goodbye base training hello hills... last months training stats.

Base training is done and seems too have gone pretty well. I dropped my mileage down quite a bit in November and early December. I have now built it back up to 65+ miles a week and have no nagging injuries at this point in time.

Last week was the start of the hill training phase. When I got my program from Roger it set me back on my heels on first glance. First off it moves me to training 7 days a week which is a first for me but more then that I am seeing never ending hills. The next 6 weeks look like this.

Monday - recovery run
Tuesday - hills (easy)
Wednesday - tempo
Thursday - easy run
Friday - hills (hard)
Saturday - hills (easy)
Sunday - long run (on very hilly route)

After the initial shock however I realized that its really not much different then what I was doing last summer. I ran trails that were very hilly every Tuesday and Saturday but since they were on the trails instead of the road I never really thought of them as hills. Yeah I know that sounds strange but there it is.

First week of hills went well but I have lost 2 days of training this week with a bad case of the stomach flu. Also as the pictures attest to it has gotten kind of cold again.

Last Months Training Stats.

Here are my January Training Stats
Days run: 27
Days off: 4
20 mile runs: 2
Races: 1 - 8k

Total Miles 249

Robbie Burns Race Report

Sunday Jan 24th was the 30th running of the Robbie Burns 8k in Burlington. I have been looking forward to this race for quite a while now. Partially this is because I love this course, its very flat, pretty fast and the race is super well organized. I was also looking forward to this race because Robbie Burns was the first timed race that I ever ran in (2 years ago). Back then 8k still seemed like a very long way to run.

I was looking forward to running fast, it seems like I haven't run in a faster, shorter race or any race at all in months. To be honest I really didn't know what to expect with this one. I was sure I would PB but only because I haven't run an 8k in a year not because I was feeling particularly ready to run hard. I have been hard at work base training since November and that's going well but lots of longer but slower easy running doesn't tend to fill you with much confidence when it comes to speed. I did get in a few tempo intervals in the last few weeks but not at the pace I would be running here. I was wondering how much pain I would be able to handle.



Prerace
This year there were more then 30 members of Longboat running in this race. With so many people the club decided to rent a bus in order to transport our running horde from Toronto to Burlington. Special thanks to Kim for suggesting it and Sabrina and Bob for setting it up. Being able to all travel together was really awesome. We met up with the bus and arrived at the race well ahead of time. The race is held out of a school in Burlington so lots of washrooms and plenty of room for kit pickup etc. Got changed and then had lots of time to warm up.

The weather was nearly perfect, sunny, just above zero and winds around 15km. What a difference from last year when we hid in the school as long as possible before heading out to run in -35 degree weather. After a good solid warm up I grouped myself at the start line with a bunch of other club members that were going to be running around the same time as me.

I had a couple of goals. My time goals were A)34:30 (not very likely), B)sub 35 (realistic but going to be tough) C) PB (sub 38:33). I also wanted to try and finish ahead of fellow club member Rob Hanks who I ran track with all last summer. This would be a challenge as he is a bit faster then me on the track so I figure if I could beat him I would have run a really good race. Rob told me before the race that he wasn't going to be very fast as he was not training that consistently right now. I didn't buy into that line at all. I call that the Steve Blackburn lull you to sleep race strategy. I would still be running hard.

The Race
It seems that once the gun went off I kind of forgot about my idea of staying with the group of Longboaters that were running my pace. In shorter distance races I always run a little bit faster than the pace I plan to race at usually for the first KM or so before I settle into race pace. Since I was really unsure about what my race pace would be I started out a bit faster but still held back some. I spent the first km weaving in and out of the pack and as we pasted the 1km mark I started to get some room. At this point I settled into a steady 4:17 pace.

Things went well and I was running pretty good at this point, hard but still controlled. I could see a few club members ahead of me but felt good about my pace so didn't try to catch up to them. As I pasted the 2km marker I saw Longboater Francesco G passing me on my right. He was running just slightly faster then I was and I know from running with him that he is around the same pace as I am so I sped up slightly to stay with him. This actually worked out really well for me as Francesco runs a pretty consistent pace also I was pretty sure he would not want me to finish ahead of him. Sure enough anytime I sped up a little so did he. I of course did the same thing not letting him create any kind of gap of more than a couple of strides. He kept me honest for the next 6km.

At 3km we turned back south and picked up the pace just a little bit as this is the fastest part of the course. I hit the 4km mark still feeling pretty good and then passed the 5km mark in 21:24 which is 10 seconds slower then my 5km PB. I knew at this point that if I could hang on to Francesco I was going to put up a really good time.

Just after 5km we turned back west along the Lakeshore and into the grinding part of the course. I could feel fatigue beginning to set in here as I started to labour a bit. My pace slowed slightly here (4:22 from 4:18). I slowed a bit more in the 6-7KM stretch which includes the only hill on the course which was not that big but seemed like a mountain at this point. I turned the corner and headed back north into the last KM right on Francesco's heels.

I had really hoped to have more left in the last KM and did speed up slightly but I was redlining big time. I began to try to focus on just staying right behind Francesco with the intention of trying to take him in the last hundred meters.

We turned the corner and heading into the last 200 meters. I was fading and thinking about where to attempt to turn it on all at the same time when suddenly I heard shouted from the crowd “come on Hanks you can catch Chris!!” What? My brain tried to process this information and then I saw Rob out of the corner of my eye. My focus went from Francesco to Rob and I got confused for a moment and lost focus. I had figured Rob was well behind me while in reality he was right behind me. ARGGG! For a couple of seconds I was frozen in my decision making process and he was by me. I pressed hard but couldn't get him and end up finishing 1 second behind both of them.

Post race
I was pretty happy with my time, hit my second goal of breaking 35 minutes and set a PB taking 3:45 seconds off my time with a finishing time of 34:50. Kim also ran really well and took 4 minutes off her 8km time.

Longboaters grabbed up a bunch of hardware at the race with Rob Campbell winning the grandmasters category and 10 other club members placing in their respective age catagories. Also a big thank you to Bob Nagle for bringing post run/bus refreshments. Thanks Bob.

As always the Burlington running club did a great job putting on the race. If you haven't done this race before I would call it a must do but register early as it sells out every year.

Running the Boston Special .. Last Weeks Training

Here is a run down of last weeks training which overall went well as I added some faster running and a new long run into the mix.

Monday
Rest - I love Mondays! I have a feeling I am going to enjoy Mondays even more as I move into the meat of my training schedule.

Tuesday
12.5km easy run - I ran my normal 7-8 mile route. Conditions were not very good. It was slippery with fresh snow making it impossible to get good traction. The easiness of this run is debatable. At least I didn't fall down.

Wednesday
16 km intervals - The first intervals of this training cycle and just what I needed. My program called for easy runs only up to this point and with the Robbie Burns 8k on the horizon I really needed to get some faster running in (but not too fast). Incorporated 4 x 6 minute intervals into the run. I ran with the club and was suppose to stay relatively slowish at around 4:55km pace but ended up picking it up a bit more then that with each one getting a bit faster than the last until the final one was at a 4:30 pace. Opps.

Thursday
13km easy run - Nothing to see move along. Run was pretty uneventful.

Friday
12km intervals - The first night of the new longboat speed (or hills) training sessions in High Park. Its always nice to be able to run with a small group going the same pace as you until you feel like slowing down. We ran 4 x mile repeats in balmy -18 weather. I still cant believe I was the one complaining that I wanted to start running hard and fast again. After the run Coach Roger supplied us with hot cider and rum. I felt much better after that.

Saturday
13k easy run - Saturday morning run with the club. This was suppose to be a progressive run but kept within my easy pace, it didnt work out that way. Started out slow for about 5 minutes then the progressiveness became a high end of the easy range for the rest of the run. I am not happy with myself on this one and really have to make more of an effort to reign it in. I think probably the -25 degree weather didnt help much.

Sunday
30 km long run - This was the first week of the new group long runs with other longboaters. We met at the westend YMCA and then started out to run the (in)famous Boston Special.

Boston Special = Boston Painful
The Boston Special is a long run route that was devised a number of years ago by Longboat member Tony Fletcher when he was training for Boston. Clearly Tony went out to the west-end of Toronto and found every single large hill then figured out a way to include all of them within a single run and when I say hills I mean big nasty heart pounding hills. I am not sure if Tony is a madman or a genius (evil genius of course). You can check it out here.

I hadn't run this course before but had heard lots about it. It really never dawned on me to make my long run as hilly as humanly possible.



It all started out well but only 4km in I was running too fast as I wanted to try and keep the fast kids in view for as long as possible. The others running my pace were going shorter distances so I knew I would end up on my own soon enough. I slowed it down some as we headed into the hills but still too fast for the course. I keep other club members in sight for the first 10km but as the group separated into those going 20km and those going 30km I was soon running on my own. The only other guys going the full route were Roger M. and Rob C. both sub 3hr marathoners so there was no way I was keeping up with them. Instead I settled into my normal pace and worked my way through the hills. Unfortunately I got lost once on part of the route I didn't know but still got my full distance in. Kim ran the 20km route.



I was honestly really wrecked after this run. I haven't felt this tired after a long run since the first time I trained for a marathon and ran 20 miles. I am told this will make me super strong for the spring season and Around the Bay. I have no doubt about that.

Totals for the week
# of runs 6
longest run 30km (18.5 miles)
total distance 95.6km (59.4 miles)

2009 in review just the facts ... Upcoming 2010 goals

2009 was a very good year of running for me. Here are just the facts / stats. Watch for my 5 best and 5 worst running experiences blog coming early next week (where I get to complain in commentary form).

2009 Recap
I had 5 main (realistic) goals going into this year and managed to reach them all.
1. Stay serious injury free - did this but we are going to chalk that up to the running gods. Had lots of minor problems as pain just keeps moving from one spot on my body to the other.

2. Build a deeper mileage base - this was relatively easy as I started running 6 days a week.

3. Break 23 minutes in a 5k - Struggled with getting fast in 2008 but lots of track work last summer has me running at 5k at just over 21 minutes.

4. Break the 4 hr marathon barrier - Failed at my attempt in Paris, France but crushed it in the fall no problem.

5. Run my first Ultra - Ran my first 50k and liked it so much that I followed it up with a 50 miler.

Totals

longest training run - 23 miles
longest run (race) - 50 miles
most mileage run in a week - 75 miles
lowest mileage run in a week - 0 miles
most mileage in a month - 279 miles
lowest mileage in a month = 115 miles
Number of races in 2008 - 21

TOTAL MILEAGE FOR 2009
2449 Miles
or
3945 km

Set PBs in 5k, 6k, 8k, 10k, 10 miles, Half Marathon, Marathon, 50k and 50 miler.

2010 Goals
1. Break 20 minutes in a 5k
2. Run my first 100 miler
3. Stay injury free
4. Hit my Boston Qualifier
5. Up my base mileage, shoot for 5000km year.

Now lets just see how that ends up going.

Changes in Training .... last weeks totals

My training last week went really great and then really crappy. Its like that sometimes I guess as the runs early in the week went well. I was full of energy and my legs felt really good then KABOOM just when I was beginning to gloat I finished off with a couple of real sucktacular runs.

The last month has been a bit of a challenge in itself due to big change in training methodology. I got a new running program from coach Roger, see his blog here, which follows the Arthur Lydiard training philosophy. Lydiard was big on early deep base building (hey I can do that) kept at a slower pace (DOH!) with a focus of peaking at one spring and one fall race (Double DOH). Its been a challenge to stay easy and patient but so far so good.

I somehow managed to get all my mileage and runs in during the holidays and all went fine as I upped my miles on my Wednesday night run and hit the hills on Christmas morning. Nothing says Christmas like 12km of monster hills. I am currently running a great hill route just west of High Park (for those of you in Toronto) which I got from Roger. You can check it out here. When it's combined with my semi-hilly run to get to the hills it works out quite nicely. So nicely in fact I decided to run it twice. In hindsight this might have led to future crappy runs.

On Saturday I headed back to High Park in the pouring rain for a Club run on the trails. I felt great right up until the whole running part of the run. It took less then 30 seconds to come to the conclusion that this was going to be a slow painful training run. No worries just take it easy I thought. Well guess what you really can't take it easy when you're running through 6 inch deep mud. GRRRRR. After one loop of the trails done 7 minutes slower than usual (7 minutes on a 3.5 mile loop, you do the math)we stuck to the road where my legs really felt no better.

Sunday faired no better as I got in 28km with Steve. We were slow, my legs were tired and all that rain had frozen overnight causing slippery conditions on the road. We had to forget about running our normal Mount Pleasant Cemetery route and stuck to sidewalks where at least we could see the ice. The good is we discovered a new route that was okay and we will probably run again even though it does take us out towards the East end of the city.

What's up next, I am not really sure. I might do some indoor track races in the next couple of weeks but worry about a conflict with my training schedule as I really want to get my base mileage back into the 65 mile (110 km) range.

Last weeks training
Days - 6
Longest run - 28km (17.3 miles)
Total for the week - 88km (54.6 miles)

Egg Nog Jog Blog .... race report

Sunday December 13th was the Egg Nog Jog. This is an 10.8 KM hilly race held just outside of Georgetown ON. Did I mention that this course is hilly, really really hilly including one very large soul sucking monster hill right in the middle of the course.

Now when people tell me that a race course has "a big hill" as well as some "rolling hills" I usually figure okay, I shrug and accept that my time will be a little slower than usual but whatever. I mean really every trail and cross country race I have ever run has had lots of hills so hills on the road should be no problem. When will I ever learn.

Weather for race morning was rainy and cold but luckily just above zero so at least it wasn't freezing rain. Kim and I drove out to the race with fellow Longboater Gregoire B. We got there well before race time, picked up our race kits which included a giant beach towel and milled around with a few other club members. The rain and dampness made it seem much colder then it actually was.

As the start time got closer we all headed out for a quick warm up. This was definitely another when will I ever learn moment. My warm up was too short and too ... well lazy to be honest. I was cold and should have worked a bit (a lot) harder. Now some people can get away with the sort of warm up or no warm up but I am not one of those people. After more then 40 races I still occasionally forget this... what a dufus.

We all lined up for the start of the race which ended up being delayed for about 5 minutes and then we were off. I actually got off to a pretty good start as the early part of this race has a good portion of downhill. I ran it fairly fast but tried to stayed contained, in retrospect I should have run harder here but I was mistakenly trying to run this thing like a normal course. My first two KMs clocked in right at a 4 minute pace. The road was a little slick, well used so not too bad.

After a long downhill and then a mostly flat run we made a sharp right hand turn and headed up and into the early rolling hills. It was all downhill (which was actually uphill) for me. As I began to run up and down the early small rolling hills my ankles on both feet began to really bother me, not the side of my ankles but the top area around my feet. This is really not anything I have encountered on a run before and it really tightened up. I began to do some quiet cursing and was already wondering about my lack of warm up.

The next few KM were up and down, up and down with my legs still not getting loose. I also noticed that my pace time was right out the window... grrrrr. Oh ya and did I mention the hills? I did. Well did I mention the lovely thin coating of snow and ice that now covered the road? No, I didn't, well we wouldn't want to leave that out. Once we turned off the main road a good part of the course had a light slippery coating of winter crap on it. Now this isn't the big trudge through the snow kind of thing or even the watch out or you will fall on your butt kind of thing, this was more of the can't dig in and push off kind of thing.

Up the hill, down the hill and on it went. Okay now here is the really funny part of the race. I had for some reason believed that the big hill was in the first 5km and as I passed the marker I had two very distinct thoughts at once. The first was that the big hill wasn't so bad so what's the big deal and the second was when the heck are my legs going to loosen up and stop hurting. Unfortunately both these questions were answered almost immediately.

It couldn't have been more then a minute later that I turned a small corner saw the actual "big hill". Oh Crap, that is actually a really big hill. Well what can you do so I just put the head down and started powering my way up it. It was steep and long and I was running kind of slow yet was still passing people so I guess I have to give the hill a reluctant thumbs up. It also completely loosened up the front part of ankles no more pain there at all. Of course that pain was replaced with a burning in my calves that was searing. I definitely need to hit the road hill training hard before Around the Bay in the spring.

Once I got clear of the hill the rollers that followed didn't seem like much of a big deal at all. I was more concerned with my lack of traction which I felt like I was really struggling with. I still managed to pick it up a little and wasn't being passed by people so I think most were having the same kind of struggles. As we came into the last KM we were back out on a main road with a better grip. The last big hill on the course was a very steep downhill and then a quick flat section to the finish.

Here is the official finish stats.
Official Time: 51:16
Overall: 76/490
Age Group: 22/77

Okay so if you have read this blog this far you might think that I didn't like this race. Well nothing could be farther from the truth. I loved the course just not the footing conditions. This race is an extremely well run and organized race and the people that put this race on do it well. I would definitely run this race again in a second. I on the other hand just didn't have a good race. Not really sure why, sometimes you just don't have it on the day. I was actually fairly happy with my time given the course and conditions but man was this one painful but also strangely enjoyable race. How odd.

Winters here ... Eggnog Jog coming up ...Last weeks training

Winter
Ahhhh ... winter is finally here. The snow, the wind, the freezing rain, you got to love it. I shouldn't really complain though, I mean I do live in Canada and this time last year we had been living under a snow bank for almost a month.

Last nights run along the Lakeshore was into a nice 50km headwind... sweet. Talk about hill training without any actual hills, so much for a nice take it easy kind of run.


EggNog Jog
This Sunday I will be running the Eggnog Jog. It's a 10.8km race, kind of an odd distance but other people that I run with have told me that its a great race. Oh ya and its suppose to be hilly with one extra special humongous hill to help kick the stuffing out of you. I will be treating this race as a very fast hard tempo workout and not worrying so much about finishing time. I mean I will be getting a PB anyway given the odd distance. No race shirt for this one but I do get a really sweet Beach Towel, just what I need in the middle of the winter ..HA.

Training
Last weeks training went pretty well with only a small bump in the road. I have been having a bit of an achilles problem but its minor at this point so just icing and keeping an eye on it. That will teach me for actually doing a proper recovery after Hamilton. One of those strange quirky things as I usually don't do a proper recovery (ask anyone) but vowed that this time I would. That will teach me!

At this point my runs are mostly slow and easy as I start to rebuild my base mileage. My program seems harder to follow then normal as I really want to run faster and longer but I have vowed stick with it and behave myself... mostly anyway ... as its suppose to actually be more beneficial in the long run. Last week I put in 51.5 miles with the expectation of being back up to around 65 miles by early January.