The day was scheduled to be a seven hour ride. That's it - only seven. It would be the longest ride since Ramrod last July which covered around 240km. Ian again wanted it to be done as thirty minutes hard, ten easy, repeat, repeat, repeat. Again it's not easy doing that distance too close to home, it's better to venture way far away so as not to be tempted to cut the ride short for any of the numerous excuses I'm capable of thinking up.
I hit the road at 5:15am, fifteen minutes later than desired. There were a few things that arose that prevented me from returning by noon to at least get a bit of family time in before my body shut down for the rest of the day. The temperature was already at 12 degrees. Nevertheless I left with my vest and arm warmers on. It's always a roll of the dice deciding on what to bring. If it's too cold and you're underdressed it's a long, long unpleasant day. Too many clothes and at least you can take them off but now your back pockets look like you're carrying an inflated fanny pack. I usually underdress and hope I and the temperature warm up throughout the day.
I headed out on sixteenth ave once again where I realized it's breaking through the barriers of the common riding grounds that is the hardest. Almost like trying to fly a spaceship out of a planet's gravity - the further out you go, the easier it is. I think it's because the terrain seems not so old and well-travelled. I broke through the barrier somewhere around Lefevre and 40th ave. I headed further east along this road to Sumas Mountain. I thought about it after every set of thirty minutes how it worked that every working set ended in a perfect spot to recover - usually at the top of a hill or a nice flat stretch where I could spin easy and not fight up a hill. Sumas was no exception. I got to the top of the back side and had my easy ten minutes over to the steep 13% downhill back towards Whatcom road where the work began again.
From here I ended up on Hwy. 11 which took me towards the Mission bridge into Mission, obviously. I've gone across this bridge numerous times and every time the scenario that runs through my head goes as such:
"Hello, Mission City Hall, how can I help you?"
"Yes, I am a cyclist that uses your bridge periodically and would like to complain about the condition of the pedestrian walkway on the side. It is completely unacceptable in terms of sand, rock and various road debris that litters the walkway and makes it terribly difficult to cross without serious damage to bike tires. I'd like it cleaned regularly in consideration for cyclists."
"Why, yes sir, we'll get right on it."
That's the censored edition. In my head I'm cursing a blue streak to the person on the phone and myself for going across this dog's breakfast yet again. The person on the other end usally hangs up half-way through my rant anyways.
Then, as my mind often does during long runs or rides, a sort of daydream plays out in my head. In this one I get a flat tire and from afar I see myself screaming in anger as I hurl the wrecked tube over the rail to the river below. Then I catch myself and do not actually throw it over as that would be bad for the fishes. Not ten seconds and two hundred feet from the end of the bridge I flat. It was nothing dramatic or ear-splitting. Just that "something's not right" feeling where you know you need to stop. Doing about 30km I braked slowly and got off to inspect the damage. This was the very first time I had flatted on this set of race wheels (the training wheels have a broken spoke, remember?) that I've owned for eight years. I was choked as these were good tires, too.
It was blatently obvious the cause of the blowout: a one inch screw was halfway into the tire. I unscrewed it and tossed that over the side in anger, thinking my tire was shot. I inspected the hole and it didn't look too bad. I grabbed a piece of plastic and tucked it in between the tire and new tube to make sure the tube didn't poke out the hole when inflated. Luckily the hole wasn't all that big and by unscrewing it I minimized the damage. After ten minutes the repair was done and I rode off leaving the dead tube hanging on the railing as a warning to other riders and the city workers to clean the $%#@ sidewalks!
Of course now I have only one tube left and I can only think that if the repair job doesn't hold or I get another random flat, that's when things will really get interesting. So what do I do to err on the side of caution? Maybe start riding towards home? No, I head even further away from home towards Hatzic. I like to imagine calling Carrie and trying to tell her where I am because she needs to come pick me up about an hour and a half drive from home. I got to Sylvester road and basically did the reverse of the Haney to Harrison route. It was a little tough picking out landmarks because at this section it was usually pretty dark and foggy and raining. Not the beautiful 27 degrees I was experiencing now. I went up the 2.3km 8% winding hill where I remember just following the van's taillights down becuase it was so foggy I couldn't even see the center line on the road. Good times.
Now I was in deep, dark, Mission and I thought about taking my tooth out just to fit in with the locals. Kidding to all the Missionites out there but I did catch banjo notes drifting to me on the wind at spots.
My second unscheduled stop occurred just east of the turnoff to the Justice Institute's fire training ground. I was coming up a hill and at the top was a runner going the other way. It was Barb Owen, someone I hadn't seen or really talked to much since my fundraiser dance last fall. We chatted for fifteen minutes wherein she regaled me with her plans for the future which included: the 24 hour relay for the kids, only doing it solo; the Marathon des Sables next year; the unofficial Badwater crossing next July; and some eighteen-day stage race across the whole of France. What is it people say about me again? Oh, yeah, they say I'M crazy. Think again.
I carried on to the Albion ferry for my third stop but the shortest of the three. We were going with the current so the trip was fast to Ft. Langley. At least any mechanicals would be easier to deal with on this side of the river in terms of calling for someone to pick me up. As I was going to be short of my seven hour ride time, I still couldn't head straight back home. I had to detour to 264th down to 0 ave to make up the time.
When I turn westbound on 0 I hit, of course, the headwind all the way home. It was easier doing the 30 hard/10 easy because it takes your mind off the crappy conditions and gets you home faster too. It was nice going past the beach and back up Marine Drive because I know I'm only fifteen minutes out. I got back with a ride time of, literally, 7 hours and 25 seconds, total distance 209km. Can't wait for the end of this week when I'm scheduled for another. This time Mt. Baker calls for me. I don't think I'll make it all the way up unless I want to log 8 hours and 250km. We'll see. I always forget about the headwind on the way home.
As a side note Ian doesn't think I should do the Scorched Sole 50km on June 7th OR the Bighorn 100 mile on June 20th and to rest the leg more. I think I'll skip the SS just because there is a Fun Fair at the kids' school and Hannah has softball that day. I may do a long trail run on my own sometime that weekend or head up to the North Shore for a Knee Knacker training run. I need to test myself somehow but I don't really need to travel three hours each way to do it. The Scorched Sole will have to wait until next year I suppose. Seeing as my flight, entry, and accommodation for Bighorn are arranged, I'm going to give it a shot. At the very least I will walk/run or pull out altogether. I think I'm smart enough to do that now. I think.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
the latest
(Author's note: I wrote this Tuesday night but didn't get the pictures taken until Thursday. Such is life when there's a lot going on)
Wow I looked to see when my last entry was and it was almost two weeks ago. Not that too much exciting has been going on, but I feel I need to update the two or three people who read this.
Okay, where to start? Let's start small and work our way up:
Last week I had my fake tooth/denture/retainer-type thing put in. It feels like the retainer I had after my braces and actually looks kind of real. Thanks to Hannah who says it looks whiter than my other yellow teeth. Here's the pictures:
Pretty cool, hey? Good at parties too.
I finally sent the money off for the Spartathlon entry. My application had been accepted a month or so ago but I thought why part with the cash until I absolutley have to? It's a good thing I didn't wait until the last minute because when I went to wire the money to the bank in Athens, my bank said they needed the address of where it was going to and who was receiving the money. I emailed the Association in Greece to get the address. After another couple emails and a few unanswered phone calls (tough to remember to call when it's daylight over there) I got a response from Mr. Tsakiris who was unsure why I needed the address of the Alpha bank when other competitors had wired the money no problem with the information that was provided on the entry form. That's us in Canada, I said. So, armed with this new address of the bank and the account numbers I went to try again. It took forever. At first they told me the accout number wasn't in any of the many numbers that I had with me. Then they played around with them until the computer was satisfied enough to graciously allow me to wire the cash. The entry fee was 250 Euros which was just under $400. When I got my receipt, it read $440. Turns out they charged me $42 to wire money to Europe!! I barely made it out of there without the top of my head blowing off. I guess the "money" (it's really only electronic impulses) travels to Toronto, then the States, then over to Greece somehow. Still can't see how that runs me 42 bills. The cost of running these races mounts ever higher.
I saw the UBC sports med Dr. Prassad and it turns out he's not 100% sure my shin was a stress fracture but most likely was. Could have been bad shin splints as the "heat" from the bone scan showed up in different places. Regardless the treatment is the same - strength training, calf-stretching, no running for two weeks once there's no pain to run. How can I know if it hurts if I don't run?? Better yet, is it considered "pain-free" if I run for a mile, ten miles, twenty miles without it hurting, or what? The good thing is that it's feeling a whole lot better even from last week. I snuck in a little twenty-five minute trail run the morning before I saw him and although it didn't hurt per-se, I could feel an awareness that something wasn't right. Almost like it did two months ago when I first felt it coming on (and should have treated it then and not been a %$#@ idiot). Prassad said I could see Colin McKay and get some ART (Active Release Therapy) as long as he stayed away from the tibia bone. I did that and if felt GOOD!! I was told I could look into orthotics as well and as the guy who did mine two years ago was out of the business for a while, Colin gave me the name of Noelle Trotter to have her look at my situation. I went to her and she was awesome. She did a video analysis of me walking and figured a couple things out. The biggest one being that, "Why are you running in a control shoe for pronation when you hardly pronate and should be in a neutral shoe?" Well I'll be a son of a....For years I've been under the impression that I pronate pretty bad and need a control shoe to prevent my foot from rolling too much inwards. After comparing video of me to people who actually do pronate badly, I looked pretty good. I traded a pair of trail shoes for neutral ones and talked with Darren Mealing the Adidas rep who will get me some neutral road shoes to use. Could the fact that these shoes weren't letting my feet do what they want to do be the cause of injury? Maybe the old shoes were fine for marathon and Ironman training but once I moved to longer distances they were hindering me. I guess time will tell. Maybe I'll go another year of being injury-free and then have something else happen and I'll be back to square one. Ahhh, this running is so much fun. So Noelle took my old orthotics and has shaved some off and changed some stuff to act like a cushion. She could have told me I needed new, different ones to make a few bucks, but because she was honest and did what she did, I totally respect her and would recommend her to anyone. She is definitely knowledgeable when it comes to feet.
I did another epic ride during our three day heat wave. Went 155k in just under 5 hours but was feeling the effects of the heat and not drinking enough. Ian says to practise eating and drinking more in training or he thinks I'll explode during the Spartathlon. This trip took me to the Tswassen Ferry Terminal then back through White Rock, down zero avenue to the Abbostford airport then returned from there. Had a nice chat with a gentleman who was riding to Cultus Lake to camp for the weekend. We both noted that we were riding into a headwind, and then I turn around to come home and what's hitting me in the face? Of course, a headwind. It was one of those days. I calculated my time to return so as not to be late to get the kids and realized I needed to move. About fifteen k's from home I heard a "twang" that sounded too loud to be a rock skipping off my spoke. I suspected what it was and upon an examination of the rear wheel confirmed that one had indeed broken one. I think that's the second or third one off that wheel so time to get a new one or rebuild this one. It was a good excuse to take it easy the rest of the way.
I managed 45 minutes water running today which after a long layoff was a whole new world of torture. It wasn't overly boring, the muscles and the body just forget how to "run" in water. It's always a tough curve to get back to being water running fit.
Other than that I think I should be back on my leg running within a week. Another long bike awaits this Saturday - 7 hours and probably around 200km.
Wow I looked to see when my last entry was and it was almost two weeks ago. Not that too much exciting has been going on, but I feel I need to update the two or three people who read this.
Okay, where to start? Let's start small and work our way up:
Last week I had my fake tooth/denture/retainer-type thing put in. It feels like the retainer I had after my braces and actually looks kind of real. Thanks to Hannah who says it looks whiter than my other yellow teeth. Here's the pictures:
Pretty cool, hey? Good at parties too.
I finally sent the money off for the Spartathlon entry. My application had been accepted a month or so ago but I thought why part with the cash until I absolutley have to? It's a good thing I didn't wait until the last minute because when I went to wire the money to the bank in Athens, my bank said they needed the address of where it was going to and who was receiving the money. I emailed the Association in Greece to get the address. After another couple emails and a few unanswered phone calls (tough to remember to call when it's daylight over there) I got a response from Mr. Tsakiris who was unsure why I needed the address of the Alpha bank when other competitors had wired the money no problem with the information that was provided on the entry form. That's us in Canada, I said. So, armed with this new address of the bank and the account numbers I went to try again. It took forever. At first they told me the accout number wasn't in any of the many numbers that I had with me. Then they played around with them until the computer was satisfied enough to graciously allow me to wire the cash. The entry fee was 250 Euros which was just under $400. When I got my receipt, it read $440. Turns out they charged me $42 to wire money to Europe!! I barely made it out of there without the top of my head blowing off. I guess the "money" (it's really only electronic impulses) travels to Toronto, then the States, then over to Greece somehow. Still can't see how that runs me 42 bills. The cost of running these races mounts ever higher.
I saw the UBC sports med Dr. Prassad and it turns out he's not 100% sure my shin was a stress fracture but most likely was. Could have been bad shin splints as the "heat" from the bone scan showed up in different places. Regardless the treatment is the same - strength training, calf-stretching, no running for two weeks once there's no pain to run. How can I know if it hurts if I don't run?? Better yet, is it considered "pain-free" if I run for a mile, ten miles, twenty miles without it hurting, or what? The good thing is that it's feeling a whole lot better even from last week. I snuck in a little twenty-five minute trail run the morning before I saw him and although it didn't hurt per-se, I could feel an awareness that something wasn't right. Almost like it did two months ago when I first felt it coming on (and should have treated it then and not been a %$#@ idiot). Prassad said I could see Colin McKay and get some ART (Active Release Therapy) as long as he stayed away from the tibia bone. I did that and if felt GOOD!! I was told I could look into orthotics as well and as the guy who did mine two years ago was out of the business for a while, Colin gave me the name of Noelle Trotter to have her look at my situation. I went to her and she was awesome. She did a video analysis of me walking and figured a couple things out. The biggest one being that, "Why are you running in a control shoe for pronation when you hardly pronate and should be in a neutral shoe?" Well I'll be a son of a....For years I've been under the impression that I pronate pretty bad and need a control shoe to prevent my foot from rolling too much inwards. After comparing video of me to people who actually do pronate badly, I looked pretty good. I traded a pair of trail shoes for neutral ones and talked with Darren Mealing the Adidas rep who will get me some neutral road shoes to use. Could the fact that these shoes weren't letting my feet do what they want to do be the cause of injury? Maybe the old shoes were fine for marathon and Ironman training but once I moved to longer distances they were hindering me. I guess time will tell. Maybe I'll go another year of being injury-free and then have something else happen and I'll be back to square one. Ahhh, this running is so much fun. So Noelle took my old orthotics and has shaved some off and changed some stuff to act like a cushion. She could have told me I needed new, different ones to make a few bucks, but because she was honest and did what she did, I totally respect her and would recommend her to anyone. She is definitely knowledgeable when it comes to feet.
I did another epic ride during our three day heat wave. Went 155k in just under 5 hours but was feeling the effects of the heat and not drinking enough. Ian says to practise eating and drinking more in training or he thinks I'll explode during the Spartathlon. This trip took me to the Tswassen Ferry Terminal then back through White Rock, down zero avenue to the Abbostford airport then returned from there. Had a nice chat with a gentleman who was riding to Cultus Lake to camp for the weekend. We both noted that we were riding into a headwind, and then I turn around to come home and what's hitting me in the face? Of course, a headwind. It was one of those days. I calculated my time to return so as not to be late to get the kids and realized I needed to move. About fifteen k's from home I heard a "twang" that sounded too loud to be a rock skipping off my spoke. I suspected what it was and upon an examination of the rear wheel confirmed that one had indeed broken one. I think that's the second or third one off that wheel so time to get a new one or rebuild this one. It was a good excuse to take it easy the rest of the way.
I managed 45 minutes water running today which after a long layoff was a whole new world of torture. It wasn't overly boring, the muscles and the body just forget how to "run" in water. It's always a tough curve to get back to being water running fit.
Other than that I think I should be back on my leg running within a week. Another long bike awaits this Saturday - 7 hours and probably around 200km.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Surviving the Weekend
So much going on this past weekend to try and keep track of the people in these events. There was the Elk/Beaver 100km in Victoria, Miwok, Vancouver Marathon,the Wildflower triathlon, and the Toronto Ultra. E/B saw Jack Cook, Darren Froese, and Rick Webb, all previous World 100km competitors, go 1,2,3. Gary Robbins now of North Vancouver was 12th overall, top Canadian as first time runner of any 100km race at Miwok even after taking a page from my book and going off course for five clicks or so. Gary Wang, ultrarunner and Ultraman Hawaii competitor, finished the tough Wildflower triathlon in 5:30. Joel and Linda Waithman from the Watermania swim group were there racing as well. The Toronto Ultra saw several previous members of Canada's 100km team running.
Being in the state I was, I couldn't do anything, obviously, so we worked around the house and took a walk to the beach with the kids to take my mind off the race. Sunday was another story. It was my long bike day - 5 - 5 and a half hours. I was planning to meet my mom in Vancouver where she was walking the half-marathon. She figured she would be done in around four hours or 11am. I figured I would get close to the race around 10:30, call her on the cell, and meet her before the finish. I started out the day close to 6am, needing to get in a ton of time in the saddle before I met up with her. My plan was to head east to 264th st then turn around, head to Ladner, down River Rd to the Alex Fraser Bridge, South West Marine Way, then north on the Cypress bike route right downtown.
As I was riding in the first hour I thought that I may be cutting it a bit close by getting to the race at 10:30 and even then I wasn't sure exactly how long it would take me. Things can always come up - flats, dog chasings, missed turns, traffic. I decided to turn around ten kilometers early to get downtown by 9:30 or so.
My workout was to be done as twenty minutes hard followed by ten easy repeated for the whole time. I managed to do seven of these before traffic and lights made it hard to keep a hard pace going without stopping. Once over the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver memories of last year's PR at this race flooded back to me. I remember in 2007 seeing the "25 mile" marker, doing some quick math in my head, and realizing I had to book it to make my goal of 2:45 which I met by ten seconds or so. I was so happy with that race it almost made not doing this year's bearable. Not that I was dying from not doing the marathon, it's just that I've done the full or half so many times that it's a comfortable race.
A quick call to my mom revealed that she was already around the 11.5 mile mark. She was WAY ahead of schedule. This worked perfect because it was literally two corners and I saw her. I rode with her the last kilometer and a half until the marshals stopped me from going further. I say Matt Sessions watching the race with his arm in a sling so had to stop to inquire. He fell while riding the bike and broke his collarbone. Not as exciting as my tooth story, but close. In the meantime, my mom had gone past the point of me following her and I couldn't give her the big congratulatory hug that I was looking forward to. I managed to work my way up to as close as I could get and gave her a wave and she crossed the line in 3:22. Weird that I managed to make it down there so close to where she was to see her finish. I'm proud of the accomplishment. Next up, a 100km walk for her!!
During my bike home I still felt really strong and got back to the 20 hard 10 easy routine until the 5:30 mark when I started slowing down. I got home logging a 6:25, 180km ride. The longest since Ironman last year. Hopefully my cardio is staying up with this mammoth bike schedule I'm on. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks when I hit the trails again. For now I'm resigned to the bike.
Ian suggested it would be better to abandon the Blackfoot 100km at the end of this month. I agreed and have emailed the race director that fact. It's still not an easy decision but probably for the better. This means there's only the 50km in Kelowna before the big 100 mile in Wyoming in June. It's sounding a lot scarier now than two months ago when I was fit and uninjured. Time will tell.
Being in the state I was, I couldn't do anything, obviously, so we worked around the house and took a walk to the beach with the kids to take my mind off the race. Sunday was another story. It was my long bike day - 5 - 5 and a half hours. I was planning to meet my mom in Vancouver where she was walking the half-marathon. She figured she would be done in around four hours or 11am. I figured I would get close to the race around 10:30, call her on the cell, and meet her before the finish. I started out the day close to 6am, needing to get in a ton of time in the saddle before I met up with her. My plan was to head east to 264th st then turn around, head to Ladner, down River Rd to the Alex Fraser Bridge, South West Marine Way, then north on the Cypress bike route right downtown.
As I was riding in the first hour I thought that I may be cutting it a bit close by getting to the race at 10:30 and even then I wasn't sure exactly how long it would take me. Things can always come up - flats, dog chasings, missed turns, traffic. I decided to turn around ten kilometers early to get downtown by 9:30 or so.
My workout was to be done as twenty minutes hard followed by ten easy repeated for the whole time. I managed to do seven of these before traffic and lights made it hard to keep a hard pace going without stopping. Once over the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver memories of last year's PR at this race flooded back to me. I remember in 2007 seeing the "25 mile" marker, doing some quick math in my head, and realizing I had to book it to make my goal of 2:45 which I met by ten seconds or so. I was so happy with that race it almost made not doing this year's bearable. Not that I was dying from not doing the marathon, it's just that I've done the full or half so many times that it's a comfortable race.
A quick call to my mom revealed that she was already around the 11.5 mile mark. She was WAY ahead of schedule. This worked perfect because it was literally two corners and I saw her. I rode with her the last kilometer and a half until the marshals stopped me from going further. I say Matt Sessions watching the race with his arm in a sling so had to stop to inquire. He fell while riding the bike and broke his collarbone. Not as exciting as my tooth story, but close. In the meantime, my mom had gone past the point of me following her and I couldn't give her the big congratulatory hug that I was looking forward to. I managed to work my way up to as close as I could get and gave her a wave and she crossed the line in 3:22. Weird that I managed to make it down there so close to where she was to see her finish. I'm proud of the accomplishment. Next up, a 100km walk for her!!
During my bike home I still felt really strong and got back to the 20 hard 10 easy routine until the 5:30 mark when I started slowing down. I got home logging a 6:25, 180km ride. The longest since Ironman last year. Hopefully my cardio is staying up with this mammoth bike schedule I'm on. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks when I hit the trails again. For now I'm resigned to the bike.
Ian suggested it would be better to abandon the Blackfoot 100km at the end of this month. I agreed and have emailed the race director that fact. It's still not an easy decision but probably for the better. This means there's only the 50km in Kelowna before the big 100 mile in Wyoming in June. It's sounding a lot scarier now than two months ago when I was fit and uninjured. Time will tell.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
No Miwok, Stress Fracture, Toothless
Well, that's it in a nutshell. I emailed Tia the race director for Miwok and told her I was out due to injury. Hopefully someone else can take my place from the wait list on short notice. I have to say a big "thanks" to everyone who was so supportive and helpful with advice on my situation and dropping out of the race. Carrie, Ian, Jim, Tracey, Britni, John, Gary, Ferg - it means a lot.
I had my bone scan today with part 1 being showing up at the hospital and getting an injection of some kind of radiation that would help illuminate the fracture. Part 2 was four hours later involving two different scans that were seven minutes each. Lying on my back for the first one, it was inevitable I would fall asleep on the fourteen-inch wide bed. I was woken up for the second one which was done while lying on my side. Even though this was fairly uncomfortable, it only took thirty seconds to zonk out. Could be all the yard work I've been doing on the yard for three days straight, just ask my back. Anyways, I managed to convince the technician to fess up what he saw and it indeed is a stress fracture. Acute. But - he also said it was healing. This would explain why it's been feeling better the last few days walking around. Still hurts to run therefore Ian has me doing a mega week of cycling culminating with a five hour bike at the end of the week. My back is already not looking forward to that.
Yes, I'm still toothless. I have an appointment with a denture guy next Tuesday so he can take a mold of my teeth and fix me a fakey.
This Sunday is the Vancouver Marathon. After actually enjoying my experience at the Sun Run (shin pain notwithstanding), I am actually going to miss racing it this weekend. I've done a race this weekend for the past four years - 2007 I did the marathon, 2006 was the Elk/Beaver 100km, 2005 was the Vancouver Half, 2004 was the marathon again. I would have continued the streak with Miwok but we've already covered that. I miss the self-competition and racing the clock. It's never about placing but trying for a PR. I love having the clock tick by and taking my mile-splits. I can't say I'll never do another one.
More after the crazy cyling week.
I had my bone scan today with part 1 being showing up at the hospital and getting an injection of some kind of radiation that would help illuminate the fracture. Part 2 was four hours later involving two different scans that were seven minutes each. Lying on my back for the first one, it was inevitable I would fall asleep on the fourteen-inch wide bed. I was woken up for the second one which was done while lying on my side. Even though this was fairly uncomfortable, it only took thirty seconds to zonk out. Could be all the yard work I've been doing on the yard for three days straight, just ask my back. Anyways, I managed to convince the technician to fess up what he saw and it indeed is a stress fracture. Acute. But - he also said it was healing. This would explain why it's been feeling better the last few days walking around. Still hurts to run therefore Ian has me doing a mega week of cycling culminating with a five hour bike at the end of the week. My back is already not looking forward to that.
Yes, I'm still toothless. I have an appointment with a denture guy next Tuesday so he can take a mold of my teeth and fix me a fakey.
This Sunday is the Vancouver Marathon. After actually enjoying my experience at the Sun Run (shin pain notwithstanding), I am actually going to miss racing it this weekend. I've done a race this weekend for the past four years - 2007 I did the marathon, 2006 was the Elk/Beaver 100km, 2005 was the Vancouver Half, 2004 was the marathon again. I would have continued the streak with Miwok but we've already covered that. I miss the self-competition and racing the clock. It's never about placing but trying for a PR. I love having the clock tick by and taking my mile-splits. I can't say I'll never do another one.
More after the crazy cyling week.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
News
I went to the oral surgeon last week who explained to me my options with the tooth - implant, bridge, denture. The only one he does is the implant but for "$4,000", that's more than what the 'other' type of implants cost. I told him, no, I will not be going that route. I would rather live with the gap and lisp than buy a tooth for that much. Regardless of which way I went, once the tooth is yanked, I have to wait a few months for the bone and gums to heal before anything can be done. Funny that my dentist expected this guy to pull the tooth and put in the screw for the implant when I hadn't even decided on what I was going to do. How he doesn't know you need to wait for everything to heal, I don't know. Last Saturday the tooth finally fell out on its own but I could put it back in like a fake one - great for parties and grossing out the kids.
Anyways, I had the tooth extracted (love the sound it makes when it's pulled from the bone) yesterday so now have to explain to everyone I see how I did it, of course embellishing a bit to make it somewhat interesting. I usually throw in that I have scurvy or need to drink more milk.
I finally admitted to coach Ian and myself that I have more than just shin splint pain now in the right leg. I saw Dr. Prassad at UBC on Monday and he figures I have a stress fracture. I have a bone scan on the 30th to verify his diagnosis. Very frustrating that it's in the other leg now and he recommended two weeks of no running. Hmmm. Miwok in ten days, how is that going to work? Well now I have to decide do I do the race and risk getting even more injured and waiting that much longer to recover? Do I wait until closer to the race to see if I feel better? Do I go down and watch and feel serious envy that I can't run this thing? Do I cut out now so someone else can have my spot? It's totally my fault as I thought I could advil and ice my way through it. Had I told Ian earlier we could have backed off the schedule and nipped it in the bud. Live and learn. Each day I wake up I hope it to feel better and it so far it's a bit better so you never know. I for sure could fight my way through the race but am pretty sure I'd pay for it. It didn't help I did a 34 mile run on Saturday then the Sun Run on Sunday with the Coast Mountain Fleet Feet corporate team (1st in the transportation category, 8th team overall thank you). I felt crappy in the 34 mile run but awesome in the 10k the next day. I was breathing easy through the first 5k still doing sub-6 minute miles. A couple little rises didn't slow me down at all and I had a great kick at the end. I guess all those @#$%! 20 minute intervals from Ian paid off after all!!
So I have a few decisions to make. I should save myself for Bighorn in June and Spartathlon in September. It's not like Miwok has been on my 'to do' list, it just fell on a good spot for training for the 100 mile run. I was still stoked to do it, though.
Anyways, I had the tooth extracted (love the sound it makes when it's pulled from the bone) yesterday so now have to explain to everyone I see how I did it, of course embellishing a bit to make it somewhat interesting. I usually throw in that I have scurvy or need to drink more milk.
I finally admitted to coach Ian and myself that I have more than just shin splint pain now in the right leg. I saw Dr. Prassad at UBC on Monday and he figures I have a stress fracture. I have a bone scan on the 30th to verify his diagnosis. Very frustrating that it's in the other leg now and he recommended two weeks of no running. Hmmm. Miwok in ten days, how is that going to work? Well now I have to decide do I do the race and risk getting even more injured and waiting that much longer to recover? Do I wait until closer to the race to see if I feel better? Do I go down and watch and feel serious envy that I can't run this thing? Do I cut out now so someone else can have my spot? It's totally my fault as I thought I could advil and ice my way through it. Had I told Ian earlier we could have backed off the schedule and nipped it in the bud. Live and learn. Each day I wake up I hope it to feel better and it so far it's a bit better so you never know. I for sure could fight my way through the race but am pretty sure I'd pay for it. It didn't help I did a 34 mile run on Saturday then the Sun Run on Sunday with the Coast Mountain Fleet Feet corporate team (1st in the transportation category, 8th team overall thank you). I felt crappy in the 34 mile run but awesome in the 10k the next day. I was breathing easy through the first 5k still doing sub-6 minute miles. A couple little rises didn't slow me down at all and I had a great kick at the end. I guess all those @#$%! 20 minute intervals from Ian paid off after all!!
So I have a few decisions to make. I should save myself for Bighorn in June and Spartathlon in September. It's not like Miwok has been on my 'to do' list, it just fell on a good spot for training for the 100 mile run. I was still stoked to do it, though.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Appointments and Updates
So on a crazy Wednesday last week I had my massage appointment at 9:45, doctor at 10:45, and dentist at 12:00. Of course I did all this knowing how late my doctor always is I arrived at 10:50 and waited until 11:20 to actually get in to see him (hence the brilliance in booking my dentist, a five minute drive away, at noon, and not earlier).
Massage was good, lower back extrememly tight from working on deck - ongoing.
Doc is concerned I have LVH (Left Ventricular Hypertrophy - google it. It's too hard to explain other than the left ventricle of the heart gets enlarged from "excessive exercise" (is that what I do?), restricting blood flow to the aorta, potentially causing chest pain, heart disease and the like. He said the ECG was abnormal so is setting up an appointment to see a cardiologist for an ultrasound to measure the wall thickness of the left ventricle to see if there could be problems. As it's not an emergency, it'll be a couple months until I get in so don't hold your breath waiting for an update.
Dentist took x-rays of the loose tooth from Diez and found it to be fractured and in need of replacement. I had forgotten it was the same tooth as about ten years ago that had a root canal becuase I smashed it before. The x-ray showed that it was mostly filling and resembled a hollow tree, not very strong. His suggestion was to see a specialist (cha-ching$$$) to see what they suggest but assumes that they'll go with what's called an implant (no silicone involved) where they screw into the bone and put a crown on the screw. I'm thinking a gold crown would look killer right in the front. I guess an alternative would be a denture but they think the denture wouldn't be very stable because of it's size and location. They are, however, covered by the dental plan. Seeing as the implants aren't normally covered, I asked the receptionist how much they usually run. "Usually", she says they cost a couple thousand dollars. I'm thinking a gap in my teeth is cheaper with better conversation possibilities. I need to make a call to my benefits lady at work tomorrow to have a better idea of how to tackle this one. Next time you see me I could be sportin' a gold tooth with a diamond in the middle or no tooth at all.
Massage was good, lower back extrememly tight from working on deck - ongoing.
Doc is concerned I have LVH (Left Ventricular Hypertrophy - google it. It's too hard to explain other than the left ventricle of the heart gets enlarged from "excessive exercise" (is that what I do?), restricting blood flow to the aorta, potentially causing chest pain, heart disease and the like. He said the ECG was abnormal so is setting up an appointment to see a cardiologist for an ultrasound to measure the wall thickness of the left ventricle to see if there could be problems. As it's not an emergency, it'll be a couple months until I get in so don't hold your breath waiting for an update.
Dentist took x-rays of the loose tooth from Diez and found it to be fractured and in need of replacement. I had forgotten it was the same tooth as about ten years ago that had a root canal becuase I smashed it before. The x-ray showed that it was mostly filling and resembled a hollow tree, not very strong. His suggestion was to see a specialist (cha-ching$$$) to see what they suggest but assumes that they'll go with what's called an implant (no silicone involved) where they screw into the bone and put a crown on the screw. I'm thinking a gold crown would look killer right in the front. I guess an alternative would be a denture but they think the denture wouldn't be very stable because of it's size and location. They are, however, covered by the dental plan. Seeing as the implants aren't normally covered, I asked the receptionist how much they usually run. "Usually", she says they cost a couple thousand dollars. I'm thinking a gap in my teeth is cheaper with better conversation possibilities. I need to make a call to my benefits lady at work tomorrow to have a better idea of how to tackle this one. Next time you see me I could be sportin' a gold tooth with a diamond in the middle or no tooth at all.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Diez Vista 50k
Being on the receiving end of a cold the last ten days I wasn't sure how this race would turn out. On top of that I was dealing with a ton of issues needing attention around the house. Not that I'm making excuses, because if I didn't think I could race, I wouldn't race or I'd treat it as a long run day.
Friday night before was spent finishing up part of our back deck and a few other odd jobs that needed to be done. I hadn't finished putting my stuff together and taping my feet until 10:30. Not that I'm making excuses, I've just been more prepared for a race in the past than this one.
The day dawned warm and sunny. No, wait a minute, that was my dream before I awoke to dark and rainy. It was overcast the whole day with a steady drizzle greeting every runner out in the open throughout the day. At least under canopy it didn't seem so bad. We were even treated to snow at three different areas of the course.
Tracey arrived at our door at 6 a.m. and we headed out to Port Moody. Tracey was going to take some pictures and get in a run of her own while waiting for the race to unfold. We arrived at the perfect time of forty-five minutes ahead of the start, just enough to avoid the bathroom line-ups and get everything together. As people were getting their numbers and sweatshirts, I heard one person registering with the name of Hal Koerner. This guy wins almost every race he enters, having bested everyone last year at the Western States 100mile. Other names that I heard being passed around as late entrants were Brian Morrison, Gary Robbins, and Matt Hart. All of them extremely seasoned veterans in trail running. It made for an interesting day.
I, admittedly, started out faster than I probably should have, possibly due to how I ran Chuckanut with the leaders in my sights. I didn't want to let the fast guys go but after about twenty minutes of heading up, up, and up Diez, I knew I had to back off at least a little. The thing I remember most about this race two years ago was that the flagging was a little sparse and not so easily spotted. Seeing as I ran this part a while back (albeit the opposite direction) I had some idea how to traverse it and stay on track. I was within sight of Matt Hart for a bit and with him in the position of "the guy in front", he was prone to a few "pauses" while he looked for the right route. This may only take a second or so, but it throws you off your pace and you have to get back up to speed. This enabled me to catch up to him and use him as a trail blazer for a bit. We chatted here and there and eventually Aaron Pitt closed the gap and was with us, after I took the lead and surely slowed us down.
After a steep, steep descent, we came to a fast flat stretch where we caught up with Hal Koerner and could see Brian Morrison in the distance. I'm sure this caused me to go faster than I would have on this section of flat. As we were nearing the drop bag aid station, we passed Hal (who dropped at this point from a recurring plantar injury), came out of a trail, and were supposed to cross the road and continue to another trail that would lead us to the aid station. I honestly did not see any markings and from memory of an old race map, remembered we turned up the road. The funny thing was that there was the same pink flagging tape along side of the road so thought it was the correct way, not knowing that it was actually tape put there by Hydro indicating those trees were to be taken out. Anyways, we were almost past the parking lot where the aid station was when people started waving us towards them. In we went where we grabbed our stuff and I heard someone say, "What were you guys doing coming down the road?". Obviously we had, or I should say, I had, made a mistake. Matt, Aaron and I ran together wondering what had gone wrong and whether a DQ was in the works.
Funny enough we ran into Tracey at this spot and I asked how many people were ahead of us. She said two, so we figured it was the leader then Brian Morrison. When Brian came up behind us ten minutes later, we agreed we (I), screwed up. Brian convincingly passed us and this is where Matt fell back and eventually dropped due to nagging hip discomfort. After more of the upwards trudging, Aaron fell back a bit with problems of his own. I always saw Brian ahead of me but just couldn't bridge the gap, not that I was overly concerned. Around this point I was starting to feel crappy, whether it was the snow coming down, cold wind, my cold, or just going out too fast and paying for it, I'm not sure. Near the bottom of the out and back, Gary Robbins passed me looking absolutely awesome. On the way back up he passed Brian to stay in second place. Of course, I didn't really see too much of that as they had both gapped me quite nicely. Through the power lines again and over some rocky terrain I was in a real low spot. It took until the last really steep ugly stretch to get some energy back. I started taking in more Carbopro 1200 and this seemed to put something more into my legs.
While drinking from one of my bottles, as I'd done a million times in the past, pulling on the tab with my front teeth, the tab didn't pop out and instead broke one of my teeth!! I looked down to see if first some of the plastic had splintered off and was stuck in between my teeth but it was fine, it only felt that way because one of them was loose. Wasn't that just the icing on the cake for how I felt.
The last steep part was as bad as I remembered it from two years ago and the down to the lake was equally enjoyable. However, I remember the final leg to the finish being really long, and today it was quite nice. I even picked up the pace some and was running solid until out of the blue there was a mountain of stairs to climb. Although this wasn't as bad as the Dirty Duo stairs near the finish, they hurt nonetheless. It was only two hundred feet to the end so had to suck it up and look good and do a decent pace to the end. Unlike '06 when I swore I wouldn't do this race again, I was quite happy with how it went overall. I improved five spots and twenty-five minutes. Today my legs were tired but not the deep soreness I've had in the past which is a good sign and I'm looking forward to the training for Miwok coming up in a month. 200 kms down, 1061 to go.
Friday night before was spent finishing up part of our back deck and a few other odd jobs that needed to be done. I hadn't finished putting my stuff together and taping my feet until 10:30. Not that I'm making excuses, I've just been more prepared for a race in the past than this one.
The day dawned warm and sunny. No, wait a minute, that was my dream before I awoke to dark and rainy. It was overcast the whole day with a steady drizzle greeting every runner out in the open throughout the day. At least under canopy it didn't seem so bad. We were even treated to snow at three different areas of the course.
Tracey arrived at our door at 6 a.m. and we headed out to Port Moody. Tracey was going to take some pictures and get in a run of her own while waiting for the race to unfold. We arrived at the perfect time of forty-five minutes ahead of the start, just enough to avoid the bathroom line-ups and get everything together. As people were getting their numbers and sweatshirts, I heard one person registering with the name of Hal Koerner. This guy wins almost every race he enters, having bested everyone last year at the Western States 100mile. Other names that I heard being passed around as late entrants were Brian Morrison, Gary Robbins, and Matt Hart. All of them extremely seasoned veterans in trail running. It made for an interesting day.
I, admittedly, started out faster than I probably should have, possibly due to how I ran Chuckanut with the leaders in my sights. I didn't want to let the fast guys go but after about twenty minutes of heading up, up, and up Diez, I knew I had to back off at least a little. The thing I remember most about this race two years ago was that the flagging was a little sparse and not so easily spotted. Seeing as I ran this part a while back (albeit the opposite direction) I had some idea how to traverse it and stay on track. I was within sight of Matt Hart for a bit and with him in the position of "the guy in front", he was prone to a few "pauses" while he looked for the right route. This may only take a second or so, but it throws you off your pace and you have to get back up to speed. This enabled me to catch up to him and use him as a trail blazer for a bit. We chatted here and there and eventually Aaron Pitt closed the gap and was with us, after I took the lead and surely slowed us down.
After a steep, steep descent, we came to a fast flat stretch where we caught up with Hal Koerner and could see Brian Morrison in the distance. I'm sure this caused me to go faster than I would have on this section of flat. As we were nearing the drop bag aid station, we passed Hal (who dropped at this point from a recurring plantar injury), came out of a trail, and were supposed to cross the road and continue to another trail that would lead us to the aid station. I honestly did not see any markings and from memory of an old race map, remembered we turned up the road. The funny thing was that there was the same pink flagging tape along side of the road so thought it was the correct way, not knowing that it was actually tape put there by Hydro indicating those trees were to be taken out. Anyways, we were almost past the parking lot where the aid station was when people started waving us towards them. In we went where we grabbed our stuff and I heard someone say, "What were you guys doing coming down the road?". Obviously we had, or I should say, I had, made a mistake. Matt, Aaron and I ran together wondering what had gone wrong and whether a DQ was in the works.
Funny enough we ran into Tracey at this spot and I asked how many people were ahead of us. She said two, so we figured it was the leader then Brian Morrison. When Brian came up behind us ten minutes later, we agreed we (I), screwed up. Brian convincingly passed us and this is where Matt fell back and eventually dropped due to nagging hip discomfort. After more of the upwards trudging, Aaron fell back a bit with problems of his own. I always saw Brian ahead of me but just couldn't bridge the gap, not that I was overly concerned. Around this point I was starting to feel crappy, whether it was the snow coming down, cold wind, my cold, or just going out too fast and paying for it, I'm not sure. Near the bottom of the out and back, Gary Robbins passed me looking absolutely awesome. On the way back up he passed Brian to stay in second place. Of course, I didn't really see too much of that as they had both gapped me quite nicely. Through the power lines again and over some rocky terrain I was in a real low spot. It took until the last really steep ugly stretch to get some energy back. I started taking in more Carbopro 1200 and this seemed to put something more into my legs.
While drinking from one of my bottles, as I'd done a million times in the past, pulling on the tab with my front teeth, the tab didn't pop out and instead broke one of my teeth!! I looked down to see if first some of the plastic had splintered off and was stuck in between my teeth but it was fine, it only felt that way because one of them was loose. Wasn't that just the icing on the cake for how I felt.
The last steep part was as bad as I remembered it from two years ago and the down to the lake was equally enjoyable. However, I remember the final leg to the finish being really long, and today it was quite nice. I even picked up the pace some and was running solid until out of the blue there was a mountain of stairs to climb. Although this wasn't as bad as the Dirty Duo stairs near the finish, they hurt nonetheless. It was only two hundred feet to the end so had to suck it up and look good and do a decent pace to the end. Unlike '06 when I swore I wouldn't do this race again, I was quite happy with how it went overall. I improved five spots and twenty-five minutes. Today my legs were tired but not the deep soreness I've had in the past which is a good sign and I'm looking forward to the training for Miwok coming up in a month. 200 kms down, 1061 to go.
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