Running

I dropped Amy and Liam off at the airport on Thursday morning and they aren't returning until this coming Saturday which means I had this past weekend all to myself. Seeing as I don't normally have that kind of free time, I decided that I had better take advantage of it while I could. The fact that I didn't do any (substantial) drinking and in fact was in bed by 1030 every night this past weekend is a testament to how much my life has changed since Liam came along. It was an enjoyable, but very tiring weekend.

So while Steve is out purchasing kayaks and UMPCs, Amy and I picked up something a little more family oriented - not to say that a kayak or UMPC couldn't be a family purchase... Anyways, as you can see from the photo to the left, we went out and bought a new Chariot for Liam. We opted for the Cougar model (their mid-range offering) and went with a two seater in anticipation of more kids to come. We picked up a couple of conversion kits for it - namely the jogging and biking kits. Amy has made good use of it so far - using it on her daily 5K walks, and I've even managed to get out running with Liam once - just today actually. As for the bike kit...we haven't made use of that yet because we haven't been able to find a helmet for Liam yet - but maybe today we'll find one.

Turns out all that training I did paid off this year. This year I followed Hal Higdon's Intermediate I marathon training program and with a few exceptions, (trip to Mexico, recovering from Norwalk) I followed it very closely. In addition, I trained pretty strictly using my heart rate monitor and I think that made a huge difference. My goal for the race this year was once again 3:45:00, just like last year, but this time I think it was more realistic. In the end my time was 3:46:43.4 (chip time) - which is DAMN close to my goal (and an improvement of over 17 minutes from last year), but still over it. I've got a tiny bit of disappointment over that fact, but not in the way I ran the race so...

I've been following this training program by Hal Higdon for my marathon training this year. Things have been going really well for me so far this year. I missed a week way back in February because of our trip to Mexico but other than that, I've been pretty strict about my training. The other thing I've done differently this year is to train by heart rate (rather than pace or time), except during my pace runs, and I think it's made a huge difference.

Well last week was another exception to my strict training schedule. I ran on Tuesday as scheduled but then woke up Wednesday with a sore throat and a congested head. I 'worked from home' all day and didn't start feeling any better despite the extra rest. I skipped my Wednesday run and went to bed early. Thursday came and I decided to head to work, mostly because we were going out for a going away lunch for my boss who recently quit. By the time I got home from work I was feeling much worse than when I woke up so I once again opted to skip my run and go to bed early. Friday is a rest day in my program so no skipped run there. :)

So Ottawa's hypothermic 1/2 marathon has come and gone and I've yet to post about it - more on why it took me so long in another post. What can I say about this event? Lets start with the positives - I managed a personal best 1/2 marathon time of somewhere around 1:47:19 (my previous best was set during last year's marathon and was 1:55:04) and I ran nearly the entire race with Grant - he beat me by about 2 seconds I think. In the end, I was pretty pleased with my time. I think we (Grant and I finished one after another) finished somewhere around the middle of the pack. Why all this guessing on my part? Well that leads me to the negatives from this race.

I was talking with Grant about running the other day, asking him if he had been doing any training and he asked me if I was going to do the Hypothermic Half in January. After that, I saw the race listed in Steve's Upcoming Events sections of his site and figured he was already registered. So - after visiting the race website and finding out that there are only 300 spots available, I decided that I had better hurry up and register.

Well Canada Day has come and gone and with it the HBC Run for Canada. I first heard about this race from Grant who told me that he and Bonnie would be running in it. Apparently they had heard about it from Alyssa who was also going to run the race. Everyone was hoping to improve on their times from the NCM. Grant has a specific goal of 42:28 in mind and I thought this would be as good an opportunity as I've had to finally beat Grant in a distance race. Boy was I wrong - more on that later.

I had three weeks to prepare for the race but since I had just run a marathon, I figured that was more than enough time. Grant gave me a website that would spit out a training program given the time available and the number of days a week you wanted to run. I put in Grant's time of 42:28 as my 'goal' time and I got my training program. It didn't look that bad.

Well I missed my ultimate game last night. On my way to the game, I got a call for support from a guy in Australia. After going home and dealing with that, I decided that I since I wasn't playing ultimate, that I should at least try to get some running in.

The short training program that I'm following in preparation for the 10K run on Canada Day called for:

Speedwork
Dist: 5mi, inc Warm; 3x800 @3:08 w/ 400 jogs; Cool

No problem right? Well not exactly. I did a short mile and a bit warm up and then jumped right into the repeats. Turns out 800 metres in 3:08 is challenging, at least for me. I did my first 800 metres in 3:24, instead of 3:08, and then jogged the next 400 metres. I didn't feel like I was fully rested at the end of the 400 metre jog but I turned around and started my next 800 metres anyways. I got it done in 3:15 this time. For my last 800 metres...I was really feeling the pain, having a hard time breathing, etc and I was sure I was going to be over 4 minutes and maybe even 5. Turns out I got it done in 3:22. After that I turned around and did my cool down run of just over a mile.

In case anyone was wondering (especially after my last post) I did run the marathon as planned on the 28th of May. Did my knee injury affect my time? I wish I could say that it did, but I really don't think so. Don't get me wrong, it was by no means 100% but like I said, I can't blame my time on it.

What's this about looking for something to blame for my time you ask? Well unfortunately I didn't make the time I set out for myself when I registered, namely 3:45:00. I also didn't make my secondary (more realistic) goal of under four hours, but I did come close to that one. My final time (chip time of course) was 4:03:46.1. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed, but considering this was my first marathon, I guess I can live with it. Full results are here.

As you can see from the photo on the left, the long run for this week was another 12 mile run. Not so bad in the big picture, I remember when I used to dread long runs of that length, and definitely a reprive from the 20 miles of the previous weekend. Anyways, I was lucky enough to get some company for the run - both Dave and Grant ran with me, or perhaps they'd say I ran with them. In either case, the weather was one of those perfect days for running (except for the wind) - cloudy and cool. I over dressed somewhat (wore my jacket and rad pants instead of a long sleeve shirt and shorts) but no so much that it really bothered me. I'm hoping for similar weather for race day.