food

I just went to the store and bought: two boxes of mussels, a dozen eggs, a cantalope and flax seed cookies. I bow to the cravings.

Taper time! Woohoo!

Last week was a good week. It started with my longest run ever, time-wise: a leisurely 2h51min on the mountain, through the remains of the snow storm. It actually felt easier than the previous hard 20milers done in 2h20 on snow. Woke up in the middle of the night Sunday (post-run) with chest pains. Chest pains so bad they woke me up! Marcio, a guy I coach who also happens to be a heart surgeon, or something, says that it is most likely stomach acid, or muscle cramping, and NOT heart related. Still, chest pains, lower back trouble...you wouldn't know I'm actually not even 30 yet.

After easy runs on Monday and Tuesday, in which my legs hurt a bit but not too much, I tried for the 10k progression run on Wednesday. I managed to get down to 3:30/k on the last two Ks (nos. 7 and 8) but that was it. I ended up with about 8k total. Not bad anyway, but no top end speed. So Coach Frank and I decided that I should do some 800s in 2:30, which is not all that fast, but faster than anything else I've been doing, and 400s are pretty much useless for marathon prep. Anyway, that went down later...

Thursday I doubled up for the first time in a while. The evening run was cool: Cat brought her dog, Nicolai. He was chill. Unfortunately, Christina did not run with us. That would have been fun to see, haha. She did meet the dog, but declined his amourous advances. How she could resist his husky eyes? Anyway... Friday I just did an easy 30min, basically running up to the track to see Tafik run his 1500.

Tafik is this kid who trains with the Tuesday night Jog-o-max (worst team name ever) group. His teacher and her sister train there, too. I guess the school he's at is mostly populated by under-privileged kids, so he can't necessarily afford to join a club. He ran pretty well: 5:15. He started pretty quick (as did the field) but he was consistent. He came back and ran a solid 21min 5k on Sunday, too. So, Isabelle (his teacher) and I are going to try to get him to run with Fleur-de-Lys. The school will pay the club fees, probably.

Saturday was my last fast long run. I felt awesome. I ran to meet Christina at Gouin and Salk, but I was so fast (i.e. I was so early) that I had to keep going to her house. I made it there in under an hour! She stuck with me for about 3min. I was going about 6:20/k or maybe a little faster, as that ended up being my average time for the whole thing. I ended the run at Boutique Endurance, just because I knew I could get some food there. The usual sniping from Bert, of course. You can't go in the store without enduring "good natured" ribbing from guys who haven't run much lately. I can take it from Pierre, because if you make the Olympics, you've got impunity, but it's funny how everyone knows everything about everyone else, and they always tell you you are doing the wrong thing. Never an encouraging word. Whatever.

The long run was solid and I feel a lot more confident. I doubled up Sunday (because it was too nice not to) and Monday, all four shorter, very easy runs. Today I felt ok. I went up to Robillard to do the 800s. I only managed 4 of them, in 2:31,35,35,32. I just didn't really have it. I didn't want to do it. I acheived my goal of getting the legs moving. I don't know if it was enough to do anything for the VO2max, but at this stage, that's not really the purpose. As I told Caroline, everything we do now, before Boston, is just to make ourselves feel ready to race.

Making the playoffs

I feel like the Leafs (and Habs, Canes, Iles, Rangers...). There is a pretty good chance I'm going to make the playoffs, but I'm not really doing anything dramatic to ensure that fact.

This week was a solid week, though, with a return to good workouts and good weather. In accordance with the plan, I decided not to worry about cranking out too much mileage, and just focus on one workout and one long run. The workout went really well. I went up to Summit on Thursday with Christina, and I ran four laps at a tempo pace, while she ran 3 laps easy. Neither of us were in much of a mood to run on the way out, but I felt much better after the workout. I think she was just happy to get it in. Anyway, I managed to average 8:35 for the loops, which is around 5:50/mile or 3:37/k, so now we are talking a bit. It felt harder than marathon pace (which is unfortunate when running at about that pace last fall felt much easier), but my legs were all there for the first time in weeks, and it was only my gut that was burning.

The other days I put in easy hours all around. I was going to do the long run today (2h45 easy), but with 30cm of snow, I figured I'd be better to wait until tomorrow, or even Monday for what would be my longest run ever, time-wise. Next week I will do the progression run workout, and a long run a bit faster (2h20 at 6:40/mile). So today will be a day off. I haven't had one in two weeks, so I hope to feel very rested tomorrow. This week was pretty tiring outside of running, as I had a guest and we were often up late, after which I would get up early anyway. I also pretty much flung myself from the healthy nutrition train, but I seem to be doing ok, so I'll just catch the next one, and keep on going. It's funny because I worry about that stuff (sleeping, eating well) when I've got nothing else to think about, but if I am really busy, it almost ceases to matter. Granted, I ran far less this week than I have in a while, so maybe that helps. The 80-100mile plateau is a more precarious perch.

So, no St. Patrick's Day festivities for me. Just going to play it low key and watch the Leafs beat the Habs, and hopefully edge closer to that playoff spot.

Putting it back together...

Well, I followed up my slowest 3k in 10 years with my slowest half marathon ever. Nicely done, I know. I basically shut it down after 15k, when some dude named Nellio who I'd never heard of went by me. I did manage to drop Debardi, after he showed up at 17k and ran with me for a while. He couldn't handle the 4min Ks up the last hill. Haha, so at least I can feel good about burning him, despite the fact that he's run maybe three times in the last month.

It went down thusly: Algerian guy not registered and doing it as a workout took off from the gun and ran it in 67. Dave Jackson from Victoria, coming off a solid 3000m at CIS the night before, and Terry Gehl led the way, with a chase group of me, Kevin Dunbar, Jean-Nic Duval and Alan Moore. We were all about 3:40 for the first K. Jackson and Terry pulled away then. The four of us kept about 3:40-45 Ks until about 8k, at which point I dropped back. I felt ok, like I could still talk and stuff, but my legs were toast. Dunbar and I were chatting, and I was annoyed that I COULD talk to him, but I couldn't keep going because of the legs. At 8k Jean-Nic made a move, and Dunbar covered, and they dropped Alan. I kept pushing to try to keep them in sight until about 12k, then I was just pushing for pride until about 15k, at which point I decided to save it for a better day.

I did run 20miles on Wednesday, and it went very well in fact. The last two days I was easy, but not enough rest, clearly. I am not too worried, as I know that if I rest my legs, I should be able to go ok for the marathon. The question is will I be recovered enough on the whole. How much of a hole have I dug with my training? Do I have enough time to get out of it, and still do some decent work in the meantime? So the plan is to focus on long runs and one workout a week, and not worry at all about the other days. Hopefully that will let me recover. Three weeks of that, then two weeks of real tapering, with the High Park 8k as a test in four weeks. I am sure that physically, I have done enough to at the very least run faster than Toronto, but I am concerned that I may have done too much, and that I won't be able to use what I have done. I suppose this is the question of marathon training: how much, how long, how fast, how soon, how late?

We shall see. I'm sure that the beers Cantin bought me last night won't help, though some people would have you believe that drinking is an important component of training, and one that I clearly don't do enough of. I beg to differ. I did get out for a run at 9am today though, time change included, so I can't be THAT old! ;)

Provincial 3k champion (the hard/easy way)

Ok, so the 3k wasn't that bad. I basically ran even splits (3:10, 3:06, 3:08) and let the others go out too fast (they were 33 on the first lap). I reeled in one guy at 1200 and another at 1500, earlier than I expected to. It felt just like a 3k should feel, only maybe without any kind of kick. I tried, but it was hurtin'. I just couldn't go any faster. I could keep going though, which is a good sign. That's what I'm training for: the ability to run for a long time, not necessarily a fast time. We'll see if Pete Quinn is right: he says if you are doing proper marathon training, your shorter race times may suffer. Well, they are suffering. Still, I beat the guys I needed to beat to win the senior men's race. Julien didn't run. I'm sure he would have beaten me, but hey, if you don't race, you can't win! I did get beat by several juniors, including Jean-Claude, who, let's be honest, is no junior--the guy's gotta be like 28!

So, next step: day off today, because HR was up at 60. I will do my long run tomorrow morning, and Eliza is coming at 1pm, so that is good timing. I will run the half marathon in Ile Bizzard next weekend. I think that will be a much better test. I predict 1:15 or so. I kind of hope to go a bit faster, but we'll see. I'll start conservative and see what I can do. Kristjan Hunter says he might run it, and maybe some others down for CIS will come out. Training has been inconsistent, but I have gotten some good volume in, and some good long runs. What's missing maybe are the workouts, but hopefully these next four weeks will be enough.

As I've said before, I think there is a limited window for me, for workouts. It doesn't take me that long to ramp-up to race shape, but if I push it too long, then I just burn out. So now is the time. I just have to remind myself that I don't need to do anything spectacular: I just have to run lots of miles, get the long run in, do tempos, and be smart. It'll take me a couple of weeks to get over a big mileage push, I've learned, so I have to respect the taper when it comes. Should be good.

Crisis mode (always a crisis)

The last couple weeks have been really hard. First it was hard because I was running so much. Then it was hard because I wasn't running at all. Now it is hard because I can run, but I don't want to. Or at least, I'm able to run a bit, but I'm holding back on days my HR is high (like today: 66 in the am, way too high, even though I didn't feel sick), and it is frustrating.

I think what has happened is when I found out I got into law school, it sort of solidified my impending retirement (or cutting back on training or whatever), and it made it hard to keep focus on Boston, knowing that after that, I'd probably not be training for anything in particular for a while. I always do that: skip my focus to the next thing, before the current project is done. It makes it hard to get out there and do the stuff you have to do, but don't feel like doing when you know that in 2 months, you won't HAVE to do that stuff anymore. It is pretty easy to start to want to slack off now. Also, not running for 5 days gets you into that mood pretty quick.

I'm running the 3k at provincials Saturday. I'm excited because I know that I must have some fitness from all those miles. I ran a reasonable 5k in January and I'm way fitter now, even with the time off. So I hope to surprise the field. They are all pretty fast (Julien ran 8:43 in Boston, and the others are in the 8:50s), but I'm hoping that the long indoor season will have taken its toll. Also, they all have a tendency to go out too hard (try for 8:30 and run an ugly 8:45), so maybe I can catch some of them dying, the young guys especially. Julien will be hard to beat, since I gave him advice on how to race 3k (haha), but I think the young kids will be ripe.

That race is motivating me now, but of course the best thing I can do for it is to take it easy. Still, I will do a solid run tomorrow, and hopefully the race will go well. I have always run very hard at provincial indoors. For some reason it seems to get me to my limits. Maybe it is the 10pm start time. Sunday I will try for a 20miler, regardless. Perhaps that's foolish, but I'll see how I feel. The following weekend I'm racing a half marathon, which is more in line with the whole Boston thing. I would like to run well, but I wonder if I should worry more about training than racing. There are only 6 weeks until the marathon. A good half would boost the confidence though. I guess I will see how the week goes.

Prediction: 8:58 I think I can dip under 9min if I run it right.