Hey There,
I can't believe that its December already, time goes by fast without letting you know!!! I also can't believe that I haven't updated this thing since July when I ran the Canada Day race here in Edmonton. Is there any reason that I haven't been updating this thing? other than my own laziness? - No. Have I been injured - No......no new injuries anyway. (I'll get back to that)
So what has happened between July and today? I hate to say it, but its either not very much or its so much that I couldn't fit it in one blog post without going on and on and on. So it's probably best if I summarize it into one or two paragraph's.
After the Canada race my training went pretty well, I ran the 10K event of the Edmonton marathon weekend and finished in a time that prior to having Achilles Tendinitis I would've looked at as a bad time, but I placed in the top ten overall and managed to get third in my age group so all in all it wasn't that bad. The finish time showed me that I was on my way back to the fitness I had previously.
A couple of weeks later I entered the Rotary for Life 10K looking to improve as this was the race that I had set as my goal race. Its amazing what three weeks of training and a cooler temperature can produce. It also reminded me that you shouldn't get caught up too much in races/workouts that don't go as well as you'd like while in the middle of training. Its the end result of that training block that counts.
I thought about doing some Cross Country through the fall but I could never quite make it to workouts and the first one that tried to get to didn't really inspire a lot of confidence in the group that I was hoping to run with. Nothing worse than rearranging your schedule and then have no one turn up. I kept training although at an easier pace to keep myself fit but the Plantar Fasciitis that has been bothering me for over two years (on and off) got a little worse than normal. So that put a stop to any race plans I had for the fall as I wanted to get that treated before my next race. It is now at a point where its just there, no worse no better. when I get treatment on it, its really good for a couple of days and then it starts to slide back to its normal condition.
So I took it easy from about mid September until the end of October when I decided that I would enter a marathon down in Phoenix in January. I'm six weeks into the training program which is one that I had gotten from McMillan Running for a marathon that I ran my fastest time back in the spring of 2010. I'll update the blog with entries for the next six weeks.
I also decided to take the plunge and go back to doing a couple of Tri's in 2012!!!!! I've been thinking about this for some time now and seeing a couple of friends qualify for races like Xterra and 70.3 world Championships really helped seal the deal as it were. So I've entered the 70.3 scheduled for July 29th in Calgary. I start training for that race in February however all of my training has to be done at lunchtime or via commuting to work or if needed once the little ones are safely tucked into bed, but it also means that there are no six hour bike rides on the weekend and I have to do the race with whatever equipment I already have. The training for this race will also be run based meaning that I'm going to try and run almost as much as I do now as I want to do a few running races such as the Timex series here in Alberta as well as a couple of half marathons before the triathlon.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Canada Day Race review
Well it’s a belated Happy Canada Day!!! Friday was Canada Day and I guess the best comparison is St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Every City, Town, village has the Canadian colors out there are parades and all sorts of family festivities all of which ends with Fireworks.
Canada Day (when running a race) is always an early start for me I was woken at 4:00am as the police helicopter was doing the rounds overhead, plus the fact that I had some sort of coughing fit in the middle of the night. This was loud enough to wake the baby. I went back to sleep on the couch until 6:00am and then got ready to go to the race start. It didn't take long to get there, it’s just that I was thinking of riding the bike there as part of the warm up....well that didn't happen as I saw that it was raining out, but by the time the race started the sun was out and it was starting to warm up. I did my usually warm up down by the Kinsmen and then jogged over to the start line.
This was to be my first race since getting injured back in October 2010 with Achilles Tendinitis so I didn't really expect it to be a lightning fast race. My plan was to run at an even pace of 3:50 per K or 18:XX per 5K, the other (I guess more realistic) goals I had ranged from simply finishing to going under the hour for the distance.....That was the plan anyway but that is not what happened. I came down the hill from the start/finish in a good place nowhere near the front of the race and then proceeded to go backwards for about the next 5or 6K. I ended up going through the first 5k almost on the pace that I was thinking I was capable of but slowed down over the next 10K.
I was on my own by the time we got to Hawrelak Park and was getting encouragement from the walkers that started out 30 minutes before us, it’s not their fault I was running badly so I said thank you to anyone that shouted a word of encouragement. Going up Emily Murphy hill is never easy even when you're going well this is one of those hills that always seems steep and people just seemed to go away from me, but the encouragement at the top made up for the lack of speed.
Once the race wound its way back to Saskatchewan Drive (try saying that 6 times in row with a few pints on you) I could see how far the leaders where in front of me and from my spot it had all the looks of a good race. I ended up going through 10K in 39 flat (which isn't great even for me). Two years ago on this course I went through 10K in 36 something; it’s amazing how much an injury can screw you up. The thing is by this point I had resigned myself to just finishing so I offered encouragement to the guys in front of that I know that I would normally be running with. The rest of the race went by in a blur of trying to keep the pace that I was at going until the dreaded hill up to the finish. Again this is a hill like Emily Murphy in that it’s steep and it always feels hard. I really slowed down on this hill and had no idea how I was doing until I saw the clock at the finish line and realized that I could break the hour for the run.
I ended up crossing the line in 59:58, so both of my realistic goals were reached (finishing and going under the hour) after finishing the run I spoke to Mia Clarke for a few minutes and could feel that the injured leg was tightening up, I think it was the hills as it felt tight on both of the hills during the race. My fear was that the AT would start hurting again, but luckily it didn't and the leg didn't get any worse over the course of the next couple of days.
It was the longest /hardest run since the New York Marathon in November, according to my Polar I ran it at approx. 92% of maximum heart rate with HR getting up to a max of 95%. My Achilles hasn't hurt in the time since, so that is looking good. So while it wasn't a great race it wasn't bad and it has shown me that I have a lot of work to do to get back to the form that I had last year when I went sub 2:40 for the marathon and 1:16 for the half marathon.
From now until the beginning of September I'll be focusing more on running a faster 10K as I haven't done one in a long time and my current 10K PB is pretty bad (I think it’s 36:XX).
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Loonie about Lunar.....
This season I'm using Nike shoes as my shoes of choice. The only thing is it can get pretty confusing with all of the models that are out there and what they do/don't do. If you look at the Lunar line of Nike shoes there must be at least ten different models. So far I have tried the Lunar Glide, the Lunar Swift, the Lunar Racer 2, the Lunar Elite 2 and the Lunar Racer.
I really liked the Lunar Glide, as I never had any problems with it as some people had and they still look good after using them for two seasons. I like that the stability part only kicks on when you need it as I need it towards the end of my long runs.
The Lunar Swift, is a good shoe although it takes a little while to get used too as it is very stiff when its new. This stiffness in the sole makes for a weird feel when you first run in them. These also have a stability component on them like the Glides but I'm not sure it works as well.
The Lunar Racer 2, is a shoe that I didn't like, for some reason it didn't work for me. I found the feel to be very springy which was great at first as it encourages leg turnover I also got blisters in places that I never got blisters before such as the outside edge of my foot or in middle of my arch. But what I found was there is next to no stability in it and as the shoe breaks down this became very problematic for me, the other thing I noticed is as the shoe breaks down it began to feel like I was running on a soft surface, so just after the foot strike when my heel landed it felt like the shoe was compressing even more. I tried to use a soft ortho in the shoe but it gave me a feeling of constantly running on the outer edge of my feet, the other thing I noticed when using the insert was that it made the foot strike really loud, I think I could use it as a bear deterrent if I ran in the mountains with them.
The Lunar Elite 2, At first I was skeptical about trying them as they feel very much like the Swift in that they are Stiff initially but as I use them more and I've really began to like them. As the season goes on I'll add more to how they are working out.
The Lunar Racer 2011, I read some really good reviews about these shoes before I took them out of the box and they are supposed to be more stable than the LR2, they are on a slightly different last than the LR2 in that it is more curved than the 2010 model. So far I have done one run on them so I can't say yet how they'll workout. But like the Lunar Elite 2 this will be an ongoing review.
It seems to me that Nike is really pushing the Lunar line and appears to be doing less with the Zoom line of shoes, now I don't know if that is a good thing or not as I like the shoes that I've tried so far from the Zoom line such as the Elite4 and the Marathoner.
I really liked the Lunar Glide, as I never had any problems with it as some people had and they still look good after using them for two seasons. I like that the stability part only kicks on when you need it as I need it towards the end of my long runs.
The Lunar Swift, is a good shoe although it takes a little while to get used too as it is very stiff when its new. This stiffness in the sole makes for a weird feel when you first run in them. These also have a stability component on them like the Glides but I'm not sure it works as well.
The Lunar Racer 2, is a shoe that I didn't like, for some reason it didn't work for me. I found the feel to be very springy which was great at first as it encourages leg turnover I also got blisters in places that I never got blisters before such as the outside edge of my foot or in middle of my arch. But what I found was there is next to no stability in it and as the shoe breaks down this became very problematic for me, the other thing I noticed is as the shoe breaks down it began to feel like I was running on a soft surface, so just after the foot strike when my heel landed it felt like the shoe was compressing even more. I tried to use a soft ortho in the shoe but it gave me a feeling of constantly running on the outer edge of my feet, the other thing I noticed when using the insert was that it made the foot strike really loud, I think I could use it as a bear deterrent if I ran in the mountains with them.
The Lunar Elite 2, At first I was skeptical about trying them as they feel very much like the Swift in that they are Stiff initially but as I use them more and I've really began to like them. As the season goes on I'll add more to how they are working out.
The Lunar Racer 2011, I read some really good reviews about these shoes before I took them out of the box and they are supposed to be more stable than the LR2, they are on a slightly different last than the LR2 in that it is more curved than the 2010 model. So far I have done one run on them so I can't say yet how they'll workout. But like the Lunar Elite 2 this will be an ongoing review.
It seems to me that Nike is really pushing the Lunar line and appears to be doing less with the Zoom line of shoes, now I don't know if that is a good thing or not as I like the shoes that I've tried so far from the Zoom line such as the Elite4 and the Marathoner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)