And you claim you got something going

In June and July combined I ran a total of 237 kilometres and realized that I have run more than that in one week.  My weekly km total has only surpassed 237 on a few occasions, but surpassed nonetheless. For comparison, in February I ran 871km.

So far I’ve had a couple of harder sessions and they’ve been relatively slow but I’m seeing improvement and happy with the progression.  I can’t expect much right out of the gate and I know my fitness will come around once I get some more workouts under my belt.

I know I’ve been slacking in the blog department over the past few months but I have two good excuses. The first is the lack of running and racing due to downtime and breaking my collar bone.  The second is that I’ve had a side project on the go which I’ve invested a lot of time into.  Eric Gillis and I are launching the Canadian version of www.VICSYSTEM.com, an online coaching site that provides personalized dynamic training programs from the 5km to marathons and beyond.

Back in February Eric and I met Patric, (the owner) at Lornah’s in Iten and were just talking at lunch one day and he told us about Vicsystem.  It sounded cool but I didn’t really think a computer program could plot out a training system that well, I thought they were all cookie cutter programs.  Patric let Eric and I plug our stats and goals into Vicsystem and I was blown away by how close the training plan resembled ours.  I was most impressed with how it periodized my training throughout the whole year to incorporate marathon training, recovery, regular training etc.  It also scales back really well to all levels, which elite runners sometimes have problems with when trying to coach all abilities.

The big hurdle was the website was only available in German.  Eric and I decided to take on the task of developing an English version to serve Canadians.  We also decided to put it off until after our Spring marathons.  In late May Patric came to Guelph and we worked on the site for a few days. We added our drills, core routine, strength program and had some input into the training. We got a lot of work done but there was still a lot more to do.  After I broke my collarbone I couldn’t run much so I decided to travel to Zurich for a week and finish it off, or at least get really close. There are still a few things we need to add but the site is now up and running.

There are a lot of things that I like about the site.  You make your own schedule by picking out how many times per week you want to run and Vicsystem works with your schedule. Your training program is calculated using your current fitness level. When you record your running in the feedback section the training program evolves to accommodate your current fitness and changes your goal times and workout paces accordingly.  Even if you run with some friends who are doing a different run than prescribed by vicsystem you can enter that info and it will factor into your training program too. If you’re running at altitude or over hills Vicsystem will tell you how far you would have gone on a flat route at sea-level. And if you don’t want to get that picky you simply don’t fill in that info.  It also plans your weights, core, drills and exercises.

Check it out: www.vicsystem.com. It can be used as a free training log or you can pay-in for $150 a year ($240 for 2 years) to take advantage of the whole program, which is a great deal compared to other coaching sites.

Trip to Zurich:

Lake Zurich

Rimini bar