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IT’S ALL IN THE...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:44:13 -0800

IT’S ALL IN THE SOCKS!

http://www.smoothtoe.com/athletic-socks/

Training is going well and I can feel now that I am fully recovered from all the racing I have done in the past month. The quick recovery is no doubt a part of my genes but also due, in a large part, to the smoothtoe compression socks I use during training and recovery after training and racing. The older weather are a great excuse to throw on these socks and keep warm for those first few frigid miles during an early morning run and a great idea to keep the blood flowing till the body warms up. I wear my smoothtoe socks during long runs routinely and they keep my legs from getting fatigued during my 20 plus mile runs. They also work well during workouts and pretty much any run I do; they are worth a try.

Some big workouts scheduled for this week to see just where I will stack up in a 5000 meter track race in November. It is always better to be prepared and I am looking forward to Saturday’s workout!

Video

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:05:13 -0800

Photo Courtesy of Tony Austin BC CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS:...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:37:00 -0800

Photo Courtesy of Tony Austin

BC CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS: OCTOBER 31ST HALLOWEEN DAY

We all lucked out with the weather, no rain and plenty of sunshine and the course at Jericho was dry and fast. I got out quick and aside from getting side tracked at the first turn I navigated the course from then on just fine. I went hard from the gun to feel what it was like before National cross; in Guelph the course goes from a mass start to a sharp right turn and funnels right away into a narrow trail; so those who get stuck in the back of the pack right off the start are pretty much screwed before the race really gets going, I know from experience as I was one of the guys back in 80th place after that turn. It would be much better to get to the front quickly instead of spending 5 laps trying to pull yourself back up in contention. So getting a feel for that this weekend was a priority on my lists of things to do in the race.

Another priority on my list was to win; however there were many people on the start line who could make that difficult. I got out well and hit 5:50 for the first 2 km loop, then I got a bit stuck in no mans land. I slowed down a bit on the next loop but still under 12 minutes, I was in second chasing down Jon Brown with Richard Mosley and Jim Finlyson chasing me. The next 2 km I got just a bit slower losing some ground to Jon and Richard and Jim were working well together and making some ground on me. I was listening for how much closer on each lap the cheers were coming for Jim and Richard behind me and the sound of spikes on Gravel to get an idea of how much closer they were getting to me. 8km and one lap to go Jon had pulled away enough where I was running for second but in my mind that place wasn’t mine yet. I could tell Richard and Jim were close and I figured that if they didn’t catch me on the hill that it may come down to a kick for the finish. I pushed the last lap and as it turned out I had just enough room to keep that second place; but after reviewing the tape I could see just how close they actually were to me at the end.

In the end it was another second place and I secured a place on the BC team heading to National Cross in Guelph. I felt good during the race and I have enough time to get in even better shape for nationals. Next up for me is The Chiba Ekiden Relay in Chiba, Japan. Richard Mosley and I have qualified to represent Canada at the relay this year. I am going as a spare and running 5km on the track, Richard Mosley is in the relay and Coach Richard Lee is going as the team coach, the other relay runners are Reid Coolsaet, Dylan Wykes, Marilyn Arsenault, Megan Metcalfe, Denise Robson, and Malindi Elmore. Team manager is Thelma Wright.

Figured it was time to post that!

IS IT TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE? Sure, I am focusing on Cross...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:36:00 -0700

IS IT TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE?

Sure, I am focusing on Cross country right now and we have been putting plenty of work in on the trails and over the, up till a few hours ago, BC cross country course in Stanley Park. I have been paying close attention to my energy and being able to push in workouts since the marathon and I am back to 100%, there is no fatigue or lasting side effects lingering from the race.

I kept my mileage after Victoria at 72 miles for that week and as my recovery was going well I picked it up for the next week running 85 miles off 6 days. Coming up this week end is the BC Cross Country championships and I am running it so mileage wise I will stay at 80 for this week. With the main goal being National Cross this November I will continue cross country training after this Saturday and also work on the speed a bit.

I have had 6 workouts so far since the marathon and they have all gone well. Along with the standard thursday progression runs two Sundays ago we did a workout at Stanley park over what was supposed to be the provincial cross course. We ran 1km/ 500m over the hill/ 500m hills/ 1km/500m/500m/1km/500m/500m/1km for a total of 7km. I was able to get quicker on all the kilometer repeats ending in 3:03 and I kept all the hill sections steady throughout the workout. We took a 2 minute jog break between the intervals.

That following Tuesday we were at Burnaby Lake on the grass for some miles followed by 200 meter strides across the soccer field. I kept all the repeats at around 5:00 which was good over the route we had set out. Then it was on to the strides 6x 200 meters. I was able to hit 32 seconds on the first and kept the pace steady for the rest of them.

Thursday was the same old same old and Saturday we were back to Stanley park for some serious hills. We have this figure 8 loop where we ran 4 moderate hills and 3 big hills with a downhill jog between them all. All in total I got in 4.5 miles on the day and was able to get faster and stronger on each subsequent hill.

Which brings me to this Tuesday, we were again at Burnaby lake but on the lit path this time for a shorter workout. 2 sets of (800/400/400/800) with 200 meters jogs between and 3 minutes between sets. except for right in the middle we had a 400 meter jog between the two 400’s. I was feeling really good; like my legs were coming around again. I was starting to feel the same as I did before I headed to Victoria for that 10 km in Sidney. We did a workout right before that race on the path also and I felt that energy in my legs again this Tuesday.

We were to run it comfortable and easy jog breaks between so right off the bat I made sure to run hard but comfortable. Richard and I hit 2:24 for the first 800, then 69 for the 400, 70 for the next 400 and 2:21 for the final 800m. I was feeling stronger as the workout went along while keeping the effort the same. After a 3 minute jog rest we started the second set. I hit 2:18 for the first 800m, then 67 for 400m, 68 for the next 400 and finished off with another 2:18. I really felt good that day. This whole week I have been making sure to take my easy days easy and I think it is paying off so I will continue along that road for now.

BC Cross Country up next…

RETRO WEDNESDAYS: ON FRIDAY FOR SOME REASON

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:59:55 -0700

RETRO WEDNESDAYS: ON FRIDAY FOR SOME REASON

Photo

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:19:10 -0700

TRAINING GOES ON...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:18:46 -0700

I HAVE TRANSITIONED FROM MARATHON RIGHT BACK INTO TRAINING WITH EASE THIS WEEK. I NEW I WAS IN GOOD...

Photo

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:08:28 -0700

Victoria Marathon

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:54:30 -0700

Well the Marathon went about as good as Richard and I had expected. Regardless of my recent...

Beacon Hill

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:22:00 -0700

Beacon Hill

Feeling Better This Time Around

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:21:00 -0700

I am here in Victoria and ready to run the RVM. Since my last update training has gone well. I have...

RETRO WEDNESDAYS

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:05:22 -0700

RETRO WEDNESDAYS

IT IS RAINING SIDEWAYS HERE RIGHT NOW AND ALL I WANT TO DO IS GET MY WORKOUT OVER WITH

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:29:00 -0700

Saturday morning I got up early, 5:30 am, to try and simulate not only the workout that I would be...

Hanging out on Gabriola.

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:45:00 -0700

Hanging out on Gabriola.

This Week and The Road to the Victoria Marathon

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:10:00 -0700

Started off this week with two easy runs on Monday 11 miles total. Feeling good after the race on...

Video

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:33:15 -0700

Video

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:43:03 -0700

TUESDAY DOUBLE FEATURE: First up the Landsend 10km Road...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:42:00 -0700

TUESDAY DOUBLE FEATURE:

First up the Landsend 10km Road Race.

Second my 22 mile Long run from last Sunday.

THE WEEK THAT LEAD TO… 29:19. I started the week off with...

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:18:00 -0700

THE WEEK THAT LEAD TO… 29:19.

I started the week off with 22 miles on the dyke in POCO. It is a nice flat out and back 22 mile run and I had two bikes accompanying me. One ( Richard L.) with my bottles and the other (Karen F.) with the video camera. Video coming soon! The run was just a moderate tempo run, nothing at marathon pace or anything just trying to get in 2 plus hours under my legs all at once. I had some company half way where I met Norm T. It was nice to run half the out and back on my own and then have some company for most of the second half. I ended up running 2:14 for the entire run, close to 6:00 minute mile pace. Felt good the whole way, felt easy and I was able to practice taking my fluids during the run, this was important because I am trying a new drink right now and I needed to make sure it wouldn’t cause me any problems.

Monday was the same old thing just two easy runs, mileage day.

Tuesday I got a morning run in and then in the evening headed down to Burnaby lake for some intervals. The workout was 6x 1mile with 3 minutes recovery/ slow jogging between intervals. The purpose of the workout was to run the miles fast, to get quicker with each interval and to get a good amount of rest in between each one so we could achieve this. We ran the workout on the same gravel path that we ran our kilometers on last week. The first couple felt rough, I hit 4:57 and 4:49 for those two intervals. Then I began to feel better and hit 4:45, 4:42 and 4:45 for the next 3. Then I hit 4:39 for the final mile. I felt really good during this workout; much better than any other workout I have done in the past few months.

Wednesday all I can say is I was a bit lazy only getting in one run that day, an easy 5 miles. This week I was supposed to drop down the mileage a bit and take it easy after Tuesday but when you have been running twice every day for the last couple of months missing a morning run makes me feel lazy.

Thursday was a group run at Mundy park. Trevor, Richard L. and Kristina and I met to run a loop of Mundy park easy, 10 by 200 meters strides with 200 meter jog rest followed by another loop of Mundy park. This was just an easy run with some strides thrown in to get the legs moving quick. Friday was another single run, 8 miles easy then it was off to Victoria to get ready for the Landsend 10km race on Sunday.

Saturday I picked up the crew at the ferries in Sidney, Trevor, Geoff, Richard, John and we went to Elk lake for our last run before the race, just an easy loop of the lake 10 kilometers. We ran it easy in 42 minutes and headed back to the Hotel. Richard M. came over later that evening to round out the runners from our training group who were coming over for the race.

Sunday Morning I got up early, packed up the truck and we headed out to Sidney for the 10 km race. The race started at 9:15 am. and to tell you the truth I felt like crap in the morning. I felt flat on the warm-up and I figured it would be a rough day. The weather was nice, warm and not too windy. I had never run this race before and it is always enjoyable for me to run a route that I have never run before and I also liked coming back to the island for a race.

From the gun Richard and I lead the race and by 2 kilometers we had built up a large lead. It sort of felt like we were just out for a sunday workout. We traded leads a bit and got into a good rhythm. I didn’t wear a watch for this one so I had no idea what type of pace we were running. It felt fast but only 30:00-29:45 kind of fast. Later Richard Lee said we went through the first 3km in 8:41, if I heard that I may have slowed down so it was good that I had no idea what any of my splits were, I had just struggled through a 3km on the track not too long ago in 8:46 and that was tough but the first 3km of this race was a breeze. I just keep the pace up and continued to push during the race and as we hit the half way point and took the 180 turn to head back to the start Richard and I got to see where we were compared to the rest of the field. At this point I knew it was just a race between Richard and I. I knew we needed to keep pushing to run a good time and at this point I knew I could keep the same pace right to the end at this point so why not try to keep pushing the envelope. I figured in the end at least we would both run a good time even if I ended up second. There were a few turns on the way back as there were on the way out and I used those sections of road to motivate me to run each section hard and to not get too ahead of myself with thinking about how far I was away from the finish. I did feel like I was pulling away from Richard a bit but it was hard to say by how much and I knew that at any point he could pull up beside me and then past so I just kept pushing through the final kilometers. With a kilometers to go I did get a little info. I was told I had the lead by about 30 seconds and with some simple calculations I did in my head I was fairly confident that I had this race, now my mind switched over to trying to figure out what time I might run. As I turned the corner up to the finishing stretch I tried to focus in the numbers on the race clock, I could tell it didn’t say 30 yet so I assumed it was at 29 and but that was all I could make out so I pushed it a bit and as I got closer I could see that it was at 28 high. This was a surprise, i dropped it down another gear and finished in 29:19. Richard M. was not far behind in 29:32 a good run for both of us and I am pretty sure now that Richard was a bit closer to me then that 30 seconds so it could have turned out to be a bit more interesting at the end. Next in from our training group was Geoff Reid in 33:06, Trevor Feeney 33:40 and John Machuga 33:59. They finished 8th, 9th, and 10th. Not a bad day for our group.

Next up for us is a workout Tuesday and the final few weeks of prep for me before The Victoria Marathon.

REST OF THIS WEEK Thursday was an important workout; it was a...

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:11:41 -0700

REST OF THIS WEEK

Thursday was an important workout; it was a marathon simulation workout, the first of a few here that I will try to squeeze into a very short marathon build-up, and it went well thankfully. I started in Mundy park on the usual progression run route that we run on Thursday. I ran 3 loops of that with Richard M.= 9 miles, kept the same pace and ran a kilometer over to the track. When I got there a high school football game was going on and people were all over the track. I had a 5 mile run on the track, 20 laps, to do at marathon pace. This was going to be real fun. I got right to it though and after a few comments from kids as I ran past, probably thinking I was a nut bag or something worse, I settled into a pace. A pace that was quicker then agreed on but it was comfortable. I spent many laps weaving in and out of people who obviously couldn’t figure out what I was doing, but I looked at it as a challenge that made the workout that much harder.

The plan was to run 26:00-26:30 for the 5 miles. I hit the first mile in 5:08. Richard Lee jogged over with me and did a workout of his own. Richard hopped in and ran the even number laps with me. The company helped break up the workout for me. The second mile was something like 5:05 and I was feeling good. Towards the end of the workout the football game ended and Richard had to stop running with me and try to direct traffic so I could finish my workout. I ended up running 25:19 for the 5 miles and it felt comfortable. Then it was an easy 2 mile cool down. This was a long session about 15 miles total and my fitness is improving quickly, I don’t take long to get in decent shape so I may be ready for a decent race soon. I put in 21 miles that day.

Friday was an easy mileage day and I put in 13.50 miles that day. Saturday we were back at Stanley Park for some longer repeats. It was a hot one that day and I was feeling tired from the weeks training so I just wanted to get the workout done with. We were doing 3x 2 miles on the bike path with 3 minutes recovery between intervals. It was an out and back loop with some good climbs in it. Richard M. joined me and we ran 9:57 for the first 2 miles, jogged the recovery and ran 9:42 for the second. Each interval was supposed to be get quicker than the previous. I ran the last one in 9:30 but it felt tough half way through. The workout was a good one and I was glad that I could keep the last one strong. I decided to take the rest of the day off because of the long long run I had the next day and it has been 4 long weeks building up my mileage.

This next week I will keep up the intensity till after Tuesday’s workout and then scale back a bit so I get in my down week and rest up a bit for the 10 km road race I am running in Sidney this Sunday. My mileage for this week was 104 miles. Things are finally coming together with my training and it is an important time of year now to keep the running going through the holiday months to get the benefits next year during early winter and spring.