FLOAT ON

I did my first real workout the other day, a bunch of 5 minuters.  I have my Garmin (ie. truth machine) so I wasn’t able to trick myself that I was running fast.  I have a lot of work to do but, that’s fine because I have a lot of time.  Once again I’m feeling a little better each week.

I’m looking forward to watching OUA’s this weekend in Kingston, there should be some good races at Fort Henry.  The Gryphs have a couple of good teams once again this year and it will be fun to watch them perform when it counts.  There is a big spectator trip planned to CIS XC in Quebec City.  The trip will undoubtedly be legendary, stay tuned for details…

.

.

.

Melcher attaches number to his shorts.  Is that an Ultra thing or a Rune thing?

chill, it’s 25k.

George giving me some goodies for 1st.

.

Let’s not worry about the fact that I spent my Sunday afternoon antiquing with my Grandma, Mother and Sister when the typical North American male was watching football.  What I will concern you with is the treasure I found amongst the vintage Coca-Cola signs and crusty furniture.  Towards the end of this particular outing I was sitting down resting my legs when my sister came over to me and asked me if I knew John Landy. I slowly made the connection in my burnt-out state and quickly became excited about the reason my sister would bring up Landy’s name in an antique store.  Around the corner there were a few stacks of magazines, one had this 1956 Sports Illustrated sitting atop.

The original price of 25 cents.  I spent 40 times that ($10), although I still think I got a deal.

The article starts off with coverage of a couple of U.S. races he did in 1956 prior to the Melbourne Olympics. The author then focuses on what he did between the 1954 Mile of the Century against Bannister and May of 1956.  He pretty much retired from the sport after his famous defeat from Bannister and slowly got back into running because of boredom and then evetually the passion to compete re-emerged. 

Almost as entertaining are some of the advertisements in the magazine. This one adorns the back of the magazine…

YOU’RE SO SMART TO SMOKE PARLIAMENTS

Many of the running trails in Ellicottville are very technical so, for the most part I stayed on the dirt roads.

Yesterday I took part in the Run for the Toad 25km trail race, which was a ton of fun.  George and Peggy Sarson outdid themselves once again with a great event.  Taylor Murphy and I were thinking at the beginning of the day that if we ran one hour and 35 minutes for the course we would be pretty happy.  When we got there we heard that there was going to be a rabbit to ensure a decent pace for someone to try and get the course record of one hour 30 minutes.  By one kilometer into the race there was a nice little pack of five of us (including the pacemaker who ran until 4km) and by, about, seven kilometers it was just Taylor and I out front.  We decided to run together until 20km and see how we were feeling at that point.  When we got to 19km I started to think that the course record was in reach and by 19.8km I started to pick up the pace to try and break 90 minutes as I wasn’t sure what the exact record was to the second.  I ended up crossing the line in one hour 30 minutes flat, good for the course record.  I was really surprised that I ran as fast as I did and even more surprised that I’m not sore today.  In fact I felt pretty good on my run this morning considering yesterday I ran more than any other day since April and most of it was at a decent pace (3:36km). 

 O’all                               Gun              Pace      Chip         First     Second
Place       Name              Time             /Km    Time       12.5K   12.5K     City                  
    1  Reid Coolsaet          1:30:00    3:36     1:29:56    45:19   44:41  Hamilton       
    2  Taylor Murphy         1:31:19     3:39    1:31:15    45:19   46:01  Guelph         
    3  Jason Weppler               1:34:28     3:47    1:34:25     46:01      48:27   Shallow Lake   
    4  Solomon Tsewameskel1:35:41  3:50   1:35:37    46:44   48:57  Kitchener      
    5  Kyle Aitken              1:39:54   4:00     1:39:49    50:48   49:06  Mississauga    
    6  Mike Tickner           1:40:55   4:02      1:40:50    50:48   50:07  Kitchener      
    7  Todd Willoughby     1:43:29   4:09     1:43:24    52:42   50:48  Fergus         
    8  Dana Fox                 1:45:42   4:14    1:45:36    51:06   54:36  Waterloo       
    9  Jim Seeds                 1:46:12   4:15    1:46:08    52:28   53:45  Waterford      
   10  Paul Trebilcock       1:49:08   4:22    1:49:01    54:26   54:42  Hamilton       

On Friday I took some pictures at the RBG in Hamilton.  There is more to Hamilton than Steel mills and Hess Village…

This tree was attacked by gypsy moths and had to be cut down.  They used all the wood and made a block beside the tree, and now it’s art.

These New Balance trail shoes in the above picture were key for the trail run.  The treads on the bottom gripped well without picking up mud and grass.

.

.

.

Good article on Matt Gabrielson and the anonymity that goes with being a pro runner.  Matt and I have been competing against each other for a few years now.  He’s one of the athletes I always like to catch up with at races. 

Today marks the fifth consecutive running day in a row for me.  If all goes well I’ll keep this up for a couple of rounds and then move into the six days in row territory, which is big, as it means only one day off each week.  When I get to running six days a week I’ll feel as though I’m back into normal training. 

This past weekend I went to Andrew and Shannon’s wedding in Muskoka.  The resort we stayed at was great and the lake was still warm enough to jump into after a run or after a few beers. 

Here’s a shot of the main lodge. Notice the red Muskoka chairs out front.  The Yankees at the wedding called them “Adirondack” chairs, which upon further research were invented first.  But the “Muskoka” chair sits a little lower so there is a slight difference between the two.

Catton and his groomsmen.  Yes, my boutonniere fell down for this picture. Better than my fly being open, which may or may not have been the case for the ceremony.

I wonder if Henrikson really needed the cane?  I have a feeling he just brought it for the endless amount of entertainment on the dance floor.  I can’t wait until his kit includes a cape…

This coming weekend I’ll be running the Run for the Toad trail run at Pinehurst Park in Cambridge.  I’m really looking forward to getting back into a running event.  My last race was in March and although I’m not racing in the competitive sense, it will be good get on the line and push it a little bit.  I first told myself that I was going to take it easy but, I know myself well enough that I won’t be able to ‘jog’ out there.  So I’ve decided to go middle of the road and let myself open it up a bit but, in no way shall I ‘go to the well’.

I’ve been slacking on blog posts lately.  There are some reasons for this.  The weather has been superb for September and I’ve been trying to take advantage of the great outdoors while it lasts.  Also, there isn’t much exciting running news to update.  I’m still running four days in a row and slowly getting the mileage up and trying to run a little faster.  Not workout type of fast running but getting an off-day down a little.  I’ve been running with Josephat most mornings and Hutch from time to time on the Dundas Valley trails.  Even though I’m still not 100% I’m really enjoying running right now.  I had to turn down an offer to race the Manchester Road Race today, which sucked.  It’s such a fun race but I would hate to commit and find out down the road that I’m still not in race form and have to pull out.  It would be hard for me to get in good shape by then (US Thanksgiving) and who knows when my leg will start working normally?  And there’s no way I can think of running competitively until I can run properly.

I thought I’d share this pic which I took from another blog.

On Sunday my friends, Tim and Dave, went looking for waves on lake Erie.  With the high winds of hurricane Ike in the forecast we made our way to Crystal Beach, Pleasant Point and Sherkston Shores in search of surfable waves…

Dave points to lack of waves. Next beach.

I’ve mastered the cheesy tourist pose. Touch the object, attempt to smile yet don’t show any real excitement. S.S. Canadiana

The ‘Crystal Beach Crew’ needs some work on their graffitti skills.  Beach looks good though.

Jericho Mile.

Many surfers showed up in the parking lot with dissapointed faces, not enough Ike action to bother getting on the water.  The lack of waves didn’t stop some from getting their boards out.

Here come the waves!! hold on.

I was seriously impressed with the beach (nice sand and warm water). The weather for September 14th was unreal, 26 degrees and about 35 with humidex.

Somehow I knew this wasn’t a good idea.  Basically, this guy was just being lazy and using his truck to get his Sea-doo.  Doesn’t look too bad at this point…

We went for food and drinks and returned in hopes the winds were going to pick up.  Upon returning an hour later the waves were still small and this guy was still there.  It doesn’t pay to be lazy…

The guy was completely stuck.  A Hummer came by and tried to tow it out, no luck.  When we finally left there was a cop at the scene.

At about 8:30pm the wind really picked up and there were most likely some waves.  At that point I was back in the Hammer watching Entourage.  I wonder what the guy with the truck was doing?

A parting scenic shot…

.

.

.

I know Billy Idol wasn’t really singing about a wedding but it was a nice day for a wedding, so it sounds fine. On Saturday Eric (Gillis) and Emily were married in Guelph on a fabulous day.  It was a nice ceremony, fantastic lunch and a fun time at night with the bride, groom and the Speed River crew. 

I stretched my running streak to four days in a row. Wawa wee wah!  I’m still moving in the right direction and feeling better from week to week.  I’m going to try some strides tomorrow and see how running a little faster feels.  Now that I’m at the point where my calf doesn’t hurt much it’s great to enjoy running again. 

On Sunday I went running with T-Bone (Taylor Murphy) and Cal Staples on the Run for the Toad course.  The course is pretty challenging as there never seems to be a flat spot and there are plenty of turns.  It’s a great course and a fun run although we picked an awful morning as it rained the whole time.  Thanks to George, Peggy and Mark we were able to navigate the course, otherwise we would have been completely lost.  We ended up running about 55 minutes for the 12.5km course, but I’m sure that effort would have been about four minutes faster on flat terrain. 

.

.

.

.

.

.