Looking ahead

  STWM is on my race calendar this year.  For some stupid reason I think I want a shot at a "faster" 42.2..why oh why am I having this need for speed.   This Sept will mark the 5 years since I ran a decent 42.2 3hrs29min9sec ...nailed the race plan ,  BQ but felt like I had more in the tank that day.

 2014 was the year of going long and running slow and well I am OK with that ..planning on a repeat for 2015 but I had this stupid little dream about a 3hrs23min and well it felt pretty good...hmmm???

 Mother nature is working against me.   5 Years ago I was 49 ,  next STWM I am 54.   I am not really sure I can go better something I did oh so long ago when I was "young".  

 I have blogged everything since 2007 so I looked back at 2010.   It was the year I bought a treadmill for home.   It was my first belt buckle , 120km in the DG 24 hour,  it was my first 50 miler .... blew it cause I blew out my knee and well just about everything I did on the treadmill was at a 4:50 pace and I was doing lots of stuff sub 4:30 ...YIKES.  

 Currently speed is at a much slower 5:24 pace and when I take it outside nothing is under a 6:00 pace,  nothing!  

 Part of the reason I slowed it down is because Speed Hurts.  The faster I run the more all those nagging little thing creep up.  Well I have  new weapon in the pain game and its called a Hoka!   Yup I am running with 90% less aches and pins in those moon boots.... I am a believer!     I also had this dam dream,,,, you know 3hrs23min ,  it felt good.  

 So after R4K I am slowly going to work up to a 5:00 pace over the next couple of months....maybe!

December and 2014 Totals + year in review

December 2014  -  271.3 km

breakdown

Runs          Where        How Far in Total
18            Treadmill               118 km
3              Track @ Y             108.3 km
2              Road                       28 km
2              Trail                       17 km


2014 YTD  and final total -  3383.3 km

Past yearly  totals..
2014 3383.3 km
2013 3534.6 km
2012 3556.1 km
2011 3412.4 km
2010 3209.6 km
2009 tbd
2008 2033 km

Past Dec totals
2014 271.3 km
2013 288.5 km
2012 308 km
2011 296.4 km
2010 164.5 km
2009 250.8 km


 I missed three big races this year Laura Secord 100k in April ,   North Face 50 miler in July and Dirty Girls 48 hour in August.  My favorite event of 2014 was the Dam Hill Run 12 hour in September.   Best character builder was the Sulphur 50 miler ... almost didn't go out for my 4th lap!   The most fun I had all year was the trail runs on my 833 meter loop in my yard.   Solar powered tunes ,  sub woofer included,  hammock for recovery ,  tons of ice cold beer made for some fun fun fun runs.   As much as I like running events I would be perfectly happy running around in my back yard trail day after day after day!   2014 was the year I gave up on the short ones... no 10k,   no 1/2 no full just 50kers and up!   Less events more long ones is the theme I am going to carry through 2015.  

A fitting end to 2104

 Final "lunch run" of the year logging 5k at a mostly 5:24 pace.    I am sure that if I looked back over the past year I have logged at least 200 ruins on that treadmill well in excess of 1,000 km!   The "lunch run" is the staple of my running diet!  

Another 5k @ 5:24 pace this eve on my meal break.

Data , data , data ...

Cyborg

Felt more like a Cyborg suiting up for this eves "lunch run".

Fired up the iPhone first .  Next up it was the Blue Tooth Dr. Dre  ear buds.  Once the ear buss were booted up I had to pair them with the iPhone...took a minute as I had to turn the phones Bluetooth back on.   Next I fired up the Garmin 620...after it booted I had to go in and tell the watch we wouldn't  be using the GPS today.   next up I fired up the Heart Rate Monitor strapping it on.  Had to pair the phone with the HRM again ... weird had the watches Bluetooth enabled?    Once paired with GPS watch connected via  the WiFi and determined that the HRM required a software upgrade.   Good I thought because after the last HRM upgrade I lost my foot contact time and vertical oscillation data...all very useful stuff.    The HRM update only took a couple of minutes and I was good to go.

After taking the 620 outdoors Saturday it was more accurate on the treadmill.   Without GPS the 620 uses an accelerometer in the HRM to calculate distance.  Last time on the Treadmill 7K was 5k on the watch.  This time 5K on the treadmill registered as 4.2K ... getting closer.   At some point the watch will have enough data to make a better estimate of distance covered in the absence of GPS.

Oh yeah ,  almost forgot.   Logged a little 5ker on my lunch break this eve.    I am in full taper mode for R4K Saturday so 2 more little lunch runs then its a wrap for 2014!

Longish Run Yesterday

 With R4K looming there was no LSD this weekend.    Took out the new 620 outdoors for the first time logging 18K  in just a little under 2 hours.   Applied a HRM update just before I headed out and was missing the  vertical oscillation and time the foot was on the ground data.  May have had something to do with running locked to GPS but I am leaning more towards the software upgrade.    Still figuring out all this very featured watch.   It was really cool when I walked in the house and  without intervention the data was uploaded via my WiFi to Garmin.   One interesting bit of data was my average stride length  for this run ,  0.99 meters. I suspect my next treadmill run will be a wee bit more accurate.       Planning on an hour on the trails later today then perhaps an evening at Blue.

Data beyond my imagination

Logged a little longer lunch run today running 12km at a mostly 5:24 pace.    Had even more fun with the new Garmin 620 ...

When it comes to the dots green is good,  yellow not so much and red not good at all!   So what does all this mean.   Well 160 cadence is slow and I have been loosely working on getting it a little higher ...goal 170 .  I knew I was a bit of a bobber and the vertical oscillation proves that.   Feet are on the ground a wee bit much.   I am ever so slowly increasing my speed working towards a 5 min pace.  The faster I run the more likely things will start to hurt but so far the Hokas are doing their magic and I am 90% free of the usual tweaks!   I have a suspicion that the vert osc and ground time will naturally decrease as I increase my speed.