Freefallin’
Got nowhwere to (water) run
Once the snow covers the trails runners are forced to hit the roads. Even though roads are built for cars 99% of drivers have the good sense to move their steering wheel one inch to make room for a runner because they know there is plenty of room. That other small percent of drivers feel that the road is rightfully theirs, they don’t want to share it. To make their point they don’t budge and they honk their horn.
It seems as though there are a few swimmers who like to honk their horns too. At McMaster there are a few recreational swimmers who don’t want to share their swimming lane with people going slower (ie water runners). Instead of honking they complain to staff about having to manuever around water runners who are moving slowly.
The way the lanes work at McMaster is that all the traffic flows up the middle and back down either side in each of the slow, medium and fast lane (a six lane pool split into three wide lanes). If one lane is enough room for traffic to move up the pool than one lane is certainly enough to move the same people down the pool. That conveniently leaves the other lane for water runners to go back and forth. 99% of the swimmers realise this and are happy to share. A few however make it a point by coming down the same side as the water runners.
These selfish swimmers have complained to the pool staff to have water runners banned on Tuesday and Thursday when the pool runs the ‘long course’ (see pic above). We were told on Thursday so I wrote an email describing a simple solution so that everyone can share the pool. I didn’t get any response to my suggestion.
On Tuesday during recreational swim we (there were five water runners, two more came and were denied) were asked to leave the pool. We complied and had a discussion on the deck to come up with a resolution so I could continue to train. As pissed as I was that I had to abandon my training I kept my cool so as not to burn any bridges, although I’m sure I still annoyed the aquatics manager with my persistence in finding a solution. The aquatics manager even agreed that the rule was absurd however, they weren’t budging on their decision. It seems as though one of the selfish swimmers is some sort of big shot at McMaster (who may or may not donate large sums of money) and the decision to ban water running was going to stick.
The funny thing is that during our conversation on the deck there were between zero and four patrons in the deep end at any time, plenty of room for more people to enjoy the pool (or to train, pool running isn’t exactly enjoyable).
While there are a number of solutions to a simple problem the one they came up with is to open the pool for an extra hour for pool runners. They will charge the varsity track team and Quest for Gold $30/hour for us to train. Which is fine with me right now but completely ridiculous. When I was injured last week I was in the pool for at least 1hr 45min each day. Now that I’m running more miles an hour will be sufficient for my needs.
I also just received an email saying that if I want to water run for longer I can pay $170/hour to have the pool. That’s right $170/hour! I would be embarrassed if I worked at McMaster and was a ‘supporter’ of the Pan-Am games and the athletes.
I wish I could send all the complaining swimmers back to Kindergarten where they could learn the valuable lesson of sharing.
always pushing up the hill searching for the thrill of it
Eric Gillis ran his first marathon on Sunday in 2:13:52 to finish 8th at the Chevron Houston Marathon. A very good performance and especially promising considering he was picking up the pace throughout the whole marathon. You can read his re-cap at his blog (linked on the right under ‘blogroll’). That result along with Bairu’s 62 minute half marathon win in Phoenix bodes well for Canadian marathoning in the near future.
My back is feeling better each day and I’m still planning on racing a 3000m at the end of the month, although we’ll probably try to set something up at the McGill meet rather than go to Boston. Between myself, Taylor Milne, Chris Winter, Alex Genest and the U of G boys we should have a good pack and hopefully a pacer through 1500m (wink wink Konoval). And if the Killer B’s are going to take down my 3000m school record I might as well have a part in it.
I’ve heard a lot about texting “HAITI” to 90999 to make a $10 donation, but that only works in the States. In Canada you can text “HAITI” to 45678 to make a $5 donation which gets billed directly to your phone bill. It’s very easy to do, once you text you just have to reply “YES” to confirm the donation.
Gonna try again tomorrow
I put off writing a blog for a few days in hopes of delivering better news about my running. Thankfully the last few days have gone well and I’m back on track, (pun intended). This is what happened… A week ago Monday I had a good workout with Taylor Milne but my back was a little sore. A few hours after the workout my back was really sore and it felt very similar to the injury that put me out for a few months back in 2008. I wasn’t overly worried about any damage already incurred however, I was very concerned about it getting any worse.
By 9:15 he next morning I was in to see my chiropractor, Aras Kvedaras, and he confirmed that my disc was interfering with my nerve. He treated me a few times over a couple of days while I rested. I spent the next few days in the pool and on the stationary bike maintaining fitness. Subtle things such as pruned fingers from 1 hour and 50 minutes in the pool and transforming my TV room into a spin bike studio reminded me of last winter when all I did was cross-train. With more help from my physiotherapist, Brenda Scott-Thomas, I started to feel better and was running by the week’s end. There were a few more days of X-training mixed with running and now I’m feeling much better. I only missed three running workouts in the time off. That’s not a big deal in the big picture, although I missed enough to warrant skipping the January 23rd race and focus on a workout instead.
I was ready to scrap the indoor season completely or at least put off racing until later in February but I should be fine for January 30th if things keep moving in the right direction. Being injured is never fun but it more stressful if you’re trying to hit a certain race. Because the indoor season is a set-up for my outdoor season there is no need to ‘reach’ in order to race.
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Yesterday I was nominated as one of the three finalists for the Golden Horseshoe Athlete of the Year . The winner will be announced on February 25th at the Hamilton CYO dinner.
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TRUFFLE SHUFFLE!
we are always running for the thrill of it, thrill of it
Happy 2010! I celebrated New Year’s at the Moulton Distance Project once again with much of the Speed River team. Before the festivities at night we had a good workout on the indoor track of 5 X 1600m in which I averaged 4:31 on plenty of rest while trying to stay with Milne. I felt pretty good considering I’m running over 190km/week. On the way to practice I stopped at Value Village and bought a second-hand suit for $20 (pic below).
The major championships this year are the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India. These championships will be held in October and will see daily average highs of over 30C. My goals may change, but as of now I will be aiming to run the 5000m in India and get some retribution from my last 5000m at Commonwealths in ’06. The shorter the race the better with such hot weather although I’ll have to weigh my options and see what distance I’ll be more competitive in. The 10 000m will be my focus throughout the spring with one real attempt at the beginning of May before shifting to the 5000m in order to qualify for New Delhi.
but I still dream of running careless through the snow
I used to get pretty hyped when a ton of snow would fall in Ellicottville for skiing. Running in it isn’t as fun and so I jumped ship and now I’m back in Hamilton where we only have a dusting and I can still get on some of the trails. I had to postpone my workout yesterday due to the snow and I did it today. Now I have a couple of days before our traditional New Year’s VO2max workout.
If you want to vote for OUA team of the decade you can do it at www.oua.ca and all you have to do it click on the survey. The U of Guelph Cross-Country team won about 15 OUA Championships out of 20 between the Men and Women. The guys won 8 National titles in the past 10 years.
I can’t think of anything to write so I’ll leave you with some sweet dance moves.
Mass Appeal
The first week back doing workouts and drills always leaves me feeling pretty sore, that’s where I am right now. Three workouts this week and 1/2 of Wednesday’s was done on the indoor track. I’m going to do a few more track sessions this winter than I did in recent years as I want to reconnect with some 3000m ‘speed’ that has alluded me because of injuries and marathons. I find racing indoors exciting and a good place to brush up on racing tactics. If you can manuever around people on a 200m track you should be fine once the outdoor season rolls around.
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My 25th place at Worlds was not good enough to get me carded (funded by the federal government) this year. I’m not surprised at all because I didn’t hit the mandatory time standard (2:15:48). The reason I believe I didn’t hit the standard in Berlin is because it was pretty hot that day (23C). Most of the runners were a few minutes back of what they could have run and I was only 1 minute off of the carding standard. I knew going into Berlin it was more than likely to be hot with the 11:45AM start time. I would have been better off running a fast 10 000m in Europe or a big city marathon (Chicago) in the fall to hit a carding standard.
The definition of carding is to fund those athletes who are likely to be in the top 16 at a World Championships or Olympic Games. To make progress towards that particular goal we felt it was crucial to run and get the experience at the World Champs, although the best way to get carded would have been to forgo the World Champs and race fall marathon . Athletics Canada (AC) has sent a clear message, ‘run to get carded and forget representing your country’…. but how do you finish top 16 at Worlds or Olympics if you don’t race the major champs, hmmm?
The funniest part is that I sent in an appeal about my situation because I felt my performance at Worlds was worthy of being carded. Some lady, who I’m pretty sure is clueless about running, tells me I didn’t hit the carding standard, a fact I outlined in my appeal. Don’t tell me something I already acknowledged, have the balls to tell me that my performance at Worlds is not on a level to be carded.
It’s fun to bitch about this but in reality not being carded this year won’t change anything for me. I still have Quest for Gold funding and support from Speed River, New Balance and Power Bar. The motivation is still there (maybe stronger) and my goals are all still intact. Now I don’t have to report to the AC distance coach although I’m still required to fill out my CCES whereabouts for drug testing… if they don’t think I’m good enough to be carded then why would they want to drug test me?
Happy Holidays from this, random, family to yours!
Waves
I'm not a fan of the Chariots of Fire theme so I prefer to play this song (below) while muting the running video (above). Still keeping a piano tune.
The Kids are sick again
Now I know what people mean when they say you’ll KNOW if you get H1N1. If someone says they might have had it, or they ‘think’ they had it, they didn’t have it. You’ll KNOW if it’s H1N1. It hits hard and it’s very taxing on the respiratory system. After 4 days of not even leaving my house and then another 4 days of doing no more than a little walking I went for a 25 minute run. My legs felt noticeably weak from lying in bed for two straight days. I’ve run a couple of times since and my body is feeling much better now. I’m still waiting for all my congestion to clear before I do anything more than an easy run.
Although I missed the National Cross-Country Championships I’m very happy with the way my season went. I would classify my fall season as a transition from marathon to 10km fitness. I still have a long ways to go before I’m hitting the workouts I need to hit to run a good 10 000m but I’m further ahead than I thought I would be by this point. The H1N1 was only a minor setback because I really didn’t take off more time than I normally would after the season. And as long as I’m working out by the end of this week I’ll be right back on track.
I know some people like to read training details… The last workout I did before I went to Japan was a good indicator that I was ready to run 13:40. I did it alone on the track and had Andrew Yorke, dressed in a sweet suit, calling out splits. The workout was 6 X 1000m with 90 seconds rest and then 4 X 400m with 90 seconds rest and 3 minutes between the km’s and 400’s. 2:50, 2:50, 2:48, 2:48, 2:48, 2:45, 65, 64, 62, 60. The first five 1km repeats were very controlled as well as the first few 400 repeats. I got it going a little for the 2:45 and 60 but I was cautious to not leave my race in that workout. It all ended up going according to plan as I felt good for race day and ran 13:38.
The plan for the next few months is to continue running good mileage (many weeks in the 180-200km zone) and concentrate on strength and endurance type workouts. Once again I’ll do a few indoor races to help with my leg speed, break up the training and just have some fun.
I’m not sure if these are Japanese super heroes or parking police?
I went for a couple of hikes when I was recovering from H1N1 just to get out of the house.
I’m beginning to see the light
I won’t be racing the AGSI Canadian Cross-Country Nationals tomorrow. I’m still quite sick with what the doctor thinks is H1N1 although I didn’t have a swab to confirm. The last two and a half days have been brutal but I’m starting to come around a little this afternoon. If I continue this path of improvement I hope to able to at least watch the races tomorrow.
This will be the second year in a row that I’ve missed Nationals XC after 10 straight. And once again the Run for Toad trail race in October kept my XC streak alive as I have raced a XC race each fall since I my first in grade 6.
The bright side is that I didn’t catch this virus on the way to Japan. Ever since the Zoo Run things have really started to click and workouts kept getting better and building on each other. I knew I was getting back the 5km-10km fitness that I wanted after my injuries and marathon training but it’s always nice to actually put it into a race. Having run 13:38 on the roads confirmed that I’m on the right path. I didn’t really think too much of the 5km at the time because once the race was over I was already concentrating on Canadian XC. After spending the better part of two days lying in bed I thought about the 13:38 a little more and really appreciated it.
My plan was to take a week off of running after National XC so really the rest just started a little earlier. I’m glad I have the luxury of time because I know I need to fully recover from this before serious training resumes. A week off of running sounds a lot better than the three months I had last year with a broken foot.
Good luck to all those racing tomorrow. GO SPEED RIVER!
Last year at AGSI Canadian XC on crutches
FLOAT ON 