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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Race Preview: Tour de King

I was going to try to describe this race in my own words, but I gave up trying, so here's what the organizers said it was:
An event for everyone from the first-time rider to the seasoned pro taking you for a ride on some of the best back-roads, trails and terrain that Southern Ontario has to offer. This is a great course for mountain bikes, and cyclo-cross bikes with about 10% paved road, 40% gravel road and 50% trail - which equals a 100% fun (less trail for the 35 km)! At the finish line a cycling festival with an amazing kid’s race, band, climbing wall, expo area and barbeque await

So basically it's a 52km bike race that throws a little bit of everything at you, modeled after the immensely successful (and fun!) Paris to Ancaster.  Hopefully minus the mud chutes!

What Bike?

I'm a bit confused on this... at first, the description suggested cyclocross, but late details referring to some of the road allowances as "knarly" and the amount of single-track made me consider using my mountain bike.  When mountain bike guys use words like "knarly", they often mean something pretty dire!

But... I love my cyclocross bike, and I'm doing this more for fun and to check it out than anything.

Also we went out a couple of weeks ago and hit the singletrack in Durham Forest on the cross bikes just to check it out... it was hugely fun, and I was shocked how comfortable I felt in there.  As long as it's not too "knarly", it should be the right choice, and whatever I give up on the "knarly" and single track I should be able to get back on the roads.

Wait... Aren't You Training for a Marathon?

Yes, but I've built cross-training into my plan from the start.  I did my long run mid-week (yesterday) to give lots of time to recover, so a couple more short runs this week before the race.

That being said, I'm not really in peak cycling shape right now... my biking has fallen off late in the year as the focus has shifted to running.  This will be more of a "B" or "C" race.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Race Report: Run Ajax 1/2 Marathon

I am always eager to write up my race report when everything goes well, but when things go off the rails it's a bit more like work!  But there are more lessons in a humbling result than in an ego-booster, so here we go.

Day Before

I pre-rode the course on my bike yesterday, and found it was a lot hillier than I had remembered.  These aren't long arduous climbs, but rather short little steep ups and downs.  I knew it would be a tough day, and getting a personal best would be challenging... but I decided to try anyway.

In fact, I biked just shy of 40km yesterday... not really that long, but not what you typically want to do the day before a race.  I don't know if this was a factor in how things went, but not the smartest thing to do any way you cut it!

Race Day

I started the race feeling pretty good.  I was easily holding the 4:30/km I needed, assisted partially by going net downhill.  The little rollers on this first section weren't that bad, and I was still fresh.

I got to the 6km mark still on my pace, but my heart rate was creeping up on me... from the 170bpm I try to hold to 175ish.  Probably partly due to the headwind, partly due to the hills. I had a choice, either back off and nurse it down or keep going at the target pace... I chose to hold the pace, which was probably pretty stupid, but I really was out to PB and anything less would be a fail!

By the time I got to 10km, things were starting to falter... I got there at 45:00, almost bang-on 4:30/km pace, but now it was really feeling like work.

There is an out-and-back on Lakeridge, somehow it felt uphill both ways.  I'm still not sure which way was downhill, but by this point I felt awful and I knew sub-1:35 was not happening.  From then on I pretty much mailed it in, dropping way off to something closer to 5:00/km pace... this coincided with getting a tail-wind, which sounds good - but in the hot sun, it proved to be miserable!

At about 19km, there is one last long hill.  It's not steep, but it just goes on and on.  Miserable stuff!

Finally, mercifully, I came to the short downhill that lead to the finish.  One guy who had just passed me was within striking distance, so somehow I managed to find enough for a finishing kick and blew by him.  An ounce of satisfaction to go with my pound of disappointment.

Final result - 1:40:30 (21/261, 9/33 M30-39)

What Happened?

I burned too many matches early on trying to hold an overly ambitious 4:30/km pace and bombed out.  This course was tough and I didn't give it enough respect, bit me.  Lessor factors - the wind and heat in the second half, maybe the lack of taper.

The weird thing is - as my pace dropped from 4:30/km to 5:00+/km, very few people passed me.  I even stopped to tie my shoes - not once, but twice.  I think this course humbled a lot of people today.


Enjoyed a beer with a couple I met on the RunningMania forums - nice to meet in person and put some faces to the names.  Even better when it involves a much needed beer! :)

Next up... Tour de King, cyclocross race (sort-of) next weekend.  Probably shouldn't be doing it during marathon training, but it's going to be fun, so........

Thursday, September 22, 2011

100 Pushups - Attempt #2

The goal - 100 consecutive push-ups.

This site has a plan to get there.  Pretty simple - you increase the number each session until eventually you can do it!  They alter the amount of rest between sets and such, but really all it is is repetition and incremental increase.

I originally tried this 3 years ago... but I felt some aches and pains that were impacting my swimming right at the start of Ironman training, so I stopped.  Now I'm off the swimming, so there's really no excuse! 

In the initial test I was only able to do 12... pretty sad.  First day was tough - I barely got through all the sets, and I'm really sore today.  Lots of work to do here, but hey, I was a pretty crappy runner when I started that too...

Update #1:  OK so it really didn't go that great for the first few weeks... I don't know why they have you doing 12 push-up sets when your initial test was 12???  It makes no sense.  I figure I'll be better off if I drop the number in each set and actually do it, so instead of column 3 as they suggested, I'm using column 2 and starting over.  Today I did 6-6-4-4-8, and it felt really good (although those numbers look so pathetic!).  I would rather feel good and actually achieve this thing than strain myself and never get there!  More updates to come...

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Race Preview: Run Ajax Waterfront 1/2 Marathon

Back when there was still snow on the ground, I decided to join this 5k/10k/21k speed challenge.

It's nothing formal, just setting goals for the year in each distance.

My goals:
5k: <20:00 (2011 best: 20:12)
10k: <42:00 (2011 best: 40:53 - done!)
21.1k: <1:35:00 (2011 best: 1:36:05)

The goal for the Ajax 1/2 is simple: sub-1:35:00!  4:30/km.  Go big or go home. 

Pacing plan is easy since there is no plan B!  Start at 4:30/km and hold 4:30/km until I either triumphantly cross the finish or collapse into a ball of goo (or is that Gu?).

As for the course, I have run the Ajax waterfront a few times, it's a recreational trail with some small hills.  The east end of course is the same as the Whitby marathon course so I know it, and it's not that easy.   Waterfront is pretty, but can be windy.

Not an ideal race to be trying to set a PB, but it's the only half that fit nicely into my NYC marathon training.  I set the 1:36:05 at the Whitby 1/2, which isn't a great PB course either, so there's no reason it shouldn't be possible.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Race Report: Logs Rocks & Steel

What an experience... lots of fun!  Finished 4th of the male pairs, which we're really happy with (especially given our lack of canoe prowess!).

The Course

Adventure racing is definitely a different kettle of fish from my usual race.  It's tough stuff - more "adventure" than "race"!  We did the "Pinecrest Course", which featured a 4k canoe, 21km mountain bike, and 5k trail run.

The canoe course was just a big lake - nothing tricky about it other than our lack of experience.  We finished around where we hoped, in just over 30 minutes, but when you can see a bunch of boats ahead of you and not so many behind it doesn't feel great! .

The bike course started with some easy gravel road, but then we went off that and into the trails.

The trails were not your typical well groomed mountain bike trails - it was a more natural surface, which in the Barrens means lots of rock and a generous dose of mud.  Lots of people walking their bikes, including me at times... I had a tough time with this course, the rocks just bounced me around like crazy.  I wiped out a couple of times, low-speed but still confidence-shakers (but certainly not as badly as the guy claiming he broke his arm!)  I held us up while I mucked through the thing, but we were still passing people as everyone struggled with the same conditions.

Then there's a long paved road section back to the camp... this was our time to shine, we really put the hammer down and I felt really good again.   One team offered to work with us, but it was clear they really meant "we're going to sit on your wheel for the next 10km"... forget that, I put the hammer down and we pulled away from them.

The run was diabolical... I guess technically they were trails, but in some sections I would certainly debate that.  Climbing on top of large boulders, sharp climbs, very tricky and technical.  I got some pretty awesome scratches on my legs (if you don't bleed it wasn't much of an adventure, right?) from the foliage.  Challenging stuff!  We almost got lost a few times, but fortunately between my teammate and I one of us always noticed any mistakes.  I'm pretty sure the course was short by a bit, but my GPS might have lost some distance in the twisty bits, and I was gassed enough that I didn't mind at all when we came out and heard the finish!

The craziest thing about the course is that there is a longer version... it's staggering to think of doing a 14km canoe with portages, 50km on that terrain of mountain biking, then having to run 16km of insanity!  Kudos to anyone who got through that.

Other Things About the Race

I really liked the post-race meal, it was a fantastic spread of sandwich stuff, salads, fruits, veggies, deserts... mmm!

The location was spectacular.  Beautiful lake, trees, rock, Muskoka at its best.  The facilities at the camp were also spot on.

The attitude is much less anal-retentive than the triathlon crowd I'm used to.  The lack of organization in transition was a bit frustrating, as people had put their bikes all on one side of the rack and left no space... but whatever, not a big deal.  The start was also a bit ambiguous... where's the start line?  Who knows?  We just kind of lined up and went when they told us to go!  Mostly it was refreshing rather than frustrating though.

The course was mostly well marked, but there were a few confusing points where we could have gotten lost... and listening in on other people's conversations after the race, several did.  I did an off-road tri a couple of weeks ago that used a more generous amount of plastic ribbon to make it very very clear where to go at every turn, that would have helped.  But honestly, I didn't mind other people getting lost! ;)

The shirts are awesome - T-shirts made of really soft bamboo material.  Guats is the brand (they also sponsored the race) -  I didn't even know this existed, it's excellent.  I'm not affiliated with them in any way BTW!

All in all a great time, it's on my short-list to do again next year!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Race Preview: Logs Rocks & Steel

What is it?

Canoe 4k, mountain bike 22k, and finish it off with a 5k run.  I will be participating in the team category with a buddy of mine.

There is also a more challenging "Championship Course" that features a 14k paddle, 50k mountain bike, and 16k trail run... maybe next year!

Race website

Race Preparation

I have been doing a lot more off-road biking than usual this year, and throwing some trail running into my run training as well.  I did pretty well in my recent off-road duathlon (Mine over Matter), so I'm feeling good about those two portions of the race.

The canoe is a different matter - neither of us has all that much experience.  We got out a few times to practice and mostly have the hang of keeping the boat straight, which is half the battle.  We managed to complete a few 4km loops in a comparable time to some of the top times from last year (around 30 minutes), but that was according to GPS... navigating a 4k course won't be quite as straight and perfect, we'll probably cover more than 4k!  Hopefully we don't lose too much time here and can make it up later.

The Goal

It's our first adventure race, so goal is just to have fun and push hard!  I don't quite know what to expect in terms of results, hopefully we're high up there, but if we're not then there will be some work to do for 2012.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Setting a Marathon Goal Pace

Anticipating your race pace is never easy, and with only two marathons under my belt it's that much more complicated.  Add to that the fact that my shorter race distances are still getting faster and it's a bit of a crap-shoot what my target race pace should be.

Rewind back to 2010...

I used the McMillan Running Calculator with a 1/2 marathon time of 1:41:10.  This predicted a marathon time of around 3:33, so I set my goal at 3:35.

Result: 3:44:06.  Ouch.  I faded badly at the end.

I can only guess why... bad day?  Not enough mileage?  Or was the calculator just too optimistic??  All of the above?


This year I plugged my new 1/2 marathon PB of 1:36:05 into McMillan.  It is now predicting a marathon time of 3:22:38 (4:49/km pace).

If I assume the calculator is optimistic by 11 minutes, that leaves me shooting for the 3:33 I didn't get last year.  This works out to a pace of 5:03/km, which sounds more achievable.

I have a marathon race pace 21km LSD tomorrow, I'll test out the 5:03/km and see just how it feels.  Hope to see a low heart rate and feel like a million bucks at the end!