Happy New Years!!

Happy New Years!

We had a great Christmas despite not going anywhere, or having any family come and visit!  We did the usual visit and Christmas together with Lisas Aunt and Uncle(from Calgary).  Then also got together for New years.  The kids are now 4 and 2 so they are so pumped at Christmas time, dreaming/begging for gifts despite our explanations(they won't get everything on their list).  I only took one extra day off on the 30th(day home closed) and that was it.  My work also deferred the remembrance day off to Christmas, so it still felt like we got a solid break from work.

We did also have a lil incident where Alyssa broke her leg.  She was having a bit of a meltdown in the stroller and slid down to put her foot on the ground just as I was starting to move/turn.  It took several visits with the doctor and hospital to catch it.  They kept checking her foot, mean while the break actually took place higher on her leg.  I still feel bad myself not seeing it, or asking them to check.  The second time visit with our family doctor(first time was really just walkin) she actually looked further up saw swelling on the leg and the skin also felt warm.  So we immediately went back to emergency(the first visit to emergency, they examined it and convinced us there was no need for x-rays).  The first time we went to the Children's Hospital, the second to South Campus.  They took x-rays this time and told us she has a "buckle fracture" and put her in a cast.  That has been kinda tough as she now has to be carried everywhere.  They do a full length cast for little children as a leg only cast would just slide off.  Alyssa has had trouble being comfortable while sleeping too, which means I have to get up quite often for her.

Today hopefully she'll get to have the cast taken off!  She's going to the bone scan clinic at the hospital where they'll take another xray and determine if it's healed.  We are praying that it is completely healed and she can once again walk!  I was thinking about that the other day, she's really only been walking for a bit over a year.  Also, in a time when a 2 year old is learning so much and yet being told/guided with so many things.  They are already frustrated(hello terrible twos) then being told they cannot walk anymore(good bye to all freedom).  No wonder we've had so many tantrums, LOL!

Merry Christmas!

I doubt anyone reads this, but if you are there, and you read, Merry Christmas!  I hope you have great holidays with your family!  Remember one thing, it's not just a cliche, "Jesus is the reason for the season!"  This year has been particularly great for me in terms of running.  I had my second biggest year of mileage, and just crossed over 3000km.  I also climbed by far more than I ever have also just crossing 36,000 meters.  I'm hoping for a even bigger year in 2020 and a successful Lost Soul ultra marathon.  Here are some family pics. 

Lost soul 100k "You're in!"

Lost soul ultra "You are "In"!".  We are officially accepted, I also payed to make it totally official!  I capped the weekend off with a half marathon run.  I felt good through out, legs at least.  My stomach said otherwise as I had one small pulled pork sandwich hours before and despite it being delicious it made my stomach unhappy to run!  I survived with only a couple walk breaks near the end.  At least the weather(-13) and footing were both good.  That finished off a nice 80km week with a bunch of climbing.  I'll get the two badges from strava again and also 3000km for the year.  Only beaten that once on strava in 2013.

So I'm excited to get training for Lost soul 100k.  Three key things I know I need to work on for next years ultra:

1. More long runs, this may seem obvious as with a 100k run you can never have too many long runs.  With the young family this is the one thing I struggle with and I need to try and find time to get out more often for these long ones.  My body will appreciate it come race day.

2. Steep hikes, the hills in Lethbridge are short but steep.  Hiking hills, but I need to train them as much as I possibly can.  During short lunch runs, as well as add them to my long run.  Simulate the transition from running to steep hiking, and back to running.

3. Transition, I already mentioned this as part of 2, but it's important enough to mention as it's own point.  On many of the steep climbs I simulate the hill as I run them during the race.  Start off running into the climb, sense when to switch to hiking(so my heartrate doesn't spike too much), then as soon as I hit the top and the flats switch back to running and recover while running slowly.

4. More kms if possible, more time on my feet.  I did well last year, I did as much as I could, but I'll def. try to do more.  Nuff said!

5. Nutrition, I did pretty well here last year, but it still needs fine tuning and also when I get to the race I need to plan it out better.  Some of the aid stations we ran into, I felt lost, so many options, didn't know what I wanted.  I need to plan so I know exactly what to get/do.  Then if some craving pops up, I can always change.

Here's to 2020, lets go run!

Lost soul continued?

Hi!

Well I'm hoping this Lost Soul Chapter gets to continue.  Where did we leave off, lets see.  So last year(really this year) we hobbled in to finish the Lost Soul 100k.  Despite the trouble(and corresponding slow time), both Terry and I really enjoyed the race.  Every part of it, well except for my bros knee was awesome.  The race organization, volunteers, the course, the challenge, even the weather turned out to be supreme!

This year we figure we want another go at this race, redemption if you will.  Apparently we aren't the only ones who like this race.  Last year while signing up, it filled within minutes.  Technically, I didn't even get in, and had to plead my case to the RD to let me in.  They brought down the "ultrasignup" servers and to solve that issue this year they implemented a lottery.  Booooo, this may prevent us from getting in!  But they realize that some want to run with others, so with the lottery system you can also enter as a team.  This way we can be drawn together, either we're in or we aren't.  There won't be a situation where only one of us gets in.  I guess if we don't get in, we'll find some other adventure to do this year.

So on Saturday Dec. 7th the lottery opened up.  It opened for 1 week, closing on Dec. 14th and on the Monday after the weekend we'll find out if we're in.  Good luck to the Penner team!  I hope we get to run the Lethbridge Coulees again.  I'm not sure if they will have a waiting list, we may have to decide at that point if we're willing to wait, or enter something else.  Perhaps Ironlegs 60km, or 100km!  One things for sure, we'll be hiking hills.  I'm already training my hiking legs!  At least we don't have to wait long for the draw.  Cheers!

Here's some recent family pics!

Lost Soul 100k

Introduction:

6 years later!!  Phew, lots has happened in 6 years.  I won't start by telling you I plan to write more often and that I want to revive this old blog.  It may happen on it's own, but then again, it might not.  I just know that right now I'm writing another post because I think I have something post worthy?!

First of all a brief catchup!  A lot has changed since triathlon.  Yes that's right I don't race triathlon(Ironman) anymore and rarely do marathons.  I think I've ran one since the last marathon posting.  I ran Edmonton with my bro and I believe my time was 3:20ish with a bunch of walking in the last 10k.  I've also done the Calgary marathon ultra(50k) with a time of 4:17ish.

I'm a Daddy now too!  That's the biggest reason for the slow down(both in quantity and quality).  My kids are now 4 and almost 2 yrs old.  I still enjoy running(don't swim or bike anymore) though.  I work at a lawfirm downtown which allows me to run at lunchtime.  My brother and I have done a few long runs and races together, this year we decided to enter a longer trail ultra.  We decided that we would not "race" but just do it together, so we decided on and signed up for Lost Soul 100k.

The Race:

The race is in Lethbridge on Sept 6th at 9am.  We drove off to Lethbridge thursday evening after saying good by to the family. Terry had drove out from MB the weekend before.  So we prepared on thurs. evening, did a short walk around the start/finish area.  We conveniently stayed at the race hotel so the race was in the back parking lot, soooo nice being so close.

Race morning, I woke ready to go after a nice longish sleep(for a dad with young kids).  My throat was a bit sore and my hamstring still felt a tad tight, but other than that felt ready.  My brother Terry says he didn't sleep so well(race nerves) and he also had some niggles, but ready or not the race was upon us!  We did regular race things, breakfast, drop bags, last minute things, bathroom, etc.  I felt nervous but not too bad.  I knew our start and race would be fairly relaxed as it's such a long day, the key parts would be pacing(slowwwww), and nutrition.  Plus we were doing this together and our only goal was to finish I honestly had no idea how long it would take.  After checkout and then bringing bags to the start/finish area, we joined all the racers for a pre-race meeting.  I don't think I got anything new out of it, the usual course details, aid stations, etc then we all walked over to the start line.

As we prepared, I noticed some leakage on my back.  I thought, oh no, there's a leak in my hydration pack!  We had like 5 minutes yet so I took it off and examined the pack, seal and the hose.  Everything seemed to be fine, no noticeable leak?  Oh well the water reservoir still seemed full, so I put it back on again and prepared for the start.  Away we went!  The first leg went by pretty uneventful, a few hills, some chatting with other racers.  Because of the trail and starting out with others so close it was pretty crowded for the first leg.  At times you couldn't even pass, but I didn't panic, it's a 100k race, it will spread out!

So leg 1 was about a 7km loop and then back to the start/finish area or as they call it HQ(head quarters).  We had all we needed so we cruised straight through the aid station, 8.4km to the aid station they call Softball Valley.  Leg 2 and leg 3(9.6km) had most of the climbs in the race, almost  1000m of ascent.  We focused on hiking all the major ups and running the flat and descents.  This makes for pretty slow going, but it's ok I never even looked at the watch other than trying to schedule some eating every 30 minutes or so.  Through leg 3 we noticed we were starting to catch a bunch of fast starters.  I tried not to hurry, but it's really difficult not to concentrate on the runner in front of you and try to catch them.  Leg 3 went by as well and I was starting to feel the effects of all the climbing in a short time!  My legs were already starting to get sore and we were only 20-25km in, also it felt like I was developing blisters.  A lot of the single track was so narrow that it meant your feet were not landing flat, tough to explain, but it caused hot spots on the feet.

After leg three and from a aid station called Pavan where we could get our first drop bag.  I had packed some clothes, spare shoes for the second lap and bars and gels.  I collected some of the nutrition, filled up the hydration pack and we continued.  This is a loop that takes 16.4km and is essentially a loop around the northern most part of the course and back to Pavan.  It was also getting a bit warm, or at least I was warming up I couldn't tell which it was.  The weather was perfect really, close to 20 for the high, but lots of cloud and it was to rain later in the day, hadn't started yet.

In retrospect we should have slowed down a bit, taken more walk breaks.  I was hurting already a lot and wondered how we would do another lap of this(only 30-35km into the race).  Also the Pavan loop only had a couple hills and then it was a fairly flat return all the way back to the Start/finish.  Only 3 hills once we left Pavan for the second time and then flat.  We tried to run most of it, but started to need more and more walk breaks.  This whole time while running hills Terry appeared to be fitter/faster and having to wait a tad for me!  But at 35km, he admitted that his knee was bugging him while running so we had to walk more, which was just fine by me.

We got to the Softball aid station again(you hit all the aid stations going both directions if you look at the strava mapping you'll understand) and by that time we were walking more than running.  Each time we tried to run, Terry soon after was forced to walk again as his knee(IT band) would hurt.  This was mostly flat ground and normally we should/would be running to make up lost time, but we couldn't.  At one point Terry urged me on, but I instantly refused.  We discussed this before the race a lot and resolved that the only way we'd split up is if one of us would drop out.  I was not about to leave my bro, and I felt really bad for him.  I knew his knee was hurting him, but worse was the mental anguish of not being able to run, and holding me back?  I prayed and wished these feelings away from him.  We didn't talk much, what could I say, I've been there to know that words often do the opposite of comfort.

By now we were getting passed frequently and at times Terry would try to run a bit, but never for more than a few minutes.  The clouds had really moved in and it started raining, which felt good.  I was also able to take in more nutrition and started to feel better, even my muscles recovered a little bit from the walking.  So eventually as we neared the start/finish it really started to pour for about 20 minutes or so.  I remember taking the final climb up to the finish and starting a conversation with Terry, "Ok bro, what do we do?"  "Are you going to continue, or drop" I mentioned that we have plenty of time in the bank we would probably be able to walk the second loop and finish with in the cutoff.  Would he be able to walk without too much pain?  Cause a lot of damage?

I'll be brutally honest here I really feared him droping out.  I know he would really hurt inside and then also where would that leave me??  I still hurt physically myself and really relied on him, how would I get through a 50km on my own and through the night?  What would he do while he waited for me, we had no hotel room(we were going to drive home after the race).  I'm a Christian(Christ follower) so I talked to God about it.  Give us strength, help us to make the right decision.  I felt Terry wanted to go on and I knew if he dropped now he would always wonder if he could have completed it.  It would be too easy to drop as we passed the finish and that it wasn't a honest/true decision.  So I suggested he take it to the next aid station and get through the hills which we would be walking anyways, decide then what would be our fate.  I think Terry was relieved that I suggested that, maybe he still felt bad about me being forced to walk with him?  I'm Thankful that he didn't constantly suggest I go on without him, he only suggested it a couple times and then just left it at that.

I think both of our spirits rose a little bit as we left, we were not done yet!!  We were not about to give up!  Team Penner still in tact!  I continued to talk to God and thank him for this Adventure, I was at peace with our decision(a Thankful heart is always a glass half full type of attitude no matter what you believe).  I also secretly knew we would not be dropping at the next aid station(Terry tells me he felt the same).  We started to enjoy the race more too, walking allowed us to keep our stomachs happy, and to cheer on those around us.  I still felt at times like I wanted to run, but it was ok this race had always been about finishing and we stuck to that.  We didn't always talk and as the two hilly legs continued we slowed down a bit more.  I had to wait a bunch and felt bad about that.  But what do you say, I tried to be encouraging, but didn't want to annoy Terry so I kept quiet a bunch of the time.  It was only drizzling slightly, I hoped the steep downhills wouldn't become treacherous.

Before the race, I had wanted to get to Pavan before dark and now because of all the walking we didn't quite make it.  At one point someone passing us asked me to take her headlight out of her pack, which I did happily and then resolved to take out mine as well.  Sometimes I get stubborn about the smallest things, I had wanted to get to the aid station before I do that, however now it was already pitch black out.  Not the smartest as you could easily trip on a rock and go tumbling down a steep hill.  The course was amazingly well marked.  All the markers had reflectors so you could just look up and see sometimes up to 5 markers in a row, especially on the climbs and descents.  Terry had some more problems in the dark as he is a little afraid of heights and now with the knee trouble he favored this even more so that his foot swelled up(I didn't know this at the time).

We passed through Pavan and then started the north loop walking and chatting briefly with other runners.  With the majority of the hills behind us and according to my calculations enough time to walk it in, a finish was almost a guarantee!  Still had 20km to go though and my legs were starting to really hurt, it's a long time on your feet whether you are walking or running!  At the second Pavan stop we stayed a little long and as we got going I suddenly started to get cold.  I knew that if I start shaking it would be game over so I quickly took off my pack and got my jacket out.  Terry went ahead during my stop as he figured I would just catch up.  Thankfully the jacket helped quickly and I did not start to shake yet.  The 3 hills on the way back helped too, and I was warm and even a lil too warm in no time.

Because of the drizzle the lower part(return flat section) got quite muddy and it actually got pretty tough to walk.  I can't imagine trying to run it at that point(75kms) in the race.  The shoes got clogged with mud and I almost went down a couple times, but managed to stay upright.  The rest of the race is pretty uneventful, we walked it in, I picked up some Perogies at the last couple aid stations and they tasted good.  In long races like this gels/bars start to taste awful and your body craves some real food.  Finally we got to the last climb, up and up to the finish!  As we got closer to the lights, we saw a shadow waddle across our path, a porky pine!  He/she was no doubt thinking why are there so many people invading my personal space.  As we came in along the chute I realized that we did it!  We finished what we started, not a super fast run, but an adventure completed!

After the finish we sat for a bit, took in some food and Terry went for the car.  We got to collect our "finisher's rocks" and prepared for the second adventure, how would we get home?!?!  We, or rather Terry had 2 hours to drive home yet.  I wish I could say I was a great brother and helped him stay awake, but I wasn't.  I got in the car and immediately fell asleep(after a quick prayer for safety), sorry bro!  I woke up once as he stopped for a short cat nap, and then again when we pulled up on my drive way back in Calgary.  It was morning and as soon as we entered Lukas was on us!  "Uncle Terry, can we go downstairs to play?"  Actually I don't think he even asked(rather demanding it).  Terry and I just kinda chuckled and asked if we could first have a little nap?  I went and said hello, talked a little with family and went upstairs for a shower and nap.

Calgary marathon pics

Calgary marathon RR

Hey there,

Well that's it, all she wrote.  Finally here and gone, it feels good, kinda empty, but alright.  I guess I took the cards that were dealt and did the best I could on the day.  Sure the time 3:03 is a great time, but my fitness was definitely better than that.

Weeks before I ran the police half and did a really big week immediately after.  I felt alright then, but a little later I strained my hamstring(about 2 weeks ago) my hip had been bugging me as well(which I think caused the hamstring strain) and also some sore calves, and even quads.  It might have been my peaking that was slightly off, my body def. needed rest and I tapered as much as I dared to try to heal up properly.  I tapered so much that I was afraid I was loosing fitness.

So with all that going on you know the background going into this race.  I went with a formal carbo loading regime written up by powerbar, and used and really recommeded by my good buddy Chris Hooper.  I hadn't really used any plan before this.  So Saturday I aimed at consuming 700-900grams of carbs.  Wow is that ever hard to do, I took in nearly 4000 calories and still only hit about 750carbs.  Yikes that's a lot of carbs!!  I went to bed about 10 and woke up bright an early ready to go.  I went to bed actually feeling sick from all the food I ate.  I was a bit worried that it was too much, but I trusted Chris.  I had to take some advil as my head was hurting too!

The morning started at about 4:30, got some coffee going and I got my race stuff on, prepared my small breakfast.  Then I sipped my coffee while Lisa got some last minute ZZZzzzs.  She took me to the stampede area and dropped me off and I walked to the race site.  I had no clue if we would be able to stay somewhere warm and I was delighted to see that we could hang out inside the stampede grand stands area.  I went to the washroom on the main floor, then discovered there was more washrooms upstairs with no lines.  NICE!!  I lined up for the start just before, spotted Chris and Melissa, wished them both well and got ready for the start.  Anndddd off we go.  I settled in at a pretty good pace, well I hoped it would be ok, the first 10ks I was running 4:10s-ish, sometimes a lil under sometimes a touch over.

Near 12km we turned south away from the 20km course.  That's where we started climbing up and up.  None of it steep, but it was def. noticeble.  And I could already start feeling my hamstring, not favoring it, just knew it was there!  Right around 14km the 10 person all connected with surgical tubing guiness book record attempt team ALL stopped for a nature break!!  It was the funniest thing I've ever seen in a marathon.  10 of them all side by side, feet against the curb and peeing into the bushes.  lol there were people taking pictures, just wait till those surface online.  That'll make good slowtwitch discussion.  So I passed them while they were pissing as I was just behind them till that point.  I had read that they were aiming at a sub 3 hour time for the record.  I ran for about 3km further before they came up behind me and went by.  I stayed with them for a km or two and actually drafted them for a bit.  But they're pace was a bit too tough for me so I let them go just before we came to mount royal.  We had to run up that false flat all the way to the far end of Mount Royal, turn the corner there and that was the half way point.  My split 1:27:XX, pretty good, maybe a bit fast, but I usually need some in the bank to loose in the second half.  Although as we started hitting some downhills I could feel more and more of the hamstring.  The pace was still good at this point I was right on 4:15s which is right on the 3 hour pace.

Then back over crowchild, where we had a false flat downhill, then turned north and down a steep hill.  Wow that really messed up my quads.  Shortly after that and at about the 28km point my hamstring started really hurting and the quads didn't have anymore power.  My pace started slipping, first 4:20, then 4:25, which would be ok, I thought if I could just hold onto that pace I'd still finish under 3.  But it kept slipping although I felt really good!  My stomach wasn't upset(which is usually a problem) and I was able to eat gel as needed.  I carried a flask with about 5 gels in there, I probably ate 4 of them throughout the race, which was perfect.  Anyways the carbo loading really worked too as I never bonked and physically I felt great!  My quads and hamstring were just done and I gritted my teeth and pushed as hard as I could.  Then my calves also started twitching, now this is completely normal, I always get the calf cramps.  I kept sipping my gels, taking gaterade at aid stations, hoping they wouldn't cramp up.

I gotta say I'm impressed with the race here.  They always had problems with the marathoners running into the back of the 5k, 10k, half mary race.  So we're hitting the back of those races, the walkers and I have nothing against walkers, but the last ones seem to string themselves across the entire road giving no room for us to get by.  Not this year, they actually gave us a separate lane to run in!!!  Much kudos to the race for that, at first it took me a bit to catch on that the pilon'd off middle lane was for me!  How special, ha ha.  So I ran in that lane and got some nice cheers from people on memorial and I was hurting, specially with 4km to go I was running about 4:40 pace by then and I fought tooth an nail to try and speed it up.  A few runners passed me in the last 5km, got chicked a couple times.  But I ran proud, I was NOT going to walk today.  My last stand alone marathons haven't been pleasant, and this one wasn't quite at my ability, but I kept fighting!  That's really what makes me proud, I had the mental strength to fight through, despite the slipping pace.  Then we hit the last km and turned into the stadium, my calves nearly locked up here.  I was just hoping they wouldn't cramp up and I would fall on my face.  My pace plummeted here as you can see the last 0.3km was above 5min pace.  But w/e I had already established at about 8km to go that I wouldn't be able to go under 3 hours, and I got close, BQ'd so that's alright I just didn't want to loose teeth when my face hit the concrete.  So I slowed down to try and prevent that and crossed the finish in 3:03:XX.  Not too bad, happy it's over.  Now as I write this I'm wondering how long the recovery will take.  Marathons are pure torture for the muscles.  I cannot walk down stairs I have to hobble down them sideways, and walking is really tough.  Could be 2-3 weeks before I can run at all??  Oh and the weather was great!  There was almost no wind and the temp started at about 5 degrees and only went up to maybe 10-12?  Cheers,

DP