Three and a half more days until I leave. What more is there to do? Well there's packing, for one. I'm notorious for leaving things until the last minute and packing all my crap is no exception.
The long runs are a thing of the past. Today was my last one, clocking in at a harrowing time of 1 hour, about 8.75 miles. Tomorrow is 4 x 1 mile on the treadmill maxing out at around 5:45 per mile. Saturday is 3 miles, Sunday 6 miles at "pace", according to my schedule. As my pace to be a sub-6:30 time has to be 7:10 per mile, and I've been averaging sub-7:00 the last couple of weeks, it might just be 6 miles on Sunday running how I feel. Monday is 3 miles, then 10,621 miles of flying. Wednesday is 3 miles, Thursday and Friday off, Saturday 2 miles then Sunday is the big hurt.
The race starts 5:30am SA time Sunday May 29th, which is Saturday night at 8:30pm Vancouver time. That means I will hopefully be finishing around 3am Vancouver time. Set your alarms for 2:30 and track me to the end at the Comrades website. My number is 58807. You can watch the whole thrilling adventure streaming live online. What else would you rather be doing?
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Zippidee -do da
So I don't know what it is but the plan has come together and everything is feeling perfect (knocking on wood). As soon as I was done the really long stuff I was to switch to shorter, faster runs. Not that I had an idea what I would be running these faster runs at, just that they'd be less than the 7:30 per mile I'd been doing in the training runs. I found out today that the Comrades "up" run this year is officially 86.96km, shorter than the "down" runs which are usually around 89km. This is good news as I have a better chance of hitting my time goal of 6:30. If it was 89km I'd had to have run a 6:57 average mile and now it'll be 7:13. Much more manageable and possible (but not guaranteed). To get a 6:15 it would be 6:57 per mile but with the hills I can't see that happening without me blowing up.
Anyways, back to the week that was. The key runs this past week were a fast 10k and a "long" run of 1:30. I slapped on the racing flats for the 10k and set out thinking I'd stay steady at a 6:45 pace. As the minutes went on I kept seeing the average pace on my Garmin dropping but I still didn't feel taxed. I ended up doing the first 3 miles averaging 6:18 per mile and the second 3 miles with a 6:04 pace and felt great. Now I know it's only one tenth of the race and I won't be going that fast, but it was a great mental boost to have some speed after weeks of long slow stuff. The next day was a 1:30 run along the hilliest part of 0ave again and ended up cranking out a 6:49 average over 13 miles. Again, felt awesome. Today was only an 8 mile scheduled run and after ten minutes I was flying again with steady breathing and not feeling bad at all. Two weeks to go before I leave!!
Anyways, back to the week that was. The key runs this past week were a fast 10k and a "long" run of 1:30. I slapped on the racing flats for the 10k and set out thinking I'd stay steady at a 6:45 pace. As the minutes went on I kept seeing the average pace on my Garmin dropping but I still didn't feel taxed. I ended up doing the first 3 miles averaging 6:18 per mile and the second 3 miles with a 6:04 pace and felt great. Now I know it's only one tenth of the race and I won't be going that fast, but it was a great mental boost to have some speed after weeks of long slow stuff. The next day was a 1:30 run along the hilliest part of 0ave again and ended up cranking out a 6:49 average over 13 miles. Again, felt awesome. Today was only an 8 mile scheduled run and after ten minutes I was flying again with steady breathing and not feeling bad at all. Two weeks to go before I leave!!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Long Runs Done
The last two weeks were the longest in terms of mileage in a couple years when I hit 100 miles each week twice. When I did that I almost broke myself, having the shin splints return. This time I topped out at 75 miles each week and felt much better for it.
My regime which I borrowed from www.halhigdon.com and used for almost all my road races (the site has programs from short distances through the marathon and even one specifically for Comrades, which I've been following for a few months now) has emphasized back to back long runs which I've never really done in any of my ultra training. I always found it was too much at once. I understand that the first day is to tire you for the second to simulate the latter stages of a long race and hopefully to get you though it. Whenever I've tried this I find that I'm mentally not into the second day's run and the fatigue seems to be more of a block than I can hurdle. Two weeks ago my long runs consisted of 5 hours at Chuckanut in the trails, then a 4 hour run the next day. Chuckanut started out really well. I planned two, two and a half hour loops of lots of steady climbing, mostly on well-groomed trails. When I went to start my second loop my legs felt like they weren't into it. I managed to run all the hills like the first loop but at a slightly lesser pace. When I was about 4 hours into it I did the math as to how much time I had left and realized I wouldn't be able to run the last bit of the second loop because I needed to get home. Also that section of the loop was pretty steep and technical in spots and I'd be walking a lot of it anyways. Not really beneficial training when getting ready for a road run. I still ended at 5 hours and the Garmin read 32 miles. The next day I started running along 0 ave again through the hilly section, eventually getting to a rolling stretch of about five miles where I'd turn around and run it in reverse. When I was close to an hour and a half I felt a deep ache in my knee and started freaking out that it might be something bad. I decided to turn around at the 90 minute mark and hopefully make it back to the car. As I kept running on the return route something hit me: I remember that I had this same discomfort a few years ago. I stopped, stretched the quad of my left leg really well then started out again. What do you know there was no more discomfort. I remember going to see Active Release Therapy ace Colin McKay one time with the same ailment and he said it was tight quads. Here we go again.
After fifteen minutes I had to stop and stretch again. It wasn't debilitating but it was definitely bugging me. Luckily I had a massage later that day and that seemed to help a bit. I ended this run with 24 miles done.
A few shorter runs over the weekend and I was on to the last week of long runs. This time I decided to do a 5 hour run on Wednesday and a 4 hour run on Friday with Thursday being a rest day with another massage in there, too. The 5 hour run consisted of starting in Maple Ridge at 240st and Dewdney Trunk Road, right along the old H2H course. I intended to head east to the Mission Municipal Hall, refill the bottles, and head back. As I've been staying off the roads as much as possible the last few months, this would be a test of the legs. I've been trying to stay on routes that have a dirt or gravel shoulder to run on to minimize impact. Lots of times the ground is soft and probably makes me run with greater effort because of the absorption of energy when running. However I thought this would only make me stronger and hopefully reduce the chance of getting hurt again. I couldn't remember if the H2H route had much of a shoulder as along this section it's always been dark and I stuck to the road surface. Turns out that about 75% of the stretch I ran along had a decent shoulder.
The run started reminiscent of the actual H2H race: about 4 degrees and raining. The shoulder was quite often full of puddles and muddy but I stuck to the plan and ran through it all to avoid the asphalt. I had everything that day - rain, sun, wind, hail. I don't think it was the best temperature training for S. Africa but I'll deal with that by hitting the sauna from now to when I leave. I even went the first half with no music but treated myself to the tunes on the way back. My ears end up bleeding if I listen to the music for too long. I ended up the run at 5 hours and 40 miles. 7:24 minutes per mile average. I was pretty happy with this because the route was very hilly in stretches and I felt strong on the return trip. The knee was aching for most of the run but it got to a certain point then didn't get any worse so I could ignore it.
Two days later I went out to Aldergrove Lake for the last time (thankfully). I'm getting to know every inch of that loop and the only thing that changes is the amount of horse poop along the path. I felt excited to do the run and the legs felt peppy as well. This is what I was hoping for. I did one loop of the trails then headed out around the neighbourhood roads to switch things up. I came back and ran the same trail route in the opposite direction in the same time as the first loop, only in a new pair of shoes to break them in. I still needed about :40 after this to hit the 4 hour mark so changed into the racing flats I want to use on race day and cranked out some 6:45 minute miles to finish off the run. Everything went really well on that day and I wasn't even dead tired. I'm beat the nights after the run and the next day but the day after that I'm ready to go again. Confidence is high for the run that's only, holy crap, 27 days away. Now time to taper with some shorter, speedier runs and quick hill repeats. Knock on wood I don't break before the race.
My regime which I borrowed from www.halhigdon.com and used for almost all my road races (the site has programs from short distances through the marathon and even one specifically for Comrades, which I've been following for a few months now) has emphasized back to back long runs which I've never really done in any of my ultra training. I always found it was too much at once. I understand that the first day is to tire you for the second to simulate the latter stages of a long race and hopefully to get you though it. Whenever I've tried this I find that I'm mentally not into the second day's run and the fatigue seems to be more of a block than I can hurdle. Two weeks ago my long runs consisted of 5 hours at Chuckanut in the trails, then a 4 hour run the next day. Chuckanut started out really well. I planned two, two and a half hour loops of lots of steady climbing, mostly on well-groomed trails. When I went to start my second loop my legs felt like they weren't into it. I managed to run all the hills like the first loop but at a slightly lesser pace. When I was about 4 hours into it I did the math as to how much time I had left and realized I wouldn't be able to run the last bit of the second loop because I needed to get home. Also that section of the loop was pretty steep and technical in spots and I'd be walking a lot of it anyways. Not really beneficial training when getting ready for a road run. I still ended at 5 hours and the Garmin read 32 miles. The next day I started running along 0 ave again through the hilly section, eventually getting to a rolling stretch of about five miles where I'd turn around and run it in reverse. When I was close to an hour and a half I felt a deep ache in my knee and started freaking out that it might be something bad. I decided to turn around at the 90 minute mark and hopefully make it back to the car. As I kept running on the return route something hit me: I remember that I had this same discomfort a few years ago. I stopped, stretched the quad of my left leg really well then started out again. What do you know there was no more discomfort. I remember going to see Active Release Therapy ace Colin McKay one time with the same ailment and he said it was tight quads. Here we go again.
After fifteen minutes I had to stop and stretch again. It wasn't debilitating but it was definitely bugging me. Luckily I had a massage later that day and that seemed to help a bit. I ended this run with 24 miles done.
A few shorter runs over the weekend and I was on to the last week of long runs. This time I decided to do a 5 hour run on Wednesday and a 4 hour run on Friday with Thursday being a rest day with another massage in there, too. The 5 hour run consisted of starting in Maple Ridge at 240st and Dewdney Trunk Road, right along the old H2H course. I intended to head east to the Mission Municipal Hall, refill the bottles, and head back. As I've been staying off the roads as much as possible the last few months, this would be a test of the legs. I've been trying to stay on routes that have a dirt or gravel shoulder to run on to minimize impact. Lots of times the ground is soft and probably makes me run with greater effort because of the absorption of energy when running. However I thought this would only make me stronger and hopefully reduce the chance of getting hurt again. I couldn't remember if the H2H route had much of a shoulder as along this section it's always been dark and I stuck to the road surface. Turns out that about 75% of the stretch I ran along had a decent shoulder.
The run started reminiscent of the actual H2H race: about 4 degrees and raining. The shoulder was quite often full of puddles and muddy but I stuck to the plan and ran through it all to avoid the asphalt. I had everything that day - rain, sun, wind, hail. I don't think it was the best temperature training for S. Africa but I'll deal with that by hitting the sauna from now to when I leave. I even went the first half with no music but treated myself to the tunes on the way back. My ears end up bleeding if I listen to the music for too long. I ended up the run at 5 hours and 40 miles. 7:24 minutes per mile average. I was pretty happy with this because the route was very hilly in stretches and I felt strong on the return trip. The knee was aching for most of the run but it got to a certain point then didn't get any worse so I could ignore it.
Two days later I went out to Aldergrove Lake for the last time (thankfully). I'm getting to know every inch of that loop and the only thing that changes is the amount of horse poop along the path. I felt excited to do the run and the legs felt peppy as well. This is what I was hoping for. I did one loop of the trails then headed out around the neighbourhood roads to switch things up. I came back and ran the same trail route in the opposite direction in the same time as the first loop, only in a new pair of shoes to break them in. I still needed about :40 after this to hit the 4 hour mark so changed into the racing flats I want to use on race day and cranked out some 6:45 minute miles to finish off the run. Everything went really well on that day and I wasn't even dead tired. I'm beat the nights after the run and the next day but the day after that I'm ready to go again. Confidence is high for the run that's only, holy crap, 27 days away. Now time to taper with some shorter, speedier runs and quick hill repeats. Knock on wood I don't break before the race.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Diez, Fatigue, and Flights
If you look up "Diez Vista" in the dictionary it reads, "Steep, difficult, borne from the depths of hell, exhausting, occasional scenic viewpoints depending on the weather". It may be all these but I still really like doing this event. It's got elevation (8,000' worth), great views of Indian Arm, gnarly and hair-raising descents, great aid stations, fabulous volunteers, and race directors extraordinaire.
I was meaning to post my goals before the race but never got around to it. What I would have said was how it was going to be a training run (yes I know I've said that many times before, but this time, as the others, I meant it). I thought about breaking 4:30 but didn't think it would happen, so I changed the time goal to 5 hours. Even though I was 9 minutes over my goal, partly due to the extra elevation added to skirt some flooded trails (thanks BC Hydro!), I felt overall that it was a successful training run. No falls, bruises, extreme emotionally low periods, and when I finished, my legs felt the least destroyed they've ever felt after an ultra. I'm hoping that that means either I went slow enough to fulfill my goal of not racing, or that I'm in super-awesome shape leading up to Comrades. The fact that I fatigued myself the week before Diez as well cemented in my head the fact I wouldn't be as fast as if I'd tapered. Tuesday before the race was a two and a half hour mountain bike ride with some guys from work, Wednesday was an hour run, Thursday was a 2 hour hard road ride, and Friday was a 2 hour run along the hilly part of 0 ave - 16 miles. The couple days after the run were positive for me because I actually felt like I could have run again but knew it would be better to rest my normal three days afterwards.
An hour and a half on the bike yesterday and a 3 hour trail run today has me back on track, although still a bit tired. A 4 hour run tomorrow should make me forget all that.
Got my flight to SA today. Leaving on May 23rd arriving on the 25th. Coming home on the 2nd of June. Gone to the next level of excitement!!
I was meaning to post my goals before the race but never got around to it. What I would have said was how it was going to be a training run (yes I know I've said that many times before, but this time, as the others, I meant it). I thought about breaking 4:30 but didn't think it would happen, so I changed the time goal to 5 hours. Even though I was 9 minutes over my goal, partly due to the extra elevation added to skirt some flooded trails (thanks BC Hydro!), I felt overall that it was a successful training run. No falls, bruises, extreme emotionally low periods, and when I finished, my legs felt the least destroyed they've ever felt after an ultra. I'm hoping that that means either I went slow enough to fulfill my goal of not racing, or that I'm in super-awesome shape leading up to Comrades. The fact that I fatigued myself the week before Diez as well cemented in my head the fact I wouldn't be as fast as if I'd tapered. Tuesday before the race was a two and a half hour mountain bike ride with some guys from work, Wednesday was an hour run, Thursday was a 2 hour hard road ride, and Friday was a 2 hour run along the hilly part of 0 ave - 16 miles. The couple days after the run were positive for me because I actually felt like I could have run again but knew it would be better to rest my normal three days afterwards.
An hour and a half on the bike yesterday and a 3 hour trail run today has me back on track, although still a bit tired. A 4 hour run tomorrow should make me forget all that.
Got my flight to SA today. Leaving on May 23rd arriving on the 25th. Coming home on the 2nd of June. Gone to the next level of excitement!!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Dirty Duo report, SFU Running, Long Runs
Okay I know, too much to post. I've been soooo busy, blah, blah, blah. Just haven't been able to sit down an formulate much lately.
A quick recap of the Dirty Duo 25k:
Equaled my time of last year not having run in a trail for five months.
Slightly longer recap:
The first half hour once we started climbing was all I could do to stop, wait for Scott to catch up, and walk my way to the end. Funny thing is that after the thirty minutes things settled down - legs stopped hating me and started working better. I ran behind Jen Seggar for probably 45 minutes until I slowly (and I mean 'slowly', no offense to her because she was scheduled to run a 100 mile race the following weekend) past her on a long steady climb.
After that it was a matter of dodging mountain bikes (sometimes pushing them to help them up the hills) and following the markings to the finish. The trail was wetter and muddier than last year so you'd figure my time and the winning times would be slower but that was not the case. The winning time was about twenty minutes faster than me which over 25k that blew me away! Carrie and my sister, Karen, also did the 15k race.
Did a run through Simon Fraser University a week ago. In the past while training for Ironman, biking up roadway to the top of Burnaby Mountain was a February staple through wind, rain, and sleet. On this day I did a couple hours through the trails and around the back and ended up running up the roadway for the first time ever. I was surprised it only took 14 minutes when by bike it took me 9 (the short route, anyways). I plan to go back soon and do repeats up that bad boy. Funny how little things remind me of biking up that hill: the scenery, the traffic, the never-ending @#!$ hill!!
Have my long runs up to 4 hours all on trails. I've been out to Aldergrove Lake a few times doing 1 hour loops of 8 miles. It's actually not bad because the terrain is constantly going up or down, nothing too crazy, and it's not technical so I can make good time.
This weekend will be my third running of the Diez Vista 50k. Should have been my fourth but the stress fracture last year decided that one for me. I'm planning to do a two hour run the day before to tire the legs a bit. Seeing as I need to do back to back runs for the next month I should start this week and use it as a training tool. Should I be concerned I am definitely not ready for 7,800ft of climbing? Shucks, it's just another day. Time on the feet is what's important right now.
A quick recap of the Dirty Duo 25k:
Equaled my time of last year not having run in a trail for five months.
Slightly longer recap:
The first half hour once we started climbing was all I could do to stop, wait for Scott to catch up, and walk my way to the end. Funny thing is that after the thirty minutes things settled down - legs stopped hating me and started working better. I ran behind Jen Seggar for probably 45 minutes until I slowly (and I mean 'slowly', no offense to her because she was scheduled to run a 100 mile race the following weekend) past her on a long steady climb.
After that it was a matter of dodging mountain bikes (sometimes pushing them to help them up the hills) and following the markings to the finish. The trail was wetter and muddier than last year so you'd figure my time and the winning times would be slower but that was not the case. The winning time was about twenty minutes faster than me which over 25k that blew me away! Carrie and my sister, Karen, also did the 15k race.
Did a run through Simon Fraser University a week ago. In the past while training for Ironman, biking up roadway to the top of Burnaby Mountain was a February staple through wind, rain, and sleet. On this day I did a couple hours through the trails and around the back and ended up running up the roadway for the first time ever. I was surprised it only took 14 minutes when by bike it took me 9 (the short route, anyways). I plan to go back soon and do repeats up that bad boy. Funny how little things remind me of biking up that hill: the scenery, the traffic, the never-ending @#!$ hill!!
Have my long runs up to 4 hours all on trails. I've been out to Aldergrove Lake a few times doing 1 hour loops of 8 miles. It's actually not bad because the terrain is constantly going up or down, nothing too crazy, and it's not technical so I can make good time.
This weekend will be my third running of the Diez Vista 50k. Should have been my fourth but the stress fracture last year decided that one for me. I'm planning to do a two hour run the day before to tire the legs a bit. Seeing as I need to do back to back runs for the next month I should start this week and use it as a training tool. Should I be concerned I am definitely not ready for 7,800ft of climbing? Shucks, it's just another day. Time on the feet is what's important right now.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Velodrome
Last Friday a group of ten of us from work went to the Burnaby Velodrome for a Learn To Ride On The Track session arranged by another co-worker and track superstar, Andy George. It lasted about two hours but the time went by so fast it seemed like twenty minutes. We started out with about a ten minute talk from Claire, an instructor, on going around the cote d'azur, or "coat" as it was called. It's an eighteen inch slightly canted strip around the inside of the track that basically gets you onto the track so you can pick up speed before going up onto the steeper parts.
Me standing on the "cote" showing for scale how steep the track is in the curve - 47 degrees.
It was definitely a bit of a learning curve riding the fixed gear bike with no brakes and practicing speeding up and slowing down not being able to coast. After a few laps it was down to the centre again for another talk on transitioning to the "sprinter's lane" between the red and black lines and up to the blue line (see picture above). After another break of five minutes and a demonstration from Andy on how to hit the last curve then stand and sprint down to the corner and into the sprinter's lane, we were all doing it.
It was a pretty cool feeling having no wind resistance and just bombing around through the corners but it wasn't easy riding near the top because of the small hills just before each curve after the straightaway.
I would recommend anyone to try this at least once in their life as it gives a deep appreciation to the track riders and the power required to do really well.
Me
Me
Definitely Not Me
Thankfully Not Me
Me standing on the "cote" showing for scale how steep the track is in the curve - 47 degrees.
It was definitely a bit of a learning curve riding the fixed gear bike with no brakes and practicing speeding up and slowing down not being able to coast. After a few laps it was down to the centre again for another talk on transitioning to the "sprinter's lane" between the red and black lines and up to the blue line (see picture above). After another break of five minutes and a demonstration from Andy on how to hit the last curve then stand and sprint down to the corner and into the sprinter's lane, we were all doing it.
It was a pretty cool feeling having no wind resistance and just bombing around through the corners but it wasn't easy riding near the top because of the small hills just before each curve after the straightaway.
I would recommend anyone to try this at least once in their life as it gives a deep appreciation to the track riders and the power required to do really well.
Me
Me
Definitely Not Me
Thankfully Not Me
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