Monday, March 25, 2013

The 2013 Around the Bay Medic Tent...

I pushed as hard as I could at the end of this year's Around the Bay 30K road race. I was originally shooting for a 2:30 finish, and ended up at 2:30:09. For the last 400 m., I sprinted -- or at least I felt like I was sprinting. I had nothing left. So when coach/pacer Brian Watson came up after crossing the finish line and said "Nice finish, buddy!", I just leaned on his shoulder. Next thing I knew, a finish line helper came and held me up on the other side. Then someone came up to Brian and said, "Okay, we'll take him from here." They took me over to a wheelchair, which I must admit, looked really inviting! I told them that I was okay -- I was just tired -- but they insisted on taking me to the medic area. Not a "medic tent", as they had in Boston, but rather a first-aid room that they had for hockey players at Copps Coliseum. I thought to myself that I would do the medic tent at Boston again -- it was quite a pleasant experience -- so why not give this one a try!

They had me sit on a cot and brought me some gatorade, and then a bottle of water. I was one of their first guests, it looked like. One younger (Ethiopian/Kenyan?) runner was on a cot with a blanket. A girl came in shortly after me who didn't look very good.

Within a few minutes I was fine. I asked if I could go and they said that was okay. No sign-out procedure. I just wandered back to the finishing pen and collected another bottle of water.

Having visited multiple medic tents and ambulances in my time, this one was fairly informal -- certainly compared to Boston, where they had about 100 cots ready to accept people and several hundred volunteers including nurses and doctors.

In Boston, they brought me a cup of bouillon soup -- 3 cubes in a cup -- just to get salt into me. And a small bag of potato chips -- again, to get some salt. Here, it was Gatorade. Probably the same effect, but my sense is that the heavily-salted bouillon may have been better.

In Boston, they brought me a mylar blanket to keep me warm. In Hamilton, they offered me a wool blanket a couple of times, but I declined -- I was already quite warm enough, now that I was indoors. But a nice touch having a _real_ blanket offered.

In Boston, they had paperwork to check people in and out -- and a doctor had to clear me leaving. Here it was quite informal. No paperwork, which was nice.

There was one runner with the New Balance London bus who had to be taken to hospital. Someone with the Around the Bay organization came over to the buses located near the start line to track down Tracy Hillman, who was the bus organizer with New Balance to let her know. I thought that was a nice touch for them to go to that effort to track people down. Might not hurt next time to have us put a couple of "in case of emergency" numbers on the back of our bibs, including someone with our bus.

So, yet another "medic tent" experience in the books! :-)

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Around the Bay 2013 - Personal Best: 2:30:09

So, first all, the thank-yous. To John Ferguson, The Legend, and the excellent training program he runs for Runners Choice. His program got me to the point where I felt I could hit a personal best in this race. Next, to Jenny, who was out there supporting me, our daughter Karen (who completed her first Around The Bay upright and smiling!), as well as several other Runners Choice runners. But most of all, to my personal running coach, running buddy, beer drinking buddy, and friend (plus the best small animal veterinarian in London Ontario -- see www.FairmontAH.com), Dr. Brian Watson -- who paced me the entire way and absolutely allowed me to get the most out of todays run.

It would have been nice to beat 2:30 -- but being 9 seconds off is still fine. I had zero left in the tank at the finish. In fact, yet again, I ended up in the medic area after I crossed the finish. Brian kept urging me on for those last 4 kilometres and I was amazed that I finished with the time I had.

The strategy was to keep a pace in the neighbourhood of 4:55/k for the first 20 K or so, and then do what we could through the hills in Burlington before finally turning on the jets for the last 4 kilometres home. But, by the time I got through the hills of Burlington, there was virtually nothing left in the tank.

Here are my splits for this race:

4:51
4:54
4:58
5:00
4:56
4:56
4:52
4:52
4:52
4:56
4:47
4:52
4:55
4:58
4:57
4:55
4:52
4:52
4:55
4:50
5:00
5:08
5:05
5:17
5:00
5:03
5:52 (the big hill)
5:10
4:57
4:46
5:16 pace (174 m.)

We were off by about 2 seconds per kilometer comparing the GPS to the actual -- so add 2 seconds to all times above.

But, overall, I was super-pleased with how these numbers look -- particularly the last 3 kilometres where I wanted to stop a thousand times. But I was convinced that the only way I'd be allowed to stop is if I was truly injured or my calf muscles were in convulsions or something. So I just muddled through -- but still knocking off a better-than-5-minute-K pace.

Any day you can have a Personal Best is definitely a good day, so it will be a while before the perma-smile comes off my face. But, as I said above, I couldn't have done it without the help of a bunch of my friends!

The Finish Line (Look at 2:30:40 on the clock):





Monday, March 18, 2013

Treadmill Tempo Run

The past week has been challenging for me to get out for a run. The only run I'd done since my last long run was speed work on Tuesday. Because I was organizing the St. Patricks Eve celebrations for the Lucan District Lions Club, my time has been at a premium this past weekend. And other days -- such as the scheduled tempo run last Thursday -- didn't happen because the weather was crappy.

But, finally, I knew I had to get out and get a "toning" run in. I'm sort of tapering for the Around the Bay race this coming Sunday, so I didn't feel like I needed to get a long run in. But because I missed my tempo run last Thursday, I felt that getting something in today would be a good idea. The only problem is that the weather today wasn't just crappy -- it was _really_ crappy: snow, sleet, wind -- just not fun running weather.

So I went to the treadmill -- and it wasn't awful. The plan was to do 60 minutes of tempo -- 30 minutes "out" (slowly) and 30 minutes "back" (faster than marathon pace). Now, I'm still not comfortable with what the treadmill says is my speed. 5.0 should be 5 miles per hour (12 minute miles), but because I know that the treadmill needs calibration by 13.1%, it would actually be 10:36 minute miles. Definitely slow for those 2.76 (calibrated) miles. And while I was sweating by the time I was done the 30 mintutes, but nothing like I would be sweating on the way "back".

On the way back, I stepped it up to 7.0 on the treadmill (7:34/mile calibrated) for the first 2.9 miles. I was breathing hard, but relatively comfortably. For the final "1.0" miles (1.13 calibrated), I stepped it up to 7.5 (7:04/mile calibrated). I was breathing very hard and wondered if I'd get through the whole mile at that pace. Now that I look at that pace, its no wonder: I was basically doing a "speed work" pace.

All told, I did 6.0 "miles" (6.78 calibrated) in 1:00:33, or 8.9 minutes per mile. But those last 4 miles (roughly 6.4 kilometres) I was going at a pretty good clip.

I have hockey tomorrow night -- and that is very much like speed work in that you're into short bursts of all-out speed. And then maybe a couple of easy runs for the rest of the week. And then its showtime.

The weather on Sunday is currently forecast to be cool (1 or 2 degrees C as the high) with anywhere from 0 to 76% chance of precipitation, depending on who you believe. I'm good with that temperature. Definitely shorts weather and likely my orange Boston jacket or maybe my black Boston jacket that I can remove the sleeves from. As long as the wind isn't too strong, I should be okay.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Speed Work - Ladder from 1600 m. down to 800 m.

Coach John Ferguson, the Legend, had us doing our first mile "repeat" -- although we just did one of them. And then worked from the mile down to a half mile (800 m.) with each repeat separated by a 200 m. jog break lasting between 2 and 2.5 minutes. I set out to do something better than 52 second laps. Here are my splits:

1600 m.: 6:43 (50.375 / lap)
1400 m.: 5:56 (50.85 / lap)
1200 m.: 5:03 (50.5 / lap)
1000 m.: 4:14 (50.8 / lap)
800 m.: 3:19 (49.75 / lap)

Average per lap: 50.5 seconds.

On March 13, 2012 (still recovering from my hamstring injury), here were my splits a year ago:

8 laps: 7:01 (53 seconds per lap)
7 laps: 6:11 (53 seconds per lap)
6 laps: 5:28 (55 seconds per lap)
5 laps: 4:33 (55 seconds per lap)
4 laps: 3:37 (54 seconds per lap)

No question, again, that I've made progress. I felt strong all tonight, although there is no question that I was working to hit the target times.

Tonight's stats:
Total distance at speed: 6 km
Total distance including warm up, cool down and jog breaks: 8.6 km (in my purple Mizuno shoes)

Sunday, March 10, 2013

28.76K Long Run

Today was to be my longest training run before Around the Bay -- just shy of the 30K I'll do no race day. The goal was to take it easy for most of the run, but then ramp up to race pace for the final 4 miles. The run went reasonably well. Here are my splits:

5:17
5:27
5:17
5:16
5:16
5:20
5:26
5:40
5:32
5:26
5:16
5:21
5:21
5:25
5:29
5:19
5:34
5:33
5:27
5:33
5:36
5:33
5:16 (Started running back with Ali Meuse)
5:21
5:18
5:16
5:20
5:22
5:46 (760 m.)

Average: 5:24

With 6.76K to return back from the pump house in Springbank Park, Ali Meuse and I made the trek back. She said it would be sloooooowwww, but it was quite an acceptable speed, especially considering it was uphill most of the way. (That Terry Fox Parkway is like the hill that never ends!) We didn't push exceptionally hard, but it was hard enough that it felt like a good workout.

When we got back to Goodlife Fitness, though, I started puking. Nothing to puke, fortunately, but it didn't stop for about 5 minutes. A cup of water that Becky Mathews found for me definitely helped. This isn't a particularly wonderful thing to mention in my blog post, but I do so to remind myself to EAT SOMETHING on these longer runs. I'll have to get some of the running "chews" (sort of like gummy-bears, but not as sweet) for race day.

My hamstring didn't appear to be an issue. I tiny bit slower than Ali on the way up Terry Fox Parkway, but not terrible. I was definitely stiff later in the day (although a horseback ride did a good job of loosening me up a bit).

I do believe I built some muscle today. Standard workouts (hockey, speedwork, easy run, tempo run, pace run) for the rest of this week. A medium long-run (12 miles) on Sunday. And then a short 1 week taper.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Tempo Run - 12K out and back

Today, I stepped up my tempo run (that I should have done yesterday) by 2K over my previous one on Monday. I went 6K out and 6K back, targeting 5:10 per K on the way out, and 4:40 on the way back. Here are my splits:

5:07
5:02
5:01
5:04
5:02 (uphill)
5:01
{2 minute break}
4:32
4:30 (downhill)
4:35
4:41
4:39 (headwind)
4:48 (strong headwind)

Actually, there was a pretty brisk headwind all the way back. And I thought when I turned north for that last kilometre, I'd have more of a crosswind. But, instead, it turned into a heavier headwind.

Overall, my average was 4:50 per kilometre -- which is what I need to average for the first 20k of Around the Bay to give myself a chance when I hit the hills of Burlington, if I want to average 5 minute K's for the entire race.

16 days until the race!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Easy Run - 4 miles

Brian and I went out for a 4 mile (actually 6.75K) easy run today, followed by sufficient rehydration. We passed by the home of Peter Mastorakos, who just started up a wealth management firm called Ekaton (www.ekaton.ca). Average pace was 5:10 per k.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Speedwork: 5 x 1K Repeats

Tonight, coach John Ferguson, the Legend, had us doing 1 km repeats, with a 2 minute break between repeats. I went out hoping to get 6 repeats in, but I knew it would be tough. Here are my splits:

4:11
4:10
4:11
4:11
4:15

It took everything I had to get these 5 in at this pace. The last repeat I could see things were falling apart. I was aiming for 4:10 per km, so I was quite happy with the results. And all but the last lap were 4:10:nn -- but rounding up put 3 of them to 4:11. My average pace was 4:11.54, which compares to 4:20.4 a year ago, and 4:05 on August 16 2011, 3 months before I set my personal best marathon time.

So, again, there is progress in the recovery from my hamstring injury in November 2011. I'm not there yet, but I'm definitely getting closer to being fully recovered.

Monday, March 4, 2013

10K Tempo Run - A bit better this time...

This afternoon I went out for another 10K tempo run. This one went much better than last week's, so I'm ready to ramp it up to 12K next time.

I was looking for 5:15's out, and then 4:35's back. But there was quite a headwind coming back, so I didn't quite make my target times. Here are my splits:

5:05
5:08
5:03
5:08
5:13 (uphill)
4:33 (downhill)
4:41
4:49
4:55 (strong headwind)
4:54 (strong wind from side)

Total time was 49:27 with an average pace of 4:57 per kilometre. So, not awful -- and 6 seconds per kilometre faster than last week. Would definitely be good if I could get it down to an average of 4:50 per k. 3 weeks to go until the race!