Off-season?!?

Hmmph to that, I say. My off-season has been on since about June, well over the suggested two week off-season. Today was day eleven of activity. Haven't gotten to the point yet where my "run legs" are back, but we're getting into the area where they (the legs) are starting to think this might be serious, and that they're going to have to step it up a notch.

I went out for a solid run this morning - an hour, over some nice little rolling hills on the North Shore. For those familiar with Around the Bay this stretch makes up kms 20 to ~26 on the course, just before the Grim Reaper where you've nearly lost your will to live. We didn't run the whole hilly section - just an out-and-back for 12km. I also joined up with a crew that I was introduced to by an acquaintance I made in the spring this year, when we were both underemployed.

This is new for me. I've been a 90% solo trainer for my whole career (with the exception of a few rides and last year's memorable Alton Half and follow-up Oakville Half) in this sport which comes with its pluses and minuses. Pluses - no discussion of what route to take today, in any sport. No argument over what to play on the iPod. No negotiation (or at least less negotiation) of start times. Minuses - much easier to hit the snooze button and put it off to later. Heck, somedays it's easier to blow it off altogether.

Not today. I was out the door this morning in plenty of time to make the five-minute start rule. The group is fairly diverse, with the one constant that they're all pretty serious runners. At least one has just qualified for the fifth consecutive year for Boston. Another is hoping to make it ths spring via the Ottawa Marathon. Still another just returned from a 30km road race in Budapest. This is definitely "stepping it up".

In other news, the next new job starts tomorrow. I'll be moving on to another company in the consumer goods industry with the responsibility of managing production in two facilities. This should be good. It's also a lot closer to home cutting a good hour and a half out of the daily commute.

On with the off-season.

Peace.

Here we are...so where are we?

So, what's new? Been quiet for a while. First the good news. Preliminarily, my mother's test results have come back positive. There are no other negative signs or indicators at this time. Does that mean she's cured? I don't think anyone says that at this stage of the game - it's way too early to be using that word. I guess testing and monitoring continues for some time before that "c" word - the good one - comes up in conversation.

The rest of the news really kind of pales in comparison. Humbled by my near-complete lack of training at the end of last season and inspired by Cliff (yet again) I'm now up to day 7 of base-building. Something gets done every day. A couple of rides, a lot of runs and tonight may just be another dip in the pool.

I'm working on the 2009 race schedule. The Chilly Half, an annual tradition, is in for sure. After that many decisions need to be made. The training schedule will have more structure and focus this year - how could it have less? - with the not-yet-confirmed goal of another Ironman this year - location TBD. The location is what makes the race schedule still TBD. For most North American locales the options at this point are to enter through the community fund, if spots are still open (and many still are as of this publication), or to go to Muskoka in June for the long course and try to qualify for one of three - Lake Placid, Canada or Florida. Given my historic speed, or lack thereof, leaving it up to qualification comes with some risk.

And oh yeah, to top it all off I'm starting another new job this month. Just when you think things were getting predictable - new changes, story of this year.

This however is a topic for another day...



Peace.

And another thing...

I almost forgot...the results of the raffle!

For those who entered the "guess the finish time" raffle it's time to let the secret out. The guesses were:



3:20:00
3:28:28
3:32:00
3:38:46
4:00:00

For the longest time, I thought that 3:28 was the winner. Oh well, the mind was willing but the body was weak. I kept going to the well, drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry...you get the picture.



So, the swag? I went to the expo and looked around. Everybody has a white race t-shirt, and the "signature" race shirts, although "technical fabric" this year are an unattractive baby poo green (I think a couple are visible in the background of the picture of me flying in yesterday's post). So I thought something a little different, yet practical and perhaps stylish, and I came up with this.....

Ta-da! (Baby not included). And who doesn't love a race toque? Congrats to Nancy, who threw darts at the wall and came in at 3:38.

Peace.

Toronto Marathon Race Report

First off, a big thank you to all of you who broke open your piggy banks and gave to support the Princess Margaret Hospital. We've raised over $2500 and still going!! Thanks to all of you!

Team Ironhead clutching the hot chocolate at the start line.

Now, onto the grumpy section of the post:


3:41:19.8. 449th overall, 72/214 in AG.


Hmmpph.


Many things have been said by many others, several spikier than I am about pace, or about endurance - not speed, but endurance. Speed comes from endurance, and endurance comes from the trifecta - PCF - patience, consistency and freqency. Endurance is the ability to keep moving, just keep moving. Clearly, I have lacked many of these things this year and my results to close out the year reflect that. On marathon morning (I can't really refer to it as "race" morning) I thought I could hold on to a 5 minute km pace to finish in the ballpark of 3:30:xx, give or take a minute or two. I had lined up A, B and C goals for the day. Sub-3:30 for the "A", sub-PR (3:40:14) for the "B" and to finish for the "C".

This is about the last time I was "flying" on the course.

I started out with the 3:30 pace bunny and decided to stay with him, but here's the thing. It's difficult to judge pace from a bunny that's making multiple bathroom stops. I later found out that the bunny had intentionally gone out at a faster pace in order to put a couple of minutes in the bank for the finish. I also was passed before the finish by the 3:45 bunny who must have crossed at least four minutes early.

In this, the year of re-education, what did I learn on this day?


You can't cheat the basework for a marathon. There's no faking it in a race this distance. One 16 miler and one 20 miler in training is not enough. You must respect the distance. Going out too fast always burns you in the end. And it takes twenty minutes to eat a bagel if you're too dehydrated to work up enough spit to chew.


I am now almost obliged to run this course again at a later date, so as to not have to go to my grave with this finish time. Still faster than Oprah, and it is a very pretty course with some very nice tree-lined sections (and a castle!) but it is a "read the fine print" course, or more like "look at the course elevation". They do sell it as a net "downhill" course, and it technically is. There's a first uphill at about 5k. That's no big deal. The nasty little truth is the fact that the last 3k is a long slow leg-sucking uphill that makes you question your will to live.



The end:



So there it is. Let the offseason begin.

Peace.

Toronto Update!

85% of the target has been achieved! We're almost done the "easy" part, with over three weeks to go!

There's still plenty of time (and room) for those who want to join in - hit the link to help the cause here.

And if you do, don't forget your finish time guess to enter into the raffle for fab-o Toronto Marathon swag. There are only four guesses entered at this time, so there's a very good chance you could win! Closest finishing time, without going over, wins the swag.

Peace.

Muskoka race report

You know, life is a continuing journey of education and rediscovery. In fact the only time you stop learning should be when, as someone so eloquently put it, "when you pedal off to that great transition area in the sky".

I've been at this sport for a few years now and even still, every event provides an opportunity to gain experience and to learn new things. Sometimes, if you're as thick-headed as I am, you get to learn old things over again. Things like, "don't try anything new on race day", like adding a new gear bag that rubs against your leg with every pedal cycle until you can't stand it after 2km and have to pull off the side of the road to remove it. Things like, "don't carry the extra weight of multiple bottles of fluid when it's so cold you'll hardly drink more than one an hour". Also things like, "don't forget to lubricate the chafing spot between your wetsuit and your neck to avoid rubbing your neck to a bloody raw mass".

Now, on to the race report.

Swim: 41:34. 699th overall, 130th in AG.

Okay, I know. I'm not fast in the water. Even at my peak I would have to speed up considerably to be classified as "slow". This is what you get when your training basically ends in July. I knew 10 minutes in that the swim was going to be a chore on the day. Domino #1. The base just wasn't there. Being a BOP'er (I'm not even a middle-of-packer anymore) I actually don't mind the wave starts, but I do understand why my compadre Darren dislikes them so intensely - he has to spend his time and energy navigating around roadblocks like me. SIDE NOTE: if you haven't read his blog/race report, I'd recommend it. His props: dude finished 17th overall!! Won his age group.

T1 - 4:58 (no I did not have a bowl of soup!) Bike: 2:58:29, (188th overall, 48th AG)

Not a particularly impressive split. The stop to remove the gear bag didn't help. I had hoped that this would have turned out better, but this is a dang tough course. There were also a couple of stretches (on Hwy 35 and along the shore of Long Line Lake) where the wind really did pick up. And of course this is where domino #2 fell. Undertraining in the swim led to me being unable to really get my heart rate under control on the bike. I knew I was going to pay for it later, and I did. But at the end of the bike course I did see the first bright spot of the day:

Team Ironhead!

Okay, so my daughter's actually looking in the bush for squirrels or frogs or something, and my brother and his wife look very serious, but I don't blame them. They'd already been out there for over four hours in the rain with three kids, waiting for me to make an appearance. Little did they know how much longer they'd be out there....

T2 - 2:06. Run: 1:59:20. (408th overall, 79th AG).

Buoyed by the spotting of Team Ironhead, I whipped back out of T2, gave a high-five to the cheering section, and headed off down the road. I felt good, everything seemed to be clicking and I was really hoping to make up some ground on the run. I thought I had the base. If I hadn't been putting in the swimtime or enough bike mileage, at least I thought I had the run to fall back on.

Not today.

At about 7 km into the run, I saw Darren heading back in to the finish laps around the golf course, looking strong. Shortly after that domino #3 fell and the rest of the house came crashing down. Mere minutes later my back locked up. I started running from km marker to marker and stopping at each marker to massage, rub and otherwise try to warm up my back. Nothing really seemed to work. The lack of base on the swim sucked the energy out of the bike and the lowered energy level on the bike sapped the run. Shortly after this, the rain really started to come down. I have a whole new appreciation for those who gutted out Lake Placid this year, where the rain started at 7:00 a.m. and didn't let up all day/night long. The run at Muskoka (for me) turned into 14km of slogfest that was brightened up by Team Ironhead at one more point:

One hug to recharge at the 16km point and I was (briefly) back in business. The last 5k of the run winds through a golf course and passes by the finish line. The cruelest part of this is I spent the last 5k listening to other people being announced crossing the finish line as I kept winding up and down, left and right, forward and back through the golf course. Finally the finish line was upon me, in 5:46:22. One last eyebrow-raised comment: I crossed the finish line in 278th place. Nearly 1700 people registered, and 1300 showed up at the starting line. So, knowing that the forecast called for rain and cold temperatures all weekend long, how could the medical crew be out of those funky "space blankets" before 300 people had crossed the line? Just asking....

After all this grumbling, it was a very good day on a course that could be great. Weather can't be blamed on the organizers. But the 4-5km of tarry, gravelly non-pavement at about 70-75km on the bike made for a rather hair-raising section of the ride.

Will I come back to this race? Undoubtedly at some point in the future. I can't go to my grave being this slow, but maybe not next year. Next year is tentatively a "full monty" year - back up to the full distance. Mrs. Ironhead has given the okay. We just haven't decided where.

Last props go out, one more time to Team Ironhead! Not only were they out in the rain for nearly six hours, they had to wait nearly another hour near the car as I collected my sopping belongings from transition (there was so much water coming down and flowing through transition my shoes had actually floated away) and made my way back to the car. Are they the best or what?

Peace.

Quick update on PMH, and the weekend to come

For those following along, here's the status report on the PMHF charity drive - check the association link at the top of this page, and if you're interested in supporting the cause, please feel free to contribute at this site. Two weeks in (with about five weeks to go) and we're already two-thirds of the way there. A big thanks to everyone who's already contributed - there are too many to list today, but I'll give 'em all the big public cheer later.

Starting to pack up for the trip north - Muskoka is in two days and - happy day! - it looks like the rain might just be backing off for the weekend. I may have just jinxed it, however.

Race report to follow.

Peace.