Ides of March
For the past three months I’ve been doing one tempo session, one fartlek (or track), one light speed session, two mileage days, one easy day and a long run each week (12 runs/week). My good friend got married last Thursday in Cancun so I juggled the week around to accommodate the mini vacation. I did my hard tempo session on Monday in Guelph with the group and then my hard track session Wednesday morning with Josephat before I flew to Mexico. On Friday I had 7 X 3min on the schedule and it turned out to be the hottest day there. It was 32C although it felt like 39C (102F) with the humidity and I suffered dearly in the scorching sun. The first five repeats were tough but I managed a respectable pace before falling apart on the 6th and then decided to do a few shorter repeats than one more three minuter. In my head I kept wondering if this suffering was going to make me tougher or give me heat stroke. After the workout I drank a ton and then went to the Ocean and felt fine, so I’ll say the session made me tougher, haha. I got back on Saturday night and then did my long run (32km) on Sunday.
Wednesday’s track session was quite interesting. I did a bunch of 400m repeats for the first time this year and there was about 50m of ice covering the track at the one end on the bend. The day before was quite warm but since I was doing the workout early in the morning before my flight it was still cold outside. I found a box of salt and tossed some onto lane one and Josephat broke it up a bit since he was wearing spikes. We started the interval right before the ice so we wouldn’t hit it at full speed. The first bit was slow going but after a few repeats I was able to squeeze the time on the ice from 8 seconds down to 6 seconds. It almost felt like the interval started after 6 seconds of running. All in alll Monday and Wednesday were solid workouts and another step in the right direction.
Wedding on the beach. Very laid back.
Hanging on the beach during the wedding.
BTW, Shaun White hair was cut after he won the gold.
The smarter it gets the further it’s going to go
Yesterday I did a key 10 000m workout on the track. Chris and Dave shovelled two lanes of the track on Wednesday to clear enough space for an early season session. It’s too bad I don’t have a picture of us on the track because it looked pretty cool. There was snow a few inches high on either side of the cleared lanes and if you looked across the infield it looked as if we were running on snow. Most of the group did 1km repeats but myself and Destroyer had two 2km repeats added in the mix. In all, we had 10km worth of intervals with 2 minutes rest the entire way through. My cumulative time was 28:16 which bodes well for my next race in three weeks.
I can’t help looking back to similar workouts in my old running logs. Almost three years ago to the day I did a similar workout with a cumulative time of 28:04. However in that particular workout I had 4 minutes rest after the 2km sections and the final 2.8km was split up with 800’s and 400’s which made it easier to run a faster pace. Weeks later I went on to run 28:21 and then 27:56. I’m looking for a similar result for my first 10 000m outing and eventually looking to improve even more for the key race one month later.
Today I put in a solid 32km with Josephat through Ancaster and Dundas. The guy has to start doing some speed work because he’s way too fresh for most of these runs the day after I have a tough workout. I run with Josephat 2-3 times/week and sometimes he just runs away from me and I have to let him because I need to recover from the day before. When we were both on the same schedule for the marathon and doing speed work together it was he who had to slow down the recovery runs more than myself. He won a half marathon last weekend so his training is going pretty well off of no structured workouts but I feel he isn’t going to be too pleased once he faces some tough competition. Maybe that will be his wake up call to start doing more fartlek, tempo and track sessions. In case you’re wondering, he works in the afternoons when I go to Guelph for workouts, that’s why we don’t do speed work together.
I can’t believe the article I read today in the Globe about the Canadian XC ski team members getting hate mail because they didn’t let Brian McKeever race at the Olympics. It really is too bad that Brian wasn’t able to fulfill his Olympic dream of competing and making history as the first winter athlete to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics. On the other hand I feel it would have been more of a travesty if coaches had pulled a more deserving athlete out of the race in order to make a good story for the Canadian public. The people who are pissed probably don’t support or even pay attention to our skiers for 206 of every 208 weeks anyways and now they feel like they know best. And on the topic of Olympic XC skiing, what a great performance by Devon Kershaw, 5th place is incredible. He looked very disappointed in his interview to be so close to gold (1.6 seconds out) but hopefully now he has had the time to reflect and be proud of what he has done.
Last night I saw this guy… 
… I absolutely had to stop and record some of his skills. Unfortunately the lighting is poor but it is still entertaining nonetheless.
GOALIE PADS!
when they fight, they fight
Three things I came across today:
1) The Melbourne Grand Prix takes place this Thursday. Love or hate the Aussie cockiness, but this is funny:
2) Gord Pauls from the Runner’s Den is raising money for Haiti by doing three Ironmans in three consecutive days!!! A 12 hour Ironman is a respectable time, which means he’ll likely be racing the majority of the time for three days in a row. He and his wife have been raising money for Haiti for many years and often fly down to volunteer. Gord was on a flight to Haiti when the earthquake struck and the plane was re-routed to Florida. www.gordpauls.com
3) The 3000m that I ran in McGill a month ago is on Youtube.
Chronicles of Nornee 2010
I didn't get that much footage this year while I was down in Auburn. Just enough to put together a little something for all of Nornee's fans.
Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air
Five by a mile is one of our staple workouts that we come back to a few times over the course of the season. I tend to put some pressure on myself because, like a race, it’s easily compared to past performances and I want to see improvement. Going into the workout I wanted to average 4:28, a few seconds faster than New Years’ Eve, the last 5 X 1600m session.
Biking over to the Auburn track I was thinking of what might make this fast and what may slow things down. The temp was 16C (61F) and breezy, great conditions for a track workout. I was running solo which is never good for me. I was now on a 400m track (vs. a 185m track) which would make things much easier. I ran more mileage going into this workout than I ever have before and my legs have been very tired throughout the past week. The heavy legs were my main concern… Tuesday’s workout went well even though the warm-up felt like I was running through molasses however, on Thursday I was put in a good effort and got mediocre results. And of course my last real effort on the track (Boston Indoor Games) was a complete disaster.
I often gauge how I’m feeling after my first 400m. The first 400m was 68 (4:32 pace) and I wanted to quit right then and there but I put my head down and told myself to at least keep it at 2:16 through the half, anything slower would of been a disheartening. Surprisingly I came through in 2:15 and held on for 4:30. Followed by another 4:30 and then 4:28 and 4:26. I aimed for 4:24 on my last mile and split 3:18, right on pace, before getting after it and finishing in 4:21. More than anything this workout was a good step in the right direction and a confidence builder knowing I felt really good for the last three miles.
I’ve learned not to judge a workout by it’s cover (ie. the first lap).
The new found confidence came through in my foosball game last night when I redeemed Friday night’s loss to JP Weerts at the Copper Beach Invitational. Now I just have to learn this one…
Olympic comments: Eric Guay with two 5th place finishes (Downhill and Super G) is the most under appreciated Canadian Olympian right now IMO. Medals are everything for the media but in two of the most popular events he's top 5 and only .03 from a Bronze in the SG! Just sayin'.
Yea, yea Montgomery’s got the answer
I’m halfway into my training camp here in Auburn, AL. The weather has been all over the place since I’ve been here. One day we actually got three inches of snow and the next day I was running in shorts again.
Training has been going well, I’ve been taking advantage of the trails and logging a bunch of miles since I’ve been here. I’m basically training like a marathoner for a few weeks to get in a solid base for the track season.
Dave Scott-Thomas and I decided yesterday that I will probably get more benefit from training with the group in Guelph than the benefit of altitude in Flagstaff throughout March-April. In the past I have gone to Flagstaff with a teammate (Cal and then Gillis) who was training for the same race. For different reasons this spring no one else from Speed River can get away for 4+ weeks and I’m not really keen on doing those specific workouts solo. At least I can fire up the tent and get some benefit from sleeping at 10 000 feet.
A few people have asked about Nornee. She is doing fine and keeping busy. I didn’t bring my computer so I won’t get any clips up until the 26th or so. In fact I really don’t have any footage yet, something to work on for the next week… stay tuned later next week.
Olympic coverage sucks in the US and I can’t watch the streaming stuff live at CTV. I watched splits for the men’s downhill yesterday on the comp and learned my lesson to just wait for prime time and see the race unfold then.
Cool blog from Bruce Deacon about running a marathon at the age of 12 (see link on right).
Dathan Ritzenhein has an informative blog that I recently discovered. www.dathanritzenhein.competitor.com
http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ is always good too, haha.
you’re not as brave as you were at the start
Saw some of my splits from the vid: 4:01 at 1500m, 6:46 @ halfway (13:32 pace). Sick or not I didn't need to be running 64's (through 2km) in a 5000m at this point, 65's would of been plenty fast. It was a good learning experience nonetheless and if anything it has motivated me to step up my game.
This is definitely not the race report that I wanted to be writing about today… last night I dropped out of my first race ever.
The week started off well with a solid workout on Monday however, I woke up Tuesday with a sore throat and cold and decided to trade in my run for sleep. On Wednesday I was feeling a little better and managed some comfortable 300m repeats on the track and I thought by Saturday I’d be ready to race. By Saturday morning I only had a little congestion and thought I was fine, at least that is what I told myself.
I heard the pace was going to be set for 64 seconds/400m which meant that with my current fitness I should just sit in the back and click off 65 second quarters. I had no illusions of running 13:20 and thought 13:35 would be a good performance at this point in my training. Because of my cold I rested more than anticipated throughout the week had a nice taper going into the race. I split 2000m in about 5:22 and felt really comfortable. It was much easier than the weekend before when I split 5:20 en route to my 3000m. However, things started to go downhill after 2km.
It always gets tough about halfway through a 5000m but last night it was getting really bad, really fast. I fell off the back of the pack and came through 3000m in 8:11, about 4 seconds behind the next runner. At that point I was really suffering and wanted to drop out. Having never dropped out of a race before I didn’t want to have to pull the plug so I ran another lap while I decided what to do. And then I ran another lap… Finally another half lap later I made a sharp right turn off the track.
Watching the end of the race, that I was just running, from the sidelines was very weird and awkward. At the same time it was really exciting as three runners ran 13:11 and Bernard Lagat broke the American record and I had great seats.
I hate that I dropped out of a race but I’m not really that pissed because when I think back to how bad I was feeling I know that there was not much use suffering out there like that. I guess I was hoping my cold wasn’t going to affect me but it certainly impacted my body in a negative way. Today I’m resting and I am looking forward to getting some solid training in the next two months before I race again.
When people run in circles it’s a very, very mad world
The McGill 3000m was the definition of a ‘rust-buster’. In the past two years it was my first indoor race, first race track race under 10km, and first race in spikes. I was on 8:00 pace through 2km but once I was all alone I let off the gas and had a horrible 600m where I was running at least 2 seconds too slow per lap. I really wanted to run under eight minutes so my time of 8:07 was not really what I was looking for but at the same time it was a good move in the right direction. I probably should have been more tired and sore after a race but I’m glad I wasn’t beat up from an 8:07. I’m glad Alex came on strong towards the end or I would have probably just jogged it in. Because I had led since 1300m I was not going to be outkicked and so I finished off my last lap with a decent clip. Most of all it was a fun race having 8 of the top 10 guys all from the same training group.
Coolsaet, Reid Speed River Tfc 8:07.38
Genest, Alex Speed River Tfc 8:08.47
Milne, Taylor Speed River Tfc 8:13.16
Winter, Chris Speed River Tfc 8:13.41
Boorsma, Kyle Guelph 8:15.61
O’Neill, Kyle Western 8:18.37
Wray, Nigel Guelph 8:19.10
Christie, Russell Dalhousie 8:30.50
Brett, Allan Guelph 8:33.75
Parrott, John Guelph 8:37.91
The next morning Tim Konoval, Chris Winter and I had a very cold but interesting run through Montreal. We first did a little tour through Old Montreal before heading to the mountain. The trails on Mont-Royal were snow covered although quite good for running and there were many people out and about considering the -30C (with windchill) temperature.
Good news, I’m racing the Boston Indoor Games 5000m on Saturday (Feb 6). I would of really liked to have a better 3000m time going into the race but knowing that McGill was my first time in that zone in a long time I’m confident that I can split a similar time through 3000m and keep it going for 5000m. The race itself is stacked with good athletes (start list below) and I know the pace will be fast so I don’t have to worry about leading and hitting specific time splits. I’m just going to get out there and run a competitive race.
| Alistair Cragg | IRL |
| Shadrack Korir | KEN |
| Markos Geneti | ETH |
| Reid Coolsaet | CAN |
| Bernard Lagat | USA |
| Bobby Curtis | USA |
| Haron Lagat | KEN |
| Dejen Gebremeskel | ETH |
| Scott Overall | USA |
| Galen Rupp | USA |
| Bekana Daba | ETH |
| Ian Burrell | USA |
| Sam Chelanga | KEN |
| Josphat Boit | KEN |
| Adam Perkins | USA |
I’ve walked for miles, my feet are hurting
“HEY BUD! DO YOU BREATHE IN THROUGH YOUR MOUTH OR YOUR NOSE?”
That’s the question I was asked this morning from an oncoming runner. I responded to do what ever feels natural and don’t think about it. For some reason it was funny enough to laugh out loud once he was out of earshot but now that I’m writing about it it doesn’t seem like it would of been funny at all. I guess you had to see the desperation on the guy’s face, it was as if I didn’t answer him correctly he was going to suffocate.
Both of my feet are pretty sore right now from pounding the road this winter so I’ve taken up doing some of my runs on an artificial infield. This afternoon I did 7 of 10km on the 350m loop where my feet don’t feel a thing. I figure it’s better than the treadmill and to pass the time I’ve started running with music during the loops.
Bruce Deacon started a blog http://bruce-deacon-thelongroad.blogspot.com/. Bruce was really helpful this summer before Berlin answering a slew of my own running questions, mainly about marathoning and not so much about breathing.
***
The Canadian men are doing very well in Slalom this year and it’s at the top of my must-see events next month at the Olympics. Today in Schladming, AUT Julien Cousineau finished 5th in a World Cup Slalom. A few days ago Mike Janyk finished 5th in the Kitzbuhel slalom leading 4 Canadians into the top 14! Now that I don’t ski it’s really easy to watch ski racing on TV. The races are always shown mid-day on weekends (the time when skiers are normally skiing) so it’s perfect between training runs.
The other weekend while watching a Super Combined event the announcer said coming from the Downhill and racing the slalom was like racing a marathon and then coming back and racing a 100m. Having been a ski racer I can tell you the Alpine ski disciplines are not as widespread as the 100m and Marathon. In my opinion Slalom would be the 1000m, Giant Slalom the 1500m, Super G the 3000m and Downhill the 5000m. With my theoretical match-up of equivalent events it’s very plausible for an athlete to be competitive in all four events. At the same time many athletes only concentrate on two events because they cannot stretch from one end to the other. Bernard Lagat is a good example of someone who can rip a 1000m and a 5000m, but no one is training for the 100m and the marathon.
What if a big track meet set up a race where runners would have to compete in a 5000m and then a 1000m a few hours later? They would have to come up with some sort of way to weigh both events equally and have an overall winner. It would be pretty interesting.
I got some new NB spikes that I’m going to test out tomorrow and race with on Friday in Montreal. After MTL 3000m I would like to race the 5000m at the Boston Indoor Games but I’m still waiting to hear if my agent can get me a spot on the line…
FLOAT ON 