kinthelt

The hardest part about distance running is having the patience to wait for improvements. My natural instinct is to head out and run hard for as long as I can. Unfortunately, that is very counterproductive.

It takes a lot of discipline not to speed up at the end of a recovery run, or the day before a hard run. I need to keep reminding myself that not every training run is a race. In the long term, I will see improvements and my mileage will go up slowly. I do not need to push the pace, or push the distance now.

Mental agony.

Not much to report. I'm starting to do repeat weeks of the Hal Higdon's Advanced I marathon training plan. It's a bit more involved than the plan I used the last two years. In my opinion, it looks much better. More of a chance that I'll actually achieve the time I'm training for.

Sunday: Long run (10 miles to start)
Monday: 3 mile easy
Tuesday: 5 mile easy
Wednesday: 3 mile easy
Thursday: hill repeats or tempo
Friday: REST!
Saturday: 5 mile race pace

From Monday to Wednesday, the mileage is less than what I did on my previous plan. But the back-to-back hard runs on the weekend are going to really whip me into shape!

I went out on a morning long run this morning. Only went 10 miles. But it was probably one of the easiest 10 miles I ever did. My secret? Running in the cold. It was around -10C this morning, and I had never run in anything that cold before. Fortunately, I was layered just perfectly and wasn't overheating at all, and felt just a bit chilly.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I run a lot better in the cold than in the heat. This is giving me hope that I may be able to pull off running in the Arrowhead 135. Definitely not this year, as my cardio isn't anywhere near it should be. Maybe not even next year. But it's definitely something I can train up for and accomplish.

After taking most of the month off, my knee is finally back in a runnable shape.

I took my first week back of running a bit shorter (and a bit faster) than I normally run. In the next few weeks, I'm going to crank my mileage back up to a good base (~40-50 miles). Come mid-February, my marathon training schedule kicks in and my mileage is going to ramp up.

Well, my right leg pain went away. I think I just pulled a muscle in my shin.

Unfortunately, I did something bad to my left knee. It hurts a lot now whenever I run. The distance I can go before it flares up varies, but it always arrives. I have only gone on three runs since the Lemming Loop. And all of them have been short (under 3 miles).

So I've been using this time to catch up on my TV watching, and trying not to eat too much. The lack of exercise is starting to pay a toll on my (perceived) sanity.

I ran the Lemming Loop this last weekend. And I had a great time doing it.

I started my day early, arriving about 10 minutes late for the start of the race. Oops. This was probably a blessing in disguise. It was pretty dark, so I used my headlamp for the first few lamps, wore a toque, gloves, and long pants.

Since it was cold the previous night, there was dew on everything including the trail. A light coating of mud was impossible to avoid stepping on. My runners very quickly gained "platform shoe" status. Fortunately, the ground hardened up as it warmed. My toque, gloves and long pants quickly came off. I fortunately had thought ahead and brought a 2nd pair of runners.

I saw only 1 other person on the trail until the 6-hour runners started at 9:00. I got passed a lot. It didn't bother me in the slightest, as I knew I still had a long way to go. At 9:55, I strode into the aid station in time to meet some of the 3-hour runners. It was at the point that I realized I had run almost as far as those guys were about to. That was a bit of a confidence boost to know that I still felt fresh and ready to go after 3 hours.

Unfortunately, my freshness wouldn't last all day. By the time I was on my 9th loop (45km in), my left knee started to hurt. A lot. Popping a few advil didn't help very much either. I was pretty happy that I had already run a marathon (albeit in 6 hours), but was scared that I would have to drop out far short of the 12 hours I signed up for. At 50km, I decided to have a walking lap, to rest my knee up, and get some encouragement from the friendly folks on Twitter. It turns out that strategy saved my race. I determined that the total distance I ran didn't matter. In the end, I just wanted to keep moving forward for 12 hours. Quitting wasn't an option no matter how much I hurt.

After 65km had passed, I had figured out a stride that put less pressure on my left knee. It kept my left straighter than it normally would, and I lunged my right leg forward. This caused me to heel strike on my right left far more than I normally would. But it stopped the pain that I was experiencing at the time. By the time 80km came, even the modified running stride wasn't helping. I walked my last lap and got back to the aid station/finish line 6 minutes before my 12 hours was up. It was at this point that I found out only three people had completed the full 12 hours, out of 7 that had registered.

My legs tighened up fast, and I had the drive from hell going home. I'd never been so glad that I had cruise control. The next day, my *right* leg hurt. I couldn't move my foot without my shin hurting. At first I thought I had a stress fracture. But since then, the swelling has gone down somewhat, and the pain has subsided a lot. Now if feels like I have the shin split from hell. Small price to pay, in my opinion, to run two marathons in one day.

I have a cold. And it's less only 3 days until my ultramarathon. Not good.

Can't breathe, can't run. Sitting around all day doing nothing.

I'm still going to show up and give it my best. I'm just disappointed that my best is not going to be anywhere near where it could be.

I Competed in the Swamp Donkey last Saturday. My "usual" team-mates could not join me this year, so I managed to recruit Jason and my sister Shannon.

From reading the race instructions, I immediately realized that this year's course was a lot longer than previous years. They had added an "advanced" section, and made a time cut-off. If anybody could finish their paddle before 2:00, they could continue onto the advanced section. Otherwise, they had to continue on the regular course.

The race started off with a mass start. This makes things rather slow, as people do not like getting their feet wet early. If they had the fore-sight to buy waterproof socks, they wouldn't have to stop and get in line to avoid puddles. After a beaver dam crossing (on a trail? go figure), the teams thinned out a lot. We bushwhacked our way through two checkpoints and arrived at the gas pipeline ahead of most teams. I think our strategy of staying high on the ridges and taking the easy line, rather than heading straight for the checkpoints paid off. Unfortunately, all the ups and downs took its toll on Shannon and she was very tired.

After a short hike along the pipeline, we turned north to fetch our canoe. After a portage, a short paddle, a portage, a longer paddle, and yet another portage, we arrived at the east end of Falcon lake. Our checkpoint was at the west end of Falcon lake. 12 kilometres away. Heading into the wind. It made for a very long paddle. We weren't very co-ordinated, so several teams passed us on this section. Glancing at my watch from time to time, I judged that we would be very close to the cut-off time for the advanced course.

Unfortunately, by the time we got out of our canoe and portaged it to the community centre (where our bikes were stashed), the clock had just struck 2:00. I was very disappointed, to say the least. We were forced onto the regular course. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

The biking went smoothly. By this time, Shannon had found her second wind and now it was Jason who was starting to get tired. We zipped from checkpoint to checkpoint until we got to the technical biking near the end. I'm not sure if it's all the endurance training I did this year, but I felt much stronger at the end than in previous years. I managed to stay on my bike for much more of the technical riding than I remember I did last year. Unfortunately, neither Shannon nor Jason had done much trail riding, so we had to walk our bikes for most of it. Once the technical section was done, we bee-lined for the last two checkpoints and finished the race 40 minutes before the 6:00 time cut-off.

Like I mentioned earlier, this year's Swamp Donkey was much longer than previous years. Not many teams managed to finish either the advanced course (5 teams) or the regular course (not sure, but more than 5) before 6:00. We took first place in the co-ed category on the regular course.

It's one week until my adventure race, and I feel more prepared for this race than I did for my previous 2. Very psyched up. I have the endurance, I have the speed, and most importantly I have the will.

It's two weeks until my 12 hour race. I do not feel prepared for this one at all. I'm sort of afraid that I'm biting off more than I can chew. I know that if I don't test my limits, then I will never meet them. So in a way it's good to know that I'm going for something far beyond me.

It's been almost a week since I did anything physically active. I'm getting anxious. Fortunately, I have nothing scheduled tonight and can head out for an easy 6 miler.

The reasons why I haven't been running lately are varied. But the biggest one was my friend's, Dave Leuty's wedding in Niagara Falls. It was great seeing my university friends again. Some of them were absent, being scattered across the globe, but were there in spirit.

The falls themselves were exactly where I left them, and looked the same. So I wasn't too awe-inspired by them. The town though has morphed. It is starting to look like a mini-Las Vegas with a strip of hotels clustered around a huge (by Canadian standards) casino. I think I'd like to come back to the area again with Christine after The Bean has grown up a bit. Looks like it would make a good family vacation spot.

I've always questioned the sanity of people who run in the morning. Not because I'm not a morning person, because I am. But because I don't understand how somebody could wake up at 4:30am, turn off their alarm, and *not* get back into bed.

I've tried a few times to get up early and go for a run. I've only ever succeeded once. And it was one of the worst runs in my life. I was only half-awake as I passed through my front door. And every footstep seemed to take an eternity. The minutes passed like days. Not fun at all. And with that single experience, I used a broad paintbrush to assume that all morning runs suck.

That is, until last Saturday.

With the weather forecast for daily highs in the upper 20s, coupled with my realization that I can't run in the heat, I determined that the only way for me to get my long run in on Saturday was to start running before lunch. I woke up at the regular time my alarm clock rings at, stretched a bit, had a small breakfast, did a bit light surfing, then ran out the door. It was a bit cool at first, but the weather gradually warmed up. Three hours later by the end of my run, it had become quite hot.

The good news, was that I did not overheat on my run. A single waterbottle was all I needed. Hurrah! No headaches or any other funny business. And I felt great today. So good, that I decided to pack up my mountain bike and do a few laps of the Bur Oak trail in Birds Hill park.

I'm ever so slowly figuring out my body. What works, and what doesn't. Heat, bad. Cold, good. I think I'll have to cross Badwater off my wishlist and add Arrowhead 135 to it.

I am racing in the Swamp Donkey Adventure Race on the 26th this month, and the organizers of the event decided to have a few training workshops. One of these workshops was a hill run at Winnipeg's "Garbage Hill". I figured that I could do a (short) long run on Saturday, do an easy hill run on Sunday, then finish up by immediately going on another long run immediately after the hill run.

I did not have enough time to do a *real* long run on Saturday, since I had to be at my mother-in-law's house by a certain time for my wife's birthday party. I cut my run a few miles short, and still managed to show up late. Oops. At least I figured I could get the rest of my miles in the next day.

Sunday morning, I attended the workshop. We were running up the hill, running down the hill, two-leg-hopping up the hill, lunging up the hill, sidestepping up and down the hill, running backwards up the hill, and doing general plyometrics. My legs were rubber by the end. No long run was possible.

I was very stiff on Monday. But I still managed to crank out a very slow 4 mile run. On Tuesday, my legs were worse than ever. I could barely walk, let along run. Which brings us to today. Today is my sister's birthday (Happy B-day, Shannon) and we're going out for dinner after work. This will make two days in a row that I've skipped running.

With Swamp Donkey AR, and the Lemming Loop coming up fast, I'm getting anxiety that I haven't trained enough.

This week, my running mileage is down. But there is a very good reason for that. I added two swimming workouts. The experience has been... Unexpected.

I used to swim competitively when I was young. Many, many, moons ago. Unfortunately, most of that swimming ability seems to have been lost. When I jumped in the water on Monday, I could barely move my arms for two laps. That would be 50m. Pathetic. I kept taking rests, and over the course of an hour I covered just over 1km.

Yesterday was my 2nd swim. I started very conservatively, trying to keep my arms relaxed. I tried not to pull my body fast through the water but instead concentrated on conserving energy. This time I managed to go for 400m without stopping. Yeehaw! After a quick breather, I began doing laps again. Had another short rest at 750m before completing my 1km in 21:07.

I'm encouraged to keep pushing myself in the water. I know I'll never get fast without a coach, but I don't really care about that. It's all about distance. I think it would be awesome to be able to swim an Ironman distance (3.8km). But I'm still a long way from there.

My first goal is to be able to swim 1500km non-stop. It's realistic, and within my grasp.

It is strange how some ideas sound good until you try them out. My most recent great idea was incorporating a race into a long run.

Last Saturday, I had a 12km trail race. I didn't do too badly, but not spectacular either. After the race, I grabbed my water and ran a lap around the park. In total, approximately 15 miles.

The next day, I woke up with very sore leg muscles. I figured I would wait until the afternoon for them to loosen up. They never did. The temperature on Sunday was around 26C, and I had the joy of running under a mid-afternoon sun. After 1 mile, I should have listened to my legs and turned around. Instead, I forced them to keep moving. By the time I came up to 8 miles, my legs were just about turned to mush. I stopped and rested in the shade of a tree. It was at this point that I realized I had nowhere near enough water to make it home. Time to start heading back.

Four miles later, my head began pounding and my vision started to blur. I came to St. Vital park just in time. I filled my water bottle from a dodgy public washroom tap. It tasted horrible, smelled worse, but at least it was cold. I resisted the urge to take a nap on a park bench. Instead, I just sat in the shade doused with water until I started to shiver. I figured that if I shivered, then I must be cooled off enough not to overheat.

Run/walking two miles later, my nipples started bleeding. I don't understand why they make tech shirts out of fabric that could easily double for a cheese grater. Next time, I'll have to remember to apply generous portions of Body Glide. Fortunately, I was at the University of Manitoba and the Frank Kennedy Centre (physical education building) was right beside my running route. I ran inside to partake in some free air conditioning, and not-quite-so-dodgy water fountains. Once I began shivering again, I figured I could run/walk the last 2 mile homestretch. It was not pretty, but I made it. It was probably the lowest point in my training. Ever.

Monday was a rest day, except for a 1km swim at the Pan-Am Pool.

I had today off, and my legs felt well rested. Normally, Tuesdays are my speed workout days. But since I had a lot of time, I thought it would be more fun to build up lactic acid in my legs by doing a brick. I hopped on my bastardized mountain-bike-with-aerobars, and rode for 13 miles. I dumped my bike off and managed to stumble a 4 mile run at sub-marathon pace. It was amazing. My legs felt heavy and stiff after the bike, but they moved gracefully and seemingly without effort. It felt very strange and paradoxical. This was probably the highest point in my training. Ever.

I just had a great idea. I don't know how the logistics would work or anything, but here it is:

Get people/companies to sponsor me in the 12 hour Lemming Loop race. They promise to donate $1 (or whatever amount they want) for every full mile I complete. The money would go to cancer research (my favourite charity).

Anybody know how I would swing something like that?

My running has been coming along smoothly. Injury free, and tons of energy.

I'm almost up to my goal of being able to do 10x 800m intervals at 4:00 each. Some people might know these intervals as "Yasso 800s". But 5 miles is a long way to be running fast. Well, fast for me. ;)

Also almost down to my goal weight. Since last December, I've lost 20 pounds. Feels good to need a belt to keep your pants on.

Christine and I went camping at Grand Beach this weekend. Seeing as how I've never had a chance to go running in this area, I thought it would be a good idea to get a long run in.

I took off north along the Trans-Canada trail, and very quickly the signage disappeared. Given the option of 5 directions to travel in, I chose the wrong one. The trail very quickly became very sandy, and I realized that I was on a snowmobile trail. I didn't like the idea of turning around, so I toughed it out. Eventually I came to a road. Not just any road, but the road that leads directly towards my father-in-law's cottage. Armed with my new-found sense of direction, I managed to navigate the roads in Belaire and Lester Beach back towards Grand Beach.

Total distance was a pithy 9 miles. And I took almost 2 hours to run it. However, my experiment in doing a run-walk cycle was successful. At the end, I felt as if I had barely run at all. However, I did feel as if I had spent the last two hours in the sun.

Joined Christine at the beach and had a nice, long snooze in the sand.

Only managed to get up early once this week. So my dreams of getting insane mileage may be a bit premature.

I still managed to get 28 miles in so far, and I still have my long run to do this Saturday. We'll see if I can improve next week.

I finally managed to wake up early this morning, and go running before work. I felt so great, I decided that I should run again after work. The result was a 10 mile day.

I have a feeling this is the start of a dramatic ramp-up in my weekly mileage. I could easily see myself doing 50-70 miles a week.

Relaxing day. Had a nice short & easy hike with Christine at Pine Point Rapids. Visited some family friends at Brereton Lake. Had ice cream at Meteor Mike's.