Nova Scotia had a huge day on Marathon Monday. Huge. Actually, to be more specific, Cliff’s training group (tentatively called Cliff’s Antiques) had a huge day at Boston. How’s this for huge:
Denise Robson (2:43:16) – 1st Masters (40+) woman, which carries a purse of $10,000; 24th woman overall; first Canadian woman; 8th Canadian overall.
Rami Bardeesy (2:27:22) – 3rd Masters men, which carries a purse of $2,500; 47th overall; 45th male overall; first Canadian overall.
Leah Jabbour (2:59:48) – 76th woman overall; 5th Canadian woman.
Rami and Leah ran PB times, while Denise ran her fastest Boston. It was amazing to witness their journeys all through the winter and spring. I can’t wait to hear all their stories.
But just as Boston ends, another RNS race gears up. This Sunday is the Greenwood 10k, the first Timex series race on the calendar. My own training has kind of stunk over the past few weeks. The long hours of editing, the poor eating, and the lack of full sleeps has taken some of the jump out of my legs. On Saturday, we were doing 5x1mile @ 5:30/mile (3:25/km), and I just couldn’t keep up. By the end of each interval, I was (as they say) “going to face” – you know, when you’re working so hard that your face gets all screwed up – that’s going to face, and it means you’re in trouble.
But I’m not going to worry too much about it. My goal for the race is “simply” to run under 36min, so I “only” need to average 3:35/km (about 5:45/mile). Not too long ago that was a solid 5k race pace for me, so we’ll see if I can actually pull it off. From what I hear, the course only has one real hill, but the conditions will have to be good if I’m going to knock 30s off my PB.
Happy trails – hope to have some stories to share soon that aren’t about me!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Lung Run Extravaganza
I finally have a chance to give you guys a race report from the Lung Run. I’ve been editing EMBA Major Research Projects non-stop for about three weeks now, but it looks like I have the night off (fingers crossed) – maybe I’ll even get a full-night’s sleep tonight. Yay!
Okay, so. If you scroll down this blog page a bit and look at the right-hand column, you’ll notice that my PB for the 5k has changed: it’s now 17:09. Ya hoo! Not only that – we raised $310 for the NS Lung Association! Not bad at all. I was actually really moved by how generous people were with donations. When I sent out those emails, I kind of figured they’d be ignored. Not so!
The race was a big success for the NSLA – they had over 500 people show up for the kid’s 1.5k and the general 5k. Those are huge numbers for a local race – it’s really established itself as the premier 5k event in the province. And there were some big guns running. The kid who won is from down the South Shore in Bridgewater, and not only was he a provincial high school champion, but he also represented Canada at the World Junior Cross-Country championships in Poland not too long ago. He won this race in around 15:30 – not bad for a day with 40-50km/h winds in pretty much every direction!
The top female crossed the line in 17:30 – another blistering time, given the conditions. She was ahead of me for the first 800m or so before I pulled ahead. I was thinking that she could tuck in behind me and draft during the first mile, which was straight into the big wind, but she fell off the pace after another half a k.
That first mile was brutal. First of all, I made my usual mistake of lining up behind slower people, which forced me to weave in and out of runners for the first 200m in order to establish my pace. I’m not sure why I do that at bigger races. Part of me thinks that lining up a bit back will prevent me from going out too quickly, but it doesn’t – it just makes me waste energy trying to pick my way through the crowd, and it keeps me from establishing an efficient rhythm right from the start. At the same time, it feels a bit cocky to toe the line with guys I know are going to leave me in the dust, although not everyone who lines up in front stays in front. It’s funny – there’s a strange etiquette in the starting pack, and where you seed yourself communicates exactly how you see your own running. And I don’t want to be that guy who lines up in front but always finishes mid-pack – there’s one guy in particular who always pulls that shit, and everyone knows it but him. Alas.
Anyway... like I was saying... that first mile was brutal – after getting out of the crowd and making the first big turn from south to north after about 200m, we hit a monstrous head wind along Terminal Road. Man, it sucked. But I just locked in my effort level and focussed on cycling my hips (like Cliff always says, although nobody’s really sure what the hell he’s on about). There was a clock at the one-mile mark, and I could see as I was approaching it that I was way off pace. Usually I’m too fast over the first mile, but this time I was too slow. I was looking for a 5:20 or better, but I crossed at 5:30. From that moment on, I knew I had to adjust my expectations.
I’d hoped turning back south after mile one would mean an awesome tail wind – but this is Halifax, and this is the North Atlantic – there’s no such thing as a tail wind: there are only heavy head winds and lighter head winds. So I sucked it up, stayed focused on what I had to do to stay strong and just gutted the last two miles. There was only one hill of any note, which makes this the flattest and fastest race on the RNS calendar. The lack of hills made it easier to maintain the effort – but down the stretch, I could see the clock ticking away, and although I gave it everything over those last 200m, I couldn’t dip under 17. Alas.
But it was a fun race, and it was still a big PB. At first, I was pretty disappointed at missing the sub-17, but I got over it fairly quickly, especially as I saw the folks from the Learn-to Run group cross the line. They were awesome – and later they gave both Nick and me thank you cards with generous gifts tucked inside. I may not have finished top 3 to win shoes (actually, I was well back in 13th), but I got a gift certificate that will take me much of the way to a new pair. Those guys were great.
Anyway – the Lung Run made me super optimistic for the upcoming season. Next stop is the Greenwood 10k in just over a week. I’m looking to dip under 36 minutes in that one. But first, I need to get at least a couple of full sleeps!
Okay, so. If you scroll down this blog page a bit and look at the right-hand column, you’ll notice that my PB for the 5k has changed: it’s now 17:09. Ya hoo! Not only that – we raised $310 for the NS Lung Association! Not bad at all. I was actually really moved by how generous people were with donations. When I sent out those emails, I kind of figured they’d be ignored. Not so!
The race was a big success for the NSLA – they had over 500 people show up for the kid’s 1.5k and the general 5k. Those are huge numbers for a local race – it’s really established itself as the premier 5k event in the province. And there were some big guns running. The kid who won is from down the South Shore in Bridgewater, and not only was he a provincial high school champion, but he also represented Canada at the World Junior Cross-Country championships in Poland not too long ago. He won this race in around 15:30 – not bad for a day with 40-50km/h winds in pretty much every direction!
The top female crossed the line in 17:30 – another blistering time, given the conditions. She was ahead of me for the first 800m or so before I pulled ahead. I was thinking that she could tuck in behind me and draft during the first mile, which was straight into the big wind, but she fell off the pace after another half a k.
That first mile was brutal. First of all, I made my usual mistake of lining up behind slower people, which forced me to weave in and out of runners for the first 200m in order to establish my pace. I’m not sure why I do that at bigger races. Part of me thinks that lining up a bit back will prevent me from going out too quickly, but it doesn’t – it just makes me waste energy trying to pick my way through the crowd, and it keeps me from establishing an efficient rhythm right from the start. At the same time, it feels a bit cocky to toe the line with guys I know are going to leave me in the dust, although not everyone who lines up in front stays in front. It’s funny – there’s a strange etiquette in the starting pack, and where you seed yourself communicates exactly how you see your own running. And I don’t want to be that guy who lines up in front but always finishes mid-pack – there’s one guy in particular who always pulls that shit, and everyone knows it but him. Alas.
Anyway... like I was saying... that first mile was brutal – after getting out of the crowd and making the first big turn from south to north after about 200m, we hit a monstrous head wind along Terminal Road. Man, it sucked. But I just locked in my effort level and focussed on cycling my hips (like Cliff always says, although nobody’s really sure what the hell he’s on about). There was a clock at the one-mile mark, and I could see as I was approaching it that I was way off pace. Usually I’m too fast over the first mile, but this time I was too slow. I was looking for a 5:20 or better, but I crossed at 5:30. From that moment on, I knew I had to adjust my expectations.
I’d hoped turning back south after mile one would mean an awesome tail wind – but this is Halifax, and this is the North Atlantic – there’s no such thing as a tail wind: there are only heavy head winds and lighter head winds. So I sucked it up, stayed focused on what I had to do to stay strong and just gutted the last two miles. There was only one hill of any note, which makes this the flattest and fastest race on the RNS calendar. The lack of hills made it easier to maintain the effort – but down the stretch, I could see the clock ticking away, and although I gave it everything over those last 200m, I couldn’t dip under 17. Alas.
But it was a fun race, and it was still a big PB. At first, I was pretty disappointed at missing the sub-17, but I got over it fairly quickly, especially as I saw the folks from the Learn-to Run group cross the line. They were awesome – and later they gave both Nick and me thank you cards with generous gifts tucked inside. I may not have finished top 3 to win shoes (actually, I was well back in 13th), but I got a gift certificate that will take me much of the way to a new pair. Those guys were great.
Anyway – the Lung Run made me super optimistic for the upcoming season. Next stop is the Greenwood 10k in just over a week. I’m looking to dip under 36 minutes in that one. But first, I need to get at least a couple of full sleeps!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Lung Run Countdown
First off -- a huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me for the CUA Lung Run. I've never run for charity before, but I really like the idea of running for a cause. Running is so darn self-focused, so it's nice when community stuff can wiggle its way in there -- even in small ways.
So here’s my scoop (didn't I say it is self-focused?). My first race of the 2010 season goes on the 10th. It’s the Lung Run down at Pier 21 – a flat 5k. I’m looking for a big PB. After a hard winter of training under Cliff’s watchful eye, I see no reason not to go out hard, looking for a sub-17 minute finish.
Ambitious for the first race? Yup. But why the heck not?
To run under 17:00, I’ll need to average better than 3:24/km. That’s pretty daunting for me – it’s more than 5 seconds per kilometre faster than my current PB pace. That may not sound like much, but it’s plenty. The faster you get, the more work it takes to cut seconds per kilometre.
But I’m trying to be confident. I’ve done some pretty fast stuff (relatively speaking, of course) on the track over the past few weeks. I’ve even done 8 x 1km @ 3:20/km and 6 x 1.2km @ 3:20/km. But even though the volume of those two workouts was over 5km, there were rests between the intervals – not long rests, but rests nonetheless. How will my body react to a sustained effort at that pace?
Last Saturday’s workout at Point Pleasant shook my confidence a bit. Cliff wanted me to pick up the pace slightly to 3:17 or 3:18, doing 4x4:00 and 1x5:00 – but I couldn’t do it. In fact, I couldn’t even hit 3:20 pace. I felt sluggish and fatigued and just couldn’t keep up with the other guys. Granted, it was freezing cold, there were tons of off-leash dogs getting in the way, and there were inclines, but there was no good reason why I shouldn’t have been able to hit 3:20 pace. It sucked.
I did 20k easy on Sunday, but I still felt tired. On Monday, I was exhausted and frustrated – so I dumped my run. But you know what – I think dumping runs when I feel beat is the right strategy for me. Today, I ran an easy 10k and ran 4:20s very comfortably. I felt like I had some pep back. So now I’m wondering if my body reacts best to extremes – hard work then full rest. Tomorrow’s hard workout will be a good test – we’ll see if I can handle whatever Cliff throws at me.
So here’s my scoop (didn't I say it is self-focused?). My first race of the 2010 season goes on the 10th. It’s the Lung Run down at Pier 21 – a flat 5k. I’m looking for a big PB. After a hard winter of training under Cliff’s watchful eye, I see no reason not to go out hard, looking for a sub-17 minute finish.
Ambitious for the first race? Yup. But why the heck not?
To run under 17:00, I’ll need to average better than 3:24/km. That’s pretty daunting for me – it’s more than 5 seconds per kilometre faster than my current PB pace. That may not sound like much, but it’s plenty. The faster you get, the more work it takes to cut seconds per kilometre.
But I’m trying to be confident. I’ve done some pretty fast stuff (relatively speaking, of course) on the track over the past few weeks. I’ve even done 8 x 1km @ 3:20/km and 6 x 1.2km @ 3:20/km. But even though the volume of those two workouts was over 5km, there were rests between the intervals – not long rests, but rests nonetheless. How will my body react to a sustained effort at that pace?
Last Saturday’s workout at Point Pleasant shook my confidence a bit. Cliff wanted me to pick up the pace slightly to 3:17 or 3:18, doing 4x4:00 and 1x5:00 – but I couldn’t do it. In fact, I couldn’t even hit 3:20 pace. I felt sluggish and fatigued and just couldn’t keep up with the other guys. Granted, it was freezing cold, there were tons of off-leash dogs getting in the way, and there were inclines, but there was no good reason why I shouldn’t have been able to hit 3:20 pace. It sucked.
I did 20k easy on Sunday, but I still felt tired. On Monday, I was exhausted and frustrated – so I dumped my run. But you know what – I think dumping runs when I feel beat is the right strategy for me. Today, I ran an easy 10k and ran 4:20s very comfortably. I felt like I had some pep back. So now I’m wondering if my body reacts best to extremes – hard work then full rest. Tomorrow’s hard workout will be a good test – we’ll see if I can handle whatever Cliff throws at me.
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