Helen's Running Journal
2006
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together
to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work,
but rather teach them to long for the
endless immensity of the sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The first year I began running seriously was also the first year I
ended up with a knee injury. Just as summer was beginning and everyone was
lacing up their shoes and heading out, I was stuck inside my apartment. What
kept me inspired and hopeful was another runner, Peter, who posted his journal on the Web. It's no longer around (much to my dismay), but his daily entries of his training highs and lows - as well as his own recovery from a similar injury - got me through summer and to the 1999 Canadian International Marathon. Every evening when I came back from the office I followed his struggle, right up to his first marathon in Quebec City in 1999. I never sent an email to him, much less met him, but he was a great coach. To Peter from Montreal, thank you.
2006 Goals: Complete an Ironman in 12.5 hours
and
Run a 50 Mile Ultramarathon
2005 was a great year. Luck touched just about everything I tried my hand at, and there were opportunities I hadn't even dreamed of come my way. Crossing the finishing line of my first Ironman feeling great and even managing a sprint at the end was, well, amazing. Spain was the trip of a lifetime. So what do I aim for in 2006? Another Ironman, of course, only faster, and an ultramarathon. 50 miles (80km) of running has got me a bit scared - which is why I chose it, of course. But it seems that my strategy of choosing goals that cause me to doubt myself yet persevere is paying off. Here's to never giving up and stretching far.
- Week of January 1
- Saturday/Sunday (Dec 31st/Jan 1st) Happy New Year! And what better way to start the year than running? The idea was to start running at around 11:30pm and finish after midnight so that I could run out of the old year and into the new. The evening was a bit chilly but amazingly there wasn't a breath of wind. Before starting out I delivered bags of homemade truffles to my neighbours then, feeling a bit like Santa Claus, stepped onto the road for my run.
Things were eerily quiet as I ran past the Y and around Parkhurst/Inglewood and out onto the Woodstock Road. The soles of my shoes were stiff in the cold and making the loudest sound. I felt really great as I ran, checking my watch every now and then. As I ran back up Rookwood to turn onto Saunders I called out Happy New Year to a couple walking their dog, and realised that there were only a few minutes left until midnight. As I ran I imagined that little bits of old habits and negative things were falling off me and getting left behind in 2005. I was running by Wilmot Park when a firework went off downtown, bringing in 2006. My focus shifted to running into a better person and better habits in 2006. I ran down George Street and tried to keep my mind quiet and feeling strong, thinking of resolutions I had had for 2005. I turned back for home, the fatigue finally getting to me, and called it a day.
- Monday I got out for a run before lunch during what had to be the loveliest part of the day. The sky was clearing up, the wind hadn't started up yet, and everything looked so soft in that bit of snow that fell last night. I felt great at the start but my legs suddenly stiffened after about 30 minutes of running, probably due to a rather long bike session last night while watching Pirates of the Caribbean. I ran up Golf Club Road and had a great time running back, especially on the part of the road that cuts through the golf course. It was remarkably beautiful and I let my mind wander while my legs struggled through the last 30 minutes.
- Tuesday It felt a lot colder than -12C this evening, so I didn't last very long even though I had dressed up quite warmly. Did the same route as New Year's Eve, still feeling quite strong and steady. Today is actually Day 1 of the first part of the training season. It's nice to be back on a schedule of some sort.
- Saturday One week into the new year and I'm already tired. I'll blame it on all the late evening elliptical trainer/treadmill workouts I've been doing this week. I didn't want to run outside too much, given all the ice that's on the ground. And treadmill workouts can do wonders for strengthening, especially if I put the incline at 1% for the entire workout. Anyway, today I was out for a one hour run that felt like a killer. I did two loops of the Parkhurst/Inglewood Drive and a little jaunt out along Woodstock Road and up Marlborough Drive. I kept having to slow down just to catch my breath. Used some ChiRunning concepts to relax a bit and keep my feet low to the ground so as to conserve some energy.
- Week of January 8
- Thursday I've been doing quite a bit of time on the treadmill lately, so there haven't been many journal updates. As I look outside the window of my new office, I can see patches of grass sticking out where a few days ago there was snow. Another mid-January thaw, just like last year. So this evening, when the wind dropped and the thermometer hung in at +5C, I went out for a nice run. I was expecting another horrid one like last Saturday but I was pleasantly surprised to feel the effects of time well spent on the treadmill: a short, steady stride, good posture, and simple joy at not being stuck inside. I did Golf Club Road and noticed that I wasn't having a hard time in the hills. Another treadmill bonus: running with the incline at 1%. For most of the run I blocked out everything and let my head be filled with The Waterboys' When Ye Go Away. Soft, wistful traditional Irish song that made running feel like I was in another country. In the final few minutes I came back to one of my favourite thoughts, "Be still and know that I am." I'm getting better at being able to focus on only that stillness for a sustained amount of time. 1:10.
- Friday It's supposed to be a cycling day, but given the current weather conditions I go out for a run. My hip flexors were really sore from doing hills yesterday. I guess even the treadmill has its limits. In spite of that soreness my stride was still pretty good. I'm trying to go back to more of the Spiritual Running ideas in the book by Roger Joslin. Tonight I still have a song in my head; however, I spend a lot of time feeling my breath and enjoying the run. It's Friday night, there's a full moon tomorrow and students are everywhere, loud and a bit crazy in the warm weather. In the last ten minutes I make a deliberate effort to empty even the songs from my head and come to the thought, "Be still, and know that I am." 1hr.
- Saturday I can't believe my eyes when I wake up this morning: almost all of the ice on the ground is gone. I head out a bit earlier than usual for the run since heavy rain is forecasted for this afternoon. Once again I'm surprised that I feel pretty good for three days in a row of running, even though the heartrate monitor that I'm wearing for the first time in months is showing some pretty scary numbers (155 - 160 bpm.) I've read a paragraph from Joslin's book and I'm trying to focus on "When you cook....cook!" It's one of my favourites: slowly stripping away the usual thoughts of the day to think of nothing but...nothing. And then seeing if what's left gives me some indication of a greater presence. I'm always amazed because I never really expect to find anything, yet I always do. I think that this is eventually going to be my ticket to surviving my first ultramarathon. 1:10
- Week of January 15
- Friday Is it winter yet? I've been doing lots of running on the treadmill this week, but like last week I went out for a run on what was really a bike day simply because I couldn't pass up the great weather. My stride felt shortened and quite stiff when I started, but still strong. It's the effect of the elliptical trainer. I also need a long time to warm up. It's Friday night and the traffic is surprisingly busy. I find it very hard to concentrate on anything but the random thoughts that are bouncing around my head. After 30 minutes my stride has become stronger and I'm feeling really great. Head back home after 1 hour.
- Saturday It feels like spring when I start my run this morning. There's no snow and little ice left. I even hear birds chirping. Unfortunately, I head out on a quasi-empty stomach, which distracts me from a good run. I'm not too tired from yesterday's run and, in search of some quiet, I go for Golf Club Road. My heart rate monitor is showing lower readings than last week (average 150bpm); I've got a quiet song in my head to come back to when my mind wanders off; and things aren't bad. After 45 minutes I start feeling quite light-headed from the lack of food and slow down my pace. 1:20
- Week of January 21
- Tuesday What a lovely evening: no wind, a bit crisp, and soft snow covering the ground. I've been walking a lot lately and I was a bit worried that my run might suffer from it. But the first steps out the door told me that it was going to be a great run. I felt very strong and had a steadier stride than I usually do, running at a high cadence and keeping it there for the entire hour. My focus tonight was "We are what we repeatedly do." It's one I hadn't done in quite a while. It comes from Aristotle's expression, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit." I like mulling the first part as I run because it forces me to think about how I want to run. If I am what I am repeatedly doing (running), then how should I run to reflect what I am? Using only a few words and paring everything down to what is most essential, what is important when I run? It was a great night to try it. 1 hour.
- Saturday I've been biking a lot this week, That's my excuse for not running more often. Another lovely but windy day, and best of all the roads are completely bare. My legs are very, very tired; I've been walking even more than usual lately, and this morning I flopped around in bed instead of getting up simply because my legs could barely move. The run was a bit better and keeping a short stride was easy. What seemed easier than usual was calming my mind and focusing it. Did Golf Club Road for 1h20. Dealt with a very stupid lady driving in the opposite direction who stopped and asked me if I knew that I was on the wrong side of the road. Rules are SO important for some people! Usually the type who lack the brainpower to make up their own minds.
- Week of January 28
- Thursday Entries are sparse these days because I've been doing lots of treadmill work. Tonight, in spite of early signs of a cold, I went out for a great run on yet another lovely evening. January 2006 never happened as far as winter is concerned. Hopefully we can say the same thing about February. I did the courts around Parkhurst/Inglewood and a stretch along Woodstock Road and up Marlborough Drive. The theme of the evening was to "run excellently." Again, the idea comes from Aristotle's expression, and it seems to really make my mind and body come together in terms of finding a harmonious way of running. Not that I needed any encouragement this evening. The treadmill must be working some wonders because I felt like flying. Legs were very strong, foot turnover was rapid, and posture was good. Only the the last ten minutes or so did my legs start feeling stiff, and that was mostly due to a hard tempo bike last night. 1h00
- Saturday Yet another gorgeous Saturday. Not only have we been blessed with great weather, it happens to always arrive on weekends. My senses are completely confused when I start my run this afternoon. My body feels disoriented: sometimes it smells and sounds like early April, or if I run by someone's burning pile of leaves then I get confused and think I'm in October. But it's neither: it's February and I'm running with a cap and sunglasses and light-weather tights. I don't feel as strong as I did on Thursday evening, but things are pretty good given the hard bike ride I did yesterday. Some stiffness in the hip flexors, but otherwise no fatigue. I do Golf Club Road and really huff and puff up the hills. My heartrate is pretty good otherwise; it stays in the 150-155bpm range, which is better than usual for this time of the year. I'm more distracted when I'm running in the daylight, yet even so I'm consistent in bringing back my wandering thoughts and trying to find some stillness inside. I shorten "Be still and know that I am" to simply "Be still", and as I run past the field on Golf Club Road on my way back home I can sense that stillness inside me and almost keep a connection. It gets easier for some reason in the final few minutes of the run. 1h30
- Week of February 5
- Tuesday Winter temperatures at last, but no snow. I convince myself to go running in spite of a terribly cold walk back from work. By the time I start my run I've got wind pants, winter tights, and four layers of shirts and tops on. And it's worth every one of them since the wind is picking up. I read a passage in Joslin's book before starting: it's about finding the divinity in everyone that you meet. Since it's evening and the streets are abandoned because of the cold, I have to stretch my imagination a little and find the divinity in everything. That leads me to put my attention on the wind, as well as see trees and objects slightly differently. It helps that there's a very clear half-moon tonight and everything is glowing. The run itself is great: my stride is remarkably consistent and I feel wonderful. Actually, I feel like I could run forever. It's not until I get a bit of fatigue in my hip flexors in the last ten minutes that I have even the slightest hint of limits. 1h10
- Thursday My legs are so tired they feel like rubber. The consequence of lots of walking lately, a new gym membership, and a long swim practice this morning with a kicking drill that just about paralyzed me with fatigue. In fact, as I walk back from work I can feel the muscles on the front of my shins cramping out of sheer exhaustion. But as I've noted before, I seem to run exceptionately well when I'm tired, and that's the case tonight. As I start to run, my legs seem very relaxed, particularly from the knee down. And what does that all sound like? Why, ChiRunning, of course! My foot turnover is unusually high and I really feel like I'm running lightly and quickly. I don't even notice any hills. Maybe I should tire myself out more before triathlons. 50min.
- Saturday All the week's exercise caught up with my legs today. It took well over 30 minutes before my pace finally seemed to find its groove, although I still shuffled back home after one hour, 30 minutes short of what I had planned to do today. It was -18C with the windchill, so the early part of the run as I headed out the Woodstock Road was tough. Realising I was completely out of it and couldn't do much physically or mentally, I simply tried to concentrate on one or two aspects of ChiRunning. 1 hour.
- Week of February 12
- Monday Yep, I'm running on a Monday. I was going to go to the gym, but when I saw the brilliant full moon, the recent snowfall, and the bare roads, I knew I'd be crazy to miss an opportunity to run on such a lovely evening. I made a point of taking a long time to get ready, listening to Everloving twice and reading a section on intentionality in Joslin's book. I started down toward the Parkhurst/Inglewood loop. My stride rate was a bit slower than usual but my legs were very relaxed. Running was pretty much effortless. It was such a natural run that it seemed as if my breathing hadn't even changed from resting. The theme I was trying to explore was bliss. I had caught a whiff of it in this morning's meditation class and had tried to keep the feeling with me all day. During the run I'd try to imagine every cell in my body falling into bliss. It's a delightful feeling, and I think a precursor to greater ones. When the feeling would pass my mind would drift back to the song in my head, and I managed this nice interplay for 1h20min pretty much effortlessly.
- Tuesday Got lucky with the weather again tonight. I had a one hour moderate run scheduled. "Moderate" was actually shooting for quite a bit since my body's undergone a lot of training in the past 24 hours: long run yesterday, hard swim this morning, and two one hour walks up and down the big hill. I was surprised that I could run at all, and even more surprised by the lack of stiffness in my legs. I had read this beautiful quote from Antoine de Saint Exupery:
Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive.
When the destructive analysis of day is done,
and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again.
When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.
Is that gorgeous or what? I tried to find that "calm of a tree", running so that my legs had their own purpose while the rest of me healed from the "destructive analysis of day." Wow.
- Thursday A tempo run tonight. I'm not all that great at doing tempo runs; sustained speed is not my specialty. Tonight the temperature is above freezing but the wind is picking up quickly. I start out feeling a bit heavy but, surprisingly, that doesn't last long. I get a tailwind around the first half of the Parkhurst/Inglewood loop and I think that gets my speed up a little. A bit of a sore hip from some recent time on the elliptical trainer. I do the loop twice because I like the quiet and the complete lack of traffic. What a difference silence can make on my peace of mind during a run! On the second loop I get a bit faster and my legs feel really strong. 1 hour.
- Week of February 19
- Tuesday Saturday's long run ended up being on the treadmill due to the high winds we had here over the weekend. My brain and my muscles must have found that useful, since both were really moving tonight. The run was only supposed to be 40 minutes long at a moderate pace, but I found myself feeling exceptionately strong and brough the pace up to a tempo and maintained it for 1:10. My legs were very strong, a delightful side effect of lots of time on the elliptical trainer set to a high crossramp and high resistance.
- Thursday There's all this white stuff on the ground. I think it's snow, but because I haven't seen any in so long I might be mistaken. Anyway, there was just a feathering on the ground when I left for my run, enough to cover the roads but not enough to have any effect on traction or the run. Tonight's run was supposed to be a tempo run. My severely fatigued quadriceps had something to say about that. I could barely lift my knees or move with a high cadence. But even though my legs were tired, I had plenty of energy to find a steady pace and feel quite decent while I ran. I had to cut the run short when a twinge in one leg got a bit out of control. 1:15min.
- Saturday Cold, clear, and windy. I'm impressed with myself for even attempting to run today. That was probably the high point. Within minutes of starting I'm breathless and I feel like I've been hit across the chest. What's wrong with me? It's probably a new fleece I've got wrapped around my face to keep my skin from freezing; it happens to be suffocating me, although at least I'm warm! I trudge around Parkhurst/Inglewood, out along the Woodstock Road, try out the path for a bit, then come back through Marlborough Drive. The oddest thing about my runs lately is that in spite of fatigue from training hard at the gym, I don't actually get tired during the run. I can't run fast, true, but I never feel as if my energy levels are so depleted that I can't keep going. This is a whole new type of endurance that I've never had before. Having a strong mental or spiritual side to each run definitely helps. Today I'm focusing on being in the moment. I seem to have to call back my mind often, but at least it's getting easier to do. It's amazing how much of life we can miss, how many hours we can waste, if we let our minds do nothing but chatter about work and life. 1:10min.
- Week of February 26
- Tuesday Another cold night. The windchill is -18C when I start running, and there's a light snow falling, the slippery kind that makes running very slow. I have finally found a copy of Daniel Lavoie's beautiful song, Y'a des jours de plaine , and listened to it before starting off. It's about the only positive thing I have to say about the run: it really was too cold and windy to be out, and my feet were cold within minutes of starting. I ran very slowly simply because there was no traction on the side roads. 45min.
- Thursday The temperature is dropping very quickly this evening, but thankfully the wind isn't up. Even though I've got lots of layers on the cold still goes right through my tuque when I start running. All that time spent on the elliptical trainer pays off when I can run as easily as I do tonight. OK, so I'm not breaking any speed records and the workout, which is supposed to be a 45 minute tempo, turns into a 1:10 steady state. But it's nice to run with the feeling that I've got really strong legs that just don't give up.
- Saturday The very brief cold snap is over, I hope. It's sunny and warm today, and normally I'd be looking forward to spending at least two hours running. However, my legs are utterly exhausted, the result of some serious elliptical trainer work and almost two weeks without a day off. I spend a bit of time on the path along Woodstock Road. It's delightful to be running on dazzling white snow on a warm, sunny day. I keep going when the path turns into a clear sidewalk and run out to Garden Creek School. Running back home is even better, with a good tailwind and my legs finally getting warmed up. 1:20.
- Week of March 5
- Tuesday There's a hint of spring in the air, enough for me to reduce the number of layers I usually wear out for a run. It's always liberating to head out for that first run of the year without the winter gear that's become habitual in the past few months. Tonight's run is exceptionately wonderful in all sorts of ways: the weather; the lighter clothing; taking two days off and having strong, rested legs; and running with a beautiful song that I heard this morning on the radio when I woke up, Afterglow by INXS. What a great way to start the day! The gliding, easy rhythm keeps me running strong and softly, and I find it easier than usual to concentrate - or, at the very least, take out all those cluttering little thoughts that can dull an experience. My hamstrings are a bit tender from a long yoga workout last night. On the other hand, the yoga (or the swimming this morning) has me running tall with good posture. As I walk back to the apartment I catch a neat ring around the moon and a vapour trail made silver by the moonlight. Beautiful. 1:20
- Thursday I can't believe I'm admitting to this, but I've sprained my left hamstring doing yoga earlier this week. Yep, yoga. Guess I was a bit overenthusiastic with Downward Dog. So even though I'm feeling great tonight, I stick to one hour of easy running, although my "easy running" pace seems substantially faster than it used to be. I've still got Afterglow floating through my head and that keeps my mind serene and uncluttered. I've also got a new tuque and gloves from The Running Room, and the tuque pulls down well over my ears. It's nice to finish a run without sore, cold ears!
- Saturday It's time to check out the state of the trails on the other side of the river. We're about six weeks ahead of a normal winter/spring transition, and it's usual mid-April before I venture across the bridge for the first time of the year to see how far I can run on the trail. Unfortunately, as soon as I started running I fele pretty weak and realise that I haven't eaten enough today. My heartrate is quite low (140bpm), another indication that I'm a bit low on energy stores. And my legs are very stiff and tired. But it's way too nice and warm out to do anything less than an hour of running, so I still trot down to the pedestrian bridge and hang a right onto the Northside Trail. The parts that are exposed to the sun all day are fine; it's the sections that only get a bit of sun that are still too wet and mushy to run on. It's still amazing, though: the trails are usually snow-covered at this time of the year. I have to stop a few times because my legs are shaking and tired. Things are better when I'm running on asphalt, and I trot around the streets off Barker Point before crossing the bridge and heading back home. As I'm finishing up the run I can't help but marvel at how even the sun's light changes in spring. The glow through the trees has almost no trace of winter left to it. 1:20
- Week of March 12
- Tuesday Finally, an evening without wind, and as I start running I notice that the sky is clearing a bit and I can even see the moon. I run for just over an hour, feeling strangely happy (must be that song!), and patiently trying to get to a quiet state of mind. My route is a bit different tonight; there are lots of huge puddles around town from the downpour we had today, so I look for quieter streets where I can run down the centre without worrying about traffic. The first half of the run is tougher than the second half. By the time I reach Northumberland my stride is more fluid. Throughout the run I think about an interesting article I saw today that referred to a study about running alone. The study was done on mice, and the point was to see if the brain benefited more from solitary runs or from social runs. For the mice (who love to run), there was more benefit in running in groups. Hm. Given how much I run alone, what exactly does that mean? As the study's author points out, however, the mice running alone were kept in solitary confinement all the time, and they - unlike humans - don't need encouragement to run.
But what I think this really means is that the time you take for running can't be wasted by cluttered thoughts, mindlessness, and the like. You have this precious time to be outside, to move and delight in the world around you. Make the most of it. For every study about the dangers of social isolation, there are ten studies about the benefits of meditation, mindfulness, and gratitude. Those things should be what the run is about, not simply physical exercise.
- Saturday Thursday's run was on the treadmill. It turned out to be a life-threatening exercise. Out of curiousity, I tried the 30 minute programmed workout. I dutifully entered my age, weight, level, etc, then started at a a faint 4.3 mph. The treadmill changed speed and incline without warning every few minutes. Really kept me on my toes, so to speak.
Anyway, my legs were pretty tired again today. It seems as if I haven't had an energetic run in quite a while. I shuffled around Parkhurst/Inglewood and up Marlborough, trying to find a relaxed posture and stride so that I could store some energy for the end of the run. On the way back I picked up the trail along the Green. It was a bit mushy in spots, making my legs work even harder. Ran across the pedestrian bridge and back, finally getting a bit more of my stride, then home. I really ought to take a break! 1:25
- Week of March 19
- Tuesday At last, an evening without wind. Everything seemed hushed this evening: there were fewer cars on the road than normal, there was no wind, no sound, not even other people out walking. I danced a bit to Afterglow to warm up, read a line from Antoine de Saint-Exupery to find my thought for this run ("Night, the beloved night....when man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.") I want to run and think of myself as becoming whole and sound again. Not that today was tough; it's simply that if I practice this concept frequently and in the safety of a run, then it's all the more easy to resort to it when times are rough. It was a good thing to have all this going on in my head since my legs were heavy and tired, and my core muscles absolutely exhausted from intensive yoga last night and swimming this morning. I was disappointed to feel as if I was trudging more than running, but at the same time that gave me a chance to find ways to put that concept of "becoming whole and sound again" into practice. I seemed to find that place in the second half of the run, running with a good rhythm and quite happily. 1:20
- Saturday I didn't run Thursday. My legs refused to do anything, including bend, out of sheer fatigue. I figured a break was long overdue, given that the quality of my runs had been declining in the past week or so. Today made up for that. I listened to Afterglow twice before lacing up my shoes and going for a great long run on the trails. I really wanted to see what shape the Northside trails were in. Two weeks ago they had been a bit sticky, but there hasn't been much rain lately so it was worth a try. I ran down to the Green, picked up the trail by the Delta, and trotted along the riverside, feeling pretty good in spite of a really intense workout on the bike and elliptical trainer. As a matter of fact, those intense workouts might actually be improving my running style.
It took at least 40 minutes for me to warm up and to feel my legs loosen up and find an easy rhythm. After that, I started applying the strength that the elliptical trainer/bike workouts have been developing in my core and my butt: with each stride, I'd focus on what ChiRunning would call "running from the centre." I'd imagine each leg acting independently (rather than thinking of a stride as a two-step cycle.) By imagining each leg as its own power source, my body adjusted its centre of gravity lower, and I really could feel my core getting engaged and my butt and hamstrings powering each stride. Wow - what a difference! The coolest thing was that I could maintain the quicker pace for quite a while. My knees would raise a little higher in each stride and I got the sense of running loosely and with strength. Woohoo!
Throughout all of this wonderful discovery, my mind had its own work to do. The focus for today was "What do I want to do with this hour of running?" I don't want to waste this hour on griping, little thoughts, or mindlessness. I want it to mean something - preferably something that points me to whatever greater power is out there, something bigger than just me. It was a great question to come back to, even if I never answered it. There'll be lots of other runs for that. 1:40
- Week of March 26
- Sunday I chickened out of a long bike ride today. Too cold! Actually, it wasn't that bad; it's just that I was silly enough to go biking last week when it was -4C and the horrible memory has yet to reside. So I figured I'd do a nice short run this afternoon. The alternative was doing a workout on the indoor bike trainer, and that idea was even worse than biking in the cold. Now in case you're thinking that I'm wimp, I'd like you to know that today's run was about pain. Seriously. I started out along the Green with legs a bit tired from yesterday but remembering the wonderful idea of each leg running independently. After 40 minutes - my warm-up time, it seems - I was at the turn-around at the foot of Canada Street and Mitchell. On my way back home I had a good tailwind, so I really picked up the pace and concentrated on the image of each leg using the core and gluteal muscles to push of the ground. What kept me going at the tough pace was this idea I had that I wanted to get closer to pain. I know this sounds odd, but I wanted to hurt. I wanted to feel slightly burning legs and lungs and be comfortable with that. Because that's the whole point, right? Facing that pain - literally or figuratively - and not turning away. 1:15
- Tuesday After two great runs this weekend I was really looking forward to tonight's run. I'm also trying out a new training program these days (the 21-day free trial on 2peak.com.) It's one of Faris al-Sultan's sponsors, and you can check out excerpts of his 2005 training program that wound up with a win at Kona. The program is completely different from the one I've currently got, and it has a LOT of running - four to five times a week, up to 90 minutes for three of those runs. Given the importance of the run in an Ironman, I figure there's some good sense there. The six-month minimum purchase is what keeps me from buying into it.
Anyway, I start out doing my usual loop and feeling great right from the start, in spite of all the running over the weekend and some intense yoga and swimming. The emphasis on strengthening the psoas and becoming more flexible in the hip area seems to be paying off. I want to keep focusing on the idea of each leg powering off the ground independently, rather than acting as a pair. The first 30 minutes or so are for warming up, and as I climb Marlborough Drive and gaze at the brilliant white stars while I'm running through an unlit patch of road I start sprinting a little uphill. Make it back to Woodstock Road and cross town, doubling back on Queen Street. The last 20 minutes seem to be the strongest: as I run down Queen Street I can tell I'm going much faster than usual, and people are stopping to watch me run by. Yeah! 1:20
- Saturday No run on Thursday - I went to see the delightful Figaro ballet by the incredibly talented Atlantic Ballet Company. Well worth a night off. It's 17C when I start running today, which makes it the first day of the year that I run in shorts! Without gloves (which I regret halfway through the run.) Not too many people on the path, even though it's quite nice out. My plan is to work on the "running from the hip" idea that I've mentioned in the last few entries, and to see how long I can maintain a slightly faster pace - and run for two hours. Arthur Lydiard, the legendary running coach and training pioneer, advocated the long runs that are the basis for most training plans today, but people generally confuse long distance with slow running. In fact, Lydiard maintained that all long runs should be done at a pace that was at the upper end of slow; a moderately fast, if almost breathless, pace if you will. It takes a lot of discipline to find that pace and stick to it. So much easier to shuffle quietly for hours! And I have to admit that I used to advocate that principle. But it's time for a change.
As usual, it takes me about 40 minutes to warm up, and by then I'm well on my way to Marysville on the Northside Trail. It's easy to keep up a strong pace with the tailwind and the slight downhill. I run out well past Bridge Street, along River Street to the top of the steep hill, then turn around. It's really cold! Now I'm heading uphill into a very brisk wind. Once I'm back on the path and sheltered by the trees I find it easy to maintain my pace. It gets a bit tougher in the last 30 minutes; my legs are stiff from the cold, but concentrating on the image of each one powering from the hip (rather than the leg itself) is a huge help. All that core work is paying off! 2:00.
- Week of April 2
- Tuesday My legs are still stiff from Saturday's run, almost like I ran a half-marathon race rather than simply a long run. It's really unusual for me to carry any stiffness for so long, but I take this pretty optimistically. It's a sign that I'm getting used to running faster, and the fact that I could do so for two hours is quite a confidence booster. I was hoping to do another long run this evening, but the stiffness cut the run down to one hour. However, it didn't cut the speed! It really did seem as if running at a higher cadence and greater intensity is simply becoming more natural. I even managed to keep it up along Woodstock Road as I headed back downtown and straight into a strong headwind. Afterward, when I was going through my yoga routine as part of my stretching, I noticed that I've gained quite a bit of flexibility and strength through my hip flexors. These have always been a very weak point for me: they are unusually short and stiff, and are often one of the first muscle groups to get tired. Again, it's a reaffirmation that the work I've been doing this winter is paying off: hip flexors, through yoga and the elliptical trainer, have been a major focus since January.
- Thursday I really wanted to get out to do Golf Club Road this evening, but after 20 minutes of running it was obvious that my legs were in no shape to do anything but head back home. A really tough bike/elliptical trainer workout last night, where I had shortened the duration and increased the intensity, had taken every little bit of oomph out of my legs. Even listening to my latest favourite song, Precious, by Depeche Mode, isn't enough to get me going. On my way back I realise that I'd been doing my old, stiff-hipped shuffle, so I switch to thinking about the 'each leg acting independently' idea that I've been working on. Wow! What a difference! My cardiovascular system starts to burn a little, but my legs are suddenly flying and, as before, I seem to be able to keep up the pace in spite of the jump in my heartrate. 45min.
- Saturday OK, maybe it's time I ease off the intense bike/elliptical trainer workouts. My butt is tired! I notice that today during the painful and slow run, particularly in the last half as I tried to loosen up and run faster. It was windy - yeah, that's it - so the stretch from the pedestrian bridge to home was especially tough. I did the Northside trail, then looped back on the other side of the river via Marysville and Devon Lumber. I was too tired to even be cheerful, and I didn't want to go for too long since I have an 800m time trial tomorrow at swim practice. And the forecast is looking good, so I'd like to get out for a bike ride too. The one great thing about today's run: realising that hills have become easy. I might be tired, but at least I'm stronger than last year! 1:30.
- Week of April 9
- Tuesday I'm becoming a real gadget geek. Tonight before running my favourite radio station on iTunes was beaming through a new wireless transmitter from my PC to my stereo, giving me some great world music before I started my run. Maybe that's why tonight's run went so well! The focus was on being still and "knowing that I am", and after about 40 minutes, the usual amount of time it takes me to warm up before I really seem to hit my stride, I started booting it. By then I was running along the Green, which was lit up by the (almost) full moon, and I really picked it up going across the pedestrian bridge and back. The best part is that this is starting to feel like my normal pace. In other words, it's only a matter of focusing on certain images (from the elliptical trainer) to get this fast, and sustaining the pace no longer seems to be a problem. 1:10
- Thursday I was lucky enough to have a lull in this evening's rain and started out for a one hour tempo. For some strange reason that I have yet to figure out, I barely made it one block without suddenly becoming nauseous, completely out of breath, and a heartrate that probably went over 180bpm. I have no idea what happened; maybe it was simply the shock of running after sitting down for a while. I slowed down considerably and puttered out to the foot of Golf Club Road. I climbed the first (steep) part very slowly, walking a bit in the middle, then started feeling better and calmer. The remaining hills went very well - I am indeed quite a bit stronger than last year! It had been a while since I'd done Golf Club Road, and the route was unusually quiet this evening. I focused mostly on a very steady pace and good posture, trying to emulate the "Be still and know that I am" feeling that comes with strong runs. I especially enjoyed the quiet, away-from-it-all sensation I always get when I'm on the top part of the Road. Something about looking across the river valley to the hills on the other side, and the beautiful sweeping field adjacent to the Road, that makes it easy for me to practice running with whatever intention I've chosen for that particular run. Took the path all the way back home, running behind the Superstore instead of picking up Rookwood and Saunders. 1:10
- Saturday I'm out early this morning, padding along quietly on the deserted trails (Easter Saturday - everyone's at the malls) on before the rain arrives. There's no wind, it's overcast, and everything has this otherworldly calm to it that makes it a great time to run. An unusually long bike ride (for this time of the year, anyway) yesterday means that my legs are stiff and some muscles have just been poked awake from winter hibernation. For the first hour I've got a really short, stiff stride and no amount of visualisation is making them loosen up. The focus for today's run is being still. It's Easter weekend, and my plan is to give every workout during these four days some sort of meaning derived from the idea of Easter: sacrifice, spirit, and renewal (and bake 120 Easter butter cookies for all my neighbours.) OK, OK, it sounds hoaky to some of you, but this whole running-with-intention and spritual side that I've been practising since last year, initially with some skepticism, has brought a love and depth to running that's amazed even super-self-disciplined me. If works, go with it.
So today the point is to run with quiet and "know that I am." I run out to Marysville on the Northside Trail, really trying to look at the woods and life slowly starting up on either side of the path. The long gentle downhill helps me smoothen out my stride. At Marysville I loop around the old cotton mill and delight in the fact that going up the long hill behind it is pretty much effortless. Yeah! It's great to get stronger every year! On the way back I do really well on the long gentle now-uphill. In fact, that seems to be where I really find how to relax my hips and let my legs swing forward, as described in ChiRunning. My legs start getting pretty tired after the pedestrian bridge, though. Run by the packed Sobey's parking lot (silly people!) and relish my last few blocks of running. 2:00
- Week of April 16
- Sunday What am I thinking? I ran two hours yesterday - and I was already tired - and this morning's swim workout included some serious vertical kick drills. And let's not even talk about the four hours I spent standing in the kitchen yesterday baking butter cookies. Obviously I'm not thinking when I decide to go out for a run today. But it's Easter, and it's kind of important for me to go running (see yesterday's entry.) Besides, thanks to all those butter cookies I, uh, ate (taste-testing, you understand), I've actually gained a whole pound since yesterday, in spite of running for two hours.
Before I head out I read the last chapter in Roger Joslin's book. I pick that chapter because I'm looking for something about renewal, the whole idea of Easter and spring, even if the weather isn't all too spring-like at the moment. It turns out to be a great chapter: Joslin talks about running as a pilgrimmage, noting that a pilgrim is really a traveler with a purpose, and that a pilgrimmage is done with the intent of running toward something. But there's one line in particular that strikes me: making the path itself a holy place. I start my run in pain and take it easy down to the Delta and then the Green, which is completely abandoned. It takes a while for me to find my stride, but I'm just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other in a reasonably steady manner because I seem to be stumbling a lot. I'm trying to grapple with the idea of running toward something, but I just can't answer the question "Toward what?" It's a tough question, kinda like asking what you're supposed to do with your life. As I'm running back across the pedestrian bridge I finally figure out that the answer is in Joslin's comment about making the path itself holy. It reminds me of my surreal, superb trip to Spain and the Camino. "Camino" is Spanish for "the way", and the whole idea is that you walk for days and days on this route to an end that has meaning for you, that represents a point in time and space where you will change. I remember discussing with a friend who had done the Camino after I returned, and both of us came to the conclusion that one of the reasons why we loved the Camino so much was that we had felt taken care of as long as we were on it, even when we were alone. As long as we were on The Way, The Way would see to it that things would work out, which they always did in the most incredible manner. When I cross the bridge back onto the gravel path, I see the path as The Way; as long as I stay on it, I know that everything will be taken care of. I've now crossed the magic 40 minute mark, too, which means that my stride is more fluid and my cadence is faster and stronger. My goal is to stay on the path for as long as possible until I reach home. I head up to Dundonald and head for Sobey's, cross the intersection - always on the path - and behind Sobey's to head home. I keep staring at the path and see it differently today. Don't stray from the path; have faith in the benevolence of the world to take care of you because in its truly bizarre way, it will. Happy Easter.
- Tuesday Lately each of my runs has started off terribly: the first few blocks or so I'm out of breath, my legs are weak, I feel very ill. What in the world is going on? Tonight it takes at least 20 minutes before the symptoms pass and I find a more regular stride. I'm not moving very fast, but my stride is at least feeling steady and effortless. I sort of wander all over the place; there's an unusual north wind blowing and I'm trying to avoid running straight into it for more than a few minutes. Since I'm not running on the path I decide not to try the practice from the last run. It's one of those just-run runs. 1:10
- Thursday The wind has thankfully died down a little this evening by the time I start running, and there's enough light to include running on The Green after I do my usual loops. The run is supposed to be a tempo workout, but I'm in a quiet mood, helped by the lovely Esta Noche (Federico Aubele) floating through my head. The focus is on running quietly, trying to stretch this run out and trying to keep everything soft and smooth. Normally when I start a run with that aptitude I end up finding that I can run for a very long time. I'm also working on my posture: making sure hips are relaxed and that I'm "running from the centre." Great run. 1:20
- Saturday I have a touch of the flu, which explains why Thursday's run wasn't a tempo run. I know I really shouldn't run today, but it's sunny, warm, and there isn't much wind. I promise myself to take it easy and not go for too long. There are lots of cyclists on the path - very annoying ones, too - and after 45 minutes on the Northside Trail I start getting a bit dizzy. The run back was terribly hard and my eosophagus felt scorched, but it sure beat feeling guilty from not running at all. 1:30
- Week of April 23
- Saturday At last, out for a run! It's warm and sunny and the leaves are budding on most trees. Everything seems so tranquil as I start my run: it's as if the city is abandoned, the air is still, almost like a late summer afternoon. Yippee! I concentrate on short strides and a very slow pace, and am surprised at how empty the trail is after the pedestrian bridge. The Northside Trail is unusually quiet: even the air is still. In these conditions I find it easy to clear my mind and run in peace. In Marysville I loop around Coronation and Fisher and delight in the signs of lazy warm weather everywhere. On Fisher I run by a fluffy grey cat quietly snuggled on the side of the road against the curb, and a huge dog sunning himself not far away. Not long after that a squirrel gives me a long hard look while he's munching on something. We're all just too happy with the weather and spring to think about natural enemies right now. The run back is just as peaceful. My legs are a bit tired since they haven't done anything all week. Finish up by running magically through Rabbit Town Trail, crazy and giddy with the signs of spring everywhere. 1:50
- Week of April 30
- Sunday As I started my run today (because my bike is STILL at the LBS!!), it was +20C, sunny, no wind. A year ago I was in Washington DC running in this weather, which was considered unusually mild even by Washington standards. And I remember coming back to +8C. Wow! I hope the rest of the summer keeps up like this.
As I mentioned, I'm running today because my LBS still has my bike. I'm getting a little worried and very frustrated since the Mooseman Half is only a month away, and I still haven't gotten out for a decent long bike ride yet. My legs were pretty stiff from yesterday's run, and I was still dizzy from a 1500m swim this morning for the Canadian Cancer Society, after ten days of not swimming. It wasn't quite as serene or peaceful as yesterday - lots and lots of cyclists on the path - but I still found it easy to keep a quiet mind. Got a bit weak in the last 30 minutes of the run. I was trying to find that loose stride I had before I had gotten sick, but it seemed like an awful lot of effort. 1:45
- Tuesday Day 1 of the peak Ironman training! My workouts always take on a new intensity when I'm on the peak training. Everything I do and plan now has a very specific purpose: to get me through a major race as enjoyably as possible. So tonight, even though I forget to pick a theme for tonight's run, I still find it easy to concentrate and stick to a good pace, good form, and so on. My legs are aching from all the running I did this weekend. That gives me more of an opportunity to focus on posture, staying upright and relaxed. I'm still running with my winter Nikes because they seem to have less cushioning than my Sauconys, and that's a little less painful on my hips. I run up Marlborough without much effort; the extension to the street is now all lit up. Trot back home in 1:05.
- Thursday It's my lucky day: I've managed to find a pair of Saucony Grid Hurricane 6! Add the fact that it's a warm summer day, I got my bike back yesterday, and things are pretty good. Tonight's run was supposed to be a tempo run, but I get that breathless period at the start of the run that doesn't seem to go away. I really struggle for the first 30 minutes; my pace is a shuffle (but a nice shuffle - those Hurricanes have really changed my stride) and I feel heavy. As the evening darkens I run more fluidly, trying to imagine each leg pushing off the ground independently. Bit of a letdown. 1:00
- Saturday Is it the new shoes? Is it the unusually warm weather? Is it the fact that I had to take a week off a while back? What is making me huff and puff and shuffle on my runs?! I feel as if I'm slowly trudging and barely moving at all! OK, so my hips are a little stiff today and for the first 40 minutes of my two hour long run I have to contend with bike-tired legs from a solid ride yesterday. But I'm really disappointed that there's hardly a point during this run that isn't a struggle. Otherwise it's a beautiful summer day and the trails are quiet. I put on an extra shirt anyway, remembering what a valuable training idea that had been last year. For some parts of the run I find myself focusing for a bit longer than usual. Practice, I guess. 2:00
- Week of May 7
- Tuesday I'm engaged in a protracted, bitter battle that I call the Propulsion War. It's a two-front war: I'm fighting the bike and my running shoes. Against me are the forces of anti-propulsion, preventing me from actually doing a bike workout outside (drivetrain issues, brake issues), and running without swearing at my shoes. Going to the gym and doing all this stuff without actually moving ahead? No problem! One inch of forward movement? Everything hurts or breaks. And my first triathlon is three weeks away!!
OK, enough venting. Last night I took out a new pair of adidas Supernova Control shoes for my long, moderate recovery run. I was curious to see if my weakness during my last few runs was possibly caused by the Sauconys. The adidas were far too large (I had ordered the wrong size), so after about 20 minutes of running I went back home to put the Sauconys on. Yep, I'd say that the Sauconys were not only the major factor behind the sensation of weakness that I've dealt with lately, but also causing severe pain in my left foot just behind the big foot metastarsal. After each run with the Sauconys I've been left with this weird tingling in the metastarsal, and it sometimes migrates into a painful fractured sensation during the day. I've been hearing so much about foot pain lately that this is something I really don't want to aggravate; everyone who gets it seems to be off for weeks and weeks. Back to the shop for a smaller pair of adidas tomorrow, and hopefully things will work out. 1:15
- Thursday Well, it was the shoes all along. Tonight I ran in a vastly more comfortable pair of size 7 adidas Supernova and finally got my stride back. The Sauconys have been relegated to the gym. I still had some mild pain in the metastarsal, however. That's got me a bit worried. Anyway, I listened to Depeche Mode's Precious to warm up for tonight's tempo run, which I did on Golf Club Road. I let the transition into the tempo pace happen more or less on its own; normally I warm up for a specific amount of time, then at, say, 15 minutes I pick up the pace. Tonight I dealt with the hills, trying to run up with a very strong stride, and then on my way back home I found myself running quite fast and loose. I kept that pace and just enjoyed it. Hadn't felt it in quite a while! 1:10
- Saturday What a beautiful day! A bit windy, and not as humid as last Saturday. It's still quite warm, and I still put on two layers to get used to running in the heat. I listen to Everloving before starting. It's usually a great biking song, but I'm looking for something to help my mind centre a bit during the run. The first few minutes of the run are, as usual, among the hardest: my legs feel weak and rubbery, I'm breathless and disoriented. Why does this always happen? It isn't until I'm on the other side of the river and a good 40 minutes into the run that I start feeling a bit steadier. My right hip is quite tight after a strong bike ride last night. And the foot pain is also lurking, although it seems to lessen a bit when I'm running on the trails rather than the roads. I run out to Marysville and past, to my usual turn-around spot by a sweeping green field. I always like to take in the quiet and the wind (as odd as that sounds) when I'm there. My big focus is on trying to slow down to a comfortable, easy pace that can sustain me for 2:20. There are long periods on the way back when that happens, and there are a few times when I simply have to pause for a bit because I'm too warm. Still, I finish in much better shape than I thought I would. 2:20
- Week of May 14
- Wednesday Wet weather and a sore foot pushed yesterday's long recovery run to this evening. Actually, I went to the gym last night to do an intense workout on the elliptical trainer; that machine seems to do wonders to my running. I've also figured out that the tingling pain in my left food just below the arch is a combination of a new bunion and worn-out orthotics. As I started running tonight I could feel the orthotic jutting into the arch and causing more pain than had been in the foot all day. How in the world did I wear this thing out in less than a year? Oh yeah, that little Ironman thing I trained for last year....
I haven't been able to get into any of my usual running meditations that I usually read in Joslin's book lately. I think I may have to read the book again to find some new ideas. However, I recently bought another book that has some really nice daily meditations. They're mostly longer texts (not a few sentences or quotes) that don't go too far into the New Ageish stuff. I read today's entry before starting my run, but the evening is so perfectly still and hushed that I find myself simply trying to reflect that. It had rained heavily at suppertime and now the air was completely still. There were huge pools of water everywhere that looked like giant mirrors carelessly tossed around town. The first 20 minutes of running were slow and hard. After the 45 minute mark I loosened up a little, and running across the pedestrian bridge I finally got into a good groove that kept up all the way back home. 1:25
- Thursday Another wet, quiet evening. I took my orthotics and put in some store-bought ones, which made all the difference in the foot pain I've been experiencing lately. My feet feel lighter and softer as I run - after the first exruciating 20 minutes of breathlessness, nauseau, and an overwhelming urge to just stop and walk. I hang in there and at 20 minutes I pick up the pace into a tempo run. Surprisingly, I manage to hold it for the full workout, only getting some burning in my legs at 40 minutes. That brings me to a fascinating article I read today in The New York Times about a new theory on lactic acid. It's actually not a new theory: its proponent has been making the argument for over 20 years but hasn't been accepted by mainstream science. It argues that lactic acid is actually a source of fuel in anaerobic conditions, not merely a by-product of the anaerobic glucose/oxygen reaction at the cellular level, and that lactic acid is not the reason why we get stiff muscles the day after intense exercuse. It's a far more convincing theory than the ones we currently have, but interestingly enough it supports Arthur Lydiard's base-sharpen-taper cycle that endurance athletes use for training. Lydiard maintained that the base phase runs had to be really long AND at a far quicker (but not LT) pace than what is currently encouraged today. Cool stuff! 0:55
- Saturday A long weekend, and a forecast that ends up being better than expected. Yeah! It's sunny and quite windy when I start my long run. Thankfully I don't go through the breathlessness/nausea stage early in the run. In fact, things feel pretty good. I keep my stride very short and light. I was on the elliptical trainer last night at the gym, and I really think that makes all the difference in my running. I've got a little more core strength than usual today, and my hips are doing a lot of the work that my legs would otherwise do. I start out with two loops in Odell Park, something I haven't done since last year. Everything is green and unbelievably fragrant, a great way to put myself in a state of mind for a long run. Down Rookwood to the Green, across the pedestrian bridge, and out to Marysville. I need a gel earlier than expected, but I do try to run hungry for a while. Nothing worse than running with too much food in your stomach. Loop around Marshall, then back home. My posture feels good, I keep my stride very short, and things are OK for the entire 2h45min of the run. I'm pretty impressed with that, since 2:15 is the first real psychological and physical key time for me: blood sugar levels and my hypoglycaemia become problematic after that. Maybe not this year.
- Week of May 21
- Tuesday Quiet recovery run. I've got Annie Lennox's Stay by Me to keep me company on a pretty great run. Two loops in Odell Park, then to Marlborough Drive for more hills, and finish up by running along the Green and back up Westmorland. My legs are tight from all the biking on Sunday, but they're not stiff or tired. Actually, things are feeling pretty good. There are a few moments along the Green, which I have all to myself, and the river a few feet away, that are simply sublime. 1:20
- Thursday Tempo run. And a good meditation to mull over from the new book I bought a few weeks ago. Tonight we're trying to "embrace the mystery of the universe." Yowza. But it really makes for a good run on an evening when everything is quiet, trees are blooming like mad and the air is intoxicatingly fragrant. I go through Wilmot Park just so I can smell the lilac trees, then do my usual loop around Elmwood/Parkhurst, then onto the trail and out along Woodstock Road. At 15 minutes I pick up the pace, grudgingly at first because it's so darn, well, hard to run fast! So at first my tempo is more of a quick trot; then I get going as I'm out on the Woodstock Road path and I feel really strong. On the way back I go up Marlborough Drive, which slows me down considerably. When my mind starts to wander from its meditation, I look at the trees. This is an incredible time of the year for trees: I'm so used to seeing them brown and bare all winter, and now here they are all lush and every shade of green imagineable. I marvel at how the light shines through the leaves, and there's one young apple tree on the way down Marlborough Drive that's utterly covered with blossoms. It's pure white above its trunk. Home via Wilmot Park. 1:05
- Saturday Lovely day for a long run. Last week's steady 2:45 run gave me lots of confidence, and I'm looking forward to a 2:15 run today without worrying, as I usually do, about hunger or blood sugar drops along the way. That suits the meditation for today, which is about letting go of fear. Hey, it works! I just have to start small. I'm also testing out Gu (gels) instead of ClifShots. Unfortunately, I've got the vanilla bean Gu with caffeine, so the comparison isn't really fair. That said, Gu did triumph over ClifShot: milder taste; the caffeine version of Gu is far less troublesome than the ClifShot with caffeine; and even though both have 100 calories per packet, Gu doesn't feel as heavy. The downside is that the tabs on the Gu packets don't have a litter leash like the ClifShots do, which makes it hard to rip them off and not lose them.
I start by heading for Wilmot Park just so I can run by the lilac trees. Then up through Odell Park for two loops. There are lots and lots of kids on mountain bikes everywhere today - is there some event going on? The Green is also full of bikes, and it isn't until I'm on the other side of the river and have veered off onto the second train bridge that I finally get the trail to myself. My cadence is a bit low and I'm really, really focusing on posture, especially keeping my hips aligned. Run out to Marysville and marvel at how idyllic the scenery is, particularly along the Nashwaak. Steady run back home. I've got issues with my right knee and hip, which I blame on running without orthotics. 2:20
- Week of May 28
- Tuesday Do you ever drive by these people walking along the side of the road, kinda smiling stupidly to themselves, but there's obviously no one else around? That would be me. I've got time off from work, an upcoming triathlon by my favourite race crew, EndorFUN Sports of Timberman fame, in one of my favourite spots (New Hampshire), and to top it all off, it's a beautiful evening and the lilacs smell great. There's a stupid smile stuck to my face. I start off with a jaunt through Wilmot Park and two loops in Odell Park, listening to the crunch of wood chips under my feet. Then it's off to Golf Club Road and a good climb (yeah, I'm getting stronger!), a beautiful view at the river valley and the sun going down behind the clouds. I'm still smiling stupidly, but most evening walkers I pass are kind enough to smile back as if I'm normal. My legs are also feeling really strong. I don't know if that's because of or in spite of a brutal bike ride and heart-stopping brick run.
As I wind up the road by going down Parkhurst and back through Wilmot Park, I start to wonder what makes life so great in the long run: is it wiser to be still and enjoy it all (the Buddhist or what I call woo-woo take on things), or do you keep striving for more? I get to that dilemma by going over some new stuff I learned at swim practice this morning. How did I learn new stuff? Because I keep coming back to the observation I state all the time, "There's got to be more to life/swimming/running/this project/whatever out there." In other words, I strive, maybe out of insatisfaction with what I have, but most certainly out of plain old curiousity. Then, after a bit of striving against some fear or obstacle, I master whatever it is that's out there that got me wondering or struggling in the first place. And like tonight's run, I stop striving and relish what I have. 1:25
- Week of June 4
- Sunday The Mooseman Half-Ironman today! And a new half-marathon PB for me! The race report is here.
- Thursday There's a whole lotta rain falling tonight. The heavy, straight-down rain that fortunately isn't too cold. I'm not too fond of rain - OK, I detest it - but I somehow convince myself to go out running. My original plan had been to do my 1h30min recovery run that I hadn't done Tuesday since I'm still in no shape to do a tempo run. I feel great as I start and my stride is nice and tight, probably due to some remaining stiffness after a two hour tempo bike last night. Frou Frou's nice and gentle Hear Me Out is playing in my head. Staying upright and running with an open chest and steady cadence is easy. And it gets easier as the run progresses. Eventually after 45 minutes I'm so soaked and the rain is so heavy that I have no choice but to head back home. My calves are cramping badly due to the cold and I don't want any more muscular damage than I already got after Sunday's race. 0:54.
- Week of June 11
- Tuesday At last, a space of a few hours without massive amounts of rain. My run in last Thursday's downpour prolonged a nagging chest cough and flu symptoms, so I had to take a few days off. That, and the rain. The endless rain. Anyway, I start my run this evening after a huge downpour that's left the city smelling fresh and summery and the streets quite abandoned of traffic and people. I'm figuring the time off has done me lots of good because I'm running quickly, with a very high cadence, and very effortlessly. I run up Golf Club Road and as I do one of its loops I realise just how much stronger my legs have become recently. The turn at the far end of the loop is extremely steep, although very short. It's probably THE steepest incline in the city and I've usually either walked it or huffed up very slowly. This evening I glide up. It's really incredible. On the way back I've got serious cramping in a quadricep that hurt after the Mooseman triathlon, but otherwise I'm really making an effort to run from the centre and use the ChiRunning principles to make my stride as efficient as possible. 1h30
- Saturday No run on Thursday. I still have this nasty cold/flu combo that has been with me since April but, after Mooseman, came roaring back. Now the guilt has started to set in so I decided I'd try for a three hour long run today anyway. It's hot and humid and quite windy when I start. Actually, it's the first day of the year when I do my long run in really summer-like conditions. I'm giving the four-bottle Fuel Belt a try because shoving gel packets into my sports bra hasn't really worked out all that well on my last couple of long runs.
Two loops around Odell Park where the smaller paths are still waterlogged after the massive amounts of rain we got last week. My right quad cramps a teeny bit, but that's all I hear from it during the entire run. I guess taking all the time off this past week has its benefits: no complaints from my knees, plantar fasciitis, or muscles! Running in Odell is as wonderful as always, even though I'm feeling a bit light-headed. I then decide to do Golf Club Road, remembering how successful it had been during my training for the Venice Marathon a few years back. Getting lots of hills in at the beginning of the long run added a challenge that really paid off during the marathon. Only today, in the heat and following an extended illness, it isn't such a bright idea. I'm really hot, the hills get harder and harder even as the incline gets easier, and I hurt terribly for the rest of the run. My stride is unusually low to the ground and I'm really run with my gluteals and my calves. Not quite sure why that is (could be the Fuel Belt keeping my core more upright than usual), but it all flows very nicely and feels very efficient.
I go down to The Green and cross the pedestrian bridge. I feel OK now; it's the 1h45 mark and I've only got 1h15 left. A bit of Gu and water every now and then really makes a difference. When the heat starts to get to me I recall some favourite lines from Afterglow. However, after 2h15 the run becomes a struggle and I have to do some run/walk stretches. Whenever I get frustrated about this I remind myself that I a) did have the flu recently, and b) spent 1h30 in some tough hills. I notice that food and Gatorade have a huge impact on my mood. Whereas normally by this point I'd be pretty crabby and anxious to get home in this state of fatigue, I now feel quite happy and OK in dealing with my lack of energy. But every once in a while I get a bit scared thinking that I'll soon be running a marathon in this condition. 3h00
- Week of June 18
- Tuesday Just after supper I make a quick trip to the nearby grocery store and notice a massive, miles-wide, ominously black thunderstorm system moving in. Really, this is impressive. I whirl through the store and dash back home to get my running shoes on. I want to be outside when this baby hits! I've got a 1h35 recovery run to do. My right knee is aching (in a good way) after my very first treatment of Active Release Technique for my ITB issue. I must say, I am very, very impressed. Within 15 minutes of meeting me, the therapist had done some simple and innovative tests to figure out what exactly was causing the chronic soreness in my right knee and hip. Both have actually been on very good behaviour this year, but last year's bike training put a lot of pressure on my hip that showed up during the long runs. Since I want to do even more biking this year, I figured I'd better start thinking of some better preventive strategies than stretching.
My legs feel quite solid tonight, despite the therapy yesterday and the long workouts over the weekend. I've got my heartrate monitor on and notice that the numbers are low (144bpm for the first 30 minutes.) As I go around Parkhurst/Inglewood I try to explore the concept of running with bliss. It's one of my woo-woo workouts, when I pull one of those more spiritual ideas from a book or my thought basket hanging on the inside of my front door and focus on that concept throughout the run. What I'm really trying to do tonight is going back to the moments during the run in the Mooseman triathlon when I simply loved what I was doing. There was something valuable in that - something that, if strengthened and honed, could make a difference during a tough moment on an Ironman course. But this idea of loving the run isn't as easy as it sounds, since it means dropping the guards that each of us has in order to protect ourselves from humiliation or hurt.
By the time I've processed all this I'm well on my way down the path by Woodstock Road and running straight toward the massive and oncoming thunderstorm. The river is completely calm, the path is abandoned, and even the flies are still. My heartrate is low and my stride is loosening up. By the time I get to the Irving station the thunderstorm is imminent. The moment I see the ugly blue-black-yellow clouds that are leading the way I know it's time to turn back. The wind whips up and for a moment when I look across the river I can see that I'm parallel with the edge of the front. A few minutes later the wind and the rain are driving so hard that the opposite shore has disappeared. And only ten minutes ago I was running by in the other direction marveling at how calm the water was! I wait under a small copse for a while until the worst of the lightning has passed, then start running again. I'm soaked, my shoes are soaked, the path is flooded, and I'm having a blast. It's summer, it's warm, and I'm enjoying every minute of running in a thunderstorm.
- Thursday First speed run of the year! Speed workouts always carry the memory of deep summer, muggy evenings, and a new level of intensity in the whole progression toward the goal event. Tonight I'm only doing fartleks, so I don't have to figure out the logistics of getting to a track without a car. My legs feel very stiff when I start, maybe because of yesterday's speed bike. I run over to the east end of downtown for a change. I've got the timer on my watch set to beep every 30 seconds after a ten minute warm-up so that I don't have to keep looking at my watch to see how much longer I have to sprint. The sprints are less than spectacular: lots of energy and huffing and puffing for hardly any acceleration. The last three are the best ones and my run back home isn't too bad. 40min.
- Saturday Is it going to rain? According to the forecast, rain was supposed to arrive days ago. It hasn't. According to today's forecast, rain is absolutely definitely going to pour in this afternoon. Well, I guess I'll go running early. Off I go at 10h30 for my long run, all belted up with my FuelBelt, lots of Gu, and my heartrate monitor. What I do like about early long runs is that the city is still pretty quiet and there are no cyclists on the trails. I start with three loops around Odell Park, going the full length of the lower loop. I haven't done this one in at least a year, maybe two. What was I thinking? The third segment is in perfect condition and so quieting to run through. I'm careful going up hills because I really don't want to get my heartrate too high. My legs are tired from a hard bike ride yesterday evening - so tired that I had a sleepless night since the fatigue kept me awake.
After an hour in Odell and its hills I finally head down to the Green. Hm, an hour in hills. Hope this won't hurt later on like it did during last week's long run. On the other hand, an hour in the trails always leaves me refreshed and happy. It's really the best kind of running there is. On the way out to Marysville as I pass the church parking lot I see a deer by the woodline. It had caught sight of me as I had entered the parking area. I stopped and we both stared at each other for several long moments. There are few things that thrill me more during a run than the sight of one of nature's most graceful creatures. It bounded away, white tail up, and kept me smiling and feeling lighthearted for the rest of my run. In the long stretch before Marysville I finally get into that empty or meditative state of mind and my running is fluid and easy. I'm taking a Gu every 30 minutes, and alternating with Gatorade every other 30 minutes. I turn around when I get to Bridge Street and find that I'm running a bit faster than before. In fact, the closer I get to home the faster I run, and quite easily, too. Go figure. The cool temperature and overcast skies (but no rain!) are obviously making all the difference between today and last Saturday. Other than a bit of discomfort under one toe and the arch of my left foot I get through this run with no significant pain or groaning joints. And no rain either! 3h20.
- Week of June 25
- Tuesday A recovery run that's 1h45min long. Welcome to Ironman training. I don't get home until quite late and I start my run not long afterwards, which means my legs are stiff, my heartrate is high, and mentally I'm all over the place. My right knee is complaining loudly, and occasionally my left knee chimes in as well. I go out the Woodstock Road, figuring it'll be nice to see that section of the trail under drier circumstances than last week. The first forty minutes are tough, and I compensate by keeping the pace very slow, my strides short, and my cadence quite high. By the time I get to the Bucket Club I'm feeling pretty good, and the soft, bucolic sight of the sun setting over the river on a hot summer night is enough to turn good to great. On the way back I finally find my rhythm, although I now have serious issues with my right knee. Up the hill on Marlborough Drive, and on the way down I experiment with my posture by seeing if I can run a little more upright. What a difference! The hardest part is simply remembering not to slouch. The best part of the run is crossing Hanwell Road. A mother raccoon and her six little cubs are by the curb a few feet away from me; a car has stopped in front of them but mama raccoon can't decide if she should cross the road or not. After a few tries, she waddles across and five little ones follow in line. A sixth one decides the curb is a really neat thing to sniff, and then hurries across. Cute! 1:45.
- Saturday No speedwork this week. I opted instead to check out the delightful play put on by Bard in the Barracks and do a speed bike session on Thursday. Like last Saturday, I started quite early this morning to take advantage of the sun and the quieter time of day before the July 1st crowds got on the path. Three loops around the longer lower path in Odell to start off with. Wow - the sun was out, the sky was that crystal blue that comes in cooler weather, and everything had that fresh, shiny patina to it that made the whole deal pretty much perfect. Every once in a while I'd give myself a reality check: "This is my life! I get to run in conditions that even Hollywood couldn't improve!" My heartrate is a bit higher than last week, probably due to massive amounts of chocolate I ate yesterday. Whereas last week I averaged about 145 bpm (starting at 142 in the first two hours and finishing around 148), today I'm averaging 149bpm. The heat also has something to do with it, I suppose.
After my three heavenly loops in Odell ("Was this real?") I go up Marlborough Drive for some extra distance and another shot at hill work. Then it's down to The Green, a huge detour around the Lighthouse Adventure Centre where all the Canada Day activities are taking place, and across the pedestrian bridge. I'm relying more on the Gatorade today and cutting back on the gels. As I head down the Northside Trail to Marysville I work hard at finding a pace and a mantra that will lower my heartrate. I finally settle on one that had helped me in Odell: "I am here." I know, I know! Duh! But I don't want my mind to wander off with banal chatter and forget just how much I love running on a gorgeous Saturday morning in July. that mantra centres me and lets me feel out my run. I stop for a while at the field past Bridge Street, then head back home. The last hour is a little tougher: my legs have stiffened quite a bit and I'm also trying to run much faster. 3h48.
- Week of July 2
- Tuesday I'm tired. I'm so, so tired. A really great but grueling long bike ride/brick run late yesterday (Sunday was too wet and windy) has left my legs numb with fatigue and the rest of me dizzy. But it's not raining tonight and I still want to go out for a run. I'm not sure how wise it is to run after a workout as tough as yesterday's, but I reckon that I'll adjust the length according to how I feel. The first 40 minutes are pretty tough. My legs are far too tired to move fast so I concentrate on upright posture and running from the hips, a technique I discovered last week. My route is mostly random wandering around the streets and trying to stay off the path, which is choked with cyclists and kids. Every once in a while I find a few moments of peace. Just past one hour of running I decide to head home: I'm falling asleep and having a hard time keeping my eyes open. 1:15
- Thursday Track workout! I've got the logistics figured out for getting to a track while it's quiet, so it's 4:45pm and I'm trotting around the track closest to work. It's also sunny and - I'm convinced - warming up. I feel pretty good during the warm-up. Tuesday's dozy run and a hard speed bike session last night seem to have passed without any effect. My legs feel strong as I warm-up, and the first 4x100m pick-ups are solid. The workout is a tough 4x400m, 2x800m, 4x400m series. I find it amazing that the speed run workouts are so much longer and more intense than the speed bike series. This is coming from the Mark Allen e-Grip training program, so I'm sure there's a really good reason for this. I just have to figure it out. The first 400m series are discouraging: I'm about 2 seconds per 400m slower than last year, even though my general running pace is faster. I'm overly cautious on the 800m and my heartrate doesn't go over 163bpm, quite low for a speed workout. On the last 400m I get angry at my self-protective attitude and I start to run harder. Finally drop those two seconds per 400m and get a heartrate reading at 169bpm. Not high enough! 52min.
- Saturday I decided to do my long run before housecleaning rather than after it. I rather like this new schedule, which I picked up a few weeks ago to avoid rain in the afternoon. I can avoid the hordes on the pedestrian bridge, enjoy peace and quiet in Odell Park, and pretty much get the trails to myself. It's even quieter on them today compared to last week. I start with three loops in Odell Park, enjoying the silence other than the lovely sound of my feet padding on the woodchip trails. Because of the quiet and the incredible beauty I find it easy to run with an empty mind. the first loop is the hardest and at one point my heartrate goes up to 163bpm, but as I unwind I find a good rhythm and finish off the other two loops quite happily. Then it's down to the river and across to the pedestrian bridge, which is surprisingly empty. My heartrate is still staying low - about the same as last week at 140bpm - but the heat of the day (it's 28C by noon) is pushing it up. The heat doesn't really get to me except on the Green when I'm running with a tailwind. I run out to Marysville, relying heavily on Gatorade but only using three Gu packets for the entire run. Most of the time I'm trying to keep my heartrate low. On the way back I pick up the pace by upping my cadence quite a bit. 3h10
- Week of July 9
- Tuesday I'm nowhere near as tired as I was last week, even though I did a longer bike ride on the same (hilly) route that I did last week. Still, my legs are slow and sluggish when I start tonight. There's a thunderstorm coming and the wind is picking up throughout my run. I head up Golf Club Road (hills are something of a theme this year) and get a good look at the thick haze of humidity hanging in the air. Because of the muscular fatigue in my biking muscles I find myself compensating by running more upright and opening up the psoas muscle. It's a really great feeling: very powerful and tall. As the sky darkens my pace picks up and, as I go along the Green and through downtown I'm running fast and strong. Every once in a while I think of Kit, my little cat who died six years ago today. It's good to run for something beyond ourselves sometimes. 1h30
- Thursday A new pair of shoes to go with my run tonight. I've got a pair of adidas Adistar Cushion (because non-cushion shoes are impossible to find) and my feet are really happy. The Supernova were OK, but with my orthotics in them they over-corrected quite a bit and put a strain on my left ankle. On the other hand, they were on the minimalist side of cushioning, which was something I liked about them. Anyway, tonight's speed workout is a series of fartleks, saving me the trouble of going to a track after work. I've been really tired this week and I skipped supper tonight, so my heartrate is incredibly low. For the first ten minutes as I warm up around Wilmot Park, Parkhurst and Inglewood I get readings of 129bpm to 133bpm. Normal warm-up readings are 140bpm-145bpm. I start my first of 6x3min fartleks doing half-decently. It always takes me a long, long time to convince my body to run faster; those first few intervals tend to be slower and easier than they should be. I run out to the Woodstock Road and get treated to the sight of the sun coming out from a grey curtain of clouds and painting the world the most amazing deep orange. After the fourth interval I pause a long time to watch that orange sun set over the river - some things are more important than speedwork - then do two more sprints back home. During those last two I manage to get my heartrate up to 168bpm, but even that's a far cry from the 170+ that I'd like to see it at. Spot Mama Raccoon near Hanwell Road, but don't see the kids. 50min.
- Saturday Another gorgeous morning as I start my long run. Three weeks in a row of beautiful, sunny, quiet mornings padding around Odell Park in complete serenity. Yeah! How did I get this lucky? My legs are a bit stiff from yesterday's bike ride, but my heartrate is incredibly low: 130bpm as I warm up, and a full ten beats per minute in my hour in Odell Park. It's only in the last hour of the run that it goes over 150bpm, in spite of crushing humidity. My loops through Odell Park are refreshing and uplifting, as usual. With each loop I seem to leave behind more and more of cluttering, everyday thoughts and by the third loop I'm feeling pretty Zen-like. I notice that there are fewer birds singing today than usual. Even they're on vacation. I go down to the Green, which is surprisingly quiet for a Saturday, cross the bridge and head out to Marysville. My pace is a bit faster this week than last week. I'm more relaxed than usual, too, the combination of a good song in my head and an effort to do the sort of run that Roger Joslin calls the Mother Theresa run. Basically it boils down to seeing good in everything, and that's exactly the attitude I'm trying to keep with me for the entire run. The great side effect of that sort of attitude is that after a bit I find myself running with a smile on my face and having a great, great time. 3h20
- Week of July 16
- Tuesday Ooohhh, my favourite kind of weather for running: a hot, sticky summer night after a thundershower, when the air is very still and the streets are quiet. I've got a 1h45 recovery run tonight, the start of my peak running week during this training program. The climax is this weekend's four hour long run. I'm quite exhausted and my muscles are tired from Sunday's bike ride - it seems I'm just no longer recovering as quickly as I did earlier in my training program, but that's normal. But in spite of feeling tired and even a bit grumpy, the run becomes utterly magical. Maybe it's the stillness and the weather, maybe it's the effect that all the biking in the hills is having on my running muscles, but tonight I feel loose and powerful. I run through Wilmot Park, surprised and exploring this incredible feeling. I run around the Parkhurst/Inglewood loop, waiting for normality to return. The sun is coming out through a very thin veil of grey cloud and the world is the oddest soft yellow-green colour I've ever seen it. With the heavy humidity in the air, I know that the view across the river valley from Golf Club Road will be extraordinary, especially with this evening's light. I run up Golf Club Road hardly noticing the incline, and sure enough I'm amazed at the mists of humid air hanging in the valleys on the other side of the river, the sun lighting up the horizon.
It's easy to keep a clear, quiet mind in these sorts of conditions. I've got an old 70s song running through my head, soft and soothing. What I'm concentrating on are my hips: in ChiRunning, there's a lot of emphasis rightly placed on tilting the bottom of the hips forward, and tonight for some reason I really feel that happening and, when it does, how my legs and core get engaged in a strong stride. It's a very powerful feeling. On my way down Golf Club Road I notice that the parking lot for the golf club is empty. Hm, the trails beckon. I spend a bit of time exploring the cart paths through the golf course, feeling like I'm running in some beautiful, forbidden idyllic park. Back down the hill, across downtown and back, and my most magical run is over. 1h45min.
- Friday The weather schedule has me rescheduling workouts to find blocks of time for longer bike workouts and fitting run workouts wherever I can. So on Friday evening I'm at the FHS track doing my speed workout, even though the fields have a big CLOSED sign at the entrance. Well, at least I've got the place to myself. The humidity is incredible, but I don't really mind it. I do mind the very stiff muscles from yesterday's long, hard bike ride. It wasn't supposed to be 4h15 long and fast, but the weather and the road beckoned and I couldn't resist the temptation to just go. There's no such temptation tonight. I have a 10 min warmup, 4x100 pickups with 100m recovery jog in between, 400m easy, then the main set of 8x600m. Wrap that up with 4x100m fast on the infield grass. I've been watching the ChiRunning DVD that a friend lent me, and this is the first workout where I try to put some of what I've seen into practice. The DVD, by the way, is excellent, although the book is actually a lot more fun and, obviously, detailed. The short, fast stride that looks so light is a great visual that I'm trying to replicate on the track. The first 600m reps aren't all that great. It always takes me a while to get into the mindset of a track workout. I'm not checking my time, but I am trying to get my heartrate to go up over 170bpm. It never does, topping out at 168bpm in the last three sets. The four sprints on the infield grass are fun.
- Sunday Today was my longest run of the training season, and the last part of what turned out to be a sort of rehearsal for Ironman: a 180km bike ride yesterday, an exhilerating 5km swim across Grand Lake this morning with other members of the swim club, and a four hour run this evening. And it was a great, great day for many other reasons, including Floyd Landis, one of the most deserving and admirable cyclists in the world, winning the Tour de France; and the one year anniversary of my first Ironman in Lake Placid. Last year Lance Armstrong's effort to win his seventh Tour de France was something that I followed closely and drew inspiration from as I trained for Ironman. Competitors like Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis are the most formidable athletes you can meet on a course. I think living a life that has had more than its fair share of pain and profound self-reflection creates a strength in a person that all the training and physiological perfection can't achieve.
OK, back to my run. A small hurricane passed through the area this weekend. The rain had turned into an occasional fine drizzle by the time I started running, around 4pm, but that was it. The problem was that it was 19C. I call this a problem because it was 36C in Penticton today. I really would have rathered struggling through four hours of running in hot weather than having an easy four hour run in ideal conditions. But we can't control the weather, and all I could do was add some extra layers of clothing. Because of the soggy ground I did my first hour around Golf Club Road, going down Coburn Road and around Glengarry Court as loops for more hills. Hills make a strong runner. My heartrate is doing funny things, like staying at low ranges that I've just never seen before. It's 130bpm as I warm up around Parkhurst/Inglewood, and only goes up to 148bpm when I climb Golf Club Road. It settles back to 133bpm as I cross Fredericton along the Green and make it to the other side of the river. What in the world does such a low range indicate? And why has it dropped so suddenly?
I've got that thought to ponder as I keep going to Marysville, and some monitoring of the aches and pains that are catching up with me after yesterday's bike ride and this morning's swim. Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised at how good I feel. My right hip is screaming, but I don't feel tired or any muscular fatigue. I'm putting a huge emphasis on the ChiRunning concepts that the DVD reviewed, such as high cadence, landing midfoot, and relaxing my lower legs. This is also helping me deal with a hamstring that is beginning to cramp quite painfully. But most of all I'm trying to return to this fantastic "zone" I got into this morning during the swim across Grand Lake. It came about when I decided to increase the intensity of the swim to race pace and hold it there for as long as I could. This isn't a risk I'd normally take, so the results - a fantastic swim that hardly cost any effort - have me wondering about my conservative approach to pacing. The fact that I'm running so late in the day and the wonderful quiet of the trails (there's no wind at all, no traffic, nothing) all make it a bit easier to reflect on what I felt this morning and apply it to the run. After 2:15 I pick up the pace and see how long I can hold it. Again, I find myself in that zone. And I stay there for the next 90 minutes. Yippee! 4:00
- Week of July 23
- Sunday After last weekend's training and long workouts, my body started showing signs of wear and tear. A hip problem here, a lack of appetite there, a sore hamstring that wants to turn into a full-blown sprain if only I would give it another run. Lots of resting followed by some hard biking, but no running. No long run on Saturday the 30th because on Sunday I'm in the St. George Long Distance Triathlon. Click here for a race report.
- Week of July 30
- Tuesday Given just how many injuries I'm nursing right now as a result of the past two weeks of training, I guess I should be impressed that I can run at all tonight. Both knees hurt, my hip pain eventually subsides, but my sprained left hamstring slowly worsens over the 90 minute run. I'm worried: in less than a month I'm running a marathon after biking 180km on one of Ironman's hilliest courses.
Before starting my run I listen to Annie Lennox Stay By Me . It's part of my search for a running song for Ironman. Tonight during the run I find myself focusing well and running at a great pace - fast, high cadence, relaxed legs - partly because I have this song to come back to when my mind gets cluttered with too much thinking. I run through Wilmot Park and delight in the sight of purple flowers in bloom and the sound of a man practicing the bagpipes. How great to live in a part of the world that lets me experience these things as part of daily life! Then around Parkhurst/Inglewood, back along the trail that goes along the Woodstock Road. Turn around and pick up the trail along the Green, across the pedestrian bridge, and home. Sprint the last little bit through Rabbit Town Park. 1h30min
- Thursday I realise this evening as I head to the FHS track after work that I only do about six track workouts a year. But because they always happen in the heart of summer, a few weeks before my goal race, they represent my favourite time of the year. I'm not very good at track workouts and sometimes I get really discouraged when my watch reminds me how slow I am going around 400m laps, but in winter when I think back on summer training, the best memories come from track workouts, long bike rides by the river, and runs on hot summer afternoons.
All of that doesn't make today's workout any easier: 10min warmup, 4x100m pick-ups with 100m jog recovery, 1x4800m (sprint the straights, jog on the curves), 400m easy, and (gasp!) 6x400m. The upper part of my left hamstring is very, very sensitive: it is only just starting to heal and I really don't want to do anything to jeopardise that at this point. Without that muscle I can't push down on the pedals when I'm biking and I can run only if I turn my left foot in. The 4800m sprints go by very well. The speed on the straights isn't all that impressive, but I feel my stride changing and getting stronger when I recover on the curves. The hard part is trying to get my heartrate up. It doesn't go over 158bpm. The 6x400m are tough. It's hard to keep sprinting around the track after I'm used to slowing down after every straight stretch. My speed is exactly what it always is for 400m (2:02), but at least my heartrate is getting up over 165bpm. 1:10.
- Saturday It's been two weeks since I've done a long run on a Saturday morning, and I'm really looking forward to those first couple of loops in Odell Park. Lucky for me, the weather is amazing, although cool enough for me to put on an extra shirt as practice for Penticton. My legs are in decent shape as I start the run. That surprises me, since they were completely dead yesterday on during a four hour bike ride on the flat. I'm still dealing with a hamstring injury and a stiff upper back. The long training hours are definitely starting to cause some wear and tear. I've also come to truly despise my heartrate monitor, which chafes me terribly and after today's run has left me with a huge scar across my torso.
But it's still a gorgeous morning and I'm happy to be padding through the park on dazzling trails. There's a lot of energy around today; even though it's a holiday weekend, there are lots of people in the park at this early hour, lots of traffic on the road, movement everywhere. Mentally I'm putting a lot of focus on what I'll be thinking and using to get me through the marathon at Ironman Canada. Toward the end of the first loop in the park I meet an older man wandering around the base of the trail. He's definitely a bit strange, and on the second loop I meet him again walking uphill - without a stitch of clothing on. Ah, this would be the man caught without clothes in the cemetary downtown this week. I run by pretending all is normal. At the main lodge in the park I head for a couple with their kid and ask them if they have a cellphone. The man is kind enough to call the police for me. On my way down the third loop I see them walking on the path and tell them what I saw. Then it's out of the park and down to the Green for the rest of my run.
I pass a lovely outdoor wedding on the back lawn of the Lieutenant-Governor General's house, and I try to run as quietly as possible so as not to distract them but the audience is sitting right by the fence and it's hard to go by unnoticed. Then past the rowing club, where people are setting up for a regatta. Then past the lighthouse, which is clogged with tourists. What an odd day. There's no lacking for entertainment. The neat thing about today's run is that it's only 2h45 long. Given that my last long run was four hours, this feels short. I'm running very lightly and quickly, and I try to accelerate all through the run so that the last 45 minutes are at a tempo pace. Heading out to Marysville is fantastic: there's no one on the trail and I finally get a sense of quiet. I have to eat and drink a bit more than usual (what's with this constantly growling stomach that I have to deal with these days?) My focus is mostly on my stride, turning my left foot in so that I don't have to use my hamstring as much throughout the run. That in turn seems to be making me run faster by making my lower legs more relaxed. Still, it bothers me that I should have to be dealing this with less than a month to go. Will I be able to stave the soreness off during the bike ride and still run a marathon? Last 30 minutes are really fast. 2h52
- Week of August 6
- Wednesday An absolutely perfect evening, if a little cool. No wind, clear skies, incredible setting sun. My left leg problems have been diagnosed as a badly pulled adductor and a sprained hamstring, so I'm doing my long recovery run tonight because I took last night off. I'm really, really worried: the adductor is a key muscle that pushes down on the pedal during biking and helps stabilise the bike when I'm standing on the pedals to go uphill. And it extends the leg during the run. I had managed well during Saturday's run, but tonight the pain is quite a bit sharper and lingering. Tonight I leave home a bit earlier than usual because I really want to run the Northside Trail while the sun is out. On such a beautiful evening it would seem terrible to miss this opportunity. I rely on everything I know from ChiRunning to relax my legs and loosen my hips, all in the hope of taking pressure of the sprained muscles. The pain does subside throughout the run. Across the river the sound of crickets is deafening, especially when I reach the field near Bridge Street. I spend a few minutes hear soaking it all in: setting sun, quiet fields, crickets. It's one of those moments you hang on to so that in January, as you're running on ice-covered roads, you remember why you're doing this. On my way back my leg is doing a bit better. 1h30
- Saturday Today's long run of 2h15 is a bit of a relief: it's just nice to know that I'll have some extra time left over after all is done. I especially like not having to carry the Fuel Belt with me. On the other hand, the morning is clouding over quickly and it's very, very cool. My three loops in Odell aren't as sun-filled as they usually are, and there are lots of people on the trails. The massage therapist did a miraculous job restoring my sprained adductor and sore hip yesterday. Today's run is almost pain-free. I can still feel the attachment of the adductor cramping once in a while, but overall things are quite amazing. And there is some sun throughout my first loop in Odell. With the cool temperatures, a short long run, and Afterglow in my head (rehearsing for Ironman!), I decide to make this a tempo run. As I pick my way up the hills I'm amazed at how much stronger I've become over the summer. Regular hilly 180km bike rides do the most amazing things to one's body! I can really feel the effects of good posture and strong hip/gluteal muscles, and running downhill at a fast pace sets me up well for the remaining 1h15 on the flat when I leave Odell. My heartrate stays at 140bpm for a while, but eventually climbs to 150bpm. As I start across the pedestrian bridge a young boy walking with his parents proudly tells me that he just walked two kilometres!. I pass Devon Lumber and turn around near the Marysville sign. On my way back I've got a headwind and I'm tiring a little. Still, this definitely counts as a great run. 2h15
- Week of August 13
- Wednesday I've found my marathon song!! This had been something that had been on the back of my mind for a few weeks and that was getting to be worrisome. Music is one of the most important parts of my run, and during an event it characterises the whole day. A good song is something I tap into throughout the day to get grounded, and remind myself of the greater things that are going on beyond the physical dimension of what I'm doing. Last year's marathon songs were perfect; even today, I remember moments on the LP marathon course not only in terms of what I was seeing but in terms of the music and words floating through my head. But I don't want to use last year's songs this year. Time has passed, things have changed, and I have to accept that. (Yep, life lesson here.) I have changed, which is the point. So I need a new song.
I like running with Afterglow (INXS) in my head. I first heard it way back in the cold dark days of winter, and hearing it as I run reminds me of how much time has passed since then, all the training that has taken place, all the time spent thinking about Ironman. But a few days ago, laying in bed early before some practice or workout, snuggled up with Chickie the tabby, I hear It: The Riddle, by Five For Fighting. "The batter swings and the summer flies / As I look into my angel's eyes / A song plays on while the moon is high / Over me / Something comes over me....Here's a riddle for you / Find the Answer / There's a reason for the world / You and I."
Tonight I do a fast 50 minute bike ride out the Woodstock Road and back, enough to see the most amazing fiery orange sunset when the sun came out below dark grey clouds and really shined. I whipped up Marlborough Drive and gazed at a rainbow. Rode back home, switch my bike for a pair of running shoes, and did a very fast 50 minute run, singing my new song. Ran through Wilmot Park to listen to the bagpipes playing. Started really speeding up as I ran around Parkhurst/Inglewood. As I ran up and down the two long courts on the loop I wondered how I could keep up this crazy pace for an hour. I really don't know what got into my. I got on the trail on Rookwood Avenue and headed for Marlborough Drive again, mostly to see how the litle hill would feel. I sprinted up that, remembering times in winter when it had felt hard. Time has indeed passed.
- Saturday My last Saturday run in Odell Park before leaving for BC. And once again, the skies are clear, the air is warm, and the park is deserted. I simply can't believe that I've had so many perfect Saturday mornings to do my favourite run. Today is a 1h30min tempo run, and I feel pretty damn good. A little stiff from yesterday's four hour tempo bike, but that's OK. My left adductor is also complaining a little. I start my first loop around Odell at a fairly fast pace and have to slow down not long after. It seems easier than usual today to clear my mind and run peacefully, maybe because there's almost no one else in the park, and maybe because the air is absolutely still. I listen to my feet on the woodchip trail and to the silence hanging in the trees. I stay with those things. The second loop is a bit slower. I'm just trying to remember every detail of this run. When I'm done the third loop I run out to Marlborough Drive and run up the hill that in January had me slowing down. Now my heartrate doesn't even go up. One last sprint across Wilmot Park and back home.
- Week of August 20
- Wednesday I'm in British Columbia this week for my goal race: Ironman Canada. Updates are posted here
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- Week of September 3 2006
- Thursday My first real run since Ironman. I actually did try to go for a run in Fernie (BC) on the trails around the resort, but it was short-lived when I turned onto a really steep path that took me up the Spineback Trail on the Lizard Range. I had planned to follow a flatter, wider path so that I could run for quite while. But I'm glad I veered off and headed into something totally unforeseen. The reward was what turned out to be probably the most breathtaking hike of my life. And I did get to run a bit on the way back: a thunderstorm rumbled its way into the huge valley and I ran in a gentle hailstorm all the way back to my room. Amazing.
So here I am back at home. Humbled and angry, yet at the same time I feel my running in a new way. I appreciate it now. The steps I take and the distance I travel are no longer taken for granted. I could fail at any time. I don't have the sense of mastery over running that I had this summer, and I think that's a good thing. Tonight I leave just as the sun is setting. I want to do Golf Club Road - way too many of those annoying little white flies along the river. The sun colours the treetops an incredibly deep burnt-orange and I like listening to the sound of my feet on the pavement in the evening quiet as I trot down Parkhurst. I've recovered even more quickly from the Ironman this year; last year I was still feeling a burning sensation in my lungs two weeks after the event. Yeah, I was definitely fitter this year. Just dumber.
Anyway, the point is that I'm feeling very good tonight, except for the annoying chatter that's going on in my head. I should have read something or listened to some music before starting. I trot up Golf Club Road easily, pass the golf club where someone yells "Don't tire yourself out!" when I run by. Then onto the long straight stretch that overlooks the valley. It's getting dark now and when I turn around there's a fabulous, huge orange moon low on the horizon. By the time I reach Marlborough Drive it's turning the sky orange. 1hr.
- Friday I go running tonight because I still haven't put my bike back together. To keep my mental chatter down I read an excerpt from Joslin's book, something I haven't done in a very, very long time and that I'm glad I did tonight. But it's strange to go running two nights in a row. My legs are very stiff and they hit the ground pretty hard. I start earlier tonight because I want to catch the sunset on Golf Club Road. The run across Wilmot Park is lovely. Getting up the hill on GCR is a bit tougher. During yesterday's run I noticed that my posture was tugging at me differently, making my hips tilt forward and my shoulders go back. It feels pretty great and, as ChiRunning explains, really running from the centre. I wonder where this strength came from. Trying to maintain that low, powerful sensation becomes the focus of my run. 1hr.
- Week of September 10 2006
- Tuesday Finally, I make the time to go for a run this evening. It's awfully hard to get things done when you haven't got a plan. Now that Ironman training is over and I don't have a training plan I've got a slack attitude toward getting workouts done, even though I've signed up for one more triathlon in a mere three weeks. Starting the run in total darkness is a bit hard. There's no more denying that summer is over. I decide to do a totally different route tonight, going down to the pedestrian bridge and back and then lacing back and forth in the little streets between Waterloo Row and University. The advantage of running in the dark is that I always feel great. Throughout the run my stride gets looser and I feel like I'm running more fluidly than usual. As with the last run, my posture is markedly different from what it was over the summer. I almost feel like I'm being stretched into a taller posture; in other words, running more upright is not something I'm making myself do, but rather something that's happening to me. It's a fantastic sensation and something I try to use to quiet all that mental chatter going on in my head. 1hr.
- Saturday A beautiful, perfect day for running, although the sky is the oddest orange. It's reminiscent of the sky I saw in BC a few weeks ago when the wind had shifted from the south and brought in smoke from southern wildfires. We're running in sun, but we don't really have shadows. I really want to do a longer run today, partly because I want to enjoy the weather and also to get ready for the next triathlon (I've signed up for the MightyMan Half-Ironman in Montauk, NY.) But some over-enthusiastic climbing on the bike yesterday has really done a number on my hamstrings and gluteals. We run down to the pedestrian bridge, take the Northside Trail to Marysville, then come back the other side of the river. There's not much wind, hardly anyone on the trail. I find The Riddle and play that in my head. Strange, but it sounds better and more uplifting now than it did when I first heard it. I'm having major issues with every muscle group in my legs, so that fluid stride and upright posture that I experienced during my last couple of runs aren't happening. Instead I'm coaxing hip flexors that are in agony, hamstrings that can't push ahead, and, worst of all, a right IT band that really hurts. It was the left IT band that caused problems during the IMC marathon, slowing me to a walk even before the hypoglycaemia started. We stop so that I can stretch it out a little. Back across the river, along the Green, take a peek at the free concert going on in Officers' Square, and back home. Tough run. 1h30.
- Week of September 17 2006
- Wednesday Another half-Ironman is less than two weeks away, and I've barely been training lately. Four years ago a half-Ironman had me wide awake at night, stressed about the distance and the training. Now it's an afterthought. Is that progress?
I dance to Afterglow in my doorway before leaving for my run. Tonight the song seems to stay with me throughout the entire run. I'm tempted to go up Golf Club Road, but I stick to flat ground so that I can work on a steady cadence and pace. The downhill at the end of the GCR route sometimes means that I ease up too much at a point when I should be working harder. I loop through Sunshine Gardens, Marlborough Drive, then back down Woodstock Road to the Green and out to the pedestrian bridge. I feel like running forever tonight. It's cool and quiet and I'm mesmerized by the steady sound of my feet hitting the pavement. I notice that my hips aren't pulling forward as they did last week; my head and torso aren't naturally elongating. That's something I work on for a while, but although I get the form I never find the feel of it. 1h15
- Saturday A grey fall day, although the temperatures aren't too low and there's not too much wind either. I haven't got a whole lot of time, which is unfortunate because I'm in a mindset to do a long run and my body is keen on the idea as well. As with the earlier run this week, I stay on the flat and pick up the trail along the Woodstock Road. Even though it rained earlier today there are no large puddles on the trail. In fact, it's very pleasant running: before I know it, I'm well on my way through the woods and the part of the path on the river-side of Woodstock Road. Everything just looks so perfect that it's hard to convince myself to turn around. I've found a good stride, one that's not too short but still steady and fast. Nice strong run back home. 1h10
- Sunday More wet weather! Hm, I'm desperate to do a bike ride, but a long run sounds good, especially after yesterday's great run. I listen to Y'a des jours de plaine before starting, wanting to make the most of a day when the weather sort of puts you in that contemplative mood. And contemplate I do: I spend some time thinking about one of the little vignettes in Einstein's Dreams, where time is described as an absolute. Everything can change, but time marches to its own rhythm over which no one has any control, hence the associaton between it and the divine (so goes the vignette.) So what does it really mean to have watch on wrist and checking it every now and then to gauge my run?
The one thing that I do appreciate about this weather is that it keeps everyone else off the trail. When I find myself in that long straight stretch after Greenwood Drive I focus on relaxing, not letting my mind wander off, and enjoying the neat sight of the straight trail and lightly reddened trees on each side of it. Such an easy run so far! I keep it up until I come to my favourite field at the top of the hill on River Street, pause for a bit, then turn around and head home into the wind. "Thank goodness it's not raining. It would be terrible to run straight into rain and deal with cold, wet legs." Thirty seconds after telling myself this, a downpour begins. Doh! It's not all that bad and the day is quite warm. I do find myself getting tired in the last 25 minutes, definitely a sign of low blood sugar and declining, end-of-season fitness. That's not too good - there's still a half-Ironman to get through next week! 2h00
- Week of September 24 2006
- Tuesday I'm very late out of the house for my run tonight. It means I have to run for much less than I feel like going for, but it also means that the streets are quiet and there's a sense of calm pervading the city. This is my first run of the season with long tights, and it's only September! But I'm very comfortable as I start down Northumberland to do my usual route. However, I do have a very, very sore left hamstring. That reminds me that the hamstring had been bothering me on Sunday. It's much worse tonight and has me worried about my upcoming triathlon, a half-Ironman, no less. The hamstring eases a little throughout the run, but I've got a definite tear there.
The feeling of an upright, loose posture is back after a few runs' absence. I realise that the sensation of being pulled up and running with a long torso is the effect of my new morning yoga routine that I like so much I actually look forward to waking up an hour early these days. Wow, I can't wait to see the effects in a year from now! So I enjoy the feeling and the soft running, and I also reflect on a neat conversation I had this morning about what we search for in the sports that we choose. It's a bit like motivation, asking about what drives us as athletes. I'm always amazed that the vast majority of people doing sports completely ignore the question. The activity simply becomes one more thing to do in a day, something else that has to be crossed off a long list of other mindless tasks. I think that's a pretty good reflection of the people themselves. But there are some out there, the truly good and great ones, who carry in them a vision of what they want to become and relentlessly pursue that image, honing every detail and questioning every attitude and action in every workout. I may never reach the status of what I'm aiming for as an Ironman triathlete, but having the vision of that idealised state is what keeps me learning and improving. I also choose long distance triathlon because being successful at that in turn tells me that I'm a successful person. If I define Ironman triathlons as long, grueling events that test perseverance, individualistic motivation, versatility, requiring discipline, focus, an understanding of greater mental powers over physical ones, then does not success at Ironman in turn make me all these things? Do I not therefore become someone of great endurance and discipline, capable of adapting to new environments, and self-inspired? Why do you do the sport that you do?
- Week of October 1 2006
- Sunday We're in Long Island, New York for the MightyMan Half-Ironman. Click here for a race report that includes a hurricane.
- Wednesday I'm in Newfoundland for work and staying at the breathtaking Humber Valley Resort near Gros Morne National Park. It's lie being in the Valley of the Gods, and the blazing fall colours on the sides of the mountains make me feel blessed to be here at this time of the year. I wake up early to go for a long run. It's pitch black when I start running; dawn is a long ways off. The road around the resort is lit by streetlamps, but I can still see a sky chock-full of stars and the outline of the mountain on the other side of the valley. I feel pretty good for such an early hour. I'm not a morning runner at all and I get quite light-headed if I run for too long without food. My calves get one heck of a workout right at the start when I opt to climb the steep hill first rather than run the resort's road counter-clockwise. The first loop is peaceful - and long. The resort is so big it takes 45 minutes to go around once. I decide to do two loops but know that I really have to pound the second one if I'm going to make it back to the house in time for work. The outline of the mountain is a little sharper on the second loop as dawn appraches. I'm thrilled about my pace and how I feel as I run. Must be the splendour of the place somehow seeping into me. 1:45.
- Saturday Indian summer! A holiday weekend and it's so beautiful! Warm and sunny, and there's no one on the path! I want to run out to Penniac to see the colours of the ridge above the Nashwaak River. Keep the pace very, very slow, and make sure my strides are very short. I play a lot with my form, trying to run more with my centre of gravity and less with my upper body. I can feel the difference when I do that: my shoulders feel lighter, my adductors work a little harder but my legs and hips swing a little more loosely. Definitely the right direction to go in, but it's going to take a lot of work to maintain. 2h20min
- Week of October 8 2006
- Monday What a way to celebrate Thanksgiving: with 24C, a blue sky, brilliant fall colours, and a great two hour run. So many things to be thankful for! My legs are quite tired from all the running and biking I've been doing this weekend, but it's still important that I get this run in. I figure I've got enough energy to go for two hours, and that means a nice easy run out to the field behind the ballpark in Marysville. There aren't too many people on the trail, oddly enough. I keep my strides as short as I can but I don't quite have enough strength to experiment for any length of time with the lower centre of gravity idea. Instead, I have The Riddle playing in my head, a perfect backdrop to this day, and I concentrate on savouring every moment. There's a bit of a wind and it feels quite amazing, even hot at times. I get out to the field and pause for a while, then decide to trot up the grassy trail in front of me. I figure that at the very least I want the pleasure of running through a field on a sunny day. I huff up to the top of the field and discover a nice dirt road leading into the woods. It's just too pretty to pass up, so I wander up for a ways and find out that it branches off into a series of trails that look really great...Guess I'll have to come back and explore next year. Run back to the apartment, taking it fairly slowly since my legs are tired by now. 2h00
The running journal is on its annual autumn hiatus and will return in January 2007. Happy running!
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Last updated on December 31 2006 by Helen Rooney
