Rum Runners Relay 2021

So I am a little late getting this blog post out, but better late than never. 

Craig and I chatted earlier in the year about possibly doing the Rum Runners Relay as an adventure run this year. The Rum Runners Relay is a Nova Scotian relay race with 10 legs that covers about 110km from Prospect to Lunenburg. Usually done in teams of 10, this race was not held the past 2 years, as the logistics of crowds during COVID in this kind of race made things tricky. As well, the big fun of this race is the social aspect. Take that away and it certainly is less of a fun day.

Last year I thought about doing this but Craig hurt his foot. This year we chatted about it, but the timing was tricky. Ideally it would have been held in September as it usually is, but I was close to tapering for my first Ultra Road race. Then I had a couple of half marathons in the weeks that followed, then the Movember Fun Run I host each year (which Craig ran in). Finally we had a date, November 27.

So we got up bright and early for the traditional 6:30 AM start. I feel I was about 70% recovered from all my racing. Craig was all healed up, but certainly had not been running really long distances in awhile. Forecast called for occasional showers, okay temperatures, and a fairly tough headwind for much of the day. 

We packed the car full of clothing changes, some food and drink got it started.

Craig went first for Leg 1. It was dark, so he was lit up. The weather was great until a few minutes after he began, at which point a big tail wind came in (nice) and a downpour (less nice).  

As the rain let up, the sun started to creep out, and Craig finished up Leg 1 crossing the finish line.  

Our goal was to keep well below the 6 min / km cut off time that Rum Runner allows for each leg.  Not much time for pleasantries either, as we passed the figurative baton, took a picture and began the next leg of running. 

Leg 2 was much nicer than Leg 1, and a bit shorter (about 4km shorter - though I would make up for this lack of distance later).  I had a brief sprinkling of rain but just enough to get damp, not a full soaking like poor Craig had.

Leg 3 is always a blast. Around 11km but with significant amount of down hill, it is fast. The trick today was holding back. Still, Craig took advantage of the free speed. Also I think it rained on him again.

Leg 4, the long one. 17km but generally flat. The head wind was strong here as this leg is quite open on the coast line. I switched shoes and socks. I tucked a small soft flask of Nuun into my belt as well, because we were not doing water stops.  

The temperature was climbing, and really I could have been in shorts here, but I certainly wasn't uncomfortable. 

So 2 legs in for me and 25km and I was starting to feel tired. Uh oh.

No time to think though. Craig took off on Leg 5 which is the shortest though the one with the two hills. At 3.8 km it seems easy, but the first hill is crazy steep up.

And the second one is a crazy downhill one to the finish. Craig opted to give it a little oomph on this leg for fun.

For most legs there is roughly 40-60 minutes of rest before the next person has to run. Between Leg 4 and 6 I had about 17 minutes of rest, so really it was a straight forward 28 km of running for the two legs. Leg 6 starts go up up up. Then you run a rolling terrain of up and up until you reach the top of a decent climb and have a few kilometers of fast finish. 

Again, more sun for me. Yes, there were a few brief rain showers but nothing too crazy. Leg 6 offered much better protection from the wind as well, which was nice. 

Craig set out on Leg 7. Another shorter one at 9 km, but don't get too excited. This one has some of the worst hill climbs. 3 really big climbs on tired legs. In November it wasn't as bad temperature wise, but during September, this is often one of the hottest legs as well.  

Somehow I didn't get a good hill picture of Craig.  I did get to the end of the leg though and noticed the softflask I had put in my belt had decided to empty its contents down my back. So I managed to find a place to get changed into my second pair of tights and a new pair of socks. I stayed in my favorite shoe, the On Cloudflow though. It was still doing great.  As I got over to the finish line, Craig came zipping in. The finish here is nice and speedy, and I managed to just get the finish line down in time!  

Now in fresh dry tights, I set off on Leg 8. Getting started on each leg was getting tougher. The body would stiffen up while waiting for the next leg. You would want to eat and drink but not too much. I knew Leg 8 would be tough (it is the second longest leg and again, spends a lot of time on the open coast line, so heavy wind).  

After a couple of kilometers and some bad road shoulders, I had to take my first walk break up a steep but short hill. Running was just slow enough that a short walk made more sense. 

For the first time, I was getting thirsty on the run, so I knew I was well into the dehydration territory. A few more walk breaks up some steep hills were needed. I was well past marathon distance now and I will say, starting the day at maybe 70% recovered from previous racing in the weeks leading up to this was taking its tole. 

Ouch.

Craig was now on the cusp of marathon distance heading into Leg 9. While he had run longer in some events the previous years (last person standing type events), these usually were done at a very slow pace with less consistent running pace. 

He sent me to the start of Leg 10 because I needed all the rest I could get. And of course it started to rain. How tired was he? He didn't notice the rain.

Craig finished up Leg 9 and it was certainly pushing his limit that day. The poor weather, the start and stop nature, and just coming back from an injury with little solid base buildup had hit. He did awesome pushing through all that. His marathon split was 3:29, without any marathon training.

I won't lie. Going into Leg 10 after what wasn't a great Leg 8 didn't feel mentally great. We still had tons of day light (I put on my Noxgear vest just in case) and the clouds were clearing, so that helped. I had been sipping Nuun electrolyte drink while waiting for Craig to finish, so I hoped to be better hydrated. Also Craig was going to stop at a couple of key points to offer a drink on this leg and make sure I didn't take a wrong turn. 

I planned on a run walk strategy to finish things up, and I did use it a bit, but not as much as I had planned. Craig was stopping every 2 km to give me a drink, and frankly, when I would see him I would run. The walk breaks were not many, and as each kilometer ticked away, mentally I was able to get it done. 

I was well into the high 50km range (well beyond anything I had run) as I entered Lunenburg. I passed on the final drink stop which was literally 0.5 km from the finish and pushed through. The school was in site! 

I rolled in and stopped the clock with a personal distance of 59.2 km and a total time of 4:52 (marathon split of 3:18). Craig ran 49.7 (in way more rain than me) in a total time of 4:16. Our average pace was 5:03 and we hit a 9:09 on the clock for almost 110km.  

Per tradition of Rum Runners we stopped at Subway for subs and pop (not cold subs and warm pop this time).  

It was great spending the day with Craig and doing this adventure run. Neither of us are big fans of the giant runs, so this may be a one off but it was worth doing to see out the year on a high. I feel sorry for Craig's family using the car after we were done though. 

Go BLT Runners.  

 

2021 Bluenose Half Marathon

Well for the first time, the Bluenose Marathon weekend was in November. Due to COVID, the 2020 edition went virtual (with an attempt to move it to later in the year), then the normal May 2021 got moved again to the Fall of this year. It ultimately worked out and we got to run with very few restrictions (great work Nova Scotia).  

To be honest, I don't know if I would have run this year at all if I hadn't previously won a free entry. I will admit that I am no where near 100% since the Ultra 50K I ran in mid October. Still, I wasn't injured, just worn out, and felt I could at least have a decent run.

The day before I got my outfit ready, well partially anyway. The temps were going to be low, but it was going to be sunny. I opted for a short sleeve shirt and my favorite Balega socks. But I didn't make the choice of shorts or tights until that morning. (I went with shorts)

Another thing I didn't commit to until the morning of was my shoe choice. Ultimately I opted for one of my old classic favorites, the New Balance 1400. It isn't a lot of shoe and is certainly not a super shoe. In fact it is the kind of shoe that says, you go ahead and do all the work, I'll make sure you have grip and don't get cuts. 

I showed up for the race about 15 minutes before the start. The Half and Full were starting together. The atmosphere was nice and casual, which was great. I managed to stay warm in the 2C weather by wandering around and finding people to chat with. I found Luke who had run the 5K the day before.

Soon we were lined up to start. I found myself beside two lobsters, which was fun. Oh and a bunch of really fast people as well.

Soon we were off! My plan / goal was to run a sub 1:24, hanging out around the 4 min pace mark. I have certainly run faster than this, but I wanted to finish strong and enjoy the run and not push things too hard.

About 15 minutes in, I was a little faster than goal pace, but breathing wise I was feeling very comfortable. I couldn't tell what place I was in since some runners for Half and some Full. My legs were already unhappy with this plan though, so I settled in and didn't worry about people surging by me.

Soon the Full runners went a different way and the Half race settled down. I was holding my pace well, even though things were tired and sore. After the first few kilometers of the race, which are basically flat, the terrain started to get hilly. We ran up and down some mighty steep streets, the kind that change your running gait a lot. 

We left the city for Point Pleasant Park and I stay within striking distance of the runner ahead of me, but opted to hold my ground and keep this comfortable pace going. Through the park we ran, avoiding a few random people and dogs. I started to gain on the the guy in front of me. Then as we left the park and started back on the hilly streets, I ended up catching him and over taking him. It was at this point I had to decide to put in a little surge to protect my spot, or let him draft me. Ultimately the racer in me put in that little push and a gap formed. 

Now we just had 5K to go. It was on a slight incline for 4.7km then a sharp decline to the finish. This section of the Bluenose half is all about mental endurance. Just hold that pace because soon the race will be over. 

The finish was new this year, due to construction. The normal big downhill is followed by a slight uphill before the line. Now that sharp downhill ends just a few meters before the finish line, so you carry that speed well. 

I saw the finish line clock and was very happy to see the numbers 1:21:xx. I pushed far harder than I wanted to and managed a finish under 1:22 with 1:21:52. It was tight, but well below my prerace goal. I was happy the old body still had some pep in it. 

It was also great after the race finding a few familiar faces to chat with. Everyone was happy to get out and have a race on such a nice Fall day. I did end up finishing second in my age group as well. 

Now do I get a rest? Well, I do have a virtual half marathon coming up, but it will be a fun run for me. 

The Valley Harvest 50K Ultra Marathon 2021

 So I have not posted in quite a bit. Looking back it seems like in April I was talking about base building. Where has the year gone! Well, with a lot of lock downs in place I continued plugging away with virtual challenges, including cycling the coast line of Nova Scotia. I dabbled in a little trail running as well, as I did a small training block in May and June to do a birthday run of a 32 km trail run local to me. With that big block done and no real goals on the horizon, I looked at what was coming up in the Fall. 

Many events were still on hold or changed enough that I personally wasn't interested in attending (though more power to events that felt they could do things safely). I saw that the Valley Harvest Marathon Weekend was a go, and since they managed to hold an event safely last year, I felt it was reasonable they could do so again. But I was not interested in another Half right now and the Marathon isn't something that gets me super excited. That left the Road Ultra Marathon 50K. It seemed like an interesting challenge. It was something I knew I could do, but could I do it to the best of my ability, and could I devise a training plan that would get me there injury free and ready to race.

Thus began a summer of training. I opted to treat this event like a marathon as far as training goes. While yes, it is 8 km extra in length, for me, it was still an event that should be less than 4 hours in duration. That fits well into my standard marathon training mindset when I am devising plans for other runners. Now this plan worked for me, but wouldn't be the same for everyone for sure. 

I am a lower mileage runner in training in general and rely on cross training for lot of extra fitness. Still, I was topping out in the mid to high 80km range in my biggest weeks and was generally in the 70km range a lot.  Visits to my maintenance staff at Seaside Chiropractic (thanks Alan and Dan) were also key to staying healthy. 

Finally race day arrived and was I ever ready for it to get going.  

The morning was cold and dark. I ate a small breakfast and then we got in the car and drove to Wolfville, arriving super early but in a relaxed manner. As the sun came up, we took to the start line. I was super cold (it was 2C) but knew it would be warming up as the sun came out. 

The Ultra and Full Marathon start together so it was a good sized crowd. Soon we were off, and I tucked in behind a few of the top marathoners there as their pace seemed about where I wanted to be at that point. 

I had a few goals set, as this was a big race. Hit any of those goals and I would be happy, hit multiple and I would be very happy. I trusted my training, and I knew that my goals were lofty but very doable. Goal 1 was to run a faster pace than my previous best marathon pace, which was a 4:19min/km. Second was to run the marathon portion (first 42.2 km) in under 3 hours, and if those things happened I had a good shot at beating the previous Valley Ultra record of 3:32:32.  As always, you hope this leads to wins or high placings, but you can't control who shows up, just what you can achieve. 

I had based my training around running a 4:10-4:15 pace (4:15 being just under 3 hours for the marathon). So with this in mind, I started out at about a 4:10 pace, letting the terrain dictate ultimate speed. A little slow on the ups and a little faster on the downs. 

This year the Ultra was now 2 loops of 25km. This is the Half Marathon course twice plus an extra out and back. It is slightly less vertical gain than the previous course but neither were cray hilly for an ultra. This year it was a total gain of 338m but the hills are generally all very runnable. 

Water stops were approximately 3.5 km apart and alternated with water and water and Gatorade. I prefer drinking Nuun, but opted for course nutrition to simplify my life. I carried 4 Maurten gels with me for my main calories. 

When we finally reached the turnaround for the Marathoners, I could finally see how many runners ahead of me were in my race, and it was just a single guy and well, he had a good lead on me. I waved goodbye to my running partners as they headed off to finish loop one of the marathon and proceeded to climb what was the biggest hill on the course.   

As I approached the turn around the leader was coming back and I would guess had about a 1 km lead on me, maybe a little less, by this point. But I was actually slightly ahead of my goal pace, so I stayed the course. I watched for the runners behind me, and finally saw 3-5 running about 1 km or so behind me. I felt like I had a good cushion.

After the turn around the course is very downhill and I took advantage of it. I made sure not to push too hard and just run a little faster than goal pace going down. I still had a lot of running to do and I had to save me legs. By about the 18km point, I came across a big group of BLT Runners who came out to cheer us runners on, it was a real pick me up. Sure I was still feeling good, but ultimately any boost to your spirits in a long race just takes a little of the pain.  

By now I was mingling with the marathoners and half marathoners again and some 10k runners as well.  The course is quite wide though and this wasn't a big issue. As well, I was not pushing to my limits, so had plenty of time to adjust my course as I passed people. 

Soon, I was on the small 2km section of gravel trail that leads to the finish line or the start of lap two. Honestly, it is not that hilly but just sucked the energy out of your legs and was worse than the biggest hills. Luckily it was short and we started up lap two.  My current average pace was 4:08.

I knew that pace would fall, I had no illusions I could sustain that for another 25 km. I had a good cushion though and still felt relatively strong. So back we went again on the same hills.

The one tricky part of this course is that the road has a good crown to it. So it is not very even. Luckily there is little traffic, so it is fairly easy to run closer to the centre line in many areas to limit the pain of running on an uneven surface. 

I was once again passing runners from the marathon, but the crowd was very slim now. Some runners I knew and if possible I tried to wave encouragement. The volunteers were all awesome and cheered as any one ran by, and that helped a lot. 

As I ran past the Marathon turning point and headed for the Ultra turning point, I was watching my average pace. I was still at a 4:10 pace. The big hill loomed. I made it up and continued on. The leader was now a good 2 km in front of me and we waved to each other as he passed going back. 

I was now approaching goal one, the full marathon distance. I watched my Garmin and as it ticked over to 42.2km I hit the lap button to save that. My average pace was 4:11 now and my time 2:57. Goal successful, a sub 3 hour marathon. Now I just needed to get home.

I'd love to say that it was all downhill from here (I mean in all reality it was mostly downhill) but now my legs started to go. Sure there had been some aches along the way but mostly the aches would come and go. Now that came and stayed. The quads started to yell and that yelling didn't get any quieter. The downhills let me basically stay at goal pace, but the little uphills were tough and I had some slow splits. The final two water stops, I actually walked for the 20-30 m to get a good drink in before starting back up. I think it was worth it. 

Then the final 2km. The trail. Oh it was painful. The soft loose gravel, trying to hold a good pace, not quite remembering where the end was. It felt like I was crawling though really my pace was fine, not great but fine. 

It seemed to be the longest stretch of the race until I finally could see there turn to the track and the finish line. I pushed hard as I hit the track and finished strong.

I pushed hard enough that after finishing my quads said, "All Done" and I kneeled down on the track. Yes, I got back up right away. I wasn't inujured, just spent. That was tough. I corssed the line with an average pace of 4:15 (goal), beating the previous course record of 3:32:32 by 30 seconds with a 3:32:01 finishing time (goal). I ended up in second place by 14 minutes as Ethan was a beast and crushed it with an average pace of 3:59!

It is amazing how quickly the spirits come back though. The other BLT Runners were there to give me cheer, I got some congrats from other racers, Elizabeth had finished her race and was there for support as well (as always). So it was time to go grab some snacks (it is so hard to eat after a tough run, but there were some good options). 

So there it was. Three goals, all achieved. I didn't win, but I did win my age group and did break the old course record, I just did it second, ha ha. 

Huge thanks to Elizabeth for the support while I took on the training for this. Craig for running with me sometimes and forcing me to do some extra hard workouts I hadn't always planned to. Thanks to Aerobics First (Luke and Matthias especially) for indulging me as I worked to find the race shoe for me (I fell in love with the On Cloudflow). Thanks to Jacquelynn for driving us to the race. 

Thanks to Nuun and Balega Socks for picking me to be an Ambassador for their awesome products. I wore the Balega Enduro Socks for this race and many of my big training runs.  Oh and a shout out to local company Anchor Soap who make the best chafe cream available. I put that on 2 hours before the race and had no issues. 

Thanks to Stacy, Craig, and Beth for the race photos as well. 

It was great seeing some of the people I was coaching out and running as well and even running by them. Looped courses can be a good and bad thing, but ultimately it was good this day. 

Now to recover and see what is next. 

Base Training in 2021

 So we are now three months into 2021 and what a year it has been at least for exercise. Yes, we are still on lock down in many areas (in Nova Scotia we are quite lucky that our lockdowns are minimal) but staying fit is still something we can aim for. 

One thing I opted to do this year was really focus on a good quality base training season. With no events to taper for, I was able to just hunker down and put the time on feet in, with the aim of building a really strong base of aerobic fitness. 

While I say three months, in reality, we need to go back a little further into December with my goal of achieving a 100+ km week of running during the BLT Runner Xmas Marathon Challenge. From there, I took an easy day of just hiking on January 1st and then began training hard.

While I say training hard, I really mean training smart and pushing my body slowly to adapt to a much bigger than normal work load. This meant being very cautious with things like running hard. While I still did some tempo work and the occasional time trial, for the most part, my efforts were "easy."

Running certainly made up a huge portion of this base training (25% of distance and 41% of time) with almost 840km of running in. In general I run around 60-80 km a week. This is the biggest producer of training stress for me as well, being a full body activity. Stress is a good thing when it is planned for and you allow for recovery.  This accounted for 61 hours of workout time.

While cycling on the indoor trainer was the exercise I undertook with the greatest distance covered (or really didn't cover if you count not moving forward) at over 2100 km, it was only slightly more than the time I put in running. I cycled for 64 hours in the first three months. While this certainly added a lot to my training stress, when measured using metrics from my Garmin watch, it was actually half as stressful on my body. But this is good. This meant I could really push the effort level on the bike much harder and get some top end aerobic work in while minimizing the physical damage to my muscles. 

I do suggest cycling to runners as a great way to occupy days off. As well, I have been pushing the distance a lot more than normal on the bike due to a virtual fundraiser ride around the coast of Nova Scotia called Route541. 

All my other activities together account for 23 hours of workout time.  Speed skating was a big part of it. I really enjoy getting out and doing some fast laps, even if my skill level on the ice isn't that great. It is a fun alternate form of exercise for me and really works new muscle groups. That is a good thing.

And for once we had enough snow that I was able to get out for multiple snowshoe adventures.  Trust me, moving quickly on snowshoes is a great push for the aerobic system. Add in poles and you get back to that full body work out, but with low impact.  

And speaking of full body, I have managed to just start to add back some jump rope as well. Whew!

Now, I won't say that I didn't also put in a  few fast efforts to test the legs. It is always good to do a little bit of speed to change up which muscles are working hard. You just have to be really mindful during a hard base training session. So I would do a fast 5K or tempo run on Saturdays as part of my effort to get a parkrun in and or race in a virtual series hosted by VDot2. While these are races, the concept is actually set up for coaches to be able to use these as fun tester workouts for athletes. 

I even managed a few runs to pace some friends, and got one to his new PB in the 5K. 

So, while I am glad to have done this big base training period, I am also happy to be tapering down a bit and focusing on some speedier goals to come in late May. This means stepping back the cycling particularly so that I have more rest time. 

I have a couple of Ambassadorships to chat about, but that is for another post.  

Shoe Review - The New On CloudSwift

 

So I got the opportunity to try out the newly launched On CloudSwift. This was my first real time running in the Swift, so I can't compare it with the previous generation. I can compare it to the CloudFlow, which I loved and spent a large part of last year running in.

On markets this as an Urban running shoe. I live in the suburbs and can say, it is just at home here. Perhaps the concept is protection from constant running on the hard unforgiving sidewalks of the city center. 

So, compared with the Flow, the first thing I noticed was a lot more shoe. It is physically bigger, though the extra weight it comes with is not very noticeable. While I did read some other reviews that claimed to order up in size due to a snug fit, I found it was fine in the same size for me. Perhaps I didn't mind it as the upper in this shoe is quite supple and forgiving. I found that with the Flow as well, it really lets your foot and the upper work together, rather than trying to contain and prevent movement of your foot. Various shoe companies come up with interesting ways to do this same thing, I find Ons works well for me. 

The upper also is unique in two ways. The tongue is actually part of the main shoe, so it is not an independent piece. This makes the upper feel snug and form fitting (see above). It is interesting. I am not sure if this is really essential to me, but it certainly isn't a problem. 

The next interesting piece is the "plates" on the sides that hold the upper portion of the laces. I really like this in these shoes as it seems to almost provide for two zones of lace tightening. I can make it quite snug at the top while leaving it looser nearer the toes. I personally like this. I am not sure I want this system on all my shoes, as I suspect it adds a little weight.

So after a few weeks of running in this here is my Pros and Cons list:

Pros: Peppy but cushioned. While I have been mostly running easy in these shoes they haven't slowed me down. They have a perfect bit of squish into the ground but pop off the surface. I am guessing this is a combo of the Speedboard and the Clouds. On recovery runs, I come home feeling refreshed.

Nice looking. So this is subjective for sure, but I find On shoes quite nice to look at. The colour palate is very "Urban" I guess, so muted and designed to fit in after your run is done and you head to grab some food or coffee. My pair are denim coloured. 

Laces stay tied. This seems hit or miss on some shoes I own. I don't have to double tie these shoes, and they just have simple flat laces. Up to 15km of running and no issues. Maybe it is the upper side plates? Not sure. But very nice.

Cons: The heel isn't that secure "feeling." Now I say "feeling" because it feels like my heel is sliding around a bit when I run faster, but it doesn't really seem to affect the way I run. After a kilometer or so of easy running, I don't notice it, so ultimately it isn't that big of an issue. I haven't done any speed work other than a couple of strides which went well. So I doubt I will reach for these when the night calls for a tempo run or intervals. But I would totally reach for them for a recovery after a hard tempo run or race.   

On claims these are designed for shorter runs. I have taken them up to 15km and had no issues. 100 km in and they aren't showing any wear yet, and since I likely won't be using them for harder runs or really long runs, I suspect they will last a good amount of time.