a day of firsts

June 30, 2010

that's more like it.

June 09, 2010

i didn't taper for last week's race in milton, i didn't do any of my usual pre-race preparation, nor did i lose any sleep over how i might finish. this race was just another workout. early last week when i opened my log to see what workouts my coach had given me for the week, sunday was a race simulation. it was a heavy week of training and as it came to an end i felt strong and made a last minute decision to do my race simulation workout at an actual race. does that make sense? maybe not. but it was a way to psych myself into not thinking of this as any more than a regular workout.

Ride Your Bike To Work Day

May 31, 2010

as part of bike month here in toronto, today is Ride Your Bike To Work Day. to celebrate i wanted to share a pic from yesterday's crit race at st. lawrence market. happy riding!

also, a shout out to my friend suzanne who won yesterday's toronto women's only half marathon. awesome race, z!

a day i'd sooner forget

this is the beginning of only my third season as a serious multisport athlete. with such little experience comes rookie mistakes and firsts for the ups and downs of racing. today was one of those firsts. today was my first bad race.

victoria's lead up

in the last few days leading up to victoria's duathlon i spent some time with a friend taking some pics of my bike all pimped out with its new racing wheels. here are a few shots from the photo sesh:

i'm not feeling 100% in the lead up to this race... something's definitely off. i had a disastrous race simulation workout last sunday that ended with me giving up half way through. that workout came at the end of a very heavy build week and everything caught up with me that morning. i was physically and emotionally drained and haven't felt like myself since, but i'm making my way through it. i've been feeling better as this week's wore on, and i hope to be re-energized with a few days of rest and a trip to the cottage this long weekend.

and speaking of racing this weekend, my good friend and training buddy tara norton is competing at ironman lanzarote on saturday. good luck out there, tara, and have fun!

duathlon nationals

richmond is one of america's most obese cities, with 1 in 4 of its population being overweight. and it's no wonder. the only dining options that i could find were fast food chains with menus that consisted entirely of deep fried and battered garbage. if salad was an option it was smothered in ranch dressing or bacon. even the breakfast at my hotel was terrible. the only non-fried option was some fresh fruit. the whole weekend i struggled to eat well and turned to chowhound to try to find some local restaurants that offered lighter, healthier options, but every place that i drove to was either closed or boarded up. richmond was rocked by the recession and a lot of businesses shut down, and downtown was completely deserted. anyways, the only reason that i mention all of this is because food became a real factor for me. i'd packed everything that i needed for race day, but my stomach was turning the entire weekend leading up to the race because i don't ever eat the food that i had to eat this weekend. i was on the lookout for a grocery store saturday afternoon because i wanted to get something healthy and light that i could make for myself. i had to ask a local for some advice and it turned out i had to get on the freeway and drive 30 minutes outside of town to get to a whole foods market. i was like a kid in a candy store and i picked up some healthy food to get me through the rest of the day and sunday's drive home.

tara norton vid

tara asked me to put together a short compilation of some of the highlights of our shoot together so she'd have something to show her sponsors. it's basically just 2 minutes and 15 seconds of tara looking like a badass. would you want to be racing her?

for the original project, click here.

a mistake only a human would make

i was ready for yesterday's race.

i had a great first half of my warm up at the hotel in the morning.

i arrived at the race with plenty of time to get ready.

i was fueled up and hydrated.

i was familiar with the course.

i got to the starting area 20 minutes before my wave began.

i finished my warm up and patiently waited to be called to the line.

i was calm, focused and relaxed.

i was ready to race.

but even with all that preparation i'm still susceptible to making mistakes. with only seconds to go before the race began, i made my towards the starting line and realized that i'd lost my timing chip. i panicked and frantically started looking all over for it. the horn sounded and as i turned and watched the athletes take off a foggy confusion settled in. was that my wave that just started? it has to be too soon. i lost all concentration and couldn't think of what to do and feeling completely fuddled i started my timer, ran over to the starting line and asked a race official, was that the 30-34 wave?. i think so, he said. i ran over to another race official. was that the 30-34 wave? yes. already several seconds behind the pack, off i went without a timing chip. as soon as i took off everything snapped back into place. my focus returned and i caught up to my wave and started moving towards the front. i'm going to do this race. i won't have an official time but i'm still going to do this race.

gearing up

after a nasty, debilitating shin splints flare up last week, things are looking good and i'm getting ready to head down to richmond, virginia for the US national duathlon championships. this has been a tapering week so workouts have been light, but my shins feel good and have been responding quickly to the various therapies i've been using. i have to send out a huge, huge, HUGE thank you to my friend suzanne. she read my last blog post and immediately got in touch with me and gave me loads of great tips for how to beat shin splints. all of her suggestions have made a huge difference and there's no way i could have made such huge improvements without her help. she's coached me through this thing and i'm grateful to have a good friend and training partner like her.

this is what happens when you stray from what works

i've written about it here many times before: my number one goal for 2010 and beyond is to remain injury free. i've developed a plan that has been working great, and that plan involves hardly anything beyond warming up properly, icing after particularly hard workouts and stretching. no sweat. as long as i stick with that i should be much better off than i was last season, and so far i have been. well, as simple of a plan as it is, i strayed from it on thursday and am now sitting out for a few days with only a week to go before a huge race.

the race i shouldn't have done

this morning i competed at the philly's fools 10k race in whitby for the second straight year. for nearly a week i've been contemplating whether or not i should do this race, my body telling me to stay home and rest. on a workout last tuesday my legs felt like they were made of cement and i had to force myself through an otherwise easy set of intervals, and i immediately got in touch with my coach afterwards to tell him i was going to take the rest of the week off from training. i took wednesday off work because i felt like ass, i was in no better state on thursday and should have stayed home again but forced myself into the office, barely made it through the day without throwing up all over my desk, and only started to feel better that evening. i didn't show much of an improvement over the weekend and started weighing out the pros and cons of competing in this race. the cons were obvious: if i competed, my in-need-of-a-rest body would take another beating and i'd be off my feet for another week, possibly even more, recovering. some of the pros of competing were substantial and included the fact that i need this race to see where my running is at right now compared to last year. without knowing that it's hard to get a good sense of what sort of year this will be for me. i took it easy on friday and rested as much as i could and did a short 30-minute run on saturday morning. feeling ok but still not 100%, i decided then that i was at least capable of pulling off a 10k race today.

MultiSport Canada Promo Video

here's something i've been working on for awhile...

Post Race Report - Chilly Half Marathon

like my last race the week before, i had time on my hands this morning. the race didn't start until 10.05 am, and burlington is only a short 35-minute drive away. my legs were feeling a little tight because i wasn't able to stretch after all of my workouts in the lead up to the race, so i hopped on my bike on the trainer in the basement for a little spin to get the blood flowing. afterwards i did a full stretch and was feeling top notch, so off i headed to race site. from the very beginning, this race was all about heart rates. there was a 5k event held alongside the 1/2 marathon that i was originally planning on doing, but my coach recommended that i do the longer race with a predetermined plan. the goal was to maintain a steady heart rate for the first half, and then bring it up and maintain a higher rate for the second half.

it's good i had that chance to do a little warm-up at home because i got to the event much later than i had hoped, and i was only able to jog for a few minutes before i had to head to the start. because of how i'd structured this race for myself, i was feeling super relaxed just before it began, more relaxed than i've ever been just before the start of any race i'm sure. i knew that i wasn't out there competing against anyone, and i wasn't even out there competing against myself; i was just there to finish the race in whatever time it took. had i arrived earlier i would have made my way to the back of the starting corral, but because i got to the line so late i found myself only three rows back from the front, and when the gun went off, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other runners poured past me. starting slowly, my plan was to run 4.40/km for the first 10k, and then finish the race at a pace of 4.10/km, but once i got going i found that i was able to run right at my threshold and maintain a pace of 4.30, and with that i changed my plan just slightly. i decided that i'd run the first half right at my threshold, regardless of pace, because i knew that was an effort i could hold for hours.

as the race wore on, more and more athletes left me behind. my ego took a beating and i had to continually remind myself what this race was about. but it was tough. very tough. going into this thing i was hoping that i'd be able to finish with a time of sub-1.40, and just about the only thing that made me feel good this early on was that at one turnaround point i discovered that i was quite a bit ahead of the 1.45 pace bunny. with my ego in check and my pace settled, i carried on.

even though i was getting passed by every athlete and their uncle, as the Ks ticked away i realized that i was feeling great and really enjoying myself. running right at threshold is an effort that most athletes are likely very comfortable at, and i'm certainly no exception. it was a beautiful day and it was a beautiful course and the pace that i was running at really gave me the opportunity to appreciate so much of what i would otherwise miss, and as the halfway point of the race approached i started to get excited. i was feeling so good and had so much left in me that i couldn't wait to pick things up. not quite sure where i was on the course at the time, i looked at my garmin and saw that i was at 10.8k, and knew it was time to get going. there was a dude that had caught up to me and had been running with me for a few hundred metres, but once i hit that 10.8 mark, off i went, dropping him, on my way to a very different second half of the race.

now that i was moving quicker, i had to find a pace with a higher heart rate that i could comfortably maintain for this last half, but since the point of this race plan wasn't to compare split times, i didn't want this second half of the race to be a full-out 10k effort. i wanted to cross the line strong, not worn out. i ended up settling about 10 heart beats higher than threshold, which brought me down to about 4.10/km. although this definitely isn't race pace for me, i stuck with it and started catching up to and passing the crowds of people that had passed me much earlier. because my heart rate was still fairly low and i still had all of my reserves left, i was feeling great and started cruising towards the end. my ego started peeking out from behind the curtains as i passed all of the people ahead of me, and together we charged on. there was a bit of a headwind coming back towards the finish so as i moved up from one group of runners to the next, i would use the other athletes to break the headwind for me, take a moment to recover slightly, and then move up to the next group. i overtook the 1.35 pace bunny and was hoping to catch the 1.30 bunny, but knew that would only be possible if i brought my splits down to about 3.40. on another day, sure, but not today.

it wasn't until i was at the 16k marker that i realized i was feeling the first signs of fatigue. i normally feel spent in the first few kilometres of a race and have to push myself to keep things going for the rest, but today that wasn't the case at all. today i'd conserved everything and my body was feeling fantastic. even though my ego was right there on my shoulder telling me to go faster, i ignored him and stuck with my pace until the last 2k. at the 19k marker i finally allowed myself to put the pedal down and those last 2 kilometres were the only ones that i had a sub-4 pace, and i crossed the line at a pace of sub-3 with a finishing time of 1.31.44.

never had i felt so good at the end of a race! i made this race easy on myself for sure, but i never expected to feel as strong as i did at the end, nor did i expect to come so close to breaking a 1.30.00 finish time with such a relaxed effort. normally when i'm out there racing i'm pushing myself to go harder, but for almost every step of this race i was holding myself back. i can say with all honesty that this lesson in mental training was way, way, WAY harder than trying to psych myself up to go faster. i stuck to my race plan and looking back my HRs were rock steady: for the first 10k they only drifted 2 or three beats for every kilometre, and for the second half, although they were much higher, they only differed by 2 beats, except for the final 2k. this was a tremendous exercise and i would certainly urge anyone to try it.

i never would have enjoyed this day as much as i did if i were out there with a regular race plan. it was fun, but i'm definitely excited to head back to the burnlington 1/2 someday to see what sort of time i'm capable of finishing it. i've got a couple more races this year with similar race plans, but, for me at least, this type of racing can get old very fast. i like finishing near the front and i like training to try to bring my times down. i'm getting older and have a limited number of years where i'll be able to finish near the front, so for now me and my ego are working together to see what we can do. and my coach, too. can't forget about him.

also, a HUGE congrats to my friend suzanne who finished 2nd in the women's race. we train together at AETT and it's always awesome to see friends on the podium.

two days out and not sure what to do

i'm two days away from my first half marathon and i'm trying to figure out what to expect. this is a training race and i'm heading to it with a strict plan so that's making it difficult to predict an outcome. this will be a negative-split race, my heart rates and pace from the first half of the race lower than those from my second. i have to be smart about it because my first 10k have to be a pace that i can maintain without using up too much of my strength. if i go out too hot i'll crash at the end, but i also don't want to go out too slow because i want to get a time that's fairly respectable for someone of my fitness level. and how am i going to feel? will i be crawling across the finish line? will i be able to get negative splits and still feel strong at the end? is this going to be a walk in the park? will i never want to run again? i'm totally out on this one and it's tough for sure.

in terms of finish time, i'm completely in the dark for two reasons. the first is that i have no previous half marathon times to go by; the second is that i have no idea what my pace will be. if i were heading to the race tomorrow to set a benchmark, my goal would be to run less than 1.30. but that's not what tomorrow is about. tomorrow is about sticking to my race plan and finishing strong. above all else, the toughest thing about tomorrow will be putting my ego in the backseat and allowing the slower athletes to whiz by me at the start. but maybe i'll be able to make up for it by passing them all in the last 10k? we'll see. either way sunday is going to be a learning experience and i'll be sure to enjoy it. the weather looks like it's going to be ideal and i'm looking forward to the experience. even if i do end up collapsing at the end.

Post Race Report - Peterborough YMCA 5k

i've never started off a race morning by sleeping in, but today was the exception for sure. start time for this one was 12.45pm, so there was no rush to get the day going. not only was it new for me to be able to sleep in and get some extra rest before a race, but my meal plan was also different. i usually only have to eat breakfast before a race, but today i had time for that and lunch. i hadn't really given this any thought ahead of time and was all set to make my regular race morning meal, but realized that by the time the race started i'd need a whole other meal to fuel myself properly. i stuck with my regular breakfast shake and packed a race lunch which i ate about an hour before the race. it was sort of weird to have to pack a full meal on race day but i just went with it.

happening alongside this 5k race was a half marathon, and just as i was finishing up my warm-up, the procession of marathoners, off 15 minutes before the start of the 5k, ran past me. i felt pretty ridiculous tromping around doing my dynamic warm-ups while hundreds of people passed by. i figured it was better to look like an idiot bouncing around on one leg than leave the race with injuries, so again i just went with it.

one change to my racing that i'm starting this year is taking things more slowly off the start line. at past races my adrenaline would usually get the best of me and i'd burst off the line and burn too much energy too soon. in order to combat the urge to sprint, i put myself about 3 rows back from the front at the start line, and at the sound of the gun i was forced to calmly make my way past the slower athletes ahead of me. this new strategy seemed to pay off and i found myself near the front of the field by the 500m mark, and i'd settled into race pace well before reaching the first kilometre marker. at this point there were about 6 guys running neck and neck in the lead and me and two other runners equally spread out taking up the 7th, 8th and 9th positions. this was a fast and flat out and back course and at the 2.5k turnaround point i had moved up two spots to 7th position, with the runner in 6th about 100 metres ahead. i used that runner to pace myself and didn't worry about catching him too soon, feeling that i'd get to him before the end of the race and kept watch to see if he started to break away. i began to close the gap and as i got closer, i gave myself a small boost for a count of 10 before settling back down, and gave one more small boost for another count of 10 as i passed him just as we hit the 4k marker. things were going well at this point and i was feeling worked but strong. with about 800 metres remaining, the course took a sharp left-hand turn before finishing off with a long, flat, straight section.

i'm quite certain this was the hardest finish of any race i've done. what made it so difficult was that i could see the finish line for that entire last section, and it never felt like it was getting any closer. it was sort of like driving on a lonely country road where the scenery all looks the same and there's not really any landmarks and it feels like no matter how long you've been driving it seems like you're not getting anywhere. i was pushing to get myself across the line, digging to find any extra energy reserves that i might still have left. i was able to get a number of short bursts in and crossed the line ready to keel over and pass out. that's the thing with these short races; they may not take too long to complete but you really have to go balls out for the entire race to get a good time. luckily i'm able to recover quickly and was feeling fine shortly after finishing, but those last several hundred metres were tough.

in the end i finished with a time of 18.01, 6th overall, and had i looked at my watch as i was approaching the end, i likely would have known that with just a bit more effort i could break the 18 minute mark. but i'll take that 18.01 because it's just what i want this early in the year. i knew that i wasn't capable of pulling off a personal best today and i'm happy with my fitness level right now. i've got a long season ahead of me and plenty of opportunity for PBs. feeling as exhausted as i did at the end of this race, i couldn't believe that i have to run a half marathon next week. 18 minutes is nothing compared to nearly 2 hours of running, but i guess i'll just have to go with it.

race change

a couple of weeks ago i was all set to register for my first race of 2010, the tim hortons grimsby 5k. turns out that the information i got about this race earlier in the year was incorrect, and this is actually a 3k race, not a 5k. once aware of this new information, i promptly began searching for another race and discovered a 5k race in peterborough, and that's where i'm heading tomorrow morning.

i'm trying to decide how i feel about tomorrow. this race is sort of big for me but i'm not nervous; i feel sort of ready for it but i know that i'm still not quite; i want to get a personal best 5k time but i don't think that i will. this will be my first organized, competitive race since my injury last august. that injury was a huge setback and only since january have i been feeling like i'm beginning to regain my running strength. more than anything i'll be using this race to gauge my fitness level compared to this time last year. i know that i'm not any faster than i was, but i need this race to tell me if i'm at the same level or, if not, just how far behind. i'll also be using my heart rates from tomorrow's 5k to determine my race plan for next week's half marathon.

for finishing expectations i'm remaining realistic: i would like to make the top 10 overall, but i'll only be able to finish in the top 10 if i can run at the pace that i would like to maintain. i'm certain i can break 20 minutes, i hope to break 19 minutes, and i'll be thrilled if i can break 18 minutes. but breaking 18 minutes is a bit too far fetched at this point and i'm certain i won't even come close. my 5k pb is 17.40, but i don't think tomorrow is my day to break it; i'm just not strong enough yet. tomorrow's race is all about having fun and seeing what my body is capable of this early in the year. and it's also about trying not to break my neck in the slippery, sloppy, mushy snow that's blanketed southern ontario in the past couple days. this snow is making for pretty good packing snow so i might just start whipping snowballs at all of the athletes ahead of me. maybe i'll get on the podium that way.

dynamic warm-ups

throughout the year as my running mileage and intensity has increased, i've started noticing patterns. it seems that my best running performances tend to take place during brick workouts, where i do my running after spending some time on the bike. when my workouts are run-only, my body usually feels pretty beat up after finishing anything longer than a 60-minute effort. a huge goal of mine for 2010 is to remain injury free, and it was seeming like no matter what sort of strength and flexibility i've incorporated into my training, things still felt off and i wasn't going to be able to shake any seemingly inevitable injuries. during a recent trip to see my chiropractor with complaints of a sore left knee (similar to injuries in the past), i explained the whole everything is fine if i ride first situation. i let out a huge sigh of relief when i was told that the pain wasn't joint related at all, but that my knee was hurting because my hamstrings weren't getting warmed up properly before long run-only workouts. it seemed like such a no brainer to me afterwards! obviously my legs are warmed up much better after spending some time on the bike, but a typical warm-up while running would only consist of some light jogging before my hard efforts.

anyways, my sports chiro suggested that i look into dynamic warm-ups. i did some online research and came across a few articles, but i wasn't until i found this little gem on youtube that i was able to put together a warm-up routine and try it out. there were improvements immediately and i haven't had any soreness or muscle tightness in two full weeks of training with my new warm-ups. i've added a few small things that aren't in the video to make it slightly more multisport specific, but otherwise my routine is pretty much the same that you see here. combined with stretching, dynamic warm-ups have made a huge difference in my recovery and and how i feel post-workout, and i would recommend it to anyone. if you're trying to spot me on race day, look for the moron doing the completely ridiculous looking warm-up routine off to the side.

lactate test

my coach is general manager of absolute endurance, arguably one of the best multisport training facilities in the province. i do almost all of my training at absolute, and having access to the facilities and having a coach that owns the place comes with some pretty nice perks. one of those perks is lactate testing. the purpose of a lactate test is to determine what your lactate threshold is, and then use that information to determine training zones. particularly valuable to endurance athletes, you train in those zones to increase your lactate threshold, thereby increasing your performance. by no stretch of the imagination am i an expert on the subject, but in the very simplest of terms, your lactate threshold is the point just below the work effort that your body switches from using its fat supplies as its primary energy source to using carbohydrates as its primary energy source. your body burns through carbs much faster than fats, and an average person could very likely run a marathon at a very low exertion effort, using fat supplies to make it through the race. however, once that same person's body starts working harder and their heart rate increases, there's a point at which the body will switch to burning carbs. if not properly re-fueled, the body will run out of carbs long before crossing the finish line. the idea is that if you train just below your lactate threshold, your body slowly begins to adapt and will eventually switch to burning carbs at higher heart rates.

for those multisport athletes out there, we all know that our heart rates are much lower on the bike portion of the race than they are while running. that means you have to train in zones differently for each discipline. in november, when i had recovered enough from an injury that put me out for three months, i started my new training program with my coach. my leg was still recovering and it was too soon for a running lactate test, so my coach started me off with a test on the bike to see where i was at. going only from my workout logs from the past three months and how my body has felt, i knew that my cycling had improved since then, but it wasn't until last night's second lactate test that my coach and i got a much better idea of how far things have come in that time.

it would take me too long time to completely break the test down but i'll try to explain the jist of it. both tests (the first in november, the second last night) were identical and started out the same: i began by pushing 160 watts, i would ride for three minutes then my coach would record my heart rate, watts would then increase by 20, i'd ride for three more minutes and have my heart rate recorded, watts would again be increased by 20. this keeps going until, by feel only, i knew that i was working hard (when you know you're working hard, lactate is in the system). at this point it's a tough effort, about 80% of max, which i should only be able to hold for about 15-20 minutes. this is when my first blood test is taken and my blood lactate is recorded. at this point the watts are brought way down and held at a level that allows my heart rate to settle at 145bpm. this is the recovery portion of the test. once my heart rate has settled, my blood lactate is measured again and the watts start coming back up every three minutes. when the watts start climbing again, my heart rate slowly starts to come up again, and the test ends when my blood lactate level goes about 4 mmol/l (whatever that means). the numbers (both heart rate and wattage) just below that level is my lactate threshold.

so that's the complicated part. here's the real world, laymen part: in three months i've increased my wattage at my lactate threshold by 70 watts. and not only has my power output increased, but my recovery time has decreased. in theory that means that i'll be able to ride a course for a sustained effort at 70 watts higher than i could have three months ago, and i'll be able to push harder sooner after a big climb. this is a HUGE improvement!!! not only was my coach very excited with the results, but i was ecstatic! it was so awesome to see some fancy scientific numbers affirming what i already feel: i've come a long way on the bike in a short period of time.

another great thing that has come out of this test is that it's clear i know my body. at two different points during the test my coach asked me to guess my heart rate and my watts (which were blind to me) and both times i guessed them bang-on. this means that out there on race day i should be able to gauge how hard my body is working and i should know how long i can hold a specific effort. this should payoff huge in race management, helping to ensure i don't go out on the bike too hard too soon.

my body feels great on the bike, the numbers show gains, and next week i'll have a chance for a real-world cycling fitness improvement test. every so often absolute endurance has indoor 40k time trials. i haven't been able to do one since the end of october because of schedule conflicts, so next week's TT will be my first opportunity to do some side-by-side fitness comparisons. i don't honestly expect to be able to average 70 more watts for over an hour, but i do expect improvements. either way i'm looking forward to the workout.

too bad running is a whole other issue. my running speed is still sucky and slow slow slow. a geriatric in a wheelchair could probably beat me across the finish line in a running race.