Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Numbers...

I am a sucker for DVDs; however, it is not the high definition image nor the high fidelity sound that draw me into the purchasing them. I am a sucker for the behind the scenes stuff: the banter about the piece of art on the wall behind the main character and how the director stole it from his great aunt's garage when he was twelve and how it contributes to the mood change from the first act of the movie to the second.

I am that nerd.

But for that reason, the numbers that lay behind athletic performances always interest me as well. You know the ones; where Michael Jordan has missed 26 game winning shots or Wayne Greztky used 5 sticks per game*.

So, to that end, I will share some numbers with you on this night before I leave for Toronto.

Most Hours Run in one Week in preparation for the ENDURrun: 10 hours and 47 minutes

Number of Times I ran with Jasper Blake in preparation for the ENDURrun: 3

Number of Shoes I will wear during the ENDURrun: 3 - New Balance 825 (Half, 15k, 10 mile, 10k, Marathon), New Balance 872 (30k Trail, 16 mile Trail), New Balance 1060 (all warm up and cool down).

Number of times I emailed Lloyd Schmidt, the race director for the ENDURrun, asking all sorts of questions that he patiently answered for me: 4

Number of minutes that it now takes me to feel warmed up: 30

Number of beats per minute I have noticed my average heart rate drop (during a base run) since starting this training: 15

Number of degrees that I am used to training in: 22 degrees Celsius

Number of degrees that Waterloo is predicted to have on Sunday: 27 degrees Celsius (plus humidity)

Number of books I am taking with me: 3 - Training for Endurance by Dr. Phil Maffetone, The Best American Science Writing 2005 - edited by Alan Lightman, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathon Safran Foer

Number of friends doing a stage of the ENDURrun as a guest runner: 2 (so far) - Stefan Timms, 10 miler; Jay Bentley, 10k

Number of comments so far on this blog: 1 - from Scott Dunlop (how cool is that?)

As I find more interesting numbers throughout this endeavour, I will post them.

Have a great run tomorrow!

*(note: I don't know how many sticks the Great One used per game. I totally made that up so this seemed more interesting.)

4 comments:

Ryan said...

Three shoes? You are such a stud.

Unless of course you mean three PAIRS of shoes, in which case you are still a stud.

Unknown said...

as i wrote that i knew that someone would call me on it. i should have known it would be the magazine editor.

Anonymous said...

So its not quite hockey sticks per game. But Jordan always wore a new pair of shoes for every game.

Happy racing

Anonymous said...

I am also that nerd. Strength in numbers m'man. GOOD LUCK!!