A New Beginning ...

It seems to me that I once posted a blog entitled "... Time Flies ..." I would be hard-pressed to argue that point, given that it's been roughly 18 months since my last post here. When I logged into "Blogger" this evening, I was actually just a wee bit surprised to discover that my blog still exists! In any event, I have returned (with little or no fanfare!) and I am "planning" (emphasis on "planning") to make much more regular entries here.

The fact is that in the last year or so, my running routine has (mostly) ceased to even resemble a "routine" and has in fact become the exception now instead of the rule. Admittedly, I had a very successful training and racing year in 2008 and the early part of 2009. Over the course of 2008, I set PR's at 5K, 8K, and 10K, along with personal bests at both the half and full marathon distance. I even ran my first (possibly my only) 50 K Ultra-Marathon event in May 2009. I ran a respectable time against a fairly seasoned field, and still pulled off a third place overall. Not too shabby, right? Well, from a "results-only" perspective, I can't complain! However, I have learned that training at that level, for that length of time can wreak havoc on many aspects of one's life.

Last year's 50K took place on May 2nd ... I was probably at my peak of endurance and personal fitness (ever!) on the morning of that race. I had planned on some serious recovery time, and had no immediate plans for my next race. A few days after the event, I got an e-mail from David Milne of Peninsula Runners, inviting me to the Oak Bay 'Kool' Half Marathon on May 24th. Instead of politely declining, I (very foolishly!) accepted the invite, and toed the start line for the race, having had a mere 22 days to recover from the 50K!! Needless to say, I did NOT run a PR that day. Although I didn't injure myself (dumb luck as opposed to planning!!), I did something far worse ... I pretty much burned myself out. It's been over a year since that event, and I gotta tell ya - I don't feel like I've ever really recovered. I still managed to race a full marathon last fall - I ran my "next-to-slowest" finish time (3:21) - frankly speaking, I think I ran the event simply because I couldn't get a refund on my entry fee. I knew going into the event that I wasn't completely prepared.

I have discovered that endurance training can be habit-forming ... Toward the end of 2008, and leading up to the Ultra Event in May '09, I think I became (somewhat) obsessed with running. My priorities shifted, subtly at first, then more obviously, so that running became more important to me than work, or sleep, or even my relationship with my wife. My waking hours were filled with training, planning my next run, or pouring over the results of my most recent outing. At one time, I was maintaining 3 different training logs, along with this blog, and I began to neglect my personal relationships. I had heard from many sources that running could be habit-forming ... I never expected that it would take over my life in the way that it did. By the time I got to the start line of the Ultra, running had become the most important aspect of my daily life. Fortunately for me, I have a very patient and devoted spouse. Michelle has always been my biggest fan, and greatest supporter. (In 2004 when I first started training, she used to follow me around in her car, for fear I would pass out!) In hindsight, I can see the evolution of my running addiction. Michelle stood by me throughout, and for her faithfulness, I will be forever grateful. Thank you Michelle.

In August of last year, my youngest daughter, Tanisha, moved in with me. Prior to her arrival in my house just 2 days after her 13th birthday, we had never lived together before. Needless to say, a period of adjustment ensued ... is still ensuing ... will continue to ensue ... I'm sure you get the point. In all seriousness, I am thrilled to have my daughter living with me. I would like to keep running, no question of that ... Tanisha has helped me realize that family comes first. I'm still working on balancing family and personal needs - like the rest of my life, consider it a work in progress. Thank you, Tanisha, for teaching Dad a lesson (or two!)

I haven't raced anything since the RVM last fall. I can't even say that I have really trained effectively over that same time period either. There are a myriad of reasons why I'm not training at the same level. These days, I can't seem to find either the time or the motivation to strap on the shoes and head out the door. I am working split shifts now, and my workday starts before 7 AM, 4 out of 5 days of the week. For years, my daily routine consisted of rolling out of bed, having a coffee and light breakfast, then heading out for a run. I have yet to figure out a running routine that fits into working the split shift. More importantly, I seem to have lost my mental "edge" ... I feel perpetually burnt out. In 2008, I woke up every morning, just dying to get out there ... these days, I can't seem to string together more than one or two runs a week, and even those runs feel "forced" - almost like "I'm gonna go running now cuz I have to" ... where did my Joy of Running go? With any luck, Dear Reader, we'll find it somewhere in the days and weeks to come. I sincerely hope that by re-visiting my Blog, I will recapture some of the motivation and joy that I felt a couple of years ago. Assuming that someone other that Michelle and Tanisha will read this, I'd love to hear any suggestions you have. Please post them as comments! Thank you for reading - this was a long one ... Goodnite all :-)

Marathon of Hope 2009

Just a quick post today ... this entry isn't about training, or racing ... it's about a chance I have to participate in the Marathon of Hope 2009. This program is being put together by CBC Television with the support of the Fox Foundation - they are going to assemble a team of 12 runners to start in St. John's NL on April 12th, and have them follow Terry Fox's original route and daily mileage, arriving in Thunder Bay ON by Labour Day. With the help of a very talented friend, we have created a YouTube video as part of my application to participate. You can view the video here.

Please wish me luck. Thank you again for taking the time to read my blog. Cheers!!

Taking the plunge

It's official. After months and months of fence-sitting and fretting, I finally did it. I coughed up the entry fee and signed up for for the 5th Annual Triathlon of Compassion. I've been somewhat negligent in my swimming workouts of late, having remained far more focused on running instead, so I'd better "get wet", so to speak, and reacquaint myself with the joys of consuming chlorinated water while trying to stay afloat (ie. my version of swimming).

Seriously, though, I am very excited about this event. Not a word of a lie, I think my pulse rate went up to over 100 bpm while I was filling out the entry form! I started talking about competing in a "tri" over a year ago, and to be perfectly honest, I've (not so) secretly wanted to complete an Ironman-distance triathlon for many years ... I guess I've gotta start somewhere, right? This is a good race to choose for a first time event for me ... it's close to home (the Esquimalt Rec Centre is the hosting venue - about 1 mile from where I live), and as such, I know the area and the pool well. The bike and run courses are both familiar to me, and most importantly, as a "triathlon newbie", I'll feel right at home. I understand that many folks use this triathlon as their first attempt, so I won't feel too intimidated by my fellow competitors. On the other hand, I was just checking out last year's results, and there were some serious contenders, too. Given my lack of experience in the sport, combined with a lack of training in the swimming/cycling department, I have no expectations about my performance in relationship to others. I'm just excited to take on the challenge.

To that end, though, I'd better get off my duff, and head over to the pool. I'd like to get a least a few swimming sessions in before the big day. Thanx for taking the time to peruse my pages. Cheers!!

Here we go again ...

I guess I wasn't kidding when I titled my last post ... six bloody weeks ago!! It isn't really practical (or even remotely interesting!) for me to detail out 6 weeks worth of workout material, so I'll just try to hit the highlights.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I was preparing for the Oak Bay KOOL 1/2 Marathon. I've gotta give a shout out to Dave Milne and his staff at Peninsula Runners for putting on a great event. Race day (May 25th) dawned calm and cloudy - perfect racing conditions! I took off at the start maybe a wee bit too fast (3'49" first km) but settled down and hit the 10K mark at 39'59" - bang on projected pace. The second 10K has a bit more "up" than "down" in it, so I wasn't tremendously surprised with 40'55" for the second 10K split. Official finish time ... 1:25:03, which was fast enough for a 14th place overall finish, and a (surprising!) 3rd place in my age category. The full list of results is here. One other point of interest for this race - having run most of the course on my own, I was lucky enough to hook up with 2 other runners for the last 4 km's or so (is 3 runners considered a pack?). We traded off the lead several times, and with just a few hundred metres to go (most of which was uphill) they took off and left me in their wake. I just didn't have anything left in the tank for a solid finish kick. Kudos to them both for pulling me along those last few km's - thanx Jordan and Greg.

This year, so far, has been a banner year for me in the running department - I've set PR's at 5K, 10K and half-marathon distances, and have thus far remained mostly injury-free. All the signs are pointing to another PR this fall at the Royal Victoria Marathon in October. There are no guarantees at the marathon distance, tho .. last year I started the race feeling totally pumped for a PR, and ended up not even finishing (see this post for a full recap). This year, I have chosen to follow a (very ambitious!) training program designed by Bruce Deacon. I'll try to keep you posted on my progress - I'm finding it very hard to squeeze in "blog time" between work and running and the rest of my life.

I did hit one major milestone earlier this month. Before I get there, I have to digress into a bit of history... Although I ran in high school and military college, I drifted away from the sport in 1990. For the next 14 years, I didn't pay much attention to my health ... I smoked for over 10 of those years, and tried quitting several times before it finally stuck. There were a couple of failed attempts at returning to running in earnest as well. I marked my official "quit date" as August 28th, 2004. My "return to running" started (painfully, if memory serves) on October 1st that same year. Since that first run, I have been faithfully logging my workouts, and keeping track of my total mileage. On June 3rd, I officially passed the 8000 km mark of cumulative distance. I haven't figured out how many training hours that translates into - lots and lots would be the short answer!

One last bit of news ... Michelle and I are looking forward to July 1st - we're both participating in the HBC "Run for Canada" here in Victoria. I'm running the 10K event at 8:00 AM, then Michelle and I are going to do the 3km walk together at 10:00. We're both very excited - it's a great cause and a fun way to spend some time together, too!

That's enough for tonight (that's more than enough you might say!) I'll try to post shorter, more frequent entries, but I can't promise anything. For anyone who stuck around to the end of this post, thanx for taking the time to read.

I can't believe how fast time flies!

It's been 10 days since my last post - where does the time go? I've got lots of info to pass on so I'll try to keep it brief - try being the operative word. Anyone who knows me, or has even read some of my previous posts knows that me and "brief" are virtually complete strangers.

• Monday April 28th - took the bus out to Saanichton to go for a leisurely bike ride with my daughter. It was such a nice day when I left Victoria - it started raining by the time my daughter and I left her house to bike to Sidney. We made it there without getting too wet, then bused back to her house. I decided to ride home - 23 of the most miserable biking kilometers I care to recall. It was raining, cold, windy, and I was seriously under dressed for the conditions (not to mention still sore and supposedly recovering from the TC 10K race the day before!) All in all, not a stellar day, nor a stellar workout.
• Tuesday April 29th - in the interest of recovery, I went for a very easy 500m swim, then paid a visit to Elements of Health Centre for some much-needed massage therapy. Asta Kovenan is a Registered Massage Therapist, and a recent addition to their staff. She spent about an hour working on my legs, and helped me find all the sore spots that I didn't know were there! I only just started working with Asta, and I plan on continuing to have treatments with her on a regular basis.
• Wednesday April 30th - easy recovery-paced run, about 7 km's at about 4'42" per km.
• Thursday May 1st - rest day (from running), but ended up working overtime - loooong day on the bus!
• Friday May 2nd - unplanned rest day - too tired to work out.
• Saturday May 3rd - back at it - 14 km in just over an hour, last 2 km's in 4'12" and 4'02" for a nice strong finish.
• Sunday May 4th - decided to do a dry run of the Oak Bay "KOOL" 1/2 Marathon course (for a course map, click here). My original plan was to run the course in around 1 hr 40 min, just to check it out, and not to try anything too hard. I ended up completing the route in just over 90 minutes instead - something closer to marathon race pace! *sigh* Apparently, I have problems taking it easy - in my defense, Sunday morning was absolutely gorgeous running weather, and I hit the street feeling like a million bucks. Can you blame me for going too hard?
• Sunday May 4th, evening - softball with the BC Transit Softball team (still no name - we're working on it!) It turns out that I can't run the bases like a kid anymore - I managed to pull a muscle in area of my upper left quadricep, just below the TFL. I came home limping, and got a decent tongue lashing from my wife for over doing it! Silly me...
• Monday May 5th - rest day, with some ice a couple of times in the evening on the sore leg.
• Today - went out for a nice 40-min ride on the Trek before taking it in to the shop for a tune-up. When I went back to get the bike, Don spent about 15 minutes with me tweaking my riding position and giving me some tips on pedal dynamics. I'm looking forward to my next ride!

That's plenty for this post, I think - the next few weeks, I'll be focusing on preparations for the Oak Bay Half. This will be my first race at the 21.1 km distance - I'm looking forward to the challenge. In the meantime, happy running to all :-) Cheers.

39:12!

Well folks, the title says it all for today's post ... a new personal best at the 10K distance!! Today was the 19th annual running of the ever-popular Times Colonist 10K event here in Victoria. I hit the street this morning at 8:00 AM sharp along with close to 11,000 other runners and walkers. The weather was perfect for a 10K event - not too cold, but dead calm and slightly overcast. I started near the front of my predicted finish time, and ran the first kilometer slower than my projected race pace (4:03). This represents a huge achievement for me, because I tend to shoot off the start line like a jackrabbit, and inevitably pay for it later on in the race. I picked it up for km's 2 and 3 (3:49 and 3:46 respectively), then calmed down and maintained a sub-4 minute pace for the rest of the event. I would like to say that I ran the last km faster than any other, but the best I could manage by that point was 3:55 - still nothing to be disappointed with for me! All in all, I am very pleased with this morning's race. Apparently the combination of distance training and speed sessions that I've been employing over the last 2 months paid off HUGE today!

Enough about me already! Congratulations to everyone who came out for today's event. I was very pleased to see a number of my 10K clinic participants running strong right up to the finish line. Well done! You should be very proud of yourselves! (For a full list of race results, click here.) I was especially pleased to see Brenda S. finish in 57:09 - she put in so much hard work and dedication during the clinic this year. We had planned for her to run "under 60 minutes", although we never quite agreed just how far under 60 minutes we were shooting for! Apparently, she was right and I was wrong - good for you, Brenda!!

I gotta cut this short folks - I start work soon, and I can't be late! I'll be writing more in a couple of days - it's time to start planning for the next race... As always, thanks for stopping by!

Just a quick note (for once!)

I just wanted to pass on a bit of news before hitting the hay tonight ... yesterday, I took another step toward my competing in my first triathlon - I picked up a really skookum pair of Nike bicycle shoes, and a set of Shimano SPD clipless pedals. The folks at Fort St Cycle (where I bought my bike about a year ago) were a tremendous help, assisting me in choosing the gear, then installing it on no notice in under an hour! Then, they set me up on a wind-trainer so I could get the hang of "unclipping" without having to endure the pain and humiliation of falling over on a busy street corner. It took a few tries (let's face it - I'm not always a fast learner!) but I soon got the hang of it. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to "clip in" ... getting out proved to be much easier.

Over the past 6 months or so, I've been considering going "clipless", and I've picked the brains of any cyclist I could get to talk to me. They all told me the same thing - you'll be amazed at the difference it will make to your riding (instantly!), and you'll wonder why you waited so long to get them. I gotta tell ya - everyone was totally correct - I just can't get over what a difference it makes! Admittedly, my longest trek since yesterday has only been 5K, so I suppose I should wait until I've had the chance to really hit the road before declaring them an absolute success. Nevertheless, I'm very pleased with how they feel, and with how quickly I am adapting to them. Stay tuned for further updates!

One last quick note - I want to give a shout out to Pano at Trainharder.com ... he was kind enough to add my blog to his site - apparently at least one person other than me has read my blog after all! There is a TON of material on his site, so if you're looking for tips, tricks, or stories, go check it out!

Alas, that is all for this evening ... 'twas an early morning on the bus today, and the alarm clock isn't gonna care if I stay up all night blogging! Until next time, thanx for stopping by :-)