14.5min/mi

Awesome run. I had some things to do on the weekend so I decided to scrap the hill rep workout this week and go for a long run on Friday, rain or shine. It did both. My original plan was to do somewhat of an add-on to a run I did last Sunday with Adam Campbell, Ed and Tom McCarthy, where we went from Lynn headwaters up Grouse Mtn, around Mt. Fromme, across Lynn Creek, and back to the headwaters picnic/visitor info site. The add-on/change was, at most, going to be to run up Capilano road and Nancy Greene Way, up BCMC to the Grouse Chalet, down Mtn. Hwy, onto the mtn bike trails around Mt. Fromme, across Lynn Creek, take the upper-Lynn Headwaters trail to Lynn Peak Trail-head, up Lynn Peak and back, down to Twin Bridges across the Seymour River, up the powerlines, Mushroom connector to Old Buck, Perimeter and up to Mt. Seymour parking lot, then make my way back down to Deep Cove.  I decided running up the paved road was a boring idea so I scrapped the first part, and by the time I got to Mt. Seymour, though beautifully sunny, I scrapped the idea of going up to the parking lot feeling satisfied with the run. Here is a terribly inaccurate map of the run(click to enlarge).

So, apparently I only ran about 20miles. I'm not sure how to convert this to a reasonable distance, because a large portion of the run was very technical, how much further it makes the run I have no idea, nor does it really matter. But with a total time of 4 hours 51mins that makes for about 14.5 mins per mile, aka dirt slow! What an awesome run though.


So I ended up starting up the BCMC trail which more or less parallels the famous Grouse Grind trail but has much less stair climbing and more rock/root climbing. Needless to say my first mile took about 35minutes, not the best way to warm up legs. At this point it wasn't raining very hard so it wasn't as unpleasant as it could have been. Close to the top I took a small wrong turn and ended up running up the lower Ski run up the snow but that was exactly parallel to the trail, once I reached Mtn Hwy, or the road that ends at the Chalet I headed down the road for a bout 5mins but soon ran into a young black bear(3.5k mark), which incidentally we had run into last Sunday. Evidently this was its eating area and was unfazed by my presence, despite talking and ringing my bear(dinner) bell at it for 10minutes. It started to rain pretty good at this point and I was getting cold so I decided to concede the road and I climbed up the snow bank and cut through the bush across the small creek between Seymour and Fromme. I was a little annoyed that the bear couldn't share the road but in all fairness I was interrupting its snack time, in its home, and cutting through the bush is fairly easy when you are on 4-5ft of snow.


From here I ran the dirt road for about 3k, then headed into the Mtn Bike trails which skirt Mt. Fromme and continued around the base of the Mtn up the west side of Lynn valley for a couple of kilometers until you reach a big'ol cedar tree about 4 meters across(2hr point). This section of trail is really gorgeous despite the fact it was absolutely dumping rain at this point(which is why I didn't take a photo). Before heading down for the creek crossing I bagged up my phone and earphones just incase I fell into the drink, and off I went down to Lynn Creek. Compared to last week the creek was less shockingly cold, I think because I was sporting calf sleeves, however the after effects were the same; feeling like you are running on stumps then a strange very warm feeling in the feet and lower legs. The creek actually looked really cool with the pouring rain and mist hanging over, taking a minute wasn't really an option however! The creek woke me up a bit which was good because it was a bit of a slog to the base of the Lynn Peak trail, the rain was really coming down in Lynn valley, the trail was a muddy mess and was drenched head to toe and barely warm enough. I didn't want to go into my bag and put more clothes on because I was hoping to save the dry clothes for the bus ride home from deep cove. I figured I would start warming up more as I started the climb up Lynn Peak. Taking the upper trail along Lynn creek isn't exactly a walk in the park either so despite my legs feeling pretty decent, it was mentally quite tiring.


One of the reasons I ended up deciding not to go all the way up Seymour is because I severely underestimated the technical difficulty of the Lynn Peak climb. I had done this trail as a hike once before but didn't remember how difficult it was. It isn't extremely steep at 16.2%, decently long at 731m elevation gain, but the real issue was that the first 1/3 or more was essentially a rock garden, with everything from pebbles to large rocks, and the rest was very 'rooty' and combined with torrential rain it was challenging. Fortunately my legs actually felt much better than they did on the climb up Grouse, now that they were warmed up, but my thoughts were on the descent and how mentally sharp I would have to be not to slip and split a knee open. I reached the peak look-out at exactly 3 hours and took a couple of minutes to take in the great view of east Vancouver and Burnaby as the cloud cover was just above me and the clouds seemed to be breaking down the Seymour valley. After gathering myself I started the descent, eating a fruit leather to help with the mental alertness and kept a close eye on all the rocks and roots on the way down. Due to the level of technicality on the trail there was a lot of jumping and stomping around so my legs were pretty beat up by the time I reached the bottom, which made the well groomed path a welcome change from the trail-head down to the Twin-Bridges crossing of the Seymour River and to the turn off linking to the Powerline trail. Through this easy and mostly downhill section it was nice to be able to open up a bit and stretch the legs out so I ended up getting going pretty quick for once on this run!


Although I was moving well over the gravel path section I was also getting mentally prepared for the climb up Seymour. I had decided I would only go up the Powerline trail and turn off at Mushroom but I knew the climb would be tough anyway. To add to the difficulty my stomach had begun to turn because I was not being diligent enough with my water intake. Something about being rained on seems to make me think less about taking on water internally. Due to the lack of water the fruit leathers were not being digested properly and starting to give me problems. Fortunately as I descended to the Seymour the sun came out and it immediately turned into a beautiful day. The climb was fairly uneventful just about a 300m grind, and knowing it was the last major climb made it mentally easier than the others. I am also familiar with the rest of the route so I felt as though I was on the home stretch. I had one more stop however at 4h15 because I ran into an irresistible salmon berry patch. Although they were still a bit tart, after 4+ hours of running they were heaven, and the brief stop actually settled my stomach for a little while. From there I cruised in to deep cove feeling pretty good energy-wise despite not being able to eat much in the last hour due to stomach problems.


Reaching Deep Cove in the sun was a welcome sight and I promptly removed my shoes and calf sleeves and headed into the ocean to soak my legs, but after seeing some kids swim out to the dock I couldn't resist diving in myself. Unfortunately a cloud came and foiled my ability to dry off or warm up afterward. Critical mistake! After a paper towel dry, and getting changed I was pretty much shivering uncontrollably so I bought a large tea and drank it before it could even steep. Anyway, I survived in the end and am super stoked about having a pretty epic run.


Lessons learned:
1) Do some kind of warm up before a 850m climb at 30%
2) Do not expect a grazing bear to get out of your way
3) Make-shift calf-sleeves (from butchered compression socks) work great. My longest and most technical run yet and my calves felt great after(aka not terrible). Also good insulation for creek crossings.
4) Do not rely on thirst to cue hydrating when its pouring rain
5) Always stop for fresh berries
6) No matter how inviting the Ocean is, take a quick look at the cloud cover.


Looking forward to the next long run, I think I will pick a faster route next time so I can cover a few more miles and get some turnover.

Dam Run - 56km

Mt. Seymour

Back at it. I was a bit unprepared for this run but it turned out really well. I had a book to return to the SFU library so I was going to do a city route trail run and avoid any more late charges. At the last minute I thought better of it and sucked up the $1 charge, and headed to the north shore again. Due to this last minute change I had to just scramble to find some food to bring along since I wasn't stocked. Well, to be honest at this point I don't even know what I should be stocked with because I don't know what kind of food my stomach is going to be able to handle at this point other than Power Gels. So anyway I went to the Chevron convenience store and picked up some of those fruit leather things to try out. I also grabbed the last of my banana chips. I had thought earlier in the week that my long run would be to run over to and up Mt. Seymour and see how long it took me, that is, running from my house because I feel like bussing over to the Shore is pretty time consuming. My foot is still a bit sore so I decided to wear my Brooks Ghost trainers, they are decently light and seem to protect my foot problem, and I would be putting in a decent amount of road miles getting over to Tsleil-waututh territory.

Mt. Seymour from Second Narrows Bridge

So I filled up my water bladder and headed out the door snaking my way through east vancouver over to the Second Narrows or Ironworkers Memorial Bridge over to the Shore and up Riverside Drive to the trail. Luckily there was a gravel path all along the drive so I only had about 11k of pavement pounding. From there I headed up the trail that follows the Seymour River until the turnoff which follows the powerlines across the mountain. It takes me about 20mins to make the climb up and I decided I would follow the trail past Mushroom Trail down to the Old Buck intersection. It turns out this intersection is a fair bit lower than the connector so I lost some elevation there but the point of the run was to also get familiar with the trails. Heading up Old Buck I was feeling good and just grinding away, I had two of the fruit leather things and they went down really well which was a relief, but as I connected onto the Perimeter trail further up the mountain I ran into snow at I think around 800m elevation. Fortunately the trail markers were easy to spot because there was a some windfall/deadfall on the trail...

but not too much, just a few big trees. From about this point it was a bit of a scramble through the snow. 

There were some areas where the snow was hard enough that I could continue to run a bit but other parts where I would fall through the snow unexpectedly not to mention stepping in frigid water now and again. It was pretty fun actually but once I finally came out on one of the cross country ski trails I was getting pretty tired of slipping around and happy to get onto some more consistent footing. My foot was only sinking a couple of inches into the snow on the ski trails so it wasn't too bad.  Once I got to the top I decided I would take the road down part way to avoid the snow, although it was fun, it was more of a novelty I think! I had some tourists take a quick shot of me at the top, then I actually had to put my gloves on as I headed down the hills since it was a bit chilly up there.

Unfortunately I ended up running down the road further than I needed to because the trail actually comes very close to one of the road switchbacks whereas I was planning to get back on the trail where the connector crosses the road near Mushroom parking lot. Anyway, the road section was probably the least pleasant of the run but was only about a 20minute section. Getting back onto the trail the section from the road back down to the powerlines was a bit rocky and I had to be a little careful as the odd rock would get my foot in just the wrong spot but other than that my legs were feeling good and so was the energy level. The somewhat steep downhill of the powerlines wore on me a bit by the time I got down to the river but again it wasn't as bad as the descent I made down Elizabeth a few years ago(the mountain on the right).  From there I cruised along the river and back on to the pavement but things go tough there. Probably the combination of running out of fuel, the pavement, and no longer having the shade of the trees, along with the climb up the bridge got to me and I really had to get my grind on. Oh and having run longer than I ever have before...time-wise anyway.  But that only lasted another 20mins or so and I tapped-out about 3kms from my house, picked up some potato chips, coke and a protein bar and walked home, slowly.

It was definitely an excellent run and I learned a few things on it:

1) Fruit leather things are digestible and taste good

2) Banana chips are out, gave me upper GI gas

3) Bring a spare hair tie

4) Think about bringing a map next time

5) Bus there, run back. Running with 5lbs of water in a backpack on pavement sucks

I tried to do the Map My Run thing. The quality of the image is representative of my computer skills and patience for things computer related. It is also only roughly half-way, and in miles.

I realize it looks as though I ran to Dog Mountain but that one is just west of Seymour. I think i'll experiment more with this map my run stuff. 

Well thats it for this week. Very happy with the run and running for nearly 4 hours. My longest run before this was a 3 hour run I did a few years ago, however I also covered 30miles, so it is still my longest run distance wise.

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!

Workin it out

Strangely motivated. Wanting to start training again kind of came out of the blue and I was surprised by it, but i'm even more surprised that regardless of the current injury I am motivated to get over it and run. I would have expected to be discouraged and go right back to the sedentary lifestyle but this is not so. Furthermore, although necessary, I am 'working out,' and enjoying it, which is a first.


I went to my massage therapist on tuesday and unfortunately it wasn't the miracle cure I was hoping for. In fact he more or less just confirmed what I had figured out on the internet(which was actually worth the fee).  It is indeed the psoas/iliopsoas that is tight, and the reason why is that my gluteus medius(I think) was not firing to keep my spine stable, and so my psoas stepped in to do a bang up job. It turns out, in my massage therapists opinion, that it wasn't so much the ramping up of the long run but just the transition from a life of sitting all the time(school) to starting to run again that was the likely problem. SO, what to do?  I went back to this article I found on how to release your psoas, and have been diligently trying to follow it, which has been helpful, and I've decided to work out my core like never before.  In the past I've found that really concentrating on the exercises necessary to relieve the symptoms of an injury can get you back on the road in a hurry, then you can back off a bit for a longer term cure. Hitting it hard at the start has worked for me in the past, perhaps that is because the biggest strength gains are made from weak muscles!


The workout I decided on was conveniently found in the most recent edition of Canadian Running Magazine written by Jon-Erik Kawamoto(StrongerRunner.com).  The article has a number of core exercises which go from moderate to very difficult, obviously depending on what you have to work with(virtually nothing in my case). You can do all of them in your home with things from around the house, save for an exercise ball.  I don't have an exercise ball so I didn't do those two exercises but you can substitute a tension band with an old bicycle tube, and a medicine ball with a stack of books bound with a belt.  I've only done the exercises a couple of times, and not even the full number of sets because I am so weak but I feel like its going to help my problem by stabilizing my core and getting the right muscles firing at the right time. It is mind boggling how weak my core is, and I don't want to think of how much faster I could have run in the past had I been more professional about my training! More importantly i'm being proactive. I'm planning on going for a jog tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. Here's hoping.

Here's a great video of Billy Mills(Oglala Lakota) '64 Olympic 10k champ I watched yesterday, keep the sound on!


Post Script: Here is the link to the core workout I mentioned above.