1 mile - 1609 meters of Agony, wk3

If long run day is my favorite day of the week then Thursday, mile repeat day, is my least favorite. Some might call me crazy but I would take the suffering of a marathon over the pain of a mile or 5k race, any day of the week. From day-one, I have found VO2 Max workouts(5k race pace intervals) to be the most mentally and physically difficult workouts for me. The feeling of that slowly accumulating oxygen debt is a discomfort I can tolerate far less than full out sprints, LT runs, even pounding out a 26.2miler.

I have picked mile repeats for this workout because it turns out my block is slightly over a mile in distance and the mile is mentally easier than a 2000m interval which for my level of fitness is probably ideal. I am not afraid to admit that I am mentally weak when it comes to this type of workout! This week however was a step in the right direction. Thursday morning I headed out for my run focused and determined to start the workout conservatively so that it wasn't a total death march like last week. I headed out and ran the first mile in 4:49, then the next 3 in 4:46, 4:44, 4:45. I was very pleased with the effort because the last 1/4 mile of each was into the wind, and the part of the loop that should have a tailwind was sheltered. Despite that, it was the even effort and strength I found in the latter part of the workout that made the session a success.

Well that's another week in the books and I am happy with it. I rearranged the distribution a bit which resulted in being a bit more rested for the workouts and cut the 200m strides to allow my calves to heal, which is coming along nicely. 8 weeks to go!
Breakdown:
LR - 22mi @ 5:41.7/mi
Int - 4mi @ 4:46.3/mi
MdL - 15mi @ 5:52.9/mi
LT - 10mi @ 5:10.3/mi
Supp - 2 - Strength Session
Volume - 112mi

Favorite Day of the Week

Long Run day is easily my favorite day of the week, and this week was no exception. I suppose one of the main reasons I have become a marathon runner is because I have always enjoyed my long runs a great deal. I have been doing 2hour+ long runs for about 6 years now and over that time have modified how I run them several times. At first it was of course just to get 2 hours worth of running in, then to run it at a decent pace of around 4mins/km, then running longer, up to 3 hours in duration. Eventually I started to run workouts in the long run, for example: 7x10mins hard 5mins medium, or 6x5mins hard off 2mins medium plus 3x10min hill, and other variations. When I joined the BCMP I started doing long runs at about 3:40/km, or 5:54/mi, which I didn't feel was quite challenging enough. Days before I moved back to BC, I was flipping through Pete Pfitzinger's book 'Advanced Marathoning,' which was one of the first books I had ever bought about running, and came across his method of running long runs. In this book Pete suggests running your long runs progressively from 20% slower than marathon goal pace to 10% slower than marathon goal pace. Running progression runs isn't a foreign concept to me but I decided I would finally implement this method and today was the first day of that plan.

For convenience I mapped out one mile, then split the run up into a 7 mile out and back, then 7 miles around my block which is 1.06mi. It broke down like this:
1mi - 5:53.2
7mi - 41:34.6(5:56.3/mi)
7mi - 39:56.6(5:42.3/mi)
7mi - 37:51.9(5:24.5/mi)
Total: 22mi - 2:05:18(5:41.7/mi)

Obviously this is a little faster than the guidelines in the book but the progression was very good and I will definitely continue to run my long runs this way. I believe the idea behind running faster as you continue the run is to simulate, in the latter part of the run, how you will feel in a race situation. It turned out to be a great workout, and I am very happy with it, however I really need to give my calves some care this week before they become a bigger problem. Anyhow, thats all for now, great start to the week.

Discipline, Lactate Threshold, wk2

Lactate Threshold is the point at which the body's ability to buffer Lactate in the blood is exceeded by the amount being produced by the muscles during a given activity. The faster pace you can run without breaking this threshold, the better marathon runner you will be. This pace is of course trainable by running, you guessed it, Lactate Threshold(LT) Runs. Achieving this training stimulus is effectively done by running 7-10miles at, or just above your current LT pace, which loosely correlates to your current 10mile to half marathon race pace. I scheduled this workout this week on Sunday(today) and failed miserably at executing it. After an easy 2mile warm up I headed out on my 10mile LT run passing the 1k marker at 3:00...knowing I was in trouble I eased off but by 5k was racing and by 8k threw my gloves on the ground and called it quits, furious. At 3mins/km or 4:48/mi I am well over my LT and thus the whole purpose of the workout was pretty well ruined in the first few minutes, and perhaps I should have just stopped, rested, and started over. The workout became a disaster for a number of reasons but it really boils down to not being disciplined in that first kilometer.

Discipline was an issue all week, beginning with the long run on Tuesday where I did not put near enough effort into recovering the rest of that day and the following day, resulting in an unsatisfactory Interval workout. In addition, I stayed in Vancouver to visit some friends one night and did not get adequate sleep or nutrition.

On a more positive note, the weather has been excellent, my long run and medium long run felt great, and I'm excited for a week of improved training, and for my calves to finally heal up. As well, when I was in Vancouver I attended an indigenous gathering and ceremony called 8000 drums which is always good medicine and one of the main reasons I am back out west.
I won't say I am happy with the training week but I won't say it was poor either.
Breakdown:
LR - 22mi @ 5:39.4/mi
Int - 4mi @ 4:48.2/mi
MdL - 15mi @ 5:56.3/mi
LT - 5mi @ 5:07.8/mi
Supp - 2 - 10x200m @ 32s
- 3 - Strength Session
Volume - 112mi

Comox Valley Half(1:07:59), wk1

This race was in Courtenay BC, which is located about halfway up the east side of Vancouver Island. The weather was perfect for running, probably around 5 degrees, no rain and no wind until about the last 2k. The course was fair, although from about 3.5k to half-way a pretty solid climb.

The plan was to run the race at a 'hard, controlled' effort not a race effort so that I can continue with training as usual and I executed that perfectly, however I hoped the resulting time would be a bit faster. I cruised through 5k in 15:50, then 10k in 32:32, and I think 15k in 48:18, finishing up in 1:07:59. It was a very good, disciplined effort where I focused on maintaining an even pace and good form, while not going to the well. All in all I am very happy with the run. I am planning to make a change in the racing schedule because it was a hassle to get up to Courtenay, and the Merville 15k is in the same area.

As for the week, I couldn't have asked for things to go better given the travel from Toronto to Richmond on tuesday then over to the island on saturday and up to the race sunday morning. Week One is in the books and a great start to the Ottawa build up.
Breakdown:
LR - 22mi @ 5:44.5/mi
Int - 3xmi @ 4:47.5/mi
MdL- 15mi @ 6:07.5/mi
Race - 13.1mi @ 5:11.3/mi
Supp - 2 - 10x200m @ 33s
- 3x strength session
Volume - 112mi

Great to be back (to Marathon Training)

Well due to inquiries regarding when I would have a webpage again about my training and my recent departure from the Brooks Marathon Project, I have decided to launch a Blog so my friends, family and anyone else interested can keep track of my training leading up to the Ottawa Marathon - Canadian Championships, and one might say...Olympic Trials...if only...

In a nutshell, over the last 6 months I had been living in Toronto training with the BCMP putting in some really solid miles and very good training, however I felt that my situation in Toronto was not ideal (on mental, emotional, physical and spiritual levels) and with the buildup to Ottawa looming I had to make a clutch decision to move back to BC. The decision was made, and here I am in Richmond, happy as I have ever been and my training is reflecting that. As with all experiences I am thankful that I went to Toronto, I wouldn't be where I am now without that chapter and I am grateful for the friendships, lessons learned, and knowledge acquired while out there.

So here we go, as I write this there are 71 days 11 hours and some-odd minutes until the gun goes off in Ottawa and I am very excited. Over the next 10 and a half weeks I will be doing 6 races, all of which will be during full training weeks so none of them will be at 100% rested state. The Vancouver Marathon will be a training run to practice gels and waterstations and is a perfect way to get my head ready for the marathon 3 weeks later. One of the very valuable things I have taken away from coach in Toronto was to ease off on the volume so I will be sticking to about 115miles/week, so that I can really hammer the workouts and get fast rather than just strong through logging big miles, as well I will be rolling my long runs at 5:45 mile pace. In addition to this i'll be doing some classic mile repeat workouts, LT runs, 200m strides, and medium long runs. Its a simple program, some might say old school, but its just running, to quote Bomba: "It's not rocket science"

Thats all for now, i'll post at least on a weekly basis, next post after the Comox Half-Marathon Sunday March 16.