2010 - A year in review...

First off I'd like to wish you, my faithful readers, a very happy New Year. All the best for 2011, and if you have set some goals, not necessarily a running goal, but if you start on any path towards some sort of accomplishment then I hope you fulfill your goal and that you learn something great about yourself in the process.

I had a great 2010 both from a personal and running perspective. So here is a review of my year of running. 

Total for 2010 - 144 runs - 1237.83 km

January - 6 runs - 31.12 km
A pretty quiet start to 2010 with only 6 runs in January, most of those on the treadmill. My goals for the year were to go under 2 hours in the half-marathon, under 50 minutes in the 10 km, under 25 minutes in the 5 km and log more than 750 kms.

February - 7 runs - 48.99 km
A slight increase in mileage as well as the Winterman 10 km race clocking 57:24, a satisfying result considering the snowy and slippy conditions that day. The race was a lot of fun, there were 5 km, 10 km, half marathon, and marathon distances available, with all races starting at the same time with a commitment to race in whatever the prevailing conditions. We got pretty lucky with minus 15°C, a light dusting of snow and very little wind.

March - 12 runs - 75.38 km
March didn't get off to a good start, I picked up a nasty cold and except for one 3 km run I was unable to train at all for my first chip-timed 5 km race. I went into the St Patrick's Day 5 km with a goal to run as fast as my lungs would let me. I was accompanied by my friend Carlos and we clocked 26:32 and 27:28 respectively. This turned out  to be a personal best for me, although I had a fair bit of trouble breathing, especially from 3 km onwards. The best part is that this race really lit a fire in me and I really knuckled down with the training, increasing the length and pace of my threshold runs and slowly increasing the length of my weekend easy/long runs.

April - 14 runs - 135.48 km
Continuing on from the enthusiasm I had gained in March I pressed on towards a "tune up" half marathon with a number of threshold runs, long runs and hill repeats. The tune up half marathon came in the shape of the Minto Run for Reach race. My intention was to try out a couple of paces (5:45/km and 5:35/km) and see how long I could maintain them over 21.1 kms. The race course was from City Hall in Ottawa, down beside the canal along Queen Elizabeth Drive to Dow's lake and back twice. This race turned out to be a huge success for me with me running all 21.1 km without stopping to walk (for the first time ever) and the first time I was able to run the half marathon in a sub-2 hour time (1:56:39). This month ended up being my second highest month of the year for total distance run despite having to take a week off right before the Run for Reach with a painful tibialis anterior (shin) muscle.

May - 11 runs - 128.43 km
Buoyed by my unexpectedly good performance at the Run for Reach, I pressed on towards what I had envisioned at the start of the year as my A-race, the National Capital Race Weekend Half Marathon. I started to dream about a possible sub 1 hour 55 and set my training accordingly. Unfortunately the injury bug struck again, my left Achilles tendon and lower calf cramped up hard after a trail run with my brother-in-law, I could barely walk the next day. After a few days off and some treatment with ice, I resumed training albeit at a slightly lower intensity. Then 1 week before the big race, I had pain in my right heel, probably as a result of plantar fasciitis. Worried that my big race plans were in tatters before I had even started, I took a week off running and babied the heel. This course of action did the trick as I was able to run the whole race without any pain problems, however I didn't have the race of my dreams, suffering from too fast a pace at the start and losing a lot of energy weaving in and out of the 11,000 strong field. My pace dropped off and the last 6 kms were a death march with only the amazing crowd responsible for getting me home 4 seconds ahead of the 2 hour mark (1:59:56). I was disappointed with the time, but I had broken 2 hours again and learned a few valuable lessons about pacing and running my own race. 

June - 12 runs - 118.64 km
A switch in focus saw me gearing towards breaking 50 minutes in the 10km. After the disappointment of the National Capital Half Marathon, I was wary of pacing and formulating a plan and then sticking to it. The Alterna "do it for Dad" 10 km provided a great opportunity for redemption. My plan was to see how close I could hold my pace at around 5:05/km and then try and finish strong and perhaps get closer to the sub 50 minute goal I had set myself at the start of the year. I stuck to my plan and came through the halfway split in 24:53, the first time I had ever run a 5 km in sub 25 minutes. The second half of the race featured a 2 km uphill stretch, knowing that my pace was going to suffer I slowed it down with a plan to run the last 2 kms downhill as fast as I could without blowing up. This turned out to be a good strategy with only 2 runners passing me in the 2nd half of the race I made up 12 places (i.e. passed 14 other runners) and hit the line at 50:15, just shy of the sub 50 minute time goal, but a huge personal best (down from 53:55). With a smoking 4:22 in the last km of the race I felt I had broken a mental barrier running kms consistently under 5 minutes.

July - 10 runs - 83.07 km
After running the first half of the Alterna 10 km race in under 25 minutes I was itching to do a 5 km race where I could run it that bit harder and make the sub 25 minute goal for a 5 km official. A number of races were available on Canada Day (1st July) so I opted for one that I was most familiar with, since its route bore a resemblance to one of the routes I run on my lunch hour at work. The route started with about 800 meters of uphill, so I took it easy and then ramped it up on the downhill and flat sections. Despite having a bit of a chesty cough, I was able to run a great race and ended with 23:41. The rest of July was tough, with extremely hot and humid conditions. In effect my running was kept to a minimum, although I had a really nice run around Lac Boivin in Granby, Québec whilst staying there with my family.

August - 13 runs - 123.30 km
Back on track in August and now the focus was on the Army Half Marathon. I was desperate to redeem myself for the disappointing performance at the National Capital back in May. The improved 5 km race time gave me some challenging paces to train by, and without any races in August I was able to knuckle down and put in a lot of great training sessions and recover well.

September - 12 runs - 121.79 km
Continuing on from August in the final stretch of training before the Army Half Marathon, I made good strides in training hard and recovering well. I definitely started to feel an improvement in post run recovery that has come with all adaptive physiological changes my body has made due to all the kilometers I have logged over the last 2 and a half years.

On the morning of the Army Half Marathon I made a plan to start at a slower pace than my goal pace (5:10/km) and then ramp it up to see how I felt, if I could sustain the pace then perhaps take it up another gear near the end. The conditions for the race were perfect and I got off at the pace I wanted, managing to guard against getting carried away with the excitement of the race and the paces of the other runners. I quickly settled into a nice pace that felt good, going through 5 kms in 25:20. The next 5 kms featured quite a few hills both up and down and I managed my pace accordingly, still feeling nice and comfortable I hit the 10km split at 51:04 (25:44). At this stage I really felt that my race plan was working and it was just a case of sticking with the plan and counting off the kilometers, reaching 15 km in 1:16:40 (25:36). With 6 kms to go I put the second part of my plan into affect, to run the rest of the race like a threshold run. I ramped up the pace to a level that felt "comfortably hard" and just went with it for the rest of the race, barely looking at my watch, just focusing on running with good technique and seeing if I could hold on to the end. My training had prepared me for this, the countless threshold runs, running at a fast pace on tired legs, I actually managed to finish with a good kick in my stride with a 4:37/km pace over the last 500 meters, stopping the clock at 1:48:50 (30:23 for the last 6 km), a massive personal best by almost 8 minutes, a great reward for sticking to the plan.

October - 13 runs - 96.24 km
Two races in October, a 5 km race run by the Wellness Charitable Campaign and the Rattle-me-bones 10 km. The 5 km race was on a Thursday lunchtime as it was a race that was part of a charitable campaign that agencies within the Federal Government participate in. It was along a notoriously windy section of the Ottawa River parkway. I battled with the strong winds in the middle section of the race and used the wind at my back to break my 5 km personal best one more time, with a time of 22:32. I was really pleased with that as I ran at an average pace of just over 4:30/km which for me would have been utterly unthinkable at the start of the year. The 10 km race was to be my last race of the year and an opportunity to cross the last goal off my list; to break 50 minutes for a 10 km race. The conditions for this race were pretty cold and windy, and although I didn't hit the pace I wanted throughout the race (4:45/km), I ran as hard as I could and ended up with a satisfying 49:22.

November - 16 runs - 133.31 km
Basically just seeing out the year on a good note, with no races to train for, but plenty of enthusiasm to get out there and run. With 16 runs, this month set a new high for most runs in a month. This level of commitment will serve me well in my training for the marathon in May 2011.

December - 18 runs - 142.08 km
Rather than finish the year off with a whimper, I set new personal records for: runs in a month (18) and distance run in a month (142.08 kms). Thus finishing the year as I want to start the next one.

Let 2011 begin!!!

Another adventure in Gatineau Park...

Now I realize this is a blog about training for a marathon, but my "real" training doesn't start until January so I am taking every opportunity to just get out there and run. Today was no different, and after last week's run up in Gatineau Park, I was anxious to get up there again before the snow makes it impossible to run on the trails.

I am not going to bore you with every run I do, but this one was a lot of fun and I stopped often to take pictures.

I decided beforehand to park at P7 (Kingsmere) and run up #30 to #1 and then take #4 to #32, after that #36 to Lac Meech and then turn around and come back the way I came. As you will see from the map below I took a wrong turn and ended up running past Ski Camp Fortune before getting back on track and joining #36 (the right-hand portion of what looks like a loop). I figured it out and came back the right way, but the sign-posting is not that good at that intersection on the trails.

Plenty of ups and downs, #36 and #32 were pretty steep and then the first part of #4 coming back was a killer.

Looking up #4, the incline was severe and a good dusting of snow, but my trusty Hawk-2's didn't let me down.

Coming down #4 just before I made my wrong turn.

Found this rather nice stream while I was looking for #32 by Ski Camp Fortune. Unfortunately as I found out on the way back, #32 was actually on the other side of the hill.

Someone on Running Mania posted about this great bridge over a small inlet of Lac Meech. I stopped here for a while and enjoyed the views. A fantastic little quiet spot on trail #36 just after the O'Brien Beach car park (heading towards #50).

Another shot of Lac Meech from the bridge. It was about minus 5°C and sunny, great day for running trails.

Sun was starting to go down over Lac Meech, this was my cue to head back to Kingsmere. I was 8 kilometers away from my start-point, so I had plenty time but I didn't want to push my luck too much.

It really is a great little spot. If you are local to the National Capital Region (or in the area) you can drive up to O'Brien Beach car park (Gatineau Park Trail Map) and the bridge is about 1 kilometer down the trail (there is a bit of up hill and a huge downhill stretch, so be warned).

This is trail #32 heading up to the summit before heading down towards Lac Fortune. It is here that my left knee started to hurt. I think the hard fast downhills on hard frozen ground had taken their toll. I managed to get to an intensity level that allowed me to get back to Kingsmere before the sun went down, although the final 1 kilometer downhill stretch was a killer. The knee is fine now, just iced it and rested it up. However, this serves as a warning to put a few extra items in my pack (headlamp, extra food, some warmer clothes etc.) next time just in case.

Total mileage for this run was 15.42 kilometers with ~500 meters (~1600 feet) of elevation gain. Hopefully I will get another opportunity to run again up there before the snow makes it too difficult, I fancy checking out the rest of #36 towards #50 and #52.

Trail run in the Gatineau Hills

As I mentioned in a previous article, I had itchy feet to head up to to the Gatineau Hills for a "real" trail run on some more technical trails. This weekend I seized on the opportunity and headed up there as the sun was rising. It was minus 6°C when I left so I layered up and equipped myself with my light running pack, a copy of a small section of the trail map, a whistle (just in case I ran into any black bears or coyotes), plenty of water and snacks, gloves, hat, and of course, my trusty trail shoes.

I drove up to the park and parked my car at P7 (Kingsmere). My plan was to head up #30 to #1 and then do the Skyline Trail (#6) followed by a loop of #17/#8 and then back to the car park (link to Gatineau Park trail map).

It was frozen underfoot so took it pretty easy and walked up some of the steeper inclines, stopping often to enjoy the spectacular views from Skyline Trail in particular. My route covered 8.85 kilometers and  nearly 300 meters (~985 feet) of elevation gain.

The trails themselves were everything I had imagined, loads of roots, rocks, streams, some big steep slopes, really gnarly in places so a lot of fun. I am extremely new to trail running so I kept the pace right down as I had to keep watchful eye on the trail a few feet in front of me so I could step over the safest route. 

Here are a few examples of the terrain I was running over:

A decent incline here with plenty of rocks and a huge rock at the top. Those huge rocks are commonplace in Gatineau Park, I assume that they were left behind when the glaciers melted at the end of the ice age, some of them are absolutely huge.

A nice sweeping bend with few obstructions, I met another runner coming down as I was heading up and he was absolutely flying down the slope.

Nice and soft underfoot, this is one of the sections that you can throw caution to the wind and really attack the slope.

These trails are full of little steams like this one, the rocks in the middle were coated in a layer of ice, so were pretty treacherous.

Another view of the same stream.

Picking up some decent speed on a snowy section of the trail.

Here is a view from Wattsford's lookout (intersection of #30 and #1) looking down over Gatineau Park towards a sleepy looking Hull and downtown Ottawa. The sun had not long risen. The major road in the middle of the photograph is highway 5.

All in all it was a great run, really challenging and the conditions were excellent. I will definitely head back up here in the next couple of weeks and explore a few of the other trails that the park has to offer.

How to increase speed and endurance...

Every runner wants to get faster, set personal bests, finish higher up the list of finishers, but how do we increase our speed and be able to maintain it for a given distance?

When I started running, I found that I increased in average speed (or more accurately, pace) as I increased my mileage and with it my fitness. But this kind of improvement can't continue to increase and as I ran more the effect was less dramatic.

I asked for advice on an internet forum I frequent (running mania) and was told, "in order to run faster, one must practice running faster".

But how fast and for how long?

The answer, "you run at speeds designed to challenge your physiology at your current fitness".

There is an injury risk to going out and running as hard as you can for as long as you can, or to say "I want to run that 5km race next month in 20 minutes, therefore I should go out and do my running at 4:00/km...". Depending just how far you are fitness-wise from running and maintaining 4:00/km will determine the risk of asking too much of your muscles, tendons, heart, lungs, ligaments, bones etc.

So how do we know how fast to train at to maximize gains and minimize injury?

Simple. Use Jack Daniels' Vdot system to figure out training paces from a recent race. A short race tends to provide more reliable paces. Here is an example of a Vdot calculator with training paces for my personal best 5km time of 22:35.

For that race performance (which was pretty recent) my Vdot is calculated as 43.19 and with it there is a whole series of training paces at different distances.

For example the calculator gives me an easy/long (E/L) pace of 5:57/km. So when doing easy (recovery, base building runs) or long runs, I should run at approximately 5:57/km to get the maximum physiological gains that the workout itself is striving to provide. This is an important pace, as it is this calculated pace that has helped me more than any other. In the past I ran my slow runs too fast, and thus at the fitness level I was at, I had nothing left for the faster-paced training runs. This is a double edged sword as you end up limiting any fitness gains from both the slow-paced and faster-paced workouts as you are unable to stimulate the correct physiological responses. Not surprisingly I became fatigued and eventually I became injured.

Once the penny had dropped about running the E/L runs at a slow enough pace, lo and behold, my fast-paced workouts became manageable, and better still, recovery time decreased and my speed increased.

So what are these faster-paced training runs I keep mentioning? They take the form of threshold runs (T) and interval training (I).

The diagram below (adapted from Daniels) illustrates the relative intensities of each workout type.

Once or twice a week I do threshold repeat (T) runs. A typical workout consists of a 10 minute warm up at E/L pace (5:57/km) followed by mile or kilometer repeats at T pace (4:47/km) with 1 minute rests in between (I use a Garmin GPS so it is easy to monitor and adjust my pace while on the run).

The T pace is designed to push your physiological systems to the edge (threshold) of lactate buffering (i.e. the process by which lactic acid formed in your muscles during anaerobic respiration is taken away in the blood stream and then broken down).

During light- and moderate-intensity exercise, blood concentration of lactate remains low. The body is able to absorb lactate faster than the muscle cells are producing it. However, as exercise intensity increases, there comes a point at which lactate removal fails to keep up with the rate of lactate production. This point is referred to as the lactate threshold and spells the beginning of the end of high-intensity exercise. Excessive blood lactate and the cellular acidity it produces combine to interfere with efficient and proper muscle contraction, and as a result, power output drops, suffering increases, and you are forced to slow down.

Lactate threshold training is designed to increase this threshold and thus allow a runner to run at faster speeds with less lactate buildup and thus less acidity in the muscles and a lower level of  fatigue/suffering.

I (interval) paced runs are faster runs but over shorter distances, often with longer recovery periods.

They are run at a 98-100% effort and are by definition, hard. Typically a training run at this intensity is broken down into 400 meter, of 800 meter repeats at I pace (1:46/400m and 3:32/800m) with 400 meter rest periods in between that can be walked or run at E/L pace or slower. A typical number of repeats is 6 to 8 during any given session.

These types of training have improved my running no end, and I have gone from struggling to complete a workout with 5:30/km repeats to completing all my T workouts at a T pace of 4:47/km. I have also had a lot of success with I runs, which is achieved when you can run the final repeat of the workout at the same pace or faster than the first one (i.e. showing no slowdown from repeat to repeat).

The beauty of the Vdot system is that if you end up running a faster race time (as has happened to me several times this year) or when the workouts get easy, you calculate new more challenging paces and thus challenge your physiology all over again.

Trying out my new trail shoes in the woods...

I picked up some Salomon XT Hawk-2 trail shoes from Bushtukah last week and I was anxious to test them out, so I headed out for a nice easy run in the woods near my house. The trails in there are pretty easy and not overly technical, a few downed trees made it interesting as did the boggy mud near the golf course.

I am for the most part a road runner, but you can't beat running trails for sheer excitement and the level of awareness you need to maintain as you bound over logs and rocks, zig-zagging across the trail to avoid roots and debris. It makes a nice change from running at set paces, it is all done at a perceived exertion level that can be several minutes slower per kilometer depending on the terrain.

New shoes were awesome, they are really light, super comfortable, and have excellent traction over loose gravel, roots, logs etc. I got them nice and muddy when I hit a really wet part of the trail near the golf course.

I took my camera with me so I could fire off a few action shots and get to grips with posting reports in this blog. Now I have itchy feet to head up to Gatineau Park and hit some much more technical trails with elevation gains of as much as 1500 feet.

Overall a really nice run and a lot of fun, these woods are nice and close and I have walked in them many times but I definitely wouldn't hesitate to head back there again if I fancy a nice relaxed trail run away from the hustle and bustle of the city.