What to say, what to say...

Okay, I know. But first, two little rants.

The first has really nothing to do with running or riding or sports in general. Merely something that irks me. It has to do with Craigslist and how people conduct themselves in terms of responding to emails from me and coming to look at items I have for sale. I feel some examples would better illustrate this:
I have a tent-like shelter on Craigslist at the moment that I bought but turns out is too big in my backyard (long story). I have it on there for $225 which is a very good price as the size is 12'x 12' and Canadian Tire sells the same type of shelter that is 10' x 10' for $230. The day after I put it on someone emails me to say they have $150 cash, would I take that? Choked I emailed back a simple, "Nope". It's like putting your car on there for $8000 and someone, sight unseen, asking if you'd sell it for $5000. I had another person this past weekend email and say they were 'very interested' and could they come look at it on Saturday or Sunday. I called and talked to them and we agreed Sunday at 11:30 would work. 11:30 came and went as did the rest of the day with no word from them. Now, in this day and age of instant electronic messaging and cell phones, how hard is it to AT LEAST email and lie if necessary to say you can't come and look at it. Just say, "We can't make it today, will have to re-schedule". That took three seconds to type. It's not like I put my whole day on hold but I did hang around until 12:30 to be sure. It's that kind of inconsideration (inconsiderateness? non-consideration? you get the idea) that drives me crazy. I've never done that to someone. My other example is when you email someone and ask if a certain item is still for sale and they don't respond one way or the other. I emailed a guy about a winter bike for me - cheap, winter transportation, $5-600 - and never received a response. The next day I emailed again asking to please just let me know if he still had it. Literally two minutes later I got my answer: "Sold" was the one word answer. Now would that have been so hard to do after my first email? In-con-siderate. No respect.

Rant #2: Riding my bike to work in the dark, getting no respect from drivers.
Okay, I'm lit up like a Christmas tree on my bike when I ride to work at 6 in the morning in the dark. I know drivers can see me because on longer stretches of road, especially with no cars coming the other way, most cars give me a wide berth, pretty much going in the whole opposite lane to get around me. They can see me because I have three red blinky lights on my backpack, one on my helmet, and three on my bike. On the front I have two white lights on my forks, one on my helmet, and a huge, 900 lumens, sun-like light as my main headlight. So when on a stretch of road with no cars oncoming, I have to question a driver's common sense when they don't even give me one extra inch of room almost like they didn't see me. Then there are those idiots who, at any time of day or night, will still pass me on a narrow stretch of road or a curve when there is oncoming traffic. There is no way for them to give me room and are forced to get a little too friendly. I hope more drivers pay attention to the many "Share the Road" signs that have been put up in the Lower Mainland lately.



Whew, I feel better already. So what's been going on the last three weeks? I started my program of walking/running a little after the New Year. I did the first two weeks running every second day in the trails wearing my fivefingers shoes and when I couldn't make it outside I was on the treadmill in racing flats. After these two weeks I noticed similar sensations in my left foot like when I had my stress fracture last year. I switched to my regular trail shoes and that seemed a bit better. I've kept running and it hasn't got any worse, though the feeling is still there. I did my first road run on Monday since Gibraltar on Nov. 7th. A whole 4.25 miles at 7:00/mile pace. I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I wasn't sore yesterday with the quads and IT bands complaining the most. I'm going to try and add ten minutes to every second run up until about an hour then I'll figure out a plan from there if I'm not wrecked again. On the up side my biking is feeling phenomenal. I've been doing nearly hour rides to work then the usual thirty-five minute trips home every day and with the hills I'm feeling pretty strong. Throw in a two hour ride on the days off as well. The goal is to do overnight up and back trips to Whistler and maybe Penticton this summer. Throw in a few Mt. Baker rides and life is good.

Starting the New Year right

So the New Year started out with a splash at our usual spot at Crescent Beach (5th year running) with six of us going in and out very quickly. I know I said I was starting my running program on the 1st but, what can I say? I didn't. I did, however, do it on the treadmill on the 2nd at work. 10x 1min walk, 1min run. Whew what a workout. Yesterday I strapped on the Fivefingers and went through the trails near the house doing the same workout. I was wanting the trails because of the softer surface but with the cold we've had lately the ground was like asphalt anyways. Still a feel-good workout. Actually yesterday was a mini out of order triathlon: Swim 1600m, run 3 miles, bike to work 18km.
The swim pretty much went how I thought it would: crappy. Three weeks without running - no problem. Three weeks without riding - ha! I wouldn't even notice. Three weeks without swimming and I'm sinking like a rock all over again. I'm hitting it again today to keep the fun rolling.

Two New Records!!

That's right I've worked so hard lately that I've managed two more personal bests:

1. No running for the last 54 days - not sure what the previous record for me is but for sure it's less than 54 days.

2. The longest I've ever gone without posting an entry on this site - 36 days.

About the blogging: it's not like I haven't thought about writing things, and if the record was for not writing AND thinking about writing then the record would only be a day or two. It's been for a couple reasons: nothing to write about except being hurt or sick and people can only handle so much of that. Also while being hurt or sick I haven't had much motivation for writing. I think Denise McHale has the record for length of times between posts.
As for the lack of running, most would know I had shin issues before, during, and after Gibraltar. The 'after' issues lasted a lot longer than they ever had before. I didn't see a doctor or anything because I know from the past what needs to be done for this: rest. And rest it I have. It took about a month before I couldn't feel any discomfort, then I thought I'd give it another couple weeks to be sure. I think in the past I've rushed my recovery from the shin splints only to have them resurface a few months later. Of course I've still been riding my bike and swimming a fair bit. I was up to 2400m swimming up until three weeks ago when The Sickness came, then all forms of exercise halted.
I started getting this cough which steadily got worse and worse until it was accompanied by a fever and body aches. I hit it with every over the counter concoction I could find but nothing touched it. I was getting no sleep because I was hacking on and off throughout the night. Long part of the story short: I finally got some antibiotics because I have a respiratory infection. I'm on day 5 and feel better but still have a lingering cough. Tomorrow being the start of a new year I'm going out to do start the big comeback. I'm going to do it in my fivefingers shoes to kill two birds with one stone: start running slowly, and start running minimalist again, but slowly. This will be done on the soccer field as well to provide even more protection.
My sister gave me a little program from when she had a stress fracture a while ago and it basically entails running for a minute, walking a minute, a few times a week for a week or two. Then it moves up to the unimaginable two minutes of running x4 for a couple more weeks. You get the idea. Slow is the way to go.
Scott Corsie from Penticton is responsible for me signing up for a couple more races. In his quest to finish the Canadian Death Race he wants to do some races beforehand so we're going to sign up for Dirty Duo and Diez Vista. Not that I'll be in shape for either one doing mostly road work in prep for Comrades but it'll be fun nonetheless.

Lately

Still no running for me. I'm thinking the shin splints may be a stress fracture due to the time it's taking to get better. Usually it's a couple weeks off and I'm back on the roads. There hasn't been a lot of change in the weeks since the race but I'm pretty sure that's due to doing the race. As the snow comes down I can't really get too excited about not being able to run, I'll stick to the bike and swimming. Plus there's still some shocks left in the bone stimulator that I used on my foot back in the spring so have been applying that to my shin the last few days.
Speaking of the bike, I was out last week in a frigid wind and if I didn't have an errand to do I would have turned and ridden the tailwind back in a heartbeat. I'm back in the pool, up to 10 x 150m. Ultraman here I come!! Went out on the bike again yesterday before the latest snow and froze terribly. I'm convinced I don't have enough clothes in my wardrobe to ward off the elements for more than 45 minutes at a time. I have to bounce from coffee shop to coffee shop to keep the feeling in my fingers.

Link to Gibraltar photos

Gibraltar '10">

How not to run a 100k

So probably not the best idea to have shin splints three weeks before the big race and do no running. For some reason in the past any similar ailment would clear up or at least lessen over a couple weeks. In the time since the Around the Lake race on Oct. 16 to race day on Nov. 7th my shin didn't feel a whole lot better. Luckily Mel Bos (part of the women's team) brought her husband, Kevin, who does massage, physio, ART, etc., and he suggested we try taping it up the night before the race. I'd seen it done on the internet and thought it couldn't hurt to try. I also hit the advil heavy the day before which seemed to help.
After a rushed trip to get to Gibraltar late Friday night, then a quick look at the city and The Rock on Saturday, the race came all too soon on Sunday. It was nice for a change with the race start being about 300m from the 'Athlete's Village', a cruise ship brought in just for the runners and support. In the darkness we made our way along the dock to the line. Supposedly we were to run one lap on the street near the cruise ship and then make our way over to another part of town and continue for 19 loops of just over 5k. And I thought 10 loops of 10k in the past was bad! Anyways, somehow the leaders were told to do another lap so already we had run farther than we were supposed to, like 100k wasn't enough. We ended up doing a shorter 12th lap to make up for the extra distance at the beginning.
For some reason, the 19 laps didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe because we ran the first few in the dark so when it got light we had only 17 more to go. No, that's not it. Can't say why but this race, although being my second slowest 100k time ever, seemed to go by quite quickly. The course was horrendous: the first 2.5k along the seedy waterfront of Gibraltar made you want to run with others just as a safety precaution (strength in numbers); the path for the first half of the loop was broken asphalt and a lot of twists an turns AND a hill thrown in there leading up to the water station at the halfway point. I remember thinking how the hill would seem like a mountain in few hours (I never did walk one step on any of those 'climbs'). The second 2.5k of the loop was slightly rolling with a downhill that brought you back to a two-way stretch where you could see runners' positions relative to yours. It also led back to the main aid stations for each country. Once again all the support we had from our gang was stellar. Never at loss to offer food or drink or encouragement. One of the main reasons I keep coming back is because of the great group of people that accompany this race.
The first 30ks were awesome, I was on my pace to hit 7:29 overall. Within minutes of reaching the 30k mark I could feel something was wrong. The legs started getting heavy and it was hard to keep up a decent pace. I tried to keep it up, honestly I did. At 50k I knew any chance for a PR was over and it was all I could to just to keep moving and not either walk or drop out.
The race took its toll on the men on our team save for Thierry. He had a great overall race and finished in 7:40-something. Jack and Rick went out with injuries. Matt started out strong and I remember passing him about halfway. Darren was flying out of the gate and I really thought this would be his day to go sub-7:30 but then I noticed where we passed each other was getting closer and closer meaning he was slowing down. The women all did great with Denise being our superstar finishing in 7:56 for a new Canadian women's record.
When I finished it was probably the most anit-climatic of any 100k race I've done. I was really glad that it was over but didn't get that rush of emotion that I usually do when I'm about to finish. Maybe it's time to either really focus hard on this event or pick another distance and concentrate on that. No more of these years where I try really hard at doing well at many different distances and end up not happy with any of the results.
Some good advice: don't donate blood the day after flying home from Europe and five days after doing a 100k race. I'm still feeling the effects.
Pictures of the trip to follow soon!!

Clip from Gibraltar television

www.livestream.com/gbctelevision/video?clipId=flv_0a839055-48b3-497a-a921-78f7e552b172