Still recovering ...

Ran for 61 minutes yesterday. Today is a scheduled day off.

The legs are definitely still recovering. I’m moving along well but not without effort. Kept the pace reasonable yesterday. I don’t want to rush the recovery.

Had my last runner’s yoga class for the spring session yesterday. Summer session starts on June 10th. Good class.

Tomorrow I’ll be back at Peak for weights. Slowly starting back into that.

After Wednesday I’m schedule to be off for a week. That may change do to my plans to run a summer marathon. I’ll be able to talk to the folks at Peak on Wednesday or Thursday this week.

This week is all about getting going on post marathon plans and continued recovery.

Dehydration?

Interesting once you start sharing what happened during the race. There's a wealth of experience out there. One theory that's been put out there is that I was dehydrated on the day. This is quite possible as it was a sunny day even though it was a cooler start. And I've been known to sweat just a wee bit.

If this is the case, that's great as I can train specifically for that.

Did my easy run with the guys last night at the running room. Actually felt pretty good all things considered. The legs are coming back nicely.

Yoga and a run are on the plate for later today.

Happy trails ....

Recovery time

Busy trying to find another race to run on or after June 16th. As mentioned in the race report I want to see if I can’t get right back at it and get a Boston qualifier out of the way. There are very few races in June surprisingly. Of course I should talk to my Peak folks about this as well.

I switched my run day from yesterday to today. My legs were really sore yesterday. I did get a 50 minute slow run in on Monday which was good. I have a message scheduled for this afternoon with Paula.

Today I’ll go run with some of the Running Room folks.

I also didn't get a chance to congratulate Jo-Anne on her personal best 5k on Saturday night in Mississauga. She cracked 30 minutes for the first time. Way to go girl.

Mississauga Marathon: detailed race report

Overall place= 170 / 4340 finishers

Name	City	Bib#	Time	Chip	Pace (Gun time)
BRIAN LAWLESS	Ottawa	170	3:25:50.1	3:25:19.5	4:53
Category	Category Place	Gender Place	Split @ 8k	Split @ 21.1k	Split @ 25k
Men 40-44	44/150	156/806	35:18	1:33:43	1:52:09

 

5k Splits	Time	Distance	Pace	Calories	Comments
	3:25:25	42.25	4:51	3734
1	21:40	5	4:20		Most of major downhill sections in first 10k hence the faster pace.
2	21:46	5	4:21
3	22:29	5	4:29
4	22:26	5	4:29		mostly just keeping the pace going through here
5	22:35	5	4:31
6	24:57	5	4:59
7	26:59	5	5:23
8	26:59	5	5:23
9	15:34	2.25	6:55

10k Splits	Time	Distance	Pace	Comments
	3:25:25	42.25	4:51
1	43:26	10	4:20	Most of major downhill sections in first 10k hence the faster pace.
2	44:55	10	4:29
3	47:33	10	4:45
4	53:57	10	5:23
5	15:34	2.25	6:55

1k Splits	Time	Distance	Pace	Comments
	3:25:25	42.25	4:51
1	4:32	1	4:32
2	4:24	1	4:23
3	4:21	1	4:21
4	4:08	1	4:08	downhill
5	4:15	1	4:15	downhill
6	4:27	1	4:27
7	4:19	1	4:18	1/2k of downhill
8	4:19	1	4:18	downhill
9	4:18	1	4:17	1/2k of downhill
10	4:23	1	4:23
11	4:41	1	4:40	Big hill
12	4:24	1	4:24
13	4:22	1	4:21
14	4:35	1	4:35	Refilled water bottle with SPR-3
15	4:27	1	4:27
16	4:25	1	4:25
17	4:30	1	4:29
18	4:33	1	4:32
19	4:30	1	4:29
20	4:28	1	4:28
21	4:20	1	4:19
22	4:51	1	4:50	Lost focus a bit in this k
23	4:29	1	4:29
24	4:25	1	4:24
25	4:31	1	4:30
26	4:37	1	4:37
27	5:30	1	5:29	Stopped to take Cliff Shots
28	4:50	1	4:49
29	5:00	1	5:00
30	5:01	1	5:00	Refilled water bottle with SPR-3 (total time in 2:15:53)
31	5:31	1	5:30	All uphill in this k.
32	5:07	1	5:06	Rolling hills through here
33	5:11	1	5:10
34	5:09	1	5:09
35	6:01	1	6:00
36	5:11	1	5:11
37	5:17	1	5:17
38	5:30	1	5:29
39	5:23	1	5:22
40	5:38	1	5:38
41	7:57	1	7:56
42	1:09	1	6:28
0.25	4:38	.25	4:38

Overall Comments
- I still think the plan for the day was right. In hind sight, I should have pushed through those early troubles in km 26. I might have recovered enough for a reasonable finish.
- I don't have a good sense of what I should have been feeling to know that I should have brought the pace back a notch in the early stages up to km 26. I'll need to ask lots of questions about this.
- As mention in the initial thoughts posting, I need to do a lot of training around this area that is gaving me such a problem. This means lots of runs that are at least 26-35 k and routes that have fewer stops and good access to water to refill my fuel. I listened to a interesting Mark Allen talk where he asks the question of what the marathon is asking me to do to be successful.
- To have a bad day and still run 3:25 is fantastic. I'm just really happy to be running at this level. A bad day doesn't take this away.
- Mississauga was a really nice course. I definitely will do it again at some point.
- Possible having to wait several months to get another kick at the can is not sitting very well with me at the moment. I really really want to get back on the horse and get this Boston qualifier out of the way.
Rest / General Health during taper
- Ran a very high fever for 2-3 days 10 days before the race (Wed - Fri)
- very dry throat after this through to and including race day.
- rest was really good leading up to the race. Work was busy but manageable. Minimal overtime during the few weeks before the race.
Nutrition in the week before the race
- made sure iron levels where up (read steak)
- ate pasta in the several days prior to the race
- really watched my water intake during the last 2-3 days before the race.
- night before the race was still hungry so had some pizza as well.
- tried not too drink too much coffee all week.
Race Day
Weight
180.6 lbs
Weather
5 degrees c, sunny light winds. Absolutely ideal.
Breakfast / Fluids 
1 bowl of cereal with milk, 1 croissant (2.5 hours before the race)
1 bottle of SPR-3 1 hour before the race.
Forget my regular cereal at home. Used vector which I have eaten before.
Race Notes
- 1st 25k were really good. This was the plan and I executed this part really well. The pace in this early part just felt string and steady. Let me self go a little fast in the downhill sections in the early stages.
- Went through the 1/2 in 1:33:43.1
- Stopped in k 26 to eat some cliff shots. The pace had started to feel challenging at this point. The 3:10 pace bunny blew by me at this point.
- After this fuel stop I had trouble getting into a good pace. Allowed myself to walk in km 29. This was a mistake I believe in hind sight. I should have tried to find a pace that could be sustained.
- Hill on km 30 was really tough. Its not that long but boy did it seam hard.
- Rolling hills after this which were also very challenging. Legs starting to seize up from the short walk breaks that I had allowed myself.
- At 7k to go wasn't sure that I would even finish without walking all the way back. Pretty much did walk and run for the last 7k.
- Legs still seizing up worse after each walk break.At 40k I couldn't keep a run going. Or perhaps I should say that I couldn't run without going into a whole lot of pain which didn't seam like a good idea. At this point all I was thinking about was survive to another day.
- Forced myself to run the last 600 meters. (pride and ego)
Fuel during the race
- Total of 3 bottles (550 ml) of the 4 planned of SPR-3
- one of 3 portions of Cliff Shots (3 pieces)
This was designed to give me 57.4 g of carb per hour and 14.3 g of protein. On paper this still looks ideal.
My throat was dry throughout the race which is why I didn't eat as much of the Cliff Shots. This was something that I had linger over from being sick last week.
SPR-3 1.3 bottles / hr 33.4 g CHO/hour 14.3g Protein /hour
Cliff Shot Blocks 1 portion (3 pieces) / hr 24 g CHO/hour 0
Totals (per 100 ml) 8.02 CHO 2.00 Protein
Targets based on info from Peak nutrition lecture:
CHO/hr 30-60g
CHO/100 ml 4-8g
Protein/100 ml 1.5-2.2 g
Next Race
For me the ideal would be to get right back on the horse and get this Boston Monkey off my back. That being said, I'd would love to find a race in mid-late June. So far I haven't found one. At the moment it looks like I might need to look at an early September (possibly Montreal) race and then follow it up with the main "A" race in November. I really don't want to wait until September but I might not have a choice.

Initial comments for Mississauga Marathon

- Fantastic weekend weather wise. 5 degrees at the start, light winds and sunny.
- Race course was really nice with most of the downhill sections in the first 15k. Net downhill overall.

Times:

8	35:18	4:24 min/k
21.1	1:33:43	4:26 min/k
30	1:52:09	4:29 min/k
42.2	3:25:19.5

Comments:
- 1st 25k felt really good. This was exactly what I was planning. Ran very much to the plan.
- Started to fall off the wagon at 26k. No obvious early signs that this was coming. :(
- Hill at 30k was really tough and it shouldn’t have been.
- Shouldn’t have allowed myself to walk. This made my problems exponentially worse as I started to really tighten up and it became difficult to start up after each of the walks even though they weren't that long.
- By 40k could barely run at anything that resembles a good pace. Last 2.2 k took 15 minutes, mostly walking as I knew I was going to miss my Boston time by this point.
- Boston will have to wait one more race. At this point I’ll plan on at least one marathon just to qualify and one later in the fall.
- Too have a not fantastic day and still run 3:25 is great. :) I feel really good about that and it was another PB. There's a lot of positive things about this race for sure.

Initial thoughts on why the wheels came off this one.
- I was off sick the week before for 2 or 3 days. This may have taken more out of my than I thought. I don’t think this was a major factor but may have contributed.
- In the winter, a lot of my runs did not have good access to water. I need to run all of my marathon pace runs where I’m getting the same amounts of water/nutrition that I will get in the race.
- The 26-30 k is where this really started to come apart. I did a lot of runs at this distance and more. I think having lots of these again but with fewer interruptions on the course for lights / busy areas, etc would do me a lot of good. It may make for more boring run courses but it is probably what I need.
- I wasn’t confident that I could push through these early signs of fatigue. Mentally I hadn’t planned to be fading this early in the race.

Looking forward to talking to the folks at Peak