Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Half Ironman training update

Things have been rolling along these past couple of weeks other than a little pneumonia set back that caused me to miss about a week of training.
Spent the Thanksgiving weekend on Manitoulin Island with my sister and her family at their cottage and although sick during that time manged to get out for a nice bike ride.
  On the Thanksgiving Monday I was registered to run in the last of 6 races in the Sudbury Fitness Challenge a 8km cross country run.  I was leading the overall points race going into the final race but with being sick I knew I was going to have have a good race to be close enough to keep my lead.  Race started and right away I could feel it in my lungs and about half a dozen guys got a away from me on a very wet and muddy course.  At about 3km's I started to feel better and felt like I could actually breath again and I started running quite a bit faster and started to pick off a couple of guys who got away from me at the start.  At about 4km's I felt the chain around my neck drop down the inside of my shirt.  Right away I made the decision to stop and find it.  I was hoping I could just grab it and keep going.  Unfortunately it feel in a big long section of wood chips.  The chain has quite a bit of importance as it is one of the only things I have left that my dad gave me but it also had a pendant on the chain from my sister that was very significant to me.  It turned out I found the chain fairly quick but the pendant must have come off and was no where to be found.  I spent the next couple hours searching for it with no luck.  Needless to say I didn't finish the race and that meant I didn't win the overall title but sometimes in life there are things that are more important than winning a race.  I did win my age group so for this year that will have to be good enough.  Next year is another year.
Swimming has been going really good and I'm happy I made the decision to swim with the Master's team this year.  Although there's still no one that can really push me at least there are others to swim with and a coach on deck that will hold you accountable.  This mornings 2:11 from push 200 at the end of practice is a good example that it's been working as I haven't swam that fast in practice in 10+ years.  Hopefully this will continue and will translate into some decent times at my first Master's swim meet November 16th in Toronto. 
Probably even a bigger change for me training wise was deciding to get a personal trainer at the gym.  It's kind of a weird concept for me as I spent almost 6 years as a personal trainer and at least 10 years coaching sports but even the best athletes in the world work with trainers and what not so it shouldn't be any different for me.  I haven't done much strength training in quite a while and it really kicked my butt the first time but it's getting better now and I'm hoping it will help to eliminate some nagging injuries I've delt with in the past. 
Last week I had the opportunity to get Kelly and I a ride in a little plane up around the North end of Sudbury over the lake I grew up on.  It was nice to see some of the tail end of the fall colors but what was most interesting was listening to the pilot communicate with the air traffic controllers as that was something dad did for 30 years.











This past weekend I was able to get to Ottawa and was able to visit my grandma for a little bit.  Got a swim in on Saturday morning and then went for a run along the river on Sunday morning.  What a difference running in Ottawa vs Sudbury.  I saw more people on my one run in Ottawa out running than I would if I was to go running every single day in Sudbury for easy 2-3 weeks.  Very different culture and atmosphere in Ottawa.  For someone who enjoys being active Sudbury sure makes it hard!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Base Borden Race Report

Since my last post training had been going really well.  I kept up the bit of a running block I was in with decreasing the amount of biking I was doing for a few weeks to really focus on my run.  I was able to hold my 1/2 marathon goal pace in my training runs for 12-14km's without of a problem finishing and feeling like I still had quite a bit in the tank so I was really looking forward to my first half marathon and felt that the goal I set out was very realistic. 
Saturday Kelly and I headed out in the morning for a drive up to the cottage.  The weather was beautiful and the trees were in full fall colours.  We got the chance to visit with some close friends at the cottage spending the afternoon with them.  It also gave us the opportunity to visit with dad and spend a few minutes with him.  Kelly never had the opportunity to him so it was pretty special to show her where he is buried and to share that time together. 

After a short ride on the boat we headed out and got into Orillia around 9:30pm.  That put us close enough that we would only have a short drive in the morning to get to Borden for the race and with a 10am start time we had plenty of time.  I wasn't overly excited about the start time for a couple of reasons.  One with the forecasted temperature I knew it was going to be hot and with the majority of my running for the past month or more being between 0C-10C.  Second I know I couldn't eat before I run so the later the start time the longer I had to go without any fuel. 
My warm up went good.  I felt good and ready to go...I could tell it was going to be hot as I got a good sweat on just in my warm up.  I had a good start and took it out pretty hard but I didn't feel like it was too hard that I would blow up from it later in the race. I ran side by side one other guy for the first 2km's at which point one other guy bridged up to us and the 3 of us ran side by side for the next few km's.  At about 6km's I could start to feel the heat getting to me but was still running strong.  At that point just figured I was going to have to digger a little deeper on the back end of the race.  At about 8km's is when I saw a significant drop in my pace and I fell back of the leaders.  By 10km's I was in a lot of pain and more people were passing me.  The middle 10km's we ran around a big grass field with not a tree in sight and this completely sucked any energy I had left in right out.  It was over 30C and I was in pure survival mode.  Did the whole battle about just calling it a day so I didn't have to deal with the end result and minimize the damages but there was someone special waiting for me at the finish line so I shuffled on.  It was during this time though I noticed something very different than what I'm used to in triathlon.  In triathlon on the run I'm always encouraging others with just a good job or a high five if I know the person as we pass each other going in opposite directions and they almost always respond back with a few words.  Yesterday even though I was in a lot of pain I knew there was nothing I could do to go any faster and I just needed to get to the finish line and I was alright with being passed so as I would get passed I would say good job to everyone and not one person answered me.  I think triathlons are very unique in that way.  Anyways I did end up walking 3 times in the last couple of km's as I felt something go in my foot and having delt with several stress fractures in the past I was pretty worried.  I finished exactly 20minutes slower than what I had wanted.  That was a bit of a tough pill to swallow but all things considered I am happy I didn't need an ambulance ride off the course like some others and I had someone there to pick up my spirits after the race. 



This week has been mainly just trying to recover the legs with a couple easy rides and of course swimming with the Masters.  I had a good set this morning with 15x100 @1:15 so I am happy with where things are going there.  Last night I did a 10km TT at delki. It was raining a bit and the track was pretty wet so everyone took it pretty easy on the corners so again I'm pretty happy with 14:32.  As far as what's up next I have an 8km run on Thanksgiving Monday.  It's the last of 6 events in the Sudbury Fitness Challenge and after the first 5 events I'm leading the points race with 4978 but very close behind me is Kerry Abols with 4845.  Kerry is a strong runner so it will all come down to where we place in this final race.