Garden Variety Maritime Runner

I Long for the Long Run

2011-06-26T22:39:00.004-03:00

I shared Mike's critique of my marathon training plan with my wife. Sharing similar concerns regarding the "too far/too soon" aspect, she passed on the following loving quote:

"When you get hurt with some weird injury, don't come whining to me because it's your own ridiculous fault."

So ... I'm tweaking the plan - and not just with respect to this, but a couple of other areas as well.

I did cut back slightly on the mileage this week, running 5 days rather than 6, and 44 miles rather than 48. My speed work day came pretty close to what the plan called for. I did find it difficult, and I think I would have hit it spot-on, but for a final interval+ cut short by an uncalled for trip to the nearest bathroom.

Another part of the plan that I had a concern with was the lack of true long runs, a staple of most marathon training plans. For example, here's what the training page from the Mount Desert Island marathon says about long runs:

"The most important ingredient to marathon success is the long run; it mirrors the marathon itself. "Going long" is a hallowed weekend tradition that is despised and loved, feared and revered, bragged and complained about. First-time and casual marathoners should gradually increase the length of long runs and complete at least three runs of 18 to 20 miles prior to the marathon. "

So the MDI site calls for at least 3 runs of 18-20 miles. The Pfitzinger plan I followed the last couple of years calls for five of these, and last fall in preparing for MDI, I ran six of these, including four 20-mile long runs. How many of these are in my current plan? Zero. In fact, there was only one week where the long run reaches 17 miles.

Here is what the Run S.M.A.R.T. folks said when I asked them about this:

"As for the long runs, Jack believes the risks of running longer than 2 hours and 30 minutes (regardless of pace) during a marathon build-up far outweigh the benefits. 17 miles at 9 minutes pace brings you to Jack's cap. I'm fine with you going 18 on that day and if you're feeling good at a slightly faster pace at that point in your build-up and you can hit 18 or 19 in no more than 2:40 or 2:45 then I think that's fine. But honestly, you don't need to run any longer than that. After getting through this schedule, if you pace yourself properly during the race you will be ready to reach your goal."

I do plan on running for 2:45 a few times during this training cycle, and we'll see where this takes me for mileage on those weeks.

Next week includes a couple of days with some marathon paced miles, with the rest of week filled with easy runs. Should be manageable. No real hill training yet ... more on that next time.

A Jack Daniels Man

2011-06-21T22:00:00.004-03:00

I ran the St. Andrew's Father's Day 5-miler this past Sunday, Mike's annual race. In the four weeks since the marathon, I haven't run very much, and it showed in my finishing time of the race ... not quite breaking the 8 minute/mile pace. The course isn't easy at all, but that's a weak excuse for the poor time.

Cam ran a kilometer in the kids race prior to the adults, coming in at 5:24. Here's a picture of Cam giving it the final push just before he finished! He did very well!

Another picture of Cam, relieved to be done, hanging out with me before the "grown ups" raced.

Some speedy people I know have spoken to me recently about the importance of track workouts, and how it has improved their running. With this in mind, I decided I would include regular track work in my training plan for the Mount Desert Island marathon in October.

I've read a bit about Jack Daniels and his training plans, and I knew regular sessions on the track were part of his schedules (yeah... yeah... it doesn't make him particularly unique, I know). Also, since I've followed Pfitzinger for three training cycles now, I thought I would do something a bit different just to mix it up. If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how it affects me compared to my past training.

I registered for a training plan from the Run S.M.A.R.T. Project, which uses training plans from Jack Daniels. I gave them my recent running history, how many days per week I would like to run, anticipated mileage, and marathon and intermediary race goals. Based on this information, I was provided with an 18-week plan.

The first thing I noticed about the plan was how slow the pace of the easy-paced runs were, with paces of 9:15 to 9:45 per mile. To me, that seems quite slow. However, I've thought for a while that my slow paces are too fast, when comparing to my race times, or when I measure my heart rate on these runs as a percentage of my maximum heart rate. My long runs in the past have always come close to my marathon pace. I hear others speak of tough "marathon pace" long runs, and I think to myself "What's the big deal about that? All my long runs are around marathon pace!"

I think I'll stick to the plan, pretty much as prescribed, and see how it goes. I'll post regular updates here. Here's what the people from the Run S.M.A.R.T. Project said when I asked them about the pace of my easy runs.

"The suggested easy paces are appropriate for your goal time. That is a sign you may normally be running too hard on your easy days. Remember, easy pace running is to strengthen your heart and increase cellular adaptation to help you build a nice base for more stressful training. Those paces are as fast as you need to go to reap 100% of those benefits so running any harder only puts you at higher risk of getting injured."

So tonight, on my first run of the plan, I ran seven miles at a 9:07 pace. The plan has a suggested pace between 9:15 and 9:49! I can't imagine running a 9:49 pace for seven miles. The route I ran was fairly hilly, and my average heartrate was 149, which is about 78% of my maximum heart rate. This tells me that I probably could slow it down even more.

Tomorrow ... speed work, with 13 miles in total, including 2 miles at tempo and 3 km repeats. It will be interesting to see how I make out with that. I'll report on it in my next post.

Blue Nose recap, and other stuff

2011-05-24T21:06:00.004-03:00

A picture of me during a cold and windy 5k race last month in Lincoln

So I did run the Blue Nose marathon last weekend, finishing with a personal best time of 3:45 exactly. It was my goal time, and I was surprised and happy to hit it. I had *ok* training heading into it, roughly following the Pfitzinger 12/55 plan. This summer I'm going to take a shot at bumping up the mileage, taking on the 18 week/peak 70 miles per week plan.

My blogging has taken a back seat to updates via the dailymile website. However, while dailymile allows for the online accountability thing, the blog serves as a historical journal. Reading along with Thomas as he hit his sub-3 hour marathon this summer, and being able to review his history of past races has convinced me - at least for the time being - that I'll keep up this online diary for another spell ... at least until I reach the sub-3:40 marathon at Mount Desert Island this fall.

I should also note that in addition the new personal best time at the Blue Nose, I also bested my previous best half-marathon time by running a 1:43 in Fredericton. Next weekend, off to the Cabot Trail Relay in Cape Breton, where I'll be running leg 12.

For now, here is a brief (?) recap of my Blue Nose marathon, courtesy of my dailymile update.

/*
Coming into this marathon, my A, B and C goals were as follows:

A) The "feel great and fall into it" goal - a 3:40
B) The realistic goal that I would be very happy with - 3:45
C) Hitting 3:50, matching my time from last fall at MDI

The weather was cool but not so cool that I was cold (yet, that came later), there was negligible wind, and I wasn't hurting, so I had no excuses not to run my best.

As is the case for many marathoners, the first half, up to about the 25k point, felt great. My pace to that point was about 5:12 per kilometer, which put me on pace for a 3:40.

However, as great as I felt, as we were about to cross into Dartmouth around the 25k point, I knew how difficult the rest of the race was going to be. The last 17k is rarely flat, and includes four larger hills. Still, I ran a relatively steady (but slower) pace. The worst hill is up Maple Street in Dartmouth, at the 37k point. It's a steady, fairly steep incline for about 500 meters. I walked twice going up this, for perhaps 15-20 seconds each time. The only other two times I walked during the race were very briefly through a couple of water stops over the last 15k. I never really felt I hit the wall, though I was five minutes slower over the second half compared to the first half. It was nice to run around the city where I spent so much time in my youth, although I don't think I pay much attention to the sites while running.

I'm happy with this, and feel I couldn't have done much better at this point. I plan to increase the mileage this summer. My goal for the fall marathon at MDI is to break 3:40, and I'm confident I'll do it.

A few other notes on the race:

The winning time was a course record at 2:28. Only two other runners of the 300 competing broke 3:00, both finishing at 2:59. However, according to the local paper, the 2nd through 4th place runners missed a turn at one point and ran an extra 4k. It's not the first time something similar to this has happened on this course.

Just to show that some people prefer a few hills, my running friend Eric from Fredericton ran a 3:26:34, two weeks after finishing with 3:27:58 on the flat Fredericton course. He also ran a 3:32 in Boston in April. Not bad for a 56-year old who only started running two years ago!

Faith Ann ran the 10k, while my father and his wife watched Cam. They didn't wait for me to finish the marathon. I took the key to the car with me on my run, and would meet them when I was done. After finishing and grabbing a bite to eat, I walked in the cold wind to the vehicle (they ran out of mylar blankets very early - all those cold 5k'ers I guess). I took out the key to the *car*, realized we had brought the *van*, and I was stuck. I walked back to the finishing area in the cold, begged someone for a cell phone, and had the rescuing/laughing party come pick me up.
*/

My Next Marathon - Blue Nose (Halifax)

2011-01-31T22:11:00.002-04:00

May 22nd. Another hilly route - looking forward to it!

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/1638058"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Bluenose Marathon Route&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/?location=Halifax, NS"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Runs in Halifax, NS&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Arizona Rock'n'Roll Marathon

2011-01-18T19:45:00.009-04:00

I went to Phoenix last week with Cameron and Faith Ann, running the Arizona Rock’n’Roll Marathon on Sunday, January 16, 2011. I finished in 3:51:08, 29 seconds slower than MDI in October, and had fun doing it! Here is what the weather was like at the airport, hours before we finally got out of there ...

We were happy to arrive in Phoenix for weather like this ...

The bad weather at home meant that our flight was delayed by a day, and we spent an unexpected night in Detroit enroute to Arizona. That also meant that I missed a Leafs/Coyotes hockey game in Phoenix. I had a great seat for it too!

We went right to the race expo after arriving. We didn’t spend too much time there, as Cam wouldn’t have put up with it for too long. He was so anxious to get to the Lego Store! However, there were some things there to keep him entertained.

We took it easy Saturday, visiting the Arizona Science Centre (across the street from the Expo) and South Mountain Park. Sunday morning, I got to the race in plenty of time, getting psyched up by the atmosphere and inspirational signs.

Although this course is flat and fast, and the conditions were perfect, my training since the MDI marathon in October had fallen off and I expected to finish with a time similar to that one (3:50).

There were a little over 5000 people running the full marathon, and we were placed in corrals based on our expected finishing times. This seemed to work out well, as the pace at the start seemed to be a good one for me. I finished the first 5k in 27 minutes, the 10k in 54:35. I felt very good after 10k, and unintentionally did the next several miles at a pace faster than intended. I finished the half at 1:53:06. Faith Ann was tracking my progress, and at one point the website had projected me to finish at 3:44. She suspected I might be headed for a rough finish based on this pace. As it turned out, I wouldn’t keep that pace, but it didn’t end up being too bad.

For the first time ever in a race, I had to take a bathroom break during the run! I diverted to a porta-potty somewhere around mile 14. Perhaps I would have broken 3:50, if only my bladder was the size of Africa!

Around mile 16 things started to feel tough, but I kept trudging along. I ran for a while with this guy below. He’s done a few marathons like this, carrying the US flag. I looked him up later on the web, and he is quite the accomplished endurance athlete.

While the course is short on scenery, there was the occasional nice view ...

... and the course is definitely fast. The most extreme “hill” around mile 24 really wasn’t much of a hill at all. If I ever wanted to try to race for a fast time in a winter marathon, this would be the place. In reality, that’s not likely to happen, since my training tends to decline in the winter months.

Being in the Rock’n’Roll marathon series, there were bands throughout the course, but I barely noticed they were there. Things got progressively tougher over the last few miles, and I walked through a couple of the water stations. My pace didn’t drop off precipitously though. For the 42 kilometers of the race, I only had three where the pace exceeded 9:30 minutes/mile - how’s that for mixing up metric and imperial? Only one kilometre exceeded the 10 minute per mile pace (barely), and that was the one that included the bathroom break.

Some race participants did a good job of encouraging myself and others over the last couple of miles. I took the photo below as I approached the end.

As I said earlier, I was happy with the run. My training since MDI had averaged a little less than forty miles per week, with my left calf giving me issues a couple of times. Other than that pain, and a few added pounds, I stayed on track with my plan pretty well – certainly much better quality workouts than when I was training for Houston at the same time last year. Still, it included only one 20-mile run, compared to five for MDI. If I can get a 3:51 on this type of training – albeit on a fast course –it gives me confidence that I should be able to crack the 3:40 mark this fall.

It is a good marathon, although if forced to choose between this one and my other "large" winter marathon, I would probably choose Houston. Houston has a better expo, more fans, a better facility for the start/finish, and better finishing food and goodies.

One odd thing about this marathon experience revolves around my recovery. This was my flattest course of the four I have run, yet for some reason my quads are more sore than they were for any of the previous three. Running through an airport last night to catch a connecting flight (which of course was delayed anyway) was a painful experience!

My next marathon? I’m not sure. I plan to participate with the marathon training group in the local running club, but that’s really just to stay in shape. Whether it leads to a spring marathon will be determined by the quality of the training and my commitment to it between now and then. At the very least, I'm in a better spot now than this time last year. My "winter" marathon time was ten minutes faster, and I don't have any surgery coming up that will keep me off my feet. Looking forward to some winter training before the spring races begin!

Quick Update

2010-11-28T20:32:00.003-04:00

A photo of some of the guys from the Fredericton Trail Masters Cabot Trail Relay team. We got together to run a few leisurely miles yesterday, just before the heavier snow starting falling.

My running had been coming along well recently. This week, however, wasn't up to snuff, as I missed my Tuesday and Wednesday runs, largely due to laziness. The result was a weekly total of just over only 32 miles (52k). With the marathon seven weeks from today, there should be plenty of motivation to get most of my runs in until the big day (January 16th). My 18 mile run today went well, with a comfortable pace of 8:49 minutes per mile, so my endurance doesn't seem to have taken a significant dip. Looking back at my long runs at the same time last year, they were all 20-30 seconds per mile slower, so that's encouraging as well.

In other news, I had my first ever massage of any type last week, this one of the deep tissue variety. I thought I would hate it, but it was bearable - and not intolerably painful. I have had off-and-on issues with my calves over the last few months, and I figured this treatment couldn't hurt. The jury is still out on whether it was beneficial, but I will get a follow up massage this Tuesday. That might be it for a while.

Finally, in keeping with my pattern of announcing my marathon plans months in advance, it looks like I won't be doing Quebec City next August. I do think I'll be running this half-marathon around that time. Next fall's marathon? Well, Faith Ann is planning on running two half marathons in 2011. Her spring half will be here in Fredericton, and her autumn half will be at the Maine Marathon in Portland. There is a decent chance I will run the full at the Maine Marathon at that time, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet.

A picture of Cam from earlier today, giving you an idea of the kind of stuff I was running in for my long run.

Continuation

2010-11-01T19:24:00.003-03:00

A photo of me in the early stages of the Mount Desert Island marathon. Apologies for the poor quality, but I'm too miserly to pay for the real thing.

It has been two weeks since my marathon. The first week following it, I did very little running, completing 5k just a couple of times. One of those was a race - the 5k as part of the Legs for Literacy running event in Moncton. I completed it in 22:58, and felt no lingering aches or pains from the marathon. Check out Mike's blog for a great little video of the race, including both my finish and his.

This past week I ran four times, including 12.5 miles yesterday, in the first snow flurries of the season. Unfortunately, after 11.5 miles, I had a familiar pain return in my calf. Not learning from my past mistakes, I continued some combination of walking/running for another mile before returning home. It was quite tight and painful last night, but a little better today. Hopefully this will pass quickly.

Faith Ann also ran the 5k in Moncton. After taking a hiatus from blogging for a while, she has started it up again. Check out the story of her run here.

What's next for my running? Not much in the way of racing in the short term. I'll probably do a 5k race on New Year's Day. I'm also going to run the Arizona Rock'n'Roll marathon in Phoenix on January 16th. If you had to think of two completly opposite marathons, it would be MDI and the Arizona Rock'n'Roll marathon. To wit -

Location:
MDI: Centered around Bar Harbor, population right around 5000
Arizona: Takes place in Phoenxi, the fifth largest city in the United States, with a population
over 1.6 million

Scenery:
MDI: Very scenic, voted most scenic by Runners World
Arizona: By many accounts I have read, not so scenic - unless you're into strip malls

Audience:
MDI: Caters mostly to marathoners, although they have added 2 and 3-person relay teams
Arizona: Last year had 21,000 half-marathon finishers, compared to just under 5,000
marathon finishers. This year they even added 2-person relay teams for the half-marathon!

Organizers:
MDI: Largely run by race director Gary Allen, along with other locals
Arizona: Part of the Rock'n'Roll marathon series, organized by Competitor Group, Inc., a sports
marketing, management and publishing company.

No matter - I'm sure when I'm lining up at the start, I'll be just as excited and nervous to get going. I'm going to shoot for something under 3:45. In the mean time, I need to draw up some type of training plan, and perhaps if I feel social I'll join some local runners occasionally on these cold, dark autumn/winter evenings.

Mount Desert Island Marathon

2010-10-18T19:26:00.011-03:00

I ran the Mount Desert Island marathon yesterday, finishing with a time of 3:50:39, more than five minutes better than my marathon in PEI last fall. The race was great. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was wonderful, the course was picture-perfect. I felt good throughout the race, and it went almost exactly as I had planned and hoped.

I arrived at the race start about 15-20 minutes before the gun went off. The race director, Gary Allen, was making a few announcements prior to the race. It was obvious that he is proud of his race, and he deserves to be. He spoke of it growing in the future, and I hope it does.

In my normal run around my neighborhood, when I'm not pushing the pace at all, I routinely hit the 5k mark at a little over 27 minutes. It's a comfortable pace for me. I wanted to finish at under 3:50 in this race, and running 27 minute 5k segments would put me right there. For the first 30k, I was right on track. In fact, I was happy with my pace throughout the race. My first half clocked in at just under 1:54, and the second half was a little over 1:56. Considering the hills over miles 20 through 25, I was quite proud to have stuck to this pace. I ran through most of the water stops. The only couple of times I walked were just before mile 20, in front of steep hill. I figured that would be a good time to slow down for a drink and a gel. Also, around mile 23.5, as I was near the end of a big hill, I probably walked for 30 seconds. I didn't look at my watch too often, I just tried to keep it somewhat comfortable going up the hills, and pushing it slightly going down the hills.

I felt strong throughout this run, even finishing it up feeling good. The picture below is of me at the end. I had a couple within my sights for most of the race. With less than half a mile left, their pace had slowed a fair bit. I told them that I felt guilty about passing after all that time, but they kindly told me to go ahead. In looking at this photo, I'm surprised they finished that close to me after all!

Here's a picture of me with the sun glaring behind me, as I drop my jacket off to Faith Ann and Cam. They met me a couple of times during the race, giving me a drink bottle to carry. I'm happy they were supporting me, although Faith Ann did find it difficult to navigate around the island while staying off the marathon route.

This is me as I approach them the second time, around the 18.3 mile point.

After the race, I had a quick bite to eat and a shower, before heading back to the vehicle to go home. I was surprised to see so many people who I had been running with for much of the race finishing as I walked to our vehicle. The only point during the race where it was windy at all was around Somes Sound, I think around mile 15?? I drafted off two different guys at this point for a bit, and both of them ended up finishing about 45 minutes behind me. There were quite a lot of people who did seem to be struggling between miles 20-23 during the race - even more than the normal struggling that people do at this point in marathons.

Today I feel a little sore, but really not too bad. I plan to run a couple of times this week, then finish my running season with a short 5k or 10k this weekend in Moncton, as Faith Ann is planning on running the 5k.

Overall, I'm very happy with how I did. I'll never be a super speedy guy (like Jamie - check out his run!) but I think in my training leading up to this, I pushed myself hard enough that I came close to reaching my potential for this race, but not to the point where I got hurt. Now that I know I can train to this point, perhaps I'll ratchet it up just a little more for next summer!

Just a couple more pics to finish ... thankfully it didn't rain during the run, or Cam wouldn't have been able to play his Nintendo DS while waiting for me.

Also, there happened to be a basketball hanging around the school, so Cam had something to do while waiting for me after the race.

Ready!

2010-10-10T18:39:00.002-03:00

With the Mount Desert Island Marathon a week away, I completed my last longish run today. It was just twelve miles. I started off easy, but picked up the pace as the run went on. In the end, my pace was similar to my half-marathon time in May. However, today felt very comfortable. It's nice to know that all the mileage this summer has paid off. Maybe I'll try to keep it up over the winter, but I do hate those cold, dark winter days.

Now for the lowdown on the results of my training plan for this summer.

747 miles over 17 weeks, average pace 8:45 minutes per mile/5:25 minutes per kilometer (June, July and August averaged just over 200 miles per month)

Compare this to the year before ...

2009: 690 miles, avg pace 8:58 mins/mile or 5:34 mins/km

Note that the total miles according to the Pfitzinger 18/55 plan over the first 17 weeks are 767. I missed much of one week due to injury, so overall I was happy with my final numbers falling just 20 miles short of the original plan. Also, the training this year included much running on hills, which I did very little last year, so the improvement in pace would have been better had I trained on flatter routes.

I feel better prepared for this marathon than either of my previous two, and I don't think my training could have gone much better. I'm injury-free, and the weather forecast (so far) looks very good. What does it all mean? I'm not sure, given the terrain of the course. I'll take it one hill at a time, and try to enjoy the experience!

Here is a way I definitely will not finish. Check out this incredible video from the end of the Chicago Marathon today:

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

My Favourite Race

2010-09-27T19:51:00.005-03:00

With less than three weeks to the MDI marathon, I've started my taper, but not before finishing my last "really" long run of 20 miles today. That's four 20-milers over the last four weeks, and they have all felt very good.

I did the long run today (Monday) rather than my normal Sunday, because yesterday I ran the Fall Classic 10k race. Coming into the race, I hadn't been very impressed with my speed. In fact, of all the races of I have done this spring and summer, the only one I was reasonably happy with the half-marathon that I ran in Fredericton in May. In retrospect, the weeks following my hernia surgery until I started the marathon training plan were too light on volume. Next spring I'll try to do a better job and get more training in before the spring.

So ... the 10k. Have I mentioned how much I like this race? For a specific race experience, I don't think anything will ever compare to my first marathon in PEI with Mike. But when it comes to races, this is the one. It's home, in the fall, on a route I have run many times, and it's flat. All three times I have run it the weather has been perfect. Most importantly, all three times I have run it, I have been happy with the result.

I saw Mike before the race, and told him I didn't think I would match my time of 47:11 from last year, despite what I think has been a good few months of training. Mike responded with "a race can ... .... ". I don't remember exactly, but something like "it can bring out results". Unknown to me, he predicted to his wife that I would get in at 46 minutes, and he was close. 46:12. Results here. I was happy, and even happier with my pacing. Check out the splits below. I followed a legendary local runner for a while. She had passed me in the later stages of enough races to let me know that her pacing was much better than mine.

Km 1: 4:32
Km 2: 4:33
Km 3: 4:34
Km 4: 4:39
Km 5: 4:51 --> Passed my pacer! Theory: I was creeping her out, so she let me pass!
Km 6: 4:37
Km 7: 4:31
Km 8: 4:36
Km 9: 4:37
Km 10: 4:30

The race was a good confidence booster. I'm tentatively planning on running another 10k next weekend, and I hope it goes as well. Next post I'll do the obligatory summary of my weeks of training, but I couldn't have asked for it to have been much better than it was. I only had a couple of bumps in the road, but the following post on a message board succinctly puts things in perspective:

"Sometime in the next 18 weeks your training will be derailed. That's actually part of marathon training. The best thing you can do when this happens is just forget about it and get back to work where you left off."

Marathon Training Update

2010-09-13T20:47:00.003-03:00

An update since my last post a few weeks back.

I'm getting the mileage in. Take away one week in when I needed to take a few days off to heal my calf (see below) and I'm averaging over 50 miles per week over the last nine weeks. Some good runs too, not just junk miles.

I got in 20 mile runs each of the past two weekends, and felt pretty strong through both. While there weren't any monster long hills, I do run a route that includes many rolling hills, with some being quite steep. Last week's run was at a pace of 8:52 mins/mile, and this week was 8:48 mins/per mile. Actually, yesterday's run was 20.5 miles (my longest non-marathon run), and next week I plan to make it 21 miles. I even ran a negative split yesterday, with the pace over the first ten miles at close to 9 mins/mile, and the last ten around 8:38 per mile.

Since I haven't posted for a while, I should state that there was a period when my calf was an issue. During my run two days after the Saint John half, my calf was quite painful a couple of miles into the run. The next day, it didn't feel horrible, and I foolishly headed out for a 10-mile run. Nine miles into it, there was a sharp pain, resulting in me walking most of the remaining mile to my house. I ended up taking three days off after that, followed by a very easy 6-mile run on my "long run Sunday". Thankfully it hasn't been much of an issue since then.

My next race is the 10k at the Fall Classic in Fredericton on September 26th. My first ever race was there, and this is still one of my favourites. I also plan on running the 10k at the Dam Run in Perth-Andover the following Saturday, as a tune up race prior to the marathon.

Oh yes ... I also ran a half-marathon "race" in Truro, Nova Scotia in late August, near the stomping grounds of my youth, that I don't even want to speak or write of ...

Finally, an image showing my pace and elevation from my long run yesterday. Looking ahead to a week of early morning runs in the dark and the rain! Less than five weeks until the marathon, and I'm feeling at ease with my training!

Mr Scatterbrain

2010-08-08T21:57:00.001-03:00

Knowing I was getting up early Sunday morning to head to Saint John for the half-marathon, Faith Ann and Cam slept downstairs last night. Here was an e-mail Faith Ann sent me that night, knowing I would read it in the morning:

Don't forget ...
to give yourself enough time to pick up your race kit in the morning.

Why does she think she has to remind me about such obvious things? The answer to that question is simple: I'm such a procrastinating scatter-brain that I need to be constantly reminded.

Let me say that I really don't know my way around Saint John at all. But hey, I have a Garmin GPS unit in the car, and I could just type in the address. However, I soon realized I couldn't find any address or landmark in the GPS that would point me to the race. Wouldn't you think it would have Rockwood Park, or at least the Rockwood Park golf course in there somewhere? Oh, but it was my lucky day, because it did have Rockwood Avenue! Surely that must be close to the race! So I proceeded to Rockwood Avenue, to find out it wasn't the race location at all. No need to worry, I still had twenty minutes before the race started at 8 AM!

A stop in a gas station to ask for directions ... drive for a bit and see the golf course ... go in for more directions, waiting impatiently for people checking in for their tee times ahead of me ("Good morning, we're teeing off at 7:57") ... finally reach the general vicinity of the start area ... jog to the start area ... bother the chip timing guy taking a picture of the fast people waiting in front to ask "Can I still get a chip?" He says "Go down to the bottom of the hill". So I went to the bottom of the hill, and asked a few people (as I heard the national anthem being sung for the race). Finally a guy starts trotting up the hill and gets a woman to come down to me (as the gun goes off for the race to start). She searches for my packet, finally finds it, gives me my chip, which I quickly tie on my shoe. I leave the building and another chip timing guy says "Tell him to run". I'm thinking "well duh ... that's why I'm here" when I realize he means "run to get your chip across the timing mat". So I run up the hill, and cross the mat as they're putting it away. A couple of them said "it'll work fine", but of course it didn't, and I didn't receive a chip time today.

So I started the run several minutes after everyone else. I passed lots of people, including several pace bunnies. Around mile 5 the shoe I quickly tied the chip on came un-tied, so I stopped for a few seconds to fix it. The run itself wasn't too bad, as I was on a pace for about a 1:48 finish, until right around the 10.5 mile point, when I had a sudden cramp in my right calf, quite painful for the first 20 seconds or so, then it lingered for a bit. That has never happened to me before while on a run. I did get a cramp Friday night after my run, and it stuck around in a less evil form for a while that night, but I never imagined it would have happened today. I walked gingerly on it for a minute or so, then started running again, but I still felt it. Great! A couple more quick walk breaks, and I thought it was ok, and I picked it back up, but I was quite disgusted at that point. I took it pretty easy over the last mile or so, wondering why I was bothering at this point to put in any effort. As I reached the final couple hundred meters, I saw a guy now living in Houston who I hadn't seen for several years (although he put in Saint John as his address in the half, finishing in 1:32), and chatted with him for a minute. He looked at my Garmin and said "are you still running?". I said "yeah, but I'm not really racing at this point". I stopped the watch, felt a bit embarrassed, and jogged down the last 200 meters. The clock said 1:58, and my Garmin said 1:51:47 at 12.96 miles, where I had stopped to speak with Dave at the top of the hill.

Given my kilometer splits to the 18th kilometer, I do think I was running a decent and fairly consistent race to that point, and probably would have finished around 1:48 or so. So while it turned out to be closer to a tempo run for 10 miles than a half marathon, it wasn't a total bummer. The calf feels fine now, and I don't understand why it was affected today, since I certainly wasn't dehydrated. I hope the cramp doesn't make a reappearance anytime soon.

Over the Hills and Far Away

2010-08-03T21:04:00.005-03:00

We spent the last weekend in Halifax, and I got in runs of 6+ miles on both Friday and Saturday, and an 18 mile long run on Sunday morning. The long run took me from one end of Halifax to another and back, going down to the Armdale Rotary, up Chebucto Road and Quinpool Road, around the Commons and Citadel Hill a couple of times, and back to where I started. There were a few hills thrown in there. Check out this graph comparing the elevation profile on this long run to my typical long run I did last summer around downtown Fredericton.

I found the last couple of miles to be tough. It looks like I'm still in the process of building my endurance.

There were a couple of big races in Halifax over the weekend also, including the MacPass Mile and the Natal Day 6-mile race, but I passed on them both, and simply completed the long run. Maybe next year ...

Last summer during my marathon training, I intentionally tried to find flatter routes to run on. It was bad enough that I was expected to run ludicrous numbers of miles each week, I didn't need the added burden of hills. This year, I try to incorporate hills in most of my runs. Here is the profile from my run tonight - even hillier than my normal route.

Is this helping? I'm not entirely sure. I do have more confidence on the hills these days, but the real test will be in a race environment.

Speaking of races, I'll be doing the half-marathon in Saint John this weekend as part of Marathon by the Sea. I was supposed to run it last year (held about 7 weeks later in the year than this year's version) but I was hurt, and the organizers were nice enough to grant me a deferred entry this year. I checked out the elevation profile, and it doesn't look too bad, but I can't imagine any race in Saint John being very flat.

Here is an interesting story from the Globe and Mail yesterday, about how schools in Quebec base 50% of a physical education grade on a heart rate test. It would be interesting to do follow up studies 5/10/15 years out comparing the health of these people to those in other jurisdictions. If people are "forced" when younger to become fit, will it influence them to carry on the pattern as they age?

Wrap up for July: 200 miles logged, with two of the weeks over 50 miles. I'm guessing August will end up with me logging 50+ miles in every week but one. Continuing to bank the miles, hopefully the results will start to appear.

Backward Caps Are Aerodynamic

2010-07-21T22:10:00.004-03:00

Yesterday we returned from a great week in PEI. I was there with all four siblings, their families, and some other family members. In addition to a few rounds of golf, time on the beach, and time spent with Cam and nieces and nephews, I managed to stick to my running schedule.

On the way to PEI, I stopped in Shediac and ran the George Gallant 10k, in a time of 50:31 (another blah performance) in very hot and humid conditions. Here's a line from the local francophone fish-wrap:

L'humidité, la chaleur et la brise soutenues ont été un problème pour la plupart des coureurs. Ces éléments auraient coûté au moins une minute à Strowbridge.

Translated to english I believe it reads "It was stinking hot but Strowbridge still flies because he wears his running cap backwards". I've got to start turning my hat around.

There were lots of pictures of the race on the RunNB site, including what is probably the best running picture ever taken of me.

Sunday in PEI I did 15 miles running back and forth over the last few kilometers of my most memorable run to date, the PEI marathon. Strange how those hills don't seem nearly as bad when they're not at the end of the marathon. I also went back there Tuesday to do another 10 miles. The rest of the week I spent running around Stanhope and Brackley Beach, including a ten mile run with five miles at tempo pace, and a couple of other shorter runs - one of five miles that I did with my sister Aimee.

Back in Fredericton, I ran a tough 16 mile run Sunday. I left later than I should have, not finishing until close to noon, and again it was quite warm. I have been trying to run more hills lately, and today's run was no exception. There were supposed to be ten miles today at marathon pace (8:40 mins/mile?) but I didn't quite hit it. However, with the heat and the hills I wasn't disappointed with the result. I drank three bottles of water, had a gel at 8 miles, and was totally spent at the end. I even shuffled in a couple quick walk breaks during the last mile.

For the week I got in 51 miles. That's about 6 more than the Pfitzinger plan calls for, as I ran six days during the week rather than five. I expect there will be many weeks when I do that additional run, though after coaching the boys at soccer tonight, I just didn't feel up to it ... so only five this week.

Good News, Bad News

2010-07-04T21:11:00.005-03:00

A shot from afar of Paula Keating and Ryan O'Shea, who ran most of today's Miramichi Rock'n'Run together, and finished tied for 2nd/3rd at 1:22:53.

Here's a photo of me, somewhere around kilometer 13 or so, dousing myself with a cup of cool water. It felt warmer out there than the temperature indicated, probably helped by the 83% humidity.

An exchange I had with a lady as I was passing her around the 8k point:
Her: How are you feeling?
Me: Terrible. (In fact, I felt just fine ... I just thought I would say what she wanted to hear. I wonder how I looked?)
Her: Grab two sponges at the next stop. (As I said, it was warm, and they were passing out wet sponges at the previous water stop).
Me: What, one for me and one for you?
Her: No, for you. They can make you feel better if you're struggling.
Me: I'm ok. (I might have said this in my natural, not so friendly tone)
Her: Well... it works for me. (In the familiar "What's your problem?" tone I've grown accustomed to hearing from others)
Her (approaching the water stop): Sponge?
Them (water stop folks): Oh ... we don't have any at this stop.
Me: Pretty warm out here, isn't it?

My running story of late is one of contradiction. I seem to be enjoying running more than ever. Some of that may be due to being through only three of eighteen weeks of marathon training - still in the early courting stages, where all seems right with the world. I've got no nagging aches or pains, the days are long and nights are short, my weight is slowly going down, and the weather (especially early mornings) is great. I really am liking it, looking forward to every run. I'm even inclined to bump up my training plan slightly, running six days a week rather than five, and perhaps chucking in an additional mile or two on some of the scheduled runs.

However, as much as I enjoy the training, my racing does not seem to be improving. While hoping to run a 48 minute 10k this past week, and a 1:47 half, instead my times were about three and four minutes slower than that. The 10k course (Grand Bay 10k) was fairly hilly and the temperature for the half today was a bit warm, but those are not great excuses. I think my fitness level just has to improve, and I'm hopeful it will work out eventually by sticking to the plan. I have also been running more hills lately, and will do even more in the future.

We're off to PEI for a week beginning next weekend. If my understanding, generous, giving (and blog-reading) wife agrees to it, I may make a quick stop on the way in Shediac to run the George Gallant 10k ... but perhaps not. If I don't do better there, it might make for a grumpy week on the island.

Smarter Than The Average Bear

2010-06-28T21:21:00.003-03:00

This past week marked the second of the eighteen weeks of my current marathon training cycle. I hit 40 miles for the week, including an 8-mile run with strides, a 10-mile run, and a 13 mile "long run" with 8 miles at marathon pace. What's marathon pace? I'm not sure. I want to break 3:50 in the marathon, which is a pace of 8:49 minutes/mile, or 5:29 minutes/kilometer. However, for a hilly marathon, my perceived effort might be harder than that pace. I shot for an 8:30 minutes/mile pace for my marathon pace yesterday, which is probably too quick for me, especially at this early stage of my training.

My long runs are normally on Sunday mornings, but I had a golf game to play yesterday, so my long run waited until the evening. There was actually a bit of slack time in the middle of my MP miles, as three and a half miles into it I had to make a quick pit stop at home for a bathroom break. While there, Faith Ann mentioned that she had seen a "huge, huge, huge" bear in our driveway. This would have been at dusk. She quickly got her camera, but only saw the bear's butt leaving the driveway by the time she got back. She suggested to me that I might want to consider finishing the run on the treadmill. What would be worse: running the final 6 miles on a treadmill in the heat of the house, or getting chased and possibly eaten by a bear? The answer was so obvious that I immediately went back out to finish my run.

I really wasn't worried, as I figured the bear would likely be scared away if he saw me and my wonderful running technique heading towards him. Plus, can you really believe what you read in Wikipedia?

This coming week I've got two races - a 10k in Grand Bay on Thursday, and a half-marathon in Miramichi on Sunday. I'm not overly optimistic for great times, but I would like to be close to 48 minutes for the 10k, and perhaps a 1:46 or 1:47 for the half. The 10k fits into my plan for the week, as Thursday called for a tempo run, and I'm doing the 13.1 on Sunday instead of the planned 14 miles. A bit of hard work for the week, but hopefully these and more like them will pay off later in the summer/fall!

Lactate By the Sea

2010-06-20T23:14:00.008-03:00

Today we had the 5-mile race in St Andrews. Here are the speedy runners at the start ...

... and a slightly less speedy guy at the end ...

The weather was great, it was a good turnout with some familiar faces, and the course is very nice. Mike is one of the co-directors of the race, so he wasn't running it, but was doing things like this ...
and this ...

Cam ran the 1k kids race too. He was so fast, that I missed taking photos of his finish as I was chatting away with Phil Booker! Here's Cam doing some stretching before the race - injury prevention, of course.

Here's the group of kids lined up to get their medals at the end of the race.

As for my race, check out these splits, showing my time for each of the eight kilometers, then tell me I didn't start out too fast, even if it was a downhill beginning.

4:09
4:29
4:40
5:00
5:49
5:08
5:05
5:29

I realize I still stink at running hills, as I took short walk breaks three times on the hills during the race today. I've taking to doing more of my training lately on some of the steeper/longer Fredericton hills, but I still have lots of work to do.

Here is an interesting note that shows I probably also need to work on my pacing. Compare my splits above to the splits from my tempo run of last Tuesday. The first 2k and the last 3k of that run were warm up/cool downs (sort of ... a bit of the third k was also a warm up). My time for the middle 8k was almost identical (even a few seconds faster!) than the race today. A couple of things about that tempo run: 1) while I was pushing it, I wasn't giving it a "full" effort, and 2) that run even included 2k as a warm up, so it's not like I was starting out fresh on those middle 8k. Finally, while there aren't really long steep hills around my neighborhood, it's does have stretches of hills, so it's not exactly flat. The numbers, with the tempo k's italicized ...

5:43
5:23
5:14
5:04
4:50
4:52
4:53
4:55
5:22
4:50
5:14
5:28
5:26

To wrap this post up, a note on my training, as this past week marked my first of eighteen weeks of official marathon training. I did five runs instead of the called for four, and swapped the 12 mile "long run" with today's 5 mile race. In the end, the total mileage for the week ended up being just about what the plan called for. The fun begins!

Leftover Cabot Trail pics

2010-06-06T18:31:00.008-03:00

Not much to say this week in terms of running. After catching up on my sleep from the Cabot Trail and having visitors here this weekend, I ended up with just three runs for the week. That makes two weeks in a row where I only got in three runs, for about 25 miles/40 kilometers each of those weeks. One more week until the official 18-week marathon training plan kicks in, when I'll have to make sure I keep up my mileage.

A few remaining photos from the Cabot Trail Relay. This one is me with the female winner of the 12th leg, my speedy cousin Emily.

This second one was taken by Emily. It's a picture of me chatting with Ed Whitlock. Now at 79 years of age, the holder of several records finished 17th out of 69 runners on the 13th leg.

The remaining photos are from Jypsy Bain, of Alex Bain fame. She is the same person who captured a picture of Mike and me last year during the PEI marathon.

A photo of Phil finishing leg 2 -

Darren in the crowd of starters for leg 3 -

Connie running leg 5 -

Water stop at leg 8 (I think?) -

Water stop during leg 9, put on by the Chicks Running Clicks -

Larry in the crowd of starters for leg 15 -

Cabot Trail Relay

2010-06-01T20:48:00.009-03:00

My second time attending the Cabot Trail Relay was even more fun than the first time. My performance in leg six was terrible, but it didn't take away from the overall great experience. Here's my favourite picture of the weekend, with Pierre coming to the end of the "glory leg" in Baddeck, giving a high-five to a well-dressed supporter.

Unfortunately, I didn't get as many pictures this weekend as I would have liked, since I didn't dig deep enough into my travel bag to discover the camera until early Sunday morning. So, I got a few with my Blackberry Saturday, and a few on Sunday. Next year I'll try to keep my camera handy.

Speaking of next year ... I plan to do leg six again. Why that leg again? Not because I enjoyed it so much that I want to re-visit it. No, I want to run it again for redemption. It started out fine, and the first handful of the several hills were completed without much of an issue, but it didn't take long for me to realize that I need to do better hill training, especially with my fall marathon taking place on a hilly route. I also need to lose some weight.

The not-so-brief recap of the weekend follows.

Arrival Friday night: While it was fun, I spent too much time at the Caeileigh and the pub. It wasn't the type of "hydration" needed the night before my run. We had some good chats with the Chicks Running Clicks from Ontario, and the Fast as Molasses team from Saint John. In bed by 1:45 or so, then up around 7 AM the next day.

Leg #1 - Pierre was doing the bookends, running the first and last legs. I wasn't there for it, but he said afterwards that he pulled away too quickly, struggled with a stitch and tightness in a leg. Even with those issues, he still finished in respectable position, well within the top of of the field.

Leg #2 - Phil ran the first of his two legs, as he would do #11 later that night. Knowing it was the first of two, he didn't give it 100%, but put in enough of an effort to staying within sight of some women he followed throughout the race (imagine that!). I believe this is Phil's 18th Cabot Trail, and his 5:14/km pace was nothing to sneeze at.

Leg #3 - The first leg of two legs by our Nova Scotian recruit Darren, and the first leg where I saw our runner start. Darren ran leg #4 for us last year, and this year requested legs #3 and #7. His running seems to be in peak form, and he did great in both legs. Here is the picture of the runners beginning this leg, including the speedy Sheri Piers, in the traditional tutu of the Maine Road Hags all-women team. Once again this year, they broke their own record for the finishing time by a women's team.

Leg #4 - Norm asked for Smokey last year. As the saying goes "Be careful what you wish for". The wind picked up just in time for this leg, and it was also the hottest time of the day. I know Norm was hoping for a better performance, but we were all proud of him, and he left nothing behind in terms of effort. He was dead tired as he finished. Here's a picture of him as he crested the mountain, getting a drink of water.

Leg #5 - Some background is needed here. Larry, Pierre and I were in Tim Horton's waiting to order coffee, when we were approached by a gregarious woman asking if we had a free leg she could take on. Larry inquired about her master's status, and then he couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he gave her one of the two legs he planned on running. Flash forward to the leg itself, and if you found the happiest, cheeriest woman running that leg, it was our new team member Connie from Moncton. We saw her a few more times over the weekend, and her great attitude was always there. She's promised to be with us again next year, and we couldn't be happier about it.

Leg #6 - My leg. Well, what can I say? At least the scenery and weather were nice. It was 17.5 kms in length, or a little under 11 miles. It started off perfectly fine for the first couple of miles, and although it started to get tough, I was alright over the first 4.5 miles. As we approached the 10k point I was climbing a long hill, getting more and more tired even though my pace wasn't very fast, and I briefly walked a couple of times. That hill crested around the 11.5k mark, and I slowly ran most of it, to begin a good downhill stretch that lasted almost a mile, with a couple of small hills thrown into the mix. By the time I hit about 14k, the remainder of the run was pretty much all uphill, and I was toast. I probably walked for 30-45 seconds about half a dozen times, catching my breath. The tale of the tape: my pace for the first 9k was 5:23/km, and over the last 8.5k it was 6:01/km, for an overall pace of 5:38/km, or 9:03 per mile. Quite discouraging, but a good lesson in what I need for future training.

Leg #7 - The second leg from Darren. I didn't see his finish, but I hear Darren had a good race with another guy as they approached the end.

Leg #8 - Betty's traditional leg, and she did another good job with it. She then went on to watch her son win the next leg, as part of the record-breaking "Dennis Fairalls Grey Hair" team. This team, which was composed mostly of University of Windsor alumni (as well as a couple of legs from Rami Bardeesy, the top Canadian at the Boston Marathon) smashed the old finishing record by almost half an hour.

Leg #9 - The North Mountain leg. We watched Brian start this leg, but then Larry, Pierre, Norm and I headed to supper and a rest at the hotel in Cheticamp. I did talk to Brian yesterday during lunch, and he was pleased with how he did, considering that he wasn't able to train much for the last few weeks.

Legs #10 - #14 - I didn't see these legs run by Dale, Phil, Todd, Bernie and Maurice, as I was catching some sleep. Dale did a great job on the MacKenzie Mountain leg.

In Cheticamp, when I got up at 5:30 AM to head to Tim Horton's, I saw a support vehicle for Mark Campbell's team. It turns out that Mark didn't quite make it around the entire route on his own (see a story here), but he did finish the equivalent of five marathons, and his team completed the rest.

Leg #15 - I saw Gary finishing this one, and got this picture of him (see below). Gary's newphew was Bruce Hadley, and Gary is an organizer for another relay race, the Bruce Hadley Memorial, a fund raiser to put external defibrillators throughout the province. See details on that race here.

Leg #16 - Our captain Larry ran this leg. No, he's not sleeping as he's finishing. A veteran of 23 marathons and 17 years at the Cabot Trail, Larry still has the competitive fire burning, as evidenced by the finishing race he had to the end with the woman in this picture.

Leg #17 - Doing his second leg, Pierre finished in fine style. Here's a good picture of him with just meters to go until the end.

It must have been a good weekend, as it ended with many guys talking about which legs they will do next year. I can't wait to return.

Boyden Lake II - The Sequel !

2010-05-24T21:23:00.005-03:00

While spending the long weekend on Campobello, I got in a bit of golf - and so did Cameron! Cam is in real trouble if he's getting advice from me, especially while swinging a club having a shaft far too long for him!

Another highlight of the weekend was meeting Andrew and Mike Saturday morning for a run. We did the 12-mile Boyden Lake loop. It was a very enjoyable run, in perfect weather. I found this run much easier than my previous Boyden experience, when I did my first ever 20-mile run. Don't believe those who say that sequels are never as good as the original!

Andrew's on the mend from an achilles/calf injury, but survived the run feeling good. As for Mike, he is on a "beer-free" recovery from his latest dental surgery, but his running is in fine shape. It was a quiet morning, with dogs scattered along the route every few hundred yards. Speaking of dogs/beer/health (what an awful segue!), check out this link supposedly showing that Guinness beer really is "good for you". It must be true, considering they tested the theory on dogs with narrow arteries!

My running week ended with 36 miles, including the 12 mile Boyden run, 7.5 somewhat hilly miles yesterday, and a pretty tough run Wednesday that included some 6-minute intervals at 5k pace. Wednesday a few of my teammates and I got together to discuss the Cabot Trail Relay. I am currently scheduled to run leg 6, which has a difficulty rating of 4.5 out of 5. It's 17.5 kilometers in length, and here is how the website describes it:

"The scenery on this seacoast run will captivate you despite a couple of long challenging hills. This leg climbs to the finish at Cabot High School on the right. Elevation 90m. Be prepared for strong coastal breezes."

We'll see just how "captivated" I will be while running those hills! I'm looking forward to the weekend.

Finally, a couple of short congratulatory notes. My cousin Emily kicked butt in the half-marathon event of the Bluenose Marathon weekend in Halifax, finishing with a chip time of 1:36:53.9. That gives her a qualifying time into the New York City marathon - by 6 seconds! Results here. This is the second time she has qualified for it. Also, my friend Mark from Halifax completed his first marathon, gutting it out to finish in 4:27:25 (results here). He let me know that some recent health issues and the Halifax hills haunted him at the end. Considering the circumstances and the fact that he hasn't been doing the "long distance thing" for very long, I think he did quite well.

Next week ... pictures and stories from the Cabot Trail Relay!

Filler Week

2010-05-16T20:39:00.012-03:00

I ran 33.5 miles this week, including a great 14-mile run today at a pace just under 9 minutes per mile. The run felt nice and easy, on a nice coolish morning. Next weekend is a long weekend, and we're heading to Campobello, where I plan to do a 15-mile long run Sunday, the last long run before heading to the Cabot Trail Relay over the last weekend in May.

My latest training plan has me doing two speed sessions per week. However, I skipped one this week that I was planning to do on Wednesday, as I felt a bit of pain in my foot while I was starting out. I'm not too worried about it, but I have started icing it a bit. It was probably just some after-effects from the half marathon last weekend. I did get in a speed session Friday, running five 1k intervals at 5k pace, and it felt alright when I was done.

Just a few more quick notes. The folks from the Mount Desert Island marathon have said that there are less than 200 spots left in the marathon before it sells out - capped at 1000 participants, I think. It looks like it will be full before the end of June, I'm guessing.

Faith Ann is getting back into the running spirit, and has said she might sign up for the 5k or 10k race at the Miramichi Rock'n'Run, when I run the half there in July. Also, she is thinking about running a half marathon in the fall, and is considering running the half marathon component of the Maine Marathon on October 3rd, in Portland, Maine. That's just two weeks before my full marathon, but if she does decide to run it, I will probably also do the half, but not race it. If there was a 5k or 10k race in the event, I probably would have raced one of them, but I'll be good and restrain myself over the 13 miles.

Finally, the Arizona marathon has this nice video of the route on their site. I've watched the whole thing, and nary a hill to be found. Lots of multi-lane highways, and as for the scenic attractions ... well there are the camelback hills, and the warm sunshine is also quite inviting.

2010 Fredericton Half Marathon

2010-05-09T19:47:00.012-03:00

The 2010 edition of the Fredericton Marathon, along with the half marathon, 10k and 5k races, was held today. I did the half marathon. Here's a picture Faith Ann took as I was finishing. My chip time was actually 1:48:13, although the clock time is what you see in the photograph below. Note that I was looking for Mike, who was signed up to run the 10k today, but I think his dentist repeatedly hit him in the face with a bag of frozen nickels last week, so he didn't make it up today.

Faith Ann hasn't run in any of the three races I have completed this spring. Left to my own devices, not only am I a terrible procrastinator, but I am habitually late arriving for everything. The first two races of the spring it didn't matter: in the Lincoln 5k, Cam had a race prior to mine, so we couldn't be late. For the Grande-Digue 15k, we didn't know the area very well, so we gave ourselves plenty of time to get there. Today, it was the real Trevor coming through. As I walked up the street where the runners were lining up, I heard "Ten seconds until the start!". At that point, I started running up the street, took off my sweats, and fell in behind the crowd. I soon ran by the walkers with their walking sticks, and started weaving in and out of some of the later starters. As I was wondering what my pace was, it dawned on me that perhaps I should start my watch! All in all, I don't think it affected me too much. Maybe it even forced me to start out slowly?

The weather was touch-and-go approaching the race start, and there were some light showers as we got underway. However, the day was actually quite nice for running, as it was right around 10 degrees Celsius. A couple of pics from the beginning show the wet atmosphere at the time.

Also, the showers at the beginning fortunately ruined this somewhat embarrassing sign Faith Ann and Cam had created. However, Faith Ann tells me the sign generating lots of smiles from others looking at Cameron proudly holding the sign.

Shortly into the race, I passed Frank Kelly, and tried to make some joke about how he should try to run his age in the half-marathon. You know 71 years old, 71 minutes - get it?? Somehow it doesn't translate from the golf idiom of shooting your age. While he didn't finish in 1:11, I'll happily take 1:51 when I'm his age.

The course is flat as can be, with the exception of the pedestrian bridge used to cross the highway near the beginning and end of the course. I was happy with both the fairly even splits and my time, considering my recent training and where I am in the year (the "official" marathon training schedule begins next month).

A quick recap of my three races this spring shows that I'm either in tune with my pace, or I'm a case study for self-fulfilling prophecies. I've managed to almost exactly hit my predicted times in the 5k, 15k and half-marathon. So ... for my next half-marathon in July, I'm going to aggressively predict a time of 1:45:xx. I'm not throwing out any predictions for the Cabot Trail Relay (of which I'm now running leg #6) or the St. Andrews Father's Day race, since I don't know either route well enough to make that type of call.

Here's a picture from around mile eight. I'm running with Al Reardon (I think?) at this point, who was running the full marathon, and would go on to qualify for Boston, having already run it in 2009. It was my second attempt at high-fiving Cam, and this time it was a success. Around the 2k point, we tried to high-five each other but Cam's enthusiasm led to him completing an "air" high-five and missing me completely.

The traditional post-race picture with the boy -

Finally, a little humour to end this post. Check out this report on the "Half-marathon of Doom". No, it is not a report from the Fredericton half marathon.

Sun Runs

2010-05-02T19:45:00.003-03:00

Spring is definitely here. The baseball season is in full swing, we've eaten the classic New Brunswick delicacy of fiddleheads the last couple of days, and I'm going to need to start my long runs earlier in the morning to avoid the heat. As Faith Ann knows only too well, I am a terrible procrastinator.

Today I ran 13.6 miles while the temperature was 25°C (77°F). While this is practically cold compared to what some people run in, I'm not used to it yet, and I seemed to struggle today. Check out the nice sweaty residue from my running cap.

One other (unrelated) note on the warmer weather: is it just my advancing age, or is the average skate-boarder older these days? Isn't a bicycle more efficient? Anyway ...

For the week I ran just over 36 miles/58 kilometers, with both a hill and tempo session. Next weekend it's a half marathon in Fredericton. I have also decided to sign up again this year for the half-marathon in the Miramichi in July, the Rock'n'Run. Also, staying in the " 'n " theme ...

After going to Tallahassee and Houston the last couple of years as quick winter running trips, Faith Ann and I decided to skip the trip in 2011. However, I found myself constantly looking at both scheduled marathons and airfares over the last month or two, and in a moment of weakness we ended up purchasing everything we need for yet another winter excursion in 2011. So, similar to last year, there will be thirteen weeks between my fall marathon and a winter marathon. The destination next January will be the Arizona Rock'n'Roll Marathon in Phoenix. From what I read, it's not the most scenic marathon, but it is flat, fast and warm. I promise not to complain about the training when the cold and darkness of November/December arrives later this year.

That's it for this week!

2010 Grande-Digue 15k

2010-04-26T18:46:00.008-03:00

I ran in the Grande-Digue 15k race on Saturday (results here). The race director is Sylvio Bourque, a guy who runs more races than anyone in New Brunswick. Sylvio is known for his explosive starts at the beginning of races. I'm told that in deference to the host, the runners might have given him a couple of extra seconds at the start, so his lead was even more exaggerated than normal. Check out the picture below ...

The next picture shows me in my own classic starting position - hanging back in the crowd.

There was a nice feed of pasta after the race, some great draw prizes (none to me, unfortunately) and recognition of the various winners. All in all, a very good job by Sylvio. He did call out a need for additional volunteers for the race for next year, saying that he may not be able to hold the race if he doesn't recruit more help.

The race went through the pretty town, on what turned out to be a very nice day. The course wasn't as flat as I expected, but it was by no means hilly either - just a few gradual slopes, ending with a 1.5 km downhill, which felt great at the end of the race. My time was 1:15:27 (8:06 mins/mile, 5:02 mins/km pace), which I was fine with. Plugging this into the trusty McMillan Running calculator, it projects a 1:48 half marathon time. At my half-marathon in Fredericton in two weeks, I expect to do better than that, and definitely improve over my last half-marathon time of 1:49:15 from last July.

As for my last week in running, it totaled 35 miles. I cut back my normal long run on Sunday to just eight miles, taking a little break after the Saturday race. In addition to the race, my week included some hill work on Tuesday night.

Congratulations to Mike, who ran Big Sur on Sunday, finishing the tough course in 3:51, while taking in the sights along with photos and videos. Congratulations also go to Tina from Houston, who completed the same beautiful course.

A couple more pictures from Grande-Digue to wrap up this post ...

Me at the finish ...

Pre-race ...

The back of the crowd, at the start ...

The Beginning

2010-04-18T22:07:00.004-03:00

I’ll start this entry with a recap of my week from a running perspective. I ran on five of the seven days, logging just over 37 miles or around 60 kilometres. That’s a decent total for me at this point. Although I haven’t yet hit the mileage levels of marathon training (that will start in about 6-8 weeks) my runs have included some quality sessions. My Tuesday run included 8 hill repeats of 90 seconds at 5k pace, and later in the week an 8 mile run that included 5 miles at half marathon pace. Even today, for my 12-mile “long run”, the last ten minutes were at a peppy pace. Peppy pace: a technical term, I’m sure, likely thrown around by guys like Daniels or Lydiard. Or perhaps not.

Next Saturday I’m running a 15k race at Grand-Digue. I’ll take a few pictures and post them along with a race recap. In the meantime, to close this post, a little historical summary of my running origin.

I started a running program in the spring of 2008, mostly because Faith Ann had also started it, and I felt guilted or shamed into doing it. It was nothing major at all, just struggling to get through the Couch to 5k running plan. I can recall how difficult I found it to jog for ten minutes, then only get a break for 3 minutes, before having to jog again for another ten minutes. After a month or two of doing this, I remember mentioning to my buddy Drew that I had started it. He tried to get me to go out running with his friend JB and him, but I didn’t think I could keep up with them, so I passed on it. (I remember Drew trying to convince me, saying "Come on, we can run shirtless! " – as if that was incentive!) I soon started doing lunchtime runs of around 4 miles with Drew. He kept me motivated to run, and it was fun. He then suggested we enter a 10k race later that summer in Woodstock. I wasn’t ready for that, but I did tell him I would do the Fall Classic 10k that September in Fredericton. We ran the route a couple of times for practice, and were all set to go. Unfortunately, Drew got sick and didn’t make the run, but Faith Ann and I did, and the running just continued from there. I ran a few more times with Drew after that, but it’s no longer a regular part of his routine. However, I’m hopeful we’ll get out together a few times this summer. I think it’s quite likely that if I hadn’t done those lunchtime runs with Drew, and had he not suggested the 10k race, my running may have gradually dried up and ended at some point that summer, as it did a couple of other times in years past when I started running. My thanks go out to Drew for the motivation has provided.

A picture of us with our boys (including Drew’s boy Max doing his best Keith Richards impersonation ) is below.

Lincoln 5k and photo gems

2010-04-11T21:37:00.008-03:00

I ran the Lincoln 5k today, the first of my spring races. Last year in this 5k, I just wanted to finish under 25 minutes, and stumbled my way to a 24:57. This year, all I was asking for was 24 minutes. That seemed about right, given that I’m kinda slow to begin with, and my mileage lately (about 25 miles/40 kms per week) has been relatively low.

The picture above shows me at 23:57, but the official results have me at 24:01. I believe the chip time was only recorded at the end of the race, as the results didn’t distinguish between chip and gun time. Given that I started about halfway back in the crowd of a couple of hundred runners, I’m thinking my “chip” time had to be under twenty-four minutes. Oh wait ... am I really quibbling over 2 seconds, and the difference between a 24:01 vs. a 23:59 5k? Enough of that. I’m hopeful that when my training picks up, I’ll get a 23 minutes later this summer on an easier 5k course.

It was good to see Mike again at the race today. He’s rounding into fine form for Big Sur in a couple of weeks, putting in a very good result today. I’m looking forward to seeing his Big Sur pictures and hearing about the race. Mike mentioned that I haven’t posted much to the blog lately. I told him I would pick up the posting frequency once my marathon training picks up in June, to keep me accountable. However, I think perhaps that accountability should start kicking in sooner. I’ll go back to trying to post at least weekly, if only to put out a two-three liner summarizing the running for the week.

To wrap up this one, a picture of Cam after his kid’s run today. That’s followed by some of Cam’s own photography. The photos are good examples of what happens when you give a seven year-old boy your old 2-meg camera to have fun with.

For some reason I think this next photo of Cam's is pretty cool ...

A very "Canadian" game that Cam likes -

Another thing Cam likes - the landfill! A photo of some recyclables from there.

Photos of photos !

Finally, a picture of Cam's cute father -

Post-hibernation news

2010-03-07T20:33:00.003-04:00

Spring is on the way, and I can't wait!

To start this entry, a brief recap since my last post of several weeks ago:

I had my hernia surgery three days after my marathon. Faith Ann drove me home from the hospital after the surgery, and promptly got the van stuck in the newly fallen snow in the driveway. Of course, I couldn't lift any snow just two hours after my surgery, so I limped into the house while she spent a couple of hours digging herself out. It was kind of funny (for me at least). In total, I took 19 days off without a minute of running. My recovery went as well as could be expected, and I feel fine now.
I ran three miles on the treadmill February 6th, and my body didn't feel too bad
I watched a fine Super Bowl game, while losing a little money playing some friendly games of poker
Ran four miles twice in the next three days
Suffered through a terrible cold, which prevented me from running for another week
Finally, I got back into a regular running routine, and had lots of fun watching many hours of Olympic coverage. The gold medal hockey game was great of course, but for some reason this year I was strangely interested in bobsledding (bobsleighing??). I especially liked how the sleighers (sledders? riders? drivers?) would get each other so psyched up in the seconds before the race, slapping each other, gritting their teeth ... then would stand frozen for two or three seconds before taking off like a shot down the track. Canada's first gold medal, won by Alexandre Bilodeau, was also especially sweet, given that he beat a smug ex-Canadian and spam generator.

So, to summarize from a running perspective, for the one month period from January 18th to February 17th, I ran three times for a total of eleven miles. However, I do seem to be on the road to improvement, and I have a few spring races lined up. I am following a half-marathon training plan from this book by Brad Hudson. My "goal race" as a result of this training plan isn't actually a half-marathon, it's one of the legs of the Cabot Trail Relay, which I'll be attending again this year with much of the same group from last year. We could still use 3-4 additional runners for the team, and it would be great if some veteran runners that I have reached out to (you know who you are!) decide to join us.

My weekly mileage until mid-June will be around 35-38 miles. Once I start a marathon training plan in June, that will pick up. While my mileage is lower than through most of 2009, the effort and speed sessions have increased. I don't expect to set any speed records this spring, but between my training plan and the races, my fitness level should be ok by the time the marathon training starts.

Here are those races that I have planned for the spring:

Lincoln 5k, April 11th: This race is just outside Fredericton. When I ran this last year, I came extremely close to throwing up as I finished. Good times.
Grand-Digue 15k, April 24th: I promise to set a new personal best time in this race. Of course, I've never raced a 15k either. Organized by New Brunswick running fiend Sylvio Bourque, I'm looking forward to this.
Fredericton Marathon (half-marathon), May 9th: Perhaps someday I'll run my "hometown" marathon, but for now I'm sticking with the half.
Cabot Trail Relay, May 29th/30th: It looks like I'm running leg four of the relay, up Cape Smokey! Looking forward to it!
River Valley Rave Run (June 5th) or Cobscook Bay 10k: I'm not certain if I'll run either of these races, but my guess is that I'll run one or the other. I ran the Cobscook Bay 10k last year, meeting the great Andrew for the first time! I think it would be fun to head to Pembroke Maine and run it again, but I'm not sure if it's scheduled for that weekend. If not, I may run the River Valley Rave Run in Grand Bay, just a short drive from home.
St. Andrews Father's Day Road Race, June 20th: Mike's race! I missed it last year, but I'll make sure to get there this year.

If I do those races, I think that will allow me to be listed in the "Run for the Cycle" for Run New Brunswick, for runners who complete races of 5k/8k/10k/half-marathon/marathon for the year.

Then the fun of marathon training starts! It looks like there are already about 500 people signed up for the Mount Desert Island marathon, on it's way to being sold out.

My next update will have a nice picture or two in it - get ready for it!

Houston Marathon Race Report - Part 2

2010-01-23T20:28:00.018-04:00

Some final notes on the Houston Marathon. My picture is shown below in front of the marathon background, and Faith Ann is shown in front of the Half Marathon background (excuse the "too cheap to pay for the real thing" watermark).

I liked the stats they provided to go along with the marathon. Check out this cool page below. Based on the way I fell apart over the last 3 miles, I'm surprised something calculated that I passed over 200 runners over the last 7.5 miles, while being passed by 69. If those stats were over the last three miles, they would look a lot worse.

Here is the chart produced by my Garmin during the race. On the far right of the chart, those blue lines over the last three miles don't show that I failed a polygraph test; they do show how I combined running and walking to end the race. I didn't wear a heart rate monitor for the run, so no readings for that. The green line indicates elevation - not sure why it got wacky near the end. A few longer blue streaks along the chart indicate where I slowed down to get water. I don't think there were too many of these where I would have walked for more than thirty seconds.

Speaking of water stops, the marathon offered a service where you could be weighed before and after the marathon. My weight after the marathon was five pounds less than my weight before the marathon. Apparently this is on the high side, and I was a given a pamphlet on being careful about this. The only water stop I skipped during the marathon was the first one after the 20 mile mark, so I was surprised to see this. I do tend to sweat a bit, and I have thought for a while now that I need to have something in the marathons for sodium or electrolyte replenishment. Gatorade tends to bother my stomach during a long run, so I try to not drink it very much. Before my next marathon, I'm hoping I'll have a better handle on the whole hydration thing.

Other things ...

While I do need to work on handling hydration during a marathon, I'm quite certain I won't be taking in any beer while running one. There was some being offered near the end in Houston, but I passed on it.
George Bush Sr. (pres. #41) was cheering on runners around mile 19, after his church service that morning ended. If he was there when I went by, I didn't notice him.
Speaking of church, a priest at one point along the course was throwing holy water on runners. Lots of it.
For quite a while in the race, I was behind two guys who were wearing the same colour t-shirts. On the back of one of the shirts it read "I'm a Dad". The other shirt was worn by a guy just ahead or beside him, and written on the back of his shirt was "No Dad Left Behind". They crossed the finish line together a couple minutes ahead of me.
Nova Scotia native Eric Gillis, who I mentioned in an earlier post, finished the race 8th overall in his first marathon, in just a little over 2 hours and 13 minutes. See his race report here.
About 20 miles into the race, I came across a runner who literally looked like he was dying. He was flat on his back, passed out, with a handful of people over him, including one woman who was trying to resuscitate his heart. A guy to my right yelled "Hang in there buddy!" to him, and a minute later an ambulance was approaching from the opposite direction. It was a scary scene, but he turned out to be ok. For a video report on him, check out this link.
As a final bit of excitement, there was a "disturbance" on our plane coming from Toronto to Fredericton that resulted in four Mounties boarding our flight to arrest somebody before we were allowed off.

To finish up our trip, Sunday night after the marathon we took in some great Texas barbeque at Goode Company Barbeque, and Monday we hung out at NASA for a while. I do look back on our trip with happy thoughts. However, I know if my training was "good", I could have put in a much better performance in Houston. I'll use that as motivation to train well for Mount Desert Island next fall. For the time being, I'm gingerly walking around the house so as not to bother the new incision I got in my mid-section last Wednesday!

Houston Marathon Race Report - Part 1

2010-01-19T23:59:00.007-04:00

Look at this smug guy, the day before running the Houston Marathon. I think he's saying "Sure, I didn't train as hard as I could have, but it won't be a problem for a superstar like myself".

A little less than a day later, I struggled over the last 3 miles of the Houston Marathon, finishing it five minutes slower than my time in PEI in October. The weather was perfect, and the course was fast, so I had no excuses for the slower showing. This is me shortly after the end, sitting on the convention floor, eating the great post-race food. See if you can see the caked, salty sweat remnants on my face.

Faith Ann (who ran the half) and I hit the Expo Friday morning. It was fun to look at all the exhibits, spending a bit of money. I think we spent close to two hours there, between picking up the race kits and checking out the exhibits. We took it easy Friday night, took a quick trip to San Marcos/New Braunfels/San Antonio Saturday, did lots of hydrating and carbo-loading, and were up early for the marathon Sunday morning.

The runners congregated before and after the race at the George R. Brown convention center. The place is plenty large enough to hold the runners, allowing us to stay inside in the warmth, although I think it was in the forties (fahrenheit) when the race started, which wasn't too bad at all.

The half and the full runners started at different points, so I separated from Faith Ann and waited for the starting gun, to the side of Minute Maid Park, where the Astros play. Craig Biggio, the former longtime Astros second baseman (whose wife ran the half in 2:08 on Sunday) started the race. I was standing next to a guy whose bib showed that he was a 25-year veteran of the race. He looked extremely nervous, continuously blowing warm air into his hands. I told him this should be easy for him after all these years. His response: "it gets harder every year".

It took me about 1 minute, 45 seconds to cross the starting mat. The sea of people ahead of me resulted in a slow first kilometer, at a pace of 6:05 (9:47 per mile). That probably wasn't a bad thing, as it caused me to start slowly. I was hoping to maintain pace of about 5:35 per km (9 minutes per mile) for the race overall, which would have me finish around 3:55. I didn't try to pass anybody initially, just going with the crowd.

After about three kilometers, I was passed by the 3:50 pacer. I checked my pace, thinking I must be going too fast, but I was actually on pace for about a 4:05 finish. I think she stayed within site of me for the next few miles, but I checked at she actually finished at 3:50:09 - a negative split I'm guessing. I never did see a four hour pacer, but I wasn't really looking for him either.

The crowds for the race were great. Lots of cheering for the names on the bibs, many kids sticking their hands out looking for "high fives", and bands and entertainers along the course. Lots of private homes had people in front of them handing out things like oranges, bananas, tissues, vaseline, pretzels, water and peppermints!

The race was quite congested for the first nine miles, with the halfers running along with the full marathoners for much of that time. It made for some interesting pick-ups at the water stations. I kept my pace pretty good for the first half, with only short stops to pick up water or take gels. However, looking back at my splits it seems like my fairly consistent 5:30 per km (8:50 per mile) pace turned into about a 5:35 pace from kilometers 23 to 38. I seemed to cruise by the Galleria, and as we headed into the tough miles (20 through 22?) of Memorial Park, I was definitely tired, but thought I could hang on.

Shortly after hitting mile 23, for some reason, I just felt dead tired. I pushed on for a bit, but it felt like a very intense struggle that I couldn't imagine maintaining for three more miles. I had a fear of walking, remembering how difficult that was in PEI when I finished my marathon. However, there came a point where I just had to. From that point on, I mixed walking and running to finish the race. Even with that, when I hit the 25 mile marker, it still looked like I could creep in under four hours, and I pushed a good 5:17 kilometer in there, but that just seemed to get me tired again. I walked for a few seconds, then slowly jogged it into the finish, for a final time of 4:01:23. There's finish line video available on the Houston website - check it out here. I'm the guy on the right, with the worst running form imaginable, pulling up my shirt at the end to wipe some sweat off my face. Note that I finished just ahead of an Irish fellow, walking over the finish line holding a can of Guinness.

There are a couple of additional stories I'll describe in a later post, as this one is too long already. I should have time to do this over the next few days, as I'm scheduled to have hernia surgery tomorrow morning, and will probably be flat on my back recovering the next few days. I'm already looking forward to picking up the training again once I'm back on my feet!

Houston 4:01:23

2010-01-17T15:18:00.004-04:00

My first race where I didn't set a personal best time! The whole marathon experience here has been lots of fun. I'm neither disappointed nor pleased with my run. All was going according to my plan until I seemed to bonk around the 38k point. More later.

Thoughts on Houston

2010-01-11T22:03:00.002-04:00

My second marathon is this Sunday, 13 weeks after my first marathon in PEI. My prediction? Something close to the 3:56:01 of PEI, but I wouldn't be shocked if it was around 4:10-4:15. I would be shocked, and very happy, if I finish better than 3:50.

Why the lack of confidence? I've been lazy with my training the last couple of months. While I have kept the mileage at an acceptable level, I too often found excuses not to do speed work, or to cut the mid-week medium-long runs a little short. It's too easy to blame it on the short/dark days and low temperatures. I'm hoping that for my marathon training cycle next spring/summer, I'll stick closer to the original plan, as I did for the PEI marathon. On a positive slant, I stayed healthy this time, with my feet feeling a-ok, so I had no "lost weeks" of training.

I've never worn an ipod during a race, but for this race I plan on carrying it. However, I'm not taking it for the music or podcasts - though I might listen at times. My main reason for taking my new ipod nano is to capture video during the race. If it turns out to be better than shaking, blurry, useless images, I'll post some of the results.

Other than the marathon, we haven't made any specific plans for our time in Texas. We arrive midday Thursday, and leave Tuesday morning. Around fifteen years ago, I lived in Texas (San Antonio) for about a year and a half, and this will be the first time I have returned since then. Other than enjoying a Shiner Bock beer Thursday night, and probably eating Chicken Fried Steak, brisket and catfish (perhaps all after Sunday!), there are no definitive plans. Lots of rest Saturday, and lots of pain Sunday!

Bib #2752, Red Wave starting at 7 AM. The forecast currently calls for 42°F at the start, partly cloudy.

Snow Stories

2010-01-02T20:14:00.007-04:00

My pretty face (excuse the runny nose!) after 10.5 miles of running in the snow today.

Today I finished my last “long run” before the Houston marathon – 10.5 miles in the storm, followed by 8 awful miles on the treadmill at home. I normally do my long runs on Sunday, but we have a major storm here this weekend, and I wanted to get in some miles outside before it got too bad. Mike and I exchanged e-mails this week, and he suggested that I try to get a run in that lasts 3 hours, 15 minutes or longer. My pace was soooo slow in the few inches of snow (around 10 mins/mile, slower than I've gone in months), that I thought the time goal wouldn't be an issue. However, after 8 miles on the treadmill, I had enough, and finished with a few minutes more than three hours of total running.

As for the Houston Marathon, my mileage has been reasonably close to the original plan, but I have been lazy with the speed work. Evidence of this came in the form of a 5k New Year's Day race yesterday in Fredericton. It was more of a "fun run" than a race, with no records kept of the finishing times or places, and no chip timing. See the picture below of the organizer looking at his watch as he calls out finishing times. Looks pretty warm, eh?

A picture of my chum Robert and I before the race. Don't I just exude “Don't Touch Me!” ?

The weather for the race was very reasonable for this time of year, with little wind, slightly overcast, and a temperature around -9 celcius. My final time was 24:23 – a bummer. The pace about 30 seconds/mile slower than my last 10k in the fall. I blame some of the slowness on the snow and ice that we ran on, and perhaps the temperature (although I read conflicting opinions on this) but the blame more likely rests with the lack of speed work I have been doing. Most of my runs for the last couple of months have been at a pace of 8:45 to 9:15 per mile, with just a few runs in there that included some faster intervals. The speedwork in the 5k race today probably was overdue.

What does all this mean for the marathon? Not a lot, I suppose. I expect a result similar to my first marathon in PEI. I'm going to try to keep a pace similar to what Mike and I *tried* to do in PEI – 5:40 mins/km for the first few kilometres, followed by a 5:30 mins/km pace.

A couple of Canadian notes on the Houston Marathon. The fifth place finisher from last year was a Canadian named Andrew Smith, with a time of 2:16:14, which was also the top marathon time by a Canadian last year. He will be racing there again this year. Also among the elites this year will be Eric Gillis. He is a first time marathoner, past national champion in the 10k, Olympian, and native of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He is hoping for a 2:14 finish. My grandmother was also a Gillis from that area (Cape Breton, actually), so perhaps some of those speedy genes will find their way to me ... or not.

Now for the obligatory look back on 2009. I ran 1667 miles for the year. Considering that I averaged about 70 miles per month for January through March, that wasn't too bad. In my first full year of running (resulting in personal bests for all distances, of course!), I did three half marathons, one 5k, two 10k's, one 30k and the marathon. This link shows the times for my New Brunswick races as well as the PEI marathon.

I already have my fall marathon for next year booked, and I have a few other races in mind. I would like to sprinkle in a few short races through the summer, and concentrate more on speed work. More on that in a future post.

To end this one, here is another winter related link, showing Cam and I sledding down a hill at Mactaquac Provincial Park. One of the screams comes from Cam, the other one or two are from another family that was there at the time!

In for a penny ...

2009-12-13T22:48:00.004-04:00

In for a penny, in for a pound. The December 10th deadline to drop down to the half marathon in Houston, rather than the full marathon, came and went and I'm still heading down there next month to run 26.2 miles. With the date getting closer - five weeks from today! - my motivation is improving. This despite the fact that the weather is getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and the roads are getting worse, with snow and ice.

Speaking of pounds, the Christmas season is upon us, and with all the sweets we have around here, I'm about 5 pounds heavier than I was in the late summer. I'll try to be a bit more disciplined about my diet until the marathon, but that will be a challenge. We have tonnes of cookies in the house, and it's hard for me to stay away from them.

For the first time since the PEI marathon, I completed a 20 mile run today. The weather was good, just a few degrees below freezing with a slight wind. I went on a different route for me, a few times up and down the New Maryland highway, while parking at the Home Depot. It was fortunate for me that I was parked by the Home Depot, as I had to pop into their bathroom after 7+ miles to avoid a "Code Brown" situation. I only had one other stop after that, at close to fifteen miles, for hydration/energy. Overall, the pace was a comfortable 8:52 per mile for the twenty miles. It was a good run.

I would rate the training the last few weeks as "ok". Each of the last three weeks I finished a handful of miles less than originally planned. I did 51 miles this week (plan called for 57), and 45 last week, with the plan calling for 51. I'll see if I can do the 53 I have planned for next week. I haven't had a lot of speed work to date, and that won't change for the remainder of the schedule. I'll have about one speed session per week, plus a 5k race on New Year's day.

Oh yeah, with some of the weather we have had lately, I've done a few treadmill runs. They're brutal, and I find the time goes by so slowly when doing them. However, the roads around my subdivision are not cleared very well in the winter - ask the young guy who put his car in the ditch just up the street yesterday. I've been watching episodes of the current and past seasons of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to try to help pass the time when I'm on the mill. I get about 3.2-3.4
miles in during one episode. A big part of the last couple of episodes of this season involved a Seinfeld reunion show, which was entertaining.

My goal for Houston? I don't really have one, but I would like to finish in under four hours again. Given that my training hasn't been stellar, I'm not expecting anything spectacular. I'm debating whether I should follow the four hour pace team, the 3:50 pace team, or do my own thing. I'm leaning to "my own thing", keeping a pace similar to the one I did with Mike in PEI.

Some other stuff ... the marathon I believe I am running next year - Mount Desert Island in Bar Harbor, Maine - was voted as "Most Scenic" and second best overall in the most recent issue of Runner's World. Check out the articles from the marathon's website here.

Also, I now have orthotics. I just got them this past week, and am still breaking them in by walking on them a few hours a day. I can't really tell yet if they're going to help out with my foot, but I'll give them a shot. As for my foot, it's holding up ok. It's still sore, but not as bad as it was a couple of months ago. I soak it in ice water nightly, so maybe that's helping out.

To end this post, a couple of pictures. One of Cam and Faith Ann doing a 1k "Santa Shuffle" fundraising run for the Salvation Army ...

and another (mediocre) picture of the front of our house. I attempted to show the Christmas lights, but it's actually a better picture of the falling snow we're having tonight.

My Goofy Running

2009-11-22T20:56:00.006-04:00

Since my last post, we spent a few days in Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Based on the picture below, who do you think enjoyed it more - Cam or me?

Actually, it was a fun few days. It's not a cheap place to visit, but Cameron enjoyed it very much. All of the people working there are so over-the-top friendly and perky. Even the guys directing people to the parking spots, cleaning up around the parks, or helping you in and out of rides were all so super-outgoing and cheery. I would never fit in with them!

Here's a pic of Cam with Goofy ...

and another one of him outside the Lego Imagination Center in Downtown Disney. Cam is a big fan of Lego, and we ended up purchasing a few things there.

I didn't do a lot of running while down there, getting in just one run of 5 miles on the hotel treadmill, and another 8 miles during a morning run outside. The days were just so long and filled with activities that I had trouble squeezing in the time or energy to do any more than that.

This past week was a different story. It was really the first week since the marathon that I have been happy with my running. I got in 43 miles, including 16 comfortable miles today. We have had a great month of weather this November, with temperatures milder than normal, allowing for nice runs. According to my schedule, next week marks my first of five weeks in a row of fifty miles or more. Based on the past week, I'm feeling good about it.

A couple quick notes on the medical front. I visited an orthotist this week, and it was very interesting speaking to him about my feet for 45 minutes - seriously! We spoke about my condition, which does appear to be posterior tibial tendonitis (or post-tib, as those in the know like to say!), and we spoke about a couple of other things. I discovered that my right foot is about half a size larger than my left foot, which I also found out is quite common. He gave me recommendations for some running shoes (neutral still work for me ... especially those with more room in the forefoot), and yes, he took casts for some orthotics, which I'll try out in a couple of weeks.

The other medical appointment I had this week was for my hernia. I'm going to have surgery for it in January, and I won't be running for a few weeks afterward. The timing will work out well; it will be just after the Houston marathon (which I would be recovering from anyway), and in the depths of winter. I've heard conflicting reports on the expected recovery for this - for some it wasn't too bad, while others suffered for weeks. I'm hoping I'll be back on the roads before the end of February.

Going to see Mickey

2009-11-09T21:28:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow we head out for a short visit to a spot that's a little warmer than here. I'll get my runs in while there, hopefully in a decent neighborhood. Pictures will be posted on my return.

My running is starting to return to normal. I logged 35 easy miles last week. Unfortunately, my heart rate reflected runs that didn't seem so "easy". Perhaps it takes longer than I anticipated to get back to my previous state.

I must say that my attitude for training for the January marathon in Houston does not match the level of enthusiasm I had for the fall marathon in PEI. Perhaps it's because the weather is getting cooler, or maybe it's just a bit of a letdown from finally completing my first marathon. I often find myself looking forward to the training next summer, and my fall marathon (likely Mount Desert Island). Regardless, I'll stick to the current schedule as long as it holds my interest sufficiently, and as long as my foot holds up.

Speaking of the foot, it feels no worse than it did one or two weeks ago, so I'm continuing to run on it. I visit the orthotist the day we get back, which should be interesting.

A little humour to end this post. Check out this link with pictures of the old Adidas ads entitled "Runners, Yeah, We're Different". I expect several runners can see themselves in some of these photos.

Scary Stuff

2009-11-02T21:34:00.007-04:00

Look who I live with - Darth Vader! Also, Faith Ann with her latest hair and makeup. I spent yet another year without dressing for Halloween ... perfect!

Last bit from the PEI marathon ... a few pictures!

The chilly beginning ...

The lighthouse pic ...

Look at this one ... after reading Mike's blog, and looking at this picture, I think he was making a real effort to have our feet cross the finishing mat at the exact same times.

It has now been two weeks since the marathon, and last week marked my return to running. I did a couple of five mile runs while in St. Andrews, and another five mile run and a nine-miler after returning to Fredericton. In all the runs, my legs felt heavier than normal, and my heartrate was higher than expected at the slow paces that I was running. I plan to stick with my predefined schedule, and am hopeful that the legs will return to normal before long.

The feet are another story. I had an appointment with my general practitioner today. He pressed my foot in a few areas, and noticed when I winced. He then proceeded to give me a pamphlet on plantar fasciitis, saying "You probably already know everything that's in there". I think he was right. He also referred me to an orthotist. I have an appointment scheduled on November 16th. I wouldn't be surprised if that leads to some overpriced orthotics.

The doctor also confirmed my hernia, and I'll be seeing a general surgeon sometime for that. The hernia bothers me when I'm standing around or walking, but it does not bother me when I'm sitting or running. I had the hernia prior to the PEI marathon, and I was able to run that without it bothering me, so I'm not worried about it for Houston.

So there is surgery in my near future. I'm hoping it can be scheduled very close to my return from Houston in January, so that I can recover from the marathon and the hernia surgery at the same time.

I have my own suspicion as to how I developed the hernia, and it is related to my bad foot, as odd as that sounds. In late September, when my foot bothered me most, instead of running I did lots of biking and some core work to maintain my fitness level. One night after the core work (or maybe the next day?) I mentioned to Faith Ann that I felt I had a hernia. I am quite certain the core work led to it.

So the bad economy leads to a higher jobless rate. What things are associated with a higher jobless rate? Some things that come to mind include an increase in personal bankruptcies, failed relationships and higher post-secondary education attendance rates (can't find a job ... go to school). Something not so obvious is running. Apparently there is an inversely proportional relationship between the economy and general running levels. Perhaps that's a bit of a reach, but that's the conclusion this article in the Wall Street Journal seems to draw. It says the higher jobless rate allows more time for exercise/running, resulting in a 39% increase in Boston Qualifiers over the past year. Unfortunately for me, it doesn't seem like I'll be losing my job anytime soon.

Faith Ann just passed this interesting link on to me too. Rather, it's as interesting as a story can be when the subject centers around reaching drink stations in a marathon .

Recovery Stuff

2009-10-25T17:16:00.006-03:00

It has now been one week since the marathon, and I have run zero miles since then. I had planned it this way, to see if it would help my foot recover. In fact, I had said prior to the marathon that I would take two weeks off from running, but I believe I'll renege on that promise. I'm in St. Andrew's from Tuesday evening to Friday this week, and I'm going to try to find Mike's regular "Point Loop" running route, running it during a couple of evenings I am there. Unfortunately, Mike will be "offshore" during that time, so he won't be able to join me.

The recovery this week went very well. Other than my old foot injury, I felt generally back to normal by Wednesday or Thursday. I have an appointment with my doctor on November 2nd to discuss my foot, and also another thing I self-diagnosed a couple weeks before the marathon. Who needs a medical degree when you've got Wikipedia and WebMD? Surely my self-diagnosis couldn't possibly be incorrect, could it?

Assuming my health holds up and the weather doesn't turn too frigid, too soon, my next big race is the Houston Marathon, just 12 short weeks from today. The abbreviated training schedule probably means I won't have a great performance, but I am still looking forward to it. As for a goal time, I would be happy with a small improvement over PEI. The training plan, developed just minutes ago, is shown below. I have the option until December 10th off dropping back to the half from the full marathon, if I feel my health or training has not been to expectations.

To wrap up this post, a couple of additional pictures from the PEI marathon. This first one shows a close-up shot of my race bib. Note the "running clone droid" sticker on the bib. Cameron gave Faith Ann and I each one of these to put on our bibs for good luck.

The second picture is from the newspaper insert from race day. Note the fast looking guy in the bottom left, with the brim of his cap covering his eyes. It's none other than the 12th place overall finisher from last year - Andrew!

2009 PEI Marathon Race Report

2009-10-19T21:51:00.010-03:00

A photo of Mike and yours truly during my toughest part of the race, through the middle of Charlottetown. This photo is courtesy of j.norman-bain, of Alex Bain fame.

It is now one day after the marathon, and I suppose I am feeling the way one is supposed to feel. The legs are a bit stiff, especially the quads and calves, but the feet surprisingly do not feel so bad.

Our marathon weekend started with the kids "spud run", with Cameron taking it in on a day that was cool with showers. With over 300 other kids and some parents, he ran the loop of the track normally reservered for horse races, finishing in 6 minutes, 40 seconds - apparently he is a "mudder".

We had a pasta meal that night, and I met Mike at a local coffee shop (taking in hot chocolate), chatting about the race to come, and some of Mike's past experiences. I was feeling anxious for the time to come.

The next morning, I got ready pretty early, and we headed to breakfast in the hotel. Faith Ann and I chatted with Judson Cassidy, from Grande Digue. His son Ryan had won the provincial cross-country 5k race the day before, and in his first marathon, Judson was trying to BQ. I felt so bad for him when I checked the results, and saw that he finished in 3:31:01. He missed qualifying by two seconds!

Just as we were getting ready to head on the bus to the marathon start, Faith Ann checked my shoes, making sure my chip was laced on. It's a good thing she checked! The lace went through a couple of loose ends of the chip, leaving it almost completely unsecured. I'm guessing the chip would have come off within the first ten minutes of walking around, if she hadn't checked it. That would have been great, running almost 4 hours without an official result. However, that was only my second bonehead move in my marathon preparation.

My first bonehead move came when I replied "No" to Faith Ann the night before, when she asked if I needed my Garmin charged. I foolishy assumed it was fine. Of course, as soon as I turned it on at the marathon start point, I saw the "Low Batteries" signal appear. Luckily, I had my own personal pacer with his own Garmin 405! During the course of the marathon, I must have asked Mike 50+ times what our pace was or what the overall time was. I think the only thing that must have annoyed him more during the day was when relay marathoners passed us on the course!

During our chat marathon eve, I mentioned to Mike that I was thinking of running the Mount Desert Island marathon next fall. Mike said it's a "marathon for marathoners", largely because there is only a marathon race, and no smaller races. I mentioned to Mike that it now has entries for three-person relay teams. I don't recall Mike's exact quote, but I think he would prefer to be passed by a woman 8-months pregnant over a relay runner. Here were a few of his reactions to some of these relayers passing us during the race:

"We'll see him again soon" - after being passed by a "heavier guy" wearing his best Walmart sweatpants. We caught up to him and passed him about 5 minutes later
"Runners don't dress like that" - when another relayer passed us (perhaps another Walmart shopper)
"Where did she come from !?!" - when we blew by a "much heavier gal" on the trail
no quote here .... just imagine Mike doing a faux sprint to catch a relayer, just after he passed us

Anyway ... on to the race ...

Here's a picture of Mike and I before the race ...

and here's a short video of the runners before the marathon start. Faith Ann is in the beginning of the video, and it ends when I find Mike, giving me the eager "thumbs up" sign.

When I started my marathon training in the spring, my goal was to break four hours. As I went through August and into September, I was feeling better about my running, and I thought I should set a higher goal. However, with my foot problems over the last few weeks causing my training to drop off considerably, I went back to being happy if I could break four hours. Mike was shooting for an overall pace of close to 5:30 per kilometer, which would have us finish around 3:51. I told him I would be thrilled with that, but I didn't know how realistic it was.

Mike let me know that we were going to start out pretty slowly, and speed up just a touch after a few kilometers, with the goal of maintaining a steady, manageable pace through the race, perhaps with a finishing kick over the last few kilometers. I was completely fine with that strategy, and I'm not sure I would have had the self-control to do it if Mike had not been there. Mike stuck to the plan (except I didn't come through with that finishing kick - spoiler alert!), and many times through the race he let me know when to dial it back a bit. For the most part, the plan worked out quite well. He drew an analogy to ultra marathon competitors who use ropes tied to each other, with one competitor towing the other. In our race, he was carrying the imaginary tow rope, and would give it a tug when I would get a bit too quick, too early.

The race took place in good running weather. It was cool, but not too cool, with a slight wind. There was cool rain or showers the days following and preceding the race, but luckily it missed us on race day.

We lined up for the start by the four hour pacer. We didn't stay back with him for any of the race, and (thankfully!) we didn't see him for the rest of the day. I did enjoy one quote he passed on to the masses just before the gun: "If you're feeling good at the half way point, don't worry: the feeling will pass."

We started out just as planned, dressed nice and warmly, sticking to a nice pace slightly slower than the planned overall pace. The start of the marathon route is very nice, running along the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with beaches, bridges, lighthouse, cottages, and other things they print over here on the tourism brochures. The start is also very flat, virtually no hills for the first 11 or 12 kilometers. Once we left the beach road, I took a gel at the water station, and we met Mike's wife and daughter, who were there with camera and video camera. We passed off our warmer layer of clothes to them ("Nice to meet you ... here's my sweaty jacket and gloves!"). They would meet us a couple more times on the course, cheering us on.

The end of the beach road also brought an end to the flatness, but the hills at this point were nothing too serious. With the nice pace, and the adrenaline still flowing, all was well. I think it was also at this point that Mike told me about his first Boston Marathon, and his adventure at mile 20. Great stuff, although I won't get into it here!

The half way point had us leave the road, and onto the packed trails. Another gel, a few cars with music blaring (Mike says "try not to speed up here"), and away we go. Still feeling good ... maybe too good. This is where Mike really kept me under control. After one of the kilometers, when I asked him for the zillionth time what our pace was, he just chuckled a little and said that the last kilometer was "Bad". I asked is "bad" fast, or is "bad" slow? He said "Right now, bad is fast".

Not too long into the second half, the legs started feeling a little heavy, but still not too bad. We hit 30k, Mike asks if I want to know the time, and I say sure. 2:45. That was my time for my 30k race - that I treated as a training run - that I ran in August. I felt much better in this race than I did at the end of that 30k, which made me feel good. One hour and fifteen minutes until 4 hours, and only 12k left. Mike had mentioned earlier in the race that once we hit 30k, he wouldn't pull on the "tow rope" anymore. However, while I wasn't feeling bad, I also didn't feel that I had the energy to really push it at that point.

We left the trail and hit the streets of Charlottetown with about 8k to go. This is where we hit the hills of the course. Mike had me run ahead of him, letting me set the pace at this point. Looking back at the splits on Mike's upload on runningahead, I'm surprised our pace wasn't really too bad on the first couple of hills. It was really the last four kilometers that I really died, with the pace over those averaging about 6 minutes per kilometer. However, there were a couple of larger downhill stretches in there too, but I obviously was too spent to take advantage of them.

I really have to give Mike credit for a few big things over those last few tough miles. For one, he let me hold his lucky beercap! Number two, he told me how he helped a woman once in a marathon who was having a hard time, by telling her to count. I told Mike that if I had to think about counting at that point, I might just throw up. Mike's strategy on the tough stretches (like the hills we were on at the time) was to count during exhales. Mike did this on the bigger hills, and it really did help. It not only distracted me a bit, but it also acted as a metronome for a piano player, helping me "keep my rhythm" on the route.

He tried to stress to me to mix up my stride a bit during the run, shortening it at times, to work some muscles and give others a break. I wasn't very good at this, although I did try it a few times. I kept going back to my "natural stride".

The last thing he told me, was to run through the last few water stops. Earlier in the race, we really didn't stop long at all on any of the stops, but we would occasionally slow down for a few seconds to drink. Taking Mike's advice, I still took water at the last 2-3 stops, but did so while on the run. After finishing the race, I can see why this was important. The minute I slowed down after we were done, my legs were like jelly. I don't know how I would have started up again over the last few miles if I had stopped, or even slowed too much.

Approaching the finish, I asked Mike a few times how much time we had left to four hours. A couple of times I considered stopping, but we pressed on. I'm not sure if I was running on my own if I would have continued without stopping.

The finish area was a real relief, but I didn't have the energy to spring to the end. We met up with Mike's wife and daughter, who took our picture. Cameron was also there with my mother-in-law, but unfortunately I didn't notice them until almost 45 minutes later, just in time for all of us to see Faith Ann finishing her run. She was the only one in the marathon to stick with the "to finish" pacer. She did great, especially considering she experienced some pain prior to the half way point that she put up with for the remainder of the run. Her first comment after she was done was "Never again". Then again, that's what Grete Waitz said after her first marathon!

That's probably way too much for now, although I expect I'll put out even more in a future post. This was one of the great moments of my life.

The picture below is of Faith Ann (again from j.norman-bain), at the finish. Her pacer is trying to decide if she should finish, or go back on the route and cheer others on. She decided to turn around and help out others. So ... there were lots of great pacers in this run!

3:56:01

2009-10-18T15:28:00.002-03:00

The PEI marathon was great. I was very pleased with my time. I can`t thank Mike enough - he was absolutely great, and there`s no way I could have managed that without him. He has had quite a comeback from his surgery in the spring.

More later.

PEI Marathon - One Week Away!

2009-10-11T20:18:00.005-03:00

The latest issue of Runner's World cited a study stating that consumption of beets can improve endurance by 16 percent. Guess what we had with our Thanksgiving Dinner? The bonus is that it took the place of cranberries, which I'm not a big fan of. The same issue also says that quercetin, of which apples are a great source, can boost endurance by 13 percent. Perhaps I'll get Faith Ann to try out a new recipe for "Ruby Beet and Apple Chutney"! I'm guessing she won't be jumping on that anytime soon.

I ran 32 miles for the week, just as the planned taper called for. Although the miles are fewer than they were a month ago, I've been doing them at a higher intensity than my typical runs through August and September. For example, my 12 mile run today was done at a pace just under 8:30 minutes per mile, which is faster than my typical twelve mile training run. It felt good, but the heartrate was higher than I could sustain for the full marathon. I'm still quite concerned that my mileage for the past few weeks is down quite a bit from my August and September training days. I expect Mike will dragging me through most of miles 19-26. I'll try to perk up for the final .2 miles through the finish chute, just to look good!

Despite my lack of confidence, I am very, very excited about the marathon, even if the current weather forecast is calling for rain on that day. Some quick bullets on things I am planning:

I don't plan on carrying any water with me. I think the support on the course should be sufficient. Or, maybe I'll just keep sticking out my tongue, and the sheets of rain water will sustain me.
I plan on taking gels about every 5 miles or 8 kilometers. I'll also take one shortly before the marathon begins.
I'll look to Mike a lot for the pace (as long as I stick with him!), but I'm sure I will be obsessively checking my Garmin as well. I think we're starting at a pace of around 8:45 per mile (just a touch faster than 5:30 per km) - aren't we Mike? - and see how the day plays out. I expect the pace will pick up a bit going down hills, and will slow a touch going up them.
Based on the expected temperatures, I'll be wearing some tried and true running shorts and a t-shirt. I think it would have to be pretty cold to force me to deviate from that.
I'll wear my Asics Gel Nimbus 9's. However, after the marathon I'm going to investigate the purchase of a pair of running shoes with more stability. Although PF may be an issue for me, my own diagnosis leads me to think I may have Posterior Tibial Tendonitis, perhaps due to slight over pronation. If the pain continues into November, I suppose the right thing to do is have an actual medical person (as opposed to an internet surfer) check it out.

** Excuse this interjection of a completely non-running note, as I'm watching the Patriots/Broncos football game. Coach Bill Belichik is wearing a huge puffy parka, with big pockets. Why does he stuff his challenge flag in his knee-high white athletic socks under his pant legs, rather than putting it in one of his pockets? **

I'll be up early the day of the marathon, and will have a light breakfast - bagel, maybe oatmeal, a little coffee, and I'll continue hydrating. I'm just hoping I get a decent night of sleep Saturday night.
I plan to have dinner the night before at a national pasta chain. The same chain has a place in Fredericton. I had dinner there the night before my best long run, as well as the night before my long run last week (same meal). That means I'm taking a pass on the marathon-sponsored dinner, but it's at another national chain restaurant anyway.

That's all I can think of for now. Normally I'm terrible for waiting until the last minute to pack. For this trip, I plan to be packed by mid-week, just so I can check my bag a couple of times to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. We're heading over Friday after work, and not coming back until Monday morning. The first race will be Saturday - Cameron is taking part in the kid's "Spud Run". I hope the little guy doesn't have to run (or run/walk/saunter/stroll) the entire kilometer in pouring rain.

I can't wait until next weekend!

Autumn Fun, Autumn Run

2009-10-04T18:50:00.006-03:00

Here are a couple of pictures of Cameron and his cousin Matthew. These were taken in the backyard yesterday, before the arrival of the monsoon today.

My run today was just what I needed. It was a bit longer than the plan called for - 17+ miles rather than 16 - but then again, I've had an abusive relationship with my plan over the last couple of weeks. The overall pace was 8:55 per mile, with just three quick stops to pick up water bottles and take a drink and/or energy.

I started with a little over a mile on the treadmill in the house as a warmup, and then did the remaining miles around my area in Hanwell. I often do my long runs on the flat trails of downtown Fredericton, but I specifically wanted to run around home today, just for the hills. There are only a handfull of steep, short hills on this run, but most of the rest of the run contains rolling hills.

Although there was a mix of rain and showers through most of the run, I hardly noticed it. Plus, the rain gave me an excuse to run in my Asics Gel Trabuca's. These are the trail shoes I run in during winter, and I didn't have any problems with my feet during those months. Of course, I also wasn't doing as many miles, and would have frequent runs on the treadmill then also.
When my run ended, I still felt pretty good. Since it had been a while since my last long run, it restored some of my confidence, which has taken a shot in the last couple of weeks, having taken off nearly a full week of running due to my bad foot.

Speaking of the foot, it could be worse. I replaced a run on Saturday with some cross-training, to give it a bit of a break. Other than that, I stayed fairly close to what the plan called for, and ended up just shy of 37 miles for the week, rather than the planned 42-44 miles. After doing 50+ miles for most weeks of August and September, the last couple of weeks have left me feeling that I should be doing more. That won't happen over the next couple of weeks, with the marathon happening two weeks from today. The plan has me doing 32 miles next week, with one run of mile intervals at a 5k pace - fun!

Two weeks to the marathon; Faith Ann is rolling along, Mike is doing great, and I'm feeling ok. Who could ask for anything more?

Back on the Trails

2009-09-29T21:07:00.005-03:00

I managed to run seven miles tonight on the trails of downtown Fredericton, even including intervals of 5x500m at 5k pace. While I could feel some discomfort in the right foot, it was bearable. I did some stretching and icing of it following the run, and now (2.5 hours later) it doesn't feel too bad. Hopefully it won't feel any worse overnight.

I've reached the point where I've decided to stick to the plan for the remaining 2.5 weeks, unless my foot practically falls off. I'm even going to do a bit more mileage than the plan calls for this week. Everything I've read says that I shouldn't try to make up any of the lost mileage, especially in the first taper week, but I feel I really need to do it, just to restore some confidence. By the time the weekend roles around, it will have been three weeks since my last long run - ie something over 16 miles - since I didn't run this past weekend, and did the 10k race the weekend before. The plan calls for me to do 16 miles this Sunday, but I'll probably do around 18.

So what have I been doing to help my foot situation? Well, other than not running, I've been doing the RICE routine, and have had it taped up a bit. I've also been stretching the foot regularly, with some routines I found on Grellan's blog. That link can be found here.

I've been assuming my affliction is plantar fasciitis, and I think it has affected me off and on for several weeks. Oddly, in the spring it affected my left foot, but since then it has only affected my right one. I know I mentioned this earlier, but I wonder if it really is that much worse now than it has been all summer? Or am I letting the fact that the marathon is approaching have a mental effect on me? I know I was limping around last week, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. That's another reason I've just decided to complete the training (and then some) for the remainder of the schedule.

Faith Ann pointed out that the PEI marathon site now has a chart showing their water/nutrition stops, which I'm showing below. Looks good to me!

Still on the DL

2009-09-27T20:51:00.004-03:00

Yes, I am still on the disabled list, but I am hoping this coming week will see me back pounding the pavement again.

In doing my part to promote economic stimulus, I've now paid for and deferred two races to next year. The first race I passed on this year was the St. Andrews Father's Day Road Race, due to something freakish happening with my shoulder. The second race I deferred was the half marathon in Saint John in the Marathon by the Sea today, due to a more traditional running injury - an injured foot.

The foot has now been a problem for a week. I ran a few miles mid-week, which was probably a mistake, as it didn't take me long to realize it was still too sore. I held out hope even until Friday night that I might run the half, but when Saturday came around it was obvious I was not up for it. We still spent the night in Saint John, since we had a non-refundable hotel coupon. For future reference, perhaps I will no longer buy non-refundable nights in hotels for races, as I can never be certain of the health situation.

I did get to meet up with my friend Mark from Halifax, and I saw him finish his second half marathon this morning. I attempted to get a picture of him, but the best I could do was the cropped version below. It looks more like a picture of the clock, with Mark in the foreground.

The lack of running, especially knowing that the marathon is so close, is driving me nuts. I think the foot is getting close to being better, but I'm hesitant to start running on it again too soon. According to my training plan, tomorrow would normally be a rest day. I'm hoping to pick up the schedule on Tuesday, right where I would normally be. This is the first taper week, but in my schedule it still calls for over 40 miles, and I'm keen to get them in. If running is still a problem next week, I will be quite concerned.

I had planned on doing a 10k in Perth Andover this weekend. I think I may pass on this. I don't know if the 10k last weekend contributed to my foot problem, but in case it did, I don't want to take the risk of it happening again this week, just two weeks out from PEI. Then again ... if the week goes well ... who knows?

I spoke to Alex Coffin (who finished second in the marathon today) in one of his shops yesterday, and mentioned my foot issue to him. He spoke of getting on the bike (which I have done ... but probably not enough), and he also suggested water running - here is a Pfitzinger link on that topic. I think I would have to be desperate to do such a thing, but Alex says he does it three days a week. I would guess he does a crazy amount of mileage per week, and throws these sessions in to avoid injury.

See Mike's post for an update on his most recent long run - another very positive sign for him. He has signed up for PEI, which is great. He has been nice enough to offer to pace me in PEI, but if it looks like I'm going to drag him down to a personal worst in the marathon, I hope I can be persuasive enough to convince him to sprint ahead of me! Hopefully I'll be there to give it a go, and not just cheer on him and Faith Ann.

My Foot

2009-09-23T23:00:00.002-03:00

I'll apologize in advance for this post, as nobody likes to hear others complain about their aches and pains.

During my marathon training, I have occasionally had bouts of foot pain, usually attributed to plantar fasciitis. My right foot was hurting me a little during last week, to the point where I skipped my run on Saturday, the day before the Fall Classic 10k. It felt ok during the race, but later that day and the next morning, it was quite sore. Monday and Tuesday I biked, rather than running. I had planned on doing a long run Monday. Tonight (Wednesday), my schedule called for 10 miles, including 5x1200m at 5k pace. I think these intervals really help my running, and I was looking forward to it. However, when I started the run, I could really feel the pain in the foot, and I stopped the run after three miles.

I'm probably going to bike rather than run the next couple of days, and evaluate it after that. It's disappointing, and a bit disconcerting, given that this was supposed to be my last week of high mileage before the taper. As for the half-marathon in Saint John this weekend, at this point I still plan on running it, but I won't decide for sure until the weekend.

As I said, there have been "foot issues" off and on through the training. In the past I did the RICE thing, or taped the foot, and the problem eventually went away. Knowing that the marathon is only a few weeks away, I wonder if I'm letting it get to my head? Is this the same pain that I felt and ran through a few weeks ago, or is it really worse now? I pretty sure it's real, and I would hate to ruin the marathon now, after all these weeks. I will be a little careful with it in the short term, but I am going to try to fit in the remaining long runs and some of the other tougher runs before the big day.

Fredericton Fall Classic 2009

2009-09-20T17:06:00.006-03:00

It was a good news/bad news story for the race today. The good news is that I was pleased with my time, knocking more than four minutes off my personal best (such as it was). I must be happy - look at that beaming face in the picture above, courtesy of the Capital City Road Runners club. The bad news is that any training runs in the future at 10k pace will be tougher.

A year ago I ran this as my first race ever, and finished in 57:15. Today I finished it a little more than 10 minutes faster, at 47:11. That's also 4 minutes and 12 seconds faster than my previous 10k, the Cobscook Bay 10k of June 7th.

The weather was perfect today, slightly overcast and about 10° celcius, and this 10k route is about as flat as you can find. With that in mind, I was really thinking I could do better than 48 minutes today.

As per usual, I started way too fast, with my first mile clocking in at 7:18. The second one was also a touch fast, at 7:27. After that, my paces were what I would have expected, with my final overall pace being 7:36 per mile (4:44 per kilometer). For my next 10k - the Dam Run in Perth Andover - I have no idea what the elevation pattern is, but if it's relatively flat in the first mile or two, I'll do my best to control the adrenaline, and see if it helps me out in the last couple of miles.

After the first mile, my heart rate averaged over 93% of max, and I could definitely feel it at times. Around mile 5.3, I actually felt a bit nauseous, and slowed down my pace for just a bit. However, after that I didn't feel bad at all, and kept a steady pace coming down the stretch.

My buddy Drew (subject of a future blog post!) calls me the "most uncompetitive guy he knows". Actually, I may have said that first, and he just repeated it ... but I'm not sure. Well, he would have been proud of me over the last couple of minutes of this race. I heard footsteps gaining on me over the last minute or two, and with about 150 or so yards to the end, a guy drew even with me. I glanced to my right at him, and threw an insult his way. Hopefully he knows I was just kidding around - sort of! Then I said "Wanna race to the finish?", and kicked it into "high gear". I finished a second ahead of him by the clock, although his chip time was a few seconds faster than mine. Here's a picture below of us as we crossed the line.

In the draws for the post-race prizes, I got myself a Saucony t-shirt. Both last year and this year, there have been almost as many prizes as there have been runners. I say "almost", because Faith Ann's name wasn't drawn either year. Last year they even resorted to "Anybody with blue shorts who hasn't got a prize yet, step right up!" Not many people have worse luck than her when it comes to prize draws. I tell her that eventually she'll make up for it and win something big, like an acquaintance of hers from New Zealand who won a trip to the London Marathon.

Speaking of Faith Ann, she continued her amazingly consistent streak of almost identical 10k times. All three of her 10ks have been within just a handful of seconds of each other. It also marks the second race in a row that she had a rough week health-wise leading into it.

Having the 10k today, on a Sunday, interfered with my normal routine of doing my long run on this day. Instead, I plan to leave work a bit early tomorrow, and get in my last 20 mile run before the marathon. That will likely make the week a bit heavy on the mileage side, but this past week my mileage was down. However, the decreased mileage last week may have been timely, since the plantar fasciitis in my right foot has been bothering me lately. I'll monitor it over the next couple of weeks, but to be on the safe side, I may replace the odd recovery run with a bike session. I am looking forward to the taper weeks.

The next race for me is next Sunday, in Saint John in the half marathon of Marathon by the Sea. I am going to try to finish that in 1:45, which would make me quite happy. The weekend after that it's the Dam Run 10k in Perth Andover, two weeks before the PEI marathon. I have some thoughts on that marathon, based on recent over-analyzing past results. There are also some pacers in that race, and I'm debating on whether or not I'll stick with them. More on those thoughts later this week.

Here's a finishing shot of Faith Ann wrapping up her race, giving us the "thumbs up" !

Great Steak Dinner, followed by Humble Pie

2009-09-14T21:55:00.003-03:00

Just as I was starting to feel ok about my running, yesterday's long run knocked me back down to size. A couple of months ago I probably would have thought the run was acceptable, but yesterday I just found it to be a disappointment. It was supposed to be 18 miles, with 14 at marathon pace. Mind you, for my first marathon, "marathon pace" really isn't too fast, as I need a 9:09 minute per mile pace to finish in 4 hours. Since I was starting to get a bit cocky, I thought I would run the 14 miles at an 8:45 pace. Well, after I finished the 14 miles just shy of this pace, including a few short breaks, it was enough for me, and I cut the run 8/10's of a mile short of 18. My average heart rate for the run was 163, ten bpm higher than the previous week when I ran 20 miles at an only slightly slower pace.

Why the struggle? The most likely (and obvious) explanation is that the pace is too agressive. However, I really thought it would have been manageable. Other excuses I tried to talk myself into included the heat of the day at 27° celcius, poor pacing, and not the best nutrition - although the barbeque steak dinner the previous night was great.

That steak dinner Saturday night was with my father and his wife, who were visiting us for the weekend. See the great photo below, and note that I am just as photogenic as my father.

Another thing that may have added to my tough run was the build up during the week. I did 8 miles at an aerobic pace Tuesday, 9 miles Wednesday including 5x1k at 5k pace with a short break between the intervals, a 12 mile run Friday, and 5 on Saturday. I thought I did the 1k intervals at a good pace, but I've been too lazy to program my Garmin to capture them properly. I'll try to get it programmed before my intervals for this week.

We're down to five weeks to the marathon, and the next three weeks should be fun, as I have three races! I have the Fall Classic this Sunday right here in Fredericton, the half-marathon at the Marathon by the Sea in Saint John on the 25th, and the Dam Run 10k in Perth Andover on October 3rd. While I don't plan on tapering for these, I do plan on giving my best effort and racing in them. I'm really looking forward to the Fall Classic this weekend, as it marks the one year anniversary of my first race ever. I always tell people that if they're just getting into running, they should enter a race, and they will be hooked. Faith Ann and I were both so impressed with the race last year, that we signed up for our next 10k right afterward - the Legs for Literacy 10k in Moncton. One year and about 25 pounds ago, I ran the 10k at the Fall Classic in 57:15. It would be really cool if I could knock 10 minutes off that, but that may be a bit aggressive. I think a time like 48:48 may be more realistic - not to mention symmetric!

So ... two things I'm taking away from my poor long run of yesterday: stick with what works, and be realistic. By sticking with what works, next week I'm going back to the same meal the night before that I had last week, the same breakfast, and same energy for the run. By being realistic, it means that I'll slow it down (slightly), reminding me that the first marathon is more about taking in the experience and finishing, than it is about setting a decent time.

Week Recap, and General Thoughts

2009-09-06T20:29:00.003-03:00

I finished my week of running today with a long run that I thought was great. My plan called for 17 miles, but I did 20. I tried to keep the run at a fairly easy pace, and yet it still resulted in an overall 9:07 pace. I've now done five runs of 18 miles or more, and this was the first one where I didn't feel completely spent at the end. My long runs these days feel very easy for the first 13 miles or so, and then they start to get a little more difficult with each additional mile.

The mileage total for the week was just short of 53 miles. Four of my last six weeks have been over 50 miles. Six more weeks until the marathon, and just a few more until the taper starts.

Here are those thoughts I mentioned in the post title ...

I'm a general sports fan, but the two sports I really follow closely are baseball and hockey. I think I have about the same level of interest in each sport. However, I would love to visit every major league baseball stadium, but I don't have a lot of interest in making a point to visit NHL arenas. I think the atmosphere of a ball park has a certain appeal or nostalgia not found in indoor arenas.

Speaking of sports, I am very excited for the return of Tony Kornheiser to radio! In my case, I'll be hearing him via podcast, although his show originates out of ESPN980 in Washington, DC. I absolutely love Mr. Tony on the radio, even when he's talking about college basketball (which I have zero interest in) or Washington, DC stories. Most people outside of Washington are familiar with Tony from his TV work on PTI or as a Monday night football analyst. I started listening to his radio show a couple of years back, and I very much enjoy the mix of sports, news and pop culture that he and his co-hosts discuss.

This link to ABC News has a story about how "running may indeed be addictive to the brain in the same way as heroin or morphine." It mentions how the researchers let one group of rats become increasingly avid runners, and forced another group of rats to stay lazy in a cage with no hamster wheel. I would like to see video of the rats doing pre and post stretching routines.
There aren't many things I enjoy more than listening to a good, long, hearty laugh.

At some point in my life, and I'm not sure when, I stopped watching movies. I think in the last few years, I couldn't have watched more than a handful of movies each year. There was a time when I watched many movies and followed many movie reviewers. I would even see artsy-fartsy (spelling?) releases, and foreign films. These days I have next to no interest in movies, and I think the main reason is that when I sit down for two hours to watch one, I'm thinking in the back of my mind that there has to be a more productive way to spend two hours of my life. Last night was an exception to all of this of course, as Faith Ann and I watched "Paul Blart: Mall Cop". Yes, I watch four movies a year, and this was one of them.

Speaking of movies, here's a line from a movie made back when I used to watch them - "Ferris Bueller's Day Off": "Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Check out this blog, Marathon of Hope, for a reminder of this. The blog is written by a wife from close to my old stomping grounds in Nova Scotia, about the recovery of her husband (Chris Cashen) from what would normally be a fatal episode of bleeding of the brain. Only hours before the incident occurred, Chris had finished 16th out of 113 runners in the Cobequid Trail 10k, an annual race held in Truro, Nova Scotia. Outside of a short recovery period for hernia surgery in 2003, Chris had run every day for over 4000 consecutive days. He also qualified for and ran in Boston last year. I recommend you give the blog a read - it's interesting, sad, inspiring and hopeful.

Here's hoping all are enjoying the Labour Day long weekend, as we enter the first full week of September.

Toronto, including a 30k race

2009-08-30T22:10:00.007-03:00

We wrapped up our week in Toronto with all the things I would have expected - visiting with family members (including new nephew Connor), a trip to the CN Tower, a Blue Jays game, the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Ontario Science Centre, Ontario Place and Niagara Falls. Of course no trip on Air Canada would be complete without a lost bag of luggage. It made it to us today, a day and a half later.

I also completed my first 30k race while there - a Midsummer Night's Run. Entering the race I thought I wouldn't really race it, but I wouldn't treat it as an easy run either. My goal was to maintain 9 minute miles through the race, which would see me finishing at around 2 hours and 45 minutes. As it turned out, I finished in 2:44:35, or a pace of about 8:53. My pace was very consistent throughout, feeling very easy at the start, and not so easy for the last few miles. I finished the first 10k in 54:33, and the half in 1:56:09. The course was quite flat (map below) and although the run started at 5:30 PM, it wasn't very hot.

Faith Ann and my brother-in-law Brian both ran the 15k version of the race. Faith Ann was happy with her race, finishing just a hair over 1.5 hours, while Brian ran a very speedy 1:06, finishing 24th out of over 800 runners, and 19th out of 253 male runners.

A few observations from the race ... There were many run/walk people in the race. When we hit the 10 minute mark, I was very surprised at the number of people who pulled to the right and began walking. The other thing I noticed was how almost everyone referred to their pace and speed in kilometers, rather than miles. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise, given that we are in Canada, but locally I find runners are evenly split when it comes to using the metric or imperial measurements. Although I have no evidence to support it, I think both the run/walk and kilometer trends are largely a result of the popularity of the Running Room running clinics, which push both of these. Oh yeah ... one more thing - I noticed a few blind runners going along with other sighted runners. I thought that was cool, and something I hadn't seen before.

There was a Shakespearean theme to the race, with several folks donning fairy wings and glitter. One woman with wings and glitter doing the run/walk thing must have passed me (and then I passed her) at least fifteen times. Here are a couple pictures of the start below - one shows a guy with wings, the other shows me in the background a bit, in the dark t-shirt.

Finally, here's a nice picture of Faith Ann and Cameron after her race.

As for my other running, I'm still sticking to the plan, ending this week at my peak weekly mileage - 55 miles. I did my second twenty mile run today. With the race last weekend, and 14 of 18 miles next weekend at marathon pace, I chose to intentionally keep the run today at an easy pace. It ended up at a 9:38 min/mile pace (6 mins/km!). The first 13 miles or so floated by and the heart rate was very reasonable. The remaining seven miles felt a bit tougher, and the heart rate gradually kept creeping up. Overall, it was an ok run.

I've got a few races planned for next month, and I plan to run those as races. I finished August with 222.7 miles logged, including three weeks of over 50 miles. Just a few more weeks until the taper, and things are looking fine!

A Tad Warm Here

2009-08-20T21:12:00.007-03:00

We have had some very hot weather in our area lately, along with some high humidity. Our investment this summer in both air conditioning and the cheap/ugly pool above seem to have been wise moves.

The heat has not been too kind on my running. I had tough long run on Sunday, scheduled for 16 miles. Arriving in downtown Fredericton, I started my Garmin, only to see that the battery was on the brink of death. I must have left it on the previous day. So, I did my run without a watch of any kind, and estimated my mileage (it ended up being 17.3, according to MayMyRun). Forty-five minutes into it my ipod also died, so I had no podcasts to listen to either. However, what really added to the misery of the run (I think) was the heat and the humidity. I didn't start the run until close to 9 AM, and by the time I finished it was after 11:30, with temperatures exceeding 30° C (high eighties farenheit). I don't know what level the humidity was, but it felt to be fairly high. I was dragging my butt through the last few miles, stopping a few times to walk. It felt harder than the last few miles of my 20 mile run a week earlier.

My next run after that long run was two days later, on Tuesday morning before work. It was supposed to include a few miles at my lactate threshold, and I gave it a shot. Again, it turned out to be discouraging. Again, I tried to lay the blame on the heat. However, it was only 21° C (72° F), which should be reasonable, but the humidity was 82%.

Last night was better - eight miles inlcuding a few 800 meter intervals at a 5k pace. They felt tough, but overall I had a much better attitude at the end of that run.

We're off to Toronto tomorrow for a week. The trip will include my longest race to date - the 30k race of A Midsummer Night's Run. I don't plan to really race it, but treat it more as a training run. Perhaps I'll shoot to maintain a 9 min/mile pace. The run begins at 5:30 in the evening, and I'm hoping the temperature will be reasonable. I'll try to get in my other miles while we're there also.

See some pics below for where I typically do my long runs through Fredericton, when the trails aren't covered by three feet of snow. It's a great area to run - lots of shade, pretty flat and good scenery. See the story here from our local fishwrap about how Outpost Magazine called it "Canada's secret running gem."

So long until we return from Toronto!

Epic Battles

2009-08-13T23:10:00.002-03:00

Batman and Joker, Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis, Ali and Frazier, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner ...

I've been re-living my 20 mile run often since Sunday. So often that I'm sure Faith Ann is sick of hearing about it. It was a good learning experience, that included several pieces of advise, such as "Find a group running your pace at the marathon, and stick with them", "running in dirt takes more effort than running on the road", and "always go for the win".

I'll relate a conversation from the run between Andrew, Andrew's brain (non-verbal) and me:

Andrew: "Always go for the win"
Trevor: "Maybe the analogy for me is to go for a personal best"
Andrew: "No, always go for the win"
Andrew's Brain: "Hey Andrew, this is Trevor we're talking about!"
Andrew: " ... even if it's to win your age group"
Andrew's Brain: "Hey! C'mon! It's Trevor!"
Andrew: " .... or ... find someone who's a challenge to you, and try to beat him"

At least he didn't leave it at "Try to beat someone".

So, I'm going to be carefully watching the registration list for the PEI marathon, and I'll find my nemesis. Oh sure, I could just choose to beat the super-annoying Liz Rigney, who has entered the marathon, but that is just too obvious. No, I'll find somebody more appropriate. A male, close to my age, whose race history seems close to mine.

Once I find this loser, I'll track his every move - through the Cavendish Farms french fry factory, the Paderno factory outlet, the Cows ice cream store, his hotel, the restaurants ... "What !?! You only tipped 12% !!!"

I can see it now, taunting him at the starting line, drafting behind him for over 25 miles, blowing my sweat-induced snot-rockets downwards towards his running shoes, before finally flying by him over the last half mile at a blistering 12:43 pace.

My plan update: last night I did 14 miles, marking the longest mid-week run of my 18-week plan. It wasn't too bad. There are 17 miles planned for the weekend long run, and next week is a recovery week of "only" 43 miles.

Here are a couple of amusing videos from the Sklar brothers, part of a promotional campaign from Brooks. Have a good weekend!

Boyden Lake 20-miler

2009-08-09T20:17:00.004-03:00

I ran 20 miles today with the two relaxed, cool dudes in the picture above - Mike and Andrew.

The low points:

I forgot to bring 2/3 of my water along - I mooched a bunch off Andrew and Mike.
I struggled the last couple of miles.

The high points:

Pretty much everything else.

I ran the famous Boyden Lake loop, in great weather conditions. The gents were very accomodating with this still-new, still-slow runner, and the chatter and company helped the miles fly by more easily. Here are some things I learned from the adventure.

The loop has very little traffic. I think I saw more horses than moving vehicles, and I'm not even sure that's an exaggeration. Perhaps this is the closest I will come to running in an Amish community.
Apparently if we come across dogs along a running route, we are to engage in gentle teasing with them. "Just watch that he doesn't run between your legs."
"YOU DON'T RUN A MARATHON TO LOOK AT SCENERY!" - so yells Andrew Seeley. However, the Boyden Lake run was not a marathon, and it was quite scenic.

Andrew even tailored a joke to his two Canadian running mates, telling a a blonde joke involving the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Some other stuff ... it was a good overall pace for me, with occasional walking breaks coming at good times. One of those breaks was during a pretty good uphill climb around mile 15. You would think that in my near-obsessive following of Mike's and Andrew's blogs over the last several months, I would have picked up on the fact that there are a few hills on the route.

Even with that tough hill, I was feeling ok until we ended the loop after 17 miles, then headed into the last three miles. I found those to be tough, but slogged them out with a couple of short breaks. Back to the vehicles and some sweets to end it, with a good sense of accomplishment. I'm looking forward to doing it again someday.

This marked the end of my second consecutive 50+ mile week . I'm not scheduled to have another one for another three weeks, although both of the next two will probably be over 45. I've got three more 20-milers in my training schedule before the marathon, but I'll probably trade in one of those for the half-marathon in Saint John at the Marathon by the Sea. Faith Ann completed her first 18-miler yesterday, so her training is also coming along as per her plan. We're getting there ... slowly but surely.

Man Bites Dog

2009-08-07T22:19:00.003-03:00

A July 26th news article about French president Nicolas Sarkozy falling ill while "jogging" seems to foreshadow what will happen to me this Sunday when I try to run 20 miles with Mike and Andrew. I've selectively replaced just a few words in the article, and have included the revised version below. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see this exact story appear in next edition of the Quoddy Tides.

Trevor falls ill while jogging

Fredericton plodder Trevor has been taken to hospital after becoming ill while jogging.

Mr Trevor's chief of staff said the plodder was "doing well" and talking normally with medics at the hospital, AFP news agency reported.

The plodder is remaining there overnight for what officials said were "routine" tests.

He was flown to the hospital earlier after suffering what was described as a "minor" nerve complaint.

Mr Trevor was taken ill while jogging during a humid morning at a weekend retreat at Perry, outside of Pembroke.

The incident occurred after 45 minutes of "intensive physical exercise", his office said in a statement.

It denied earlier statements that he had lost consciousness. Mr Trevor lay down and received immediate treatment from a personal doctor.

He was flown to the Machias hospital by helicopter, where he was later joined by his wife, Faith Ann.

A spokesman said he had also summoned aides to his bedside to keep him up to date with world events.

AFP said Mr Trevor had suffered a problem relating to his vagal nerve.

It said a condition known as vasovagal syncope could involve a brief loss of consciousness, and changes in the heart rate or blood pressure, especially if the person is dehydrated.

The vagal nerve is a major nerve that runs from the abdomen to the brain and controls many functions.

New England Weekend

2009-08-03T21:22:00.006-03:00

Beginning last Thursday night, we turned a long weekend into an extra long weekend, and drove down to New Hampshire to spend a few days in Portsmouth. I managed to stick with the running plan, doing 7+ miles on Saturday, and my first 18 mile run on Sunday. Not knowing the town, I scouted out a route on MapMyRun, and came up with this guy. Both my runs were done within this loop. What the route lacked in sidewalks, it made up with in scenery. It went through some of the downtown, and some of the swankier areas also, with some very nice houses and lookouts over the water. Here's a picture of one of the houses, with a widows lookout. "Back in the day" wives would sit here, watching for fishermen returning from sea.

For my Saturday seven mile run, I went with Faith Ann. It was supposed to be seven miles with strides, but I took a bit of a different approach. Since Faith Ann takes walk breaks every few minutes (every seven minutes on Saturday), I did short sprints during her breaks, and jogged back to join her as she started her run again.

I was pleased with how the 18 mile run went on Sunday. It was a bit humid, but I started early enough that it wasn't too hot. My overall pace was 9:23. I stopped at the van for 1.5 to 2 minutes after my first and second loops (after 6.8 and 14 miles) to re-fill my water bottle and eat some energy supplements. Other than those two intervals, most of my miles were done at a pace under 9:15 minutes per mile.

With that run in my pocket, I'm now psyched to run the Boyden Loop - and then some - with Andrew and Mike! It will be my first 20 mile run, and I'm very much looking forward to it, both for the run and the mingling with these guys. We may not share the same running ability, but I do feel a certain level of kinship knowing that Mike and I both have sensitive nipples. Please see this blog post of his for an explanation.

So there we were in Portsmouth, and Faith Ann says "Boston is only an hour away". So ... we took a trip down and went to the aquarium ...

... and we also visited the Bill Rodger's Running Center - see the mediocre photo at the top of this post. It is a nice little running store, in the heart of downtown Boston. The prices were reasonable, and Faith Ann added to her collection of Asics Gel Nimbus running shoes, this time buying version 11.

Apparently I have normal pronation with arches that are slightly high. With that in mind, I tried on a few pairs of shoes and ended up getting a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 11's, and a pair of Reebok Premier 3D Trainers - both felt good and didn't cost me an arm and a leg. I'll break in the new ones gradually and see how they work out. I'm ambivalent about the few shoes I've run in - I guess I'm not very picky.

Looking forward to the week ahead and the run in Maine with Andrew and Mike!

Plan Update

2009-07-26T22:10:00.002-03:00

Today marks the end of my sixth week of the 18 week Pfitzinger marathon training plan. One third of the way through it - albeit not the most difficult third - I'm happy that I've been able to stick to it, for the most part. I missed three recovery runs during the six weeks. One of the runs was missed due to soreness in my foot (plantar fasciitis?), one was due to a strange pain in my shoulder, and the third was due to laziness/travel (also using the foot as an excuse), on the day we returned from PEI.

For the six weeks, the plan had me running a total of 233 miles. My actual total for the six weeks was 228, even with the three skipped runs. My runs usually finish just a touch over the distances call for. Plus, the first couple of weeks I ran a bit more than the plan suggested.

The next couple of weeks will be challenging. Not only are the long runs going to be 18 and 20 miles - longer than I have ever done - but there are also medium long runs in the middle (11 or 12 miles) as well as lactate threshold runs of 10 miles. Both weeks will have me doing at least 50 miles. It will be quite a test, especially since we'll be away in New Hampshire next weekend when I'm scheduled to run 18 miles on Sunday. I'll do my best to get it in, and not use the travel as an excuse to skip it.

Today was the last run of my recovery week. It was 13 miles at a relatively slow pace.

The highlight of my run from the last week? On my Tuesday morning run, at the bottom of a hill in my subdivision, I looked up and saw a humongous moose looking down at me from the top of the hill. She casually sauntered off after checking me out. She must like the area, because a neighbor has also seen her recently.

Back from PEI

2009-07-19T20:46:00.002-03:00

We got back from our PEI vacation yesterday. Overall, it was a great week, with the weather treating us well. We only had a couple of days with showers, and even on those days there were breaks of decent weather. We're such creatures of habit; we go to PEI for a week every summer, stay at the same place, and do pretty much the same things - golf, beach, Charlottetown on a rainy day, play areas for Cam - but we enjoy it every year.

We did manage to run some of the PEI marathon route, but not the whole thing. Faith Ann and I both did 15 miles the Sunday after we arrived last week, but rather than covering the marathon route, which wasn't around where we stay, we stuck close to Cameron and covered the run close to "home". My long run that day went quite well. It was a general aerobic run for me, and I did it at a 9:16 pace. In contrast, my 16 mile long run today back in Fredericton (in hotter weather ... not really an excuse ... also flatter ground) was supposed have 10 miles at marathon pace, but my total average pace today was only 9:30. I intentionally covered the first six miles at a very easy pace. I started my marathon pace fine over miles seven and eight. On mile nine, I was to rendez-vous with a water bottle I left off the trail, but it took me three minutes to find it! I discovered it under some grass just as I was ready to give up on it. A couple of other times I stopped to fill up said water bottle at fountains along the trail. I don't stop my Garmin for these things, so in the end I was probably three minutes longer for the last ten miles than planned. Not so bad I guess, just slightly discouraging.

As for the week in PEI and the scouting of the marathon route, I ran along it twice. On Tuesday I covered the first nine miles of it, much of it along a bike path in Brackley Beach. What a great place to run! Great scenery, no worries about traffic or canines, and relatively flat. This is the easiest part of the marathon route. On Friday morning, I covered the most difficult part of the route. On that day, I did an out and back (or back and out, perhaps?) going from about mile 24 to mile 19, and then returning to my starting point. This run covers some of the larger hills in Charlottetown, and also part of the trail just outside Charlottetown. Hopefully in the fall, I'll be in decent shape before I reach this point!

So, overall I ran 14 of the 26 miles, and probably drove along another 5 of the miles, just to check it out. It doesn't look too bad, but I bet if you ask me the afternoon of October 18th, I'll probably have a different take on it!

In other news, as I mentioned in my previous post, I'm planning on running the Houston marathon January 17th, and Faith Ann is doing the half. Registration opened for this at midnight central time (2 AM Atlantic) Friday. We got up early Friday morning, connected to Al Gore's internet, and got our registrations in. It's a good thing we didn't wait too long, as the event sold out within 36 hours, capped at 11,000 registrants the half, and another 11,000 for the full. We were afraid it might sell out quickly, and after our experience of getting shut out of the registrations for the Beach to Beacon 10k earlier this year, we wanted to be sure we got in early.

Well, I've now completed five weeks of the 18 week Pfitzinger plan, and I'm pleased with the progress. More on that in a future post. Next week's my first planned "recovery week"!

Off to PEI

2009-07-10T22:20:00.004-03:00

We're heading to PEI tomorrow, for our annual week of vacation on the island. While there, I'll get in a little golf, we'll be spending time on the beach, and playing with Cam at Sandspit and Shining Waters. Also, I hope to cover the route for the PEI marathon over a few runs. Speaking of the Prince Edward Island marathon, Steve Runner of the Phedippidations podcast has been talking about running this marathon in the fall also, although lately he has been hurt and a bit bummed about his running

I'm continuing to stick with the Pfitzinger plan, although I may have hit a slight bump in the road last night. About 9.2 miles into my ten mile run, I felt a twinge in my left hamstring, causing me to finish the run with a bit of limp. Luckily, today was my planned rest day. Tomorrow morning, I'll see how it feels, and then decide if I should do some biking rather than my four mile recovery run.

While we are in PEI, registration for the Houston Marathon opens. I plan to register for the marathon, to be run 13 weeks after the PEI marathon. Is that nuts? Faith Ann plans to register for the half.

Since registering for the PEI marathon, my goal has been to complete it in less than four hours. There are several resources that predict a marathon finishing time based on completed race times for other distances. With my 1:49:15 finishing time in the recent Miramichi half marathon, here are some predicted times for a marathon finish:

McMillan: 3:50:25
MarathonGuide.com: 3:48:48
Running Times: 3:52:11
Runner's World (UK): 3:47:46
Runworks.com: 3:46:27 (based on Jack Daniels formula)
Hal Higdon: 4:16:56 (5 times 10k time)
Jeff Galloway: 3:53:46

I realize these predictions don't mean I'll be able to finish in under four hours, given the number of variables that could impact the final result. However, it does provide me with increased confidence that I'll be able to meet my goal.

Miramichi Rock'nRun Half Marathon

2009-07-05T18:22:00.004-03:00

The quick summary (results here): finishing time of 1:49:15. The weather was good, relatively cool and the rain missed us.

Longer, drawn out summary below ...

Heading into this half marathon, I was shooting for a finish of under 1:50, which would be a pace of about 8:25 per mile. After driving the route the night before the race, I decided on the following plan:

1) Do the first mile in 8:30, avoiding the temptation of going out too fast.
2) Do the next five miles at an 8:20 pace
3) The seventh mile was the only one with a significant hill on it (picture above). It had an on ramp to a bridge, and then the climb to the crest of the bridge. I decided not to go too fast here, so as to not burn out too soon.
4) Return to an 8:20 pace for the remaining miles.

If I were to assign a letter grade for how well I kept to the plan, I think it would be a B+. The breakdown follows.

Goal 1) First mile in 8:30
I covered the first mile in 8:07 - oh well, I felt good.
Grade: C+

Goal 2) Next five miles at 8:20 pace
I did them at a pace of 8:14. Again, I felt good.
Grade: A

Goal 3) Don't push to hard at mile 7.
I screwed up my Garmin shortly before this, trying to set a "lap" at the 10k mark. Instead, I hit "stop" on it - but just for a second, before restarting it. So ... mile ~6.25 to ~7.25 was completed in 9:00. I was fine with that, given that much of it was uphill. By the way, I completed the 10k in 51:17, six seconds faster than the 10k race I completed in Cobscook Bay last month.
Grade: B+

Goal 4) Return to 8:20 pace for the remaining miles.
I finished the remaining miles at an average pace of 8:22. I kind of fell apart in miles 10-12, going at about an 8:31 pace.
Grade: B-

Faith Ann had a rough time over her last few kilometers. Her time was better than her Tallahassee finish, but not quite matching her Fredericton result. Her training has been thrown off kilter a bit lately, with her job, a vehicle accident and other scheduling difficulties.

Overall, I was pleased with my result. Here is the complete history of my half marathons, all done this year:

Feb. 1st: 1:56 (Tallahassee)
May 10th: 1:52 (Fredericton)
July 5th: 1:49 (Miramichi)

I expect the improving trend will end before long, but for now, I kind of like it.

A New Race! I'll be Theseus!

2009-07-01T22:28:00.002-03:00

We're heading to the Miramichi Rock 'n Run Half Marathon this weekend. The forecast is calling for decent temperatures (ie not hot), with rain likely. I had thought this would be my last race until the fall, until I got this e-mail from my sister Aimee tonight.

"Also just a thought for your trip to Toronto there is a 15k and / or 30k run Aug 22nd in the evening that Brian is going to run (the 15k). Below is the link if you guys are interested."

The race she is referring to is "A Midsummer Night's Run", an annual evening race in Toronto. The Brian she is referring to is her husband. Aimee also runs, be she is very pregnant right now, and by August she will be a new mother.

So how does this align with my training plan? Well, that weekend happens to land on one of my recovery weeks. It calls for 8 miles (w/ 8 x100 m strides) on Saturday, and 14 miles on Sunday. I've decided instead of these two runs, to run the 30 km race that Saturday evening, and rest (and vacation!) on Sunday. This seems like a reasonable compromise. Faith Ann thinks she might do the 15 km race. This will be my longest race to date, given that I've never run in anything longer than a half-marathon. It will also be my first race where I'll be dressed in Shakespearean costume - unlikely!

I was a bit concerned about keeping up with the training during that week in Toronto, but this will cover two of the days. I'll be sure to squeeze in the other runs between doing the touristy things - maybe I'll do tempo run up the steps of the CN Tower! Once again - unlikely!

As for the race this weekend? An improvement over my last half-marathon time (1:52 in Fredericton) is expected. I would be thrilled to finish under 1:50, and I'll be gunning for it!

If I was a Rock 'n Pace Bunny ...

2009-06-28T19:35:00.007-03:00

The Pftiz plan called for 13 miles today, with 8 eight at marathon pace. As mentioned before, I don't really know what my "marathon pace" is. My goal is to maintain nine-minute miles at the PEI marathon, which would have me finish just under four hours. I would be very happy with that for my first marathon.

Given that I'm still 15 weeks from the marathon, I set my marathon pace today at 9:10 mins/mile.

Rather than the prescribed 13 miles, I ended up doing 14. Why? Well ... it has to do with the fact that I think I'm ready to add more mileage to my long runs (last week I did 15 instead of the planned 12), plus it makes me feel better mentally ... and it's only one more mile! What could possibly go wrong with adding just one more mile?!?

I ended up doing the last eight miles at a 9:09 pace - so close to my goal 9:10 pace! I could become a pace bunny, if there was ever a 14 mile race that required people to run extremely slow for the first six miles, then maintain a not-quite-as-slow pace for the next eight miles. Plus, I would look great wearing big floppy ears. Oh yeah, there was also the matter of me almost getting whiplash from checking my Garmin every eleven seconds or so.

I did the first 6 miles at an easy 9:47 min/per mile pace, with the heart rate averaging around 150. The next 8 miles the heart rate averaged 170, or almost 92% of max, which makes me think that perhaps my "marathon pace" at this point should probably be slower that 9:09 per mile? I did feel quite tired at the end. I probably really won't be sure of what my goal marathon pace will be until we approach October.

For the week, I did 38.4 miles, a bit more than the plan calls for. Next weekend Faith Ann and I are running the Rock 'n Run half marathon in the Miramichi, where I hope to rock 'n set a new PR. However, I plan to rock 'n stick to the Pfitz plan for the week, which means no rock 'n taper for me. The race will replace the planned 14 mile "long run" next Sunday. Here's hoping it won't be too hot that day.

Next week ... the plan jumps from 37 miles to 40, with only two rest/crosstraining days - Monday and Friday - rather than three. That's ok, since that matches the schedule I maintained before taking on Pfitz. The only difference is that previously I was running only about 30-35 miles per week, rather than 40-55.

14 miles, 9:24 mins/mile

Newsflash: I sweat. A lot.

2009-06-25T20:55:00.001-03:00

I did a ten mile run this morning before work. I found it to be a bit of a challenge, and I'm not sure why. Could it be that only into my second week of the PEI marathon training plan that the effort is already catching up with me? Even after my 15 mile run on Sunday that felt so good?

Maybe it was because my previous run - "aerobic" 8 miles, followed by 10x100 strides - was at a pace a little too quick for my current level of fitness?

Maybe it had to do with only getting about 5.5 hours of sleep before waking up early for the run.

Perhaps the real reason for the foot-dragging, heavy-breathing, wishing-it-would-end, speeding-up-only-when-passing-dog-walkers-or-cars, pathetic-attempt-to-stick-with-plan run was the humidity. I don't need any extra help to perspire. I can sweat with the best of them. The humidity and mist this morning meant that somewhere between meters 200 and 230, I was practically drenched. Worse yet, my undergarment consisted of a pair of pre-2009/pre-running size XL cotton baggy boxer shorts. A bad choice for multiple reasons.

I hear rumors that losing weight can help you run better. Since I started this running thing a little over a year ago, my weight loss has been one of my biggest accomplishments. I have gone from somewhere around 230 pounds, to somewhere a little under 180 currently. Well, this morning I had roller coaster weight swings that would make Oprah Winfrey proud. To wit:

Pre-run weight: 178 pounds
Post-run weight, with clothes on: 182 pounds
Post-run weight, after ditching the clothes: 177 pounds

Looking forward to better runs this weekend!

10 miles - 9:35 min/mile pace

It's Because I Pat Myself on the Back So Often

2009-06-21T23:25:00.000-03:00

Yeah ... that's why my shoulder was killing me this weekend ... too much patting myself on the back. Seriously, I have no idea why, but Friday night and all through Saturday, it hurt so much to move my left arm to the side, or to move it behind my back. I was afraid it might have been a problem with my rotator cuff. However, I have been icing it quite a bit, and it has improved today, to the point where I'm not too worried anymore. Even still, I'll be sure not to pitch a ball game, go fly fishing, or play jai alai anytime soon.

Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, I thought I should play it safe, and I passed up going to the 5-mile race in St. Andrew's today. I was really looking forward to it. Mike tells me it went very well, no rain to be found, and a good turn out. Oh well, there's always next year.

I tried doing my scheduled four mile recovery run on Saturday, but just a few strides let me know that my shoulder wouldn't let it happen. It just hurt too much to swing the arms at all. Instead, I spent some time on our stationary bike - 21 km's in 42 minutes, over various levels of resistance. I felt bad about missing the prescribed training, until I read this from the Pfitzinger book today (page 108): "Because the main rationale for recovery runs is simply to increase blood flow through the muscles, you can replace a 30-minute recovery run with about 45 minutes on the bike." I don't plan to make a habit of this, but it's nice to know that it was a reasonable trade-off.

This afternoon, I did a 15 mile long run. My shoulder felt good enough that I thought if I was careful I could manage. As it turned out, it really didn't bother me much at all - just a couple slight twinges. From what I've read, the increased flow of blood might have actually made it feel better.

So ... for my first week on my Pfitzinger plan ... I was close to the plan. The total planned mileage was 33 miles, and I totalled a little over 32 miles. I missed the four mile run on Saturday, but went 15 miles Sunday rather than the recommended 12. My run today felt great - good pace (for me), good heart rate for the length of the run, felt strong and kicked in a bit the last few miles. I felt I could have gone a few more miles without a problem, but I guess that's also a way to get hurt - you know, an excessive increase in mileage too quickly, rather than the build up over time. The coming week calls for just a bit more - 37 miles for the week. I'm looking forward to the bigger weeks, pushing over 50 miles for the week, and 20 miles for the long run. Bring it on!

St. Andrew's Race This Weekend - or Perhaps Not

2009-06-17T19:02:00.004-03:00

My Pfitzinger training is officially under way. I did eight miles on Tuesday morning, with the middle four being at "15k to half-marathon pace", followed by ball hockey that night ... even though it doesn't count :-). Tomorrow I put in nine miles.

I'm signed up to run in the annual 5-mile race in St. Andrew's this weekend. However, there may be a bump in the road. The soccer team I coach is having team photo day on Saturday morning, with Sunday being the rain date. Right now the forecast is calling for rain on Saturday, so the Sunday race may be in jeopardy for me, as I feel obligated to be with the team for the photos. Hopefully we'll get to make it down there for the race.

Growing up in Nova Scotia, the first time I heard of St. Andrew's (New Brunswick) was when my older brother went there for a week one summer for hockey school. The lineup of hockey instructors that summer included Phil Esposito, Dale Hawerchuk, Brian Bellows and Scott Stevens - all big-time hockey names. I also heard they had a bowling alley and a golf course. It painted an image in my mind of some exotic sporting location; apparently I'm easily impressed. These days when I think of St. Andrew's I still think of the golf course - which I have yet to play - but I also think of tourism and the sea.

I'm pasting text below from a Globe and Mail piece from May 29th of this year. It's written by Christie Blatchford, a well known columnist out of Toronto, describing why St. Andrew's is one of her favourite Canadian destinations. For more of Christie, check out her Governor-General Award winning book Fifteen Days, about Canadian troops in Afghanistan. It's a book that's quite sad, but also hard to put down.

Here's her note about her favourite Canadian place -

Within three days of my first visit to St. Andrews by-the-Sea, N.B., last summer, I was putting in an offer on a beautiful blue house.

The deal fell through – I am rather grateful, given that I already own one century-old house in downtown Toronto and the last thing I needed was another one halfway across the country – but such is the nature of St. Andrews that the people who ended up buying the blue house promptly invited me to come and stay with them on my next trip.

That gives you the essence of the place. It's small enough that people know who owned what house when (and even who made offers). More important, tucked in on Passamaquoddy Bay, St. Andrews holds out the promise of a sweeter, quieter life. People talk about how lovely the town is, and it is, but what I most like about it is that it inspires even the casual visitor to behave better, to be more mannerly and to be more easily satisfied with smaller pleasures.

Last Run Before the Pfitzinger Plan Begins

2009-06-14T21:43:00.005-03:00

I did my long run today, consisting of 14 miles. I kept a good pace and heart rate, with my heart rate staying under 150 until the 10th mile. I think my max heart rate is 183. I often find myself running too fast (too fast for my level/speed) on my long runs. After reading the Pfitzinger book this weekend, I was reminded once again to keep these runs slow, so as not to become too fatigued for the future runs for the week. Actually, Pfitzinger recommends starting at your marathon pace plus 20%, eventually moving on to marathon pace plus 10%. I'm not sure what my "marathon pace" is, but I think I'll be very happy with my first marathon to finish in under 4 hours, so perhaps my marathon pace is 9 minutes/mile? I'll probably adjust that slightly as the training progresses. My overall pace today was 9:36, compared to my pace last weekend in Campobello of 8:57 - although that was only 10.2 miles.

I did 34 miles for the week, plus ball hockey Tuesday. Week one of Pfitzinger's plan next week calls for a total of 33 miles, so I feel ok about it. My mileage the last few weeks has been affected by the fact that I've been in a race every two weeks since May 10th, but that will wrap up shortly.

I do my long runs solo, with Faith Ann staying home with Cameron. She does her long runs on Saturday. I almost always listen to podcasts when I run. Here are my usual selections:

Regular runs

Baseball Today (ESPN) - a staple during the baseball season. It's the only one of these I make sure not to miss
PTI (ESPN) - another sports show - I love Tony Kornheiser
The McLaughlin Group - I'm not a political junkie, but I kind of enjoy the banter on this show, between the very left and very right participants
The Vinyl Cafe - CBC Radio variety show. Sometimes funny, sometimes interesting, occasionally a little dull for me - but that's not always a bad thing while running.

Long Runs

Phedippidations - Steve Walker/Runner's weekly podcast on running. A good companion to a long run, I find.
This American Life - NPR weekly radio show, usually in documentary style. One of my favourites.
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me - NPR current affairs/comedy show, hosted by marathoner Peter Sagal
Prime Time Sports - Weeknight radio show out of Toronto.

There are also some comedy podcasts that I listen to when I'm not running, but for some reason they just don't fit my running mood.

It's Going To Be a "Pfun" Summer

2009-06-10T20:49:00.004-03:00

It was very exciting today, finally receiving in the mail my copy of Pete Pfitzinger's book "Advanced Marathoning", second edition. I'll be so much faster than those elite runners who only have the first edition!

I plan to follow the 18-week plan, starting next week. There are variations on the plan, targetting people who want to train up to 55 miles per week, 55 to 70 miles per week, 70 to 85 miles per week, or more than 85 miles per week. There's even a section (based on the life and times of Andrew Seeley, I think) for people who want to run over 105 miles per week. Of course I'm going for the "up to 55" plan; that's enough of a challenge for me for the first marathon.

I'm going to try to stick as close as I can to the plan, but I may switch up the Tuesday/Wednesday suggested schedules so I can keep playing ball hockey on Tuesday nights. We're also planning on vacationing for a week in PEI in July, and in Toronto for a week in August. I'll do my best to stay on schedule during those times also.

I see the plan calls for a few 8k-15k races in the weeks leading to the marathon. I had always planned on running the 10k Fall Classic in Fredericton on September 20th, but I think I'll now also run the 10k Dam Run in Perth-Andover on October 3rd. So ... I think the remaining race schedule for 2009 works out as follows:

June 21st - St. Andrews Father's Day Road Race - 5 miler (Mike's race)
July 5th - Miramichi Rock n Run (half marathon)
Sept 20th - Fall Classic 10k in Fredericton
Oct. 3rd - 10k Dam Run in Perth-Andover
Oct. 18th - PEI Marathon

I had previously thought of running the half in Saint John in the Marathon by the Sea , but I think I'll pass running in that. However, I may volunteer in it.

A picture from week two of my soccer coaching experience is below. This week was much better - I think the kids had lots of fun!

Cobscook Bay 10k

2009-06-07T20:55:00.004-03:00

This weekend Faith Ann, Cameron and I went to Campobello again, ostensibly to visit "Nammie". I had been contemplating running the Cobscook Bay 10k for a few weeks now. With the forecast calling for nice weather, we decided to make the trip.

The race was held at 10 AM (Maine time) Saturday morning. Faith Ann and I got there about an hour early, but she had decided beforehand not to race. The race was held in Pembroke, Maine, a community we always drive through as we head to Campobello. It is a very small village, as are most of the towns and villages around it, and I was pleasantly surprised to see several dozen people registered for the race. Several minutes after registering I suggested to Faith Ann that we drive the route a bit, so I could get a feel for the course. We drive it for a few miles, but Faith Ann thought we should turn around so that we wouldn't interfere with people in the fun run and the kids run, which were starting earlier. I said "sure", since we had seen a fair bit of the course and I now had an idea of the terrain. In retrospect, it turned out that drive was close to useless, since the real hills on this course aren't encountered until the last mile.

I have run two 10k's before. My first one (and first race ever) was completed last September, a few months after I started running. I did that one in 57 minutes. A couple of months later, I did another in 54 minutes. Now, eight months later, I would have been thrilled to have come in under 50 minutes. However, I thought that was being a bit aggressive, and I predicted to Faith Ann that I would finish in 51 minutes.

In typical fashion, I got carried away with the momentum of the race, and completed the first mile in 7:37. I wasn't too worried, as much of that was downhill. The next two miles were 8:12 and 8:05, which was more of the pace of was hoping for. Mile four was a bit slower at 8:23, but in retrospect I'm not sure why I slowed for that one. Looking back at the elevation chart captured from the Garmin, it does appear that there were a series of uphill stretches that probably provide a clue, but I don't remember any standing out significantly. Mile five was back to 8:09, but the sixth mile is where I fell apart. There were a couple of very steep hills, on a dirt road with larger rocks, and it emphasized how I really need to put in extra workout time in tackling hills. On both hills, there was a time when my pace surely couldn't have been much faster than a walk. That sixth mile was completed in an embarrassing 8:43. Beyond mile six, I'm not completely sure of my pace, since I forgot to turn off my watch (again!) when I finished, but I know it wasn't fast. My watch at the end said 51:43, and the clock time had me at 51:23 (the race wasn't chip timed). I started in the middle of the pack or perhaps a bit further back, but with 87 people in the 10k, and an undetermined number in the simultaneous 5k, I don't expect my "chip time" would have been significantly lower. So, my earlier prediction of 51 minutes was accurate. Perhaps a self-fulfilling prophecy? My next 10k likely won't be until September, with the Fall Classic in Fredericton. I would be very disappointed if I don't finish under 50 minutes there, on a very flat course.

Results of the 10k can be found here.

A few things stood out for me in the race. One was a young man who ran with one prosthetic leg. He and I were on a similar pace for the first few kilometers, and I gave him a quick compliment when I went by him. I had hoped to speak to him after the race to get some background information on him, but I didn't get around to it. Sometimes the people I find most inspiring in these races are not always the fastest runners.

Another person who stood out was a lady who was behind me for the last six kilometers or so. I think she must be a distant relative of Monica Seles. In rhythmic fashion, about every 45 seconds or so, she would let out a quick little yelp or grunt. It added a bit of levity to the run, and occasionally took my mind off my average heart rate 176 (180 or higher after mile 3). I found myself trying to guess when the next shriek would come along.

The area was very nice, quite scenic, and the post-race spread was fantastic, especially considering much was donated. There was even barbequed salmon.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Andrew, who ran a super race and finished second! That's the two of us chatting after the run below, on the right. I mentioned I would like to run the Boyden Lake loop sometime this summer, and he said to get in touch with him and I could join him, Mike and some of the other regulars. When I mentioned that I might be too slow to do the run with them, he replied like a classic New Englander, saying "We're wicked slow!". Check out his blog to see some of his "wicked slow" (not!) times! I think some of their long runs are at a reasonable pace, and maybe I'll throw in one of my PEI marathon training runs there later this summer, or perhaps in the fall. I check out his blog often, and he provided some good stories in just the few minutes Faith Ann and I spoke with him. When I mentioned we were running in Houston next January, he suggested we check out his post on his experience there. It is a wonderful race report - check it out here.

As for the rest of the weekend, Cameron and I got in some golf. Well, I got in some golf, and Cam had fun in the cart beside me. See him enjoying his bottle of water below. I think he must be good for my game, as I played a decent nine holes. I always feel guilty taking a cart on the golf course, but I'm ok doing it when Cam is with me. I also ran ten miles on the island this morning before heading out.

Just a couple more races for me this spring before devoting the summer to training for the PEI marathon. More on the next two races in a future post.

Bob McCown Would Be So Proud Of Me

2009-06-02T23:13:00.003-03:00

It's been a busy few weeks in the soccer world, with Chelsea winning the FA Cup and Manchester United losing to Barcelona in the Champions League final. The big soccer news continues this week, with me doing my best impersonation of Sir Alex Ferguson. Yes, that's right, I am the coach of team #18 in the 6 and under Fredericton District Soccer Association - the Monkeys! Tonight was the opening night, and it went alright. I think next week I'll try to inject more "fun" into the evening, and I expect I'll do a bit better job with the organization of it also. I forgot to bring a memory card with the camera, so no pictures! I'll try to remember to take some pictures next week.

The soccer was a topper to a busy day. I went on a 45 minute run with my buddy Drew during lunch. Tuesday's are a good day for me to do an easy lunchtime run, since Tuesday nights I often play an hour and a half of ball hockey. Although I don't track the ball hockey as "running time" in runningahead.com, I consider it to be speed or interval training. It involves lots of very fast running, with starts and stops, then taking breaks at the end of my shift, getting the heart rate down, before heading back to the floor to rev it up again. Plus, it's a lot of fun. I stink as a ball hockey player, but the guys are nice enough to keep inviting me back. I started playing with many of these guys sixteen years ago, before moving away for a couple of years. When I moved back, I didn't really get back into it, largely due to being quite out of shape. Well, last year, when I started running, I got back into it, and it's something I look forward to now. As the marathon training picks up this summer, I'll evaluate whether I keep going with the ball hockey. My 18 week marathon training plan begins the week of June 14th!

Soggy Bottom Boy

2009-05-29T23:06:00.003-03:00

I did 6.2 miles outside tonight in the rain, in 51:35, or an 8:19 per mile pace. It's nice running in the rain when the weather is warm. Plus, I look great as a wet rat.

Last couple of notes about the Cabot Trail Relay. Click on the picture above to see our team. Go here to see some other pictures.

Also, I forgot to mention earlier that Ed Whitlock was at the relay, as he has been in the past. Go here to read a story about him, or here. An incredible runner.

Cabot Trail Relay, Part 2

2009-05-27T21:47:00.008-03:00

I didn't get to bed until after 1 AM Saturday morning, yet I was up before 6 AM. I think I was just anxious or excited to have the weekend get underway. While waiting for some of the others to wake up, I walked around Baddeck a bit, grabbing a coffee and a newspaper. Gradually some of the other guys got up, and a few of us had breakfast. Mark, Greg and I headed out to leg 2 to catch Bernie in action. See him looking cool in the picture below.

We missed Norm's finish on the first leg, but he did quite well. We chatted with some folks at the leg 2 finish area, waiting and waiting for Bernie, until we realized he had already finished and was relaxing in the van with Norm. Larry then did the first of his two legs (he would also do leg 13 at 2 AM the next morning).

The next leg, the fourth, is one of the best. Runners beginning this leg can soon see the intimidating climb up Cape Smokey. The crowd support on this leg is great. See a picture below of the water support for this leg: the team was selling "fresh legs". As the top of the mountain is reached, many are hitting banging rocks on the guard rails, adding to the atmosphere. Darren, from Truro - who likes to fish for bass in the Stewiacke river in the spring - took on this run for us. He did a great job.

Phil took on the next leg. He approached it the way he does most things - all smiles. Here's a picture of him getting some support from Mark.

As for leg six ... well, it provided for some interesting times for the team. That's probably all that needs to be said for that leg. We got a late and fast recruit for the seventh leg, before Betty did a super job on leg 8! While Betty was running, I decided to head up to Cheticamp with Norm and Bernie to catch a few hours of sleep before my run the next morning. As we passed Betty, she looked very strong.

I can't comment much on legs nine through twelve, since I was sleeping or preparing to sleep. Greg stepped up and did two legs - nine and eleven. Nine is very tough, and eleven is not a piece of cake either. Pierre took on the hilly 10th leg for the second year in a row, and Pat did great work on leg twelve.

I woke up just as Larry was starting leg thirteen, his second leg of the race. Norm and I headed out in my van, providing support to him. It was dark and cold during the run, but the atmosphere was still electric. Norm and I got to the leg fourteen start, waiting for Larry to finish. I was freezing! When we met Larry after his run, he said not to worry about the temperature, and he was right. Within a minute of starting, I didn't even notice the cold. As for the run, I probably got a bit caught up in the excitement and went out too fast. I definitely did not have a negative split. The run itself wasn't too hilly, mostly just a series of rolling hills. It was interesting to start the run and see nothing but a line of reflective vests in the dark over the horizon. The sun started to come up just as I was running past Margaree Harbour, with stiff winds coming off it. I finished the run with an overall pace just slightly slower than my half-marathon pace in Fredericton two weeks earlier. I can't say I was thrilled with my time, but it was an exhilarating run and experience.

Peter took off on leg sixteen next, and he flew threw it, finishing 6th. Norm and I supported him, along with Wayne, and he looked very strong on his run. Wayne took on leg seventeen, and tried to temper people's expectations about his result, letting us know he hadn't trained much this year. Even with that, he did a bang up job, just like a good captain!

At the end of this leg, many people were relaxing and taking in a pancake breakfast. Among the relaxed participants were Mark Campbell and Jodi Isenor, pictured below. These two amazing guys ran the whole relay as as two-man team.

Mark wrapped up the weekend by taking on leg seventeen. The finish of this leg is wonderful - hundreds of people lined up along a road in Baddeck, welcoming each runner as they approach the finish. It's a fitting way to end the race.

After that, the wrap up meal and awards at the rink, with the most efficiently served steak and lobster dinner you could ever imagine, followed by the long drive home, with reflections on the great times during the weekend, and talk of taking it on again in future years.

Cabot Trail Relay, Part 1

2009-05-25T20:06:00.004-03:00

It was a fantastic weekend in Cape Breton. The weather was perfect, and I was part of a great team. I loved my Cabot Trail Relay experience, and would definitely like to go again.

I traveled with three team members in my van, leaving Fredericton around 2:30, stopping in Truro for supper, and Antigonish for groceries, finally arriving in Baddeck shortly after ten, where we found our team members in fine spirits in their rooms at the Inverary Resort. I knew very few members of the team, but they warmly welcomed me right away. Mark and Greg had a tradition of closing down the ceilidh at the firehall, so we headed off there. They closed it down this year too, but unfortunately it was about 45 seconds after we walked in, as the event had already ended. So, we went to the bar at the resort, where a few of the team was taking in the local music and socializing.

Also occurring Friday night was a drinking game called "Pass the Chip". Here's how it works:

a) have a last minute pull-out from the race requiring someone to take on multiple legs.

b) Get a person who has drunk a fair bit to give that race chip to another decent and sober runner, letting him know he is now doing two legs.

c) Said sober runner, naturally, passes the timing chip onto another person, who agrees to take the leg. Of course, logically, only someone who had too much too drink would accept this.

d) In a room full of drinking runners, the current "two legger" now takes the opportunity to use "Hey - do you want to run a leg for us?" as an opening line to start conversations with women.

e) As a strategy to have the "two legger" give up on his schmoozing, one of the approached women says "Sure, I'll run it for you", and accepts the chip. As the inebriated (former) two-legger moves on to swoon another honey, she throws the chip into the bowels of a large garbage can.

f) The next morning, wake up the (now hungover) former two-legger, and tell him he is scheduled to run his "first" leg in a few hours. He denies having any knowledge of the extra leg, and there is no chip to be found.

g) Scramble for a runner to take the leg during the running of the relay race!

All of the above happened during the weekend, except for "e)". Actually, we can't even be sure "e)" didn't occur ... but somehow we did have to scramble on one of the legs. It just made for an even more interesting weekend!

I'll add more in a future post. Great weather, scenery, teammates and atmosphere made for a truly memorable experience.

The Day of the Jackal

2009-05-21T22:43:00.008-03:00

Each spring we have a family of foxes - a mother and three of four kits/pups - living around our back yard. This year has been no exception, as we have seen the momma and the four pups. A picture from a couple of years ago is shown below. Trust me, this year they look pretty much the same.

Tonight as I was mowing the lawn I saw a leftover from one of their recent meals. I moved it on to a wooden platform, and took the picture below. Not sure exactly what it is/was, maybe the leg of a rabbit? I snarled off a big bite and it tasted just like chicken.

I'm heading out to Cape Breton tomorrow, running leg 14 of the Cabot Trail Relay with the Fredericton Trail Masters. The description from the website follows below:

This long leg begins near dawn and is a 7.9 km level coastal run to Margaree Harbour. The leg heads inland & starts to rise gradually to a maximum elevation of 10m to finish at the Tourist Bureau on the left across from Margaree Lodge.

The leg begins at 3:37 AM, and is just under 20 kilometeres/12.5 miles, meaning I'll be finishing at the crack of dawn. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll try to take a picture or two and post them.

Campobello Island Weekend

2009-05-18T22:35:00.011-03:00

As a child, I would occasionally visit my grandparents with my family in New Chester, in Guysborough County in Nova Scotia. New Chester is a very small place, really just a smattering of houses along a dirt road. The phone line in the house was on a party line, and my grandparents would listen to the pattern of the ring to know if a particular phone call was meant for them. There were so few vehicles in New Chester, that when people passed each other on the roads, they would routinely wave to each other, assuming they knew each other. I have memories of my grandfather sitting on a sofa in the front part of the house, with a car honking it's horn as it drove by. My grandfather didn't even look around, he just raised his arm in the air as a greeting, assuming the passerby would see this from the vehicle. Maybe this last thing is something I've invented in my mind over the years?? Maybe ... but it seems like a vivid memory to me.

Going to Campobello always reminds me a visiting my grandparents. It's a long drive to a small spot - small enough that as drivers pass each other in cars, they consistently wave to each other. I would guess about 8 in 10 vehicles do the thing where they slightly raise two fingers off the steering wheel as they approach an oncoming vehicle as a means of saying "hello". Kind of the vehicular equivalent of giving a slight nod of the head and rhetorically asking "How's it going?". As soon as I leave the island and head over to Maine (on the way back to mainland New Brunswick and Canada) I have the urge to continue waving to oncoming traffic. However, this phenomenon is restricted to Campobello. The good folks in Lubec (seen below from the Campobello side of the bridge), Maine don't seem to practise this ritual.

Unlike New Chester, there is something else to do in Campobello, as I managed to golf 9 holes a couple of times. Both times, I didn't see a single other person around me on the course. It was great, although my game was as bad as ever.

As for the running, I got in a little over seven miles with Faith Ann on Saturday. It was a slow pace (~10:20 per mile), largely due to her tweaking something in her calf. In the two days since then, she feels it is pretty close to being back to normal. On Sunday, I put in solo 10.5 miles at an 8:45 pace. Both runs started at the Herring Cove beach/campground, then heading past Roosevelt park. On the Saturday run we turned around shortly past the park, but on Sunday I didn't turn around until reaching Canadian customs by the bridge.

The 10.5 miles on Sunday seemed like an ok "long run" distance after the half marathon last weekend, and before the leg I'll be doing in the Cabot Trail Relay this coming weekend! More on that later ...

Our next trip to Campobello? Perhaps it will be the weekend of June 6th. I've been considering running in the Cobscook Bay 10k, and when I mentioned it to Faith Ann tonight, she seemed ok with it. Not sure about this yet, but the course is between Fredericton and the island. If we do go, I expect Andrew, whose blog I really enjoy reading, to finish about 13 to 15 minutes ahead of me. I would like to finish my next 10k in under 50 minutes ... but we'll see.

Fredericton Half Marathon - May 10th, 2009

2009-05-16T22:10:00.000-03:00

My second half marathon took place during the Fredericton Marathon last Sunday. It had been four months since my first half, and I would have been thrilled to have finished in under 1:50, but realistically I was just hoping to knock a few minutes of my first finishing time of 1:56. A photo taken during the expo is below. Had I known I would be doing this little blog, I may have taken more pictures (or at least one!) during race day. The expo was small, but I don't think it's the selling feature that draws folks to this marathon.

The course was an out and back, mixing walking trails with city streets. It was not originally slated to be an out and back, but the winter was not kind to parts of the trail, causing the organizers to update the route a few days before the race. I ran the original route a few weeks before the race, and there were some parts of the trail where it was not possible to run, with much uneven elevation with many large rocks and small hills to traverse. The weather called for rain on the race morning, but it held off until just after I finished. Unfortunately for my wife, who finished a bit behind me, she did catch a bit of it.

I wore my Garmin during the race, and although my pace was a bit faster than I would have expected over the first couple of miles, I generally controlled myself and kept a steady pace throughout. For much of the race I was paced by an older man wearing a Boston Marathon shirt. I'm not very outgoing at the best of times, and rarely say a word to anyone during a race. However, Frank (my pacer) was happy to speak to other folks, and I caught parts of his conversation. He is from Saint John, ran Boston this year, and has already qualified for next year. Well, I checked out his running history a bit, and noticed he ran the Run for Hospice 5k the day before the half, finishing with a time of 25:36. That sounds pretty good, but if you look at the link I provided, you'll see that he's 70 years old! Turns out he also ran the Boston Marathon last month in 4:05. That is incredible.

As I said, I kept a steady pace, largely due to Frank, except for the three or four aid stations where I got water and took a Clif Shot Block. I have yet to master the art of drinking on the run, and I'm not sure I ever will master it. It wasn't so bad though, because I probably walked for only about half a minute at each station. After the race, I checked my pace for each mile, and it pretty consistently clocked in between 8:25 and 8:40, and my finishing chip time was 1:52:20. I was happy (but not thrilled) with it, given that it was four minutes faster than my time four months earlier. My joke now is that if I can improve by a minute every month, in a few years I'll be ready for the Olympics. This course, like Tallahassee, is relatively flat, so I can't use hills as an excuse. Also, the weather was nice and cool, and not too windy, except for a short stretch along the river at the end. Unlike Tallahassee, I did seem to have enough energy at the end to put in a good finishing kick. Perhaps that means I left a bit of "speed" on the course?

An acquaintance I mine who ran the course about 15 minutes faster than me said the he didn't look at his watch once until he hit the 16k mark. That made me stop and wonder if someday I'll run a half "Garmin free", maybe even skipping a regular watch, just to see how it turns out. I'm contemplating running the half at the Marathon by By The Sea as a training run prior to the PEI marathon. Perhaps I'll give it a shot there, since it won't be a race where I particularly care about my time. The other thing I want to try sometime in a race is the run/walk Galloway method, to see what difference that makes. I haven't checked my manhood at the door and done any training with this method yet, but I know a lot of people do like it.

Well, that's too much writing for this post. I'm in Campbello with the family for the weekend. Perhaps I'll post a short note about my runs here sometime over the next day or two.

Intro and Background

2009-05-14T22:17:00.000-03:00

So I started this running thing about a year ago, largely because I felt guilty seeing my wife getting in runs and improving her fitness level. A year and 45 or so fewer pounds later, I have completed my second half marathon.

Before a brief race report of my Fredericton half marathon, I’ll provide a short history of my “racing” career to date. I have done two 10k races; the first race (my first race ever) was the 2008 Fall Classic in Fredericton, clocking in with a time of 57:26. Truthfully, I was thrilled just to finish in less than an hour. Five weeks later, I ran another 10k, at the Legs for Literacy in Moncton. I managed a 54:49 there, and I was happy with the improvement from my first race.

The cold days of winter followed, and I did my best to keep running regularly, mixing in both treadmill and outdoor runs. This was also the period in which I started adding long runs (10 miles+), and doing some speed and tempo work. At some point (perhaps shortly before Christmas?) my wife and I thought we would tackle a half marathon in someplace that had relatively warm weather during January and February. We settled on the Tallahassee half for this reason, and also because it was a very flat course. I finished this in 1:56 and change. It was a wonderful experience, and I again was very happy with my time. I would recommend the Tallahassee marathon; as I mentioned, it is a flat course, the size is reasonable (about a thousand participants), the race is well organized, and it finishes in the FSU track.

I continued with regular running following this race, and my next race was my first 5k, a fundraiser in Lincoln for the IWK. This race was on March 15th, just as the weather was starting to get slightly warmer. I pushed hard to finish in under 25 minutes. A near puking experience with about 50 meters remaining almost dashed my chances, but I squeezed in a 24:57.

As I said earlier, I'll provide a brief - likely very brief - note on the most recent race, the Fredericton half marathon, later. I plan to keep the blog updated on a regular basis until after I complete my first marathon, planned for October 18th in PEI. After that .... well, we'll see. My wife and I are planning on running the half or full marathon in Houston in January, so it's possible I'll keep blogging beyond October. However, I expect like so many other thousands of bloggers, I may find it starting to become tedious after the initial 'euphoria' ... but one can never be certain.