Moving beyond NYC

So it's been a bit more than a month since I ran the NYC Marathon. I've had time to reflect, regroup and repair...now it's time to refocus and begin the next phase of my running career.

My NYC result was both disappointing and satisfying....I was no where near my goal time, but given my hamstring issues over the months leading up to the race and the difficulties encountered during the race, I was happy to have finished.

In hindsight, I made to key mistakes - one before the race and one during. The combination of both resulted in disaster.

First, my buddy Glen and I must have walked about 15k sightseeing throughout NYC the day before the race. Second, I got caught up in the energy of the crowd and went out too fast the first half of the race, especially the first 15k or so. As a result my quads and calves started crapping at about the 25k mark. From there to the finish it was no fun.

So lesson learned....I won't do that again!

My plan over the next few months is to address the issues that led to my hamstring problems through strength training and to increase my speed over the 5 and 10k distances. Meaning I won't likely run a marathon in 2012, but plan to run a number of shorter-distanced races and focus on speed work.

I may even try a duathlon or two, as I've taken to cycling and I feel that activity will help improve my leg strength, take some stress off my body normally created by running and contribute to an overall improvement in my running results.

Stay tuned!

Been busy

It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm still here and training hard.

In fact I've had two great weeks of training and despite not turning in a great race on Sunday, I feel I'm making progress.

I've also been golfing, as spring has finally arrived here in the Great White North....well at least here in Ottawa anyway. So with work and family commitments, it's been difficult to find time to blog. But tonight I finally have a few free minutes to post an update.

As I said, training has been very good the last couple of weeks, I'm even enjoying and making progress with the strength training sessions Ian introduced. So I was feeling very confident and strong going into the 10k race on Sunday, but for some reason I just didn't have "it" that day.

It was a perfect day for running - sunny, about 8C and just a little wind, although it was a head wind for the first part of the race. I felt good and had a great warm-up session. I was confident I could PR and even post a time under 40 minutes.

I started strong and was sticking to my plan to run the first 3 kilometres at a pace between 3:55 and 4:00 minutes per kilometre. Then at about the 4k mark it was as if I hit a wall! My legs felt like lead weights and I was unable to get back to a sub-4 minute pace the remainder of the race.

I couldn't even hold my half marathon pace from January of 4:16 per km. I finished with a time of 42:45, an average pace of 4:17 per km, putting me 22nd overall and 10th in my age group. It was disappointing to miss my goal time by approximately 3 minutes and more than a minute and a half slower than my previous best at the 10k distance.

I can't explain why I sucked so much, but I'm over it now and ready to move on. I guess I have to accept the fact that you can't PR in every race, even if you feel you should.

In a funk!

This is my first post in more than a week....I just haven't been feelin' it!

Last week was a tough one. I was on the verge of getting sick all week, but was somehow able to fight it off. However, it impacted my training and also my will to blog. :)

I managed to run 7k last Monday and do a strength workout Thursday morning, followed by a speed workout that afternoon. Other than that, nada, zip, rien!

And on top of not completing my runs for the week, my muscles ached all weekend as a result of my first strength training work in more than a year. In fact, walking down stairs was truly painful until Sunday night.

I really am getting old! :(

This is a new week and while I'm not any younger, I feel 100% better and ready to redo last week's plan. I already have 7k in the books and I'll be in the gym at 6am tomorrow to tackle those strength exercises again. Then it's 6.8k of speed work at the indoor track tomorrow night, followed by a rest day on Thursday.

Friday I'll do a different set of strength exercises in the morning and then run 8.5k at tempo pace in the afternoon. Saturday I'll run a total of 8k, with 3k of hill repeats inn the middle and cap off the week with a 22k long run on Sunday. Total for the week - 52.3k.

I just hope I can get out of bed for work next Monday!

That's more like it!

My 19k run earlier this afternoon was much better than last week's 18k debacle...I guess sleeping in my own bed and not fighting off a cold/flu really does make a difference.

In addition, the sidewalks and bike/walking path along the Canal was free of ice and only had a few small puddles, so there was no need to climb snowbanks or leap over large pools of water to avoid getting soaked. And it was warmer today (+5C) and very little wind....it was a perfect day to run and it felt awesome being out there!

I started with 5k at a 5:05 minutes per kilometere pace, then upped it to a 5 even pace for 4k, followed by 3k at  a 4:55 pace, 2k at 4:50 per km and then 1k at 4:45. I was able to hit all my paces and maintain them, in fact I had to watch that I didn't run too fast. It was the complete opposite of last week when I struggled to reach my desired pace and maintain it. I felt strong throughout and could have run faster.

At the 15k mark I slowed to a 4:55 pace for 2k and then ran the last 2k at a 5:05 pace. I felt strong at the end of the run and could have run much longer. Time for the run - 1 hour, 34 minutes and 17 seconds.

More importantly today's result helped boost my confidence. It's encouraging to have such a strong run at the end of six consecutive days of running and the day after a 7k run that included 2k of hill repeats. Total mileage for the week - 52.2k.

This week Ian is going to incorporate some strength training exercises into my training plan to help make me a stronger runner. I'm interested in seeing how if this will help lower my race times and to see how sore I'll feel at the end of the week. I haven't done any strength training in about a year.

I also bought a new pair of indoor shoes as my old ones had more than 600k on them. Ian would like me to slowly transition into wearing racing flats for my races and using a lower profile shoe for training. So I abandoned my usual Nike Air Moto shoe for the Nike Lunar Max 2 shoe as it is a lower profile and should help encourage a more mid to front foot strike. I'm anxious to try out my new shoes...they're kind of cool looking too...black top with red around the sole....they just look fast! :)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week.