I am really enjoying the daily news on the Runner's World website. I lose a big chunk of my time in the morning read it. Here are a few items that caught my eye today.
Sanya Richards Asserts Justin Gatlin "Hurt Our Sport"
Richards, the new American 400-meter recordholder and the 2006 IAAF Female Athlete Of The Year, notes "new faces like me, Justin, Bershawn Jackson and Lauryn Williams were all standing up against drugs. And then for Justin to go and fail us - it hurt out sport." Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic 100-meter gold medalist, tested positive for testosterone this spring; Richards states "I definitely think the U.S. public have been disillusioned by what happened to Justin." Richards is one of the mainstays of the USATF's "Be A Champion" program, an outreach to American youth. "Hopefully we won't have any more of those mishaps in the future," she says of the Gatlin debacle, "and people will start to realize that there are more clean athletes who work hard than there are athletes who cheat."
Dick Pound's Book Part Of Campaign Against "The Sociopaths Of Sport"
Pound, the zealous and often blunt and controversal president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, calls performance-enhancing drug users "cheaters who respect neither their fellow competitors nor the games they're playing." The Canadian has now authored "Inside Dope: How Drugs Are The Biggest Threat To Sport, Why You Should Care, and What Can Be Dne About Them." Listen to Pound's interview on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" at the link below; you'll wonder why more of these drug-using miscreants haven't dropped dead already.
With 49ers Talking Of Move to Santa Clara, San Francisco Drops 2016 Olympic Bid
San Francisco's Olympic bid was in large part contingent on a new stadium the NFL 49ers were thinking of building at Candlestick Point, which would have been expanded to 80,000 seats for track and field and opening and closing ceremonies. The 49ers then announced they were pursuing a stadium project in San Francisco. While the team now says it may continue discussions with two cities, Scott Givens, the managing director of San Francisco's bid, realizes "the damage has been done, and the damage can't be pulled back," especially regarding the San Francisco bidders' standing with the U.S. Olympic Committee. Chicago and Los Angeles remain contenders for the 2016 Games, though the USOC might ultimately choose not to submit any bid at all.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Slow and steady
This is kinda cool. I only won my age group once this season, at the Bouctouche 10K, but I ended up winning my age group in the Running Room Super Series. As you can see, I only proved this fortunate because I racked up more races than the other runners, who are undoubtedly faster than I.
I saw Gairns pull up at the Legs for Literacy race and if he had finished I'm sure he would have won the age group. Anyway, this is pretty neat, it just proves what I've said for the last few months that this has been my best racing season ever. It really puts me in a good mental state to start putting together my winter/spring training schedule to hopefully BQ next May in Ottawa.
Men 20 - 29
Pos Name Region # Races Points
1 Dan McHardie Fredericton 7 345
2 Evan Pemberton Fredericton 5 275
3 Chris Gairns Fredericton 4 250
I saw Gairns pull up at the Legs for Literacy race and if he had finished I'm sure he would have won the age group. Anyway, this is pretty neat, it just proves what I've said for the last few months that this has been my best racing season ever. It really puts me in a good mental state to start putting together my winter/spring training schedule to hopefully BQ next May in Ottawa.
Men 20 - 29
Pos Name Region # Races Points
1 Dan McHardie Fredericton 7 345
2 Evan Pemberton Fredericton 5 275
3 Chris Gairns Fredericton 4 250
Monday, November 13, 2006
A lazy 5K
I did a lazy 5K last night. It was my first run since last week's Legs for Literacy Half-Marathon, which the race report for some reason has not appeared here. (Hmmm, must get on that.) I finished in about 20:15 or something. The wind was blowing hard but I just didn't have a lot of drive. My run started late in the evening, I just got out for the sake of getting out.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
My final PB of the season
This is my RM Race Report. I will offer some more insight later today on my splits and more post-race analysis.
I'm the first to admit that I in no way deserved to PB yesterday. I trained five or six days a week leading up to the Ottawa half-marathon just to have a meltdown, literally and figuratively. Heading into Sunday's race, I had only run 20K once since Ottawa (which was last weekend) and had never logged more than 40K in a week since July. Sunday morning I woke up and played with my daughter for an hour or so and then packed up my stuff and drove to Moncton. I arrived at the event about 45 minutes early and I was in a mental fog. I tried warming up but it was so chilly I didn't want to spend too much time outside. I chatted with Dani and Trish as well as a few other friends who were racing the half-marathon. Normally I have a very specific warm-up ritual, but yesterday I felt almost underwhelmed by what I was about to do and just had a short and simple warm-up.
Once I stepped into the starting chute, I started to get nervous, staring at all the super fast runners who I know and realizing how totally unprepared I was compared to them. I kept telling myself, "start slow, start slow." The siren went off and four minutes later I passed the first kilometre marker. So much for racing the plan. That said, I felt great, my legs were fresh and I was really relaxed. I kept trying to slow down my pace as we looped through a residential part of the city. By the time we hit the trail near the Petitcodiac River, I was averaging 4:17 min/k splits, which were way faster than the 4:30 min/k I had planned but I felt like I was in the zone so I just went with it.
Coming off the Gunningsville Bridge, we turned onto a trail and directly into a headwind. I thought to myself, "Ok, here is where I'll fall apart. I'm terrible in wind." But there were some supporters on the trail cheering us on, so I couldn't falter quite yet and before I knew it, we turned and the wind was at our back. Running down a main street, one woman yelled out to me, "If it was easy, everyone would do it!" That really motivated me to keep my pace strong. Just before turning back onto the bridge, I saw Dani and Trish who looked really strong. Once on the bridge, I passed a few people who had been ahead of me the entire race and I ended up meeting a guy who I ran with for about two kilometres. This was his first half-marathon so we chatted about the challenges of the distance and various likes and dislikes. It really helped calm any nerves that persisted about my pace. Once we turned back on Main Street, I saw the UNB Cross-Country captain who pulled up. I asked if he needed a course marshal, he just waved me on, saying he was done for the day. That is too bad, he is an amazing runner.
With 5K left, I just bore down and pushed to the end. There were several small hills that stood in the way and I just clung to a consistent pace, knowing there was a big hill just before the entry to the school. At this point, the course really got packed, I had 10Kers coming at me, while I was passing marathoners and half-marathon/marathon walkers. I could no longer tell who I was racing and who was in other events. That frustrated me at the time but it also meant it was pointless turning around to see who was coming behind me, which really let me focus on the final 2K.
When I powered up that final hill, turned into the school and let it fly into the finish chute, I had no idea how far ahead of my PB I actually was. Careful not to pull a Cheruiyot, I didn't look down at my Garmin until after I stepped over the finishing mat and then it hit me, I PB'd by almost three minutes! At that point, I almost slipped and hit my head.
Leading up to Sunday when my friends asked me what my goal was, I said sub-1:40 but I was pacing myself for 1:36. So to run 1:31:32, I am absolutely ecstatic. I was hoping to use this race as a motivational tool to get mentally ready to start marathon training in December. Well, mission accomplished. What I've taken from the race is that I built a solid base during the summer and now I just need to recover well and starting building up my mileage again slowly for my marathon training.
My final stats were:
Overall: 18/361
Age group: 3/21
Total time: 1:31:35
Chip time: 1:31:32
I'm the first to admit that I in no way deserved to PB yesterday. I trained five or six days a week leading up to the Ottawa half-marathon just to have a meltdown, literally and figuratively. Heading into Sunday's race, I had only run 20K once since Ottawa (which was last weekend) and had never logged more than 40K in a week since July. Sunday morning I woke up and played with my daughter for an hour or so and then packed up my stuff and drove to Moncton. I arrived at the event about 45 minutes early and I was in a mental fog. I tried warming up but it was so chilly I didn't want to spend too much time outside. I chatted with Dani and Trish as well as a few other friends who were racing the half-marathon. Normally I have a very specific warm-up ritual, but yesterday I felt almost underwhelmed by what I was about to do and just had a short and simple warm-up.
Once I stepped into the starting chute, I started to get nervous, staring at all the super fast runners who I know and realizing how totally unprepared I was compared to them. I kept telling myself, "start slow, start slow." The siren went off and four minutes later I passed the first kilometre marker. So much for racing the plan. That said, I felt great, my legs were fresh and I was really relaxed. I kept trying to slow down my pace as we looped through a residential part of the city. By the time we hit the trail near the Petitcodiac River, I was averaging 4:17 min/k splits, which were way faster than the 4:30 min/k I had planned but I felt like I was in the zone so I just went with it.
Coming off the Gunningsville Bridge, we turned onto a trail and directly into a headwind. I thought to myself, "Ok, here is where I'll fall apart. I'm terrible in wind." But there were some supporters on the trail cheering us on, so I couldn't falter quite yet and before I knew it, we turned and the wind was at our back. Running down a main street, one woman yelled out to me, "If it was easy, everyone would do it!" That really motivated me to keep my pace strong. Just before turning back onto the bridge, I saw Dani and Trish who looked really strong. Once on the bridge, I passed a few people who had been ahead of me the entire race and I ended up meeting a guy who I ran with for about two kilometres. This was his first half-marathon so we chatted about the challenges of the distance and various likes and dislikes. It really helped calm any nerves that persisted about my pace. Once we turned back on Main Street, I saw the UNB Cross-Country captain who pulled up. I asked if he needed a course marshal, he just waved me on, saying he was done for the day. That is too bad, he is an amazing runner.
With 5K left, I just bore down and pushed to the end. There were several small hills that stood in the way and I just clung to a consistent pace, knowing there was a big hill just before the entry to the school. At this point, the course really got packed, I had 10Kers coming at me, while I was passing marathoners and half-marathon/marathon walkers. I could no longer tell who I was racing and who was in other events. That frustrated me at the time but it also meant it was pointless turning around to see who was coming behind me, which really let me focus on the final 2K.
When I powered up that final hill, turned into the school and let it fly into the finish chute, I had no idea how far ahead of my PB I actually was. Careful not to pull a Cheruiyot, I didn't look down at my Garmin until after I stepped over the finishing mat and then it hit me, I PB'd by almost three minutes! At that point, I almost slipped and hit my head.
Leading up to Sunday when my friends asked me what my goal was, I said sub-1:40 but I was pacing myself for 1:36. So to run 1:31:32, I am absolutely ecstatic. I was hoping to use this race as a motivational tool to get mentally ready to start marathon training in December. Well, mission accomplished. What I've taken from the race is that I built a solid base during the summer and now I just need to recover well and starting building up my mileage again slowly for my marathon training.
My final stats were:
Overall: 18/361
Age group: 3/21
Total time: 1:31:35
Chip time: 1:31:32
Monday, November 06, 2006
Lance runs NYC
It's great how Lance doesn't sugarcoat running a marathon. What is amazing is this guy won the Tour de France seven times and he limps into a post-race press conference with a bandaged shin. Running a marathon is not easy but I hope Lance draws more people to the sport. I have bolded what I think are particularly fascinating parts of this AP story.
NEW YORK (AP) -- His face twisted in pain, Lance Armstrong virtually walked the last couple of steps. He slowed to a halt immediately after the finish line and bent to the ground, his green shirt soaked with sweat.
No one's more familiar with how painful achieving goals can be.
Still, not even he saw this coming.
Armstrong barely met his lofty goal of breaking 3 hours in his first marathon, but it came at a price. No Alpine climb on his bicycle had ever been as tough as Sunday's New York City Marathon, he said.
"For the level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done," said Armstrong, who finished 856th. "I never felt a point where I hit the wall, it was really a gradual progression of fatigue and soreness."
Armstrong's time was 2 hours, 59 minutes and 36 seconds. Afterward, he shuffled into a post-race news conference, his right shin heavily taped.
"I think I bit off more than I could chew, I thought the marathon would be easier," he said. "(My shins) started to hurt in the second half, especially the right one. I could barely walk up here, because the calves are completely knotted up."
Armstrong's build presented a stark contrast to the elite men's runners who preceded him on the course. The cycling champion's heavily muscled legs and powerful chest set him apart from the slender Kenyans who traditionally dominate the race. Even Armstrong compared the leaders' legs to pencils.
And while there was little joy among the leaders during the race, Armstrong smiled and chatted amiably during the first half of the race. He wore a shirt saying LANCE and displaying the numbers 10/2 -- the date 10 years ago on which he was diagnosed with cancer, before he began his amazing Tour de France streak.
He was paced for most of the race by former marathon champions Alberto Salazar and Joan Benoit Samuelson and middle-distance running great Hicham El Guerrouj, and said he got a lot of support from fans packed along the course.
But his body seemed to tighten and showed signs of pain and fatigue in the final few miles. He started to fall off the pace required to break 3 hours before a final push allowed him to meet his personal goal.
"Before the race that was my goal, I wanted to break 3 hours. But if you told me with 3 miles to go, `You're going to do 3:05,' I wouldn't have cared," he said. "Honestly, at the end I was so tired, I couldn't care. Now I'm glad I did."
About an hour after the men's and women's champions had crossed the finish line, the Central Park crowd really started to buzz as Armstrong approached. Fans seemed much more enthused at seeing Armstrong than watching a Brazilian man and a Latvian woman win titles earlier on a crisp autumn afternoon.
"Lance added a lot," said race director Mary Wittenberg. "He was a delight throughout. Everybody is so excited about him. He beat a lot of odds and impressed a lot of people."
So will he be back?
"Now's not the time to ask that question. The answer now is no, I'll never be back. But I reserve the right to change my mind," he said. "I don't know how these guys do it."
NEW YORK (AP) -- His face twisted in pain, Lance Armstrong virtually walked the last couple of steps. He slowed to a halt immediately after the finish line and bent to the ground, his green shirt soaked with sweat.
No one's more familiar with how painful achieving goals can be.
Still, not even he saw this coming.
Armstrong barely met his lofty goal of breaking 3 hours in his first marathon, but it came at a price. No Alpine climb on his bicycle had ever been as tough as Sunday's New York City Marathon, he said.
"For the level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done," said Armstrong, who finished 856th. "I never felt a point where I hit the wall, it was really a gradual progression of fatigue and soreness."
Armstrong's time was 2 hours, 59 minutes and 36 seconds. Afterward, he shuffled into a post-race news conference, his right shin heavily taped.
"I think I bit off more than I could chew, I thought the marathon would be easier," he said. "(My shins) started to hurt in the second half, especially the right one. I could barely walk up here, because the calves are completely knotted up."
Armstrong's build presented a stark contrast to the elite men's runners who preceded him on the course. The cycling champion's heavily muscled legs and powerful chest set him apart from the slender Kenyans who traditionally dominate the race. Even Armstrong compared the leaders' legs to pencils.
And while there was little joy among the leaders during the race, Armstrong smiled and chatted amiably during the first half of the race. He wore a shirt saying LANCE and displaying the numbers 10/2 -- the date 10 years ago on which he was diagnosed with cancer, before he began his amazing Tour de France streak.
He was paced for most of the race by former marathon champions Alberto Salazar and Joan Benoit Samuelson and middle-distance running great Hicham El Guerrouj, and said he got a lot of support from fans packed along the course.
But his body seemed to tighten and showed signs of pain and fatigue in the final few miles. He started to fall off the pace required to break 3 hours before a final push allowed him to meet his personal goal.
"Before the race that was my goal, I wanted to break 3 hours. But if you told me with 3 miles to go, `You're going to do 3:05,' I wouldn't have cared," he said. "Honestly, at the end I was so tired, I couldn't care. Now I'm glad I did."
About an hour after the men's and women's champions had crossed the finish line, the Central Park crowd really started to buzz as Armstrong approached. Fans seemed much more enthused at seeing Armstrong than watching a Brazilian man and a Latvian woman win titles earlier on a crisp autumn afternoon.
"Lance added a lot," said race director Mary Wittenberg. "He was a delight throughout. Everybody is so excited about him. He beat a lot of odds and impressed a lot of people."
So will he be back?
"Now's not the time to ask that question. The answer now is no, I'll never be back. But I reserve the right to change my mind," he said. "I don't know how these guys do it."
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
A wonderful post-Halloween tempo
After such a fun Halloween last night with the girls, I had a ton of energy to put into my run. But instead I just had a wonderfully uninspired 5K tempo run. As I will describe, I gawked more at the scenery than my Garmin. I figured I didn't really train for the half-marathon on Sunday, so I can't get away with a normal taper. I took two days off, so instead of some intervals I opted for a tempo run.
The advantage of a tempo over intervals is that I could take better advantage of this glorious day.
I ran along the trail for the first time in ages, likely since before the election was called. Everything about it felt wonderful. The terrain felt unusually smooth, the leaves in the trees were turning myriad colours, there was no wind and the river was spectacular. My first few splits were right around 4 min/K, which is where I wanted them. But then I opted to gaze hopelessly at the splendor of the trail. I did my best tempo training on this trail in the summer, but today I was happy just cruising.
I finished about four seconds per min/k slower than normal but I had a big smile. My Garmin is downstairs, but I think I finished in 20:09, with average splits of 4:04 min/k. My HR was a bit higher than my last few runs, obviously, but it showed me I could have pushed harder. The average was still in the 170s.
And once I showered, I took my little, little one for a 2.7K walk around the neighborhood to prove to her that it is as beautiful as I told her! I love having a week off.
The advantage of a tempo over intervals is that I could take better advantage of this glorious day.
I ran along the trail for the first time in ages, likely since before the election was called. Everything about it felt wonderful. The terrain felt unusually smooth, the leaves in the trees were turning myriad colours, there was no wind and the river was spectacular. My first few splits were right around 4 min/K, which is where I wanted them. But then I opted to gaze hopelessly at the splendor of the trail. I did my best tempo training on this trail in the summer, but today I was happy just cruising.
I finished about four seconds per min/k slower than normal but I had a big smile. My Garmin is downstairs, but I think I finished in 20:09, with average splits of 4:04 min/k. My HR was a bit higher than my last few runs, obviously, but it showed me I could have pushed harder. The average was still in the 170s.
And once I showered, I took my little, little one for a 2.7K walk around the neighborhood to prove to her that it is as beautiful as I told her! I love having a week off.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)