Dale's Blog About Nothing

Knee problems

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:46:09 GMT

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.

85km done!

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:35:50 GMT

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.

Lemming Loop this weekend

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:59:03 GMT

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.

Swamp Donkey

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:02:56 GMT

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.

Two Weeks

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:42:07 GMT

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.

Niagara Falls

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:52:06 GMT

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.

Morning vs. Afternoon

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:59:41 GMT

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.

Hills Are Evil

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:57:09 GMT

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.

Am I Swimming again?

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:01:39 GMT

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.

Training downs & ups

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:28:10 GMT

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.

Fundraising

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:10:39 GMT

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?

Training update

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:59:13 GMT

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.

Not-so-long Run

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:44:26 GMT

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.

Twosies fail

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:32:26 GMT

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.

Twosies

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:31:49 GMT

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.

Pine Point Rapids

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:11:22 GMT

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.

Sad Realization

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 23:40:49 GMT

I have come to the sad realization that if I want to achieve my goals and run more, I will have to begin getting up early. I hate waking up early, except for when it is absolutely necessary. It is easy for me to come up with an excuse to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep.

Life Getting Back to Normal

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:16:14 GMT

Back from my 2 week mountaineering trip. And all I can say is: "AWESOME!"

Have pictures posted on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=284586&id=542135450&l=ac588b7004
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=284590&id=542135450&l=2bc8e38831

If you want me to talk your ear off for hours and hours, ask me about either the GMC or my week in Canmore.

After 2 weeks of early mornings, nonstop movement, and 10 pounds of weight loss, I'm finally settling in again to "normal" life. Routine. But as some of you may know, this is not going to last terribly long. I'm going to hold back a bit on the details for now, but rest assured that I'll spill the big news soon.

Time for me to start my running again. I've been trying not to be a lazy slug in the few days since I've been back. But I have a trail running race series coming up (first race this Saturday), and I intend to be in shape for it. So it's back onto the hamster wheel for me.

Manitoba Marathon

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:18:32 GMT

Ran & finished the Manitoba Marathon yesterday. It was a hot race. At 7am, the temperature was 23 degrees Celsius, and it just got hotter from there. The official temperature hit 29 degrees, but when you're on the pavement it feels much hotter.

Needless to say, I don't think anybody got a personal best time during the race. I was about 10 minutes slower than I was last year. But despite my worse time, I moved up 100 places overall. So maybe all my training wasn't wasted. Kind of disappointing that I could not run the 4 hour race I was gearing up for. But the important thing was that I finished. Many people didn't. I did not see a single idle EMS crew.

I supposed I have to be satisfied that I survived the race; simply finishing it, rather than attaining a specific time.

Now I'm going to be have to enter another marathon later in the year to make my training pay off. :)

My First Triathlon

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:44:40 GMT

Ran my first triathlon yesterday. It was a try-a-tri, so was about half the distance of a real "sprint" triathlon. 300m swim, 10k bike, 2.5k run.

Turns out the only part of the tri that I had problems with was the swim. The water was a chilly 13.5C, which saps your energy pretty quick. So after about 1 minute in the water, my arms and legs (along with my head, the only parts of my body not covered by wetsuit) felt like lead bricks. It was kind of strange feeling tired so quickly. Especially when I used to swim a few kilometres every night, albeit 15 years ago. Even getting out of the lake proved to be a challenge, as my legs did not want to move.

Once out of the lake, my limbs began to warm up. I was 2nd out of the transition area, and passed the leader soon after. From there on, I was all by myself the rest of the race. The bike proved to be interesting, as we had to pedal uphill against the wind. Fortunately, my newly installed aerobars were of tremendous help in cutting through the wind.

The run portion was nothing special to write home about. Mostly gravel. A few very small hills. An out & back. After I finished, I was surprised to learn that I was the first person to cross the finish line. The other triathlon distances which had started before us, were still out on the course. So I figure that in the worst case scenario, I'm no slower than half the speed of the winner of the sprint distance. :)

Won a free pair of sunglasses.

Running and such

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:56:30 GMT

The baseball cap is awesome! The only complaint I can have about it, is that my heads warms up a lot when I wear it. Keeps the sun out of my eyes, though. If I hose the cap down before putting it on my head, it can cool me off.

I decided to suck it up and keep wearing the camel back. The chafing wasn't so bad by the end of my long runs. Guess I must have back callouses.

I'm in the middle of my taper now. Doing my Tuesday runs at marathon pace, and my Saturday runs are shortening up substantially. I really enjoyed last week, a rest week. The Manitoba Marathon is approaching soon, only 3 more weeks!

On a related note, I'm probably going to enter into a triathlon this Sunday. No, I haven't tried to swim fast since I was in junior high. It will be interesting to see how I feel in the water.

Long runs

Fri, 22 May 2009 12:42:16 GMT

Almost time for my long run again. I need a battle plan.

Last week, my water backpack worked great. However, it left my shoulders very sore for a few days later. There was a bit of chafing, but I think that is unavoidable no matter what I do. I didn't go through anywhere near as much water as I thought I would. So this time I won't need to make a pitstop at my mother-in-law's house to refill it.

I will have to remember to put on sunscreen beforehand. I forgot last week, and received a wonderful tan (no burn!) as a reward. I won't be so lucky a second time. I also received a running baseball cap as a finishing prize in the WPS Half Marathon this year, which I will wear on all my long runs from now on.

I'm debating getting a new pair of running shoes, too. My current pair are starting to look a lot like my old worn-out pair. I've put a lot of miles in them recently so I think all of the cushion is worn out. The bottom of my feet are starting to get quite sore after my longer runs. That's it, I just convinced myself. I'm going to Running Room after work today and getting a new pair.

Random ramblings

Tue, 19 May 2009 12:53:04 GMT

Weather here has been cool. I know a lot of people have been complaining, but it's been great for my long runs. I can run in mid-afternoon without worrying about getting too hot.

The wind on the other hand, is an entirely different issue. I know there are some places on the coast where 50kph winds are normal. But here, they are strong. I headed out to Bird's Hill P.P. last Sunday to see if the modifications I made to my bike help me out any. The results are inconclusive due to the strong winds that seem to always blow against you. If I was able to cut down through the wind more, I probably would have been able to see a difference. Hmmmmmm, maybe drop bars?

On a related note to biking, I've officially had it with running my long runs without any food. From now on, I'm bringing Gu along. I've tried a few other gels and things like that, but the Chocolate Outrage Gu seems to please me the most. Maybe I won't hit the wall at mile 16 and get the worse hunger in the world. It's really odd that you get so hungry so fast. I start looking at the twigs, leaves, and moss on the ground, wondering if any of them are edible. Keep hoping to find some Happy Meal(c) that somebody bought, decided not to eat, and left on the ground for the next hungry runner to joyously partake in.

1000th mile

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:28:29 GMT

I ran my 1000th mile today. Feels good to see a big number like that pass by, even if it is only symbolic and has no real meaning.

Inflation

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:08:06 GMT

Does anybody else see the problem in the US government buying its own debt? I fail to see the difference between this and printing money.

While inflation may not be crazy right now; indeed, deflation is the biggest worry. The US dollar is the reserve currency of the world and any hyperinflationary pressures on it would most likely prove disastrous in the medium term.

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