New training program starts tomorrow..switching to KMs ..spring taking shape

After taking a semi break to let my legs recover from the Hamilton Marathon it will be right back into training for the spring. Yes I know it’s a little too early to start my actual marathon program so we're going to call this my preprogram program. How’s that for really bad use of the English language.

This week put in 45 miles of mostly easy running. The plan will be to take it back up to 65 miles over the next month so that I have a deep base going into my actual marathon training program. Until Hamilton my Boston Qualifier was so far out of reach it wasn’t a realistic goal at all. Now I am only 18 minutes away, I can see the taillights ahead of me but they are still really far up the road. The reality is that I will most likely not be able to get a BQ in the spring but it will not be for lack of trying. If not next fall it will happen for sure barring the dreaded injury.

Currently the plan for the spring is to run Around the Bay followed a month later by a Marathon. It looks like it will be The Waterloo Marathon. My racing and training schedule doesn’t give me a very large window to fit a spring marathon into so my choices are somewhat limited. I plan to attempt to run my first 100 miler at Sulphur Springs at the end of May so I need to make sure that I have enough recovery time from the marathon.

With the start of my new training program comes another drastic change (at least for me). I will be doing all my runs in KMs instead of miles. Tried to change this once before but it went badly. My pacing got all screwed up as in I couldn’t hit my proper paces. Like any rational person I blamed the KMs and went back to miles. I know sounds silly but it made perfect sense at the time. Its time to switch though. First because my new program is in KMs. Secondly because it gives me a lot more split times to make race adjustments. Thirdly I do actually live in Canada.

Have no fear my American readers I will still post my numbers in miles but will probably add KMs in brackets. KMs still seem to me to be the kind of thing you put in brackets.

Longboat year end awards .... There are people crazier then me

Sunday night was the Longboat AGM dinner which is an annual event held in November at the end of the racing season. I am told that yes racing season does have an end just not at my house. It seems I live in some kind of alternate running universe where the seasons never end, where its just one big long season... kind of like LA.

This year the dinner was held at the Balmy Beach Club. I just what to say a big congratulations to Sabrina Young who will be club president for the coming year and Steve Metzger who will be Vice Pres. Both of these positions had a number of excellent candidates running for election in a kind of the club cant really lose situation. My lovely better half will also be the acting Secretary for club this year ... way to go Kim.

Also a big thank you to everyone that sat on the executive last year but a BIG special thanks to outgoing President Bert DeVries who has run the club for the last few years and done a really awesome job.

Kim and I had a great time at the AGM this year and we also managed to pick up a couple of awards. Kim won the award for Most Improved Female Runner after putting in a great year which included her first marathon and knocking 12 minutes off of her Spring HM PB in the fall.

I was given the Kevin Hayes Road Warrior Award. It seems that running many races including some crazy long distances which even most of my running buddies shake their heads at really does pay off. How will I top this next year, don’t worry I have a fiendish plan, or maybe crazy plan. Stay tuned for more details. Rob, Roger and George if your reading this please stop rolling your eyes... thanks.

Speaking of crazy as it turns out I am not the craziest runner currently in Longboat. Okay maybe I am but I am just talking about the running aspect here. That in my book has to go to Adrian Horvath.

Last month Adrian completed the Super Marathon in Europe. This is a Vienna to Budapest 5 day 320km road race. I believe that they have very strict entrance requirements. You must be able to prove that you have been under a psychiatrists care or in a mental institution within the past 18 months. Congrates Adrian but be forwarned I am devising a plan to find something even crazier to do. I may not be the fastest guy in the club but I will be the craziest. Yes I know you’re doing Comrades in May but I will think of something.



A special mention also should go out to non club member and fellow blogger JD who had planned to do Rock and Ice this winter. That ended up getting cancelled so he has replaced it with some crazy winter 100 miler in the Arctic where you have to drag a sled. Now who thought that was a good idea?

Hamilton Marathon Race Report

Sunday November 1st was race day for the Hamilton Marathon. I had been excitedly anticipating, no wait dreading, no wait anticipating this race for some time. I had done a ton of training but still was a bit worried about this one. Call it piling on a load of self inflicted pressure.

Truth is I had yet to figure out the Marathon. 5k, 10k no problem I got it worked out. Half Marathon, 30k no problem I got it down. 50k, 50 miler no worries I got that one figured out as well. Marathon... hmmmm... not so much. In both Marathons I had run so far I had hit the wall and failed to go under 4 hours.

My solution, training base mileage like a mad man and doing MANY, MANY 20 milers. Well that went as planned as I averaged 60 miles a week and put in thirteen 20+ mile Sundays. You would think that would make my approach to the race pretty straight forward but no the specter of my crash and burns still lurked just over my shoulder.

I then proceeded to hassle all my running friends for their advice... repeatedly. I may have personally been responsible for dispersing crowds when they would see me coming. I got lots of great advice, be aggressive, lay back, don’t be to aggressive, don’t lay back too much. Problem was that all of it conflicted and yet all of it made perfect sense. SIGH

In the end I did what I always do which is to run as close to the edge as I can and hope my blow up is a small burp and not a fart of room clearing proportions.

The Plan - I decided on a fairly aggressive (for me) 5 minute a K or 8 minute miles. I would run this pace for as long as possible and keep a close eye on my HR if it got too high too early I would adjust my pace otherwise I would hold on to this pace as long as possible. A goal = 3:30 (dream goal), B goal = 3:45 (reasonable), C goal = under 4hr (I blowed up real good)

PRERACE
Got picked up at 5:30 on Sunday morning by fellow Longboater and running buddy Gregoire Bonhomme who was running the HM. Kim was kind enough to give up her Sunday morning and come along with us. I was very happy as she is amazing support and I also had a feeling that I might need someone to help me stagger home afterwards if things got ugly.

Got to Hamilton picked up our race kits and grabbed the bus that would take us up to the start line. One of the race directors who was running the HM was on our bus and she entertained us with the history of the race while giving out free hats. She was so excited about the race. It was really cool to see one of the organizers so stoked about the race and thankful for all the people who were running it (are you listening VRpro!!).

Arrived at the start line where they had a high school for us to keep warm in before the race. Weather conditions were excellent about 2 degrees and almost no wind. Met up with other Longboaters here including Roger Moss, and Eric Mohr who were doing the Marathon and Lynn Bourque who like Gregoire was running the HM (also saw George Hubbard warming out outside).

After a brief wait I headed outside to the starting corral. I ended up walking right past fellow blogger Caroline, check out her blog here. We chatted a bit (congratulations on a great race Caroline) and then before you knew it off we went.

THE RACE

We headed out of the school parking lot and along the first stretch of road. I quickly fell right into pace and worked hard not to run faster then my 8 minute mile plan. It was a challenge but it always is. The road headed out among farmers fields and countryside and was really nice. It was calm, quiet and flat, flat, flat. I hit 5k at 25 minutes right on pace. Somewhere around this time I notice a guy just ahead of me who I had been running in front of me for some time. He was pounding out 5 minute Ks at a very steady pace so I decided to tuck in just behind him and let him do the work.

The next 10k went by in a flash all run on flat roads in the country. I geled at 45 minutes as planned. Splits were staying very consistent thanks to my new pacing friend who was still ahead of me. Around this time the two of us became separated from the packs in front and behind. I decided that I would pick it up and run beside the guy as I knew he had no idea I was pacing off him and he was kind of out there alone now.

As soon as I got up beside him he started to chat with me. Mark was from Hamilton and this was also his third Marathon. We ran the next 3 miles at a nice steady pace. I geled again just before the 21k mark but as we hit the half way point I got my last mile split. Oh Crap 7:45 and more alarming my HR had jumped up 5 beats. It was here that I had to make my only really big decision of the day. I either stay with Mark who was running a bit faster now or stick to the plan. You feel great said that little evil voice in my head. Keep going fast. What could happen? I immediately said good luck to Mark but I was slowing it down. I hit the half way mark at 1:46 right on time.

Just after the 22k mark we headed down the Red Hill. The next 6k were all downhill but in a good way. Most of this downhill was more of a slight decline with only a few steeper places so it was not too hard on the quads. Before I knew it I was headed off the highway and onto the streets of Hamilton running towards the lakefront.

I passed the 30k mark at 2:30 still right on schedule but I was starting to hurt at this point. Why oh why is the marathon so freakishly long? I geled again at this point and tried to get mentally focused as clearly my legs were letting me know that this thing was about to start getting ugly. The route keeps heading out along the lake on part of the Around The Bay course. I got a bit slower here dropping from 5 minute Ks to 5:10. As I made my way past the 33k sign I caught back up to Mark and said hello as I passed him and headed on towards the turn onto the lake. My decision to pull it back know seemed like a good one.

I made the turn onto the lake at about 35k with legs that were struggling now. Other then all the pain I felt pretty good. My pace had dropped again to around 9 minute miles. Now it was just focusing on the next 10 feet ahead of me and keep on running for 3 more miles.

It’s amazing how long 3 miles can seem but I sucked it up and keep on going as the last few Ks slowly ticked past. I saw George H. and Christine right before the 41k sign and they both cheered me on as I went past. It gave me a very much needed lift. George yelled to me that Kim was waiting for me at the finish line.

I managed to speed up slightly for the last 1.2K knowing that I was almost done. I really wanted to kick in the final stretch but decided to just stay steady. I was completely toast at this point and worried that I might not make it the last 200 meters if I tried to go any faster.



I crossed the finish line and Kim found me right away. I told her get me out of the finish chute area as quickly as possible. I knew that I probably looked pretty bad at that point and didn’t want one of the Vultures a.k.a medical volunteers (no disrespect intended) to swoop down on me and try to take me off to the vast wasteland known as the medical tent. If they were to ask me my name at that point I would have probably answered with something like "dududdda". I had been dancing along the wall, just teetering on the edge for more then 3 miles and had arrived at the finish just in time to meet it full force.

Kim who is very familiar with the exhaustion that comes at the end of long races having been there herself quickly got me out of there. We found place to sit down, I ate some soup and got into some warm clothes, twenty minutes later I felt a great deal better.

This was a MASSIVE PB for me. I finished in 3:38:08 which was just a few seconds under a 30 minute improvement. As important as the PB was even more important for me was that I seemed to finally figure out how I should be approaching and running this distance. Final stats below.

Gun time 3:38:28
Chip Time 3:38:09
Overall placing 262/925
Age group 46/84
Pace 5:11 K (8:20 mile)

Hamilton Marathon Tomorrow

So tomorrow morning I will be off to run the Hamilton Marathon. I did a short 2 miles at race pace this morning just to keep the legs loose. Well if not race pace at least it was race effort, it was hard to tell as winds where between 40 and 60km.
No worries though as weather in Hamilton in the morning is supposed to be cool with only 15k winds.

I have finally decided on my splits for this race after talking to a number of different people that I run with. Do you want to know? Sorry not going to tell ya. You will have to read my race report next week to see what the plan was and how it all played out.

Training for this marathon has been quite different than the previous 2 that I have run. In the spring after running Paris I decided to do a fall marathon as my target race. I upped my mileage substantially as well as running 6 days a week. The plan was to work my base mileage up to a around 60-65 miles a week and get at least twelve 20 mile runs in during the training cycle. I managed to accomplish both of these training goals but a funny thing happened on the way to the marathon. I discovered the ultra trail marathon.

Originally as part of my training I decided to do a couple of 25k trail races just to keep things interesting and to my surprise discovered that I really, really like trail racing. My dabbling in 25k races lead to a 50k race that lead to a 50 miler.

Hey wait a second what happened to that marathon target race in the fall? Well it was still there and still is my target race. That said I found that I really peaked mentally after the Haliburton 50 Miler. I knew I had to focus on the marathon and physically was getting my training in but I felt strangely disconnected from my preparation. This is a very bad thing. I mean you can’t phone in a marathon. It's a long grueling race and a distance that has to be respected big time. You need to be focused, confident and ready. I actually began to consider maybe not doing it (I didn’t officially sign up until 2 weeks ago) but all that changed over the last 3 weeks.

The taper. I hate the taper, I really do. I should like it, less running, more rest and no sore legs. I have gotten to watch so much more TV lately. When the hell did they take Matlock off the air? This time around however the taper process helped me get reinvigorated and focused. I am as hyper and race ready as I have ever been for any race.

Thank you taper.
Let’s get this thing going.

PS. Good luck to my fellow blogging friends that are racing Hamilton tomorrow as well as to a pile of Longboat members that are running the full and half marathons.

Also a special good luck to Longboater Rob Campbell who is probably eating a big plate of pasta right now in a restaurant on Manhattan Island. Have fun running the NYC marathon tomorrow dude. I am sure it will pale in comparison to Hamilton.

Toronto Marathon Weekend ... PBs all around

Last weekend both Kim and I took part in various races at the Toronto Marathon. It was definitely a very busy Sunday for us as Kim ran the Half Marathon and I ran in the 5K and most of the Half Marathon as well.

Both of us had originally signed up in August to run the HM. The idea was that Kim would run the HM in an attempt to PB and I would pace her during the race. Although I was very, very tempted to run it hard I knew that this would be a bad move on my part with the Hamilton Marathon just 2 weeks later. This plan seemed solid given how my fall racing season had been set up with my short races early in September then Haliburton, some XC and lots of recovery time before Hamilton. Of course this was before the whole VRPRO fiasco. Yeah I know I still have to blog the details about that one but I am just getting back to updating regularly and so want to keep things positive for now. There will be lots of time during the coming winter months to try and convince you never to sign up for a race with VRPro :-). Anyway because of this I decided to add the Toronto 5K to my racing schedule so signed up a week before the race.

The plan was a simple one as Sunday Oct 18th was the first day of my taper for Hamilton. All I need to do was race a 5k and then get another 12 miles in so this could work out perfectly. I would do a warm up, race the 5K and then head up to St. Clair and Young to the 10K mark of the HM and meet up with Kim to pace her the rest of the way. A number of club members were running the water station at 10K so if I missed Kim at least I would know. I was pretty sure that I could make it up there in time but with both races starting at the same time in different places I might miss her.

Pre Race
We headed over to the expo on Friday and picked up our race kits. I just had to look on the board and get my bib number and then... crap. No listing for me in the 5K. I suspected that the system saw me double registered in both races and so didn’t register me. This was going to be fun.

I spent the next 15 minutes trying to explain the following to a number of people at the registration table. I am registered in both races. I am racing the 5K with a chip. I am then going to join the HM in progress with no chip (no official time) to pace someone. I registered for both because I don’t want to be on the course illegally and have a problem with race marshals. Rinse and repeat.

Honestly the people at the registration table were great so no complaints there. They passed me on to the woman in charge and she got it right away. Unfortunately (actually fortunately for me) they could not double list me in the system so she changed my registration to the 5K and gave me the bib for HM anyway no extra charge. It’s so nice to actually deal with a race that gives a rat's ass about runners (you know what I am saying VRPro).

I quickly bought a bunch of stuff at the Expo to celebrate my new found wealth. I picked up a Nathan fuel belt which I had been looking for and is perfect for trail racing. I also picked up this cool little stretchy pack for carrying stuff while running. I already tried this out and it works great.





Race Day
Kim left early cabbing it down to College and Yonge to catch the race provided bus to Mel Lastman Square and the HM start line. I lounged around the house for another hour got dressed and then ran the 3 miles over to Bloor and University and the 5K start line. Got there 15 minutes before the race with my warm up already done and plenty of time to make sure I was in the front of the corral. Weather was great for racing 0 degrees but some wind, nothing to extreme however.

The 5K

Lined up to go, checked my shoelaces (get out of my head Too Tall Tony) and took a look behind me. Man, there were a lot of people in this race. Bumped in to Feargal McCauley another Longboat member who is living in Ireland but was here visiting. He told me he was looking to run 18 minutes which is too fast for me so wished him luck. Then just like that we were off.

I came out pretty fast with a plan of running hard early while we were headed slightly downhill and then just hanging on in the second part of the race which is slightly uphill. My hope was to break 21 minutes although I knew that might be a little out of reach but hey ya got to try right.

Hit 1K at 4 minutes exactly which is pretty fast for me. Just after the 1k sign as the lead runners started to thin out I saw a guy slightly ahead of me. His left shoe was completely untied and his laces where whipping around. The girl next to me yelled at the guy to let him know but he said he was aware. Got to be a tough call, stop and tie the shoe and lose time or keep running and risk stepping on your own lace and taking a header (glad I always remember Too Tall's prevention advice).

Hit 2K with my second K run in 4:08 so was still right on my goal time and still felt pretty good. Reached the halfway point turn around at King and University and headed back up the other way. Saw George H. right at the turn around, it’s always nice to hear words of encouragement. Was still in pretty good shape but as I hit 3K I had slowed a little. The second half of this course is all slightly uphill, funny how such a small incline becomes noticeable when you are sucking wind.

I passed the 4K mark and then headed up around Queens Park on the final stretch. I was slowing down here more then I wanted as both my legs and lungs were stinging. At around 4.5K fellow Longboater Mark Stoller said Hi as he passed me like I was standing still. I suddenly felt like I was really slow as I watched him get smaller and smaller up ahead of me. Great running Mark, damn you and your young legs (Mark posted a 19:47 chiptime). I continued to push as hard as possible right to the finish, PBed by 2 seconds but didn’t make it to the magical 21 minutes. No worries will get it next time.

Official race stats
Gun time - 21:17
Chip time - 21:14
Place overall - 78 / 2556
Age group placing - 8 / 88

Race Phase 2
Took a quick 5 minute rest and chatted with Mark and George who had made his way up to the finish line. He was headed off to the HM course as well to do some pacing so I ran up the course with him. In no time I was up at the 10k mark where I saw Longboaters Anne B, Rob C. and Steve B. working the water station. Steve told me that Kim hadn’t passed by yet so I headed further up the road. There is a mid sized uphill just in front of Mount Pleasant Cemetery so I figured that I would go to the bottom of the hill and run with Kim from there. I didn’t even get to the bottom before I saw her.

I jumped in with her and she was doing pretty well and was holding her intended pace. She told me that the only glitch was that the buses were messed up as in not enough of them. She ended up taking another cab and only got into the corral 4 minutes before start time. From this point the rest was easy at least for me. I just tried to not speed up and let Kim draft off of me.

I have to say that this was a really fun time for me. I don’t often get to run with Kim as I am always training and so my pacing is too fast for her. I also don’t get to just relax during a race. Hitting the 18K mark of an HM and not being on the edge of imploding was a completely new experience.

Kim ran great and steady only slowing slightly in the last couple of KMs which are up the dreaded University Ave. incline. As we headed up University Kim said you’re not going to make me hold hand as we cross the finish are you. To which I gave her the as if face. Suddenly the girl we were passing said “Last year me and my boyfriend did that and then got a picture of us kissing as we got our medals. It was so nice”. Yeah like gag me with a spoon lady.

As we both pondered this bit of unsolicited information some guy with a thick Mexican accent yelled “You Can Do It” at us. Kim started laughing which is really not advisable when you are out of breath and energy at the end of a 13 mile race. She managed to get it back together and we crossed the finish line with Kim passing 3 people in the last 100 meters. Way to go honey. Kim was 6 minutes faster than she was at Scotia and 12 minutes faster than at Mississauga in May finishing in 2:20:47

All in all a pretty good weekend of racing. No offical pics posted yet... super slow they are. I will post them when I have them.

My poor unattended Blog .... how I miss you..training update

HOLY CRAP.
My poor blog has gone unloved and unwritten for well over a month now. Damn how time flies. I have so much to write and so little time to "right" it.

No I have not quit running.
No I have not quit racing.
No I am not injured.
No I am not spending all my time in strip clubs and playing online poker.

The last month has been super busy doing just the opposite, racing like crazy and trying to get in my runs around a very hectic work schedule (work takes up a lot of time ... who knew).

Please Stand By .... These technical difficulties are only temporary ... I promise.

I have tonnes of stuff that I currently need to rant about plus some race reports to catch up on. I am going to try and take a different approach in order to get caught up and write more blog entries that are less rambling and shorter / to the point. Please stop laughing I am being serious here.

Training Update - 2000 miles and less weekly mileage

Late last week I surpassed 2000 miles for the year with more then two months left to go. That’s a lot of miles for me kids, especially when you take in to account that I was running about 30 miles a week last year. No wonder I am tired.

September saw less training miles due to lots of racing, recovery, racing, recovery, with me putting in only 215 miles for the month. Still pretty good considering.

October will see an even bigger dip as I have dropped my weekly training mileage down to 50 miles a week for the early part of the month. The next two weeks I will be taking it even easier as I taper for the Hamilton marathon on Nov 1.

I definitely have a love / hate relationship with the taper but will try and only do the miles that I am suppose to put in. I expect to be pretty twitchy for two weeks and in preparation for this I have purchased and even bigger coffee cup, its just a little smaller then the coffee pot itself but if I drink straight out of the pot I cant brew more at the same time.

talk to ya soon.

Haliburton 50 miler a Success + 5k PB

Briefly, my first 50 mile Ultra went really well last weekend. Haliburton was a hard, technical run but was also a lot of fun. I finished in a time of 10:03:16 which was faster then had anticipated. I came in somewhere close to 10th place but not sure as the results are not posted yet. My legs are pretty sore right now but it was an amazing experience and worth every minute of pain. I will definitely be running this race again although I might choose the 100 mile option next year.

Watch for a full race report posting coming in the next week or so.

In other running news I ran a PB at the Enlightenment 5k run the weekend before Haliburton. This was a very hilly 5k in High Park. I managed to run a 21:16 knocking 40 seconds off of my 5k PB time.

Some of you may have noticed that I was slated to run the Double Crown that weekend. Well that didn’t happen and in fact it was a huge farce (to say the least) which I am still dealing with. I want to keep this blog entry very positive however so I am not going to get into here. I will be posting a full accounting of the Double Cross (I mean Crown) in a couple of days