Weirdness to End January

This week ended with a bit of a scare, but overall I have to be satisfied with my training when taking the massive cold virus that hit me very hard and has continued to linger on.

On Saturday I went out for a run in the afternoon and wasn't expecting much. I wanted it be to slightly more difficult than easy and ran by feel for the entire 8km. Interestingly I got faster with every kilometre and the last two were well under planned marathon pace. I wouldn't say they were easy, but I wasn't pushing all that hard either. I was pleased with the effort.

Later on Saturday I felt some weird pain in my right calf and I wasn't sure what to make of it. The best way I can describe it is "hollow". Perhaps another way is to say that it felt like the muscle was tearing away from the bone. In any case it was not much fun.

This morning the calf seemed fine so I went out for the last run of my recovery week. I chose a totally different route than I'd ever run before and I didn't realize just how hilly it was. Perhaps that was not a very good idea in retrospect since a little past the halfway point my calf twinged again and I had to stop to stretch a little bit. I was far enough from home that walking was not an option, and I didn't have my cellphone on me to call for a ride. I decided to jog the rest of the way and kept the pace very slow. I only felt the calf once more on the final stretch, but that may be because I was really babying it. Ultimately I managed 14.2km and was very happy with both the distance on the run, my cumulative distance for the week (43km even with missing two training runs due to the cold) and the month (223km and an average of 51km/week).

And so the first month of January comes to an end. I hope this calf is not going to be a problem the entire year and must be careful. Less than two months to my next race.

Miserable Cold!

This friggin' cold can just go ahead and kiss it, as far as I'm concerned. The week so far has been dominated by the virus. I stayed home from work on Monday and Tuesday trying to keep warm while using up every tissue I could find. By Wednesday the nose faucet had been converted to a pipe full of cement and I made it into work only because I had a Doctor's appointment (on an unrelated matter) in the morning and I figured if I'm up to making it to that I should be up for going to work. It was NOT fun, but I did go and run 8km on the treadmill at lunch. Actually, the running was just an excuse to be able to use the shower.

Thursday was a non-running day, as usual, but once again I felt like crap. This time the excuse to use the shower came in the form of leg weights.

And today I can safely say that I feel a little bit better. My sinus pressure headache is still there and I continue to jettison stuff out of my head that looks like florescent green toxic waste (with tremendous effort, I might add, which doubles as an ab workout), but I did mange to sleep through the night for the first time this week! I even got up early enough for a short 5km recovery run before work.

Then, at lunch, I used the treadmill as another excuse to visit the showers and ran 8km. I felt a bit drained and started to overheat in the middle, but it got done. The first 5 minutes were at 6.7mph (5:34/km, 8:57/mile) and the rest was at 7.6mph (4:54/km, 7:54/mile) for a total of 40:04 of treadmilling. Given the way I've been feeling that should be considered a fantastic effort.

Now excuse me while I try and find another excuse to visit a hot shower pronto...

Oh yeah, with my runs today I snuck up over 200km for the month of January! I think that's great, especially given that I've missed three or four training runs this month due to injury (right calf) and illness (miserable cold!).

Cold Squared

This weekend has been spent watching Owen play in his second ever basketball tournament and driving a fair distance to the games, and catching things that are not desirable under any circumstances. After we got home on Saturday afternoon I went out for what ended up being a decent 5km recovery run that felt better than a recovery run ever should as I was able to maintain a much faster pace than I thought I could. Things were looking up, or so I thought.

Later, while thick snow was blanketing the City yet again, I came down with a serious case of the cold virus that kept me up half the night and left my nose looking not unlike Rocky Balboa's face at the end of Rocky II. In a word: tenderized.

Sunday morning was spent watching more basketball while trying to stay awake and keep the snot to a minimum. I succeeded on the first, failed miserably on the second. By the time we were driving home I thought that there would be no chance in Hell that I would get my long run in.

However, I decided to start getting ready anyway in a "just see how things go" kind of mentality. It was really cold out (heir go the squaring of the cold in the title of this post). -15C without the windchill factor, and I don't even want to know what it was when the wind was blowing. At least it was really Sunny out.

I decided to carry my cell phone and run close to the Subway line, just in case. As I started off I was really surprised to find the running was rather easier than anticipated. In fact, it was not until the second half of the run, when I was starting to fatigue a bit and was running directly into the wind that seemed to always be in my face no matter what direction I chose. Anyway, I managed to run the same distance as last weekend and did it even faster! 22km in 1:50:32 for an average pace of 5:01/km, and really the bulk of the run was under the 5:00/km barrier since my first split was the slowest of the day at 5:33/km (4:59.4/km by my calculations). I took note at the HM mark that I managed that distance in a fairly speedy (for me) 1:46:10, especially for a training run.

After the run I quickly got into a hot bath and tried to keep my body as warm as possible. It was the hottest water that I could stand, but even so I was not able to get really warm. By the time I got out I was already chilled to the core and have been sneezing like crazy ever since. I'm just hoping that this virus runs its course quickly. Next week, mercifully, is a recovery week and I guess it couldn't have come at a better time.

My weekly mileage broke the 60km mark for the first time since last September, and that is a very good thing. Also a good thing, my calf did not bother me one bit on the entire run.

On to the last week of January...

The Week(days) That Were

How to summarize the week that's been? I guess one of those day-by-day rundowns is in order given that I haven't been on here since Sunday...

Monday: This was a non-running day, but I hit the gym at lunchtime and did a decent leg weight training session. Things are getting better and better although I still have a loooong way to go in the leg strength department.

Tuesday: I ran an easy 5km in the morning and then hit the treadmill at lunch for another 8km. Normally I would have done some sort of intervals, but given the problems I've had with my right calf I just ran a solid though easy pace. First five minutes at 6.7mph (5:34/km) and the rest at 7.6mph (4:56/km). Good times.

Wednesday: The rain that fell all day on Tuesday froze overnight and I awoke to find that if I was to run before going to work I'd have to do it on a skating rink. Streets were sheer ice. Sidewalks were even worse. I scrambled for a slow 5km and was happy to stay on my feet the entire time. Dodged a bullet there I think... At lunch I had a great upper body weight training session.

Thursday: Another day with no running, but more leg weights. This marked the third time that I did single leg dead lifts and these things rock! So many underused muscles get activated with this exercise and it will surely be a staple of my strength training routine for the foreseeable future.

And that brings us to today...

Friday: After more snow fell overnight I went out for a morning recovery run on top of a couple of centimetres of the white stuff. The ice that resulted from that rain earlier in the week had mostly been dealt with by salt so the footing wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated. I ran my usual route for an easy 5km. At lunch it was back to the gym and onto the treadmill for what seems to always be the toughest run of the week for me both mentally and physically. I am trying to stretch my steady state runs out five minutes at a time and a couple of weeks ago I made it up to 35 minutes at the slower end of my steady state range (which is the pace I'd love to be able to run at Around the Bay, in case you haven't been reading along). I had to skip doing a steady state run last week on account of the right calf and was a bit worried about how things would go today as I tried to go even longer. Anyway, it was tough, but it got done:

Duration	Speed	Pace (miles)	Pace (km)
5:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
40:00	8.3mph	7:15/mile	4:30/km
5:00	6.2mph	9:39/mile	6:00/km
50:00	7.9mph	7:35/mile	4:43/km

The total distance for the run was 10.6km, or that's what it works out to when one hits "stop" at 6.60 miles.

And now the weekend awaits with two more runs. A recovery effort on Saturday and a long run on Sunday. I will have to fit those in around Owen's basketball tournament and will likely have to run at odd times because his first game on each day starts pretty early. The tournament is a decent drive from our house as well so it looks like afternoon and/or evening runs will be the result.

Have a good weekend!

Testing the Baby Cow

After two days completely OFF, which is very strange and somewhat disheartening for me, I was ready to test out my right calf this morning. Friday was a write off as I stayed home with one of the boys who had gotten sick. I wasn't planning on running, choosing to miss my regular two training runs, but I had hoped to do some upper body weights. Saturday was spent carting the boys around town to and from basketball games and practices and shoveling snow. Even if I had wanted to run I figured the snow would have meant bad footing and likely another setback.

So, that brought me to Sunday morning. It was clear, the sidewalks were (I hoped) mostly cleared, and the air was cold with a strong wind from the NW. I didn't much case as I was itching to test my injured muscle. I was out before the Sun had cleared the horizon and ran into the wind on an out-and-back. My minimum distance was supposed to be twenty kilometres, but secretly I wanted to run a bit farther than that. I figured I'd take it one step at a time and see how I felt at 10k.

I ran down to the Danforth and then West along Bloor all the way to High Park. The route was boring and I was forced to take little breaks here and there as I waited for traffic lights to turn green, but that was not such a bad thing given the calf. I also decided to take along a package of Gu Chomps with me to get some carbs into my body somewhere along the way. The route is fairly flat with a couple of hills as I neared the turnaround, and the sidewalks were mostly pretty good with the exception of a few spots where I was slipping and sliding every which way. All told, better than expected but not perfect.

I ran along and felt pretty good, so at 10k I decided to make it one more kilometre before heading back home. I ate half the Gu Chomps at the turnaround point and the rest on the way back as I ran. They were the strawberry flavoured ones and tasted pretty good, but it was not easy eating them while running. I will have to practice more if I choose to use these things in the future and in races.

Ultimately I managed a decent 22km run at 5:09/km average pace (8:17/mile). Not counting the stopping for the traffic lights this took me 1:53:26 to run. Not bad.

As far as the calf is concerned, I could still tell that the tightness is there and that the injury is not 100% recovered. I can run steady and slow like I did today, but will back off on any intervals for at least another week.

My total mileage for the week was a measly 42.2km. That's exactly the same distance as a Marathon, so I suppose that's a good thing. Well, at least it's a "thing", good or otherwise.

Bummer!

After my calf gave me a scare on Tuesday during my latest set of intervals I've been babying it and things have improved, somewhat, but certainly not enough for me to call it 100%. Therefore, I've made the difficult decision (and am guilt-ridden as a result) to NOT run today.

FAAACK!

That's right, you heard me.

I HATE missing workouts. On Wednesday I missed my usual upper body weight training session because my right shoulder was acting up. It was not so bad mentally to do this because I replaced it with a solid, if not spectacular, 7km run on the treadmill. I kept it really easy and set the machine at 6.7mph, which translates to 5:33/km or 8:59/mile I think. The right calf was fine while running, but I definitely made an effort to not hurt it while running.

That night it tightened up again and I was hoping that a full day off on Thursday, my usual off day, would give it enough time to recover. But as I woke up to head out for my usual easy 5km run this morning I noticed that it was not in shape to run. Sure, I could have run on it and in a past life I would have. The thing probably would have loosened up while I was running and I would probably be buoyed by a false sense of confidence that the injury was nothing more than a mirage, only to find out later that I was still in the desert and that the "water" was in fact nothing but scorching hot sand.

This time, however, I thought about the big picture and the races that I want to complete as well as how my weekly, monthly, and yearly mileage would be affected should my muscle tear and force me to miss significant time.

I still held out hope that I could perhaps run on the treadmill at lunch or at least make up for that missed upper body session from Wednesday. Alas, my older son has came down with the flu while we were preparing to head out to school and work and I am staying home with him making my running/weight training plans impossible.

It's probably not a bad thing to get a full day of rest now and then.

But I don't have to like it.

Trying Something New for Treadmill Intervals

After an uneventful 5km run before work, during which I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sidewalks were almost completely devoid of snow and ice, I was once again ready for some intervals on the old treadmill at the gym at lunchtime. Looking back on my previous efforts of this sort I realized that what I was doing was more tempo/lactate threshold and less true speed work or anaerobic. It's because my recovery paces were too fast at just below 5:00/km (8:00/mile), so I wanted to do something that actually could be considered true speed work.

What I did was a set of near 800m intervals with two minutes of recovery. I say near 800m because I ran "fast" for three minutes, but just not fast enough to get through a whole half-mile in that time span. The pace I chose would have had me cross 800m at 3:14, but I wasn't about to try and follow that on the treadmill.

BTW, the 9.9mph or 3:46/km (6:04/mile) pace that would allow me to complete 800m in exactly three minutes is just too aggressive for me right now, though I'd like to be able to get there sometime this year.

So, to keep things simple, here's what went down:

Duration	Speed	Pace (miles)	Pace (km)
10:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
3:00	9.2mph	6:31/mile	4:03/km
2:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
3:00	9.2mph	6:31/mile	4:03/km
2:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
3:00	9.2mph	6:31/mile	4:03/km
2:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
3:00	9.2mph	6:31/mile	4:03/km
2:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
3:00	9.2mph	6:31/mile	4:03/km
2:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
5:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
40:00	7.64mph	7:51/mile	4:52/km

I had a bit of a scare right after my fourth fast three minute portion: as I slowed the treadmill down to 6.7mph for my two minutes of recovery I felt a twinge in my right calf that felt like the muscle was about to cramp up. I paused the treadmill and stepped off to test the calf and stretch it. A minute or two of that and I decided it would be OK to get back up there and do the last interval. Before starting into the fast portion, however, I ran the two minutes of recovery that I had just started before my calf scare. I guess that means that I took too much rest before the last fast bit, but I'd rather do that than suffer an injury.

I ran the last fast portion really concentrating on my form and saving the calf as much as possible. After that I ran I finished off the run at the slower pace until I completed 40 minutes. The total distance was 8.2km and I hope that the calf is not a harbinger of things to come. I'll have to watch it and make sure things don't get out of hand. After all, injury-free running takes a lot of discipline, which I equate with enforced disappointment. Not the type that comes with an injury which puts you on your ass for weeks or months on end, but the kind that comes with the realisation that perhaps you will not hit some of the training goals you've set for yourself until the problem area settles down and you're back to 100%.

Slushy, Mushy Long Run (with a twist)

It took me more than three months before I ran my first 20km long run in 2010, but this year it took only nine days. Obviously I'm starting with a much better base and am able to do this without risking injury.

Or can I?

Today I DID run 20km and I am blogging to tell you about it. I am not injured, but it was tough and there was one moment where it all almost went completely astray.

Feeling a bit dehydrated I didn't really have much gas facing this run. However, I wanted to test myself against a few hills given that my next race will have those in the last third of the race and running only on flat ground will not serve as adequate preparation. Therefore, I decided to do some loops around a local park that includes a good sized hill. After leaving the house I ran down to Withrow Park and started in on my loops.

It was cold, and that's expected, but it was also very slushy, which I suppose is also to be expected given the lack of sidewalk snow removal in this city. As I ran down the first hill along Carlaw Avenue there were a few bare patches where I could actually see pavement. Otherwise it was all snow or slush. Both were slippery, but the snow was better than the slush.

Rounding the corners and running downhill were definitely tricky and I slipped more than a few times. Then, upon reaching the corner where I would start my first uphill climb, I totally wiped out. As my right foot landed and I attempted to turn to my right my foot slipped to the left and I went down fast. I managed to catch myself with my right arm and only my glove got wet, but it was a scary moment. I could have broken a wrist or really bruised my hip, and what really scared me was twisting or breaking my bad ankle again. None of these happened and I proceeded to run uphill and to complete the rest of the distance. From than point on I pretty much came to a full stop at that corner and didn't fall again.

The climbs were totally frustrating as I had such poor footing that I was forced to work much harder than I really wanted to on a long run. I managed to do the loops a bunch of times, as evidenced by the following elevation profile, before proceeding to complete the second half of my run somewhere else.

The hill is both steep and pretty long, and the whole loop around the Park was 1.3km. Clearly I managed it six times, though I didn't keep track while I was running. I'd like to be able to do this loop for a whole long run sometime while maintaining a steady pace, but I will try and avoid doing it in the slush from now on.

Anyway, the first full week of 2011 is done and I had a good one. My total distance for the week was 58km (36 miles) and it's feels good to start the year off this way. Although the second half of this long run was tough I managed a decent pace, which ended up at 5:14/km (8:25/mile). My goal was to try and stay within 60s of marathon pace per mile, and since my goal is 7:26/mile I managed it, but just barely.

The rest of the day was very sleepy. Hoping to get a good night's rest and make the second full week of 2011 just as good as the first or even better.

Snowy Morning, Indoor Afternoon, and a Revelation

Last night saw the first decent snowfall of the year for Toronto and, despite my best efforts to shovel the driveway (with Owen's help) when I got home from work, I walked out this morning to see that even more of the white stuff fell overnight. After some preliminary shoveling of the sidewalk (because as a runner I appreciate it when people keep their sidewalks cleared) I set off on a typical recovery jog. Although the pace was definitely recovery I ended up working harder than I should have as I trudged and slipped my way around the neighbourhood for my usual 5km (test driving my new MEC running tights for the first time, though underneath my usual running pants for fear of disturbing the children who may be up and about before the Sun). At least 90% of the time I was running through either fresh snow that was probably 4cm deep or through a slushy mess that slipped every which way under my foot with every step.

Oh well, that's what you get here in the Winter and it doesn't bother me too much. After my run I finished off shoveling the entire driveway so that we can get the car out after work without any trouble. Typically I wouldn't care, but this evening Owen is going to the SkyDome for a Toronto Blue Jays event where kids get coached by members of the team on the big field. He's looking forward to it and I really hope he has a great time. I'll be watching from the stands, of course...

At lunch I took things inside for some stamina work. This time I wanted to run at my hoped for 30km race pace of 4:30/km for a full 35 minutes. Did I make it?

Only a trusty HTML table holds the answer:

Duration	Speed	Pace (miles)	Pace (km)
5:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
35:00	8.3mph	7:15/mile	4:30/km
5:00	6.2mph	9:39/mile	6:00/km
45:00	7.9mph	7:35/mile	4:43/km

The total run amounted to 5.91 miles (9.5km) and it was definitely a challenging workout. Yesterday's first foray into single leg dead lifts left my ass muscles surprisingly sore and I was a bit concerned with my ability to complete this session. I went through the 5 mile mark in 37:07 (including the warm up, and equal to 4:37/km or 7:25/mile overall), which was nice to see, and as I passed that mark it dawned on me that I'd complete a lot more than my usual 8km on this day.

Nevertheless, I persevered and also had a bit of a revelation in the middle of the run...

I run precisely for the same reason that most people don't: because it is NOT easy.

While some will choose activities that are mentally, and potentially physically, less challenging (in the case of one friend it is lifting heavy weights and confining himself to a very few types of movements with very few repetitions) I get a great deal more satisfaction out of things that are difficult to complete. Things that leave me wondering before, and during, whether or not I will be able to finish. I've lifted heavy weights, and do so now and then during my training cycles, and I cannot say that this type of exercise approaches the challenge that comes with running, in particular stamina and speed training. Five reps is over so quickly it's hardly worth getting worked up about. But a thirty-five minute run at or near lactate threshold makes you a bit edgy before you start, and leaves you questioning your fitness if done properly.

But boy does it feel good when it's over!

For what it's worth this makes sense to me. I wonder if it also makes sense to you?

As the Crow Flies

Where would you have ended up had you run all of your 2010 mileage in a straight line?

I'd be somewhere on S Alamo St. in San Antonio, Texas.

Well kiss my grits! Guess we'll be cheering on the Spurs to take home the NBA title this year if for no other reason than this. (It also helps that they are a very good team and they have an honorary/wannabe Canadian by way of a Torontonian wife and Newfie grandfather on their team.)

Who knew that a measly 2326km could get you that far?!

Difficulty Focusing on 2011 Goals

Here I am four days into 2011 and I have yet to set real goals for the year beyond the obvious attempt at a BQ (pending whatever changes the BAA makes to the qualifying standards). Either way, running a marathon in 3hr15m is the BIG ONE. As for the milestones along the way? They're still a bit blurry...

I am charting a course to make an attempt at running the Around the Bay 30k in 2hr15m at the end of March if for no other reason than to earn a Silver medal. They give out Gold medals to finishers under 2hrs, silver medals for those who cross the mats between 2hrs and 2hr15m, and Bronze medals for anyone slower than that. I already have a Bronze from my pathetic and injury plagued attempt at the distance back in 2009. Now, like a good Canadian, I want SECOND PLACE! (If they had a shinny medal for something equivalent to fourth place that would be the logical Canadian target, but second place will have to do in this case.)

This goal will require a rather speedy pace of 4:30/km or faster, and given that the medals are based on Gun Time and not Chip Time I will likely have to run a couple of seconds per kilometre faster. It's worth noting that this is my current 10k PR pace I am really stretching to make it a possibility, but should it come to pass it will definitely set me up for a confident attempt at 3hr15m in the marathon in October.

Anyway, those are two big racing goals. I am also mulling another Half Marathon at the end of May, which, if I do enter it, will come with its own time goal.

Other than that I am currently mired in a training plan creation malaise. The overall impression that I am left with whenever I sit down and try and plug things into my Training Plan spreadsheet is "There's just not enough time to fit everything in!" How do I get enough mileage in while working out at the gym to try and continue to add much needed strength and a bit of bulk to my weak legs?

Anyway, I will get there. But until then I am still committed to the biggest goal of all for 2011: another year of injury free running! (But this time with some speed work thrown in for spice.)

With that being said, I started off my first full week of training in 2011 with a recovery-paced 5km over snow covered sidewalks this morning. It gave me the opportunity to test drive a new running hat and light jacket that was purchased yesterday at MEC. They were great! I also bought some running tights (against every fibre of  my being since I really dislike the whole tights look on men, and on myself even more). It wasn't cold enough to test those bad boys out, but I'm not looking forward to it...

Next up? A little treadmill interval session at lunch. Yay!

And they went like this...

Duration	Speed	Pace (miles)	Pace (km)
5:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
5:00	7.5mph	7:59/mile	4:58/km
5:00	8.8mph	6:49/mile	4:14/km
4:00	7.5mph	7:59/mile	4:58/km
4:00	8.8mph	6:49/mile	4:14/km
3:00	7.5mph	7:59/mile	4:58/km
3:00	8.8mph	6:49/mile	4:14/km
2:00	7.5mph	7:59/mile	4:58/km
2:00	8.8mph	6:49/mile	4:14/km
1:00	7.5mph	7:59/mile	4:58/km
1:00	8.8mph	6:49/mile	4:14/km
5:00	6.7mph	8:57/mile	5:34/km
0:51	6.2mph	9:39/mile	6:00/km
40:51	7.8mph	7:43/mile	4:48/km

I stopped the treadmill at 5.28 miles and my on the fly calculations were correct because that works out to a tidy 8.5km run! It was certainly tough, but it's these kinds of efforts that will pay off in the end. Certainly going down to 4:58/km (7:59/mile) pace for the recovery portions makes this much more challenging than it would be otherwise, but I figure that if I can make 5:00/km feel easy it's not a bad thing. I am slowly working the faster parts up as well having done this workout the first time with 8.5mph as the top end (4:22/km, 7:03/mile) back at the end of November. Each week, or whenever I do this workout, I move the speed up one tenth of a mile per hour for the fast bits and now sit at 8.8mph. It will be very cool to be able to run this workout at or below 4:00/km someday!