I can run much faster when nothing wears me down
I left Toronto last Saturday and now I have one more week here until I race. The marathoners (Dylan Wykes, Giitah Macharia, Andrew Smith and Tara Quinn-Smith) all flew out together and were the last to arrive at the Canadian training camp in Kamen, Germany. We don’t compete until the second last and last day so now we arethe last athletes at the training camp. The full team was only together for a few days here in Kamen.
The training camp is ideal for preparing for a major competition. The rooms are nice, facilities are top notch, the food is good, it’s very quiet and there are good places to run. We leave for Berlin on Monday and we’re sure to see a huge difference. Big city, lots of athletes and lots going on.
Training here has been going well and I seem to have adjusted well to the travel and time cahnge I did a workout on the track a few days ago of 3 X 3000m with 2 minutes rest in which I averaged 8:58 and felt very comfortable. I have another workout tomorrow where I’ll slowly pick up the pace over 22km and touch marathon race pace for a little bit towards the end of the run. It’s supposed to be a feel good workout and I just have to remind myself not to get carried away at all.
Once we get to Berlin I’ll have a light session on Tuesday and then it will be very easy runs from there. We have a course tour on the 20th although we’ll be able to run the course a little before hand as it’s only a 10km loop.
I’d throw some pics I took here but I forgot the cord for my camera so they’ll have to wait.
We’ll be watching the competition on Eurosport here for the first couple of days. I don’t plan on going to the track too many times as I want to be rested for the race but I’m planning on watching the 1500 semis and the Men’s 10 000m final on Monday night.
Here are is the schedule/startlists/results. For those in Canada here is the CBC schedule for Worlds. Looks like they will show the marathon live on the internet at CBC.
Guelph Mercury Articles
Double Shadow
I was looking at the Berlin page on the IAAF site and noticed that Jaouad Gharib (2003 and 2005 World Marathon Champ) of Morocco is entered in World Championships Marathon. The only reason why this was a little bit of a shock is because I remembered reading that he’s also doing the NYC half-marathon on August 16th. Seems like a quick turnaround, a 1/2 in NYC one weekend and then a full marathon the next weekend in Berlin. I don’t think that schedule would fly under most national federations, including Athletics Kenya.
Start/Finish area of Berlin WC marathon.
It’s how high you are and the time it takes to heal
I just finished my third week of higher mileage and with less than three weeks until race day it’s time to slowly start bringing my volume down. I really started to feel tired after my track session earlier in the week so on Thursday I decided to go lighter than usual in an attempt to get my legs back under me for Friday’s workout.
On Friday morning I was contemplating pushing back my workout to Saturday to feel a little better but in the end I decided to see if I was ready. 30 X 2 minutes hard with 1 minute jog in between was on schedule and I was going to run one 2 minuter and see how I felt. Halfway into the first interval I thought that if I look down at my GPS and see 3:30/km then I’m going to call it. Surprisingly I saw 3:07/km and knew that I was ready for the workout (for those with Garmins I run with ‘lap speed’, never ‘current speed’ as I find the latter unreliable). The rest of the workout went well and I ended up with 60 minutes of running faster than race pace.
I’m learning quite a bit about marathon training each week. This week in particular I learned how crappy I can feel at faster paces on the track and how tired my legs can feel with all this mileage. One easier day allowed me to get my legs feeling better when I started to feel beat down.
I’ve been geeking out looking over results and time splits from the past few World Championships to see different pacing strategies. Seems like a lot of guys go out too hard and fall off pace, often not finishing and saving it for another day. For a top 10 finish you almost always have to go out with the lead group but there are numerous examples of top 20 and 30 finishes with more sensible pacing strategies. There’s obviously an advantage when running with a pack but if that pack is too fast it can have more harmful effects in the end. It will be very interesting to see how the race plays out in Berlin.
Some athletes are already at the training camp outside of Dortmund, Germany. Looks like a nice place (couple pics below), I hope the area has some good running routes and that Trent and Destroyer have plotted them out by the time I get there.
The road goes on forever
The Canadian team for the Berlin World Championships was officially named today. AC even made a slide show with music, I figured it would be a crappy song but I was impressed with what they picked. http://www.athletics.ca/berlin2009/
The Kenyan and Ethiopian teams were also named this week and it looks like (no surprise) they are going to have great marathon squads even with the absence of Haile G, Duncan Kibet, James Kwambai and Sammy Wanjiru.
I remember showing up to the Western International XC meet back in University and hearing another team making fun of us saying “you always know when Guelph shows up because of the yellow school bus”. We joked (we weren’t cocky enough to actually say it) that the other teams should know when we showed up because they were going to be fighting it out for second place. Well even Boston Champ Deriba Merga rides the yellow school bus sometimes (proof taken with my cell phone). He’s probably one of the favorites to win the Berlin Marathon despite this being his third marathon this year.
I had a tough workout today as I didn’t hit the times I wanted to for 1600m repeats and then I made the executive decision to run 2 X 800m instead of the last repeat to keep the pace honest. I’ll tack that up to the 27C heat (34 with humidex), the strong wind and my last workout of 5 X 5km still lingering in my legs… whatever makes me feel better about it, right? haha. In general I’m happy with the preparations heading into the marathon. I have three more workouts before I leave for Germany on August 8th. Only 24 more days until go time!
It’s too bad Jon Brown has an injury as he would of obviously been great towards scoring in the team competition but, would of also been an interesting guy to learn from . If you don’t know, Jon Brown finished 4th in two Olympic Marathons (running for GB at the time).
Canadian team. Not many individuals once you take out the relays and marathon…
| Name | Event | Hometown | Coach |
| Ruky Abdulai | Long Jump | Coquitlam, BC | Jarrold Jones |
| Esther Akinsulie | 4x400m | Ottawa, ON | Hugh Conlin |
| Dylan Armstrong | Shot Put | Kamloops, BC | Anatoliy Bondarchuk |
| Bryan Barnett | 4x100m | Edmonton, AB | Quin Sekulich |
| Nathan Brannen | 1500m | Cambridge, ON | Ron Warhurst |
| Jared Connaughton | 4x100m | New Haven, PEI | Monte Stratton |
| Reid Coolsaet | Marathon | Hamilton, ON | Dave Scott-Thomas |
| Sam Effah | 4x100m | Calgary, AB | Brenda Van Tighem |
| Alice Falaiye | Long Jump | Mississauga, ON | Marc Christie |
| Perdita Felicien | 100m Hurdles | Pickering, ON | Gary Winckler |
| Sultana Frizell | Hammer Throw | Perth, ON | Anatoliy Bondarchuk |
| Kelsie Hendry | Pole Vault | Saskatoon, SK | Rick & Susanne Petrucha |
| Kimberly Hyacinthe | 4x400m | Lachenaie, QC | Daniel St-Hilaire |
| Jennifer Joyce | Hammer Throw | Kamloops, BC | Anatoliy Bondarchuk |
| Rachel Lavallée | 20km Racewalk | Peterborough, ON | Stafford Whalen |
| Priscilla Lopes-Schliep | 100m Hurdles | Whitby, ON | Anthony McCleary |
| Giitah Macharia | Marathon | Oakville, ON | Steven Keating |
| Jenna Martin | 4x400m | Bridgewater, NS | Charles Scarrow |
| Carline Muir | 4x400m | Edmonton, AB | Derek Evely |
| Amonn Nelson | 4x400m | Calgary, AB | Brenda Van Tighem |
| Hank Palmer | 4x100m | Lasalle, QC | Daniel St-Hilaire |
| Adrienne Power | 4x400m | Halifax, NS | Peter Lord |
| Tara Quinn-Smith | Marathon | Toronto, ON | Hugh Cameron |
| Gary Reed | 800m | Victoria, BC | Wynn Gmitroski |
| Gavin Smellie | 4x100m | Etobicoke, ON | Erik Jenkins |
| Andrew Smith | Marathon | Toronto, ON | Hugh Cameron |
| Oluseyi Smith | 4x100m | Ottawa, ON | Glenroy Gilbert |
| Brianne Theisen | Heptathlon | Humboldt, SK | Todd Johnston |
| Robin Watson | 3000m Steeplechase | London, ON | Dave Scott-Thomas |
| Angela Whyte | 100m Hurdles | Edmonton, AB | Wayne Phipps |
| Dylan Wykes | Marathon | Kingston, ON | Steve Boyd
|
Some places which sell Vittel water will have these NB key chains attatched to the bottles. Maybe only in Japan?
Someone asked me last week if I could post an example of my training leading up to my debut marathon in Ottawa. Here is a sample week from five weeks out from Ottawa and I’ll compare it to this past week, which is five weeks out from my next marathon. Both weeks started the day after a hard session (35km with 16km tempo on April 12 and the Boilermaker 15km with 11km cooldown on July 12).
Monday April 13: Recovery
AM: 30′ pool running
April 14:
AM: 80′ Stationary Bike
PM: 20km
April 15:
AM: 60′ Stationary Bike
PM: 24km (fartlek workout with group in Guelph)
April 16:
AM: 80′ Stationary Bike
PM: 20km
April 17:
AM: 60′ Pool Running
PM: 17.5km (1200’s on the track with group in Guelph)
April 18:
AM: 70′ Stationary Bike
PM: 21km
April 19:
AM: 27.5km
Totals: 130km and 380′ of X-training
Monday July 13:
AM: 60′ Pool Running
PM: 20km
July 14:
AM: 21.5km
PM: 10km (with strides/drills)
July15:
AM: 20.4km
PM: 10km
July 16:
AM: 27km (1hr44min, Fartlek Workout w/ Josephat)
PM: 40′ Pool Running
July 17:
AM: 20km
PM: 10km (with strides/drills)
July 18:
11:30: Recovery 12.3km (easy, 53min33sec)
July 19:
11:45: 39km (2hr21min, Tempo section, fluid stations)
Totals: 190km and 100′ of Pool Running
My total volume in minutes isn’t too different from one sample week to the other but now I’m running a lot more. The tempo workout today went very well for me and my confidence is growing. This week will be another high volume week for me and then I’m going to gradually bring it down. Leave for Germany in 19 days and race in 33 days!
Boilermaker Start (12000 people)
Boilermaker Finish
Good article on the Boilermaker from Washington Post.
…in the heart of America
The Utica Boilermaker is one of those races I’ve heard a lot about and I finally raced it this past weekend. The race began at 8am in cool temperatures, which I figured would produce relatively fast times for that course, I figured wrong. The first mile was a shade under 5 minutes and I was with the leaders. I split two miles in 10:00 although the leaders had recently made a move and I was back in 12th or 13th place. I really wanted to be in the top 10 so I started picking up the pieces and came through 5km in 15:29, 9 seconds in arrears of the leaders. The two reasons why the first 5km were slow was that it was mostly uphill and there was a headwind. As I made my way up to mile 4 (where you crest the 300 foot elevation gain) in 20:01 I caught places 7 and 8 and continued on to run a 4:20 mile downhill to mile 5. A little later we dropped one guy and picked up number 6. I was doing quite a bit of leading in our little group and was feeling confident until we started another decent from mile 7 to 8 where I got dropped. I gained a little on places 6 and 7 in the final mile but I still finished 9 seconds back of them.
Overall I was very happy with my fitness but I was not too happy with my race. I feel I let 6th place go and that is why I’m not overly happy with the race. I wasn’t able to get into that anaerobic zone towards the end. I simply haven’t done enough of that specific work and without those workouts I’m not going to feel confident enough to get into a little debt and ride it out. This doesn’t worry me too much about my main goal this summer, the marathon on August 22. Sure it would be better if I were to be in, say, 13:35 and 28:20 shape but from where I came from and only 40 days to go my best bet is to train specifically for marathon pace. That isn’t to say I won’t have a 5 X 1 mile workout scheduled in a couple of weeks but, the majority of my work will be focused on long race pace. There are still gains to be made throughout my training on different levels.
I brought down my mileage a little for the race and ran 152km last week, which is still higher than my highest week leading up to Ottawa (146km). The next three weeks will be pretty high mileage for myself to gear up for Berlin.
The crowds at the Boilermaker were amazing. People were lined up for pretty much the whole course and at times were quite deep and always loud. Tons of music playing on the side and a lot of partying. They know how to do an awards ceremony too. Saranac Breweries is the race sponsor and they host a party for 30 000 people with a concert. In the middle they bring out the top ten on stage as well as the top three Americans. It was pretty cool looking out on such a sea of people. Meet directors should all take a trip to the Boilermaker race and learn how to do an awards ceremony properly, which is quickly (not drawn out and boring).
I was the top non-African finisher this year and had the top North American finish since 1993. My three 5km splits were 15:29, 14:50 and 14:59.
The guy who finished second is the World Junior Record holder in the Marathon 2:06:15. The guy in third holds the World Youth Record in the 10 000m at 27:02.
http://www.leonetiming.com/2009/Roads/Boilermaker/15kSplits.htm
PLACE NAME SEX AGE RESIDENCE FIRST 5K SECOND 10K 5K THIRD 5K 15K
1 Ridouane Harroufi M 27 Morocco 15:21 14:26 29:46 14:11 43:56
2 Bazu Worku Hayla M 18 Ethiopia 15:20 14:11 29:31 14:27 43:57
3 Ibrahim Jeilan Gashu M 19 Ethiopia 15:21 14:26 29:47 14:40 44:27
4 Worku Beyi M 22 Ethiopia 15:20 14:27 29:47 14:42 44:28
5 Daniel Kipkoech M 22 Kenya 15:21 14:28 29:48 14:59 44:46
6 Ketema Nigusse M 28 Ethiopia 15:29 14:50 30:19 14:50 45:08
7 Demesse Tefera M 26 Ethiopia 15:21 14:55 30:16 14:53 45:09
8 Reid Coolsaet M 29 Canada 15:29 14:50 30:18 14:59 45:17
9 Lucas Meyer M 25 USA 15:39 14:54 30:33 14:54 45:26
10 Stephen Chemlany M 26 Kenya 15:27 14:51 30:18 15:26 45:44
11 Anthony Gallo M 29 USA 15:40 15:07 30:46 15:07 45:53
12 Fekadu Lemma M 25 Ethiopia 15:35 15:11 30:46 15:09 45:54
13 Andrew Cloke M 24 USA 15:55 15:32 31:26 15:35 47:01
14 Kyle Perry M 25 Sandy UT 15:59 15:49 31:47 15:33 47:20
15 Joseph Koech M 40 Kenya 15:59 15:51 31:50 15:32 47:21
16 Sage C. Canaday M 23 USA 16:22 15:34 31:55 15:29 47:24
17 Elarbi Khattabi M 42 Morocco 16:03 15:47 31:50 15:42 47:31
18 Neal Holtschulte M 25 Rochester NY 16:57 15:37 32:34 15:13 47:46
19 Yevgeniy Sirotin M 40 Ukraine 16:04 15:47 31:50 15:57 47:47
20 Seth C. Dubois M 21 Altamont NY 16:33 15:43 32:15 15:35 47:50
21 Andy Allstadt M 26 Endicott NY 16:00 16:03 32:02 15:59 48:01
Don’t be afraid if you hear voices
I was back on the track this afternoon for 20 times 400m with 1 minute rest. I will get on the track every two or three weeks leading up to Berlin, the majority of my workouts will be on the trails or roads. It was a nice day for a track workout, 23C and sunny without much wind. I averaged 65 seconds which is one second faster than what I averaged back in April when I did 15 times 400m. Both workouts were done roughly 6 weeks out from the marathon. My legs are feeling better and better each week even with the increase of mileage and longer workouts.
I’ve been watching Le Tour de France every morning after my run, I usually end up catching the last hour or so. This is the first year that I’ve religiously kept track of the Tour and I’m hooked. The tactics are very interesting and the commentary is informative and complete (much better than watching distance running on TV in North America). Track needs some good commentators like Phil and Paul who know their stuff and shed light on the athletes.
Last week I did my workout in conjunction with the Peach Bud 10km road race in Grimsby to help pace a friend through 7km at 3:10-12/km. I ended up running 3:12/km for 9km during my second of three intervals (1 and 3 were shorter intervals). I ended up finishing the race on a rest between intervals and people were cheering for me to “hang in there” and “the finish is near”. It was kind of funny because most people thought I was just too tired to finish strong. Here’s a pic about 100m from the finish.
I checked out the Boilermaker course and it looks as though it will tough for me to break my 44:25 PB over 15km. The route climbs 300 feet in the first 4 miles and then another 100 feet from the 6 to 7 mile mark. There will be n0 need to watch my splits, the game plan is to be competitive amongst the lead group. Results should be up at www.boilermaker.com sometime after 11am on Sunday.
A good chunk of the Speed River crew are over in Europe competing. Most have their first races out of the way and now it’s time to rock and roll. Good luck!
New Balance Euro Tour schedule from www.Guelphrunning.com
July 9- World University Games, Belgrade, SER
Scheduled to compete Kyle Boorsma in 1500 Metres Finals
July 10- Trofeo Atletismo Ayuntamiento de Barakaldo, Bakardlo, SPN
Scheduled to compete Rob Watson 3000 Metre Steeplechase, Eric Gillis 5000 Metres
July 11- World University Games, Belgrade, SER
Scheduled to compete Alex Genest In 3000 Metre Steeplechase Final
July 11- Kortrijikse International Athletics Meeting, Kortjik, BEL
Scheduled to compete Taylor Milne 800 Metres, Scott Arnald 1500 Metres
July 15- Spitzen Leichtathletik, Luzern, SUI
Scheduled to compete Hilary Stellingweff 1500 Metres
July 15- Meeting Internationale d’Athletisme de la Province de Liege, Liege, BEL
Scheduled to compete Tim Konoval 800 Metres, Kyle Boorsma 800 Metres, Alex Genest 3000 Metres
July 18- KBC Nacht, Heusden, BEL
Scheduled to compete Scott Arnald 1500 Metres, Kyle Boorsma 1500 Metres, Tim Konoval 1500 Metres, Taylor Milne 1500 Metres, Alex Genest 3000 Metre Steeplechase, Rob Watson 3000 Metre Steeplechase, Eric Gillis 5000 Metres
July 21- Gentse Feesten Meeting, Gent, BEL
Scheduled to compete, Kyle Boorsma 1500 Metres, Tim Konoval 1500 Metres, Scott Arnald 3000 Metres, Hilary Stellingwerff 1500 Metres
July 23- Karlstad Grand Prix, Karlstad, SWE,
Scheduled to compete, Alex Genest 3000 Metre Steeplechase
July 26- International Athletics Meeting, Braaschaat,BEL
Scheduled to compete, Scott Arnald 1500 Metres, Kyle Boorsma 1500 Metres, Alex Genest 1500 Metres, Tim Konoval 1500 Metres, Taylor Milne 1500 Metres, Rob Watson Mile, Eric Gillis 5000 Metres
Running a blender in a lightning storm
I have an interview up at Mzungo Blog. Great site for current running articles, check it out.
Canadian 10 000m Championships (photos from Barb Phelan).
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
Going into the race last night I really wanted to run under 28:45 to achieve carding standard. I felt I could run that fast if everything lined up. I wasn’t super confident about running 68-69 second laps without the weeks and months of good workouts under my belt that I normally have leading into a track race. I still thought with my base and aerobic fitness it could happen.
It was about 25C when the race went off, a little too hot for chasing times over 25 laps. I went through the first lap in 70 seconds and knew right away that 28:45 was not going to happen. I actually felt pretty crappy throughout the race and I attribute that to running a marathon on May 24th and having my two highest mileage weeks of the year in the past two weeks. So yeah, no mystery at all why I felt sluggish. The good part is that I was racing Andrew Smith and Dylan Wykes who are also training for the marathon so they weren’t super fresh either.
29:20.81 for my first Canadian 10 000m title and my 7th Canadian title (4 X 5000m, 1 XC, 1 marathon).
It was my first outdoor track race in 22 months. I really want to get back on the track in 2010 so it was good to bridge the gap between 2007 and 2010 with at least one effort around the oval.
Off to the track again today to cheer on Speed River athletes in the 1500m, steeple, high jump and throwing events. We have a good chance at doing well in the team scores.
Next race is the Utica Boilermaker 15km in two weeks.
FLOAT ON 