What a weekend. In fact I feel like its still going as I'm riding the Greyhound to Vernon from Kamloops to pick up a truck I looked at a couple weeks ago.
It all started on Thursday I suppose, bussing to Kamloops to stay with my cuz on account of having a job interview with the Secwepemc Health Directors Hub out on the rez. In short it has to do with coordinating the 17 Secwepemc communities in the transition of health authority for First Nations from the Feds and province to the First Nations Health Authority. A major undertaking. The interview went well and was offered the position later that day. So I'm stoked about that. After the interview I picked up the rental car and my travel companion and hit the road. Oh, I also finally heard from the owner of a truck I wanted to make an offer to, which also worked out, hence my current situation.
The race itself was a tough one for me because some problems I have long since conquered reared their ugly head but I'll start from the gun, or just prior to. I though we had left with lots of time to get to the race but were stuck in traffic turning into the parking lot which resulted in me getting to the start line just in time for the 5...4...3...2...1. Just enough time to check out the competition and then we were off.
I started out real easy being that I just jumped out of the car and watched to see what kind of pace we were going to run. Last year I ran with Brendan Lunty but this time around two guys I have never seen before headed out a bit quicker but not so fast that I thought they would be unable to sustain it. So, a threat. I decided I better keep an eye on them so ran a little quicker than I normally would but had nothing to worry about. Normally I'll get warmed up and settle into a pace around 7-8k and it turned out this pace was a bit quicker than these guys eventually passing them probably around 10k an then maybe 17-18k. As it tuned out they were running beyond themselves and I think both blew up.
Prior to passing them I had discovered my guts were going to become a big problem and every time I put a gel or water down, from about 10k onward I felt like I'd have to make a pit stop. I didn't want to however, because I still wasn't sure about the leader. So anyway I toughed it out till I passed him, pushed for another 5k and ended up putting a sizable gap into him. At around 23k I had suffered enough and pulled into the port-a-john. Needless to say it's a bit comical to pull off at a water stop and have the lead police motorcyclist and two lead cyclists wait for you outside the John!
Fortunately I had a big lead and even after the stop the second place guy was nowhere to be seen. So off I went. The rest of the race was fairly uneventful until about 32k when I heard the new second and third were battling it out. This is not so much something you want to hear because it's much harder to fight when you are out in no-man's-land. I picked it up anyway but that didn't last long with the heat and dehydration getting to me. In the end I was able to pull it off and come out a couple minutes ahead of Brendan for the win. Not fast and not pretty but a win :)
Now. What to do? Earlier last week as I recovered from my 40mi suffer fest I decided it wasn't a reasonable expectation to get fit enough to run fast at the Steve King Classic 100k. I was really looking forward to this but I just have too much on my plate to make a good go of it so I'm going to cancel that plan but keep the option in the back of my mind of going last minute and running just to get a 100k under my belt. The plan now will to get some solid training in before Victoria and try to run fast there.
A job, a win, a vehicle and some great visiting with friends made for an excellent unofficial long weekend. The summer is closing out great and the fall looks good and busy just the way I like it!
Mon - 70mins
Tue - off very tired
Wed - 2 x p-line hill (85, 91) some bounce but still tired + core
thurs - 50 mins feel okay
Fri - off, got a job! Drove to Edmonton
Sat - 20 mins jog
Sun - 26.2 mi - 2:36:40
- Ryan Day
- Secwécwpemc-ken ri7(I am Shuswap), Chief, Economist, Distance Runner, and Secwepemc Health Researcher/Co-ordinator/Policy guy. I've run a 30:24-10k, 1:06:23-half, and 2:19:55-full marathon but am most proud of the World Peace Prayer Day '06 relay run to Anchorage from Vancouver I participated in. This blog is primarily about running but I will post photos of the many places I like go on the tmícw of my maternal ancestors, Secwépemcul'ecw.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
W/E August 12 - Tortuous Rez Tour
Good week. Probably my best week in a while. I had aimed to do 2x4x Powerline hills but mentally and physically I shut down on the 7th one. I have more or less decided that if I slow by more than 10% of the first rep then its time to call the session. Overall the hill session was a success however. After that I headed to Vernon for a few days to get some school stuff sorted out and got to do a couple of gorgeous runs along Kalamalka Lake and around a park there. Coming back on friday I tried to load up on some carbs because it was time to get in a long run since I hadn't done one in a couple weeks.
So I picked a 40mile loop that I thought would be reasonably quick being that I am hoping to do this 100km race in September and I wanted to get it done at a decent clip. The route was from my place in Cache Creek, out to our reserve where the main village is, then south up a hill/mountain 1700ft to McLean's Lake another small reserve of ours, then down the far side of the hill to Upper Hat Creek, following the dirt road to highway 99, through our Upper and Lower Hat Creek reserves, and back along highway 97 through the village and back home. As I said I hoped it would be a pretty quick route; heading up a steep hill then a long gradual net downhill for 30miles. Not so. I guess between the 1hr uphill climb, and down the other side, my legs took more of a beating than I thought because by the time I hit the second half, which was all on pavement my legs were already hurting. My hip-flexors and adductors the most. Starting to "feel it" at 20miles into a 40mile run is NOT good! To add to this situation it was starting to get pretty warm, about 20 degrees and I had not realized how much I was drinking. Generally speaking I have a hard time drinking enough water when I use my water bladder, but on this run it wasn't the case and I ran out of water with 10miles to go and the temperature steadily rising. I had brought a 500ml waterbottle and 2L water bladder and burned through it in 30 miles. At probably ~25 degrees, hurting like hell and out of water I was a bit concerned about my ability to finish the run and considering calling for a ride but I really wanted to get through it. So I ground it out for another 6km and stopped where the highway crosses the Bonaparte river. I'm not sure what the water quality is like but at that point I didn't care and downed two bottles off water, filled up and was on my way. I felt marginally better but knew it was still going to be a tough grind back home. I finally dug my ipod out, cranked up the volume to drown out the traffic and started grinding. Agonizing. I'm really not certain why this run was so difficult. Yes it was longer than i've done in a while and yes a lot of it was on pavement but I just did not expect for it to be THAT hard. Over the last 10km I stopped probably a dozen times to walk a few steps then get jogging slowly again. I did eventually make it, but I felt worse than the first time I ran 50miles, and this was at a considerably slower pace. I suppose I just need to accept that this is the kind of shape I am in. Fortunately when you do a run that is this agonizing you know the training effect from it is going to be awesome! Lets just hope I recover enough in the next 7 days so I can have a good one in Edmonton next Sunday.
Mon - 70mins Back Valley Hill + core wkt
Tues - 7 x P-line hills (88, 87, 87, 85, 88, 90, 97)
Wed - 80mins Kalamalka Park
Thurs - off
Fri - 55mins Kalamalka Park
Sat - 40mi in 5:38. Brutal
Sun - 20mins jog
So I picked a 40mile loop that I thought would be reasonably quick being that I am hoping to do this 100km race in September and I wanted to get it done at a decent clip. The route was from my place in Cache Creek, out to our reserve where the main village is, then south up a hill/mountain 1700ft to McLean's Lake another small reserve of ours, then down the far side of the hill to Upper Hat Creek, following the dirt road to highway 99, through our Upper and Lower Hat Creek reserves, and back along highway 97 through the village and back home. As I said I hoped it would be a pretty quick route; heading up a steep hill then a long gradual net downhill for 30miles. Not so. I guess between the 1hr uphill climb, and down the other side, my legs took more of a beating than I thought because by the time I hit the second half, which was all on pavement my legs were already hurting. My hip-flexors and adductors the most. Starting to "feel it" at 20miles into a 40mile run is NOT good! To add to this situation it was starting to get pretty warm, about 20 degrees and I had not realized how much I was drinking. Generally speaking I have a hard time drinking enough water when I use my water bladder, but on this run it wasn't the case and I ran out of water with 10miles to go and the temperature steadily rising. I had brought a 500ml waterbottle and 2L water bladder and burned through it in 30 miles. At probably ~25 degrees, hurting like hell and out of water I was a bit concerned about my ability to finish the run and considering calling for a ride but I really wanted to get through it. So I ground it out for another 6km and stopped where the highway crosses the Bonaparte river. I'm not sure what the water quality is like but at that point I didn't care and downed two bottles off water, filled up and was on my way. I felt marginally better but knew it was still going to be a tough grind back home. I finally dug my ipod out, cranked up the volume to drown out the traffic and started grinding. Agonizing. I'm really not certain why this run was so difficult. Yes it was longer than i've done in a while and yes a lot of it was on pavement but I just did not expect for it to be THAT hard. Over the last 10km I stopped probably a dozen times to walk a few steps then get jogging slowly again. I did eventually make it, but I felt worse than the first time I ran 50miles, and this was at a considerably slower pace. I suppose I just need to accept that this is the kind of shape I am in. Fortunately when you do a run that is this agonizing you know the training effect from it is going to be awesome! Lets just hope I recover enough in the next 7 days so I can have a good one in Edmonton next Sunday.
Mon - 70mins Back Valley Hill + core wkt
Tues - 7 x P-line hills (88, 87, 87, 85, 88, 90, 97)
Wed - 80mins Kalamalka Park
Thurs - off
Fri - 55mins Kalamalka Park
Sat - 40mi in 5:38. Brutal
Sun - 20mins jog
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| From August 12, 2012 |
Sunday, August 5, 2012
W/E August 5 - Recovery in a big way
Recovery week. I didn't really plan for this week to be as much of a recovery week as it has turned out to be. I had decided to to take 2 days off then ease back into things but ended up not running until thursday. Then this weekend I went to Kamloops to visit my brother who was in town for the Powwow and forgot my running shoes so I didn't run on Saturday. THEN today I woke up with my guts not feeling very good so cancelled the run today. How about that for a recovery week. Two runs. It's really not ideal because I wanted to get in two full weeks of running before I took a few days easy before Edmonton. That isn't going to happen so i'm going go after it as much as I can over the next 10 days. That said, I have some running around to do out of town which might make that a problem, but we'll see how it goes. Going to try for a long run Tuesday, hills on Friday or Saturday, long run Sunday or Monday. Hard to say right now.
Mon - off
Tues - off
Wed - off
Thurs - 11mi Arrowstone
Fri - 9mi easy
Sat - off
Sun - off
Mon - off
Tues - off
Wed - off
Thurs - 11mi Arrowstone
Fri - 9mi easy
Sat - off
Sun - off
Sunday, July 29, 2012
W/E July 29 - Kamloops Marathon - 1st - 2:35:25
A few months ago while I was still living in Victoria I discovered the Kamloops Marathon was going to be resurrected after lying dormant for 20years and decided, since I would be moving to Cache Creek, that I would definitely run it. As a new race and being a local more or less I wanted to come out an support the race and put in a good effort. And being in Secwépemc territory I wanted to come out and represent as a person of this land. A few weeks ago I got in touch with the race organizers and told them i̓d like to come out and Phil and Karen were super accommodating, literally they put me up at the TRU residences for a couple of nights which was great. They also asked if I would do a talk at the race expo on the saturday before the race and I agreed. I have only done one other talk before and that was when I lived in Toronto and was asked to talk about my running philosophy and in particular about the relay run took part in to Alaska in ̓06. So, this time around they suggested I talk about training and in the end I just rambled on about running for about half an hour. There were maybe 20-30 people so it wasn't too daunting to public speak. I̓ve been running for so long now and have been a student of the sport for so long its not so hard to just ramble away. I enjoyed it as a more or less first experience and had a lot of positive feedback afterward and today after the race. Thank you those who stuck around to listen, I hope it was useful!
Race day. Knowing that its Kamloops and it would be hot out the start time for the race was set at 6am. This would normally be very early for me but i̓ve been getting up at 530 most days anyway so it wasnt too bad. 430 was a bit excessive but not unbearable. As far as the race is concerned, it went really well and was indicative of my fitness. We headed out at a reasonable pace, myself, and eventual second and third place finishers Nick Sunderland and Richard Brewster. Nick and I pulled away from Richard after a couple of kilometers and then I pulled away from Nick somewhere around 9k I guess and then I was on my own. It turned out there were virtually no Km markers on the course so I just settled into a pace that would hopefully work out the best possible time given my fitness. And thats how it went. I just locked into a good pace and ground it out. I had a rough patch between 30-35km but came out of it and cruised the last 7km at a pretty good clip. The thing i̓m probably most happy about were my guts. I actually woke up with heartburn, which is rare, and throughout the run it actually improved. Usually the pace of a marathon is a bit too quick to be able to digest gels without some discomfort with acid coming up into my throat but today that was not the case at all. My plan going in was to practice nutrition the way I would take it in an ultra or long run, start fueling early and have a gel on the half hour. Additionally, due to the heat, I wanted to try taking some S-Caps! electrolyte tablets. So, I took one at 1h15 and 2hrs. I think what happened was the electrolyte tabs actually settled my stomach and so I would say actually, that this was the best my guts have felt in a race, maybe ever. I̓m not sure how it would have factored in, but I didn̓t get enough water down during the race. Could be it helped with the stomach issues, not sure, but it didn̓t seem to affect my performance much.
All told it was a really good weekend, meeting people, making new friends, doing the talk, running well, great weather, and reppin̓ hard in Secwépemcul̓ecw.
Mon - off + core wkt
Tues - 9.2 + Arrowstone + core wkt
Wed - 4 x P-line hills (84, 94, 87, 83) + core wkt
Thurs - 9.2 Arrowstone
Fri - off + core wkt
Sat - 15 mins jog
Sun - 26.2 mi - 2:35:25
Photos Courtesy Dirk Handke
Race day. Knowing that its Kamloops and it would be hot out the start time for the race was set at 6am. This would normally be very early for me but i̓ve been getting up at 530 most days anyway so it wasnt too bad. 430 was a bit excessive but not unbearable. As far as the race is concerned, it went really well and was indicative of my fitness. We headed out at a reasonable pace, myself, and eventual second and third place finishers Nick Sunderland and Richard Brewster. Nick and I pulled away from Richard after a couple of kilometers and then I pulled away from Nick somewhere around 9k I guess and then I was on my own. It turned out there were virtually no Km markers on the course so I just settled into a pace that would hopefully work out the best possible time given my fitness. And thats how it went. I just locked into a good pace and ground it out. I had a rough patch between 30-35km but came out of it and cruised the last 7km at a pretty good clip. The thing i̓m probably most happy about were my guts. I actually woke up with heartburn, which is rare, and throughout the run it actually improved. Usually the pace of a marathon is a bit too quick to be able to digest gels without some discomfort with acid coming up into my throat but today that was not the case at all. My plan going in was to practice nutrition the way I would take it in an ultra or long run, start fueling early and have a gel on the half hour. Additionally, due to the heat, I wanted to try taking some S-Caps! electrolyte tablets. So, I took one at 1h15 and 2hrs. I think what happened was the electrolyte tabs actually settled my stomach and so I would say actually, that this was the best my guts have felt in a race, maybe ever. I̓m not sure how it would have factored in, but I didn̓t get enough water down during the race. Could be it helped with the stomach issues, not sure, but it didn̓t seem to affect my performance much.
All told it was a really good weekend, meeting people, making new friends, doing the talk, running well, great weather, and reppin̓ hard in Secwépemcul̓ecw.
Mon - off + core wkt
Tues - 9.2 + Arrowstone + core wkt
Wed - 4 x P-line hills (84, 94, 87, 83) + core wkt
Thurs - 9.2 Arrowstone
Fri - off + core wkt
Sat - 15 mins jog
Sun - 26.2 mi - 2:35:25
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| From July 29, 2012 |
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| From July 29, 2012 |
Friday, July 27, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
W/E July 22 - Arrowstone Hills
It was another spotty week but I managed to get the key workouts in so it was pretty good overall. I've been battling for the last few weeks with getting out the door in the morning. Reason being that I'm a night person but the weather being as warm/hot as it is forces me to be out the door around 630, which means a 530 wake up. I typically cannot get to bed before 11 and usually in bed closer to 12 so it makes the wake up a tough one. Adding to this is just being tired from getting into shape. Anyway, as I said the week was still a success in my mind. Here's how it went:
Mon - off
Tues - 9.2mi Arrowstone
Wed - 2x3x 90 sec hills (forgot to record splits)
Thurs - off
Fri - 9.2mi Arrowstone
Sat - off
Sun - 31mi long run, just under 4hrs
The long run today was a pretty decent one even though the average pace was fairly slow. I left from my house then ran up Back Valley Rd, took the Arrowstone Creek forest service road up to a point I knew was over 15 miles. From mile one onwards there was very little downhill until near the end of the out portion of the run, the map and elevation is below. So it was a good climb, I saw one black bear, a rabbit, a dead snake, two deer, and a motorcyclist. Other than that I saw some absolutely gorgeous sights. There really is nothing like running in the hills and mountains in the early morning light. One particular spot I stopped as the sun was shining through blackened trees from a forest fire a couple of years ago and there was only a field of purple fireweed growing amongst them. My photo below doesn't do the scene of regeneration justice, it was simply gorgeous. The route itself was not exceedingly steep but it brought me up to the Arrowstone Hills plateau which is at and above a mile in elevation, again the photos don't do the view justice but it was an extremely pretty run. After the turnaround at 2h20 there is a bit of a climb which was tough but the last 12miles was almost entirely downhill so I was able to get moving and my quads held up well. Great run overall, and a perfect end to the week.
Mon - off
Tues - 9.2mi Arrowstone
Wed - 2x3x 90 sec hills (forgot to record splits)
Thurs - off
Fri - 9.2mi Arrowstone
Sat - off
Sun - 31mi long run, just under 4hrs
The long run today was a pretty decent one even though the average pace was fairly slow. I left from my house then ran up Back Valley Rd, took the Arrowstone Creek forest service road up to a point I knew was over 15 miles. From mile one onwards there was very little downhill until near the end of the out portion of the run, the map and elevation is below. So it was a good climb, I saw one black bear, a rabbit, a dead snake, two deer, and a motorcyclist. Other than that I saw some absolutely gorgeous sights. There really is nothing like running in the hills and mountains in the early morning light. One particular spot I stopped as the sun was shining through blackened trees from a forest fire a couple of years ago and there was only a field of purple fireweed growing amongst them. My photo below doesn't do the scene of regeneration justice, it was simply gorgeous. The route itself was not exceedingly steep but it brought me up to the Arrowstone Hills plateau which is at and above a mile in elevation, again the photos don't do the view justice but it was an extremely pretty run. After the turnaround at 2h20 there is a bit of a climb which was tough but the last 12miles was almost entirely downhill so I was able to get moving and my quads held up well. Great run overall, and a perfect end to the week.
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| From July 22, 2012 |
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
W/E July 15 - Settling...a bit
A bit better, but an unplanned trip down to Vancouver and semi-unplanned weekend at Whistler resulted in skipping out on the long run. Feeling pretty good overall though, had a good off-day run today feeling reasonably recovered and strong from the weekend. I'll likely push things up a bit this week and do my long run on Saturday so I can do my hill workout earlier next week and have a few days to recover for the race. Obviously, given the training i'm not expecting anything spectacular for the Kamloops Marathon but i'll be aiming for sub 2:30 as i'm pretty certain the course is fairly flat. It turns out i'll be doing a little talk at the expo as well just talking about my philosophy regarding running.
I attached a map of my "off-day run below. Although I only did it twice last week i've made it my regular easy/recovery run. But I guess the fact is its far from ideal as an recovery run due to the fact that its a 2300ft climb in 4.6miles or 45mins, then a ~32min descent. So, that means its above the aerobic effort level you would want for recovery during the ascent, and the descent makes for some damaging eccentric loading on the quads. I've decided to do it anyway though because I feel I need more climbing strength in general and tough quads for the longer distance races i'll be doing in the fall. 7-8 Hills tomorrow and Saturday i'll be aiming for a 30-35mile long run. Looks like the weather is going to let up a bit and will only be a high of 26 then which should help a bit.
Mon - off
Tues - 9.2 mi Arrowstone
Wed - 5x Powerline Hill (91sec, 89, 94, 89, 86)
Thu - 9.2 mi Arrowstone
Fri - 7mi Seawall
Sat - 60 mins in Whis
Sun - off
FYI, on the left part of the photo is one of my band's reserves, bottom centre is Cache Creek, and one square from the bottom and three from the left is where my grandmother spent a large chunk of her childhood living with my great-great-grandparents.
I attached a map of my "off-day run below. Although I only did it twice last week i've made it my regular easy/recovery run. But I guess the fact is its far from ideal as an recovery run due to the fact that its a 2300ft climb in 4.6miles or 45mins, then a ~32min descent. So, that means its above the aerobic effort level you would want for recovery during the ascent, and the descent makes for some damaging eccentric loading on the quads. I've decided to do it anyway though because I feel I need more climbing strength in general and tough quads for the longer distance races i'll be doing in the fall. 7-8 Hills tomorrow and Saturday i'll be aiming for a 30-35mile long run. Looks like the weather is going to let up a bit and will only be a high of 26 then which should help a bit.
Mon - off
Tues - 9.2 mi Arrowstone
Wed - 5x Powerline Hill (91sec, 89, 94, 89, 86)
Thu - 9.2 mi Arrowstone
Fri - 7mi Seawall
Sat - 60 mins in Whis
Sun - off
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| From July 17, 2012 |
Sunday, July 8, 2012
W/E July 8 - Back at 'er
Kind of a bumpy week. Don̓t remember why I took monday off to be honest, but its my 'easy' day anyway. Tuesday was nice and easy but I was tired and just scouting out the hill where I was planning to do hill repeats on wednesday. That didn't work out because I made an impromptu trip into Kamloops to check out a few of the AFN National Chief candidates, which was relatively uneventful but I wanted to check out the politikin. The 72min run in Arrowstone was great. From my house I headed out the back door and then, up. Arrowstone is a "provincially protected area" and i'm hoping to find a route to circumnavigate it, then link up to the hill I ran around this morning, on the map below. I also took a trip up to Xat'súll(Soda Creek FN), for a Secwépemc storytelling session which was a good time and met some Neskonlith family I had only just found out about a few days ago(the link anyway), which is super cool. Anyway, I had a good run along the Fraser on Saturday then got home in time to rest up for my big run on Sunday.
Truthfully, i'm not all that fit, so I was a bit worried about heading out for a 23mile run where I would not be able to take any shortcuts home. At the same time its a good strategy to force myself into fitness. Fortunately, despite only having one gel, the run went really well. I headed out good an early since the forecast predicted 22 degrees by 9 am, and 34 in the afternoon. I figured i'd run the loop counter-clockwise since on the highway i'd be out in the open and the low sun would be cooler. Turned out it was a good plan too because there was virtually no traffic making for a very pretty run. Reaching the turnoff after an hour I wound my way up Battle Creek Rd(I think thats the name) till I hit Back Valley Rd. then cruised downhill back to my house. Just, like, that. Very happy that 23 miles felt as good as it did. Now to find a 30 mile loop for next weekend!
Mon - off
Tues - 50mins
Wed - off
Thurs - 72 mins Arrowstone
Fri - off
Sat- 75 mins Xat'súll
Sun - 23mi Battle/Back Valley Loop
Total: ~52 mi
Truthfully, i'm not all that fit, so I was a bit worried about heading out for a 23mile run where I would not be able to take any shortcuts home. At the same time its a good strategy to force myself into fitness. Fortunately, despite only having one gel, the run went really well. I headed out good an early since the forecast predicted 22 degrees by 9 am, and 34 in the afternoon. I figured i'd run the loop counter-clockwise since on the highway i'd be out in the open and the low sun would be cooler. Turned out it was a good plan too because there was virtually no traffic making for a very pretty run. Reaching the turnoff after an hour I wound my way up Battle Creek Rd(I think thats the name) till I hit Back Valley Rd. then cruised downhill back to my house. Just, like, that. Very happy that 23 miles felt as good as it did. Now to find a 30 mile loop for next weekend!
Mon - off
Tues - 50mins
Wed - off
Thurs - 72 mins Arrowstone
Fri - off
Sat- 75 mins Xat'súll
Sun - 23mi Battle/Back Valley Loop
Total: ~52 mi
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| From July 8, 2012 |
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| From July 8, 2012 |
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| From July 8, 2012 |
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Recap and plans
I decided to do some racing in the spring mainly to try and bag a few bucks to help fund my move to Cache Creek come June. The plan was to get in decent shape for the Vancouver Marathon in early May then use the fitness gained from that to run well at the Calgary marathon at the end of May. I figured if I didn't do much running in between I could be recovered and strong for Calgary.
The marathon in Vancouver went really well. I had done a few hill workouts an some long tempo stuff out at Elk lake and was feeling pretty good about running sub 2:30. In your average Van Marathon this would get you in the running for a top three finish and potentially top spot for a local. To my dismay there were 4 Africans brought in along with Jason Loutitt, Graeme Wilson and David Jackson. I definitely had more of a race on my hands than I was expecting. Turns out Jason didn't show and David was actually running the half. So anyway the gun goes off and the four African guys take off and it's a handful of us also-rans running together. As we settled into a solid pace Greame and I traded off leads looking to run around 2:26 pace. I wasn't sure if I had that in me but figured I'd help Greame out as much as I could. For the first 10k or so there was an unknown wrestler guy in front of us but we weren't too worried about him and Anthony Palermo was tailing us as well. Things were reasonably uneventful until 15k in we're we saw the first Kenyan guy drop, so we were in 4th. Coming into 30k we were notified the third place Kenyan guy was looking rough too so I decided to push the pace when we hit the Seawall with Greame following suit. Shortly after I saw the 3rd place Kenyan dude standing by the second beach pool. So all of a sudden I was in third and potentially going to make a good payday. Time to get serious. With Greame a few steps behind I sped up a bit more and he covered the move so I decided to get up on my forefeet and really get moving. I had decided to wear my training shoes because of some calf sorenes, so getting up on my forefeet made a big difference. Greame couldn't cover this move and over 4-5k I was able to open up a considerable gap and maintain through the finish. 3rd place overall, first Canadian citizen and first BC resident netted me two much needed Gs. As we suspected after the race the course was long, so my 2:29:22 was for 42.195k + 382m. Somewhere around 2:28 I guess.
The following weekend I jumped into the Oak Bay Half and limped to a 72:11 for third. Then two weeks later headed to Calgary for another marathon. Calgary was uneventful as I had some gut issues and was unable to eat or drink. The lack of nutrition and legs that were only feeling okay going in resulted in an absolutely brutal last 12-15k and finished up 5th in 2:33.
In retrospect more care was needed to recover for Calgary but some other life stresses were unavoidable like moving. Anyhow it was a fun month that earned a month easy.
And that's how it's been, nice and easy but time to get back at it. I'm living in my traditional territory, secwépemcul'ecw (the land of the Shuswap) and loving every minute of it, particularly the running. There are dirt roads everywhere and hills in every direction not to mention little underbrush so you could run in a straight line in any direction so long as there isn't a rock bluff. I'll write more about this in time. It's planning time though. I've started mapping out some good loops and sketching a training plan to accommodate the races I'd like to do. Which are:
Kamloops Marathon - July 29
Edmonton Marathon - August 17
Steve King Classic 100k - September 15
Victoria Marathon - October 7
TNFEC 50mi - December 2(redemption!)
Pretty full slate. Victoria will depend on the recover from the 100k. Speaking of 100s, I've scheduled a few 100mi weeks. Never thought I'd say that again. Anyway that's all for now. Here's a photo of my backyard:
The marathon in Vancouver went really well. I had done a few hill workouts an some long tempo stuff out at Elk lake and was feeling pretty good about running sub 2:30. In your average Van Marathon this would get you in the running for a top three finish and potentially top spot for a local. To my dismay there were 4 Africans brought in along with Jason Loutitt, Graeme Wilson and David Jackson. I definitely had more of a race on my hands than I was expecting. Turns out Jason didn't show and David was actually running the half. So anyway the gun goes off and the four African guys take off and it's a handful of us also-rans running together. As we settled into a solid pace Greame and I traded off leads looking to run around 2:26 pace. I wasn't sure if I had that in me but figured I'd help Greame out as much as I could. For the first 10k or so there was an unknown wrestler guy in front of us but we weren't too worried about him and Anthony Palermo was tailing us as well. Things were reasonably uneventful until 15k in we're we saw the first Kenyan guy drop, so we were in 4th. Coming into 30k we were notified the third place Kenyan guy was looking rough too so I decided to push the pace when we hit the Seawall with Greame following suit. Shortly after I saw the 3rd place Kenyan dude standing by the second beach pool. So all of a sudden I was in third and potentially going to make a good payday. Time to get serious. With Greame a few steps behind I sped up a bit more and he covered the move so I decided to get up on my forefeet and really get moving. I had decided to wear my training shoes because of some calf sorenes, so getting up on my forefeet made a big difference. Greame couldn't cover this move and over 4-5k I was able to open up a considerable gap and maintain through the finish. 3rd place overall, first Canadian citizen and first BC resident netted me two much needed Gs. As we suspected after the race the course was long, so my 2:29:22 was for 42.195k + 382m. Somewhere around 2:28 I guess.
The following weekend I jumped into the Oak Bay Half and limped to a 72:11 for third. Then two weeks later headed to Calgary for another marathon. Calgary was uneventful as I had some gut issues and was unable to eat or drink. The lack of nutrition and legs that were only feeling okay going in resulted in an absolutely brutal last 12-15k and finished up 5th in 2:33.
In retrospect more care was needed to recover for Calgary but some other life stresses were unavoidable like moving. Anyhow it was a fun month that earned a month easy.
And that's how it's been, nice and easy but time to get back at it. I'm living in my traditional territory, secwépemcul'ecw (the land of the Shuswap) and loving every minute of it, particularly the running. There are dirt roads everywhere and hills in every direction not to mention little underbrush so you could run in a straight line in any direction so long as there isn't a rock bluff. I'll write more about this in time. It's planning time though. I've started mapping out some good loops and sketching a training plan to accommodate the races I'd like to do. Which are:
Kamloops Marathon - July 29
Edmonton Marathon - August 17
Steve King Classic 100k - September 15
Victoria Marathon - October 7
TNFEC 50mi - December 2(redemption!)
Pretty full slate. Victoria will depend on the recover from the 100k. Speaking of 100s, I've scheduled a few 100mi weeks. Never thought I'd say that again. Anyway that's all for now. Here's a photo of my backyard:
Friday, June 29, 2012
Testing
Just trying out the blogger app. Seems a bit limited but might give it a try. Finally getting back to fitness with a 2h15 run yesterday in the hills/mountains above Back Valley Road outside of Cache Creek. A location where my grandmother was raised for some time by her grandparents. My family lived in that valley for generations. It's occupied by a number of farmers now. Saw a couple of white-tail bucks and a few quail. Still no snakes :)
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