MEC Night Trail Race 2015 - And the Winner Is....

Well not me. I actually came in second, though that is usually par for the course at MEC races locally. It is a a bit of a joke with the great crew that puts on the races. Realistically, though, I am surprised I ended up there.

This race was a late addition to my race calendar, a good 5k distance run. It was new this year and I decided to do it because it would be a fun challenge. And really I just wanted to have a little fun and not kill myself in the process.

The weather was great, cool end of summer night in a local park. The trails here are designed more for cross country skiing and mountain biking and therefore are not groomed for casual walking. There are tons of rocks and ruts enroute, which made it a fun adventure for sure.

After some pre race chatting, it was time to line up.

For some reason everyone lined up behind me. I have no idea why. But then we were off. Quickly a few runners went ahead. As my goal was to survive and not hurt myself, I decided to hang back a bit.

Also on the route was a series of small red blinking lights. If you found one and took it, MEC would give you a $10 gift card at the finish. Initially I thought, I'd rather have a medal than the gift card, but as we approached the first one I saw (it was the second) I found myself in 6th place. So I quickly ran over, hoped a small fence, grabbed the light and resumed my race.

I apparently lost little time as I was back with the lead group, minus the leader who was pulling away. The pace though seemed easy as we hit the 1 km mark, so I decided to move forward. A few more passes and I had moved into second, with first likely 100m up the trail or so (I could see his light).

The trail started to get rougher and the big hills were coming by. It was slow going up those. As I ran passed the marshals they would cheer and then I would listen to hear them cheer again as the third place runner went by. Seems I had pulled a bit of a lead over him by half way through the race.

I was still quite close to the overall leader, but at 3km in I almost rolled my ankle (on a flat piece of ground no less), and decided to take it a bit easier. I slowed down a bit and kept going.

Pretty quickly I could here the sounds of cheering at the finish line so I knew I was close. The ground turned to crusher dust so I could run a little faster and boom, out of no where the finish line. Whew. I crossed in second place with a time of 20:24 for 5km. The winner had cross about 50 seconds ahead of me. But I was $10 richer!

We also had a beer vendor at the finish line which was lovely while waiting for friends to finish. And it was great to see Tom come out for this crazy adventure!

Every so often, pick a fun race, especially when they are inexpensive!  Now to rest up for next weekend's half marathon.

Shoe Review - The New Balance 1400v3

Ah, a new shoe for me. Like many other runners and triathletes, I am always looking for that perfect shoe for the right situation. Earlier this year I found a great shoe for training and distance running. But it just didn't seem zippy enough for the shorter races where cushioning isn't the be all.

For the past 2 years I had found such a shoe, sort of. It was the New Balance 1400v2, described by New Balance as a racing flat. It was a great shoe for me at mid distances, from 5K to Half marathon I set some fast times in that shoe. But it lacked a certain fit and finish. The interior of the shoe was quite rough and I couldn't wear it sockless, which was a big reason I bought it in the first place, to be able to use it in triathlons and duathlons. My first and last attempt to do so lead to many abrasions and cuts on my feet.

Then NB came out with the 1400v3. Even though the local running shop, Aerobics First, didn't have them in stock, I knew I had to try them out. The store was great and brought in a pair for me to try out (and I'll be up front, I paid for these shoes).

The first thing I did was stick my hand in the shoe and feel around. Wow, it was smooth inside, not rough at all. And the new laces were great as well, slightly elasticy (of course I never ran in those laces as I swapped them out for Xtenex speed laces for triathlons).

A quick tempo run in super humid conditions and sockless was my first test (go big or go home). 11km of heaven and speed. No blisters, so scratching, no cuts.

I then took them to the big test, a duathlon. The warm up run went great. The first run went superb and when I slipped them back on (in the rain no less) for the final run of the day, they went on smooth and easily and gave no issues in the wet.

I assumed that the added comfort would likely come from a slight increase in the weight of the shoe, though they were still quite light.  But wow, I weighed them both (without any laces) and the brand new 1400v3 weighed 1 gram less than the 2 year old worn, v2. Great stuff.

So I found my new go to shoe. Here's a quick break down:

10 mm ramp: That seems like quite the drop, but the shoe has a very thin amount of cushion and as a forefoot runner it gives me no issues at all.

Firm - Good Ground Feel: As I mentioned this shoe lacks a thick cushioning on the base. What is there seems perfectly fine for my running style - forefoot, high cadence. I wouldn't use this shoe with a slow turn over, though with the higher ramp, a heel striker would be fine.  This shoe gives great feed back.

Smooth Inner Liner: Wow, it was probably the most comfortable shoe I have ever worn sockless. So far I have not run in it over 11km, but had no problems up to that distance. I will probably wear a thin sock for stand alone running races anyway, as I like that.  

Weight: Super lightweight, listed as 185grams. Which for a shoe that will last you many races, is great. Lighter shoes exists for sure, but this one will survive.

Toe Box: As with many racing flats, the toe box isn't large. For some reason this doesn't bother me as much as in other shoes. As the shape is the same as the v2, I do know that a little bodyglide or similar lube on my toes will prevent any issues for longer races.

I can't say much for wear, but my v2's are still going strong after quite a few races and a few training runs. I don't see enough differences in this shoe to think it won't give that same level of longevity.

All in all, way to go New Balance. Home Run.

Porter's Lake Triathlon, er Duathlon 2015

So here was my final triathlon of the season, the all new Porter's Lake Tri. Nice and close to home, great little course that I was able to test out last year. But the fates, I mean the weather was against us this year and things didn't go exactly as planned.

I woke up dark and early on Sunday morning. Well even though it was 4:30am it was brighter than I hoped for. The sky was full of lightning. I got myself ready and took off regardless. The closer I got the more lightning was blazing through the sky. By 7am the officials had to make the call and decided to eliminate the swim portion of the triathlon and call it a duathlon. So instead of a swim we would do an extra run of 2.5km.

The weather was humid, with a light rain, though warm. We lined up for the first run and were soon underway.

Classy looking #28

The run course is very hilly so I decided to take it easy at the start and work my way up to the front. All was going well but there was some miscommunication and the first couple of runners took a wrong turn. We all followed which ended up making the first run 1.7 ish km instead of 2.5. Not a huge deal, but I would have pushed a bit harder probably if I'd known that was the case to give myself as big a cushion as possible to the faster cyclists. I finished the run in 6:15 for a 3:41min/km avg and 5th fastest overall.

I zipped through transition, though almost forgot to remove my sneakers, yikes!

I got to the mount line and arrived with a few other riders and we all seemed to have a little trouble getting started. Then off we went.

The bike ride was great. Rolling hills and fresh asphalt. I was zipping along and a couple of faster riders passed me. I was then passed by one rider but felt like he slowed down too much. I dropped back and then mounted an attack and repassed him. This happened 2 more times during the ride as we were very evenly matched. I did feel good though as I didn't see him with the lead group on the first run, so if I was able to stay with him on the bike I would likely pass him on the run.

I came screaming fast into Transition 2 and did  a perfect dismount to save as much time as I could. My average speed was 35.4 km/hr. It was only the 9th fastest time, but there were some speedy bikes out there. I blazed through transition in 47 seconds for the second fastest T2 of the day.

I took off and quickly passed another runner. Then Clint caught up with me and we ran together for a bit. Somehow I had managed to screw up my Garmin, so while I had current pace showing, I had no idea about distance. Luckily the course when properly run is 2 loops of 2.5km, so I didn't really need to know.

As Clint and I kept going we were not very far behind the lead group. Turns out we were running fairly quickly as we started to catch them. Eventually the lead three turned into 2 and we were catching third place. To the final downhill and Clint had pulled away from me, but Kevin C was falling into my grasp. I picked up the pace as best as I could downhill and seemed to make up decent ground. I pushed even harder on the flat and managed to just pop by Kevin before the finish line to take 4th overall and 3rd Age Group. The top five of us were separated by less than 40 seconds. I managed to finish with a time of 1;05:52 with a final run of 19:39. That was a great 5km final run on that hilly course. It was the 3rd fastest second run of the day behind 2 super fast runners.

Not the triathlon I was hoping for, but it was a fun race and a great course. I hope that next year teh weather will cooperate and we'll see how my swim is.

Bridgetown Triathlon 2015

Wish I had some pictures for this race, maybe some will show up online at some point. Until then bare with all the ready ready stuff.

This year I decided to go back to the Bridgetown Triathlon. It wasn't held last year, but then I was too busy with marathon training then to even contemplate it anyway.

Up at 4:30am to get out the door by 5:30 and on the road to Bridgetown made for any early start. As we drove to the Valley we were hit with a  huge fog back about 40 minutes outside of the race start. I figured at that point the long course race would be delayed, hopefully they weren't going to have to delay my start as well, which was meant to be at 9am.

As I arrived the fog was burning off and the sun was pretending to peak out. I was quickly informed that the race would not be wetsuit legal, as the water temp was 24C. Dang.  But I got about getting my transition area all ready and myself in a good frame of mind.

Our sprint race was only delayed by about 5-10 minutes. We were allowed a quick dip in the water as a warm up. That was easy enough as it was like bath water. The race started in water and quite quickly we were off. I started off at an easy pace for me and worked my way passed a few other swimmers. This is a river swim so there is a bit of current to work with and against. I thought I was doing well, especially with all the swimming I had been doing leading up to this event. But as I left the water and crossed the timing mat, I was listed as having done a 17:54 750m swim. Ugh, that was disheartening. I think I am getting slower than ever! That was good enough for 28 place on the swim.

Regardless, onto the bike I went.  I passed 5 people before I even hit the 500m mark of the 20 km ride. That was nice. Then at about 1 km in, a stinging insect hit the front of my ankle. Oh my @#$#%# that hurt so much. Still I soldiered on passing people, many people it seemed and knowing that a good result meant push as hard as I could on the bike.

This course is pretty flat with a few small rises. I did come across some farm tractors and a few big trucks along the route, but somehow managed to avoid having to slow down at all. That was nice. As I entered town I passed 2 more cyclists, got my feet out of my bike shoes and road to the dismount line. Off I flew and ran my bike back into transition. I managed a 34:05 for the bike ride for 35.2 km/hr avg speed and the 4th fastest ride of the day.

Out onto the run I flew. You always get that first rush/pain of transitioning for a bit on the run. I passed a runner immediately.  Then I caught up to James M who had a stellar swim and a great ride, but I guess I managed to eke enough on the bike and counter with my stronger run. At the 1 km mark my wife and dogs were waiting by the road and cheering em on. That was nice.

Then my ankle started to hurt more, and more and more. It was almost like it was seizing up and not bending properly. The sting was really starting to hurt and take its toll. Plus the sun was now out in full force and not a cloud was in the sky. I tried to count runner on the out and back course to see where I may have made it to at this point. I saw Adam and he was looking strong. But I lost count of other and just pushed on. I wanted a good overall time more than anything.

On the way back my ankle just wouldn't relax at all. I used total hip mobility to push through the pain and that seemed to help. I rounded the final corner and pushed down to the finish line and cross with a 19:18 5km and the 2nd fastest run of the day, oh what might have been but for the bee! I ended up with a respectable 1:12:34 overall for 7th place and second in my age group. Some tough competition for sure.

My ankle was swollen to almost twice its normal size and the pain remained for much of the day. Luckily the swelling went down over night and it appears all good now.

Now onto swim training. I spent too much time in a wetsuit this summer and my technique (what little there was) appears to have suffered for it.

 

Adding a New Stress to the Run Training

So sometimes you plateau in your training, it can be for any number of reasons, but it does happen. I think for me right now it is a little bit mental. So in times like this you need to add a new stress to the equation and see where that takes you.

For the past couple of weeks I have been strapping on the trail running shoes and joining a few others for an easy trail run. Last night I went out solo at Frog Pond and it was magical.

Nice shoes

The run starts on regular crusher dust trails that are moderately undulating. Then things get fun when you add some single track.

It was a little slick this day, which only added to the fun. At some points I thought I was running a trail when it would end and I realized I was just running though the woods. Due to the location I was running in, I wasn't overly worried about getting lost (though I did have my phone). Eventually it was back to crusher dust and hills. HILLS!

The varied terrain was a great way to shake things up. Often I was just walking fast to deal with slippery or overly steep conditions. It was a great workout for mind and body. Oh and belly!

And the views from the heights were really nice.

I am definitely keeping up these runs weekly for the foreseeable future. The new "stress" is just what I need to keep happy and healthy. But I will keep the heart rate monitor on for sure. You can easily watch your heart rate sky rocket on some of the climbs. Have fun all!

Ingonish Triathlon 2015

Sorry, lag time since the race. But here we go.

The Ingonish Triathlon just happened. There were three distance options, Try-a-Tri, Sprint and Olympic. This year I chose to do the Sprint as it was a qualifier for the World's event next year. It also had the most competitors at 59. Yes, a small field, but locally that is becoming more and more the norm with so many options.

Anyway, I had been looking forward to this race and especially the weather forecast of good weather. As usual I arrived the day before, this let me check in early and allowed me to grab a quick practice swim in the lake we would be using for the swim.

The morning of the race arrived and what? Rain. Dang. Well at least it wasn't heavy rain, just enough to make everything a little wet. But what can you do. At least it was overcast and not hot!

Anyway, off to body marking. They are kind during World qualifiers to slap your age range on your leg.

Then off to bike racking. Keep things tight and organized and you won't fail. There are often many spots that are so crammed full of items I don't know how they can find anything.

It is a delight to see a swarm of bike (a school? a flock?).

A quick going over of the rules and the course and we were allowed to have a practice swim.

As usual, first race jitters always get to me. Tight chest, hard to breath etc... At least it wasn't too cold.

Finally it was our turn to start and off we went. Immediately I felt that tightness again. Last year I let it get to me, this year I had a plan. I alternated for a bit between breast stroke and side stroke and got moving. As much as I coudl I would dunk my face into the water and soon I was swimming normally. Yay. I caught and passed some people as we rounded the first buoy and I felt just fine.

Now I just wanted to swim straight and steady and things went really well. As I rounded the final buoy and headed back to the beach I was actually able to draft off a person for a bit which was fine. But ultimately she was swimming in a zigzag so i had to push a little hard to pass here and move on.

I left the water in 16:16. Not great but I felt good about it. Much better than last year, and take away the really slow start and not too bad for me. I was 31st out of 59 people. Almost top half! T1 was a slow 3:06, but that includes an almost 1/2 km run to get to your bike. And overall that was the 8th fastest T1 of the day.

Onto the bike. I had no idea really what position I was in, but I knew this course well and knew I just had to push as hard as I could (while avoid the giant potholes). A sprint is usually 20km but this one is just short of 24km. Still it is short enough that overbiking wouldn't hurt my run too much.

As I was approaching the final downhill before the turn around I started to count off cyclists coming back. That meant I was in 9th spot. Okay, not too bad and a top 10 is always nice.

That's me after the turn around and huge hill climb

I flew down the hill at 62km/hr, made the turn around and did huge effort to come back up, passing 2 cyclists on the way. Over the next 10ish km I worked myself up into 5th spot and entered T2 as such.
On the bike  I managed 33.6km/hr average, about 2 better than previous years, which was good enough for the second fastest bike ride of the day.

I hit T2 and immediately caught the guy who was in 4th place. A 32 second (5th fastest) T2 put me out on the run ahead of him.

This is a hard run, even at 5km. It is all hill going out and steep hill coming back. Not a lot of chance to get a good rhythm.  I started out too fast and slowed it down a bit. As my watch showed me my laps I would glance down, 4:07, 4:04, 4:06, then I stopped looking. Ugh.

As I reached the turn around, I started to push a little more. I could see the gap I had on 5th place, and had no idea what sort of speed he could put on in the down hill section.

As I got to the final straight away I looked back and was clear. Still I pushed it a bit for the last 400m to try and grab a good time overall. I crossed the line with the second fastest run in 19:46. That felt good. I managed 4th place overall, 3rd male, 2nd age group. I lost almost all of my time in the swim, so I am happy that my bike and tun are doing well enough.

No time to rest, more triathlons on the way. Time to hit the lake and practice, practice practice.

Trying Something New - Adding More Running?

What's that more running in a week? But I thought that we had come up with the perfect amount of weekly running for me already. Now you want more.

Anyway, it gets busy some days trying to fit in all the exercise you want to do and maybe need to do. except it can be done.

So I wanted to get more swim time in as I head into triathlon season, and maybe some more biking as well. But I still want to keep up with my running without killing myself in the process. So as many people do, I have recently added in lunch time runs.

The first week I started this I ran a few different routes to see what I could come up with. I wanted something short that I could do in 20 minutes or less, giving me enough time to eat a quick lunch and get cleaned up.  So I ended up finding a nice little 3.6(ish) km run. It is hilly, includes asphalt, potholes, dirt and grass and is quite nice.

My goal with these runs is to keep adding the stress of running (we need stresses to adapt and get stronger) without adding too much fatigue. This short course, with its varied terrain, can give me a heart thumping workout or a relaxing recovery run. But overall it gives me the ability to run almost everyday, without being too fatigued for the main event later on (tonight I ride my bike).

My current record for the run is 14:08. Today I ran a 15:08. I once ran it in 16:23. All are great and are based solely on feel. I don't look at the time until I stop. My body will let me know what I need on the day.