Lost in the woods

No, I didn't get lost in the woods (especially with the Garmin to find the way) but this little tree somehow ended up in the doghouse. It looked nice in the garden center but once we had it home and did some research, it was declared unwelcome. The main problem was long seedpods that are hard to clean up and which attract caterpillars.
Here's another shot (just for Thomas) showing it over the fence and in the clearing with the little guy in the center of the pic.
Enough of trees though it is pleasant to run along wooded trails away from traffic.

Yesterday, instead of running I washed the house which sounds a bit crazy but was something that needed to be done. Our vinyl siding seems to accumulate moss and algae over time and the only way to get it off is to apply a javex and soap solution with a bit of elbow grease. Worked most of the day at it only getting part of the job done and was rewarded with sore arms and shoulders this morning. Also spent some time in the fish pond moving plants around for Jo and getting cooled off at the same time.

Today was the 1st official day of my week's holidays since Monday was just part of our long weekend. Somehow (like Mike) I often find Tuesday's to be a tough day to run and this is despite always taking Monday as a complete rest day, from running at least. It might be residual effects from Saturday's race and the cumulative effect of Sunday's 20 miler but typically my Tuesday runs start off like they did today. Stiff tight legs, a bit sore, lethargic feeling in general at first but soon enough things usually perk up. Sure enough it ended up being a pleasant easy 11 miles in about 1:30 but I didn't do any of the strides that were called for. I'll save that for later in the week when the legs feel fresher.

Not much happened on the run, saw 2 other runners and 2 walkers with large dogs whom I met on a narrow trail. They asked me to slow down so as to not spook the dogs and I was happy to comply. Did I say they were 'large' dogs (and well behaved too)?

Rest of my day off was spent getting the van fixed so our 'cruise' now works and some shopping in St. Stephen/Calais. Went by Andrew's bank office but it was deserted being the 4th of July. Happy 4th! Hope you're taking it easy and getting the runs in.

Finally, here's a little graph of my running progress so far on the way to the next marathon (Wineglass only 88 days away). The red line is the total weekly mileage since Boston and the green line is the longest run each week. The races are shown along the way as well. So far so good and knock on wood. Good running!

Grand Bay 1/2 Marathon Race Report

Lead up to the 'race' ...

Friday - up early (for me) at 6:30 for an easy 6 mile run around town before work. It was a nice foggy cool run just hours after a thunder and lightning system had passed through. The main reason for running early was to give the maximum amount of rest before Saturday's early race.

Saturday - up early again for the 1 hour drive to Grand Bay - Westfield for the Canada Day 1/2 marathon. We hit heavy fog for most of the way which slowed us up and arrived only 10 minutes before the official start time at 9:45. Luckily they were running late so there was time to hit a washroom and pick up my number etc. After a zero warmup (per Duncan) except for checking that the shoes were tied and a few stretches we were lined up and off!
And a smile to the camera operator, my son who also took a bunch more pics of the race. These are now posted on Webshots and the race results for the 1/2 marathon are here. My plan today for the race was no plan at all but to simply run in-control and to keep the effort at about marthon pace or a bit faster. The 1st downhill mile came in at 6:45 which was about 30-45 sec too fast! After that I reeled it in a bit and went by heartrate for most of the rest of the race keeping it around 90% of max. The splits then settled down to the low 7:00's to about 7:30 for the rest of the run. Ran mostly alone but was not passed after the 2nd mile except by the #1 and #2 women. Around the 8 mile mark they went whizzing by but then slowed and remained just in front of me for the rest of the way, or was that me speeding up?
The finish, just edged out by the #2 woman, is she laughing at me or just happy to be done? My time was 1:36:57 for 7:22/mile or 4:32/k overall pace. 14th overall and 3rd in my age group so I'll give the race an OK, despite not really 'racing'. You'll understand why when you see what went on Sunday. End of week 5 of 18 for the training program with 72 miles in the bank this week. There are now only 90 days to go guys!

After the run we hung around for the awards because we were trapped at the finish area with closed roads on one side and an parade arriving from the other direction. At least there was lots of food and drink to be had and a ton of door prizes were handed out. This is a very well organized and fun race. Eventually we were off to downtown Saint John where we were stunned to see deserted streets and empty shopping malls, until it hit us 'Oh yeah, it's a holiday!'. Lunch at Tims, visit Nanny at the Regional and then to Bro's fancy new house for supper and a few pops. Then another short visit at the hospital and a long drive in the dark and rain getting home by 10pm.

Sunday - slept in a bit today till about 7:30 and goofed around for about an hour getting geared up for the scheduled 20 miler. The Plan called for it and it was my stupid idea to to the 1/2 yesterday, but I did take it easy knowing in the back of my mind that this was going need to be done. And you all know that I'm a sucker for punishment...

But actually it wasn't really that bad. Another foggy, misty overcast day, a bit cool and some light rain making for nice running conditions. Geared up with the mp3 player loaded with more podcasts from Steve Runner, a gel pac, and gatorade. Went at a relaxed pace and the run didn't really get tough until the last 2-3 miles when the legs started to feel like they do at the end of a marathon. I guess that's the point of running 20 miles (for those last few tough miles) but it didn't help that the wind came up and it started to pour down hard at the same time. Finished the 20 in 3:50 for about 8:30 pace. A good way to start off the new running week!
Tree number one (done on Friday)

Tree number two (done this afternoon)
Tree number three which was relegated to the woods (some kind of weed tree). We've been busy today with other stuff besides running!

Up and down

Good days and bad days lately, both running wise and otherwise. Gotta post more often, but there is just so much going on including work and family issues that have been more than a little distracting.

Started off Sunday with a nice slow easy 19 miles on a cool foggy day but the legs and body was tired from a busy day before. I hate to mention it but a nice 4 mile walk with Jo on Saturday evening to watch the 'Grand March' did me in a bit. This event is part of the high school graduation here where the parents get to escort their son or daughter and are introduced with the whole community attending. It usually takes place in the park but this year was rained out and took place in a crowded school gym. It was still nice to see all the spiffy suits and beautiful dresses and the happy grads who looked oh so young! (We never looked like that did we ;-) We've been through the March twice now and have one more edition coming up next year which should be fun as always.

So back to the Sunday run, legs a little heavy and the pace was slow. Had 2 podcast episodes of Phedippidations on the mp3 player to help pass the time. Steve Runner is a good listen if you need some motivation or plain old distraction during your run, check him out. After the run it was some rushing around doing church 'stuff' and then we packed up Steph for her voyage back to PEI and included a little detour to check out apartments in Truro. You can check out her blog for the blow by blow hear but it was 'nip and tuck' with luck prevailing at the last minute and a good place was finally found. Then continued on back to the island arriving in the late evening after about 8 hrs of driving. Ouch, the legs were not happy with this!

Monday, travel back from the island and a well deserved (I think) rest day. Didn't even bother to go back to work and instead watched some the the World Cup off the recorder. Can't decide which team I'd like to cheer for yet (like Thomas), perhaps the underdog 50-1 Ukraine? But I love the attacking style of the Brazilians...

Tuesday!! A very strange running day. Because work was so crazy and there were meetings before and just after lunch I was only able to fit in 5 miles over the allotted hour at an easy 7:47 pace. This was instead of the 10 with 4@1/2 as planned. Also included in this run was a pickup of the van from the garage, dropoff at home and then zoom back into work for the meeting that couldn't wait! Stewed the rest of the day, trying to figure how to 'get the run in' and astonished Coach with a 2nd run as soon as I arrived at home. "Where are you going? Didn't you already run today??" Mumbled reply "Yes, but didn't go as far as planned..."

Part B was a quick and dirty tempo run with a 1/4 mile warmup and then right into tempo-ish pace with miles at 700, 645, 702 and 709 for a 4 mile total of 27:56. Finished up with an easy 3/4 mile jog and the 5 mile run was done in only 37 minutes! Barely got warmed up (not really but it was a good, perhaps a bit fast effort).

Weds: down day and now that I'm writing the fog is lifting and this runner understands why this run was so hard. At the time I could not understand why the legs were so dead, the motivation was flat, and even at an easy pace it felt like real work (not much fun). You dummy, look at the day before! No wonder you were tired and plus it was a warm muggy day! Schedules are made to be flexible and to be broken, rearranged if necessary and here I was trying to put in 15 miles on dead legs and with not enough time to fit in the run during a semi-extended lunch. It was no surprise then, that eventually reason took over from insanity and the run was cut short to 8 miles. Must admit that I did feel a little defeated and let down at the time.

Thurs: Yah, almost the weekend and a one week holiday break! Played it smart today, with fueling before the run, water during and a gatorade pickup at home at 5 miles. Also warned my co-workers that I'd be late today and my phone could take messages if needed. Today's 15 miles were slow (8:20 pace) but it felt effortless, easy and relaxing going along using heartrate as a guide and not being worried about when the run would be over. The logbook has the notation 'decent run' which is just below 'great' on my scale.

Tonite I registered for the Grand-Bay 1/2 marathon on Saturday and so it looks I'm committed like the pig (not the chicken). No plans for fast times but rather to run a controlled effort race and to take what comes. I've run this race a few times and it's a challenging but fair course. I'm looking forward to the test.

Weekly update - still kicking...

Like many others it seems hard to find enough time to run, fit in your regular or irregular life and still find time to blog about it. Hopefully I can be more regular soon but I'd better be careful what I wish for (see my Friday run report) and perhaps some upcoming holidays will free up some time to do things that have been left at the wayside.

ORN's - sticking to the schedule like glue but have had to do a bunch of 'cut and pasting' with rescheduled workouts over most of the week. The only runs that got done on the day planned was the 1st run of the week on Sunday (18 already reported on) and the last one today which was an easy 6 miles turned into 7 to make up a missing mile (I'm really weird like that).

Tues - easy 6.2 miles at 8:05 pace instead of 10 because work meetings interfered and had to get my lunch hour run within the alloted 1 hour (go figure). Also biked to/from work all week and got a few sessions of situps and pushups so the rest of the body gets exercise too.

Weds - easy 10 miles with 10xstrides instead of 14 because work again interfered, gotta figure out a way to not have to work or something, but at least I was able to work in an extended 85 minute run. Slow pace today with hot sun and had a bottle of gatorade and one of water along. The strides felt good and it's nice to get the leg turnover going a bit on these.

Thurs - took the day off so at least work couldn't interfere and got in a nice 10 miles that shoulda been 12 but... during the run I stopped at the garage. They said they'd fix my van's air conditioning IF I could bring it in within the next 30 minutes (like now) otherwise it'd be weeks. So the run got cut short but the AC will be welcome with all the driving planned over the next few weeks and months. Then packed up and off for a quick trip (4.5 hr) up to Bathurst to visit my Mom who is not well and the real reason I took a few days off. Steph came along too as she does not get alot of chance to see her with her work, school and lack of transportation.

Friday - up early at the cottage on the beach that my sister kindly made available for my visit. Shoulda taken a few pictures to post because it has a beautiful view and private beach access on the Chaleur Bay on Salmon Beach. As some of my regular readers know I'm not much of a morning person or morning runner but can manage to get the runs in when I have to. All it usually takes is getting up a little early for a light breakfast of cereal and coffee and after all 'systems' have been flushed out, then it's usually good to go. So I was off down the road feeling pretty good ... but not for long...

(non-runners may want to skip this next paragraph or at least hide your eyes and ears)
I got less than 1/2 mile down the road and knew I was in trouble. Turned around with the vain hope of making it to the cottage bathroom but it was not to be. At least the traffic was light and there were ample bushes and trees along the highway and so it was down into the woods and barely had time to drop the shorts for the explosion. The mosquitoes had a nice feast while I tried to clean up with the bits of toilet paper in my water belt but felt much better after that.
(ok, non-runners can look now)

Ended back at the cottage to clean up and started out again feeling much better. Turned out to be a wonderful 14.8 mile run finding access to the converted railway to trailway where I did most of the run. Also did a couple of out and backs on access trails to the highway which I'd missed on the run out to get my bearings. Nex time I'll know how to get to the trail more easily. The trails and highway was completely deserted with nothing encountered except for a couple of frightened rabbits. One was kinda cute in the way he stayed crunched down pretending to be a rock, that is until I noticed this rock had fur and then he bolted. Drank 2 bottles of gatorade and finished off the run along the secondary highway with very little traffic. Then the best part was finishing the run with a cool dip in the cold ocean. I didn't swim long but the water felt great on the tired legs and felt very refreshed afterward (wish I had a pic of the beach area).

Saturday - today was just a short easy 7 miles with my virtual running friend for company and to try to make me go slow. Didn't happen! Ended up running 8:15 pace instead of the planned 8:30 and it still felt like tripping along slow.

Total for week 4 of 18 of The Plan was 64 miles as scheduled and all is well with the body except some lingering tightness in the achilles. On tap is a long run of 19 on Sunday and am thinking of doing the Canada Day 1/2 marathon in Grand Bay/Westfield next weekend.

And oh yes, it's only 98 days to Wineglass! Time waits for no one!!

No, I'm not lazy!

But evil runner is.... (Sunday afternoon)
Evil Runner (ER) - 'You're tired, it's been a long day, take a break.'
Good Runner (GR) - 'Nah, it's only a short long run of 16 this week'
ER - 'It's hot (27C) and you'll get overheated and dehydrated'
GR - 'That's easy, I'll just drink up now before the run and carry extra gatorade and even stop back at the ranch for refueling (gotcha)'
ER - 'But there's no way you can do 8 miles at MP in this weather! Especially after running around for the Father's Day Race organization and stuff...'
GR - 'Oh...you do have a point there...I am kinda beat and with this heat...'
ER - {big grin}
GR - 'Well let's get this over with! And wipe that smile off your face!!'

The things that a runner has to put up with is just beyond belief and those of you silly enough to read this far are, well ... just as insane as I am. It's been a heck of a busy weekend and just getting caught up now with blogging way down on the list lately. I like to keep regular updates on my training and other activities but sometimes it's just too much to even read the blogs I like to follow. So this post might be a little short and sweet, especially since the big hockey game is about to start. Tonite is game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and for the 1st time in a decade we have a Canadian based team poised to grab the big prize, Go Edmonton!

Back to the ORN's (obligatory running notes), on Friday the 12 miles with 4 at tempo pace went with the 4 miles in 29:17 or about 7:20 pace which was barely faster than marathon pace. The heartrate and effort were up there but there was just no 'pop' in the legs at all. Maybe it was because it was warm and sunny or maybe it's the cumulative training is starting to wear on the legs. I've also got some tightness in the achilles that bugs me early in the day but usually goes away after a few miles. Total time for the 12 miles was 1:36:00 for 7:58 overall pace. This run was followed by some mad running around gathering stuff for Sunday's road race and then a 5 hour drive to Charlottetown, PEI to collect my daughter who's decided to come home for a break and a visit.
Of course, first we had to pry her away from all the animals she has to take care of at the pet store.
Followed by a 5 hour return trip on the same day...good thing the run was early and I had the day off work, eh? Had time for a brief stop at Bro's to check out his new home under construction and of course, the Barage Version 2!

Saturday was a complete blur with an early trip to Calais and shopping for food and drink for the race. Managed to find time at midday when the sun and heat was at it's peak for an easy 6 mile run around town. This was a bit of an unusual run with a water bottle in one hand and a can of bright orange spray paint in the other. You know what the water is for but the paint? Well don't tell anyone but runners like their race routes well marked and with the help of the trusty Garmin GPS all the kilometer and mile marks soon found their way to pavement. Did the 5 mile race loop at a jog in sweltering heat and then added another mile or so to check out the kids race loop as well. The rest of the day was occupied with more race prep getting all the forms and computer stuff organized. Oh yeah, and this was the end of week 3 of 'The Plan' with a total of 67 miles in 6 runs (my weeks now run from Sunday to Saturday).

Sunday, up early to get ready for the St. Andrew's Father's Day race for which I've been co-race director for the past several years. Busy, busy, busy getting all the details right but everthing went smoothly today. First the 1.0 km (or so) kids race...
And they're off! The kids are amazing the way they run so freely, in fact they seemed airborne more than not. Of course the burst only lasted for a short period before reality set in.
The 5 mile race is off with some excellent runners in the lead. The winner was the potatoe shirt guy in the middle of the crowd with a time of 26:55 for the tough five mile loop. Race results are here and the complete set of pictures are here. Wrapped up the race and home by 1pm but then more cleanup to do and didn't get on the road till about 2:30pm after the little debate that started off this little (not so little any more but the hockey game is not going so well).

Back to Sunday's run/slogfest. Started out with hot sun and no wind for the 1st 5 miles, followed by a cooling breeze and some cloudy periods for the next five. Quick stop for more gatorade at home and then a slow 6 more around town with hot sun once again. Total of 16 miles in 2:19 for an 8:37 overall pace. Good thing I didn't try any of that marathon pace silliness because this was about all that was in the cards today. Getting the miles in but that's about it lately, just ask ER.

Ups and downs

So far this week the running has been either really good or really bad. It's either feeling great and ready to tear up the roads or feeling like crap and wanting to crawl home with my tail between my legs! And I've also been so busy there has been no time to blog and complain about it!

So after Sunday's longish 18 miles the plan was to take it easy on Monday with a rest day, not! Instead it was a 5 hour drive to Halifax for a meeting with my 'clients', aka fishermen reps. But the meeting ended early and with time on my hands and a beautiful sunny day, well the options were obvious; go for a run! So I cheated on the program by putting in 10+ glorious miles running from Dartmouth, across the MacDonald bridge and then around the Halifax Commons park before cruising back the way I'd come. Total time 80:20 or 7:59 pace.

Tues was a busy work meeting and travel day getting home late and no run, thus a well needed rest day.

Weds was a strange running day. You'd have thought that after a nice exhilarating run on Monday, followed by a rest day that I'd be charged up for a decent effort but it just was not to be. This 14 mile med-long mid-week run was a slog of a run from the 1st step to the last, yuck! I nearly bailed in the 1st 3 miles with evil runner suggesting that I take it easy today, and then run long the next day, or just do 12 today instead. However, good runner won out with the argument that it was only a few miles further and by not doing the long run today it would mean back to back longer runs later in the week. Evil runner was persistant though and made me turn early on this out and back but this only caused some more zig-zags at the end to make up the necessary miles. Finally after almost 2hrs of torture the punishment ended and I was able to collapse at my desk for the rest of the day.

Today, Thurs was a better (up) day with a nice easy run around town in a light rain. It was a recovery pace run of only 6 miles at a relaxing easy trot (8:17 pace). It's so nice to go slow some days but the hope is that the next day you'll have something extra for a harder run. On tap for Friday is a 12 miler with 4@1/2 mar pace. Hopefully it will be an up day but I'd better shut this computer off now and get some sleep. Good running all!

Clearing skies

An new to us flower called a Columbine grown from seed by the master gardener (definitely not me)!
Siberian Iris provides some nice color around the fish pond.
Of course the bird bath is well topped up and the garden looks rather lush after 2 weeks of rain.
And Coach is hard at work trying to keep the forest/weeds at bay. My main jobs around the yard are to keep the grass in check and the occasional construction project like the pumphouse or trellis. All the credit for the beauty and layout of our huge yard goes to J who breathes and dreams gardening like I do my running.

Running? Yes, it's going well so far with a 63 mile week 2 of 18 with all planned runs done according to the schedule. Knock, knock on wood that is. I know you shouldn't go from 30 miles to 60 miles in one week but I took 3 days off to recover from Cabot Trail and during the weeks before CTR the mileage had been 42, 46 and 51. So verdict my is that the base is there and the down week was just a needed rest before the push in the new training plan.

Friday: 11 miles in 85:40 (7:46 pace) with 2x2 mile at tempo pace (14:07 and 13:37 for the 2 segments). Started out feeling a little lethargic and slow but once I kicked the pace in it went well if not a little faster than planned. Was aiming for about 7:00 pace and HR around 150 but with some flat/downhill terrain the pace went down below that for the 2nd burst of semi-speed after a 1 mile easy run break. Finished up with 4 miles of easy running on a cloudy overcast day where the rain let up a bit during the run.

Saturday: pouring down rain again for most of the day. Went about 6.5 miles at 8:28 pace and got soaked of course. Did part of the run on the empty but very soggy golf course and was tempted to stop and do a few strides barefoot in the warm rain but resisted the urge. Instead did 6x100m strides on the road at 1:00 intervals and felt slow, awkward and the legs were tight. I think I need to take more time with these getting full recovery between, not timing anything, but just running the short bursts until it feels smooth and fast.

Sunday: today was a better day with the sky almost clearing at times but interrupted by the occasional shower (but not during the run). Woke up early at 6:29 (one minute before the alarm) and was on the road by 7am after a quick bowl of cereal and coffee. It was a bit of a slog today with 18 miles in 2:32 (8:27 pace) and the effort felt like it should have been closer to 8:00 pace. Drank 3 bottles (64oz) of gatorade during the effort and listened to good old SteveRunner for the 1st hour. His podcast theme today was 'Becoming a Good Animal' with an interesting discussion and his usual tongue in cheek humour.

Today's route was a bit roundabout with a trip past the Bunny Hill scattering at least 10-12 rabbits along the road and then across the Bar Road on the ocean floor to the gates of Minister's Island. At low tide as it was today you can drive (or walk/run) across to the island which is ofter cut off with the rushing ocean waters as the tides rise or fall here by nearly 20ft every 6 hours. Back up the hill, scattering yet more bunnies and a circuitous route around town before arriving back home for a gatorade refill at the 1hr mark.

Finished out the run with a trip out of town where I was surprised to run across another runner L who was out for a run in preparation for next weekends Father's Day race here in St. Andrews. Check out all the details on the RunNB website and don't forget to make the trip here if you can for our little race. After going for a few miles and having a nice chat with L we went out separate ways. Just made it back in time for a quick shower and then off to Sunday mass.

This afternoon we saw the sun for a few moments but was quickly followed by another rain shower. Have a great week everyone, summer is just around the corner!

Stumbling down the road

This has been a strange week in some respects and truly is the 1st week of real training for the next marathon in October.

Started off with 17 mi in 2:20 (8:08 pace) on Sunday which was truly an awful day for running with pouring down rain the entire day. Waited around most of the day for a break in the skies but it just never came. Finally at 3pm it was do or do not time. Geared up with gatorade and the latest episodes of Phedippidations and was off into the torrent. At least the temps were mild (around 12C), the traffic light and the podcast was fun to listen to. SteveRunner is hilarious and had me laughing out loud at times. I'd put the mp3 player in a plastic bag which worked for the 1st 90 minutes but then died from all the moisture (note: successfully resuscitated with a hairdryer after the run) and ran the last part to the sound of raindrops. Arrived home like a drowned rat, peeled off my gear into a bucket and dried off with the towel before being allowed permission to enter. I was tired and it was nice to be done!

Monday - standard rest day and feeling tired and a bit sore with tight achilles lately. Biked to/from work 2x and did a set of pushups and crunches in the morning.

Tues - sticking to the plan which called for 8 miles with 10x100 strides. Check out the wild Garmin output below.
No I'm not in cardiac arrest but rather my speed and heartrate are spiking for each little push of about 25 seconds followed by a jog/walk before taking off again on the 'minute'. This was also a pseudo-progression run with each mile a bit faster than the last (except for the strides mile). It went like 826, 802, 741, 733, 731, 902 (strides), 713, 659 and felt well under control throughout.

Weds - was the dreaded midweek long run with 13 scheduled (plus hills down pencilled in for good measure). Started out slow and steady with legs feeling tired and heavy from the previous day. After about 3 miles of this the plan was changed to do a simple out and back run on hilly terrain but no hill repeats this time. The run got progessively more difficult and had to remind myself a few times 'this is fun' but the road and hills just stretched on forever and the run really dragged on. Finally after 1:46:08 my 1/2 marathon training run was over and I collapsed at my desk for the rest of the day. Whew! You'd think that this was my 1st time doing this!

Thurs - easy day with only 6 miles scheduled and the plan was to make certain that this was done very-very easy, just as I've been preaching to Thomas. So along the lines of the pros like Duncan I set my running buddy Mr V to run at marathon pace plus 1 minute which for me is ~8:30 and we were off like a herd of turtles! Oh did I mention that I'd almost ran over a turtle with my bicycle on the way home the other day? Anyway, today's run was an absolute joy with the rain (constant here lately) letting up and the run felt almost tripping over my feet easy. It was a bit more than a jog and had to keep a close eye on Mr V especially on the hills but in the end the overall pace was 8:28 for the 6.2 miles. Felt totally refreshed and raring to go after todays run ;-)

Hopefully this means there will be some spare energy for the planned tempo stuff on Friday. We'll see but so far so good!

Running shoe hoarder (#13)

A recent post by Wobbly Man challenged the running blog world to post pictures of their shoe collections and since I've got time on my hands this Sunday waiting for the pouring rain to slow down a bit; here you go! They are nicely arranged from the current 2 pairs of active Mizuno's on the bottom step to trail shoes on the top and a pair of Nike Air Max's (top right). The Max's look newish because they are and were put into early retirement after a disgraceful Boston performance that turned my feet into one big mess. They have not been worn since!

Maybe I should give away or donate a few pairs since you can only need so many wash-the-car and mow-the-lawn shoes around. Unfortunately the total number of pairs is also 13 (eerie music) and being about to embark on a yet another marathon training program ... this is not a good omen. Must appease the running gods somehow...looks like it will be a long run in the rain and wind.

Without any adieu whatsoever, here's my PLAN for Wineglass based on Pfitzinger: More than 70 per week: 18 weeks (with modifications that have worked for me in the past). I'm the type of runner who needs to have a schedule and have been tweaking this basic formula over the past few years. It works for me and so far have been able to handle it without injury.

• main difference is making Mondays a total rest day so only 6 days/week running
• add more variety in long runs with some MP mixed in; start early weeks with pace
• add 3-4 days of pushup/situp core strength & stretches every day
• use treadmill for easy early am runs when too lazy to go outside
• doubles are scheduled but may be eliminated depending on how I feel or may be added in too
• 2 additional easy runs, 6e or (6e am + 4e pm) to make up total mileage with HR<130>
• work in tempo runs once per week with some variety and progression over plan
• progression pace runs; starting slow, slow and building up to 10k at end (from Duncan)
• mile or hill repeats starting at 3-4 and work up to 10-13!
• work in MP runs at least once per week and build up to close to 30k 3-4 weeks out
  
• can afford to lose a few lbs and watch the diet for sweets and beer/wine
  
• hill repeats down/up of 800-1000m at MP+ with easy jog btw; still need hills as this is a downhill course
  
• @ paces = MP marathon Pace, 1/2 marathon, 5K race paces 4e = 4 miles easy; st = strides am / pm = morning or afternoon
  

Plus 'Summer of Mike' from 'Summer of Malmo' or 'Summer of Caveman'

• doubles as much as possible and increase mileage gently and 'within' comfort zone
  
• one tempo session every week of 4-6 miles at faster than MP
  
• one longer or shorter inverals session per week to work on speed with alternating weeks of
  
• a - shorter 4-6x1000-2000m with 1 lap jogs between
  
• b - fast short repeats 16-24x150-400m with full recovery (walk if you have to)
• c - repeats can also be done on the road by time/distance (5:00 easy, 5:00 hard, repeat)

The gory details are: And now it's time to put up or shutup. This is the current situation outside and I'm located near (southeast) to St. Stephen. It's looking like it may clear a bit soon but then again it may not.
The 'plan' says 17 and so we'll just have to 'make it so'.

See you later and wish me luck ;-)

Unintended rest week

Just a short post to comment on my almost total lack of running this week which is meant to be week one of the 18 week buildup to Wineglass, yeah right. Since the Cabot Trail relay this past Sunday I've only managed to run twice and it's been a combination of a) being barely able to walk, let alone run due to very sore muscles and b) extreme busyness at work and c) just a slight lack of desire and a need to get a bit more rest.

a) the sore muscle part - due to the racing on tired legs over very hilly terrain, especially the downhills and resultant muscle damage to the quads mainly. Ensuing pain and soreness was much like the post-marathon muscle disorder but did not have to resort to walking down stairs backwards; however I did have to zig-zag while walking down even minor inclines. Solution was rest, food, beer, wine and of course ice-cream!

b) extreme busyness at work - can't be helped but can usually be worked around by running early or late. This week this runner was in no condition to even try to run until Weds evening after supper when he attempted a shuffle/slight hobble around the town square for 5 miles at 8:13 pace. The legs were still very tight and it was a slow shuffle.

c) lack of desire - or perhaps a bit of caution before diving into the next training cycle resulted in another day off on Thursday. MMMM more ice-cream and rhubarb crisp MMMM

Three days off in one week when not recovering from a marathon is next to unheard but ... today the work crisis past and I was just chomping at the bit once again. Had the good fortune today to run from work with A, a new co-worker and marathoner who's been threatening to bring his gear and come out with me. It was a perfect, calm, mild day with temps around 20C (70F) and a light sea breeze. We did about 10k in 50:00 and chatted the entire way, enjoying the scenery and being able to just cruise along in comfort.

It's looking like rain here for the weekend and we'll likely stick close to home doing up some of those yard projects that have been put aside lately. I hope all my fellow bloggers have a good weekend, especially Mike, Olga and Rob who are racing while we watch and anxiously await the results.

Good luck everyone!

Cabot Trail race(s) report

Where to start? It's a long story and don't have much time on my hands lately. In fact, it's now 2 days later and I'm still hobbling around not able to run because of very sore muscles. But what a nice weekend with a great team of fun loving people!

The drive down was a long one, leaving St. Andrews at 830am and not arriving in Baddeck till 5pm. This little town in Cape Breton is the basecamp and ending point for the relay. That night it was meet and greet the old and new team members over a few 'pops' (I mean beer) and a late buffet meal where I ate way too much food. Anthony, our team captain, also sprung the question as to whether I would do a 2nd leg, since we had a late dropout and would otherwise need to take a maximum time for a leg. Being an obvious sucker for punishment I thought about it for about 5 seconds before saying 'Sure, why not, as long as they are on different days?'. And also thinking that it could be just and easy run/warmup before the final leg on Sunday. We got to bed around midnight with wakeup for 530 to get to the startline for the 1st leg at 7am. The 'way too much food' thing kept me tossing and turning all night and didn't get more than a couple of hours shuteye (this is really not the way to get ready is it?)

Saturday was pouring rain at the start but mild temperatures at least and little wind. As the official team photographer my job was to get as many pictures (here) as possible of each runner on his/her leg. The Cabot Trail relay race is unusual in the way that the 17 legs are run as 17 separate mini races with all the runners starting together at the start of each leg. After the start the timing people leapfrog to the end of the leg which is the next starting location and setup the electonic timing for the finish. A red lantern vehicle follows the last runner (someone has to be last) for each leg and the entire race stays relatively together for the 26+ hours of the event. However with 63 teams of 17 runners and their entourage it can get quite crowded on this little 2 lane highway in the mountains of the Cabot Trail. The nice thing about this format is that all runners can feel like they are in a 'race' and not just running alone on a deserted highway with only their teammates on occasion. Instead you get teams in costume like the gnome team shown here and many other pics on my site.
And then you get various 'themed' water stops which all compete to be the most creative and outlandish. The winner is voted at the end of the race and the team gets a free entry into next year's race. The best one that I saw was the group with the Elvis theme in the 1st leg here, complete with loud music of course!
Is this a decent water stop 'or what'?
This crazy is one of the race committee volunteers doing traffic control, 'would you believe?' Does it look like we're having fun in the steady rain yet?
Another great water stop team on top of Smokey mountain, the 1st major climb, with our team captain snuck in with the 'chicks'. It's an all women team with the great name of 'Chicks Running Clicks'. There are some really creative names in the list of teams on the website. So most of the day I had fun following our team around the trail with a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that there was something that I had forgot to do.
Oh yes, here's our team, Aliant High Speed's water stop with the Mexican theme and music. It was good but not outstanding. You really have to go over the top here to get noticed ;-) This was just before my first 17.5km leg (#6) which started at 1530. The leg has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 and is described as:
"The scenery on this seacoast run will captivate you despite a couple of long challenging hills. This leg climbs to the finish at Cabot High School on the right. Elevation 90m. Be prepared for strong coastal breezes."

Let me tell you that I don't remember much about the 'scenery' on this course, it seemed to be all hills that never ended. The start was fast and smooth and the sun had just come out again but the winds were starting to pickup a bit into our faces for most of the route. My 'plan' was to try to take it real easy with heartrate as a guide in order to save energy in the legs for the next day. The 'plan' was a complete failure as no matter how hard I attempted to 'go slow' and take it easy, every time the watch was saying 'slow down', 'too hard', with HR pushing 160 which is over 95% of max for me.
Here's all the geeky data but the key is that you can see I'm steady in zone 5 which is 90% plus for most of the race. Duh, and there was nothing I could do but keep running... You can see there were some pretty good hills too from the green line. slowing down seemed to make no difference, even walking on a few hills and so plan B was to just hook up with other runners and try to run easily with them.

In the 2nd 1/2 of the race began trading the lead back and forth with a female runner that looked familiar and turned out to be G from Saint John. G has done the Ironman and is a top local marathoner and was feeling a bit off today because of a long bike ride earlier in the weekend. She welcomed my company recognizing me but warned that she was not going to be very talkative. Fine, it was nice to have someone to work with and try to keep me under control. We started cruising along nicely and began passing more and more people with special effort for the opposing women runners (G is very competitive, even when tired). The best pass came withing 500m of the finish line on a long grinding uphill. We cruised by the unsuspecting lady on the dirt shoulder with me in the middle hiding G on the inside.
Here we are cruising in to the finish at last and boy was it nice to finish! And who is that guy with the 'skinny' legs? After my 'race' we hung around for a couple of more legs before heading back to the hotel for the night. The drive back took almost 2 hours but we saw some incredible scenery and also encountered a terrified baby moose running down the highway without his mommy (poor baby).
Sorry this post is getting so long but it's hard to do justice to all that happened etc. That night was another late one after having problem getting some food in Baddeck but at least I got a bit more sleep. Slept in till 630 and arrived at my leg start in lots of time for the 945 start. However, I didn't watch too closely and almost missed the start while getting my gear and drinks together. This was a beautiful morning with only a few clouds and light winds. This was a bit of a strange run in that it was a complete opposite to the 1st leg as far as HR went. No matter how hard I worked the HR was low compared to the perceived effort and speed. You can see from the profile and hills that it was not exactly flat and the rating of 4.5 was the same as my other leg.
At least it had a nice downhill finish at the end and all the runners in this leg felt like heroes with the crowds from all the teams lining the finish in Baddeck. What a treat and what a weekend!
But I still can't walk too smoothly, let alone run yet.

I hope that things will be better tommorow. Good night folks!

Jag hoppas att saker skar är mer väl i morgon. Folks för god natt!

I'm 'back' !!

What a great weekend we had at the Cabot Trail relay race, a 185 mile/298km, 17 stage relay race through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world! Legs vary from 12km to 20km in length and in difficulty from steep mountains to the gently rolling Margaree Valley.

Just 'back' and I've posted all 135 pictures at my site on Webshots

Our Aliant Striders team results (we placed 44/63 teams; search on Aliant) are in the middle of the pack and the main goal was to have fun and not worry about times or results. The 1st concern was runner happiness and comfort with alot of newer runners on the team.

Because we were missing a runner for one leg I ended up running two legs and couldn't be more pleased with the outcomes. See my placings in leg 6 (18/63) and leg 17 (28/63)
Middle of leg 6 on cruise...
End of leg 17...

The most important result for the weekend was that I got a huge recharge to the enthusiasm meter for running but the details will have to wait for another day.

Keep on running my friends!

Uppehälle på rinnande min vänner!

Mike the Slug

Sluggish, tired, lazy, slowish pace are words that appear lately in my handwritten log of runs that I still keep. Started out on Monday, a rest day, which was merely 'bit stiff and tired' from the 16 miles on Sunday.

Tues was an easy 7.5 miles in 59:00 around the town and 'nothing much happened'. I felt the pace was slow (7:51/mi) with effort and heartrate up higher than desired. 'Tired and listless feeling' but it was a nice day with sun and cloud instead of more rain.

Weds was a 'lazy' day or at least that's how things were feeling at the start of the run. Decided to head out for some hill repeats in preparation for the hills that will be faced this coming weekend around the Cabot Trail. The hill on the Bar Road is actually called the Bunny Hill locally but it's not because of the lack of steepness but rather the fact that one of the residents raises bunnies and there are always running around loose. There's even a cute little sign for 'Bunny Crossing' with a picture of a hopping creature.

Getting back to the hill, it's a fairly steep 1/2 mile decline down to the beach with a couple of undulations and steeper portions. The GPS says it was about 150' drop and started out with a down run in 3:10 at a controlled pace to save the quads as much as possible. After a short rest to get the heartrate down under 110 it was back up the same route in about 4:05 with HR hovering around 150 or 90% for most of the climb. Short rest to let the HR get down and repeat, etc for a total of 4 miles of the hill. After the last one I was tempted to go for 5 but the aching quads begged to differ and instead headed for home along a roundabout route. Total of 9.6 miles in 1:14 and a decent run despite the lazy feeling at the start.

Today, Thursday's words for the day were 'slow and tired' and 'lethargic' and took it real easy at a recovery pace run by keeping the heartrate below 135 or 80% of max. It was actually kind of nice to run that slow making the run more bearable once under way and it's a good idea to take some of the same advice that I've given Thomas to heart. Overall of 7 miles at 8:12/mi pace.

Perhaps it's time for a little break and the running adventure coming up this weekend should be just the ticket. I can't wait for all the excitement and fun of running with a team who's main motto is to have fun. I'll have a bunch of pictures and a full report as soon as I can.

Have a great weekend!

Ha en viktig helg!

Not a running post

Here's our pond where much of this weekend's attention was focused.
And another view of the yard from the bottom of the hill.
And the plumbing required for the pump to filter the water and keep the fish happy.
All 25 of them!
And one frog who never moved from his place on the rock all afternoon.
The overcast drizzly day makes for perfect lighting of the plants.
Including some beautiful bleeding hearts. And now it's time for a glass of wine and some snacks before getting ready for supper.

Have a nice day!

Ha en trevlig dag!

Lonely Sundays

Not actually that much to blog about lately. It's been just a matter of trying to put the runs in and slowly build up the miles again.

On Thursday it was a simple 6 mile loop around town from work and the watch played a few tricks on me once again. I'd set it up for a series of 4x800m repeats with 1:00 breaks but was surprised to see the timer start the workout immediately. It's neat the way you get various bells and whistles during the run, warning beep as the repeat comes to a close and then another warning as the rest period ends and it's time to go again. Didn't really 'go' that hard but simply upped the tempo a bit on each 1/2mile with pace down to 6:40 for the last one.

Friday was another rainy day run, we've had a string of cloud and rain here lately. Managed to get in almost 11 miles in 86:00 around the Ghost Road and Point loop at what felt like a fairly easy pace. Legs were a bit sore at the end and the achilles was tight again but not unduly so. Also tried out one of the alarm functions on the watch getting to beep at me every mile. With all these function the darn thing can get a little distracting at times; might need to leave it home once in awhile...

Saturday, 1st day of our long Victoria Day weekend and of course the forecast is for rain all 3 days! Just did an easy out and back for 8 miles at about 8:00 pace. Legs were still tight and the sun actually came out unexpectedly which was nice. After the run the rest of the day was spent doing yard work and pond plumbing refits so that our pump doesn't get flooded again. I'll try to get some pictures later to show the results to keep the fish happy.

Sunday: It's also been awhile since the Boyden Lake crowd has had a chance to get together for our Sunday long runs. This week Andrew is still in recovery, Jon is off to the Sugarloaf Marathon and Steph is just taking a break (I think). And so it was just little ole me left to carry the flag this week but decided to stay close to home instead of doing the 40 minute drive across the border. The plan today was simply to get a 2 hour run in somehow despite waking up feeling blah and generally tired. Hmmm, too much yard work maybe? Didn't get underway till after noon following church and then a few adjustments to the pump setup before heading out.

Started out at a good clip with the 1st 5miles around town in under 40 before a quick stop at home for extra gatorade. Finished out the remainder of the run as an out and back in Bayside which has a nice ocean view all along the route. The only problem with it is being along the main highway into St. Andrews. Looking at my mile splits the rest of the run must have been primarily uphill but finished up with 16 miles in 2:09 (8:03 overall pace). Also ended up with fresh blisters and sore feet from the new 'Boston' Mizuno's which are starting to be a real pain.

Totals for the past few weeks have been 42 and 46 mi/wk with year to date at 1184. Now only a week to go for the Cabot Trail weekend which is always a good time running event. Hopefully I'll be more blog inspired and will have some exciting news and pictures to report.

I hope all my readers have a great week, enjoy it!

Jag hoppas alla min avläsare har en viktig vecka, tycker om den!

Midweek update and 1 mile challenge

The next few weeks are just easy as-I-feel-like-it running with a few extra efforts in preparation for the Cabot Trail relay race on the weekend of May 27-28. They are also build up weeks in preparation for beginning the next marathon training cycle with the goal being Wineglass on Oct 1 with Andrew and Marc (hopefully).

This kind of in-between race training is some of the most enjoyable running there is, with no pressure of a schedule with time and distance goals for each run. However, it's still fun to make each run some sort of a challenge besides just running an easy 5-6 miles around town. And now that I've got the new Garmin toy, well it's that much easier to play ;-)

Monday was a day off (are you listening ANDREW?) after the 10k effort on Sunday. I was feeling good with only a bit of tighness in the legs and lower calves and was even thinking about how nice it would be to go for a little run, but resisted the temptation on a perfect sunny spring day.

On Tuesday the setup for the Virtual Partner was to go slow (9:00 pace) because I wanted to go real easy and not race the watch. However, it was a light rain and had to pick up the pace just to stay warm being underdressed in just shorts and t-shirt. Ended up doing 6 miles at 7:52 pace, feeling strong but holding back the entire run and whopped VP rather unfairly.

Today, Wedsday called for a tempo or hilly run on the pseudo schedule and setup VP for 1 hr at 8:30 pace or 7.1 miles. The run went entirely different as I felt decent for most of the way. After a quick stop at home for water and sunscreen it was out on the highway for this out and back run with some tempo. In the middle I did one faster mile in 6:40 which I'm going to submit to Karen's 100x1 mile challenge to all running bloggers. Here's the gory details and proof of that mile Karen! Check out her challenge and submit your mile for running glory and virtual prizes to be named!
The faster mile sorta did me in while on the out part of the out-and-back run. Thought at 1st that I'd do another fast mile in the opposite direction on the return but my body started sending signals to do otherwise. Rest of the run was still at a good pace and left old VP in the dust on this run once again. Beat him by about 1/2 mile and overall run was 8.2 miles in 62:20 at 7:36 pace overall. The funny thing is this would be my goal marathon pace and it didn't even feel like a hard run today except for that one mile in the middle. Running is weird some days...

Fredericton 10k race report

First up is a Happy Mother's day to all those wonderful Mom's out there and here are a few flowers to show my appreciation to you.


Up at the normal time today since the race didn't start till 11pm and the drive was only about 90 minutes to Fredericton. After parking the car and on the way to get my race kit we saw this lovely old dog. We just had to take a picture of this old guy. He just lay there wagging his tail when we talked to him as all the crowds and other dogs went back and forth in front of his home. We used to have a Golden and think they are the nicest dogs in the world.The start was kind of crowded with about 250 runners in the 10k. The Fredericton marathon with 92 entrants started about 2hr earlier and the 1/2 with 320 runners had started just 1/2 hr before this race. My warmup for the race was about as structured as all the training I've done for this race with a short jog, walk, run around the block, a few half hearted pickups and then some lame stretches. Sure, now I'm ready to run faster than I've run for months all in one go. (Oh, what fun this is going to be). And we're off like a shot...

Now what happened today? It was a perfect spring day with sunny skies, mild temps and only light winds on a flat fast course run mostly on the dirt and gravel trails in the city of Fredericton.

As I said the start was fast and the race stung out immediately with the under 19 kid in yellow leading from start to end with a time of 33:19. I was back in the pack trying not to go anerobic and went through the 1st kilometer in just over 4:00. My Garmin was a distraction today and after misfiring a couple of buttons I had it so screwed up that I wasn't even sure what time zone I was in. Trouble is that I never raced with it before and by not resetting it after the warmup, the displayed time was a meaningless number. Instead of ditching the watch I just went by breathing and heartrate for most of the race. Also tried to stay with a local runner, Rob who is usually near me in races but backed off whenever the HR got too high and I'd start gasping/wheezing.

At the turnaround point of this out and back course my placing was 21st and about 2 spots back on Rob. Over the next few k, it was just hanging on and trying to keep the legs moving while telling myself, just a few more kilometers. With about 2 to go, Rob stopped and then looked back before taking off again. A bit later I caught up and encouraged him to run in with me and work together to the finish. This only lasted another minute or so before he had to stop again while I moved on alone. All that I can remember of the last kilometer is counting and thinking the last turn would never come and then more counting and trying to keep my breathing under control for the finish line that just seemed to go on forever.

My finish and no it didn't take 2:42:13 to run a 10k, the clock time on this side is for the marathon which had started earlier (really)!
Now maybe if I twist that button, I can turn this into a PB...Results are here for the 10k but as I said there was also a 1/2 and full marathon. The gory details from the Garmin are still being rehashed and replayed but look like this. If you click it you can zoom in on the info. Main features are the heart rate (red line) which was kind of wacho during the warmup but then consistently in the 90% of max for the duration of the race and maxing out at the end in a new max of 171 where the pointer is at on the screen. The blue line or speed in mph seemed to waver a bit but this is likely an artifact of the unit. Overall result was 42:50 for the 10k (4:17/km or about 6:55/mi) for 18/251 and 3/19 in my age group.



For background, my last 10k was run about a year ago in 42:42, the previous a year before that in 42:48. Hmmm, is there a pattern here with this total lack of improvement or should there be more consistent racing? I'm fairly happy with the result from today's effort and can at least call it a PB as a 50 year old , right? Hope everyone else had a good weekend too!

Just like clockwork

Another day and another run and it's starting to feel like things are more or less back to normal. I think the cautious approach since Boston has been good in avoiding the 'Injury Bug' which is almost as bad as the 'Running Bug' but only more irritating on the victims. In my rundown of unfortunates last post I forgot to mention Hunter who's been down with something lately (hayfever season is worse than ever this year I've heard); get well soon!

Weird, just had some strange issues with editing my blog but now back to normal I hope. For some reason I couldn't type things in and then it went and published itself without me doing it intentionally!?

But back to the running recovery trail:

Monday - a glorious rest day; biked to and from work but was a bit sore and tired from Sunday's little 12 mile jaunt

Tues - ran an easy 5 mile Point loop from home after work on a glorious sunny St. Andrews day. I didn't quite get out of the blocks right away on getting home because A & J were having 'issues' with our lawn tractor and needed help from Mr. Fixit. It seemed that a piece of grass had lodged on the muffler and they thought it was going to catch fire with all the smoke but no harm done and A was mowing away in no time. The run went well despite feeling a bit tired and managed about 7:50 pace. Hip was only a dull ache and the feet are healed up fairly well.

Weds - 1st run from work since the marathon and also the 1st test of the Garmin on my 'standard Point loop' from there. What I'd always called 5.5 mile turned out to be 6.2 and the pace came in at 7:42 on what was intended to be easy pace. Actually felt decent and picked up a bit in the 2nd half which was pouring rain and got soaked (but loved it! it was warm 12C rain ;-)

Thurs (today) - finally got up the gumption to try a harder pace run. Started out with no specific plan in mind except to do 30 minutes out at an easy pace and then return at a faster pace. But once you're on the road then new options present themselves. At 30 min it was close to 4 miles so pushed on a bit further for 4 before turning and heading for home. Instead of using pace I just used effort and heartrate for the return leg, trying to keep it around 150 which is the 90% of max for me. You can see all the gory details in the busy plot from my toy here below. You can see the following:

• top panel with details of the run and splits
• green line is the elevation profile; it was a hilly run with lots of steep hills
• the reddish line is the % of max heartrate and the bands are the different zones; you can see it was low in the 1st 4 miles (except for the blips) and then in zone 4 (80-90%) and zone 5 (90%+) during the 2nd 1/2
• the blue line is speed in mph and was higher but varied with the terrain
• cool eh? (if you like geeky toys and lots of data)

The end result was good with the return leg in 28:00 at 7:02 pace and HR pretty steady at 85-90% plus for most of it. Didn't look at the watch much cause I was too busy counting steps and breathing and trying to keep up the effort. It's nice to run faster but it's also hard work!

Feeling fine after the run but got a bit stiff at the desk after the run. Need to remember to drink more before the run and to get up for short breaks more often, especially after harder runs.

Avoiding the injury bug

After 3 weeks of easy running in recovery or anti-taper mode it's looking up for the road ahead as my body has held up so far. However, looking around blogland at some people I follow it seems there is some kind of injury bug going around. Let's see now, Dawn has been under the weather with a cold all week, Flash has issues with his feet, Eric had a great race last week and then just fell apart, Zeke is totally pissed at not being able to run and Andrew just did a marathon on one leg. Here's a vote of encouragement to all these and other injured runners out there and the hope that you are all back in action sooner than later, hang in there!

Finished off the week on Saturday with an easy 6 mile loop around town in the fog for a feeble total of only 28 miles. My only 'issues' recently have been a sore hip and some blisters that seem to be related to my newest Mizuno's (<200 miles). The trick about these little issues is to not 'let on' that they are bothering me and never ever limp in public or 'Coach' will be on me in an instant. Unfortunately 'Coach' often reads my blog and so I may be found out ;-)

As you know I just got a new Garmin and being such a slave to my geeky device it has forced me to adjust my running week to start on Sunday. I guess this can be a good thing and a bad thing.

Good in that I now start all my weeks off with a decent mileage day instead of the usual zero when I used to start on Monday which is always a rest day.

Bad in that I'm being a slave to it.

Good in that now one look at the watch history gives my exact weekly mileage to the 0.01 miles and totals and averages for the week to date.

BAD in being a slave to the proverbial mileage game.

GOOD in that I know better and also cause Coach is watching ;-) (Enough silliness!)

Today's run was an easy (but all alone) out and back 12 miler at 7:58 pace overall. Beautiful sunny day with light winds and temps around 20C (68F). Did the run later than usual for a weekend starting just after noon because I had slept in and couldn't fit it in before church. After church I had time to put down a cushion floor in a bathroom we're renovating before taking off for the run. It only took about 1/2hr to do the job since the flooring was all precut and ready to glue down and it also gave Jo a chance to do some touch up painting while I was gone.

Back to the run, great day but no company but my thoughts and wondering how my fellow runners are doing out there. Andrew and Marc have a big day today running the Holyoke marathon and I'm anxious to hear about how they did. Late breaking new just now from Andrew said he was disappointed but I think he should be proud. Duncan had a 2 min + PR in the Broad Street 10 mile race today but if you know Dunc he's downplaying his fine/amazing/fast/I'm impressed performance. I think he should also be proud of his effort as should Dallen in Chicago who just ran a fast 1:16 1/2 marathon at Indy.

Whew, hard to fit a run in here! So 6 miles out in 48:26 and then turn around and back in 47:30 while trying to hold back the effort. Feeling pretty good today except for the feet which started to get sore from the turnaround. Another weird thing is remeasuring my old routes and finding they are all a bit longer (good thing) than what I'd been recording. Now it looks like I'll be going faster over less distance but I'll really be running slower over a longer distance (if that makes any sense at all tell me what it means).

So, another recovery week and the Fredericton 10k on the weekend. Let's hope that the injury bug will avoid me and it will be a good effort for a marathoner with no speed in his legs recently. And here's to those injured runners out there, hope you all get well soon and are running fast and free very soon. Have a good week!

Too busy to blog

But not too busy to run... That's been the story for the past few days down south here in beautiful Falmouth, Mass which is homebase for the famous Falmouth Road race and the Falmouth Cape Cod marathon.

Most of my runs have been along the well maintained bikeway the runs along the edge of down and runs all the way into Woods Hole which is only a few miles from the hotel. It's called the Shining Sea bikeway and is just as beautiful as these pictures portray. So far this week I've managed to run each day on various out and back routes along this trail....

More later after I get a bite for supper!

Anyway, on Monday it was a 9 hr drive down to this lovely area near Cape Cod and since it was a rest day, then no running. Since meetings were scheduled each day starting early it meant getting up at 6am (but only 7am in Canadian time) to make sure the run was checked off.

Tuesday morning, no problem up at 6am, looked out the window and pouring rain and wind with temps of only 6C (43F). Awww, fall back into bed, pull the covers over my head for a few minutes, but I'm awake now right? So I get up, drink some coffee, OJ, nice homemade muffin and gear up and out the door 20 minutes later. It wasn't so nasty once I got out, and the rain slowed to just a steady light drizzle and once on the bike trail out of the traffic and streets it was much more pleasant and peaceful. In fact the trail was completely deserted and didn't meet a single runner, walker or biker on the 5 mile out and back from the hotel. Where is everyone? Are there only fairweather runners or is there another preferred location (doubt it). But that was fine, except for a nagging soreness that has developed in my hip/hamstring area it was a nice easy run feeling a bit tired and sore. The Garmin might beg to differ recording a 7:40 overall pace; it may take awhile to sort out how this thing really works and how believable the numbers that come out of it are.

Weds morning was another 6am wakeup but this time it was just overcast and windy with temps around 8C. I was feeling a bit tired again and so made a deliberate effort to keep the heart rate down in the 70-80% range (less than 135). This time there was no wrong turns to get to the trail and went a bit further right down to the beach and dipped my foot in the surf before turning back for home. Another quiet run with one biker guy sitting beside the trail and only 1 walker along the route. No runners but did spot one off in the distance. The only other wildlife was a number of red winged blackbirds calling back and forth and flying near but ignoring me. Total of 5.2 miles at 8:35 pace which felt very easy and comfortable.

Today Thursday was yet another 6am wakeup (getting better at this) and on the road by 630 for what was supposed to be an easy 4 miler since I was thinking of another longer run later in the day. So I thought, why don't we try this Virtual Partner function that the Garmin has? You can program a desired distance &/or pace and this virtual runner takes off at the same time as you. The watch has a nice display that shows how far ahead or behind you are in relation to Mr. V. It was quite an interesting experiment as I had programmed what I thought was a moderate pace of 8:00/mile over 4 miles.

So I start my watch and immediately Mr V 'takes off' at 8:00 pace leaving creaking, sleepy me in the dust. What the ..?!@ he's got 150-200 ft on me already and we've just started and I'm not even warmed up yet! So before I know it I'm in a 'race' just trying to maintain a separation. This isn't easy... but gradually I begin to get warmed up and before long Mr V was the one being tracked down. The route was more or less the same but today the weather was much improved with clear skies and light winds and temps up to about 12C (50-ish). A few more walkers and the biker guy along the trail again smoking something or other but I was too busy trying to catch my new invisible opponent. Finally by the 3 mile mark he was caught but then it came to me that I was still 2+ miles away from the hotel and this was supposed to be an easier/short run (duh)! So turn around and hammer for home with the invisible man close on my heels, at least until I got to the downhill at the end and he got smoked (ha!) by almost 400 ft at the end. Total of 5.25 miles in 38:20 or 7:19 pace which was way faster than planned but somehow that was what I was sucked into. These new toys are almost as bad as some of my fast running partners but we won't go there today ;-)

But that left my energy for a longer easy run in the sunshine a bit more reduced than planned but certainly not forgotten. Thankfully our meetings ended early today and we were able to enjoy the sunshine and blue skies we've finally been rewarded with after several days of cloud and rain. It was like a perfect June day, not too hot but still warm at 20C (68F), a little wind. After tracking down some sunscreen to protect my sensitive white Canadian skin, I got dropped at the beach near the trailhead and it was off to the races on the same trail but this time well populated with walkers, bikers, roller bladers, kids being pushed in strollers, etc. There really are other people around that use this wonderful trail (I was starting to wonder you know). I ran right to the end in Woods Hole and then returned the whole length of the trail back to the hotel for a total of 6 miles but this time at a much slower pace (avg 9:24 including walk breaks and lights). The HR was elevated for much of the run, even at this slow pace and this was attributed to both the warm temperature and being the 2nd run of the day. My hip felt better but developed some blisters on my feet probably due to the warm asphalt.

Oops, sorry this post got so long but there was 3 days of runs to get caught up on. Hope I didn't bore you too much with my blathering. Speaking of which, there is a really good running podcast by Steve Runner that all runners will enjoy and maybe even some non-runners who want to figure out what the heck it's all about. It's quite entertaining and his Boston experience has to be heard in detail to be believed ;-)