January 2016 Totals

 The theme of this past month has been "Rest Days".   I had a total of 11 rest days in January and that is probably the most I have had since I was off with Bronchitis years ago!    Mpst of the " Rest " time was spent Alpine Skiing logging 5 days on the slopes last month.  

Total # of runs = 21

Treadmill -  16 runs -  125 km
Track       -   2 runs - 97.1 km
Showshoe -   3 runs - 16.8 km

Total distance 238.9 km  

Did one race R4K Jan 9 logging 65.1 km.  


 R4K was a successful run.   Managed things very well and felt great afterwards.    I fell well poised going forward and plan to build the volume a bit  through February and into March.   Its really now all about getting ready for the Sulphur  100 miler...bring it on!  

Sunday

14K more or less the same way as yesterday done on my meal break toady....and thats a wrap on the first month of 2016.  

Saturday Speed

12K @ 5:00 pace with Fartleks at 4,5,6,7,8,9 and at 10.1 K I began a cool down with a 400 meter fartlek at a 4:45 pace gearing down to walk the last .5K.   HR was lower ,  didnt break 140 until I hit the 9K mark.  Cadence was higher ... weird and the ground contact time and vert osc were a touch improved ... no idea why although I was running with a fan in front and behind and I was shirt free but thats more or less the way I did it last weekend on mids ... go figure!

53 minutes

Stretched the 45 minute lunch break a bit logging a  7K run  mostly at a 5:00 pace with 4:45 fartleks at 4,5 and 6K mark.  53 minutes is from the time I left my desk,  walked to the gym ,   got everything ready ,  changed ,  ran 7K ,  showered dressed then back to my desk...not bad eh!  

Lunch Run

Back to work and back to days this week.   5Ker the usual way done on my meal break today.

Tuesday Track

 32K @ mostly 6:00 pace done yesterday on the track at the Owen Sound Y.  Just wanted to log a long one so I choose the Y .    Lots of traffic on the track the first 2 hours that helped occupy the mind.   Did my micro stop every K taking in water and the off "Zone Cap".    It was a pretty smooth sailing sort of run never felt all that fatigued but I did notice the higher HR neat the end.    Next weeks LSD will be a little longer running my first Marathon distance of Feb 2016.

The metrics tell the story ...

Two Run Monday

 5K snowshoe run done looping the backyard trail late this afternoon.  Adjusting around after mids so no sleep then early to bed tonight!   Had to keep moving so the trail run was a great idea.   There hasn't been much snow this week so breaking trail was a breeze today.   Someone had a Turkey dinner on my trail and the Deer have been using it as a super highway!  

Mid 7

7th and final night shift of this round of nights this week.  Working 12 hours on the weekend  means a longer meal break so I was able to fit in a 14K run this morning.   It was a real numbers game ...  2 or 3 fartleks in I decided I would stretch out the fartleks a bit and try to cross 12K at 60:00:00 and thats more or less what I did.  Did a final .5K farltek at a 4:45 pace at the 12K mark to begin the cool down.   I get a kick out of starting a cool down by speeding up first!  Maybe ,  just maybe I might fit a little snow shoe run in sometime today.   Heading to the Y tomorrow for a few hours of track time.

Mids 6

In keeping with this weeks theme I increased the distance to 12K this morning.   Did the usual 200 metre 5:00 pace with 4:45 fartleks at 4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 10.9 Ks.    Felt real solid again ,  really didnt mid the run.  

Mid 5

10K@3am this morning on my meal break.   It wasn't all that bad!

Mid 4

Blasting through the night shift logging an 8Ker this morning on my  meal break.    Been eating crap this week.  Up at 5pm had pancakes / oj / coffee then at work it was a box of smarties / areo bar / sour cream and onion chips all washed down with a coke ...yikes!   OK ,   now its time for dinner ,  its a beef/vegi/rice stir fry followed up with a Tims "Greek Yogurt" ... lots of sugar but lots of good too!  

Mid 3 another +1

7K at a mostly 5:00 pace with a 0.2K  4:45 faartlek at 4,5 and 6K mark.    Mentally going longer on the treadmill is easier then the mundane 5Ker!

Plus One

Mid 2 and that means another run at 4am or there abouts.   Logged 6K this morning ,  one more then yesterday.

Cold Turkey

First Mid tonight and a 5Ker logged at 3:30 am.   Like I really felt like doing it ...NOT!   HR was lower by about 10 BPM maxing out at 140 during the 4:45 Fartlek at 4K.  3.5 more hours to go then its off to bed!  

Snow Shoe Trail Run Monday

 Had 4 days off running doing a family Ski Trip to Tremblant...didn't even bring my running shoes and never really gave it a thought!    Alpine Skiing is and Isometric Sport so I am not really sure how that fits in as cross training.   Yesterday I suited up and headed out for a -12C Snow Shoe Run.   There is close to a metre of new white stuff over the past week and a bit so I knew that breaking trial would be tough so I threw on my HR monitor....

First couple of laps were grueling then things started to improve a bit.  After 5 laps things improved even more and  the HR continued to drop .   The rise at the end of the run was a result of " running " the entire last lap.  

Logged a total of 6.8 kms in 1hr29min .... rather slow but what a workout.   I find it amusing that the HR was higher at the beginning and lower towards the end.  

All the stats below ....

Lunch ...again

Just wrapped up a short work week heading to Tremblant tomorrow.  Started the vacation with a little 5Ker on the Treadmill at the end of my shift.  Trading in the running shoes for skis the next 4 days

Lunch Run

5K with a long leed up to a 5:00 pace this eve on my meal break.  I have an Ultra Hangover... felt great yesterday but have a  DTF ( delayed tired feeling ) today.    Nothing particularity wrong just feeling a bit tired.  

Recovery Run

5K done the usual way this eve on my meal break.   Just a touch of DOMS but otherwise pretty much recovered after Saturdays 65Ker.  

R4K 2015 vs 2016

 Felt like I managed the R4K run much better this year.  In 2015 I did 61.6 km in 8 hours and this year I did 65.1 km in the 8 hours.   looked at the overall average Heart Rate and in 2015 it was 137 BPM and in 2016 it was 132 BPM.

 HR tells the tale of walk / run / rest.

Here is 2015

Here is 2016

In 2015 I tried to keep the HR under 140bpm but gave up after 5 hours!  Did more walk breaks early on this year walking a lap doing a gel starting at 5K and about every 7K after that.  Also too a Beer break at the 6 hour mark and walked the last 3K/36min.  

Run 4 Kids 8 Hour - Toronto Track and Field Club York University

 First Ultra of 2016 was done yesterday logging 65.1 km in 8 hours.    Love the venue but more then anything its all about the people.   Patrick and Grant joined me so it was fun right from the time I left home.   Grant put on an amazing unwavering effort taking 1st place overall logging 74.4 km.   A somewhat uinder trained Patrick put on dazzling display running running past the 42.2 km mark then doing a long cool down walk for total of 51.38 km.  A huge congratulations to Patrick and Grant.  

 I had a really solid run.  Settled into a  little over a 6:00 pace in the first hour.   Gelled on the hour every hour and walked a lap doping the Gel.   After the first 5 km I stopped every K for a moment and had a drink of water.  Over the 8 hours I consumed 4.5 liters of water and a can of beer!     Only did 4 S Caps as I figured I got enough electrolytes through the gels.   Did eat much in the way of solids.  Felt a little nauseous a couple of times and  so I had a few pretzels ,  a couple of gummy worms and a tiny bit of Pizza.   Took a 15 minute  beer break in my zero gravity chair approaching the 6 hour mark.   It was a great way to cool the core and more or less do a rest.   Heading back out the plan was to run to the 62 km mark then do a 3 km cool down walks at the end.    I ran up to the 6 hour 24 min make then gave myself 36 min to walk 3 km.   There was no particular reason for the beer break ...just wanted to.  I could have ran the last part of the race and logged closer to my 70 km  goal but I valued the idea of a long cool down as a start to the recovery from running constant for so long.   I found that in Ultra races when things are not going so good and you have a bad day all that walking at the end really speeds up the recovery.      

Heart rate tells the story of the run.  first 4 hour was spent edging up to Zone 3 then the next 4 hours was spent in the mid 140's... very manageable.  

Patrick took a couple of pictures ... thanks!  I waited on the other side of the timing mat until the clock hit 7h59m59s then bolted accross...too much fun!

Oh yeah all the numbers below.   There were 12 folks doing the 8 hour run and I finished 5th.  

 5   208 Ronald Irwin             280    65.10 7:59:45 8hrM         4 / 8         4  Toronto         
    **** Lap Information **** 
 280 7:59:45   1:    1:26    1:26   2:    1:35    3:01   3:    2:44    5:44   4:    1:22    7:06   5:    1:22    8:28
               6:    1:23    9:50   7:    1:20   11:10   8:    1:20   12:29   9:    1:25   13:53  10:    1:29   15:21
              11:    1:24   16:45  12:    1:27   18:12  13:    1:31   19:43  14:    1:26   21:08  15:    1:24   22:31
              16:    1:28   23:59  17:    1:30   25:28  18:    1:28   26:55  19:    1:26   28:21  20:    1:32   29:52
              21:    1:27   31:19  22:    2:02   33:20  23:    1:22   34:41  24:    1:22   36:02  25:    1:22   37:24
              26:    1:35   38:58  27:    1:26   40:24  28:    1:36   41:59  29:    1:24   43:23  30:    1:35   44:58
              31:    1:25   46:22  32:    1:23   47:45  33:    1:24   49:08  34:    1:26   50:33  35:    1:25   51:58
              36:    1:25   53:22  37:    1:26   54:48  38:    1:23   56:11  39:    1:46   57:57  40:    1:24   59:20
              41:    1:22 1:00:42  42:    1:20 1:02:02  43:    1:29 1:03:30  44:    1:24 1:04:53  45:    2:20 1:07:13
              46:    3:22 1:10:34  47:    2:12 1:12:46  48:    1:25 1:14:10  49:    1:20 1:15:30  50:    1:27 1:16:56
              51:    1:38 1:18:34  52:    1:39 1:20:12  53:    1:37 1:21:49  54:    1:39 1:23:27  55:    1:36 1:25:03
              56:    1:36 1:26:38  57:    1:34 1:28:12  58:    1:33 1:29:44  59:    2:01 1:31:44  60:    1:22 1:33:06
              61:    1:25 1:34:31  62:    1:26 1:35:57  63:    1:26 1:37:23  64:    1:23 1:38:45  65:    1:27 1:40:12
              66:    1:39 1:41:50  67:    1:24 1:43:14  68:    1:24 1:44:37  69:    1:25 1:46:01  70:    1:47 1:47:48
              71:    1:24 1:49:11  72:    1:24 1:50:35  73:    1:26 1:52:00  74:    1:25 1:53:25  75:    1:38 1:55:02
              76:    1:24 1:56:26  77:    1:23 1:57:48  78:    1:22 1:59:10  79:    1:26 2:00:36  80:    1:30 2:02:05
              81:    1:23 2:03:27  82:    1:46 2:05:13  83:    1:26 2:06:38  84:    1:29 2:08:06  85:    1:25 2:09:31
              86:    1:26 2:10:56  87:    2:04 2:13:00  88:    2:30 2:15:29  89:    1:29 2:16:58  90:    1:24 2:18:21
              91:    1:23 2:19:43  92:    1:24 2:21:07  93:    1:29 2:22:35  94:    1:24 2:23:59  95:    1:25 2:25:23
              96:    1:24 2:26:46  97:    1:44 2:28:30  98:    1:27 2:29:56  99:    1:25 2:31:21 100:    1:24 2:32:45
             101:    1:24 2:34:08 102:    1:24 2:35:32 103:    1:24 2:36:56 104:    1:25 2:38:21 105:    2:11 2:40:31
             106:    1:42 2:42:12 107:    1:30 2:43:42 108:    1:27 2:45:09 109:    1:25 2:46:34 110:    1:24 2:47:57
             111:    1:25 2:49:22 112:    1:27 2:50:48 113:    1:49 2:52:36 114:    1:25 2:54:01 115:    1:24 2:55:25
             116:    1:29 2:56:53 117:    1:26 2:58:18 118:    1:26 2:59:43 119:    1:33 3:01:15 120:    2:35 3:03:50
             121:    1:55 3:05:45 122:    1:26 3:07:10 123:    1:24 3:08:34 124:    1:25 3:09:58 125:    1:25 3:11:22
             126:    1:24 3:12:46 127:    1:25 3:14:10 128:    1:25 3:15:35 129:    1:23 3:16:58 130:    1:30 3:18:27
             131:    1:41 3:20:08 132:    1:41 3:21:49 133:    1:29 3:23:17 134:    1:30 3:24:47 135:    1:53 3:26:40
             136:    1:26 3:28:06 137:    1:29 3:29:34 138:    1:25 3:30:58 139:    1:27 3:32:25 140:    1:29 3:33:53
             141:    1:27 3:35:19 142:    1:29 3:36:47 143:    1:39 3:38:25 144:    1:44 3:40:09 145:    1:25 3:41:33
             146:    1:25 3:42:58 147:    1:29 3:44:26 148:    1:27 3:45:52 149:    1:25 3:47:16 150:    1:26 3:48:42
             151:    1:29 3:50:10 152:    2:17 3:52:27 153:    1:37 3:54:03 154:    1:31 3:55:34 155:    1:33 3:57:06
             156:    1:57 3:59:03 157:    1:29 4:00:31 158:    1:39 4:02:10 159:    1:35 4:03:45 160:    2:12 4:05:57
             161:    2:27 4:08:24 162:    1:32 4:09:55 163:    1:29 4:11:24 164:    1:28 4:12:51 165:    1:29 4:14:19
             166:    1:31 4:15:50 167:    1:31 4:17:20 168:    1:32 4:18:52 169:    1:59 4:20:50 170:    2:00 4:22:49
             171:    1:32 4:24:21 172:    1:32 4:25:52 173:    1:50 4:27:41 174:    1:34 4:29:14 175:    1:31 4:30:45
             176:    1:32 4:32:16 177:    1:30 4:33:46 178:    2:12 4:35:58 179:    1:36 4:37:34 180:    1:34 4:39:07
             181:    1:35 4:40:41 182:    1:31 4:42:12 183:    1:31 4:43:42 184:    1:32 4:45:14 185:    1:34 4:46:47
             186:    2:08 4:48:54 187:    1:37 4:50:30 188:    1:32 4:52:01 189:    1:34 4:53:35 190:    1:51 4:55:26
             191:    1:39 4:57:04 192:    1:33 4:58:37 193:    1:32 5:00:08 194:    1:42 5:01:49 195:    2:50 5:04:39
             196:    2:38 5:07:17 197:    2:51 5:10:07 198:    1:39 5:11:45 199:    1:38 5:13:23 200:    1:35 5:14:58
             201:    1:36 5:16:33 202:    1:33 5:18:05 203:    1:57 5:20:02 204:    1:34 5:21:36 205:    1:39 5:23:14
             206:    1:38 5:24:52 207:    1:32 5:26:23 208:    2:00 5:28:23 209:    1:33 5:29:55 210:    1:35 5:31:29
             211:    1:31 5:33:00 212:    1:55 5:34:55 213:    1:36 5:36:30 214:    2:27 5:38:57 215:    1:43 5:40:40
             216:    1:32 5:42:12 217:    1:46 5:43:58 218:    1:32 5:45:29 219:    1:32 5:47:00 220:    1:38 5:48:38
             221:    2:41 5:51:18 222:   12:22 6:03:40 223:    3:31 6:07:10 224:    2:13 6:09:23 225:    1:38 6:11:01
             226:    1:35 6:12:35 227:    1:36 6:14:11 228:    1:36 6:15:46 229:    1:34 6:17:20 230:    1:33 6:18:53
             231:    1:34 6:20:26 232:    1:40 6:22:05 233:    1:36 6:23:41 234:    1:31 6:25:12 235:    1:33 6:26:44
             236:    1:30 6:28:13 237:    1:35 6:29:48 238:    2:34 6:32:22 239:    3:04 6:35:25 240:    3:00 6:38:25
             241:    1:44 6:40:08 242:    1:43 6:41:50 243:    1:37 6:43:27 244:    1:36 6:45:02 245:    1:33 6:46:34
             246:    2:14 6:48:48 247:    1:39 6:50:26 248:    1:39 6:52:05 249:    1:36 6:53:40 250:    1:34 6:55:14
             251:    1:59 6:57:12 252:    1:35 6:58:47 253:    1:37 7:00:23 254:    1:34 7:01:56 255:    1:42 7:03:38
             256:    1:54 7:05:32 257:    1:41 7:07:12 258:    1:35 7:08:46 259:    1:31 7:10:17 260:    2:02 7:12:18
             261:    1:36 7:13:53 262:    1:38 7:15:31 263:    1:34 7:17:04 264:    2:07 7:19:11 265:    1:37 7:20:47
             266:    1:32 7:22:18 267:    1:34 7:23:52 268:    4:02 7:27:54 269:    2:34 7:30:27 270:    2:35 7:33:01
             271:    2:34 7:35:35 272:    2:49 7:38:24 273:    2:57 7:41:20 274:    4:11 7:45:31 275:    2:52 7:48:22
             276:    2:26 7:50:47 277:    2:33 7:53:20 278:    2:34 7:55:54 279:    1:27 7:57:21 280:    2:25 7:59:45 

Up Next R4K

5K lunch run done this eve on my meal break.   Rest day tomorrow 8 hours on the track at York the next.

Lunch Run

5K the usual way on the old treadmill at work.  HR was a little higher the the new one therefor I am full of it when it comes to thinking that the new treadmill was a half K faster then the old one ...LOL.

Reset

First Treadmill Run in nearly two weeks!   Did a more or less traditional 5K lunch Run late this Eve.  I must admit running a Marathon Dec 23 and Dec 30 and with R4K 8 Hour on Jan 9 its a bit of a license not to Run.   Rest is good but it does play with your mental.

First Run of 2016

Seems very fitting to start January and 2016 with a 5K Snowshoe Run.   Did some video with the GoPro getting ready for Tremblant in a couple of weeks.