Aside from Monday and Saturday, the weather was excellent this week. There wasn't too much rain, and the temperatures were generally pretty comfortable (vs the brutal heat we've had in the last few weeks). I did miss my Monday ride as it was threatening to rain for most of the day, however it didn't actually add up to much so I likely could have gone out without any issues. Either way, the legs were a bit tired at the end of last week so the rest day probably helped more than it hurt.
On Wednesday the weather was near perfect and while I set out to do a 30K ride I ended up doing a little over 40K. In the afternoon the group again wanted to do 13K, so I also ended up getting in some extra mileage. We did it a bit faster than I had planned (5:10/km vs. 5:30/km), but it was still relatively comfortable so it didn't pose a huge problem. The extra mileage turned out well, as I ended up having to cut my 10 miler on Thursday short due to time constraints (had to get to the pool).
Due to time constraints I also missed the bike ride on Friday, as the grass was in need of a cut and I had to go downtown in the afternoon. While down there, I also took the opportunity to pick up a pair of Oakley Jawbones as I've needed something to protect my eyes when out on the bike (both from debris and UV), and they appeared to be the best match for my requirements. I took them out for my ride on the weekend and am certainly happy with the investment (will post more on this topic later).
On the weekend, the weather report was calling for rain on Saturday so I elected to switch my long ride to Sunday, and do my long run instead. There were some pretty severe thunderstorms in the morning, however it cleared up in the afternoon so it worked out quite well. In retrospect, I would have easily been able to do my ride in the later part of the day, but the weather reports were calling for a second band to come through around 2pm so I didn't want to take a chance of getting stuck out there.
Either way, I headed out around 3pm for my 15 mile run, and while it was hot I managed to fight through it. The only caveat was that since I was doing this run out of sequence I hadn't explicitly checked the training schedule and shortly after the 5 mile mark was unsure of whether this week was supposed to be my marathon pace run or not (checking afterwards, it wasn't). As I still had about 10 miles to go, I figured that I'd play it safe and do the rest at MP (ie 4:45/km). Up until this point the heat wasn't much of an issue, but naturally once I accelerated it began to catch up to me. I'm not sure if it was the heat itself, or simply the fact that I didn't have a chance to mentally prepare for the extra effort ahead of time, but the remainder of the run was quite difficult.
Shortly before the 15K mark I stopped quickly at a convenience store to refill my Gatorade bottle to ensure that I didn't run out. That worked out quite well, as it avoided the scenario I've run into in the last couple of weeks and took away the stress of having to run the last bit of the run without hydration. While the marathon pace segment was demanding, I was able to fight through and maintain a slightly higher than planned 4:41/km pace for the duration. I did allow myself to slow down a bit through the hilly segment, however I made up for that near the end of the run when I didn't have to budget my energy anymore. Naturally, that average shows that my pacing is still a little uneven, however it was a significant improvement from last week and there was a lot less yoyoing.
On Sunday, I headed out for my 50 mile ride at about 2pm. The temperatures were much better than the previous day, although there was a strong wind coming out of the west that would make the return trip quite demanding. I was a little worried about the legs being tired after yesterday, but with the tailwind in the first segment of the ride they had no problem keeping up with the targeted pace despite the net positive grade. I took a slightly different route than last week which depressed my speeds a bit (it took me through a residential area, so I had more stop signs to deal with), but despite that it was quite a pleasant ride and I managed to pull off an average of 29.0km/h so it was quite productive as well.
When I returned home, I still had a 4 mile recovery run planned but with a couple of miles still in the bank from Wednesday, I figured I'd do a 2 mile brick run instead. As such, I quickly changed out of my cycling clothes and into my running stuff, and headed out for a lap of the subdivision. I was expecting it to be pretty difficult after the ride, but it was actually suprisingly comfortable. The ride meant that the legs were well warmed up before I started, and the muscles were still in pretty good condition so it was more of a fight to keep my pace down than it was to keep going. Overall, I managed to maintain a 4:45/km pace over the route before heading inside.
On the swimming front, I forced myself to take shorter breaks this week and it helped immensely. Previously, whenever I lost my breath I'd stop long enough to fully recover, whereas this week I only gave myself a short break and forced myself to deal with laboured breathing. Breathing in the water requires a lot more control than it does when running and cycling, so learning how to keep it under control when under heavy loads is an important aspect that I need to work on. Either way, I managed to average a 4:06/100m pace versus the 4:30/100m pace that I've been doing in previous weeks - still quite slow, but a significant improvement nonetheless. I also managed to work myself up to doing six lengths uninterupted, which is a lot better than the two or three that I was able to do in previous weeks. That's still a long ways off from being able to pull of 375m continuously, but that's what training is for ;)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 67.8km (42.1mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 134.5km (83.6mi)
Swimming: 1.7km (1.1mi)
Total: 206.1km (128.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,526.3km (948.4mi)
Walking: 183.3km (113.9mi)
Cycling: 2,406.5km (1,495.2mi)
Swimming: 8.1km (5.0mi)
Total: 4,124.2km (2,562.7mi)
This week is looking pretty good weather-wise as well, so hopefully I'll be able to get in all of my sessions for a change. As I did the 10 mi marathon pace segment yesterday, I'll likely count it as done and simply do the 16 miler scheduled for this Sunday at the normal long-run pace. I probably won't be able to fit two pool sessions in this week, but I'm hoping to switch over next week to help improve my progress on that front.
As for cycling, I'm again hoping to get back together with the group on Saturday morning. We were actually going to do it this week, but the weather through a wrench in those plans. The thunderstorms made it impossible to go out when we would have liked, and scheduling complexities didn't allow us to work out an alternate time. Keeping my fingers crossed that next Saturday's weather will be a little more stable ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 30K Ride
Tue 9mi (14.5K) GA w/5mi (8K) @ LT
Wed 30K Ride, 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 10mi (16.1K) GA, 1.6km swim
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 100K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Week 28: Review
Came up a little short this week as I ended up missing both of my recovery runs due to scheduling issues. Wednesday was Canada day, and I was out with the family for the entire day so there wasn't an opportunity to get out. On Saturday, I was busy in the morning and had to do my long ride in the early afternoon. As such, I planned to do the 4 mile recovery run right after to make for a brick session and get a feel for the combination of the two sports. Unfortunately, I ended up heading out a little later than I would have liked and was concerned that running that close to the long run on the next day.
On the cycling front, I missed the Wednesday session for the same reason as Running, and the weather limited what I could do on other days. Swimming was a little short as well, as I got to the pool a little later than expected and only had 45 minutes before they kicked us out. Either way, the sessions that did get fit in were harder than usual (thanks to headwinds on the bike and time limits in the pool), so regardless of the reduced mileage I got in some good training.
This morning's run started off pretty well, with decent temperatures (~23C/30% humidity) but that quickly changed. The humidity stayed within reason, however the temperatures rose to a much warmer 28.8C by the end of the run. While not as bad as it's been in the last few weeks, I'm still not completely used to it so it took it's toll. After the first hill, my heart rate wasn't recovering as quickly as usual so I was running at higher levels than I should for a long run. As such, I took a few breaks along the way to keep the HR in check.
Adding to the complexity, I also ended up running out of Gatorade (despite bringing a little under a liter with me) after the last major hill. Combined with the heat, that made the final stretch quite difficult and I ended up stopping about a quarter mile short of my target to avoid overshooting my house and adding a ~1K cooldown walk at the end. Will have to remember to bring some more change along with me on future long runs so I can stop and refill my bottles at the halfway point (my hydration pack can only carry four 8oz bottles).
Either way, I managed to average a decent 5:00/km pace for the 14 miler. My heart rate averaged 160bpm, although it hovered at around 170bpm at points (the average was depressed partially by the breaks) so it was still pushing well beyond the mid-to-high 150s I usually target. I should note that while my HR was high, aside from the last bit my perceived effort wasn't noticeably heavier than usual. Had I not been wearing the HRM, I likely wouldn't have bothered with the breaks.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 51.2km (31.8mi)
Walking: 8.6km (5.3mi)
Cycling: 109.9km (68.3mi)
Swimming: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Total: 170.7km (106.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,458.5km (906.3mi)
Walking: 181.2km (112.6mi)
Cycling: 2,272.0km (1,411.8mi)
Swimming: 6.4km (4.0mi)
Total: 3,918.1km (2,434.6mi)
I'll be busy tomorrow morning and it looks like the weather will go downhill in the afternoon so I'll likely not be able to fit in a ride. Other than that, this week should hopefully go according to plan. Running will continue to scale up, and I'm hoping to squeeze out another 100K ride on Saturday. As far as swimming goes, I'll likely hold at the one mile level and just focus on building stamina and speed. Given the proximity of the triathlon I'm hoping to work on switching over to doing two sessions per week.
Upcoming Week:
Mon Rest
Tue 8mi (12.9K) GA w/10x100m
Wed 30K Ride, 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 10mi (16.1K) GA, 1.6km swim
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 100K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 15mi (24.2K) LSD
On other fronts, I finally managed to get out and try on the Oakley Radar and Jawbone sunglasses for the bike. Out of the two, the Jawbone appeared to be a slightly better match - the Radar's top frame appeared to obstruct my vision a bit when in lower positions whereas the Jawbone arched up and stayed out of the way. They had a model called Radar XL that resolved this issue, however taller bridge looked a little goofy so it wouldn't really be useful for anything other than cycling.
The main catch with the Jawbone, however, is that I'm not sure how well ventilated it would be compared to the Radar. The Radars have an open frame design allowing more air to get around the base of the lens, whereas the Jawbone has a more closed-in design. Most of the Jawbone lenses are vented so that should help a bit, but it's difficult to judge this sort of thing inside of a store. The other caveat is that the Jawbones are still hard to find at this point, so getting specific styles/lenses is tricky at this point. My preference would be to get the Transitions version of the glasses that change their transmission level depending on light levels, but I've been unable to find them anywhere.
On the cycling front, I missed the Wednesday session for the same reason as Running, and the weather limited what I could do on other days. Swimming was a little short as well, as I got to the pool a little later than expected and only had 45 minutes before they kicked us out. Either way, the sessions that did get fit in were harder than usual (thanks to headwinds on the bike and time limits in the pool), so regardless of the reduced mileage I got in some good training.
This morning's run started off pretty well, with decent temperatures (~23C/30% humidity) but that quickly changed. The humidity stayed within reason, however the temperatures rose to a much warmer 28.8C by the end of the run. While not as bad as it's been in the last few weeks, I'm still not completely used to it so it took it's toll. After the first hill, my heart rate wasn't recovering as quickly as usual so I was running at higher levels than I should for a long run. As such, I took a few breaks along the way to keep the HR in check.
Adding to the complexity, I also ended up running out of Gatorade (despite bringing a little under a liter with me) after the last major hill. Combined with the heat, that made the final stretch quite difficult and I ended up stopping about a quarter mile short of my target to avoid overshooting my house and adding a ~1K cooldown walk at the end. Will have to remember to bring some more change along with me on future long runs so I can stop and refill my bottles at the halfway point (my hydration pack can only carry four 8oz bottles).
Either way, I managed to average a decent 5:00/km pace for the 14 miler. My heart rate averaged 160bpm, although it hovered at around 170bpm at points (the average was depressed partially by the breaks) so it was still pushing well beyond the mid-to-high 150s I usually target. I should note that while my HR was high, aside from the last bit my perceived effort wasn't noticeably heavier than usual. Had I not been wearing the HRM, I likely wouldn't have bothered with the breaks.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 51.2km (31.8mi)
Walking: 8.6km (5.3mi)
Cycling: 109.9km (68.3mi)
Swimming: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Total: 170.7km (106.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,458.5km (906.3mi)
Walking: 181.2km (112.6mi)
Cycling: 2,272.0km (1,411.8mi)
Swimming: 6.4km (4.0mi)
Total: 3,918.1km (2,434.6mi)
I'll be busy tomorrow morning and it looks like the weather will go downhill in the afternoon so I'll likely not be able to fit in a ride. Other than that, this week should hopefully go according to plan. Running will continue to scale up, and I'm hoping to squeeze out another 100K ride on Saturday. As far as swimming goes, I'll likely hold at the one mile level and just focus on building stamina and speed. Given the proximity of the triathlon I'm hoping to work on switching over to doing two sessions per week.
Upcoming Week:
Mon Rest
Tue 8mi (12.9K) GA w/10x100m
Wed 30K Ride, 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 10mi (16.1K) GA, 1.6km swim
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 100K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 15mi (24.2K) LSD
On other fronts, I finally managed to get out and try on the Oakley Radar and Jawbone sunglasses for the bike. Out of the two, the Jawbone appeared to be a slightly better match - the Radar's top frame appeared to obstruct my vision a bit when in lower positions whereas the Jawbone arched up and stayed out of the way. They had a model called Radar XL that resolved this issue, however taller bridge looked a little goofy so it wouldn't really be useful for anything other than cycling.
The main catch with the Jawbone, however, is that I'm not sure how well ventilated it would be compared to the Radar. The Radars have an open frame design allowing more air to get around the base of the lens, whereas the Jawbone has a more closed-in design. Most of the Jawbone lenses are vented so that should help a bit, but it's difficult to judge this sort of thing inside of a store. The other caveat is that the Jawbones are still hard to find at this point, so getting specific styles/lenses is tricky at this point. My preference would be to get the Transitions version of the glasses that change their transmission level depending on light levels, but I've been unable to find them anywhere.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Week 27: Review
As predicted, this week was incredibly hot and gave me my first real taste of running/cycling under sustained high temperatures this season. While I was doing a good deal of running last summer, I was only training for a half marathon at the time so I wasn't doing the volume or intensity that I am now. As such, I was burning through Gatorade and water to fight my way through all of the planned sessions.
Cycling isn't too bad in this weather, as at the speeds one travels there is a pretty healthy wind to evaporate the sweat and help cool down the body. The only caveat is that on the really hot days (such as the 34C/60% humidity we had on Wednesday), when you inevitably come up to segments where you have to stop (traffic lights, stop signs, etc.) the heat can really hit you. It's kind of a weird feeling to dread the breaks in an exercise session, but on days like this that 30km/h headwind is the only thing keeping you going ;)
Either way, I did end up making some adjustments this week due to the conditions. The group had to do a little over 12K (~8mi) on Wednesday, so I ended up doing that rather than the 10K recovery run I was looking at. With the humidity, however, the thick air made it much more difficult than it would normally be - while we were running at a general aerobic pace (~5:00/km), my heart rate reached tempo levels in the last few kilometers. We took a couple of brief walking breaks as well, as one of our group members was having a lot more trouble than the rest of us.
I was scheduled to do a 10 miler on Thursday, but as the 8 miles done the day before were extra (Wednesday was supposed to be a rest day in Pftizinger's schedule) and it was still pretty brutal out there I figured I'd just make up the difference. As such, I took a five mile course and split it up into 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles at GA, 1 mile cooldown and then walked the final mile. The net result was to put me a little ahead of scheduled mileage for the week and I didn't have to burn myself out once again ;)
Saturday's long ride went quite well, as some rain had come through on Friday night and knocked the temperature and humidity down a bit. It was still well into the 30s with the humidity taken into account, but that was a lot better than we'd had earlier in the week. At about the 25K mark, I popped into a convenience store to resupply my fluids before it became a problem - drinking a bottle of Gatorade and refilling my depleted water bottle. Other than various traffic stops along the way, I managed to complete the entire 70K ride without any further breaks. As I took care to avoid the urban areas that have slowed me down on the last few rides, I was able to comfortably maintain a 30km/h average speed even with some pretty significant hills (cumulative ascent was over 3000 feet). This was a bit of a shorter ride than I've been doing on Saturdays, but with the first of the Marathon Pace runs the next day I didn't want to push it too hard this weekend.
As for Sunday's long run, I was dreading it a bit for most of the week. This would be the first time since Around the Bay that I've run a significant distance at this particular pace (4:45/km), so I was concerned that it would be difficult. They were also calling for significant quantities of rain, so I was concerned that that would just add to the difficulty. Fortunately, while it was pouring when I originally planned to go out the radar showed an opening that would hit at around 4pm so I elected to push it back. This worked out well, as when I headed out the rain was mostly gone (a little drizzle, but nothing significant) the sky was overcast and the temperature was a comfortable 21C.
I programmed the watch to give me a 6km warm up, which would just get me past the big hill prior to launching into the 8 mile marathon pace segment. I'd have to do that hill at pace on the way back, but hopefully by that point I'd be well into my rythum and able to push through. I kept my pace under control during this segment, and was especially careful on the climb to keep my heart rate under control. At the top of the hill I ended up hitting a stop light which gave me a bit of time to recover prior to doing the last 600 meters at recovery pace.
When the watch beeped to signal the start of the marathon pace segment, I accelerated and still felt quite good. I looked down at the readout and saw I was going at a 4:20 pace so I put on the brakes a bit and pulled myself back to the 4:45 pace I was targeting. This continued to proove difficult, and I spent a good deal of the first couple kilometers looking down at my wrist to keep myself at the right pace. Despite the yoyo pacing for the first 3K or so, however, I managed to keep my average pace in the right ballpark - averaging 4:41, 4:43 and 4:42 respectively. I was still feeling good and was partially relieved that my problem was the body wanting to go too fast rather than having to fight to speed up ;)
After that point, however, I got into a residential area where I had to pay more attention to my suroundings and couldn't monitor the watch as closely as I would have liked. The end result was that my pace continued to slip into the high 4:30s, although it stayed pretty stable there. As my heart rate was comfortably within zone 3 I didn't worry too much about it and played it by ear. I was still feeling quite good even with the faster pace, which did a lot to boost my confidence. I continued this for the next little bit until I got back to the hill.
Going down, I was careful to monitor my heart rate to make sure that I'd be able to power myself back up without having to slow down. My pace was still a bit fast, however that was more down to gravity than it was to effort ;) Once the incline started switching it became difficult to maintain pace so I decided to punch it. While it was difficult at the start, once I got up to speed it actually ended up getting a lot easier and I managed to push past the apex of the hill at a healthy 4:13 pace. Suprisingly, even with that push my HR only peaked at 176bpm (~81%) and I was still feeling pretty good. Fortunately, at this point I ran into another stop light that gave me a chance to recover a bit before finishing the last 4K of the marathon pace segment.
Once I got going I was back into the yoyo routine of trying to keep my pace where it was supposed to be. Unfortunately at this point the clouds were breaking up and the sun started shining through, so the temperature and humidity were climbing fast. Thanks to this, the last 3K of the MP segment was probably the hardest part of the run - however I managed to fight through (although it was quite a relief when the watch beeped to signal that it was over). With the hard part done, I did the last 2K of the run at a recovery pace and added a brief 400m walk at the end to help cool off.
Either way, it felt quite good to get such a strong effort in this time around and has shored up confidence in my ability to maintain the pace required for a 3:20 marathon. I have a lot of work to do in getting a feel for this particular pace, as the extra speed isn't a huge deal for an 8 mile segment but would be catastrophic for a marathon distance. That will just be a matter of more practice with it, however, as my gravity toward the 4:30 pace is likely simply because of the tempo runs that I've done over the last few weeks.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 59.2km (36.8mi)
Walking: 3.9km (2.4mi)
Cycling: 176.3km (109.5mi)
Swimming: 1.6km (1.0mi)
Total: 241.0km (149.8mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,407.3km (874.5mi)
Walking: 172.6km (107.2mi)
Cycling: 2,162.1km (1,343.5mi)
Swimming: 5.4km (3.4mi)
Total: 3,747.4km (2,328.5mi)
This upcomming week is going to be a bit tricky, as the rain is back for a good portion of the week which will mess things up a bit. Given the weather today I elected to skip the cycling session (although in retrospect I likely could have pulled it off in the morning). Wednesday is Canada day so I'll be busy with family for most of the day, so regardless of the weather there's no way I'll have time for a bike ride (and I'm not even confident I'll be able to fit in the scheduled run). Fortunately, the weekend looks like it will be good at this point so I'm going to try to load a lot of the cycling mileage at the back end of the week.
Upcoming Week:
Mon Rest
Tue 10mi (16.1K) GA
Wed 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Thurs 8mi (12.9K) GA w/4mi LT, 1.6km swim
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 100K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 14mi (22.5K) LSD
The other thing that I'm going to have to start looking into is getting a good pair of sunglasses for use on the bike. I've ridden through a few swarms of bugs in the last week or so, and regardless of how small they may be they make quite an impact at 30-40km/h ;) The tricky part is that cycling glasses are difficult to do right as they have a lot of constraints to deal with - they have to be small and light so they're comfortable and don't obstruct your field of vision, but they also have to be strong enough to take high-speed impacts from debris kicked up by cars/trucks. Doing a bit of digging it appears that Oakley's glasses are the best balance, however they're a bit pricey for what they are so I'm still looking around at alternatives as well. With that said, I don't mind paying a bit of a premium if they are genuinely better as it's the type of thing that could last me for a while.
In other areas, I've elected to just push on with my own training for the Triathlon. The clinic would have been helpful, but the scheduling conflict with my group rides was a big problem. Going beyond 100km is extremely difficult to do on one's own, for both safety and logistical reasons (rides of this length generally benefit from a lunch stop at the apex, and without someone to watch the bikes that's difficult to pull off). I would have liked to get some experience with simulated transitions and mass start swimming, but as I'm not really aiming to be competitive in Orillia I can work around those shortcommings.
Cycling isn't too bad in this weather, as at the speeds one travels there is a pretty healthy wind to evaporate the sweat and help cool down the body. The only caveat is that on the really hot days (such as the 34C/60% humidity we had on Wednesday), when you inevitably come up to segments where you have to stop (traffic lights, stop signs, etc.) the heat can really hit you. It's kind of a weird feeling to dread the breaks in an exercise session, but on days like this that 30km/h headwind is the only thing keeping you going ;)
Either way, I did end up making some adjustments this week due to the conditions. The group had to do a little over 12K (~8mi) on Wednesday, so I ended up doing that rather than the 10K recovery run I was looking at. With the humidity, however, the thick air made it much more difficult than it would normally be - while we were running at a general aerobic pace (~5:00/km), my heart rate reached tempo levels in the last few kilometers. We took a couple of brief walking breaks as well, as one of our group members was having a lot more trouble than the rest of us.
I was scheduled to do a 10 miler on Thursday, but as the 8 miles done the day before were extra (Wednesday was supposed to be a rest day in Pftizinger's schedule) and it was still pretty brutal out there I figured I'd just make up the difference. As such, I took a five mile course and split it up into 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles at GA, 1 mile cooldown and then walked the final mile. The net result was to put me a little ahead of scheduled mileage for the week and I didn't have to burn myself out once again ;)
Saturday's long ride went quite well, as some rain had come through on Friday night and knocked the temperature and humidity down a bit. It was still well into the 30s with the humidity taken into account, but that was a lot better than we'd had earlier in the week. At about the 25K mark, I popped into a convenience store to resupply my fluids before it became a problem - drinking a bottle of Gatorade and refilling my depleted water bottle. Other than various traffic stops along the way, I managed to complete the entire 70K ride without any further breaks. As I took care to avoid the urban areas that have slowed me down on the last few rides, I was able to comfortably maintain a 30km/h average speed even with some pretty significant hills (cumulative ascent was over 3000 feet). This was a bit of a shorter ride than I've been doing on Saturdays, but with the first of the Marathon Pace runs the next day I didn't want to push it too hard this weekend.
As for Sunday's long run, I was dreading it a bit for most of the week. This would be the first time since Around the Bay that I've run a significant distance at this particular pace (4:45/km), so I was concerned that it would be difficult. They were also calling for significant quantities of rain, so I was concerned that that would just add to the difficulty. Fortunately, while it was pouring when I originally planned to go out the radar showed an opening that would hit at around 4pm so I elected to push it back. This worked out well, as when I headed out the rain was mostly gone (a little drizzle, but nothing significant) the sky was overcast and the temperature was a comfortable 21C.
I programmed the watch to give me a 6km warm up, which would just get me past the big hill prior to launching into the 8 mile marathon pace segment. I'd have to do that hill at pace on the way back, but hopefully by that point I'd be well into my rythum and able to push through. I kept my pace under control during this segment, and was especially careful on the climb to keep my heart rate under control. At the top of the hill I ended up hitting a stop light which gave me a bit of time to recover prior to doing the last 600 meters at recovery pace.
When the watch beeped to signal the start of the marathon pace segment, I accelerated and still felt quite good. I looked down at the readout and saw I was going at a 4:20 pace so I put on the brakes a bit and pulled myself back to the 4:45 pace I was targeting. This continued to proove difficult, and I spent a good deal of the first couple kilometers looking down at my wrist to keep myself at the right pace. Despite the yoyo pacing for the first 3K or so, however, I managed to keep my average pace in the right ballpark - averaging 4:41, 4:43 and 4:42 respectively. I was still feeling good and was partially relieved that my problem was the body wanting to go too fast rather than having to fight to speed up ;)
After that point, however, I got into a residential area where I had to pay more attention to my suroundings and couldn't monitor the watch as closely as I would have liked. The end result was that my pace continued to slip into the high 4:30s, although it stayed pretty stable there. As my heart rate was comfortably within zone 3 I didn't worry too much about it and played it by ear. I was still feeling quite good even with the faster pace, which did a lot to boost my confidence. I continued this for the next little bit until I got back to the hill.
Going down, I was careful to monitor my heart rate to make sure that I'd be able to power myself back up without having to slow down. My pace was still a bit fast, however that was more down to gravity than it was to effort ;) Once the incline started switching it became difficult to maintain pace so I decided to punch it. While it was difficult at the start, once I got up to speed it actually ended up getting a lot easier and I managed to push past the apex of the hill at a healthy 4:13 pace. Suprisingly, even with that push my HR only peaked at 176bpm (~81%) and I was still feeling pretty good. Fortunately, at this point I ran into another stop light that gave me a chance to recover a bit before finishing the last 4K of the marathon pace segment.
Once I got going I was back into the yoyo routine of trying to keep my pace where it was supposed to be. Unfortunately at this point the clouds were breaking up and the sun started shining through, so the temperature and humidity were climbing fast. Thanks to this, the last 3K of the MP segment was probably the hardest part of the run - however I managed to fight through (although it was quite a relief when the watch beeped to signal that it was over). With the hard part done, I did the last 2K of the run at a recovery pace and added a brief 400m walk at the end to help cool off.
Either way, it felt quite good to get such a strong effort in this time around and has shored up confidence in my ability to maintain the pace required for a 3:20 marathon. I have a lot of work to do in getting a feel for this particular pace, as the extra speed isn't a huge deal for an 8 mile segment but would be catastrophic for a marathon distance. That will just be a matter of more practice with it, however, as my gravity toward the 4:30 pace is likely simply because of the tempo runs that I've done over the last few weeks.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 59.2km (36.8mi)
Walking: 3.9km (2.4mi)
Cycling: 176.3km (109.5mi)
Swimming: 1.6km (1.0mi)
Total: 241.0km (149.8mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,407.3km (874.5mi)
Walking: 172.6km (107.2mi)
Cycling: 2,162.1km (1,343.5mi)
Swimming: 5.4km (3.4mi)
Total: 3,747.4km (2,328.5mi)
This upcomming week is going to be a bit tricky, as the rain is back for a good portion of the week which will mess things up a bit. Given the weather today I elected to skip the cycling session (although in retrospect I likely could have pulled it off in the morning). Wednesday is Canada day so I'll be busy with family for most of the day, so regardless of the weather there's no way I'll have time for a bike ride (and I'm not even confident I'll be able to fit in the scheduled run). Fortunately, the weekend looks like it will be good at this point so I'm going to try to load a lot of the cycling mileage at the back end of the week.
Upcoming Week:
Mon Rest
Tue 10mi (16.1K) GA
Wed 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Thurs 8mi (12.9K) GA w/4mi LT, 1.6km swim
Fri 50K Ride
Sat 100K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 14mi (22.5K) LSD
The other thing that I'm going to have to start looking into is getting a good pair of sunglasses for use on the bike. I've ridden through a few swarms of bugs in the last week or so, and regardless of how small they may be they make quite an impact at 30-40km/h ;) The tricky part is that cycling glasses are difficult to do right as they have a lot of constraints to deal with - they have to be small and light so they're comfortable and don't obstruct your field of vision, but they also have to be strong enough to take high-speed impacts from debris kicked up by cars/trucks. Doing a bit of digging it appears that Oakley's glasses are the best balance, however they're a bit pricey for what they are so I'm still looking around at alternatives as well. With that said, I don't mind paying a bit of a premium if they are genuinely better as it's the type of thing that could last me for a while.
In other areas, I've elected to just push on with my own training for the Triathlon. The clinic would have been helpful, but the scheduling conflict with my group rides was a big problem. Going beyond 100km is extremely difficult to do on one's own, for both safety and logistical reasons (rides of this length generally benefit from a lunch stop at the apex, and without someone to watch the bikes that's difficult to pull off). I would have liked to get some experience with simulated transitions and mass start swimming, but as I'm not really aiming to be competitive in Orillia I can work around those shortcommings.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Week 26: Review
This week was my first one back into the marathon training schedule, and while the individual runs were longer the total mileage was actually a bit less than last week. Naturally, there were more aggressive sessions in there as well (including my first LT run since the marathon) and it felt good to get back into the routine. Unfortunately, the weather added a bit of complexity as there was a lot of rain, so I had to move things around a bit.
While the schedule called for a rest day on Wednesday, I didn't want to miss the group session so I went out anyway. We ended up doing almost exactly 7 miles and while it was raining pretty heavily the whole time, it was actually surprisingly pleasant as the rain helped to cool things down a bit. The group was pretty fast this week, averaging a little under 5min/km with a fast spurt at around 4:20/km near the end. I had originally intended this to be a recovery run, but this worked out just as well ;)
Looking at the weather reports, however, Saturday was looking worse and worse so I was a bit worried about fitting in my cycling sessions. I had naturally missed the Wednesday session, and was likely to miss Friday as well so I really needed to get the long ride in somehow. As such, I decided to move things around a bit so that I could do the ride on Sunday when it was supposed to be clear (albeit hot). Had I simply moved the sessions back, however, that would mean five days of back-to-back running so I needed to make some more complex adjustments. Given the 7 extra GA miles I banked on Wednesday, I elected to simply add 2 GA miles to the 4 mile recovery run (moved from Saturday to Friday) and then doing my 12 mile run on Saturday morning.
Fortunately, that panned out and I was able to squeeze everything in as planned. I did do a lot of running in the rain this week, but unlike biking it doesn't really pose a safety hazard so that's not too much of a sacrifice. Naturally, this means that I hit my running target for the week but my cycling mileage was way down (120km done vs 185km planned).
Sunday's long ride went quite well, although the heat and humidity certainly upped the difficulty factor. I was busy in the morning, so I couldn't go out until nearly 3:00 - as such, the sun was shining at full bore, the temperatures were approaching 30C and the 75% humidity wasn't helping either. Fortunately, on the bike you get a built-in 30km/h wind to cool you down so other than going through a lot of water it wasn't too bad. I did hold back a bit to avoid any trouble (averaging only 29km/h vs. the 30-32km/h I usually do for this distance) which probably wasn't necessary, but I didn't want to risk anything.
While I was at it, however, I took the opportunity to check out the Aurora Running Room and ask a few questions about the Triathlon program I was looking at. I already got some great information from another blogger (who is already a participant), however I wanted to get an idea of exactly where the store was located (it ended up being about 35km), as well as getting some more detail about the schedule and how it would overlay with my existing plan. It certainly looks pretty good, but the main caveat is that the seminars are on Saturday mornings which clash with my existing group rides. I was hoping that possibly the rides in the session could replace those, however it doesn't look like they'll be hitting my current mileage any time soon. Still have to think about it a bit, as the swimming sessions would be quite useful but I also don't want to mess up my cycling training either.
The other upside to this was that I was able to top off my water bottles while I was there, so I left with an ample supply to help deal with the heat. After that, I headed south a bit for a ride around Wilcox lake and then took a bit of a circuitous route back home. I managed to get a good 50 miles (~80.5K) in this time around, and it felt quite good despite the heat and humidity I had to deal with. It's looking like the group rides will be back up and running next Saturday, and hopefully we'll be getting in some decent mileage on some new routes ;)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 53.1km (33.0mi)
Walking: 1.1km (0.7mi)
Cycling: 119.9km (74.5mi)
Swimming: 1.4km (0.9mi)
Total: 175.5km (109.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,348.1km (837.7mi)
Walking: 168.7km (104.8mi)
Cycling: 1,985.8km (1,233.9mi)
Swimming: 3.8km (2.4mi)
Total: 3,506.4km (2,178.8mi)
The upcoming week is looking like it will be pretty decent. While it's going to be quite hot, there isn't a lot of rain forecast so I'll likely be able to stick to the plan pretty well. I will have to make sure that I drink enough fluids, but other than that it will hopefully do a lot to get my body used to this kind of weather so that I can fight my way through the summer ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 8mi (12.9K) GA w/10x100m, 1hr Swim
Wed 30K Ride, 10K Recovery (Group)
Thurs 10mi (16.1K) GA
Fri 30K Ride
Sat 80K Group Ride, 5mi (8K) Recovery
Sun 13mi (20.9K) LSD w/8mi (12.9K) at Marathon Pace
Longer term, I also have to work on selecting some intermediate races this season to act as tune-ups for the bigger ones. The Midsummer Night's 30K in August is likely to be one of them, but I'm hoping to fit in a 10K and at least one more 5K along the way. I'm also flirting with running the half marathon again at the Scotiabank waterfront marathon, however I'll have to see how everything lines up with my training. The triathlon stuff will make these races a little more complicated, but I'll have to see what I can do ;)
While the schedule called for a rest day on Wednesday, I didn't want to miss the group session so I went out anyway. We ended up doing almost exactly 7 miles and while it was raining pretty heavily the whole time, it was actually surprisingly pleasant as the rain helped to cool things down a bit. The group was pretty fast this week, averaging a little under 5min/km with a fast spurt at around 4:20/km near the end. I had originally intended this to be a recovery run, but this worked out just as well ;)
Looking at the weather reports, however, Saturday was looking worse and worse so I was a bit worried about fitting in my cycling sessions. I had naturally missed the Wednesday session, and was likely to miss Friday as well so I really needed to get the long ride in somehow. As such, I decided to move things around a bit so that I could do the ride on Sunday when it was supposed to be clear (albeit hot). Had I simply moved the sessions back, however, that would mean five days of back-to-back running so I needed to make some more complex adjustments. Given the 7 extra GA miles I banked on Wednesday, I elected to simply add 2 GA miles to the 4 mile recovery run (moved from Saturday to Friday) and then doing my 12 mile run on Saturday morning.
Fortunately, that panned out and I was able to squeeze everything in as planned. I did do a lot of running in the rain this week, but unlike biking it doesn't really pose a safety hazard so that's not too much of a sacrifice. Naturally, this means that I hit my running target for the week but my cycling mileage was way down (120km done vs 185km planned).
Sunday's long ride went quite well, although the heat and humidity certainly upped the difficulty factor. I was busy in the morning, so I couldn't go out until nearly 3:00 - as such, the sun was shining at full bore, the temperatures were approaching 30C and the 75% humidity wasn't helping either. Fortunately, on the bike you get a built-in 30km/h wind to cool you down so other than going through a lot of water it wasn't too bad. I did hold back a bit to avoid any trouble (averaging only 29km/h vs. the 30-32km/h I usually do for this distance) which probably wasn't necessary, but I didn't want to risk anything.
While I was at it, however, I took the opportunity to check out the Aurora Running Room and ask a few questions about the Triathlon program I was looking at. I already got some great information from another blogger (who is already a participant), however I wanted to get an idea of exactly where the store was located (it ended up being about 35km), as well as getting some more detail about the schedule and how it would overlay with my existing plan. It certainly looks pretty good, but the main caveat is that the seminars are on Saturday mornings which clash with my existing group rides. I was hoping that possibly the rides in the session could replace those, however it doesn't look like they'll be hitting my current mileage any time soon. Still have to think about it a bit, as the swimming sessions would be quite useful but I also don't want to mess up my cycling training either.
The other upside to this was that I was able to top off my water bottles while I was there, so I left with an ample supply to help deal with the heat. After that, I headed south a bit for a ride around Wilcox lake and then took a bit of a circuitous route back home. I managed to get a good 50 miles (~80.5K) in this time around, and it felt quite good despite the heat and humidity I had to deal with. It's looking like the group rides will be back up and running next Saturday, and hopefully we'll be getting in some decent mileage on some new routes ;)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 53.1km (33.0mi)
Walking: 1.1km (0.7mi)
Cycling: 119.9km (74.5mi)
Swimming: 1.4km (0.9mi)
Total: 175.5km (109.1mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,348.1km (837.7mi)
Walking: 168.7km (104.8mi)
Cycling: 1,985.8km (1,233.9mi)
Swimming: 3.8km (2.4mi)
Total: 3,506.4km (2,178.8mi)
The upcoming week is looking like it will be pretty decent. While it's going to be quite hot, there isn't a lot of rain forecast so I'll likely be able to stick to the plan pretty well. I will have to make sure that I drink enough fluids, but other than that it will hopefully do a lot to get my body used to this kind of weather so that I can fight my way through the summer ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 8mi (12.9K) GA w/10x100m, 1hr Swim
Wed 30K Ride, 10K Recovery (Group)
Thurs 10mi (16.1K) GA
Fri 30K Ride
Sat 80K Group Ride, 5mi (8K) Recovery
Sun 13mi (20.9K) LSD w/8mi (12.9K) at Marathon Pace
Longer term, I also have to work on selecting some intermediate races this season to act as tune-ups for the bigger ones. The Midsummer Night's 30K in August is likely to be one of them, but I'm hoping to fit in a 10K and at least one more 5K along the way. I'm also flirting with running the half marathon again at the Scotiabank waterfront marathon, however I'll have to see how everything lines up with my training. The triathlon stuff will make these races a little more complicated, but I'll have to see what I can do ;)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Week 25: Review & New Targets
Was a pretty good week this time around, and while the weather again interfered with a few of my rides I did manage to get my first 100K ride in yesterday. As expected, it was certainly a long way and the route that I selected had a few nasty hills to make it that much more difficult. Either way, despite the fact that it took almost 3.5 hours to complete (3:29:09 to be precise, about 6 seconds longer than my marathon) it was an enjoyable ride with some pretty nice scenery. With that said, I ended up doing this ride solo (the group didn't materialize this week) and it was a bit of a concern going that far out on my own.
One thing I do have to remember for future attempts, however, is to bring some gels with me on rides like this. Fortunately I didn't have any problems this time, but my records show a consumption of over 2100kcal which is dangerously close to the limits. I saw the numbers getting up there at about the 80K mark, and as I was running low on fluids as well I made a quick stop into a convenience store and grabbed a Gatorade and a couple of cookies to help refill the tank a bit. Finding an appropriate store was a little difficult, however, as one has to worry about where to put the bike when you go in (another thing that's much easier with a group).
Due to the energy consumption of yesterday's ride, I elected to push today's 11 mile run back to the afternoon as I wanted to squeeze in another meal to make sure that my stores were sufficiently refilled. Unfortunately, today was a pretty hot day so running later in the day didn't help with that. When I set out, the thermostat was reading 29.4C with 60% humidity and as my body's still not really used to running in the heat yet that made things pretty difficult. I brought along 16oz of Gatorade, and unfortunately with the heat I ended up running out after 13K. As I approached the 10 mile mark, I elected to just cut the run short to avoid running into any problems. I did some additional mileage on Wednesday, so I'd still have more than enough to cover my weekly target.
I also managed to squeeze in my second swimming session this week which went a good deal better than last week. I'm still horribly slow, but I think I've got most of the kinks worked out so it's just a matter of building some upper body strength and a little more endurance in the pool. I'm still a long way away from being able to race in the water, but I've still got some time to work on that one ;)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 56.7km (35.2mi)
Walking: 3.2km (2.0mi)
Cycling: 142.7km (88.7mi)
Swimming: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Total: 203.9km (126.7mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,295.0km (804.7mi)
Walking: 167.6km (104.1mi)
Cycling: 1,882.9km (1,170.0mi)
Swimming: 2.4km (1.5mi)
Total: 3,347.9km (2,080.3mi)
Last week marked the end of the recovery phase of my marathon training program, so I'll be restarting the Pfitzinger 55mi/18wk program again this week. Working the rest of my activities into the schedule is going to be a bit challenging going forward, but with the mileage still relatively low that won't be a huge problem for the time being. Tentatively, my schedule will be as follows however I may need to make some adjustments depending on the weather and other logistical details.
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 8mi (12.9K) LT w/4mi (6.4km) @15K Race Pace, 1hr Swim
Wed 30K Ride, 10K Recovery (Group)
Thurs 9mi (14.5K) GA
Fri 30K Ride
Sat 75K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 12mi (19.3K) LSD
When I ran my first marathon back in May, I managed to chew through my long term goal (finishing a marathon before my 30th birthday) so for the last few weeks I've been trying to figure out what goalpost to set up for the next little while. When I went into marathon training, my intention was more to get that notch into my belt and be done with it. The sheer ammount of work required to train for one of these races is daunting for someone who has never done it before (4.5 months of nearly continous training), and the thought of doing it over and over again is almost unimaginable ;)
As my training progressed, however, I found myself enjoying it and, while it was undeniably a lot of work, once you got into the routine of it it wasn't all that bad. The few short distance races that I did during my training showed marked improvements as well, so hitting all of those little mini-goals along the way helped to make it more enjoyable. When I actually ran the race and crossed that finish line below my target, however, I found myself focusing on what I could do better the next time around and wanting to give it another shot.
At the same time, after working cycling into my routine I've been tempted by the idea of playing around with giving Triathlons a shot. Over the last year and a half, I've steadily increased my targets and aimed for longer and longer distances. The marathon is about as far as I realistically want to run at this point, so aiming for bigger targets means going in a bit of a different direction. A few months ago the idea of an Ironman was pretty much insane, but at this point the concept is kind of floating around in the back of my head in much the same way that the marathon did a year ago.
Either way, after a bit of playing around with various ideas I'm likely going to split my attention a bit between achieving two different goals. In the short term, I'd like to work my way into qualifying for the Boston Marathon and I've got to shave 18:04 off of my time to get there. As such, I'm looking at targeting 3:20 at the Goodlife Toronto Marathon this fall and then, hopefully, working my way down to 3:10:59 at Mississauga next spring. Those are both pretty aggressive goals, so if I have to scale back my plans I don't mind doing that - but getting to 3:10 is not an easy goal, and one has to push pretty hard to get there.
The longer term goal is to work my way into doing some Triathlons. I'd like to attempt a short distance race later this summer to get a feel for the sport - not so much to run it competitively, but to get some experience with the transitions and see how well my body takes to it. Tentatively, I'm aiming at the try-a-tri (375m swim, 10K ride, 3K run) in Orillia in late August as the date and location work well for me. The bike and run legs are short enough that they shouldn't pose too much of a problem (even with tired legs), but the swim will require significant improvement and the transitions will likely be pretty messy the first time out.
Ultimately, I'd like to work my way up to an Ironman but thats a long ways off and will depend critically on how well the shorter races work out for me. Either way, I likely won't begin to really ramp up the triathlon side of things until the Boston goal is achieved. I hope to pull off a few short to medium distance Tris next summer to further my experience, but I won't even begin to think about the longer distance ones until I'm clear to focus 100% on them.
The tricky part at this point is to figure out how to integrate my training to accomodate both of these goals. While my running is strictly regimented by a formal training program, my cycling and swimming have simply been done by feel. If I do want to get serious about this, I'm going to have to find some sort of formal program that is flexible enough to deal with the running requirements that my primary goal will require.
The one idea that I've been flirting with is giving the Running Room's Triathlon program a shot. Their Aurora store has a clinic that started last weekend targetting the Orillia race, and their running programs did do a lot to help me when I first started out. The caveat, however, is that (a) that store is a good distance away from here and (b) I havn't really been able to find much information about how their program is structured. It has to deal with athletes with a wide range of backgrounds, and whether it can be sufficiently flexible to deal with my requirements (ie weak swimmer, relatively strong runner/cyclist).
One thing I do have to remember for future attempts, however, is to bring some gels with me on rides like this. Fortunately I didn't have any problems this time, but my records show a consumption of over 2100kcal which is dangerously close to the limits. I saw the numbers getting up there at about the 80K mark, and as I was running low on fluids as well I made a quick stop into a convenience store and grabbed a Gatorade and a couple of cookies to help refill the tank a bit. Finding an appropriate store was a little difficult, however, as one has to worry about where to put the bike when you go in (another thing that's much easier with a group).
Due to the energy consumption of yesterday's ride, I elected to push today's 11 mile run back to the afternoon as I wanted to squeeze in another meal to make sure that my stores were sufficiently refilled. Unfortunately, today was a pretty hot day so running later in the day didn't help with that. When I set out, the thermostat was reading 29.4C with 60% humidity and as my body's still not really used to running in the heat yet that made things pretty difficult. I brought along 16oz of Gatorade, and unfortunately with the heat I ended up running out after 13K. As I approached the 10 mile mark, I elected to just cut the run short to avoid running into any problems. I did some additional mileage on Wednesday, so I'd still have more than enough to cover my weekly target.
I also managed to squeeze in my second swimming session this week which went a good deal better than last week. I'm still horribly slow, but I think I've got most of the kinks worked out so it's just a matter of building some upper body strength and a little more endurance in the pool. I'm still a long way away from being able to race in the water, but I've still got some time to work on that one ;)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 56.7km (35.2mi)
Walking: 3.2km (2.0mi)
Cycling: 142.7km (88.7mi)
Swimming: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Total: 203.9km (126.7mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,295.0km (804.7mi)
Walking: 167.6km (104.1mi)
Cycling: 1,882.9km (1,170.0mi)
Swimming: 2.4km (1.5mi)
Total: 3,347.9km (2,080.3mi)
Last week marked the end of the recovery phase of my marathon training program, so I'll be restarting the Pfitzinger 55mi/18wk program again this week. Working the rest of my activities into the schedule is going to be a bit challenging going forward, but with the mileage still relatively low that won't be a huge problem for the time being. Tentatively, my schedule will be as follows however I may need to make some adjustments depending on the weather and other logistical details.
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 8mi (12.9K) LT w/4mi (6.4km) @15K Race Pace, 1hr Swim
Wed 30K Ride, 10K Recovery (Group)
Thurs 9mi (14.5K) GA
Fri 30K Ride
Sat 75K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 12mi (19.3K) LSD
When I ran my first marathon back in May, I managed to chew through my long term goal (finishing a marathon before my 30th birthday) so for the last few weeks I've been trying to figure out what goalpost to set up for the next little while. When I went into marathon training, my intention was more to get that notch into my belt and be done with it. The sheer ammount of work required to train for one of these races is daunting for someone who has never done it before (4.5 months of nearly continous training), and the thought of doing it over and over again is almost unimaginable ;)
As my training progressed, however, I found myself enjoying it and, while it was undeniably a lot of work, once you got into the routine of it it wasn't all that bad. The few short distance races that I did during my training showed marked improvements as well, so hitting all of those little mini-goals along the way helped to make it more enjoyable. When I actually ran the race and crossed that finish line below my target, however, I found myself focusing on what I could do better the next time around and wanting to give it another shot.
At the same time, after working cycling into my routine I've been tempted by the idea of playing around with giving Triathlons a shot. Over the last year and a half, I've steadily increased my targets and aimed for longer and longer distances. The marathon is about as far as I realistically want to run at this point, so aiming for bigger targets means going in a bit of a different direction. A few months ago the idea of an Ironman was pretty much insane, but at this point the concept is kind of floating around in the back of my head in much the same way that the marathon did a year ago.
Either way, after a bit of playing around with various ideas I'm likely going to split my attention a bit between achieving two different goals. In the short term, I'd like to work my way into qualifying for the Boston Marathon and I've got to shave 18:04 off of my time to get there. As such, I'm looking at targeting 3:20 at the Goodlife Toronto Marathon this fall and then, hopefully, working my way down to 3:10:59 at Mississauga next spring. Those are both pretty aggressive goals, so if I have to scale back my plans I don't mind doing that - but getting to 3:10 is not an easy goal, and one has to push pretty hard to get there.
The longer term goal is to work my way into doing some Triathlons. I'd like to attempt a short distance race later this summer to get a feel for the sport - not so much to run it competitively, but to get some experience with the transitions and see how well my body takes to it. Tentatively, I'm aiming at the try-a-tri (375m swim, 10K ride, 3K run) in Orillia in late August as the date and location work well for me. The bike and run legs are short enough that they shouldn't pose too much of a problem (even with tired legs), but the swim will require significant improvement and the transitions will likely be pretty messy the first time out.
Ultimately, I'd like to work my way up to an Ironman but thats a long ways off and will depend critically on how well the shorter races work out for me. Either way, I likely won't begin to really ramp up the triathlon side of things until the Boston goal is achieved. I hope to pull off a few short to medium distance Tris next summer to further my experience, but I won't even begin to think about the longer distance ones until I'm clear to focus 100% on them.
The tricky part at this point is to figure out how to integrate my training to accomodate both of these goals. While my running is strictly regimented by a formal training program, my cycling and swimming have simply been done by feel. If I do want to get serious about this, I'm going to have to find some sort of formal program that is flexible enough to deal with the running requirements that my primary goal will require.
The one idea that I've been flirting with is giving the Running Room's Triathlon program a shot. Their Aurora store has a clinic that started last weekend targetting the Orillia race, and their running programs did do a lot to help me when I first started out. The caveat, however, is that (a) that store is a good distance away from here and (b) I havn't really been able to find much information about how their program is structured. It has to deal with athletes with a wide range of backgrounds, and whether it can be sufficiently flexible to deal with my requirements (ie weak swimmer, relatively strong runner/cyclist).
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Cycling Computers: Revisited
About three months ago I was looking at various options for replacing my bike's basic cyclocomputer with something more capable. Unfortunately, things got busy after that point and I never got a chance to do much more research. After getting back on the road for a while, however, the limitations that weren't so big of an issue on the trainer re-asserted themselves and brought this consideration back to the forefront. As such, over the last few weeks I've been doing a little more digging and re-examining my options.
Shortly after the last post, I was strongly gravitating towards the Polar CS600X but it wasn't available at the time. Thanks to some pro-active assistance from Chris at Polar USA, I was able to get confirmation that the CS600X with power is available in this country so it's just a matter of finding a retailer at this point. In the meantime, however, I've heard a lot of good things about the Garmin Edge 705 from local bike shops and riders that I've met out on the road so I'm reconsidering that option as well.
The other unit that I've heard good things about and didn't consider last time around is the Velocomp iBike series (specifically their Pro and Aero units). In addition to the basic cyclocomputer features, these units provide power readings using a relatively novel solution that measures opposing forces rather than measuring the drivetrain itself. Using an air speed sensor and a multi-axis accelerometer array within the head unit, it measures the various forces resisting movement (primarily aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance) and backsolves the amount of power necessary to maintain the speed the bike is traveling at.
Naturally, the power readings do make some assumptions that more direct measurements don't have to deal with. Primarily, when one changes positions during a ride their drag coefficient will change but the system has no way to know that this is happening. As such, when going down on the drops power will be overestimated and when sitting up to drink, power will be underestimated.
With that said, most people that I've talked to that have actually used the system appear to be impressed with it's accuracy. Part of that is likely down to the fact that one typically spends most of their time in one position so the impact of this is likely less significant than it would seem at first glance. Either way, Polar's measurement mechanism has significant sources of potential error as well and as the other power options aren't really realistic at this point this may be somewhat moot ;)
The one thing that has me intrigued by these devices, however, is their ability to record both the air and ground speeds of the bike. This provides a detailed log of the intensity of head and tailwinds, as well as a way to quantify the effects of drafting positions during group rides. This information can be extrapolated to an extent from heart rate and power data, but as other things can influence those values the air speed readings can be quite instructive (especially for a relatively new rider such as myself).
Further, their iAero head unit can actually provide estimates of your aerodynamic drag coefficient each time you coast (with the addition of an aftermarket ANT+ power meter, it can even provide a continuous readout). If accurate, this would allow me to experiment with different positions on the bike in order to determine exactly how efficient each of them are. At common cycling speeds, aerodynamic drag becomes the dominant force the rider is fighting against so the ability to fine tune one's position is potentially a huge feature.
The problem with the iBike products, however, is that their user interface is pretty crude compared to Polar and Garmin's products. Velocomp elected to use a simple three-line fixed element LCD, which is fine for the numeric information readouts but has severe limitations for the on-device menus. This is likely due to the fact that they appear to use the same hardware for their various models and differentiate based on firmware. As such, their design had to be profitable for their $199 Sport model and compromises had to be made to reach that price point. As a user, however, justifying paying $799 for this type of user experience is a bit frustrating. The biggest annoyance with their implementation, however, is that the user cannot select which pieces of telemetry are shown on each of their pages - one is stuck with the groupings that Velocomp offers.
Either way, I'll continue to do a bit more digging but wanted to get my thought process down here. Like anything, there are significant pros and cons for all three choices here and it's just a matter of figuring out which compromises are the least significant for my needs. Naturally, if anyone has any experience with these products I'd welcome any input on the topic!
Shortly after the last post, I was strongly gravitating towards the Polar CS600X but it wasn't available at the time. Thanks to some pro-active assistance from Chris at Polar USA, I was able to get confirmation that the CS600X with power is available in this country so it's just a matter of finding a retailer at this point. In the meantime, however, I've heard a lot of good things about the Garmin Edge 705 from local bike shops and riders that I've met out on the road so I'm reconsidering that option as well.
The other unit that I've heard good things about and didn't consider last time around is the Velocomp iBike series (specifically their Pro and Aero units). In addition to the basic cyclocomputer features, these units provide power readings using a relatively novel solution that measures opposing forces rather than measuring the drivetrain itself. Using an air speed sensor and a multi-axis accelerometer array within the head unit, it measures the various forces resisting movement (primarily aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance) and backsolves the amount of power necessary to maintain the speed the bike is traveling at.
Naturally, the power readings do make some assumptions that more direct measurements don't have to deal with. Primarily, when one changes positions during a ride their drag coefficient will change but the system has no way to know that this is happening. As such, when going down on the drops power will be overestimated and when sitting up to drink, power will be underestimated.
With that said, most people that I've talked to that have actually used the system appear to be impressed with it's accuracy. Part of that is likely down to the fact that one typically spends most of their time in one position so the impact of this is likely less significant than it would seem at first glance. Either way, Polar's measurement mechanism has significant sources of potential error as well and as the other power options aren't really realistic at this point this may be somewhat moot ;)
The one thing that has me intrigued by these devices, however, is their ability to record both the air and ground speeds of the bike. This provides a detailed log of the intensity of head and tailwinds, as well as a way to quantify the effects of drafting positions during group rides. This information can be extrapolated to an extent from heart rate and power data, but as other things can influence those values the air speed readings can be quite instructive (especially for a relatively new rider such as myself).
Further, their iAero head unit can actually provide estimates of your aerodynamic drag coefficient each time you coast (with the addition of an aftermarket ANT+ power meter, it can even provide a continuous readout). If accurate, this would allow me to experiment with different positions on the bike in order to determine exactly how efficient each of them are. At common cycling speeds, aerodynamic drag becomes the dominant force the rider is fighting against so the ability to fine tune one's position is potentially a huge feature.
The problem with the iBike products, however, is that their user interface is pretty crude compared to Polar and Garmin's products. Velocomp elected to use a simple three-line fixed element LCD, which is fine for the numeric information readouts but has severe limitations for the on-device menus. This is likely due to the fact that they appear to use the same hardware for their various models and differentiate based on firmware. As such, their design had to be profitable for their $199 Sport model and compromises had to be made to reach that price point. As a user, however, justifying paying $799 for this type of user experience is a bit frustrating. The biggest annoyance with their implementation, however, is that the user cannot select which pieces of telemetry are shown on each of their pages - one is stuck with the groupings that Velocomp offers.
Either way, I'll continue to do a bit more digging but wanted to get my thought process down here. Like anything, there are significant pros and cons for all three choices here and it's just a matter of figuring out which compromises are the least significant for my needs. Naturally, if anyone has any experience with these products I'd welcome any input on the topic!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Week 24: Review
Managed to get a good deal of work in this week, although I did miss my Monday cycling session due to weather concerns. Rather than take the day off, however, I elected to go out for an 11K power walk (~8:17/km pace) so that the day wouldn't be a total loss. Walking used to be the mainstay of my schedule, and I kept it up in the earlier stages of my running but with the miles that the marathon training schedules require I havn't had the time to mix them in alongside the running and cycling. When time permits, however, it's a good way to squeeze in a few extra miles without the training load that running would impose.
Aside from that, I also got around to doing my first proper swimming session in a long time after my run on Tuesday. The last time I did any significant number of lengths was nearly 18 years ago, so naturally my technique was pretty rusty. I've certainly done some swimming since, but most of that was recreational in nature with little in the way of sustained efforts required for lengths. Breathing was naturally my biggest issue, and loosing track of that meant that I had to take rests frequently to let it catch up. I had no problem breathing over my right shoulder, but for some reason I was having a lot of trouble taking in air over my left. While I likely could have had a better session just sticking to the one side, I didn't want to reinforce bad habits so I forced myself to alternate.
Regardless, I managed to put down a little under 1100m in around 1h15m (including breaks as I had no way to time and record individual lap times), which is pretty slow but not too bad for my first time back. It did take a good deal out of me, however, as the cycling and running sessions on the next day were pretty difficult. That's somewhat to be expected, however, as swimming involves very different muscle groups than the other sports and I have a lot of work to do before I get my fitness up in those areas. I do have to find a proper training program to get myself to where I need to be, however for the time being I'll just go out on a regular basis and log as many miles as possible to iron out the wrinkles ;)
The one thing that is a bit frustrating is that I don't currently have any mechanism to record my telemetry from these sessions. I've used my heart rate monitor for walking, running and cycling and it was an invaluable tool when getting started in those sports as I could gauge the proper effort when I had no experience in figuring that out by feel. Unfortunately the 2.4GHz band that Polar uses for communication between the heart rate strap and the wrist unit can't penetrate water, so it won't function in this environment (both parts are submersion rated, but they don't do much good when they can't talk to one another).
I was looking at the Suunto Memory Belt (which stores HR data in the heart rate strap itself) a few months back, however from what I've seen it appears to be difficult to keep in place unless you are wearing a wetsuit. Swimovate's Pool-Mate device looks interesting, however without a way to upload the data to a computer its utility is limited (as it can only provide averages, and not detailed plots). Will probably have to wing it for the time being, but I'll keep my eyes open for electronic aides that may simplify this sort of thing ;)
Aside from that, I managed to do all of the runs as scheduled. We did an 11K group run on Wednesday rather than the 8K scheduled as the others needed a bit more distance, so there's an extra 3K on my weekly totals this time around (makes up for the 2K I missed last week). Either way, it was apparently national running day in the US on Wednesday so I'll chalk it up to celebrating alongside our southern neighbours ;)
I was playing with the idea of trying out a 100K ride on Saturday, however time constraints limited me to the 75K route that I did last week. Upped the pace a little versus last time (30.5km/h vs. 30.1km/h), although a lot of that was again gated by the traffic on Rutherford so I'll have to find a better return route. The group ride didn't materialize again this time around, so it was a solo ride once again. Either way, I'm hoping to give a 100K ride a shot this upcoming Saturday as the 75K rides have worked well so far ;) Just keeping my fingers crossed that the weather lines up to permit that!
Weekly Totals:
Running: 51.2km (31.8mi)
Walking: 11.9km (7.4mi)
Cycling: 137.4km (85.4mi)
Swimming: 1.1km (0.7mi)
Total: 201.6km (125.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,238.3km (769.4mi)
Walking: 164.4km (102.2mi)
Cycling: 1,740.2km (1,081.3mi)
Swimming: 1.1km (0.7mi)
Total: 3,144.0km (1,953.6mi)
The upcoming week is the last of my recovery program, so I'm going to have to solidify the details of my next training cycle in the next few days. If I do elect to go with the Toronto Goodlife Marathon (which I'm pretty sure will be the case), the 18 week program will begin as soon as this one ends. I'm roughly flirting with aiming to do the tri-a-tri race (375m swim, 10K ride, 2.5K run) in Orillia at the end of August, as it should give enough time to get a decent swimming base in so that I can get some experience with the transitions prior to (hopefully) racing some proper triathlons sometime next summer. Either way, I'll likely have another post tomorow or the day after with details on what I'm aiming on doing with the summer and fall seasons ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride (probably not going to happen)
Tue 7mi (11.3K) GA
Wed 30K Ride, 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 1hr Swim, 30K Ride
Fri 8mi (12.9K) GA w/8x100m
Sat 100K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 11mi (17.7K) LSD
Aside from that, I also got around to doing my first proper swimming session in a long time after my run on Tuesday. The last time I did any significant number of lengths was nearly 18 years ago, so naturally my technique was pretty rusty. I've certainly done some swimming since, but most of that was recreational in nature with little in the way of sustained efforts required for lengths. Breathing was naturally my biggest issue, and loosing track of that meant that I had to take rests frequently to let it catch up. I had no problem breathing over my right shoulder, but for some reason I was having a lot of trouble taking in air over my left. While I likely could have had a better session just sticking to the one side, I didn't want to reinforce bad habits so I forced myself to alternate.
Regardless, I managed to put down a little under 1100m in around 1h15m (including breaks as I had no way to time and record individual lap times), which is pretty slow but not too bad for my first time back. It did take a good deal out of me, however, as the cycling and running sessions on the next day were pretty difficult. That's somewhat to be expected, however, as swimming involves very different muscle groups than the other sports and I have a lot of work to do before I get my fitness up in those areas. I do have to find a proper training program to get myself to where I need to be, however for the time being I'll just go out on a regular basis and log as many miles as possible to iron out the wrinkles ;)
The one thing that is a bit frustrating is that I don't currently have any mechanism to record my telemetry from these sessions. I've used my heart rate monitor for walking, running and cycling and it was an invaluable tool when getting started in those sports as I could gauge the proper effort when I had no experience in figuring that out by feel. Unfortunately the 2.4GHz band that Polar uses for communication between the heart rate strap and the wrist unit can't penetrate water, so it won't function in this environment (both parts are submersion rated, but they don't do much good when they can't talk to one another).
I was looking at the Suunto Memory Belt (which stores HR data in the heart rate strap itself) a few months back, however from what I've seen it appears to be difficult to keep in place unless you are wearing a wetsuit. Swimovate's Pool-Mate device looks interesting, however without a way to upload the data to a computer its utility is limited (as it can only provide averages, and not detailed plots). Will probably have to wing it for the time being, but I'll keep my eyes open for electronic aides that may simplify this sort of thing ;)
Aside from that, I managed to do all of the runs as scheduled. We did an 11K group run on Wednesday rather than the 8K scheduled as the others needed a bit more distance, so there's an extra 3K on my weekly totals this time around (makes up for the 2K I missed last week). Either way, it was apparently national running day in the US on Wednesday so I'll chalk it up to celebrating alongside our southern neighbours ;)
I was playing with the idea of trying out a 100K ride on Saturday, however time constraints limited me to the 75K route that I did last week. Upped the pace a little versus last time (30.5km/h vs. 30.1km/h), although a lot of that was again gated by the traffic on Rutherford so I'll have to find a better return route. The group ride didn't materialize again this time around, so it was a solo ride once again. Either way, I'm hoping to give a 100K ride a shot this upcoming Saturday as the 75K rides have worked well so far ;) Just keeping my fingers crossed that the weather lines up to permit that!
Weekly Totals:
Running: 51.2km (31.8mi)
Walking: 11.9km (7.4mi)
Cycling: 137.4km (85.4mi)
Swimming: 1.1km (0.7mi)
Total: 201.6km (125.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,238.3km (769.4mi)
Walking: 164.4km (102.2mi)
Cycling: 1,740.2km (1,081.3mi)
Swimming: 1.1km (0.7mi)
Total: 3,144.0km (1,953.6mi)
The upcoming week is the last of my recovery program, so I'm going to have to solidify the details of my next training cycle in the next few days. If I do elect to go with the Toronto Goodlife Marathon (which I'm pretty sure will be the case), the 18 week program will begin as soon as this one ends. I'm roughly flirting with aiming to do the tri-a-tri race (375m swim, 10K ride, 2.5K run) in Orillia at the end of August, as it should give enough time to get a decent swimming base in so that I can get some experience with the transitions prior to (hopefully) racing some proper triathlons sometime next summer. Either way, I'll likely have another post tomorow or the day after with details on what I'm aiming on doing with the summer and fall seasons ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride (probably not going to happen)
Tue 7mi (11.3K) GA
Wed 30K Ride, 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 1hr Swim, 30K Ride
Fri 8mi (12.9K) GA w/8x100m
Sat 100K Group Ride, 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun 11mi (17.7K) LSD
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Week 23: Review
This week was a bit of a mixed bag weather-wise, as we had a lot of intermitant rain that interfered with my plans a bit. I managed to get my Monday and Saturday rides in without issue, but Wednesday and Thursday saw heavy rain so I had to skip those sessions. The temperature was actually pretty good this week, and on the days where I managed to avoid the rain it was actually quite pleasant out there.
Wednesday was probably the worst day, as asside from Around the Bay, the group run that night was probably the wettest one I've ever done. In addition to the torential downpour, the streets were covered in large ponds that were impossible to go around. Adding to the fun was a tidal wave that hit a couple of us as a van drove through a deep pool of water at 80km/h and soaked us from head to toe. Due to the weather, we decided to stick with a 6km route rather than the 5 miles (~8km) that I had planned - I hate to skimp on mileage, but given the weather and the fact that I'm still within my recovery period I didn't put up much of a fight ;)
Fortunately, yesterday was near perfect and I managed to get an excellent 75km ride in without any problems. The cycling group didn't end up getting together again this week, so I was on my own and elected to give a slightly longer ride a shot. The temperature was nice, so two bottles of water were more than sufficient and the winds weren't too bad. For the first 57km I managed to keep my average speed above 31km/h, but heavy traffic and a bit of a headwind on the last segment of trip dragged my average down to 30.1km/h by the time I returned home.
With respect to running, aside from the shortened Wednesday run everything else went according to plan. Friday's run was the first time back to speedwork, which felt really good after several weeks of running with the brakes on. This morning was also the first General Aerobic run (9 miles/14.5km), and I took full advantage of that with an average pace of 4:50/km despite a pretty nasty headwind in some portions of the route. My heart rates have dropped significantly over the last week or so and are beginning to approach normal levels. They aren't quite what they were before the Marathon, but they're now down to about 5bpm of that point so it shouldn't be too much longer.
On another note, I ran some reports in ProTrainer to add up my totals for a post on twitter and realized that my totals here were a bit off. I've just been manually adding the weekly totals to the year to date numbers, and must have missed a week or two along the way as they were short of the actual distance. Either way, I've replaced the YTD field with the information that ProTrainer's reports indicate but eventually I'll have to go back and figure out what I missed ;) Until I do that, just disregard those totals in previous weeks (the weekly totals are correct, just the YTD totals).
Weekly Totals:
Running: 39.8km (24.7mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 135.6km (84.3mi)
Total: 177.5km (110.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1187.1km (737.6mi)
Walking: 152.5km (94.8mi)
Cycling: 1,602.8km (995.8mi)
Total: 2,421.6km (1,504.7mi)
The upcoming week looks like it's going to be a bit dodgy as well, so my plans will have to be a bit fluid to compensate for variations in the weather. With the cycling group getting back together, however, hopefully we'll be able to piece together a longer ride to make up for any mileage lost earlier in the week. That will, however, depend on how far the others are interested in going ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride (probably not going to happen)
Tue 7mi (11.3K) GA
Wed 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 50K Ride
Fri 8mi (12.9K) GA w/8x100m
Sat 80K (?) Group Ride
Sun 10mi (16.1K) GA
Wednesday was probably the worst day, as asside from Around the Bay, the group run that night was probably the wettest one I've ever done. In addition to the torential downpour, the streets were covered in large ponds that were impossible to go around. Adding to the fun was a tidal wave that hit a couple of us as a van drove through a deep pool of water at 80km/h and soaked us from head to toe. Due to the weather, we decided to stick with a 6km route rather than the 5 miles (~8km) that I had planned - I hate to skimp on mileage, but given the weather and the fact that I'm still within my recovery period I didn't put up much of a fight ;)
Fortunately, yesterday was near perfect and I managed to get an excellent 75km ride in without any problems. The cycling group didn't end up getting together again this week, so I was on my own and elected to give a slightly longer ride a shot. The temperature was nice, so two bottles of water were more than sufficient and the winds weren't too bad. For the first 57km I managed to keep my average speed above 31km/h, but heavy traffic and a bit of a headwind on the last segment of trip dragged my average down to 30.1km/h by the time I returned home.
With respect to running, aside from the shortened Wednesday run everything else went according to plan. Friday's run was the first time back to speedwork, which felt really good after several weeks of running with the brakes on. This morning was also the first General Aerobic run (9 miles/14.5km), and I took full advantage of that with an average pace of 4:50/km despite a pretty nasty headwind in some portions of the route. My heart rates have dropped significantly over the last week or so and are beginning to approach normal levels. They aren't quite what they were before the Marathon, but they're now down to about 5bpm of that point so it shouldn't be too much longer.
On another note, I ran some reports in ProTrainer to add up my totals for a post on twitter and realized that my totals here were a bit off. I've just been manually adding the weekly totals to the year to date numbers, and must have missed a week or two along the way as they were short of the actual distance. Either way, I've replaced the YTD field with the information that ProTrainer's reports indicate but eventually I'll have to go back and figure out what I missed ;) Until I do that, just disregard those totals in previous weeks (the weekly totals are correct, just the YTD totals).
Weekly Totals:
Running: 39.8km (24.7mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 135.6km (84.3mi)
Total: 177.5km (110.3mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1187.1km (737.6mi)
Walking: 152.5km (94.8mi)
Cycling: 1,602.8km (995.8mi)
Total: 2,421.6km (1,504.7mi)
The upcoming week looks like it's going to be a bit dodgy as well, so my plans will have to be a bit fluid to compensate for variations in the weather. With the cycling group getting back together, however, hopefully we'll be able to piece together a longer ride to make up for any mileage lost earlier in the week. That will, however, depend on how far the others are interested in going ;)
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride (probably not going to happen)
Tue 7mi (11.3K) GA
Wed 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 50K Ride
Fri 8mi (12.9K) GA w/8x100m
Sat 80K (?) Group Ride
Sun 10mi (16.1K) GA
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Week 22: Review
It certainly was a good week this time around, as the recovery is coming along nicely and the weather has let me get out more on the bike than I'd planned. All of the residual pain is pretty much gone at this point, and I can freely run without any issues at this point. My heart rate is still running higher than normal, however, which is an indicator that the recovery is not entirely complete regardless of what I'm feeling ;) I'm sticking pretty much to the five week recovery plan in Pfitzinger's book, although it's certainly been difficult to keep a reign on my pace.
Weather-wise, the heat and wind have made a few of my cycling and running sessions challenging, but fortunately I made it through without any issues. It is certainly going to take some time to get the body used to the heat, as what we've been experiencing is nothing compared to what we will be getting in the coming months. With the body used to running in comfortable 10-15C weather, however, the humidity and 30+ temperatures do take their toll.
Thursday's ride was probably the most challenging, as I took an eastbound out-and-back route but the westerly winds were brutal so the ride back was pretty much a constant fight. With the wide open farmer's fields, the headwinds hit speeds near 50km/h which made me feel like I was dragging a dump truck behind me ;) Compounding this, I ended up running out of water with about 12km left, so the final part of the ride (which included some nasty hills) was even more of a challenge. I debated with myself a few times how awkward it would be to go through the drive thrus of the coffee shops along the way (can't really leave the bike unguarded outside, so going in wasn't an option), but figured that I was close enough to get home.
This weekend, however, has been beautiful for outdoor activities and I've taken advantage of it as best I could. It's been pretty warm as well, but not to the point of being hot enough to cause problems. As such, I tacked on another 12km on my long ride yesterday (making it 62km), and after my run this morning I couldn't resist taking the bike out for an easy 25km this afternoon. A 100km charity ride (Giro T.O.) was rolling through town this morning, and after running by clusters of cyclists for the duration I had lunch, grabbed the bike and went right back out ;)
In addition, I also took a couple of short and slow rides with my father who's trying to get into cycling as well. We're slowly building up his endurance, speed and grade tolerance in the subdivisions in the area, and hopefully we'll be able to do some proper rides before the summer is out. Hopefully the weather remains decent over the next little while, so we'll have some opportunities to work on that ;)
This Week:
Mon 51.7K Ride (29.9km/h) + 8.3K Easy Ride w/Dad (17.7km/h)
Tue 8.3K Recovery (footpod battery died, so had to play it by ear)
Wed 33.1K Ride (29.0km/h) + 8.1K Group Run (5:03/km)
Thurs 52.7K Ride (28.1km/h)
Fri 9.7K Recovery (5:16/km)
Sat 62.1K Ride (30.2km/h) + 10K Easy Ride w/Dad (19.4km/h)
Sun 11.3K Recovery (4:57/km) + 25.1K Ride (29.3km/h)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 37.4km (23.2mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 243.8km (151.5mi)
Total: 283.3km (176.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 957.8km (595.1mi)
Walking: 150.4km (93.5mi)
Cycling: 1,313.4km (816.1mi)
Total: 2,421.6km (1,504.7mi)
Due to scheduling issues our cycling group hasn't met up for the last three weeks (this week due to several people running races in Ottawa), but fortunately we should be back on track this coming Saturday with a few new people. We're talking about doing some longer rides at this point, which will be a good opportunity as it's difficult to push very far when riding on one's own. I just have to be more careful about not losing the group at times, as the further we get out the less familiar I am with the roads and how to get back on track ;) With that said, while I am a bit faster than most of the others, they generally have more experience with long range rides so hopefully things will even themselves out as we travel for longer periods.
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 5mi (8K) Recovery
Wed 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 50K Ride
Fri 7mi (11.3K) GA w/8x100m
Sat 50K Group Ride
Sun 9mi (14.5K) GA
Weather-wise, the heat and wind have made a few of my cycling and running sessions challenging, but fortunately I made it through without any issues. It is certainly going to take some time to get the body used to the heat, as what we've been experiencing is nothing compared to what we will be getting in the coming months. With the body used to running in comfortable 10-15C weather, however, the humidity and 30+ temperatures do take their toll.
Thursday's ride was probably the most challenging, as I took an eastbound out-and-back route but the westerly winds were brutal so the ride back was pretty much a constant fight. With the wide open farmer's fields, the headwinds hit speeds near 50km/h which made me feel like I was dragging a dump truck behind me ;) Compounding this, I ended up running out of water with about 12km left, so the final part of the ride (which included some nasty hills) was even more of a challenge. I debated with myself a few times how awkward it would be to go through the drive thrus of the coffee shops along the way (can't really leave the bike unguarded outside, so going in wasn't an option), but figured that I was close enough to get home.
This weekend, however, has been beautiful for outdoor activities and I've taken advantage of it as best I could. It's been pretty warm as well, but not to the point of being hot enough to cause problems. As such, I tacked on another 12km on my long ride yesterday (making it 62km), and after my run this morning I couldn't resist taking the bike out for an easy 25km this afternoon. A 100km charity ride (Giro T.O.) was rolling through town this morning, and after running by clusters of cyclists for the duration I had lunch, grabbed the bike and went right back out ;)
In addition, I also took a couple of short and slow rides with my father who's trying to get into cycling as well. We're slowly building up his endurance, speed and grade tolerance in the subdivisions in the area, and hopefully we'll be able to do some proper rides before the summer is out. Hopefully the weather remains decent over the next little while, so we'll have some opportunities to work on that ;)
This Week:
Mon 51.7K Ride (29.9km/h) + 8.3K Easy Ride w/Dad (17.7km/h)
Tue 8.3K Recovery (footpod battery died, so had to play it by ear)
Wed 33.1K Ride (29.0km/h) + 8.1K Group Run (5:03/km)
Thurs 52.7K Ride (28.1km/h)
Fri 9.7K Recovery (5:16/km)
Sat 62.1K Ride (30.2km/h) + 10K Easy Ride w/Dad (19.4km/h)
Sun 11.3K Recovery (4:57/km) + 25.1K Ride (29.3km/h)
Weekly Totals:
Running: 37.4km (23.2mi)
Walking: 2.1km (1.3mi)
Cycling: 243.8km (151.5mi)
Total: 283.3km (176.0mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 957.8km (595.1mi)
Walking: 150.4km (93.5mi)
Cycling: 1,313.4km (816.1mi)
Total: 2,421.6km (1,504.7mi)
Due to scheduling issues our cycling group hasn't met up for the last three weeks (this week due to several people running races in Ottawa), but fortunately we should be back on track this coming Saturday with a few new people. We're talking about doing some longer rides at this point, which will be a good opportunity as it's difficult to push very far when riding on one's own. I just have to be more careful about not losing the group at times, as the further we get out the less familiar I am with the roads and how to get back on track ;) With that said, while I am a bit faster than most of the others, they generally have more experience with long range rides so hopefully things will even themselves out as we travel for longer periods.
Upcoming Week:
Mon 50K Ride
Tue 5mi (8K) Recovery
Wed 5mi (8K) Recovery
Thurs 50K Ride
Fri 7mi (11.3K) GA w/8x100m
Sat 50K Group Ride
Sun 9mi (14.5K) GA
Monday, May 18, 2009
The week after...
As noted in my previous posts, I was pretty sore after the Marathon. The cycling helped a lot on Tuesday, but the first run back on Wednesday (data) was pretty difficult as the legs were still quite tired despite the slow (5:38/km) pace. I started out with the group, but as they wanted to do 10K I elected to short turn it and do the scheduled mileage so as not to push it too hard this early after the race.
On Thursday I did another ride (data) to loosen things up which worked quite well again. I had hoped to throw in a few small hills, but the wind was brutal (gusts were approaching 60km/h) so I figured that it was safer to stay close to home. Naturally, thanks to the wind my speed was all over the place, but as on Tuesday it was a good workout and left me refreshed at the end.
I headed out for my second run on Friday morning (data), and while it started out a bit rough the legs started feeling a lot better after the first kilometer. I still took it relatively slow until the last kilometer, and then opened up to see how the legs were doing. Average pace was 5:18/km, although a lot of that was thanks to the speed added in the final stages (finished at a 3:53/km pace).
As I was feeling good, I headed in for a quick lunch and then headed back out on the bike shortly afterwards (data). As the weather was much better, I went down to the subdivision south of us that has a few smallish hills and did a few laps. Thankfully, the legs were quite comfortable for the duration of the ride and took in the hills with little trouble. I focused on powering my way uphill, and allowed myself to relax a bit on the flats and downhill segments. Average speed was 29.3km/h, although I managed to pull off a few uphill sections at a 37km/h pace.
Finally, on Sunday I did my third run (data) - a short 5 mile recovery run. Fortunately, this time out the pain was pretty much gone and the legs felt great. My heart rate was a little high for the pace, however, so I kept myself at a slowish (~5:22/km) pace and simply enjoyed the run. Thanks to this session I'm feeling a lot better about my recovery, and look forward to enjoying a few longer runs in the weeks to come.
At this point, I can comfortably climb stairs again and there are no real noticeable problems left over from the race a week ago. I'm going to try a proper ride (ie ~50km range, 80km/h roads, big hills) later this afternoon and will likely follow that with a short ride with my father (who's just getting back into cycling). Naturally, I'll be following Pfitzinger's recovery schedule religiously over the next four weeks and will try my best to take it easy (as much as that is against my nature).
Weekly Totals:
Running: 24.7km (15.3mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 92.9km (57.7mi)
Total: 118.6km (73.7mi)
Marathon Week Totals (catching up):
Running: 69.6km (43.2mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 0km (0mi)
Total: 72.2km (44.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,014.7km (630.5mi)
Walking: 150.6km (93.6mi)
Cycling: 1,162.5km (722.3mi)
Total: 2,327.8km (1,446.4mi)
The main question at this point is what to do after the recovery period. Finishing the Marathon was my long term goal, and now that that's been met I have to figure out what comes next. The natural next step would be to focus on getting my time down to 3:10:59 in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. If I focus on that goal, my best bet would be to target the Goodlife Toronto Marathon in October and build for a 3:20 finish, then hopefully push for a BQ next spring. The timing works out quite well for this, as I'd be starting the 18 week schedule right after the fifth week of the recovery schedule.
The other option would be to focus on Triathlons, and stick to half marathons on the running front so that I have enough time for that training. I'm pretty comfortable with the bike and running bits at this point, but I have a lot to do on the swimming front and those pesky transitions will require a good deal of experience to master. Long term I'd like to eventually push towards an Ironman (which includes a Marathon, after a 2.5mi swim and 115mi bike ride), however that will take a few years and a lot more work than I've done this time around.
Either way, I have a few more weeks to figure it out and the plan doesn't necessarilly have to be one or the other. Chances are that I'll likely stick with plan A and just work some short triathlons in this year to get a bit of a taste for the sport, and worry about seriously training for it next year. Fortunately, many of the lessons inherent in the marathon will be significant for multi-sport events, as the endurance aspect is important for the length of time that larger triathlon distances consume.
On Thursday I did another ride (data) to loosen things up which worked quite well again. I had hoped to throw in a few small hills, but the wind was brutal (gusts were approaching 60km/h) so I figured that it was safer to stay close to home. Naturally, thanks to the wind my speed was all over the place, but as on Tuesday it was a good workout and left me refreshed at the end.
I headed out for my second run on Friday morning (data), and while it started out a bit rough the legs started feeling a lot better after the first kilometer. I still took it relatively slow until the last kilometer, and then opened up to see how the legs were doing. Average pace was 5:18/km, although a lot of that was thanks to the speed added in the final stages (finished at a 3:53/km pace).
As I was feeling good, I headed in for a quick lunch and then headed back out on the bike shortly afterwards (data). As the weather was much better, I went down to the subdivision south of us that has a few smallish hills and did a few laps. Thankfully, the legs were quite comfortable for the duration of the ride and took in the hills with little trouble. I focused on powering my way uphill, and allowed myself to relax a bit on the flats and downhill segments. Average speed was 29.3km/h, although I managed to pull off a few uphill sections at a 37km/h pace.
Finally, on Sunday I did my third run (data) - a short 5 mile recovery run. Fortunately, this time out the pain was pretty much gone and the legs felt great. My heart rate was a little high for the pace, however, so I kept myself at a slowish (~5:22/km) pace and simply enjoyed the run. Thanks to this session I'm feeling a lot better about my recovery, and look forward to enjoying a few longer runs in the weeks to come.
At this point, I can comfortably climb stairs again and there are no real noticeable problems left over from the race a week ago. I'm going to try a proper ride (ie ~50km range, 80km/h roads, big hills) later this afternoon and will likely follow that with a short ride with my father (who's just getting back into cycling). Naturally, I'll be following Pfitzinger's recovery schedule religiously over the next four weeks and will try my best to take it easy (as much as that is against my nature).
Weekly Totals:
Running: 24.7km (15.3mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 92.9km (57.7mi)
Total: 118.6km (73.7mi)
Marathon Week Totals (catching up):
Running: 69.6km (43.2mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 0km (0mi)
Total: 72.2km (44.9mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 1,014.7km (630.5mi)
Walking: 150.6km (93.6mi)
Cycling: 1,162.5km (722.3mi)
Total: 2,327.8km (1,446.4mi)
The main question at this point is what to do after the recovery period. Finishing the Marathon was my long term goal, and now that that's been met I have to figure out what comes next. The natural next step would be to focus on getting my time down to 3:10:59 in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. If I focus on that goal, my best bet would be to target the Goodlife Toronto Marathon in October and build for a 3:20 finish, then hopefully push for a BQ next spring. The timing works out quite well for this, as I'd be starting the 18 week schedule right after the fifth week of the recovery schedule.
The other option would be to focus on Triathlons, and stick to half marathons on the running front so that I have enough time for that training. I'm pretty comfortable with the bike and running bits at this point, but I have a lot to do on the swimming front and those pesky transitions will require a good deal of experience to master. Long term I'd like to eventually push towards an Ironman (which includes a Marathon, after a 2.5mi swim and 115mi bike ride), however that will take a few years and a lot more work than I've done this time around.
Either way, I have a few more weeks to figure it out and the plan doesn't necessarilly have to be one or the other. Chances are that I'll likely stick with plan A and just work some short triathlons in this year to get a bit of a taste for the sport, and worry about seriously training for it next year. Fortunately, many of the lessons inherent in the marathon will be significant for multi-sport events, as the endurance aspect is important for the length of time that larger triathlon distances consume.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Recovery
The Marathon takes a lot out of you, and my legs were pretty sore for the afternoon following the race. Once I got going I was okay (albeit with a healthy limp), but getting started was difficult and anything that required lift (sitting down, standing up, climbing/descending stairs, etc.) was extremely unpleasant. This is pretty much par for the course from everything that I've read, so I sprayed them down with cold water when I showered (chickened out of the ice bath) and rested them as much as possible.
Yesterday, things were a bit better - the all around pain was still there, but it was less significant. My quads were still quite weak, however, so going up and down the stairs was still a big ordeal. Fortunately, I work from home so I didn't have to move around too much and continued to rest them as much as possible. By the end of the day, the overall pain was significantly reduced and the weakness in the quads was really the only major impediment left.
Waking up this morning I was pretty much in the same boat. As such, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get back to running tomorrow afternoon. I was playing with the idea of riding my bike a bit to aide in recovery, but as it was my quads that were the problem I was a bit concerned about my capacity to pull that off. I continued resting it in the morning, and things improved a bit so I decided to take the bike out and simply play it by ear.
Once I got going, the discomfort disappeared and the legs felt fine. To play it safe, I stayed within the confines of my subdivision and simply did laps of the 2 mile (~3.2km) loop. This ensured that I was close to home in case anything went wrong, avoided having to deal with high speed traffic and kept me on relatively flat ground. Naturally, I started out gradually and slowly accelerated to test the waters. Aside from a few short sprints to deal with vehicular traffic, I avoided doing anything too strenuous and kept the ride relatively gentile.
After reaching the 30K mark, I did a quick cooldown and then pulled back into my driveway. I put the bike away, changed my shoes and did a full suite of stretches to take advantage of the warm muscles. Fortunately, the effect that the ride had on getting rid of the remaining discomfort appeared to persist. The quads are still a little sore when climbing stairs or sitting/standing, but I can now walk comfortably and the limp is completely gone.
Either way, this is a significant improvement and I'm feeling a lot more confident about my ability to get back into running tomorrow evening. In the space of about an hour the condition of my legs has improved more than it did over the last two days. I used this technique after my half marathon in September and it certainly helped then, but this is a much more dramatic example of it's effectiveness.
Yesterday, things were a bit better - the all around pain was still there, but it was less significant. My quads were still quite weak, however, so going up and down the stairs was still a big ordeal. Fortunately, I work from home so I didn't have to move around too much and continued to rest them as much as possible. By the end of the day, the overall pain was significantly reduced and the weakness in the quads was really the only major impediment left.
Waking up this morning I was pretty much in the same boat. As such, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get back to running tomorrow afternoon. I was playing with the idea of riding my bike a bit to aide in recovery, but as it was my quads that were the problem I was a bit concerned about my capacity to pull that off. I continued resting it in the morning, and things improved a bit so I decided to take the bike out and simply play it by ear.
Once I got going, the discomfort disappeared and the legs felt fine. To play it safe, I stayed within the confines of my subdivision and simply did laps of the 2 mile (~3.2km) loop. This ensured that I was close to home in case anything went wrong, avoided having to deal with high speed traffic and kept me on relatively flat ground. Naturally, I started out gradually and slowly accelerated to test the waters. Aside from a few short sprints to deal with vehicular traffic, I avoided doing anything too strenuous and kept the ride relatively gentile.
After reaching the 30K mark, I did a quick cooldown and then pulled back into my driveway. I put the bike away, changed my shoes and did a full suite of stretches to take advantage of the warm muscles. Fortunately, the effect that the ride had on getting rid of the remaining discomfort appeared to persist. The quads are still a little sore when climbing stairs or sitting/standing, but I can now walk comfortably and the limp is completely gone.
Either way, this is a significant improvement and I'm feeling a lot more confident about my ability to get back into running tomorrow evening. In the space of about an hour the condition of my legs has improved more than it did over the last two days. I used this technique after my half marathon in September and it certainly helped then, but this is a much more dramatic example of it's effectiveness.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Mississauga Marathon: Race Report
Quick Note: Some of the kilometer markers (especially at 10K) were pretty dodgy over this course, and as I added lap markers manually the sections below will be a little off. I'll post both the split time and my own corrected pace for each (based on the average pace on my Polar, with a correction to offset a minor calibration error).
I got up at 4:45am this morning to get prepared and head out to the Marathon site, leaving at around 5:30am. By 6:00 we got to the start and it was about 5C with a bitter north wind, so I was feeling a little concerned about my choice to run in a singlet and shorts. Fortunately, as the family came with me the car was warm and very near to the start line. I hit the washrooms then headed back and relaxed for a while. At about 6:45 I headed out again to the washrooms, and after a brief period back in the car headed down to the start line at about 7:10. At this point, the temperatures were much better and the wind had shifted to the West, but it was still pretty cold. Yumke was waiting at the 3:20-3:40 marker, so I quickly headed over there to say hello.
On the previous day he was going back and forth about whether to aim for 3:15 (what he needs to qualify for Boston) or 3:30 (to enjoy it), and elected to go for the latter. As such, I would have some company and a reliable pacer to help me along the way. This turned out to be a much bigger benefit than I'd expected, as the 3:30 pace bunny was going way faster than the pace he should have been doing (more on that later). As the start grew near, I passed off my jacket to my family and we prepared to get started. We were marshaled forward, they sang the national anthem and then the (incredibly loud) starter's pistol (canon?) signaled the start of the race.
1K 4:56 4:56/km
We shuffled forward and the 3:30 pacer got well ahead of us so we figured that we'd catch up with him after getting through traffic. Once we crossed the start line, however, it quickly became apparent that he was going much faster than he should have so we let him go and decided to handle things ourselves. We both had pace bands and running computers, so we would be able to manage things decently enough. Regardless, we did a good job of getting the first kilometer at about the right pace - probably the first time that I've ever managed that!
2K 4:54 5:02/km
3K 5:03 5:03/km
4K 4:39 4:48/km
5K 4:49 4:56/km
The next section was pretty much a straight shot down Burnhamthorpe and we were heading into the wind. Fortunately, I had warmed up significantly at this point and was feeling pretty comfortable temperature-wise. The headwind did make things a little more difficult, but this section was downhill so it didn't pose too much of a problem at this juncture. Most of the 4th kilometer was a pretty significant grade (-2%), so we opened up a bit to bank some time for the more difficult sections. Regardless, we still saw nothing of the 3:30 pacer so he must have been way ahead of us.
6K 4:58 4:55/km
7K 4:59 4:51/km
8K 4:32 4:55/km
The next segment of the run took us through the UofT Mississauga campus, and was a small downhill followed by an uphill segment. The legs were still fresh at this point, so the hills were no problem. At the 8K water station, yumke took a pit stop and instructed me to keep going. As such, for most of the eigth kilometer I was on my own but I was careful to maintain my pace so he didn't have to push it too hard to catch up to me (he's a much stronger runner, so it likely wouldn't have been a problem).
9K 4:45 4:46/km
10K 6:38 4:57/km (measured as 1,340m)
Yumke caught up to me a bit before the 9K marker, and we continued on. With the course's largest hill coming up at the 10K mark, we saved our energy a bit in preparation for the hill. Once we hit the 9K marker, we took out our Gels in preparation for the aide station at the 10K mark - taking them in as we climbed the hill.
The 10K marker was significantly out of place, and there were a few other runners who commented about it. My numbers show a distance of a little over 1.3km between the 9 and 10K markers, so this split (and the next) are a little wonky. Fortunately, it was significant enough that it was easily noticable so it wasn't a huge problem. With that said, the sign was just at the top of the hill so it's likely they simply couldn't keep it up on the grade. The spray painted markings on the pavement were more than likely in the right place, but I didn't think to check for that and based my lap marker on the sign itself.
11K 3:15 4:52/km
12K 4:55 4:50/km
13K 4:42 4:51/km
14K 4:55 4:51/km
After the hill we hit a relatively flat region, with a mild net downhill (~1.4%) which allowed us to recover quickly from the uphill segment we just finished. There were some pretty impressive homes along this segment, and a significant ammount of tree cover to keep us in the shade and protected from the wind. Near the end, we exited the residential area and begain to approach the QEW.
Near the end of the 14th kilometer, we passed under the highway so we had a small downhill and then uphill on the other side. At this point, the course was basically along a service road so the nice scenery of the last bit turned into a more industrial segment. Fortunately, once we got past the highway we were back into a residential segment.
15K 4:46 4:52/km
The next kilometer was again a nice residential area, finishing off with a right turn onto another residential street. It was at this point that the half-marathoners broke off from us, so the traffic got much better and it was easier keep our desired pace. At the same time, we moved to a much narrower segment of the road so we had to place ourselves a little more carefully.
16K 4:55 4:59/km
17K 4:57 4:59/km
18K 4:52 4:56/km
19K 5:01 4:59/km
20K 4:56 4:58/km
The nice residential section continued over the next few kilometers, with a couple of turns as we made our way along the route. We took our second Gels just before the 18K marker, but the aide station wasn't there so we drank a bit of Gatorade to wash it down. Fortunately, the station was about 500m down the road, so when we came to it we took some more water to finish off the process.
21K 4:36 4:46/km
After the 20K marker, we left the residential segment and turned onto an arterial road (Southdown). With the half marathon marker not far ahead, the wider surface to run on and a slight downhill we must have picked up the pace a bit here as we logged in a 4:46 kilometer. The chip recorded a half time of 1:43:19 which was about 1:41 ahead of schedule, but a lot of that was thanks to the hills in the first half of the race (which we wouldn't have in the second).
22K 5:07 4:53/km
23K 4:49 4:50/km
24K 4:56 4:48/km
The next segment took us down Soutdown Rd. and then turned right at the Petro Canada plant toward the turnaround point. The wide-open road had us going a little faster than we should have in retrospect, but it was still quite comfortable so we pushed on.
Near the end of the 24th kilometer, the 3:30 pacer went by us in the opposite direction. We were already going beyond the planned pace, and he was nearly a kilometer ahead of us at this point. Naturally, he didn't have very many people left with him at this point as he was pretty much on track for a 3:25 or faster finish.
25K* 5:59 4:50/km
26K* 3:58 4:56/km
* I was a bit confused as to whether the 25K marker was for the outgoing or incoming direction when we passed it, and selected the wrong option here so the splits are way off (pressed it on the way back when it should have been the way out).
At about the 25.25K mark we hit the turnaround point (an incredibly tight turn, BTW) and started heading back the way that we came. As we were switching from West to East, this changed the wind so that it was at our back and made things significantly easier. As this segment was an industrial area, there wasn't a whole lot of protection from the elements.
27K 4:47 4:50/km
The next kilometer took us off of the road and into a small lakefront park. This gave us a bit of repreive from the hard industrial area to a great view of the lake. There was a small dip as we headed to the lake and came back up to the road, but they were pretty mild so they didn't cause much of a problem.
28K 4:59 5:00/km
29K 5:02 4:58/km
Near the end of the 27th kilometer, my right quads got a little tight. They weren't posing much of a problem, but it got me a bit worried as there was still a long way to go from this point out. On yumke's advice, I changed my stride a little to give the muscles a bit of a break and it worked great - by the end of the 28th kilometer it was feeling much better.
At this point we were leaving the industrial area and re-entering another residential section of the city so the scenery got much better. This was a relatively flat section, but from my drive of the course on Friday I knew that there were some rolling hills coming up in the next bit so we took it a bit easy here.
30K 4:56 4:52/km
31K 4:57 4:57/km
32K 4:51 4:47/km
As mentioned, this section had a number of rolling hills which, while not huge, were a bit of a challenge at this point in the race. We powered through them however, slowing down a bit on the uphills but speeding up on the way down.
Just beyond the 31K marker, we passed by our pace bunny who was walking at this juncture and didn't appear to have anyone left with him. This would be the last that either of us saw of him, but we were definately glad that we didn't attempt to follow him at the start!
Once we got back on a major road (Lakeshore), we picked things up a bit and continued on our way. This was the final segment of the race, and the point where I passed into new territory as I'd never run more than 20 miles before this point. I was a bit tired from the hills in the last section, but overall I still felt pretty good.
33K 4:47 4:47/km
34K 4:58 4:51/km
35K 5:05 5:00/km
At this point, the hills in the last section began to catch up with me a bit. The right quads started acting up again, and while the trick I used earlier did help it would come back shortly afterwards. It wasn't really impacting my speed much at this point, however it was concerning me. By the 35K marker, my left leg started to feel a bit tired as well so I told yumke to take off and slowed down the pace a bit to let it recover.
36K 5:14 5:14/km
Half way through this kilometer there was a pretty big hill, and given the issues that I was having I elected to take a walking break on the uphill segment to give everything a chance to recover. It worked well, as my legs felt a lot better by the end and it also allowed my heart rate to recover a bit.
37K 4:47 5:07/km
38K 5:43 5:26/km
39K 5:24 5:10/km
This was probably the hardest segment of the race, as the fatigue came back a few times and I needed to take a number of running breaks. I tried to run slower in the running bits, but my body was still programmed for the 5min/km pace so I pretty much had to alternate between fits of running at pace and walking to recover. The legs appeared to still have their full strength, but they were pretty sore at this point. If I had pushed through a bit harder I may have done better, but I didn't want to risk having to hobble to the end so when it got too difficult I took a break.
In this segment, the aide stations were only providing water so I started drawing more on my own supply of Gatorade. The muscles weren't really cramping so I wasn't sure if it would do anything, but I figured that it was better to be safe than sorry as I don't have a lot of experience with that particular ailement.
40K 5:49 5:24/km
41K 4:35 5:03/km
When I hit the 40K marker, I took a longer break than before (a little over a minute) in the hopes that it would do more work. I was getting concerned about whether my target was starting to slip away at this juncture - while we had banked a good deal of time in the first 35km, I was quickly bleeding that away with the walking breaks.
Fortunately, the longer break appeared to do the trick and I managed to run the rest of the kilometer without any further stops. At the 40K marker, however, the third corner of my bib broke off so I had to quickly stop, pull it off and put it in my pocket. Once that was done, I picked it up again and ran pretty much the entire kilometer.
42.2K 6:11 5:07/km
After the 41K marker, however, the fatigue came back so I had to take another break to let everything recover. Learning my leason from the previous stop, I gave myself a full minute to regain my composure and picked it up again. At this point the fatigue was getting worse, however, and I was seriously concerned about my ability to make it to the finish in my desired time.
Wanting to have a strong finish, I took another short break as I was passing into the bay. At this point, however, I could see the finish line and I decided to push through the pain and fight my way to the finish. As I passed around the bend, the legs were getting very sore but I kept fighting and continued to pick up the pace. The last 500m was a hell of a fight, but when I saw the clock counting towards 3:30 I knew that I was safe and opened up to a full sprint to get my gun time under the wire. I blew across the line with 5 seconds to spare at a 3:52 pace with a chip time of 3:29:03, well under my goal.
I brought myself back to a walk and the legs quickly felt a lot better. In retrospect, if I would have fought a little more earlier I likely would have been fine. I've run into the same problem in a number of races, and I tend to be a little too concerned in the final miles about budgeting my energy. Marathons are supposed to be hard, and the pain that I was feeling near the end was likely par for the course.
After getting my chip removed and getting my medal I hit the washroom to take care of a bit of excess hydration. I grabbed some food and met up with my family, then did my stretches while the awards were handed out. I looked around for yumke (who finished in 3:24:12) but as there were so many people in the finishing area I changed my clothes and we headed back to the shuttle busses.
Normally we'd go out to a restaurant to grab lunch after a race like this, but as it was mother's day we figured that they'd all be packed so we elected to simply grab something quick and save the celebration for another day. My legs were (are) pretty sore at this point, so it was probably a good thing anyway as the extra walking around likely would have been quite difficult ;)
Either way, I managed to meet my goals and had an excellent experience today. Hopefully I'll be able to pull more of these off in the future, and if I can avoid the interuptions that I had this training cycle I might be able to avoid the issues that I had this time around. As I was only able to get one of the 20 milers in, that was likely the main culpret for my problems.
Chip time: 3:29:03 (overall results)
Gun time: 3:29:55
Pace: 4:57K
Place overall: 196/1413 (86.1 percentile)
Place in men: 171/804 (78.7 percentile)
Place in age group: 12/47 (74.5 percentile)
Mississauga Marathon Done!
I'll write up a full report a little later, but thanks to yumke's help I managed to come in under my goal and finish the Mississauga Marathon in 3:29:03 (4:57/km average pace). The final bit was definitely hard, but thanks to some banked time and a hard push at the end I managed to get where I wanted to be. Fortunately, I didn't hit the wall or run into any muscle cramps so I didn't make any major mistakes - just plain old muscle fatigue as the end grew near. Time to rest up a bit, and I'll post more detail when I get a chance!
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Final Hours...
Down to twelve hours before the Marathon and I'm just putting the final touches on everything at this point. As the weather today was pretty crappy, I elected to skip the 4 miler that the schedule had planned for me as it wasn't worth getting the shoes wet. I had a good run yesterday, and everything is feeling pretty loose so the extra rest will likely do me more good one way or the other. Fortunately, the reports for tomorrow are looking a lot better - the probability of rain has fallen and the temperatures are pretty close to ideal. It will be a bit windy, but that wind will be at my back for the final portion of the route so it may help more than it hurts.
Fortunately, I was able to drive most of the course on Friday when I went to pick up my race kit, and it looks pretty good. Many areas have decent shade from well developed tree canopies, and the hills aren't too bad (although they may look a lot different during the race). While the last bit is a bit exposed to the winds, the fact that it will likely be a tailwind should reduce the impact of that. Either way, the scenery along the way are quite nice and hopefully that will help to make the event all the more memorable. With that said, driving that distance makes it apparent exactly how far 42.2km is as it took me almost 1:15 to cover it by car...
I also took the time to grab a new pocket for my fuel belt, as the zipper on the one that came with it broke so it would have made it difficult to carry Gels with me. I looked at a few other options (such as Raceready shorts), but I didn't want to try something new at this point so I stuck with what has worked for me in the past. The new zipper is the same as the old, so it will likely fail as well - but for the time being this will get me through the race and I can look at alternate options at a less sensitive time.
On the topic of nutrition, I've elected to use gels rather than rely soully on Gatorade as it will make it easier to ensure that I get in all of the calories that I need. I will still carry 32oz. (~1L) of Gatorade and use it to supply me with about 200kcal of energy during the race, but I'll also take in four GU Energy Gels (Vanilla Bean flavour) with water from the aide stations at ~45 min increments. In total, that will work out to an intake of 600kcal of carbohydrates (4x100kcal from Gels and 200kcal from Gatorade), 660mg of Sodium (4x55mg from Gels and 440mg from Gatorade) and 220mg of Potassium (4x25mg from Gels, 120mg from Gatorade). Naturally, I'll also likely take in additional Gatorade from the aide stations along the way which should give me a little more than that.
As I've never run this distance before, I have no idea how much energy I will require for the race but I've talked with a number of people and settled on this number given the information I've found. This is the type of thing that one learns with experience, so it will likely be easier in future marathons but for the time being I have to rely on the experience of others around me ;)
I still have to put my bib on my race shirt and attach my timing chip to my shoes, but other than that I think I've got everything under control at this point. I'll likely re-read some of the segments in Pfitzinger's book to refresh my memory, and will try to get as much sleep as possible tonight (as futile an effort as that may be). The plan is to be at the start line by 6:30 at the latest, which doesn't leave me as much time as I usually like but I figure that the extra sleep is likely more important at this juncture.
Fortunately, I was able to drive most of the course on Friday when I went to pick up my race kit, and it looks pretty good. Many areas have decent shade from well developed tree canopies, and the hills aren't too bad (although they may look a lot different during the race). While the last bit is a bit exposed to the winds, the fact that it will likely be a tailwind should reduce the impact of that. Either way, the scenery along the way are quite nice and hopefully that will help to make the event all the more memorable. With that said, driving that distance makes it apparent exactly how far 42.2km is as it took me almost 1:15 to cover it by car...
I also took the time to grab a new pocket for my fuel belt, as the zipper on the one that came with it broke so it would have made it difficult to carry Gels with me. I looked at a few other options (such as Raceready shorts), but I didn't want to try something new at this point so I stuck with what has worked for me in the past. The new zipper is the same as the old, so it will likely fail as well - but for the time being this will get me through the race and I can look at alternate options at a less sensitive time.
On the topic of nutrition, I've elected to use gels rather than rely soully on Gatorade as it will make it easier to ensure that I get in all of the calories that I need. I will still carry 32oz. (~1L) of Gatorade and use it to supply me with about 200kcal of energy during the race, but I'll also take in four GU Energy Gels (Vanilla Bean flavour) with water from the aide stations at ~45 min increments. In total, that will work out to an intake of 600kcal of carbohydrates (4x100kcal from Gels and 200kcal from Gatorade), 660mg of Sodium (4x55mg from Gels and 440mg from Gatorade) and 220mg of Potassium (4x25mg from Gels, 120mg from Gatorade). Naturally, I'll also likely take in additional Gatorade from the aide stations along the way which should give me a little more than that.
As I've never run this distance before, I have no idea how much energy I will require for the race but I've talked with a number of people and settled on this number given the information I've found. This is the type of thing that one learns with experience, so it will likely be easier in future marathons but for the time being I have to rely on the experience of others around me ;)
I still have to put my bib on my race shirt and attach my timing chip to my shoes, but other than that I think I've got everything under control at this point. I'll likely re-read some of the segments in Pfitzinger's book to refresh my memory, and will try to get as much sleep as possible tonight (as futile an effort as that may be). The plan is to be at the start line by 6:30 at the latest, which doesn't leave me as much time as I usually like but I figure that the extra sleep is likely more important at this juncture.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Mississauga Marathon: Final Days
Down to less than 3 days before the race and the taper is coming to an end. I'm heading out tomorrow morning to pick up my race kit and will likely try and drive as much of the route as possible. Luckily, the organizers have a detailed map with a full elevation profile (here) so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect but it would still be beneficial to see it in person.
One thing that I did miss earlier in the week was an offer to have custom pacebands made up prior to the packet pickup. To get them, I would have had to send an email by Monday in order to pick them up at the expo. Unfortunately, there was no mention of this when I registered I didn't go back to check until yesterday so I missed the window. Regardless, it appears that they will have generic bands on hand at the expo so hopefully it'll work out anyway. I could always make my own up, however having it laminated with a proper closure would be significant benefits.
Either way, getting back to the plan the target is still for a 3:30 finish (~5min/km). Given that I've done a good number of my long runs near this pace (including a 20 miler at a 5:09/km pace) this is likely a bit conservative, but as this is my first shot at this distance I'd rather play it safe than sorry. A lot of things can go wrong at this distance, so leaving a little extra in reserve is likely a good idea either way. If the legs have it in them near the end, I always have the option to pick it up and aim for something better.
Fortunately, this time my target lines up with a standard mark so I'll hopefully be able to make use of the pacers provided by the race organizers. At the Scotiabank half marathon the pacer for my target time wasn't there, and at Around the Bay my target was half way between so this is really my first opportunity to take advantage of this type of thing. Fortunately, yumke may also be targetting this pace for the first portion of the race so even if the pacer doesn't work out I may have some help.
The Mississauga Marathon course is a net downhill race with only a few small hills to deal with so pacing should be pretty even. Naturally, those hills will feel more significant than the normally do because of the distance so I can't just write them off, but it is an easier course than most Marathons in this area. The main challenge will likely be the winds near the end of the race, as it finishes up along trails by Lake Ontario so it's quite exposed. With the weather reports calling for 30km/h winds, that could easily be a significant issue. The upside, however, is that this segment of the race heads eastward so that wind will hopefully be at our backs at that point.
The tricky part will be the fueling aspect of this distance, as I don't have a lot of experience with that at this juncture. I've experimented with Gatorade and Gels on my training runs, but as I topped out at 20 miles (~32.2km) the benefits weren't really apparent. It was enough to indicate that neither should be a problem, but it's difficult to figure out exactly how many calories I will need to take in. Fortunately, pretty much everyone that I've talked to appears to suggest that somewhere in the region of four to five Gels should be sufficient without causing any problems.
My original plan was to stick with Gatorade as it has all of the necessary components in approximately the right mixture. The problem with that, however, is that I can only carry about 32 oz (~200kcal) on my water belt so I'd have to be partially dependant on the aide stations to make up the rest. This, in and of itself, isn't a big problem but trying to keep track of how much I take in at those stops would be impossible, so it would be difficult to ensure that I take in the appropriate quantity. With Gels, it is easy to keep track of how many calories are taken in (although it won't help with tracking the ammount of water and electrolytes).
As for the next couple of days, I still have a couple of short runs left (a 5 miler tomorrow and a 4 miler on Saturday) and fortunately it looks like the new shoes have broken in so they'll likely be suitable for the race itself. The calibration check on Sunday appears to have done the trick, and I'll double check that on tomorrow's run. Looking over race reports from previous years, it appears that the kilometer markers may not be terribly reliable so it will be important to make sure my watch is providing as accurate numbers as possible.
One thing that I did miss earlier in the week was an offer to have custom pacebands made up prior to the packet pickup. To get them, I would have had to send an email by Monday in order to pick them up at the expo. Unfortunately, there was no mention of this when I registered I didn't go back to check until yesterday so I missed the window. Regardless, it appears that they will have generic bands on hand at the expo so hopefully it'll work out anyway. I could always make my own up, however having it laminated with a proper closure would be significant benefits.
Either way, getting back to the plan the target is still for a 3:30 finish (~5min/km). Given that I've done a good number of my long runs near this pace (including a 20 miler at a 5:09/km pace) this is likely a bit conservative, but as this is my first shot at this distance I'd rather play it safe than sorry. A lot of things can go wrong at this distance, so leaving a little extra in reserve is likely a good idea either way. If the legs have it in them near the end, I always have the option to pick it up and aim for something better.
Fortunately, this time my target lines up with a standard mark so I'll hopefully be able to make use of the pacers provided by the race organizers. At the Scotiabank half marathon the pacer for my target time wasn't there, and at Around the Bay my target was half way between so this is really my first opportunity to take advantage of this type of thing. Fortunately, yumke may also be targetting this pace for the first portion of the race so even if the pacer doesn't work out I may have some help.
The Mississauga Marathon course is a net downhill race with only a few small hills to deal with so pacing should be pretty even. Naturally, those hills will feel more significant than the normally do because of the distance so I can't just write them off, but it is an easier course than most Marathons in this area. The main challenge will likely be the winds near the end of the race, as it finishes up along trails by Lake Ontario so it's quite exposed. With the weather reports calling for 30km/h winds, that could easily be a significant issue. The upside, however, is that this segment of the race heads eastward so that wind will hopefully be at our backs at that point.
The tricky part will be the fueling aspect of this distance, as I don't have a lot of experience with that at this juncture. I've experimented with Gatorade and Gels on my training runs, but as I topped out at 20 miles (~32.2km) the benefits weren't really apparent. It was enough to indicate that neither should be a problem, but it's difficult to figure out exactly how many calories I will need to take in. Fortunately, pretty much everyone that I've talked to appears to suggest that somewhere in the region of four to five Gels should be sufficient without causing any problems.
My original plan was to stick with Gatorade as it has all of the necessary components in approximately the right mixture. The problem with that, however, is that I can only carry about 32 oz (~200kcal) on my water belt so I'd have to be partially dependant on the aide stations to make up the rest. This, in and of itself, isn't a big problem but trying to keep track of how much I take in at those stops would be impossible, so it would be difficult to ensure that I take in the appropriate quantity. With Gels, it is easy to keep track of how many calories are taken in (although it won't help with tracking the ammount of water and electrolytes).
As for the next couple of days, I still have a couple of short runs left (a 5 miler tomorrow and a 4 miler on Saturday) and fortunately it looks like the new shoes have broken in so they'll likely be suitable for the race itself. The calibration check on Sunday appears to have done the trick, and I'll double check that on tomorrow's run. Looking over race reports from previous years, it appears that the kilometer markers may not be terribly reliable so it will be important to make sure my watch is providing as accurate numbers as possible.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Week 15: The final stretch...
Finished my last long run this morning, and now am less than a week away from the Marathon. Only four more (relatively short) runs left prior to the start, so the training is pretty much done and it's just a matter of getting the body rested up for the race itself. The taper has been doing a lot of good to this point, and it's been extremely hard to hold myself back as the legs feel like they can go a lot faster than they normally do ;)
Either way, I took special care to control my pace this morning. I still wasn't able to get myself down to 5:30Ks, but the 5:13Ks were still an improvement over the 5:05s I've been averaging in the last few weeks for my long runs. One thing that didn't help on that front was the four laps of the track (to calibrate my Polar for the new shoes) I did at the apex of the run, as that always prompts me to accelerate a little more. The weather was pretty much picture perfect, and I felt great for the duration of the run so I'm feeling pretty confident about next week.
As for the rest of the week, things pretty much went according to plan. The ride on Saturday got a little mixed up when I missed a turn while ahead of the group. I looped around, but didn't know the entire route so I only found them when I got back to the finish point. The upside, however, is that for a significant portion of the ride I was cruising at a 36km/h clip while trying to cut them off at the pass (ended up being the wrong pass) which is certainly a good sign with respect to my cycling capacity. It's often difficult to gauge how hard to push on the bike, as the feeling is quite different from running - hard efforts tend to feel tougher while you're going, but you recover much faster the moment you let up.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 53.0km (32.9mi)
Walking: 2.2km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 111.7km (69.4mi)
Total: 166.9km (103.7mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 920.4km (571.9mi)
Walking: 148.3km (92.1mi)
Cycling: 1,069.6km (664.6mi)
Total: 2,138.3km (1,328.7mi)
As per Pfitzinger's plan, the cycling sessions are off for this week in preparation for the race so there will be two full rest days. After the marathon, I'll likely more than make up for that as I've found it to be a good replacement for running during the recovery phase of a big race. The low impact nature of cycling allows the recovery process to go ahead, but it still allows me to keep working the muscles and cardiovascular system so I'm still in good shape coming out of it.
Upcoming Week:
Mon Rest
Tue 6mi (9.7K) Recovery
Wed 7mi (11.3K) Recovery w/2mi (3.2K) @ Race Pace
Thurs Rest
Fri 5mi (8K) Recovery w/6x100m
Sat 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun Mississauga Marathon
Either way, I took special care to control my pace this morning. I still wasn't able to get myself down to 5:30Ks, but the 5:13Ks were still an improvement over the 5:05s I've been averaging in the last few weeks for my long runs. One thing that didn't help on that front was the four laps of the track (to calibrate my Polar for the new shoes) I did at the apex of the run, as that always prompts me to accelerate a little more. The weather was pretty much picture perfect, and I felt great for the duration of the run so I'm feeling pretty confident about next week.
As for the rest of the week, things pretty much went according to plan. The ride on Saturday got a little mixed up when I missed a turn while ahead of the group. I looped around, but didn't know the entire route so I only found them when I got back to the finish point. The upside, however, is that for a significant portion of the ride I was cruising at a 36km/h clip while trying to cut them off at the pass (ended up being the wrong pass) which is certainly a good sign with respect to my cycling capacity. It's often difficult to gauge how hard to push on the bike, as the feeling is quite different from running - hard efforts tend to feel tougher while you're going, but you recover much faster the moment you let up.
Weekly Totals:
Running: 53.0km (32.9mi)
Walking: 2.2km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 111.7km (69.4mi)
Total: 166.9km (103.7mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 920.4km (571.9mi)
Walking: 148.3km (92.1mi)
Cycling: 1,069.6km (664.6mi)
Total: 2,138.3km (1,328.7mi)
As per Pfitzinger's plan, the cycling sessions are off for this week in preparation for the race so there will be two full rest days. After the marathon, I'll likely more than make up for that as I've found it to be a good replacement for running during the recovery phase of a big race. The low impact nature of cycling allows the recovery process to go ahead, but it still allows me to keep working the muscles and cardiovascular system so I'm still in good shape coming out of it.
Upcoming Week:
Mon Rest
Tue 6mi (9.7K) Recovery
Wed 7mi (11.3K) Recovery w/2mi (3.2K) @ Race Pace
Thurs Rest
Fri 5mi (8K) Recovery w/6x100m
Sat 4mi (6.4K) Recovery
Sun Mississauga Marathon
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