Weekend Activities & Festivities

Training for Wakely is ticking along quite well. Last week was really encouraging coming off an almost 4 hour run on the Saturday, I seemed to recover well and hit my workouts for the week. This past weekend was a little of a push with two races on Saturday and a 3 hour run Sunday.

Yup 2 races, one day. Smart? I'll let you know in a couple of days.

Saturday A.M. - Jog the Bog.

This was a small key local fun race organized by a guy (James) on Running Mania. About 20 people showed up for the event, and it was a great opportunity for Strider to run his first race. We ended up coming in 3rd and he beat me by a nose.

More Pictures Here

Saturday P.M. - Kilt Run (Perth)

I had mentioned back in January that Kim and I had registered for this event. It was an attempt at setting the world record for the largest number of participants wearing Kilts, and by the turn out they were more than successful. Our plan was to run a fairly relaxed run, but once the gun (and it was quite the loud gun) went off, Kim was in full race mode. We had a great time and with a strong finishing push Kim secured 2nd in her age group (which unfortunately we did not find out about till we got home) and like Strider, beat me by a nose. Just wasn't my day.

More Pics Here

Sunday A.M.

3 hour run on the Gatineau Trails. My left calf is quite stiff from running in my Vibrams at the Bog Jog, but even though I was dead tired Saturday night I got through the 3 hours feeling fairly strong. Really noticing some good strength coming back in my downhills.

Sunday Afternoon.

England was eliminated from the World Cup by Germany. As disappointing as this is, England has not had the best tournament and Germany was the much better team. I'll continue to watch and root for Germany, but starting this Saturday is the Tour de France, so I may be a little distracted.

Sunday P.M.

Taking a note from Derrick's post about Sweet Tater Pepper I just had to give them a try. My version was; I microwaved the sweet potatoes, scooped out the inners into a bowl. Added Garlic, diced up hot peppers, shredded cheese, cinnamon, salt and pepper, mashed and mixed it all together and stuffed into Sweet Peppers. Grilled on top rack of the BBQ for about 25mins. Awesomely delicious. Nice Cab/Merlot on the side.

Heading into a hard week of training as things start to peak before taper. Feeling good about things, and the only real niggle it the silly tight left calf.

Happy 1st Birthday Strider.

I can't believe our little puppy is a year old today. I can't remember what it was like without Strider in our lives, but again it feels like just yesterday when we brought him home. He is a great buddy to all of us, and loves each of us equally. He is turning into a great running partner, and did his longest run of 1:00 and 10.75km last week. Birthday hugs and slopping kisses to you my friend

Picking him up at the Breader.

Chillin together last night

So this week in training was a recovery week. Strange that I have been more tired and sore than in previous weeks. Trust in the coach! Anyhow total for the week was a respectable 6:38, that included running the Beaver chase race with Graham. I am proud of him for running it, but I don't think he enjoyed it that much.

Vice for the week.

and why is the Flake Bar the vice for the week? Well it is British, and the World Cup has started, so we must do our part.



So key run for this week is Saturday, so all roads lead to that training run this week. Lots of sleep and foam roller will the the prescription for the week

Happy Father's Day to my Fellow Dads.

Weekly Summary May 31 - June 6

Quick Update.

7 weeks to Wakely! I think I can now officially start the count down, but I am in no rush for it to get there, I want to enjoy the first 7 weeks of summer, and I still have some serious work to do before then.

This past week of training was a huge confidence and strength builder, for the first time since before Pittsfield I am starting to feel real positive on where I am...but there is cautionary tale in this too. I was starting to feel the first signs of over training; I was not sleeping well and felt irritable, but for no apparent reason. Home life has been hectic and training steadily increasing, so not surprising . Last week when Derrick sent me my workouts for the week he told me that this week would be a recovery week. Wow, body and coach were in sync and knowing that I had a recovery ahead of me I knew I could push the week a little harder and have the time to recoup. Final total for the week was 9:27, which include a couple of small doubles, one strength in the park again, and an awesome back-to-back weekend.

The weekend was a true highlight. Saturday I ran 3:00, randomly meeting up with my old trail partner Eric (he was running with his friend Marc), on some back trail. Great time as the 3 of us ran for a good 1:30 together. Sunday Kim and I ran 2:15 in the rain on some really nice trails, with a quick stop at Herridge Cabin at about the 1/2 way mark. Total distance for the 5:15 was 49.2km with about 7,000ft of climbing. My hill strength has carried over from Pittsfield nicely, just need to focus a little on some downhills.

Weekly Summary May 24 - May 30

Good news this week was no evil food managed to upset my diet. I already confessed the Vickies and Hummus so that doesn't count. Another nice little increase in training time again, breaking the 8 hour mark with a total of 8:06, with a couple of good double days. There were few very nice highlights to the week.

1) Friday I had scheduled a 20min FF run followed by a strength workout. So I brought a Yoga mat I keep in my office for stretching on, did the FF run in the beautiful sunshine and then strength outdoors in the park. Beautiful. A bunch of people from work had all gone out for lunch and here I was running and exercising, guess where I preferred to be.

2) The weekend was the NCM race weekend here in Ottawa. Saturday evening Kim and Graham both ran the 10km race. This was Graham's first ever 10km race, and even though he would disagree he did really well. He was running strong until the 8km mark where he got a cramp and had to walk. The 8km mark is the tough point of a 10km race and he got to experience it first had. At least he is not giving up and may do a couple of other races (shorter) in the next few weeks. Kim cruised in, in 48mins. 30 secs over he BP, but she wasn't really pushing. She is getting stronger everyday.

3)Puppy Strider ran 6 days straight. With Kim and my schedule for the week it just worked out that for his morning walks they had to be easy runs. Nothing too long, 20-45 mins, but still he is developing a good base.

4) Sunday was a 3:30 run on some nice technical hilly trails in the Gats. It was an good test of nutrition and gear for Wakely. I kept my pace under control, so the distance wasn't that spectacular, but did get a lot of climbing in. Well I can quite honestly say that the caterpillar issue on the trails is pretty well a non-issue. I had visions of running and crunching caterpillars under my shoes for 3.5 hours. Don't think I stepped on one and only saw about 3 on the trail and had to brush 1 off my shoulder once. You can hear them munching away on the leaves, and there are bits of leaves on a lot of the trails, but not nearly has horrific as I had imagined it might be.

So this week is coming along well and will be a busy weekend, but everything is holding together well. Kim and I are being faithful with our Sauna routine and nutrition.

Weekly Summary May 17 - May 23

Figured I better get this posted before the end of the week. Busy times. So another week in the books and another good week where runs went as planned, stayed injury free (mostly), but unfortunately slipped on the diet a bit.

Total for the week was 7:24, so just a little over last weeks total. Highlight of the week was a 2:48 run on Saturday, on some pretty knarly trails in parts. So the diet was doing well until I heard the call of the M&M's from the freezer. What were they doing there? Well Kim thought it would be a good idea to have some for Kingston a couple weeks back and the leftovers we would save if we went out to a movie in the future. Ha! They lasted almost a week. Evil things. Then on Monday (technically this week), we broke out the Mrs Vickie's Crinkle Cuts and Hummus, Yum.

So for Saturday's run I was suppose to run on easy trail, and because of time constraints (I was out at 5:55 in the morning) I decided to run on the Trillium Woods trails close to home. Now these aren't the longest trails and I HATE running loops, so I decided to run one of the longer 7km sections (outback) as part of it. Foolish. I had forgotten how nasty this trail was. About 3km in I tripped on my right foot and jammed my left ankle. Nothing too serious but a wakeup call for sure. Finished the run, but I was dead at the end. That super technical stuff can really tire you out even without adding any significant hills.

Highlight of this week will be cheering at the NCM 10KM as Graham runs his first 10km, and Kim will be his official pacer (if it is cool to run with mom). Sunday I hope to get in 3:30 on the trails in the Gatineau Park with all the Caterpillars falling from the trees. Yuk!

Infrared Sauna

About 2 1/2 years ago I was flipping through a Get Out There Magazine and noticed an add for something called an Infrared Sauna. The advertisement was promoting the Sauna as an athlete recovery device, that also helps with injury prevention and rehabilitation. I was just about to start my training cycle to prepare for my first Boston, and as all runners had suffered a few injury set backs, this really peaked my interest. Also who doesn't enjoy the feeling of a good sweat in a sauna. So Kim and I hit the internet and started to do a little research on these Infrared Saunas. What we discovered really surprised us. I won't repeat all the facts that are repeated in a number of different sites, you can Google those, but here is a quick list of the highlighted benifits.

• Weight Loss
• Better Circulation and Increased Energy
  
• Cardiovascular Health
  
• Speed Recovery from Injuries
• Detoxification
• Improved Immune System
• Improves your strength and vitality
• Relieves pain (joint pain, sore muscles, arthritis)
• Combats cancer causing environmental causes

I encourage you to do a little research into these wonderful devices. One word of advice if you are looking for one is to purchase is to look at Carbon vs Ceramic heaters. The Carbon ones provide much better Infrared penetration.

Kim and I didn't spend too much time in it last year, we got lazy, but are back at it with a vengeance now. Anything we can do for Wakely, NYC, and longer happier lives.

Weekly Summary May 10 - May 16

Seems like forever since I posted a weekly summary but since we are now in full on training for Wakely and Haliburton it is time to get both serious and accountable. I seemed to have recovered both physically and mentally from Pittsfield and Boston and all ready to get serious again. Really looking forward to some nice longer training cycles and building on the strength I gained over the winter. Also one of my main focuses will be diet. Kim and I have both found our weight slipping up and those nasty M&M peanuts getting the better of us.

Total training time for the week was 7:17, with quite the mixed bag of activities.

Mon: Noon 30min Elliptical

Tues: PM 70min, including Beaver Chase see Perfect Evening

Wed: Noon 30min on grass in my Nike Free 5.0

Thu: AM 64min - Great early morning run in the Trillium woods

Fri: Rest

Sat: 5Peaks Kingston 2hr19min - What can I tell you, a perfect race day by an awesome RD and his crew. A million thanks to Derrick, Sara and all the volunteers that made this race happen. I actually ran the Enduro course as a warmup and then paced Kim through her race, followed it up with a nice easy cooldown. I really wanted to focus more on the training mile than speed for the day so being able to run the enduro course twice was great. A really fun trail (some how I ended up 2nd in my AG too. What a hoot)

Sun: 61min - Kim and I stopped at the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area on our way out of Kingston Sunday morning. What a wonderful spot, just north of the 401 for a run. If you are ever in the Kingston area I would highly recommend checking it out.

We are having a busy week at home and work and heading towards the weekend it is not getting any easier, but we are hoping Monday will be a PJ day at home, butt on couch with coffee.