VFAC Thursday

It has been a busy week, and after the race that was the Oak Bay Half, I wasn't super stoked to get back into training. But, one foot in front of the other, and out the door I went and got in some decent runs.

Workout on Thursday was what is the called the double-single and it is much better than the double-double. The references are to the 1 mile 5/8 loop in Stanley Park. Double means we do it twice and single, well, once. So essentially, the workout is a 5k followed by a 2.5k a mere 15 minutes later. I wasn't sure what to expect as my legs were feeling a little heavy from the previous weekend's half, but with Simon and Jay, and the new brits Pete and Phil, there was a solid group to work with.

Jay, as usual, left 15 seconds behind us for the first interval, the 5k. We use a staggered start for at least the first interval of every workout so that everyone finished somewhat close. It is also great motivation as you are constantly catching people as well as being chased. I left with Pete and Simon and we settled in pretty quickly, feeling better than I thought I would. We worked well and came through the first lap right on pace, which was good. The long, but not steep, hill that resides at the beginning of the loop, seemed much larger the second time around. The three of us spread out a bit and Jay joined the group shortly thereafter. I felt good, but was beginning to struggle as Simon and Pete showed good form. Focussing on form and staying relaxed, I held things together and finished the double in 16:45. I was pleased with the time and recognized that the effort was a little high. The second lap was much lower than the first, something that Jay commented on in his recent blog post, but Coach John indicated that everyone should expect to slow down. He is eerie in his ability to predict performance in Stanley Park and I have long since given up on trying to figure how he does it, having moved into a place of acceptance.

The recovery was a full 15 minutes and then we were unleashed once again for a single loop. The mental difference of running a single vs. a double is amazing. And, for some reason, my body responded really well to this second loop. Often, after our first interval, we will start as a mass group. This was the case for the single loop. Jay went off the front pretty quickly and, feeling good, I settled into a quick pace up the initial hill. I visualized myself as the person beside me, Simon, as his quick turnover allows him to be a dominant hill runner. Cresting the top of the hill I felt pretty strong and decided to visualize myself as the runner in front of me, Jay, he of the running on the toes and strong arm movement. After struggling through second lap of the first interval, I was surprised at how I felt. My feet were gripping the ground and I was pushing it backwards, rather than moving over it. I felt strong in body and mind. But, as with any "flow" or "zone" experience, once you recognize it, it leaves you. That is the irony, as Simon pointed out on the cool down, to be in the zone you can't really know you are in the zone. The last 600m of the 2.5k loop was a bit of a struggle, but I held things together quite well, to come in only 3 seconds slower than I ran the same loop a few weeks ago, but at that time it was the first interval of the night.

Overall, a strong workout. I am pleased with my speed right now - in fact, I am not sure if I have ever run consistently fast workouts times like this in my past. However, the half last weekend is a reminder that while my speed is ok, I need to focus on hour-long tempo efforts if I am to run to my potential at Scotiabank in June.

Oak Bay Half

Having found myself in Victoria this weekend, I decided to jump into the Oak Bay Half Marathon. With the Scotiabank Half Marathon only a month or so away, I knew I needed some longer race efforts to help prepare me for it. I have been running well of late, with last week's VFAC workout being another strong workout over shorter distances (2 x 1 mile 7/8 = 9:21, 9:30), but my longest tempo since December has been 30 minutes. It was with this in mind that I decided to try out the Oak Bay Half.

I ran well for about 14k, trying to be conservative and slowly working my way up through the field, but the lack of endurance fitness became very apparent when in 3 short kilometers I went from 3:35/km pace to 4:20/km pace. The rest of the race was about getting home. A very humbling and all together unspectacular 1:21 for the half, my slowest time since my first half-marathon over 5 years ago. This has definitely shown me that the speed I am carrying is not an easy cross-over to the longer stuff, but I will be looking at building the duration of my tempo runs over the next few weeks. I am not sure how Scotiabank will go, but at least this kick in the pants will keep me honest in my training.

Tempo Tuesday

Simon before his speedy running days...(the one on the left - oh Google Images, you will never let any of us be politicians)

With the threat of a thunderstorm looming, Simon and I left my place for our tempo run. It is a rare occasion that I get the chance to run my tempo with someone. The weather forecasters had said that the rain was coming, but the sun and wind were more prevalent than any rain that was to come. In fact, as I sit here writing this many hours later, the rain has yet to arrive.

After a warm-up around the neighbourhood, showing it off to Simon, we headed down to the Trans-Canada Trail and set out for our 30 minute tempo. After the workout last week, a 20 minute tempo, I wasn't sure what to expect coming into today. Last week I struggled to maintain the pace throughout the tempo, but having someone with me this time would make things much easier.

We set out to try to hold 3:35-3:40/min pace for the workout. The amazing thing about having a training partner is that you are never allowed off the hook. Not having run many tempo workouts recently, I am still struggling to find the feel of certain pace efforts. As such, we were a little quick off the start, but the effort felt good. As well, it was all downhill, but we won't worry about that now.

The rest of the workout went well with Simon and I not racing, but rather pushing each other to maintain the workout. In 30 minutes of tempo, we covered almost 8.5k, averaging 3:32 min/km. I am definitely pleased with this run, much more so than last week as it was a quicker tempo, but also felt easier. This is no doubt the result of running with a teammate, but it is something that I happy to build on going into Thursday's workout.

A good night with no rain...yet.

Inertia

You can tell that I am getting back into running by the sheer number of updates that are coming out of this blog. It is a result of inertia.

Inertia is an interesting concept. An object will maintain its state or motion, either not moving or moving, unless acted upon by an external force. To overcome the inertia of an object at rest more than the usual amount of energy is required to begin its motion. However, once in motion, that same force, inertia, keeps that object moving. And now, I feel like I have finally overcome the inertia of rest and moved into the inertia of motion. (note: any physicists or grade 11 science students out there who will find fault with the terminology, please feel free to correct me as I am going off of memory.)

Inertia forced me out the door this afternoon. After helping to move friends into their house, Sonja and I turned our focus to our place and did a good clean up and cleaning. So, with clean clothes I went out and felt pretty good. I had been perusing blogs of friends and heros earlier today, so motivation to run is rising with the temperature. An easy 45 minute jaunt after the longer run with Mr. Driver yesterday and with this inertia, small steps are being taken toward running well again.

Buntzen Lake

Saturday was spent helping to move friends to their beautiful new home. As reward for a job well done, we were treated to an amazing dinner on the new BBQ, seated on an enormous raised deck, where we were able to watch the sun fade away and share in good food, good wine, and good company.

It was after the steak and tuna were cleared and the wine glasses were near empty that I asked the two engineers working for BC Hydro about their work. Like asking a teacher about a classroom, what I got was a long (and very interesting) answer. Turns out that BC is very clean in the way it produces electricity as it is 97% from hydro-electric dams. I didn't realize that was the case, a little because of ignorance and a little because of growing up beside the Pickering nuclear plant I always assumed that there was diversity in the generation of power. I also learned that the proposed IPP (small, run of the river generating stations on rivers leased to private corporations) was really an inane idea. I really suggest BC residents look more into this one.

I also learned that Buntzen Lake was mostly created by BC Hyrdo and is a major source of power for the province. That was interesting as it was the plan to run at Buntzen with Simon the next morning, so I was going to have a little more understanding of the area as we circumnavigated the lake.

The morning unfolding in all its glory and the parking lot was just beginning to fill up as I got there around 9:45am. I didn't know what Simon had in mind as we had run here last year in our preparation for the Knee Knacker, which neither of us would finish. This was also my first true trail run after the December injuring of my foot, so I wanted to be careful, but afraid of the trails.


Early on I remembered why I loved and hated Buntzen - beautiful trails and scenery, lots of uphill. Simon was very gracious with me as I was reduced to hiking very early on in the climb to the ridge we would follow for most of the run. Simon is an incredible runner, both downhill and uphill, and so it was kind of him not to lose me on the way up. However, this is also what I want right now - long runs with a lot of climbing. For me, speed is something that I can get back quite quickly, but strength and endurance is something that takes some time to build, so that is definitely the focus for me right now. And Buntzen is a great place to get that.

Once I regained my ability to speak, Simon and I talked for the rest of the time, avoiding hikers and dogs, looking out over the incredible vistas, and just enjoying the morning. After the 1:45 of running, soaking in the lake with Simon, as Katrina and little Lucy hung out on the beach, was fantastic.

And the day ended where it had began 24 hours earlier, back on an amazing deck in a now cleaner house, eating a wonderful BBQ with new and old friends alike and having fun Banging each other. (note: not what you are thinking!)

A new slideshow from an old race

Playing around with a website Sonja showed me called Animoto. Made this video as an experiment to see what it could do. Not bad...

About that last post...

Yesterday I felt like a runner. Today, I felt like a runner who felt like a runner yesterday.

An easy 45 minutes jaunt along the daily Trans Canada Trail route, out around Kensington park and back in time to go for sushi and Star Trek. Everything was good, except the run. I think I need to pick up new shoes as these ones are running out of time.

Another couple of long runs this long weekend and then just 4 weeks of teaching left. Teachers always talk about how quickly the second semester passes, but it is actually unbelievable that every year I think "Wow, that went really quickly." Every year. You would think I would learn.

Happy long weekend!