Deep Cove

October 31st, 2010


It felt awesome to get a long ride in again today after the 'reset' week of doing hardly anything except run for the washroom.

Snuck out of the house by 10am, arm and leg warmers on, it was COLD outside, maybe 6 degrees? Rode across burnaby to sussex, then the sea to river bike route, lots of hills, so many hills, makes me realize and appreciate (and miss of course) how pancake flat sapporo is.

Once in to north Vancouver on the dollarton it was smoother sailing, felt good. Rode to Deep Cove (one of the best places in lower mainland) and chilled for a coffee and whole wheat fruit scone at Honeys cafe.  Managed to spill my coveted coffee, my hands were so cold, thankfully got a refill. Chilled on the beach for 20mins then rode back towards the ironworkers bridge. GPS was paused this entire portion, piss off.



Riding on the bridge, which is pretty long and sensed someone behind me. Took a quick glance and was going to let whoever past. Its a fucktwat on a MOPED! He stops and looks away from me as if i never saw him. I made sure to take the entire SIDEWALK that he was riding on, and rode slowly. Tool.

Around this time did some map calculations and texting to realize I could meet my buddy from Sapporo, MEEF, downtown on his paid vacation, might not catch up for a long time. Ripped Dunsmuir bike lane a new one then climbed up to Robson, walked awhile to a timmys for a chill sesh/fend off homeless crack addict beggars.  Ahh the life in the big city.

Ride home from there took Dunsmuir, Adanac, Mosaic, Central Valley, then BC Parkway. Into the wind and hilly the whole way. Felt a mini bonk coming but the HEED drink was absolutely mint, the timmys coffee got my sugar up a bit and I felt it crash, sipped the heed, the water, and then an apple cinn hammer gel. Good stuff! Felt awesome and punched it out through central park to imperial and home.

max seed 55.3
avg cadence 69
max cad 120

Being "Cleansed"

I decided to kickstart myself by dropping a few of lb's to get things rolling.  It's discouraging when you workout regularly yet see no results, visually at least.  I've been taking Usana's healthpack of daily vitamins for a month or so, and chose to try their "Reset" program.  Never having tried a cleanse of any type before, only hearing the horror stories (and bathroom stories), I wasn't too keen...

DAY -1: Final day before I'm on a diet of shakes, bars, vitamins, and some fruit/veg.  I likely overdid it by eating a burg at McD's AND a slurpee after hockey.

Weigh-in 190lbs

DAY 1
Optimistic to start.  Lunch time its amazing the amount of smells you notice that you normally wouldn't.  Walked up for a coffee with just skim milk.  After work stomach rumbling.  Grumpy.  Cravings.
Ate spaghetti squash, which normally I never have or would, 3 servings of it, warm food so good.

Day 2
Coffee crisps in a bowl at work.  Choosing this cleanse on halloween week was a bad idea.
Went into mcds for a coffee, oh those smells.  Feeling grumpy and out of it.

Day 3
I read days 1 and 2 were the worst, so maybe it was psychological but I didnt feel as rough.  Still felt like the odd snack.  Ate more spaghetti squash.  Worked from home due to midterm, made 2 shakes with skim milk, bad idea.  Bloating.  Stunk entire house up.  Felt like I had a bit more energy and went for an hour bike ride on my mountain bike to the trails in central park.  Was concerned with a bonk out.

Day 4
Green peppers and avocado for lunch at work = amazing.  The shakes are making me think of vomit, craving warm food.  Coworkers all brought takeout sushi and good smelling Japanese food back, not happy.  Sipped french vanilla shake and plotted my saturday meals.  Feeling irritable today.  I notice my stomach never stops rumbling.  Also did a calorie count, the shakes offer about 270 cals, the bars about 150.  Add in some veg and fruit, I would estimate Im only intaking 12-1300 calories a day.  Well below normal!

Day 5
Last day, thank you.  Hungry every night when I go to bed, have to get in by 10 or the stomach rumblings get me.  Always rough stomach at night.  Around 11pm wife comes home and I can hear her make toast and a chocolate milk, oh the torture.  12 more hours..

Over!  Weigh-in 184lbs.

Conclusion?  Worth it to knock off a few pounds, but time will tell if they stay off as its always a smarter bet that lower weekly weight loss actually stays off.  I felt better stomach wise even with the rumbling, less bloating (without  milk) and less pains.  I am definitely happy to not have to take 12 types of multivitamins a day now, back down to a manageable 6.

Grouse Grind 12

October 2nd, 2010

Forgot to add this.. after last night's Jack Johnson concert it was good to take our hosts up on a little trail run/hike up the Grind.  It was their first time up there, but being a Saturday it was busy as hell on the trail!

Final time was 46:30, felt decent but for the first time this year I stopped at each 1/4 mark.  It was a bit of a battle for my friends on their first time up there but they did great, and the pizza up top on the deck was perfect.

Victoria 1/2 Marathon - Race Report

Victoria 1/2 Marathon 2010


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First chance to run this course finally. It winds through the downtown for about the first 4k before heading out towards Oak Bay on a long out and back. The winds on Dallas Road weren't very pretty on the way back.

Woke up at 430am, race start at 730am. Was jacked, had a coffee, some mini wheats and a piece of toast, maybe a banana too, cant remember. Was fairly nervous as my long training runs were at medium or slower paces and the 20k I ran I melted down and suffered to a 2hour plus finish.

Drive in to downtown Vic, which has free parking on Sundays (refreshing change after Vancouver...).  We parked quite far away so a long warm up walk was in order.  Like a km away. No I did not add this to my total. Walking down suddenly my bladder sends a piercing pain out and I am buckling and searching out any alley I can find. Stumble into a walkway and drain out what seemed like 2 litres of piss, surely I got it all out at least and can line up at the start in peace.

Nope.

Get to the start, 6800 other people all lined up, ugly. Near the back and stuck waiting 8 minutes for the gun. The gun goes, and we wait another 3 minutes of not moving, just waiting for the line to start shuffling forward. Suddenly my stomach knifes me again and Im thinking Im about to instantly piss my shorts (wtf?). I send the wife on her way (on her first ever 1/2 marathon!) as the crowd just starts to crawl forward and I dive into a nearby portapotty. Yet another 2 litre piss, before the mornings food said 'screw this,  we're outta here too' and I expunged all nutrients.

Sprint out of the toilet and Im in a wasteland, LAST RUNNER STANDING. I hear the announcer calling for any more 1/2 marathoners and he see's me trotting up towards the start line making mention that it mustve been the portapotty lineup. Classy.

The problem with lining up behind 6800 people is that I'm reasonably sure that I will finish faster than half of them, just judging from previous times. That's 3400 people to pass.  Easily my most frustrating 12k to start a race, it was an interval, fartlek, sprint, run up, get blocked, nearly stop, find ANY way around the people, sprint, blocked, search for a way around, jump on sidewalk, run, blocked, down to road, more people, up onto grassy boulevard, sprint risking ankle going sideways, block, down.. etc.. Oh well, my own fault for not lining up where I should've.  If I run this again I'll definitely show up way earlier just to line up with my pacing group.  My buddy who ran a 1:29 at this said even though he lined up near-ish to the front, there were a ton of people lined in front of him with zero idea of ethics in a race, walking along, holding hands across the course..


Elevation Chart of the Victoria 1/2 Marathon Course


At about 12k I ate my vanilla bean Gu gel, and at 13 or 14 ate a chocolate powergel, cup of water and cup of gatorade at every station. Coming back onto Dallas Road facing the wind I was hurting and so was the blister I had grown at km 3 (my old shoes suddenly kicked the bucket, so I'm in my new shoes with 20k logged on them so far).  My stride became fairly awkward, the wind breaking peoples spirits.. but I used it to push past their weaknesses and use their pain as my strength (it made sense as a motivational tool at the time).   I always find in a distance event that you see people truly stripped down at this point, emotionally that is, and it's rare to see some competitive a-hole.  I ran by a lady who had an M-dot tattoo on her leg, and I'll be politically incorrect here, she didn't look like an IM.  Thats the beauty of the IM though, not every finisher looks like Macca, but they all had to put in months of work and had the drive and determination to make it there.  She was a very positive person and had just completed IMC 2010 and was going back again in 2012.

The final km's, I ran hard, no heart rate strap (lost it the week of the event) but it was definitely around 190.  Crossed the finish exactly ONE second faster than my Van 1/2 marathon time 2 years ago (didnt know it at the time, didnt care). Stumbled, stopped, dizzy... then a volunteer saw me holding my puffer which I always carry in hand not pocket, and she ushered me into the medical tent, did I look that bad?

Got in and iced up, killed a chocolate milk, tried to stop shaking. It was freezing by the end.

All told, best I couldve done. My avg pace on the garmin said 5:01/k, and the final k or so I pushed it to 4:03.  Brahmas to celebrate later.



Pace chart




Vic 1/2 2010 1:47:08 (Splits approx 53:00/54:08)
**note** Gun time of 1:54+ indicates I took over 7minutes to get to the start line

Bonking out on a 20

Today's workout was not pretty.  By a long shot.

This 20k being my last long workout before the Victoria 1/2 Marathon in a couple weeks, I was looking forward to finishing it strong.  The first 10k I carried my hand-bottle with a gel that I downed at 8k (Gu choc mint=very high level of awesomeness).  My right achilles tendon is flaring up and so I focused on a slower pace but aimed at keeping my heart rate averaging out just under 150 bpm.

At 10k things started to go very wrong, soon after I made one of those decisions that only a person not thinking straight makes.  I stopped at my vehicle and tossed my waterbottle in there since it was empty.  I had ate the Gu at 8k, and drank a bottle of gatorade that Id carried, and sipped a bit of water quick at the car.  I rationalized with myself that I don't need to carry another bottle the next 10k loop of Burnaby Lake then.  I rationalized wrong.

The k's slowly ticked by as the rain pounded harder and harder.  Drenched through and through I used it as a motivation, to push through the hard workouts always makes a person stronger and allows you to enjoy the easier workouts (from Wood years back).   At 15k I had crossed the dam and was on the home stretch, but my mind was already there.  A couple of dogs were held in by their owner to which I gladly thanked her and gave her a wave.  2 turns later and another dog came absolutely tearing at me and went right at me sniffing away.  I stopped in my tracks and waited.  The skid loser owner didnt even call his dog, just sauntered up fixing his ipod.  I tore into him about leashes and controlling his dog to which he didn't even give a nod, a sorry, nothing.  On a rant here but I think that Vancouver folk are easily the least responsible dog owners (and most pretentious and defensive of the dog owners rights).  I remember being up at Lynn Valley for a hike, finished up and was back at the car, doors open just putting muddy boots in the trunk...when a dog comes streaking out of the trees and freaks out, jumped into the passenger seat, across to the drivers seat, then in to the back seat!  The owners come up and justify their dogs actions (weakly).  Put a f**king leash on!

So where was I?  15k point, thinking just 5k to finish up when things started to go downhill.  I regretted not having a sip of water available or a honey drop to suck on.  At 17k my legs cramped and I shuffled.  At 18k I was forced to an old-man-on-his-way-to-the-Dennys-special speed walk.  But I never stopped, always keep moving.

The final K was around 6 minutes or so and I clicked the watch at 20k.  Soaking wet from the rains and depleted of energy, but a great workout.

2010 Terry Fox Run

The Terry Fox Run has always been a big part of my yearly calendar, dating back to when I helped to put the run on while at the Columbia Icefield almost 10 years ago.  While living in Sapporo we got the run off the ground and held the first ever Sapporo Terry Fox Run n 2004, and another in 2005.  Unfortunately insurance issues handcuffed us after that and the run had to be postponed, hopefully to be resurrected next year.



My legs felt like death after Friday's 18k, and yesterdays hockey game.  Woke up to rain pouring down and aches and pains.  Remembering that Terry had to wake up and run each and every day for 143 days, rain, snow, or shine, stopped my internal complaining right there.  The run had a decent turn out, and I pushed a hard 10k out even though I really *really* wanted to run an easy one.  I ended up with one of the years best times, 46:18.  Gonna be hurting tomorrow!

18k Long Run

Throwback pick to the Terry Fox Run 2008 - Here at Central Park


September 17th, 2010

Out for my long run on a day off, perfect temperature out for it and felt fairly well rested even though my achilles' weren't happy after yesterday's Grouse Grind push.

Kept a reasonable pace running home to Central Park (5k), then looped the Terry Fox trail around the park before a smaller loop, and finally back onto the BC Parkway for a run home.  Around km 12 & 13 I started to fade and ran some 6min+ km's and saw my goal of a negative split die.

The final 4k I got a second wind and those 4km were my fastest of all 18 (526, 513, 510, 515).  Final split:

1/2 (9k) 51:25
1/2 (9k) 50:21

Heart rate avg'd out at 147, a good long slow distance #.

Terry Fox Run this Sunday!