The last couple of weeks have been crazy and between other commitments and the weather forcing me to move things around my mileage has suffered because of it. The biggest chunk of that was the loss of my long rides as they are nearly impossible to move around due to the length of time required. I've fortunately managed to get my long runs in as scheduled, but I've also ended up missing at least one of the shorter runs during the week.
Either way, not a whole lot that can be done about it as sometimes life intervenes with one's plans and you just have to deal with it. As such, I'm going to be redoubling my efforts this week to nail down my workouts as planned and get back on track. Fortunately the weather is looking great so that should go a long way in making that easier to achieve.
Week 9 Totals:
Running: 34.8km (21.6mi)
Walking: 0.5km (0.3mi)
Cycling: 80.0km (49.7mi)
Swimming: 4.3km (2.7mi)
Total: 119.6km (74.3mi)
Week 10 Totals:
Running: 33.7km (20.9mi)
Walking: 1.2km (0.7mi)
Cycling: 75.0km (46.6mi)
Swimming: 8.8km (5.4mi)
Total: 118.7km (73.8mi)
Year to Date:
Running: 416.1km (258.6mi)
Walking: 12.1km (7.5mi)
Cycling: 1150.6km (714.9mi)
Swimming: 78.9km (49.0mi)
Total: 1657.7km (1030.0mi)
As noted above, the weather this week is looking incredible so I'm going to do what I can to take advantage of it. I'm half tempted to change the tires around on the bike and take her outside, but I'm hesitant to do that this early in the season lest I tempt the fates to bring another storm our way. Either way, this sort of spring-like weather is promising as it signals that we are nearing the end of the winter season and it won't be too long before the trainer can start collecting dust once again :D
Longer term, I'm starting to solidify a plan for the rest of the season at this point. A few friends are looking at doing their first Duathlon up in Peterborough so I'm strongly leaning towards joining them and doing my first Half-Ironman up there. It's far enough out that it will require a hotel unlike Milton, however it's worth the extra expense to have some company to enjoy the race with. They're looking at doing the half-distance Du as well, so given the starting times we'll likely end up hitting the bike stage at about the same time so things should work well.
As for Boston, I'm leaning against worrying about it at this point. My preference has always been to focus on Tris this year, and the more I think about it the more I realize the only reason that I was considering a shot at it was because of the change in qualification times. The point of all of this is to have fun and stay healthy, and doing this out of some obligation to hit a wholly artificial goal is the wrong direction to take. Given the stories that I've heard of Boston I'd still love to do it some day, but I'd rather do that on my time table even if it requires a harder fight to do so. Further, the meaning of getting a BQ would be somewhat diminished by eeking in at the last minute in order to hit easier qualifying times :OP
Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Boston Marathon
Qualifying for Boston has been a long term goal ever since finishing my Marathon a couple of years ago. After selling out in less than eight hours last year, however, it was evident that they'd have to do something about the qualifying standards and that has brought a new urgency to taking a shot at that goal. With the existing standards, I was looking at having to run the distance in 3:10:59 or less to make the cut (an average pace of 4:31/km or 7:17/mi). That is within the realm of possibilities, but it's skirting the outer edges of what I can do so if it is tightened much more it'll likely close the door.
Today the BAA announced it's verdict on what will be done for the 2012 and 2013 marathons. For the 2012 marathon, the qualifying standards remain the same but they've added a graduated registration system that will allow faster runners earlier access. For 2013, the base qualifying standards will be tightened up by 5 minutes and the 59 second grace period will be removed (effectively meaning 6 minutes). Given the scenario they had little choice but to do something, and this seems to be about the fairest way to handle it that I can imagine. Given a finite supply of spots, it's certainly better for them to go to faster runners rather than those who are lucky enough to get through an overloaded web server.
With that said, it does make things a bit more complicated on my end and is going to require some consideration. I don't think that the 3:05 standard coming in for 2013 is possible for me, so this year will likely be my last opportunity in the immediate future to take a realistic shot at it. Unfortunately, with the progressive registration there is a high probability that it will be sold out before the general qualifiers round comes up (effectively tightening it to 3:05 (or worse) anyway). Shooting for 3:10 will require a lot of work and likely some significant compromises on my Triathlon training, so the thought of working my arse off, getting that time and it all being for naught is disconcerting.
Naturally, the other option would be to simply wait until I'm 35 and aim for a 3:10 marathon at that juncture. At this point I've only run one marathon, and I would have liked to have a few more under my belt before taking a shot at such an aggressive target. Working a few longer distance Triathlons into the mix would be beneficial as well, as their longer duration (~4-5 hours for a HIM, ~11-12 hours for a full) would do a lot to boost my confidence. I'm not that far off so the extra age likely won't hurt me too much, and while I'll have to be 59 seconds faster that's not likely a huge problem. The other benefit is that I'll have a better idea of how big a risk things selling out are as right now that's an unknown quantity. Further, depending on when I run the qualifying race, it may be possible to try and register the next year.
Either way, I've got a lot of thinking to do at this point and have to come to a conclusion quickly as formal training will have to start soon. Given the Triathlon schedule I had hoped to do the marathon in the fall, but with the registration deadline on September 19th I might have to do it in the spring (as most of the fall marathons are after that date). With that said, it's good to finally have a concrete answer on what I'm up against as it will allow me to make a more objective assessment of the different options.
With all of that said, as much as this arrangement doesn't work out terribly well for me I do have to give the BAA credit for coming up with a fair system to handle this. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place here and a tough decision had to be made. Given a fixed number of openings, the standards need to be designed so that the fastest runners are the ones that get them.
Today the BAA announced it's verdict on what will be done for the 2012 and 2013 marathons. For the 2012 marathon, the qualifying standards remain the same but they've added a graduated registration system that will allow faster runners earlier access. For 2013, the base qualifying standards will be tightened up by 5 minutes and the 59 second grace period will be removed (effectively meaning 6 minutes). Given the scenario they had little choice but to do something, and this seems to be about the fairest way to handle it that I can imagine. Given a finite supply of spots, it's certainly better for them to go to faster runners rather than those who are lucky enough to get through an overloaded web server.
With that said, it does make things a bit more complicated on my end and is going to require some consideration. I don't think that the 3:05 standard coming in for 2013 is possible for me, so this year will likely be my last opportunity in the immediate future to take a realistic shot at it. Unfortunately, with the progressive registration there is a high probability that it will be sold out before the general qualifiers round comes up (effectively tightening it to 3:05 (or worse) anyway). Shooting for 3:10 will require a lot of work and likely some significant compromises on my Triathlon training, so the thought of working my arse off, getting that time and it all being for naught is disconcerting.
Naturally, the other option would be to simply wait until I'm 35 and aim for a 3:10 marathon at that juncture. At this point I've only run one marathon, and I would have liked to have a few more under my belt before taking a shot at such an aggressive target. Working a few longer distance Triathlons into the mix would be beneficial as well, as their longer duration (~4-5 hours for a HIM, ~11-12 hours for a full) would do a lot to boost my confidence. I'm not that far off so the extra age likely won't hurt me too much, and while I'll have to be 59 seconds faster that's not likely a huge problem. The other benefit is that I'll have a better idea of how big a risk things selling out are as right now that's an unknown quantity. Further, depending on when I run the qualifying race, it may be possible to try and register the next year.
Either way, I've got a lot of thinking to do at this point and have to come to a conclusion quickly as formal training will have to start soon. Given the Triathlon schedule I had hoped to do the marathon in the fall, but with the registration deadline on September 19th I might have to do it in the spring (as most of the fall marathons are after that date). With that said, it's good to finally have a concrete answer on what I'm up against as it will allow me to make a more objective assessment of the different options.
With all of that said, as much as this arrangement doesn't work out terribly well for me I do have to give the BAA credit for coming up with a fair system to handle this. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place here and a tough decision had to be made. Given a fixed number of openings, the standards need to be designed so that the fastest runners are the ones that get them.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Boston Marathon
As most of you have probably heard, the Boston Marathon sold out within eight hours of opening its registration this year. That, in turn, has got a lot of us nervous as the spectre of the qualification times being tightened up has the potential to put it out of reach. Right now I'm looking at a 3:10:59 standard that I have to beat to make it in. That's certainly within the realm of possibilities, but it is near the razors edge of my capacity and pushing that up to 3:05 or even 3:00 would be a real problem.
Part of the allure of this race is that it's qualification standards are hard enough that it requires a major effort to achieve them, but at the same time they are within reach of many runners. Getting to that goal is a significant achievement in and of itself, and is a strong drive for many marathoners to keep running races and reach for that holy grail.
I personally know a couple of dozen people who have qualified and run this race, and their stories do a lot to inspire me to push hard enough to get there myself. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them have done so by a close margin, and I don't know of any that were 5 minutes or more beyond that point. Pushing the standards too high would make it harder for people to hear those personal experiences, and take away a lot of the drive to work towards that goal.
With that said, I'd much rather not get in because I wasn't able to run fast enough than because I didn't click my mouse fast enough ;) I can't even imagine what it would be like to work for years to get a BQ time and then miss out because I didn't have access to a computer on the day registration opened. Given the logistical challenges of getting people out to Hopington I don't imagine that adding more spots is realistic, so something has to be done to cut down the number of people registering. There are a few things that could be done to save a few more spaces (eg cutting down the number of slots for non-qualified runners), but given the 8 hour sellout I doubt that would be much of a long term solution.
As much as I'd hate for it to happen, from a fairness point of view tougher standards seem to be the best solution to that. When spaces are finite for a prestigious race like this, it only makes sense that they should go to the strongest runners first. Regardless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they find a more creative solution to the problem. If they don't, then I might have to knock getting a qualifying time off of my list of long term goals as I don't really think that running a 3:05 marathon is in the cards for me regardless of how hard I train :(
Part of the allure of this race is that it's qualification standards are hard enough that it requires a major effort to achieve them, but at the same time they are within reach of many runners. Getting to that goal is a significant achievement in and of itself, and is a strong drive for many marathoners to keep running races and reach for that holy grail.
I personally know a couple of dozen people who have qualified and run this race, and their stories do a lot to inspire me to push hard enough to get there myself. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them have done so by a close margin, and I don't know of any that were 5 minutes or more beyond that point. Pushing the standards too high would make it harder for people to hear those personal experiences, and take away a lot of the drive to work towards that goal.
With that said, I'd much rather not get in because I wasn't able to run fast enough than because I didn't click my mouse fast enough ;) I can't even imagine what it would be like to work for years to get a BQ time and then miss out because I didn't have access to a computer on the day registration opened. Given the logistical challenges of getting people out to Hopington I don't imagine that adding more spots is realistic, so something has to be done to cut down the number of people registering. There are a few things that could be done to save a few more spaces (eg cutting down the number of slots for non-qualified runners), but given the 8 hour sellout I doubt that would be much of a long term solution.
As much as I'd hate for it to happen, from a fairness point of view tougher standards seem to be the best solution to that. When spaces are finite for a prestigious race like this, it only makes sense that they should go to the strongest runners first. Regardless, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they find a more creative solution to the problem. If they don't, then I might have to knock getting a qualifying time off of my list of long term goals as I don't really think that running a 3:05 marathon is in the cards for me regardless of how hard I train :(
Monday, September 6, 2010
Weeks 33, 34 & 35: Catching Up
The last few weeks have been particularly crazy, and as such I've fallen behind on my updates. This post is designed to catch up for the last three weeks, and will only be relatively brief as I still don't have a heck of a lot of time here ;)
Week 33 Totals:
Running: 58.3km (36.2mi)
Walking: 2.2km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 81.2km (50.5mi)
Swimming: 8.1km (5.0mi)
Total: 149.8km (93.1mi)
Week 33 went pretty much as planned and I managed to hit most of my targets. Cycling was the main exception, as the weather over the weekend forced me to miss a couple of my sessions. On the running front, I managed to get in a good 18 miler on the Sunday despite a bit of rain. Additionally, my group run on Wednesday was faster than normal as the fellow that I headed out with was preparing for a race and wanted to do a hard 10K. It felt good to let the legs loose for a change ;)
Week 34 Totals:
Running: 27.4km (17.0mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 71.5km (44.4mi)
Swimming: 7.6km (4.7mi)
Total: 107.5km (66.8mi)
After the successes of the previous week, week 34 started out quite well with everything hitting targets comfortably. Unfortunately, on Friday my left hamstring started feeling a bit sore so I took a few rest days to let it recover. It wasn't particularly bad and in retrospect I likely could have trained through it, but I didn't want to risk it becoming worse and taking me out for a longer period. As such, my long run and ride were knocked out, as well as one of my moderate rides - all of which took a significant chunk out of my mileage.
Week 35 Totals:
Running: 50.1km (31.1mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 61.0km (37.9mi)
Swimming: 3.7km (2.3mi)
Total: 116.1km (72.1mi)
On Monday morning, the hamstring was pretty much back to normal so I decided to get back into the routine. To play it safe I shortened my ride from 50 to 30K, but fortunately there were no signs of the pain so I could get back into my routine. On Tuesday I was out with family so I did miss my sessions on that day, but fortunately I was able to squeeze in an extra run on Saturday to make up for it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make up the swim so that mileage is a bit low for the week.
On Sunday, I was heading out for a 17 miler to ease myself back into it and when I started my Polar the battery in the wrist watch died. I quickly switched over to my Garmin strap and popped my cycling computer (Edge 705) in a pocket on my hydration belt. It's GPS radio had the capacity to measure speed and distance, and with the HRM I'd be able to record most of the information that the Polar does. Unfortunately, as there is no way to mount it to my wrist I couldn't get real-time readings of those values.
While I don't mind running by feel, my tendency is to go too fast when I do, and that isn't a good combination for a long slow distance run like this. Regardless, the weather was near perfect for a run and I felt good throughout. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the display that I realized that I'd averaged a 4:33/km pace (vs the 5:00-5:30 pace that was planned). Fortunately, thanks to the lower temperatures my heart rate stayed in about the right range (~164bpm average vs 155bpm normal for this distance) so it hopefully wasn't too hard on the body.
Either way, it is good to know that I can comfortably maintain that pace for this distance. This is roughly the speed that I need to hold over a marathon to qualify for Boston, and having done 17 miles at the pace is a good sign. Naturally, that's still a far cry from being able to pull off another 10 miles at this speed, but it's a stepping stone in that direction. I don't intend to make a BQ attempt this fall, so the earliest that I'd be trying that is next spring - leaving a good amount of time to work on that last piece of the equation.
Year to Date:
Running: 1557.8km (968.0mi)
Walking: 75.2km (46.7mi)
Cycling: 3395.8km (2110.1mi)
Swimming: 226.1km (140.5mi)
Total: 5254.9km (3265.2mi)
Week 33 Totals:
Running: 58.3km (36.2mi)
Walking: 2.2km (1.4mi)
Cycling: 81.2km (50.5mi)
Swimming: 8.1km (5.0mi)
Total: 149.8km (93.1mi)
Week 33 went pretty much as planned and I managed to hit most of my targets. Cycling was the main exception, as the weather over the weekend forced me to miss a couple of my sessions. On the running front, I managed to get in a good 18 miler on the Sunday despite a bit of rain. Additionally, my group run on Wednesday was faster than normal as the fellow that I headed out with was preparing for a race and wanted to do a hard 10K. It felt good to let the legs loose for a change ;)
Week 34 Totals:
Running: 27.4km (17.0mi)
Walking: 1.0km (0.6mi)
Cycling: 71.5km (44.4mi)
Swimming: 7.6km (4.7mi)
Total: 107.5km (66.8mi)
After the successes of the previous week, week 34 started out quite well with everything hitting targets comfortably. Unfortunately, on Friday my left hamstring started feeling a bit sore so I took a few rest days to let it recover. It wasn't particularly bad and in retrospect I likely could have trained through it, but I didn't want to risk it becoming worse and taking me out for a longer period. As such, my long run and ride were knocked out, as well as one of my moderate rides - all of which took a significant chunk out of my mileage.
Week 35 Totals:
Running: 50.1km (31.1mi)
Walking: 1.3km (0.8mi)
Cycling: 61.0km (37.9mi)
Swimming: 3.7km (2.3mi)
Total: 116.1km (72.1mi)
On Monday morning, the hamstring was pretty much back to normal so I decided to get back into the routine. To play it safe I shortened my ride from 50 to 30K, but fortunately there were no signs of the pain so I could get back into my routine. On Tuesday I was out with family so I did miss my sessions on that day, but fortunately I was able to squeeze in an extra run on Saturday to make up for it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make up the swim so that mileage is a bit low for the week.
On Sunday, I was heading out for a 17 miler to ease myself back into it and when I started my Polar the battery in the wrist watch died. I quickly switched over to my Garmin strap and popped my cycling computer (Edge 705) in a pocket on my hydration belt. It's GPS radio had the capacity to measure speed and distance, and with the HRM I'd be able to record most of the information that the Polar does. Unfortunately, as there is no way to mount it to my wrist I couldn't get real-time readings of those values.
While I don't mind running by feel, my tendency is to go too fast when I do, and that isn't a good combination for a long slow distance run like this. Regardless, the weather was near perfect for a run and I felt good throughout. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the display that I realized that I'd averaged a 4:33/km pace (vs the 5:00-5:30 pace that was planned). Fortunately, thanks to the lower temperatures my heart rate stayed in about the right range (~164bpm average vs 155bpm normal for this distance) so it hopefully wasn't too hard on the body.
Either way, it is good to know that I can comfortably maintain that pace for this distance. This is roughly the speed that I need to hold over a marathon to qualify for Boston, and having done 17 miles at the pace is a good sign. Naturally, that's still a far cry from being able to pull off another 10 miles at this speed, but it's a stepping stone in that direction. I don't intend to make a BQ attempt this fall, so the earliest that I'd be trying that is next spring - leaving a good amount of time to work on that last piece of the equation.
Year to Date:
Running: 1557.8km (968.0mi)
Walking: 75.2km (46.7mi)
Cycling: 3395.8km (2110.1mi)
Swimming: 226.1km (140.5mi)
Total: 5254.9km (3265.2mi)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Looking Forward...
With this season all but wrapped up, it's time to start thinking about what comes next. The original plan was to focus on refining my marathon performance and focusing on getting it down to 3:10 in order to qualify for Boston. Playing around with Triathlons, however, has drawn my attention away from that singular target so things are a bit more complicated at this point. Trying to get to the point where I can run an entire marathon at a 4:30/km pace is a daunting task in and of itself, and trying to do that while I'm also training for two other sports may not be realistic.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, I thoroughly enjoyed the Triathlon that I did back in September and would like to push forward on that front. Over the last couple of years, I have constantly been pushing out towards larger goals down the road. Training to improve my marathon times was enjoyable, but simply being a refinement of an already achieved goal wasn't quite the same as aiming for something new and untested. As such, my secondary goal of pulling off my first triathlon became more and more significant and the excitement of mixing in the new sports helped to drive me on.
Looking at the race schedules for next year, it doesn't really look like the Triathlon events start until June. As such, I'm tentatively thinking about focusing on a spring marathon (probably Mississauga on May 16th) and then switch gears to Triathlons for the fall season. Aiming for a 3:20 target at that point is likely within reach, and if that goes well then I can try for the elusive 3:10 in a following year. That would allow me to exclusively focus on the training for each sport in separate seasons, while allowing me to track both of my goals without too much overlap. The only concern is how quickly I can recover in time for an early-June Triathlon following a marathon in mid-May.
If I do follow this plan, my year would look something like this:
Winter/Spring Season (Marathon):
Summer/Fall Season (Triathlon):
Worst case scenario, if I determine that I'm not up to the task of such a race I can fall back to shorter distances or even just aim for a fall marathon. I don't want to step into a 5-6 hour race without sufficient preparation, so I'll have to see how the Olympic distance race goes and determine whether or not it is realistic. With that said, if I do try the half-ironman distance, the goal will simply be to finish and not so much to go all out - that will have to wait for a future year ;)
Either way, I'm still considering my options but the above is roughly what I am hoping to achieve in the coming year. It is undoubtedly an aggressive plan one way or the other and it may need to be scaled back, but I'd rather aim high and have to pull back then aim low and wonder if I could have done more ;) For the time being, my focus will have to be on improving my swimming and getting my base fitness up to the level that will be required to train for this schedule. I also have to look into getting some books on Triathlon training so that I can build a formal schedule to work my way up this ladder.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, I thoroughly enjoyed the Triathlon that I did back in September and would like to push forward on that front. Over the last couple of years, I have constantly been pushing out towards larger goals down the road. Training to improve my marathon times was enjoyable, but simply being a refinement of an already achieved goal wasn't quite the same as aiming for something new and untested. As such, my secondary goal of pulling off my first triathlon became more and more significant and the excitement of mixing in the new sports helped to drive me on.
Looking at the race schedules for next year, it doesn't really look like the Triathlon events start until June. As such, I'm tentatively thinking about focusing on a spring marathon (probably Mississauga on May 16th) and then switch gears to Triathlons for the fall season. Aiming for a 3:20 target at that point is likely within reach, and if that goes well then I can try for the elusive 3:10 in a following year. That would allow me to exclusively focus on the training for each sport in separate seasons, while allowing me to track both of my goals without too much overlap. The only concern is how quickly I can recover in time for an early-June Triathlon following a marathon in mid-May.
If I do follow this plan, my year would look something like this:
Winter/Spring Season (Marathon):
- Achilles 5K (2010-03-14)
- Around the Bay 30K (2010-03-28)
- Harry's Spring Run-Off 8K (Reduced Pace, 2010-04-03)
- Mississauga Marathon (2010-05-16)
Summer/Fall Season (Triathlon):
- Milton Triathlon (750m, 30km, 7.5km) (2010-06-06)
- Guelph Lake Sprint Triathlon (750m, 20km, 5km) (2010-06-20)
- Gravenhurst Olympic Triathlon (1.5K, 40km, 10km) (2010-07-17)
Worst case scenario, if I determine that I'm not up to the task of such a race I can fall back to shorter distances or even just aim for a fall marathon. I don't want to step into a 5-6 hour race without sufficient preparation, so I'll have to see how the Olympic distance race goes and determine whether or not it is realistic. With that said, if I do try the half-ironman distance, the goal will simply be to finish and not so much to go all out - that will have to wait for a future year ;)
Either way, I'm still considering my options but the above is roughly what I am hoping to achieve in the coming year. It is undoubtedly an aggressive plan one way or the other and it may need to be scaled back, but I'd rather aim high and have to pull back then aim low and wonder if I could have done more ;) For the time being, my focus will have to be on improving my swimming and getting my base fitness up to the level that will be required to train for this schedule. I also have to look into getting some books on Triathlon training so that I can build a formal schedule to work my way up this ladder.
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).
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