FLOAT ON

Tomorrow we have a long workout where we are going to test our limits of liquid and carbohydrate consumption.  It looks as though the weather will actually be a little cooler than late so we will not need the same amount of fluid as a 30C day but we can still top up our carbs.  This is something that is very important to practice in marathon training.  Gillis and I have some help getting us bottles at the right time which is much better than hiding them in the bushes the night before.  The Crew: Dave Scott-Thomas and Chris Moulton will be accompanied by Rob “Destroyer” Watson who is filling in for Cal Staples. 

First off we need to practice sipping a water bottle while maintaining sub 3:10/km pace and not slow down.  Because the pace is fast enough that my breathing rate will be taxed it’s hard to get down the liquid smoothly.  You don’t want to be burping for the few minutes after taking in fluids.

The other important thing to test is the amount of carbs your stomach can handle while still feeling good.  In the marathon you need to take in energy or you’ll run out before the finish line, your body does not have enough stored glycogen to run fast the whole way.  However if you take in more carbs than your body can process or if your mix is too concentrated you can end up sick.  Check out 47 seconds into the video below…

Recovery and training has been going well since National 10 000m last week.  I’ve been running a lot of mileage and had a long workout of 2 x 12km where we (Gillis and I) cruised through 10km in 32min and then picked up the pace for the last 2km.  A couple of days ago we did 5 X mile with 5 minutes rest.  This is basically our speed work.  Considering I ran 70km in the two days before the workout I was very pleased to average 4:25 for the miles.

Well that was a nice re-introduction to the track… now I want to race the 5000m at Nationals.  I probably actually would double back but I’m happy to get on with the marathon training ahead. 

I finished third in the 10 000m race last night but I got the National silver medal seeing as that Kip Kangogo is Kenyan.  I’m happy enough with the result (29:14) but I think a sub 29 and second place would of been possible had I really gone for it.  When Simon Bairu made his move with 11 laps to go I felt that I didn’t want to risk blowing up.  Covering the move, (or even half covering it) comes down to confidence and fitness and I think I’m lacking a bit in both.  The track fitness simply isn’t there right now and that doesn’t bother me at all training for the marathon.  I’ve only been on the track twice since March 19th (once to pace a 5000m and one track workout last week), I simply haven’t had enough running in that ‘zone’ to be comfortable going ‘there’.  When you train in that ‘zone’ the confidence will come.  The race last night was, in itself, a confidence booster for me because I ran in control the whole way and felt good which bodes well for the marathon.

This is the first year since 2003 in which I haven’t won a national track title (not including ’08 injury when I didn’t compete) but I also never had to compete against a 27:23 guy for that title, haha.  Ah, the glory days…

Guelph Mercury article from last night’s races.

  1 Bairu, Simon                 Queen City Striders   28:49.25%  10        
  2 Coolsaet, Reid               Speed River T&F       29:14.63%   8        
  3 Gillis, Eric                 Speed River T&F       29:35.82    6        
  4 Kitz, Robert                 U Toronto TC          31:39.78    5        
  5 Parrott, John                Speed River T&F       32:39.33    4        
  6 Monette, Sebastien           Vaudreuil-Dorion      32:56.76    3        
— Kangogo, Kip                 Running Room         X29:02.12             
— Ball (T44), Richard          Orillia Legion       X37:53.51           

Simon now has the track record (I did have it) and Richard Ball set a PB and National record in the T44 category (he has a prosthetic leg).  It’s always inspirational to watch Richard out there racing.  Speed River has the early lead in the team title championship.

Here is a stupid new rule (or at least a bad application):  No watches are to be worn on the track.  I wasn’t planning on wearing my watch but I know some people like to keep and eye on the splits without looking for the clock.  The official said not to worry because we would be given splits.  There wasn’t a clock or splits given at the 200m mark, which coincides with the 3km and 5km splits.  Those are the two most meaningful splits to me in a 10 000m.  Is this an IAAF rule (highly doubtful), an Athletics Canada rule (wouldn’t surprise me) or a U of T rule (most likely)?  Either way I don’t see the harm in wearing a watch on the track.  Or at least accommodating the rule with two clocks (which most track would have anyways).

Gillis and I had a good workout on Saturday morning which will hopefully be posted on www.speedrivertfc.com in the coming days.  I’d write more about the workout but I don’t want to spoil it.

Going into the workout I had been battling a sore throat and thought that I was just about over it but 36km in the heat told me otherwise.  I felt like trash yesterday so I took it completely off and had a very easy 10km run today.  I’m going to push back my workouts one day further so I can have another easy day before my next workout.  This is only a minor setback (if a setback at all?) and I want to make sure it doesn’t turn into anything else.

I finally made it… a brief chat at Runner’s World.

There are some interviews posted at CanadaRunningSeries.com

Here’s Josephat’s interview…

Update:  After a couple of X-rays it was determined that Josephat has Plantar Fasciitis (huh, until spell check I thought it was spelled 'faciatis', and I thought that 'skiing' was the only word with double 'i'... learn something new everyday...anyways).  He was on crutches for a few days and he is walking now.  I took him to a physiotherapy appointment today to get some work done and he seems to be coming around.  Also, Josephat is moving on August 1st from a furnished apartment to an empty house, so if you're in the Hamilton area and have any extra furniture laying around Josephat and Karanja could probably use it. Let me know.

Watching the World Cup Final is the perfect way to relax and recover after this morning’s Acura 10 Mile race in Toronto.  Unfortunately I had to miss the first mountain stage of Le Tour this morning but it was well worth it for a solid effort over parts of the Scotiabank Waterfront marathon course I’ll be running at the end of September.   With sunny skies and temperatures around 22C (much cooler than earlier this week, thank god) it was a beautiful morning for a race.

Given the calm weather my plan for the race was to squeak under 3:00/km pace for the 16.1km race.  The first km was passed in 3:00 with a small pack and then I got to 5km in 14:58 with Josephat and Chengere Dadi Tolassa in tow.  I didn’t recognize Chengere and asked him, in french, if he lived in Switzerland and knew the Stellingwerff’s.  Sure enough it was him, the same guy I suggested to Hilary that he run this race while he visits his brother in Toronto.  After 7km I tried to drop him a couple of times to no avail and thought that my email to Hilary may end up costing me $400 (difference between 1st and 2nd prize money).  A little after 9km I finally shook off the 28:00 10km runner and went through 10km in 30:03.  I started to pick up the pace ever so slightly and went through 15km in 45:00, right on 3:00/km pace.  My final time of 48:24 was 1 minute and 10 seconds ahead of second the place finisher and comes out to 3:00/km (4:50/mile) on this calculator http://runningmagazine.ca/calculators/ .  I was very pleased with the consistent pace as I’m pretty sure my km splits were all between 2:57 and 3:03 and I split 5 miles in 24:12, exactly even for the first and second 5 mile splits.

Putting my feet up and relaxing today is part of my recovery from a solid effort.  Proper recovery from hard workouts and races is instrumental in maximizing future performance and if not done at all you can risk burnout.  First off it’s important to replenish fluids and carbohydrates with some protein.  Right after my race that included water, an isotonic sports drink and a banana.  Following an easy 5km cool-down I had another banana, 2 apples and PowerBar recovery shake with peanut butter (the PB mixed up surprisingly well in my shake bottle).  After the race I put on some Zanagen Xccelerate  sports cream and then my CEP compression socks which I find are two ways to maximize recovery.  Once I got home I had a couple of fried eggs with guacamole on toast and frozen yogurt for dessert.  I typically take a cold bath but by the time I got home from the race it had been 3.5 hours since I finished so I didn’t bother filling up my backyard rubbermaid with water and ice.  Later this evening I’ll probably take a little walk and do some Active Isolated Stretching to get the blood flowing a bit.

There it is, Spain just won.  I had a feeling they would although I was cheering for the Netherlands.  Now it’s time to watch a video recap of this morning’s Tour… I’m pulling for Ryder Hesjedal and Andy Schleck.

Contador is probably much happier about today’s soccer match than he is of Schleck winning the stage.

My version of the Contador Fingerbang looks more like a Big L tribute.  Fail on that one.

Acura 10-Miler results and write-up

—– ——— —– ——— —- ————————————- —————— ——– ——– 
               Final     Pace  Real                                                                                                        5 Mile  5-10 Mile
Place Time      /km   Time        #  Name                                                City                               Split
—– ——— —– ——— —- ————————————- —————— ——– ——– 

    1   48:24.2  3:01   48:22.9    1        COOLSAET, REID                    GUELPH               24:12   24:13
    2   49:34.9  3:05   49:34.9 1777  DADI, TOLASSA                      TORONTO             24:12   25:23
    3   50:36.5  3:09   50:35.3    2       ONGERI, JOSEPHAT              BURLINGTON         24:30   26:07
    4   50:41.6  3:10   50:41.6    9        DEBELU, LEMMA                    KITCHENER             25:14   25:29
    5   51:42.6  3:13   51:42.6   12        GETNET, DAGIM                     TORONTO                   25:34   26:10
    6   53:01.2  3:18   53:01.2   13       KARANJA, FRED                     HAMILTON               26:04   26:58
    7   53:01.7  3:18   53:01.7 1150   NZINGA, JOSPHAT                 TORONTO                  26:01   27:02
    8   54:56.6  3:26   54:56.6   11       GATUNDU, VICTOR                HAMILTON              27:15   27:43
    9   55:08.5  3:26   55:08.5   15      MINICHIELLO, RICHARD    OTTAWA                    27:13   27:56
   10   55:51.1  3:29   55:51.1   19        COX, TROY                              HUNTSVILLE             27:42   28:10

The Peachbud 10km went fairly well last night.  I won in 29:34 and felt strong at the end of the race, it didn’t hurt that the last 2km were downhill and with the wind.  Once again I found that I wasn’t pushing enough up the hills and against the wind.  There is something that is missing right now in regards to racing and I think the main things are fitness, confidence and competition.  I know with more workouts my fitness will improve and when workouts get better my confidence will come around too.  My next race, the Acura 10 miler, will likely be more competitive and of course the National 10 000m championships on July 28th should be very competitive up front.

Last night’s race went out really fast as there were about 6 of us who went through the first km in under 2:50.  Some dude went out like it was a 1500m and had 5 seconds on the me by 400m, then he made another surge around the 2km mark.  Derek Nakluski hung on tough through 7km.  He wasn’t right on me but he wasn’t all that far back for the longest time.  I split through 5km in ~14:34 and ran the next 5km in 15:00.  From 4km to 8km I was running about 3:03/km, that is the section that I need to clean up.

Tour De France is starting up on Saturday.  Last year was the first year I really paid attention and now I’m hooked.  I’ve already looked over the course and the teams for this year’s race.  The unfortunate part is that TDF and WC have to overlap this year so I’ll have to switch back and forth while I stretch after my morning run, tough life.

Happy Canada Day Tomorrow!

 Tim Horton’s Peach Bud top 10 results

The Vuvuzela has officially entered the mainstream, haha

I finished up my first week of marathon training.  This week I stepped up the quantity and not the quality.  I ended up with 180km and two relatively easy workouts.  Wednesday I did a stinkin’ hot 45 minute tempo around 3:25/km with Gillis and some of the Speed River guys (who did 30 min) and then Saturday Gillis and I did 15 X 2 min with 1 min rest.  This week I’ll keep the quantity the same and step up the quality, mainly due to racing 10km on Tuesday evening (press release below).  Even though I brought the mileage up I think my legs are still pretty fresh and should be ready for the race on Tuesday evening.

Scotiabank Waterfront marathon had a press release this past week about Gillis, Loiselle and me running the September 26th marathon.  And then SpeedriverTFC.com had a few follow-up questions on video. 

 

June 21st brought the first official day of Summer and with it my first official day of Marathon training.  Now that I’ve had 5 weeks of decent training it is time to step up the workouts and the mileage.  My aim will be the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on September 26th, 14 weeks away.

On Saturday night I acted as a rabbit in London for a 5000m on the track.  My plan was to run 65.5 secs/lap for 3000m.  I got to 2000m on pace in 5:27, not particularly even but not bad.  In the next half of a lap Destroyer pressed the pace and took over the lead.  I wasn’t ready to run any faster so I jogged for 800m (about 2:30) to let the next pack catch up and ran the last 2km with Matt Brunsting.  I figured I might as well get nationals standard (14:25) out of the way just in case I want to race the 5000m.  With 20 meters remaining I looked at the clock and thought I was well in the clear and jogged in only to see 14:25 roll up before I hit the line.  Since I wasn’t too concerned about the standard I could laugh at my mistake.  My focus for Nationals was always the 10 000m as I will be in marathon mode.

Next up will be Tim Horton’s Peachbud 10km on Tuesday June 29th in Grimsby.  This will be my first hard race in a long time.  I think with my recent training I’m finally able to put together something solid.  We shall see.

I decided I’m going to cheer for the Netherlands at the World Cup (Spain and Argentina were the other considerations).  My last name is Flemish,  not too far off from Dutch.  I was not impressed by England’s effort last game.  The US already dominate enough sports on this planet.  Germany disappointed me against Serbia and I would really like to see Ghana get to the next round (at least one African team needs to make it). Brazil will have enough fans as it is. 

Last week as I was running up a rather long and steep hill with the Kenyans we started talking about hill workouts.  I said I always wanted to do a workout on this particular hill and was thinking 6-7 repeats would be a good start.  Karanja said in Kenya he would run hills by time (he trained under Dr. Rosa with Paul Tergat) and suggested we run this hill for 50 minutes.  Of course the jog back is very slow and easy.  Still, I was stunned at the thought of 50 minutes but decided I was up for the challenge.  We decided to tackle the hill next Tuesday.

The next day I went to workout with the Speed River guys on the trails.  It was great to be back doing a workout with those guys again and I really wish I was still doing a track season.  Sometimes I don’t want to hear about the track workouts because I feel like I’m missing out on something I want to be a part of but when I do get a whiff of some info I need to hear all the splits.  Some of the workouts the group has been doing are phenomenal and I’m really looking forward to watching their races in Europe over the next month (Hilary just ran 4:07 in NYC).  Before Europe there is one more race in London, ON and I decided I’d like to help out Destroyer in the 5000m.  My plan is pace him through 3000m which might be a stretch for me seeing as that its been three months since my last track workout. At worst I figure I can help him through 2km.

That brings me to this morning’s hill workout.  When I described to Yorke what hill we would be running up he said “oh, the Juggernaut”, the hill has a name.  Karanja’s achilles was sore which meant it was just Josephat and I at the bottom of the hill about to begin the workout (as usual Josephat was wearing two pairs of pants, singlet, long sleeve and jacket).  To be sure I asked “50 minutes?”. Josephat replied , “no, 30 minutes will be enough.”  I was glad to hear that and became more confident about making it back home in one piece.  So we worked that hill 9 times over and that was a good workout even though we only covered 7km in 31 minutes. 

Pictures never do hills justice… here is a view of a section of the Juggernaut (~400m long in total).  You can’t see the top, which may be a good thing when you’re actually running up it.

Tergat’s long time coach, Dr. Gabriel Rosa, suggests that training at higher elevations is valuable, as is training on hills. “Somebody who always runs on the flat will after some time lose his strength.”

The World Cup is back on and I have been watching some of the matches.  I haven’t picked a team to cheer for yet but I’m leaning towards the US for two reasons.  The first, my family is from the US.  The second reason is that with all the mini flags flying out of cars to support teams there are very few, (if any?), US flags.  I see a ton of Brazilian, Spanish, English, Portuguese and Italian flags but no love for our closest neighbour.  I’m not really surprised but I still find it quite fascinating that no one likes the states.