slowdad

5 Peaks Races = Family Fun

This past weekend the slowdad family went out to the first 5 Peaks race of the year at the Dundas Conservation area near Hamilton.  I was the designated spectator/photographer, as usual and captured a couple of nice pictures, my favorite being the one above.

My lovely wife has, once again, signed her and the kids up for the entire race series this summer, and has expressly forbidden me from either entering, or doing anything else on these days.  I'd sorta like to run one, but I'll trade these days as a soigneur for the permission to race the bike in the fall.

The thing I like most about these races is that they have the kids races at the start.  They're fun, fairly short, and the kids really look forward to them.  It's really teaching them that running, and racing, are very normal things to do on a weekend.  As a Dad, it's fun to see them hammering and then, at the finish, being happy with whatever position they came in.

"6th is the best place, it's almost 4th!"

The other great thing is that they're relatively small, low key events compared to the average road race.  They have a nice feel to them and if you get lucky, you might have a shot at an age group podium.

Unfortunately this year, in my opinion, the race series here in Southern Ontario got off to a bit of a rocky start, no pun intended.

The race location was fabulous.  I highly recommend the Dundas Conservation Area as a place to go run, or ride, and the usual Kicking Horse coffee was a welcome beverage.  Huge thanks to them for sponsoring stuff like this.

As I said however, operationally things were a bit bumpy, as it appears that some new people are running the events.  I'm sure it'll get sorted out but the effect was that it wasn't as good as last year.

My observations:

• Order more porta-johns than you think you need.  5 is never enough where runners and their supporters are involved.  I'm guessing that there are now more flies congregating in the nearby bushes because of this.
• Having wave starts, with 30 seconds between waves, is not nearly enough. When one wave has barely cleared the startline, ease off on the horn.
• Invest in a megaphone.  The dirty traffic cone, while not projecting your voice, also gives you an odd dirty ring around your lips.  It's disconcerting.
• Get some music.  The audio system, combined with tunes, creates atmosphere.
• My kids are sad there were no kids shirts, which there were last year for signing up for all the kids races.  Sad kids make for angry parents. My understanding is that they've now been ordered.
• Don't wait till after the race, to give out swag, and make everyone line up for it.  That's what bib pickup time is for.
• Oh, and have more than 2 people handing out bibs while the other volunteers stand around drinking Kicking Horse coffee, figuring out how to change the channels on their radios so they can have fun private conversations.

That all being said, these races are much more fun by far than almost any other race we go to.  Other organizers can learn a lot from these.

I'll see everyone out there next time, and if you want me to take your picture, just let me know prior to the race.  

Switching to Cycling

It feels pretty good recently not having to go running.  Now that I have no running races on the schedule, and have committed to getting into shape for the upcoming cyclocross season, there's just no reason to go for a run.

Recently anyway, but also over the winter, it seemed like every run was an effort to do, with some kind of pain or worry.  I had a few strong runs recently, but on balance it was more painful than fun.

But then, I've never been a very strong runner.

However, I think I am going to miss the ease of just throwing on the shoes and heading out the door for an hour for a decent workout.  Cycling takes a bit longer to get going, more daylight, unless of course the trainer in the basement is involved, and if find you need to go longer to get the equivalent benefit.

I think that the most important thing for me will be learning to fit in rides better, and to spend more time going hard, so I don't need to always go far, and keep at least a smidge of time open to the family.

I'm sure I'll get out a little bit for some easy, short runs over the summer, just to tan the legs, but I'll keep the pounding to a minimum.

Recovery

I really should have written this post ages ago.  It would have been far more filled with self pity and worry for the future. But I've kept myself more busy than I would have liked in the evenings and I'm now fully recovered and thinking about getting more fit.

It began with the Around the Bay 30km.  I had to run it at a fairly easy pace because of my knee pain.  It turns out, I believe that it's a ligament issue that probably got strained during my first ski marathon, making the marathon the next day fairly miserable.

Fortunately that easy pace kept me well within myself, but I did fire it up a bit for the last 5 km or so.

At the end of the race, wandering through the basement of Copps Coliseum I felt miles better than I did at the end of my full Marathon where I could barely walk and my legs felt like some weird combination of lead and jello.  But, my legs were still very sore, and walking down stairs was difficult.  Thankfully my wife was there watching and could drive me home.

The next day my legs were the same.  No amount of food, ice, or giant bags of Doritos was enough to ease the pain.  Actually there was only 1 giant bag of Doritos, my traditional post race indulgence.  I could barely walk and had to drive the kids to the sitter in the morning.

It's a very strange sensation.  Walking around and not being completely sure your muscles can hold you up. All of a sudden one of my leg muscles would have zero strength and I'd wobble about like a drunk sailor with a peg leg.

Actually, I'm not sure just how many other people experience this level of muscle destruction after running such a distance.  I understand fatigue and energy depletion but I think the fact my muscles self destruct during long runs really has impacted my ability to become a half decent athlete.

So for 2 days I walked around like I was stepping on egg shells. But this time, as opposed to my Marathon recovery, I decided to go in and get a massage to get some of the tightness out of the legs and hopefully speed up the recovery. And so on the Tuesday, 2 days after the run, Penny gave me a good working over without causing too much additional discomfort.

The other thing I did was go and purchase some compression tights to aid in recovery. I'll review these in a subsequent post but I do think they helped somewhat. 

Recovery day 3 was better. My muscles still hurt the same amount, or nearly so, but my knee ligament didn't hurt much at all, only shooting pain to my brain if I pushed outwards or twisted my leg.

This surprised me quite a bit, as the pain on the previous days was excruciating.

Thursday, day 4 was not too bad.  The walk with the kids in the morning was ok and almost pain free.  I even got out for an easy bike ride to get the legs moving.

I remember feeling a bit surprised at this point.  It took me about 6 or 7 days to feel this good after the marathon.  The massage, the tights, and somewhat better eating afterward seemed to make the difference.

By the time the weekend arrived I was able to get out for some long easy bike rides, and if I remember correctly put in about 9 hours of riding.

All in all, I'll measure the recovery time at roughly 1 full week where the Marathon was roughly 2 weeks.  It gives me a lot of respect for those guys who run multiple marathons in short order.

Pain is only a sign is you're still alive

Today, the Around the Bay 30 km was a pretty simple story.  Interesting in a couple of ways, but fairly straightforward.

We got up and rolled out of the house at about 7:30 for the trip over to Hamilton, and the start at Copps Coliseum.  The kids were neutral, and were mainly excited about the opportunity to get an egg mcmuffin while Dad was running.  They're not normally allowed any where near a McDonalds.

The organizers kept claiming "Over 10,000 Runners" on the PA system.  It certainly seemed like that at the start, but in the end, that number turned out to include the walkers, who started an hour early, and the 5 k runners who ran a different route.

It  was a pretty standard start, although unseeded, which caused the usual annoyances. 

After a my short run yesterday, where I had to walk after about 20 minutes, and a fairly painful nights sleep, I wasn't very hopeful.  Wearing a pair of cycling shorts to bed to sort of double as compression shorts did seem to help a bit, but when I walked around in the morning my right IT Band was sore, and that's not good.

And so, my race was really a story about my right leg.

I started out pretty slow. In fact, after the first 500 meters, just after passing the family, I came about 3 inches from pulling up, and walking back.  I've never dropped out of an event, and since this was to be my last real running race for a while, I figured that I'd just run through it.

Km 0 - 10ish - Hamilton is a dreary town, but, I must say, that there were more cowbells out being rung by people than there were during the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.  Less people but more cowbell.

The cowbells weren't enough to distract me from the pain however.  Each step felt like someone was poking a hot brand into my leg and knee. I felt terrible. Having this happen forced me to keep an easy pace, which as a strategy worked out well.

Km 10 - 20 - Running along the waterfront was nice, and my leg loosened up quite a bit.  I managed to keep an easy stride, and the pain reduced to a dull throbbing.  I was actually enjoying myself for a bit.

Km 20-25 - Then came the hills, by some nice properties, owned by rich people, overlooking the smokestacks of the bay.  The uphills weren't bad, not too steep, and not too high.  Hills in High Park are tougher.  It was the downhills.  Horribly painful, stabbing, I want to quit, evil downhills.  

Fortunately the last big hill doesn't have a downhill after it.  Now it is fairly long, at I'd say maybe 400 meters and from the water line to the highest elevation, maybe 45 meters high.  I approached it fairly cautiously, and kept my heartrate just below threshold.  I'd been thinking about it for the whole race and had heard it was devastating. I let my stride pick up in the last third and cruised over the top.

Then a funny thing happened.  The last 4-5 km was all a slight downhill, dropping about 10 meters.  My leg still hurt like a mo-fo, but as my stride picked up it didn't hurt any more, so I went a bit fast, and so on.

Pretty soon I was running 5 min / km and faster, which is not what nature intended of me.  It felt satisfying however, although not perfectly comfortable.  Not in the least.

I got to the finish, my left leg feeling great, my right, in brutal agony.  Fun Times.

Interesting Stats.  My Marathon pace was 5:25 min/km.  Average HR was 155 BPM.  Today my pace worked out to be about 5:29 min/km.  Average BPM was 147.  

I'm not sure but that puts me in better shape now, or maybe just smarter, than I was back in September.  Hopefully this'll translate to a decent time in Paris to Ancaster in 3 weeks time.

The night before the "Around the Bay 30km"

Copious amounts of brown rice have been consumed.  

The gear is prepped, bag packed, and family briefed, by my wife, on the morning routine.

I have the french press ready to provide a couple cups of coffee in the morning.  

And I'm wearing some cycling shorts to try and provide some support to my aching IT band.  I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow. 

I went for a 20 minute run today, super easy and just as I turned up my street I had to start walking because of the pain. Wierd, as I've never had this specific issue before.

30 km around Hamilton, just for the shirt, and, it turns out, the shirt this year is some kind of teal colour with yellow highlights.  Boo I say, Boo.  And it's cut to fit someone who weighs about 50 pounds more than me. 

So, rather than sit here and try and come up with witty things to say, I'll be off to bed.

Just as soon as I eat some chocolate.

It always hurts

Days before a 30km race.

I've fallen into the trap where I think I can run it on base fitness and I have nowhere near the mileage in my legs that I should prior to such a distance.

This past weekend I did a very solid run on Saturday, where I ran 10km in about 55 minutes, half of which was at a faster than race pace, effort.  I was pretty pleased with myself.  I didn't go too hard, nor too easy, and my legs felt great.

Unfortunately they felt like crap the next day and my outside of my knee hurt for the whole 2 hours I ran on Sunday.  On the plus side however, I felt great energy wise but I was running slower than my goal pace for the 30km which is to run in at the 3 hour mark.

So what?  It's like any other person out there training.

The point is that it doesn't get easier the more you train.  The pain just moves around, needing to be managed.  It doesn't mean you should stop.

I'd like to personally thank my massage therapist, Penny Eimer, who made my legs feel sore today in the hope that they'll be great in 5 days or so.

Blah blah blah.  I miss my bike already.

When in doubt, do two things poorly

Last year I had dreams of running greatness.  That was before the marathon. 

Sometime in the middle of the summer I decided to sign up for the "Around the Bay 30k" in Hamilton, one of the popular events around here.  They have really nice shirts.  And I want one. All the cool kids are wearing them.

Sometime after the Marathon I was convinced to switch over to the bike and try my hand at cyclocross.  And in the spirit of mud and pain I decided to do Paris to Ancaster.  Another cool event.

The 30 km is on March 28th.  The cycling classic is on April 18th.

I am prepared for neither.

I've been for about 2 runs in the past 2 weeks, same thing for the bike.  Here's hoping that my somewhat adequate cross country skiing fitness gets me through. 

I'll settle for finishing both and bringing home a shirt and some stories for the kids.

This'll teach me to be cheap and sign up for races a year in advance.  After this it'll be all cycling all the time in the summer, Cyclocross in the fall, and cross country skiing for the winter.

Pure Laziness

Wow

Yesterday I did a solid hour on the bike on the indoor trainer while trying to avoid watching a chick flick on the TV that my wife was watching.

Today I did the exact opposite. 

I got my running gear on.

I went outside.

It was raining.

I went back inside.

That wagon?  I'm hoping it'll arrive to pick me up tomorrow.

There and back again

Wow, I managed to get outside today and go for a run.  The shock of which gave me a burst of adrenaline that had me hammering down the main drag like I was running a 1500 m race against a Kenyan.

I was planning on going for an hour run, as that's what my randomly generated schedule called for.  It had also called for a lunch time workout but that got dropped so I could stare at columns and formulas over lunch and into the afternoon.  Hate is a strong word for that activity but swear words were uttered.

Anyway, in my crazy, tedious project induced, delirium I forgot that it was only two days ago that my knee stopped hurting after dropping every last ounce of my weight on it on the sharp corner of the stairs.

LIke some bizarre punishment, that I no doubt deserve, my knee started hurting at exactly the turn around point of my 1 hour run.

I ran back like sort of like a one legged person who had to go to the bathroom, but more like a guy with a f'ed up knee who had to go to the bathroom.

Onward and upward. Tomorrow's another day.

Cool Pic of the Day

It's hard to find nice running pictures.  They're all of people suffering through the local marathon, or worse, triathlon. But here's a nice one.  Thanks to Matsugoro.

Large size available on his flickr to spruce up your desktop wallpaper.