Someone’s gotta help me dig
On Friday I did a whole bunch of 4 minute intervals by myself. You see, Gillis was racing in Ottawa (he was 10th and first Canadian in 30:18), so there I was digging by myself and then on the 7th interval I ran up on Andrew Yorke in the trails. He decided to jump in and I ended up running a little faster than I would have on my lonesome. I decided to run my last three intervals the long way and Yorke would take the short way and meet me for the cool-down. I ended up running into Yorke 3 minutes into my last interval at 2:58/km and ended up 2:56/km for that interval. (Mike DelMonte filmed the workout for a thank you follow-up video for the All For The Run contributors so I’ll post it here when it’s done).
When my legs are tired I find it much easier to keep my pace with other people running the workout. Otherwise it’s easy to let the fatigue get the best of me. When I’m fresh and hitting my splits it’s not too hard to fly solo, but being towards the end of a 231km (143 miles) week my legs were not fresh. Point of the story: It’s good to be training for the marathon with Gillis.
This was a productive week, especially considering I wasn’t feeling good at the very beginning. I had good volume and my workouts were a step in the right direction. This week will be slightly lower volume before I bring it back up for a couple of weeks.
Watching Ryder Hesjedal make history at the Giro D’Italia (first Canadian to ever win a Grand Tour) today was amazing. I was hoping to watch it at Cafe Domestique but I didn’t start my 42km run early enough (or I didn’t run fast enough..). I planned to start at 7:30 (7:40 start) and in my head I thought 2:45 but my body said otherwise and I was out there for almost 3 hours. It was good to get in the full distance and good to pick up the pace throughout the entire run (second half was 7 minutes faster). Anyways, when I got in the door Ryder had just started his time trial so I wasn’t leaving the TV.
$1000 1500m bet Milne vs Jeroen update: Jeroen opened with a 3:40 today in Morocco. Milne still leads with his 3:37. In other 1500m news, Nathan Brannen ran a PB, 3:34.22, to crush the A standard (3:35.5). Also, there are some 800′s and 1500′s on tap Monday night in Guelph at St. James. If you’re in Guelph you should come and check out the races.
I forgot to post this when I first got back from Kenya but here is some video I shot near the start of the Discovery Eldoret Half Marathon. Very competitive to say the least.
14 12 week marathon build-up
Those antibiotics did the trick and I am now breathing normally, no more wheezing. The bronchitis actually got a little worse before it got better so I ended taking a day off and running very easy for the rest of the week. When I take it easy I run on routes in which I know the length, but without a watch, that way I don’t know/care how slow I’m running but I can still fill in my weekly mileage. Tomorrow I’m going to try a tempo workout however, I’m not putting too much weight on the pace because the antibiotics are still in my system. Maybe later in the week things will really start to click.
Once again a big thank you to everyone who donated to the ”All for the Run” project. Big props to Shawn Brady for coming up with this idea and including me. The generous guy who Shawn is he didn’t even want any of the proceeds, he was happy to simply have his song hit the airwaves. I’m happy to say that in the end I am getting $2500, which is a good chunk of change to help with training costs. $2819 went into the production of the video.
When I first got to university Shawn Brady was one of the top cross-country runners in the province running for Queens. Our paths crossed a couple years later at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton. One night towards the end of the championships there was a beer mile at a secluded track with about 70 people taking part. After the beer mile most people ventured to a nearby house party. Nate Brannen and I noticed that people left a lot of unopened beers by the track so we filled our backpacks and brought them to the party. Well I guess Shawn came back for his beer in the grass which we had already taken and dumped into a communal cooler at the house party. Shawn asked me where his beer was and I didn’t know by that point and he told me I owed him. To this day Shawn still jokes that I owe him a beer. I really do owe him a beer now after his idea to help raise some training funds for me.
A 40 minute documentary came out today featuring some american collegiate runners who trained together last summer in Maine. I really liked the video but I wish they had introduced the runners in the beginning so I knew who they all were off the bat.
Last Monday Scott Russell and Teddy Katz from CBC came to practice to film the workout and get some interviews. Here is a little clip of me suffering CLICK HERE. Looking back I should have known that what I had was worse than a typical cold but I guess I was hoping for the best. It’s one of those things I get away with 19/20 times but this was one I shouldn’t have trained through. Live and learn.
Sometimes when I use an obscure lyric as my blog title I want to turn it into a trivia question to see if someone actually recognizes it but, with google it’s pointless. This line was taken from one of my favourite albums from high school, Perpetual Motion Machine by 13 Engines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr6bOka-WRg
Ventilator Blues
You know what sucks? Bronchitis sucks! I was really congested on the weekend and was hoping that it would clear by Monday’s workout. Not only did it not clear up, it actually got worse. The funny part was that CBC was filming the workout Monday morning and my voice was really crappy for the interviews. Although I took that workout a little easier I could tell that my congestion was pretty severe and it reminded me of when I had bronchitis back in 2006. I went to see the doctor today and she confirmed that I have bronchitis and prescribed antibiotics.
As far as the build-up to the Olympic marathon is concerned I’m not worried (at this point). I feel that I will be back on track by early June. I will have to scale back the intensity for the next 10-14 days to make sure I don’t tax my system too much and I recover. I’ve had similar set-backs before so I know how to play the game.
Unfortunately that also means that I will not be racing the Ottawa 10km on May 26th. The best case scenario is that this is behind me by early next week but I’ll have missed two important workouts which would really effect a race in less than two weeks time.
Good news: Shawn Brady’s “All For The Run” music video (filmed, edited and produced by Mike DelMonte) hit the fundraising target. The money is going to recuperate production costs and help off-set my training costs. http://www.indiegogo.com/allfortherun A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who donated to the project. It is very much appreciated and the money will go to good use.
Eye of the tiger
Last night New Balance officially launched the 890 v2 Canadian with a great event in Toronto.
For some reason they didn’t go in this direction for the campaign…
I’ve been really enjoying Bill and Sons Towing web series (new show every Thursday). Check out the first three episodes below. I guess I have to mention that there is some foul language here…
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Look and see the distance in my eyes
Thanks to everyone who made donations to Run Canada Month (April), especially Millard,Rouse & Rosebrugh LLD and Longboat Runners club for their very generous donations. All donations, which were matched by Athletics Canada, are going to help training costs for Eric Gillis, Dylan Wykes and myself as well as programs to promote running.
The second fundraiser project that I have the good fortune of being a part of is a music video. The song is “All For the Run” by Shawn Brady and the video was produced, filmed and edited by Mike DelMonte. Shawn came up with the idea to help raise some money for my training while getting the running themed song out to listeners. Mike decided to film the Yonge Street 10km and then some other running close ups as well as some footage of the band rocking out. The video turned out really well and the song rocks. It was a good thing I won the race otherwise it wouldn’t of had that feel good ending for the video, haha. Definitely check out the video http://www.indiegogo.com/allfortherun?c=home and you can hear Boston marathon champ Wesley Korir cheering from the lead car before the song breaks in.
On Thursday evening we’re going to the launch party of the NB Canada 890 in Toronto. This version of the 890 v2 (my ‘go to’ trainer) will be offered exclusively in Canada at your local running store in June. A portion of the sale will go to Speed River and help out the club with expenses, mainly physical therapy. So ya, if you buy a pair you should feel very good about yourself!
Can you see the distance in my eyes?
Eric and I just finished up our first official marathon workout towards the Olympics. Our marathon build-up starts 14 weeks out. For the first 2 weeks we’ll mainly be getting used to the volume of the workouts and not killing ourselves to hit race pace or anything. Once we feel comfortable with the volume we start to chip away towards our race pace. This morning we did a 50 minute tempo run and it went better than I thought it was going to. It always takes me a few weeks to start feeling good and while today wasn’t blazing by any means the last 15 minutes was pretty honest and it left me really pumped for the next few months.
This is the stretch where we really have to be focused and that means turning down some appearances. This week we had the opportunity to appear on CTV and CBC but it would have got in the way of a workout and we had to pass it up. If I start doing all these extra things then my running/recovery/energy would take a hit and then all of a sudden I wouldn’t be running good times and then no one would ask to appear or speak or whatever. Running fast always has to be the main priority and now more than ever as we prepare for the biggest stage.
Trailer 3
Click your heels three times
A bunch of people have asked about the shoes I raced with at Yonge Street 10km. I thought I would show them off here and shed some light.
The shoes I raced in are New Balance 1400 that were made for the upcoming Olympic Marathon (thanks JF Fullum at NB!). Unfortunately this colour of the 1400 is not for sale.
However, on June 1st New Balance is releasing a Canadian version of the 890 v2 which will be available in most running stores across Canada. A portion of the sale of this shoe will help support physical therapy for Speed River Track and Field Club athletes. Also, towards the end of May there will be a contest on Runningmagazine.ca where you can win a free pair of the Canada 890.
In this video you can see the gap that Kip put on me with about 400m to go.
I’m looking forward to the new web series Bill & Sons Towing which premieres Thursday April 26th. Check out the trailer…
