The real life story of a running frog... [Archive]

FrogMan

05-07-2014, 09:55 PM

disclaimer, this might run long. I can get wordy, sorry but it'll help me exorcise the whole thing ;)

**also, some things are left unexplained now and will become clearer as I post some background info how my Summer of 2014 is shaping up running and racing wise...
======================
Race Report Demi marathon Internation Oasis Lévis, May 4th 2014

Weather was pretty rainy when I got up on Saturday, with gusts of winds swirling around our house. According to the local weather website, some northeast wind was to be expected. Northeast meant we'd have a headwind on the long downhill and some tailwind on our way back when the course would be flatter. Temperature was around 5C with a windchill around 2C which is kinda weird for a May 4th... It was cold to warm up but once we had about 8 or 9 km done, the skies kinda cleared and while there wasn't much sun, there was never any rain until much later in the day.

I picked up my bib on Saturday and with it came a nice long sleeve tech shirt.
http://i.imgur.com/ydzKfN6.jpg

Later on in the day, I devised some sort of pacing strategy that I thought would be sustainable given the elevation of the course. To do that, I sorta split the 21.1 km in 5 sections.

Section one, start with climb, 2 km, projected pace: 4:30/km (7:14/mile)
This was the start section. I expected to see pacers but never could find any. I was kind of overwhelmed in the middle of the crowd knowing absolutely nobody but looking around and seeing everybody in mini crowds. I positioned myself in a spot where I thought I'd be around the top 25% of racers but found myself kinda jammed there and realized that many out of shape, or simply slower runners, had placed themselves close to just behind the elite.

The first 250m were very slow and with an awkward gait trying to maneuver behind people. I found myself working up to my projected pace and passing people all the time until we headed East, then facing a good headwind but still climbing a little.

I thought I did ok in that section, especially with the crowded start, averaging 4:33/km over the first 2 km.

Section two, going downhill, 6 km, projected pace: 4:10/km (6:42/mile)
I had planned a kind of aggressive pace for that section based on my long run done a couple weeks ago. I that run, I was hitting about 4:20 without pushing too hard and I figured that until we start heading back, I could push it harder and be ok the rest of the way. Maybe that was the start of my mistakes but I don't think that was the worst. My HR stayed in check there and I was hitting my pace splits quite well or at least within range.

KM#3: 4:14
KM#4: 3:58 (!)
KM#5: 4:15
KM#6: 4:13
KM#7: 4:15
KM#8: 4:05

Not everything was bad in that race. Here's a pic my 17yo son took of me from the parking lot of our dojo. I even saw a young girl student of mine who stood there in the windy cold weather with nher mother to cheer us runners on. :)
http://i.imgur.com/llMNjix.jpg

I tried chewing a Powerbar raspberry smart blast around km #8 but ended up chewing on it for maybe a minute and had trouble swallowing it. Took some water from my belt.

Section three, flatter on the way back, 7 km, projected pace: 4:22/km (7:02/mile)
I thought this section would be flat, thinking back to my last long run that had gone through the downhill but when I did that run, I circled back earlier and didn't really do the same route. The pace I had projected for this section was based on my 15K pace test in which I averaged 4:24 over 15km on a flat course. I figured that if I pushed a tiny bit more, I'd be able to hit 4:22. I crushed the split time for the first 5 km of that section of the course mostly because it kept going downhill along the river. Not always by much, but always a bit of a negative elevation and we got hit in the back by a sometimes steady tailwind.

KM#9: 4:03
KM#10: 4:09
KM#11: 4:11
KM#12: 4:16
KM#13: 4:18
KM#14: 4:25
KM#15: 4:25

Time after 15km: 1:03:55, pace 4:15/km (6:51/mile)

Around km 13 or 14, I tried my luck with a Clif Shot bloks this time and seriously almost gagged when I choked on it. That was the end of my trying to swallow these things when going at those paces. I did take some water but apparently not enough. Heart rate was still quite in check, steadily averaging 160 or so which is about what I'd expect for me on long hard runs.

Section four, cruise back, 4.5 km, projected pace: 4:30/km (7:14/mile)
When I started the training cycle leading to this half, 4:30/km was the pace I had as a goal. It evolved over the course of the 12 weeks to a point that I thought I could push more and do better. I still think I had it in me to do better than that pace for the early part of the race. I'd want to say that I got greedy here but I don't think the pace I was doing were that much faster than what I wanted to do...

KM#16: 4:26
KM#17: 4:28
KM#18: 4:33
KM#19: 4:45

around the middle of km #19 was supposed to start my last kick push. I wanted or stupidly thought I'd be able to will my legs to go for 1.5 km at 4:10 but as you can see the beginning of the end was coming in that 19th km. I just didn't see it coming, then boom...

KM#20: 6:06

Now that one is a blur. I remember seeing 6:00 as an average pace for the first 500m of that kilometer (I set my watch to give me splits every half km) but not too sure about the second half, then I remember not so much running anymore but walking wobly and having someone grab me by my right arm and then it kinda blacked out... Next thing I knew, I was on a stretcher with two EMTs asking me questions but within minutes I was back to myself and fairly conscious, not stupid enough to say "hey coach, let me back in the game, I'm all right!" but pretty conscious. They asked me my birthdate, address and such and I was able to coherently answer.

They pricked me on the finger to take my blood glucose level and told me I was at 3.9 and that under 4, I was getting hypoglycemic. They gave me a gel type thing, similar to those runners take. After taking it, they tested me again but now I was even lower, 2.4. They gave me another gel. Glucose level would eventually level up at about 4.4 by the time we got to the ER.

Before we left, they asked me if I had anybody waiting for me by the finishing line and I went "oh crap, yes, my wife and oldest son are waiting there, and I told them when to expect me, they'll get worried!" One EMT asked me if my wife had a cell phone and if they could call her. I said yeah, dial this number but let me talk to her. Later on, she told me it was a good thing she got to talk to me or else she would have seriously freaked out to simply talk to an EMT.

Funny thing #1 happened when we got to the ER. I'm a stretcher, all sweaty, still wearing my running shoes and the nurse is entering my data, barely looking at me and she goes "were you doing any kind of physical activity when the incident happened?" I'm like huhuh, pointing my bib, "err, it's the half marathon today, I did 20 of the 21 km" She simply went "oh"...

Funny thing #2 happened when talking with the ER doc. She wanted me to see the cardiologist to rule out anything bad that could do with my heart. She said he might want to test me out on what of those cardiac stress test they do on a treadmil later on in the day. I went "huh? today? Can't that wait a day or two?" ;) They ended up not testing anything other that drawing blood twice. They said nothing looked wrong with my heart and the blood tests revealed mostly stuff that dehydrated people go through which was a relief.

That was a long day sitting idly around with too little to eat. I got to the ER at about 11:45 and they didn't have me on their list for a lunch. They got me some small chicken sandwich with some cheese, some apple juice.

I did many little things wrong in that race. Not the least of which was not drinking enough, but also not fuelling properly, and especially not testing fuelling under race conditions. Another thing I probably did wrong was put my watch with race time as the principal number instead of the HR. My HR spiked to 168 around km 17. Maybe it'd have been too late but maybe I could have been reasonable then and walk some of drink some. But it wasn't that big a spike, nothing like 190 or something that out of the ordinary.

Still, that's a good old DNF but one I can learn from I think.

After 19km, I had a time of 1:22:08 or an average pace of 4:19 per km (6:57 per mile). That was quite a run...

And to end this report, here's that ER selfie that I posted on FB. Yeah, I know, but I still smiled! :)
http://i.imgur.com/XkNjSwB.jpg

I also have a bruised left thumb, just on the inside and some scratches on my left knee, indicating that I was grabbed on my right and tried to brace myself to the ground on my left but then bounced back to the right and hit my chin to the ground, rubbing it on the pavement.

This was a humility lesson. Respect your body man, respect the distance. Train hard but know your limits.

The season ticket I have signed up for allows me to change future events if I want to. I have decided to opt out of the full marathon I was supposed to do in August and will do a half then. I will not try a full until I have succesfully done a half. If it only happens next Summer, then so be it. I will also change the staircase challenge I'm signed up for on June 15 from a 19km to a 13km.

If you're still reading, thanks. Now go run, run happy! :)

FrogMan

05-08-2014, 09:07 AM

This morning, I got back out for a run for the first time since my half marathon DNF. Had to promise to my wife it would only be a short one and that I would take it very easy... ;)

Was kinda chilly though. About 34F but felt like 32F. Dang, it's May 8th and I am running with gloves, knit hat, running tights and winbdreaker jacket. Furthermore, cars all have frost on their windshield!!! Oh well...

Lower back is still a bit stiff but it felt great to run a bit. Strangely, my glutes also seem to be the muscles that were worked out the most in that long hard run on Sunday. It's not an area that I usually feel as tense on runs. My hips are more of a weaker spot but no hip pain this morning at all.

Overall a pretty easy 3 miler, 5.09 km in 28:10, avg pace: 5:32/km (8:54/mile).
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/495378527

I will often convert distances (and paces) from km to miles (and from min/km to min/mile) but sometimes will leave them in metric form, depending on if I have time or not. Hopefully this doesn't make it too hard to follow.

All my thinking, calculations and especially pace planning are done in metric.

HR stayed pretty much in check, never going over 128 BPM. Very happy with that. Finished the run with 3 sets of 10 excentric calf raises. I often do that after short easy runs. I also often do planks but didn't want to this morning, mostly due to the stiff lower back...

Looking back through my Smashrun account (http://smashrun.com/frogman), I see this was my first three day break since I started running back on May 30th 2013. Never before since that first run had I taken a break from running longer than 2 days. For a long while I was running every other day and sometimes would take a couple days break but never three days in a row. I find this to be pretty amazing...

Later on, I'll be back with something about the training plan that got me to my first half marathon and what I'm planning to do for the rest of Summer...

FM

FrogMan

05-08-2014, 09:09 AM

I will also sometimes share motivational pictures that get to me. Here's one with a quote from Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi.

Yup, that's exactly why I'm into running. Still pretty amaze at what my body can do...

FM

Alf

05-08-2014, 09:17 AM

fwiw, I prefer metric :)

britrock88

05-08-2014, 09:18 AM

Wild.

Alan T

05-08-2014, 09:23 AM

I'll never have a problem remembering the day you started running... since it is my birthday :)

Edit: I don't even remember the exact day I started running.. just an approximate month :)

BYU 14

05-08-2014, 09:28 AM

Scary stuff in the race, glad all is well.

You HR is real good, I run about the same pace when I do a 5K and my HR is in the mid to high 130's. What is your average resting HR out of curiosity?

FrogMan

05-08-2014, 11:17 AM

thanks for showing up guys, it's always more fun to talk with others than only to yourself ;)

FM

FrogMan

05-08-2014, 11:18 AM

fwiw, I prefer metric :)

yes, yes, I bet you do ;)

FM

FrogMan

05-08-2014, 11:19 AM

Wild.

hehe, thanks, I guess. It was a wild Sunday. Hopefully the next races won't be as wild and more fulfilling in terms of achievements. ;)

FM

FrogMan

05-08-2014, 11:21 AM

I'll never have a problem remembering the day you started running... since it is my birthday :)

Edit: I don't even remember the exact day I started running.. just an approximate month :)

hah, that's cool.

I was kinda lucky to start running with an app that spitted out a GPX file that I immediately uploaded to Strava and later on to Garmin Connect when I got my watch. Made it very easy to find it back.

For the record, here's a link to that first run/walk. Man, look at that blazing fast pace!!! ;)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/327245714

FM

FrogMan

05-08-2014, 11:21 AM

Scary stuff in the race, glad all is well.

You HR is real good, I run about the same pace when I do a 5K and my HR is in the mid to high 130's. What is your average resting HR out of curiosity?

Yeah, was kinda scary, as are most things unknown. Me, I didn't have much time to get scared, but I know it scared the bejesus out of my loved ones. Both my sons cried over the whole thing. My youngest went to his soccer practice with my mother-in-law at the same time of my race and my wife told me he broke down and cried when she called home to tell them about my ordeal. My 17yo son weeped like a baby when I squeezed his hands as he got closer to my ER bed. I still get emotional thinking about it but all is well now, I'll learn from this and will move on trying not to repeat the mistakes.

As for my resting HR, if I simply lie down and calm the heck down, calm my breathing, I can stay at about 49-50 BPM at rest. EMT asked me if I knew my blood pressure and I honestly had no clue as I dadn't had it taken in years. Reason why he asked is that he felt it was very low. I didn't ask for a number then but at the ER when the nurse took my vitals one last time before I left, she took my BP and I asked her for the numbers: 102/58. From all account, that is pretty low. From whats she said, it wasn't completely unheard of from pretty fit people. I think I could fit the profile of a pretty fit person, especially at the end of a 12 week training cycle in which I ran 6 times a week... ;)

FM

Alan T

05-08-2014, 11:30 AM

hah, that's cool.

I was kinda lucky to start running with an app that spitted out a GPX file that I immediately uploaded to Strava and later on to Garmin Connect when I got my watch. Made it very easy to find it back.

For the record, here's a link to that first run/walk. Man, look at that blazing fast pace!!! ;)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/327245714

FM

I did the couch to 5k for a few weeks before I actually started recording my "runs". So the best guess I have is that I started somewhere in August 2012. My first recorded run that I have is from September 16th where I ran 2.6 miles at a 12:51 pace. I know that the couch to 5k the weeks before that were all slower though.

I remember one day my wife and I went to my daughter's school and back, which is pretty close to 2.8 miles and it took us 43 minutes.

It is pretty fun to look back and see how much progress is made with all of this hard work!

FrogMan

05-08-2014, 11:35 AM

It is pretty fun to look back and see how much progress is made with all of this hard work!

very much yeah! I found it VERY interesting when I posted that link to my first run ever to neuqua on Strava, commenting on his recent first run. I remembered it being a walk/run thing but until just a few days ago, it wasn't registering how much progress I've made in a year.

I'll go back over that year over the next few days and will go back to check on that first "competitive" 10K, the first "Any Way 10K" on Strava. My average pace was just over 5:00/km and I seriously thought I was gonna die. I remember doing one kilometer, around the 7th or 8th, under 5 minutes and was all woah... :lol:

Again, I'm still amazed at what my body can do...

FM

FrogMan

05-09-2014, 09:11 AM

Plan called for 6 miles, 3 of which at 10K pace or so but I'm continuing a reverse taper so no real speedwork yet. Ended up doing 9.7 km in 52:46 for an average pace of 5:26/km. Some stretches were done a wee bit faster than yesterday's easy pace but still nothing qualifying as speedwork.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/495974352

Given the fact I leave for work, and to drop my sons at their bus stop, at 6:55, any run that lasts over 50 minutes is always a tight squeeze in the morning. I usually set my alarm for 5:03 and try to head out the door around 5:20 to come back in around 6:10-6:15 so I can upload the run and look at the numbers a tiny bit then hit the shower, eat breakfast and get ready to leave for work. This morning however, I was a bit slow getting up and it was 5:28 when I started my run, meaning I got back in past 6:20 and in the process, freaked my wife because she was expecting me back in before. Sigh... Should have seen her eyes when I walked back in after my run. I know that's because she care about me but I really was in no danger during a run like this...

Still, I agree I was running late, and because of that, wasn't able to upload anything from home. Had to do it when I got to work...

Overall the run felt pretty good. No real strain anywhere. Glutes are still a bit tight but better, same with lower back. I really must have hit my left knee in my fall in that DNF because it is sore. Not bothering me when I ran but feeling it when walking and going up/down stairs post run.

I'll be back to explain my current tiny training plan a bit later, once I've established the basis of my past training plans. For now I'll describe my days as they happen until we're caught up with the timeline...

FM

Alan T

05-09-2014, 10:06 AM

Kodos

05-09-2014, 10:49 AM

I think RunKeeper Elite lets you broadcast your runs live too. I think...

Will be following along on this. :)

For fun, here's my first run. June 1st, last year. Guess I have an anniversary coming up

Chris Pullen Clinton, CT, USA - RunKeeper (http://runkeeper.com/user/ChrisPullen/activity/188540115)

FrogMan

05-09-2014, 11:19 AM

I can imagine your family might be a little nervous when you are out on runs for a bit. perhaps it would make them feel a little more at ease if they could just look to see where you are at any given time and see that you are still moving or following your planned path.

A few things that my wife and I use for this are:
1) Garmin Connect Live tracking (I think you have a 210 so this probably is not an option for that watch though).
2) Road ID Live tracking app for iphones - It is similar to the garmin connect and you can send a message to someone's email or text message them with a URL that they can use to open a web browser and follow your run.
3) Find your friend app on iphone - It does not give details about the run, but you can see where someone is and roughly see if they are moving around or not.

I know it helps my wife and I feel a bit better when the other is out running if we know where they are.

Well, my sons don't realize if anything's wrong. Life's back to normal, dad's gone running, that's all. ;)

For my wife, it's a whole other story, and I understand that, and in a sense, it means a lot to me that after some 21 years together, she still feels that way because I would freak a bit too if she'd had some health or whatever other issue and would be coming home late.

These are good options. I also have used Runkeeper live tracking, as Kodos talked about, before on a long run and for the half but it lost GPS signal at km 11 of the half so that was not of much use. Might have to use it every time for a little while, or maybe use the Road Id one so she at least sees some eCrumb (from what they call them)...

Never heard of that find your friend app, might want to eventually check it...

FM

FrogMan

05-09-2014, 11:21 AM

FrogMan

05-09-2014, 11:22 AM

Let's go back in time a bit...

Since my running history is less than a year, I should be able to spot some key runs and races (a few of them virtual Strava challenges) that will highlight my progression in that last year. So let's go back in time.

During the early part of that first Summer of running, the concept of using a training plan was at first foreign and kind of unnecessary to me. I simply wanted to get out there and run a bit, letting my body guide when it felt ok to run. I had little clue what I was doing but I was happy doing it and I felt free when running and listening to music. That was enough.

I signed up for Strava almost immediately and was amazed at the metrics you could look at. Watching and analyzing the stats of a run became almost as fun to me as the run itself. I wasn't really trying to go faster every run, again just running and comparing if the pace I was doing felt easier or tougher than the previous time I did a similar distance/pace kind of run.

I didn't use any C25K plan other than my own that lasted two runs. :D On June 3rd, I ran my first 5K without walking. It took me 29:21 or an average pace of 5:52/km. It wasn't a race or anything and maybe I could have pushed it but I was simply very happy and kinda proud to say I had just run 5 kilometers without walking...

Only a couple weeks after that run, Strava held their first "Any Way 10K" challenge for which you had to do a run of at least 10 km on June 16 or 17, 2013 and they would rank you based on your average pace. I still didn't have a training plan in place and decided to take a shot at that 10K the day before that weekend.

Before that 10K challenge, my longest run to date at that point was 7.22 km. With a mere 2 weeks of running under my belt, I was very much a newbie. Such a newbie that a proper warmup for me was to walk around a bit, stretch some and then go. I had little clue what could be my average pace over a 10K.

It ended up being a pretty good first hard run. 10.54 km in 54:25 for an average pace at 5:10/km (8:18/mile). The extra 0.54 was because I wanted to make sure it would qualify for the "more than 10 km" rule. Looking back, if you take only the first 10 km, it took me 50:30 for an average pace of 5:03/km (8:08/mile).

I started out that virtual race just a bit fast but not too fast. First K in 4:50 but settled at about 5:02 or so for a few K then had one slow one at 5:14 only to rebound and do one under 5 at the 8K mark. I was very pleased with that run at the time, so pleased that I ended up ordering a couple t-shirts from Strava, including the one they had designed that said "Any Way 10K finisher". It was something special for me and little did I know, maybe the start of something special for the future...

FM

AnalBumCover

05-09-2014, 12:57 PM

Following along here too.

As for live tracking, I've been using Glympse.

FrogMan

05-09-2014, 02:02 PM

Following along here too.

As for live tracking, I've been using Glympse.

Oh, thanks for the recommendation. From what little I've seen of it, I like what I see. Might just fit my need for a no hassle tracking bug... The Road Id one could work too. Since I use my Garmin watch to track my running, and my runs are synced from Garmin Connect to Runkeeper, I'm not so sure I like using it (it causes a double activity to post to Runkeeper). That and the fact it died on me during a run, actually causing more stress than relief to my wife...

And welcome aboard. :)

FrogMan

05-09-2014, 02:06 PM

Back to my running timeline, summer of 2013

The next few weeks had nothing really special. I kept running every other day as I just wasn't able to run on back to back days. But I was steady, one week I ran 3 times, the other week I ran 4 times, or sometimes would take a couple days off and run 3 times in back to back weeks, but I kept at it. Even got my oldest son to do a few runs with me...

I didn't even see entering a race as an option at the time since I didn't really feel ready to drop money for a medal but I wanted to test myself. Mid July I planned to head out on a Thursday morning before work and see how fast I could run a 5K. Nothing else but going all out over 5 kilometers. I did that test on July 11th (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/340842251) and ran a 5K in 22:50, or an average pace of 4:34/km (7:21/mile). Again, I was pretty pleased with that, I was improving...

My three weeks of summer vacation came, around the end of July, beginning of August and I kept on running every other day and even did a couple of back to back days. The idea of someday running to my dojo and back crept into my mind. I knew it was about a 13 km round trip but it kinda scared me since now I wouldn't be running around the neighborhood but on a strainght line out and back. I remember that I wanted to get it done before Labour day weekend.

I still didn't really have a formal training plan in place but I was learning a bit every week. I had done my first intervals (6x 400m) (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/337169099) around the beginning of July and then again around the end of July (8x 400m) (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/348590490). Interesting to see how much faster I was hitting my splits just 3 weeks later, even though I did two more reps in that second workout.

Had my first real hill workout on July 31st and not too sure why, but it's not showing real elevation on the map on Garmin Connect by I tell ya, that hill is a b*tch!

These little workout kinda moved me toward the idea that I could, someday, want to try my feet in a real race. I had passed on a local 5K/10K at the beginning of July because I didn't feel ready, but by the end of July, I was beginning to feel ready to enter one. I picked a very local race, a 10K and on August 1st or about, I signed up for that race that was to be held on August 18th. In retrospect, that didn't give me much time to put a training plan in place but frankly, I didn't care much about training plans and such back then. I was still freestyling it, going with the flow, trying stuff. :)

Before that race was to happen, Strava had another pace based challenged coming in early August, the ROLL Recovery R8K. I ran that one on my own on Agust 5th (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/353931135), clocking in 8 km in 37:32 for an average pace of 4:41/km (7:33/mile). That was another new experience to me. 8 kilometers is an odd distance. You have the feeling you want to push like a 5K but that last 3 km kills ya, especially when you're still a newbie...

GM

FrogMan

05-10-2014, 09:46 PM

I decided to make today a rest day. I usually rest on Friday (and Monday if I'm on a 5 days/week plan) but with a race coming up on Monday May 19th and no real taper to speak, it made more sense to push the rest on day and run the Saturday run on Friday this week...

This quote popped up on my FB wall today and it is soooooooo appropriate to how I see my first half marathon...
http://i.imgur.com/pQwVMRz.jpg

I will try again, more intellegently this time.

Back to my Summer of 2013 in a moment...

FM

FrogMan

05-10-2014, 09:59 PM

Now back to the Summer of 2013...

After that 8K Strava challenge on August 5th, a Monday, I had a little less than two weeks to really get ready for my first real race that would happen Sunday August 18th.

Don't remember if I even looked at a training plan or not but with only 13 days to go, there just wasn't enough time to get involved with one. I just kept on running every other day but started adding more tempo work at the pace I thought I could be able to sustain in that 10K. I ran two separate 10K runs in the week leading to the race.

Here's the race report I posted after that race:

=============================================
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/361043024

Well, it's done, the first race is in the books! Official time (from chip) comes to 46:09, VERY proud of this time.

I usually don't do much warmup but this race situation forced me to do some reading and everything I'd read about 5k and 10k races said a mile or two was ok, while some runner almost ran for 20-30 minutes before their race, with some race pace strides in there. Ended up doing four race pace strides at the end of 2 km and I now know the importance of a good warmup. That 2 km was done at an average of 6 min/km (9:39 per mile or so), strides included...

After that warmup which ended with maybe 8-10 minutes to go before the start, I kept active in line for the start, keeping my HR at about 125-128 and I started with a solid pace at about 4:31 (7:16 per mile) or so for the first 5 km then slowed down just a bit and had a VERY good last km (4:24 according to my watch).

Amazing experience, there's really something special about running in the middle of people at the start, then settling in a good spot and sometimes passing some slightly slower runners. I didn't know what to expect at first and it was just a bundle of people so I almost got stuck behind some slower people, especially on a part of the course that was narrower, but it all worked itself out and it was some tough fun :)

I was following a faster lady around the 9th km when I really started pushing. She was probably pushing too for a little while until I really got on to her and she just said and low "go, get it!" That was about all I needed to gun the last 400m.

It was also very nice that my wife, my two sons and even my mother-in-law where there to cheer me on. Since it was a 5k loop with some double passes, they were able to see me 4 times and I commented to my wife after the race that every time I'd pass in front of them, I'd look at my watch for my current pace and it would automatically shoot up to about 4:05 or 4:10 per km.

Website with results isn't up but from the sheet at the race site, I finished 70th, 60th among men, 11th among men 40-49. There were 249 registered runners for the 10k last year and based on my initial goal of 47:40 I was simply hoping to make it into the top 100. Happy with #70 :)

Some may remember my heart rate usually never really going up there, well, it did go up today. Average HR of 160 with max of 169...

Overall a very nice experience! :)
===================================

Final results: 46:09.8, average pace of 4:37/km (7:26/mile)
Overall: 69/247, or in top 27.9%
Men: 60/160, or in top 37.5%
Men 40-49: 11/38 or in top 28.9%

Looking back I'm just as proud now of that first race as I was back then. It was a pretty hot day for a first race... Heck, that was 4 seconds per km better than that 8K challenge I'd done only a couple weeks prior...

Here are some pics from that race :)

Standing in line for start, looking serious and focused
http://i.imgur.com/BUGCals.jpg

Again more of the serious type
http://i.imgur.com/NS1aqQI.jpg

Time stamp is about 10:25 so about 5-6 km into the race:
http://i.imgur.com/XllBHQz.jpg

After the last turn and entering the very last 200-300 meters
http://i.imgur.com/hUYl4aQ.jpg

Going full out now, do or die time!
http://i.imgur.com/gorxNoB.jpg

After race smile :D
http://i.imgur.com/OlztcAk.jpg

More after race smile, from up close, thanks to my photographer, my 16yo son :)
http://i.imgur.com/zAup9b6.jpg

Sweaty hug for my greatest supporter, my wife of 16 years :)
http://i.imgur.com/X0dOLpU.jpg

And even a sweaty after race kiss ;)
http://i.imgur.com/8y3Yo7K.jpg

My wife ended up framing that first bib and it's still on our bedroom wall:
http://i.imgur.com/m9h11HB.jpg

FM

FrogMan

05-11-2014, 07:23 PM

plan called for an 8 mile run with 1/4 of it at race pace. I'm using the last four weeks of an advanced 10K Hal Higdon plan until I get to 12 weeks from my next half marathon and then will switch back to an advanced HH half marathon plan similar to the plan I used to get ready for last week's HM.

I converted 8 miles to a 13K run but didn't feel ready to really push it at 10K pace for 3 of those kilometers so I did a progression over 4 km. Dang my legs felt heavy during the progression...

Averaged 5:24/km for the first 8 km then aimed for 5:00, 4:45, 4:30 and finally 4:15/km before going back to 5:30 for a cooldown km.

km#9: 4:55
km#10: 4:39
km#11: 4:36 (waited a good 20 seconds at a red light, tried to sprint to make up time then backed off a bit)
km#12: 4:10

that 4:10 was a rough one, heavy, heavy legs, but I'm happy I did it. I'm also happy I did the progression in stead of pushing for 3 km at 4:15 or so. Even more so that I ran this at about 4pm, after a busy day around the house and cleaning the windows of the dojo. I'm spent now...

Run stats: 13.1 km, 1:07:32, 5:09/km
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/497822528

FM

FrogMan

05-12-2014, 02:05 PM

Easy 5 km at a very easy pace this morning, as opposed to my usual easy pace. That is, I told myself "to hell with my pace!" and just ran as efficiently as I could in order to keep my heart rate under 120.

That meant 5.23 km in 30:14 for an average pace of 5:47/km or 9:18/mile. That's close to 30 seconds slower per mile compared to my usual easy pace, but I kept the HR down.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/498066952

That was kind of necessary since my legs were kinda shot after yesterday's long run. That's kinda strange, probably remainders of that HM.

I got a 30 minutes progression run tomorrow but that's not the one I'm dreading the most in my week. Wednesday will be speedwork day and the plan calls for 11x400m @ mile pace. Even though I've used this Hal Higdon plan before, I've never done this many reps because the last time, I cut 2 reps from all sessions, maxing out at 10 reps.

Now, my mile pace based on most calculators is about 5:51/mile and over 400m, that converts to 1:27 to cover the interval. That's by using Jack Daniels' calculator and a 15K time of 1:03:42 that I did in my half marathon. Thing is, I have never tested myself on a mile alone. My fastest mile in the middle of any run if 6:29. I know I will probably hit the pace over 400m but I'm not too sure I'd be able to keep the pace over 1609 meters...

I usually do 400m hard, 300m rest at an easy jog but if I commit to doing this 11 times, I might do some walking to start my resting periods in order to get the HR down a bit...

It was pretty chilly again this morning. After my first run in t-hirt and shorts yesterday, it was back to running tights, long sleeve tech shirt under my windbreaker jacket. I talked myself out of wearing my gloves and regretted it after less than a K. Could feel my fingers during the run! They are forecasting warmer temperatures for the next few days but a lot more rain.

Also, it's with a little sadness that I askedfor the change of event in my racing schedule this morning. I had planned to do a 19 km staircase challenge in Quebec City and I downgraded the distance to 13 km and the full marathon I had planned to do in August has been changed to a half marathon. I will not attempt a marathon until I have been successful with a half. And I WILL be successfull!

FM

Alan T

05-12-2014, 02:09 PM

The old saying... "That which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". You are going to rock that half this fall!

FrogMan

05-12-2014, 02:10 PM

The old saying... "That which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". You are going to rock that half this fall!

yeah, I thought I'd rock that one a week ago too ;)

But you are right, I'm still alive and I have learned. Moving on forward, live to run another day. :)

FM

FrogMan

05-13-2014, 11:22 AM

Solid progression run this morning. I feel like my legs are coming back under me. Hal Higdon's progression runs are usually time based, so a set duration (between 3 and 60 minutes) in which you are supposed to slowly increase your pace to get to about race pace around 3/4 or your run and finish easy. I usualy do them more straight forward, splitting my pace increase in increments of 5 minutes. This morning was a 30 minutes run so I wanted to go easy (5:30 or so per km) for 5 minutes, then increase the pace to 5:10 for 5, then 4:40, then 4:25, then 4:10-4:15 before going back to 5:30 as cooldown.

Kinda screwed up as I went to my fastest pace after 19 minutees instead of 20 but otherwise it went very well.

laps and paces
1) 5:37/km
2) 5:03
3) 4:36
4) 4:20
5) 4:09
6) 5:26

All laps were between 0.9 and 1.2 km in distance...

Remember yesterday's mile pace talk. In today's run I, Strava's telling me I did my third best one mile time in training, that is there was a one mile stretch that I did in 6:41. Sure, it's not a one mile and then stop, but it's a far cry from the 5:51 I will need to pull out for every 400m reps tomorrow.

Regarding that intervals session of tomorrow, I've pretty much settled down to doing 400m hard (@mile pace, 3:38/km or 1:27 per 400m) then 300m rest that I will walk for 150m then jog easy for another 150m. That's gonna be a pretty rough 50 minutes or so but that's how you improve your speed. You get out of it what you put into it! :)

FM

FrogMan

05-13-2014, 11:26 AM

this story kinda hits close to home. She was 5 years younger than me and collapsed at the end of her half marathon. Her time had come I guess. Makes me even happier the ER doc that saw me decided to have me see a cardiologist and went the extra mile, pun vaguely intended ;), to make sure my heart was in fairly good order...

From:
Virginia woman dies after racing in Frederick Running Festival - The Frederick News-Post : Disasters And Accidents (http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/disasters_and_accidents/virginia-woman-dies-after-racing-in-frederick-running-festival/article_64771b7e-45c7-5b20-bced-cdf4ce2a873f.html)

Virginia woman dies after racing in Frederick Running Festival
By Courtney Mabeus News-Post Staff | Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2014 2:00 am
A Virginia mother of two died Tuesday, two days after she collapsed after competing in Frederick’s half marathon.
Sarah Defren, 38, was an avid runner who ran daily at 5 a.m. and had competed in several past races, her pastor, the Rev. Lisa Webb of Woodstock Presbyterian Church in Woodstock, said Wednesday. Defren suffered a heart attack at the finish line Sunday and was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital before being flown to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Webb said. She never regained consciousness.
“Everyone is in a state of shock,” Webb said.
Defren is survived by her husband, Mark, and two children, Grant, 3, and Brooke, 4, Webb said. A Facebook prayer page had been set up on Defren’s behalf Monday. More than 1,400 people had “liked” the page by Wednesday afternoon. The church is planning a celebration of life service for Defren at 1 p.m. Saturday. Woodstock is about an hour and a half southwest of Frederick off I-81.
Webb thanked the first responders, doctors and hospital staff who came to Defren’s aid. She had spoken with Defren a day before the race about her desire to volunteer at the church. Defren worked as a physical therapist who specialized in caring for the elderly and people with Alzheimer’s disease, Webb said.
According to online results, Defren finished Sunday’s race in 2:38:03.
Frederick Running Festival organizer Corrigan Sports Enterprises President Lee Corrigan said Defren sprinted across the finish line and was talking to a member of the medical team. She “went down right there,” Corrigan said.
Defren’s death is the first in the Frederick Running Festival’s history, Corrigan said.
A female runner died after the 2001 Baltimore Marathon of a brain aneurysm, CSE spokesman Dave Gell said. A male runner died in 2009; the cause was not determined, Gell said.
Corrigan said the company had reached out to the family in support. Defren also ran in the 2013 Frederick festival, Gell said.
“All we can do is be as prepared as we can, and I think we did do a good job with that,” Corrigan said Wednesday.
Deaths following long-distance running events, while rare, have gained greater attention in recent years as such races become more popular, said Paul D. Thompson, chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. Thompson helped write a 2012 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that calculated a total of 59 cardiac arrests — 40 in marathons and 19 in half marathons — among 10.9 million race participants in the U.S. from 2000 through 2010. Of those 59 who suffered cardiac arrests, 42 runners, or 71 percent, died.
The overall rate of cardiac arrest-related deaths from running is about one for every 184,000 participants, according to the study. One in 100,000 deaths is among men, while one in 500,000 is among women, Thompson said.
The cause of death in runners also varies in part by age, Thompson said. Among people under 30, cardiac arrests are often the result of an unknown congenital heart problem that doesn’t become apparent until around the race, he said. Among older adults, other contributing factors, including narrowed arteries, are often a factor, he said. Some people may also overhydrate during a race, leading to death.
“There are more deaths, and that’s because marathoning has become a bucket list sport,” said Thompson, who has run the Boston Marathon 29 times.
According to the nonprofit Running USA, the half marathon has been the fastest-growing standard distance race in the country since 2003. The number of half-marathon finishers in the U.S. quadrupled from 482,000 in 2000 to more than 1.96 million in 2013, according to an annual report released in April. During that same period, the number of runners finishing U.S. marathons increased from 353,000 in 2000 to 541,000 — a record high — in 2013.
A 20-year-old Colorado woman died Sunday after collapsing near the finish of that day’s Boulder Spring half marathon, according to a story published Monday in The Daily Camera. Last month, two men died after participating in a Rock ’N’ Roll half marathon in Raleigh, North Carolina, The News & Observer reported. In March, a 16-year-old girl died after finishing the Shamrock half marathon in Virginia Beach, and a man died in England after collapsing near the end of a half marathon in Hampshire, according to Runners World.

FM

Alan T

05-13-2014, 11:40 AM

Kinda screwed up as I went to my fastest pace after 19 minutees instead of 20 but otherwise it went very well.

On my Higdon progression runs, I almost always end up getting to my goal speed like 2-3 minutes early. I haven't seemed to be able to stop myself from doing it either even when trying to focus on it.

I think though that I'm not a huge fan of Higdon's progression runs though. The more I look at various workouts, I really like how Pfitzinger and Daniels handle their tempo runs and progression runs more though.

FrogMan

05-13-2014, 11:41 AM

I think though that I'm not a huge fan of Higdon's progression runs though. The more I look at various workouts, I really like how Pfitzinger and Daniels handle their tempo runs and progression runs more though.

how do they go about them, specifically?

Tempo run is a set pace for a period of time, right?

FM

Alan T

05-13-2014, 12:06 PM

how do they go about them, specifically?

Tempo run is a set pace for a period of time, right?

FM

Well Pfitzinger for instance has tempo runs called lactate threshold runs, but basically it is like Higdon's 3/1 long runs but in reverse. Instead you would have say a tempo run scheduled for perhaps 10 miles, but what it means is:

2 miles warmup pace -> 7 miles at your lactate threshold level (generally 15k-half marathon pace) -> 1 mile cooldown. Where just like higdon, over the 2 mile warmup you gradually speed up to your tempo pace.

With Higdon's progressive tempo runs, it feels more like an overly long stride instead, where I'm only at my lactate threshold level for a shorter period of time (maybe 5 minutes tops) and the majority of the time is gradually speeding up or slowing down instead.

For me I guess I like to have every exercise have a purpose.. either 1) Aerobic training 2) Lactate threshold .. 3) Speed work. The Higdon tempo progression seems to be a mix of #1 and #2 but not necessarily hitting on either solidly.

FrogMan

05-13-2014, 02:01 PM

Well Pfitzinger for instance has tempo runs called lactate threshold runs, but basically it is like Higdon's 3/1 long runs but in reverse. Instead you would have say a tempo run scheduled for perhaps 10 miles, but what it means is:

2 miles warmup pace -> 7 miles at your lactate threshold level (generally 15k-half marathon pace) -> 1 mile cooldown. Where just like higdon, over the 2 mile warmup you gradually speed up to your tempo pace.

With Higdon's progressive tempo runs, it feels more like an overly long stride instead, where I'm only at my lactate threshold level for a shorter period of time (maybe 5 minutes tops) and the majority of the time is gradually speeding up or slowing down instead.

For me I guess I like to have every exercise have a purpose.. either 1) Aerobic training 2) Lactate threshold .. 3) Speed work. The Higdon tempo progression seems to be a mix of #1 and #2 but not necessarily hitting on either solidly.

I see but as I said about Higdon's progression runs, I don't really do them the way he prescribes them. Instead of increasing the pace and hitting my goal pace only for a couple minutes then slowing down the pace, I only increase then drop back at once for the last 5 minutes of cooldown only. Doing that, I hit a little bit of everything and don't lose much time slowing down. It's probably not specific enough for you and this might change for me over time but for now, I like that. Maybe I'll get more specific with how I want each workout to help me in the future, who knows...

FM

FrogMan

05-13-2014, 02:05 PM

Flashback to continue the chronology of the Summer of 2013...

That 10K race, or the couple days that followed actually, brought a big light bulb over my head. When I usually would have taken at least a couple days off after such a race, I discovered the terms "recovery run" and I ran the very next day, then the day after making it sort of my first running streak, of 3 days!!! :)

I again simply kept running every other day and on September 1st, I achieved me goal of running from our home to my dojo and back, running my longest ever run at once, 14.4 km (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/368843943)!

I was proud of that run, even though it was done at a fairly easy pace. That was 1:21:03 of running with no walking...

I had been thinking about entering a local race, an 18K race. I didn't feel ready for a half marathon but thought I could at least do 3.5 more kilometers than what I had just done. On Sunday, September 15th I ran 18.2 km on a regular easy run and that was just enough to convince me and I signed up for that 18K race that would be held on October 20th. That left me five weeks to get ready, or at least a tiny bit readier... ;)

I had started reading about Hal Higdon's training that are free to use from his website and opted to use the last 5 weeks of his Intermediate half marathon plan (http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51132/Half-Marathon-Intermediate-Training-Program) but with adjusted distance since (1) I would not be running a half and (2) I didn't feel ready to do these sort of distances.

Here's what my 5 week plan looked like, starting from week 8 of his 12 week plan:
http://i.imgur.com/sx6yqG4.jpg

Yup, I was planning to run 5 days a week, three days in a row midweek and both days on the weekend. I can honestly say this was when I started to take my training a bit more seriously. It's also when I realized that running BEFORE work was doable, even though it meant waking up at about 5:05 am.

The plan went well. I liked the easy runs (simply marked as "run") and the different speedwork sessions. A tempo session for him is more a progression run in which I start from my easy pace and progressively increase the pace until I hit my 5K (or faster pace) and leave myself 5 minutes of cooldown easy pace to finish. The Sunday of week 9 is a 15K race in his plan but there were none in the area and I felt with only a 10K under my belt and getting ready for an 18K, it was better to do a decent warmup and cooldown and try my race pace for 13K with fuelling. I remember it was a pretty warm day and it didn't go well. I titled that run in my logs this way: "unconvincing race pace test, i.e. I'm still a newbie". Yup felt very much like a newbie. Tried a gel for fuel and had a very hard time getting it down and have yet to try a gel again. (Note to self: buy some different brands of gel next time you're down to the running store) That was my first time trying fuelling during a run. I since have used chews-like drops but if you read my HM race report, you'll see that higher pace, I still had a hard time getting them down. Probably walking a bit and slowing down the pace for 20 seconds might be the answer. More things to try.

While that pace test was a rough eye opener, I continued my training and the week before the race, I went to the race site to try the course. That course was supposed to be a loop around a lake that we'd be doing 3 times, 6 km per lap. On that run, I wanted to do half a lap as warmup then one lap at what I expected to be my race pace and that again was an eye opener. That was going to be a heck of hilly ride. While I'd done some hill work over the Summer, never had I gone downhill at more than full speed. The test went well and I felt as ready as I thought I could get.

You can have an idea of the course that we were supposed to run on the map of that run here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/390113554

I say "supposed to run" because I had received an email from the race organizers that they might have to modify the course because of road constructions that were running late. That email had come before I did my two laps around the lake and when I saw the kind of construction, I was almost certain we would not be running around the lake. There was a place where the road was cut to one lane with alternating traffic lights at both ends. Having runners go through that would have cut all car traffic around the lake.

Next up will be the race report I wrote shortly after that race. You'll a course plan with it and of course, some pictures. :)

FM

FrogMan

05-13-2014, 02:06 PM

Race report
Le Défi du Tour du Lac Beaport
October 20th, 2013
Lac Beauport, Quebec, Canada

Prologue commentary
"Défi" translates straight to "Challenge" and "Tour", well you know. So this could have been translated loosely as the "Tour around the Lake Challenge" ;) It WAS supposed to be a 6km loop around a local lake with race distances of 6, 12, or 18 km. I say WAS because they had to change it with about 6 days notice because of some road construction that were cutting off one lane of the local road. On race day, they take one lane of the local road for runners and the other is for cars going on a one way around the lake. Because of the construction, there would have been no way for cars to come and go at all so they settled for a 3km stretch on the north side of the lake that runners would go out and back, making it 6km in length. Once for those running the 6km, twice for the 12k'ers and 3 times out for the other 18k'ers.

This being my first Summer at running, I didn't feel ready to do a half marathon but I felt like 18k would be all right. In retrospect now, I think I could have done a half, but I'm happy with my decision to sign up for this 18k. The race in itself is pretty small. Overall, looking at the official results, I count about 750 entries, for all three distances. Only 96 runners finished in the 18k race.

Going into this, and up to last week, I had not realized how hilly this course (either the original or the revised version) would be. Indeed, they call it a "Challenge" and it really was.

Training
I used a modified Hal Higdon intermediate 2 half marathon schedule to train for this race. Modified in two ways: (1) I cut some of the mileage because I didn't feel it was safe to run the kind of mileage it was asking for given where I was on my usual weekly mileage and also because I was training for a slightly shorter race than a half marathon and (2) since I signed up late for it, I used only the last 5 weeks of his 12 weeks program. Looking back at it, I liked his 5 days a week schedule that works in some speedwork with easy runs and plan on using some of his other training programs in the future but had I decided earlier that I would do this race, and knowing how hilly it would be, I would have done more hill work. Live and learn.

Saturday, Sunday morning and pre-race
Saturday was rough. I started feeling the beginning of a headcold I was afraid would latch on for over a week now. You know, itchy sinuses, dull headache, some muscle soreness that comes from nowhere, in my case between my neck and right shoulder, although I had not lifted anything last week. Where I had to go to get my bib was in downtown Quebec City but dang stupid road construction (seems to be a theme around town!) made it a crazy adventure to get there and back, what with the headache, I was not feeling good about the next morning. My oldest son also had a hockey game at 5:30 that afternoon, killing any plan of simply having a light quiet dinner and relax all evening. Ended up having a roast beef sub at Subway just before his game. Could have been worse, could have been better...

Woke up on Sunday fairly rested after what I thought had been a good night sleep. Cold had not gotten worse and other than what had become a usual dull headache and some stuffy sinuses, I didn't feel too bad. Took a sudafed and a couple tylenol before breakfast and felt quite okay from then on out. I say "what I thought" had been a good night sleep cause my wife said I probably ran half my race overnight. She said I shuffled around a heck of a lot under the sheets. ;)

Since parking spaces would be restricted around the start/finish area, we'd been instructed to park at a nearby ski resort and that we'd be shuttled in by school buses to the race site. This resort is maybe only 2km from race site so not a very long bus ride but still a bit special, especially since my wife, two sons and mother-in-law were coming to cheer me on but they had to take a later bus since the first few were reserved for runners. Boarding the bus alone made it weird for me.

The whole setup is very nice though, especially with the tree's in their autumn colors. I had two photographers for this race. While our 16yo son had the nice Canon camera I thought it was a good idea to leave our 9yo have our old Kodak Easyshare camera with a couple set of spare batteries. He had a blast. :)

Here's a pic of the mountain around the ski resort that he took...
http://i.imgur.com/yuZ28qG.jpg

Other than the nice way, what struck me as I got out of the car was how cold and wet it was. We left home to a cloudy sky but no rain and dry pavement and got there, about 40 minutes away from home to a rainy, windy, cold kind of a place.

Don't know what I was saying there but this is a pic of me before the race, tell me I don't look cold...
http://i.imgur.com/mkLjApf.jpg

Here's me warming up, you can see the lake in the background
http://i.imgur.com/eD1dZIU.jpg

Another from the warmup, that's my wife in the foreground. She looks cold doesn't she? Poor darling...
http://i.imgur.com/grCHKAr.jpg

It really was a miserable day for supporters, and for racers waiting for the start. I ran a VERY easy kilometer to simply get the blood flowing and not only warmup the muscles but simply warm up my body...

My fueling plan was fairly simple. I wanted to take one pouch of some sunkist fruit candies every 20 minutes. These are not your traditional fueling options but I had used them a couple times on long runs so I knew they'd work. I wore my hydration belt because I trusted drinking from my bottles more than from them little cups they pass you on the race. Thing was, the hydration belt could only hold two of these pouches on the outside pocket. With it being all rainy and everything, I didn't want to put anything inside with my phone that was also my music source for the run. I then devised the following teamwork plan and told my 9yo son he'd have the job of feeding me one of these pouches on each of my two passes back in front of them. He was happy to be able to help.

The race
We finally go to the start. I'd looked at last year's times and figured my expected time would put me at about the bottom of the top tier or runners so I took place accordingly. It was about right as i didn't feel jammed at the start and wasn't passed by a ton of runners either.

Here's to give you an idea of what the 3km stretch looked like:
http://i.imgur.com/4CTsfXl.jpg

As you can see, it starts fairly flat although there's a slight downhill at 500m followed but I reasonable uphill for 600-700m than a long dowhill for almost 1 km. We'd then reverse course to head back in, facing that long battle uphill for 900m or so just after you turned around the big orange traffic cones. That long uphill was a legbreaker. Here's a closer look at what I have dubbed loose lace hill (anecdote coming later)
http://i.imgur.com/mNgNCje.jpg

As for overall conditions, it was raining for most of the race and it was especially windy at times, mostly when we hit the higher up North spot on the course where you can see that we were passing closest to the lake. At that spot, there was no cover from trees from the wind blowing from the lake and sometimes the rain would pick up and really splash you in the face. It was quite an experience...

Loop #1, (Start to 6k)
I felt very good right out the gate. The couple days off before Sunday had really rested my legs and the first couple kilometers felt unforced, kinda helped by the downill a bit. I had set my watch to show me the overall average pace for the run instead of my usual setting at "current pace". Last Sunday when doing my test run I'd realized that the current pace would vary wildy from downhil to uphill and back down and I had no idea how good or bad it was going overall. With the average pace for the run, I at least had an idea of how good/bad the race was going. First time I looked at the watch was about 600 meters in and my pace was at 4:32 per km (7:18 per mile). I would hold that pace for my first 6 km.

It was going so well, I had given an approximate time of my coming back to my wife, and had set a song on my playlist to match my seeing them, but I was running way ahead of it that the song started mayb 300m after I'd left the turn back out. Not only that, but they completely missed me looping back around! My wife said she actually thought I'd be turning closer to the start/finish line and wasn't looking at the right place, but she also said she didn't expect me back as quickly.

Time for that 6k: 27:17 (4:33/km, 7:19/mile)
time for the 3k out: 13:18 (4:26/km, 7:08/mile)
time for the 3k in: 13:59 (4:40/km, 7:30/mile)

Loop #2, (from 6k to 12k)
I was kinda bummed to have missed them but wasn't sure if they were not just there and I couldn't see them. I tried scanning what little crowd there was and couldn't find their face and I'm usually good at that. I also hadn't taken any of the sunkist pouches yet, hoping to get one from my son at the turnaround. I dug one from my hydration belt and that's when "A little Party never killed nobody" from Fergie came on, that song I wanted to have playing when I'd see my wife's face. It's a song she'll be dancing hiphop on for their next group choreography and for some reason, it always gets me going. It sure did and I picked up the pace, or at least didn't let it drop too much going downhill.

This time around, the big Loose lace hill did a bigger number on my legs, and my shoes were soaking. That's also when noticed the lace of my left starting tocome untied. Not completely but I kept an eye on it. Legs were burning at about the 10k mark, coming atop that long hill but I pushed on. Average pace was now hovering around 4:38 or 4:40 per km (7:27-7:31) and I was still happy with that. Heart rate was held in check at aroudn 158, but the legs, as usual were the limiting factor.

Kep scanning the crowd as I was coming back to the turnaround and there they were, with my Matthew right by the side orchestrating the perfect handoff of a small sunkist pouch. I get misty eyed simply recalling seeing his face. I'm a big softie...

Time for that 6k: 28:27 (4:45/km, 7:38/mile)
time for the 3k out: 13:55 (4:38/km, 7:28/mile)
time for the 3k in: 14:32 (4:51/km, 7:48/mile)

My average pace after 12k was 4:39/km (7:28/mile) a mere 2 seconds off my best 10k pace on a VERY flat course.

Loop #3, (from 12k to 18k)
Leaving my fans from the turnaround I felt good but had to fight the dang little voice inside that wanted to tell me that there was STILL 6km to be run... Every little uphil was now tougher but I didn't feel any cramping coming. I kept monitoring my left lace but it had not gotten worse since I'd first seen it untie a bit. Then, just as I started going down the big downhill, the other shoe felt loose. Yeah, of course, the other lace had become pertty much completely untied, thus the Loose Lace hill name! There was no way I was gonna stop midway down so I checked my footing and tried to make sure I wouldn't simply fall down and at the pylones stopped to tie my show cause I knew there was no way I could safely run back the last 3k with the right shoe untied. But my of my, the effort it took to start back up that hill!!! Really, that was a low point of the whole race. At some point up that hill, I thought I was simply running in place, not going up AT ALL. I swear, you'd have told me "hey you're going backward man!!!" and I would have believed you. But then I looked at a slightly older man with a bright yellow jacket that was just in front of me and he wasn't getting away from me so I figured "if Ì'm not going up, then he isn't either, plow away dude, plow away" And I did. Then I saw the 16.5k mark on my watch, only 1.5 to go, then 17, then I could see the finish line and I tried pushing but got passed by a couple fellas. Kept them in my line of sight but couldn't get back to them

Here's my sexy face on a final push:
http://i.imgur.com/u2LvNrc.jpg

Here's about to cross the finish line and attemps a Olu hop (more later):
http://i.imgur.com/mJc2JYK.jpg

Time for that 6k: 29:18 (4:53/km, 7:51/mile)
time for the 3k out: 14:22 (4:47/km, 7:47/mile)
time for the 3k in: 14:56 (4:59/km, 8:00/mile)

Chip time for the race: 1h25m49s, 4:46/km, 7:40/mile

Final results:
22n overall out of 96 entrants or top 22.9%
6th out 22 in Men 40-49 or top 27.2%

VERY happy with these results. When I started training for it, my goal was an average pace at about 4:45 per km but that was before realizing it would be that hilly of a course, I'm satisfied with 4:46 per km and with the race being 18k, I now know I could run a full 21.1 half marathon.

Also looks like the faster 40-49 runners all signed up for the 18k. Had I decided to do the 12k, I would have place 2nd out of 26 with my straight 12k (i.e. without any pushing)! :D

Right after the race, rocking the badass gloves!
http://i.imgur.com/rnegXjs.jpg

Wife told me to smile, apparently I don't smile much when I'm gasping for air. Again rocking the badass gloves :)
http://i.imgur.com/BeYWVuZ.jpg

That was my first bling in a race. That first 10k I did back in August didn't give out medals to finishers. :D

I also got a bottle, you know the metal type with a sort of latch on it.

After race
I was ok for maybe 5-10 minute then it got real cold, and wet! Feet were spongy as heck.

Waiting to get some after race snack:
http://i.imgur.com/l562QhD.jpg

Today, I'm pretty sore on some spots I hadn't been sore in a while. Hammies are screaming, calves are sore, shins & ankles ouch. Mostly the pounding of going downhill for the calves, shins and ankles and uphill did the work on the hammies. We'll survive and live to run another day. :)

Now what?
Well, racing season is about over around here. There's an indoor marathon with distances of 10k, HM and marathon that's to be held in Quebec City on December 8 but that's too soon to my liking to be properly prepared for a half marathon. Might sign up for the 10k but the half, expecially will go to next May. Would like to do my first half outdoors and not around an indoor track...

Outtakes/extras/bloopers!
So, you wanna laugh? Here's my try at a little hop, not jump, and a near faceplant as I cross the finish line. I'd almost call my hop more a stomp cause my feet stomped the ground pretty hard there ;)
attempt at a Olu hop ;) - YouTube (http://youtu.be/x8ODNjFl6xE)

If you're still reading, thanks! And big thanks for all the help and support you guys provide!
============================

I never followed up on that indoor race, as you'll see in a future installment... ;)

Thanks for reading folks!

FM

FrogMan

05-13-2014, 02:07 PM

Seeing my rankings compared to the overall field and my age category in that 18K made me remember that while I did not finish my half marathon, I still recorded at a couple of splits measure so I went back and looked what my times were and how I was ranked...

They had two chip intermediate times, one at 11.1 km (or with 10 km to go) and one at 16.1 km (or with 5 km to go)

At the 11.1 km mark, my chip time was 0:47:09 or an average pace of 4:15/km (6:50/mile) and I ranked 105th overall out of 1564 entrants with a time. That's top 6.7%. I ranked 24th out of 286 in the male 40-49 category, or top 8.4%.

At the 16.1 km mark, my chip time was 1:09:28 or an average pace of 4:19/km (6:57/mile) and I ranke 124th overall out of 1564 entrants with a time. That's top 7.9%. I ranked 29th out of 286 in the male 40-49 category, or top 10.1%.

That's a pretty big improvement over my placements in the 18K race, even thought the field was pretty small in the 18K race... Now gotta work on crossing that darn finish line. :banghead:

FM

FrogMan

05-14-2014, 09:08 AM

This morning was the big 11x400m at mile pace that I dreaded so much. It wasn't easy but I got it done!

Based on recent race times, my expected mile time as per the Jack Daniels' calculator would be 5:51 so for 400m, that would have to be 1:27. I hit it, or pretty close to it for 4 of the first 5, then slipped a bit for a few and got back close again for the last one... I remember that some of those had a decent headwind and over 400m going as hard as you can (or just about) this can mean a couple seconds off over 400m.

times
1) 01:24.8
2) 01:29.5
3) 01:26.4
4) 01:26.7
5) 01:31.9
6) 01:27.8
7) 01:33.2
8) 01:34.0
9) 01:35.8
10) 01:34.5
11) 01:28.8

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/499244530

The first one I felt fresh but wasn't feeling the running. The second one felt rough but the 3rd and 4th one I remember feeling very good doing them, about the pace, the rythm and all. After that, fatigue started setting in a bit. Still pretty happy with the workout. Feeling it in the legs now which is a good thing. Was a lot of mental work though. After the 2nd it was, "oh crap, still got 9 of those to do!?!". Then after the 4th it was, "come on man, more than a third of it done!" Then after the 6th, "oh yeah, more of it done than what's left!" Then after the 9th, "hell yeah, only two left!!!"... ;)

I did 300m in between reps, split 150m walk, 150m easy jog. I usually don't walk during my runs but I thought this was the best way to maximize the use of this many 400m reps going hard...

Also, I usually shied away from running in the rain last Summer and would plan my runs around it because I could. I mean, I wasn't really committed to a training plan and pushing a run back a day because it was raining was ok. Now with a tighter schedule, I feel that I need to stick to my schedule or else, why spend the time planning the dang thing? I have to run in the morning or else it's not happening in my days and if it's raining, then so be it. I could go down to the basement and run on the treadmill, and I probably will for some of those easy 5K but for speedwork and pace based work, I'd rather do them on the streets. And you know what, I'm actually enjoying running in the rain! :D

Alan T

05-14-2014, 09:14 AM

FrogMan

05-14-2014, 09:19 AM

Running in the rain , especially during the summer when it gets warmer (I know its not warm where you are just yet) is one of those things that people look at and think it would be awful, but in reality, I really love running in the rain once the weather gets warmer. It actually feels pretty good as long as you have the proper clothing for it.

clothing, and the wind (or lack thereof) around you is what will make running in the rain a fun or an absolutely sucky experience. Was about 45F this morning so not really warm, but still better than, say, 34F. A tad warmer would be weird for clothing. I wore my cap, jacket and gloves this morning. It was a sort of long run for a weekday, 51 minutes and my feet were pretty wet and mushy when I got back in. Fingers were just beginning to get wet through the gloves, but my tech shirt under the jacket was soaked with sweat so a bit warmer would be either suck it up and get wet without a jacket or endure being too warm. A fine line to walk but I'm ok with it. As I said, for some easy runs I might stick to the TM but for most dedicated workouts I'll try to hit the road.

FM

Kodos

05-14-2014, 02:02 PM

TWas a lot of mental work though. After the 2nd it was, "oh crap, still got 9 of those to do!?!". Then after the 4th it was, "come on man, more than a third of it done!" Then after the 6th, "oh yeah, more of it done than what's left!" Then after the 9th, "hell yeah, only two left!!!"... ;)

I'm constantly talking to myself like that on the interval runs. "Okay, halfway done with this 400, then only 2 more 400s left. 67% done!"

FrogMan

05-14-2014, 02:09 PM

Annnnnnd we're back to 2013 ;)

After that 18K race, it looked like my racing season was all but over. Temperatures were dropping, the weather was getting less and less kind. What you could see in the race report pictures, well these kind of days get to be pretty much the norm around the end of October/beginning of November in Quebec and that indoor race didn't look like much fun. That was until Strava announced the second edition of their Any Way 10K. They've since made it a monthly racing series but back in November, it gave me a purpose to train for a few weeks and try to PR on the 10K distance.

Again, the way it worked with this kind of Strava challenge is you have to log a run that's 10 km or more in distance between two dates (in this case Nov. 18 and 24) and they rank you based on your average pace. Doesn't matter if your run is 10, 15 or 21.1 km long but it's the average pace of the whole run that will count, not the fastest 10 km stretch you run within it.

Again, I turned to my good friend Hal Higdon for a training plan and settled on his advanced 10K plan that I modified just a tiny bit. After one week of recovery following the 18K race, in which I still ran close to 20 miles but all at an easy pace, I had about 4 weeks to train before the ovember 24 deadline so I used weeks 5 to 8 of his plan.

Here's what the original Hal Higdon plan looked like:
http://i.imgur.com/b6FtugN.jpg

And here's what I ended up going with:
http://i.imgur.com/7AvKoxE.jpg

I remember that we had a karate competition/seminars weekend at the end of week 8 and I didn't expect to be able to fit in such a hard run, thus putting it in the middle of the week.

Distance were converted from miles to kilometers but I also lowered some distances, interval reps and tempo run duration because I didn't feel ready going to 6 runs a week. In fact, the only week I ran 6 times was the first in that plan.

As you can also see, I had planned a special long run on November 3rd. That's when I did my first half marathon long run. We ended up with a very nice day that Sunday and not only did I go the distance of 21.1, I ended up running for 22.3 km. That was quite a milestone for me, and instrumental in convincing me to try for a half in 2014.

On November 21st, at about 5:20am, I set out to run a warmup K with the idea of gunning it for a 10K PR right after that. And gunning it, I did, running 10.5 km in 45:24 (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/406957512) for an average pace of 4:19/km (6:57/mile). I remember using that 4:19 average pace and figuring out a time of 43:10 as my new PR for a 10K. The feeling was kinda weird though. There I was, alone and panting in the street near our house and nobody to tell it to. I remember being pretty ecstatic about it and telling my wife as I got back home, putting it into perspective to her, comparing my first 10K time of 46:09 to this hypothetical 43:10. She looked impressed and I was proud of myself, that was good enough for a before work kind of celebration. :)

I entered maintenance mode following that virtual race only to decide to follow a Facebook page's challenge. "I <3 to run" was challenging their followers to run at least a mile every day in December. I started that challenge a couple days early and from November 27th to December 31st, I ran at least a mile for 35 consecutive days and in the process logged my first 200 km month since I started running.

It's also at the beginning of December that I committed to my full plate of racing for the Summer of 2014 but that is for our next installment. :)

FM

FrogMan

05-14-2014, 02:10 PM

I'm constantly talking to myself like that on the interval runs. "Okay, halfway done with this 400, then only 2 more 400s left. 67% done!"

yeah, I do a lot of math work during my runs, especially the ones without music... :)

FM

Kodos

05-14-2014, 02:12 PM

I leave the iPod home for interval workouts. On regular runs, I'm much less conscious of how far along I am and I try to just enjoy the run and listen to music.

Interval workouts kinda suck.

FrogMan

05-14-2014, 02:13 PM

I leave the iPod home for interval workouts. On regular runs, I'm much less conscious of how far along I am. Interval workouts kinda suck.

Same for me although I always take my iPhone with me, for safety reasons. And for intervals, I just need to hear the watch beep at me...

And yeah, they "kinda" suck, the same way that hill runs really do suck, but it's where you earn them fast wheels. ;)

FM

Kodos

05-14-2014, 02:47 PM

When it beeps at the end of a 3 minute interval, you're just like "thank you!".

FrogMan

05-15-2014, 09:13 AM

When it beeps at the end of a 3 minute interval, you're just like "thank you!".

or when it beeps at the end of the rest period, I'm like "oh come on, really? so soon???" ;)

FM

Alan T

05-15-2014, 10:08 AM

or when it beeps at the end of the rest period, I'm like "oh come on, really? so soon???" ;)

FM

I find that I have the opposite problem with my rest period.. where I get antsy to want to start up again too soon and have to convince myself to take the full rest so I don't blow up from running it too soon.

FrogMan

05-15-2014, 11:34 AM

I find that I have the opposite problem with my rest period.. where I get antsy to want to start up again too soon and have to convince myself to take the full rest so I don't blow up from running it too soon.

I only tend to do that on longer intervals, say 800m or mile repeats, but on shorter ones like the 400m at mile pace like I did yesterday, the rest period seemed awfully short...

FM

FrogMan

05-15-2014, 11:39 AM

I got a trail race coming up on Monday, and because of it I'd moved a 60 minutes progression that was planned for Tuesday to today but scratched that when I went out the door in order to enter a tiny taper period. Went and did 7 km at a fairly easy pace. It was pretty nice out there. None of the rain that had been forecasted for a few days and temperatures almost around 50 but felt cooler than that.

Got some odd pain in my right knee though. Not too sure what it is, probably some fatigue more than anything else. Will another 5 at easy pace tomorrow and maybe another 3-5 on Saturday and rest on Sunday.

FM

FrogMan

05-15-2014, 11:41 AM

Back in October last year, after that 18K and furthermore after my first run of more than 21.1 km, the idea firmly planted itself in my head that I was ready to tackle a half marathon in a race setting. Sure, I knew it wouldn't happen before Spring of 2014 but I also knew that it would give me time to get ready so I started shopping around.

We have a nice circuit of races in Quebec called "Courir à Québec" (loosely translates to "Running in Quebec City") which includes a few events from May to August. I was looking at their separate races and came upon a tiny section on their website titled "Season Ticket". Season ticket buyers are guaranteed a bib for one distance in every one of their events, finisher medal and a shirt (although one gives a knit hat) as well as some other perks and even the possiblity of changing a distance at a later date as long as there were still bibs available. I found their list of events pretty interesting and the idea of a season ticket to be a nice idea for pushing myself a bit. I don't know how many of those season tickets they sell but they claim that they limit them to a max of 500 tickets per season.

I bought mine in early December with the following (original) list of events:

May 4th, Lévis Half Marathon
- That's the that ended up in a DNF...
May 19th, 8K trail race in Duchesnay, Qc
- This one is next Monday. Monday, May 19th is a holiday in Quebec thus why they are doing the race on that day. Duchesnay is a nice park/reserve kind of place that I've often heard about but have never really visited. I'm not a trail/cross country runner so this will be an interesting experience. I'm not going in with any goals, simply to enjoy the experience. Because of my lack of experience running trail, I opted for the 8K distance but they also have an 18K dustance...
June 1st, 10K Descente Royale (Royal Descent)
- This one will be fun. The course is a steady downhill, thus its name, starting from Beauport and ending near Quebec City but not really in the Old Quebec City. This was supposed to simply be part of my training for a marathon on August but I now see it more as a 10K goal race. I'm hoping to do a very fast time in that race.
June 15th, Quebec Staircase Challenge
- They have two distances for this event, 13.5K and 19K. I originally had signed up for the 19K race but have since changed it to a 13.5K after the DNF in my half marathon. As it implies, it'll be run part on streets but also part on the many staircases that are all around the old part of Quebec City. Almost impossible to set a goal for a race like this but I expect that it'll be VERY tough. After not finishing the half, it was kinda of the wise move to reassure my wife to drop the distance on this one from 19 to 13.5K.
August 24th, Quebec Marathon
- In a perfect world, I was to finish my May 4th half in a time around 1:35, maybe as fast as 1:32 and was to keep on training for 16 more weeks, ending my Summer with the full 42.2 km marathon on August 24th. That kinda got derailed when I dropped to me knees and ended my half marathon on a stretcher and in the ER. I'm still certain I can do a half marathon but until I've successfully done one, I have decided that I will not enter a full marathon. Life's not a sprint and I will take the time to do things the right way. Because of this, and again to reassure my wife that I will not be stupid enough to die in one of those races, I have asked to change event and will be running a half marathon on that day. Because of that change, my 16 weeks training plan I had planned to follow is not necessary and I will go back to the 12 weeks plan I used for my first half marathon. That is why the Royal Descent 10K can become sort of a goal race for which I'll try to train over 4 weeks...

To this racing schedule, I will add a 5K on July 4th and quite certainly will do the 18K again but that's only in October...

This at least gives you an idea of what I'm training for this Summer. More on training plans later on...

FM

FrogMan

05-15-2014, 12:01 PM

forgot to mention but the trail race is the one for which they are giving a knit hat. A bit hot for this season but cool temperatures will be back and I'll be happy I have it next Fall and Winter...

See attached pic for the hat and the finisher medal... I'm picking up my bib on Saturday afternoon.

FM

Alan T

05-15-2014, 04:19 PM

June 1st, 10K Descente Royale (Royal Descent)
- This one will be fun. The course is a steady downhill, thus its name, starting from Beauport and ending near Quebec City but not really in the Old Quebec City. This was supposed to simply be part of my training for a marathon on August but I now see it more as a 10K goal race. I'm hoping to do a very fast time in that race.

I just saw your route for that on Strava.. Man that looks like a fun course! Should make for a real good time in that race. I learned the hard way though on the fast downhills that what Jonathan Savage says is absolutely correct.. we all train for the uphills, but we never train enough for the downhills. On my recent 5 mile race, it was the downhills that I couldn't handle fast enough.

Hope you have a good time with this one though (and hopefully the weather stays cool enough for you still into June).

FrogMan

05-15-2014, 08:25 PM

I just saw your route for that on Strava.. Man that looks like a fun course! Should make for a real good time in that race. I learned the hard way though on the fast downhills that what Jonathan Savage says is absolutely correct.. we all train for the uphills, but we never train enough for the downhills. On my recent 5 mile race, it was the downhills that I couldn't handle fast enough.

Hope you have a good time with this one though (and hopefully the weather stays cool enough for you still into June).

yeah, had saved a screenshot of it and was gonna share it in due time but here it is. Even comparing it to the long downhill portion of my half marathon this one seems to have an even greater elevation loss over the 10 km, and I had a 10K stretch done in 41:38 during that HM. I'm thinking I could push toward 41:00 and maybe even faster, especially considering I will be gunning it to leave about nothing in the tank after 10 km...

I also like the fact that the downhill doesn't start until maybe 1.5 km into the 10K. This means I'll be pushing hard to start, then will lower the HR as we start going down.

You are right about the fact that we, usually, train very little our downhill running ability. When I first shared the course of my HM to my running friends on Lose It, many recommended me to training running downhill. If you remember, my treadmill is capable of going at -3% decline and I did many little runs at that setting, then did a long run right on the HM course, at about race pace over the downhill portion. I won't go run on that 10K course but I'm confident that I'll be able to run downhill with power.

FM

FrogMan

05-19-2014, 10:10 PM

I'll be back with some race report later but here's a quick update on my trail race that was this morning.

8K distance in 42:16
10th overall out of 481 finishers!
10th in men out of 167
3rd in M40-49 out of 67!!!

On any other race of that distance, that pace would have been a disappointment to me but that was a rough course, lots of tree roots, rocks to hop, muddy spots with steep uphills and crazy technical downhills in which we couldn't really let go and fly or else you would fly off course. ;) Sooooooooo very out of my comfort zone but very happy I got it done.

FM

FrogMan

05-20-2014, 11:50 AM

Race Report
La Trail du Coureur des Bois, Duchesnay, Québec
8K trail race
May 19th, 2014

Weekend the race
I knew going into the weekend it would be a crazy weekend. Bib pickup on Saturday afternoon in downtown Quebec City, on our way to our youngest son's first soccer game in his preseason tournament that was held about 40 minutes from home. He then 3 more games on Sunday but I'd miss the last one because my wife was in a hip hop competition around dinner time. Her dance troop did so well, they ended up winning their category and in the process were picked as one of the 8 judge's choice to show their routine in the big showcase in the evening. That show was going to be fro 8:30 to 10:30 but they ran quite a bit late so we only got home around 11:30 and I could only get to bed at about midnight on Sunday. I usually go to bed pretty late on most days but wanted to try and get some better sleep before the race but oh well, life happens. And I was so proud of my wife, and my son who ended up scoring a goal during his tournament, something that doesn't happen often for him, a defender...

I tried to eat well over the last few days before the race but it wasn't easy, especially on that crazy Sunday. I think I did a better job this time around than before my half marathon so that's already one tiny win. I made sure not to fight to stay under budget for the last 4-5 days before the race, in fact going 2500 calories over budget (and that is after accounting for exercise) during those last 5 days. Ate decently only to have to eat a Subway roast beef on Sunday evening but heh, life happens. Then got up on Monday and I had dropped two lbs to the exact same weight I had the morning of my half marathon, that kinda made me nervous...

Speaking of Sunday, you might ask, why do a race on a Monday morning? Well, the third Monday of May is a holiday in Canada. For most of Canada, it's known as Victoria Day (I think) and in Quebec, it's called Patriots Day, or something like that. All I know is that it's not a mandatory holiday and my workplace doesn't have it, so I took some time from my own bank of free time to race. Wife was off work and both kids were off school. My mother-in-law also came to cheer me on. My oldest son had my nice Canon camera and my youngest had our older Kodak.

Prerace routine and goals
Race site is maybe 40 minutes away from home too. It's a nice resort/preserve type place. Here's a pic of the cabins they have on site that my youngest son took:
http://i.imgur.com/enuWdo0.jpg

I'd heard the name Duchesnay very often since my youth but had never been there myself. Both my sons had been on visits with their school groups. Three events were offered: 18K, 8K, and 1.5K for kids.

Since I have never even trained on trail, I felt that 8K would be plenty for me. I'm very glad I made that decision. Because of all the unknown, not the least of which was that I had no idea about elevation gains and such, I didn't set any goals for myself in that race. I was there to enjoy a new experience, give it my all but especially, cross that finish line for the first time this season and put behind the DNF of two weeks ago.

The start of the 8K was set for 9 am but before that, the 18K was set for an 8:30 start and I watched them go by waves of 6 every 10-12 seconds. Was glad I watched at least part of it as it gave me an idea of how it would go for me. I then set out to warmup, running about a mile in the long parking lot with some strides to get the leg going. I'd heard them announce that the start of the 8K would be in 20 minutes so after a quick bathroom stop I made my way toward the line. Thing is, many people had already lined up in no particular order. Newbie that I am, I didn't want to impose myself and get to the front. I mean, I didn't even know where I'd fit in there. I just knew I'd probably be passing many people as I was about 2/3 of the way back in line. :O

Race start and loop around
They started the first waves at exactly 9 and we slowly started inching forward. My watch indicates an activity start time at 9:11. With a wave of 6 going every 12 seconds (or 5 waves per minute), that means 55 waves or almost 330 runners ahead of me. Yikes, I knew there were a lot of people ahead, just hadn't realized until now it was that many...

And there we go!
http://i.imgur.com/iGu3hnI.jpg

The course started with a sort of loop around the cabins, at first going downhill through the parking lot. We soon got to a path and the fun began. I was going at my usual 7:15/mile pace or probably faster and was passing people every 20 feet. In that portion people were good and stayed in a one line, not doubling up too much. Once on the back of the cabins, we head back up with a first steep uphill and one goal surfaced in my mind. There would probably be many other steep uphill like that, right? I made a deal with myself that I'd try not to walk any of those hills.

Here's what my watch recorded over the course of the race. You can see the loop around and when we disappeared in the woods..
http://i.imgur.com/xMTm9o2.jpg

And here's the elevation profile according to Strava:
http://i.imgur.com/ac3Yr2m.jpg

Entering the woods
Right before entering the woods, we got some crazy downhill and then the fun bega, or continued with a long legbreaker typ of uphill that lasted almost one km. I wasn't really sprinting forward but I wasn't walking either. I kept passing people but here and there, it got a bit more difficult to pass some at times. I had to announce my coming to a couple of girls (young ladies ;)) who had slowed down to a walk and were talking together on their way up. I tried to not be too rude and between two breathes I kinda whispered something along the lines of "please, one line" and they allowed me through. That was the only time i had to actually say something. Further into the woods, the crowd had thinned out enough that there was rarely more than one runner to pass at a time.

Following that first uphill was an ok downhill path on some pack sand in which I sorta was able to increase my pace but that would be the last time. We then went through many twists and turns with a bit of a uphil around midrace and then a long downhill that I remember leaving me almost more tired than if it had been a uphill. That bit was crazy. Roots, rocks, mud, it had it all, going downhill no less. At first I was trying not to jump into the mud pits and I even rock skipped a few times, slowing the heck down, even though I was going downhill. And through this all, I kept passing slower runners, sidestepping at times. At one point, I got behind a group of four that was going a decent pace but they slowed down and a girl and I went forward until a moment later she stepped aside and I went into the lead, only to realize I had no real path ahead of me! I remembered that our course was marked with pink ribbons but I wasn't seeing any! Of course, I was watching the ground in order to avoid twisting an ankle. I slowed a bit down, moved my eyes up a bit and saw a pink ribbon with a clearer opening in the trees and there I went.

It was more of the same until we crossed a road. As you can see from the satellite picture, ou course some sort of road four times. At every crossing, there was a volunteer making sure no car was coming and at that last crossing, I heard the volunteer announce we only had 1.6 km (or about a mile) to go. That kinda confused me because my watch had only 6.1 km on it, not 6.4. Didn't give it much thought and started to go down the side road ditch in order to go back up and cross the road when my left foot stepped wrong and I stumbled, sending me down on my knees adn elbows. First reflect, and when I knew I really was one of those crazy runners? I checked my Garmin to make sure it was still going. Heard the volunteer ask me if I was all right but I was already up, with some sand rubbing between my watch and my wrist. I yelled over my shoulder that I was ok and I ran on.

I almost fell down at least two times in the next 100 meters or so, thanks for tree roots that I failed to clear with my left foot. I made a mental note to be more aware and not let myself be caught again and from then on, not sure if I slowed down much, but I was able to get out of the wooden area to face the last crazy uphill. You see that two prong peaks around km 7. That last climb sure was a b*tch. But I never walked, NEVER WALKED! I was joging as slow as almost staying in place, but I.NEVER. WALKED. Very proud of that.

Crazy downhill finish
Then out the woods we came to some crazy downhill. The start of the downhill was on some wooden path made in some sort of long step staircase where you had to be carefull but I came out of there next to an older gentleman. He seemd willing to push me so it was off to the races. Dang that last push was amazing, exhilarating is the word! From the Strava graph, for the last 100m or so, I had a pace around 2:50 or 3:00/km (4:34-4:50/mile).

Here I am in front of that gentleman:
http://i.imgur.com/LxUAqtW.jpg

The stop area wasn't very long and I had to stop quickly. I remember pumping my fist in the air and I looked for one of my sons with the camera.

Found my youngest and struck a dominance pose, I had beaten that course! :)
http://i.imgur.com/ZDfCwfr.jpg

Then found my oldest and flashed him the thumbs up! :)
http://i.imgur.com/NI9ga8q.jpg

My wife came around and told me they didn't expect me so soon after seeing me start behind so many people. She added they were kinda caught off guard when they saw me get out of the wood at that time. She told me she thought I had at least a top 20 finish and I told her she was crazy. There was something very nice about hearing the announcer say my name out loud as I came close to the finish line.

Got that first finisher medal of the season and I had to take a bite out of it ;)
http://i.imgur.com/pC5O4ic.jpg

After race fun
Got my after race lunch, a nice warm omelette inside a croissant with a bunch of good things like the usual banana, gatorade, juice box, greek yogurt, cheese and such.

I had left my iPhone in the car but wanted to see where I ranked. I had installed the sportstats.ca app on my phone but it wasn't on my wife's phone. I installed it but couldn't find my race on it so tried to go to there website but was too hungry then so I left her phone to my wife. Took her like 15 seconds to tell me "hey, you came in 9th!" I just couldn't believe it, still can't. I was later pushed back to 10th by a late finisher but still, amazingly happy.

My time of 42:16.0 was also good enough for 3rd in my category (M40-49), only 16 seconds from second place (42:00.2), and about a minute from first place (41:06.6)!

I like to see my placements in percentage so here goes:
Overall: 10th out of 438 finishers or top 2.28%
Men: 10th out of 167 or top 5.99%
Category: 3rd out of 61 or 4.91%

That fall did leave a mark though, and some good mud painting ;)
http://i.imgur.com/4ZllUCZ.jpg

Bloody knee too...
http://i.imgur.com/sMsT0hO.jpg

Nothing too bad, just a bit tender to the touch. And well, it burned like crazy in the shower.

Feet and ankles are feeling it this morning. Knees too but not too bad. This morning went out for a 2 miler recovery run in which I tried to keep my heart rate at 110 or less and succeeded, averaging 109 BPM over the run. Had to slow down my pace to an average of about 10:53/mile to get it done.

Well, that's it. That was an amazing experience and I would like to do it again next year. In fact, when we were at our son's soccer tournament, they left pamphlet under our car wipers advertising a trail race for June 7th. I just got too crazy of a schedule to even think about it but it tempted me for a moment... ;)

I also opted not to run with music in this race since I expected to either be passed of have to pass people and I wanted to be aware of my surrounding. I think this'll be my way to go for all future races. Music will be with me in training but not in races. You just lose too much of the crowd feeling when the music is on.

Next up is a 10K descent that should be a lot of fun in two weeks. I had a 12x 400m workout planned for tomorrow that I will probably push back a day or two...

FM

Alan T

05-20-2014, 12:56 PM

Great race write up! Looks like an excellent time and you did great! How are your quads feeling after the downhill finish?

FrogMan

05-20-2014, 01:14 PM

Thanks, it was a good time, and again, I was very glad I had my loved ones there to live it with me. :) I foresee some scheduling conflicts for the next couple of races that I will probably have to go to without my usual group of cheerleaders... Looking forward to racing, not to sitting alone after the race. :(

re quads: quite honestly, they're not too bad. I don't really feel much strain when I contract them. I think my quads are probably my strongest point in my legs. I have done a good bit of negative incline running on the treadmill so I guess I had a start there but I also think that all that horse stance I've done in karate over the last 11 years might have helped make them stronger.

Really, what's hurting the most today is really the ankles, then the knees and my left shoulder (!) probably when I braced myself for the fall into the ditch. Maybe the quads are weak, but they're not really hurting per se.

FM

FrogMan

05-20-2014, 01:18 PM

oh, and hips (as I'm reminded after getting up from my chair). My hips are definitely my weaker spot. They are so much better than just last Fall, but after a hard run like this, I feel them more tender...

FM

Kodos

05-20-2014, 02:43 PM

Great writeup, and a great run. You certainly remember lots of details from your races.

FrogMan

05-20-2014, 03:30 PM

thanks. I started writing down notes of what I remembered in a text file yesterday and put it back together by looking at the GPX file, the elevation profile and all. Some stuff I didn't remember at first came back to me as I was looking at the profile. For example, I wasn't sure if we had crossed three or four roads. Looking at the GPX file, I now see it was four, and I fell on that last crossing. ;)

Tree roots, rocks, mud, you just can't forget these things :D

FM

FrogMan

05-22-2014, 11:26 AM

This week has been a challenging one with my training following the trail race.

I didn't feel too bad the day after the race but knew I had to take it easy so I ran what I'd call a real recovery run (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/503322783). Slowed the heck down my pace in order to keep my heart rate under 110 BPM.

Then yesterday was supposed to be speedwork day, that meant 12x 400m @ mile pace but that's the day the hurting started to show in the legs, specifically feet, ankles and knees. Hurting feet was a new one for me, most certainly due to all the uneven footing encountered during the trail race. I decided to push back the speedwork session to today and I did 9.35 km at what will probably be my new easy pace, around 9:20 per mile (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/503988934). At that pace, I'm just about able to keep my heart rate under 120 BPM.

Then I went out this morning and did the intervals. Quite honestly, I thought I was going slower than last week's 11x400m but I hit most of them faster!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/504591065

Last week's 400's:
1:24.8
1:29.5
1:26.4
1:26.7
1:31.9
1:27.8
1:33.2
1:34.0
1:35.8
1:34.5
1:28.8

This week's 400's:
1:24.1
1:24.5
1:26.6
1:27.5
1:26.3
1:29.9
1:29.3
1:32.6
1:28.4
1:28.6
1:29.0
1:28.3

Average 400m last week: 1:30.3
Average 400m this week: 1:27.9

Dang...

I also did work on a bit of fueling. Not that it was necessary since it the run only lasted some 55 minutes, but I thought it could be a good idea to try to absorb a gel after the 5th hard interval, so I did. It went quite well. I bought a few different brands of gel last weekend and today's was a honey stinger gel. Went in ok with water and didn't feel anything too bad during any of the following 7 intervals where I was pushing pretty hard. I have some GU gels and some Powerbar gels to try in the next few weeks...

FM

HerRealName

05-23-2014, 06:40 AM

Great job on the race and nice write-up. I really like the idea of trail running but I have to remind myself that my knee is prett much held together with spare parts and duct tape and trails are likely a terrible idea for me.

When you are running your 400 intervals, are you going as fast as you can or do you try to hold back and hit a pace? I need to start running intervals again but I've never really tried to hit target times before.

FrogMan

05-23-2014, 11:21 AM

Great job on the race and nice write-up. I really like the idea of trail running but I have to remind myself that my knee is prett much held together with spare parts and duct tape and trails are likely a terrible idea for me.

Thanks and yeah, while I enjoyed the experience, I'm note ready to switch to training full time in trails just yet. I too have one kinda gimpy knee that I have learned to deal with and that, surprisingly, has given me very little trouble since I've taken on running, quite possibly because I'm very aware of it and pay good attention to form and keeping my body straight. That's one of the reasons why I don't trust running in the snow too much and why I relied so much on the treadmill during the Winter months...

I do look forward to doing the exact same race a year from now though. :)

When you are running your 400 intervals, are you going as fast as you can or do you try to hold back and hit a pace? I need to start running intervals again but I've never really tried to hit target times before.

I'm kinda holding back. Hal Higdon asks to do them at "mile pace", i.e. the pace I should be able to hold for a one mile race. Obviously, if I tried to go as fast as I could over only 400m, I would be able to go much faster than constant pace held over 1609m. I figured this "mile pace" based on my best recent VDOT performance which was a 15K stretch during my recent HM DNF. I used the 1:03:42 for 15K and plugged it into Jack Daniels' calculator and it spits me out a mile pace of 5:51/mile. That's 3:38/km so when an interval starts, I try to start at least at 3:30/km based on the current pace of my watch (since it's set in metric) and if I see myself slow down to 3:40 or 3:45, I try to push harder. I usually am able to push harder so this tells me I'm quite certainly not pushing the hardest I could, but then again, I do 12 reps. Wouldn't be able to do 12 good reps if I gave it all in the first. ;)

I found it interesting that the Jack Daniels' calculator gave a "Repetition" training pace at 5:55/mile or 1:28 for 400m which compares quite well to Hal Higdon's mile pace equivalent over 400m of 1:27.

My learnings about these intervals came in part from Hal Higdon and Jack Daniels.

From Higdon's 10K advanced training plan (http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51124/10K-Advanced-Training-Program):
Speedwork: If you want to race at a fast pace, you need to train at a fast pace several days a week. Interval training, where you alternate fast running with jogging or walking, is a very effective form of speedwork. The training schedule begins in Week 1 with a workout of 6 x 400 meters and peaks in Week 7 with 12 x 400 meters. Run the 400s at about the pace you would run in a mile or 1500 race. Walk or jog between each repeat. Although the best venue for speedwork of this sort is on a 400-meter track, these workouts can be done on the road or on trails, either by using measured courses or by running hard approximately the length of time you would run a 400 on the track. For instance, if you normally run 400s in 90 seconds, do fast reps at that length of time and don't worry about distance.

From Daniels' calculator (http://www.runsmartproject.com/calculator/):
Rep Pace
Variety: Pace reps and strides.

Intensity: Reps are fast, but not necessarily "hard," because work bouts are relatively short and are followed by relatively long recovery bouts. Recoveries are to be long enough that each run feels no more difficult than the previous run, because the purpose of Reps is to improve speed and economy and you can not get faster (nor more economical) if you are not running relaxed. If it takes 3 minutes recovery between Rep 400s, then that is what is needed. Reducing rest time between individual work bouts does not make for a better workout, in fact it probably makes for a worse workout because the short rests could increase the stress and lead to poor economy. Think of Reps as similar to current 1500 or mile race pace.

Purpose: To improve your speed and economy.

I just now saw why Daniels and Higdon time are similar when reading the last sentence of Daniels' explanation. I had never read his explanation all the way to that last period. ;)

Until this training cycle, I had never really walked in between interval reps but seeing the 11 and 12 reps the plan called for, I felt it probably would be a better idea to push hard during the interval, then fully rest in between. Doing 150m of walking then 150m of easy jog usually gives me between 2:15 and 2:25 of rest which I think is quite reasonable compared to intervals that take me between 1:24 and 1:33...

I also realize that this week's interval session might have only seemed slower because I was probably more relaxed, as Daniels describe it.

FM

FrogMan

05-23-2014, 11:23 AM

Here's something cool from last Monday's trail race. As with many other races I'm sure, they take pictures of the race and you can buy a picture or a package or pictures. They tagged 5 pictures with my bib number and I'm still debating if I'm going to buy the package or not as I know there will be more pictures than that on the end of season half marathon.

Anyway, here's a little collage I put together. Remember when i talked about that gentleman that tried to race me as we got out of the woods? Well, here's little "story in pictures" as it happened. From left to right, first I'm well behind on the last trail portion of the race then in the middle picture you see me coming down that same path a moment later and finally I'm ahead with maybe 100 meters to go. :)

http://i.imgur.com/0ULcJuo.jpg

That path section was of the very clean variety but you also had to be pretty careful with the wooden steps as they are not always even spaced...

FM

Kodos

05-23-2014, 11:55 AM

Nothing feels better than passing people down the stretch...

FrogMan

05-23-2014, 11:58 AM

Nothing feels better than passing people down the stretch...

well, for that, that race felt pretty good since I passed a lot of people, but not one passing felt as good as that last one, that's for sure. :)

FM

FrogMan

05-26-2014, 11:21 AM

Well, last week was a good week of training. Overall, 8 runs over 6 days for 36.03 miles in 5:23:31 for an average pace of 8:59/mile. I have really slowed down my easy pace and it's showing.

Starting with that trail race on Monday, I finished it strong with a couple of good runs on Saturday and Sunday. Both runs included some work at 10K pace or faster.

Saturday's run was a 9.5 km run in which I went 3 easy (HR<120), then 3 @ 4:10/km and finished it 3.5 easy (HR<130).

The three fast km in that run were done in 4:08, 4:06 and 4:07. I tried to fit that 3 km in a section with a tiny bit of elevation loss but it's pretty flat around my neighborhood. 16 meters over 3000 is only 0.53%. Sunday's 10K course is supposed to have about 120 m over 10K or 1.2%. Should help me go faster ;)

I then had to run a bit more as when I got to the house, I realized that my wife had locked me out of the house as she left with our youngest son for his swimming training. 17yo sleeping deep, with closed door in his room, and a fan next to him, I didn't even try to wake him up. sigh... Ran back and forth the 1.5 km to my mother-in-law's to pick up our backup key... sigh again...

Sunday's run was a bit more of the same, 15 km split this way: 5 km easy (HR<120), 4 @4:10 and 6 easy (HR<130). Went out the door around noon and while it wasn't extremely hot, some 66F under the sun, it still was the warmest I've run in since last Fall. Yeah, I know, sucks huh? ;) That was about perfect weather.

The four fast km were done in 4:07, 4:11, 4:09 and 4:06 with about the same elevation loss as the day before. I'll take that. Looking at the HR data for both runs, I do see that it stayed a couple ticks lower on Sunday than it was on Saturday, despite it having one more km at the faster pace. It did feel tougher on Sunday's though, possibly because of some leg fatigue lingering from the previous day's run.

This week started with a 5 km recovery run this morning in which I was able to keep the heart rate under 110. Slowed the pace the heck down though, but it felt good.

Here's what's on tap for the rest of the week:
TUE: 6 km @ easy pace (scratched the 30 minutes progression in order to rest the legs a bit)
WED: 6x400m @ mile pace
THU: 5 km recovery run
FRI: 3 km @ easy pace with some strides
SAT: rest
SUN: RACE DAY! 10K Royal Descent :)

Oh, and I think I found a gel I can manage. Peanut butter flavored GU gel. Doesn't taste exactly like PB but it's also not as sweet and sticky as the others I've tried so far. It went down ok with some water. I took it right at the end of my fourth kilometer on Sunday's run and ran 6 more km afterward without any GI problems. Probably should have tried it right in the middle of the hard running, but for a new try, I didn't want to push too much...

Alan T

05-26-2014, 02:47 PM

Oh, and I think I found a gel I can manage. Peanut butter flavored GU gel. Doesn't taste exactly like PB but it's also not as sweet and sticky as the others I've tried so far. It went down ok with some water. I took it right at the end of my fourth kilometer on Sunday's run and ran 6 more km afterward without any GI problems. Probably should have tried it right in the middle of the hard running, but for a new try, I didn't want to push too much...

I tried the peanut butter gu for a while, but what I found was that the first one or two were ok.. after that my mouth just was a gummy mess no matter how much water I drunk and I had serious issues with it.

I also had to slow down more to take it. Normally with Gus, I don't have to slow, but I had a harder time breathing with the peanut butter gu. It being thicker made it not dissolve in my mouth like the other gus do, so I had to focus more on it.

Maybe if you only need 1 or 2 gu, it wouldnt be so bad, but if you get beyond that, I suddenly had issues with it before. it definitely is a far different texture than the other Gus

Alan T

05-26-2014, 02:52 PM

I just now saw why Daniels and Higdon time are similar when reading the last sentence of Daniels' explanation. I had never read his explanation all the way to that last period. ;)

Until this training cycle, I had never really walked in between interval reps but seeing the 11 and 12 reps the plan called for, I felt it probably would be a better idea to push hard during the interval, then fully rest in between. Doing 150m of walking then 150m of easy jog usually gives me between 2:15 and 2:25 of rest which I think is quite reasonable compared to intervals that take me between 1:24 and 1:33...

I also realize that this week's interval session might have only seemed slower because I was probably more relaxed, as Daniels describe it.

FM

I may have missed it, or you may already be aware of it, but it took me a while before I finally figured out the difference between the different measures for Daniels calculators. Repetition pace really is meant for training for shorter/faster racing. It is not meant to be what marathoners or long distance runners use for their intervals. We really want to stick to the interval pace time for our intervals.

The 100% goal of intervals is to stress the V02max capabilities of our system. Daniels' opinion is the best way to do that is to stress that system. So the interval pace is designed to be the right pace that your body needs to be able to put your heart rate into v02max territory for anywhere from 2-5 minutes. He says it is very ineffective to push it in that territory longer than 5 minutes which is why the walk breaks are recommended. The walk break needs to be long enough to drop your HR but not too long to the point where you can't get your HR back up to V02max in the next interval.

His comments are that running harder than interval pace does not improve your v02max any more or any faster, and will likely just tire you or increase chance of injury though.

I know that I had for a while ran my intervals too quickly without understanding that.

FrogMan

05-27-2014, 09:05 AM

I tried the peanut butter gu for a while, but what I found was that the first one or two were ok.. after that my mouth just was a gummy mess no matter how much water I drunk and I had serious issues with it.

I also had to slow down more to take it. Normally with Gus, I don't have to slow, but I had a harder time breathing with the peanut butter gu. It being thicker made it not dissolve in my mouth like the other gus do, so I had to focus more on it.

Maybe if you only need 1 or 2 gu, it wouldnt be so bad, but if you get beyond that, I suddenly had issues with it before. it definitely is a far different texture than the other Gus

Ok, good to know. Still lots of testing to do, obviously, and I'm still VERY early in the process.

For now, I'm not too sure I'd need more than maybe 2 during a half marathon with maybe one about 15 minutes before the start of the race. That first one could be just about any flavor and could even be replace by chews during my warmup. Then one after 25 minutes or so, then another at the 50-55 minutes mark with an estimated finish time around 1:35...

Of course, all that planning wouldn't work in the case of a marathon, but I got about another year to plan for that. ;)

FM

FrogMan

05-27-2014, 09:06 AM

I may have missed it, or you may already be aware of it, but it took me a while before I finally figured out the difference between the different measures for Daniels calculators. Repetition pace really is meant for training for shorter/faster racing. It is not meant to be what marathoners or long distance runners use for their intervals. We really want to stick to the interval pace time for our intervals.

The 100% goal of intervals is to stress the V02max capabilities of our system. Daniels' opinion is the best way to do that is to stress that system. So the interval pace is designed to be the right pace that your body needs to be able to put your heart rate into v02max territory for anywhere from 2-5 minutes. He says it is very ineffective to push it in that territory longer than 5 minutes which is why the walk breaks are recommended. The walk break needs to be long enough to drop your HR but not too long to the point where you can't get your HR back up to V02max in the next interval.

His comments are that running harder than interval pace does not improve your v02max any more or any faster, and will likely just tire you or increase chance of injury though.

I know that I had for a while ran my intervals too quickly without understanding that.

Oh, no, I was not aware of that and it's good to know.

I'm honestly more familiar with Higdon's way of planning his intervals and, as you know with his half marathon plan, he calls for 400's to be done at 5K pace. The last couple weeks were part of a 10K plan in which he is asking for the 400's to be done at mile pace, presumably since it's a shorter distance than the half or the full marathon.

I had realized how much faster they had to be done, since I'd gone through a training cycle for a half marathon with one of his plan. It was also the reason why I felt I needed to walk in between, but I'm not sure I would have held back enough once I'd gone back to half marathon training and his required pace would have gone back to 5K pace. I'm guessing I would have been tempted to push it at mile pace with no real gain.

Now, I'll make sure to keep the paces in the right spot, i.e. around 4:00/km for the 400@5K pace, around 4:10/km for the 800@10K pace and around 4:25/km for the mile repeats at race pace.

Thanks for that input, highly appreciated!

FM

FrogMan

05-27-2014, 09:07 AM

as for today's training run, I went out for a 6.5 km at an easy pace. Was a nice day yesterday afternoon then we got all sorts of weather watches/alerts for strong showers or storms with very rough winds and possible hail coming over the evening. Temperature dropped from 75F to about 54F between 4 and 6 yesterday afternoon. We never got any rain but going to bed, I wasn't feeling like going out in crazy winds for a 5:30 am run.

The old me would have said "the heck with it, I'm taking my run to the basement and the belt" but the new me wanted to feel the wind pushing me around so out there I went. The wind had died down a bit from what it was yesterday evening but I still encountered a couple of pretty strong wind walls. You know, the kind of push that makes you feel like you are running in place and not moving forward at all. Still it was a good feeling, you need to experience that every once in a while...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/508069768

6.54 km in 36:14, avg pace: 5:32/km (8:54/mile) avg HR: 123 BPM

FM

FrogMan

05-28-2014, 11:25 AM

plan called for 6x 400M at mile pace but after that enlightening post from Alan, I decided to pull back on speed a bit and did them at 5K pace, or close to what I think my 5K pace could be on the perfectest day, which is about 4:00/km. I also opted not to walk during the rest periods.

A 4:00/km pace makes for a split time of 1:36, some 9 seconds slower than the prescribed 1:27 time when doing the intervals at mile pace.

My actual 400 times this morning:
1:35.0
1:35.1
1:32.6
1:31.2
1:34.0
1:31.8

I'd like to say that doing them kinda slower made it easier but nah, still was hard work. Average heart rate stayed a little lower than last week's 12x400 (144.7 vs 146.3 last week) but the rest HR was higher (139.8 vs 132.8 last week), so I was getting less rested in between pushes, so overall, the intervals were indeed easier, they just didn't feel like it. ;)

There still were some gusts of wind this morning so parts of these were done facing some good headwinds so it might have played into how it felt.

This was my last hard session before Sunday's 10K and I'm getting to the point of writing down goals...

A goal) probably unattainable but it remains my top goal, that is to someday break the 40 minutes mark on a 10K. I'm probably not there yet but if there's a place where it could happen, that downhill course could eventually be the place so that's my top goal. I do have some mental barrier with seeing a number in the 3:xx for current pace on my watch though, as though I'm about to spontaneously combust or something...
B goal) my best 10K stretch during my half marathon was done in 41:38, that's a 4:10/km pace. That stretch had about 100m of elevation loss, kinda similar to what will be in Sunday's race but I wasn't pushing with the set goal in mind to run 10 km and then stop for a banana. For this reason, I'm thinking a 4:05 to 4:07 pace should be achievable. That'd be a finish time between 40:50 and 41:10 so breaking the 41 minutes mark makes for a reasonable B goal.
C goal) my last road 10K pace test goes back to last November and I did it in 43:10 for the 2nd Any Way 10K on Strava. I don't think it reflects in any way where I'm at right now. My latest 10K pace test was done back in April but on the treadmill in 42:20 for a 4:14/km pace. Not too sure how it being on the treadmill translates to the road but I'm thinking I would be somewhat disappointed with anything slower than that so that'll be my lowest of goals, to at least beat 42:20...

Bib pickup is Friday evening or Saturday in downtown Quebec City. Waiting for them to show a picture of the shirt on their FB page but I just checked the running store where they hand the bibs (Running Room) that has also become my running store of choice and I see that they have received some Brooks Ghost 7 shoes. I'm currently running with some Ghost 6 and they have only discounted them 10 bucks. I'm now up to a little over 330 miles on them so I'd like to introduce a pair to alternate between the two and will probably pick up a pair when I go get my bib...

FM

FrogMan

05-30-2014, 11:34 AM

Ran a 5 km recovery run yesterday and closed out my week with an easy 2 miler this morning. I'll rest the legs tomorrow and will go pick up my bib in the afternoon.

I'll be without my usual crowd of cheerleaders for this race, a first for me. My youngest son has a soccer activity Sunday morning and my wife will go with him and my oldest has to work (teach) at the dojo. Since it's a point to point course, I'll park my car at the finish line and will take the shuttle to the start line. Usually, my wife and family would come to the start line, watch the start and meet me at the finish line. I'll feel a bit alone on Sunday. :(

In other news, I signed up for my first 5K ever, to be run on July 4th. It's an evening race on a Friday evening, start time around 6 pm.

I'm also contemplating a couple 10K to add to my race schedule, one before my August half marathon and one in September. The one in September is held in the town where I work and all profits go to a local organisation called LEUCAN that provides services to kids with cancer. They'll have distances of 2, 5 and 10K. While I am planning to do the 10K, I've issued a sort of challenge to my older son to run the 2K with me and his younger brother (who doesn't know about it yet). Start time for the 10K is at 10 and the 2K starts at 11:15. My 10K should take me at worst 45 minutes so I could do an easy couple kilometers with them for a good cause like this. My oldest son has had his head shaven the last couple years raising funds for LEUCAN. He's not doing it this year since he's graduating high school and wanted his pictures to look nice which I can understand...

Add to the fact that the course for this race will be a 5K stretch out and back that starts with about 1.5 km of downhill, thus ending with 1.5 km of uphill and by mid-September, I'll be preparing for a possible return to that Lac Beauport 18K I did last year that was VERY hilly. If only for that reason, this 10K would be a perfect practice...

FM

FrogMan

05-30-2014, 12:29 PM

Oh, and I can't believe I posted about this about everywhere but not in here... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN!!! ;)

Seriously, exactly one year ago today, on May 30th 2013, I went out the door to take a little walk. I had just tested for my 3rd dan in karate a few days before and having worked hard to regain fitness, I was determined to not let that fitness go to waste. I'd always hated running but I wanted to at least get walking. That evening, that walking went to some running from time to time. 38 minutes that changed my life. I had discovered something magical, something liberating.Since that Thursday evening, I have run/walked a little over 2000 km (1245 miles) and have lost another 8 pounds on top of the 35 pounds I had lost before that day. No, all those miles were not easy. Some rain, some snow, some pains left and right, wake up calls early in the morning, some days when I really didn't want to get out of bed, but always with one goal in mind, to push back my limits. I'm competing with myself here, I want to know how far I can go and I'm amazed with every little victory, may it be a new long distance, or a new PR (personal record) for a set distance. And you know what? I'm fully convinced there's still plenty of PR in that body of mine!

I feel better than ever, in the best shape I've been in a long time, ready to face all the challenges life is willing to throw at me...

FM

Alan T

05-30-2014, 01:25 PM

Oh, and I can't believe I posted about this about everywhere but not in here... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAN!!! ;)

Thanks Steve! :)

You've done an awesome job in just your first year. And to think, they say people don't really hit full speed for many years of dedicated running. I think you have quite alot ahead of you if you keep up with such determination!

Good luck this weekend in your race, I am sure you will do great!

FrogMan

05-30-2014, 03:34 PM

Thanks Steve! :)

You've done an awesome job in just your first year. And to think, they say people don't really hit full speed for many years of dedicated running. I think you have quite alot ahead of you if you keep up with such determination!

Good luck this weekend in your race, I am sure you will do great!

thanks, as I said, I'm still amazed at some of the things my body can do. I mean, genes must have something to do about it but I so hated running when I was younger and I so always thought that endurance running, or endurance anything was just not for me, that, again, sometimes I freak myself a bit.

There's one thing I am proud of and it's how meticulate I have been about building my endurance base and I got you to thank for. You've been a great source of info, tidbits here and there that allowed me to view running the long term thing it really is. I'm happy I didn't go gung ho into racing last Summer since this Summer is proving to me how difficult it can be to juggle training and racing.

Hopefully you are right and there's still plenty left in this 43 year old tank if I can keep it healthy. For that, I will keep on building up slowly. If there's one thing I'm learning this Summer, it's about the aforementioned juggle between training and racing. Racing is fun, but it takes a toll on the body.

I do think I can get faster and I want to eventually, first correct that DNF anomaly that was that first HM experience and eventually, second, go on to bigger, longer things (read a full marathon) one way and faster things in other ways.

FM

FrogMan

05-31-2014, 09:19 PM

Today was a rest day but I had a nice visit to my favorite Running Room store this afternoon to pickup my bib for tomorrow's 10K race called the Royal Descent. And look what I brought back! A brand new pair of Brooks Ghost 7 that were just received this past week in store and nice Nike Run shirt, bright yellow just the wayI like them!

Start time is 8 am tomorrow but I'll have to get there for about 6:30 since it's a point to point race and I need to take a shuttle from the finishing area to the start line and the last shuttle departs at 7. Don't want to be stuck in that last one...

That finishing area is about 35 minutes from home so will be on the road around 5:50 tomorrow, woah...

FM

FrogMan

06-01-2014, 12:11 PM

I'll be back with some sort of race report but for now, I'll say that I k-i-l-l-e-d it!

Chip time: 39:33 for a 10K!!! Oh yeah!!!

It really was a nice, very fast course.

19:49 on the first 5K, 19:45 on the second one, I even negative splitted that second 5K!

I have not even looked at the race data, so I know I'll have more to say later.

50th overall out of 1247 (top 4%)
14th in my category (M40-49) out of 174 (top 8%)

There were some fast rabbits in my category, who probably have all been running for much longer than 12 months ;)

Very happy with that results, now on to relax a bit. :)

FM

FrogMan

06-02-2014, 09:29 PM

Race Report
La Descente Royale, 10K
Sunday, June 1st, 2014
Boischatel to Beauport, Québec

Pre-race morning
It really was a gorgeous day for a race. Bright sun out but almost chilly. It was only 43F when I got in my car to head out to the race site at about 5:55am on Sunday morning. Race course is a point to point so we had to park at the finishing area then take a shuttle to the starting site. It was my first time doing that, the shuttle thing I mean. Lots of first for me this season. :) It was also my first race without my contingent of cheerleaders since my wife had to be at a soccer activity with our youngest son and my oldest son was teaching karate. This'll explain the utter lack of pictures from this report, at least until some show up on the race race website.

I felt kinda lonely boarding the shuttle bus but it was a pretty cool experience. I'm not the chatty type, at least not with people I don't know and also not when I'm getting in a zone, sorta, so I put on my headphones on the bus and looked out the window. That was an interesting ride as I could feel us going up and up and up then oops, down? That wasn't good news. If the bus was going "down" on the way up, that meant we'd have to run up on a downhill course?!? (makes sense or are you getting a headache? ;) )

I had a windowside seat and could see down toward the St Lawrence river. I expected the view to be great and it was. I made a mental not as we crossed the Montmorency river that leds to the Montmorency falls to enjoy the view when we'd get to that point during the race...

Start area and race start
Sun was still shining bright when we got to the start area but most of the area was shaded by lots of big trees. That start area was in a pretty rural part of town, a place I'm sure never sees 1200-1300 people at once on their streets. I did my warmup mile on a sort of backyard sand road, not even gravel type, actually in sand. That was kind of a bummer because it was uneven so I couldn't really do any strides but I decided to roll with it. They'd gathered people maybe a hundred meters from the starting gate and when we got the call to get closer to the starting gate I walked with a good pace and had already walked by quite a few people, kinda determined not to get stuck behind too many slower runners. I thought I was well positioned but again got kinda stuck behind a few slower fellas, in particular two older guys who decided to get into a conversation as the starter began is 10 seconds countdown to start. It annoyed me a bit, I mean, this is not a marathon and I want to get into my stride from the start, or fairly close to it, not 400 or 500 meters into it. I eventually passed many people and settled into a good pace.

For reference, here's the course with elevation:
http://i.imgur.com/dMAcqin.jpg

As you can see, the first couple km were with only a tiny, but steady downhill. Not much, and with the crowd at the start, I wasn't sure what kind of pace I'd have over the first kilometer or so. My watch is set to give me splits every 500m and I was sort of relieved when I saw an average pace at 4:02 for the first 500m. I felt good then, and even with the crowd, to be able to stay this close to a 40 minutes pace, I thought it was an excellent start.

First downhill
Close to the end of the second kilometer, we hit some serious downhill and I really let 'er rip, I mean almost full out, but the heart rate was steady at around 157-159. I remember seeing my current pace showing on the watch as low as 3:15 or 3:20 per km. I saw this as putting time in the bank. This downhill was followed by a slight up which slowed me some but not too long and I got a good mental boost seeing a split average pace at something like 3:58 despite that little up.

Right around the 4.5 km mark, we came to that bridge over the river that becomes the Montmorency Falls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmorency_Falls) and I did something I had never done in a race yet. Without slowing down my pace, I lifted my eyes and took in the scenery. We were up so high and looking over the falls, I could see the tip of the Ile d'orleans (Orleans Island) and the south shore of the St Lawrence river, were we live.

Here's the satellite pic from that portion, right were we took a 90 degree turn to our right:
http://i.imgur.com/b1BPAbN.jpg

Mid-race
Just a couple hundred meters later, we hit the 5K mark. I remember seeing the timing mat on the ground and shuffled through to total time on my watch, from the heart rate reading, and it showed 19:55 or so, again MAJOR mental boost right there. I'd just done the first 5K under 20!!! Something I'd never done before! I was very happy and knew I could get something nice done overall but even though I usually have a good kick at the end, I often start fast and am not always a good negative splitter. At that point, I wasn't sure I could trust myself to have as fast a second 5K as I'd had in the first...

Final kick
We then hit a couple rolling hills down and up and from the 6th to close to the 8th kilometer, I was kinda cruising and I remember just wanting to stop and walk, just a little. Heart rate was creeping up a bit and even though I tried telling myself there were only 2 km to go, they were getting tough. Legs, knees and ankles were feeling quite ok despite the downhill pounding though. Crazy enough, I didn't feel any pain all of yesterday but today, it's a bit rough. Back to the race, at that 8K point, we hit some major downhill, and I mean something fierce. After seeing some momentary 4:22 or so current pace around the 8K point, I started picking up pace on the downhill and from the 8.5 to the 9.5 km mark, or just were the course goes straight south, it was just a blur, very crazy fast. I thought to myself I had to let it out all there and would cruise easy in the last 500m but I didn't! I get going as the downhill subsided and finished it just as strong. Garmin says my last three 500m splits were done in at paces of 3:44, 3:48 and 3:45 min/km (6:00, 6:07 and 6:02 min/mile).

There was about 400m to go from that last right turn west and I couldn't make up the time on the finish line clock in the distance. As I got to about 150m or so, I saw something like 39:05 and I knew it was in the bank but never allowd the legs to slow down. I crossed the line sprinting while pumping my fist in the air. Heart rate spiked to 168-169, no wonder I felt a bit dizzy there, had to steady myself on one of the fences at the back.

I got my medal, nobody from my family cheering me on but so many people shouting encouragements at the same time. I heard the PA announce my name at end of my sprint, as I came close to the finish line, that's a cool touch. I also heard him say there would be a big crowd coming around the 50 minutes mark and while he was congratulating the crowd of finishers, he wasn't naming them one by one. I guess finishing around top 50 give you that. :D

I'm very, VERY happy with that time but I remain realistic. I'm pretty sure you'd put me on a flat course and I would never be able to go that fast. Not gonna it was like cheating but well, a world record wouldn't stand on a course like that. ;) I will take it for now but I'll be working very hard to repeat that kind of time on a flat course and if I ever do that, I think you'll hear me scream from my race course to your house, wherever you are. :D

Strava have something they call GAP for "Grade Adjusted Pace". I'm unsure how they calculate it but they have to sort of compensate for when you are either going up or down. While my average straight pace for my Strava activity if 3:56/km, their calculated GAP is 4:08 which is about what I'd expect to be able to do for a 10K.

I know it's not always the best to compare yourself to others, since so many things can be factored in, but these I'm very proud of:
50th overall out of 1247 (top 4%)
14th in my category (M40-49) out of 174 (top 8%)

In my very first 10K last August, in a much smaller race, I had the following:
69th overall out of 247 (top 27.9%)
11th in my category (M40-49) out of 38 (top 28.9%)

Have I worked hard or what? And I will keep on working hard, while having fun and listening to my body. :)

Finally, I scored a couple nice cheapies from their previous year article sale including a nice jacket for 20 bucks.

Started a 12 weeks training cycle today that hopefully will get me to finish my second try at a half marathon at the end of August. I'll be back with some post about it later one this week.

Before that HM, the next thing on my plate is a kinda crazy 13.5km staircase challenge in two weeks, then a 5K (my first) three weeks after that.

Thanks for reading, any and all comments welcome. :)

FM

Alan T

06-03-2014, 05:44 AM

Great job once again Steve!

One question, did you wear those new shoes in the race, or are they new shoes that you are going to start using now?

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 09:10 AM

Great job once again Steve!

One question, did you wear those new shoes in the race, or are they new shoes that you are going to start using now?

Thanks Alan :)

Following the tried and true saying of "don't try anything new on race day" I stayed with my current pair of shoes for the race although I could have gone with the new one since I'm currently running with some Brooks Ghost 6 (I've attached a pic). Tried the 7 on yesterday's recovery run and I'm honestly not too sure I can tell a difference between the two which is a good thing in a way. Maybe I'll feel different the more I put miles on them but for now they felt just the same and since I really love my Ghost 6, it's a good thing.

I plan on alternating between the 6 and the 7 until I've put a bit more mileage on the 6. Right now, they stand at about 350 miles. Don't really know how many more miles I can add on them. Will be going mostly on feeling. The outside of the heels are a bit roughed up but otherwise they don't look bad. The cushioning isn't really stamped and the guy at the store thought they still looked quite decent. As I said, I'll go by feeling and if I get any kind of hurting following a run on them, I'll retire them to household/walkaround shoes...

My previous pair were some Asics Nimbus 13 and they're just about retired, now with 572 miles on them. I used them for that trail race since I expected some mud, and there was indeed some. ;)

I love the Brooks much, much better. They're slightly lighter, not racers by any means, but they're cushy and feel dang good.

FM

Alan T

06-03-2014, 09:33 AM

Kodos

06-03-2014, 10:20 AM

Great race, Steve. You and Alan in particular have been very inspirational for me as I try to get myself into racing shape. You guys just plug away steadily, which is what I'm trying to emulate.

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 11:22 AM

I think that was the wise choice. I was just curious based on your other post if you had worn the new shoes. Even though the 10k is not a long distance, it is long enough that some oddness with the shoe could have wrecked your race.

I haven't had too many shoe problems, but I definitely did encounter one pair of shoes that has a weird rub on my outer toe that if I had worn it for a long race, could have caused a nasty blister for me.

Even the same model, two different shoes I notice differences at times in how they feel.

Yeah, I was ecstatic about getting that new pair of Ghost 7 but I thought it was definitely better to be cautious and not force anything. Especially since I'd bought the shoes the day before the race and had not run even once with them before the race. I also had read one review of the Ghost 7 where the reviewer thought they felt slightly larger in the toe box than the 6. I really didn't want to be bothered by anything new during the race. Sure, had my 6 been really battered and need to be replaced, I could have taken a chance and used the 7, but it wasn't necessary.

As I said, I haven't had many pairs of shoes, period, so not many problems. I now know that my Asics Nimbus 13, which I hadn't been fitted for but picked correctly by myself (according to the guy at Running Room) were a good size too small. I can now feel it when I wear them compared to my Ghost. Tells you how much a generalist sports store knows about running. I picked a 9.5 for the Asics, the guy looked at them, said he thougth they looked fine, I had no clue. Got to Running Room in early March when I decided to get properly fitted. The guy there had my try some Nimbus 14 and the Ghost 6 I ended up with and immediately tells me I need to wear some 10.5, not 9.5.

Time will tell how the 7 feel and if I need to go half a size down as that reviewer seemed to say or if I'm just ok the way they are...

FM

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 11:27 AM

Great race, Steve. You and Alan in particular have been very inspirational for me as I try to get myself into racing shape. You guys just plug away steadily, which is what I'm trying to emulate.

Thanks a lot my friend, I'm touched. I'm now a firm believer that consistency has been the main factor in my getting better and faster this season. Not necessarily pushing super hard all the time, but being on the road or the belt almost every day, keeping the legs moving. It's not always easy, we're all busy what with work, family life, kids activities, outside activities but I committed myself to my running, on top of the dojo, and now it's beginning to pay off. I don't try to find time, I make time. 5 am wake up call isn't always easy and I don't mind my off day on Friday but it's been absolutely great to see the improvements. I often feel like Forrest Gump when a coworker asks my how I can get up so early and run. My simple answer is just that, well, I do. That's all. In that sense, running is a great metaphor for life. You get out of it what you put into it. Even more, with running, you can't cheat. Sure lots of thing can happen to derail or help you on a given race day, but if you don't put in the work, you won't get the results...

Alan knows about this article, but I think it sums it up pretty well:
Run Your Fastest Race EVER with this One Weird Old Trick (http://strengthrunning.com/2014/05/run-your-fastest-race-ever-with-this-one-weird-old-trick/)

One thing though, please try not to emulate the faceplanting by the curbside, all right? ;)

FM

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 11:36 AM

Ok let's talk training plan. As I've stated before, I'm big fan of Hal Higdon's training plans, all available for free on his website. It's probably because they fell right in my mileage level that I liked them from the beginning.

Could they be more complicated? Sure, but they fit the bill for my level of running right now. They have some speedwork sessions, many easy runs and one long run a week. Sure some of his plans call for 6 runs a week but I don't mind that since many are kinda shorter easy runs that I can do before going to work.

I've shared bits and pieces of some Hal Higdon plans but here's the plan I used to get ready for my half marathon back in May:
http://i.imgur.com/2rLdsqV.jpg

That plan is basically Higdon's advanced half marathon training plan with very minor variations. His original plan called for a long run of 2 hours on the Sunday of week 11, one week before race day. I thought I wanted a better taper than to go out and run for longer than what I thought my half marathon would take, at a pace that would mean nothing a week later. I at first had modified it for 14K at race pace and eventually ended up with a 2+2+2+2+2 run which was twice 2 km at race pace splitted with three 2 km at an easy pace.

That was a pretty big leap of fait for me as it meant 6 days of running every week but I really enjoyed how the plan was built. Starting with short intervals, some hills at first and working toward more work at HM pace, I liked that. Since I started that training cycle in mid February, and with the kind of winter we've had this year, I did about 75% of my runs in the first 10 weeks on the treadmill and only one on the treadmill in the last two weeks. Other than the whole crashing down thing, that plan worked quite well. ;)

There were no local races for me to test my pacing so I did some self paced test on the Sundays were a race was to be run. Not exctly teh same but it worked out all right there too.

I had a whole 16 weeks of marathon training planned for a marathon on August 24th. This all went down the drain when I crash in my HM so back to the drawing board I went. I liked that HM plan so much, I decided to use it again but had to modify it somewhat, first to accomodate for races I'd already signed up for, then to up the mileage a bit. Here's what I'll be going with, starting from this Monday:
http://i.imgur.com/r9nFUlb.jpg

The first two races I'm signed up for. The 13.5K staircase challenge is something I will go into with absolutely no exectation but to do my very best. I mean, just like that trail race of two weeks ago, it's so out of the normality of things, there's no way for me to plan a pace. We'll be doing some running in between flights of stairs in the Old Quebec. Will be pretty amazing but no way of knowing how I might place or how fast I'll go overall. As for the 5K, it'll be my first organized 5K race since I started running. It's a pretty local race, about 10 minutes from our home and it's held on a Friday evening.

That 10K, I've yet to pull the trigger on. It's very tempting and I will quite probably register for it in the coming week or so. You can see I have upped the Monday/Wednesday easy runs from 5 km to 7 km (basically added about a mile) and Monday's will now be recovery runs in which I'll try to keep my heart rate below 110 BPM and my easy runs around 120-125 BPM. I've also added some reps to some of the speedwork session and for the moment have scratched the hills session that was planned on the Tuesday following the staircase challenge as I fully expect to be sore after that one. Things might change if I'm not feeling too bad.

That's about how the rest of my Summer will be happening. Was back on the treadmill this morning. Almost a shame too, as the weather was very nice outside but had that hills workout planned and since it's mostly flat around the neighborhood and I didn't feel like driving 15 minutes at 5:30 for the nearest hill, I decided to do the training on the belt. 7x 300m @ 15% incline followed by 7x 300m @ -3% (decline) got me pretty sweaty. Still feeling the effect of the weekend's downhill race...

FM

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 11:44 AM

oh, and I've also brought the duration of some long runs up a bit. Took some planning to fit them around the couple races there...

FM

Alan T

06-03-2014, 11:48 AM

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 11:57 AM

How do you feel about the training load from the previous time through the HH half plan? It maxes out at about what? 30-40 mpw or so right? You do it in km, so I guess that would be around 60km a week I think?

You mentioned that you were uping your miles from his plan some. Looks mostly to be an additional 2-3 miles mid-week on your easy runs, a few more reps on speed work and you pushed your long runs about 15 minutes longer too right?

What does that end up putting you at for miles per week?

You are pretty fast, I would love to see what you could accomplish by being able to increase your workload even more per week and further up your aerobic fitness. It is always a fine line between overtraining and optimal training though as you look for increases.

I was okay with the load the first time around but I'm being careful not to go up by too much, especially since I'm training for a half marathon anyway. I was careful last Summer and I want to do it that way again this time around.

The increase is not straight, with the races and shuffling of some long runs, but overall, I totaled 362.3 miles planned for the first time and it's 399.5 miles for this cycle, so 37 miles more, over 12 weeks, about 3 more miles per week.

It peaked at 40 miles last time around and will again peak at about the same mileage but I will have three consecutive weeks at that mileage now, instead of having only one peak then go back down.

Attached is a week by week mileage comparison, new plan is on the left...

FM

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 12:01 PM

way I saw it when I thought about upping the mileage is that 3 miles a week on my average of 30 miles per week was a 10% percent increase on the whole. I thought it was a safe increase...

FM

Alan T

06-03-2014, 12:02 PM

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 12:03 PM

Ahh cool. Having those back off weeks in there with less miles timed with other races that you are running is a good idea. Helps keep off over-training and gives you a fitness level set.

Plus races are fun!! :)

Looks like you have a good summer planned out

yeah, I really liked that from his original plan, the lower mileage weeks but with a race. Of course, them races in March and April were all done by myself, so not as fun ;)

FM

Kodos

06-03-2014, 12:06 PM

A good read. Thanks!

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 02:01 PM

I was curious so I went back to check how my actual mileage stacked up compared to planned mileage for the first 12 weeks training cycle. I ended up logging 367.8 actual miles compared to the 362.3 miles I had planned to run.

Oh and I passed the 1000 km mark on the year during my hill workout this morning. Current yearly total is standing at 1006 km. :)

FM

Alan T

06-03-2014, 02:19 PM

Oh and I passed the 1000 km mark on the year during my hill workout this morning. Current yearly total is standing at 1006 km. :)

Woo!!

I had to go check to see where I was for the year, you're slightly ahead of me! According to sporttracks, I am at 965 km so far this year. According to Strava, I am at 966km. (Not sure where the discrepency on distance comes from)

Edit: This is before my run today which adds about 7km or so to that total though.

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 03:36 PM

Woo!!

I had to go check to see where I was for the year, you're slightly ahead of me! According to sporttracks, I am at 965 km so far this year. According to Strava, I am at 966km. (Not sure where the discrepency on distance comes from)

Edit: This is before my run today which adds about 7km or so to that total though.

I think sporttracks uses its own GPS engine or a different set of maps because I never get the same mileage between Garmin Connect and Sporttracks. I always write down my Garmin mileage in a spreadsheet so that's the one I use for reports...

I'm probably ahead of you only because you slacked off so much after your marathon :p

I only ran 6.35 km today so I had to be at just about 999 this morning before my run :D

FM

FrogMan

06-03-2014, 08:27 PM

some pics from Sunday's race :)
http://i.imgur.com/bDJY1gY.jpg

Top row
- Nothing to say about the first two, only me running and then taking a bite from that medal ;)
- Third pic: that black/green shirt guy I followed most of the race. I ended up passing him in that long downhill and kept ahead of him, finishing some 7 seconds ahead of him
- last pic: I don't know how far from finish that was but I would eventually pass that kid and finish 0.5 second ahead of him based on chip time... :)

Bottom row
- first three pics, I told you about pumping my fist, well that's how it was :D
- last pic, I would never pass that gentleman (#1441 in blue), he would eventually finish 10 seconds ahead of me...

FM

FrogMan

06-05-2014, 11:21 AM

yesterday's run was the usual midweek easy run, now 7 km up from the 5 km it was in the previous training cycle. Felt good as I went at it pretty easy, keeping the HR under 125 (actually averaged 122 BPM) the whole time yet still getting a 5:32/km (8:54/mile) average pace out of it.

Today's run was a 40 minutes progression in which I increase my pace every 5 minutes trying to do the last hard 5 minutes at a pace in between 10K and 5K pace before going back to an easy pace for a 5 minute cooldown. Way I get it done is start at about 5:45/km and every 5 minutes I increase the pace by 15 seconds/km. Attached is how it worked out this morning, very happy with the run. Especially happy how the heart rate stayed low. Even though I realize it was only about 5 minutes, to have it stay at about 150 when averaging a pace of 4:09 is encouraging...

I didn't really feel like running today though. Well, didn't feel like waking up after one hit of the snooze button. Went to bed really tired and a bit late last night and would have slept in a bit this morning. Finally out of bed reminding myself that tomorrow is my rest day and I will get to sleep in then, at least for a good 50 minutes. Sometimes you gotta push through...

Will not be easy to fit in the long run on sunday. We have a karate competition that me and my son need to officiate. We are teaching karate from 9:30 to 11:15 before having lunch and heading over to the competition that will start at 1pm and should end around 3 or 3:30. Could do the long run before the day starts or right after, i.e. before dinner. Going early would mean getting up around 6:20 or so, on a Sunday morning... ;)

FM

FrogMan

06-05-2014, 11:44 AM

this morning's run also brought me this badge from Smashrun (http://smashrun.com/frogman)

Dang 168 hours of running in a little over a year, that's one full week of running, non stop! Go me!!! :)

FM

FrogMan

06-06-2014, 11:31 AM

Not all related to running but something I had to share...

I used to always wear XL polo shirts, at least for the last few years and even at one point, was buying XXL t-shirts cause I didn't feel right being too tight in my shirts. Went shopping on the cheap at TJ Maxx with my 17yo son yesterday cause he needed some shorts and I thought, if I could find some decent polo shirts on the cheap, I might get a couple, you know, to refresh my wardrobe a bit. Yup, since losing the weight, I still had to replace the XL polo shirts because, well, some of them I'd bought just before losing the weight and frankly, I just didn't have much money to buy clothes for me. The kids, ok they're growing, but for me, I decided to make do with what I had.

Get to the store and see a couple nice ones but they didn't have any large left on their racks. Large is what I bought for the one polo shirt I bought last Summer. I look at the mediums and go "what the heck, try one on man" and even with my t-shirt under it, it fit perfectly, not tight at all. Man oh man, I'm wearing medium shirt now? When did that happen???

Ended up buying three mediums from three different brands and and they all fit perfectly! I was so ecstatic about the find, I could have bought 9 or 10! Even tried them in for my wife and she confirmed I looked perfectly fine in them.

Now on to hunt some decent 30" waist jeans/pants cause my 32s are getting slack. Not an easy task for a 5'11" man with long legs. Yeah, first world problems. ;)

And no, I'm not trying to lose more, just tightening up the body.

I also ended up buying a nice couple of pairs of Nike dri-fit short shorts. Well not REALLY short short, but shorter than the knee length shorts I used to wear for running. And again, dang, mediums!

I also scored two more running hats so my wife doesn't have to wash my one hat every dang day. Oh, and running sleeves on absolute liquidation price. Never thought I'b buy running sleeves but Nike sleeves for 4 bucks was worth it. I'll eventually have a use for them at some point... I love TJ Maxx for my technical apparel needs. No technical shirts this time around though. With the races and all, I got plenty for a while.

Life is good. :)

FM

FrogMan

06-09-2014, 02:02 PM

Last week was a good first week toward the half marathong. 6 runs, 30.7 miles in 4:40:46 for an average pace of 9:08.

Saturday was an easy 5 km while yesterday, I had my first real bout with hot temperature. Had a packed day yesterday, teaching karate classes from 9:30 to 11:15 and then officiating at a karate competition from 1 to 3:30, I decided against going out early for the long run as it would have meant 90 minutes of running starting at maybe 6:30, before a long day. I hadn't planned for it to be so warm when I got back home from the competition. When I headed out for my run at about 4:20pm, it was about 84F with relative humidity at about 32%. For me, that's hot. ;) I left the house with my two 300ml bottle in my hydration belt filled with water as well as a handheld 600ml bottle in one hand.

That was a simple easy run in which I went by heart rate instead of definite pace, trying to keep the heart rate below 125 BPM at most times. It crept up a bit on a couple uphills but overall it went pretty well...

9.72 miles in 1:30:57 for an average pace of 9:21 per mile, avg HR at 124 BPM with a max at only 131
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/516756501

I got this big crazy race coming up this weekend, a race for which I have absolutely no expectations. It's a staircase challenge, 13.5K in distance or so with soem 1277 steps going up and 648 more going down all through the Old Quebec. Obviously, there's some running in between stairs.

You can see the course here:
Défi des escaliers de Québec 2014 - Google Maps (https://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=214191336318933082680.00047a754ab96d808ff8a&msa=0&ll=46.814776,-71.201749&spn=0.001509,0.003484&dg=feature)

I'm doing the blue and green course. There's a 19K distance that will do the blue and orange course...

I am not tapering much this week as this is not a goal race. It's gonna definitely be a challenge, but as I got no reference, I'll simply go into this one trying to do my best and pacing by heart rate on the running sections. I do plan to reverse taper next week, depending on how much damage them stairs do to my leg muscles ;)

This week's training plane goes like this:
MON 7 km recovery run
TUE 8x 400m @ 5K pace
WED 7 km easy run
THU 45 minutes progression
FRI 5 km recovery run
SAT rest
SUN RACE DAY!

Funny trivia. I finished 3rd in my age group in that trail race about 3 weeks ago. The guy who won our age group for this 13.5K stairs challenge last year finished 2nd in the trail race, about only 16 seconds ahead of me... The same guy also finished just ahead of me, 13th to my 14th in M40-49, in last week's Royal Descent 10K, by about 49 seconds. That is kind of interesting. :)

It's going to be a staged start, 6 runners going off every 10-12 seconds, just like it was for the trail race so I won't have a clue where we stand one to the other until the finish line. Will simply try do my best. :)

FM

Alan T

06-09-2014, 02:14 PM

Sounds like you have someone in your age group to target to try to catch up and beat in future races!

FrogMan

06-09-2014, 02:18 PM

Sounds like you have someone in your age group to target to try to catch up and beat in future races!

yeah, a few names I've seen come up a few times that post times close to mine.

He's been running longer than me though as I can see his name on a few other races through sportstats.ca. This explains why I sorta could get close to him on the trail race (more technical and hilly) and he could distance me a bit on the 10K (more straight speed/endurance experience). Gives me hope of getting close to him this Sunday, especially that many straight speed/traditional runners don't seem to take on the staircase challenge... We'll see! :)

FM

Alan T

06-09-2014, 02:29 PM

FrogMan

06-10-2014, 09:05 AM

I don't know if Athlinks works for canadian races or not, but I like looking at athlinks.com

It tells me all of the people I have been in more than one race with as well as how I did vs them.

For instance, there is one guy who is 31 years old that I have been in 6 races with, and he has beaten me all 6 times. :) (He ran an 18:46 5k, so a bit out of my class).

On the other side, there are a few I am 2-0 vs as well.

(This only gives you the head to head matchup for others that have registered on that site though, not necessarily everyone you have raced against)

I remember looking a athlinks before and despite them stating they are the biggest race DB "on the planet", they don't seem to have anything in Canada, so heh...

All the races on my current circuit (Courir à Québec) are timed with sportstats.ca and when you click on the name of a runner, it brings a list of all the similar names in their database of race results. It's not perfect but with location, you can figure out who's who.

For the record, here's a link to the results for the 8K trail race:
http://www.sportstats.ca/displayResults.xhtml?racecode=108416

In M40-49, Patrick Lemelin finished first, then Luc Desmeules second, then me, Steve Gougeon.

Then the results for the 10K Royal Descent race
http://www.sportstats.ca/displayResults.xhtml?racecode=107318

In that one, Desmeules beat out Lemelin, both finishing ahead of me. I thought Desmeules had finished 13th in M40-49 but he finished 10th...

Then, here are the results for the staircase challenge 13K from last year:
http://www.sportstats.ca/displayResults.xhtml?racecode=103684

Desmeules is the guy I said won out the division in a time of 1:10:54. Lemelin finished 7th in the division.

If you click on my name in any of these races, you come up to this page:
http://www.sportstats.ca/searchResults.xhtml?firstname=Steve&lastname=Gougeon

The one race from the guy from Blainville isn't me, obviously, but all others from Pintendre are all mine, starting with my 18K race last Fall.

As a comparison, here's Desmeules' runner page:
http://www.sportstats.ca/searchResults.xhtml?firstname=Luc&lastname=Desmeules

Some of the results are from a Luce and a Lucie Desmeules but you can see he's been at it much longer than me, going back to the Royal Descent of 2005!

I'm still just a rookie next to these guys but I'm bringing the heat! ;)

FM

FrogMan

06-10-2014, 09:08 AM

temperatures went kinda down overnight, it was just about 60F for my intervals session this morning. Solid session, very happy with how it went. 8x 400m @ 5K pace which should be about 4:00/km. Ended up averaging 3:50/km (6:10/mile) over the 8 repeats without feeling completely spent. Progression, progresssion...

Can't wait to test out that pace on July 4th :)

FM

FrogMan

06-10-2014, 02:06 PM

I thought this was a fascinating article:
Endurance Fatigue: Perception Is Everything - Competitor.com (http://running.competitor.com/2014/05/training/endurance-fatigue-perception-is-everything_9067)
==============
Endurance Fatigue: Perception Is Everything
By Matt Fitzgerald
Published May. 9, 2014
Is fatigue in endurance sports a form of quitting?

A fascinating study proves that fatigue in endurance is nothing more and nothing less than quitting.

The design was simple, but the results were profound. Samuele Marcora, an Italian-born exercise physiologist at Wales’ Bangor University, and his colleague Walter Staiano brought 10 male athletes into their lab and had them perform a simple exercise protocol. Each pedaled on a cycle ergometer as hard as he could for 5 seconds (a test of maximal voluntary cycling power, or MVCP), and his power output was recorded. Then the subjects rode the same bikes as long as they could at a fixed power output level that corresponded to 90 percent of their individual VO2 max. Immediately after completing this ride to exhaustion, which ended when the required wattage simply could not be sustained any longer (or approximately 12 minutes, on average), each subject then repeated the 5-second maximum power test.

Marcora and Staiano found that, on average, power output in the second 5-second MVCP, performed in a state of exhaustion, was roughly 30 percent lower than the power produced in the first MVCP, performed in a fresh state. Yet the power output in the second MVCP was still roughly three times greater than the power that each cyclist was required to maintain in the ride to exhaustion.

Wait a minute: If the subjects cycled at roughly 242 watts until they physically could not complete another pedal stroke at that level, how were they able to pedal at 731 watts for 5 seconds immediately afterward?

Marcora and Staiano’s answer to this question could not be simpler, yet it completely shatters the concept of endurance fatigue that most of us believe in. In a paper on their study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, they wrote:

It is traditionally assumed that exhaustion during high-intensity aerobic exercise occurs because fatigued subjects are no longer able to generate the power output required by the task despite their maximal voluntary effort…We have demonstrated for the first time that this is not the case… If our subjects were able to voluntarily produce 731W for 5s immediately after exhaustion, they must have been physiologically able to produce 242W for much longer. The most likely explanation for the very high MVCP produced immediately after exhaustion is psychological. Subjects knew that the final MVCP test was going to last only 5s, and such knowledge motivated them to exert further effort after the time to exhaustion test which had a longer and unknown duration.

As intuitively sensible as this explanation is, it is scientifically revolutionary, as it supposes that the true cause of endurance fatigue is perception of effort (i.e. psychological suffering), whereas perceptions are traditionally seen as having no causal force in exercise physiology.

In 2010, I spoke to Dr. Samuele Marcora about the broader implications of his provocative new study. Here is the transcript of that interview:

You propose to replace the conventional model of endurance fatigue, which centers on the muscles and the cardiovascular system, with what you call a psychobiological model of endurance fatigue. Please explain that.

My proposal is actually based on general motivation theory. What we call exhaustion is not the inability to continue; it’s basically giving up. The reality is that the neuromuscular system is actually able to continue. My idea is that it’s basically a safety mechanism like many other sensations. So you have sensations motivating you to take a certain course of action for survival. Think about thirst or hunger or pain. All these sensations are there to make us do something. That is actually beneficial for our survival, and I think perception of effort does the same.

There’s this idea that perceptions are mere perceptions and can be overridden through conscious will in a way that purely physiological limitations cannot. Have you encountered resistance to your model on this point?

My physiology colleagues think that because something is a perception, in some way it is less real and can be overcome. Obviously, it can be overcome to a certain extent, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful. That’s why people believed this assumption [that fatigue is caused by hard physiological limits] for so long, because it feels like that. The perception of effort makes you feel like you can’t continue. You feel, “I am giving my maximal effort. I feel I cannot continue. Therefore I’ll stop.”

If you think about pain, pain is created in your brain based on a certain signal such as a broken foot. If you didn’t feel that pain, of course you can keep going. There are people who genetically don’t feel pain and they usually die quite young. Just because something is a perception doesn’t make it any less powerful in controlling your behavior. If you are very thirsty you might kill somebody for a glass of water. You wouldn’t keep running if you ran over a piece of glass and cut your foot. If you didn’t have perception of effort, you could run your marathon much faster, definitely!

One thing that exercise physiologists are baffled by is that when very high-level endurance athletes do a physiological test, they aren’t very different from each other. They all have very high VO2 max, they all have good economy. You can’t really differentiate between them based on physiological parameters. But there is something extra that makes some of them champions. For example, I’m doing some tests on perceived ability, or what psychologists call self-efficacy, which show that beliefs about personal limits tend to be self-fulfilling. People who wish they can push harder and do more usually can. This phenomenon makes perfect sense in my model. So it certainly gives you a range of flexibility that the traditional model, where you stop regardless of your will, doesn’t give you.

Every perception is associated with a distinct set of physiological events in the brain. So is it really the conscious perception of effort that causes fatigue or is it the physiological events underlying that perception?

So the next question is, “What are the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying perception of effort?” and that’s a very big question. It’s like trying to understand the neurophysiological basis of any other phenomenon. That’s why I’m doing studies in collaboration with cognitive neuroscientists using techniques such as brain imaging and EMG, trying to tease out the neurophysiology underlying perception of effort.

I really want to tease out the mechanisms by actually studying the brain. It’s no different from studying any other perception. Hopefully, after learning more about it we can also modify it and help athletes to improve their performance, although you have to be careful, because messing around with a sensation that is there to protect you may also have detrimental effects.

Think about caffeine. Everybody now agrees that the ergogenic effects of caffeine are 90 percent mediated by the effect on the brain and therefore the perception of effort and not by the metabolic effects. So, if you like, this is the first application of the model that perception of effort is important and I think in the future we will see more and more of these things.

Your study did find evidence of fatigue within the muscles themselves—not enough to explain the fatigue that occurred in the time to exhaustion tests, but muscle fatigue nevertheless. So, what is the role of actual muscle fatigue in your model?

In a previous study, I looked experimentally at the effect of muscle fatigue on endurance performance. So, if I pre-fatigue your muscles before I put you on a bike and ask you to do an endurance test, your endurance performance will be reduced. But the effect was relatively small. It was a 16 percent reduction in time to exhaustion. In a time to exhaustion test, a 16 percent reduction in performance is a small result. In a time trial (it’s unpublished but we did the same thing) we had a 3 percent reduction in performance, which is also a small reduction. That study made me think about whether fatigue is the limiting factor. I reduced muscle function to the same level that people have after an endurance test. So, if muscle fatigue was the limiting factor, they shouldn’t have been able to even start the test. Instead, they latest only a couple of minutes less. So that started to put doubts in my mind.

But if muscle fatigue doesn’t cause exhaustion, why does muscle fatigue reduce performance? The reason is simple. If you cycle with muscle fatigue, your perception of effort will increase simply because, if you have fatigued muscles, in order to produce the same power output [as when your muscles are not fatigued], you will have to recruit the muscles more. The main stimulus for perception of effort is how much we are recruiting our muscles—leg muscles or inspiratory muscles. So if I am forced by having fatigued muscles, or even damaged muscles, to increase my muscle recruitment, I will perceive that as an increase in effort, and that increase in effort will make me reach my maximal level of effort and stop earlier than when I don’t have muscle fatigue. So muscle fatigue does have an effect on performance, but it is indirect. It is not a direct effect as traditionally assumed.

I did another study where, instead of using muscle fatigue, I used mental fatigue. The effect of mental fatigue on performance was the same as muscle fatigue. You wouldn’t think so. Why does playing a video game for 90 minutes reduce your endurance performance as much as muscle fatigue? It doesn’t make any sense according to the traditional model, but it actually makes perfect sense in terms of my model. I don’t know exactly what the mechanisms are, but during the cognitive task, I induced some changes in the brain that made my subjects perceive the effort required to cycle as being higher than in the normal condition. You see, it doesn’t matter why perception of effort is increased or decreased. Everything that has an effect on perception of effort will have an effect on performance.

FrogMan

06-12-2014, 09:07 AM

Interesting easy 7 km yesterday. To me now, "easy" is trying to keep the HR at or below 125 BPM. I'd seen on these easy runs last week that I was keeping my heart rate much closer to 122, thus slightly on the slower side. Nothing wrong with that but yesterday I tried to really stick to very close to 125 on most half-K splits.

Overall for the run, 7.43 km in 40:06 for an average pace of 5:24/km (8:41/mile) with an average HR at 123 BPM. HR did spike to 134 at one point but I brought it back down and only averaged 126 in two of the 15 500m splits.

Today's run was a 45 minutes progression that I did a bit differently from my usual way of doing them. I usually start at a fairly easy pace, say 5:45/km, and increase the pace 15 seconds per km every 5 minutes. Today, I decided to work in 1 km increment instead of time, leaving me a longer cooldown at the end. Bascially, I wanted to do 5:45, 5:30, 5:15, 5:00, 4:45, 4:30 and finally 5:15 for the first 7 km and cool down for the remaining time to get me to 45 minutes.

See how it shook up in the attached table...

More important than me being able to hold the different kind of paces, because I know for a fact I can do those paces for longer than one km, is how the heart rate stayed pretty even. I mean I don't remember seeing my HR averaging around 141 (maxing at only 145) when holding a 4:25/km pace (7:07/mile).

That was the last hard workout before Sunday's race. Tomorrow will be a 5 km recovery run and I will rest the legs Saturday...

FM

FrogMan

06-13-2014, 09:20 AM

well, that was strange. I said yesterday I had a 5 km recovery run planned for today. That's what my spreadsheet says here. Then I doubted myself and double checked this morning on my iPad but apparently, I have modified my training plan from a "5 km easy" to "5 km recovery" since sending myself a screenshot of the training plan.

Really not that big a deal though as the difference between the two is almost nothing. I headed out in the rain this morning and did a 5 km @ easy HR, i.e. trying to keep the heart rate below 125 BPM. I succeeded to keep the heart rate below that threshold for the first 3 km and then did some fatrleky strides over the last couple kilometers, allowing the heart rate to spike up a bit. Felt very good and relaxed even to a pace around 4:20/km. Surprisingly good in fact...

Overall, 5.16 km in 26:46 for an average pace of 5:11/km and an average heart rate at 126 BPM.

The first three kilometers when I kept the heart rate mostly in check took me 15:48 for an average pace of 5:16/km with and average HR at 122. That's a pretty nice pace for that low of a heart rate...

As I said, it was raining this morning, sometimes pretty hard. This led to this little conversation between me and my wife, after I'd just come in from my run

wife: huh, you went out?
me: yeah, to run
wife: but, it's raining out there...
me: yeah, so, it's not battery acid ;)
wife: huh, okay

I love my wife :)

This was probably my last run ever with my Asic Nimbus 13. I had last used them for that trail race about a month ago and they'd sit there, all muddy since that race. I wanted to take them out and hose them but the wet streets gave me the chance to get them all wet and then towel them to clean them up. This run puts them at 575 miles or so, a pretty good mileage for any shoe, I think. More so, I can now see how them being 9.5 in size was just really one point too small for me. My Ghosts (6 & 7) are now 10.5 in size and feel just right but the Nimbus really felt tight when running this morning. They will make for a very fine all around type of shoe...

Is it bad that I'm already tinking about my next pair of shoes? Yeah, sigh... I kinda liked the Nimbus for winter running. Felt the sole was slightly stiffer than the Ghost's sole, with a tiny bit more cushion and thought it worked well in the snow. Not too sure if I want to try and find a pair of Nimbus for Fall/Winter running or if I will not instead get a pair of Brooks Glycerin, the Ghost's big brother, a neutral shoe with more cushioning...

FM

Alan T

06-13-2014, 09:26 AM

Nothing wrong with thinking about your next pair of shoes :)

I actually have 5 different pairs of running shoes I use right now, plus a pair of cycling shoes :)

FrogMan

06-13-2014, 11:33 AM

Nothing wrong with thinking about your next pair of shoes :)

I actually have 5 different pairs of running shoes I use right now, plus a pair of cycling shoes :)

yeah, I'm just not sure how this will be accepted by my wife... Your wife is a runner too ;) Mine is a hip hop dancer and while she could have done like most kids into hip hop and bought tons of different sneakers, I think she's changed her shoes only once from her original pair she bought four years ago, and that change was kinda forced this last April when the whole troop changed shoes for uniformity. She always teases me about how I have many more shoes than her. :D

How's the experiment with minimalist shoes going btw?

FM

Alan T

06-13-2014, 12:12 PM

How's the experiment with minimalist shoes going btw?

I have been trying to ease into the zero drops shoes slowly. I know plenty of people that had Achilles tendonitis due to a transition that was too fast. I might be going too slowly with it though myself.

I've not had any injuries or additional pains from the new shoes, but not sure that I really enjoy them more than the other ones I wear. They definitely are lighter, but they have less cushioning than I am used to and enjoy too.

I guess the jury is still out, I'm still trying them. I've only run 4 miles at a time at most in them though so far.

Kodos

06-13-2014, 01:51 PM

FrogMan

06-13-2014, 02:03 PM

You guys are definitely much more analytical runners than I am. My eyes start to glaze over when the technical discussions begin. I can rarely be bothered to try to figure out what the charts you guys post mean. Sure, I enjoy breaking PRs and stuff like that, but the deeper tracking stuff like cadences and whatever does nothing for me.

I was never able to get my heart monitor to work, and didn't like how it felt anyway. I think I'm comfortable not totally optimizing everything about my running. At some point, I just want to run the way that is natural to me. Too much running theory and statistical stuff sucks away the fun of running in my world. I do try to concentrate on my form (arms don't cross body because the legs follow the arms), especially when running fast, but in general, I'm just running and using perception of effort as my guide. For better or worse. Back in college, one of the best compliments I ever got as a runner was that I didn't even look like I was trying. :)

I guess in a lot of ways, I run the way I played FOF. I never wanted to spend time digging under the hood. I would read other people's findings and try to incorporate that into my efforts, but I never wanted to do the primary research myself. I guess that's why I never went on to grad school. At the end of the day, I hate researching stuff. :D

I did get a running book recently, but have yet to start it: Galloway's Book on Running. Reading the reviews on Amazon, it seemed like a decent choice for a less technical runner.

Anyhow, not trying to detract from your stuff. I love the enthusiasm you guys bring to your running. And if I pick up a little from your technical talk, all the better. Still, I will probably try to run faster than I should when doing speedwork and recovery runs. ;)

lol, and that's ok that way. Everybody runs for different reasons. I'm a bit OCD in many things in my life, when I dive into something, I usually go all in. Have been into martial arts for a while now and when I was at a peak of interest, I would watch videos and try to incorporate new self defense techniques to my arsenal and such.

I realised why I'm running at some point during the winter time: I wanna see how really fast this 43 year old body of mine can go. The little things I do, that may seem big to you, were all gathered about the same way you gathered FOF knowledge, i.e. left and right from reading about other people's findings.

For now, I find fun in doing this, on top of the liberating aspect of simply going out to run, which I still have, despite checking on my HR every once in a while ;)

FM

FrogMan

06-13-2014, 02:04 PM

I have been trying to ease into the zero drops shoes slowly. I know plenty of people that had Achilles tendonitis due to a transition that was too fast. I might be going too slowly with it though myself.

I've not had any injuries or additional pains from the new shoes, but not sure that I really enjoy them more than the other ones I wear. They definitely are lighter, but they have less cushioning than I am used to and enjoy too.

I guess the jury is still out, I'm still trying them. I've only run 4 miles at a time at most in them though so far.

yeah, I guess better safe than sorry, right... If anything, they probably give your lower legs a different workout, at least making them stronger by having them work different muscles...

FM

FrogMan

06-16-2014, 09:11 AM

been not a crazy day yesterday but a crazy weekend overall...

Some quick results before I post a more complete race report

I finished my 13.5K Staircase Challenge, that my Garmin actually reported as 13.9 km, in 1:14:19. Average pace is kinda unimportant cause it doesn't compare to anything else I've done before.

Placements:
37th out of 1165 finishers overall (top 3.2%)
6th out of 111 in M40-49 (top 5.4%)

VERY happy with how it went. That was a tough kind of race in a unique setting. More to come at some point with a report.

FM

FrogMan

06-17-2014, 02:05 PM

Race Report
Défi des Escaliers, 13K
Sunday, June 15th, 2014
Quebec City

Introduction
Quebec City is a pretty special city and I'm not saying this only because this is were I grew up and where have been living most of my life. It's an old city, with a very European look in the Old Quebec (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Quebec) part of town, with many levels to the town, all split with hilly streets and staircases that connect it all and finally some pretty neat military buildings, like La Citadelle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadelle_of_Quebec). Le Chateau Frontenac is also something you might have seen on pictures of the city...

There was two distances for this race, a 19K Super Challenge, with 3000 steps of stairs, and a 13K Challenge, with 1925 steps of stairs. As part of my season ticket of races, I had originally signed up for the 19K race but after my half marathon DNF back in May, I decided to ask for a change of distance and went to the 13K challenge.

They described the course type as "urban trail" and I think it defined it pretty well.

Here's what my Garmin watch tracked for my race, viewed with satellite map:
http://i.imgur.com/qo7vnbV.jpg

As you can see, some of it was on regular streets but some of it was on trails, undercover of trees. Some absolutely amazing path. At one point, we were even running through some tiny back alleys in the Old Quebec section of town, on some old style brick flooring, kinda uneven. That was really something special... As a urban trail race, they said that policemen would be at majors intersections but that the streets were not closed off so while they would try to stop traffic, we could have to wait at some point. I never had to wait, maybe because I crossed all streets trying to run with as best a pace as I could and policemen (and women ;)) seemeed to recognize my speed. I made a conscious effort to thank each and every policeman I crossed at one of those intersection and every volunteer I met who either gave me water or indicated the way going in or out a staircase. A policeman even replied to my "Thanks!" with a "you're welcome, don't let up!" to which I replied "you neither!!!" that made him laugh. ;)

Expectations, pre-race, start
I was again without my cheer team as this was a loaded weekend for us. Our youngest son had a two day swim meet while my wife was dancing in four hip hop show for her danc school year end show and my older son had to go teach at the dojo.

Given that this was going to be a weird mix of a course, I had no expectations as for time or pace. I knew the winner of the M40-49 finished it in 1:10 or so last year so I thought I could probably do it in anything from 1:20 to 1:30 but otherwise, I really had no clue. Especially, as soon as we'd get to our first flight of stairs... I still had some odd feeling I get close to or under 1:15 since the winner of last year is the same guy that finished just ahead of me in my 8K trail race a month ago, and again just ahead of me in that Royal Descent 10K. I had some reference but really wasnt, sure how I'd handle the stairs.

Furthermore, I got into this race with some sort of odd pain in the back of my right achilles or lower right calf. It started on Friday after my last easy run. Don't know where it came from, if it was because I ran that last run with my older pair of Asics that are now up to 580 mileS or if I tweaked my ankle during the run and didn't realize it, but when I got out of the car on the way to work, I felt a twinge of pain close to the achilles, but a bit more on the side. It bothered me all day Friday, seemed to be better Saturday morning but when I tried to tighten my calf when teaching karate, I could feel it again very clearly. The odd thing is when I tried running straight forward, barefoot in the dojo, it felt "about" fine. Needless to say I'm not taking any chances from now on and will be retiring the Asics from my rotation. ;) Get to Sunday morning and on top of the ankle/achilles, my right knee decided to act up a little. I injured that knee, hyperextending it backward about 12 years ago. Diagnosis at the time was MCL strain. It never came back as strong but is usually fine when running forward with little lateral movement. Thing is, I sometimes get some point when going up on stairs and on Sunday morning, that pain showed up during my little warmup. Both isssues turned out to be non issues in fact, thanfully. The moment the race started and I got into full swing running, everything felt just fine and even though I got a bit nervous when I encountered my first stairs, it was all right.

Start was set for 8 am, with 6 runners going off every 12 seconds so we wouldn't get stuck at the first staircase that was only two person wide. The 19K participants went first, all 600 of them and us, the 13K'ers went after. I ended up finally crossing the starting pad at about 8:40, after lining up at about 7:40. That was one long hour of waiting... It was a nice sunny day though and the waiting line was under the cover of big trees, even almost chilly waiting. The whole race was under a clear sky but not too warm, nor too humid. Perfect race conditions.

As I said, I had no real expectations for overall pace based on the staircase we would face but from the race website, I knew we'd have about 2 km before the first stairs and that these would be going down. I also knew our last staircase would be a monster with about 310 steps going up, followed by about 2.5 km of running to the finish line. For a 13K race, I thought a 4:20 pace was sustainable for the first 2 km so I started off the gate with that pace in mind and was able to keep it going. Average pace over the first two km was 4:17 but there was some very steep downhill toward the end of that second km, just before we hit our first stairs going down.

Had a fun moment just before that downhill. The staged start worked well in spacing people out, especially since we had those 2 kilometers of open road running during which I did a whole lot of passing. At one point, I passed fairly easily a group of 3-4 young women even though they seemed to run at a decent pace. I could hear one of the them tell this to her friends in the middle of their conversation: "geez, that dude is going fa-ast!". Made me feel good, especially as I felt I wasn't really forcing it...

That first stair, even though going downhill was something else. Even though the staged start helped thin out the crowd a bit, that first stair still had quite a bit of people and was only two wide. About 4/4 through it, I got stuck behind a lady hugging the left handrail while a gentleman was walking the right side. There was actually two of us trying to get trough. We eventually got through and that really was the only time I got stuck behind someone.

The rest of the stairs are kind of a blur. Some thigns stick to your mind thought, like how footing isn't easy on stairs, especially the ones made of wood and that are undercover of trees early in the morning. For those wooden steps, going down, you had to be careful not to go too fast or you risked skipping a step and skidding down 10-15 steps on your rear end. Then the ones going up, well, you know how it goes, start up running, then thighs burning, lungs on fire so you slow down and then look at your watch, current pace indicates something like 17:00/km, it becomes a mental struggle more than anything, ouch...

You can see the wildly fluctuating pace here:
http://i.imgur.com/F1RdeYc.jpg

As if it was possible, there was worse than going up some flight of stairs. Going up, I kept my eyes on my feet, trying not to trip and hit a shin or drop to my knees. I remember at least a couple of instances where I lifted my eyes just as I came up from the last step, trying to find the orange markings we'd been told to look for on the ground when trying to find your way, then finding the markings and looking up to face a daunting hill. AAARRRGG!!! Suck it up buttercup, I started the engine and started pushing them legs, thighs on fire and all.

As I said, based on the course plan, I thought we'd have about 2.5 km of straight running back to the finish line after the last staircase going up. It turns out it was more like 4 km or so. Not that I'm complaining but it meant managing my pace even more important if I didn't want to fall flat on my face with about one kilometer to go. The first two of those kilometers were on a nice trail under the trees, with some of it going downhill. I've never been to Central Park, NY but from all the pictures I've seen, you could imagine something similar, a green spot in the middle of a busy city. That was gorgeous, a place I've never been to before, even if I'm from the area. Shame on me. We then headed back out of the woods and to the street for about 1.5 km of a slight downhill (from -1% to -3%) that was very welcomed. I had sorta latched on to a young man with a bright red shirt when we were in the woods, keeping him in my sights, trying to stay pace to pace with him. He stayed ahead of me for a long while but as I picked up my pace back on the streets with about a mile to go, I was able to pass him and stayed ahead. I looked over my shoulder every once in a while and could see him pushing hard but not getting closer. He seeked me out just past the finished line to shake my hand, it was a nice moment.

I was very happy with the strong push I was able to muster to finish the race. Averaged 4:07/km (6:37/mile) over the last 1.91 km, and even as fast as 3:51/km (6:11/mile) over the last 410 meters. They'd said the challenge was roughly 13.5K. The bibs were identified simply "13K" (as opposed to "19K" for the super challenge bibs). My watch, started straight from the starting mat, tracked 13.91 km. They have since explained on their facebook page that the course had to be somewhat altered since some of the staircases were being repaired and maybe it was closer to 14K than actually 13 or even 13.5K. Didn't matter to me either way as it's not a standard distance, nor a standard kind of race anyway. It only looks deceiving when you look at their calculated pace on the timing website since they divided by 13 for their "per km" pace...

Overall on the race, I had my hydration belt but I drank from cups at about every water station except one spot where I took it from my belt. I also nearly drowned myself on the first stop. I had planned to walk to drink but didn't slow down enough at the first one and took a gulp through both my nose and throat and seriously, I gagged and was certainl I'd drown and die right then and there... :o It went much better after that. I also took a peanut butter GU after about 40 minutes and it went down quite okay. That's one of those spots where I drank from my hydration belt bottles...

Just read this and yeah, that's what I looked like ;)
http://s3.amazonaws.com/theoatmeal-img/comics/marathon_do/aid_stations.png

Official results:
finish time: 1:14:18.9 for 13.91 km
average pace: 5:21/km (8:36/mile)

That pace comes to 5:43/km if you divide by only 13 km. Again not that big a deal.

Placements:
37th overall out of 1165 finishers, or top 3.2%
36th out of 448 men, or top 8%
6th out of 111 in my category M40-49, or top 5.4%

I don't really set placement goals for myself but I have found that looking these up was a big indicator of how far I've come since I started running. For example, in my very first race, that much smaller 10K back in August last year, I placed 69th overall out of only 247 finishers, or a top 27.9%.

I'm pretty proud of what I've done and yet, I have the feeling there's still so much untapped potential in those legs. I knew the last staircase was abotu 310 steps and I don't know why, but I dreaded it before it even happened. It's only once I was done with it and realized it was the last that I thought I had held back and could have pushed harder. I plan on doing this race again next year but then, I'll know what to expect. I will slowly but steadily still keep on training, for now running 6 times a week. Those recovery and easy 7 km runs on Mondays and Wednesdays are fun and with the weather so nice, summer will be a great time.

Ankle/achilles/calf was fine after the race and remained fine so far. Calves are aching most of all, especially the right one. I probably favored it to compensate for the ankle/achilles. But I ran a recovery run on Monday (7 km) and even did a mini-hills workout this morning, 4x 180m 5% grade @ 5K pace without feeling pain. Life is good.

In the "comparison to others" department, Luc Desmeules edged me again, finishing 5th in M40-49 (25th overall) with a time of 1:11:59. I did finish ahead of Patrick Lemelin though, yay! He finished 10th in M40-49 (54th overall) with a time of 1:16:41.

The overall winner finished in 1:01:41 . Not to say I was within shouting distance but that's not THAT far ahead. Winner of M40-49 finished 3rd overall, in 1:04:14, 10 minutes ahead of me...

Here's a post race selfie for ya all :)
http://i.imgur.com/SUcHpOt.jpg

Next race will be a 5K on July 4th, my first officialy timed 5K. I also got our 10yo to sign up for the 2K event of that day. It'll be his first running race. Even though he is a swimmer and has got a pretty amazing cardio, we'll need to work on his running and pacing a bit... ;)

That was again a long and wordy report. If you're still reading, thank you very much. I had fun racing it, probably just as much fun writing the report as it reminded me of the race. :)

FM

FrogMan

06-17-2014, 02:08 PM

More training related, overall last week, I logged 31.9 miles in 4:36:41 for an average pace of 5:23/km (8:40/mile).

As I said, I started this week with my usual recovery run in which I kept the heart rate below 110 BPM. The original week 3 of my Higdon HM plan called for a hills workout today but I had scratched that, given the stairs and hills I knew I'd go through on Sunday. I still went out and did a mini hills workout with 4 repeats of a 180m tiny bit of hills (5% average grade) we have in the neighborhood. Well, it's still 2.5 km away from the house, so I ran easy to it, did my repeats and ran easy back home.

It looks like this for the week:
MON: 7 km recovery
TUE: 7.4 km mini-hills
WED: 7 km easy
THU: 30 minutes progression
FRI: 5 km easy
SAT: Rest
SUN: 90 minutes long run (3/1)

I pushed back my rest day to Saturday since our 10yo son has a soccer tournament Saturday and Sunday and we'll have to hit the road for a 90 minutes drive at 7am on Saturday. He plays 3 preliminary round games on Saturday and he his team qualifies for the elimination round, he'll play on Sunday. If they make it far in the tournament, that long run of Sunday will be hard to fit in since Sunday evening is our 17yo's high school graduation ball. We'd then leave the youngest to come back home with one of his teammates for us to simply be able to make it to the pre-ball cocktail. Sigh, yet another crazy weekend in the Gougeon household. But we love 'em like that! ;)

FM

FrogMan

06-19-2014, 09:09 AM

Your body knows no limits. It's your mind that needs convincing...

I honestly have no clue who said that. Just read it on one of those fitness/motivation poster and I think it holds some truth. It does resonate true to me as I look forward to my next race, a 5K to be run on July 4th. This'll be my first officialy timed 5K, ever. According to recent race times and most online calculators, I should be able to challenge for a sub-20 minutes time over 5K. Maybe my legs can deliver that kind of performance, maybe not, but for now, it's my mind who has a hard time believing it.

I say that thinking back to this morning's 30 minutes progression run. I'd set it up to go easy for one km, then increase the pace to 5:00 for the next km, then 4:40, then 4:20, then have one kilometer at 4:00 before going back to cooldown at easy pace for the time left until 30 minutes.

Here are the splits:
km 1: 5:34.0
km 2: 4:57.5
km 3: 4:37.4
km 4: 4:19.6
km 5: 3:55.6
cooldown: 5:23.3 pace (over 1.56 km)

Yeah, sure, I hit the pace well enough under 4:00/km (3:55/km over 5K would be an awesome 19:38 time) but it was hard. I guess it should be, right? I mean if it were easy, by pushing just a little I'd be able to go under 19, right? ;)

It's just that the heart rate shot up to 159 toward the back end of the kilometer, averaging 158 over the second 500m, so basically holding steady between 157 and 159. And that was only after one tiny kilometer, only 20% of the way...

It goes back to this: I need to convince my mind I can hold this pace for 5 whole kilometers... Or even for 10 kilometers. I mean I have done it... on a downhill course...

Maybe there's still some fatigue in the legs from the staircase challenge and that caused it to feel harder than it would be with rested legs, we'll see...

FM

FrogMan

06-23-2014, 11:36 AM

well, our 10yo's soccer team didn't even make it out of the group round in their soccer tournament but the weekend was crazy. With all we had going, I ended up going out for my long run yesterday evening past 8:30. For a 90 minutes long run, that was a bit late. And it was a grind. I'd had a ham sandwich for dinner at about 7:30 because we were with our 17yo at his pre graduation ball cocktail. I'm used to eating little before heading out for a run and even on race day, I usually eat breakfast a good hours before the start, so when I got running, I felt heavy and had trouble with digestion.

That 90 minute run was of the 3/1 type meaning I was to do 3/4 of it easy and 1/4 at race pace. 3/4 of 90 minutes if 22:30 and I usually do the race pace section toward the end of the long run but will leave myself 5 minutes of cooldown easy running. That means running easy from start to 1:02:30, then race pace from 1:02:30 to 1:25:00 than last 5 back easy.

I'm thinking I could do 4:20/km pace (about 7:00/mile) over a half marathon but with how late it was yesterday and I felt, I decided to shoot for 4:30/km (about 7:15/mile) instead.

As I said, it was a grind, and that race pace part more than the rest, but I pushed through it. Covered 5.08 km in 22:30 for an averace pace of 4:26/km (7:08/mile). I can live with that. It wasn't really pretty though as I kinda let running form go out the window toward the last 8-10 minutes and it shows on my cadence number. Cadence was around 186 or so for 3-4 kilometers but fell under 180 during that last km at race pace. This means I was pushing more like an end of race kick than with the efficiency I usually have in the middle of race miles...

Oh well, got it done, then got home and watched USA-Portugal which I had DVR'ed and was able to avoid getting the score spoiled. Finally got to bed at about 1 AM, sigh. But you know what, I was back up at 5 am to run today's recovery run. 7 km that more than once I told myself I would cut to 5 km, but did them all. I don't recommend running 7 hours after a long run, or on only 4 hours of sleep either for that matter. ;)

Overall last week, 31.38 miles in 4:34:54 for an average pace of 8:46/mile but the average pace means so little anymore, give how I do my recovery and easy runs based more on HR than sped/pace...

The training plan for the week:
MON: 7 km recovery run
TUE: 9x 400m @ 5K pace (300m easy)
WED: 7K easy run
THU: 40 minutes progression
FRI: Rest
SAT: 5K @ race pace (1K WU + 1K CD)
SUN: 90 minutes easy long run

Tomorrow is a Holiday in Quebec so I'll be off from work. I plan on doing my intervals in the morning, before breakfast, and offering my 10yo to go out for a 2 km run around dinner time so he can do at least a few practice runs before he races on July 4th.

FM

FrogMan

06-26-2014, 02:03 PM

Pretty solid interval session Tuesday. 9x 400m @ 5K pace, goal split time is 1:36, got all of them done under 1:33...
1:31.1
1:31.8
1:31.4
1:33.2
1:29.4
1:32.3
1:29.6
1:32.5
1:29.7

Average heart rate stayed under 150 for the first 6 then 151, 153 and 156 for the last three. I'll take that. Now I need to convince my mind that I can hold that kind of pace for 20 minutes, or a 5K... Good luck with that buddy ;)

As I said, Tuesday was a holiday for us so I got that session done around 8 am, when the sky was kinda cloudy but still nice. It started raining around noon and kept raining all afternoon. I still had in my mind to get a run in with my boys.

I reminded them of it around dinner time and to my surprise, they agreed to come and run. We got a 2K done in 9:57 with most of the first kilometer of it led by my 10yo. I had to remind him not to slow down during the second kilometer but he still had plenty of juice left for a great kick at the end. Hoping to run another 2K tomorrow, on my rest day, but what's 2 km with my son, right? :)

For today's run, a 40 minutes progression, I started it at my usual easy pace (5:30/km or 8:50/mile) then cut 15 seconds per km at every kilometer. That way, I was aiming for 5:30, 5:15, 5:00, 4:45, 4:30, 4:15 and 4:00 before finishing it out with the rest of the time back at an easy pace (was going to be about 6:30 left). Here's how it worked out during the run, times for every kilometer:
5:30.3
5:11.6
4:55.4
4:41.0
4:28.5
4:14.7
3:58.1

I'd say I pretty much nailed it, VERY happy with it. Wasn't easy though, took some talking to myself during the first couple kilometers, then again, some VERY big talking to myself in the last couple hard kilometers. Happy to see I was able to get that 7th kilometer in under 4 minutes with the HR maxing out at 158. Again, gotta convince my mind that I got enough of that juice in my legs to last 5 km...

FM

FrogMan

07-01-2014, 11:49 AM

Ended up running every day of the week last week for a total of 36.4 miles in 5:08:10. Ran a tough 2 km with my 10yo son on my rest day last Friday. It was humid & hot. I didn't mind it but _HE_ had a hard time. It's mostly mental, I mean, it was a 12 minutes run and he's 10, in super shape (he's a competitive swimmer who, in peak season trains 4 times 90 minutes in the pool, lapping close 2800 m in every training) but after about 500m he was whining and ready to start walking. I simply cheered him on, trying to keep him going at a relaxed pace and we got it done in preparation to this Friday's race day where he will race the 2K and I will race the 5K, my first every timed try at that distance.

Highlight of my week was the long run on Sunday, an out and back run from our home to my dojo for 90 minutes. Was a highlight because I used it to compare and reflect a little on my progress in the last year. My dojo is about 7 km away from our house and running out to it and back had been my big distance goal most of all Summer last year. I did that first run out and back on September 1st last year.

The two runs were run very similarly, which is at about the same fairly easy pace.

Last year
Garmin Connect (http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/368843943)
14.39 km in 1:21:03 for an average pace of 5:37/km (9:04/mile), average HR: 135 BPM

This year
Garmin Connect (http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/530999814)
16:45 km in 1:31:26 for an average pace of 5:33/km (8:57/mile), average HR: 123 BPM

Pace very similar but last year's run was done in September and started at 7:30 am while this year is end of jun/start of July and done at 8:30 so finishing when the sun is stronger. Still the pace for both run is somewhat similar, this year's being a tad faster yet the heart rate is a good 12 beats per minute less this time around. And last year I even took a 3 minutes break in which I paused my watch to take a couple pictures of the dojo before heading back home.

Based on my HR data in last Thursday's progression run in which I cut 15 seconds per km off my pace every kilometer over 40 minutes, I'd say I could run at a pace around 4:45 to 4:50 with a heart rate at 135. That's between 7:39 and 7:47 per mile or an improvement of 1:17 to 1:25 per mile... Yeah, I'm a data junkie... ;)

I clearly remember a moment on the way back when I felt so free, running easily with the HR showing as no more than 125. I could have gone on for another 5 km easily. I remember last September's run, it was my longest ever at the time and that 14 km was more than enough...

Continuing with some more data, the month of June was a good bounce back month, following the low mileage month that was May. I ran for 140.98 miles in June, for a time of 20:24:09. That's my second best ever, only 2.5 miles less than my best that was April 2014. I'm set to obliterate those numbers in July as my training plan calls for about 160 miles in the month with no races other than this Friday's 5K.

I also finished a plank challenge for June only taking two days of break. started it with 3 minutes, then went up to 3:30 after maybe a week then up to 4 minutes another week later. Never went above 4 minutes, probably my next step, but I did take this morning off from it. ;)

This week's training:
MON: 5.5 km recovery run
TUE: 6x 400m @ 5K pace (was supposed to be hills)
WED: 5 km easy/recovery run
THU: Rest
FRI: 5K Course du Grand Lévis (evening race)
SAT: 5K recovery
SUN: 1:45 easy long run (105 minutes if that's not clear)

Yeah, my half marathon plan called for hills/incline work this morning but I didn't feel comfortable doing that only three days before a race. Sure, it's only a 5K but it'll be my first timed 5K ever and I'd like to do well so I reverted back to 400m repeats at 5K pace to sorta help me get the pace down. Very happy with how it went too. There'll be a lot of mental talks to be done on race day but I felt good with the pace. I'll be trying to hit a sub-20 5K so the split time I was shooting for was 96 seconds. My splits this morning:
94.2
93.7
92.1
89.6
91.0
91.3

Average pace of all 6 repeats: 3:50/km. That'd give me an awesome 19:10 time over 5K. Yeah, riiight ;) As I once said, it's the mind that needs convincing. The good news is that my average HR over the 6 repeats this morning was right at 140 BPM without walking in between, simply keeping an easy jog going over 300m of rest. Way I see it, this HR will probably shot up to 150 after 2 km of that pace and will get close to my usual end of race HR after 3.5 or 4 km... We shall see...

FM

FrogMan

07-02-2014, 11:19 AM

This morning, I had my last run before this Friday's 5K. It was supposed to be a simple 5K easy run with a rest day tomorrow and the race on Friday evening but I wanted to test that 5K pace over more than the usual 400m interval reps I've been doing for the last couple months so I set out with 1.5 km warmup followed by 2.5 km @ 5K pace (4:00/km for a goal time of 20 minutes) then some cooldown.

I got the 2.5 km done in 9:56.8 so just about what it would take to get the 5K done in 20.

Before this morning, I thought I could get it done over 5K based on intervals and such, but now I'm fairly confident I can push through another 10 minutes at this pace. What's 10 minutes? ;)

Looking at the data from my watch, I see I will need to work on keeping my cadence a bit higher. Garmin Connect (http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/532895659)

From close to 200 steps per minute, I gradually let my cadence drop to about 182-184 toward the end of the 2.5 km stretch. To be able to sustain the 4:00/km pace, I think I need to stay at at least 190 SPM, except maybe for the last km or 750m when I'll go into lastkick/suicide pace mode and give it all that's left in the tank. Then, I know my cadence and form will get thrown out the window as I expect to lengthen my stride and go into heel striking...

Heart rate was kinda settling around 158 toward the end of the 2.5 km and I think it'll remain there for at least 1.5-2 km until that last kick where I expect it to shot up to 163 or so. There'll be time to breathe and rest after the finish line. ;)

This will involve some big work on the mental side of it for the last 2.5 km but I can do it. I can do it and I will do it, watch me! :)

FM

FrogMan

07-07-2014, 08:36 PM

Race report
Course du Grand Lévis, 5K
July 4th, 2014

I was very much looking forward to this race for a few reasons. It's as local a race as this can be for me and I'd heard great things about it. It was to be my first ever officialy timed 5K race and finally, my youngest son was supposed to run the 2K that was to be run 30 minutes prior to my 5K.

Plans changed on that last part Friday around noon when I got the news that my son was at the ER with 4 stitches after hitting his forehead at his soccer day camp.

From seeing my son run and having the whole bunch, including my oldest son, my wife and my mother-in-la, there to cheer me on, I went to the race only with my 17yo son who had camera and cheering duty all by himself. ;)

Going into the race I knew little about the course but knew one thing of a certain importance when you want to set a fast time, especially on a 5K: it was gun time only. I'm usually too kind and end up caught behind slower runners because I don't push forward before the start. I was early to the start line after a couple kilometers of warmup which included some "feel good" strides and settled about 5 feet behind the start tape line on the ground. I didn't have the pretention to put myself on the very first line. I had seen the winning time of a year ago, something around 15:40 or so. ;)

That positioning was just about perfect since I ended being right behind the young rabbits. A couple funny "ahah" moments. A couple gentlemen trying to find a good spot asked me what I planned to run for time and when I said "20 minutes" they both looked at each other and said, "ok bye, we'll back off a bit then". Then when I looked at them youngsters in front, them fast rabbits as I call them, I realised I was the only one wearing a t-shirt and not a singlet. I almost felt out of place. Then finally, as the starters began his 10 seconds countdown to start, I saw them all crouch down and, well, not wanting to really stand out, I too put my right hand to my watch and put my left shoulder forward. :D

If not for where it was taking place, the course would have been boring as hell. It took place on a bike path, going west for 1.5K, then turn around and back to the start/finish point and to the east for 1K and back to the start/finish point. Very linear but as I said, where it was is what made it at least a bit nice. Right beside the St Lawrence river with the whole Quebec City, including Le Chateau Frontenac in full view the whole time.

Here's my Garmin course viewed with the satellite view:
http://i.imgur.com/cqE7CX4.jpg

As I said, boring, linear, but the side of the river made it interesting... We actually used that same bike path in my half that I DNF back in May. That spot was at the 15-16 kilometer mark in the HM and I was still going strong at about 4:20/km but I have little recollection of the little park that is near the start/finish area of Friday's race. :)

To give you an idea, I live in Pintendre, in the Southwest corner of the little map...

They didn't have a course map on the race website, only saying we'd do a loop on the bike path so I had no clue what was going to happen, or even if there would be any elevation gain or loss. Because of that, I had not planned for the course instead going for trying to keep my watch "current pace" as close, or just a bit below, the 4:00 mark.

That worked well for the first 1.5 km as I averaged a pace of 3:52/km going out to the first pylone. Start positioning was perfect as I got passed by a few but also passed a few. More I ran, I kep passing some which felt good.

The next 1.5km brought us back to the start/finish area and I averaged 3:57/km on that stretch. My watch is set to give me split times and average pace every 500m and I kept seeing times under 2:00 per split so I knew I was doing well.

The next kilometer out was my toughest and I got it done in 4:01. Not a catastrophe but only 3.5 to 4 kilometers in and it was time for the final kilometer to happen. I decided to kick it up a notch at the turn after the last pylone, with one km to go. I had my watch showing me total time since start instead of HR and that's probably a good thing. Max HR for the 4th km was 166, something I rarely hit, but then I pushed harder still in that last kilometer finishing with the HR spiking at 169. I crossed a coworker of mine who was warming up for the upcoming 10K on the side of the bike path and to be called by my name was the final push I needed. Lungs and legs on fire, I kept pushing and finished the race with my fastest kilometer, done in 3:44 (equivalent to a 6:01/mile pace).

Garmin Connect (http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/534609905)

Final official time: 19:26.1,
average pace: 3:53/km or 6:15/mile

Placements:
30th overall out of 369 or top 8.1%
25th out of 136 men or top 18.4%
4th out of 36 in M40-49 or top 11.1%

Needless to say, I'm VERY proud and happy with this time.

An idea of how my 5K PR has change since last Summer:
2013/07/11, self test, 22:50
2013/11/16, self test, 21:38
2013/11/21, first half of Strava's any way 10K, 21:17
2014/03/02, 5K pace test, 20:50
2014/05/04, within HM, 20:43
2014/06/01, Descente Royale's last 5km, 19:45 (mostly downhill)
2014/07/04, Course du Grand Lévis, 19:26

A few pictures but before that, a couple videos. :)

Start of the race, see, I almost belong with all them fast rabbits :)
MVI 3968 - YouTube (http://youtu.be/hYugSs7R-mY)

And the finish line, screw good for, screw them flailing arms, it was all about making it to the line... The last call you hear is my son calling my in-house nickname, Teeeev ;)
MVI 3987 - YouTube (http://youtu.be/vONzS_o7liQ)

Before the start, I actually look much more relax than what I've been in my previous races
http://i.imgur.com/jDxSvxV.jpg

Again before the start, I was trying to find son and I found him :)
http://i.imgur.com/2g3KBcs.jpg

Good shot of the race start from the race photographer, I'm right smack in the middle
http://i.imgur.com/Sngp56s.jpg

Just about 300m to go I think
http://i.imgur.com/gBqxDBp.jpg

Next two were from right before the finish line. He's in my age group and will finish 1.3 seconds behind me... :)
http://i.imgur.com/YdBO8Dc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IeAB8yW.jpg

For some odd reason, I didn't really enjoy finishing on the grass. Odd, don't know why...

I stayed around to watch some friends. It's fun now after a few races, I'm beginning to see familiar faces and enjoy staying around after the race is done to cheer them on.

FM

Alan T

07-08-2014, 05:38 AM

I've considered trying a singlet several times now because of summer heat, but just haven't gotten around to it yet myself.

As for the grass, I find it pretty fun to run on grass when it is not a race, because it is softer and not as rough on the body to run on.. but when racing, I definitely go slower in grass. It is tougher to keep an efficient motion due to the surface being softer. I'm not sure that I would enjoy trying a 5k race with a finish in grass myself.

FrogMan

07-08-2014, 07:10 PM

yeah, well, I have a singlet, or maybe it's more like a dri-fit tank top technically, and I thought about wearing it for the race. I decided to go back to my trusted Nike Run shirt that is a lighter kind of technical fabric than any of my other shirt. I really like that one...

About the grass, maybe that's what it was, I kind of felt my form go away even more than it usually does in a race finish. I know I really overstride in my final kick of a race, but here, I can see it in the finish line video that my stride is kinda awkward. It wasn't that long a stretch though but I have seen cross country races with long stretches on grass. Those I really wouldn't like...

FM

FrogMan

07-08-2014, 07:13 PM

About training last week, the timing of the 5K race kinda allowed for a kickback week in terms of mileage and time on my feet. 30.6 miles run in 4:24:36.

I had a fantastic long run on Sunday. 12 miles done in 1:45 on a course I had planned during the week. Discovered some new streets I had not visited yet, including a little bike path that ran in between backyards. For a little while I couldn't see any street yet knew exactly where I was, then I emerged to a street I just recognized. It was wonderful...

This week starts the increase in mileage with about 35 miles planned for the week with the following three weeks at about 40 miles each.

MON: 7 km recovery run
TUE: hills/incline work, treadmill (8x 300m@15%/300m@-3%)
WED: 7km easy run
THU: 30 minutes progression
FRI: Rest
SAT: 6.5 km @ HM pace (1 WUM / 1 CD)
SUN: 1:45 long run (3/4 easy, 1/4 @ HM pace)

I did this morning the hills/incline workout I was supposed to do last Tuesday and man was it a chore. I was drenched after doing it... you can see the treadmill workout I did a this link:
iFit - Workouts (https://www.ifit.com/workout/53bb69e3f95c9d710500a651/53bbc466e8a14e80250008a3)

I had to drop the pace a bit but 15% incline is hard to sustain...

I have already planned my long run for this weekend. :) I can't go the same route, or simply extend the route from last Sunday since there's a race taking place on or around that route. Not a race I can even participate in though, it's a women only race, fund raiser for prostate cancer...

FM

FrogMan

07-10-2014, 11:17 AM

rough start to yesterday's easy run. Sure, only my regular midweek easy 4 miler, well a 7 km in my books but it's just a bit over 4 miles so you know. I'd had a kinda rough night, woke up 2-3 times, bathroom then the wind blowing hard and making the blinds hit the windowsill, you know. Didn't really have any problems getting up when the alarm clock went off but I felt slow and zombielike in everything I was doing. Then got to reading the paper and just didn't feel like going out to run. I really had to force myself to get out the door.

Then once out the door, legs felt very heavy. I just about turned back at the first half km mark I so didn't care about running today. But I'm not that kind of guy so I didn't and i kept on going. I ran loose, only sparingly looking at my watch to keep my HR at or under 125 BPM. I found myself amused and surprised by the kind of pace I was able to sustain at 125 BPM. I regularly was running at 5:05/km or so and would make the HR jump up a bit by going at 4:50, then as soon as I slowed down my steps to 5:20, the HR would drop down in the 121-123 range. Overall today, 7.12 km in 36:45 for an average pace of 5:10/km (8:18/mile).

I was pretty sure that was the fastest I'd run any of those 7 km easy run since I started going with the 125 BPM max "rule" and sure enough, looking back, it is.

I started training this way after my 10k on june 1st and have done 5 of those 7 km easy runs so far. Here are my average pace for each:
June 4, 05:31/km (08:52/mile), average HR 122
June 11, 05:24 (08:41), 121
June 18, 05:22 (08:38), 121
June 25, 05:19 (08:33), 123
July 9, 05:10 (08:18), 121

The constant progression is very interesting. Even during those so called "easy" runs, if you keep as many of the outside parameters as constant as possible, you can see improvements. All these runs started at about the same time (between 5:28 and 5:32 am) and are all between 7.05 and 7.43 km in distance and their average HR stayed between 121 and 123. If you pay good attention to your numbers, you don't really need to set new PRs at every race to see improvements in your fitness level...

FM

Kodos

07-11-2014, 08:32 AM

I can't see rockin' the singlets, myself. :)

Nice 5K! I have one coming up in early August.

FrogMan

07-13-2014, 10:44 AM

Today's long run was supposed to last 1:45:00 with 1/4 of it (or 26:15) at HM pace. Went very well then got to the dreaded 20.45 km mark, the distance at which I crashed back in May, and I almost shed a tear feeling great relief. Once there, I HAD TO get to the half marathon distance, definitely crushed some old demons today, I feel cleansed of my doubts. Bring it on world, bring it all on!

21.13 km in 1:47:18 for an overall average pace of 5:05/km (8:10/mile)
Garmin Connect (http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/540604859)

Even better than the average pace on the whole run, I rocked the HM pace section, 6.09 km in 26:13 for an average pace at 4:18/km or 6:56/mile and that section started after a 73 minutes warmup... :)

FM

FrogMan

07-13-2014, 10:46 AM

I can't see rockin' the singlets, myself. :)

Nice 5K! I have one coming up in early August.

yeah, and I don't see myself paying the big bucks for a singlet that they are charging at the running store ;)

I mean, I bought most of my technical shirt at TJ MAXX for real cheap and while I have a Nike DriFit tank top, it's not really a running singlet, but I paid something like 16 bucks for it. Not gonna drop 35 bucks on a singlet...

How's training coming for that 5K of yours? You feeling confident in the distance?

FM

Kodos

07-14-2014, 07:55 AM

Yeah. I'm actually doing half-marathon training on RunKeeper. I have one 5K scheduled for early August, and may add another a couple weeks after it. Haven't run anything but that 4-miler back in May. So this will be my first 5K since my twenties.

BYU 14

07-14-2014, 10:02 AM

FrogMan

07-14-2014, 07:56 PM

Ended up with a pretty decent week mileage wise last week but more interestingly in a VERY nice week in average pace. 36.22 miles run in 5:01:18 for an average pace of 8:19/mile, my fastest average pace over a week since the week that ended with my half marathon DNF in early May. And I didn't even sacrifice any recovery run (did 7 km of that with HR<110) or easy run (had a 7 km of that too, with HR<125) and only had a 30 minutes progression run. The hills workout was a grind but not superfast but the two weekend run were at good pace...

I did my usual 7 km recovery run this morning and hit a neat milestone. It was the first time in any of those recovery run that I was able to keep my average heart rate under 110 BPM while at the same time averaging a pace faster than 6:00/km (9:39/mile).

I'd had a some runs getting close but never faster than 6:00/km. Gotta be happy with those little wins that happen in something as simple as a recovery run...

I'm entering week 7 of 12 in my half marathon plan, already half way done... I'll be on vacation from my job starting next Monday so the next three weeks should make for lots of fun running on my own schedule.

Training plan for the week:
MON: 7 km recovery run
TUE: 6x 800m @ 10K pace
WED: 7 km easy run
THU: 45 minutes progression
FRI: Rest
SAT: 8 km @ HM pace (1 WU + 1CD)
SUN: 2 hours easy long run
TOTAL: 40.6 miles

Starting with week 7, Hal Higdon's plan moves away from teh 400m @ 5K pace and the hills session and goes into longer interval work, namely 800m @ 10K pace and mile repeats @ race pace. Had some good back and forth with the runners on the Lose It forums about tomorrow's interval session. A fairly experienced runner over there was talking about his 800m repeats and when he mentioned his split goal times, I figured he was running them way faster than 10K pace, probably even faster than 5K pace. Most of the others said they ran their intervals about the same way, i.e. at least 5K pace for the 800m and maybe even faster.

I've had great success so far with Higdon's plans and while I ran the 400m intervals a bit faster than his prescribed 5K pace, I wasn't running them at mile pace. Based on my 5K time of 19:26, my 5K pace of 3:53/km would predict a 10K pace of about 4:02/km according to Jack Daniels's calculator. Again, the mind needs convincing as I find that mighty fast.

I'll probably try to hit close to 4:00/km or about 3:12 per 800m repeat.

Finally, looking ahead, I see myself running the equivalent of a half marathon for four Sundays in a row. :eek:

When I originally devised my plan, I had planned my easy runs to be run at about 5:30/km with race pace at 4:30/km. I've since revised my race pace to closer to 4:20/km and my easy run pace, which is dictated by keeping my HR at or below 125 BPM, has started averaging more around 5:20/km. The easy portion of yesterday's long run was done at an average of 5:24/km.

I got these long runs in the next three weeks...
this Sunday: 120 minutes all easy (@5:30/km that's 21.8 km)
next Sunday: 120 minutes with 30 minutes @ HM pace (should come to 23.3 km)
following Sunday: 135 minutes (2h15min) all easy (about 24.5 km)

Last Sunday wasn't supposed to come to 21.1 km but it felt good to get that out of the way.

Now, had anybody told me just one year ago that in 12 months time I'd be doing half marathon length runs every Sunday over a span of four weeks, I'd have called them crazy. But here I am, who's crazy now? ;)

FM