Hmph

before

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

-George Santayana

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

-Albert Einstein

Well, here's the good news. It wasn't as cold today as predicted, and although the wind did threaten once or twice it really wasn't as big as deal as it could have been. As for the rest of the day, let's get the facts out of the way early.

1:30:14 (chip time) - one minute slower than last year, and it was an ugly minute too. Look 1:30 is not a bad time - it probably stung as much to get passed in the finish chute by one of my Sunday morning running duo dudes, who had cleverly camouflaged himself in a different coat - I didn't realize he had gone by until I heard the announcer call his name. So, not a really, really bad time. Just not what I had hoped for. I'm going to guess that going out too hard probably cost me 1.5 - 2 minutes down the backstretch, where I was trying to hold it all together.

What happened? Easy to diagnose, in retrospect. Pacing, pacing, pacing and training training training. Number 1: pacing is killer and if you go out too hard it will be killer. After saying at the start the last thing we wanted to do was to go out on an 18 minute 5K start and torch out early where were we (the "we" being myself and Darren)? 3:46, 3:59, 3:54, 4:03 and 4:01 for a sub-20 minute first 5K.

Lesson #1: you must train at race pace, at least some of the time. Or, put another way, you can't race at a faster-than-training pace and expect to hold it over a long distance. You'd think I would have gotten this message before. Oh well, better to get it out of the way early in the season.

Lesson #2 is related to lesson #1 and it is this. Long runs do not make you faster. I had put in some good quality miles on the long runs on the weekends, but had been a little hit-and-miss getting in the speed sessions and tempo sessions. This burned me today.

after

This is the after picture. The more astute among you will have noticed that there were not 21 matches in the matchbook.

Live and learn. I'm hoping this lesson sinks in this time.

Peace.

Chilly review preview

So here we are, four sleeps away. It's time to preview, but first a review of my four-year history of the Chilly Half.

2005 - 1:59:25 (630th)
2006 - 1:44:00*(341st)
2007 - 1:37:55* (180th)
2008 - 1:29:16 (63rd)

*the official results list the times above for 2006 and 2007 in reverse. I have to think they've got them backwards.

Now, on to this year. Since the organizers of the race have jacked up the entries allowed by 50%, from 2000 to 3000 starters, they've also decided to add in a new starting feature (new to me anyway) - starting corrals. The start will be divided into three corrals: "elite" (sub 1:30), 1:30 - 2:00 and over 2:00. I've never considered myself an elite runner before, but there it is now in blue and white. Weather conditions for Sunday are supposed to be a little colder than recent years past. -5 degrees with a windchill of -16, although this will have warmed up a little by the 10:00 a.m. start time. Training-wise, I haven't been completely unscathed but I have made it through the early spring mostly healthy and getting in the good long runs with the Sunday morning group/duo.

Hmm, hmm, hmm...so what does that mean?

I don't know. I do remember that last year's 1:29 was nearly a complete surprise. I expected to maybe stretch to a 1:32 or so. Now with some regular long-run mileage and repeat hill workouts built in, I don't know. Hill work is fine and all, but this course is flat like Sally Field. The added bonus of the expected wind on Sunday makes prediction a tricky game.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, enough stalling around. I can already hear Skeezix yelling, "less talk, more work? Make the call!"

I don't know what to predict. I do know that you never really know if you've pushed the envelope until you bust through the other side. You can never know the limit until you push beyond it.

1:27? Maybe.

1:24? 4-minute kms? Perhaps a stretch.

Let's see.

Peace.

Consistency

As I was rolling through the last of my long runs before the Chilly Half with the Sunday morning long run duo (now up to three today) the topic of consistency came up. One of the three of us said, "since the beginning of November when we started this, I'm the only one that's been out consistently every Sunday". Although strictly speaking this statement was technically true in fact while being untrue in spirit (go ahead and figure that out) it did bring up the topic of consistency, a subject I may have opined upon before.



Others wiser than me have held forth on the subject of consistency. One of my favourites, since I'm results- and data-based and also a visual learner is borrowed from Alan Couzens:

Without going into the entire explanation - you can read that yourself here and I highly recommend it, there are several different interpretations of this data. On the left are finishing times of IM athletes. On the right are their cumulative training hours for the year. The boiled-down truth at least as relates to this posting is that one must be pretty consistent in training if one wants to see results. Disclaimer - this is out-of-context from the topic of the original post but related enough to be included here.

So what's the point? In training as in life consistency is one of the cornerstones that yields results. It doesn't necessarily mean consistently doing the same thing every day, but doing something every day. Getting up in the morning and ignoring the snooze button, one of the most oxymoronic inventions dreamt up by the human race. Getting moving. Having a plan and sticking to it.

The other two "cornerstones" patience and frequency are just as important. But they weren't the topics today, so they're not included in the discussion.

This weekend upcoming is the Chilly Half - let's see how consistent I've actually been. Preview to follow.

Thanks Mats for thirteen good years.

Peace.

Lottery

I've heard a lot of talk about athletes who win the "genetic lottery", who seem to be naturally gifted and who flow through their chosen events seemingly expending minimum effort. Mario Lemieux was one (for those of us above a certain latitude) who always seemed to be a stride ahead of everyone else and didn't seem to be burning any energy at all to do it. For a more current example, how about Craig Alexander. Or perhaps Chrissie Wellington, so far ahead of her contemporaries that she can drop ten minutes to a flat tire and still crush the field by ten minutes at the line?

Bunkum, I say.

This is hard work. Success in this sport, no matter how you define it, is a direct measure of how much you're willing to work for it. There is a direct correlation between how much work is done in practice and how natural the effort appears when it's "game time". Case in point: the swim leg of my particular triathlon. I swim like a brick. It will always be that way, but with practice I can become more hydrodynamic brick. And it's not just practice. Think of the quote often attributed to Vince Lombardi, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." This couldn't be more true in swimming. Practicing bad form or technique in the water doesn't make you faster. Because of the higher energy expenditure it just makes the thrashing around in the water worse. Check my swim times if you need any more evidence of that statement.

Conversely, running more actually can will improve efficiency - as time and mileage increase the body will find a way to move less, improving form at least until fatigue becomes so much that form completely disintegrates.

Speaking of lotteries the local lottery (the "6/49") has the biggest jackpot in its history this weekend - $48 million. People are freaking out. It's the only topic of conversation in the office. So why not - I threw in $2. Segueing from lottery to lottery, the Ironman Hawaii lottery is on right now as well. The deadline for entry is February 28. So, what the hey - I threw in on that one as well. It'd be a few years before I could "earn" a slot in that prize.

$48 million or a slot in Kona - which one would you take?

It's baaaaack....

Whether you get your weather forecast from a broadcaster, the sky, a rodent, or a rodent's entrails the simple fact is that winter is back.  In fact it never actually left.  Oh, it teased for awhile - hid around the corner and pretended it was gone, but it's back today.

All the roads and sidewalks are covered in ice.  It's not slush or snow, dirt or hard-pack.  It's actual ice.  Yesterday was snow in the morning that turned to rainish-sleet through the day and then froze on the surface overnight so that all surfaces are ice-covered.  Running outside is  very treacherous right now.  Riding, unless you did it early last week or live here, is out of the question for the time being.

So back to the basement the bike goes.  Not yet time to take it to the streets.  The run is still on - just over a week to go to the season-opener, the Chilly Half.  It's the first outing of the year, so I'm not committing out loud to any finish times (although I'm sure Darren is going to try and wrench one out of me).

And a minor, minor setback:  event #2 on the schedule, ATB (oldest road race in North America) sold out before I registered.  D'oh!  There are still charity slots open, so I may still choose to go that route.

Not much more news.

Peace.

Whittling down

If I turn my head just the right way, I can now see my neighbour's yard again. The snowbanks have been whittled down by the unseasonably warm spell for this time of year.

I am not fooled. It is February. This is Canada. Nobody in Canada puts away their snowshovels in February. In most years, February is the time of year where you go out to buy a second because the first has died of structural fatigue. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but still, the point is, it's too early to be writing the eulogy on this winter just yet. I have, however seen a few hardy cycling souls out on two wheels. Last week and this weekend would have been the time for it - it was just about worth it.

Speaking of "whittling down", my group of Sunday morning run yahoos once boasted six regulars and has on at least one occasion swollen to ten, is now down to two(!). The group has split into three splinters, and two of those splinter groups now have decided to run on Saturdays leaving for now only two of us remaining for Sunday. We went out this weekend for a brisk 26k. Since I've noticed last years achilles tendon starting to "tune up the band" this year, I took it really easy. I've also made some physio appointments and have continued to stretch semi-regularly. After all the "season" kicks off with the Chilly Half, now in less than two weeks. Gotta be ready for that.

Peace.

2nd annual Alton Caledon half - report

The 2nd annual is in the books, and not without a few curveballs thrown. A couple days out we were notified (ALL IN CAPS TO REPRESENT SHOUTING!!!) that the 2nd annual was cancelled, due to the untimely illness of the founding father. At this point divine providence stepped in. Gary volunteered to set up the bike zone and map out the run route from his command centre deep in Caledon. Thus, the event went on.





7:00 a.m. Arrive at pool. Meet Gary for the first time.


7:02 a.m. Phone rings. Cliff has just woken up. He'll be skipping the swim and joining us for the bike portion of the event (making history - the first Alton Caledon duathlon).



7:05 a.m. Aaron and Gary hit the pool for an easy warmup and a 40 minute timed swim. Gary passes me several times.





7:50 a.m. Out of the water, heading up the road to the bike command centre.





8:05 a.m. Bike setup in the under renovation, garage-turned-bathroom-and-unidentified-family-type-room in the house





8:15 a.m. Bike portion begins. On tap - 2008 IM Kona, 2007 Muskoka chase, 2005 IM St. Croix.




8:45 a.m. Gary's family - wife and two daughters - vacate the house. I don't blame them. It was pretty loud in there, and the smell was only going to get worse. (Side note: three women in the house explain the need for the renovation and creation of second bathroom as noted above.)

11:30 a.m. Bike portion finishes. On we go to the run.

Allow me to digress here for just one moment to state the obvious. We are in a gear-heavy sport, beyond just shorts, goggles, bikes and bike shoes and shorts (hopefully) and run shoes. This is never made more obvious than when one tries to pack all the required stuff up and move it to another location for a mega-training day, especially if it's done after dark when the family is all sleeping. Three trips to the car, and it was inevitable that something was going to be forgotten. However, when it's -8C with a -18C windchill and that one something is the winter running jacket, that could be a problem. Gary saved the day again. Not only did he come up with a spare jacket, but after the first lap he pulled out scarves, balaclavas, dickies and extra toques. He probably could have come up with a dead Taun-taun to hide in, if asked.

The run course was here. Three laps of a moderately hilly track (I don't think there's a flat one anywhere in Caledon) for a total of just a shade over 19km. The course map doesn't show the wind that blew enough snow over the road in a couple of spots to erase the pavement.

Just after 1:00 p.m. The run portion of the day finishes and we're all happy to get inside. After having promised the kids a toboggan run later in the afternoon I have to leave before the pasta portion of the day's festivities.

Again, big props to Gary for keeping the dream alive and to Cliff for joining in as well. The 2nd annual Oakville Half follows in the spring, date TBD.

One last big cheer for the founding father, still recuperating at home and probably just p##^&* that he had to miss this one.

Peace.