Hockey Post

Huge shout out to the Uptown Mayhem, the hockey team that I founded, who layed down a massive effort in the CMCHL league final this Saturday. They lost 5-4 in OT and were champions in defeat. I took the year off from playing so I wouldn't get hurt during training and it was tough to not be out there with them.

Sunday after my long run, I played in a charity hockey game to raise money for Skate Life, a youth group for teenage skateboarders. Scored 2 goals in a 5-4 shootout win. My fitness is pretty good but hockey uses a lot of different muscles than running. Moving a little slow today but it was well worth it.

New Toys!

Oh snap, look what Daddy bought! I couldn't be more pumped to see this beauty sitting in my garage. I finally replaced the bike that was stolen years ago. For so long getting a new mountain bike just fell so far down the list of priorities. With a wedding, then a new house, then a new baby there was always a reason to put it off but when i saw this for sale last week I hoped the time had finally come. I called Jamie and told her that i had found a bike that i wanted and she said to go for it. What an awesome wife! 2006 Norco Fluid Three. 5 inches front and rear. It's used, but only a couple years old and lightly ridden. Most importantly, it cost me half the suggested retail price. Thank you, PinkBike ! It's going to be a great summer. Here's a pic of my two main rides. So hardcore!

This week was also my longest run to date in the training schedule. 16 miles at 8:38. Here's a chart.

Had to be in White Rock at 8:30 AM Sunday morning so I sent a bag of clothes home with my Dad so that I could run to his place in the AM, get showered up and be where I needed to be by 8:30. I had my route from Cloverdale to WR all planned out in my head but switched things up at the last minute because I was worried about traffic on one of the roads I was going to take, a long narrow, single lane back road that is a straight shot from my pace to WR. It's a good thing that I did because I hadn't thought of one detail: to get my run in and get cleaned up by 8:30 I had to leave the house by 5:30. And at 5:30 it's still pretty dark around here. Narrow, single lane back roads with no streetlights that early on a Sunday. Not a great idea. The new route took me through some spots that weren't all that well lit either but there was a nice wide shoulder so it was all good.

Felt solid on the run. Pace was good, effort wasn't too tough until the last 1 1/2 mile or so where I felt myself needing to push a little more. Ran a negative spilt for the 16 which is what I was hoping for. Went out too fast and if the second half had as much climbing as the first my spilt would have looked very different for sure. Heart rate seems high but I'm still working on getting a handle on what it should look like on a run like this. If there's anyone who can shed some light on a good resource for figuring out what my zones should be please send it along. Right now with my Garmin i feel like a caveman with a calculator: I've got a great tool but don't really know how to use it.

Our short runs used to be our long runs

I saw the above quote on an Adidas ad for women's running shoes in Runner's World last month. I'm not exactly the target demographic but it stuck with me as a reminder how amazing the body is at translating incremental increases in workload into massive gains over time.

On the docket this week: four 6 mile easy runs as recovery for the legs and a renewed commitment to my strength routine. Really need to keep an eye on the pace and heart rate as it's becoming tougher and tougher to keep them down during the slower recovery runs. It's true that my slow runs used to be my fast runs but I'm not doing myself any good to go out and lay it down during a week/workout which is supposed to allow me to recover. It's a good sign that my fitness and pace are improving but I need to be mindful.

On another note, Brian has kept alive the fine tradition of talking me into things that I'd never think of doing myself. Our company has entered a corporate team in the Vancouver SunRun (North America's second largest 10K!) and I had planned on running it for fun. It's a HUGE race that draws about 50, 000 people! It's really way too crowded to think about putting up a scorching fast time and you probably end up running about 11-12 km dodging people throughout the course but it's super fun to be involved in an event that big.
On to Brian's 'brainwave': He calls me this morning and sells me on the idea of running from my house to the SkyTrain, taking the SkyTrain down to the event, running the 10K, taking the SkyTrain back and running home.
Distance from my house to the SkyTrain station: 7.2 miles according to Google Maps. In about 5 minutes he turned a leisurely run with 49,999 running partners into a 20 miler.
Gotta love it.

Paleo-tastic!!

Long run recap.

Distance: 14 miles

Time: Neanderthal

Pace: Cro-Magnon

Average Heart rate: Flintstone

Conclusion: Caveman!

Is it a coincidence that on the same day I was thinking about Chuckie V.'s advice to Lucho my Garmin's batteries should die 5 minutes into my run? Hmmmmmm....

Going, going, it's out of here...

Rest day today. 14 mile long run tomorrow morning with recap to follow.
At work today Troy was eating a chicken breast that was about three inches thick. So pumped full of juice it looked ready to stand up and start hitting dingers into the bay. Who ever saw a chicken that big walking around pecking at seeds? A chicken that size is walking around pecking at small dogs and children. Not cool.

From here to there

The last time i ran 26 miles was at the Royal Victoria Marathon in 2002. My goal was to run under 3:30. Three or four weeks before the race, in a testosterone fueled massive lapse of judgement, I raced one of my training partners in a 5K fitness test. I lost the 'race' by about 7 seconds and felt something *pop* in my groin with 50m to go. Awesome: 30 odd weeks of discipline and training out the window in 18 minutes. Unwilling to heed good common sense, I took two weeks off, convinced that would be enough rest to heal up before the race. Fast forward to race day: 5 miles left, all running partners long, long gone, dragging one leg. Finished in 3:34 and was rewarded with my finishers medal, a wheelchair ride home on the ferry, and a set of nice shiny crutches for the next several weeks. I never, EVER, thought I would run another marathon.
Until someone talked me into training to qualify for Boston.
And here we are.