Running Days Jan 3 - 12 CPR Marathon Training: Episode 1

When I last left off, I discussed what happened in the waning months of my training and what happened to me health-wise and how I was basically starting off from zero. I missed running and especially missed the social aspect of running. Running with the group at City Park Runners and my buddy Osty, just talking about this and that and basically exploring not only the destination but learning about my running compadres in the most interesting ways.

So in order to get back into running and to find that focus I so enjoy and the camaraderie, I signed up for the 2016 Marathon clinic hosted by City Park Runners and coached by coach Dan. I've been in the last 3 and they've been a great way to get in the mileage for training in the dead of winter and to also connect with a social group. The clinic is held every Tuesday for 20 weeks which is organized by our coach Dan who sets up the workouts (which are 90% speed workouts) while he encourages the clinic runners to join in the free running meet-ups on Thursday night and Saturday morning to supplement in the clinic training and to get in the much needed mileage to run a marathon or 1/2 marathon distance.

This year's training will go in nicely for either the Winnipeg Police Services 1/2 marathon or the Fargo Marathon, which seems to be the race a lot of the members will be attending as a group this year. I'm still very undecided as I've run the Fargo the last 2 years and they are great races, with the after party even better with the gang. I'll see how I feel in the next month or two before I commit as my main motivation for wanting to run the Fargo full is to prove to myself if I can come back strong doing sub-4 after a frustrating year last year, especially with the volume of training I put in.

Anyways, the first week of the clinic is always a 5km time trial. It's a great way to figure out your base. The only caveat is, you're running in sub-zero temps with layers and the footing is always very slippery but it doesn't or shouldn't stop you from doing your best. Although you can be sneaky and sandbag the run and when the spring time trial happens you give 'er and should see a huge improvement...but why would you sell yourself short like that?

One of the new things I got this year, along w/ my buddy Osty is a Stryd device . We wanted to see what this new power metric is all about and it pairs well with our Garmin devices. I can't say I know what the hell I'm doing when I look at my stats, so I'm learning to run on my feeling instead of the feedback from the Garmin and Stryd.

Wk1-Time Trial

So those are the 2 outputs from Garmin and Stryd and what's interesting to me at first glance is you can see where I was powering through and slowed down and finished strong. I think I can speak for most runners, that we always, always start off way too fast. And I knew I was running faster than intended and adjusted as I was ploughing through. The hardest part is keeping yourself in check when you're running with a group or against people, thinking you can keep up, speed up or just hang on. At the "horseshoe" part of the course is called the Formal Gardens and you can tell from the color I was starting to lose power and I remembered while in that moment how I was fighting internally to NOT quit even though that voice in my head kept nagging me how much 'easier' it would be to just slow down a bit. But I always remember that in order to get better, to get past that ceiling, you will have to dig deep and that digging is going to suck. So during the last 150m as every muscle in my body was screaming and I was trying to calm down that voice of self doubt, I squashed that ever present self-pitying dude that always wants you to quit and just powered through. I always tell myself that that pain is always temporary.

So my time trial time for 2016 was 27:15 which when I looked back at last year's 2015 time trial of 24:47...is actually not that bad considering I haven't been running as much the past 3 months and I'm really out of shape. The 27:15 hurt a lot, but this is promising as it's a good base to start off in the new year.

Wk 2 - 1Km Intervals

Week 2's training to me was an exercise in mental and physical control. We were basically doing 1km intervals where we run 1km at our 5km pace then take it down 30 secs on the way back and repeat for 30mins. It was -33C/-24F which is basically hell super frozen over 2x. It was too cold to keep an eye on my Garmin as I was more focusing on keeping myself upright and running in good form and mentally always telling myself to speed up during the 1km interval and slow down on the cool down run. Unlike last week where I was sucking wind, this week my pacing was around the 9:20/mile mark which is comfortably hard for me but during the cool down I didn't want to slouch run. I kept mindful of keeping my form erect and shoulders relaxed and that contributed to getting better and stronger as the intervals wore on. 

I don't really have any words of wisdom to end this entry. I'm just happy I'm able to run again and I'm happy doing it. The one important thing I noticed is after my run and especially during my run there is no "FEEL OFF" feeling. I haven't looked at my blood pressure the last 3 weeks and I guess I should, but for now there is none of that lethargic pain I was feeling. I'm not going to worry about my stats or worry about comparisons with other people (even though we ALL do it) I just want to be able to run well enough to be able to keep up with Dr. Phil, Paul, Lori, Ted and pretty much most of the regulars. But I know that's going to take time and right now, I have plenty of it run-wise. :)

A New Hope - 2016 Pilot Episode

Something happened to me late last year in my running season. I ran the Fargo marathon (4:14:30) in May and PR'd my previous by 13 minutes so that was a big plus and I ran my first 50km ultra on July 4th on a very hot and humid day.

It was in between those months where I started to see some patterns of a very big digression. I mean I wasn't hurt asides from some minor aches associated with running but I knew something was wrong. I was looking back at my training diary and I always had these two words "FEEL OFF" associated with a majority of my training runs. And even taking some time off from running and going on a nice long vacation with my girls. Whenever I headed out for a run, my whole body was just feeling like shit, my mind was at a complete loss and then my body would just start to whither...

Koreatown to Pan Pacific Park LA run in the middle of summer and I was hurting.

When I went to LA with my girls for a 2-1/2week vacation, I'd head out in the morning and run hoping to get in 10 miles but would quickly devolve into 10km and I would be hurting. As I would look back on my running logs when I was last in LA in February and running 8-10 miles would be nothing and that would be in undulating terrain. But during this trip, just running on the flats on LA streets (which there are not many) I would feel so strained early into my run hoping that the feeling would pass...but just exacerbate the farther I kept going. When we arrived back home in early August, I took the rest of the month off to just rest from the big trip and heal my body from all the aches and pains I was feeling. The pain wasn't in my legs, but more my shoulders and that would be a harbinger of things to come.

It wasn't until September 5, 2015 that something happened to me that actually sent me to the hospital and derailed the rest of my running until the new year.

"Where am I?"

On September 5, 2015 I had plans to finally head out to City Park Runners but I woke up at 4 AM with a pounding headache (migraine range 6/10). I figured I was just hungry so I ate some cereal thinking I'd feel better in a couple of hours. But come 7:30 when I'd normally be ready to leave, the headache just got worse. And by 10AM I was throwing up. I thought the milk I had with my cereal was bad (yeah I'm an idiot) and just went back to sleep. It was finally at 2PM after throwing up 3 more times I got my oldest girl to call her mother to take me to the hospital. When I went in to register they measured my blood pressure and it was at 233/135 which is listed as Hypertension Stage 3 / Hypertensive Crisis. My head was exploding and my daughter was telling me the nurse kept urging me to stay awake (as I must have passed out) and they just wheeled me into emergency bypassing registration. It was there apparently I started to scream.

I was put on blood thinners and clot busters, and after an MRI, the neurologist found a micro blister in my right vertebral artery which clotted and caused me an aneurysm. Good thing for me I had to foresight to head to the hospital (because I thought I had a migraine and a maybe a stomach flu) according to my doctor that if I waited another hour, I'd have died....so there's that.

So after going through many tests with a cardiologist, neurologist and another brain scan, blood tests...the specialists couldn't figure out what caused the blister. But I will have to take medication for the rest of my life now. So that will be something that's part of my new normal. And I wasn't allowed to run for the first two months.

It was in mid-December that I started to venture out and run, and it was actually very painful, but blissfully great. I loved the fact that I got back out there and I ran slow-ass and I hurt. But the hurt was more from being really out of running shape. I wasn't feeling 'off' this time so it was great. I got in a couple of more runs and in order to keep the flow going and ran my farthest come the new year on January 2, 2016 with the City Park Runners (CPR) group out to Misercordia Hospital, which back in the day would take me 35 minutes now took me closer to 45 minutes and the run back was longer...but what the hell...I was out there and had a great time.

Which leads me to thinking, in order to get back into running, it's best I sign up for the CPR running clinic. I was very apprehensive at first for signing up...but I'm glad I did as I learned a lot about myself. But I'll write about that in another post

Running days, the last of June and beginning of Summer

I took a week off after that OTS assessment and when I tried to get out on the road, my legs felt like lead and my ankles were still hurting. I don't know what the problem is, but I think I'm coming down with a cold or flu or something as my head feels like I'm underwater and my ears are plugged. I have the Afton Trail Run coming July 4th and I'm very excited about it as this will be my first ultra trail race and what better way to get into the ultra scene, by starting 'small' at 50km which is 31 miles, 5 more than a full marathon.

I've started running again, albeit slowly and really not pushing. I'm glad that my cardio fitness is still intact, but my skeletal-muscular fitness still needs a lot of work. I'm approaching the Afton 50k as one long ass slow distance run. Just enjoy myself and complete it and prepare my body for Twin Cities come October.

June 20, 2015 @ 8:04 AM

Legs still feel dead, welcome to Overtraining world

Took a whole week off as I'm suffering from Overtraining syndrome. My legs have been protesting to move and I've been feeling super exhausted all week. Still not 100%, not even close to 80% as I felt myself slowing down immensely at the end when I normally can handle this distance and pace. Take another day off and re-asses for Monday. 

11.33 kmDistance
5:52 min/kmAvg Pace
771 CCalories
1:06:29Time
13 mElev Gain

148 bpmAvg HR
160 bpmMax HR

177 spmAvg Cadence
197 spmMax Cadence

June 22, 2015 @ 7:04 PM

Wk5 aerobic base - reset

After a full week off, I got back into it although my lower legs still feel achy but I'm sure this is from the extended time off as the effort level was a little too high for my HR and pacing (which I shouldn't be thinking about). This is almost a full reset as I don't want to panic right now.

10.12 kmDistance
6:00 min/kmAvg Pace
708 CCalories
1:00:40Time
15 mElev Gain

146 bpmAvg HR
158 bpmMax HR

179 spmAvg Cadence
199 spmMax Cadence

June 23, 2015 @ 6:08 PM

Hill Training at Westview Park

Good workout with Phil, Lori, Paul, Roberto and Sean.
7.83 kmDistance
5:30 min/kmAvg Pace
519 CCalories
43:01Time
63 mElev Gain

152 bpmAvg HR
167 bpmMax HR

174 spmAvg Cadence
218 spmMax Cadence

June 25, 2015 @ 10:38 PM

Wk 5 Broken ass, ankle and legs run

I felt good going into this run, and came out destroyed. I don't understand, but my achilles and ankles were just aching that I just stopped at the 6 mile mark and walked, limped home.

11.22 kmDistance
6:12 min/kmAvg Pace
704 CCalories
1:09:34Time
10 mElev Gain

139 bpmAvg HR
151 bpmMax HR

175 spmAvg Cadence
197 spmMax Cadence

June 29, 2015 @ 8:43 PM

Wk 6 aerobic base - hot, humid and loving it

The past couple of day I've been in a daze. My head feels like it's underwater and my ears are plugged. My legs feel like lead and both my ankles are just sore. I haven't run since last Thursday as I tried to take it easy and rest. Tonight I decided to go out and run, to take it easy and just ease into the run. Everything felt ok except the last mile where my body was aching but my pacing was even albeit a lot slower than I'm used to running. Part of it was the humidity, but I'm not complaining as I run about 3/4 of the year in the cold.  I'll keep a close watch on my health and hope that this bug passes.

9.11 kmDistance
6:02 min/kmAvg Pace
651 CCalories
54:55Time
8 mElev Gain

147 bpmAvg HR
155 bpmMax HR

179 spmAvg Cadence
210 spmMax Cadence

Building things up patiently - Train, don't strain.

Over the past 2 weeks, I've been running everyday. The first week mileage (May 23 - 31) I was averaging 4 miles (6.5km) the first 4 days then ramping the mileage the last 3 days by 5, 7.5, 10 miles (8, 12, 16 km) respectively. And this past week I upped the daily mileage from 4 miles to 5.7 miles (9.2km) the first 4 days and the weekend ramp up of 7.5, 10, 13 miles (12, 16, 21 km).

After Fargo, I was trying to figure out why I crashed. Albeit I was able to go a little farther than my last marathon go at Twin Cities from mile 18 to mile 22, but what was frustrating was through all of the training going into Fargo with all that mileage, I was noticeably slowing down at mile 17 and finally had to stop and WALK at mile 22 and then the death march.

I don't want to do that again. I had to sit down and figure things out. I mentioned how I was following Rubbish Runner's (RR) blog and going through his sub-3 hour marathon and we had a pretty good back and forth email conversation about the plan. RR outlined how the plan was based on Arthur Lydiard's training principals. So I dug into Lydiard's history and discovered how he trained 1960 Olympic Champions (Peter Snell, Murray Halberg) and I was fascinated with the story and the history of that era. So I dug up all of the reading material I could find on Lydiard and he actually has a lot of his training principles available floating around the internet.

The only problem with all of that information, it was hard to sift through the noise and putting it all together to make sense within my capabilities. Lydiard was famous for his 100 mile (161km) week programs. And thinking to myself, how the hell? There are a lot of books out there with Lydiard's training principals written by Lydiard himself that can be found on Amazon. I couldn't find anything at my local library so as I was sifting through the Amazon catalog, I came upon Healthy Intelligent Training (HIT) by Arthur Livingstone and going by the reviews and finding out more from Letsrun.com forum boards, that book seemed to be one of the better written and concise resources based on Lydiard's principals. The author knew Lydiard and was coached by Barry Magee, who was a contemporary to Lydiard's original athletes (Snell and Halberg).

I picked up the book and read through it, pouring over all of the information along with the sub 3 hr plan and putting together my own plan. I consider myself a beginner and I've written out the plan so I'm tackling the distances in a slow and manageable progression. I've signed up for the Twin Cities marathon and with the way my plan is laid out, I'll have a 7 week base build, 4 weeks of transition (Hill training), 5 weeks of Peak conditioning (track work) and 3 week taper before the race. And with my Fargo marathon training over the past 4 months, I have the fitness carried over well into my base building phase.

And that is where my major focus is on right now...the base building phase. I believe it was a lack of aerobic development that was my downfall. I don't think I had enough of a base to be able to carry myself 26 miles as was proven when I literally died at mile 22 but was considerably slowing down at mile 17.

And so it began 2 weeks ago, running everyday, at an easy pace of ( 60 - 70% of Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) - 135 - 149bpm) and a couple of days of aerobic ( 70 - 80% HRR - 149 - 162bpm) with my long run at the end of the week. In the book HIT, Livingstone wrote:

The purpose of this phase was to systematically build the aerobic capacity to the highest level possible before commencing faster work. The biggest stimulus to the development of aerobic capacity is often uninterrupted time spent at higher aerobic or sub-threshold levels: especially with regard to the development of the very fine blood vessels in the running muscles. 

All of my current mileage has been building up systematically and I want to get it to the point where I'm running 2 hrs at an even effort. I'm currently not worried about pacing as I don't want to find myself straining to reach a certain pace as more a consistent effort. What I found the best about Lydiard's philosophy was, Train, Don't Strain.  It's still too early in the training cycle to draw any conclusions but I've been running every day and I'm able to continue with good recovery after my week ending LSD's and those higher aerobic zone runs.

The Rebuild

After the completion of Fargo and looking back at my training log, I was thinking of how can I improve and crack that sub 4 hr time?

I put in over 500 miles to get a 4:14:30 time, which I beat my previous PR by 13 minutes done at Twin Cities Marathon in October 2014. My fitness is still not where I want it to be. Mind you I was doing all of my training runs in the dead of winter where temperatures dipped -40C/-40F and it was hard to get in decent training runs. I thought just being out there in the deep freeze of winter would help. But as I was looking at my moods and energy levels with my RHR and training HR's I at times think I was running too much too hard and I would carry on my next training run a little more tired than recovered which brought about slower times as I was seeing especially during the Peak phase.

And I have to admit doing a lot of my runs in the aerobic zone helped a lot, but I think I need to run more and build a stronger base so I can run better and stronger during the Transition and Peak phases and be able to handle LSD's of 16-24 miles without exhausting my energy levels.

I started looking around the blog-o-sphere and came across Rubbish Runner and was fascinated with his progress. I'm a little older than him by a couple of years so we aren't that far off in age, so I figured I'd reach out to him for a little bit of training advice. I'm still very new to running (3 years) and I'm nowhere near his level yet, but being patient and just sticking with running and training, I figure I'll crack that sub 4hr marathon in due time.

So I struck up an email conversation with Rubbish Runner blogger about training zones as I was reading up on his sub 3 hour marathon training plan. We mostly discussed the topic of Heart Rate training zones. And I was able to establish new training zones based on my recent performance in Fargo. These training zones will be in preparation for a Fall marathon, which will most likely be the Twin Cities Marathon on October 4, 2015.

New Training Zones:

So with a Resting Heart Rate (RHR) of 52 and a Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) of 190.
Zone 1 (LSD, Easy and Recovery runs) 60 - 70% of Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) - 135 - 149bpm
Zone 2 (Aerobic or Target HR zone) 70 - 80% HRR - 149 - 162bpm
Zone 3 (Anaerobic zone) 80 - 90% HRR 162 - 176bpm
Zone 4 (V02 max) 90 - 100% HRR 176 - 190bpm

May 2015 > 20 - 24 Running Days [BASE]

May 20, 2015 @ 7:52 PM

Beautiful evening, just had to get out to run. Wasn't feeling any pain in the right foot the Fargo marathon as I thought I might have plantar fasciitis (still might) but I wanted to get out and run.

Too much too far too soon. Should have listened to that voice of reason and not run so far and maybe ran a little too fast. It's been 10 days since the marathon and even though I felt great today those same aches crept up during the latter stages of the run. Stupid ego...this might have set me back as my right foot is now aching again.

Ended up walking the last 3km....sigh.

10.30 kmDistance
7:26 min/kmAvg Pace
625 CCalories
1:16:32Time
6 mElev Gain

132 bpmAvg HR
211 bpmMax HR

164 spmAvg Cadence
200 spmMax Cadence

May 23, 2015 @ 11:09 AM

Slow crawl back to basebuilding. Purpose of this run was to test out my right foot to see if any aches and pains creep up. 

Happy to report nothing major except maybe the front of my right toes were tingling for a little bit. I'm thinking it was more of the process of over-thinking this whole run convincing myself if this was a good thing to do. By the time I was out and running it was reading 31C today so it was a little bit of a challenge to keep my HR at 145 range. I forced myself to slow down a lot throughout the run, but very mindful of keeping the cadence up to 180 which kept my running form in check. Over all happy with how it went. I'll keep going the 5k distance for the rest of the week and then slowly start building up the base again.

5.42 kmDistance
6:15 min/kmAvg Pace
407 CCalories
33:54Time
1 mElev Gain

148 bpmAvg HR
161 bpmMax HR

182 spmAvg Cadence
190 spmMax Cadence

May 24, 2015 @ 11:12 AM

Well I now know that 6km seems to be my limit for now. I actually didn't feel any aches during the run and I kept my HRM below 150 despite the +27C heat. But it was after the run where it started to feel achy, about 1 hr after. I'll roll my foot out to strengthen it up.

6.41 kmDistance
6:20 min/kmAvg Pace
456 CCalories
40:36Time
3 mElev Gain

145 bpmAvg HR
162 bpmMax HR

182 spmAvg Cadence
192 spmMax Cadence

My marathon of Sound and Vision

May 9, 2015 @ 7:30 AM

First off I want to congratulate all of my friends from City Park Runners. They were (in no particular order but all important none-the-less) Erick, Sean, Tyler, Dan, Ron, Paul, Barry, Travis, Doug, Agata, Dominique, Kathryn, Phaedra, Becky, Josh, Dave, Tracey, Anita.

Race started in the Fargo Dome. I forgot to acquire a sat signal for my GPS prior to the race start, but I did hit start on my Garmin just as I crossed the timing mats but I managed to get signal around the 2nd mile and along with the cadence count it figured out my mileage and pace from mile 1 which was pretty neat.

I along with Barry, Erick and Tyler kept with the 3:50 pace group pretty much to the 12th mile. The first part of the course ran some parts of last year's 10th anniversary course. Erick marveled at the course and city in general as I ran with him for the first 15 miles. Barry and Ron were keeping up with the 3:50 pace group. It was at mile 16 where Erick told me we had to start 'hammering.' He was getting farther and farther ahead of me and I was hammering with a ball peen to his sledgehammer as he started getting farther ahead. I still felt good, and didn't worry too much as I told myself if I can keep this pace (5:35-5:45/km) going I still might be able to get the sub 4.

Then mile 17 came and you had to go up a hill into the neighborhood part of the course. I didn't blast up the hill to save my strength as I used effort more than pace. But as I crested the hill, I threw up all of the Gels and I noticed I didn't digest the scrambled eggs that was being served in the hotel. Funny thing was I never felt sick to my stomach anytime prior to the race.

I got my shit together and started moving forward. Lucky there was an aid station near by as I took pretty much all the water that was being held out to wash out my mouth and re-hydrate. I'm glad I packed 6 gels as i started taking a gel right away to try and get my calories back. I still felt good, but I knew I was losing steam as I started finding it a little more difficult to keep a steady pace but I was still in good spirits.

By mile 22, going through the downtown area, the wall was starting to call out. And the more I was fighting it, the closer it was coming. I finally had to stop and walk. I won't lie, I felt a little dejected and when I saw the 4:00 pace group creep up to me and start passing, I was doing pretty much everything in my mind to keep up with them. It was only after a mile the pace sign started to float away into the horizon.

It was then I thought to myself, my last attempt I blew up at mile 18. This time I was able to go a little more farther. Yes I was going on dead legs and my willpower was dwindling, but I wasn't too down on myself. I thought of my girls and my mom and my dad who passed away a couple of weeks after the Twin Cities marathon. I was looking around for inspiration to make this experience a little lighter, and what I saw made me realize all the pain I'm feeling in my legs was minor compared to this obese lady who was power walking the 10k course along with her race bag behind her. I could see from her expression, the determination in her eyes that she wanted to be there along side the marathoners. Some guys on mountain bikes came riding by and shouted out "Keep on truckin' lady!" and for a brief moment, I thought it was an asshole thing to say, but they turned around and smiled at her. Not maliciously, but with encouragement and I found myself a little emotional at that point.

All the while I was walk/running as I witnessed this and I realized it was mile 25...just 1.2 fucking miles to go and witnessing that made my spirit whole when it was falling to pieces. My body was pretty much broken, but my spirit was put back together and even though I couldn't find that lost speed, I was able to muster my legs to go that last mile (that couldn't stop winding back and forth...like really?!) Of course we had to run around the Fargo Dome which by that point I really wasn't interested in the architecture. There was nobody really in front of me to try and beat for that last surge your body gets when you can see the finish line. But I gave it everything as I was crossing the finish line into the arms of a race marshall (I'm laughing as i writie this!) who caught me asking me if I'm ok. I told her that I puked up at mile 17 (like she cared...) and asked me if I was going to puke again, probably preparing to drop me, but I shook my head and started making my way slowing through the finishing chute.

Pretty fun race.
Official race time - 4:14:30

I Love LA - February 9 - 11 2015

And when the palm trees bow their heads...

No matter how cruel I've been

LA...you always let me back in...

~Rilo Kiley

February 9 - 11 2015

I'm so sick of winter. So tired of the cold and running in the cold. So tired of being tired and just completely depleted of any joy as I grind out day after day. I couldn't shake this feeling of grey and it was my friend Osty who brought it up to me in mid January and told me I was really "OFF" that I've lost my Zen. I spoke with my boss at work about this and how I needed to get away for awhile. He told me to log online and book a flight and see how I feel about it the moment I hit accept. 

And after contacting my brother-in-law and asking him if I can visit Los Angeles, I booked my flight. I landed at LAX on February 8, 2015 at 11:30 AM PST. That first day my brother and I took off to Big Bear Lake to get in some snowboarding...how ironic to get away from the frigid north of Canada, only to head up into the mountains of California to snowboard.

Here are my running adventures while in California:

February 9, 2015

Big Bear Lake, CA

Woke up early to run around a trail near Big Bear Lake. Just a nice easy run, not worried about cadence or heartrate and taking in the sites and sounds. The elevation gain was pretty neat.
12.16 kmDistance
6:30 min/kmAvg Pace
770 CCalories
1:19:06Time
219 mElev Gain
139 bpmAvg HR
155 bpmMax HR

165 spmAvg Cadence 

255 spmMax Cadence

February 10, 2015

Ran from KoreaTown up to Griffith Park. This was a complete uphill climb and super fun.
11.93 kmDistance
6:45 min/kmAvg Pace
885 CCalories
1:20:27Time
315 mElev Gain

February 11, 2015

This was a fun run from KoreaTown to La Brea Tar Pits all the way to Beverly Hills.
16.17 kmDistance
6:24 min/kmAvg Pace
1,222 CCalories
1:43:26Time
39 mElev Gain

Let me tell you what I did right. Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon race report.

By the dawn's early light.

I had a wonderful weekend with my 2 sisters, Connie and Cherry along with our good friends Agata (the Polish Sensation) and Kevin Alldredge, as we all got up on a cold October morning to run the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. This post is dedicated to my 2 sisters and their undying belief in the stuff I choose to do with running and other endeavors in my life that truly make me the person I am.

The Threes

The marathon has come and gone and I completed it. I got a personal best from the first time I ran this race last year and beat my time in the Fargo marathon just this past spring. This is my third marathon and I've built upon each one with pretty impressive personal best times. Did I get the time that I really wanted? In all honesty NO I DID NOT. But as I look back at the race and the months and weeks leading up to it, I can actually see where the heartbreak began and where my heart mends and where I had to learn to be somebody. And I couldn't have done that without a huge support system that was pushing me through to the finish line.

This isn't going to be a diatribe of what went wrong and how I didn't get the time I wanted (3:44:00) during the race, as that's a very detrimental thing to talk about for something I signed up to participate in, when I know there are many who would trade places to be experiencing the marathon or just being able to run.

Instead I'll borrow this quib that I got from a favorite blogger of mine, Emily who completed a 100miler race and when asked about it, she talked about "The Threes." “Three things you think you did well and three things you know you need to work on for your next one.”

Words to live by

1. I prepared and trained for this marathon as best as I could possibly know.

After Fargo, I sat down and wrote out my training plan. Took it to coach Dan and Erick and reviewed what I needed to do and set about doing it. I just finished getting over some personal challenges and running, training, running with the City Park Runner's group and hanging out with them was a great experience. I have to thank Dr. Phil, Lori, Paul, Roberto, Doug, Cheryll, Geoff, Barbara, Ron, Barry, Kathryn, Lourdes, my bro's Osty and Tyler (in no particular order) for all that they've done and their encouraging support and belief in what I can do. I had a great training cycle and there is plenty of room for improvement with me and the marathon distance, especially with all the stuff that will come with experience.

TCM 2014 Cherry, Aggie, Ruben, Kevin, Connie

2. I handled adversity well...with the help of Kevin

The night before the race, as Connie, Cherry, Agata, and Kevin were all gathered around with our families for a pre-pasta dinner that my sister Connie graciously hosted, Kevin and I were talking race pacing I told him I was aiming for 3:44:00 and I told him my plan was to run comfortably at a 9min/mile pace for the first 8 miles then pick it up and just keep going. We were in corral one and the 3:45 pace group was in corral two. I wanted to run to keep up ahead of them so in case anything went 'wrong' I'd have a buffer and at least be able to hold pace and help them take me home.

I remember Kevin telling me prior to this and I've read and heard from many experienced runners "The pace will dictate itself on race day." I felt a little cold going up to the start line and I told Kevin that my feet were freezing and he told me the same. It took us about 3 miles to finally get warm but we were on a great pace and my legs felt good, I kept reminding myself to relax and just enjoy this. Kevin kept me loose by throwing some jokes my way, he provided all of us with some throw-away running gear and glove liners (but who the hell wants to throw away nice Patagonia gear!) and we just kept the pace going. I knew this was a long distance and I kept my shit together when I wanted to speed up. The pace group caught us at mile 13 and we kept them within striking distance all the way to mile 17 when the balloons started to float off into the distance and it became a small red and white dot in the sea of bodies moving forward and suddenly my body did NOT WANT TO MOVE at mile 18 (30km).

My quads just seized up. Like that grounding halt, there was no indication of any twinges of things to come...it...just...happened...eff off. And while I was suddenly stopped and stooped over Kevin didn't know I stopped and was probably almost a quarter mile a head of me, and he came back for me and asked me if I was ok. I told him what the problem was and he just told me to relax. He kept telling me "It's ok" as I was almost in tears because I suddenly realized I let everyone down back home. Kevin must have sensed the gloom coming down on me as I can't remember exactly what he said, but was to the effect..."We are out here and very close to the end, let's finish this one step at a time" including his calm presence and demeanor help me get out of my funk and we continued moving forward. I kept running when my body didn't want to run and smiled when I was pretty close to tears.

When we got over Summit hill from Dale to Mackubin (the LAST hill on the course) I made it my mandate to not stop until we get to the finish line. He told me to take it easy on the downhill run to the finish line as my quads were thrashed and we were moving forward. But as we were getting close to the end he looks at me, points to a runner about 20 feet in front of us and says "If we are to do anything Ruben, we are going to beat that 70 year old runner!" And I couldn't stop laughing as we bolted to the finish line with a huge ass grin on my face. (Sorry 70 year old sir...)

3. I realized that running can be a team sport and I love that.

It's because of my sister Connie I became a runner. Two years ago, she wanted to do a bucket list item and decided to run the Chicago marathon. My other sister Cherry thought it would be a great idea for us to go down to Chicago and cheer her on. Turns out during the last minute I joined Connie where I had no business being there. I lost her at the half way mark and caught up and found her near the end where we finished together. I'm realizing now that this has been the metaphor and subtext of our lives between her and I...where we've drifted apart, but managed to find each other and always finish. She was there for me with the birth of my girls and through all of my rough patches in my life. She was there in Fargo, cheering the loudest on some lone street screaming my name and at the finish line screaming my name and comforting me during what I thought was a failure of a race.

I waited for her at the finish line of this one and as she was coming through the chute, we made eye-contact and no words needed to be said, except both of us reaching out for each other and hugging. She PB'd her time from last year :)

My sister Cherry and I are very close. She too has been there for me countless times and has always been a staunch supporter in all of the crazy I do. Ever since we were teenagers, we've had a pretty inseparable bond. She won't run with me, but she knows I will always be there for her no matter what. I can write forever about her....but she already knows. She PB'd her time from last year too :)

They both knew I didn't get the time I wanted, but the only thing they said was that they were proud of me and the accomplishment of this race. They knew everything that was going on in the background and without them, I wouldn't be able to keep myself motivated enough for this small personal gain that I get from running. They also have this undying belief that I'll be able to accomplish something I truly want out of this....

And now for what I know I need to work on for the next one.

1. Nutrition, Calories and backup answers.

I basically bonked...hit the wall. During my LSDs I was training with nutrition but I still didn't manage to get the proper nutrients. I practiced with taking clif shot gels and during the training runs, I had no problem with them going down and staying in my stomach. I mapped out when I was going to take the gels and packed the appropriate amount with a couple of extras for that just in-case moments. And during the race I plotted out that I would take one every 4 miles. And by mile 16, I couldn't stomach it anymore. Which was strange because during the training runs I had no problem eating 5 of them. So I was seizing up, and Kevin told me I must be electrolyte depleted and no matter how much Powerade I was trying to down, it was already too late to recover.

Kevin and I talked about this after the race and he gave me some suggestions, and I also talked to coach Dan who gave me the same suggestions. I'm going to need to carefully look at electrolyte and calorie balancing. So for the next training cycle, I'll start incorporating this into my LSDs.


2. Pace management

If I want to get into the 3 hour ranges, I'm going to have to train to get a little more faster. My current cruising pace is a 9min/mile(ish) and I'm going to need to get past that comfort zone and get into the low 8's and train consistently to achieve this. I'm looking at this soberly because I'm learning that building endurance and speed takes a lot of time, especially for me because I came from an anaerobic sport background. I know I'm on my way because one year ago I could barely keep up with the CPR gang. This year I'm making huge improvements and I've built another base that was built upon the Fargo training cycle which will help me get faster and stronger for the next training cycle.


3. Race day preparation and execution

I was cold and I didn't really prepare for that. Even though I had a throw away, I should have grabbed an oversized garbage bag to keep the heat from escaping my body. I don't think I should have run 5 miles the night before even if it was 'easy.' I should have just relaxed and just not do a thing. And I know I shouldn't have over-thought and over-tried the race. I should have had more faith in my training and just go with the flow and trust in the process and live in the moment. I couldn't tell at the moment everything was falling apart (you rarely ever do...) and it was only after a day and talking with my sister Con and with Cherry on the long drive back home where we did a lot of reflecting.

Cherry told me that my best race was the WPS half marathon, where I didn't over think the race. I just ran it and I incidentally PR'd. This same phenomenon happened to me during my last match in Tae Kwon Do. I was freaking out and practicing so hard, but I couldn't find the the distance control for my kicks to connect to the practice bag whenever my coach countered. It was driving me crazy, and this was an hour before leading up to my final match. He took me aside and told me to just get in the ring and kick. Don't think about spatial control, ring management, target acquisition...but just kick. Incidentally I won that match....so yeah...over-thinking, over trying. Just learn to be in the moment. It's one of the reasons I'm seeing my training runs are always better than my races. I'm over trying, over-reaching. When I'm in my training runs, with the CPR gang, I know I'm flying and I'm having fun doing it....just have to learn that part and that will come with more experience.

Final notes:
The marathon is hard. It's hard for me, and I'm loving the challenge. I want to do well...I want to get faster and stronger, because I know I have great races ahead of me. Will I get there? I believe I will, and my sisters and my girls believe it too and that's pretty much all that matters.

Twin Cities Marathon 2014 Race Bib Number

There is now exactly one month to the Twin Cities Marathon and looking back into my training log I've done over 600kms in training runs over the summer, not including the base building I did when I joined the City Park Runners (CPR) marathon training clinic in February.

I had a disappointing last outing in Fargo where I was trying to go sub 4:00:00 but just collapsed in the middle distance. But I didn't let that get me down as I used that as learning tool and gleamed inspiration into what I need to get better. Instead of a pity party, it was just chalked it up to another step to improving myself in the marathon distance.

As I've noted before, I went back to coach Dan and Erick from CPR and hashed out the race and then sat down and figured out what I needed to do to improve. And I took to writing out all of my training in my log book and I'd fill it up with post-it notes with observations and I'd always do a review every week and when I look back upon what I've done, it gave me more confidence in my training and helped me figure out if I could run more or dial it back a bit. As I've been pretty good at keeping myself injury free this training cycle.

That puke feeling indeed...

Since I ran the course last year, I'm at the advantage of knowing the course layout, and I remember so fondly where I died (mile 20 hill). I've studied the map layout and marked out the areas I'd need fueling and actually practiced the fueling strategies during my long runs so there should be no surprises. 

Check that elevation chart and mile 20!

The other valuable resource I've tapped into, is using the running group at CPR. And I would talk to all of the veterans and ask them how they prepared, their mileage, their mindset because they've been there and I can't say enough, how their experiences and stories have helped shaped my thought patterns. Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes (Standing on the shoulder of giants).

But right now this is all heresay, as I haven't even got to the start line yet, and that is the proof in the so called pudding. A lot of my anxiety now is just mental. I'm just going to continue my training for the next two weeks, then start the taper and on race week, just completely chill out and relax and have faith in all the preparation and training to help me get to the finish line.

Again going the wrong way on the track.
Big thanks to Erick for taking this picture of me during a CPR Speed Clinic.

Summertime...and the Living is...

Last time I wrote in this blog I talked about my daughter's 10k race and how she managed to gut through the whole race. That was a cold and rainy father's day and I think most of Winnipeg feared that that weather was a harbinger of things to come for the rest of our such short summer after such a cold brutal winter.

But shortly after, the sun did manage to come out and summer came into full swing and it's been pretty decent and warm since but I had a bit of trouble getting focused to run and train for my upcoming marathon in Minneapolis. I had some personal issues that needed to be taken care of and on July 3rd, I was able to sort a good chunk of it out. I then drafted out a training plan and showed it to coach Dan and Erick from CPR and they in turn adjusted to more realistic outlay.

So from July 1 up until present day I've been running...running with consistency and elevating my mileage longer and longer and also spending more time on my feet. I'm very glad and lucky to have taken the Marathon and half-marathon training clinic offered by City Park Runners over the winter as that built this huge base of fitness where I can build upon to get stronger and faster.

Starting from June, I logged in 126km (78mi) and July was 146km (90mi). As of August 13, 2014 I've logged in 90KM (55mi) and this is the month in my training where I really start hammering out the LSDs and getting in 90 - 100 km (55- 62mi)weeks. After June, I managed to get a little bit stronger and healthier and have been running without any noticeable pain in my legs or body. My recovery time between runs is getting quicker, but I still play it smart in taking the time to rest and recover for the next run or workout.

A more granular view of everything so far

As I've reasoned after a May race, I took some time off to rest and sort out my personal life. Then June was spent just getting back into running and healing from a lot of the aches and pains I was suffering from running. I was doing a lot more core work and leg strengthening exercises. My most notable aches were my achilles and the hamstring on my left leg. I spent a lot of time foam rolling and read and learned a lot from this book "Anatomy for Runners" which gave me a lot of insight in how my body functions when I'm in the state of running.

I still kept going to the CPR Thursday(tempo) and Saturday(LSD) runs and then I received a message from Dr. Phil asking me to join them running Tuesday evenings. So I added the Tuesday get-together's as another part of my training and kept going every Tuesday for another 10km which was another Tempo paced run. I can't stress enough how running with a group that is faster than me, has helped me tremendously.

My training week would be Monday an 8km run in my neighborhood and I'd call that Prep run. Then Tuesday would be gym workout at work then in the evening with Dr. Phil and Lori, Doug and Roberto and sometimes Paul and we'd run from The Crescent to the Legislative building and back which would be roughly over 9km and we'd do it tempo style. I'd then do Yoga on Wednesday and the regular Thursday CPR tempo, rest Friday and do the LSD on Saturday with a recovery slow 5-8km run on Sunday. July was mostly focused on running tempos and just getting in the mileage to prepare my body for the big miles that will come in August.

August is the crucial month in my training. I signed up for a CPR speed clinic which replaces the Tuesday tempos with Dr. Phil and the gang (since they signed up for the speed clinic too). I entered a 14km Trail race in the 2nd weekend of August to test my fitness. I wanted to see where I was in my training, and I'm happy to say despite the severe heat (thank goodness I brought my water bottle with me) I managed a 7 minute PR from the same race last year, so I'm improving. I know what I could have done better, but with the improvement it gives me a measuring stick of where I'm at and what I need to do to. The next day I banged out 24km as I wanted to get that feeling of running on tired legs.  And from what I'm seeing I believe I'm improving and should do well. I know I still have a long ways to go to be where I want to be, but running is a process I can't rush as I'll just hurt myself which will sideline me and set me back.

The other thing I can't stress enough is writing all of this down in a training diary. Even though I upload my runs onto Garmin Connect and I sync across multiple fitness sites. In the Garmin Connect site I write down how the run went, what I ate or my mood so I can look back and review my training cycle. But writing it all down in a training diary is so invaluable. I have it with me always and I'm always looking back and reviewing my week. The checkboxes of Mood/Energy/Nutrition/Water and Sleep are great for seeing patterns. The training diary I got is laid out nice and neat and I'm able to put in quick notes and just fill in the blanks and I'll add post-it notes to the days I do gym workouts.

So for the rest of August will be long mileage and speed work. September I'll enter another practice race to see where my fitness is at from over the HOT summer months and then taper just in time for the Twin Cities Marathon slated for October 5, 2014.

Sometimes it's the little things or ones that matter the most.

My 11 year old daughter likes her old man, so I should count myself lucky, and she keeps wanting to run with me. I've signed her up for the MB Marathon Super Run (2.6 mile) that is sponsored through her school, we've done one together and she did last year alone while I ran the 1/2. The last race we did was "Run Through History" hosted by City Park Runners last fall. It was a 5km run and even though her old man had to pull off to the side of the road and pee into the Red River (classy) she jetted towards the finish line to take first place in her division. And so she's been bugging me ever since to run a 1/2 marathon...

Every Father's day in Winnipeg marks the annual Manitoba Marathon. Mackenzie called me up at school 3 weeks before and asked me if I can sign her up for the 10km race, she joined the cross country team at her school so she got in some mileage. I logged into the site and signed both of us up. We did a couple of practice runs and she joined me during one of my speed sessions. She commented to me after the practice with Coach Dan, Yves and Tracy how fast I could run (I can't believe it myself...), but more marveled at how fast the girl was. I told her it takes practice and consistency and to start small first before taking on long distances. I told her it took me almost 2 years to get comfortable to run 10km (6mi) and I don't want her to suddenly hate running because of the toll it can take on your body if you're not prepared.

So we find ourselves at the 10km start line of the Manitoba Marathon. It was a cloudy and cool day, which I told her makes it perfect for distance running. I told her going into the race, that there is no pressure, that I didn't want her to rush off the start line and to slowly build up. Mackenzie is in awe of the starting coral, how the mass of humanity is all crushed into a tiny space and how many people recognized me and were met with warm welcome. I told her this will start to happen as she gets older, how personality can truly go a long way.

And the 'gun' goes off and we're running.

The course took us through University Crescent over the Bishop Grandin on Pembina Hwy into Crescent Drive Park. And for the most part the run was pretty good, Mackenzie kept a pretty good pace and I could tell there were a lot of moments that she didn't want to quit because of me. She knew that 10km was a normal run for me and even though I stressed to her that there was absolutely no pressure, she really dug deep to keep herself moving forward. It was those moments where I just force her to slow down and walk for a couple of minutes, then I'd get her to pick a landmark on when she wants to start up again and I'd get her to start off slow and regain her pace. When we got to the 5km mark I told her that she matched her Run Through History time of 35mins which seemed to pick up her spirits.

As we were looping back over onto Pembina Hwy, I could tell she was delirious and exhausted. When we picked up the race kits the previous day, I got her to buy some GU gels and energy gummies for her run. I encouraged her to take water at the water stops and told her to pop 2-3 gummies. At the 5km mark I told her to take the GU with water. I would ask her how she was feeling at the water stops and she told me she couldn't believe how much she was sweating and how awfully hot she felt. She told me she wanted to take one of the sponges the aid stations were offering. I gave her that "What the Hell?" look as I found it to be very cool out, but she's young and probably just a metabolism machine so she grabbed a sponge and was dousing herself and I kept along side her smiling that shit eating grin that I got my little girl beside me.

At the 7km mark, she was dying...this is where she was having doubts. We were just looping back onto the Pembina overpass and she was telling me she couldn't believe how much her feet hurt. She was wearing the new New Balance Minimus shoes I bought her at CPR which are basically flat barefoot type shoes. I told her after this race we can pick up a new pair of shoes with cushioning if she wanted. She told me that she actually likes running in the minimals and she's used to them but she's just tired and wasn't used to this distance. I told her that all the pain she's feeling will disappear when she sees the finish line. Now it was her turn to give me that WTF? look.

At 8km we were back onto University Drive and she told me she was feeling very hungry. We got up at 5am that morning, I made her Maple and Brown sugar oatmeal and some juice for breakfast. Plus I got her to eat the gummies and take the GU, she probably burned a ton of calories just willing herself this far and I kept talking and encouraging her to keep moving forward, she was in pain and as much as I hated seeing her like this, I told her that we would walk for a minute but no matter how much pain you're feeling, bottle it up inside and put it away. And when you cross that finish line, everything that you've done today will be so worth it. Plus we'd go for a huge pancake breakfast!

As you get to the 26mile chute that will take you to the old University track field and finish line, Mackenzie was just dying. She was telling me how much she hated this and that she wanted to quit. I told her it was just around the corner when we get into the chute and then the finish line. She kept telling me that she was hurting, especially her feet and she couldn't believe how much she was sweating, she was almost in tears. This was the only time I got all "Strict Asian Father" on her. I told her there was NO WAY she was quitting. I told her to stop for one moment and turn around and look back...I told her that she ran 10kms...6 miles in the rain with me, you ran for over an hour and covered a lot of ground. There is only a little more left...whatever pain you're feeling Mackenzie, leave it all on the ground that you covered today....just put one foot in front of the other and go forward.

She did just that...as we turned onto the track, I told her the finish line is right THERE! She just bolted....damn, she ran like a demon possessed and I ran right behind her telling her to go go go go...1:14:54 later she made it, with me right behind her.

Next up for us is Color Me Rad. Happy Father's day indeed.

Next up on the horizon

The City Park Runners Marathon and Half-Marathon training clinic came to a close this past week. And for this spring season, I've run 2 half marathons and 1 full, and I feel I did pretty decent time-wise, even the bad moments were positive, in that I was able to learn a great deal from the failures as much as the successes. There's a lot of work still to do in order for me to get to where I want to go, but with this year's past clinic I got in a great base and foundation for my next target race, and that's the Twin Cities Marathon on October 5th, 2014.

I wrote out a new marathon training cycle plan and I spoke with coach Dan and Erick about it and  got a lot of positive feedback in the layout with plenty of suggestions and tweaks. It's a living document that will be modified but the one thing I learned this year...and that was from fellow CPR group runners Paul and Dr. Phil, was consistency is the key. To be consistent with everything and stay healthy is where I'll see the big jumps in performance. Asides from my Garmin GPS watch, I've taken to writing out my training in a journal to help me track my progress in a more organic way.

Recovery is also an important aspect in training and I've learned to listen to my body a lot more. So I'm taking a full week off before I start my new training cycle as I realized I was over training after doing a tempo-paced run early in the week and the next day both my achilles and hips were painfully sore. I spoke with Osty about this and he determined that I have been running too much the past month as I pretty much ran 3-half marathons in one week (WPS 1/2 and Fargo Full) and then took 1 week off and basically picked up from where I left off running the CPR clinic and doing the Thursday and Saturday group runs at quicker than normal paces as I 'felt' good but I wasn't really letting my body rest and it all caught up to me just this past week. Hence the self-imposed break...

Take a break!

This summer, with my base intact, I'll be working on hills and trails along with track work for my speed training and longer LSD runs as I want to get acclimatized to running 2+ hours with marathon pacing in between the middle miles of the LSD and the slow coming in the beginning and the end. Tempo runs will be a little longer too as the normal tempo distances CPR does on Thursdays are 10k, I'll be going 12-15k. Erick is not into the junk miles and quite frankly I don't like running too much for the sake of running so this summer a lot of my focus will be running with specificity in mind to boost my aerobic engine and train with paces that will bring me closer to that sub 4 hour marathon time. I'll also key in on a nutrition plan as I find it easier to eat healthier during the summer months and also learn the fine art of nutrition intake during LSDs as I want to get my body used to taking energy gels so I can go the longer distances. I've got a couple of key practice races pegged this summer that will test my fitness so I should have some indicators where I'm headed and what I need to tweak along the way.

Four months of preparation for one race...sounds about right.

Mileage since January
670.04 km / 416 miles