I Think I Need A Week Off...

Todays 9 mile run marked the end of another three week cycle. I completed 14/15 planned workouts. My legs are tired and my new shoes have given both feet fierce blisters. Can't say how glad I am for planned rest weeks...

A New Run Every Time

Yesterday was my treadmill 6.2 mile run at 2.0 incline run at 8:00 mile pace. I use this run to simulate the mental challenge of running the 10K race. Physically it is an endurance run where I focus on form.

The run teaches me about my mental stages in a race. The first stage is pre-run. The alarm goes off at 6AM. My body wants to sleep. My brain starts rolling over all the usual excuses..."I had a stressful day yesterday", "I'm dehydrated", "My body needs to rest today". Finally I have to remember why I run and hence why I need to get up. Next stage is mile 1. The run starts and I can feel my heart rate increase and my breathing becomes harder. Mentally I start rolling through all the reasons that today I just need to run 1 mile or 3.1 miles instead of the full 6.2. By mile 2, my mind has accepted that I am running. But the excuses start up again as I near 3.1 miles (5K). "I really just want to be a 5K racer." Or, "Its okay to cut back just this once..." But I focus on whatever song I am running to and make sure that I stay on cadence and on good form until I am past the 3.1 mile mark.

After the 3.1 mile mark, I magically begin to feel more resolved. I begin to visualize the race. My favorite vision is me finishing the Edmonton Marathon. I am either the winner or setting a new Canadian record. My run is the final 10K of the race. I am racing against the greats...Gebrselassie, Wanjiru, Ryan Hall and Bekele. Every two miles I drop one of them behind until finally it is just me and (usually) Wanjiru in a sprint to the finish. I imagine the crowd's interest increasing as word spreads that a Canadian is in the lead pack. I see the lead car with the time posted driving down the street and the crowd gets anxious to see if I am still behind it. They cheer when they see that not only am I still in the lead, but I am running strong. The crowds are growing as I run down Whyte Ave and the River Valley. They hold their breath to see who leads the race at the top of Victoria Park Road. Excited children start to run with me in the final push to Commonwealth Stadium. Finally I run into the dark tunnel that leads into the stadium and the final 400m finishing lap. The crowd chants "Ca-Na-Da" when they see me emerge onto the track in the lead as thousands of cameras flash. My wife waits at the finish.

And then the race--and the morning run--are over. The doubts and excuses are gone, replaced by joy, confidence and anticipation of the next chance to race.

New Shoes

Todays workout called for 4 laps of Cedar Hill Park chip trail. According to the Garmin, it was 1100 total feet of elevation gain over 8.68 miles. A tough run but I managed to make the last lap my fastest. Just as I was starting the first lap another runner passed me on the way up. He wasn't going much faster than me and I was tempted to pass him back but I decided to stick to the plan. It is good training for race situations because there will always be somebody faster and I got to learn to run my plan and not just react to other runners.

Anyhow, during the run I noticed that my shins were hurting more than usual. This is usually a sign that my shoes have worn out. I have had these pairs for 4 months and put alot of miles on them so I'm not surprised. So right after the run I hauled my sweaty self into Running Room for new shoes.

I usually run in Nike Air Pegasus. I like them because they fit my narrow foot and have enough midsole padding. They are also on the lighter side which is nice. So I picked up another pair. I also picked up a pair of Asics GT 2140 Trail shoes. Winter is coming which means alot of running in mud uphill and downhill so I hope these will provide a bit more grip.

Sitting at the bottom of the shoe shelf was a pair of track shoes on sale for $30. I have never run in spikes before but I am planning alot more track work. So I went ahead and bought them too. New Balance MDS 330. You even have to screw in the spikes yourself. Can't wait to try them out.

When it was all over, I found myself charging $350 on shoes. What have I become?

Track Workout

Sundays are really my favorite day because the workout is short and different. Today was sunny with a little wind. There was a group of dog walkers at the track which always bothers me. Honestly, miles and miles of city sidewalks and parks and you have to walk your mutt on the track.

I call todays workout cutdowns because each successive interval gets shorter in distance and faster in pace. Interval 1 is 105 second 1/4 miles X 4 (7 minute mile). Interval 2 is 97 seconds 1/4 miles X 3 (6:30 mile pace for 3/4 mile). Interval 3 is 90 seconds 1/4 miles X 2 (6:00 mile pace) and the final 1/4 mile is 75 seconds (5:00 mile pace.) 1/2 mile rest between intervals. Pretty easy workout but fun to try to hit that 75 at the end. In case you are wondering, the world record for the 400m is 43 seconds and change.

All the intervals felt very comfortable today. I ran faster than my paces for intervals 1-3 but ran the last 400m lap in 80 seconds which is an official Garmin GPS personal best (my best unofficial time is 68 seconds...).

Tomorrow it is back to the grind. "The Grind" is a good nickname for the run because it is 4 laps of Cedar Hill Park Chip Trail.I think its about 8.8 miles of hill training. Basically mountain running up hill then downhill steep. Lots of fun once its over.

Lochside Repeats

I don't know why but I always get anxious before my big runs.

The plan today called for 5 X 1.5 mile repeats at 8:00 minute pace (12 minutes per lap). I learned from the Times Colonist that one of my problems is starting out too slow so I set the playlist for a slightly faster cadence ("When You Are A Soldier"). So as I started out on the first lap I noticed that I was running fast but not feeling much effort. This continued until the end when I noticed I was going to finish in about 10:30 so I purposely slowed down and still finished at about 11:10. Two minute rest and back at it. Every lap felt great, not pushing. There was a slight wind on the return laps which magnified the effort but didn't affect my time.

All in all a good work out.

Tomorrow is cutdowns at the track. I am hoping to hit 75 second quarter mile on the last lap.

Still Running!

Wow I can't believe I haven't updated this since July!

Looking back the race in Utah was awesome. But I told my wife that there would be no more travelling to races until I break 40 minutes locally. Seriously, that trip to Utah cost me around $5000 in lost income and travel costs and all for a 48 minute finish.

Anyhow, I am training now for the 2010 Times Colonist. I feel I have unfinished business with the race.

Happily I have found a training regimen that works for me and my current travel and work schedule. Sunday is track intervals. Monday is hill training mostly at Cedar Hill Park. Wednesday is speed training on the treadmill. Thursday is easy distance run on the treadmill and Saturday is 1.5 mile repeats at Lochside. Tuesday and Friday are rest days. The treadmill runs are done at a minimum incline of 2.0. Every fourth week is a rest week with reduced distances but a run on each work out day.

I have seen good results so far. I even clocked a 68 second quarter mile at the track a couple of weeks ago but lately have been settling for 81 seconds.

This week was rough 'cause I'm at a conference in Nanaimo and have to run earlier than usual. This morning's treadmill 6.2 was mentally tough. I was tempted to stop at 3.1 miles but am happy I pushed through it.

The Sweetest 6 Seconds

My chip time for the Provo Freedom Run 10K was 47:54.

After training and obsessing about this race for the past 10 months it was nice to get the race over with. I was confident that I had run every training run I was supposed to, including 10 milers and sprint intervals.

The night before the race I could not sleep at all. I didn't even doze. I laid awake in my hotel all night tortured by waking "what if" dreams. What if my playlist was too slow, maybe it was too fast, maybe I should insert "Roll Tide" into the playlist. What if people roughed me up or tripped me because I was wearing a Canada shirt? What if I didn't drink enough water last night, what if I drank too much and needed a break during the race? What if I started out too fast, what if I started too slow and got boxed in? What if we couldn't find parking and I had to jog 2-3 miles to the start? What if I got up too early, what if I got up too late? A thunderstorm rolled through at about 4AM with some rain. What if the roads were wet and I slipped on the downhill...?

As the restlessness wore on my head began to spin and I got a low grade headache.

The hotel wake up call at 530AM was most welcome. The "what if's" stopped and I decided to get out of bed. I was so tired.

The roads were dry and the sky was now clear. We found parking easily. Nobody even noticed my Canada shirt, let alone objected to it. I went for a warm up jog and felt surprisingly fast and awake. But my mouth was very dry.

I lined up in the area marked "7 minute mile pace". A thin black man, dubbed "The Kenyan", finished his warm up and lined up at the front of the pack. As I expected, slow runners began lining up in my area. Usually I politely tolerate this, but today I pushed closer to the front ahead of them. I didn't have time to weave past them at the beginning. The thin unshaven unshowered man next to me had a jersey on with a little "New Zealand" in the upper left chest. "Looks like I'm not the only non American in the race...", I joked. He chuckled nervously. He managed to share that he was from New Zealand but living in Nevada and was in town to visit relatives but really was here to run a race. He was worried about starting out too fast...

The race began after a ten minute delay. I pushed my way to the starting line. No more Mr. Nice Guy and getting passed by everybody at the beginning. This was a new philosophy: start like Seabiscuit. I was going to push the first mile, hoping to finish that mile in 7 minutes, then push the downhill section which was almost another mile, and finally settle into a 7:30 pace for the rest of the race. The point was to get ahead of the crowd so as to not waste energy trying to maneuver through them or being boxed in.

The first mile was uphill. The mouth dryness was bothering me. I didn't think it was dehydration as it had started before the race, but it wasn't helping at all. Still, I pushed on and managed to finish the first mile in 7 minutes. Now on to the downhill section I had been practicing for months. Most recreational runners are uncomfortable on downhills, but I am confident and comfortable with them. And I didn't slip. I finished mile 2 at 14:15.

Now the race flattened out until mile 6. My mouth finally moistened up at about the three mile mark. That first 3 miles was finished at 21:22. At the time I realized vaguely that it was a personal best time. Unfortunately, the lack of sleep prevented me from realizing that A. It was a 43 minute 10K pace, much faster than my predicted finish and hence likely too fast and B. It was a 7:07 mile pace, again too fast to expect to sustain. I think that even had my sleep deprived brain been able to accomplish the simple math, the ability to decide to slow down was not there. So I continued to race at that pace.

Mile 4 was finished at 29:12, a 7:15 mile pace. Mile 5 was finished at 37:34, a 7:31 mile pace. I glanced at my watch at the five mile mark and noticed I was there at 37 minutes. My goal was 45 minutes. I thought I was on track to make my time, but again, my sleep deprived brain could not do the math. I needed to finish that final 1.2 miles in 7 minutes 26 seconds in order to make my goal. That is a 6:12 per mile pace. And the final mile was uphill.

It was a moot point anyway. The wheels fell off after 5 miles. In running terms, I bonked. I couldn't even hear my playlist cadences, let alone move my feet that fast. I reverted to my natural resting pace. My head started telling me to stop or walk. But then I saw my mom and niece and nephew waving and cheering for me. And somewhere ahead near the finish my wife waited. "No," I thought, "I may not be running my fastest, but there is no way I am going to let my family watch me walk to the finish." I also realized that to them it appeared that I was running hard. So I stood up straight and started swinging my arms and pushing as hard as I could.

By the time I could see the finish line, the race clock read 47:40 with 40 yards left to run. I could not accept that I had come ten months and hundreds of training miles only to run 48 minutes or longer. This race had to be a personal best, if only by a few seconds. Other runners were sprinting past me to the finish, inspiring me to push on. I could see the seconds ticking down as I got closer...45, 46, 47...my legs and lungs burned...50, 51, 52...waves of nausea passed over me as I fought off the dry heaves...53...Once last glance at the clock before I crossed the line showed 47 minutes.

My head was spinning. I could barely stand, let alone keep moving as one of the race volunteers shouted at me to get out of the finish area. Somehow I walked to the chip removal area where a young lady snipped the timing chip off my shoe. The dry heaves began again. I wandered to a picnic pavilion and laid down on the concrete floot. The world was spinning.

47:54. I had beat my personal best by 6 seconds. On no sleep. At 4600 feet of elevation. Uphill for the first and last mile.