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 :-)

A New Beginning ... perhaps

Nearly 6 months has gone by since my last post here ... hardly what you could call a prolific writer, by any standard! The fact that no-one seems to have noticed is only slightly demoralizing - I sometimes wonder if anyone other than me has even read this thing! It seems to me, though, that when I first started writing this blog, I chose first and foremost to do it for myself. I have been feeling the "pull" of writing here for some time now, tho ... perhaps after tonight, I'll stick with it. As they say, only time will tell...

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has read this blog to know that I have been running (gasp! really - it's true!) a fair bit. I've logged just over 1000 km since my last post, not to mention just over 46 km swimming, too! I'm seeing results, tho ... my aerobic fitness has improved quite a bit, probably thanks to the swimming more than anything else. I'm starting to see some results on the road, too. I recently ran the Esquimalt 5K "Fun Run", and won the event, setting a PR in the process. It was a new experience for me - I've never led a race before, so I got to be the guy chasing around the police motorcycle at the front! The course was rather hilly, too, so I was doubly excited to set a PR. There is a results page here. Unfortunately, this was not an "official" event, so there wasn't an "official" time. In any event, I finished the event almost a minute faster than my next-fastest time, so I can't complain.

One of my long-standing goals, from a running perspective, is to break the 40-minute barrier in a 10K event prior to turning 40 years of age. So far, I've come close - 40:35 last July in the HBC run for Canada - so I'm still working on it. My next attempt is coming up pretty soon - the 2008 Times Colonist 10K, here in Victoria. This year, for the first time, in addition to training for the event myself, I volunteered to work as a run leader for one of the 10K Training Clinics. We've been faithfully meeting Monday nights since January 21st. I would have to say that I've gotten the most satisfaction out of working with the clinic participants. I wish them all the best of luck in this year's event! No matter what time they cross the finish line with, I'll be proud of them all for coming out and completing the event.

So that's it for now ... I'd love to promise more frequent posts, but I don't like making promises that I might not keep. So I'll say "So Long" for now, and hopefully it won't be "so long" before I post again. Cheers!