Racing

Last week I said I was excited to race so that I could test myself and get a gauge on my fitness level but apparently that must have come from how I felt as a road racer or something. As things have tended to go in this return to running, the racing experience was not like I remember. Part of this change has come about because of personal development but a big part of the change is the fact that the race is on the trails, and the discipline, trail running, for me, and I think many people is really a different sport than road or track running, perhaps even cross-country running. I don't know that I can articulate it accurately but when I toed the line on Sunday and started racing it felt strange to me, perhaps its because I automatically got into road racing mode but was running through the forest and this clash didn't compute. Maybe it was the fact that I was wearing a number and this mass of people were going to be charging though to forest that seemed odd. Although the North Shore trails are very close to the bustling city, to me, it is still the Forest and distinctly separate, so being part of a large group of people, a mass of humanity charging through the bush with our numbers, water bottles, back packs, and other fancy equipment somehow felt 'off' to me.  This is possibly the small town boy in me talking. I did happen to grow up where I could run trails and dirt roads for miles and not see another human.  I don't mean to sound as though I have any contempt for such an event, it is just a very different experience between having a throng of people running through the streets and buildings and running through the trails and trees.

My race itself was cut short by my own choosing at about halfway, but I suppose i'll start from the beginning. We started off at Cleveland park and headed up to the Grouse Mountain Skyride parking lot via the road then headed down the powerline dirt road over to the Baden Powel trail. The first ~25mins was more or less up hill the whole way and I stuck with Mark Bennett through this section creating a bit of gap on him with the short downhills, while who I assumed was Adam Campbell was up ahead and a kid I recognized from the roads from UBC up ahead of him. Once I reached the top of this climb I let it go on the downhills which I discovered last week was a strength of mine and caught up with Adam 5 or 10mins before the Lynn Creek bridge aid station. We ran together and chatted for a bit but after crossing the bridge I stepped on a sharp piece of gravel right on the ball of my big toe. I actually don't remember the precise point but it was very sore and I found I couldn't really use my big toe much. I tried to keep the pace going for a while but once we passed the start line of the Tender Knee race, which is about halfway, I decided I had better throw in the towel since I could get a ride to the finish from there. The thought process was that I could grind out the second half of the race adjusting my stride and falling off the pace and potentially seriously injure myself, or I could drop out and be running again in a couple of days. Being that this race meant little to me and being able to simply go running on a daily basis means so much to me the decision was an easy one to make. Perhaps mostly because of this rationalization I actually didn't care much at all about dropping. However, after thinking about it, it is partly the different feeling about racing on the trails I described above and my very different mentality about running I now have which gave me this lack of disappointment with dropping out. I can't really say for sure because I really have this ongoing sense of discovery with running these days.


That said, I had a few goals in the back of my mind for the year but i've decided to throw them out the window for now, aside from the one of getting and staying healthy. I'll continue to do a hill repeat workout mid-week because in a masochistic way I enjoy it, and it is the biggest bang for your buck workout you can get, in my books anyway. On the weekends I am just going find some beautiful places to run. 

A Long Month

Its actually been well over a month since I first developed pain in my lower back area and its been a bit trying at times but it has also been a learning experience. I really had no idea how complicated the hip area is, and I guess that is because I had never thought about it before. We are the only bi-pedal animals out there so it makes sense that the area that keeps us upright and keeps our spine perpendicular to our hips/pelvis is fairly complicated. I spent a few bucks on massage treatment that managed to make me somewhat functional but it was really the hours spent rolling around on the floor with a tennis ball and looking up photos online which taught me the most about the area. As I loosened up the initial problem, then the secondary problem and so on, I discovered eventually that it was a combination of a groin issue I have had for a few years and an IT band issue i've had for a long time.  The groin is fairly easy to loosen up but the IT band takes a little more work and time. This time around its a different part of the IT band that is the problem. Where the discomfort used to be in the lower part around the knee, now the problem lies in the origin of the IT band in the external lip of the iliac crest. Anyhow, it's very much under control and getting better all the time, so much so that I am actually starting to feel efficient rather than fighting against my body. I noticed this the most on my hour run yesterday while quite sore all around from my Sunday run on the north shore.

In other news, I'm pretty fired up about the race next weekend. Upon returning to running my aim wasn't to get out racing again, but to get out and enjoy running far and on the awesome trails here in Vancouver, however I find myself looking forward to getting out and testing myself. By testing myself I mean getting a gauge on my fitness level by seeing how my time on a particular course measures up to current and past performances. I have never had a particularly competitive mindset, at least nothing like i've seen in other people, so its not the anticipation of a fight that has me excited but getting on the trails  without my backpack of gear wearing my New Balance Minimus Trail shoes I just bought.

I actually took these out on the trails on Sunday and they performed beautifully. It was difficult to purchase a pair of shoes since i've been lucky enough to have been given shoes from Brooks for a while, but wow, these shoes are great. They are essentially a racing flat with grip, but of course they are more than that because a racing flat would fall apart on the gnarly north shore trails in no time. About the only thing they wouldn't be good for is running down a rock garden, at least not for my feet at this point. They don't afford much protection on the mid-foot. Other than that i'm in love with them. Any shoe you can throw on bare foot and do a two hour run in and not get a single blister is a winner in my books. My lower legs are a little beat up today(two days out) but thats to be expected, and I also bombed the last 20 mins of the run which didn't help.  Hopefully they will be well enough to do a solid hill repeat workout tomorrow then i'll take it easy till Sunday and post a race report!

North Shore Recon

Originally when I started running again I had thoughts of heading out to Calgary for the marathon on May 29th. I've gone there for their race weekend a few times and its always a good time and even though I wouldn't be race fit, it would have been nice to get a good hard long run in. With the injury that semi-plan was cancelled and I set my sights on doing the Iron Knee 25k on the 29th instead, which is in North Vancouver. Last week this was even looking unlikely but I found a new massage therapist who fixed me up pretty good on Monday. Throughout the week I was loosening up a bit more, still spending some quality time on the tennis ball but 'managing' the injury well. I think I have actually traced the root of the injury to a groin problem I have had for quite some time, anyway my whole hip-pelvis-hamstring-back area is needing some work but its back to being functional. Functionality is of course a green light to get out and do some serious running!


I've been in Vancouver now for 10 years on and off and I've never actually gone for a run on the North Shore trails. So I decided, since I was hoping to do this race at the end of the month, that I'd better get out and do some reconnaissance. Here you can take transit pretty much everywhere so I hopped on the bus to downtown, took the boat across to the 'shore,' and one more bus up to the base of the Grouse Mountain Skyride. From there I would run across the north shore through Squamish and Tsleil-waututh Nation Territories to Deep Cove and bus it home from there. Just like that!


Arriving at the base of Grouse Mountain I packed away my pants and jacket into my bag along with my apple, orange, powergel, extra socks, iphone, money, and identification and off I went. I figured I wouldn’t need a water bottle seeing as it had been raining for the last few days and I could scoop a few handfulls along the way. The route and elevation profile is here, so there weren’t a lot of surprises, and I was as weak as expected on the hills, so I just got my grind on an ran down the downhill’s pretty quick but somewhat cautiously. I didn’t have trail shoes on but was pretty comfortable, I’ve always been pretty nimble on the toes so not having the grip wasn’t a big issue until later on in the run when I got to the famous Powerline Climb. Just after the 12k mark you start to make a steep climb and being that it started dumping buckets of rain when I got to Lynn Creek this ended up being a pretty tough section. Without the protection of the trees, going up the powerline trail was rough, the trail was pretty much a stream and I was drenched head to toe but kept the feet moving despite losing a half a step each time I put a foot down. Knowing it was pretty well all downhill from the top of the climb was comforting, little did I know I’d have to run down a creek once I got to the turnoff at the top of the climb. Taking a right and heading down Mushroom trail was more or less a creek and pretty icy on the feet not to mention adding some serious weight to the shoes, but that would pull me downhill the rest of the way. At this point I realized how impressive it is that the top guys in the race like Aaron, Oliver, and Dylan can do this run in about 90 minutes, the time on my watch at this point. The rest of the run was familiar to me from an easy hike I’ve done in the past and was more just a test of how my quads would hold up, I took it relatively easy on the last 20mins as to not injure anything while I was clearly fatigued. Getting into Panorama Park in Deep Cove was a great reward for a solid effort on the day, it’s a really pretty spot. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to enjoy it, I had to get on the bus and try and make it home in time to watch game 5.


Overall, it was a great run. I didn’t take on enough fuel or water(internally), am impossibly weak on trails, but on a positive note I confirmed my sure-footedness even when tired, however I would definitely like to get a low rise trail shoe. I think I’ll probably go do this run again next week but pick up a hand held water bottle or bladder for my backpack, and take a couple of turns I think I missed!