Phx-half-marathon in a couple of days….
In a little under a week, I head south-west for some helpfully warmer weather than I am experiencing in Ottawa. On the weekend, I’ll be running my second Pf Chang half-marathon (13.1 miles/42.2km). The goal is to improve my time over last year but I don’t have a specific target time, anything better than 1:33 would be great. After the race, JB and I will be going on a road trip exploring the areas in all four directions of Phoenix. I am debating whether to pack shorts as the recent temperatures have been in the high 50s. It will be great to complete my first race of the year as well as my first half-marathon of the racing season.
Hamock
First off, I want to start off this entry by wishing everyone a Happy New Year. 2007 was a good year for me and I am looking forward to a better one in 2008. My Christmas holiday has been a good one this year. I was pleased with my Boxing Day 10 mile race which suggests that I will have a good half-marathon race laster this month in Arizona. I have cross-trained over Christmas, swimming every second day at my alma mater. The break from running will ensured my legs are well rested for the race. I was excited when I got a a href=”http://www.eaglesnestoutfittersinc.com/”hammock /aas a Christmas/birthday present. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason /agot one a couple of years ago and loves his so it was a must-have piece of hiking/outdoor gear. I want to thank Jason for his a href=”http://www.giftlistit.com”giftlistit /a website as it made the Christmas present buying process really easy and fun this year. As well, it was a lot of fun doing some end-user testing of giftlistit. My parents were able to purchase the hammock without me knowing using the wonders of giftlistit. My relatives were able to use the website as well, simplifying the process of buying 10 Christmas gifts.
Boxing Day Race
On Boxing Day, I ran my third Harold Webster 10 mile race in Hamilton, Ontario. It was the 87th time this race has been run. I decided to go out at my Sunday run pace which I knew would allow me to complete the race without burning myself out. It sucks running five miles hard only to find that you have to run the next five miles while suffering miserably. The course was familiar to me so I surged on the hills and opened up on the downhills. At mile eight, we were forced to run on a snow-laden road which was like running on a corduroy road, very slippery, undulating and rough. The final two miles were on city streets which flowed downwards to the finish in the city centre. It was a great race as I felt quite relaxed for most of the race while running briskly. At the finish line, I was pleased with my time of 1:14 for ten miles putting me in the top 100 out of 600 finishers.br /1m — 7.25 2m — 7.08/14.33 3m — 7.23/21.57 4m — 7.22/29.19 5m 7.23/36.42 6m — 7.38/44.20 7m — 7.17/51.38 8m — 8.11/59.50 9m 7.19/1.07.09 10m 7.14/1:14.23
Salt
A quick weather update — Ottawa set a new record over the weekend. We received one foot of snow over a 24 hour period. Now we return to the topic of the day, salt. Tonight, I went for a 48 minute run along the Rideau Canal and the path was in good shape. While getting dressed for the workout I noticed something, my shoe laces have become more stiff and white. The road salt in becoming infused in my laces which is making them stiff and hard to tie. I’ll have to give my shoes a bath in a couple of days. Over the Christmas holidays,I’ll be doing a 10 mile race in Hamilton which will be a good workout as I do my final preparation for my second Phoenix half-marathon in early January. The goal for this race is to better my time last year, 1:33.
News
span lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”My rate of blogging has drop slightly recently but I hope to return to a more normal pace soon. I’ve been busy with school, work, my honour society and training. My next running race is coming up quickly on span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1196891074_0″Boxing Day/span in span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1196891074_1″Hamilton, Ontario/span. It will be the 86thsup/sup edition of the a href=”http://www.boxingdayrun.ca/”Harold Webster 10 mile race/a. The race comes at a good time as the caloric expenditure of the race allows me to eat well during the holidays and not worry about gaining any weight. My plans for New Years aren’t settled but I’m hoping for something special this year. We will have to see. On another matter, I’m working on having an informal mentor. He is someone I have known for a couple of years and is mentoring a couple of other students and I am looking forward to his guidance and advice./span/span
Rattle Me Bones 2007
This morning I violated my Sunday morning-sleep-in rule. I got up at 6:00 am to eat breakfast for the Rattle Me Bones 10km road race. As I was leaving I could see my breath in the cold morning air. I donned a pair of a href=”http://www.rei.com/product/728108″REI polar fleece gloves/a as the temperature was 0C/32F. Once the sun had risen it started to warm up a bit but it still would be a race in chilly conditions. This is the seventh time that I have done the race and it is always an interesting experience as this year was no exception. Due to logistical problems half the racers (250) started the race without timing chips. I decided to wear a short sleeve coolmax shirt and a pair of running tights. Much of the race was done against a biting cold wind which forced most folks to run faster than normal just to keep warm. At the finish line I was in 57th out 500 finishers and with a finishing time of 42.46br /1km 4.04 | 2km 4.07 | 3km 4.19 | 4km 4.15 | 5km 4.20 (21.07) | 6km 4.16 | 7km 4.23 | 8km 4.15 | 9km 4:15 | 10 km 4:17
2007 Baltimore half-marathon
divShort Version/divbr /divbr /1:35:23 on a hilly coursebr /Improved my time by 101 seconds over 2006 racebr /Place 150/5044/divbr /divbr /Long Version/divbr /divbr /A little over a week ago I ran in my third Baltimore half-marathon and came away very pleased with my race. I improved my personal-best for the course by 101 seconds and finished in 150th place out of 5044 finishers. In the weeks leading up to race day I was unsure about my fitness level so I went into the race not knowing where I would finish. I flew down to Baltimore on Friday morning and Jason met me at the airport. We went over to the race expo and I picked up my race package. At the expo they had a cool exhibit for horseradish cheese (a href=”http://www.cabotcheese.com/f1.php?left=menu-ourproducts.htmlamp;right=/ourproducts.html” goog_docs_charindex=”730″http://www.cabotcheese.com/f1.php?left=menu-ourproducts.htmlamp;right=/ourproducts.html/a) which had a mild taste. I headed back to the hotel to unpack and to lay out my racing gear for the morning. Later in the day, Jason, Emily and I went out for a carbo-loading meal at an Indian restaurant where I ate a humongous plate of rice. After the meal we went up to John Hopkins University to take in some swing dancing. I danced less than I would have like but I didn’t want to stress the legs for the big race the next morning./divbr /divbr /I was up early on Saturday at 5:30 am. I wanted to have my breakfast fully digested by race time. It took the form of a couple of bowls of Vector cereal, a handful of bananas and some strong tea. The original plan was to do my warmup run (5km/3.1 miles) starting from the hotel and ending at the start line. At the last minute, I changed my mind as the hotel was offering a shuttle that would take you close to the start line. This was a relief. I caught the 7:00 am shuttle and quickly located the bag-check area. I spent a little while chilling before I headed over to watch the start of the marathon(a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/RunningPictures/photo#5124946330669151794″a/a) (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/RunningPictures/photo#5124946352143988290″b/a). Along the way I spotted a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/RunningPictures/photo#5124946309194315298″Larry-the-lighthouse/a who was going to run the race as a lighthouse. Once the marathoners were on their way I headed back to bag-area and munched on a Clif bar. The spurt of energy would ensure that I was fully fueled for the race. At this point time seemed to speed up as soon it was forty-five minutes before race time. I ditched my sweats and warmed up over to the start. I waded through 4700 runners before I found an opening near the first corral. At 10:45 am the siren sounded and we were off with 13.1 miles to go. The course heads south slightly before heading in a westerly direction for a couple of miles. At around the three mile mark a familiar site came into view Patterson Park. We ran down one side of the park along the bottom and the up the hill on the other side. At this point the marathoners met up with the half-marathoners. A distinguishing feature of the marathoners was a “FULL” sticker on their singlets. As we ran further and further away from the harbor we gained elevation eventually reaching one of my favourite parts of the course, Clifton Park. Clifton Park is the former estate of John Hopkins and has an eight-sided gazebo [Clifton Gate House (1887) ] (a href=”http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/recnparks/popups/parks/clifton_park.htm” goog_docs_charindex=”3083″http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/recnparks/popups/parks/clifton_park.htm/a) which is a relay point for the marathon.br //divbr /divOnce past Clifton Park we ran on uncharted territory. For the past three years the bike path around Lake Montebello has been closed for construction. This year they re-introduced the mile-long loop back into the race course. This was another highlight of the race. The race does a 360 degree loop of the lake. I really enjoyed this part of the race. The next part of the course would take us along the edge of the John Hopkins University campus. I was getting close to the ten mile where my energy levels start to wane. I sucked on a caffeinated-Clif gel which gave me a surge of energy allowing me to surge by a large number of suffering participants. The final three miles are all downhill with exception of one hill that takes you over a multi-coloured bridge. Last year, this was the point where I was really suffering. This year I was able to run over the bridge with a fair amount of gusto. I did a couple of long surges over the next couple of miles. The goal was to get to the finish as quickly as possible before I ran out of energy. The final mile was fast and painful. It was also a fun mile as you run through the gates of Camden Yards, the home of the Orioles. The finish line was a welcome site. It would take me a couple hours to learn from the web that I had improved my time by 101 seconds over 2006. My third Baltimore half-marathon was a great success and I am looking forward to my forth in 2008./div
Sore and tired
Tonight, I did another hard interval workout which took the form of a 25 minute warmup and then five-1000 meter intervals on 30 seconds rest. (3:53 / 4:07 / 4:01 / 4:12 / 4:06) I was happy with the workout as my times were consistent. After the intervals, I did a 20 minute cooldown run along the canal. The workout will have the effect of make me stronger for my Baltimore half-marathon which at last count is seven weeks away. In September, I am going to have to increase my running volume as I get closer to the race day. I’ll start off September with a half-marathon which will give me a good benchmark for my fitness level.br /br /The Baltimore race weekend was a lot of fun last year and I hope that I have learned my lessson about eating at the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington_Market”Lexington Market /aas the after effects of the food poisoning made for a challenging evening. I am really looking forward to race weekend and hope that we can do some of what we did last year and hopefully a little bit more as it was a lot of fun.
Workouts
Today, I started my final set of interval workouts. These workouts are designed to simulate race-pace conditions as you only have 30 seconds between each interval. The way Phil, the coach, described it you do an interval say your prayers and do the next one. The workout was over quickly as we only did four. The goal next week is to do five on the same time that we did four this week. I’m going to be starting up my long Sunday runs shortly 10 miles and higher as I prepare to run my third Baltimore half-marathon in October. The race is coming up quickly as it is only eight weeks away.
Death Package
This morning I did a 5km road race in the borough of the city that I live. The a href=”http://www.kitchissippi.com/”community paper /ahad been advertising the race for the past month. The race went through the local street and the course was in the shape of a dogbone. A couple of my friends at the a href=”http://www,runningroom.com/”Running Room /awere on the start line with me. The race went well and I finished in a time just over 20 minutes which is good for me as it is the shortest distance that I have raced this year. As well, the race gave a chance to break in my new pair of sneakers. The race draw prize was one of the more interesting parts of the race. The first draw prize was a death package. At first thought it sounds rather bad. A local road race promoting death. One of the sponsors was a local law firm and they were offering powers of attorney and wills for a couple which was sort of neat.
