Tag Archive: pace

Running log: 2009/04/19

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Sun. April 19, 2009

As a pace leader for this half-marathon clinic, I’ve really been paying a lot of attention to other runners–making sure that they find confidence to reach their goals. This has been true especially for the runners that find themselves more to the back of the pack. I do this because I know what effect it has on the mind to just see everyone else go out ahead and fade into the horizon. Overall, it’s been good. I can see that my presence has been a positive effect. It’s such a great feeling.

Now that it’s getting close to race day though, I think my focus is slowly shifting to be more of a self-centred one. A while ago, one of the two coaches ran with me on a Sunday run. Generally those are supposed to be slow and easy. Over the past few weeks that’s how they’ve been for me because I’ve been taking my output down to the lower end of my range. It’s been good because the slower pace has helped me lower my heart rate. Conversely, there’s been less chance for me to challenge my boundaries. So, when I ran with the coach she told me to pick up the pace. In the end, I ended up running perhaps one minute faster per kilometre than my usual Sunday pace. It may not sound like much to someone that doesn’t run, but man, that difference is pretty big. Over a large distance, that difference adds up. In all honesty, that was the fastest I’d ever run that 18K distance.

On Tuesday, we were pencilled in to do a tempo run, which means a run at a pace faster than my steady pace. The coach once again ran with me and got me to pick up the pace. I remember pushing really hard that night. By the end, according to her watch, once again, I averaged out to a pace about one minute faster per kilometre.

All of this is entirely crazy for me. I’m used to running slow: it’s what I do. I guess, after getting into a certain routine I just lost sight of my own goals; I didn’t realize that I was capable of doing more, know what I mean? So, these days the coach is making my refocus and extend myself beyond my comfort zone. I’m going to go through a period of re-adjusting my goals to figure out what I should be aiming for. The way things are going right now, I may just shave off 10 minutes from my personal best. Who knows? It’s getting down to crunch time–I need to work harder!

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Newly minted pace leader

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Sun. March 8, 2009

Today marked my return to running after last week’s injury. My ankle still kind of ached when I bent it laterally, but since that motion isn’t really a “running” motion, I figured that I’d be fine.

Today also marked something of a new chapter in my whole running adventure. Nearing the end of the last clinic, there was talk from the leaders of this new clinic group about me becoming a pace leader. Well, in my whole self-deprecating way I found a great deal of irony in someone asking me of all people. So, perhaps I can think of a couple of reasons:

  1. They are somehow mistaking me for a different, much speedier Jason.
  2. They are suffering from a mental lapse in judgement.
  3. They recognize my levels of determination and enthusiasm–and they figure there’s no need for me to pay to be in the clinic one more time.

Guess which one I believe is most likely. :)

So, OK. The interesting thing about this new group is that there are actually some people that are my pace. At the beginning they were running pretty fast–attempting to keep up with the speedier people. I checked my watch and asked them what their goals were. When they told me that they were aiming for a “finish upright and smiling” goal I told them flat out that they were running too fast. I slowed down and got them to stick with me. I kept a happy attitude and started sharing some of my experiences as a slower runner completing these distances. I would imagine that they appreciated my insight, you know? I wanted to make sure that they got through the distance without feeling gross or overworked–which would have been result if they kept pushing a fast pace. I was told that I was making them run at a good pace resulting in them feeling a whole lot better than previous runs where they’d just run fast. That made me feel great. I mean, if their goal is just to finish or make it under 3 hours, there’s really no point in going all out, right?

We finished our 12K in good spirits. We were greeted at the store by the clinic instructor. She asked the people with me how I did. To my surprise they said I did an awesome job. Whoo! I seriously would not have imagined that I’d get an “awesome” right away. I feel like I have new purpose now. I want to do well so that the people that rely on me can also do well: I want them to succeed with their goals. I think it’ll keep me honest with my training.

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The need for speed

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Tue. February 17, 2009

Ever since I started participating in 10K clinics and up, speed training has been a part of the training regime. Using the whole Running Room “house” analogy, getting the cardiovascular and breathing down is part of building a good foundation. Then you build the walls of the house via hill training–which is where you gain strength. The roof of the house comes on at the end with speed training.

For the longest time, I’ve dreaded the speed training phase. My first experience with speed training back at the end of 2007 was rough. I missed the previous day’s talk on how to do it correctly, so on the day of I just went all out and blasted as fast as I could up the 400m road. Oh man, what a mistake that was. I ran out of gas part of the way up and I was unable to recover properly after that. That has coloured my view of speed training ever since. If you asked me about speed training, I would always have the same reply: “I hate it!” Inevitably, that would be followed with “I much prefer hill training to speed training. At least you’re going somewhere. With speed training I just feel like vomiting.” No kidding. I should have realized that I was just doing it wrong.

I full realize now that my mistake was that I was just going too fast for my purposes. I have to go at a speed that I can maintain the whole way through. Say, my tempo pace is a very modest 7:30/km. That means my speed training pace should be about 40 seconds less. Going any faster is just ridiculous. Why the heck didn’t I pay attention to that before?

So, this epiphany has only come very recently. A week or two ago, my coaches were saying that this week’s speed training session was going to be 4 repetitions of 1.6K at speed training pace, with 400m walk breaks in between. All I could think was: “Damn, that sounds far!” I was used to running 400m lengths; running four times that distance sounded insane. Well, I thought that if I had to do it I was going to follow the book as much as possible. I tried to keep it at a 6:45/km pace. It was slower than the rest of the group, but it was correct for my abilities. To my amazement, 1.6K came and went without issue. By the end of one set, I was fatigued, but not grossly so. The 400m walk was enough recovery time for me to be ready for the next set. From what I could tell, I was actually running somewhere between 6:00-6:30. By the third I slowed down a little just because I continued to push myself. My breathing was a bit hard, but not to the point where I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. For the last set, the coach joined me (because everyone else was done). I was tired but I found something within me to push harder. I finished off strongly. I was proud of myself.

Heading back to the store, I couldn’t help but feel that something clicked. I didn’t feel like puking at all. I was feeling awesome and fresh. This was in total contrast to my previous images of speed training. I am in shock. It’s kind of too bad that this was my last speed training session for this clinic, but all the same I know that next time one such phase rolls around I’ll be prepared. I can do this!

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Running log: 2009/02/15

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Sun. February 15, 2009

In all honesty, this morning’s run has left me a little bit raw–not physically, but perhaps mentally and emotionally. How so? Coming out of this run, I was really questioning whether I’d made any improvements at all during this whole training period. This run was a struggle. Have I been working hard enough? Have I been putting the mileage in? The answer to both of these questions is: yes. Yes, I’ve been making it to as many runs as I could. I even added a fourth run to most of the weeks during the clinic by tacking on a run on Saturday mornings. I’ve been doing the long runs. I’ve been making sure to make it to speed and hill training if work and weather allows. I have to trust that my training will carry me on race day. Sure, I can make sure that I’ve got the right amount of supplements, and that my form and breathing are OK, but it’s hard to predict what effects training will have had for me.

Today’s run was a little bit different in that I actually had a running buddy run with my for the whole distance. We were both determined to take it easy and find a pace between 8 and 9 minutes per kilometre–in other words: really slow. It just so happened though that through the first 2 hours and 20 minutes we were going at a faster pace–probably averaging at 7:40/km or so. We knew we wanted to go slower, but we were still comfortable, so we just kept it going.

At some point after 2:20 all of the aches and pains basically hit us. The other guy’s knees weren’t doing well, and his IT band was feeling weird. For me my glutes and hamstrings were really fatigued. The interesting thing was that we both had gas left in the tank, but our legs just didn’t co-operate. I can really only speak for myself, but seriously, I was so sore and achy that I could not get any good speed like I was earlier in the run. So yeah, fatigue won out. We still managed to make it back to the store, but only through the use of more frequent walk breaks.

That makes me question whether I’m really ready. It’s not like fatigue will suddenly not affect me on race day. I’ve gone through all of this apprehension before when I did my 21K run for my last half-marathon clinic. The difference between these two runs is that the previous one was done during the summer with high humidity. I’m sure the cold weather made it easier for me to stick it out, but it won’t solve everything, right? I worry.

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Running log: 2009/02/04

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Wed. February 4, 2009

After my little bout with some sort of bug, I came back to running yesterday. The clinic talk yesterday was done by the instructor of the full-marathon clinic. He was speaking about the transition between the half and full clinics. He was very inspirational and once again got my mind thinking about whether I can do it. He did state that anyone that can do a 10K race can train and succeed at running a marathon. With all of the encouragement he gave, the act of running a marathon actually somehow seems like it’s within grasp. I’ve already written about considering running the race. From what I wrote, this year I wanted to focus on running stronger half-marathons. However…I’m really starting to feel the urge to test myself. I’ve got time to think about it. I think the next marathon clinic starts in June. I’ll have made a decision by then as to what distance I’ll do at the next Scotia Waterfront.

Anyway, yesterday’s run was a 7K run involving some long hills. I decided to run it slower than usual. There were a couple of other people that were with my during the long uphill part. As soon as we rounded the corner and got to the long return down they pulled far ahead of me. I looked at my watch and decided that I wasn’t going to speed up; I just kept pace. That served me well because I was able to attack the next uphill climb without really running out of steam. By the time I got back, even though my intention was to go slower I actually came in faster. It really is amazing what a difference a clear sidewalk makes. Snow is just difficult to deal with. I am entirely looking forward to spring and seeing what gains I’ve made over winter.

Running is good for me. It allows me to drive my frustrations out and leave them splayed out on the pavement. I do think my last two outings have helped me to unload and unwind. Consider what I mess I’ve been, I really needed that.

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Running log: 2009/01/25

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Sun. January 25, 2009

Early on in the week, when I got my running schedule I was feeling psyched about this morning’s long run. It’s been a long while since I’ve gone up to distances like 18 kilometres. I was ready to really “giv’er” and do what I could. In lieu of the usual 10 & 1 method I decided to try doing the distance as a steady run (without the 1 minute breaks inserted). Instead of the tights I decided to give layering two pairs of track pants a try. I was warm enough, so I think that’s the route I’m going to go for the rest of the season. I was all set.

Overall, I feel like I did well. Doing such a long steady run is tough–we aren’t really trained to do that. Other than at the occasional stop light I didn’t feel the urge to just slow down and walk. Sure, I slowed down on occasion to give myself a break, but overall I kept the forward motion going. By the last few kilometres though I was really feeling the aches in the hips and glutes. They’re not used to having that much extended stress put on them. Eh, well, I guess that’s what training is for, right?

I think somewhere along the way I told someone I was running with: “I’ve slowed down to a waddle!” Hah. I was part joking, really. When I get tired, my steps tend to slow down to the point where I’m not getting much air time. I guess you can say it turns into a fast shuffle. Yeah, kind of sucks, but truthfully it helps me conserve a bit of energy. The coaches noticed too and pointed it out to me back at the store. However, they know that I get off the ground on other days when I’m not running so far. Man–a guy of my weight isn’t going to get much time off the ground. Fact. I suppose that that’s something I can work on next time. I think though I’m going to behave and do the 18K via ten minute intervals. It will allow me to push harder and get occasional breaks. I want to judge whether it makes a difference or not.

Waddle, waddle, waddle.

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Running log: 2009/01/11

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Sun. January 11, 2009

My body is now more or less behaving more like how I want it to perform in comparison to the whole recent post-holiday period thing that I’ve been experiencing. That’s not to say that running has suddenly become the easiest thing in the world. Oh, hell no: it’s still a long struggle. I guess the difference today is that it just seemed easier for me to just hang in there.

After the amount of coldness that I had experienced during last Sunday’s long run, I was determined to do more to stay warm. I managed to find my tuque, so I wore that instead of my baseball cap. I’ve complained about the wind piercing my gloves a couple of times in the past, so I invested in a good pair of gloves that have a wind guard. Basically, you can pull this hood over the glove fingers making it look like a mitt. It did a really great job protecting my fingers, which was really welcome because frozen fingers really are a distraction. The mitt hood can also be folded and tucked into the back of the glove, so when my hands started getting really hot late into the run I just peeled it back and I was good. Seriously, even though the gloves were a bit steep they were totally a great investment.

Over the rest of my body I wore many layers. On my upper body I had three layers–two technical tees and a light jacket. Given how much heat I tend to generate I thought that would be enough. Unfortunately, my gut area was actually freezing. I complained about this last week as well. See, I didn’t tell you before, after last week’s run I took a hot shower as soon as I got back. After the shower, my belly developed this horrible heat rash. It was so red! I figured that the drastic change in temperature was really drawing blood to the area. Not good.

Today was a colder Sunday than last week, so the cold stomach was even more pronounced. There were a few points where I thought I was developing frostbite. I was pulling the cords on my jacket as tight as they could go to prevent the cold air from venting up and under. It wasn’t enough though. Eventually, I took off my water belt and did it over my jacket effectively blocking anything from coming in. I figured that having an un-frostbitten stomach was a lot better than having frozen water. Duh. It helped a bit, but my belly was still really cold. I think next week I’m going to try a different jacket.

This week I did bring the boxes of raisins like I’d planned. I think they helped quite a bit. Although, it was a bit tough having to chew through a big lump of half-frozen dessicated grapes while breathing. Sure, I could have just stopped and went NOM NOM NOM but I didn’t want to stop. I just had to chew more carefully.

See, I didn’t want to stop because I really didn’t want to lose any more time than I had to. Over night we got a small dumping of snow–about 4 cm or so. God, that really does make a difference, doesn’t it? I could only develop small momentum. The shifting snow under my feet really kept me from confidently pushing forward. My legs were moving as fast as they usually do, but I was certainly going 1 minute/kilometre slower than where I’d likely be at. I acknowledged about a month ago that I cannot possibly compare my times during summer running to my times now. The conditions aren’t similar enough–so it’s like comparing apples to oranges. I’d originally told myself that for the race it would be great to come in a couple of minutes faster than my last half, but if I’m being honest with myself I think I’m going to just aim to finish. I don’t know what the course will be like–will they plow it well enough? Who knows?

Despite going slower, I was only 3 or 4 minutes behind last week’s time. Unlike last week, I wasn’t horribly fatigued. Sure, my muscles were tired–why wouldn’t they be after 16K? However, the whole affair was relatively comfortable. I felt great. In the end, that’s all you can ask for, right?

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Running log: 2009/01/04

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Sun. January 4, 2009

Given that my race is in two months time, I’ve really had to knock my mind and body out of holiday mode. Holy crap, it’s been tough! I recently wrote about the Resolution Run being tougher than expected. I figured that that was just an isolated thing, after all, it was a race meaning that my output would have been higher anyway. I tested that hypothesis out yesterday, Saturday. I had a 5K easy around-the-block steady run pencilled in. Someone slowed down to run with me the whole way. I felt like I was really using some extra effort to keep a steady pace with her. The sidewalks were clear enough with occasional patches of snowy uneven ground. By the end, I was shocked with myself at just how I was finding the run hard. There’s no reason that it should have been–I’ve done that route so many times. So, just like the Resolution Run, yesterday’s run was tough. When I got back to the store, I spoke to one of the speedier people in the group who was stretching out at the side. She too was noticing that it was harder for herself. She had a theory that the few extra pounds that she packed on during the holidays were really making a difference. That’s a great theory if it’s true. In my case, I’m lugging around another X number of pounds that I haven’t had to run with since early 2008. I guess that’s enough incentive to continue to work harder to shed the weight and make running easier.

This morning, I was scheduled for a 16K long, slow, distance run. I hadn’t done a long run since the 12K two weeks ago. I was a little apprehensive about doing it, but I pushed myself out there. I mean, in the last half-marathon clinic I did we got to the 16K runs in August. The distance isn’t what scared me. It’s just that I wasn’t sure what my body was going to do. Soon into it I was basically left alone with one of the pace leaders running back to check on me once in a while. My pace really was slow, but I felt that I had to keep at that low level just to make sure that I could make it through the whole distance. The wind was piercing through my gloves so I had to keep my hands in my sleeves for long intervals. I could feel the wind finding its way up my jacket, making my stomach a bit colder than I wanted. I don’t know why I didn’t tighten the bottom of my jacket to block the air. Beats me. A few times, I could feel the back of my neck becoming quite cold. The sweat dripping down the back of my head was actually freezing making my neck numb. I popped the collar on my jacket up to keep it warm.

Late into the run I was starting to really regret not bringing along some extra nutrition. At home prior to the run, I was considering bringing along some mini-boxes of raisins just so that I’d have some sugar hits on me if I felt the need to get my levels back up. Unfortunately I forgot to bring them. Unlike my summer runs I wasn’t feeling dizzy from running low on energy. Instead, my body was just mildly rebelling. It’s like, I could feel my hips aching. It wasn’t pain, but more like my muscles dictating to me that I wouldn’t be able to run any faster. I imagined them yelling at me: “Listen! I don’t care, you’re only going *this* fast.” Who was I to argue? There were a few points where I did try to produce more output but I simply could not. By the last kilometre it felt like a miracle that I could just lift my legs to keep going. When I made it back to the store, I was really thankful.

So what did I learn from this long run? Well, for one thing I’m definitely at the point where I totally need to bring along gels or food. I’m a big guy so my energy expenditures are up there. According to my HRM, with this run alone I burned through 2100+ calories. No shit. It’s not like I can stuff away that many calories prior to the run and feel good about it. I’d probably end up puking somewhere along the way if I did that.

In any case, this whole process is a long battle. It’s one that will be won, but just slowly.

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