Avoiding the rain

Timing was everything today. We had some terrific thunder and lightning storms today but strangely also some great sun. It rained in the morning, was sunny over lunch for my company barbeque, rained in the afternoon, stopped for my run and then started again after my run.

There must be some big thunderstorm traffic cop up in the sky holding things back for me today. I fully expected to get quite wet but wasn't to worried as it was fairly warm today. Warm rain is okay, cold November rains are another story.

My Peak centre schedule has me doing runs in the low, middle and upper part of my zone 1. To be technical for one second, Zone 1 as measured by peak is everything under 2 mMol of lactate acid accumulation. Under this amount the body can flush away any accumulations. As my fitness has improved this range has gotten larger. Now what is great is that the various Zone 1 runs are really starting to feel quite distinct. The upper part of my zone 1 for example is definitely much more of a workout than a low zone 1 workout.

There's no question that I can go quite a way in high zone 1 but the interesting part is that I'm still susceptible to muscle glycogen depletion and dehydration. So while the speed is manageable I cannot ignore the fluids and carbs especially when I'm out for a couple of hours. This is the part that I have to work on the most between now and NY in November.

The struggle I've had in all my races is to be able to get in enough carbs. I found that gels don't work well for me as they make stomach feels quite woozy after a while. I've been trying different things and some things in combination. The biggest problem is that I still burn a lot of carbs per minute (yes I said per minute). As I get into better shape and loose some more weight (10 more pounds to go) I should burn less carbs. This is a very slow process (slowler than my patience for sure).

I also learned after consultation that I may have been over ingesting fluids in my last marathon. So how to make sure I get enough fluids but not too much. Too much to think about tonight.

Tomorrows my day off followed by the 10k on Saturday. Jo-Anne will run her first official 5k Saturday. I'm going to try ad run with her after my race. What a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Morning weight:- 200.6

Workout:-

- 20 min low zone 1
- 60 min high zone 1
- 20 min mid zone 1

How to get used to the humidity

You can't avoid it. You can't push it aside. It feels like you can slice it. And best of all, its calorie free. Okay well maybe there’s a big calorie penalty (sweat).

Overall on days like this I find it hard to feel peppy. Even with reasonably good sleep. Could have still used more sleep but what sleep I had was pretty sound.

Most of all it just seams harder mentally. The second part of my run just seamed like a huge distance tonight. Of course, once I got going it was okay but the mind wasn’t quite as accepting that everything would be okay.

Because of the rain I did both my runs on the treadmill tonight. I find that I need to be much more focused to have a good run on the treadmill. Still getting used to it I guess.

I’ll be curious how my weight does in the morning. I ate steadily, in small amounts for most of the day. I don’t feel I over ate but we'll see in the morning. The nutrition content was really good today.

2 more runs before the 10k on Saturday. No official taper for this race but my regular day off is Friday before the race. It will be interesting to see how things turn out. We haven’t been focusing on speed at all. Last week we pushed through the 10k in 48 and change. Not sure how much I can bring that down at this point. The weather may be a factor as it’s still pretty warm and muggy as noted above.

All I’ve been thinking about this evening is making sure I get good sleep. Somewhat obsessed or what eh!

Morning Weight:- 200.2
Workout:-
35 minute warmup
Strength and Conditioning workout
50 minute cooldown

Toronto Weekend Remembered

That was a really great weekend in Toronto. It’s always so nice to be able to run in another city. It worked out really well that I was close to the Don Valley recreation trails. There was so much more I could have explored.

Although the weekend was quick I still managed to allow myself to enjoy my runs and not to rush them. So often runs are fit into a day but fortunately I gave my self permission to take the time and enjoy the runs. Now if I could only have remembered to where a hat on Saturday.

Tonight I was at the Running Room group leading with the Learn to Runs. A few of them were really pushing themselves especially on the hills. They’ll settle down more as the minutes stretch on. The group is well balanced this round which is nice to see.

This week I need to really focus on making sure I get more sleep. Notice I didn’t say enough sleep. Baby steps. I felt sluggish at work most of the day.

The other thing I need to do this week is stretch the calf muscles every day. I could feel the top of my feet and my left shin for the first half of the run today. I remember that yoga really helped stretch this out. Next yoga class is on July 9^th but I can still do a lot of the poses.

Morning Weight:- 202.0 lbs
Workout:-

1. 65 minutes in mid-zone 1
2. 20 minutes with the Learn to Run group at the Running Room doing 3 and 1’s.

Travelling and running and nuitrition

We're just back from Toronto. Travelled most of the afternoon with two stops along the way; one to visit Jo-Anne's aunt and uncle and one to have lunch with my mother. Makes for a long day driving. The couch is feeling very comfortable right now.

Ran both days along the bicycle trails along the Don Valley. Once I found the entrance to the trails it was quite pleasant going. I was surprised that there wasn't more people on the trails. I saw more folks on Sunday morning than Saturday. It might have been the heat on Saturday.

Saturday turned out to be a lot hotter than I thought. It was overcast and looked cool. Wrong. I ended up getting a bit of a sun burn on top of my head.

Both days I felt that I needed to stretch out the tops of my feet and my shins more. I wasn't quite as "bouncy" as I like to feel. It felt better on Sunday than Saturday. I'll have to make that a priority this week.

Although I ate reasonable well this weekend, there is a lot of room for improvement. I was saying to Jo-Anne that I felt like popping into the grocery store on Saturday and grabbing a few extra items. Parts of the day are easier than others to eat right. For example, getting a good breakfast early is a challenge. Could have done well with some cereal and fruit to start the day off today. Managed to find a smoothy in the Health Club which was a good start.

It was nice today to only have to run an hour. Felt like a rest day almost. My new schedule from Peak for next month is sitting in my mail box. Looking forward to seeing what's up for the next month. I'm enjoying having a schedule to follow. This week (last week of current schedule) looks pretty steady with a 10k race on Canada day (Saturday). No taper for the race, just part of the schedule.

Toronto Weekend

Haven't posted much this week :-(

We're in Toronto for the weekend. Managed to find a PDF map of the area. It looks like I'm only about 2k form the entrance to some great bicycle trails that run up and down the Don Valley here in Toronto. I've got runs here today and tomorrow so hopefully these trails will be nice.

Not nearly enough sleep this week. This morning I allowed myself to sleep all the way to 8:00. For some that may not be a sleep in but for me it was jsut fine. Also it was nice not have to be somewhere right away.

Nutruition was really good this week in general. I found it tough to figure what to take in right after the runs given the high humidity we've had this week. On one day I took in too much, on another not quite enough. This will get easier as I get used to heat.

Met a really nice older couple (49 years maried) from New York at breakfast. I was telling them that I'll be in the NY for the marathon in November. It's amazing how much New Yorkers support their race. Their enthusiasm for the city was infectious. Great way to start the day.

Holy Hot Batman!

Humidex was 38 degress C today. Very himid. Very hot. It always hits us hard this time of year as we go from relatively comfortable temperatures in the teens (50-60 degres F) to these temperatures in the upper 20s and low 30s with generally high humidex.

A few weeks ago I heard Frank shorter talking about it taking to 2 weeks to initially adapt to an environment (high alititude was his reference) and two months to see an improvement related to this new stress that body is adapting too. In the cases of high heat and humidity I would expect that after two months the body will actually sweat less from what was has been explaned to me. In the mean time it's just hot.

Ran for about 1h 25-30 yesterday and 1hr 55 minutes today. Todays route was planned based on proximity of water fountains. That strategy worked out well. I also planned a stop at a convenince store 1 hr into the run and took in extra calories. Today I tried 500 ml of chocolate milk and a chocolate bar (Mars bar). This seam to help a lot.

What did not gone down well today was the cytomax. It was okay for the first bit but became increasingly difficult to ingest after I started feeling the heat. I really relied on the water fountains to get in fluids other than the chocolate milk at the store. I had the feeling that I was taking in too much fluids overall today as well. Felt like I needed it but it felt sloshy in my stomach.

I weighed myself after getting back and having a 2nd choclate milk (seemed to be the day for it) and I was done 2.8 lbs from this morning. Unfortuntaely I didn't have a chance to weigh myself just before the run which would have been ideal. I'm going to try and do that more often while I work on ideal fluids consumption.

The last comment was partially in relation to a nutrition session I had yesterday with Beth Mansfield. She's really great local resource and gave me a lot to think about. One key is that I can definately aford to lose more fat. Currently sitting at 22% which isn't horific for my frame size but is a bit above where it should be and well above where I want it to be for running. We're lucky to have Beth in the city for sure.

Beth agreed with my goal of trying to get down to at least 190 lbs by Novemeber 5th. If all goes well I should dip below 200 this week. Keeping my fingers crossed. Part of doing this will be to really weed out the bad items in my diet like muffins in the morning. It's not to say that I can't have them once in a while just not every day during the week.

Also had the best sleep of the week last night. Didn't get up til after 10 this morning which is amazing for me. Missed the group run at the Running Room but sleep wass more important.

Lots of miles planned for this week. We're in Toronto for the weekend visiting friends. Looking forward to it, should be nice.

End of Work Week

Haven't post for a couple of days. (Bad Brian bad.) Wednesday and Thursday were both great training days. Today was my scheduled day off.

The Wednesday night run with guys was especially tough as the pace was notched up just a little more than usual. We went through 5k in 23:06 after having started out fairly easy in the first 1/2k. Mentally I felt really strong Wednesday and did not back down from the pace for a while.

At 5K I dropped back and joined Faye (sp?) for the last 5k. Lactate acid had really built up in that first 5k and I never managed to feel very good for the 2nd 5k even though the pace was slightly slower than the first 5k. Went through 10k in 48:12. The cool down run after helped a lot.

Thursday nights long slow run was just what I needed. Total of 1:40 all in zone 1 (< 10.9k/hr). I actually felt better in the 2nd half of this run. Was feeling like I could go on for quite a bit longer. I may have been a bit tight going into this run tonight.

My fueling going into Thursday run was good this week. This has been an issue with several hard or long days in a row. Because I was able to work at home Wednesday and Thursday, I was able to go to the Table restaruant for lunch both days. This is a vegetarian buffet restaurant with fantastic salads and a great mixture of everything else. You pay by weight which is great as I can take only what I want. Avoided the desert table. :-). Going to the Table really ensures that I get a good meal. Total cost on average is about $7.50-8.00. Very cheap for what you get and its ready when you show up.

My sleep has been off all week. Unfortuntately got onto a bit of night schedule last weekend and never really got back to the "early to bed" that I need if I am going to get enough sleep each night.

Tomorrow is my nutrition appointment. We're also going to test body fat %'s. Being a 200 lb. runner I'm keen to here what she has to say. I'm also seeing her to make sure that I can get my weight down before New York in November.

Weight this morning:- 200.4 lbs. Goal for November:- 190
Sleep 6 1/2 hrs.

See ya on the run. :-)

Imax Film :- "Surviving the Tour De France"

Went to see a pre-screening of a new Imax film tonight on the human body and the surviving the Tour De France. Almost didn't get in as it turns out that you had to reserve ahead of time. We managed to find buy two extra tickets from some people who had to many. Win win situation.

Film was kinda cool. Great scenary of the Tour De France through the Alps. Seeing it on the IMAX screen is fantastic.

The film also talk a lot about how the brain processes information like pain and fatigue and how people train through these problems.

All in all a fun outing.

Peak Day (Tuesday)

Tuesday and Saturday are Peak days. This is where I go to do my Strength and Conditioning (ST&C) workouts. Last nights workout was slightly different.

Being a nubbie to doing upper body and core strength workouts I had no idea what my max weight for any of the specific exercises. Kristen, my coach/advisor, wants me to do my ST&C workouts at about 70% of my max. That begged the question as to what my max was on any given item.

What was clear was that for any any lower body item involving the legs, I was able to push a fairly descent amout. The same applied if I didn't have to lift the weight over my waist. The fun really was for the items that I have to raise the weight over my head. There should be an award for weakest upper body. I'd win hands down.

I'm very keen to work on this stuff as I know it is good for me. I keep having to tell myself to have patience, that it will come in time. For now I'll keep working on this twice a week.

One issue I did have last night is that I've come to the realization that my hamstrings are too tight, make that way too tight. I'm going to have to focus on this area to get it loosened up. Better to know this know then next Novemeber when I'm in New York for the marathon. Oh did I mention that. :-)

I've also confirmed my appointment this Saturday for some nutritional advice. Carb depletion is a big big issue for me as well as wanting to get my weight down. I hit the scales at 201.2 today which is good progress. 190 is the goal.

Tonight I'm off to the running room for my zone 3 run with the boys. These guys definately push me. Its the one day of the week that I'm pushing into zone 3. The others days are all zone 1 and lots of it.

--brian

Let's get this started

I'll keep this first post short so that I actually do it. :-)

Monday nights I volunteer at the Running Room with a Learn to Run group as a group leader. The group this time around is fairly large. 50 or 60 in the whole clinic and about 30 in my run group. This was week 2 of 10 for them. Tonight they were running 1 minute and walking 1 minute for a total of 20 minutes. Its hard to remember what that felt like but it does seam like a nice place to start for them.

I usual try and do my own run before the clinic if I can. Tonight was all zone 1. 15 min. low Zone 1, 15 min. mid Zone 1, 15 min. high zone 1 and 15 min. low zone for a total of 60 minutes. It took me most of the first set to get slowed down properly. Just seam to be running fast too night.

Weight today was 203. Goal is 190 by the time I do the New York City Marathon in November.

Tomorrow its back to the Peak Centre for Human Performance (Peak for short) to do my strength and conditioning workout. Really felt that calf raises from Saturday. Trying hard to get this part of my programme really going. Its not an area I've done any work before this past April when I started with Peak.

Also made an appointment for some nutrition advise/counciling this Saturday. Carb depletion has been the single biggest factor in all of my marathons to date. I really need to get a handle on this.

That's it for this first post. :-)