slowdad

Geronimo Stilton and the Mouse Island Marathon

  My first introduction to Geronimo Stilton was quite a surprise.  RAAM isn't all that well known out there in the public and finding a kids book about it is like finding a your kid knows about currency hedging strategies.

Soon after I posted about that, I received a tweet from the mouse himself!  Yes, that's right, in between crushing competitors on the bike, and running a newspaper, Geronimo is on twitter. Well, at least a fan of his is.

Regardless, this tweet directed me to this book, The Mouse Island Marathon.  Not only is Geronimo a beast on the bike, but he's got a big engine on the run as well.  I'm not sure if he swims well but I see Kona in his future.

As fast as my fingers could fly, I waved them around and my wife went and paid an extortionate amount of money to have this book shipped to us, and while she was at it, bought a whole lot of other books as well.  Like The Time Crunched Cyclist, but that's another post.

If you want to scare your kids off of running a marathon, this is it.  This epic journey puts Geronimo in harms way so many times you'll wonder why Mouse Island doesn't declare a national state of emergency.

The book starts out similarly to the RAAM book.  A reluctant sign up, and a training regime that sounds about as fun as being water-boarded by the CIA. But Geronimo responds well and is fit as a fiddle by the start of the race.

I won't give it away, but Geronimo hits on a few girls, saves several lives, goes off course multiple times, meets a few really strange people, including a guy who is hoping Geronimo will die, gets dropped by the entire field, and still manages to pound out a pace at the end that would make Haile Gebrselassie look like he was an overweight Republican. The ending is predictable but at the same time probably the strangest marathon finish since Godzilla beat Mothra at Boston.

All in all, the kids loved this book.  And they were kept enthralled throughout the 45 minutes it took me to read it to them.  That's what's important.

Tentative Goals for 2010

Right now I'm at a bit of a cross roads in terms of training.  And if anyone out there has any advice that would be fabulous.  What I'd really like to do is outsource/opensource my training program and data so that anyone could make tweaks based on my results but I fear that will never happen. 

I need a training plan wiki! Hmm, there's an idea in there somewhere.

I would hire a coach but I'm sure the effort of finding one who can help me through cycling, skiing, running, and being slow, will be more work than actually grinding through the training plan.

Goals

Right now I only have a couple major goals on my calendar right now, and they're pretty far off. But here they are.  This is not my bucket list, but stuff I've committed to doing, at least to myself.

Gatineau Loppet - February 2010 - 53km Classic ski marathon, followed the next day by the 53km classic.  I'm just going for the finish in both and to set a baseline time.  I've done this before, when I was much younger and could do 100 situps in 2 minutes.  Now I can't.  But, I think I'll be able to cruise through in a respectable time with some hard work prior.

Around the Bay 30km - March 2010 - Classic running event in Hamilton.  It's "Older than Boston" which is what it says on the shirt.  It's the only reason I'm doing it.  People wear these shirts like badges around Toronto.  Just going for the finish, but I don't want to hurt too much along the way.  Gotta fit in some running over the winter.

370Km Ride - Summer 2010 - I want to ride from Toronto to Smiths Falls.  Why? Why not. It's a suitably epic distance and I get to hang out at the cottage afterward. I figure it'll take me 15 hours if I borrow some fancy aero wheels.

Haliburton Hilly Hundred - Sept 2010 - Is this thing still on?  No info on the intertubes anywhere.  Anyway, it's a super hilly 260km ride, that is apparently well supported. Out in the middle of nowhere. 

CycloCross Races - Fall 2010 - I would like to embarrass myself as a lesson to my kids.  If you don't train hard while you're young you'll look like a fool when you turn 35 and decide now's the time! I enjoy racing, at least I seem to remember liking it. So I'll do a couple of these.

That's not a lot in my opinion, and fortunately, most of them require lots of long slow distance base building.  I'll probably throw in a couple 10km runs, but I'd really like to have something better to do with my weekends.

So..

Next Post I'll lay out my tentative weekly plan.  It needs some serious revisionism.

Recalling a Time When Children Ran in the NYC Marathon - NYTimes.com

Scott Black ran the New York City Marathon in 1979 as a 9-year-old. “I find that running has defined me as a person; a lot of my self-esteem has come from it. I don’t regret anything. That said, as a parent, I wouldn’t push my kid to that,” Mr. Black said.

via www.nytimes.com

via www.nytimes.com

The above article in the New York Times was interesting for a variety of reasons. At first I read it with a view of "Hey!  Kids used to be able to run marathons, lets do THAT!"

Actually that view only lasted about 2 seconds. But then it got me thinking more deeply about fitness, kids, and endurance events.

What seemed to be a theme throughout the article, was that the kids who did do marathons then, were rare, had supportive parents who ran, weren't pushed and were self regulated. And by that I mean they chose to stop when it suited them.

Clearly, these kids were statistical outliers.  Unlike the adults that run marathons, who come in all shapes and sizes.

I think that mocking the original article, and using it for an amusing twist, really doesn't do the topic justice. Even though it is amusing.

What the article highlighted for me was that, back in the good old days, there was some resistance to letting kids do these kind of events, just as there was for women a few years earlier, it did happen.

What happens to these outliers now?  What happens to the kid who can't sit still and just wants to run?  Perhaps they're being entered in 5 km runs.  Perhaps they're put into some team sport to be just as averagely skilled as the rest of the kids. Perhaps their fidgety nature is medicated out of them.

I suspect that parents would be, until recently, vilified for letting their kids undertake something as difficult as a marathon. But, maybe the questions do need to be asked, with parents occasionally using their kids for personal recognition

But, there are more and more kids races out there.  Maybe the pendulum will swing back and we'll start seeing more articles about kids winning their local race.

I do think that it'll be a long uphill battle to convince a large segment of the parenting population out there that their kids don't need to be protected from physical activity, and that being exhausted after running around playing isn't going to stunt their growth.

Marathon Pictures

Today I decided to purchase the photos of the Toronto Waterfront Marathon from the mafia group who hangs out at the side of races and documents the pain and suffering of the masses.

Basically 5 pictures cost me $55 to download.  Maybe it's just me but that seems like a lot. Like, "I don't want to buy your camera" lot. They're not even that high resolution at 1080 along the short side.

But the real reason I bought the pictures was this one... Would you look at those quad muscles? Yes... Look, and be amazed.  I don't think I've ever had a leg look like that in my life. I got very lucky with the timing of this shot.

The pain on my face is saying that I wish this would be over.  Unfortunately it's only half way.

Janine is looking good. Calm. Collected.  And shes got a "handy" water bottle, full of nourishing liquid. Janine finished a couple minutes behind me. 

If you click the image you'll go to my flickr and you can see a couple other cheesy pictures from the race.

Marathon Done - The review

There it is, done and over.  My goal of getting fit and running a marathon is complete. 

Yesterday I ran the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and clocked a chip time of 3:48:08.  All in all a solid result for me as I was hoping for a best case of 3:45 and a goal of 4:00 at least.

My last Marathon, the 1994 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, which was, incidentally, the same marathon the Oprah Winfrey ran in, I ran a 4:01. 

At the Marine Corp I was fairly disappointed.  I was the slowest guy in the group who went down to run it, the RMC Biathlon team.  And I felt miserable afterward, and couldn't train for a month.  That 1 extra minute has haunted me for a very long time.

Over the years I've come to the realization that I am really not that good of a runner although I could be better if I had focused on it, and become average, instead of just below average.

But I do know that running beats me into shape, physically, and, it's fairly cheap and portable.  So as you likely know, last year, actually about 13 or 14 months ago I made up my mind to start running and use the marathon as a goal event to keep me motivated.

Overall I'm happy with my fitness.  One injury that took out 2 weeks of training and caused endless aggravation, and then the snip snip down under that took out another 2 weeks of training, meant that I could have gotten to the start line with a little bit more in the tank.

So what happened?

For those who know me, I am not a morning person. I'm usually cranky and suffer from massive sleep inertia that makes me virtually immovable.  Fortunately my wife is an unstoppable force, and not almost.

But I woke up feeling great.  Had a bottle of water and a peanut butter sandwich, and we were out the door, driving downtown with one eye towards the weather.

We were then robbed blind by paying $20 for parking, albeit fairly close to the start.

The start was like any other race you've been to.  Throngs of people lined up to use the limited number of port-a-potties.  In fact, by the time we got through that line and made our way over to the start area, we could hear the national anthem being sung, and no real idea about where the corrals were.

The gun went off, and we, along with about 1500 other people were still outside the start area, nervously pushing our way in, trying to look for the pace rabbits we hoped to keep up with.

It turned out to be fine however as we squeezed in to the stream of people and began the shuffle towards the start line, hoping beyond hope that my watch wouldn't mess up and my footpod wouldn't die like it had so many times before.

It turned out that the watch was fine, and the speed of the crowd was just about right for the first couple of kilometers.

In actuality the run itself was pretty uneventful. My wife and I ran together for the first 10 km, and, like the rookies we are, ran too fast basically at a 3:40 pace or a smidge faster.

I went ahead at 10 km. 

For me the first half was awesome, I was running in control, heart rate normal, no aches, no pains.  For a few kilometers I thought that something magical was going to happen. I was going to shatter my 3:45 goal and kick in the last 10 km and be completely in awe of my own abilities.

And then things started to slide.

At 26 km, just after the very tedious section through Toronto's spectacularly grey industrial waterfront, I felt myself starting to slow.  Maybe it was too much fluids, or the wonky second gel I took that was all liquidy. I told myself that I would save the push for the last 5 km.

When I hit 30 km I could feel parts of my legs becoming fatigued. But I was still running at a 3:45 pace and I had about 4 minutes in hand.

One of the big advertised features of this race was supposed to be running through the "Beach" neighborhood.  But those rolling hills hammered me. That street, I swear, goes on forever.

By 32 km it was just guts, wishing that the km would come faster than they were.  My legs felt like cement.

My slowest Km was km 38 where I ran a 6:28 min/km pace.  Which, funny enough, is my default, long run, taking it easy pace. 

At this point I was getting passed quite a bit, by people more sensible than me, but I consoled myself that all the people around me had really nice looking legs.

I had to walk 3 times, mainly due to lack of willpower.  But each time, the fact that it hurt as much to walk as it did run, caused me to resume the jog.

At km 38 I have completely given up any illusions that I was going to be able to kick for the finish at all.  40km, came and went without a reaction.

With about 1 km to go two 3:50 pace rabbits passed me.  I dug in and held pace with them, my legs mere shadows of the appendages they had been a few hours ago.  With 300 m, one of the rabbits, gave me a gentle push in the back, said something, and I hammered it out.  Stopping my watch at 3:48

I am looking forward to seeing my finishing photo, because at that point I'm shattered.  My legs were screaming as I wandered to the food tent, medal around my neck and all of a sudden very very cold.

Incidentally, I finished along with about 5000 people walking the 5 km. And I ask you: Why in gods name do you need to swarm the food tent when you've just walked 5 km? Being bumped and jostled by walkers, who would do that distance while shopping in their local mega-mall, did not make me happy.

Today, my legs are as sore as the last time I did this. That is to say painful to the point of not being able to walk up stairs.  But this time I think I'll be back up and running in a week or so. I have hope.

Stats from the run

• 783rd "gun time" out of 2919
• 3:52:18 "gun time"
• Average pace 5:31 min/km 
• 3:48:08.5 Chiptime 
• 97th out of 292 in my age group
• 10 km - 52:28
• 21.1 km - 1:49:31
• 30 km - 2:36:54
• 35 km - 3:04:36
• 40 km - 3:35:04

And here's the fancy graph.

So now it's on to other things, and a more well rounded training plan.  Upcoming major goals are:

• Gatineau Loppet Ski Marathon in February
• Around the Bay 30 km in the Spring
• The Hilly Hundred 260km version next September (website down? does it still exist?)
• 375 km bike ride Toronto to Smiths Falls next Summer

In closing, here is my personal list of things you shouldn't say to someone getting ready for a marathon.

• "Are you doing the 5 km?"
• "Be careful, don't hurt yourself"
• "You're getting old, you're not 23 anymore"
• "You need to eat, you're too skinny"

I'll post pictures later.

Marathon in 5 Days - Can't come soon enough

The Toronto Waterfront Marathon is in 5 days.

Unfortunately my hamstrings are still twinging away, with occasional pain in my right one.  I feel lethargic and tired. 

Is this what tapering is supposed to feel like?

It's funny though. I'm thinking more about winter cycling than I am about running.  Maybe that's a good defense against nerves.

Tapering - A tale of two runs

Yesterday Hal Higdon wanted me to run 10 km, with a couple of km at marathon pace.  And today, just 6km easy.

They couldn't have been more different.  Well, they could have been, but saying so has less dramatic effect.

So yesterday, to start it off, my S3 Footpod, for my Polar HRM, decided to take a day off.  That thing, I swear, is the worst piece of circuitry I've ever used.  For no reason what so ever, it just didn't register.  I replaced all the batteries, multiple times, and nothing I could say or do would get it to be read by the watch.  I'd replace it but I refuse to buy another one just now given the amount I was swearing.

But that set up something interesting.  I was supposed to go out and run a "mile" whatever that's supposed to be, at marathon pace. I was counting on the footpod to do the measuring for me since I having marked out any set distance around here.

Instead, I cruised on out to the 5km turnaround, which I do know exactly where that is, at a comfortable, but steady pace.  I got to 5km at the 29 minute mark.  Not bad.  My legs felt good, as did the rest of me.

Turning around, I had planned to run for 10 minutes at what I guessed would be marathon pace, and then shut it down the rest of the way.  I got to the 10 min mark and just kept going, as I was feeling solid, my HR around 150.

I did the last 5km in 25 minutes, 5 min/km, a decent amount faster then I wanted to.  It was a very good feeling, probably my best run in the last year.

Today was a different story, although much shorter.

My footpod suddenly came back to life.  For no apparent reason.  I didn't kick it, or even swear at it.  It just magically started working.  Bollocks.

But my easy 6km felt like crap. I had no spring in my step and my quads were tired.  At least my heart rate wasn't elevated. I guess that's what I get for running too hard.

One more tempo run tomorrow, a bit of speed next week, a couple medium length runs, and then marathon time.

Time to go stretch, go to bed, and get some rest.

Last Pace Run - Lessons Learned

Today was the last pace run prior to the marathon. Thank goodness.

Frankly, I was rather nervous heading into this as there seems to be some kind of wacky issue with one or more tendons in my right leg.  My hamstring feels tight and the very top of my calf and behind my knee feel strained and a bit painful on occasion.

I really wish someone could tell me specifically what's going on. I don't think it's lack of stretching because I can actually touch my toes easily for the first time ever due to the stretching I've been doing.

Anyway I started slowly, but was pretty happy that I settled into a comfortable pace that was pretty close to my goal pace. When I got a straight and level stretch I managed to find a groove. I don't think I'll hit the goal for the marathon, but, it'll be close I think.  I'll see how long I can hang with the pace rabbit.

 

As I was running along I ran by a woman and a man heading the other way.  The man was gyrating all over the trail.  He looked like he had a condition like cerebral palsy or some kind of muscular disorder.  When I turned off and passed them again he was on the side of the trail, soaked in sweat, the woman waiting patiently for him to rest.

Here's me running along worried about a sore leg... 

Last of the Long Runs - For now

Those 8 X 800 intervals I ran the other day were worse than the mediocre results I thought they were. 

In the last lap, actually coming around the final corner, with the kids cheering me on, I felt a little tickle in the hamstring.  They same one that I hurt what I think is now a month and 1/2 ago.

Actually is was a little bit more than a tickle and I felt it tighten up, I presume to protect some fault in my biology.  I was hoping that a little stretching, and some rest would set things right.

Well, yesterday good ol' Hal Higdon had a plan for me to run 16 km at marathon pace. It started well enough, and I slowly worked up to pretty close to my goal of 5:19/km, but just like that, I felt that tickle again. 

So I stopped to stretch, gently, and started to run again, slowly got up to speed, and then things would tighten up again. Over and over.  It just wouldn't go away.

Feeling smart, I turned around at the 5 km mark and did the same routine on the way back, but keeping it not so fast as before.  And by "not so fast" I mean slow.  Slowly making my way home, praying to some non-existent deity, that I should make it without ripping something.

This was supposed to be the run of truth, and maybe it was.  Maybe I can't run as fast as I did in University.  Sheesh, now that I write that I feel silly.

Anyway.  That run was an unmitigated disaster.  Not only did I not do the distance, I failed to get any real hard effort prior to today's run.  The last 32km run before the marathon.

Then, using my extreme intelligence.  I decided that it would be a good idea to go down to the CNE, and watch the airshow, take pictures, stay out in the hot sun. And not drink or eat anything until I was parched and starving.  A great strategy before a long run.  

Still, I had high hopes for today.  Hal wanted me to run closer to Marathon pace than I had during the last two runs but it was not to be.

The run started out like the last one ended.  Run, Stretch, Run, Stretch.  Until finally, after about 30 minutes the leg stopped tightening up.

Running down town was a complete gong show. Cars parked on the highway as far as the eye could see. Thousands of people wandering the sidewalks with their mouths agape, trying to take pictures of fighter jets flying at 400 km/hour with their cell phones.  Add on top of that, hundreds of helmet-less "bicyclists" weaving in and out of those pedestrians, trying to ride side by side with their spouse.

I ended up doing a lot of running in the bike lane, which was surprisingly empty, and consistently so.  At one point I ran by about 10 riders, caught up amongst kids and strollers, while the bike lane was clear, with very little car traffic as it was all headed in the opposite direction.

People are stupid.

So instead of today's run being the final polish on the last few months of running, I tried to dodge people, and convince myself that the pain I was feeling would surely go away sometime soon.  Energy wise I was feeling good, but muscularly I needed a couple of ibuprofen to take the edge off.

Actually the middle half was ok, probably because I was running slower, dodging all those people.  But I had quite a few of those moments when you have dreams of grandeur.  Dreams I should never have.  "I could do an ultra marathon."  "I could run an Ironman." "I can qualify for Boston"  These are dangerous dreams. Painful departures from reality.

After about 28 km I told myself just to get home without stopping. Giving up on my goals for the run seemed to work for some strange reason.  I thought you couldn't use reverse psychology on yourself. But apparently I am either very gullible or have a split personality.

I ended up running the last 2 km at about marathon pace, and the last two km are steady, but very gradual climb along Lakeshore.  Those last 2 km definitely gave me hope. Not pain free hope but hope none-the-less that my goal of running under 4 hours just might be possible with a great taper, a little luck, and a handful of Tylenol. 

The Pros and Cons of Training with Kids

Today I followed Hal Higdon's plan of pain and ran 8 times 800 meter "intervals."  Looking back I really didn't run quite as fast as I should have. 

Theoretically I should have been running around 4:40 min/km but I didn't quite get up there consistently.  Still, the last time I ran 800s 3 weeks ago I had to stop after 3 of them so at least my legs are holding up.

 

What made this run a bit more special than most was that I was on kid duty so I took them out to the track with me.  It's a paved track, that's sloped from one end to the other but whatever. It goes the direction I want it to.

As I was running around recovering, I was weighing the pros and cons of bringing them along.

Pro - They get some exercise.  Running around the track for an hour gives the kids little else to do than some natural intervals on the bike followed by some low intensity cruising. There's no better way to start a future Grand Tour winner.

Con - They get tired.  And when kids get tired they either fight or whine.  This time there was more whining than I needed.

Pro - They self regulate.  Once they realized that I wasn't going to stop to listen to their mews for sympathy they pulled over went pee.

Con - You can't stop to take them to the bathroom if you have any dedication to your training. Some people look down on peeing in public, especially when there are no trees around.

Pro - You can teach them about being active.  This is why you warm up. This is why you stretch. This is why you should drink water when doing sports.

Con - They drink all your water.  (Note to self, have them bring their own damn water bottles next time)

Pro - They chat at you, keeping things interesting, and ask remarkably good questions when engaged in activity.  Much more so than when they are in the living room, playing knight, and pretending everything is dying by getting it's head chopped off.

Con - They chat at you and say/yell random things at you. It's pretty distracting to have a 6 year old weaving with wild abandon in front of you yelling "Dad, you should have run this fast in your race. I only saw you going slow."

Pro - They just might sit down together, pretend they are at a race and yell, "GO DADDY GO, GO DADDY GO" during your last two intervals.

Con - There is no con.

So the balance tips in favor of bringing your kids with you, at least out to the track. They'll probably love it, and you'll take the good with the not so good.