Been Lazy... At least with the Blog!

Sorry I have been delinquent in posting. Ran the NOTL Marathon last month and made a mess of it. Absolutely dismal nutrition landed me in a death march at mile 21 or so until I could force enough corn chips into my gut to run it in the last mile. Still a PR by 5 minutes at 4:51 and change, but I was on pace for about a 4:15 on a super hot day.

So what went wrong? Not enough calories basically. The old adage "race how you train" got thrown out the window. I was hydrating nicely with my Nuun tabs and water the whole way, and was taking a gel per hour or so. Where I dropped the ball is that I was not taking any sports drink at the aid stations. Therefore I figure I was only getting 100 calories per hour from the gels and not topping up with sports drink. Dumb ass.

Oh well, live and learn I suppose. Why is it that common sense and a plan gets thrown out the window on race day? I shall vow never to be so stupid again. I am quite happy with my nutrition and hydration these days on long runs, so I WILL carry this over into my next race!

Speaking of that, I am planning the Run for the Toad 50k Ultra in October. Since I can't seem to properly run a marathon, I thought why not tackle 50k? Makes sense, right?

Well...

The long run went ok. It was pretty warm out and by the time I hit the road it was late in the morning, so the majority of the run was in the early afternoon hours. No clouds, so it was tough for a guy like me that prefers colder temperatures.

I ended up doing a little under 21 miles in just under 3.5 hours. Pace was 10:10 per mile, so right about where I probably should be on a long run.

I have decided to do the Niagara-on-the-Lake marathon on June 19th and see how it goes. I will do one more long run on a cool morning and stretch it out to 22-23 miles next week and then take it easy for the last 10-14 days before the marathon.

This race is small and features a 50k ultra as well. All races are run on a bike path adjacent to the Niagara Parkway on an out and back course starting in NOTL. Should be fun, and after running the Around the Bay in March it will be nice to hit a race with under 400 entrants instead of 8000!

As for my hydration and nutrition on the long run, I would say it was improved. I started to get a little tight in my hamstrings towards the end, but I think the electrolyte tablets did help, especially since it was MUCH hotter than my previous long runs where I was bonking bad at 20 miles. Feeling optimistic and hoping to make a few more improvements next week when I go a little further.

Until then, I will get in some hills on the trails, a track workout, tempo work and a swim before trying it all over again.

No Posts = No News

Since the race in March I dove in headfirst with training for a spring marathon. Kept up my mileage and was feeling ok until about a month before the proposed marathon in mid-May.

My long runs were suffering, I felt like garbage, and I decided to take a month to rest up a little. It is clear to me that I was a little over-trained and cutting my mileage down to about 20 miles a week seems to have helped. I also started swimming once a week, so right now I am running 5 days per week along with a 2000m swim.

I set my sights on another marathon in the local area on June 19th. I haven't done a long run in about a month and as I am typing this I am getting ready to head out and try and do about 19-22 miles. I have no idea what to expect, this could go well or it could be a disaster.

I am hoping it goes ok, and I can get in another 24 miler next week and then start cutting back for the taper. Not much of a taper since I haven't been running long much, but this is the plan for now.

One other thing I noticed on my long runs last month - Salt, or the lack thereof. I sweat like a pig and I never really did much in the way of electrolyte replacement other than a bit of gatorade during long runs. I have picked up some electrolyte tablets and am going to do this long run today experimenting with them.

I really am starting to think that my "bonking" in the past has been me running out of salt and not being able to process my fluids past mile 18-20. Today though, it is very warm, but I feel good about having my tablets, lots of hydration, and plenty of goo's to properly fuel me through this run.

Well, time to hit the road, this is the deciding factor for the June 19th marathon - I hope this goes ok...

30k Quick Race Report

Yesterday was the Around the Bay 30k Road Race in Hamilton, Ontario. The weather ended up being quite good and the rain held off for the 9:30 start. It was overcast and about 4 degrees Celsius, and by the end of the race, it had warmed to about 9 and a few sprinkles had started to fall.

My goal for this race was under 3 hours, and a 2:50-ish time would have been great.

The first 2/3's of the race are flat and fast, but the final 10k enters the Northshore section of Burlington and is very hilly. My training has focused on stairs and hills, so I was trying to maintain an even pace. I was running at about 5:35/km pace for the first 20k, and really pushed in the hills to maintain this. I managed to keep enough legs to really bomb the downhills and focus on being in good form for the uphills.

Needless to say, I only started to feel tired at about the 28k mark, and at that point I was past the last of the hills and was in the home stretch into Copps Colesium for the big finish.

I knew I was going well, but was very happy when I passed the finish in a chip time of 2:47:54!

It was a great day and I really benefited from my running group pushing me over the past few months, so I am looking forward to continuing training with them in the next little while.

What is next? Probably a May marathon - stay tuned!

VACATION!

Off to Mexico!

The past couple weeks have been again, super busy. Between work and family commitments, the blog has suffered!

A few highlights though - A great 20k trail run in Kelowna which was a ton of fun. Tonight I broke 50 minutes in a 10k run, I actually finished in 48:50 and I am really pleased!

I need to focus on my long runs and being in Mexico in the heat will make that difficult. However, I hope that at least once in the week I am away I will go over 15 miles nice and slow. I am going to get up early and run most days, so hopefully I can beat the sun a little.

Training is more or less on track for the 30k race on March 28th. I have missed a few sessions with the running group but have really focused on speed work and hills this past week to try and make up. Hence the need to get in some good distance runs in the next 2 weeks prior to tapering!

Uber-Busy

Well, it has been pretty busy the past week or so. My training has suffered quite a bit, but I did get in a fantastic 14 miler that kind of surprised me.

I went out on a super-hilly course with the final 2 miles a daunting uphill, and managed to finish it in 2:11. The rest of the course was downhill and the start, and then smaller hills in between, so it was a nice combination of a long run and a hill workout. This is very similiar to the 30k race next month, and part of my route was on the actual course.

No doubt in my mind that I can go under 2 hours in a half marathon now quite easily, as I went out pretty slow but when I saw I was maintaining a good pace, I tried to keep it up.

So, training has not been as steady as I would have liked, but perhaps the downtime helped me recover a little to get in some decent efforts.

Bad Day...

Finally something not related to how cold it is outside.

My Grandfather died today and within minutes of learning this I needed to to go for a run - I really needed to go for a run. As I started out I was talking to my wonderful wife on my iPhone and she reminded me that running has become my release. It officially is now something that I really think I need in my life.

I have been staring at the screen for the past 5 minutes and I never would have thought that running would help me feel better today, but it did.