FLOAT ON

Once again you can follow updates for Speed River athletes at the Canadian Track and Field Championships at www.twitter.com/speedriver

800 Finals, Saturday at 5:50pm
1500m heats, Saturday at 6:30pm
10 000m FINAL, Saturday at 7pm
3000m Steeple Finals, Sunday at 2:25
1500m Finals, Sunday at 3:05

10 000m Start List

1 542 Coolsaet, Reid Speed River 27:56.92

2 450 Wykes, Dylan Physi-Kult  28:58.45

3 135 Mosley, Richard BC Athletics 29:12.17

4 597 Nakluski, Derek Toronto Olympic 29:53.40

5 158 Smith, Andrew Brooks Canada 29:55.54

6 452 Simpson, Scott Prairie Inn 30:08.00

7 448 Pieterson, Matthew Physi-Kult  30:47.00

8 550 Koziarski, Stephen Speed River 30:47.31

9 333 Walton, Adrian London Runner 30:48.97

10 447 Chiasson, Rejean Physi-Kult  30:53.14

11 230 Weikum, Jamie Edmonton Thunder 31:00.00

12 446 Boyd, Steve Physi-Kult  31:11.00

13 483 Norminton, Matthew Running Room 31:16.50

14 527 Ménard-Kilrane François, Sherbrooke 31:34.00

15 331 Nagle, Chris London Runner 31:46.88

16 605 Cummings, Travis U OF C  32:06.00

17 234 Bilodeau, Mathieu Energie 32:36.00

18 383 Ball, Richard Orillia Legion NT

Sporting the MJ button back in 1984.

It is pouring rain right now, maybe that will cool things off for the 5000's tonight. Once again I'll be on the sidelines watching the 5000m but this year it's not so bad because I'm actually running another event and I'm healthy. Both the Men's and Women's 5000 should be good races as the fields are relatively deeper up front than last year. I'm feeling a little better about the 10 000m now that I had a 200m repeat workout on Tuesday.  I haven't moved that fast in a looong time.  And it felt good.

Two weeks after Nationals I'll be racing the Utica Boilermaker in upstate New York.  It is a very deep 15km and will be a good prep for the World Championships Marathon.  I'm pretty sure there will be a couple of members from the US World Championship Marathon team competing as well.

Bruno is coming out in two weeks!

Best Bruno clip from a few years ago...

I just finished my second highest mileage week since the fall (last week being the highest).  I plan on running quite a bit in July to prep for the World Championship marathon.  A few more miles in my legs should help with the later stages of the marathon.  This week will be a little low as I'll do a three day taper in preparation for the 10 000m on Saturday night.  I would say that I'm training through this upcoming race but since it is nationals I'll back off a couple days out so I don't feel sluggish for the race.

Speed River BBQ Monday June 22, 2009.  5:30pm at the University of Guelph Alumni Stadium.
Everyone is welcome to check out the open practice and have some Hamburgers and whatever else Moulton has planned.

National Track and Field Championships Thursday June 25th to Sunday June 28th.  Varsity Stadium, Bloor St. Toronto.  I'll be racing the 10 000m on Saturday at 7pm. I'll most likely check out the 5000's on Thursday night and the 1500 and Steeple finals on Sunday. Looks like it is going to be HOT all week with a little break in the temps by Saturday.

            MON     TUE      WED     THUR     FRI      SAT

I have my ticket for the Festival of Excellence tomorrow night.  Of course I opted for one of the $25 standing area tickets instead of the $110 – $250 grandstand tickets.  I’m really looking forward to the Miles, 800m, 1500m and 5000m.  I wasn’t prepared to pay out the big bucks to cover Usain Bolt’s appearance and to watch the distance events.   It sounds like the whole event should be fun and quite entertaining. 

IAAF article on the Festival of Excellence

Recovery from the marathon seems to be going pretty well.  I’m feeling pretty comfortable on my daily runs.  My two workouts have been a different story.  I’m not surprised I haven’t felt great yet and I’m pretty sure I’ll be feeling a lot better in the coming two weeks as it’s only been 17 days since the marathon.  hopefully just in time to run a decent 10 000m on June 27th at Nationals.

Still waiting to hear an announcement about the Berlin Marathon team (it sounds like there are at least four guys who have qualified and want to go).  Right now I’m preparing to run the marathon but it would be really nice to know for sure.

This person sure stepped it up from my “STOP PRE” sign last summer…

The week of recovery.

On Monday (the day after) I was walking around like Frankenstein and using handrails religiously while tackling stairs.  Tuesday I had a massage to help the whole process.  On Wednesday I went in the pool for some active recovery and started feeling pretty good.  My 5km run on Thursday was stiff, slow and uncomfortable.  Friday was a bit better but I was still hurting.  On Sunday I ran 13km and felt comfortable and I’m happy to say that I actually felt good today on a 15km run.  A few more days of easy running before I attempt an easy running workout.

The plan is to get after a 10 000m on June 27th as much as I can while paying close attention to recovery and using the August 22 Marathon as the main focus.  I’m guessing the World Championship team will be named by next week because the marathoners have to send in their declaration form by June 4th. 

Here’s a shot of Parliament from the Marriott.

This was a hail Mary photo (hands holding camera straight in the air) and you can’t see much except volunteers backs and Merga’s hand but I caught Merga’s time (told ya Cal).  Ya, I didn’t have my athletes pass with me.

For a week I still ate my normal breakfast and dinner (and kept up my fruits, veggies and protein) but throughout the day I would eat whatever I wanted, cookies, ice cream, doughnuts, pizza.  I tried to put on a couple of pounds but I’m not quite sure I did.  I should of had more fast food…

The two things that worried me the most going into the marathon were being able to handle the pace and my legs holding up for 42.2km.  To be specific, I was worried that I wasn’t going to feel comfortable running 3:12/km (5:12/mile) right from the gun, imagining that it would take a few km to warm-up.  And, I ultimately thought my calves would let out on me or completely seize up towards the end of the race.   Throughout my cross training (pool running, biking, elliptical and XC skiing) I never extensively worked my calves like I did other leg muscle groups.

I was feeling pretty good on my short, 12 minute, shake-out jog done on the first section of the course and I got to the line feeling like I have done the best preparation I could have, given my timeline.  The gun went off and I settled in behind the second group of pacers in what seemed like 20th place.  I was running beside Steve Osaduik and behind Worku Beyi and Michael Musili (the two 2:15 pacers).  I felt great and was convinced part of the reason for my fresh legs was that we were running a little slow, better a little slow than fast at that point.  We hit 3:12 at the first km and it was then I knew I actually felt good and the confidence grew. 

About 150 meters later we passed the 1km marker for the half marathoners and Worku checked his watch and thought he was too slow and I reassured him he was exactly on pace.  The same thing happened at the second km mark (6 minutes and 12 seconds), we were right on pace and for some reason Worku doesn’t see the orange marathon KM marker but the blue 1/2 marathon KM marker 150m later.  I reassured him, once again, we were perfect for pace.  This time as the 3rd orange marathon km marker approached I pointed it out to him and he looked at his watch and understood.   We passed 3km in a perfect 9:36. 

About 150m later we passed the 1/2 marathon marker and Chris Moulton was standing underneath looking at his watch and I’m already laughing because I know he’s freakin’ that were running too slow.  The look on his face was priceless when he was trying to figure what to say, I could tell he wanted to yell “you’re running wayyyy to slow!” and at the same time didn’t want me panicking.  So I yelled over to him, “you’re at a 1/2 marathon split” and added the middle finger as a joke (which I had to make sure later he knew was a joke, he did).  Oh, and Musili who was employed to take us to 21km was already behind us.

We passed 5km in 16:03, 3 seconds slow but a slight uphill so it was fine.  As we were exiting Hull back into Ottawa I decided I needed to pee and I stopped on the bridge (about 9.5km into the race) for no more than 15 seconds to relieve myself.  I had to do it.  That created a size-able gap between myself and the pair of Osaduik and Worku.  I thought I could make up the gap in 1.5km without having to go too hard.  I then passed 10km in 32:02, 2 seconds too slow but good considering the pee break that was more than fine.  It took me another 2km (in 6:08) to catch the guys and settle back into pace.

Around the 18km mark Osaduik started to drift off the pace and it was just Worku and I until I caught up with my training partner, Josephat, who went out pretty fast.  The three of us were running together until the next bottle station where Josephat had complications picking up his bottle and was never able to bridge back the gap.  I passed the 1/2 marathon in 67:15 and I was feeling like a million bucks.  Cal and Dave told me it would still feel easy halfway through the race but this was much easier than imagined.  I ran up to 25km still on 2:15 pace, still feeling like I was out for a typical Sunday run.  It was at that point that Worku dropped out (he initially thought he could make 30km) and I found myself running beside another Kenyan competitor, Thomas Omwenga.  We were running into the wind so I slowed my pace (not necessarily my effort) and yelled over at Dave that I was not going to fight the wind and that I was going to drill the $#&* out of the canal on the way back.  This was probably around 27km and I was still feeling great and quite confident about running 2:15.xx.  As we crossed the overpass to the other side of the canal the wind picked up even more and I was crawling up the hill and it was at that point that my quads were starting to get tired and sore.  But I knew a tail-wind was around the corner…

When I turned the corner and hit another head wind I was dumbfounded and dejected.  I wasn’t going to write about this wind phenomenon because it doesn’t seem possible however my competitors and the spectators encountered the same abnormality.  From 30-35km I hit my slowest 5km split of 16:40.

When I hit 35km I knew that I wasn’t going to drill the $#%* out of the way back like I so over-confidently declared 8km earlier. I figured I would not take any chances and cruise in for a 2:16.xx.  It was also around that point where Thomas pulled away from me.  My main goal of 1st Canadian under 2:18 was still in check.  As each kilometre crept up my quads were getting worse and worse.  At 37km I was in considerable pain and by 39km I was in what I would call “survival mode.”  I took my last bottle of PowerBar C2Max after 39km and slowed considerably to gobble every last drop and  had a horrible time getting back up to speed.

I was hurting.  Altough it was such a foreign sensation because I had plenty of energy and I wasn’t breathing too hard.  It was just that my quads didn’t want to function anymore.  I remember looking down at my quads expecting that they were going to look different than usual.  My legs looked the same as always, surprise surprise.

As I hit 40km (about 2:09:30)  I knew I had about eight and a half minutes to get in my last 2.2km to make the World Championship team.  The next km took me 3:40 (I think) and I was trying to do the math but that 0.2 on the end was complicating my calculations so I just kept chugging along as the crowd was getting thicker and louder.  In the last 100 metres of the grand stands I knew I was good for time and decided to relish the moment and celebrate the hard work.  I started to pump my fist and lift my arms, each time I lifted my outstretched, palms up, arms the crowd responded with more noise.  Ya, it’s cheesy but it was fun and when you’re hurting that much you might as well have some fun.

I finished eighth overall in 2:17:08.5,  first Canadian and qualified for the World Championships team (as long as four guys commit).  I wasn’t too pleased with the time at first however, the top three were all 2:13.xx (they are 2:10 guys who were shooting for 2:09 and had a pack of seven through 30km) and I realised it was not a particularly fast day.  It was a nice day but at 17 degrees and sunny it was a little hot for ideal, although the heat wasn’t my main problem.

I’m very excited about my next marathon as I know where I can make huge improvements.  One obvious one is that I’ll have many more months of running under my belt.  Maybe a couple escarpment stair sessions for the quads? haha.

Thanks to my family and friends for the support.  Big ups to New Balance and PowerBar.  Thanks to everyone cheering me on, especially those making the trek to Ottawa from the Hammer, TO, Guelph and elsewhere.  Thanks to the road crew, Dave, Cal, Moulton and Desy.  Thanks to my training partners at Speed River and ‘satellite river’, especially Josephat (who finished 10th overall).  Thanks to Osaduik, Worku and Thomas for the company during the race.  Thanks to Trent for advising me on my race fueling, it worked awesome!  Thanks to Marcell, Aras and Brenda for the massage, chiro and physio.  And last but not least thanks to Dave Scott-Thomas for all the planning, coaching, support and getting me to the starting line prepared and ready to rock.

5KM SPLITS:

16:03 (5km)
15:59 (32:02 10km)
15:40 (47:42 15km)
16:02 (1:03:45 20km)
16:02 (1:19:47 25km)
16:37 (1:36:25 30km)
16:40 (1:53:55 35km)
16:33 (2:09:29 40km)

TIMELINE:

Nov 3rd – paced Hamilton marathon, 16km at 3:07/km pace

Nov 6th – ran 1km, broke my foot,  last run for three months

Jan 1st 2009 – Able to start real cross training, elliptical, pool and bike

Jan 13th – bought XC skis

Feb 4th – ran 1km

Feb 28th – 20km XC ski race

Mar 4th – First 10km run

Mar 22nd – First long run (over 90 minutes)

Mar 29th – First running workout, tempo

April 8th – Marathon idea is born, 6.5 weeks out

April 12th – first marathon type workout, 35km run with 16km at marathon pace

April 18th – Commit to running Ottawa marathon, 5 weeks out

April 26th – Billy Taylor 15km road race

May 10th – nagging injuries are gone

May 24th – run a marathon, 2:17:08.5

THE NUMBERS (since November 6):

Highest weekly running volume for marathon – 145km (90 miles)

Cost of pee stop – $500 (under 2:17 is an extra $500)

Hours of sleep the night before the race – 2 (too excited and then just stressed that I wasn’t sleeping)

Swear words in race – 2 (one out of cockiness describing how good I was feeling at 27km, one out of pain at 39+km)

Number of double running days during build-up – 2

Highest single day (single run) – 39km (24miles)

Running days in the past 168 days- 96

Runs over 10km – 73

Highest X-training week (cardio only) – 17.1 hours

Fuel bottles on course- 15 (got ’em all)

Calories consumed on race day – 5000 (roughly)

Number of deaths heard while training – 2 (gunshots)

Number of kms at or below race pace on April 3rd (10 X km workout) – 1 (the last)

Number of running workouts – 17 (2.2 per week on average)

Times I heard “Hey, the first white guy!” – 7 (or so)