Training schedule for the week of April 6, 2009

Monday: Triathlon resistance training at the YMCA
Good hard workout, found out that my left leg is somewhat weaker than the right, but it was a really good workout.

Tuesday: Noon Swim - Using swim buoy for at least 1/2 my laps, specifically practice bilateral breathing + Roll + controlled breathing/effort
:Evening Run 8K tempo
Swim was good. With the pull buoy, it is really easy to swim, and you float up into the right position. Rob tells me that the wetsuit gives you about the same floatation.

The run was really good, and I added another 4k to the run to take the dog out. He is just back from the kennel, and was quite tuckered out, so we are trying to keep that up. He wanted to run, so we ran fairly hard for 4 more Kms, giving me 12K for the day.

Wednesday: Noon Resistance Training
:Evening 8-9 hills

Another good hard workout in the Gym, and I was sweating like crazy through it all.
The Hills ended up being for 9 hills. We set a good hard pace of 1:21 for the first hill, and proceeded to beat that every time after that. The next two were 1:14, which was crazy hard. We did the afterburners as well, where you sprint all out for the last 50 meters of the hill. Everyone else doing hills thinks we are crazy. Did one extra hill (for 10 total), with the dog, as there were two half marathoners finishing off theirs, so we kept them company.

Thursday: Noon - If its Raining, I am getting in the pool, otherwise 10K recovery run
:Evening - Spinervals at home
OK, it didnt rain, but I still went and got in the pool. spent around 45 minutes at it, just trying various strokes, and trying to calm down in the water. I get breathing too hard. I was beat, and did not do any workout in the evening.

Friday - Its a stat holiday: 4x1m@Interval with 90 seconds recovery, and I will see if I can get Geoff interested in these.....
I ended up starting the day with a private swimming lesson. Learned two things, I can't take a deep breath with one arm stretched over my head (so perhaps I should learn either how to do it, or how to deal with it), and that my kick really sucks. OK, I knew my kick sucks, but last lesson, it was not the most important thing. We didn't work on much other than the kick, as it will cause so many problems that the other parts are not important.

Then, at noon, I met with Geoff and Rob to do Intervals, at I pace. For me, this works out to 4:16/KM pace. Since I talked them both into doing these, right before we started, it was mentioned "I hate you". :-) As usual, the first one was too fast, as I was almost able to keep up to Rob, and he should be finishing almost 30 seconds faster than me. We were ahead of two cyclists, and I heard a comment at the end of the mile "they are running faster than we are cycling". The second was almost as fast, but still felt good. The third one sucked hard, and lost pace like crazy, but Rob passed a girl on roller blades (smoking fast). The fourth was an improvement from #3 for me. Can't say that I like intervals, but I like how they make me feel afterwards.

Saturday - Swim + bike (outside!) This is sort of a recovery day...
Took Helen swimming, did a number of lengths of kick drills, got some good burn going, about 6 lengths of front crawl, some more with the swim buoys, and about 4 lengths of breast stroke. All in all, about an hour of good fun.

Went for a 2.5 hour bike ride, covering about 40K, which included a stop at Robs place, and he joined me for the last part. At the end, my legs were jello. lets see how this works out for me on the long run sunday.

Sunday: LSD - 32K - Ugh, I will pay for this having not done much running in Vegas. We are doing a point-to-point run to Bowness park, so I have to be in bowness at 7:30 AM. Was a little late, but no problem. We were back to glenmore in time, and Rob, Geoff, myself and Rob's workmate Shawn came out for the run. Rob's coach advised him that 32K was out of the question for him, so he ran for only 60 minutes total with us. We ran with the lead pace group, looking to set a 6:00 minute pace. The 32K was as tough as I thought, the most difficult part being around the 24K mark. Weather was perfect for it. Geoff had some hip problems coming out of the Talisman Center, but got it back together for the rest of the run. We finished in 3.5 hours, which was right on pace.

So my weeks total distance looks to be 67K, and spent 14.5 hours training this week.

Las Vegas Marathon 2008 Race Report

Friday night, we got all our packing done early, so we had very little to do for packing, other than go over the packing list again and again. Set all the alarms for 6:00 am to get ready for our flight, which was at 8:40. Got a shitty nights sleep, which did not bode well for the marathon. Usually, you count on a good nights sleep on the Friday night, so that when you are all keyed up about the race on Saturday night, you can survive the race. Ended up at the airport at 7:10, plenty of time to get through customs and onto the plane. Sat in lucky row #13.

Fitness fair was not as impressive. Few name-brand vendors. ASICS was there, Nissan was a named sponsor that was showing off a few vehicles. Other than that, very few places. Saucony was there last year, not this year. They also did not have the film of the race route, which as I said was strangely compelling last year. Bought a kewl Zoot top, looks really nice. Helen tried on Asics Gel DS trainers, which is as close as they had for racing flats, but they had a funny ridge on the toeline, so didn’t get those. But she did find some New Balance shoes that seem comfortable so far.

Got a good nights sleep before the race. This was very different, as I can never usually sleep before a race. I tried something different, which was to specifically visually getting dressed for the marathon, as I fell asleep. Usually, I let my mind wander, and I find myself thinking about race strategy, starting slow, when to speed up, handling water stops, and visualizing the run. What usually happens is that gets your heart rate up, and makes you pumped, as you think about running. This time, I fell asleep thinking about putting socks on, greasing up my toes with Vaseline, etc etc. All really boring stuff, and easy to fall asleep to, and made for pleasant dreams.

Race Morning. The alarm goes off at 4:00 am. I pointed out to Helen that’s its 5:00am mountain time, so this is only 1 hour earlier than she got up yesterday. Still had to harangue her to get out of bed. Had 2 packages of oatmeal, and 2 cups of coffee. It worked this time, had a good poop before the race. This is another thing that never usually happens. Surprising how happy this makes you feel.

Head out to the race start, line up for porta-potties, which moves quite well. Kiss Helen goodbye, and wish her a good race, as she heads back to the end corral. I decided to do some warmup runs in the open area beside the corrals. I can get about 30 seconds of running in one direction, so I do a couple of back-and-forths, stretch, and then run some faster back-and-forths to get warmed up. The hamstring and piriformis are still feeling a little tight and sore, but this is as good as it is going to get. I stretch out as best I can.

I head to the corrals, and jump into the one that seems appropriate. I ask the people around me what corral they are in, what time they intend to complete in. Seems all the people around me intend to finish in 4+ hours, and I am in the wrong corral. Jump out of that corral, and head to the next one forward. As I get to the entry point and ask, the guy tells me it’s the sub-3 corral. I was in the right corral, everyone else around me was in the wrong corral! WTF?!?. Head back to the same spot, and migrate my way to the middle.

Ended up in front of three women from Toronto. Chatted about marathons they had done, and how this one was shaping up. We were all happy the weather was better than last year. It felt like it was about 10 degrees C, and the prediction was for highs of 18-19. Ideal racing weather. It was crazy crowded, so forget about stretching any further, and no more warm-up. It is nice enough that I can shed the shirt and warm-up pants. It all seems really confused, including the announcements. They are right on time when predicting the start time.

And we are off. The fireworks go off, and I am able to see some this year. I actually took the time to turn and look at some of the fireworks behind me as the race started. The race itself was really slow to start, and I ended up doing a 5:26 for the first Kilometer. I don’t worry about it, telling myself that my race today is a good 32K run to set up a great 10K race, so no stress. I pick up the pace, and try to settle into my zone.

I am finding that if I pace myself with anyone else, I cannot hit my paces. This is making it really hard, because I naturally tend to run with others, and also an trying to reign myself in and do a negative split, so I don’t want to go too fast and hard to start. The group I am with gets passed by a good looking blonde wearing too-tight pink shorts. I comment to the fellow next to me that I could follow that for the next 20 miles, and get a smile out of him. No one is very talkative.

We pass a bunch of weird religious types near or just pass the Wynn hotel. They are yelling religious stuff as we pass, and it makes little sense on why they think that runners need to be saved. One is holding a sign that says “You are on the road to Hell, unless you embrace jesus” I loudly comment that “on the road to Hell? I thought we were on the road to the finish line”. I get nothing from the people around me. Tough Crowd I think.

Ran beside two women as I heard them comment about how fast they ran the last mile. I tell them that we are doing an 8:00min/mile pace now, they thank me, comment that they need to do 8:15, and therefore can afford to slow down just a bit. As I pull away, I hear a comment about how great it is having people with GPS’s around them.

Chatted up a fellow with a Valley Of Fire Marathon shirt. Helen and I have run the 10K there in the past, and it was always fun. This fellow I told the story about the last year we did it, and about the missing bus. He actually rode in the truck with the stock racks that ferried people to the start line. Good memories. Told me about the St George Marthon, which many people seem to like. Its done as a lottery, and if you don’t get in twice in a row, you are guaranteed for the third year. A Hispanic looking woman caught up to us, and asked up what our target was. I said 3:30, and she said great, I will hang with you. We ran together for a while before she pulled away.

Eventually, I told the fellow that I had to pick up the pace, and moved along. Once we got past Fremont street, it gets a bit boring Nothing in particular happens, other than hitting my paces. I noticed that for the first 10k, it seemed my heart rate was staying around 144, and any time I noticed it higher, I was able to correct my form, and bring it back down. Breathing really easy, and making sure I never tempo, never match my breathing to my paces. I am taking a salt cap every 7k (35 minutes) and a gel every 8k (40 minutes). If its close, I try to match taking a gel with the water station, to have lots of water to process the carbs.

I also note that I never have sloshy stomach. Even with big drinks of water, it never bothers me. I think the salt caps work really well for me in absorbing and using the water.

I try running through the first water station I take water at, squeezing the top to slurp it. I comment to another run that I successfully poured a glass of water up my nose, and he laughs at that thought. I took about 6 ozs of e-load in a water bottle, and carried that for the first part of the race. I like doing this, because it let me run through the first 2-3 water stops. These ones are always chaotic, as people forget to get out of the way, forget how to grab water, etc. It always seems dangerous to get water at these, because you almost always trip over someone. I take a sip from the bottle every time the garmin tells me another Kilometer is done, and finish the bottle at about the 5k mark, and toss it at the water station.

I actually manage to squeeze the top down enough on a water glass to make it act like a straw, and drink on the run. But that only works once. I end up taking water at the odd numbered water stations, and I walk once I have my water. I count 1-1000, 2-1000 as I walk and drink, and the time limit is 20 seconds. Most water stops I only walk for 10 seconds, but some are still at 20. I manage to get back up to my paces very quickly after every walk.

There was no one manning the Mile 17 water station. The tables and supplies where there, just no one to hand out water. So much for stopping at odd numbered stations. I get water at Mile 18. I was thinking about the cheerleaders from last year, looking forward to them. I hear some screaming and cheering ahead, and this really raised my spirits. Its just a great water stop. No cheerleaders this year. Bummer. There was no wall at 20 miles either. Bummer, as I told many people about this.

When I get to 31K I start picking up the pace to threshold. I am ready and feeling good. I had decided that it was not bunny chasing for today, but that I was the fisherman, picking out fish, and reeling them in. I start picking out people ahead of me, and purposely picking people with colorful outfits a long ways away. This allows me to kind of zone, as I just concentrate on the horizon. I hear the fast pace alarm going off, and this makes me feel happy, but I keep my race face on.

From this point on, no one passes me again. I catch up to many people I has seen earlier, and comment that its time to start reeling people in. I eventually catch up to the Hispanic woman, and she says that she will try to keep up with me. I pull away. I start channeling Simon Whitfield. Thinking about that last 10k run at an awesome pace. I think that I should look like a tri-athlete, keeping my chest high, shoulders back, and think about pulling my belly-button to my spine. This helps me keep my stride long, and my form proper. This pace feels good, and I am still below threshold, as I can easily control my breathing. I have a thought about that I should have run faster in the first 10K, and should not have had such a slow middle. I push it away, saying all I need to think about is reeling people in, and I focus on that. Doubts leave, and I continue to push the pace.

At the 37k mark, I pick out a fish, a woman with a brown shirt tied around her waist. As I get closer, I can see it’s a Chicago marathon shirt, she is hardcore. I get to within 20 meters of her by the finish line, but I never catch her.

When we get in the last 3K, we join up with the half marathon people. This is 3:15 since the marathon started, and there are people still doing the half-marathon. I remember being really angry last year that they were letting spectators walk on the course, but remembered that these were competitors too. I blow past them all.

Last Kilometer. I am pouring it on. I am dry, thinking that I should not have passed that last water station. I gulp, and realize I am not that thirsty. Press on. The crowds are getting larger, and the cheering is louder. A fellow pulls up even with me, and we both accelerate. I manage to pull away from him before the finish line. I run hard and cross the finish line in 3:31:50. A personal best, by nearly 12 minutes. And I ran an awesome last 10k. I think its about a 48:38 10K, which is only 3 minutes off my personal best for that distance.

Helen finds me right away at the finsh, and I give her a great big hug. She is shivering uncontrollably, but this doesn’t clue at the time. We get water, and I drink an entire bottle in front of the water guy, and then ask for another bottle. Half it is gone right away. As we walk to the end of the chute, I am almost feeling recovered, and Helen is still shivering. A woman (1/2 marathon competitor) stops us, tells us to stay put, and heads off to find some covering. There is no mylar sheets, and we hear later that they ran out at 8:00 am. We get a garbage bag for Helen, and the woman tells us to go to the medical tent to warm up.

We get to the med tent, and sit Helen down, and they wrap her up in a blanket. I do some light stretching, but its really weird. I feel fully recovered at this point, and not very sore. Very weird. I leave Helen in the tent, and head back out to see if I can see Tony Bell come in. Another fellow waiting comments on my Canada Flag tattoo on my calf, and says that he saw it at about the 22 mile mark as I passed him, and he used it to drag him along to the finish line. A weird feeling, that others were using me to pull them along.

We meet up with Tony and Cheryl just inside the Mandalay bay, as Tony needs a break. His back is wrecked and sore.

The traditional bottle of champagne was tasty. We end up meeting with Tony and Cheryl just downstairs from Polo towers, and drag them out to supper at planet Hollywood.

By 9:00 pm, we are done, and crawl into bed, and get 12 hours of sleep. Nice end to a nice day.

Las Vegas Bound

We are ready. Training is Done! Now its time to get a good sleep, travel to Vegas and run easy. The marathon pace is slower and easier than many of the training runs. I will gain 300 meters of elevation, and have more oxygen to burn. I have light shoes (Saucony Fastwitch 3) and even lighter feet. The stars are lining up.

I told my friend Rob that "Luck favours the well prepared". I think I am well prepared, and now we will see if luck favours me this sunday.

I'll see you at the finish line, unless you see me first....

Wicked Sunday Run....

Got my last long run before the race today. I was planning on doing between 34 and 38k, the intent being to better simulate the race. I was given a workout by my buddy rob, one that he was given leading up to his great vegas race last year. Heres the workout:

1. 8 miles easy
2. 8 miles @ marathon pace
3. 1 mile @ threshold
4. 4 miles @marathon
5. 1 mile @threshold
6. 1 mile @marathon

I would like to say that I completed that, but its not the case. Halfway through step 2 is the turnaround on the out-and-back, I and think I took too long on the bathroom break, cooled down too much. I was able to do marathon pace for the first 4 miles, but it was really hard to get to it after the turnaround. I picked it up to threshold for one mile (yeah me!). The next 4 miles were not near marathon pace, as I had to stop and stretch many times. I also took 2 advil in this step, and it eventually worked really well :-)

I think the one good thing I can take away from this run is that I was still able to run for steps 5 and 6. I held threshold pace for step 5, until I got to Snake Hill. After a bit of a walk, I then ran on mile at marathon pace. The last time I ran the 37k, I ended up walking for the last 3-4, as I hurt too much. So its getting easier for me to run these distances, which bodes well for my race in two weeks.

Rob successfully completed this workout, then went to run a 3:13 at vegas. I didn't quite complete it, and am aiming for my Boston Qualifier at Las Vegas, with a 3:30 run.

About Me

I was thinking originally of doing this blog somewhat anonymously, but I am finding that it makes it harder for me to write. Sooo, I need to tell you a little bit about myself.

I am a self-described, late-onset athlete. After being quite serious about being a smoker for nearly 20 years, after quitting I found myself lured to running, and have become quite hooked.

I now run Marathons, as well as half and 10k races as well. I found that my 10K times had plateaued, until I started training for half-marathons. I then found those times did not drop until I trained for a marathon.

As I get more into this running thang, I find myself attracted to the science view of running, as I am a science geek at heart. Looking into the research that is being done into aspects of running, and seeing how that compares to what I am experiencing as I train is likely to be the majority of my blog posts, but this is good, as it gives me an easy place to find all my research.

Heres hoping that you find something of interest here.

Sloshy stomach and salt caps....

One of the things that I was worried about, after the Berlin Marathon started, was hydration and salt. Due to fatigue (I think), when I ran my paces in Berlin, I would sweat like I was standing in the shower. Every water stop was giving us full water glasses with about 7 ozs of water, which might be closer to what you should be drinking. I knew I had to drink a lot, based on how much I was sweating, and also needed to avoid sloshy stomach.

I was also taking salt capsules with somethink like 600 mg of sodium in each, taking one every 8 k (so at 8, 16 24, 32). This was the first race that I would be taking salt, and I would find out this race how my body reacted. And as it turned out, I think it reacted very well.

I had several times where I was getting sloshy stomach, and it was most noticeable at the 24 and 32k marks, because when I took a salt cap, it went away.

Do salt caps cure sloshy stomach? based on Berlin, I would vote yes. But more reaearch is required.

Berlin Marathon race report

Here are the things that I remember about the berlin marathon. I ran a 4:01:01, which is not my best run, but certainly not my worst one either. The weather was perfect, 9 degrees at the start, about 14-15 at the finish, some cloud so not too sunny.

Did my saturday run from the hotel to the start area, so I could explore where the bag drop-off was, and where my coral was. This really helped settle me, as I was somewhat familiar with the area, I had run around it in previous years.

Watched the in-line skating marathon on the saturday. really kewl, those guys fly. They do close to the same course as the Marathon, but the leaders finish it in an hour.

Got killed by jet-lag. No matter what I did, including taking sleeping pills, would make me fall asleep before 4 am. I seemed to be able to operate on only 2 hours of sleep, but I think I was a little dopey for a few days. 2 hours of sleep is not a good way to prepare to race.

Schedule that I had, based on Rob's really helped. Had everything set out and ready, bag packed, so I could get ready on autopilot. got to start area at about 7:15. Not too many runners about.

Met a new yorker named Jacqui at the start area when I got there, so I showed her the start/finish area. She mentioned for the New York marathon that there are not enough port-a-potties at the start area. "its OK for the guys, they just go off the (verazzano narrows) bridge, not so for the girls." Her advice was to take the upper level of the bridge for the start.

I took a small camera around the race course, but was not thinking about it too much, as I only shot pictures at the start and the finish of the race. This is the start area before it starts to fill up. I am in corral E, and I will get to go out with the first wave.


Saw Haile Gebraselassie warming up in the tiergarten, same area where I was. I actually got a picture of him.
More of his entourage. This group flew by me doing way more than my marathon pace, and it looked effortless when they did it.

Note the yellow bags everyone is wearing. I bought a cheap, 5 euro touristy shirt the day before, intending to chuck the shirt right before the race. When I got the bag drop-off tent that I was assigned to, they had these yellow plastic bags for you to where, so I kept the shirt and wore the bag. They actually kept you fairly warm. The covering you get at the finish line is a sheet of the same thin plastic.

The fall colours where very nice. Not many leaves on the course, so no danger of being slippery.

You can see the victory column, AKA siegessaeule, in the distance. There is a traffic circle there, and the runners split around both sides, and join up again on the far side. You can also see the start line, and I am between 60 and 90 running strides from the start (I measured it on saturday), or about 2 minutes between gun time and chip time.


The gun goes off, and everyone holding a balloon lets it go. It did look really cool actually. Weird thing about my start is that there was never really the rush as the gun went off, and I don't think I actually heared the gun go off. To relax I kinda bopped to an internal rhythm as we moved towards the start line.

Here is the race route. First k was 5:15, second was 5:09. Crowd finally thinned a bit, and I hit my paces (4:40-5:02) until we get to the 13k mark. Round about this time, I am deciding that I need to change my race strategy to be finishing the race. When I was running at a 5:00/km pace, I was sweating like I was standing in the shower. Drank from my e-load every time my Garmin signalled another K goes down. I finished the e-load at about the 10k mark. I was taking gels every 7km and taking a salt cap every 8.

It seems that the salt caps actually help with sloshy stomache, for me at least. I had the slossies a few times, and it seemed that when I took a salt cap, in about 5 minutes, the sloshy feeling had passed. I drank a lot of water. The cups they served in were 6 or 7 oz glasses that were right full. They had what looked like plastic baby tubs with garden hoses running into them on the tables, and they were filling glasses by scoop and place. It took 4 swallows to drain one of these. No wonder I got sloshy, but I was well hydrated.

I am thinking that you get sloshy stomach, as your body tries to protect you from overhydrating. If you are running low on salt, your body doesn't absorb the water, and avoids thinning the electrolytes too much. Add some salt, and it can be absorbed.

The noise at the first water station was incredible. They were using the 7 oz glasses, and everyone drinks and drops the cups. There were perhaps 8,000 cups on the ground already when I went by, and made a nice cruching noise when stepped on by the 500 people around me. It was so incredibly noisy!

From 13k to 18k, my mantra became "so very tired, I'm so very tired..." I was really feeling the jetlag now, and running a 5:30 to 5:45 pace (and occaisonally slower).

My friend Konni cheered for me at the 18K mark, and ran some 500 metres with me. This gave me a real boost. She commented that I must have found it too warm to run, as I was sweating like crazy. Started to feel better about running, but certainly not going any faster.

I put two Canada flag tattoos on before the race, one on my arm, and one on my calf. No one ever commented on them. The one time I met a canadian in the race, he overheard me say something, and right away said "Your from canada too". Must be the accent.

kept my sponge in my sleeve, which actually worked really good. Dunked it every waterstop, cause I needed it. I ran with another, thinner sponge that I kept under my hat the whole race, but never moved my hat, so it was not a problem. Dont know if that helped though.

The wrist band that I asked my Mom to modify before the race worked out well. We took an old sweatband, cut it in half, and serged. As I get skinnier, my Garmin chafs the bone that pokes out of your wrist. The wristband keeps it away from the bone, without being annoying. Must have worked well, because I never thought about the wristband all race.

My last 10 k felt like the best one I had sone so far, I took very few walking breaks, they were short (like to drink water at the station, or take a salt cap, and I did not stop at all for the last 3. This was a huge improvement. I am blaming it on both the intervals, and the long runs of 34 and 38k in the weeks before the race.

At the 25, 30, and 35K marks, there were massage therapist with their portable beds, giving massages at the side of the road. I guess if you were cramping up, this would be a great way to work it out.

my heart rate never went over 160, and spent a large portion between 135 and 145. Have to look up what real effect elevation has on your running. Do you reach lactic acid threshold sooner? at a lower heart rate? Are you really able to absorb more oxygen, and thus get a higher V02 max?

Loved my shoes. Saucony Fastwitch 3's, 7.4 oz, around 210 grams (when talking to the europeans at the start line). My feet felt light all race. There was a section of cobblestone near the end, and I felt them through the shoe. They were nice to race in, and shed water quickly too.

Greasing up the toes with vaseline helped. I still have all 10 toenails, and they are all still attached to my feet:-).

Didn't drink any of the sports drink on the course, and glad I didn't. I had two glasses of the stuff at the finish area, and it was disgusting. They mixed it up from powder in the baby tubs, and never let it disolve, so the strength was very different from glass to glass. Not gatorade at all. I drank 24 oz' because I was dry. 24 oz's of water as well. And I was still thirsty.

Goodie bags were nice. bottle of flavoured water (mine was peach), Melt in your mouth cakes with chocolate chips, cookies, banana, and dextrose tablets.



Coming to the finish line, you can see the brandenburg get getting bigger, you are within the last kilometer at this point.

You go through the gates, and you are 400 meters from the finish line, complete with granstands and video screens.


It was a cool race, and I would definately do it again. There were so many spectators, and in some places it was like the tour de france, where they crowd into the road, and you have to squeeze through a chute.

After a good dinner of pasta (third night in a row) I had no problem falling asleep.