And so it ends. Race 5 of the series went on Saturday morning at 10:00 AM. Sunshine and pleasant running temps met all at the Albion Hills Conservation area park. There was a half marathon event that preceded the enduro and sport runs, but had a bit of a hiccup as runners blew through the first (unmanned) turn and ended up running in the wrong direction. A few of the runners switched to sport and enduro to get something in that day. The later races were directed properly at the first turn and went on hitchless.
As I was in a tie for second place, I made the effort to spot my counterpart (although I only had a vague idea of what he looked like) at the start. A runner in wave two looked about as close as I was going to find so I opted to go in the front of that wave to be in the same general area. I had one of two plans going in; plan A) find him and stick with him no matter what; plan B) run my race and hope it holds up. I settled on a hybrid, sticking close enough to keep him in sight but not at the risk of toasting my own effort.
The hybrid approach worked out well. As counterpart weaved in and out of traffic and laid down some hard sprints to get ahead, I made moves when necessary (i.e. runner ahead too slow) but kept the effort down enough to sustain me through the race. This was not a technically difficult course, but demanding in terms of hills as they seemed relentless. Somewhere around 4k I spotted him having to walk a portion of a hill, and about half way I passed him as he had to walk an entire long hill. It may have been that the course turned out tougher than he expected, or maybe he just plain overdid it early. At any rate, once I made the pass halfway I was pretty well clear to the end.
I think my training went well on this one. Not the max I could have done, but I stayed consistent and didn't enter any lax periods. One particularly hard workout a couple of weeks before the race stuck in my head as having contributed to my readiness. It was midweek, I had a vacation day, and did a nearly 2 hour run down to the beach, over to the water treatment plant, and and executed a half hours worth of steep hill climbs (about 20 odd iterations). I needed to make sure my calves and quads would be in shape for this race so really wanted to run that hill as I would on race day.
I also kept to my plan, with 2 hour long runs every Sunday, hills sprinkled in, and some good solid tempo efforts. At work I have an 8k and 10k route I can follow and made a point of doing a solid tempo on Friday's doing an easy/moderate out 5k leg and a hard 5k leg back. These 5k return legs were done in 22:08, 22:16 and 21:20 over the preceding few weeks. The leg is downhill though so the numbers would be slower on flat, but solid efforts nonetheless.
In the end, I took 3rd in my age group for the race and 2nd a/g for the series.
This is an excellent series to run. There's some hitches here and there, big courses and difficult to arrange, but from a runner's perspective...pretty darn good. I think I'll be back next year, either that or the year after. I'm in good running shape right now and still focusing on more stuff this year.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
5 peaks race #4 - Terra Cotta
4 down, one to go. I'm hanging in there near the top for the 50-59 age group series points, by virtue of showing up at all 4 events so far and holding my own in them. I'm guaranteed one of the top 3 spots for the series (not first, I'm too far back) as the 16 point differential between me and spot #4 is more than 15 points. However, I'm essentially tied with the #3 spot, given that the 4 best results are used for series points. This gives both me and this competitor 37 points for our best 3 events so far. To retain 2nd place at the end, either I beat him, or he finishes 6th or worse in the Albion Hills.
Therefore my task is simple enough. Train hard over the remaining 7 weeks, find this runner at the start of the race, start with him and try to finish ahead of him. If I start in the wrong wave or the wrong spot in the right wave, it'll make it a lot harder to do.
I just finished 2 weeks vacation. Didn't do much running for the first week. At the cottage we rented for the 2nd week I looped lake every day but one. The route is about 10k, very hilly and a good workout each day. Now it's back to the grind, going out in the AM for as much as I can fit in, then squeezing in 5 easy miles mid day.
As for Terra Cotta, very strange course. I commented to another runner that this woud be a very easy course to cheat on, given the number of close interactions between segments. One point in particularly, it's a segment out to a drink station, then you loop a field and return over the same segment, then split off in another direction. Anyone wanting to could just skip that whole segment with a quick right turn and knock a few minutes off their time. And since it's 2 loops, they could do it twice. The runner I was talking to said he saw a couple of runners do just that. I'd like to think that runners are generally honest, but I guess there are exceptions unfortunately.
The Albion Hill course shows similar close encounters between segments. I'll be watching closely to see how those around me fare.
Therefore my task is simple enough. Train hard over the remaining 7 weeks, find this runner at the start of the race, start with him and try to finish ahead of him. If I start in the wrong wave or the wrong spot in the right wave, it'll make it a lot harder to do.
I just finished 2 weeks vacation. Didn't do much running for the first week. At the cottage we rented for the 2nd week I looped lake every day but one. The route is about 10k, very hilly and a good workout each day. Now it's back to the grind, going out in the AM for as much as I can fit in, then squeezing in 5 easy miles mid day.
As for Terra Cotta, very strange course. I commented to another runner that this woud be a very easy course to cheat on, given the number of close interactions between segments. One point in particularly, it's a segment out to a drink station, then you loop a field and return over the same segment, then split off in another direction. Anyone wanting to could just skip that whole segment with a quick right turn and knock a few minutes off their time. And since it's 2 loops, they could do it twice. The runner I was talking to said he saw a couple of runners do just that. I'd like to think that runners are generally honest, but I guess there are exceptions unfortunately.
The Albion Hill course shows similar close encounters between segments. I'll be watching closely to see how those around me fare.
Monday, July 12, 2010
5 Peaks race #3, Rattlesnake Point
With my Saucony Labyrinth trail shoes too deformed to fit my feet comfortably, I had to tackle this venue with a pair of reasonably grippy trainers that I use on local trails. Not the best pair to go with and lost time over the rocks, they also made it more difficult to run. This course seemed tougher than the last time I did, even accounting for the shoes. The hills seemed to be harder to scale.
I started in the back of wave 1 to avoid getting caught up in slower wave 2 runners. I think I was a bit enthusiastic over the first few k and it made the hills a lot harder to ascend. However I had clear space straight through and no holdups, only a couple of wave 2 runners caught me. Weather was good, warm at 25 or so, but dry, and the course was good and dry despite a rainy Friday. I was about the same time as 2 years ago, in the mid 1:04's. I did get within 30 seconds of the two fastest regulars in this division. However, if they had troubles on the course then my time is a bit misleading. My finish position was 4th for 50-59 and 44th overall.
A lot of runners look like they had problems. One particular downhill section on this course is very nasty and falls off unexpectedly quick. I had to brake hard on it to stay in control, the guy behind me sounded like he was anything but in control on the descent but he didn't go down, at least I didn't hear any 'thud' from behind. The med tent post race had wraps and ice packs and bandages going out, lots of folks with cuts and bruises and twisted ankles. One of my a/g competitors must have had a really bad race as he finished more than 40 minutes behind me despite beating me in race 1 (Dundas).
The next event is Terra Cotta and is supposed to be the most 'technical' of the courses, although a touch shorter in length. I think I'll either have to somehow get my Labyrinths up and running or break down and buy a new pair of trails somewhere. I've been trying to find some Saucony Xodus to try but to no avail in the local stores.
I started in the back of wave 1 to avoid getting caught up in slower wave 2 runners. I think I was a bit enthusiastic over the first few k and it made the hills a lot harder to ascend. However I had clear space straight through and no holdups, only a couple of wave 2 runners caught me. Weather was good, warm at 25 or so, but dry, and the course was good and dry despite a rainy Friday. I was about the same time as 2 years ago, in the mid 1:04's. I did get within 30 seconds of the two fastest regulars in this division. However, if they had troubles on the course then my time is a bit misleading. My finish position was 4th for 50-59 and 44th overall.
A lot of runners look like they had problems. One particular downhill section on this course is very nasty and falls off unexpectedly quick. I had to brake hard on it to stay in control, the guy behind me sounded like he was anything but in control on the descent but he didn't go down, at least I didn't hear any 'thud' from behind. The med tent post race had wraps and ice packs and bandages going out, lots of folks with cuts and bruises and twisted ankles. One of my a/g competitors must have had a really bad race as he finished more than 40 minutes behind me despite beating me in race 1 (Dundas).
The next event is Terra Cotta and is supposed to be the most 'technical' of the courses, although a touch shorter in length. I think I'll either have to somehow get my Labyrinths up and running or break down and buy a new pair of trails somewhere. I've been trying to find some Saucony Xodus to try but to no avail in the local stores.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
My monitor is rattling
So it was yesterday. As we sat quietly typing in our office with the hum of the fluorescent lighting and A/C fans in the background on the 2nd floor of our 4 story office building, someone noticed that we seemed to be 'moving'. Kind of rolling a bit up, down, lateral...very minor but noticable.
We get tremors here, on rare occasions. You usually have to be really observant to pick them up. Maybe you'll move a bit, maybe a hanging light will slightly sway or you'll hear a rattle of something loose. This ain't the San Andreas fault we're on but this seemingly solid Earth we sit on isn't so solid. Stuff moves. Ground can push up at fault lines and create mountains (over really long periods of time, mind you!). In our case, it's a remanant of massive glaciers that sat over Ontario and Quebec 10,000 years ago. The weight pushed the ground downwards and after they've long since thawed and flowed away, it's been slowly rebounding ever since.
Yesterday's 5.0 quake was centered near the Quebec border, remarkably close to this 4.0 tremor from Feb. 24, 2006. I'm guessing that particular area had a pretty big pack of ice on it.
Apparently quakes and tremors in this area spread out over very long distances in their affected regions, probably something to do with the lack of distinctive fault lines that absorb a lot of the motion. This one was felt well down the eastern seaboard of the States, although almost not at all east of the epicenter. There is one large fault line that runs N/S in central Quebec that probably contributed to it's lack of effect to the east.
As the rolling sustained, gently, for several seconds, it quickly elevated to some pretty distinctive shaking, as my monitor, pictures and other items on my desk began shacking about, enough that I thought my monitor would topple over. This prompted a spontaneous evacuation of the building by it's residents and the same from most of the other nearby buildings as people quickly flooded the parking lots and sidewalks. I stayed back and checked USGS to see what was up and got a quick posting in on chrunners even as the shaking was happening, whiched recorded my post at 1:43:57, approximately 2 minutes after the epicenter event (about right for wave propogation effects outward from the source).
Pretty neat stuff. There's something fascinating about knowing the Earth isn't just a solid ball floating around in space.
We get tremors here, on rare occasions. You usually have to be really observant to pick them up. Maybe you'll move a bit, maybe a hanging light will slightly sway or you'll hear a rattle of something loose. This ain't the San Andreas fault we're on but this seemingly solid Earth we sit on isn't so solid. Stuff moves. Ground can push up at fault lines and create mountains (over really long periods of time, mind you!). In our case, it's a remanant of massive glaciers that sat over Ontario and Quebec 10,000 years ago. The weight pushed the ground downwards and after they've long since thawed and flowed away, it's been slowly rebounding ever since.
Yesterday's 5.0 quake was centered near the Quebec border, remarkably close to this 4.0 tremor from Feb. 24, 2006. I'm guessing that particular area had a pretty big pack of ice on it.
Apparently quakes and tremors in this area spread out over very long distances in their affected regions, probably something to do with the lack of distinctive fault lines that absorb a lot of the motion. This one was felt well down the eastern seaboard of the States, although almost not at all east of the epicenter. There is one large fault line that runs N/S in central Quebec that probably contributed to it's lack of effect to the east.
As the rolling sustained, gently, for several seconds, it quickly elevated to some pretty distinctive shaking, as my monitor, pictures and other items on my desk began shacking about, enough that I thought my monitor would topple over. This prompted a spontaneous evacuation of the building by it's residents and the same from most of the other nearby buildings as people quickly flooded the parking lots and sidewalks. I stayed back and checked USGS to see what was up and got a quick posting in on chrunners even as the shaking was happening, whiched recorded my post at 1:43:57, approximately 2 minutes after the epicenter event (about right for wave propogation effects outward from the source).
Pretty neat stuff. There's something fascinating about knowing the Earth isn't just a solid ball floating around in space.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
5 peaks race 2
Race #2 of 5 Peaks Southern Ontario series is completed. Improved a little bit and was more than a minute quicker than the last time I did this event although the course may be a bit different than in '08. 36th overall but 4th in my age group which kept me off the podium.
36 JAMES RODGERS TORONTO 5152 1:03:59.4 5:13 M50-59 4/24 32/153
I have to be careful of where I start. I was hung up in traffic for most of the race. When I ran this event 2 years ago I had plenty of free air. I don't think I could have gained enough to make the placement but it would have been close, I was less than a minute back of 3rd place. I was stronger on the hills this than I was in Dundas, passing people instead of being passed, and still had the stride length to beat them on the downhills. On this Durham forest course you're spending a lot of time on hills so it's either run em or fade back. The down hills require some attention to footing though not as bad as Rattlesnake Point will be.
Right back at it though, 11ish miles today but at a recovery pace. Up bright and early tomorrow and I want at least a full hour in the mornings augmented by my noon time runs when I can get them in. A little more quality over these weeks as well, I need to push the tempo runs to a harder pace. We'll see what I can put together for the next 4 weeks.
36 JAMES RODGERS TORONTO 5152 1:03:59.4 5:13 M50-59 4/24 32/153
I have to be careful of where I start. I was hung up in traffic for most of the race. When I ran this event 2 years ago I had plenty of free air. I don't think I could have gained enough to make the placement but it would have been close, I was less than a minute back of 3rd place. I was stronger on the hills this than I was in Dundas, passing people instead of being passed, and still had the stride length to beat them on the downhills. On this Durham forest course you're spending a lot of time on hills so it's either run em or fade back. The down hills require some attention to footing though not as bad as Rattlesnake Point will be.
Right back at it though, 11ish miles today but at a recovery pace. Up bright and early tomorrow and I want at least a full hour in the mornings augmented by my noon time runs when I can get them in. A little more quality over these weeks as well, I need to push the tempo runs to a harder pace. We'll see what I can put together for the next 4 weeks.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Yet another 3 day a week training program
Came across this Toronto based blog called Stellar Runners. They tout the virtues of training according to the plans of the Furman Institutes First Training program. The First program has gained a lot of popularity (or notariety if you wish) with it's 3 days of running and 3 days of cross training style of marathon training. I'm not a fan of it. Some who have tried it had some success, others not so much. Many end up changing it to eliminate the cross training days, often substituting easy runs...this basically makes it pretty well the same as any other training program a-la Higdon or one of the RW plans. The cross training needs to be pretty intense for it to work and the run days are all hard days (tempo, intervals, long) so no real break in the program. I prefer easy runs, doing one quality day a week (hills or intervals depending), one tempo and my long, do a mid long (great for practicing marathon pace) and lots of easy stuff.
Anyway, the blog stumbled on another flavour of 3 day a week plans, this one called the PRO System, which is somehow related to this site called Marathon Nation. It seems this one differs in their use of pace prediction tables from one's 5k times, which they seem to believe reveals your best training strategies. Doesn't really sound like anything McMillan's Pace Calculator couldn't reveal but maybe there's something magical about their implementation that makes it all come together. or not.
It's some mix of threshold pacing for tempos and intervals (nothing new there) and what looks a little like MP and threshold based progression runs for long runs. Personally all I see is a lot of fast running that'll make you hate every workout. And it's all unnecessary.
Marathon training is easy, there's no secret to it. Get out 5-6 days a week, 3 of them nice and easy, keep your long runs easy but don't hesitate to add a little MP paced stuff during them (avoid that in the very long runs though), get a good solid mid week mid long that you can run pretty close to MP pace on. Do a tempo run as well, you can consider alternating the tempo run with intervals or hills on alternate weeks if you wish. The longs are every 2 weeks with mid longs an the in-between weeks, and a classic 3 weeks taper. Always go by feel, know what easy is and don't kid yourself on it, running too hard is counterproductive.
The other really important thing...don't confuse marathon training with proper conditioning training. Marathon training is designed to get you through a marathon, it is not designed to make you a faster overall runner. Another thing to remember, if you do take on marathon training, build a really good solid base by running lots of easy miles before you start formal training. If you're taking on a 50 or 55 mpw plan, don't hesitate to be doing at least that much for a few months before you start. Building a good solid base gives you lots to feed off during training and can make the task so much easier to manage. The miles will toughen you up and you'll be less likely to get injured when you start increasing those long runs. Plus you'll be able to recover faster.
Anyway, the blog stumbled on another flavour of 3 day a week plans, this one called the PRO System, which is somehow related to this site called Marathon Nation. It seems this one differs in their use of pace prediction tables from one's 5k times, which they seem to believe reveals your best training strategies. Doesn't really sound like anything McMillan's Pace Calculator couldn't reveal but maybe there's something magical about their implementation that makes it all come together. or not.
It's some mix of threshold pacing for tempos and intervals (nothing new there) and what looks a little like MP and threshold based progression runs for long runs. Personally all I see is a lot of fast running that'll make you hate every workout. And it's all unnecessary.
Marathon training is easy, there's no secret to it. Get out 5-6 days a week, 3 of them nice and easy, keep your long runs easy but don't hesitate to add a little MP paced stuff during them (avoid that in the very long runs though), get a good solid mid week mid long that you can run pretty close to MP pace on. Do a tempo run as well, you can consider alternating the tempo run with intervals or hills on alternate weeks if you wish. The longs are every 2 weeks with mid longs an the in-between weeks, and a classic 3 weeks taper. Always go by feel, know what easy is and don't kid yourself on it, running too hard is counterproductive.
The other really important thing...don't confuse marathon training with proper conditioning training. Marathon training is designed to get you through a marathon, it is not designed to make you a faster overall runner. Another thing to remember, if you do take on marathon training, build a really good solid base by running lots of easy miles before you start formal training. If you're taking on a 50 or 55 mpw plan, don't hesitate to be doing at least that much for a few months before you start. Building a good solid base gives you lots to feed off during training and can make the task so much easier to manage. The miles will toughen you up and you'll be less likely to get injured when you start increasing those long runs. Plus you'll be able to recover faster.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Speaking of running a lot
The crew at Running Ahead are busy following the progress of one of their members, Michael Henze, who posts under the moniker Dopple Bock. You can tell by the insanely high monthly numbers that he was training for something special, that something being the IAU 24hour Championships in France. At the point of this posting, Mr. Henze had covered 192km in 18 hours and 22 minutes, over a 1.26831 km loop, sitting 20th overall and 3rd American (ultra-maniac Scott Jurek is in 2nd, and 1st American). Besides needing to be loopy just to do this race, doing it on a 1.3k loop would put anyone over the edge.
I can't fathom that much running. I cover 2 hours and I'm ready to quit. It must take some form of fortitude to fight the discomfort and the demons that lurk with the time involved. You would need to be so incredibly comfortable with running, you would need to live it, breath it and basically make it your every waking hour, to run something like this and actually be competitive in it. I don't know what you would do when you finish a race of this type. Drop on the spot...crawl under a leaf and sleep...celebrate by doing a jig. I dunno.
For me, I had a couple of off days, getting only 11 miles from Monday to Wednesday with a few screwups in my schedule (including forgetting to pack my shorts for noontime runs). I did get 12ish in today so it makes up a little bit for it. It's okay, the legs appreciated the short break. Weather's been off this week as well, it seems April was the prime month this season so far and May has definitely seen the cool off.
Just over 4 weeks to Durham forest. Gotta keep it up.
I can't fathom that much running. I cover 2 hours and I'm ready to quit. It must take some form of fortitude to fight the discomfort and the demons that lurk with the time involved. You would need to be so incredibly comfortable with running, you would need to live it, breath it and basically make it your every waking hour, to run something like this and actually be competitive in it. I don't know what you would do when you finish a race of this type. Drop on the spot...crawl under a leaf and sleep...celebrate by doing a jig. I dunno.
For me, I had a couple of off days, getting only 11 miles from Monday to Wednesday with a few screwups in my schedule (including forgetting to pack my shorts for noontime runs). I did get 12ish in today so it makes up a little bit for it. It's okay, the legs appreciated the short break. Weather's been off this week as well, it seems April was the prime month this season so far and May has definitely seen the cool off.
Just over 4 weeks to Durham forest. Gotta keep it up.
Friday, May 07, 2010
7 days 70 miles
It's May 7. My log shows 70.9 for the month so far. It's been a quiet week and I've been able to haul my butt out of bed at the 6:30 alarm and get out for (most of) an hour each morning. Then my standard 5 easy at lunchtime. Didn't do a hill workout since I wanted to be getting out twice a day and kept the priority on that. The consistency makes a difference and you can feel it after even one week.
It's not hard to do but it sure can be freaking boring at times. It's all time and not really miles, an hour here, and hour and some there, 30 minutes here. The miles are just scenery passing by and cracks in the sidewalks moving under your feet. After a while you feel like all you're doing is running all the time. I can't imagine what the guys pumping out 130, 140...200 feel like. I can see myself doing a couple of hours a day, I don't think that's really all that extreme or excessive. If I capped noons to 45 minutes, I could see 1:15 in the mornings and that would all be doable. The trick is to keep the effort down so you're not needing a good 24 or more hours recovery. Fine for a while, I could make a May of it.
Inevitably everything else spills over that time so I'm not in bed on time, not able to get out at noon or for long enough, things get cut short, yada yada yada. Basic rule is, run when you can cuz later might not work out. We'll see how the month goes.
It's not hard to do but it sure can be freaking boring at times. It's all time and not really miles, an hour here, and hour and some there, 30 minutes here. The miles are just scenery passing by and cracks in the sidewalks moving under your feet. After a while you feel like all you're doing is running all the time. I can't imagine what the guys pumping out 130, 140...200 feel like. I can see myself doing a couple of hours a day, I don't think that's really all that extreme or excessive. If I capped noons to 45 minutes, I could see 1:15 in the mornings and that would all be doable. The trick is to keep the effort down so you're not needing a good 24 or more hours recovery. Fine for a while, I could make a May of it.
Inevitably everything else spills over that time so I'm not in bed on time, not able to get out at noon or for long enough, things get cut short, yada yada yada. Basic rule is, run when you can cuz later might not work out. We'll see how the month goes.
Monday, April 26, 2010
I figured it out (5 peaks related)
A post on RunningMania.com and some responses identified why I felt something was 'missing' at Saturday's 5 peaks race. They had lost a generator (no music), miscalculated the number of goodie handers for the number of people, and hinted at some other issues.
I chaulk it all up to being the first race of the year and I'm sure all will be fine for Durham Forest on June 12.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
5 Peaks Dundas
Okay, I liked the race itself. 5 peaks does a great job of setting up a course and making sure everything is clearly marked and each runner knows which way to go. For the non-race components, it seemed otherwise a wee bit...shall we say...flat. I'd run two of these events two years ago and something changed.
Okay, sign up for all 5 events, you get a nice technical shirt (lt blue for the guys, pinkish for the women). All participants on race day get a pair of nice Wigwam trail socks. Not a lot of bling otherwise. I seemed to recall getting a little packet with some kicking horse coffee and a couple of other things last time around. Food seemed sparse to me. The ever popular bagels were there but they were snipped into tiny little pieces, maybe quarter sized or less. There was some peanut butter (maybe nutella? wasn't sure), some humus, slices of melon and oranges. But everything seemed tiny little bite sized. Since I ran 12k enduro, and the 5k sports had long since finished, it seemed as though it was all picked over and not replenished or something. I dunno.
Now, for me I really like the race itself to be done well and that's where the priorities need to be. Course should be well done and safe and good start / finish. All of this was done very well. The staggered starts they did were fine, since it's chip time that determines finishing time and position, they don't use gun time. That's good and keeps the course from being overcrowded, especially at the start. The course wasn't closed, we encountered other runners and the occasional cyclists, but at least for me this didn't pose any problems.
This course is relatively easy by 5 peaks standards. Not a highly technical course, with runnable climbs and descents, footing that you didn't need to concern yourself with (only one short section had any real tree roots to get in your way) and the conditions were good and dry. I wore regular light cushioned trainers figuring it was all I'd need on this course and that did work out. It's fun to hit a trail race without knowing the course as you need to somehow adapt to what lurks around the next corner and you're never quite sure how long any particular hill will be.
Prizes were in the form of medals, top 3 overall (m/f) and top 3 in ages groups (basically 10yr groupings) and I was fortunate (or fast) enough to get one. A few draw prizes were given out. Instead of drawing from box the organizers opted to do some goofy challenges. Fun, but a bit hokey and not many bothered to hang around for them.
It's a good race and race series, but there was something that seemed lacking, certainly in relation to the last time I did these. Maybe it was just because it's the first one of the year and a few kinks are being worked out or something. I think the food issue needs to be addressed, especially for a late morning race that extends into noon. I was happy to get home and get something proper beyond a corner of a bagel. There was only 5 or 6 porta potties available which meant a lengthy wait over the final half hour before race start. Not being a gun timed race, this wasn't catastrophic for the runners since they could start after others left and still get a proper time.
Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to the next event on June 12 in Durham regional forest. I did run this course before so I know what to expect.
Okay, sign up for all 5 events, you get a nice technical shirt (lt blue for the guys, pinkish for the women). All participants on race day get a pair of nice Wigwam trail socks. Not a lot of bling otherwise. I seemed to recall getting a little packet with some kicking horse coffee and a couple of other things last time around. Food seemed sparse to me. The ever popular bagels were there but they were snipped into tiny little pieces, maybe quarter sized or less. There was some peanut butter (maybe nutella? wasn't sure), some humus, slices of melon and oranges. But everything seemed tiny little bite sized. Since I ran 12k enduro, and the 5k sports had long since finished, it seemed as though it was all picked over and not replenished or something. I dunno.
Now, for me I really like the race itself to be done well and that's where the priorities need to be. Course should be well done and safe and good start / finish. All of this was done very well. The staggered starts they did were fine, since it's chip time that determines finishing time and position, they don't use gun time. That's good and keeps the course from being overcrowded, especially at the start. The course wasn't closed, we encountered other runners and the occasional cyclists, but at least for me this didn't pose any problems.
This course is relatively easy by 5 peaks standards. Not a highly technical course, with runnable climbs and descents, footing that you didn't need to concern yourself with (only one short section had any real tree roots to get in your way) and the conditions were good and dry. I wore regular light cushioned trainers figuring it was all I'd need on this course and that did work out. It's fun to hit a trail race without knowing the course as you need to somehow adapt to what lurks around the next corner and you're never quite sure how long any particular hill will be.
Prizes were in the form of medals, top 3 overall (m/f) and top 3 in ages groups (basically 10yr groupings) and I was fortunate (or fast) enough to get one. A few draw prizes were given out. Instead of drawing from box the organizers opted to do some goofy challenges. Fun, but a bit hokey and not many bothered to hang around for them.
It's a good race and race series, but there was something that seemed lacking, certainly in relation to the last time I did these. Maybe it was just because it's the first one of the year and a few kinks are being worked out or something. I think the food issue needs to be addressed, especially for a late morning race that extends into noon. I was happy to get home and get something proper beyond a corner of a bagel. There was only 5 or 6 porta potties available which meant a lengthy wait over the final half hour before race start. Not being a gun timed race, this wasn't catastrophic for the runners since they could start after others left and still get a proper time.
Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to the next event on June 12 in Durham regional forest. I did run this course before so I know what to expect.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
I think I'm ready
5 peaks race 1 is on Saturday, Dundas conservation area.
I did what I call my 'setup' run yesterday. Several days before raceday I give a good tempo effort. I have to get my breathing up for a sustained period, strengthen the diaphragm and everthing that connects together in there. If I don't do this, not only will I lack the necessary snap in my legs, but I'll suffer from stitches horribly. It's one of the things I'm prone to in hard running.
Keeping the volume up and pace down is great for development. If I don't do this I just won't have the engine necessary to carry out a good effort. I wished I'd known this several years ago. Naivity of figuring you can just blast out every run and you'll do nothing but get faster. It doesn't work that way though. You can't look at running from the perspective of this run or this day or this mile. It's all about this week and this month and this cycle and this season and this year, and so on.
But when the season approaches, gotta bite down and push it through some hard efforts. Most of my hard efforts this season are hill related, as that's what this 5 Peaks race series puts front and center. I still have to hit the tempos, it's the only way I can get myself up the pace and hold it on race day without clutching my side and slowing down. So that's a big part of the setup run, to push it and give innerds a chance to adapt and recover.
3 days are left and I do feel pretty good right now. Last time I did a cycle like this, despite the slow average pace of my runs and the pedestrian feel they give back, come race day I was amazed that I could hold a hard pace. It's strange, you don't think you're going to be able to do it because you've run so slow for so long. And then when you do go hard, you're waiting for it to come up and bite you, but it doesn't quite. That's what volume does for you.
You need to look at your runs from the perspective of the whole cycle, not just one ro twn runs. To develop as much as I'm able to with the amount of time I'm willing to dedicate to this thing, it's making sure I can get in all the workouts I'm able, fit in enough quality to make sure my legs will turn over, and have enough of an engine tht when they do turn over, they won't cease up. That's what it's all about. Too much quality, and I'll spend too much down time trying to recover and basically losing whatever I gain. Not enough quality and, despite the gains within, I can't exploit them.
Anyway, 3 days to go. I have to use road shoes as my trails aren't fitting right anymore but the course isn't that hard so it should be okay.
I did what I call my 'setup' run yesterday. Several days before raceday I give a good tempo effort. I have to get my breathing up for a sustained period, strengthen the diaphragm and everthing that connects together in there. If I don't do this, not only will I lack the necessary snap in my legs, but I'll suffer from stitches horribly. It's one of the things I'm prone to in hard running.
Keeping the volume up and pace down is great for development. If I don't do this I just won't have the engine necessary to carry out a good effort. I wished I'd known this several years ago. Naivity of figuring you can just blast out every run and you'll do nothing but get faster. It doesn't work that way though. You can't look at running from the perspective of this run or this day or this mile. It's all about this week and this month and this cycle and this season and this year, and so on.
But when the season approaches, gotta bite down and push it through some hard efforts. Most of my hard efforts this season are hill related, as that's what this 5 Peaks race series puts front and center. I still have to hit the tempos, it's the only way I can get myself up the pace and hold it on race day without clutching my side and slowing down. So that's a big part of the setup run, to push it and give innerds a chance to adapt and recover.
3 days are left and I do feel pretty good right now. Last time I did a cycle like this, despite the slow average pace of my runs and the pedestrian feel they give back, come race day I was amazed that I could hold a hard pace. It's strange, you don't think you're going to be able to do it because you've run so slow for so long. And then when you do go hard, you're waiting for it to come up and bite you, but it doesn't quite. That's what volume does for you.
You need to look at your runs from the perspective of the whole cycle, not just one ro twn runs. To develop as much as I'm able to with the amount of time I'm willing to dedicate to this thing, it's making sure I can get in all the workouts I'm able, fit in enough quality to make sure my legs will turn over, and have enough of an engine tht when they do turn over, they won't cease up. That's what it's all about. Too much quality, and I'll spend too much down time trying to recover and basically losing whatever I gain. Not enough quality and, despite the gains within, I can't exploit them.
Anyway, 3 days to go. I have to use road shoes as my trails aren't fitting right anymore but the course isn't that hard so it should be okay.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The hard sell on home water purification systems
This seems like the new Amway. A neighour's sister is getting into this as a business prop and is 'learning the ropes'. So were asked and agreed for her to do her shtick for us, for practice. A couple of neighbours and her sister also said they'd agree to a demo.
Toronto water is notorious for it's hardness, we all know this. We ourselves don't drink or use tap water directly for cooking, it all gets filtered first and that gets rid of the chlorine, the scale and the hardness. This business is local but I guess they have a couple of offices elsewhere. What they sell is a reverse osmosis (RO) system for drinking water and a water softener for the rest of the house. The RO system tucks under the counter with a small pressurized tank to hold the purified water and the RO filter system itself. If you want the 'whole house' system, add on the water softener that goes in the basement.
Anyway, the promo material has lots of skull and crossbone images, pics of people in full has protecting outfits. The word 'carcenogenic' shows up a lot. The speel does drops of chemicals into water to show chlorine content. This was her first failure with our filtered water. Most people neglect to change their water filters and after a couple of months they're useless. But we do ours. So the chlorine test on our tap water, of course, showed up an expected level. Their filtered water showed none. The test for our Brita filtered water barely registered and the fridge filter water showed nil. I'm sure she'd usually get a hit on the brita water, just not ours (we had actually replaced both filters within the last week).
So the next demo, she takes a peculiar electrode apparatus designed to fit in two glasses. In each glass a pair of electrodes are emersed and she plugs the thing into the wall and turns it on. In her water sample, it does nothing, while in the tap water it starts bubbling away, as expected. What's peculiar though, a red film is forming on the top of the water and gets darker and thicker the longer she leaves it in. Then she mutters away that this is a simple test using 'safe' metals in the electrodes of aluminum and iron. Now, iron in electrolysis, not only with the electron transfer cause oxidation of the iron, but also splits water into oxygen and h+ ions and increases the level of oxidation of the iron, thus all the red floatsum. The device also hid the iron inside an aluminum shield with little holes in it so you couldn't see the iron itself and what was happening to it. At the end of that demo, you have a glass full of reddish sludgy water, which she claims is drinkable because it's tap water. Well, it's not quite.
Next she does something else with a couple of test tubes that didn't make much sense except one gets cloudy and fuzzy and the other stays clear except for a small amount of crystaline material said the be nothing more than the added chemicals themselves.
The final demo, two beakers of water, one her sample of purified water and the other is tap water, adding detergent and showing how much more detergent it takes to create bubbles in the tap water and thus demoing the cost savings you'll have. Except that her sample water is the reverse osmosis water, which you'll only see from your kitchen tap fitted with the RO filter. The rest of the house lives with what the water softener supplies.
Then comes the hard sell. The simple RO system under the counter for drinking water only sells normally for 6 thousand dollars, but buy right there and you get it for 3000. They install it, it's guaranteed for 15 years and they'll service it each year but you have to buy the replacment filters, which run 100 bucks for the carbon filters and 199 for the membrane and sediment filters (replaced 1.5-3 years). The whole house system sells for something like 8 or 9 thousand, buy today for 6 thousand. So you get the 'if the issue is money, what will it take for you to buy today?' stuff and it's just different plans stretching out for many years in smaller payments but ends up being way more than just the lump sum prices. Naturally, we declined and I just said that since the brita cleared the water nicely I see no reason to go beyond that.
Since she's a friend of a neighbour I didn't want to burst her bubble too much and she seemed rather excited about the product and is hoping she can make a few dollars off it. But I quickly sent a link of info to her sister's hubby with info about it in case he even considers buying in for whatever reason. The demo was pretty hokey, between the toxic-waste style written material and the very questionable demos with pseudo-scientific explanations for what's going on.
For those who may be approached, read this. If you ever do consider a water filter system for home, RO systems (like ones from GTAWater can be had for a few hundred bucks with filter costs of about 65 bucks a year. Water softeners are iffy and have associated problems so be leery of the 'whole home' systems. To make proper use, you would really want to keep the water softener water away from the drinking water, and this means having some plumbing work done to separate the lines. Plus softener systems require salt replacment and may pose health risks to people with high blood pressure or heart conditions.
Toronto water is notorious for it's hardness, we all know this. We ourselves don't drink or use tap water directly for cooking, it all gets filtered first and that gets rid of the chlorine, the scale and the hardness. This business is local but I guess they have a couple of offices elsewhere. What they sell is a reverse osmosis (RO) system for drinking water and a water softener for the rest of the house. The RO system tucks under the counter with a small pressurized tank to hold the purified water and the RO filter system itself. If you want the 'whole house' system, add on the water softener that goes in the basement.
Anyway, the promo material has lots of skull and crossbone images, pics of people in full has protecting outfits. The word 'carcenogenic' shows up a lot. The speel does drops of chemicals into water to show chlorine content. This was her first failure with our filtered water. Most people neglect to change their water filters and after a couple of months they're useless. But we do ours. So the chlorine test on our tap water, of course, showed up an expected level. Their filtered water showed none. The test for our Brita filtered water barely registered and the fridge filter water showed nil. I'm sure she'd usually get a hit on the brita water, just not ours (we had actually replaced both filters within the last week).
So the next demo, she takes a peculiar electrode apparatus designed to fit in two glasses. In each glass a pair of electrodes are emersed and she plugs the thing into the wall and turns it on. In her water sample, it does nothing, while in the tap water it starts bubbling away, as expected. What's peculiar though, a red film is forming on the top of the water and gets darker and thicker the longer she leaves it in. Then she mutters away that this is a simple test using 'safe' metals in the electrodes of aluminum and iron. Now, iron in electrolysis, not only with the electron transfer cause oxidation of the iron, but also splits water into oxygen and h+ ions and increases the level of oxidation of the iron, thus all the red floatsum. The device also hid the iron inside an aluminum shield with little holes in it so you couldn't see the iron itself and what was happening to it. At the end of that demo, you have a glass full of reddish sludgy water, which she claims is drinkable because it's tap water. Well, it's not quite.
Next she does something else with a couple of test tubes that didn't make much sense except one gets cloudy and fuzzy and the other stays clear except for a small amount of crystaline material said the be nothing more than the added chemicals themselves.
The final demo, two beakers of water, one her sample of purified water and the other is tap water, adding detergent and showing how much more detergent it takes to create bubbles in the tap water and thus demoing the cost savings you'll have. Except that her sample water is the reverse osmosis water, which you'll only see from your kitchen tap fitted with the RO filter. The rest of the house lives with what the water softener supplies.
Then comes the hard sell. The simple RO system under the counter for drinking water only sells normally for 6 thousand dollars, but buy right there and you get it for 3000. They install it, it's guaranteed for 15 years and they'll service it each year but you have to buy the replacment filters, which run 100 bucks for the carbon filters and 199 for the membrane and sediment filters (replaced 1.5-3 years). The whole house system sells for something like 8 or 9 thousand, buy today for 6 thousand. So you get the 'if the issue is money, what will it take for you to buy today?' stuff and it's just different plans stretching out for many years in smaller payments but ends up being way more than just the lump sum prices. Naturally, we declined and I just said that since the brita cleared the water nicely I see no reason to go beyond that.
Since she's a friend of a neighbour I didn't want to burst her bubble too much and she seemed rather excited about the product and is hoping she can make a few dollars off it. But I quickly sent a link of info to her sister's hubby with info about it in case he even considers buying in for whatever reason. The demo was pretty hokey, between the toxic-waste style written material and the very questionable demos with pseudo-scientific explanations for what's going on.
For those who may be approached, read this. If you ever do consider a water filter system for home, RO systems (like ones from GTAWater can be had for a few hundred bucks with filter costs of about 65 bucks a year. Water softeners are iffy and have associated problems so be leery of the 'whole home' systems. To make proper use, you would really want to keep the water softener water away from the drinking water, and this means having some plumbing work done to separate the lines. Plus softener systems require salt replacment and may pose health risks to people with high blood pressure or heart conditions.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Bye bye Lakeport Brewery
I guess all good things must come to an end.
I think I've tried every beer there is out there. When it comes to an everyday drinker, the priorities are pretty simple...taste great and don't cost an arm and a leg. When I lived back in Cape Breton it was Ten Penny, Moosehead or Oland's. James Ready stuck with me for a while, partly because of the name, party because of the taste. I was never an Alexander Keith's fan, it always came across as bitter due to the hop content.
When I moved to Ontario, I had quite a variety to pick from. Norther Breweries was a fave for many years, and when I was making my own brews they were one of that last holdouts for non-screwcap bottles and I still have a collection of NB bottles in my shed, should I fill a new carboy for fun. Another long standing regular was Molson Stock, which few people bought by I liked it becuase it was just that little bit different. Sleeman's was another, a bit pricey but they sure brew a good beer.
When the really cheap lowest-legal cost beers started competing, I picked up a few Lakeport Pilsner for fun...not a bad beer and cheap as it got. Not the type you would give to company but okay for drinking regularly. Then, one day, Lakeport came up with this:
It was love at first taste.
I found a beer that met everything I wanted. It was cheap, tasted great, and I didn't mind serving it out should friends come by. I even got a good chunk of the neighborhood hooked and soon everyone had a yellow honeycomb style case in their basements.
The story behind Lakeport is quite the success story. Lakeport had been around a while, competing with the multitude of other local brewers for a share of whatever market was left over by the big 3 of Molson, Labatt and Carling. Interbrew was busy buying up markets and accumulating into their vast empire. Sleeman's made a huge splash and managed to save the very wonder Upper Canada Brewery with their marketing power, and allowed UC to do their own thing even under the Sleeman umbrella.
Meanwhile, a young and aggressive Teresa Cascioli was hired by Lakeport's new owners became it's CEO. Under Ms. Cascioli's guidance and targetting the buck-a-beer campaign and a quality brew, Lakeport went from near bankruptcy to a legitimate threat to the Ontario market share of drinkers, so much so that Labatt and others had to start promoting clear knockoffs of Lakeport's products, particularly it's Honey Lager, in response. Lakeport grew to hold an incredible 11% of the Ontario beer market, which is an astounding number when you consider the players.
Cascioli held as 20% share long after buying out the owners, and then taking Lakeport public. Things changed in 2008 when Cascioli talked shareholders into accepting a 201 million dollar offer by Labatt for Lakeport's products and holdings. Ms. Cascioli sold out to a cool 43 million (and, honestly, it's hard not to blame her) and walked away from the brewery she took into the mainstream. I knew it was just a matter of time. As long as the beer came out of the Burlington Street plant, with the same formula and the same taste, I was okay even if the price made a modest jump or two.
Then came the big news. Labatt will seal the doors on Lakeport's Hamilton plant on tax day, April 30th, 2010 and move 'production' to London. I have a sneaking suspicion that with the move of the brewer, there will be a change in the beer itself, to London mass-produced standards and suppliers dictated by Labatt and parent Anhauser Busch. Shortly after the last remaining stock leaves the chilled shelves of The Beer Store, my beer will suddenly change, likely to a repackaged version of the Labatt Honey product that was created to compete with Lakeport's wonderful lager.
I thought I had my beer. Maybe it won't change, but my lovely find will now have a bitter aftertaste even if it doesn't and I won't be content with that.
All I can do is salute the 143 fine people that helped supply me with a lot of tasty calories over these last few years. Come April 30, I will take on my last case of Lakeport honey. When it is gone, my search will start anew.
So long Lakeport, it was wonderful knowing you.
I think I've tried every beer there is out there. When it comes to an everyday drinker, the priorities are pretty simple...taste great and don't cost an arm and a leg. When I lived back in Cape Breton it was Ten Penny, Moosehead or Oland's. James Ready stuck with me for a while, partly because of the name, party because of the taste. I was never an Alexander Keith's fan, it always came across as bitter due to the hop content.
When I moved to Ontario, I had quite a variety to pick from. Norther Breweries was a fave for many years, and when I was making my own brews they were one of that last holdouts for non-screwcap bottles and I still have a collection of NB bottles in my shed, should I fill a new carboy for fun. Another long standing regular was Molson Stock, which few people bought by I liked it becuase it was just that little bit different. Sleeman's was another, a bit pricey but they sure brew a good beer.
When the really cheap lowest-legal cost beers started competing, I picked up a few Lakeport Pilsner for fun...not a bad beer and cheap as it got. Not the type you would give to company but okay for drinking regularly. Then, one day, Lakeport came up with this:
It was love at first taste.
I found a beer that met everything I wanted. It was cheap, tasted great, and I didn't mind serving it out should friends come by. I even got a good chunk of the neighborhood hooked and soon everyone had a yellow honeycomb style case in their basements.
The story behind Lakeport is quite the success story. Lakeport had been around a while, competing with the multitude of other local brewers for a share of whatever market was left over by the big 3 of Molson, Labatt and Carling. Interbrew was busy buying up markets and accumulating into their vast empire. Sleeman's made a huge splash and managed to save the very wonder Upper Canada Brewery with their marketing power, and allowed UC to do their own thing even under the Sleeman umbrella.
Meanwhile, a young and aggressive Teresa Cascioli was hired by Lakeport's new owners became it's CEO. Under Ms. Cascioli's guidance and targetting the buck-a-beer campaign and a quality brew, Lakeport went from near bankruptcy to a legitimate threat to the Ontario market share of drinkers, so much so that Labatt and others had to start promoting clear knockoffs of Lakeport's products, particularly it's Honey Lager, in response. Lakeport grew to hold an incredible 11% of the Ontario beer market, which is an astounding number when you consider the players.
Cascioli held as 20% share long after buying out the owners, and then taking Lakeport public. Things changed in 2008 when Cascioli talked shareholders into accepting a 201 million dollar offer by Labatt for Lakeport's products and holdings. Ms. Cascioli sold out to a cool 43 million (and, honestly, it's hard not to blame her) and walked away from the brewery she took into the mainstream. I knew it was just a matter of time. As long as the beer came out of the Burlington Street plant, with the same formula and the same taste, I was okay even if the price made a modest jump or two.
Then came the big news. Labatt will seal the doors on Lakeport's Hamilton plant on tax day, April 30th, 2010 and move 'production' to London. I have a sneaking suspicion that with the move of the brewer, there will be a change in the beer itself, to London mass-produced standards and suppliers dictated by Labatt and parent Anhauser Busch. Shortly after the last remaining stock leaves the chilled shelves of The Beer Store, my beer will suddenly change, likely to a repackaged version of the Labatt Honey product that was created to compete with Lakeport's wonderful lager.
I thought I had my beer. Maybe it won't change, but my lovely find will now have a bitter aftertaste even if it doesn't and I won't be content with that.
All I can do is salute the 143 fine people that helped supply me with a lot of tasty calories over these last few years. Come April 30, I will take on my last case of Lakeport honey. When it is gone, my search will start anew.
So long Lakeport, it was wonderful knowing you.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Mylar Balloon
I don't know why, but I found this fascinating.
As I started out this morning, it's clear, a few high light clouds, sun's not up yet, and it's dead calm. I turn and start running just loops around the track, and I'm quickly caught off-guard by a blue mylar helium balloon that's sort of drifting very slowly across the sidewalk. It's not heavy enough to land, not light enough to rise up, just at that proper weight where's it's bang on the same density as the air. So it drifts about, bobs up, bobs down, but mostly just moves along with whatever slight air currents abound.
In the first pace, it's just a bit higher than I am tall, it has no string attached. It drifts under a tree and just lightly nudges the bottom branches. From there it moves slowly northward into the main field of the park, which is surrounded by baseball diamonds and a club house. As I run my loops I just watch it drifting about, seeming exploring the field.
Along the back of the park I see it's moved down to ground level and the bottom 'plug' skips along the ground, nudging it up when it strikes something, then back. It's moving towards the clubhouse, which has a large covered area like a veranda, and I figure if it goes in there, it'll get stuck and stop.
A lap later it's changed direction, now drifting from north to south. It heads into the back part of one of the larger baseball diamonds, drifts under the foul ball netted and bumps up along the tall chainlink fence that surrounds it. There's just enough moving air to keep it bumped against the fence in a sort of 'stuck' position, and it sits there for a lap.
At this point, the sun is peeking over the horizon, although the field is still in shadow, but there becomes enough radiant energy from the lighted sky to just warm the balloons interior a tiny bit, and it moves upwards into the netting of the batting area.
Another lap, I check the fence and the balloons not there. Seems the air had shifted a little bit again, moving from south to north again. The sun is now above the buildings and balloon has now warmed up more than enough to escape it's earthly grip and is soaring high into the air. When I first spot it, it's moved to the north end of the park and about 70 feet off the ground. With each passing lap and the warming sun, it travels higher and higher and further and further north. By my 6th lap, it's out of sight and disappears into the blue sky.
I was thinking all the time what a cool video it would have made.
As I started out this morning, it's clear, a few high light clouds, sun's not up yet, and it's dead calm. I turn and start running just loops around the track, and I'm quickly caught off-guard by a blue mylar helium balloon that's sort of drifting very slowly across the sidewalk. It's not heavy enough to land, not light enough to rise up, just at that proper weight where's it's bang on the same density as the air. So it drifts about, bobs up, bobs down, but mostly just moves along with whatever slight air currents abound.
In the first pace, it's just a bit higher than I am tall, it has no string attached. It drifts under a tree and just lightly nudges the bottom branches. From there it moves slowly northward into the main field of the park, which is surrounded by baseball diamonds and a club house. As I run my loops I just watch it drifting about, seeming exploring the field.
Along the back of the park I see it's moved down to ground level and the bottom 'plug' skips along the ground, nudging it up when it strikes something, then back. It's moving towards the clubhouse, which has a large covered area like a veranda, and I figure if it goes in there, it'll get stuck and stop.
A lap later it's changed direction, now drifting from north to south. It heads into the back part of one of the larger baseball diamonds, drifts under the foul ball netted and bumps up along the tall chainlink fence that surrounds it. There's just enough moving air to keep it bumped against the fence in a sort of 'stuck' position, and it sits there for a lap.
At this point, the sun is peeking over the horizon, although the field is still in shadow, but there becomes enough radiant energy from the lighted sky to just warm the balloons interior a tiny bit, and it moves upwards into the netting of the batting area.
Another lap, I check the fence and the balloons not there. Seems the air had shifted a little bit again, moving from south to north again. The sun is now above the buildings and balloon has now warmed up more than enough to escape it's earthly grip and is soaring high into the air. When I first spot it, it's moved to the north end of the park and about 70 feet off the ground. With each passing lap and the warming sun, it travels higher and higher and further and further north. By my 6th lap, it's out of sight and disappears into the blue sky.
I was thinking all the time what a cool video it would have made.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Peaking for the Peaks
A couple of years ago, having plateaued in development and PRs for running, I needed to change things up a bit. I'd seen George Malloy's Summer of Malmo workout schedule from links on Letsrun and thought I'd cook up my own version as a test. So from April through the summer I boosted my volume to getting as much as 70 miles as week and sustained 200ish mile months with lots of doubling up (and the occassional triple tossed in for good measure) and lots of easy miles. It worked out nicely and I netted a new 5 mile PR when I ran the Nightcrawler in June.
Another little thing I did was run a couple of 5 Peaks Trail Series events for fun. I ran their 'enduro' events which are about 12k in length, figuring this makes for a good solid Saturday workout even if I don't do well. This year I signed up for all 5 and the first one runs on April 24, just over 5 weeks away.
I don't know how the races progress from event to event. It seemed to me they start them off 'easy' and progress to 'hard', with easy meaning lots of hills but less technical details, and hard being hilly and very technical. Durham forest was the first one I ran, very hilly but not an otherwise demanding course (good footing, reasonably wide, easy to pass...or be passed as it may be). Rattlesnake Point was very difficult with some hills that were simply unrunnable and slippery moss covered rocks and roots throughout. Last year they kicked off on a ski hill in Kitchener, which seemed to not go well as most racers slogged their way through mud and snow, with even the fast guys barely managing an 8 minute pace. This year it starts in the Dundas Conservation area and I'm not quite sure what that area is like, but I suspect it's somewhat hilly and manageable recreational foot trails.
For the last few months, I've been trying to keep decent volume and plenty of running, but it's always tricky in the spring. Fortunately the weather this winter and spring has been outstanding for running. So no excuse there. For the most part it's been work and home that's kept me from filling the log the way I want to. I have though been able to put short boosts of runs together, getting 30-40 miles over a few days, and then being forced to back off with my other obligations. I hope this works to keep pushing me upwards, theory being that the short but heavy cycles of running can carry over a couple of slack days.
For now I'm more or less on track. I've gotten my butt onto the hills the last few weeks for consistent hill workouts, focusing on short hills which is more applicable to these races. I'll still do some long hills for the endurance benefit. I don't think track workouts are worthwhile. And I need, need, need to discipline myself to adding strides on some easy runs. Also doubles are there, I should (he says, hopefully) get 9 runs this week alone, and then the weekend stuff.
So 5ish weeks to race-one, which won't have any real taper but will have easy runs the couple of days leading up to it, and no hills that week except what's normally on the routes I run. If I can keep mileage in the 50's and 60's and not drift back into the 30's and 40's, all should be fine.
This week it's been nearly summer like. Next week apparently mother nature is to remind us that it's still winter/spring and we shouldn't get too comfortable yet.
Another little thing I did was run a couple of 5 Peaks Trail Series events for fun. I ran their 'enduro' events which are about 12k in length, figuring this makes for a good solid Saturday workout even if I don't do well. This year I signed up for all 5 and the first one runs on April 24, just over 5 weeks away.
I don't know how the races progress from event to event. It seemed to me they start them off 'easy' and progress to 'hard', with easy meaning lots of hills but less technical details, and hard being hilly and very technical. Durham forest was the first one I ran, very hilly but not an otherwise demanding course (good footing, reasonably wide, easy to pass...or be passed as it may be). Rattlesnake Point was very difficult with some hills that were simply unrunnable and slippery moss covered rocks and roots throughout. Last year they kicked off on a ski hill in Kitchener, which seemed to not go well as most racers slogged their way through mud and snow, with even the fast guys barely managing an 8 minute pace. This year it starts in the Dundas Conservation area and I'm not quite sure what that area is like, but I suspect it's somewhat hilly and manageable recreational foot trails.
For the last few months, I've been trying to keep decent volume and plenty of running, but it's always tricky in the spring. Fortunately the weather this winter and spring has been outstanding for running. So no excuse there. For the most part it's been work and home that's kept me from filling the log the way I want to. I have though been able to put short boosts of runs together, getting 30-40 miles over a few days, and then being forced to back off with my other obligations. I hope this works to keep pushing me upwards, theory being that the short but heavy cycles of running can carry over a couple of slack days.
For now I'm more or less on track. I've gotten my butt onto the hills the last few weeks for consistent hill workouts, focusing on short hills which is more applicable to these races. I'll still do some long hills for the endurance benefit. I don't think track workouts are worthwhile. And I need, need, need to discipline myself to adding strides on some easy runs. Also doubles are there, I should (he says, hopefully) get 9 runs this week alone, and then the weekend stuff.
So 5ish weeks to race-one, which won't have any real taper but will have easy runs the couple of days leading up to it, and no hills that week except what's normally on the routes I run. If I can keep mileage in the 50's and 60's and not drift back into the 30's and 40's, all should be fine.
This week it's been nearly summer like. Next week apparently mother nature is to remind us that it's still winter/spring and we shouldn't get too comfortable yet.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Dear Red Wing Blackbirds
Yes, I know spring is upon, and you have all migrated back north from the tropical abodes.
But please curb the desire to peck at my head as I'm doing my lunchtime runs.
I can hear you fluttering from tree to tree on the other side of the big fence the separates those big Richmond Hill homes from the street. And I know you're tracking me as I make my way up the incline of Leslie Street to the top. But don't think for even a minute I'm going to be changing my route on YOUR account. This route is nice and undulating, with no flat areas, and I can push a hill, or elect to glide quickly down if I want to work on my turnover. It's large enough that I can substitute for a hill workout if I miss my Wednesday morning ravine appointment.
Yes, they've returned. Usually I spot them first in the Leslie spit, which they seem to enjoy perching on for a while until the snow moves out. This year, we've seen almost no snow at all. If all the snow we had this year fell in one day, it would have been a fairly decent shovelling day, but not enough to shut er all down. So the birds have moved in early. Robins have been here all winter, I've seen them gathered in the hundreds in the trees even when it was 15 below. They've separated now, or maybe the migratory ones have moved back in, but they're also now in the neighbourhoods, singing away at the morning sunrise.
Speaking of morning sunrise, it's been so nice to run in the sunshine in the mornings. All of that will take a temporary haitus when DST kicks in this weekend, and I'll have to start out in the dark again. It's the price us runners pay for a brighter evening.
Anyway. I did sign up for all 5 of the 5 Peaks trail series here in south ont. First race is April 24 and I'm trying my best to be in shape when the first one goes off in Dundas. We'll see how I fair in my shiny new 50+ age category.
But please curb the desire to peck at my head as I'm doing my lunchtime runs.
I can hear you fluttering from tree to tree on the other side of the big fence the separates those big Richmond Hill homes from the street. And I know you're tracking me as I make my way up the incline of Leslie Street to the top. But don't think for even a minute I'm going to be changing my route on YOUR account. This route is nice and undulating, with no flat areas, and I can push a hill, or elect to glide quickly down if I want to work on my turnover. It's large enough that I can substitute for a hill workout if I miss my Wednesday morning ravine appointment.
Yes, they've returned. Usually I spot them first in the Leslie spit, which they seem to enjoy perching on for a while until the snow moves out. This year, we've seen almost no snow at all. If all the snow we had this year fell in one day, it would have been a fairly decent shovelling day, but not enough to shut er all down. So the birds have moved in early. Robins have been here all winter, I've seen them gathered in the hundreds in the trees even when it was 15 below. They've separated now, or maybe the migratory ones have moved back in, but they're also now in the neighbourhoods, singing away at the morning sunrise.
Speaking of morning sunrise, it's been so nice to run in the sunshine in the mornings. All of that will take a temporary haitus when DST kicks in this weekend, and I'll have to start out in the dark again. It's the price us runners pay for a brighter evening.
Anyway. I did sign up for all 5 of the 5 Peaks trail series here in south ont. First race is April 24 and I'm trying my best to be in shape when the first one goes off in Dundas. We'll see how I fair in my shiny new 50+ age category.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Both First and Last
First and last, me in a race. You might think...I ran a race by myself, thus first and last. Nope. How about, I was first in my age group, but last in the race? Nope again.
I ran my first race of 2010 on New Year's Day. And it was my last race in my 40's. I'm now the proud owner of a brand new age group, 50's and up.
I can't say I'm overly distraught with turning the big five-oh. On the other hand I'm looking forward to it. I get a few months grace of getting in some good efforts in the new a/g before all the other 40ish folks that pound out races make the grade. Some already have, like James and Rob Earl of the East Toronto striders, so they'll still be waaaaaaay ahead of me no matter what. Several others are still not quite there. I may have to do some cherry picking to take advantage of it.
Running has sucked lately. Caught a cold in November, took a week off. Thought I was over it, then it came back on me in December. Never did make it to 2 grand in miles for the year as a result. Put in a few runs over the last couple of weeks and kept from failing too badly at the Hair of the Dog 9k down at the beaches. If the link doesn't show it, the balmy beach canoe club puts in on each year on NYD. Peach Schnapps is available at the turn if you feel inclined. Course seems good, Gmaps shows it to be 8.9k, and when you thrown in all the dodging around dogs and walkers and the like...just about 9k seems right.
Did meet and someone from Running Ahead there, who was in a similar state of not having run much over December. It was the 'neither of us has trained for this' showdown. I squeeked in the victory by a few seconds.
It's nasty cold out. I don't know why it has the be so damn windy at this time of the year to go with the sub zeros already in place. Adds that extra little sumthin that makes you want to stay indoors.
Seasons greetings, all.
I ran my first race of 2010 on New Year's Day. And it was my last race in my 40's. I'm now the proud owner of a brand new age group, 50's and up.
I can't say I'm overly distraught with turning the big five-oh. On the other hand I'm looking forward to it. I get a few months grace of getting in some good efforts in the new a/g before all the other 40ish folks that pound out races make the grade. Some already have, like James and Rob Earl of the East Toronto striders, so they'll still be waaaaaaay ahead of me no matter what. Several others are still not quite there. I may have to do some cherry picking to take advantage of it.
Running has sucked lately. Caught a cold in November, took a week off. Thought I was over it, then it came back on me in December. Never did make it to 2 grand in miles for the year as a result. Put in a few runs over the last couple of weeks and kept from failing too badly at the Hair of the Dog 9k down at the beaches. If the link doesn't show it, the balmy beach canoe club puts in on each year on NYD. Peach Schnapps is available at the turn if you feel inclined. Course seems good, Gmaps shows it to be 8.9k, and when you thrown in all the dodging around dogs and walkers and the like...just about 9k seems right.
Did meet and someone from Running Ahead there, who was in a similar state of not having run much over December. It was the 'neither of us has trained for this' showdown. I squeeked in the victory by a few seconds.
It's nasty cold out. I don't know why it has the be so damn windy at this time of the year to go with the sub zeros already in place. Adds that extra little sumthin that makes you want to stay indoors.
Seasons greetings, all.
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