I did my first ever workout with the Roadkill Running Club today. I've just learned that I've been doing speedwork completely wrong! I haven't been pushing myself anywhere near as hard as I should have, and my warm-ups weren't as intensive as they should have been (light drills before the real workout begins).
Coach Ken gave me a marathon training plan. I'm going to somewhat follow it. I'm going to incorporate all of the the speedwork, but the days off on Wednesday and Saturday will respectively be filled in by an easy recovery run and a 2/3rds length long run. If I want to be able to complete the Voyageur 50 in style, I need to keep my mileage up. However, I realize that I need my rest days. So my easy days of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are going to be capped at 4 miles each and at a very disciplined pace.
In other news, I'm organizing a "Couch to 5k" programme at my work. So far, I have 6 people wanting to join in. Seeing as this is my coaching/training debut, I hope to not to make too much of a monkey's lunch out of it. Fortunately, the C25k plan at Cool Running seems easy enough for me to work with. I'll just have to remember to pre-program my Garmin with the day's workout so I can just turn it on and let it tell me when the appropriate time has passed and it's time to run/walk.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Of Cars and Men
Today on my long run, something happened. It is not something new, as it happens on almost every run that I'm on. The difference this time was my reaction. While I'm not terribly proud of my reaction, I stand by it.
About one mile into my run today, I was crossing a busy street at an intersection. A car that had a red light decided to ignore the stop line and stop in the perfect centre of the crosswalk. Normally, I just run around the car while giving the driver the stink-eye. But this time something snapped. You could call it the straw the broke the camel's back. The single drop of water that caused the river to break its dam.
As I was running past this transgressing vehicle, I spied that the driver had his window open. I took this opportunity to face the driver and let him know what was on my mind. I started polite by informing him that the stop line was 8 feet back from where he had stopped, and he was not in the crosswalk. No reply. I informed him that I knew he could hear me since his window was down. His reply of "F*** off" threw me off my A-game. I had no recovery.
I later imagined myself insulting this man with a continuous stream of wit. Making allusions to his questionable parentage, possible abusive relationships with authority figures, and his morbid obesity. Alas, my mind is not quick enough to be able to pull something like that off. And now as I sit typing this out, I'm glad that I don't. No good would have come from that exchange. The man would still carelessly mow down pedestrians from the comfort of his tin wagon, possibly with hurt feelings, and certainly would have ignored my opening salvo.
It just pisses me off that when I run I constantly have to treat everybody who drives as if they were an idiot hell-bent on running me over. The law is on my side: When I arrive at a marked crosswalk, stop sign, or green light, I have the right of way. When vehicles stop at stop signs, and traffic lights, they must stop at either the stop line (if one exists), before the sidewalk (if one exists), or lastly right before the crossing road. I just wish violations of this were enforced half as much as speeding vehicles. In my opinion, rolled stops are *far* more dangerous than speeding or parking violations and should be enforced as if they were.
Am I out of touch? A bit crazy?
About one mile into my run today, I was crossing a busy street at an intersection. A car that had a red light decided to ignore the stop line and stop in the perfect centre of the crosswalk. Normally, I just run around the car while giving the driver the stink-eye. But this time something snapped. You could call it the straw the broke the camel's back. The single drop of water that caused the river to break its dam.
As I was running past this transgressing vehicle, I spied that the driver had his window open. I took this opportunity to face the driver and let him know what was on my mind. I started polite by informing him that the stop line was 8 feet back from where he had stopped, and he was not in the crosswalk. No reply. I informed him that I knew he could hear me since his window was down. His reply of "F*** off" threw me off my A-game. I had no recovery.
I later imagined myself insulting this man with a continuous stream of wit. Making allusions to his questionable parentage, possible abusive relationships with authority figures, and his morbid obesity. Alas, my mind is not quick enough to be able to pull something like that off. And now as I sit typing this out, I'm glad that I don't. No good would have come from that exchange. The man would still carelessly mow down pedestrians from the comfort of his tin wagon, possibly with hurt feelings, and certainly would have ignored my opening salvo.
It just pisses me off that when I run I constantly have to treat everybody who drives as if they were an idiot hell-bent on running me over. The law is on my side: When I arrive at a marked crosswalk, stop sign, or green light, I have the right of way. When vehicles stop at stop signs, and traffic lights, they must stop at either the stop line (if one exists), before the sidewalk (if one exists), or lastly right before the crossing road. I just wish violations of this were enforced half as much as speeding vehicles. In my opinion, rolled stops are *far* more dangerous than speeding or parking violations and should be enforced as if they were.
Am I out of touch? A bit crazy?
Monday, March 15, 2010
Stupid Weather
Due to the incredibly warm weather, the ice on lake Winnipeg is melting fast. As a result, the Polar Bear Run was cancelled. :(
I was really looking forward to that run. But I understand that safety comes first. The main worry was not that a runner would fall through the thinning ice, but that the support snowmobiles would conk out from having to plow through 2-3" of water all day. Me not knowing anything about snowmobiles accepts this. And while I was still tempted to do the run anyway without any support, the logistics of getting back to my car from Grand Marais to Gimli all by myself are too great. Not to mention the amount of fun running in 2" of ice-cold water would be. ;)
So instead of sitting around holding lemons, I decided to make lemonade. I ran some footpaths that I hadn't run before yesterday, and ran the farthest I had run so far this year. All the way to the Mint and back.
I was really looking forward to that run. But I understand that safety comes first. The main worry was not that a runner would fall through the thinning ice, but that the support snowmobiles would conk out from having to plow through 2-3" of water all day. Me not knowing anything about snowmobiles accepts this. And while I was still tempted to do the run anyway without any support, the logistics of getting back to my car from Grand Marais to Gimli all by myself are too great. Not to mention the amount of fun running in 2" of ice-cold water would be. ;)
So instead of sitting around holding lemons, I decided to make lemonade. I ran some footpaths that I hadn't run before yesterday, and ran the farthest I had run so far this year. All the way to the Mint and back.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Running Outdoors
After a long and (not quite so) brutal winter, I rediscovered the joy of running outdoors. My long runs last Saturday and Tuesday were my two most enjoyable runs in a long time. I discovered a new trail that goes far.
Maybe "discovered" is the wrong word to use, since I knew of its existence for a long time. I never gave it much thought, since I always assumed that it was one of those "open" paved paths that are boring to run down. Turns out I was wrong. While it is somewhat open, there are enough trees to pass by (and always on the south side of the trail) to give enough shade come summertime. And there enough twists and turns in the path to keep me interested, but straight enough to let my mind wander. A very strange happy medium. And best of all, it's not on the river so it won't get flooded this spring.
I'm finding it hard to scrounge the time to go running with Christopher around now. Even so, I still feel like I'm running better and harder than this time last year. I'm beginning to feel like I'll be able to run a sub-4 hour marathon after all!
This Sunday, I'm participating in a unique race across the frozen lake Winnipeg. When I heard of it, it was too adventurous to pass up. Sure, the terrain may be monotonous ("Oh look, more snow & ice!"), but imagine how cool it would be to tell somebody that you ran across the 11th largest lake in the world?
Maybe "discovered" is the wrong word to use, since I knew of its existence for a long time. I never gave it much thought, since I always assumed that it was one of those "open" paved paths that are boring to run down. Turns out I was wrong. While it is somewhat open, there are enough trees to pass by (and always on the south side of the trail) to give enough shade come summertime. And there enough twists and turns in the path to keep me interested, but straight enough to let my mind wander. A very strange happy medium. And best of all, it's not on the river so it won't get flooded this spring.
I'm finding it hard to scrounge the time to go running with Christopher around now. Even so, I still feel like I'm running better and harder than this time last year. I'm beginning to feel like I'll be able to run a sub-4 hour marathon after all!
This Sunday, I'm participating in a unique race across the frozen lake Winnipeg. When I heard of it, it was too adventurous to pass up. Sure, the terrain may be monotonous ("Oh look, more snow & ice!"), but imagine how cool it would be to tell somebody that you ran across the 11th largest lake in the world?
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Crazy 2 Weeks
The last two weeks have been nuts. I'm still trying to get a grip on the major lifestyle change that I'm required to make.
My wife gave birth to my son 12 days ago. This being our first baby, we have absolutely no idea what's going on. Fortunately, I arranged to get some parental leave off from my workplace. So for the time being, it is not a solo effort for my wife to try and juggle everything. I'm here to change diapers, run errands, etc. Really, it's just the feeding part where I'm useless. The real test will begin once I get back to work.
In running news, I ran a personal best at the Hypothermic Half Marathon last Sunday. This is surprising, since the course is slightly longer than a "real" half, and is mostly on snow and ice. I can only suppose that my the speedwork I've been doing on Thursdays is starting to pay off.
My wife gave birth to my son 12 days ago. This being our first baby, we have absolutely no idea what's going on. Fortunately, I arranged to get some parental leave off from my workplace. So for the time being, it is not a solo effort for my wife to try and juggle everything. I'm here to change diapers, run errands, etc. Really, it's just the feeding part where I'm useless. The real test will begin once I get back to work.
In running news, I ran a personal best at the Hypothermic Half Marathon last Sunday. This is surprising, since the course is slightly longer than a "real" half, and is mostly on snow and ice. I can only suppose that my the speedwork I've been doing on Thursdays is starting to pay off.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Ice Climbing
I had a great weekend of ice climbing. The 10th annual Festiglace ice climbing competition was on, and I entered into the difficulty, speed, and team competitions. I had only been to the ice tower once this year, so I was a bit rusty. But somehow, I managed to pull off getting 1st place in the difficulty and team competitions (thanks go out to my team-mate Rick!).
I even managed to get a run in on Saturday, after the difficulty and speed events. But the team competition went so long that I had no chance to get a run in. Fortunately, today is a holiday here. I got a 15 mile long run in that more than makes up for my missed run yesterday. :)
I almost forgot! I ran a 10k time trial last Thursday, and managed to shave 1:30 off my personal best. So it looks like all my training is starting to pay off.
I even managed to get a run in on Saturday, after the difficulty and speed events. But the team competition went so long that I had no chance to get a run in. Fortunately, today is a holiday here. I got a 15 mile long run in that more than makes up for my missed run yesterday. :)
I almost forgot! I ran a 10k time trial last Thursday, and managed to shave 1:30 off my personal best. So it looks like all my training is starting to pay off.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Weekend Update, with Dale
My weekend long runs didn't end up being as long as I wanted. I had a time constraint on Saturday, going ice climbing in the afternoon. And I just got tired on Sunday. So all-in-all, it was a success. :)
I'm trying to push my pace just a bit more than I did last year. I think I ran too easy in my training before now. But I need to keep reminding myself that LSD stands for Long, SLOW, Distance. It's not a race. At least, not yet.
I'm trying to push my pace just a bit more than I did last year. I think I ran too easy in my training before now. But I need to keep reminding myself that LSD stands for Long, SLOW, Distance. It's not a race. At least, not yet.
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