Been running , haven’t been posting!


Saturday, 10K Treadmill easy , 1-3.33K 5:45 pace, 3.33K – 10K 5:30 pace. Heart check at 5K 139 bpm, 10K 138 bpm

Sunday , 10K Treadmill easy , 1-3.33K 5:45 pace, 3.33K – 10K 5:30 pace. Heart check at 5K 132 bpm, 10K 135 bpm

Monday, Legs and Core strength training

Tuesday, new PB on the treadmill , 5K done in 19 min 57 sec! First two Ks felt fast but doable, 2-3.3K I was really relaxed and it felt natural , 3.3 to 5K I was going behind O2 wize , was trying to breath from the diaphragm getting air deep!

Strength training today...

Legs and core workout today. Thought about any easy 5 on the treadmill but was a little tired after my 15K on the road and of course the big Turkey dinner last night.

Outside today

15K +277/-250m done on the road this afternoon. Moderate pace at an average of 5:36. There was a light snow fall with a bit of a Westerly breeze. I was comfortable until the 8K mark , the MP3 needed a battery change. Had to stop , off came the gloves ... two spare batteries latter but no dice , they were dead! When I started back up it was pretty chilly til about 9K. It was nice to be out in the -4C weather but I got a wee bit cold especially after the unplanned stop!

WorkFri thru the weekend days ... will aim to do legs and core Fri, run Sat/Sun indoors at lunch.

Plans changed

Couldn't get to work Sunday evening so I didn't do my 15K as planned. Monday I shopped, Tues I finally made it to the Gym, did legs and core then a 5K run at an easy 6:00 pace. That nigh I headed to Blue for a night of skiing ! Maybe run tomorrow !

LSD indoor fashion

I forgot how nice an LSD can be! Hot the treadmill for a 90 minute spin at 3:00 am! Now it was tough but I resisted the temptation to speed up , kept it at a 6 min pace with the exception of the last 400meters. Just past the 60min mark it all fell into place and I remembered just why O love to go long! It just so relaxing past 60 ... the tempo is natural , the breathing is easy and regular , the body flows ... movements are natural not the least bit laboured. Its at these moments that I feel like I can run forever! Tomorrow morning I am going to do the same thing ... its the beginning of my back to back LSD plan.

Another indoor run

Friday morning I did a 10K on the treadmill at 03:00 am . This morning I was going to do my strength training in the wee morning hours but I just wasn't up to it! Going to try to do back to back 15K LSDs tonight and tomorrow, downhill ski on Monday and it the road for a fast 10 on Tuesday.

5K today

Did a 5K @ 5:00 pace on the treadmill at 4am this morning. I was going to go longer but I just wasn't up to it. I have been on a real sugar kick and had really over did it prior to the run , I had an incredible thirst as well as a massive hunger for anything substantial that I had to stop and take care of the need.... got to lay off the sugar!!!!!!!

I will try another tour on the runner again tonight.... maybe 10!!!!

Strength training yesterday and info on the Wall

Did my legs and core strenght rountine yesterday at 04:00 am!


I came accross a cool bit of info about hitting the wall! Thought it woudl make a good doc to refer back to so I though I would post it to the blog!

Overcoming the marathon wall starts with an understanding of what causes it. Researchers have identified two primary causes of running fatigue – central and peripheral or more simply “brains and brawn”. Peripheral fatigue (brawn) is caused by chemical and physiological factors in your exercising muscles while central fatigue (brains) is associated with the efforts of your central nervous system (CNS) to maintain a homeostasis or “balance” of those chemical and physiological factors and prevent damage to your muscles. Causes of peripheral fatigue include hydrogen ion build up, accumulation of extra cellular potassium, muscle damage and hypoglycemia. Hydrogen ion and potassium accumulation usually only occur at faster 5K and 10K race paces and are not typically a cause of marathon running fatigue. The main peripheral causes of marathon running fatigue and hitting the wall are muscle damage and hypoglycemia. The energy to power your muscles come from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is formed from the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates. Your body prefers to use carbohydrates which are stored as glucose in your blood and glycogen in your muscles and liver. Unfortunately your stores of glycogen are limited. Most runners are able to store somewhere around 2000 to 2200 calories worth of glycogen in their liver and muscles, which is enough to energize about 20 miles of running. When you run out of glycogen your body is forced to rely almost completely upon fat metabolism to supply energy. Fat supplies more energy per gram than carbohydrates, but your body is much less efficient at converting that fat to energy, so you begin to slow down and suffer from fatigue. So as you can see, it’s no accident that many marathon runners hit the wall at around 20 miles. That’s when they run out of glycogen and they become hypoglycemic. The initial effects of hitting the marathon wall and hypoglycemia are physical in nature. Your muscles fatigue and your pace slows. Your brain runs on glycogen just as your muscles do. Your brain takes priority over your muscles, so when you run low on glycogen, your brain will take what’s left and your muscles much fend for themselves. As your glycogen levels plummet even lower your brain begins to suffer from the effects of hypoglycemia and the wall. As a result your brain starts to feel like it’s in a fog. You become confused, your will power drops and you may become very emotional. I have seen grown men crying like a baby in the final miles of a marathon. For many years peripheral fatigue was given the lion’s share of the blame for marathon fatigue and hitting the wall. Now, many researchers, led by Dr. Timothy Noakes, believe that central fatigue plays the largest role in hitting the wall. The theory behind central fatigue is that your CNS is making an effort to protect your muscles, your body and also maintain a chemical balance in your body. If it were up to us as runners we would run as hard as we could until we dropped from physical exhaustion. Our will to keep running would drive our muscles to their very limits. We would run until our damaged muscles and chemically out of whack physiology finally breaks down and collapses. That kind of catastrophic breakdown is not a healthy situation and it’s one that our CNS tries to prevent. Your heart and brain must have a source of glycogen to keep operating. When your CNS senses that you are becoming hypoglycemic or that you are pushing your muscles to the point of damage, it begins to cut off signals to your muscles. It forces you to slow down to protect your muscles, brain and heart. You sense this through feelings of fatigue. Your CNS is dropping the marathon wall down to keep you from reaching those catastrophic levels of chemical imbalance, hypoglycemia and muscle damage. It is also believed that your CNS not only senses physiological changes in your body, but it can also anticipate upcoming requirements and manage the signals to your muscle accordingly. For example, before a marathon your CNS calculates how much energy you will need to complete the race and “doles out” signals to your muscles at a pace that will allow you to finish without catastrophic system failures. In a sense, your CNS is setting your pace. Avoiding the Wall It seems like the best marathon strategy would be to avoid hitting the wall. But, do you really want to do that? That may seem like a silly question on the surface. Of course you want to avoid the wall, who wants to go through that? If you are a new marathon runner or only want to comfortably finish the race, you should try to avoid the wall. And that is something you can do with proper training and race management. But if you are racing the marathon or running for a PR then you want to push yourself to the fastest pace you can manage. Racing a marathon is a game. It’s a contest between you and fatigue. In order to run your fastest possible pace you don’t necessarily want to avoid the wall, but you want to delay its debilitating effects until 26 miles. If you finish your race with relative comfort you could have run harder. If the wall blocks your way before the last mile or so, you probably pushed a bit too hard. Whether you want to avoid the wall completely or delay its effects until the finish line you can do that will proper training, race management and nutrition. Your weekly long run is the best training for avoiding the wall. The progressive long runs will condition your muscles for the marathon distance. It will build your endurance and help make your muscles more injury resistant. If you are racing the marathon or trying for a specific finishing time, it’s critical to include some goal pace long runs in your training. That will make your body more efficient at running at your goal marathon pace and will push back the effects of the marathon wall. Marathon race management can sometimes be challenging. You feel so strong early in the race you tend to run too fast. That is the biggest and most common marathon racing mistake. If you run faster than you should early in the race you will burn glycogen and too fast a pace and will pay the price by hitting the wall later in your marathon. Make sure you stick to your planned pace early in the race and conserve those valuable carbohydrates for the later miles. Another part of race management is the mental strategies you use during the race. There are a number of associative and dissociative techniques you can use. Associative techniques are when you pay close attention to and focus on how your body is feeling, your stride, course conditions and your competitors. Dissociative strategies involve mentally distancing yourself from your fatigue and the race. Instead you visualize yourself in another situation or on some other object. For example, instead of focusing on the race and your fatigue you may visualize yourself on the beach of a desert island or you might place all of your focus on some point on the horizon. Most studies have shown that experienced, competitive runners perform better using associative strategies while new runners may do better using a dissociative technique. See association and disassociation for a more in depth discussion. Marathon running and low carbohydrate diets get along like water and oil. They just don’t mix. You should be following a high complex carbohydrate diet throughout your training and be especially careful to consume a large amount of carbohydrates in the last few days before your race. See marathon nutrition for more information Breaking Through The Wall OK - You carefully followed your training program, you kept your pace down in the early miles and you consumed a high carbohydrate diet, but you still hit the wall. What do you do now? Can your break through the wall? I don’t think you can. I know you have probably heard stories of runners breaking through the all and experiencing a Zen like runners high. I like to keep an open mind, so that may be possible, but in my experience, once you hit the wall your body has reached a mental and physiological condition that is difficult to recover from while running. That being said there are still some actions you can take to get you through the wall and to the finish line. One way to get past the wall that may seem crazy at first glance is to speed up. I know, you think I’m out of my mind. How can you speed up when you’re hurting so badly? Well, there is a physiological reason that it works. You have probably been running a fairly even pace through your marathon. That means you’ve been using the same muscle fibers. Those muscle fibers have used up all of their glycogen and have become exhausted. But there may be some other muscle fibers that have not become exhausted – your fast twitch fibers. Your fast twitch muscle fibers have not been used extensively during your moderate marathon pace. Increasing your pace will activate some of those fast twitch muscle fibers that still have some remaining glycogen. It won’t be a lot, but it could be enough to get you through those last couple of miles. Another wall breaking strategy involves playing a trick on your CNS. Remember that your CNS is cutting off signals to your muscles to prevent any catastrophic system fatigue. That’s one of the causes of the marathon wall and fatigue. While your CNS is very powerful you are able to override it for short periods of time. It’s sort of like an emergency power system. You’ve probably read stories of people that perform remarkable feats during emergencies. For example I recently read about an 80 year old man whose grandson was trapped when a car fell off a jack. The man was able to lift the car high enough for his grandson to escape. Under normal circumstances, the man’s CNS would not have allowed that because of the extreme muscle damage it would cause, but he was able to override his CNS because of the emergency situation. Athletes often do that same thing. Football players may psych themselves up by hitting each other on the helmet, banging bodies or smashing each others shoulder pads. A competitive weight lifter might work themselves up to a mental and physical frenzy before attempting a heavy lift. You can do the same thing as a marathon runner that has hit the wall. You need to find someway to psych yourself up. Imagine a charging rhino chasing you. Pick a competitor in front of you and pass them at any cost. Get mad. Get angry. Get desperate. Do what ever you need to do in order to break the hold your CNS has on you. This takes some practice but eventually you will be able to call on your “game face” at will and override your CNS. Again, it will only last for short time before your CNS regains its hold, but it could give you the extra mile or so you need to defeat the wall.

5K this morning on the treadmill

Started Mids today, at 4:30 am I hit the treadmill for an easy 5K at a 6:00 pace. I was a real Zombie trying to adjust to mids but getting moving really helps tp stay awake. I also find that the fitness also helps to turn the body clock around . As long as its not too busy I plan on some sort of activity for the 7 consecutive nights.

Egg Nog Jog , Dec 14 2008

127 Ronald IRWIN Durham ON 105 M 29/77 M40-49 53:33 4:58

A pretty good day , I award myself a Silver for a 53:33 finish. Originally I was thinking around 55:00 then as the day got closer I was in for a just maybe break 50 but......

The morning started a bit latter then the usual race day. Start time was 10:30 and I figured it would only take a couple of hours to get there! Stopped at Tims for a Bagel / OJ and Coffee ....my secret race food! Arrived in Tara Cotta at 09:15. There were quiet a few folks directing traffic , looked like a very well organized event. There were two heated tents where I picked up my race kit. There was a bit of heat but it wasn't quiet enough. I went back to the car , checked out the cool swag . There was a Metal Water Bottle which was kinda neat but the thing I really liked was the Running Calender .... Canadian yet, very well done! I had about 30 minutes to kill after I was ready to go . I found a warm place where there was change rooms , flush toilets, heat and a view of the start finish. Waited there until the mass of humanity started to make their way to the start!

I lined up about 100 folks back from the start, figured that this would about where I would finish. There was a fellow with a megaphone talking but even with 400 folks behind me I couldn't hear a word that he said. The race start was somewhat uneventfully, I knew we were off when everyone in front started to move! In spite of where I started I was held up for the first 200 meters , once we were out on the road it opened up a bit but it wasn't until 400 meters that I was able to really open up. First 2K was a blast down a fairly steep paved road! This i s one of few races that it a good idea to blast off. I held a 4:04 pace for the first 2K and then things flattened out for a few hundred meters , I geared down here in preparation for the climb ahead. The hill wasn't too steep but my legs were reminding me of the quick start , nothing too serious just a "what was that you just did " feeling. Plan for the next 5K was 5:00 or less , I knew that this would be tough o meet but that was my goal. The 3rd km was done in 5:25 , a little slower then I wanted but it may have had something to do with the first 2Ks , total time was 13:33 after 3k! 3-4K wasn't too bad 5:17 , passed 4K at 18:50. Found some consistency to the pace , 4-5K was done at a 5:18! I was starting to feel allot of heat coming on , I was wearing a semi fitted winter tech shirt and a shell as well as a cap in case to rain . I removed the hat and unzipped the shell l but I was already suffering. Passed 5K at 24:08 , things flattened out for a few hundred meters before the big one. At 5.3 K we started a 60 metre climb over about a half K , this was a major O2 hill! 5-6k was not so quick , slowed to a 6:27 pace but I did manage to run up the big one but man was I out of breath! 6-7K was still a climb , picked it up a bit for a 5:30 pace. After 7K I was sitting at 36:05 , this was a full minute over where I wanted to be ... I had some making up to do!!!!! With 3.8K to go I hustled to pick up the pace , there were some rolling hills between 7k and 8k but things did start to flatten out a bit , the pace was 5:05 ... still not there ... had to really pick it up in the last 2.8K ! The next km was more rolling then I had anticipated but I managed a 4:54 pace , not quiet enough , I was running out of race course! Passed 9K at 46:04 , I was so not going to break the 50 min mark but I knew that breaking 55 was a given but by how much? 9-10K was not the downhill I had anticipated , 15meters of down and 6 meters of up a total drop of 9 meters , I was pushing hard here and this K was done at a 4:48 pace , OK but not good enough! The last 800 meters was great , real steep downhill to the finish... a real fast blast! Picked it up to a 3:54 pace and crossed the finish at 53:33!

I look forward to doing this one again , I would approach it with the same strategy but try to pick it up a bit on the 2K-7K climb as well as the last few K's.

Last workout before Egg Nog

Did legs and core workout then I did a 5K Jog at a 6:00 pace on the treadmill.

OK , now for Sundays 10.8K Egg Nog Jog prediction ... break 50:00!

Another heart run

15K on the treadmill !

Did 10K and held the heart rate at 140 bpm. Hit 12.5 kmh for about 4kms then backed off to 11.8 to keep it at 140 bpm. At 10K I did 2K at a 4:00 pace , at 12K my heart rate hit 167. 12-13K I backed off to a 4:30 pace. Heart rate dropped to 161! 13-14K was at a 5:00 pace then the last K was slowed to a walk at the 14.5K mark.

Getting ready for Egg Nog

Getting ready for the Egg Nog Jog on Sunday! Based on this elevation data I did the following in 50:02 on the treadmill.

0-2K , -1% incline @4:00 pace

2-4.2K, 3% incline @5:00 pace

4.2-5K , 0% incline @4:30 pace

5-5.3K, 10% incline @6:00 pace

5.3-7K, 3% incline @5:00 pace

7-9k, 0%incline @4:30 pace

9-10.8K -1% incline @4:00 pace

I followed the above plan more or less trying to simulate the run on Sunday. I feel strong , the knee is good so I think I stand a good chance of breaking 50:00. To do this I am going to have to pick up the pace here and there when I can.

The right knee is kinda funny , when I go hard and flat it gives me no issues what so ever. Do an LSD type pace on uneven surfaces and it starts to act up.

Snowy faster run today

Did a 10K at a 5:10 pace today, fastest out of doors run I have done in awhile! What was that rule about starting your run into the wind? It was about -6C , and I found out in the last half of my run , a strong wind from the S SW ! I did one extra layer of clothing up top today . Has my Acis lined shirt , my Patagonia over top of that then my Sagoi Shell ..... it worked. Maybe a little too well. When I turned and faced the wind I wasn't the least bit uncomfortable. Winds were really strong and it was snowing ... I liked the snow part! Running surface was the best I have had in a couple of weeks , packed snow not icy very good traction. This really helped the Knee allot , no issue during the run or immediately after... slight warming sensation! 8 days to the Egg Nog Jog , think I will be ready. Was originally thinking 55 min , after today I am leaning toward 50-52! Tomorrow will be an LSD , 14 to 16 km at a 6:00 pace.

Monday lower body weights and core.

Tuesday 5K at a 4:10 pace

Wensday 10K at a 6:00 pace

Thursday lower body weights and core

Friday , easy 5K 6:00 pace

Saturday reset!

Sunday 10.8K EGG NOG Jog

Heart run at lunch

Just a little 5K at a 6 minute pace , kept the heart rate under 130 ... max is 1round 175.

Yesterday I did my leg and core exercise.

Tomorrow I hit the road , thinking 13K or maybe a little more if I am feeling comfortable. There is wind , snow and -10C weather forecast!

Fast day!

5K at a 4:12 pace on the treadmill at lunch! Knee is 100% ...NOTHING !

2 days ago I did my core and weight routine.

Will do an easy run tomrrow.