Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Kicked my ass today to kick yours May 29th

The 6x600s done today were tough!! I'm not used to running distances that short. Total distance today was 8.7 miles I think? I started off with 2 miles warmup and then did 2.5 min on, 2.5 off which I figure would be about the 600m interval with about a 400m jog. Pretty tough stuff, I even had to bail on the 5th half way through as I was feeling a bit sick. I came back though with a strong 6th rep. It was a tough jog home, I barely made it and now sitting down my legs are still hurting. Oh well, hopefully this will give me the edge to kick ass in the marathon, eh fellas? Train hard guys, leave no stone unturned = no mile not run. I don't want any excuses when I mop the city of calgary with your butts. NO MERCY!! ha ha, that's my trash talk for the week.

DP out

Monday, March 28, 2011

Pretty good weekend of training

No outdoor running, and no long long run this weekend, but lots of miles. 34 miles to be exact including fri,sat,sun. Friday I did 12 miles, easy pace, picked it up a bit for the last half hour. Saturday 7 miles easy, then Sunday 15 with 12 miles at marathon pace. It didn't feel too bad, after 2 miles at 7.5 mph I put it up to 8.3 for the 12 miles, that's 7:13 min pace. Felt strong the whole way through, only at the end I had a bit of stomach distress, but felt like I could have kept going. Not 26.2 miles yet, but I'm about to go into a race prep phase so that should take care of it. I hope some of the snow melts as I have my first session of VO2max intervals(600s) on wednesday. I'd like to go to the track for that. 58.5 miles last week, little lower than I wanted to be, but I had changed one of my earlier long runs into a tempo because I had less time to run. I looked at the schedule and really I only have two more 20+ milers on the schedule, lots of 15-18 mile stuff and plenty of marathon paced runs and shorter intervals in this next phase. Fun stuff, only 9 weeks till race day. Oh and I also crossed the 85 consecutive run day mark. Wooo hooooo 15 to go to hit 100.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Gotter done, thanks to Cam

Had the long run to do today. I was debating since I woke up in the morning, do I run indoors on the tready, or head out the door and risk the ice,water,and possibly snow? The forecast was for snow, but it wasn't happening yet. Wednesday's run was a disaster cause of all the ice and water, plus not taking any nutrition or water to drink. Sooooo I gotta admit I was leaning towards hittin the treadmill. I really thought I should get it done outside, but I also didn't want to risk not getting the 20 miles done.

Then what happens, I get this text. It's a image, and Cam's face. Although I couldn't see it cause of all the white and blue sky in the back ground. He took a pic and sent it from the trail and at 2:20 of his long run. I guess he takes his iphone along in case he meets any bears. hee hee oh well it was just the kick in the ass I needed. I figured he's running outside, I'm gonna hit up the great outdoors too!! So I did just that.

To avoid the big crash I had on wednesday with Curtis I took two bottles of nutrition. One with nuun, and the other with infinit, plus some gel chews just in case. It was really annoying going off with two full bottles. One bottle I found is fine because you can swing the other arm more, but two bottles is a little annoying. But they did empty after awhile. There was a lot less ice than wednesday, I guess the temp was a little warmer. Still had a few rivers to cross, soaked my socks a few times. I had a weak moment, probably from 9-12 miles I found it tough. The legs were starting to get a bit sore and the fact that I knew I was only half done was a bit disheartening. But then I stopped once for some gel chews and that seemed to help. By the time I hit 15 miles I kinda got a second wind and started picking up the pace a bit. It also really seemed to help when I finally got back on a usual run route and on my way home. Had to do 2 extra loops around the pond near home to make up the extra distance, managed the last few miles in 7:28 - 7:38 pace. Those didn't have any ice or snow. Finished strong just past my house. The average pace was 7:44, man my hamstrings hurt about 20 minutes later in the shower. Thanks Cam, for the motivation to hit the pathway. Sure there's nothing wrong with the treadmill, but for me today it was def. time to run outdoors. Over and out.

DP

Thursday, March 17, 2011

My legs are tired

Today was rough. Yesterday Curtis and I went out in the evening for a 14 mile run. The path was mostly clear other than a LOT OF ICE!! Yikes I've run on a lot of ice this winter, but that was the worst. We also had these rivers of water/ice/snow crossing the path at various spots and we both got our shoes/socks soaked a few times. Fun fun, freeeeezing cold water. I was looking at my shoe today, the right one, it looked odd. Strangely red??? Had I worn red socks where the color had run or maybe the bits of red from the shoe run onto the white?? I had some sores on my toes from all the running I'd done, but I never thought of checking them for cuts. Anyways after today's 5 miler I took off my right sock and noticed my toes had bled. Yikes my toes must have bled a lot yesterday and I guess all the water washed the excess blood off so I didn't even notice. Strange...

Anyways as I said a easy 5 miler today. It was really hard, my legs were sooo trashed from yesterday. Did I mention all the ice, plus we didn't carry food/water along so I was famished. I'm usually ok for up to 2 hours, yesterday was the exception. It made for a tough recovery. I think for today's 5 miler is the worst my legs have ever felt this year. Crazy, I'll def. be bringing 2 bottles of nutrition along for sunday's 20 miler. Hopefully all the ice will be gone, my hips, groin, and over all core does not like it. Cheers,

DP

PS: Curtis and I saw a porky pine, a monster beaver(like knee high) running beside us, and the usual deer. LOVE IT!!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Long run just wasn't meant to be today

First off it was a busy day. Church in the morning, I volunteer today and I was late getting there(not the time change thing, I actually remembered). Then at 5 a friend had invited me to this fund raiser thing. I thought about canceling, but thought I should go. After all my gym is 24 hours right? In theory my plan was flawless, I even skipped most of the meal at the fund raiser thing so my stomach would not hate me on the run. I had salad!! So I left that early to get to the gym and attempt my 21 miler. But after 10 miles, stomach gas most of the time, 3 bathroom trips. I just couldn't get my stomach to co-operate so I pulled the plug after 10+ miles. Frustrated, but it's the first workout I've quit in a long time, and I have lots of 20+ milers to do. Tomorrow's another day, I will get the run done tomorrow with out any trouble from the Poop fairy. EOM

DP

Friday, March 11, 2011

Place your bets!!

Here is another view point of the bet/challenge:

Cam's profiles are good, but I think you have to also look at the age categories as it makes a big difference. We're not directly racing each other. For example:

Darryl 35 - 39 PB - 2:56 4th place if they ran their PB at the Calgary marathon 2010
Trevor 35 - 39 PB - 3:12 8th place if they ran their PB at the Calgary marathon 2010
Cam 40 - 45 PB - 3:07 6th place if they ran their PB at the Calgary marathon 2010
Curtis 45 - 49 - 3:09 2nd place if they ran their PB at the Calgary marathon 2010

Please correct me and don't hate me if I happen to get your age cat. wrong. I will fix it if I have. So looking at the results some extra things have to be noted. Some of the PBs were run a long time ago and not in the age class we're in now. But I thought it was interesting to look at anyways. Also have to look at the course run on. For example, mine was run on a pancake flat course, while Curtis's was run on a very hilly course at the beginning of the season. Cam's race was run on a cold rainy day I think? Trevor, sorry man I don't know where you ran your personal best and what the conditions were like. We're all pretty close though if you look at the age cat. placings. This is the marathon, 26.2 miles, anything can happen. On paper not knowing anything about you guys and trying to look at it from an unbiased view(me not being Darryl) I'd go with Curtis. Just my two cents. Place your bets, or correct me where I'm wrong or somthing I've forgotten about.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Ass kicking

Ass promised :)


Good easy, really easy 3.5 miles today. I recover like a PRO!!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Couple solid workouts

Make me feel like a rock star. Yesterday I did a 9 mile run on the tread mill with a 5 mile tempo in the middle. I managed the 5 miles @ 9.1 mph (6:35 min pace) so I was very happy with that, I thought it would be more difficult than it ended up. I had the heart rate monitor on and I was right on target 155bpm(my threshold is pretty low @ 165ish) so that's good.

Then today, it's always a good sign when you recover quickly from a hard run and are ready to go again the next day. Today it was a med/long run 14 miles. I got to run outdoors again. I was a bit wary and anxious to know what my fitness was like outdoors. I've been running so much on the treadmill, I felt good there. But sometimes it doesn't translate too well to outdoor running. I was really happy with the result. The run felt easy, I kept trying to hold back and my pace continued to be too fast for my goal. Managed a 7:38 min average for the 14 miles, about 2.5 miles of it was on slick snowy conditions. So that's very good, I'm pumped!

One minor bummer, I'm still not able to loose much if any weight. Kinda surprising, good but bad, which ever way you look at it. I'm basically where I was last year(running fitness that is), I'm just 15 pounds heavier. Just imagine what I could do if I could get rid of the baggage. Oh well I'm not panicking yet. Yesterday and today were good runs, tomorrow I get a recovery run. One thing Chuckie told me is something like, "Don't ever let one workout define yourself, good or bad" Really good advice and I know what he means, but man progress even in one run sure makes a guy feel good. It also motivates oneself and makes it easier to head out the door tomorrow. Am I right? After all half of our sport or more is mental. 21 miles on the weekend, hopefully the weather will co-operate again. Cheers, all, happy running,

Blast from the past eh Cam? For the rest of you this is obviously in Golden, training for my first Ironman(on my road bike... not that there's anything wrong with that)

DP

PS: You guys are going down, may as well pay up now. hee hee j/k but no really I will crush you!! ok j/k Train hard my friends!