Dazed and confused
On Monday I had a great workout in Guelph. We had a full group cranking it out together on the dirt roads doing mile repeats with hill sprints thrown in after every other interval. It was fun to work out with the collegiate guys and have 1500m runners right up to us marathoners all together. I guess the common denominator is the 3000m and there are 6 of us who have run sub-8:00 and a couple others really close. Yes, it’s a deep group.
On Saturday at 1pm I didn’t even think I would workout on Monday. That’s because I completely bonked on my long-run.
I thought I could get away with a 36km run but there were a couple of factors that caused me to fall apart around 34km. First, I did a good tempo run on Friday afternoon and drained myself pretty good. I usually do long workouts in the morning and have 24 hours to recover but this time it was a quicker turn-around. On Saturday morning I ate breakfast at 8am thinking I was going to run at 9am. However, it had snowed and it was warming up so I figured I’d wait until 10:45 to get out the door for my only run of the day.
I ran 3km to the Around the Bay 30km course, ran the course in a shade under two hours and then proceeded to run home. I was already feeling low energy levels around 30km and knew it was going to get a little ugly. It got a lot ugly around the 34km mark. I had to slow down to a shuffle slower than 5min/km (8min/mi). Twice in the last 1.5km I had to walk for a bit. I was dizzy, not thinking straight and utterly depleted. I finally got home and quickly made a protein shake and had a big meal.
Sure enough a few hours later I was feeling fairly normal again. But I cannot even imagine having that happen in a marathon and trying to stay on pace through that kind of wall. I’ve never bonked like that before and I hope I never do again.
***
I just got done watching this amazing documentary on Brother Colm coaching in Iten. Eamon Coughlan travels to Iten to learn what the Kenyans are doing right, there is a large focus on David Rudisha. It’s cool to see so many familiar places.
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FLOAT ON 
Thanks for sharing that doc. I watched the whole thing!
It motivates me even more too.
Hi Reid,
Sorry about the valley you are in. It happens. I have had no legs for almost four days now because I got into some overzealous interval runs last week like a complete lunatic.
Thanks so much for the Iten video. I am learning a lot from it and it is motivating. One feels like they are having a secret revealed to them while watching it. Eye opening. Revelatory.
All the best in your speedy (I hope) recovery. Are you coming back to Iten?
Cheers.
Jacob
reid, thanks for posting this…it was defintely the best documnetary i have seen .it shows you alot of things that here in north america ,we DONT do!
1- we train too hard on easy days..having trained with them,i know how slowly they run on easy days alot of the time.
2- there is more to training than simply running each day….ie the drills they do .
3-group training has major benefits as long as the groups arent racing each other, every day.
4-mileage is key..the 800m junior that trains 2 and 3 times a day…you cant even get most college coaches in canada to prescribe 2 a days!!!
reading your recap of your last long run is proof that most runners train too hard…here you are the best cdn. marathoner,able to avg. under 5 mins/mile for 26.2 miles ,and you are running your long run at 6:30 per mile…..you ran the 30km in “just under 2 hrs.which is what myself and my training buddies used to do alot…and we were only low 31 mins. 10km guys…maybe we were runing too fast!!! it would be great if you could post your daily workouts and let the younger guys see what you are doing each day, the pace you are running at,how you are feeling…i think they would learn alot…keep up the great work.
Loved it dude, couldn’t stop watching
When Brother Colm is watching the Commonwealth Games on TV, who is the Canuck that is running by? I’m thinking it is you!
I asked the Hanson coaches if Sell was running 150 mile week, how many of them
could he do at sub 6 pace. They said 100. Maybe that is hype, and maybe the logs
don’t bear it out,
Then you look at Destroyer doing a 130 mile week with 4 speed, plus a 182 mile week
earlier.
It’s hard to tell whether you are killing yourself, or pushing to a new level. Time will tell.
Great video. Thanks for sharing. Very cool!!! 🙂
Hey, off-topic question about beets.
Do you know if pickled beets still nearly as healthy as a regular beet? Or does that just ruin the health benefits?
I’m not sure?
After watching that video it is clear to me North Americans are not eating enough beets.
Reid, Thanks for sharing this…
“It got a lot ugly around the 34km mark. I had to slow down to a shuffle slower than 5min/km (8min/mi). Twice in the last 1.5km I had to walk for a bit. I was dizzy, not thinking straight and utterly depleted.”
I had the same experience that same week. (OK, my paces are a little different, but you know…) I ran 26k mostly into the wind… and then I got to the hills. Had to shuffle my way a few times on my way to finishing 30k.
All good though… did a 25k run the following week and felt like I was floating.
Thanks for sharing the journey with us!