10 Miler before the 10 Miler

This post is a day late, but I was so wiped last night that I didn't have the energy to face all that goes into writing about the run (though in reality it's not actually that much, I'll admit). Anyway, I hadn't eaten since noon, then went out for my run without any snack beforehand, not carrying any Gatorade or anything, just running. It was nice to be able to go for 16km without having to fuss with any of that stuff! I still remember how 12k seemed like such an accomplishment and left me completely drained, leg muscles sore as hell. Now when I say "long run" I mean at least 20k.

Anyway, I ran pretty steady, though hit a big hill with about 4k to go, and managed to finish in 1:27:52 for an average pace of 5:29/km (8:50/mile). The heart rate averaged out to 143bpm with a bit of a spike in the 13th kilometre where I hit Beachwood Ave. and decided to try and hold a decent pace rather than preserve my heart rate in the high 130s or low 140s.

By the time I got home, foam rolled, showered, and then sat down to dinner it was 9pm and I was feeling really exhausted, literally falling asleep at the table. In fact, I felt nauseous and could barely get any food down. I forced myself to eat a bit before crawling to bed. This morning I felt much better, though I think I have to be more aware of my nutritional requirements on these runs that last well over an hour in the future. Even if I no longer feel like 16k is a long run, that doesn't mean that my body agrees with me.

Tomorrow morning is the Toronto 10 Miler, and I am so not up for this race. I knew long ago that I would be running this event as a training run, but now I barely seem interested in even doing that. I could just as easily run the distance out of my front door without all the fuss and hubbub that comes with getting to the starting line and crossing the finish, then getting home. Anyway, still unsure of what pace I will be attempting, but I still have that 4:54/km in the back of my mind (my theoretical marathon pace, as fast as that is and as daunting as it seems to me right now). I also noticed in one of the several marathon training plans that I refer to (this time I think it was the FIRST plan for first time marathoners, a handy tool since it sets all the paces based on a 45 minute 10k, pretty much bang on for me) that this week's long run says I should do 13 miles (21k) at 5:07/km pace. Perhaps I will decide to run at this pace instead. Either way I am planning to run home after the race (either nice and easy or at the slightly slower pace noted above, which is still very challenging) to make the mileage add up to something over 20k in total. We'll see how it goes, but now I must off to sleep.

Garmin don't lie.

Registering and Planning

I've decided to change my original plan and register for the 5k during the Ottawa Marathon Weekend races in May instead of the 10k. I figure that variety is a good thing, and my time from this race will also allow me to better use the FIRST Run Less Run Faster program to train for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in September since all of their training paces are based on your best 5k result (I find this a little puzzling because throughout the book they keep repeating that the 5k is the worst predictor for marathon finishing times, for obvious reasons). I also think that running a 5k will be a blast - just giv'r and it's over so quick!

Also, I reworked my training plan based on a Monday-Sunday week. I've always thought of weeks as starting on a Sunday and ending on a Saturday, but apparently running plans do not view calendars the same way I do. Now I have a training plan that is taking shape for the entire calendar year based on this more acceptable convention. If all goes well I will run over 1600km this year, which translates to just over 1000 miles. That will be a good milestone for sure on top of any racing achievements.

And lastly, I am rethinking my original goal for this year (that being to run a sub 45 minute 10k). Now that I am trying to (slowly and carefully) increase my mileage I can't concentrate on both distance and speed all that much as that would likely lead to more injury. If I happen to run that fast in one of the two 10k races I've signed up for, great! If not, I won't worry about it since it is more important for me to run healthy and long this year. I'll think about my goals a bit more, but it's looking more and more like my main goal will be to finish a marathon and not to run fast(ish) in a 10k.

Oh yeah, my wife has registered for the 10k in Ottawa, and I've also registered Owen in the Kids Marathon (which traces the last 1.2k of the marathon route and lets the kids finish in the same spot as the main event, making for some exciting times to be sure). This should be a fun weekend for all of us, though it is still a bit of a ways off.

I'm Committed

Today, on the last day that this cheap bastard could still take advantage of the savings available by registering for a bunch of events at the same time, I committed myself to four running races here in the Big Smoke. They've been listed in the sidebar for a while, but now I can go ahead and put "registered" beside them! The four I chose are:

• Toronto Sporting Life 10k (May 3)
• Toronto 10 Miler (July 19)
• Toronto Waterfront Marathon (September 27)
• Oasis Zoo Run 10k (October 17)

Naturally, given that I've never even come close to the distance in a week's worth of training, I reserve the right to downgrade to the half marathon in September without shame or regret...

Whatever happens, this should be fun. And hey, even though I spent almost $200 I saved $20 for registering 4 events at the same time! I don't really get the logic of spending money to save money, but I'm not going to question this right now. Legs don't fail me now! (or for the next 10 months)

Speaking of legs, my hip feels like Rocky's face at the end of Rocky I (or any one of those movies, for that matter), but there is no sign that I even fell. Then again, it doesn't really feel like anyone caked copious amounts of cheap makeup onto my ass, but it just hurts. The knee is sore after yesterday, but I think it was more the 4 hours of house cleaning rather than the 8k. I may have to skip Wednesday's run if it continues to hurt.

Tonight I did some other stuff:

• Push ups: 45-55-35-30 (why is it so hard to keep doing the max set???)
• Sit ups: 50-50-50-50
• And a bunch of hip and ass strengthening things that I've neglected for far too long.

Without Limits (Except when it comes to facial hair)

Last night I watched the movie Without Limits. I picked it up on Tuesday while grocery shopping for $5! How could I lose, right? Naturally, I couldn't and the movie did not disappoint. I enjoyed it very much, though I would not call it cinematic genius or anything. I could have done without the whole college crush angle, but the race scenes were great and Billy Crudup is Pre reincarnate - the resemblance is eerie! My main impressions were that Steve Prefontaine was a tremendous runner (duh!), Donald Sutherland is great and still Canadian (duh?), Monica Potter shares a first name with my wife (duh?), and I can't grow a mustache so will never be able to play Steve Prefontaine in another movie about his life (d'oh!). Yes, that's the only reason why I couldn't play Pre. What? Lack of speed? No muscle tone? CGI people, C.G. friggin' I.!

(I do realize that facial hair is easily done with makeup, but that would cheapen the whole thing don't you think?)

Anyway, after that movie I am even more motivated to run, and visit Oregon again cuz the view from Bill Bowerman's fictional home was awesome! However, I am sticking to the new plan and did not run today. Instead, I made my way through the rain on my bike to the swimming pool for another lunchtime swim. The process can be summed up with "wet-dry-wet-dry-wet-dry". I sound like a broken record here, but once more the thing lasted 2000m in 30 minutes, and I am NOT getting any faster... Maybe if I could grow a mustache like Mark Spitz then I might be able to play him in a movie, and gain some speed? Hmmm... Damn lack of facial hair has been holding me down all this time and I am just waking up to these shackles! But at least I save on expensive razorblades. Is it just me, or are these things made of oil or something because the price of a set of blades has gotten ridiculous! I say they're the reason the economy is tanking like the Exxon Valdes, not sub-prime mortgages. Unless, of course, you have to borrow money to buy disposable razor blades...

This afternoon I was supposed to get another treatment at the chiropractor's, but they had my office phone number noted incorrectly and so I never got the message that he was sick. Two issues with this thing: 1. for some reason, to them my "4" looks like a "5" on the form I filled out (and apparently it's my fault!), and 2. they can't refund the charge onto my credit card for the prepayment I made for the session! Say what? Your swipey machine thing is somehow missing the minus sign or something? There is nothing that sours me more on a business than poor customer service. Good impressions last until the next visit, bad impressions last forever and some people just don't get that.

Anyway, tomorrow is another off day, and perhaps I will try to elaborate on my developing racing plans for 2009. If you haven't noticed, the list on the right side of this page is growing and I am getting more and more excited about the prospect of running lots of races next year. The question remains, how much is too much?

Making a Commitment

Although I am not really ready to start heavy training, and am hesitant about starting back into some easy running, I have made a commitment to a race and distance that just a few weeks ago I would have though was unthinkable. No, I am not planning on any marathon or anything, but I have registered for the Around the Bay race in Hamilton in late March, 2009. 30k here I come!!! I'm going right past the half-marathon distance for some unknown reason! This may be nuts, but I am not willing to miss this opportunity by waiting until the last minute only to be disappointed because this race has an entrance limit. This is the oldest distance race in North Americe and also very popular, so I decided to pull the trigger now. In the same spirit, I almost registered for the Boxing Day 10 miler, also in Hamilton, but because that is a lot sooner I thought I'd better see how the foot feels over the next two weeks and then make that decision. I am still fully committed to running in this race also, but for some reason I don't have the same sense of urgency to register right now.

Tonight I am not running on the treadmill, or doing anything else. I have some schoolwork that I need to finish and submit, and then I will do the whole ice bath thing on the foot. My treatment this morning was positive in that the doctor said I can start running nice and easy since that won't do any more damage to the foot, but also painful as hell when he worked on some muscle stiffiness I've had in my upper hip / lower back area. It was one of those experiences where I couldn't help laughing because the pain was so crazy! Someday this body of mine will adapt.

It HAS to!

And lastly, my lovely wife forced me to hobble up the stairs to check on the boys and here is what I found: my 4 year-old fancies himself to be some sort of Aquaboy! Do we take the goggles off and risk waking him up, or leave them on and risk him having massive circles around his eyes all day tomorrow?

Contemplating the Future

Well, I couldn't get onto blogger.com yesterday for some reason, which I guess is just as well since I had a tonne of schoolwork to catch up on and didn't need to report on my "general body soreness", a favorite term in the NHL when the team doesn't want to let anyone know what the actual injury to a player is...

It seems that Blogger has been giving me issues when publishing posts for over a month, and I'm beginning to wonder how reliable this thing is. Perhaps I should switch to publishing straight to a blogspot.com account? If anyone has experience with publishing using ftp and a similar history of problems please let me know if switching is the right move, or if publishing to blogspot.com is also ripe with problems.

And yes, I am sore! My foot is definitely plantar fasciitising, and my quads are so stiff it is excruciating going up, and especially down, stairs. But it was definitely worth it, and in fact I'd probably be a little upset with myself if I wasn't sore.

This afternoon I went for a short and easy lunchtime swim and managed 1200m in about 18 minutes. I am not going to the gym tonight, instead choosing to rest my legs. I have another treatment scheduled for Thursday and I hope that the pain subsides by then since the treatment I received on Monday morning was super painful! (In a good kind of way, but pretty close to unbearable...)

However, the racing bug has got a good hold of me and I am already contemplating my next race. The one that seems like it will be a lot of fun, and far enough off in the future to allow for good recovery and a resumption of training, is the Hamilton Boxing Day 10 miler. This year will mark the 88th straight year for this event, put on exclusively by volunteers from the Hamilton Harriers Running Club. Apparently the route for the race has been the same since day one! Although I am not ready to run 16 kilometres, I think I will have enough time to prepare for the distance and I will not be running this as a race, but rather for fun and to finish. Also, one can register with the option to get some pretty good gear such as running tights and a jacket, two things I need anyway so this seems to be a perfect marriage of swag and racing fun!

The other one that also seems great, though a bit farther off in the future, is the Around the Bay race, also in Hamilton, at the end of March. That one is a 30km race, and is the oldest long distance race in North America. Yes, even older than the Boston Marathon!

In the spring I will be once again trying to go under 45 minutes in the 10k, most likely during the Ottawa Race Weekend events in May, but I figure getting some longer races under my belt, and running them to finish rather than to exhaustion, will be great motivation and training for a fast 10k. Sound good? It does to me, but I am tired and sore so who knows what this will feel like in the morning.

The Wife says: How do you stop it?

I thought she meant, "How do you stop him?", referring to me of course, and my impending conquest of the 10k, now a mere 11 or so hours away. What precipitated this unusual, though simplistic, query? Was there a rodent in the hotel room of whose presence I was unaware? Nothing against the fine folks at Motel 6, but sometimes one just never knows what the "6" refers to now that it no longer refers to dollars-a-night. Was it the possibility of a cramp that she was readying for and needed my assistance and nutritional know how to curb should it come to pass?

No, none of the above. Instead, as I sit in a hot tub placed right beside the queen bed (strange? perhaps, but it is Niagara Falls. Oh why didn't we honeymoon at a Motel 6 dear???) my sweet bride was laughing at me as I turned the jets on and then proceeded to wonder how on earth to end the bubbles from attacking my legs.

Oh yeah, ... press the same button again.

Anyway, we made it, a little later than planned, and now we are getting psyched for the morning! A mere 2.5k from the start-finish area, we are planning to use that distance as our warm up jog. It kills me to admit that prior to this one of us will have to drive down to the same general area to pick up bibs and chips and such - racing accoutrement and swag - for I don't think running too much before the race will be too smart.

Now my legs are hot (in temperature only I'm certain) and my brow is sweat-infested. The wife is reading, and the Leafs just beat the Senators. All's good in the world, except the Series. Damn weather! Although the "fine" folks at Fox are now saying the boys of summer are about to take the field, so a game is in the offing!

And now the fine Phiily folks are playing some kids fish song in a derogatory fashion as they announce the Rays players - you gotta love Philly!!! No brotherly love on this night apparently.

And now look at the size of that flag they're unfurling during the anthem! Me thinks they're compensating for something...

Cheers y'all! Catch you on the other side of racing participaction, for tomorrow, no matter what, I will finally join the ranks of those that can lay claim to the all important "PR"!