implants down the road. And worse news was no running for 72hrs (insert appropriate !&#%$)! Plus pain killers, antibiotics on a 6hr schedule and resulting lack of sleep and you get the picture that my running week was shot. Just a couple of easy runs on Friday and Sat allowed me to squeeze in a measly 32 miles.
Fast forward to yesterday's long run around Boyden with Andrew. This time we did the full 17 mile loop and it was a beautiful day, though a little warm and humid for these 2 northerners at about 20C. Despite taking proper precautions with shaving and band aids my shirt still came off mid-run as I started to overheat and my heartrate was getting elevated. All this seemed to help was the deer flies which were out in full force and were able to get better spots to attach. This turned out to be a difficult run for me in the last few miles as my energy levels waned despite the walk breaks every 20 minutes or so and lots of fluid intake. I'm slowly getting my endurance back but this run was hard on me and I took the rest of the day off to recover, mostly on the couch in the horizontal position.

Next week we're hoping to introduce Trevor to the wonders of Boyden as we attempt to do a 20 miler, which will be my 1st in this training cycle and Trevor's 1st ever as he trains for his 1st marathon. We're hoping for nice weather and good fun all around. Andrew will bring the jokes and I'll be bringing the extra drinks and brownies.

Also coming up this week is the Calais 5 mile international race on Saturday. It's a very unique course with 2 international border crossings and a challenging hill at mile 3-4. My plan is to again 'not race' but to put in a steady controlled effort with no walking and to save my energy for Sunday's long run. Wish me luck and have a great week!

Onward and upward !

2009-07-24T10:49:00.004-03:00

The holidays are still rolling along as well as the running. My latest adventure puts me in PEI for a few days as we visit my daughter Stephanie. She lives close to the Confederation Trail which winds from one end of the Island to the other and is one of my favorite running places. No matter the weather, from good sunny conditions to rain or even cold winter with snow and wind I always enjoy my runs here.

The running is going reasonably well as I try to follow "The Plan" that I've put in front of myself to build for a fall marathon. I'm still working my way back to the old normal, slowly increasing the distances for all my runs and working at reducing the walking breaks as well.
This past Sunday I got together with Andrew for a Boyden run, which was the 1st one we've had since way back in April. We did 13.5 miles which was the longest since my operation but I needed short walk breaks every 10 minutes to allow me to go the distance. My endurance just isn't there yet but it will come. The breaks were only about 1 minute long to let my heartrate get down to about 130 or 70% of max and really seemed to throw poor Andrew off his game. Hopefully, we'll get back to continuous runs before too long. I'll be aiming for 15 minutes running this weekend for our long run.

Here on PEI I took a timeout today for a pose during today's birthday run of 4 miles. I'm 54 years young and will be celebrating with a nice family supper here in Charlottetown tonite. I'm also looking forward to running in a 5k race on Saturday morning. It'll just be another fun run for me as I'm a long ways from being ready to race yet. Since it's a nice flat race in the downtown core my chances of improving on the previous race time should be good but again, I'm 'not' racing!

Have a nice weekend!

Holiday Adventures

2009-07-12T13:35:00.008-03:00

Busy, busy and no time to blog with sporadic access to internet and so there has been a certain lack of updates here. Still running on most days and trying to follow my marathon training plan which first is a simple build back to regular running and long runs. My current fitness is obviously much reduced with the 6 week layoff but it's slowly coming back.
My 1st fitness test was a 5k run (race) on Canada Day, July 1st in nearby Grand Bay/Westfield near Saint John, NB. You can see my time above and the 10 year old that I nipped at the line! It was a hard run for me and required a couple of walk breaks (can you believe?) in order to finish without collapsing in a heap. Results for the race are here and some pictures here. Followed by a visit to my bro's for a nice brunch and BBQ.
The next day we headed for Vermont to stay at a bed and breakfast which was located right on the Vermont Green Mountain marathon course. With support from my co-pilot I ran/walked the 1st 1/2 of this out and back course while taking pictures and videos. Still haven't had time to edit them into anything worthwhile but you can see the route and pictures here. If you have Google Earth this site also has a cool feature so you can see my trip in 3d and also see the 'Street View' pictures with 360 degree views along part of the route. Very cool!
On to Ontario and Ottawa where I just love running along the Rideau canal and the many nice paths and trails that they have. I'd be tempted to move here just for the running... When I took this particular picture a couple of walkers commented on how I was able to 'multitask'. My reply was "No, I just like any excuse to take walk breaks". These little breaks have been a great way to extend my distances run and are a very welcome respite that allows my heartrate to return to a reasonable level. I'm now doing 1 minute or less breaks every 10 minutes of running and restarting when the heartrate is down to 130 (75%) or less.
Latest run this morning of 10 miles (with the short walk breaks every 10 minutes) went really well. I was only attacked by a protective red winged blackbird and had a coyote encounter that was kind of interesting. He crossed my path along the highway and then could be seen in a nearby field poking his head up watching me before taking off. No chance at a picture though.

So, a few more days in Ontario with family before heading back east. Planning to do a longer Boyden run next weekend with Andrew which will be a nice change of pace. I just hope that he can get used to my little breaks but he knows my camera is always at the ready in any case.

Take care and have a nice week!

A man with a plan

2009-06-29T14:14:00.005-03:00

It's not that I've been sitting on my behind all day doing nothing but there just hasn't been a lot of news to share lately. Our Father's Day race last weekend went really well with about 70 runners in the 5 miler and a dozen or so kids in the shorter races for them. That's a picture of my running friend Sylvio Bourque who is also race director of the highly successful Grand-Digue 15k in south eastern New Brunswick. He did well at our race clocking 35:49 for the 5 miles coming 2nd in his age group. In breaking news, Sylvio just won 2 national titles at the Canadian arm wrestling championships in Summerside, a good guy to have on your side!
Meanwhile, my walk-running has progressed to mostly run-walking with the latest run of 4.3 miles with only a stretch break after 1 mile (as for all runs) and a 1 minute walk break at the 3 mile mark. You can see the details of my runs in the sidebar of the blog under 'My latest workouts' if you're so inclined... Over the past 2 weeks, the progression has been from mostly walking (with 1 minute running each mile) to now mostly running with 1 minute walk breaks at every mile or so. My running heartrate is still much higher than I'd like for the paces and for some reason my easy pace is dialed in around 8:00-8:30 or so. I'm not able to run any slower and will just have to work on that. Maybe Super Andrew will have some hints the next time we meet.

Speaking of which, I've penciled in at least 7 Boyden long runs with Andrew in my latest attempt at a marathon plan as shown here. Do you like all the pretty colors? I think 'quiet' Grellan appreciates it. The yellow days are my rest days and I'm trying to give myself at least 2 per week in order not to do "too much too soon". The green shows my scheduled holiday travel trips where getting a workout in might be more difficult than usual and flexibility may be required. The trip to Sweden in August for my son's wedding will be the big one and the whole family is anxiously awaiting that adventure.

The red letter days are planned races and most of them are 'coach' approved but I might try to slip in another one if things fall into place. I wonder if there are some races in Sweden?? The trickiest one will be the Saint John marathon on Sept 27 which was scheduled as a 22 mile run in the Pfitzinger plan. I'm hoping that I can run it as an easy long training run with some marathon paced bits and then just jog it in at the end but my record at doing that is not very good. I've also got the Canada Day 5k race in just 2 days in Saint John and the plan here is to just do the distance and leave the competitive juices for another day. Again, that remains to be seen. I think this plan is quite do-able, the mileage build is gradual, lots of rest days, slow build of tempo stuff over the weeks and long runs which are frequent and long enough. The overall weekly mileage is low (max 51) but again I have to go carefully with this and see that rest and recovery comes 1st. I'm not looking at setting any PR's this year and just want to get back at it and enjoy the process.

Speaking of enjoyment, we're off to Ontario to visit our 2 sons and most of Jo's relatives. Besides the usual scheduled running on Ottawa trails and Orangeville country back roads we've booked a B&B in Vermont which sits right on the Green Mountain marathon course. The plan will be to run and document the course using my usual camera and video tricks for all to see and enjoy. The nice feature of this marathon is that it's an out and back and so I only have to run 13.1 miles to get it all in. It should be a fun run!

Well that's all I got for now. I'm feeling almost 100% (which can be dangerous) and looking forward to the next two months of travel, holidays and some running too! Take care and have a great week!

Moving along

2009-06-20T12:38:00.003-03:00

It's been six weeks and now the restrictions on my activities are starting to loosen up just a little bit. I'm still limited from lifting much over 10-20 lbs or riding my bike but can now start up with some easy running at last.

During the past week I've been walking 4-5 miles every day outdoors and have started mixing in a short jogs during each mile. It began with 1 minute running and have worked up to 4x5 minute running during today's 4 mile treadmill run (because it's pouring rain today)

One thing I have noticed is how much out of shape I've got in just 6 weeks. My resting heartrate is now approaching 50 where it used to be in the low 40'ies. I'm also seeing my exercising heartrate shoot up to near max while just doing easy running. The 4 minute runs above were at an easy pace of 8:30 to 9:00 but with 140-160 heartrate which is 80-95% of max. I'm expecting some improvements here in short order though.

On the home front things have been fairly quiet. I'm been spending most of my time on the computer, watching sports on TV and lots of reading. However, with the freeing up of many of my restrictions there are now a number of honey-do chores to be tackled. It looks like my painting and carpentry skills will come into play as we spruce up the yard and house.

This weekend is going to be busy with our local 5 mile St. Andrews Fathers Day race being held on Sunday. This is the 31st edition of this race and it's part of the Run New Brunswick racing series. Typically we get about 100 runners with some impressive speedsters and age groupers showing up every year. My job this year is to take care of the registration and results and will also find time to snap as many pictures as possible for the website. The only thing to worry about is the weather with heavy rain forecast for the overnight. Hopefully it will slow down to just a few light showers by morning. My co-race director affirms that we've never had rain in the 30+ years during our race but I seem to remember getting wet over the years! We can hope though, so wish us good luck!

That's it for now. The plan for next week is to gradually extend the running while reducing the walking so as to get back to continuous running in a few weeks. I must say that the little walk breaks are getting to be rather pleasant and might be hard to give up totally as I go forward.

Also, be sure check out Garry's progress tomorrow at his 3rd full Ironman at Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. He's ready willing and able and I'm hoping the weather will co-operate this time.

Have a nice week all!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2009-06-10T10:54:00.006-03:00

The Good
news is that my doctor has given me the all clear at my latest follow-up visit. The results from the pathology report showed that the cancer was confined to the prostate alone and had not spread beyond to adjacent tissue and or lymph nodes. What this means is that surgery has removed all of the cancer and no further radiation or chemo treatment is required. Yay!! I will need to monitor my PSA levels at regular intervals (6mo or so) just in case there was some microscopic escape and to make sure it doesn't come back (or at least we will watch for it).

The Bad
news is that my doctor still forbids running for 2 more weeks and my do not do list remains long and detailed including no lifting of over 10 lb, no bicycling, no horseback riding, or activities that put pressure on the sensitive area where the surgery occurred for at least 2 more months. The nurse we talked to on a separate appointment also made it very clear that not following directions and inviting a 'setback' could be very discouraging and not to be done. Message was received loud and clear!
The Ugly
Just kidding, there is no real ugly to speak of and this was the closest thing I could come up with for an ugly picture and that's only if you don't like bugs or bees. The closeup of the flower makes it look a little scary with all those strange looking protrusions with pollen for the bee to rub up against. The real ugly if you care to peek is this photo showing the after picture or my scar which is healing very nicely on the outside. The issue my doctor and nurse has is the healing on the inside which can take much longer with a risk of nasty consequences if I don't follow orders and take it really easy for the next few months. Yes, yes I heard that!
So, I'm feeling very good but find that I tire easily and need my rest, often including short afternoon naps. Simple things like a trip to the doctor in Saint John (a 1 hour drive) and then a few hours of shopping at the mall can just wear me out by the time I get home several hours later. Yesterday, it was straight to the couch for an hour or so but then felt nicely refreshed and was able to stay up late to watch the exciting game 6 Stanley Cup finals hockey.

So, the plan is to do the things I'm allowed to do like walking on the treadmill, easy activities with no lifting around the house and of course some scheming and dreaming about a training program for my fall marathon. The clock is already ticking down to only 18 weeks and I'd usually be started by now! Not this time. Looks like another abbreviated plan after a build-up to 'normal' running by early September but I won't be stressing about it and will be taking it one day at a time.

Take care an good training out there!

A new month

2009-06-06T09:43:00.000-03:00

Closing in on 750 miles for the year so far with only 63 last month for good reason. The last few weeks have been just walking on the mill with totals of 11, 15 and 18 miles. The walking keeps me active but is getting boring on the mill when the weather is so nice outside.

As you might guess my recovery is coming along nicely with no problems to speak of and each step is a step forward to getting back to normal once again. The doctor has put very severe limitations on me for 4-6 weeks with no lifting of anything heavier than my dinner plate (5lb), no running, no driving, no biking etc. While this has been quite limiting, I'm still allowed to walk as much as I want and so the daily treadmill routine. I'm now up to about 3 mi/day at 4mph and get a nice healthy sweat on by the end of it. However, I still get tired and need my naps in the afternoon! On Monday we get to see the doctor for the 1st time post-release from the hospital and I will get to beg for permission to do more things. The request list is long including driving car, motorbike, biking, running, lifting, and all sorts of other regular activity. Let the fun and games begin!

Speaking of which, "The 3 Blind Moose" have been busy scheming for our fall 2009 running get together and have narrowed the choice down to the Vermont Green Mountain marathon on Oct 18. Over the past few years we have done Wineglass (below), Mount Desert Island and PEI and after much discussion we picked Green Mountain for it's scenic venue, small but fast field and it's history as a good marathon.
As always the main plan will be to have fun, tell bad jokes and to run as well as we can. It should be an easy goal to complete. Have a nice week and keep on moving forward!

Walk Before You Run

2009-05-22T12:52:00.003-03:00

It's a simple concept, start out slow and then taper or easy followed by hard but without straining. With running on the brain lately it becomes walk before you can run and since the doctor has forbidden running for at least 4-6 weeks then walking will just have to do.

My 'recovery' is coming along nicely with the staples removed one week ago and now I just need some more time for the wound to fully heal. The nurse says it's being a bit stubborn (just like me) but it will be fine. The main other issue is with the bother of the catheter which needs to stay in for 3 weeks so that the urethra (which was cut) can heal. It doesn't hurt but is a real pain in the butt at times, mostly when trying to sleep and not being able to roll over etc.

Have I been bored with all the free time and not being able to run or exercise? No, at all because there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to do the things I'd like to do. I've been reading, on the computer a lot, now doing the Twitter thing which is fun, watching TV with hockey and basketball playoffs, and just generally taking it easy and enjoying it. There are also the requisite afternoon naps (would you believe) that I really need because I do tire easily and tend to wear down after mid-day. Nothing like a little 1.5hr 'Power-nap' to fix me up for a long evening of sports playoffs!

As far as the walking thing I started on Monday with 1 mile on the treadmill in 20 minutes (3mph) and have worked up to 2 miles today (Friday) in 37:30 for a total of 7.5 miles thus far. It's a very gentle walking speed, feels great and goes by very quickly while watching the morning news. I'll just keep slowly increasing the time and distance for the next few weeks until I get the clearance to begin some easy running. Can't wait ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Not for the faint of heart

2009-05-12T15:37:00.011-03:00

I'm not sure how to start this...
I'm about to reveal a very personal story of what has been happening to me over the last week or so. This is not a running story but rather a tale of my recent medical treatment and is aimed directly at my family and my two sons in particular. Part of the reason that I keep up my blog is because I know that my 3 children (who are all away from home) as well as friends and relatives read it and it helps them to keep up with my goings on. It's also fun to share my little running adventures with my many (10?) other readers most of whom I've never met and probably won't (but would like to).

The short story:
I have/had prostate cancer. It was diagnosed early and I underwent major surgery (radical prostatectomy) on May 8 that was intended to remove all of the cancer. I say 'had' cancer but you never know for sure and only time will tell. My wonderful surgeon Dr. Scott Bagnell was very positive about the outcome and that's all we can say right now but no further treatment is planned (radiation/chemo). I am now home resting comfortably in recovery with a minimum of 6 weeks with no lifting of more than 5 lb (2 kg) and no running. I'm walking around, feeling stronger every day (it felt like getting run over) and have some expected soreness and tiredness but otherwise am feeling great.

The longer story:
Prostate cancer is very common in my close family with my grandfather (age 72), father (age 71 ) and several uncles on my father's side dying as a result of it in their 60's and 70's+. I also have one cousin on my mothers side who went through the same thing as me at the same age (early 50ies). As a result, I have been proactive with my health by having annual physicals which include prostate exams and blood tests for my PSA levels since I was 45. The result from my blood test last fall showed that my PSA level had increased steeply over the previous year from 2.3 to 3.2 although it was still in the normal range of 0-4 for my age. Because of my family history a followup with the urologist was scheduled with a consult on Dec. 26 and a biopsy on Jan. 20th.

On Feb. 6, 2009 I received the diagnosis of prostate cancer with a Gleason Grade of 6/10 at stage T2 - indicating early diagnosis with apparent confinement to the prostate organ alone.

On Feb. 8, after having a few days to absorb the news Joanne and I again met with Dr. Bagnell to discuss treatment options and timing. Since the cancer was caught early at stage T2 the surgery option was considered the best but because this appeared to be a slow growing form of cancer there was no immediate urgency. My only concern (after realizing I wasn't getting a death sentence) was whether I could run Boston in just 10 weeks. While Jo was not very keen on this idea the doctor allowed that it was not an unreasonable thing to do given all the variables but still no guarantee of course. However, the surgery needed to be scheduled ASAP after Boston with a few weeks of rest from the race.

On April 2oth, I ran my 10th Boston in a time of 3:33 and had a blast!

Two weeks later on Friday, May 8th I had nerve sparing prostate surgery and things went extremely well and I wasn't even nervous! [joke for A]. There were no complications and I don't remember a thing for the 2.5 hours. Some surrounding lymph nodes were also removed for testing to ensure the cancer had not spread but these results won't be known for several weeks.

This surgery is a one-time procedure.
As the whole prostate is removed, it potentially removes all cancer cells.
The operation has a long history of use, and many surgeons and medical centres specialize in the technique.
Follow-up procedures are well established, and the results of the surgery are relatively easy to monitor through PSA testing.
If cancer is left behind, other localized treatments, such as radiation, are available.
Many specialists believe that the radical prostatectomy offers the best chance of long-term survival for a man with localized prostate cancer.

I was released from the hospital on Monday (3 days later) and am now home resting comfortably for awhile with lots of time on my hands.

The not for the faint of heart part:
I even took some pictures of my scar for posterity because I like to take pictures of just about everything but am reluctant to scare/shock you with the image directly here on my blog. Instead if you'd like to see the damage done to me you can see it by clicking here. Be warned if you have an aversion to such things but I thought it was a rather nice scar. The nurses seem to like the workmanship. It's healing very nicely and the staples come out tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to the home care nurse ripping off the clear protective bandage for a 3rd time. Ouch!!

I'm running out of steam on this 1st post but want to remind the guys out there and the gals with guys to remind them to get PSA tested once you reach the 40's and 50's depending on your family history. It's just a blood test and then you have a baseline to compare it to in coming years. Talk to your doctor and be proactive about your health. I was and I'm glad I was!

Time for a little nap now, still recovering and I get tired easily. They say this will take several months but it's only been 6 days so far. Thanks for listening and have a nice week!

Rest and recovery

2009-05-04T19:47:00.004-03:00

Has it really only been 2 weeks? It seems like a year ago already but I think the legs still beg to differ. The recovery has gone nicely with a bunch of rest days and some easy running mixed in as shown in my workouts sidebar. Boston has now scrolled off the display and the 5 recovery runs are there if you dare to look (but you need to be really bored to go there)!
The most interesting run was my Sunday jaunt with Andrew which he so nicely describes in his post. It was a perfect cool spring morning for a run in the park on the deserted roads and trails of Moosehorn Refuge with barely a warden in sight. He complained about my moving too fast during the run but certainly didn't waste any time getting home and describing our little incident with the Forest Patrol. I'd completely wiped from my memory thinking it was not of consequence but apparently her pointed questions hit a nerve with Andrew.
This was the subject of her interest, my new Honda Accord, due to the lack of a proper Canadian licence plate and only a temporary permit. I had checked at both the Canada and USA customs when crossing the border and so was not too concerned about it. Maybe Andrew liked her gun! Afterwards we hit the Dunkin Donuts for some heartstopping fare including breakfast bagels and strawberry danish. Mmmm, Thomas would have loved it!

Plan for this week is more of the same. Easy running, more rest and more recovery, at least as much as my body will allow. For whatever reason, every time I lace up the shoes the pace just seems to ramp up. I can't just jog along really slowly because it feels better to pick up the turnover and just roll along. Ah well, I'll enjoy it while it lasts because I just love to run ;-)

Take care and have a nice week!

Boston Madness

2009-04-25T17:59:00.002-03:00

OK, OK! I promise this is the last post about Boston for awhile but I just had to show you this composite of all the video I managed to do while running the race. Well actually, this is only a small part of what was actually recorded since I ran into a file size limit when trying to post to the RunCastTV site and had to cut out some bits. But you'll get the idea...

So here's the video that I promised. Warning it is almost 6 minutes long and the Rocky music may wear on your nerves. Use the 'mute' button as required.

Find more videos like this on RuncastTV

Meanwhile, back in the real world I managed to get my 1st recovery run in today with 4 miles covered at a very easy feeling pace of 8:20/mile. The heartrate was elevated to near 140 for such an easy run and my legs felt sore and achey with some cramping happening in the hams during the later part of the run. Still, my head and lungs felt fine and my mind is way ahead of where the body recovery is at right now. I'm feeling good mentally and want to get out and run fast but can't just yet. Soon I hope, so I'll just keep it at easy every other day running for a few weeks and go from there. There are no races planned for the near future either but more on that later.

Take care and have an nice week. The weather here is just like summer (almost)!

Boston magic

2009-04-23T18:44:00.003-03:00

Our local paper did a little article on my Boston adventure. I think they did a nice write up and got most of the facts right. Front page too! No hiding now...

The marathon photos also now up and I seem to be holding a camera in my hands quite a bit. It helped to keep me distracted from the pain in my legs and feet! Recovery has gone quite well and I feel almost normal today, 3 days after the race. I've only done some easy walking, ice packs on the 1st day and a bit of ibuprofen for a couple of days. May go out for an easy short-short run on Friday, or not. The urge to run is there but I'm not sure if the body is quite ready yet.

See you later!

Paying the Price (again)

2009-04-21T07:38:00.010-03:00

They say that 'old dogs can't learn new tricks' and perhaps in my case that just might be true. I accomplished my goals in yesterday's Boston marathon of having fun and enjoying the experience but paid the price in terms of going out too fast (again) and dying even before the hills (again) and crawling home to the finish at a survival shuffle (again). But I have to say I had a wonderful time doing it and as soon as the pain in my legs subsides I'll be planning how to repeat the experience again in another year (maybe).

My 5k splits over the past 6 years are remarkably consistent in their pattern and general slowing right from the get go. As Thomas just said, "Mike, you still don't know how to run Boston." He's right, I typically get to the 1/2 way point and fall off the cliff in the same manner each year. Note that the red-line in my greaph was for 2004 was the heatwave with temperatures in the 80'ies at the start.
You can read all about our journey to Hopkinton in Thomas's post but here we dropped him off at his corral about 45 minutes before the start with plenty of room to get to the front. The weather was on the cool side and we were shivering until in the corrals with lots of other warm bodies around.

I met up with my cousin Jerry and some other running friends from New Brunswick in my corral and look to be ready to rumble in this picture. When asked what my pacing plan was, I replied "going out slow at 8:00 pace and save it for the hills and the end". Ha! That didn't last long. After a 1st crowded mile in 7:53, the next few were 7:23, 7:30, 7:24, 7:39, 7:36 and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. It felt absolutely like jogging and with people streaming by me I kept looking at my Garmin in unbelief.
Just before the 10 mile mark I hooked up with this lady (I can hear Andrew raising his eyebrows already). With her green singlet and flaming red hair, I though she just had to be from Ireland which was why I started to talk to her but it turned out she was Canadian. We had a great conversation for a few miles and I found out she is running her marathon in honor of her mother who died suddenly this past Easter weekend. Her mother who was also a marathoner was a great inspiration to her in the way she lived and her faith in God that she passed on to her. I stayed with her until the Wellesley girls scream tunnel where I got distracted doing my video etc. The half went by shortly after in 1:40, predicting a 3:20 with even splits (ya, right).

Shortly thereafter, as per usual the wheels started to fall off and holding anything even close to an 8:00 pace became more than I could manage. How you can go from running easily at 7:30's to struggling to hold 8:30 is just beyond me. Mile 15, 16, 17 came in at 8:13, 7:46 and 8:32 to start the 1st of the Newton Hills at the fire station. My legs were now toast before even starting the 1st 'official' hill and the rest of the race became a simple struggle to maintain forward motion. It's hard to explain the feeling exactly of what the legs felt like at this point, a soreness that slowly increased to a throbbing pain, quads that became rock hard requiring massaging on the run, calves ready to cramp at any point, and a near overwhelming desire to stop and walk.

Miles 18, 19, 20, 21 in 8:41, 8:15, 8:35, 8:58 as I navigated the Newton hills and Heartbreak with only the final downhill miles left to complete. By this time my quads were so shot I was just putting one sorry foot in front of the other and hundreds, even thousands of people streamed past me. The last miles were even worse with splits from 8:30 to 9:17 in the final very painful mile. However, I still found time to take pictures and video clips of the crazy, crazy crowds and even the final glorious steps through the finish and relief to finally be able to stop.
I met up with my cousin Jerry at the finish. He ran a MUCH smarter race (his 1st Boston) letting me go out like crazy and then passing me at the 25k mark then finishing in a strong 3:27 as planned.
Thomas and I met up at the buses and then made our way to the Boston Commons at a nice slow walk. After a coffee and doughnut, we then both tried one of the locally famous Fried Dough from a streetside vendor. MMMMM, heartstopping fat, sugar, blueberries and more sugar!!! Thomas had one too ;-)
And then on 'home' to our wonderful hosts for a fine meal, great drinks, good company and certainly more good times. The memories of this fine weekend will only be good ones. I feel so lucky and blessed.

Have a wonderful week! Signing out from Boston!

Good Times

2009-04-19T07:16:00.005-03:00

ephemeral \ih-FEM-er-ul\, adjective:
1. Beginning and ending in a day; existing only, or no longer than, a day; as, an ephemeral flower.
2. Short-lived; existing or continuing for a short time only.

Success is very ephemeral. You depend entirely on the desire of others, which makes it difficult to relax.
-- Eva Green

Rather, we must separate what is ephemeral... from the things that are of lasting importance.
-- Patrick Smith, Japan: A Reinterpretation

Yesterday was a long, busy but very good day. It was fun to drag Thomas around the city, the expo, the course, to finally meet Michael and then to have a wonderful meal with Mark and his family. It's hard to pinpoint any one moment in particular but we all enjoyed each others company and the non-stop running babble kept us totally entralled in our plans and ambitions for the big day on Monday.

We're all ready and raring to go too. Thomas just went off for an early Sunday morning jog and he's more than ready and now suitably impressed or at least forewarned of what is in store for him. Michael is also very keen and looks super fit and ready to tear up the course from his dangerous position in the 1st corral. Me, I'm as ready as you could expect given the ups and downs of the last several months but am ready to give it a strong effort with the emphasis of savoring the experience of Boston once again.

Very little running this past week, just following the old Pfitz plan (see the sidebar). Did 12 last Sunday, then 7 miles with 2 at MP on Tues with the pace feeling really easy. Finally an easy 6 miles on Thurs after work and once again was feeling good with 8 minute pace coming easily. I'll do a little 2-3 mile jog/run this morning just to refresh the legs as we have no plans today except to laze about and enjoy the hospitality of my good friends here in Boston.

The forecast is looking good for running, cloudy, cool but maybe some wind. Have a great day and good luck to everyone running tomorrow!

Fresh Legs

2009-04-11T16:05:00.009-03:00

It really is wondrous what a couple of good nights sleep and a day off will do for both your mental spirit and the bounce in your legs. The past couple of weeks have been tough due to my work schedule, deadlines for reports, meetings and then presentations and review of said reports before the usual critical audience. Enough about that, it's over and done with, no excuses and it went better than expected.

I'm now back to my usual 8 hours and in fact woke up this morning after 9 hours of solid sleep but with some soreness in my hams, maybe from too much lying around? This worried me at first because my rearranged schedule called for Pfitzinger's famous final speed workout of 8 miles with 3x1mile at 5k pace with 2:oo jog rests. Given that I haven't raced since last fall (Moncton 10k in 43:34 which predicts a 20:54 5k) or done a 5k since Sept 2007 (Fredericton Fall Classic in 20:31), it's hard to know if I'm meeting the standard or not. OK, just run hard but not to crazy so as not to hurt yourself and see what happens.

It went very well! I did get a dissaproving look from 'Coach' for running in shorts with overcast/cloudy, windy conditions at +3C and a the occasional snow flake but a pair of light gloves more than made up for it. After a nice easy warmup and some stretching I was off to the races, starting at mile 0 of our St. Andrews Father's Day race route which was calibrated with mile marks last spring. First mile in 6:42 and low average heartrate of below 90% but the fresh legs, tailwind, and slight downhill helped push me along. After a 2:00 jog it was off in the opposite direction and this time the headwind, slightly tired legs and uphill made me work much harder for less in results (7:02 split). The 2:00 jog break was not long enough this time and the beginning of the next mile was lactic hell until I was able to get into a nice rythm as the wind and slight hill gave me a break. Able to manage a 6:49 this time and all that was left was an easy jog back home. Great run, nice to pick up the pace but feeling it a bit in the aftermath (MUST REMEMBER TO STRETCH AND DO MY EXERCISES!)

Meanwhile the countdown is on in earnest and we now have our 1st forecast from 10 days out!

You can't predict the day but at least the trend of temperatures around that weekend looks good, not too hot and no nor-easter's predicted which is just what we want. A low spectator index is good because not perfect spectator numbers often translate to nice running conditions. Let's hope! Have a good weekend or what's left of it!

Hiatus

2009-04-09T20:51:00.004-03:00

Missing in action, taking a break, as in a hiatus

Still running but have been as busy as hell for the last 2 weeks. Just back from a 4 day work trip with 24/7 work, meeting, work and repeat but at least it's a taper week and easier to fit the runs in. Staying right on track and have been sticking to the schedule as per Pfitz and so am feeling really good about my fitness for Boston. It's not the hardest training I've done but I've done what was possible for me given the many life variables and will be ready to rock and roll on race day!
Have a great Easter weekend all!

What are friends for?

2009-03-29T15:10:00.005-03:00

What are friends for? This video may give you some ideas..

Find more videos like this on RuncastTV

To keep you company when the road gets tough.
To tell bad jokes when your brain is fried.
To tell funny stories when you need distracting.
To be there when your legs hurt and are ready to fall off with yet another story

20 miles today around Boyden Lake and I caught the poor guy off guard, he didn't even know what hit him until it was too late to pull out. In fact, I think he enjoyed it (at first) but he did get rather quiet in the final miles.

The video tells some of the story but I didn't spring my plan of the 2x5 mi at marathon pace until well into our 5 mile warm up. I'm sure that he was forewarned last week but he said that he didn't remember. Anyway, very easy run to start (see Latest Workouts sidebar for the splits and details) with stops to record song bird noises for Ewen. I couldn't make out what kind of bird they were except for the racket they made as they swarmed together in the trees. Definitely another sound of spring. Shortly after we began our 1st 5 mile set at 'my' marathon pace of sub-8 minute pace over rather hilly terrain. It went reasonably well but we may have been pushing the pace slightly while 'running scared' and watching the Garmin splits and average paces. The 1st set came in at 7:42 avg pace and 1:31 under pace for the 5 miles. Sweet!

The next 5 easy miles felt rather 'ragged' and lacked any easy rhythm or smoothness. We made one detour to chase some Canada geese in a field and to record their noises for Ewen again. Another couple of miles to the Otis sign, stretched, sucked back a Powergel and off again for another hard 5. This time it felt alot more like work but the pace was nearly the same as the 1st set. A couple of sharp hills made it even harder but again the avg pace was 7:42 and 1:30 under overall target with avg heartrate up by about 5 beats with the effort. A great run but darn happy to have it over, right Andrew? Hey, what are friends for?

Thanks Andrew!

It's springy out there!

2009-03-25T20:13:00.004-03:00

At last! Being able to run with only one layer and not even a jacket is such a long forgotten luxury. Surely the removal of all that extra weight and motion restricting long pants will result in a bonus 15-20 sec per mile. And then there's the incentive of the crowds which I have to admit can be both good and bad. When you're having a good day (or early in the race) they just push you along even faster that you might intend but then when things go bad and you'd like to just crawl away or stop, then there is no place to hide. Amby Burfoot, winner of the 1968 Boston marathon puts it "Every runner loves the crowds at Boston, and the crowds seem to love every runner".

You might be able to tell that I'm starting to get a little bit excited. I've done this many (nine) times before but every year the excitement returns and the long hard winter of training seems to be suitable penance for such a wonderful event. It certainly keeps you honest when you're into the middle of an interval workout like I was today (see my training log sidebar). Doing 4x1200m repeats at 5k pace/effort during a 10 miler on tired legs wasn't exactly my idea of fun but you do it. The workout went well and it's one more hard effort out of the way with just a handful left as I begin to wind down .

Aaaa Boston!! The website sent me an email today reminding me it was 26.2 days to go (as if I didn't know)! Have a nice week.

That was nice

2009-03-22T14:22:00.002-03:00

A near perfect morning for a 17 mile long run with Andrew. Calm, not too cold (-5C and rising), beautiful sunrise, and an easy gentle pace was the order of the day. Not that much to report, no dog incidents, only one bad joke about why a flamingo stands on one leg, and my legs were fine with just the usual aches and pains that seem to come and go.

Saturday's tempo paced effort of 9 miles with 5 at 'race pace' was my attempt to get a 8-15k race as listed in the Pfitz plan that I'm trying to follow. He sticks in races late in the program to give you a chance to test your fitness. However, the complete lack of races in the frozen north this time of year makes this impossible and it's also very hard to put out race pace speed/effort alone in a workout. But try I did with a tempo pace workout that was dismal with paces from 7:07 to 7:50 (hills) but at least my heartrate was up over 150 or about 88% of max for the duration.

Other than that it's been easy runs and rest days which you can see in my latest workouts now logged at the RunningAhead website. I love the charts and graphs and the ability to easily upload your Garmin gps data with all the splits and other details.

Only 4 more weeks to go! Wow, just a few more training efforts and then its taper madness time. Have a great week!

Back of the bus

2009-03-18T20:12:00.004-03:00

It's starting to feel like spring! (it was +4C here today)

And...they put up the Boston bib numbers today but my PEI time of 3:21 only got me into the 9th corral with bib #9024. It seems like there must be an excess of fast people running Boston this year because I'm usually in the 7th or 8th corral with a similar time. Thomas on the other hand (one of those fast guys) is way up front in the 3rd corral and will have to deal with all the crazy runners zooming by him in the early going. Being at the back gives you even more people than ever to pass! It will also be fun having my cousin Jerry with me in the same corral running his 1st Boston.

A couple of decent runs are now in the bank this week after the nice 20 on Sunday. Again the gory details are available by clicking on the sidebar of my recent runs but here I get to muse about how it actually went. Yesterday's interval run was a bit rushed as I finally figured out how to program the new Garmin. It's cool having the watch push you along, warmup.... run hard for 0.x miles... rest.... repeat. I was doing 5x600 m repeats and felt off at first as I ran the 1st one too fast and got wobbly by the end. The next one was too slow on partially recovered legs and I didn't really get into a good rythym until the final one. I then ran up a steep hill and joined a fun run group that was meeting by the hotel. I did a very very easy 3 mile loop with some beginner runners before peeling off home to finish.

Here is a cool/weird graph of the intervals to keep your head spinning
Today's 11 miler went better than expected which seems to happen when I allow my pace to just 'be' what it is and not look at the watch. Despite some residual stiffness from Tuesday's speed session the legs felt quite good and the run just rolled along smoothly. I think my hamstring issues are almost behind me now but just have to remember to continue the stretching and stability work. And it actually started to 'RAIN' towards the end of the run! Woo hoo! Another sign of impending spring which is due at 8:44am local time this Friday!

Happy Spring (almost)!

Pretty numbers!

2009-03-15T15:20:00.003-03:00

If you want to get lost in numbers and graphs, just click on any of "My latest workouts" in my new sidebar. I noticed that Ryan was logging his workouts at at RunningAhead.com and so gave it a try today and found it very easy to use. It will take all your Garmin GPS data automatically and the log format is great with lots of fancy reports and graphs. But now because it's all there in living color and gory detail, I suppose I should have more time to go on about the actual running itself.

Today's long run of 20 miles with Andrew went very well. In fact he didn't even have to tell a bad joke until the 17 mile mark because things went so smoothly (something about a guy who was having trouble with his vision and a piano). I was up very early this morning so we could meet at the midway point at 6am to drop my van. We then drove to the start and after a 3 mile out/back were on our way. It was a perfect calm morning with the sun just peeking up as we started and the mild temperatures just around 0C/32F with no wind were a welcome relief after the rough winter we've had. Not too much to report, no dog attacks, the legs felt decent for the 1st 15 miles and I made a deliberate attempt to hold back the pace and be gentle on the hams. Of course Andrew had fresh legs, not having run since Thursday, and was actually hopping (bouncing up and down) as he waited for me to stretch before the start. One of these days.... still, a nice run, good company, great day and sore legs now but to be expected.

Have a great week!

Almost there (5 weeks to go)

2009-03-14T15:18:00.003-03:00

Not that I need too much inspiration to get me excited about my upcoming 10th running of Boston but browsing over last years pictures certainly helps. Another week is now in the books and my up and down running continues with the winter blues still a factor with the roller coaster temperatures we've had lately. In the last 24 hours it's gone from -15 to +4C (5 to 40F) and that's without mentioning the 'stupid' wind.

So... a total of 47 miles for the week in 5 runs with 6hr 30m on my feet.

Sunday - good 15 mile run with 12 at current (hoped for/planned) MP
Monday - rest
Tues - 8.5 instead of the planned 12 when I ran out of time before heading out on a work trip
Weds- slow 6 on icy concrete sidewalks in a strange city
Thurs - rest
Fri - 12 mile with planned 7 at 1/2 mar pace turning into barely 5 at MP. The cold and wind was a factor but basically my hammy was sore and I just didn't have it on this day
Sat - nice easy 5 today running basically the same overall pace as Friday but with no perceived effort. It was one of those great float runs that seem to be few and far between. The legs were a little tight and sore but the hams were much better.

And "that's all she wrote" as I now have taken the rest of the day off in preparation for a 20 miler (hopefully with Andrew) in the morning. Wish me luck and good karma from the bad jokes!

Just the Numbers

2009-03-09T22:25:00.002-03:00

It's been a rough week.

Monday - 0
Tues - 5mi recovery on the treadmill due to poor road conditions
Weds - 10mi w/5x1000m attempted but only managed 4:13 to 4:40/k on dead legs
Thurs- 6.5 mi out of 12 planned (too tired)
Friday - 0 rest (needed a break more than making up missed miles)
Sat - 6mi easy, slow but legs feeling better
Sun - 15 miles with 12 at MP for avg pace of 7:49 and HR of 143 which turned out to be more comfortable than expected and left me fairly pleased with the result.
Monday - 0 with nicely pleasant tired feeling all day

And on we go with a work trip keeping me on the run for the rest of the week. I'll be bringing the running gear and hoping for the best. Have a good week!

Running with Tigger

2009-03-01T15:06:00.004-04:00

Prelude...

Mike: long week, plenty of miles, pre-run quad smash by car door, dead legs

Andrew: long week, low miles, fresh legs (aka Tigger)

What more do you need to know? It was the longest 18 miles I've done in a long time and if not for the really bad jokes that Andrew saved up for each hill along the way I don't think I would have made it around. Let me see, there were;

3 strings were trying to get into a bar...
a lawyer, a Boy Scout and a priest were on a plane...
2 salesmen were visiting an older lady...
a man walked into a bar and ordered a beer...
a Frenchman and a German...
a newspaper had a contest for the best pun...
and on and on....

And this was before my brain froze over from the -13C /10F temperatures plus windchill!
18 miles in 2:38 (8:49 pace, avg 138 HR but climbing at end)
Finish to chocolate brownies and hot coffee! Mmmm! A tough day but we got'er done. Thanks for sticking with me Andrew!

February Blues

2009-02-28T13:55:00.004-04:00

I'm not usually one to complain (much) or get bothered by the winter, being a northern New Brunswicker by birth, but this 'winter' is starting to get to me. We easily got 12+ inches (or 30+cm) of snow last weekend resulting in closures of most businesses in the area. It took Jo and I about 2-3 hours to dig out.
This is our backyard looking in through a 4 foot fence. See how the drift is higher than the fence on the right!
The winter has been a pain but at least it hasn't affected my running. Here are my February blues runs nicely plotted by Buckeye Outdoors where I've been logging my runs and participating in challenges such as running 2009 miles in 2009. The Feb. total is 176 miles in 20 runs (with 8 rest days) in 25hr and 15 min.

I'm still on track with the Pfitzinger plan with the past week ending with a total of 51 miles in 5 runs. Despite falling back to an easier (Plan B) plan of 55 miles per week or less, I've found this plan more challenging than expected. It has more rest days than I'm used to but the other days more than make up for it, with fairly strong contrast between days.

The Pushup Challenge has fallen off the radar screen lately with nada a faceplant in about 2 weeks now. I'm not sure if I got bored with the plateau and lack of progress or it was just other pressures on my time and energy lately.

Weekly run down:
Sunday - 17 miles around Boyden with Andrew at a relaxed 8:24 pace

Monday - rest and shovel out

Tues - recovery 5 miles with heavy legs (8:38 pace)

Weds - 12 miles medium long run which went like a dream. Despite feeling a bit off and not wanting to get out the door, once I got started things just fell in place and the nice gentle pace felt effortless. Average 8:28 pace and heartrate 137.

Thurs - rest day

Friday - 11 miles with 6 at 1/2 marthon pace (which I read it as a hard/tempo effort). One of those tough workouts that you look forward to with a sense of fear and dread. You get very little sympathy from non-runners on this one. Their opinion is simply 'why would you want to put yourself through such misery anyway?' Put myself though it I did, with a 4 mile warmup and then 6 miles at my new harder pace which translated only to 730-750 mile pace. For some reason the legs just wouldn't co-operate and my heartrate stayed stubbornly low at 140-150 (80-90% of max). Final result was a sucked out runner laid out on the couch for the evening. Such is the price of maintenance/improvement with the goal now only 7 weeks away.

Sat - 5 miles very very easy at 8:48 pace. The legs were grumpy at 1st but gradually accepted the slow gentle pace. More strange weather with a drop in temperature and approaching series of storms predicted for most of next week.

That's it for the week. Still busy but at least still on track and hoping to cling on for a few more weeks to get the requisite fitness to put on a decent show for Boston. Have a nice week all!

Putting in the miles

2009-02-22T15:28:00.002-04:00

I've just been...

too tired
too lazy
too grumpy
too stressed
too busy

to blog about much of anything lately but I've still been putting in the miles and just finished off the 4th week of the Pfitz 12 week plan almost to perfection with a total of 47 miles in 6 runs (instead of 5).

Monday - rest, my favorite lately

Tues - 10 miles with 5 at 1/2 marathon effort which I took to be tempo pace (710-740 with HR up to 160 or 95% max)

Weds - recovery 4 miles

Thurs - snowstorm, work closed early, shovelled and then 5 miles on the mill

Friday - 11 scheduled but no mojo today so just went out and did an easy 4 miles

Sat - 7 miles, finishing up my Friday run

Sunday (today) 17 miles with Andrew at Boyden in 2:23 (8:24 pace) with aching hams and VERY bad jokes. Nearly fell in the ditch more than once wincing in mental anquish from the twisted witticisms that kept coming at me. It took a large chocolate brownie to make it better.

Witticism

Wit"ti*cism\, n. [From Witty.] A witty saying; a sentence or phrase which is affectedly witty; an attempt at wit; a conceit. --Milton. He is full of conceptions, points of epigram, and witticisms; all which are below the dignity of heroic verse. --Addison.

I'm tired now. Think I'll have a nice glass of wine and sit by the fire. Have a good week!

Beasts of Burden/Boyden

2009-02-15T14:28:00.005-04:00

I must confess to having a senior moment during today's long run around Boyden Lake. It was just after the 1st of many dogs (mostly super friendly) came out to say hello and we started talking about his post The Beasts of Boyden and the most appropriate background music. His choice for this dog centric video was Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon but I thought that Beast of Burden by the Rolling Stones was a better play on words although the lyrics aren't about running except maybe the 'put me out of my misery' line. My lapse in memory was not being able to sing/speak any of the lyrics or remember the group.
In the map above you can see the regular Boyden route that Andrew and Oz accompanied me in the wilds of Perry, Maine during our 17 mile long run. If you expanded the map just a touch you'd be able to see St. Andrews across the Bay to the northeast. The temperatures and wind conditions were much better today at around -3C/28F to start with only medium strength (<10mph) northwest winds. Before beginning the run I pleaded for mercy and for an easy pace and my friends complied allowing me a slow and easy run. We navigated the route in just under 2.5 hrs and I later remarked to Andrew how is seemed like a much shorter run than that. Another good run by the Beasts of Boyden! Thanks guys!

Have a nice week!

zigging and zagging around

2009-02-14T15:29:00.003-04:00

Bird's eye or should I say satellite's eye view of today's run. It was another cold and windy day
with temps around -8C and windchill of -15C/3F with wind of 15-25 mph but it didn't seem as bad today for some reason. I wasn't really overdressed, just comfortable in 2 layers of shirts plus my Gore-tex jacket with a lifesaving hood for the crazy wind.

The run started out as an errand run with a stop to drop off a book at the library and then another stop to check the mail at the post office (see the big dips in my heartrate when stopped) but the conditions made me change my mind about running out of town on the open highway. Doing a zig-zag or back and forth pattern like this works really well on the very cold days when the wind is screaming out of the northwest. It gets the wind at your back for at least part of the run and the streets in town are reasonably clear of ice and snow. It's also nice that each leg is about 1 mile in one direction and I could slowly count down the miles and blocks. My pace was all over the place with the downwind legs around 8:15 and the upwind trudges at close to 9:00 while the heartrate stayed fairly constant (without monitoring) around 80% of max. A good 10 miler in 1:27.

That's almost it for this week. I've also zigged and zagged the workouts getting them all in according to Pfitz (but not in the same order). Did a 5 mile treadmill easy run on Friday and tomorrow's long run of 17 with Andrew will put me at 43 miles for the week. Still on track!

That's it, have a great weekend!

Still on track

2009-02-12T20:20:00.003-04:00

Sort of...

I've been mixing and matching my workouts this week and besides my Monday rest day have yet to do anything as scheduled in the log. Life really does have a habit of messing up your well planned routine doesn't it?

Monday - rest day. Yes, I'm very good at this. Even did my pushups (week 6, level 1, day 1)

Tues - 4 miles on the treadmill after a very busy day. Started the 200 Situp Plan which nicely complements the 100 Pushup Challenge plan

Weds - 8 miles with 8x100 strides on the roads in balmy +4C. Miscounted the number of striders that needed doing but had a great run with average pace around 8:00 and near 7:30 for the last 2 miles as I hurried back to work during a long lunch run. Pushups for day 2 completed.

Thurs - today was an enforced rest day (scheduled on and borrowed from Sat) because of dental work and order not to run for 48 hours. I'll reduce it to 30hr and run on Friday after work. I can still do situps and core work, right? Curious, but my dentist just called me to check if I was all right and had no pain. How often do you get that kind of service? Darn, I forgot to ask him to waive the 48 hr curfew!

Enough blathering for now. Have a good remaining week. You know tomorrow is Friday 13th but then the next day is Happy Valentines, so be nice to someone special!

10 weeks to go

2009-02-08T12:17:00.004-04:00

To Boston that is, but at least the groundhog says there's only 6 more weeks of winter. This picture was taken yesterday with air temps around -8C and even the seawater remains frozen along this little inlet to the ocean.
Another shot of the picturesque Algonquin hotel that I just had to share with you because of the way it contrasts with the very blue sky. This was also taken yesterday. No sign of the sun or blue sky today as we are now in the midst of a winter heat wave with glorious temperatures today reaching a balmy +4C (39F) with a chance of rain in the forecast. Needless to say, I took advantage of this and got a nice 15 miler in as called for in my new schedule.

Week 2 (or 10 weeks to go) of the Pfitz plan (55 mi/wk 12 week schedule) was executed to perfection this past week with big check marks besides each day and no great difficulty in completing the runs thus far. Total of 39 miles as per the plan, Stan.

Thurs - 11 miles med long run in 1:36 entirely within the town area on a cold after work run. I zigzagging up and down the 1 mile core downtown because this was the only area with safely cleared and mostly bare pavement. I dragged a bit toward the end but was otherwise ok.

Friday - rest day (Yah!) and did my pushup max test to see where to restart my pushups. For some reason I've slacked off on them the past week or so but want to get back at them again. I'm still in week 6 but down to level 1 again.

Sat - easy 5 mile recovery run which is prescribed as being <75% of max heartrate which for me is about 130. It was a real challenge to run that slow and ended up with an average hr of 135 but still felt very easy and fun. I also took about 20 pictures and 2 video clips of bounding deer.

Sunday - 15 miles easy in 2:10 (8:37 pace, avg hr 138) in balmy temperature of +2C with a slight southwest (read warm) wind. Since Andrew was not available this weekend I ran this alone here in town starting with a 5 mile warmup loop of the peninsula. After refueling at home I then headed 5 miles out the highway to complete the assigned distance. I was even back home by 930am in lots of time for church! I need to pray for good weather and health.

This is a cool overview of my run using Garmin Connect. I don't think I've mentioned my new watch a Garmin 405 which was a slightly late but happily recieved Christmas present. After a few frustrations with the software and the constant beeping we seem to be getting along just fine. It tracks satellites very quickly and the heartrate monitor seems to work very smoothly with very few crazy readings thus far. It's a cool toy with lots of data and I'm a data kind of guy anyway.

Onward! The next week of training looks pretty good with more of the same as last week. It should be good if the weather holds like it's supposed to. Have a good week!

Plan B

2009-02-04T19:26:00.002-04:00

It was a great run on Sunday with Andrew but 12 miles was all I could manage due to all the problems I've been having lately. Even Andrew appeared concerned about how I'm going to manage to come up with a decent effort for Boston and with time running out, well it's time to get started.

My orginal training plan, posted way back in December has been out the window for over a month now and so I'm now opting for a shortest version of the Pfitzinger plans. 12 weeks on 55 miles a week or less will have to do and it's already 11 weeks to go! Thus far I like it with

Monday - rest

Tues - 8 miles with 4 at 1/2 marathon effort. Did this on the treadmill but only got up to marathon(ish) pace which is now going to be about 7:30-8:00 per mile. The workout went well enough but it was the fastest running I've done for months.

Weds - another rest day! Love those shorter plans! My x-training will be some extra stretching and volleyball later tonite.

Thus - plan for tommorow is 11 miles which I'm expecting to do as an after work - run from work run.

That's all I got. Wish me luck and have a good week.

Weekend fun

2009-01-27T20:17:00.004-04:00

It's hard to do justice to the good times that Andrew and I had in upstate Maine visiting Marc and his family but I thought this picture captured some of the spirit of the weekend. We didn't get all that much running in, but the camaraderie, good food, funny stories and occasional jokes made it a very memorable few days. Marc has some terrific video clips from all the fun and games too.
Saturdays's run was a nice 8 mile run on very hilly terrain with the boys. Marc only went for 1 mile before his calf blew out but then we caught him later exercising the dog on his bicycle. It was a scene that needed to be seen to be believed. We spent the rest of the day scheming and planning for our long run on Sunday with Marc now accepting the role of support as his leg is in need of professional attention.
Sunday morning dawned very-very cold with extreme cold but luckily very little wind. This is what Andrew looked like after only about 1-2 miles. I was just starting to get feeling back in my feet at this point and then another problem cropped up out of the blue. My calves and lower legs suddenly became extremely tight and sore and got progessively worse as our run went along. We did a short pit stop at Marc's around 7 miles and then headed off to complete the run but only 1 mile down the road I came to a complete stop as both calves seized completely. Andrew and I then called it a day and we walked home.

It was a very disappointing run for me and this is definitely classed as an injury for me as it hurts to walk and even more to run (though getting better now). I had some physio on it Monday and we're calling it tendonitis and will give it a few days rest. It's slightly better today but I want to be safe rather than sorry and won't run if it's sore to even walk on it. No idea where this came from either. It's not catching is it Marc? But will take a break and hope for the best.

Take care and have a nice week!

Running weekend approaches

2009-01-22T20:49:00.002-04:00

Just a few quick notes before I take off for a few days with Andrew to visit our good friend Marc who has been somewhat out of sorts lately and needs a kick in the pants to get off the couch and out the door! I'll be bringing along the ultimate carrot in the form of chocolate balls (not to be tasted unless requisite mileage completed 1st!)

On the home front my running week has been a bit of a disaster with terrible road conditions still and a variety of work and other pressures conspiring against me. After Sunday's 12 miler, all I've been able to manage is a short 4 miler yesterday after work and then 7 miles today at lunch. Here's hoping that the rest of the week and weekend come out a little better.

Pushups - still stuck in week 6 as my max test at 62 was only a tiny improvement from the previous week. Like the running, progress is very slow and hard to come by...

No more time, gotta pack and get ready for the weekend. Have a good one!

Whiteout

2009-01-19T21:56:00.002-04:00

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My long run on Sunday was abbreviated by the mid-day conditions (shoulda coulda run with Andrew but didn't). After 5 miles of this stuff it was time for the treadmill. Final total of 12 miles was all I could manage as I needed to save my strength for shoveling.

Have a nice week!

More of the same

2009-01-16T20:05:00.006-04:00

The winter can be very pretty when the sun shines but too bad it's so cold that you can't enjoy it. This was the scene at my work place yesterday with the heavy sea-fog or sea-smoke coating all the trees in a fine white layer of ice. It melted away once the sun peaked in the late afternoon but not before my lunchtime run (when I took the picture).
I timed this run with the rising temperatures but not quite at the peak of -15C for the day. With appropriate layering (see Andrew's video) you can be comfortable in these conditions. My multitude of layers had me toasty warm and I didn't even need the balaclava which was stashed in a pocket in case the wind came up. The only problem you can have despite being well dressed is the danger of frostbite to exposed skin but a good scarf, neck protector and a layer of vaseline usually do the trick at the worst of times. So 6 easy miles went by without much problem.
This morning conditions were much the same, very cold early on and 'warming' up somewhat by about 11:30am when I finally got out the door. It was another nice easy 5-6 mile run as I continue to pamper the leg which is now showing signs of improvement at last. I took a few more pictures and was almost trampled by a herd of deer who seem to think they own the town! Total of 6 runs and 44 miles for the week.

Pushups: still working away at week 6, level 3 but my pushups pale in comparison to this fitness instructor.

Coach Tara is very impressive!! Maybe when I do the 100 I'll graduate to these!

Take care and have a great weekend!

Deep freeze

2009-01-14T19:32:00.002-04:00

Brutal is the only word that I can think of right now to describe our weather for the next few days and these are the predicted temperatures without the windchill (which will add/subtract another 10 degrees or so).

Two more runs in the books this week. On Tuesday I only had time for 4 miles on the treadmill yesterday after work but today was able to get outdoors despite the cold. After bundling up with 3 layers on the legs and 4 for the upper body it was off into the -20C conditions. The roads were very treacherous with the thin layer of slush over most of the main roads so I headed off for a sheltered area with a good hill and did my workout there. After 2 repeats of a 1.5 mile circuit including a 1/2 mile hill it was time to return into the teeth of the cold north wind. Total of 7.5 miles in about 65 minutes.

Pushups: max test on Monday of 60 got me to week 6 level 3 which I completed Day 1 this morning before work. Nothing like throwing down 215 pushups to start the day off! The arms were shakey driving in...

That's it for now, time to head out to volleyball. Have a good week and thanks for sending any warm thoughts or winds in my direction!

Boyden Snow Run

2009-01-11T18:30:00.002-04:00

Utube will never be the same after today's video post.

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Andrew and I had a great run today as we completed our usual (standard) 17 mile loop at a very easy pace with occasional stops for pics, videos, nature calls, stretching as well as water and gels. My leg held up very well with the current regime of stretching and exercises starting to pay off with a more pain free run. The last miles were still hard as the legs tired but at least the hobble and limp was gone for the 1st time in months. I'm starting to have hope that my real training for Boston can begin soon.

Last week finished off with a couple of easy runs for a meager total of 42 miles. The highlight of the week was a visit to my physiotherapist on Friday all geared up and ready for a run. After getting new instructions and a tape application to my lower back I was off for a nice 9 mile run. It appears that part of my 'problem' has been my running form, because the taping helped 'fix' my poor (hunched over when tired) posture and also took some of the strain off the hams. Now all I need to work on is the stretching and keeping a more upright form when running. Let's hope!

Pushups: completed another intense week (#6, level 2) and will do my next exhaustion test tonite to see where to go next. It's a long grind but I'm slowly working my way up the ladder.

That's it, have a great week and hope you enjoy the video!

Snowy run

2009-01-08T20:53:00.002-04:00

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It's fun fooling around with the video feature on my camera and then putting stuff together on the computer. Now if only I had some decent music to add to the background noise. Today's run was just 5.5 miles after work before total darkness fell. It went OK but the legs were a little sore at 1st from sitting in my chair at work all day. I'll be getting some more physio for my leg on Friday and hope to get some relief soon.

See you later!

Stumbling along

2009-01-07T19:49:00.004-04:00

Not quite all washed up but to use todays word of the day:

candor \KAN-der\, noun:
1. honesty in giving one's view or opinion; frankness and sincerity
2. fairness; impartiality

in total candor my training has been substantially below par as of late. Sunday's run with Andrew was a total disaster as far as the way I felt during and after the run with a feeling of very heavy legs and being dead tired. The lack of sleep and bitter cold had something to do with it, but surely you'd think we could knock off an easy 12 miler in our sleep by now.

So...

Monday - nice rest day and did my pushups (repeating Week 6, level 2, total of 189 in 5 sets and 50 max)

Tues - just time for an easy 5 mile run after a busy day driving the boys to the airport and then back to work for a few hours. However, surprise-surprise the legs were feeling very good and almost 'springy' for the 1st time in a long while. The hams also behaved and I was tempted to go faster but took pictures (above) instead.

Weds - today was going to be a longer run but ended up only being 6 miles due to the snowstorm that started at the same time as the run. Again the legs felt almost decent but I kept things under control with a slow pace. Pushups in the morning before work were tough with 9 sets for a total of 210 and a max of 48.

That's it, no video this time around, although I've been practicing with it for my camera voice so my foreign accent doesn't get drowned out by the music next time. Have a good week!

Resolution Run #4

2009-01-04T16:00:00.002-04:00

Brutal run on tired legs is my only description of this 12 mile 'long'' run with Andrew.

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But note his little comment at the very end of the video...

'And we'll do it again next Sunday!'

Unfortunately, he's right, we'll keep trying until we get it right. For whatever reason todays run was a tough go, lack of sleep perhaps, lack of energy despite all the junk I've been eating and drinking and the headwind and cold didn't help much either. We started out at -10C/12F or feel like windchill of -17c/0F but it felt colder.

That's it for my video posts for a bit as the 'Challenge' is almost over but it was fun learning how to do this. Have a nice week!

Resolution Run #3

2009-01-03T17:19:00.002-04:00

Another day, another run, another video-cast.

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An easy 5.5 miles this Saturday afternoon with temperatures around -5C. The strong northwest wind continued and made the feel-like temperature just that much cooler. My leg/hamstring was fine but the pace was slow because of all the stops and starts. Perhaps I need a special name for this sort of run, like video-jog or click-lek but Andrew is sure to chime in with something more interesting. I'm hoping to meet up with the 'boys' for a nice long run in the morning but so far there is no plan of action.

See you later!

Resolution Run #2

2009-01-02T20:37:00.002-04:00

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Cool! I figured out how to show my little running video directly without needing to login to RuncastTV (unless you want to).

Just an easy 70 minute run today with about 8 miles tallied up for the 1000 mile challenge. It was a much better day to run, especially this afternoon when the temperatures went all the way up to about -5C. It felt almost balmy, even with the wind, but my legs were feeling tired and heavy for most of the run so it felt like a bit of a chore. The hams were behaving as well but this could have just been the very slow pace.

That's it, 2 days, 2 runs, 2 posts, so far so good! Cya!

1st run of 2009

2009-01-01T21:02:00.002-04:00

2009 started off on the right foot. After successfully retrieving my eldest son from the airport before the latest storm rolled through we then gathered at my brothers. A few beers, fireball shooters and a shot of Power's later we were all in the proper mood for ringing in the New Year.

We didn't feel so hot this morning but after driving back home I still managed to get a short run in despite the frigid temperatures (-13C/-23C windchill). If you don't believe me here is my video account of the cold adventure. (Note that this is on the RuncastTV website but you need a free account to view it). I'm doing this as part of the 1000 mile running challenge which is also featured on this site. The idea is for participants to post blogs, pics, video's etc and for the group as a whole to run 1000 miles by the 5th of January.

So approximately 4 miles in 34:00 is now in the books.

Here's hoping that the days are warmer soon. Happy New Year all!

2008 in the Rearview Mirror

2008-12-31T13:49:00.008-04:00

Do you see those 'rascally' deer sneaking behind me there? This was at the very end of today's 10 miler just before reaching my laneway (you can see the sign) as I watched 9 deer hop, skip and jump across the road. If I had panned my camera a bit to the right you would also see a lazy golden retriever in the yard watching them go by.

Good run today, although it was on the cool side at -11C/13F with a windchill of -20C/0F. I was well dressed and out of the wind for the most part and my 'bad' leg felt remarkably good for almost the entire run, only acting up a bit near the end. A few more good days like this and I'll be ready to start up with some actual training for Boston. The past month or so has really been more of a holding pattern of easy miles with various exercises and stretches for the hams but with no real hard running.

2008 is almost behind us and I did promise some sort of year-end review with pretty graphs and tables to keep some of you entertained or in some cases 'not'. With today's run my final 2009 total was 2506 miles in 278 days of running for an average of 48 miles/week. There were 2 main training cycles for my spring and fall marathons and only a couple of other races mixed in. The ups and downs were mostly planned but I did get off track due to my traveling in late Aug-Sept. There was no down-time due to injury or illness despite my hamstring issue which is ongoing since last year.
There were only 5 races in 2008 (something I'd like to improve on in 2009) with decent results for me but no PR's in the 'Since-I-turned-50 category'. Still, I like the age graded times and especially the 'virtual' sub-3 at PEI. Maybe in my dreams...

With a log book now going back 10 years, since 1st getting serious with this running thing, you can see my progress and total mileage since 1999. If you do the calculation the total cumulative miles is equal to about once around the world!? The only thing I'd take away from this is perhaps consistency over the years. Andrew would probably also want you to know that my PR for the marathon happened in 2006 which was the peak mileage year.

And finally for something to shoot for in 2009, here are my current over-50 PR's . I'm thinking that I should have a good shot at several of them if I can focus a bit on some speedwork and less marathon type training. The 1/2 marathon time looks especially vulnerable.

That's all I got for now except that I did my 100 Pushup Challenge exhaustion test today and am still stuck doing the same Week 6/Level 2 workouts over again after only managing 58 pushups. It might have been because I was tired from just finishing the 10 mile run but you wouldn't think your arms would be tired from running would you?

Take care and have a Happy New Year!

Easy 5

2008-12-30T16:13:00.002-04:00

It was a beautiful sunny day for a run with temps around -5C with light winds but the legs only had 5 miles to give as this short run was actually a bit of a chore. I also included stops to stretch, do some banking and check the mail which made this an extra easy day after yesterday's rest (do-nothing) day. Well almost nothing, unless you include the 239 pushups with a max of 49 at the end of 9 sets. I get a rest day (today) before the next 'exhaustion test' and on to a repeat of Week 6 of the 100 Pushup Challenge program.

Short and sweet, still working on the year end report complete with tables and pretty graphs! Happy trails!

Running with the Birthday Boy

2008-12-28T19:47:00.005-04:00

The holiday season is drawing to a close and I simply couldn't resist one last night shot of the locally famous Christmas house here in St. Andrews. Can you imagine what their power bill must be like for the month of December?

Today's run was another jaunt around Boyden Lake with just Andrew (aka - The Birthday Boy). He started about 1/2 hour before me so as to get a few extra miles and I just did 17 miles as my hams are not quite ready for much more than that. We took it very nice and slow with a stretching and a water break but by the end of the run my legs were aching and I was very happy to stop. Other highlights besides the bad jokes (i.e. 2 cowboys were sitting around the campfire...) included seeing only 1 car over the 1st 10 miles, a nice food reward at the end of the run and just missed hitting a deer on the return journey. Andrew would also like you to notice above how his shoes nicely match his hair color (or so I was informed between bad jokes).

Other running bits from last week:

Weds - 8 miles easy on snow covered roads

Thurs - 4 miles slow and easy after opening of gifts with our missing son on a Skype video link

Friday - 10 miles easy in new running gear at -10C but was almost too warm when the wind was behind me

Sat - 7 miles easy in the fresh snow and saw 9 (nine) rascally deer in a herd and then 2 more later on

Total of 44 miles in 6 runs for the week

100 Pushup Challenge is on-going as I work my way through week 6 at level 2. On Sat. it had me doing 9 sets for a total of 207 and a max of 45 in the last set which I failed (53 was the target). It's going to be a few more week before I get to the end of this program!

That's all for now but I'm working on my 2008 summary and more frequent but shorter posts in the New Year. Take care and keep on running!

Almost there

2008-12-23T19:37:00.004-04:00

Only two more days and I still haven't wrapped my gifts...
We had quite a storm Sunday night and this was what greeted us when we opened the front door on Monday morning. Thankfully work and most businesses were closed for the day as it took the better part of 2 hours to dig our way out.

My long run on Sunday was not of the long variety with only 11 miles on the treadmill before it was time to hit the road for a family get together at my brothers. The plan had been to do about 2 hours but 1.5 was all I could manage on this day. This was my 1st venture on the treadmill this winter and it felt very awkward and hard to get in any kind of rhythm.

Monday - rest day and shovel like hell (20-30cm or 8-12 in)

Tues - 4 miles easy after work (also had my 1st physio session today with some more new things to try to cure the hammy problem)

100 Pushup Challenge - completed week 6 and did my latest Exhaustion Test with a max of 52. This puts me into level 2 in week 6 once again as progress is painfully slow.

That's all I got for now. Hope that everyone has a nice Christmas holiday!

Can you see the cold?

2008-12-20T14:18:00.004-04:00

Well normally you can't 'see' the cold but when we get days like today where the air temperature at -15C (5F) and colder with the windchill creates a seafog over the warmer ocean, you might be fooled. This is nothing compared to the Deep Freeze that Garry has been enduring in Alberta with a high of -20C over the last few weeks!

Of course my wife thinks I'm crazy to be running in these conditions but I consider it a personal challenge and have only been forced to admit defeat on a handful of occasions. Not today! With adequate preparations and multiple layers of clothing I was actually quite toasty and even added an extra mile on at the end to get a nicer number for the week.

Same general location a few days ago where the temperature could be -30 or -3C (which it was) but you can't tell one way or the other. Pretty shot with the brilliant blue sky I think.

Running has been up and down all week with low mileage runs alternating with even lower mileage days. The numbers for the week go like 17, 0, 7, 3, 6, 4, 8=45 with 0 speedwork and all at a recovery pace on icy and snow packed roads.

For some strange reason the hams are coming around. It might have something to do with the low miles, the daily stretching of perhaps even the visit to the physio office on Friday. I sat in the waiting room for 1/2 hr before the receptionist came out and said there was a mixup and I couldn't get in till next week. The leg has never felt better since! The two runs have been pain free and I'm thinking I should go back for more no-therapy no-pay sessions. Maybe I can now actually look at my plan and start to train for Boston once again...

The 100 Pushup Challenge continues with Week 6 (level 1) which for some reason is easier than the Week 5. Friday's session for day 2 of the week was 'only' 8 sets with a total of 151 and a max of 46 at the end. It was tough but do-able and a big improvement from a month ago.

That's all for now. Have fun with all the Christmas plans and celebrations but be careful at the same time not to overdo it! Take care out there!

The long and the short of it

2008-12-17T20:33:00.003-04:00

Andrew has encouraged me to post more so he doesn't get the idea that I fell off a cliff or something. This will be very short.

Monday- rest; get referral for physio
Tues - 7 miles in about 59:00
Weds- 3 miles in the snow in ??? (no watch); get appointment for physio

Chocolate Balls (aka Peanut Butter Balls)

1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 pkg chocolate chips and 1/4 slab parawax
Beat egg, add dry ingedients, form into small balls & chill in fridge for an hour or so.
Melt chocolate chips and parawax in double boiler and dip chilled balls in hot mixture.
Chill or freeze balls and keep cold until ready to enjoy.

Enjoy!

We had a beautiful winter blast here today and I'm now working on my Christmas decorations video. I'll be posting it at RunCastTv.com and you can sign up for a free account to start enjoying all their runner related content and the community that is forming.

And just for Andrew we have todays Dictionary.com's word of the day gaffe which seemed appropriate given the kind of jokes he likes to tell!

See you!

The Return of the Chocolate Balls

2008-12-14T13:27:00.003-04:00

My apologies for the lack of posts lately but despite the fact that I've been running on most days, the shortness of duration and lack of any real workouts of substance has given me little to gab about. However, today's run with Andrew was a much different story...

We did the full Boyden Lake loop for 17 miles this morning in the freezing cold -13C/10F but thankfully with only a slight bit of wind. It turned out to be quite pleasant for the most part but there seemed to be the occasional pockets of extra cold air that would catch our breath and cause us to pull up our scarves just a bit more. For some added fun and excitement I put together some pictures and video which you can see on my video here (with condolences to Thomas who couldn't be there). This new video site for runner at the new RunCastTV.com is quite amazing but I must warn the fun is addictive. It's almost as addictive as the special treats we had at the end of the run but you have to watch the video to experience that! Mmmm!

On an almost totally unrelated non-running note (and for the guys) although the ladies will get a kick out of this, check out this video with a detailed account of how guys get sent to 'The Doghouse'. BTW, Andrew was full of suggestions for me to try out to see what would happen.

Other bits of news to share include some progress on the 100 Pushup Challenge as I survived Week 5 (for the 3rd week) but this time at the hardest level #3. Yesterday's insane workout amounted to 8 sets of pushups for a total of 190 with a max of 40 in the last set. I'm now ready for another Exhaustion Test and hope to make it to the final Week 6 sets of workouts.

Running-wise, last week was more of the same as the week before with a total of 6 runs for a mere 40 miles. There is a training plan for Boston somewhere in my logbook but I haven't dared to even look at it recently as I continue to attempt to scale back the running and hope the hamstrings self-repair. The stretching, icing, weights, trigger point and ball exercises are keeping me busy but so far have had little effect. I may have to bite the bullet and see a professional sooner rather than later as this aggravating issue just hangs on.

So, that's it! Take care, have fun and enjoy the holiday season!

Only 19 days!

2008-12-06T15:07:00.003-04:00

Or should we say , 18 sleeps, x hours, y minutes and z secords? I guess it's not too hard to believe that there is a website for 'everything' and 'everyone', including of course, Santa!

Ah well, it will be good to have the 'kids' home for Christmas to keep me (the biggest kid of all) company as we enjoy the season and all our family traditions. Speaking of which there is one tradition that our own Downeast Andrew has been eagerly awaiting but I'm afraid will have to wait for another week as the cook had other plans. I'm hoping to get out with him in the morning for another Boyden run but it will depend on how much snow we get overnight and if they decide to plow the roads or not. For our 1st storm a few weeks ago they didn't do much plowing and basically let it melt off over the next few days (or that's what it seemed like)

Just a quick update on the running or lack thereoff this past week. More of the same really with short easy runs every day but it's not really training yet. I've been stretching the legs every day and have started some strengthening work with free weight as well which seems to be helping a bit. In fact today's 7 miler was almost totally pain free although the pace felt like it was very very slow. I've been Garmin-less now for a month and only have the old wrist watch to give me some feedback on time on my feet. Total of 40 miles for the week in 6 runs.

The 100 Pushup Challenge workouts continued as I was able to semi-complete my 2nd attempt at week 5. This mornings workout had 8 sets for a total of 160 and a continuous max of 30 at the end. It's time for another progress test to see if I'm ready for week 6 or not. Tough going and the progress is coming but very slow.

That's all I got for now. Hope to have an interesting story about a decent long(er) run on Sunday but that will depend on what the Weather and Running gods have to say about it. Have a nice weekend all!

Limping along

2008-11-30T14:45:00.005-04:00

The weather has certainly been much more conducive to running here lately but unfortunately not for me. My title pretty much says it all, I'm still hobbling around getting a few miles in, but it's not very pretty. We had a beautiful sunrise on Saturday morning that this photo does not do justice to. The color of the rising sun was a deep orange-red which lasted for several minutes but just doesn't show here. I should have played with the exposures but the time window was very short.
We found time to put up our outdoor Christmas decorations this weekend but haven't turned the lights on yet; that has to wait until Dec. 1, the 1st official day of the holiday season in our books. I've been running by the 'Crazy Christmas House' in our town (doesn't every place have one?) and they're also set to go, but not yet powered up. They light up the whole block and draw folks from all over and I'll post some shots when they do.
I'm making some progress with the 100 pushup challenge having just completed a repeat of week 5 (level 1). My latest max test was 39 logged here and I'll be re-attempting week5 (level 2) in the coming week. Progress is slow but I can feel the difference in my shoulders and skinny arms already!

Oh yeah, the running or lack thereoff went poorly this week as all ideas of following a training plan went to the back burner. After a failed Sunday long run of only 7 miles and a rest day on Monday the rest of the week was a series of short easy runs of only 5-6 miles. Total of 6 days running and 35 for the week. Today (Sunday) was a very easy 10 miles in 2 loops from home and the legs felt OK at first but were doing their usual complaining over the last 2 miles.

I'm being forced into a corner and so stretching and strengthening are taking place every day and I now have some free weights to help me with a couple of exercises as shown in the latest edition of Running Times. There are lots videos on the net such as this one with weights and this one using an exercise ball that looks difficult. I just need to narrow it down to a few that work for me, correct the imbalance in my leg muscles and don't make things any worse in the meantime.

That's all for now. Hope to have a more positive outlook on training by next weekend or poor (quiet) Andrew will get lonely all by himself chasing the Boyden moose(s). In the meantime have a good week and study/work hard because Christmas is coming soon!

Tag line

2008-11-23T19:38:00.004-04:00

Dusty tagged/challenged me to post a picture, which isn't much of a stretch for me. Here are the rules:

1) Go to the 4th photo folder on my computer

2) Choose the 4th photo

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 other people

It was hard to figure out which folder was my 4th, since there are so many files and folders in my pictures subdirectory. I ended up choosing a suitable picture from the 4th folder in the 4th folder (year) of pictures which happened to be from a family vacation in Fundy National Park in 2002. The photo is a group shot, height ordered of all the nieces and nephews in the Power clan, with my own kids thrown in as well. The only one missing is my daughter Stephanie who was probably at a horse show instead that weekend.

I won't tag anyone else but feel free if you are so inclined (Chris, Steph, Andrew, BC-Mike) . It's neat what pictures you might come up with from your recent past.

Running:
Sunday - 7 miles on the roads and one on the treadmill (including 1/2 mile walking backwards) as I bailed out of the long run to care for my hammies. I've been doing stretches and strengthening exercises on a daily basis and found the walking backwards suggestion as well, though it's tricky adjusting the controls without falling off.

Monday - day off, stretch and work the hams

Pushup challenge: did another test and could only do 35 which keeps me at the same level in week 5. I can feel the difference in my arms and shoulders but the improvements seems to be coming slow thus far.

That's it for now. I'm hoping to get some decent runs in this week but will cut them short or miss them all together if the legs complain too much. Have a good week!

I love winter!

2008-11-22T13:27:00.006-04:00

OK, it's not 'officially' winter for another month but we had our 1st snowfall of the season last night. It got two very opposite reactions at our place. My wife's response was "Oh no, yuck!!" while mine was "All right, beautiful, can't wait to get out for a run!". She thinks I'm nuts but puts up with me.
The beautiful natural decorations of winter...
Quiet back streets...
And desolate open spaces...

Don't you just love it? I didn't see a soul for my entire 6 mile run around town today.

Meanwhile, it's been a very quiet week with only easy running as I try to deal with the continuing hamstring issue. The stretching and strengthening exercises are starting to help but I need to hold back on the mileage for a bit. Just 34 miles last week in 5 runs.

The old pushup challenge is going better as I just completed the lowest of 3 levels in Week 5. You can log your workouts and follow my progress here. It's time for another progress test but it looks like I'll be repeating Week 5 next week.

That's it for now. Have a nice week!

Even more ridiculous!

2008-11-16T13:13:00.004-04:00

My alarm was set for 5:45am this morning so I could meet Andrew a bit earlier for our Boyden Lake run. Overnight we got a ton of wind and rain and so the 1st thing I did was check the forecast and the radar loop...

Rainfall warning in effect

Wind warning in effect.

Today: Day: Rain at times heavy with the risk of a thundershower. Amount 40 to 50 mm. Wind south 60 km/h gusting to 90 becoming southwest 50 gusting to 80 late this afternoon. Temperature falling to 11 this afternoon.

Yuck! I'm not interested in doing that again (just like last week) so I whipped off an email to our intrepid Eastporter.

Mike to Andrew:
>> > It's nasty out there. I'm getting cold (wet) feet here. The radar loop looks like it's all headed straight for us! What do you think?

Andrew reply:
>> I'm on my way.

Mike to Andrew:
> you fool, I'm just leaving too (will be a bit late)

So into the maelstrom I went and I definitely could feel a sucking/sinking feeling. The rain was being driven horizontally and I had to slow the van to a crawl a few times during the journey in order to see where the road was. The border crossing was uneventful although the guard who is a local runner had several questions about who I was running with (Andrew), what I was training for (Boston) and even asked what my best Boston time was (3:18). Arrived near the designated meeting spot to find Andrew already doing his warmup, so picked him up and chatted while I got geared up to go.
Besides the incredible headwind and driving rain with periods of calm and light drizzle the run was fairly uneventful. It blew our hats off and we had to revert to 'rally-cap' mode and at times we had to shout in order to hear each other. But besides that the temperature was mild at 15C/59F and it was a comfortable, easy and rather enjoyable run. My hamstrings, however, were a big issue for most of the run and I was happy to go with the slow pace. Our 12 miles came in at the same time (1:48) as we did 13 the previous week and included a couple of camera, stretching and 'health' stops along the way.

After the run Andrew sent me this email:
See? It wasn't so bad.

He was right!
The last time we went by this wheelbarrow it had flowers in it. I wonder if it will get a Christmas dressing up in a few weeks? It's almost time to start putting up decorations and making other preparations like baking of cookies and chocolate balls!! Mmmm!

Other training runs from last week:
Monday - off; Pushups: 5 sets for total of 95 and max of 23
Tues - easy 6 miles in morning before Remembrance Day ceremonies
Weds- easy 6 after work with 6x strides on the golf course fairways
(Pushup Challenge: 5 sets for a total of 108 and max of 25)
Thur - 8 miles with fartlek intervals 1-2-3-4 minutes with equal rest (2x) in 60:20. Felt good but hams getting sore at end
Fri - off with work trip (Pushups:5 sets for a total of 122 and max of 28)
Sat - 7 miles easy but legs sore and tight; total weekly mileage was 40 (Sunday-Sat)
Sun - 12 miles but very sore hams which need attention. Pushup max test of 34 which puts me into a lower level for next weeks program. Whew!

This coming week will be week 3 of the 24 week schedule. I hoping to get 40-45 miles including a hill workout as part of a longer mid-week run. More important, I need to deal with this achy hamstring issue of mine that is holding my running back from what it should be. Self massage, icing, stretching, strengthening and even some paid massage treatments will be in order starting right this minute.

That's all for now except for a few shout-outs to runners at races including Crazy Bob doing the 100 mile Javelina Jundred in Arizona with pacing support by our Speedy Dusty. You should also check out Steve (aka Bulldog runner) who ran a great race at Richmond marathon, achingly close to the PB he was aiming for. Steve first caught my attention with his McMillan training plan and the Pushup Challenge and his dedication and hard work are something to see. And don't forget Elizabeth - Run With Me who also ran very very well at Richmond knocking of an impressive BQ++ time on a tough windy day. I can't wait for the race reports from all of them!

Take care all and have a great week!

Ridiculous

2008-11-11T19:59:00.003-04:00

Sunday's run at about the 1/2 way point was 'ridiculous'!
In a matter of seconds it went from mild conditions (11C/52F) on dry roads to a drenching downpour along with a sound and light show. Good thing the camera was waterproof! We (Andrew, Ozzie and myself) were exactly at the 1/2 way point on the loop and so there was no real option except to keep moving forward. Despite this, it was a run we won't soon forget and the 13 miles zipped along in 1:48. My hamstrings gave me problems again and the constant reminder to do something about it remained for the rest of the day and into this week.

Much of the conversation focused on our running plans and methods. Most of you know how Andrew trains with his devotion to Lydiard, high mileage with lots of ups and downs and still able to knock off fast marathons at the drop of a hat. Ozzie (aka Austin) at age 54 is a consistent age group ace and sub-3hr marathoner. At the recent 2008 Mount Desert Island marathon he ran 2:57 placed 10/700 overall, winning his age group by over 15 minutes! Age graded this is equal to a 2:36 at 80.88%! Asked about how he trains he reveals that he takes 1-2 days off a week but races almost every weekend. Nothing specific or structured but he runs at a good (read tempo) effort on most runs. Andrew called it 'The Boyden Plan'. Amazing, or should I say ridiculously amazing!

Mike from BC asked what's different about my latest plan, which is far from being unstructured. It's actually alot of the same but then again not the same. Same with: the overall mileage, cutback weeks, long runs, medium long runs and a sprinkling of tempo plus faster running. Different in: the fast finish long runs as well as a couple of extra long runs at 3+hrs. Also different with a series of 6 mile MP 'tests' every 4 weeks which I'm planning to run on the treadmill while monitoring heartrate. The tempo and interval workouts from McMillan aren't much different from the Pfitzinger plans but I'll be closely monitoring paces based on the McMillan running calculator. 'On a wing and a prayer, Andrew?' We'll have to wait and see what happens, right?

Other happenings lately include the Pushup Challenge, now in Week 4, Day 2 and getting more challenging by the day. I'm beginning to fear these morning wakeup efforts like I would a challenging track or interval workout but can see the progress after only one week, I'm also happy to see a number of my readers have taken an interest in the challenge. Good luck to all who dare!

Running tidbits...

Monday -Day off running; 95 total pushups in 5 sets.
Tues - easy 6 miles in 50ish; back to the old timepiece as the Garmin has gone AWOL

That's all folks! Have a great week!

The plan! The Plan (Boss-ton)!

2008-11-08T19:25:00.008-04:00

Yes, I finally have a 'plan' and some of you may even remember this 70'ies show Fantasy Island which made me think of my title. Now just as long as my scheme is more than a pure fantasy I may survive.

Pretty isn't it? It's a mixture of Pfitzinger and McMillan with a dose of Lydiard and a sprinkling of hope and prayer. The basic plan is for 24 weeks with 4 major blocks (colored) for base building, stamina, speed and then the taper/race. There is gradual mileage buildup to what I'm able to handle (50-70) without getting injured and cutback weeks every 4th week.

The long run is 1st in importance and there are some twists including Fast Finishes (30-90min MP+) or extra long 3+ hour runs. The medium long runs (from Pfitz) are there as well, even though I despise them, but they help build stamina and determination to keep going on days when you don't want to. The 1-2 weekly workouts come from McMillan and I'll be using his Pace Calculator with my latest races to calculate proper paces. Whether I can manage more than one workout per week will have to be determined as this 'plan' goes along. I've also build in weekly strides and a series of test MP runs to monitor progress on a monthly basis. I might do these on the treadmill to attempt to control weather conditions.

Anyway, a lot to chew on and I'm going to think about it now by going for a long run with Andrew in the morning. Well, maybe not too long but long enough to hear his opinion I'm sure!

The pushup challenge is also going along reasonably well and have survived Week 3 which was the level I started at. You can log your workouts at the Pushup Logger site and let others follow along.
The workouts get much harder quickly and there's a 'test' at the end of next week too! I hate tests!!

The past few weeks have been very easy with alternate days of running and then not running. Mileage totals have been a measly 16 and 27 since the marathon and the legs are still tight as ever. I guess some stretching and strengthening exercises will need to be added in to 'The Plan' as well as icing and massage.

Have a nice week and don't forget to Remember the Veterans on Nov. 11th.

1-2-3-4 take 2

2008-11-02T21:02:00.005-04:00

There's something lucky about those numbers I suppose... It all started with this silly little song that you can't get out of your head.

And there I was in the middle of my 10k, wearing number 1234, swimming in lactic acid and barely able to do much more with my brain except count my exhales and hope that the finish would come sooner than later. 1-2-3-4....

It was a good day for running. 43:39, 10th overall, 1st in my age group and a Shiny Metallic Object to go with it but it was not easy by any means.

The start, you can make me out on the right not too far from the front.
The finish and very happy to be done. Did I mention it was cold here today? 2C(35F) with 35-45k (20-30mph) northwest wind to give it some bite and thus the gloves and pants. So how did it go? Well we arrived just 1/2 hr before the race start because of the 3hr drive to the race and I just had time to pin on my bib number and do a very quick 1/2 mile jog for a warmup. Getting ready for the start we were almost impaled by a falling tent which was blown over by the gusting wind but luckily we grabbed it and helped take it down in time. I had just time to remove my jacket and hand it to Jo before the gun went off and we were blown down the road by the tailwind (for the 1st 5k only).

1st kilometer in 3:56 (holey crap Batman, slow down!)
2nd k in 4:10 was better (target of 4:15) but was passed by 2 runners including one chick and could not respond
3rd k in 4:20 and now starting to just hang on
4-5k for 4:20 avg for 21:08 at the 5k turn and now begin to count in earnest
2nd 5k in 22:31 back into the strong nw wind. At the 5k turn we joined up with returning 1/2 marathoners who had started 1 hour before us so I had plenty of targets to keep me going but I kept hearing footsteps. It turned out to be my imagination because I never was overtaken after the 3k and probably just heard the people I was passing along the way. Even on the final turn with only about 400m to the finish I was positive there was someone on my heels! It kept me honest and working right to the finish at least.

I must admit to be pleasantly surprised and happy with my result today. Not quite the 42:50 I was 'hoping' for but for somebody just off a marathon with virtually no speed training for this shorter distance, you have to be satisfied.

Meanwhile I've also been scheming so more on my training plan and almost have something ready for the light of blogland. But 1st as part of the program there is a sub-plan to work on my non-existent upper body and core strength beginning with the 100 pushup Challenge! I've already challenged my 3 children to try to keep up with their Dad and will now challenge any of my readers who cares to try as well. My test resulted in 25 pushups so I'm starting with week 3 of the Challenge with 5 sets for a total of 72 pushups in the morning. It's not about beating or winning but about doing, so please check it out and let me know how you make out!

That's about all for now. Have a great week!

Scheming & dreaming

2008-10-26T20:29:00.004-03:00

Also known as, 'the post-marathon crazies' or 'what to do with all that spare time on your hands'. It's just because we're missing our daily shot of endorphins and need to fill in the time with running related planning. It seems to be addictive if you follow the crazy zig-zag plots by Andrew, or even more complex diagrams by Bricey, and then there's the 'sign up for the next marathon before he can even walk again'-Jamie but at least he has a plan in mind and is thinking of going with Pfitzinger's up to 70 mile per week

I can't point fingers too much, seeing as how I've also signed up for my next marathon (Boston) and also up for a 10k in Moncton this coming weekend. Checking over my race results since I turned 50 my 10k PB is 42:50 and would you believe what you get when you plug in my most recent marathon result into the McMillan running calculator? - 42:51! I have no choice but to go for it, now do I?

I also had some time today for some 'pretty' graphs...
This is my steady and consistant training since the 2 marathons in the fall of 2007. The black bars are races over the period, the green line is the maximum weekly long run and the red is overall mileage. It's fairly consistent with only one extra dip in Aug 2008 due to back to back travel weeks. Certainly a marked contrast with a certain other runner whose name we won't mention. So what's my plan? Don't know yet but have about 8 weeks to think about it and will take the time to gradually ramp up the mileage again.

Recovery week running:
Monday - Friday - all 0's but was feeling fine by Tues and wanting to lace up my shoes by Weds

Sat - 5 miles in 42:30 but feeling very achey and creaky (just like 'that other runner') and legs felt almost sore by the end. There is definitely some deeper damage and more healing is needed as per usual.

Sun - another zero. I was tempted to go early before the storm of wind and rain hit but held off and then was happy (as were the legs) to stay inside and scheme away

It's been a nice weekend and I'm off on a work road-trip for most of next week. The running gear will be packed but I'm not stressing about getting too many runs in. Hope you all have a nice week too!