Bring on Recovery Month!

I'm not sure if there is such a thing, but I sure as hell know that my body could use a whole month of recovery! It is now less than a month until I attempt my first marathon, and with this morning's run I have completed the last of my longish training runs during this training cycle. I now have four weeks to slide on into recovery/taper mode and (hopefully) find myself at the starting line on the morning of September 26th happy and healthy.

Today's 26km run was not a lot of fun, but I suppose it was rewarding in a strange way. I ran along the coast and at about the 10k mark found the entrance to some trails. Well, two actually. One was called the "Sentier de la Riviere" and the other "Sentier de la Montaigne". I decided to see what three clicks of the Riviere trail looked like and headed off the highway into the unknown. It was an adventure to be sure, with a river crossing at one point that was supposed to be done using one of those self-propelled gondolas, the ones where you stand on a platform and drag yourself along with a rope attached to two pulleys at each end. Well, one of the pulleys was jammed with the rope having jumped out of the groove of the wheel and I had to just use the stones in the river to jump across.

Anyway, I did it and struggled back to complete the run. With it I have reached my mileage goal for the month of August and now stand at 283.45km (the goal was 266km). Nice!

At so begins the effort to stay sane while my mileage declines, and also to recuperate my aching right Achilles/heal. Yay!

10 Miler by the Sea

Ran a rather uneventful but very picturesque 16km this morning along the Gaspe shore. It wasn't as interesting as exploring trails in amongst the mountains, but the views were spectacular. At the halfway mark I just stood for a few minutes and stared out at the Atlantic and wondered why in the hell I am living in Toronto. I even thought I saw a couple of whales cresting the surface to breathe way out in the water, but maybe that was just the tears in my eyes.

Mental note: must retire by an Ocean.

Anyway, my heal hurts and I am worried, but such is life. Here's to healing! I'm now one month less a day away from my first marathon attempt.

Trail Running in Perce

Set off on what was supposed to be a 10-12k run this morning, but I was in for a bit of a surprise. We are staying on the beautiful coast of the Gaspe Quebec in a little town called Perce. The rocky cliffs around here are spectacular, and there are mountains all around. Many of the roads have signs indicating 17% grade, and I had to traverse down one of these on the way back from my adventure this morning.

I had no idea what to expect and just went off trying to find what I hoped would be rather gentle trails. Instead I found lots of crushed rock roads followed by gnarly single-track trails that were so steep I was forced to walk up. My heart rate indicated that I was working hard, but my pace was slow slow slow.

It was a blast, and I do not regret for one second cutting my run short and leaving it at 7km. The satellite photo is pretty bad, but I ran up and around a small mountain, and then back down a very steep road into town. The views from the top of the valley in behind were spectacular. I must go up to the top of the higher mountain for what promises to be amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean.

No Moose in Rimouski

Found myself in Rimouski, PQ and went off searching for "moose in Rimouski", as my 5 year old is fond of saying. Well, I didn't find any moose, but I had a fun run along the water and even found a small section of single-track trail that was all up and down and side to side with jagged rocks. Fun! I really wish I'd brought a camera on this one...

Anyway, I intended to run fifteen kilometres, but in the end cut it a little short and ran 14km. It was a blast!

Now we are off to breakfast, then hitting the road on the last leg of our journey to the Gaspe.

The Plains of Abraham

Today we arrived in Quebec City on our journey East and checked into our hotel mid-afternoon. This gave us plenty of time to explore Old Quebec, and I was even able to fit in a short recovery run!

I absolutely love this place. It definitely has that Old Europe feel to it, and I was happy to find that it has not become overly commercialized in the pursuit of the tourist dollar. We walked around inside the old city walls meandering up and down the narrow streets soaking in the atmosphere. Too many great things to mention, and really all that I will say is everyone should make this place a destination at some point.

Prior to dinner I went back to the hotel while the rest of the family continued to explore Old Quebec and got changed for my recovery run. The weather was not particularly nice for us today, but that didn't dampen our spirits. When I set off on my run it was rainy and quite windy. I had no idea where I would  run, but our hotel was nicely situated near the historic Plains of Abraham, and so I just pointed myself toward the river and set off. Although I didn't run very much on the Plains themselves, I zig-zagged my way down the steep embankment along some streets and paved paths and eventually onto trails in the woods. It was awesome!

This was one of those magical runs that I was sad to have end. Despite my 35km run the day before my legs felt great and I was able to effortlessly glide down the hills and then maintain the same pace climbing back up! In the end I got a little to far away and ran more than the planned five kilometres as my run ended up being 5.45km in total. I also set another weekly mileage record as this extra little bit put me just ahead of my previous record of eighty kilometres at 80.45km.

After the run I showered and headed back into the old part of the city where I met up with the family for a great dinner at a lovely little restaurant. I ate a tonne! And it was good.

A Capital Run

Ha ha ha, what a witty title - NOT! We are in Ottawa, our nation's Capital, and that is where I was to do my long run one day earlier than normal on account of travel plans.

We arrived late Friday night, and more like early Saturday morning, and so my waking up took quite a while. It was not until 9:30am or so that I was finally off and running, one bottle of Gatorade and two packages of Gu in hand. I have never tried this Gu that so many of you runners speak of, but my lovely wife had returned from a trip to a local running store earlier in the week with a bunch of these types of goodies when she was dropping off old running shoes for recycling.

Anyway, I was a bit hesitant as to how this run would go partly because of the shift in days from Sunday to Saturday, partly due to my tired state from the long drive the night before, and partly because I was venturing out for the longest training run I'd ever attempted.

I set off at an easy pace and ran down to Dows Lake and then around and along the Canal to the pedestrian crossover at Ottawa University, at which point I ran back to Dows Lake on the other side of the Canal. I had my first Gu on the pedestrian bridge; it was the 'just plain' flavour. After the first loop, which took me to about 13km, I stopped for a short bathroom break at the pavilion on Dows Lake and then proceeded to do the same loop again.

The second loop went quite well and again I had another Gu on the pedestrian bridge (I think this one was called 'espresso love', and it was pretty good as far as goopy things go). By now my Gatorade was all gone and I refilled my water bottle at a fountain a short way down the path once I started up again. My stomach was feeling pretty good, but I thought it was wise to stop for another bathroom brake, this time the sit down kind, at the pavilion before starting my third loop. I was at about the 25km mark by this point.

The third loop was a bit tougher as I was getting tired, though that was not particularly surprising or anything. I didn't go all the way to the pedestrian bridge on this one and chose to cross over the Canal at the Pretoria Street Bridge before making my way back to Dows Lake. This was the toughest stretch as I was pretty much spent but kept on running. I suspect this is what the last bit of the marathon will feel like, and it was gratifying that under these circumstances I was still able to maintain the same pace that I had run for the entire duration.

In the end I managed to finish off my longest ever training run of 35km in 3:20:20 and walked the last two kilometres or so back home. I am now over 1500km for the year, and well on my way to my mileage goal of 266km for August as I am sitting at 215km with more than a week to go.

A couple slices of pizza, a shower, then some more "proper" food, and we were off with the boys to a very nice indoor swimming pool for some fun. There was even a nice hot tub there and, yes, I did partake a little bit.

Now we are back, getting ready for dinner, and I am getting sleepy. Tomorrow we are off to Quebec City as we begin our journey out to the Gaspe. I can't wait!

And They're Off!!!

This morning is my last run at home for the next two weeks as we are off on Holidays! I have been hitting the weights pretty hard all week in anticipation of a full two weeks of recovery on account of no access to any weight training equipment. Given that I've been consistently going to the gym every week, and usually five days per week, since the middle of January I figure my body deserves a bit of a rest anyway (though I will miss it a little).

Anyway, I had a good run this morning even if it was tough getting up. As usual I stayed up later than I'd meant to and when my alarm went off at 5am I was totally zonked. Took me a long time to get up and by the time I was out the door it was almost 6am. Not good...

However, the run was not bad, all things considered. My legs were stiff and sore and I was a bit worried about how they would react on account of a near cramp that I experienced in my right hamstring just as I was trying to go to sleep. I ran a decent 15km at a steady and slow pace, which was what I'd planned. The ankle and heel on the right side are getting better, though at the beginning I felt pretty stiff and sore in those spots.

This weekend is a bit of a juggling act on account of our travel plans and so I will likely have to do my long run tomorrow instead of Sunday. I think I will manage, though arriving in Ottawa around midnight tonight might mean a late morning start.

Now we are off to this place!:

I have no idea how Internet access will work, or even if I will have a signal on my cell phone since we are going pretty remote, and so my blogging may also be taking a vacation. Nevertheless, I will be running and checking out the scenery. Should be a great mental and physical break from the urban jungle.

Slow as Dirt

This morning was supposed to be twelve kilometres.
This morning was supposed to be intervals.
This morning was supposed to be fun.

Alas, it was none of the above.

Instead I found myself shuffling along at a snail's pace doing my darnedest (sp? is that a word?) to keep things as pain free as possible. My legs are way too stiff, and from what I have no clue, and my right ankle and heel are still giving me problems, although there are signs of improvement.

I knew within the first few hundred metres that track work was not going to be possible, but ran in that direction anyway still holding out hope. As I neared the track I saw the same shirtless elderly gentleman doing laps while flip-flapping all over the place, I saw the same elderly woman walking around the track with enough layers on for a cold winter's day, and I saw the same old guy with the hockey helmet and pads on every possible body part rollerblading around the track. I did not see myself going there and simply kept on running by.

If you could call what I was doing "running". The truth is I was happy to just be moving. Right around that point, which was just before the 2km mark, I also decided that twelve kilometres was not a good idea either. I did not want to jeopardize a chance at my weekend long run for the sake of a few extra mid-week clicks. And so I ran until I hit 5km and turned around, heading home.

I struggled through 10km in the end, and my heart rate barely broke 120bpm (the average was 119bpm actually). I'll stick this run in my training log and forget about it. Now it's back to icing that ankle and resting the running muscles until Friday morning. Well, I do have leg weights on tap for Thursday, and I will likely do those since we are leaving on holidays and I will not have access to a gym for at least two weeks. That will definitely give my legs a break as I finish off the high mileage in the training plan and slide on into taper mode.

Heel Heal

A new wrench has been thrown into the whole running plan thing, although at the moment it is a small one. My right ankle is a bit sore on the inside, which is new, and also the heel hurts a bit. What the F!?!

I'm thinking it's the higher mileage and the introduction of speed work, but who knows. I will back off on the speed work for now, but am very much hoping to baby this puppy through the last three weeks of high mileage training prior to taper time. There are only five weeks left before the marathon now.

This morning I went out for a slow and steady run, and it was all going great. Then, with a couple of kilometres left, my right heel started to bother me. I think I know what it is (Tendonitis of the Tibialis Posterior Tendon) since it hurts when I press there, but once I am warmed up it doesn't bother me that much. The heel thing is a little bit more perplexing, though I suspect it is all related. I managed to complete a good 15km though, so that makes me happy. Tomorrow morning I would normally be doing intervals, but unless I experience a miraculous recovery (and even if I do) it's likely to be a shorter slow type training run.

So, for now it's ice, ice, ice, and stretch. Here's hoping it all holds together for a little bit longer!

An Unexpected Test

This week has not been the best of recovery weeks for me. My mileage is probably higher than it should be, but I find it hard to accomplish what I need to do with less mileage right now. And I'm in the last high mileage phase of marathon training so I figure now is not the time to start tapering or dialing it back too much. Also, it seems that ragweed has once again taken over and I am suffering the effects.

So, this morning I slept in way too late and didn't get out the door until almost 9am. By then it was +25C and very humid. I was not expecting much from the run, wanting just to run eighteen kilometres and be done with it. I decided to run to my Dad's place and back since I wanted to check up on it given that he's away on holidays. The distance to his house is pretty much exactly 9km from my place so that starts were aligned for this to happen.

As I set off things felt better than I'd anticipated and I was cruising along at a pace that I didn't think was possible. As I averaged somewhere in the 5:10/km range I began to wonder how long I could hold this effort and became curious to find out how my heart rate would be affected with the humidity being so high.

Well, I sure found out! I ran the 9km to my Dad's place and then took a short break to check things out, water plants, and grab a drink of water, and then I hit the streets again for the return journey home. My second 9km was faster than the first, but it was not very easy, that's for sure. In the end I managed the entire 18km run in 1:33:28 for an average pace of 5:11/km (8:21/mile). My average heart rate was 150bpm, but in the last half of the run it pretty much remained in the mid to high 150s and even got into the low 160s for a good while.

This was an unexpected test, and it remains to be seen if I passed.

The total mileage for the week ended up at 55km, a bit on the high side for a recovery week, but it puts me on track to hit my monthly mileage goal before September bring taper time.

Dialing it Back

I'm in the middle of what is supposed to be a recovery week, and it is, but realize that perhaps I am not recovering quite as much as I should. My training runs and my weight training has not really changed from the week before (my highest ever) and all I was really accomplishing was a break on the long run mileage.

So this morning, as I started out on my morning fifteen kilometre run, feeling a bit stiff despite taking a day off yesterday from weight training and giving my legs a break for the first time in a long time, I decided to cut my run short. Dial it back, as it were.

Instead of the planned fifteen I ran a decently paced, and by that I mean slow and easy but steady, 12km. It wasn't great, but it was good. Can't complain really. My heels feel a bit stiff, likely from the speed work that I've sprinkled into my workouts as well as the higher mileage than I am used to over the course of the last two weeks. My aim for the rest of this week is to go easy and actually achieve the "recovery" part of recovery week.

Half-Yassed

I thought of that "witty" title for this post while in the middle of my last interval. What can I say; it sounded better when my heart rate was up in the 170s and I was gasping for air...

Anyway, the point is that I ran another interval session, though I won't call this "cruise intervals" because it was harder than that. I managed half a complete Yasso 800 training set (which calls for 10 sets of 800m), and I bookended the whole thing with a 400m on either end. It was faster than the previous three and that is good, but it felt harder and while jogging over to the track I had my doubts that I would be able to do it. I guess I am feeling the effects of all the high mileage that I am doing in the middle of marathon training...

Here are the details:

400m 1:39 (4:07/km, 6:37/mile)
400m recovery 2:36
800m 3:13 (4:01/km, 6:28/mile)
400m recovery 2:47
800m 3:10 (3:58/km, 6:23/mile)
400m recovery 2:38
800m 3:06 (3:54/km, 6:17/mile)
400m recovery 3:03
800m 3:03 (3:51/km, 6:13/mile)
400m recovery 3:00
800m 3:04 (3:51/km, 6:12/mile)
400m recovery 2:51
400m 1:29 (3:40/km, 5:55/mile)

The Garmin seems to measure some laps a bit longer than others and that accounts for the discrepancies in the paces and lap splits, but overall it's pretty bang on. (For example some laps I ran over 800m but I still list it as an 800m interval even though I know I ran longer since I wait for the watch to show 800m rather than stop at the starting point on the track. In short, blah blah blah...) Also, my heart rate got up into the 180s bpm starting with the third 800m repeat, and that is definitely nearing the 100% of max territory even if I think I could have pushed a bit harder. Certainly the last straightaway on the final 400m repeat was all out as far as heart rate goes and that one maxed out at 183bpm.

Also, my recovery times are getting a bit longer. That is why I can't call this a "cruise interval" workout. I'm still well within the range set by Yasso, so I am happy. The total run ended up being 12km with the jog to and from the track.

And there it is: Half-Yassed! On the road for being fully Yassed at some point, though right now that looks like a daunting task.

Recovery During a Run

A day after my 34km run I went to the gym and had a good weight training session for the legs. Sure they were a bit tired, but surprisingly nowhere near as sore as I thought they would be. In the past I would have taken that as a sign to keep running up the mileage again this week, but I am more sober now and not drunk on mileage seeking behaviour.

So, this morning I set out on a short recovery jog and admit that at the beginning I was a bit stiff and sore. Well, perhaps not so much stiff and sore, but really just out of gas. The first kilometre was so slow I was rethinking my distance goal and would have been happy to cut it a bit short given that this is a recovery week. However, as I plodded along my body started to feel better and began to move a bit faster. I wasn't trying any harder, it was just easier to run somehow. The humidity was way up and there was a thick mist hanging over every grassy field that I passed along the way. It certainly would have been very difficult to run fast under the circumstances so I was just happy to jog a big loop around the neighbourhood and back to my house.

In the end I completed a good 8km of recovery paced running and am optimistic that my legs will let me hit the track tomorrow morning for some more cruise intervals.

Massive Attack (of mileage)

This has been an historic week and weekend for someone other than JP Arencibia. We went to the Jays game yesterday and saw his 4-5 night, with two HR, a double and a single. His four hits came on the first four swings of his MLB career, and that's got to be a record...

But enough about overpaid athletes. Yours truly also set some milestones this week as a result of today's long run.

I had in mind to run something in the range of thirty to thirty-five kilometres and was feeling rather lethargic. I guess baseball park nutrition is not a good way to prepare for a long run, but that's how it was for me.

Anyway, I'll cut to the chase (mostly because my feet hurt and we are trying to get out of the house to go see some tennis at the Rogers Cup). I ran a very evenly paced 34km, and in the last ten kilometres I actually picked it up a bit and ran faster! Nothing earth shattering or anything, but it was a good confidence builder (though I'm still not sure that I can manage another 8km on marathon day!). The whole thing took me 3:13:51, so at least I know I can stay on my feet long enough to BQ, now I just need to run longer in that same time frame.

That marks my longest training run ever! And, on top of that, this run pushed my weekly mileage up to 80km! (Just about 50 miles I believe.)

Next week I'm taking it down a notch and giving my legs a rest. There will be at least one more long run of this variety before I am ready for the marathon at the end of September.

Testing, Testing. 1-2-3

Shook things up a little bit on the fly this morning. I don't know what you call this type of effort, but I think it is somewhere in between tempo and lactate threshold. Perhaps it is called "steady state". Whatever the case I pushed myself a little bit harder than normal and it felt good.

I fell asleep really early last night and woke up at about 4:45am without the need for an alarm. I waited until my alarm went off at 5:10am anyway and then was quite pleasantly surprised to see the outdoor thermometer showing +18C! It also felt like there was no humidity at all, though there was quite a bit of wind.

As I set off on my easy run I decided to start pushing the pace a little bit midway through the third kilometre. After I ran that split in 5:27 (which is not very fast, but I think most of the first half of that split I was still running really slow so the second half I was just getting into a groove) I decided to throw in 10k at something approximating marathon pace effort. I wasn't too sure what the Garmin would say, but I really tried to concentrate on my form and curious to see what the faster turnover did to my heart rate.

The ten splits for the tempo-ish effort looked like this (pace per km and average heart rate for that split):

1. 5:08 (128bpm)
2. 4:49 (138bpm)
3. 4:49 (148bpm)
4. 4:46 (151bpm)
5. 4:53 (154bpm)
6. 4:47 (156bpm)
7. 4:51 (157bpm)
8. 4:47 (159bpm)
9. 4:49 (160bpm)
10. 5:06 (162bpm)

It all averaged out to 4:52.5/km (or about 7:50/mile). The last 6km of this section was run directly into the wind and the last 2km were also uphill (though not a very steep incline). You can definitely tell by that last split that the hill was getting steeper in the very last kilometre! I kept my heart rate in the nice low zone for the first few splits, then it held steady in the low to mid 150s for the while, before making the jump into the low 160s bpm for the last two kilometres. I'd like to be able to run about twice this far at this pace without having my heart rate get much over the mid 150s someday, and I think that will be possible as long as I train smart.

Anyway, I finished off the 15km run with a couple of really easy kilometres and that was it. I am pretty happy with this effort, though perhaps I was a bit more taxed toward the end of the run that I would like to be heading into the marathon. On the plus side I ran this pretty fatigued from the last week of running and weight training, and I still have 50 days before the race. Some more of these types of runs will definitely help, though I have to watch that I don't do too much given how my body breaks down when I run too hard too much.

Cruisin'

So, according to McMillan what I have started to do the past few Wednesday mornings are called "cruise intervals" (the definition is about halfway down the page if you follow the link). Not as fast as true speed intervals, but definitely out of the old comfort zone. I feel this is a good start for me because it reduces my risk of injury while allowing me to train my body to handle a bit faster pace.

This morning was a good cruise interval session, and perhaps it got a bit faster than it should have. Everything started off nicely and then just kept getting faster as I went along despite very humid conditions. I added an extra 800m to this session from the one I did last week and here is how things went down:

400m 1:45 (4:26/km)
400m recovery 2:42
800m 3:24 (4:15/km)
400m recovery 2:40
800m 3:20 (4:09/km)
400m recovery 2:37
800m 3:17 (4:05/km)
400m recovery 2:45
800m 3:10 (3:58/km)
400m recovery 2:51
400m 1:34 (3:55/km)

It is clear that I am still not taking enough time between sets (but I am OK with that as long as I can complete the last rep at the same pace as the first one, or faster) and that I am enjoying pushing the pace a little bit as the workout comes closer to the end. Working out at the track really appeals to me since it speaks to my swimmer's brain, which has been programmed to keep track of precise measurements and intervals or splits for many many years. Sure it hurts a bit, but I like that kind of pain. Sure I get hot and sweaty, but that it the only way one can improve. I will keep doing these cruise intervals every week until a couple of weeks before the marathon and see if I can get up to a real Yasso 800 session of ten 800s. I'm up to four right now, so things are going well!

Today's total run was 12km. That is all.

Longer Tuesday Morning

Started off the first full week of August with a longer than usual Tuesday morning run. I decided to run a bit longer today because of logistics in dropping off kids at summer camps combined with spouse going out of town for business mean that Wednesday morning I will be more pressed for time and will have to shorten the run to get back to the house on time.

So I went back to the old tried and true Beaches boardwalk run and completed a decent 15km. It was pretty easy running for the most part, though it got very humid and sticky as I went along and my heart rate went up a bit on the way home as a result of the conditions and the climb up Jones Ave.

Over all I think my running is going very well, and my right knee continues to improve. I haven't said much about it lately because it really doesn't bother me while I'm running anymore, and it's not much of an issue between runs either. As long as I use the foam roller once in a while and make sure to stretch properly every evening the patellar tendinitis is slowly dissipating. Also, my leg strength continues to improve in the gym. Although I am still pathetically weak on squats (and can still bench press more than I can push up with my legs!), I am definitely way better than I was back in January. The exercise that definitely tells me my quads are getting stronger, and in particular the vastus medialis on the right leg, is the leg extension. I continue to slowly up the reps and weight and no longer feel a twinge with the first few reps of every set in the kneecap. Good times!