Summer came and went

I have much catching up to do.

I'm consistent on getting out during lunch time for 5 or 6 miles, depending on the day, and I'm managing to stay in shorts as no really cold air has descended upon us yet. Mornings have been crappy. Either I discipline myself to be up by 6, which means going beddy bye by 10, or start running after work which I really don't want to do, I have precious little evening time as it is.

I ran a whopping 2 races this year. The Hair of the Dog on Jan 1 and the Mad Dog scramble on Oct. 30. Maybe any race with the name 'dog' in it is all I want to be doing. During summer I did some doozy lunch time runs in up to 100 degree heat because it seems to feel so bad-ass to run in 100 degree heat. And that's without the humidex. It takes about an hour to cool down even in the AC of the office.

Currently I'm just trying to get some semblence of volume in. I managed a couple of 200+ mile months, came up shy in November with a busy final week for work and a couple of crappy weather days thrown in. Most of November was near perfect running conditions, unlike some years when it's just wind and rain and basically just miserable for outdoor running.

I have no plans right now but I would like to be in decent shape for the Dog on Jan 1. Last year it was something like 42 and change for me, not my best but not my worst either but conditions were really good. It's one month away so I need some big weeks with some speed tossed in and then a good final week post Christmas.

Also I avoided all of the 5 peaks races despite them putting on a one-race-a-month schedule from April to October. Next year I might sign up for 5 of them and see how it goes. I've been spending the occasional weekend on the offroad cycling trails and selected a section from east end of the trailhead to Pottery Road to do time trials on. So far I've managed A 27:26 going westbound and a 27:42 going eastbound 2 weeks earlier. The trail will be too messy to run soon as wet snow is starting to be common. I'll add more hill work over the winter and spring and be ready if I decide to go.

I'm avoiding getting to docile after it slowed me down so much last spring. But it was probably all well and good and gave me some much needed recovery after 10 years on my feet. According to my logs I've gone past 19,000 miles. Still a ways to go before I've virtually circled the globe.

Winter blah

It's winter blah time. Took a bit of downtime in November. It seems I'm still on it. I haven't been completely down, still doing the occasional 5 or so miles, just not consistent. I got on a roll just over a week ago and then had a cold come crashing down on me. My wind is fine but my legs and ankles and joints get complaintive from the stress after seeing limited activity.

Tonight we're having a storm of winter storms blowing through that should keep me off my feet for another day. I managed 5 at noon today, tomorrow will be dedicated to moving the white stuff.

5 Peaks race #5, Albion Hills

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.