Wednesday, October 21, 2009

PEI marathon report

I'm not sure where to begin. Maybe I'll just start at the start and see where this goes. I arrived at the Brackley beach area about 1/2 hour before the start and only had a few minutes before I ran into Trevor and his lovely wife who also ran the marathon today. After determining that Trevor was going to be totally at my mercy today with no watch or other aids, I hustled him over to the starting area so he could be introduced to the various pace bunnies, all of which we hoped to never see again and did not.
As Trevor so nicely describes in his blog (which has a wonderful blow by blow of the day's run) the course is simply picture postcard perfect if you have time to look around and enjoy the scenery. Here we are a few kilometers in, along the beach where we had to deal with a slight headwind of 10-15mph. Did I mention getting passed by a baby stroller? #$%& relay runners!

Here's Trevor and I at the 12k mark about to unload our sweaty gear on my wife and daughter who took this great picture. We had a great day and for the most part it felt like a nice long run as we just cruised along at a very easy pace. Or at least that's how it felt like to me but I think Trevor might beg to differ on this opinion later on in the race.
You might wonder how the heck we got this picture (about 18k) but a girl we had just passed kindly offered to take the camera off my hands and snapped this decent image of the two of us. Still feeling good from the looks of it. It really did feel easy for the two of us and I was constantly reminding my buddy to slow down or dial it back because I wasn't planning on letting go the reins until the 30k mark.
Woo hoo! Still having fun in PEI, somewhere between 20-30k on the trails.
But I think Trevor was having a harder time as we worked our way through course. Besides keeping his pace under control I kept on him about using different muscles and changing his stride once in awhile. The different terrain and gentle ups and downs of this marathon course make it nice for allowing you to do this but it's still a marathon and it gets to be a long way after awhile.
Thank goodness for the jokes and riddles at each kilometer when you don't have Andrew along for company. Even Trevor had to admit that many of the jokes were Andrew worthy (meaning really corny or bad but still made you chuckle). From 35k to the finish things got a little tougher for me and a lot tougher for Trevor but he never complained except to say that his stomach was bothering him. We worked together to tackle each section of the road and the stupid hills and more of those &%$#@@ relay runners that I kept wanting to trip or at least challenge them to a short sprint and just kept plugging away. I knew the key for getting us in under 4 hours was just to keep moving and not allow any walking and that's how it went.
We crossed the line exactly together but I forgot to check which foot our chips were on and so we got a 1 second differential in our times despite being in step. You beat me Trevor! Just wait till next time!!

It was a great day for a marathon and now 3 days later I'm feeling pretty well back to normal and may put in a few short runs to loosen up the legs a bit. I've been biking back and forth to work (which is only 2k) and the hills aren't bothering me any more. I'm also pretty much topped up on the post-marthon beer and ice-cream and so 'life is good'.

Take it easy on the roads and have a nice week!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

PEI

We did it! 3:56 according to my Garmin and the race info is on my sidebar at RunningAhead.

Great race, evenly paced and I think we're even still friends after all the bad jokes and stories. Fun day and it was 'almost' a breeze though my legs beg to differ right now. Heading home and longer story later...

Cheers!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Winding down

It`s getting colder here lately and we`re running out of time to get all our chores done before the big freeze. I snuck home an hour early yesterday so I could help Jo out with the pond. I needed to take the pump apart and then get into the hip waders with some warm clothes and move the pond plants around so they can be put to sleep for the winter. It was a long process and I got cold by the end and needed a nice hot shower to get warmed back up.

This week has been really easy with the running as I only did 2 short easy runs to complete the taper for PEI, both of which were run at the progressive paces I`m planning to do with Trevor on Sunday. The runs didn`t quite go as planned and I found it difficult to hold back the pace. We`ll have to pay very special attention to this in the 1st critical 5-10km. Aside from this I`ve been feeling a little under the weather (achey, soreness, bit of a cough, headache) which I`m blaming it on the flu shot I got on Monday. It seems better now but not what you need just days before a marathon.


Sat

Chance of showers
  • 5°C
  • 60%

Sun

Cloudy
  • 10°C
  • 1°C
Tonight
Cloudy. Periods of rain beginning this evening. Amount 10 mm. Wind northeast 40 km/h gusting to 70. Low plus 1.
Saturday
Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Wind northeast 30 km/h gusting to 50 becoming north 20 in the afternoon. High plus 5.
Saturday night
Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers early in the evening then cloudy periods. Wind north 20 km/h becoming light near midnight. Low plus 1.
Sunday
Cloudy. High 10.
As long as the winds that another forecast is predicting don`t come to pass we should be all right. May need an extra layer for the 1st 10k or so but from there we`ll be warmed up and will just roll over the beautiful course. Wish us luck but all the hard work has been long done and it`s just time to collect our due reward!

Have a nice weekend!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Back to Back

It was a beautiful looking morning for a run today but looks can be deceiving when it comes to our fall weather. The starting temperature of todays run was only 1C (33F) and barely warmed up to 3C (38F) about 2 hours later when I was finally done my allotted punishment. At least there was little wind and it made for a couple of nice photos as the sun was coming up over the Bay and across the golf course.

My legs were very heavy this morning as my most recent run of 7.5 miles (just over 1 hour) was only 15 hours old. The thought for today was having a couple of back to back harder (longer than 1 hour) runs that would give my body the last little training impetus needed to get me through next weekend's marathon in good shape. It certainly had that effect as most if not all of the run felt like the 2nd half and/or end of a marathon. It was slow going but I still managed to average 5:38/km pace which equates to a 3:58 marathon that is right on target for what Trevor is shooting for. At least I hope to be able to keep up with him!

So last long run in the books but then what do I see when I arrived back home but these guys!
At least they were on the outside looking in and were eating our neighbors apples instead of Jo's prized garden plants. Shortly after this the mother deer gave a snort and they went bounding away at a slow deer-jog pace, stopping after only about 50m run. Lazy things!

That's it! One more week of pseudo taper (feels like I've been tapering for months) and it's time to play once again. Have a nice week!

Sunday, October 04, 2009

My lucky beercap


I happened to glance at the ground while doing my mid-run stretches during today's long run and noticed this.... that's my favorite beer, good old Maritimes Moosehead. Flipped the cap over and was astounded to read ...
That's crazy! I can use that I thought, "this just has to be my lucky beercap". Slipped it in my belt and it kept my company for the rest of the run. It even clinked me a few times at the end of the run when I was starting to tire and helped me cruise on through what was a tough 17 mile run. Seriously though it was a bit of a lonely run without my good buddy Andrew on a not so nice day. The log said:

'Bit of a tough run due to the conditions of wind and steady drizzle and rain. Ran a steady effort which ended up right on the planned PEI marathon pace of 5:30/k but it got a bit tough the last few miles as the body got a little tired and some mild cramping with the cold. Part of the problem was my shoes were drenched and about 2x the weight! Found a luck charm beer cap which made my day! "

The running has been going much better the last few weeks as my build to PEI is almost complete. I've been getting the long runs in as well as a few more shorter easy runs with a tiny bit of speed included when feeling like it. All that's left is a few weeks of taper and I'll be good to go the distance with Trevor.
On the home front we've been busy getting the yard ready for the winter where the main goal is not to grow things but to keep the evil deer on the outside looking in at all of Jo's tasty treats. To accomplish this we recently started installing a 7 foot barrier that is almost guaranteed to achieve our goal. The only thing missing are motion detectors and searchlights but they can easily be added. But I hear that those deer can jump almost as high as kangaroos! It actually is meant to be nearly invisible from a distance and we hope it will do the trick.
Well that's all I got for now. Have a nice week and be patient out there!