I participated in Run For The Ferry on Bowen Island last Saturday. This was my first trail run and my second competitive 10k run. My time was 40:32, nearly identical to my Stampede Road Race time of 40:19. The lack of improvement is kind of disappointing, but then again, the trail had plenty of hills and was more difficult than a typical road course.

This will be my last competitive run until the spring. My goal of running a 10k in under 40min can wait until then, and in the meantime I will continue with endurance training.

This post is to answer the question of why I run, and what I want to achieve. My running started in April 2009, and it started because I was out of shape. For five years I'd been out of shape and it was obvious that it was bringing down my mood and my energy level. Starting up again, though, is never easy, and the fact that the air here in Calgary is considerably more rarified than what I was breathing in Ontario did not help.

So, going back to 2009, I decided to start doing 4km a day of running, walking, or whatever. Hard to believe that it took a few weeks before I could easily run a full mile. During my grad studies, I used to run two miles to the university as a matter of course. Anyway, after starting small, I found that after a few months I could run a full 10k with difficulty. That is what I considered my "long run", and it was something that I would do every two or three weeks.

Times have changed. I can easily do a 10k before breakfast, and I do so three times a week. My long runs are 30k every weekend. I've been pounding 50 or 60k of asphalt every week for over three months. When I reached 50k per week, I thought that it was a nice level to stick to. But I've been pushing the mileage further and further, just because I can. And this brings us to the key question: Why? Well, obviously because I want to try a marathon, and even though my next opportunity will be in the spring, I want to know now whether I am capable. That is, I want to know if I can consistently and comfortably run over 30k, because if I can do that, then I can run a marathon with good time. And about wanting to run a marathon, yes, it does have a lot to do with the fact that I'll be turning 40 in a couple years.

So, there you have it. I run for health, but I also want to compete. So probably the Calgary Marathon in the spring, maybe Regina the next fall, or who knows, maybe Boston would be fun (ha ha). Those will require considerably more training than the 60km per week than I am testing myself with right now. After getting a couple marathons under my belt, I'll drop back to 50km per week which is a less competitive but certainly a healthier mileage. Because, you know, by then I'll be forty and old guys need to take it easy.

Yup, after taking a break last week I have bumped up my mileage once again, to 21 miles, or 34km, or most importantly to the point where many runners hit "the wall". I am happy to report that there was no wall. The run was no more difficult than my last few long runs. It was, however, followed by the usual bout of nausea that had me hiding under the sheets for a couple hours. It couldn't have been the heat, not on a cool day like today. Lack of salt? I'll have to eat a bag of potato chips the night before my next long run to see if that helps, or bring along gatorade instead of just water. Or maybe I just have to keep training at this level until my body gets used to it. After all, 34km is the maximum training distance that is recommended for marathon training, so when I can do this run without any problems, I'm good to go.

In any case, the nausea really isn't so bad. After the two hours are up, it's all over and I'm feeling right as rain again. Yeah, it's easy to say "that wasn't so bad" when it's all over, I know, but compared to, say, having the flu for a few days it really is nothing. Also, since my vacation starts next weekend, it will be three weeks before I have to go through it again.

Oh yes, and I finally replaced my old running shoes, but not before putting 1200km on them. Now I'm the proud owner of two new pairs of Asics GT-2140’s, last years model, very comfortable and very inexpensive, and I ignored the salesperson's warning that running shoes have a "shelf life." I'll wear them out long before they start to rot.

This morning was my first 30km practice run, after several weeks of slowly building up distance. Next week is a rest week, so next weekend will just be 24km, but the week after that I will be aiming for 32km and beyond.

About the run itself, this is one that didn't go so well. The run itself was fine, it was the aftermath that was painful; apparently my body is still adjusting to the summer heat. Within a few minutes of arriving home the nausea started, and it was combined with a burning hunger and absolute lack of energy. Unluckily, my fridge was empty except for milk and orange juice, which ended up forming a rather unpleasant curdled mess in my stomach.

I wanted to do nothing except curl up in my bed until the nausea stopped, especially since I was also experiencing the cold shivers that often follow overheating. As it was, though, I was a sweaty mess, so I pulled off my clothes and sat in the bathroom until I had recovered enough to take a shower. After that, I needed a two hour nap and an hour of light reading before I was feeling like myself again. So a two and a half hour run had cost me half a day.

The good news is, the recovery was complete, and after getting out of bed, I was only suffering from tired legs and a massive hole in my stomach. Later in the afternoon I was also suffering from a $120 grocery bill that included several items that I don't usually buy, mostly salty stuff. I wonder why?

Running Route 9

I don't know what a people race has to do with Stampede. In this event, we are neither chasing cows, nor being chased by them. In fact, there was not a single cow in sight! Since they are asking for suggestions for next year's race, I should suggest that they should really add some cows if they want to call it the "Stampede Road Race".

This was a good race for me. Running fast has a very different feel now, compared to a couple months ago. It used to be that when I tried to run fast, I would just heat up without actually increasing my speed. This still occurs before I have warmed up, but after about 8 minutes into a run, my stride seems to become more efficient. It is hard to explain, but my legs don't work against me anymore. To tell the truth, and I am not advocating that one purposely injures oneself, the iliotibial band injury has made me much more aware of running style. By forcing me to learn to run without putting undue strain on my hips and knees, it has helped me to get a lot more out of my legs. Or the improvements could be just the pay-off from an additional 250km of training.

As the weather warms up, hydration is becoming more of an issue on long runs. Until two weeks ago, it was only 8 degrees in the morning and warmth was more of a concern than water. But last week things changed fairly quickly, and my usual Sunday run was a little warmer than I expected… I didn't reach a fountain until the heat had already gotten to me.

I hate hip flasks, and carrying bottles by hand is troublesome when the bottle is half-full. It sloshes around, and you instinctually stop swinging your arm to keep it from sloshing. My solution to this problem is little silly but still practical. When my bottle is less than full, I just squeeze it until there is no room for air, and then I cap it. Easy! No sloshing! Actually, the squeezed bottle is more rigid and easier to hold than the full bottle. Each bottle is 600ml, enough for two 300ml gulps. Sure, I must look silly jogging down the path with a squished bottle in my hand, but hey, it works. Even better, since it's just a pop bottle, I can throw it away as soon as it is empty.

Iliotibial band syndrome. It's quite a mouthful, isn't it? More or less, it means that a tendon along the outside of my knee has become inflamed. The good news is, in my particular case, it doesn't appear to be very serious. I have been treating it with ice and rest, and after just one week it seems to be back to normal.

The pain first started about 60 minutes into a 100 minute run. That meant that I was 40 minutes from home, so I ran through it rather than taking a long walk home… probably not a wise decision. The pain was mostly a dull ache that became sharp when I walked down stairs. The internet provided a ton of misinformation about this particular injury, but as far as I can see the causes are 1) over-training 2) bad biomechanics (angled running surfaces, bad shoes, bad running style) and 3) weak glutes resulting in poor knee stability.

So, yeah, I've gotta strengthen my buttocks for the sake of my knees. That, and my running shoes will have to be replaced because they have reached their 800km lifespan. On the plus side, this morning I did a 90 minute run that was virtually pain-free, though I do have an ice pack on my knee right now as a precaution. I could feel a bit of irritation at a couple points during the run, but to all appearances my knee hasn't suffered any damage.

The half-marathon was this morning. How do I feel? Mixed. On the one hand, it was my first race and I ran it well, my pace was better than my longer practice runs and my splits were even. On the other hand, I wanted to beat 90 minutes, but achieved 93. You might think that three minutes out of ninety is not much… but look at the results. If I had cut three minutes, I would have passed 30 runners. I can’t help but think that I just didn’t push as hard as I could have, but that is probably not true. I have tried running hard in my training, and it doesn’t improve my pace for long distance. It just tires me out.

So, to put two and two together, I really want to place better than I did, and cutting a few minutes from my time would really improve my placement. And the only way to do that is more training. Yeah, I’ve been bitten by the running bug… I want to make a habit of this.

My first post mentioned how warm it was in February… but today, on race day, at the end of May, the temperature is only 1 degree Celsius.

Well, that was it. This morning was the longest run of my training, 22km. From here forward I taper off so that I can be fresh for race day. Just two weeks left!

Running Route 8

It is quite ironic that I started this blog with a winter post about how warm and sunny the weather was. Now it's the middle of spring and guess what? The snow is coming down in buckets. It's snowing cats and dogs. I can't call it "flurries" because, as everyone knows, they're called April Showers. If these showers happen to be white, then so be it.

Luckily for me, I did my run at 7am before the weather hit. So instead of being scoured by the snow, I was merely drenched by freezing rain for the last 30 minutes of a 50-minute run. My hands and forearms went into complete hibernation and I found myself turning my key between two frozen knuckles to get back into my apartment. What a start to the day.