Bluenose 2014 - Half Marathon

Ah is it that time of year again? Yup, this weekend was the Halifax Bluenose Marathon, a tradition in the area for the last 11 years. My wife and I picked up our race kit early on Friday and puttered away the weekend in anticipation of our races (we each ran the half marathon). Pepto Pink shirts this year, and unlike last time, I sized down to get one that actually fit!

So I have been training for this race since December. And I am very glad I started early. Training went very well early on, then occasionally a snag would hit but I would carry right on. In my last 6 week training block, however, things went a bit crazy. I pulled a muscle in my back and couldn't run much. Then recovered but had a persistent leg ache. Nothing that stopped me from running, but something annoying enough to hold me back a bit. And finally I had 2 other races scheduled int he weeks leading up, which really limited my last few long runs. Sigh.

Still, I knew my training went well. I knew I had a good shot at my goal of a sub 1:25 half on a very demanding course. Last year I race a 1:26 and change and I knew I was fitter. Still once you start getting at the faster end of things, the gain don't come easily. But like last year I put my faith in my training system which was developed with heavy input and help from Kinesic Sport Lab and Jeff Zahavich. We use a heart rate based training model, which of course I have blogged about numerous times before. It helps really focus my training and helps prevent injury while training (I of course can injury myself at many other times in my life, ha ha).

Deep down I would have loved to also make up some spots and place in the top 10 for this race, but all those hopes were dashed when the former marathon champ  dropped down to the half and a really fast Kenyan runner popped in as well. All of a sudden slew of really fast guys appeared for a great race. Well, there was always my goal.

The weather turned out to be great. We were a little unsure the day before with a variety of reports and everything from cold to warm to sun to clouds to rain. In the end, the sun was out for the majority of my race with a few cloudy patches to cool things down. Very nice.

I took my place near the front of the race, which is a nice place to start. And very quickly, we were off.

At this point I was still on pace with the Kenyan John. At this point.

I knew that I had to try and avoid the usual start of race crazy pace that I typically have. This was going to be a good strong and smart run on my part. I was basing my pace on the earlier Back to Basics 8 miler I did. In that race I managed a 3:55 pace, and while only 13 km, it was a solid starting point for this half marathon.

Well no sooner did we get around the second corner did I look down at my Garmin and see a pace somewhere near the 3:11 min/km mark. Oh my! By the time I was past Citadel High, I was slowing steadily down but still at a 3:29 pace. It took until I was past the Commons where I was finally slowed enough and now at a 3:53 min/km pace. That would do for now I though, as the leaders were blocks ahead of me and pulling away. Whew!

So it was now stick to the plan and race my race. My Garmin was set to pace and average pace. As I don't stare at it all the time, it is nice to know if my average pace is slipping. Luckily I seemed pretty good as I was passing the early kilometer markers. And pretty soon things started to spread out at the front of the field. A few people passed me, and I passed a few, but eventually I was pretty much alone.

So lonely

I was grabbing a Gatorade on the way by each water stop. For a half I don't really need any food or water, but I do like that little blast of sugar to keep my brain active, and to keep my mouth from drying out. I do wish the cups weren't so full as I probably take in maybe a small sip each time. Seems like a waste, but oh well.

Pace was still good and soon I was approaching the 10km mark. I glanced down, saw that I had about 100-200 meters to go and the time on my watch looked good. So I picked up the pace temporarily, and crossed at sub 39 minutes, 38:47. My first sub 39 minute 10km and right in the middle of the half. Not bad. 

But now the real race began. After the half way point the Bluenose Half Marathon is pretty much up hill. I knew I couldn't push too hard too early on or I would burn myself out. I was zipping through the park and hit the dreaded Serpentine hill. As I started up, I changed to a slightly slower cadence, and used some bigger muscles to power up it. I passed another runner at this point who was struggling. As I hit the top I too was passed. I looked down and saw my pace had slowed far more than I hoped and picked it back up. This new runner was fresher though and even though we ran together for a bit, he eventually too off.

A few more hills and I was approaching the 17km mark. I now was really feeling those lack of long runs over the last few weeks. The first 16 km were easy, now it was just remembering to use good form and not let any little doubts creep into my mind.

You don't realize just how much of a hill South Park is until you start to run up it. And every year I forget that it is in fact actually a decent continuous climb. Followed closely by another climb before a really steep descent towards the finish line. Regardless, everyone else has to run it.

On South Park the runner ahead of me had about a 30 second lead. I never once looked back to see what was going on, after all this was a race against the clock and there was still a decent bit of race to go.

As I turned to corner onto Cogswell, I felt pretty good. I just needed my quads to hold out a little longer. As I approached the halfway point down the hill, a car blew through the intersection almost hitting the nice police officer. As he turned to deal with that situation, another car came through. Oh my I thought. Luckily it all cleared up but I am glad I was 10 seconds faster this year.

It was nice that the downhill section here was separated from the 10K finishers this year. Last year I ran smack into a huge crowd of 10 K runners who were over joyed to be finishing, but not necessarily looking for fast runners barreling down upon them. I loved the luxury of the wide lane I had to myself.

I turned the corner and one more up hill to face as Barrington loomed. But I pushed hard and with 100 meters to go, I dared to glance at my watch and just saw 1:23 on the timer. I pushed and pushed harder and crossed the line in 1:23:52, far better than the 1:25 I had suspected I could run.
  

A hearty High Five to Myles is as good a finish line picture as I have

So all in all, a pretty good race. A Half Marathon PB by almost 3 minutes. Great weather. Didn't kill myself (though my calves hurt a bit today). Enjoyable finish. What could be better?

Well I lost a bit more time in Point Pleasant Park than I had hoped for. The lack of long runs, as I mentioned, really killed that endurance at the end. So that bodes well for future races were I actually get myself together better.

My heart rate was on par with last years race and I managed close to 7 second a kilometer faster this year, with a sub 4 minute average. My recovery is quite quick as well, which is a great thing. The pictures of my form that I have seen show that my core work is coming along well also. Could Ian run a sub 1:20? I'm not so sure but it is nice to think about.  First things first some Duathlons in June though.

Again a huge thanks to Jeff Zahavich and Kinesic Sport Lab for the help in getting a much more powerful engine in a smart and sustainable way (ie way fewer injuries), Anita Connors for all the physio help and getting me  balanced out, and Luke and the gang at Aerobics First  for taking the time to make sure I got the right pair of ultra fast shoes on my feet with a great fit. 

Du # 2 - The Cyclesmith Duathlon 2014

Another week, another duathlon. A run, bike, run event of epic proportions. Okay, let's not go crazy.

Like last year, the Cyclesmith Duathlon was split into 2 separate races, the Olympic distance and the Sprint Distance. And again I opted for the Sprint distance. If I was focusing solely on racing duathlons I might opt for the Olympic distance, but with a Half marathon the next weekend, I decided the recovery time would be too great. So for me, the Sprint distance event with its 5km/20km/2.5km distances seemed perfect.

This year the race was held much earlier than last. And unfortunately the weather out at Lawrencetown Beach was not going to be friendly to us. Well the forecast said a brief early morning shower then gradually climbing temps. In fact what we got was heavy fog, chilly temps that dropped even more as the race start approached and finally rain within minutes of the start. Oh well.

I knew that this week I had to push the first run. I am not nearly as strong as Kevin Besner on the bike, so I would need a decent lead, unlike the week before.

So with some quickly added arm warmers and light gloves I took to the start line. A little friendly banter and we were off.

I started out a little on the fast side at well under a 3 min/km pace. As I knew that was crazy, I started to ease back a bit, but I also wanted to keep the pace as high as I could for as long as I could to keep ahead of my competitors.

I reached the turn around and headed back with a bit of a lead. IT was hurting a bit, but I pushed as best as I could and crossed the line at 17:41. The first run may have been a bit short, but I think I still pulled off a PB with a sub 18 min 5km. I was first at this point. Then to the bike.

Quickly on with the helmet, I rushed to the mount line and popped onto my bike and off I went. This is a hilly course, but I pushed through as fast as I could doing my best to stay ahead of Kevin. But while the run course was a little short, the bike was a little long at closer to 22km rather than 20. I had hoped to make it to the turn around point still in the lead but alas Kevin passed me just past the 8km point, and while I pushed to stay with him, he built a decent lead heading into the final run.

I hit T2 while Kevin was off and running. My combined time for T1/Bike/T2 was 37:59. Not bad, but not good enough it would seem.

Bike racked, helmet off, fancy running shoes on and off I ran. But teh bike course and first run had taken its toll. While my initial pace was decent at sub 4 min/km, I quickly start to slow down and while I was catching Kevin a bit, sadly I wasn't catching him fast enough. And with only 2.5km to work with, I was now relegated to second place. But don't rest yet Ian, there are other racers!

So I pushed through, and crossed the line at 1:05:31. Kevin beat me by just over 1 minute. I held second place with more than a 2 minute gap. My second run was 9:47. So I did manage to hold a sub 4 min paced run afterall.

Okay, so we apparently had to stage a photo finish as I ran too quickly for the camera.

Second place this year. I had hoped for the win, but the faster man took that prize. I am happy to see my run speed growing, but my cycling speed seems to not be growing as much. But these are the trade offs right. The ability to get faster comes through hard work and it is best to focus that hard work. Still, a good race, regardless of the weather.

Oh and the food at the end? Yum.

Let the Du's Begin! Benny Bulldog Duathlon 2014

I love me a good Duathlon. Some may see them as races for triathletes that can't or don't swim. But that saddens me. These are there own awesome form of multisport. Running, then switching to the bike, then switching back to the run again. Whew, makes me tired just typing it down. These events take a lot of grunt, grit, endurance and hatred of your legs. Anyway, the first Du of the season has just passed by, the 4th almost annual Benny Bulldog Sprint Duathlon, a fundraiser for a local girls running group called Girls Gone Gazelle.

This year do to road conditions, the bike portion was cut down from 28ish km to 24.5ish km. in length. The runs stayed the same at 4ish km in length of pretty flat crusher dust trail.

So I awoke to see a sort of decent sky. The forecast had been mentioning rain leading up to the event and I was not looking forward to that. It was still chilly and I had packed my bag the night before with about 40 versions of my duathlon outfit. I really had no idea what I was going to wear, but I would be there early enough to make any changes I had to.

I racked my bike, and chatted with many of the familiar faces. I opted for a shoes premounted to the bike kind of race. So those were in place. And I decided now was the time to try out the new New Balance 1400's in race conditions. So light, so fast, so yellow.

Not my actual shoe

I also had put in place my new Xtenex laces. With only one real run in them, it was interested to see how well they would hold up. (Hint: they held up fine).

A mere moments from race start and the sun started to break. I decided to keep my arm warmers on at this point, though I opted to remove my gloves. Luckily I was wearing a bike jersey, so I placed them in my back pockets, just in case the bike ride was going to be frigid. 

 The 49 of us hardy competitors lined up for some last minute instructions. Garmins and Polars were beeping as they locked into satellites. Then we were off.

I had been fighting a pulled muscle in my back over the last 2 weeks that had lead to not a whole lot of training runs. And the morning off, there was still a bit of a twinge. I had no real idea how well things would hold up. I also had no idea, 1: What my speed would be like, 2: What my endurance would be like. But I did know that there was a lot of fast people around me, both runners and cyclists. I knew that to be even considered in contention I would ave to push hard in the first run. So I did.

As one runner took off way in the distance, I quickly settled in second spot. My sense of pace was off so I had to rely on my Garmin to help me a bit. It was obliging. My pacing was a bit all over the map (well within 10 seconds here or there), but I held position.

I came into T1 still in second place with a run time of 15:17 for the 4km run. That felt nice. And it wasn't a maximum effort either, which is also good to know.  One of these Benny's I'll dip below 15 minutes on that first run.

Helmet on, arm warmers ripped off, bike in hand I ran to the mount line. Quickly up on the bike I went and off I rode.

The first place rider was way ahead and I couldn't even see him at this point. But I rode on, pushing the pace as best as I could.

Within a few minutes I was passed for second though as Kevin Besner rode by. Turns out he was on my tail in the first run (good for him, that was fast), and I would never pass him back (well I should have put spoiler alert there, sorry). After a few more kilometers, I was passed by another rider, Nick. He was flying on that bike.

So here I was in fourth, not at the turn around for the bike and I dared a look back. No one there. Whew. And I could finally see another rider up ahead. It was Graeme, the uber fast runner. I was reeling him in. With about 2 km before the turn around I passed him to take back third place. I made the turn and was headed back.

With about 5 km to go, I was caught by another rider. This time, though, I knew I would be able to stay with this guy. I watched as he was pushing really hard to stay ahead of me, his legs shaking a bit. Our pace was still fine and at the top end of my comfortably hard zone, so I stayed put. He pulled away slightly as we headed to T2.

 Not my actual bike

I flew off the bike, ran into tranisiton, and made a very quick change. Those Xtenex laces I mentioned made slipping back into my shoes a breeze. Then I was off.

Within the first 0.5 km I passed the third place guy and took off. I pushed as best as I could and right before the turn around saw first and second running back. That kind of lead was not going to be over come on my legs, as the lack of endurance from my lay off was starting to set in.

As I made the turn around I came across 4th and 5th place. Graeme was making some good headway with his uber speed and I realized I need to push as hard as I could. Finally with less than 1 km to go I looked back and Graeme was closing in. I found that tiny bit extra in the legs and ran across the finish line in third.

I'd lie about my time, but uh.....

Seven seconds ahead of 4th place at the end. Whew.

A good race overall. Not unhappy with my placing. Glad to know some speed is still in the legs, now to get some endurance back. And speaking of backs, mine is doing much better. Which is also very nice.

By the end I had the second fastest runs in both legs and the 4th fastest bike leg. Against this tough group, that is pretty nice.

Huge thanks to Luke and Andrew at Aerobics First for humouring me while we tried on 10 pairs of shoes to find the right ones. Those NB 1400's are very fast.

Huge thanks to Sheldon  at Sportwheels for helping me get my bike all tuned up and ready to race. 

Thursday is massage day to get any lingering kinks out of the system. 

Oh and the Friday before the race, I donated plasma. It really should have no affect on your fitness level for more than a few hours. So if you are on the fence and worried it might affect race performance, it really doesn't (while blood does which is different). 

Hopefully we raised some good funds for Girls Gone Gazelle.

Run Training Phase 4 - Bringing It All Together

So here we are into the heart of Phase 4 of the training season for running.  Exciting times. I would have posted about this phase earlier, but as usual, life got in the way.

For the past 2 weeks I have been busy both at work and at home. Well I guess I should say away from home as I traveled to Colorado last week for 8 days. But before we discuss that, what exactly is Phase 4?

So first we built a base in Phase 1. Then we introduced endurance in Phase 2. In Phase 3 we brought about speed. Now? Race preparation is the name of the game. In the final 6 weeks we aim to train specifically to the conditions of the "A" race we are looking at.

For the Bluenose Half Marathon both I and my trainee are aiming for, that means, more endurance and hill work.

For now, we will start to taper back to 4-5 runs a week at most with some cross training like cycling and swimming thrown in. Why? Well as we push ourselves on slightly longer endurance runs and hill intervals, we want to make sure we are fully recovered from each session prior to heading back out. And most of all we want to be as fresh as possible come race day.

Another key session this phase will be race pace sessions. It is one thing to run fast intervals or long slow distance to push our limits, but it is also essential to train the body and mind, exactly what the pace is we hope to be able to sustain. The less you have to glare down at your Garmin or Polar to see how fast you are running, the easier the run will be. For us, this means warmup, race pace session of 8-10 km and cool down.

Likewise, hill sessions will take over from intervals, where we push ourselves to conquer hills in 3 minute segments. Here we want to actually run faster than race pace as this will make the hills we encounter in the race (ie Point Pleasant Park) seem so much easier at the slightly slower pace we will race at.

Finally the main event is the long run. As usual this is done at a slow pace that will allow for easier recovery. Here we are just continuing to build endurance and time on our feet. Depending on the length of time the race will likely take you, long runs for a half marathon can be up to 2 hours long. Other people may opt to try and run the while distance in practice, but in my opinion,  a 2 hour run will get you most of the benefit you need while minimizing the chance of injury. Assuming you are keeping up with the rest of your runs in the week, 2 hours (tapering slightly the week before the race), will be more than enough.

Any other runs that occur will also be done at an easy pace and used as recovery runs after a hard session. Remember that much of the good hard work has been achieved in the first three phases a now is not the time to push the training too hard.

So all this being said, I traveled last week and the results was that I had trouble getting all of my runs in. So what did I do? I looked at what the idea being the runs was and tailored my training to what I could do, and not worry too much about what I could not do. And as I was in Colorado, that meant hill training. Due to altitude, I couldn't push myself as hard as normal, but I had a decent long hill and used it as often as I could to get a proper session in. The altitude also meant that I had to allow myself more time for recovery. Again remember that the goal here is to make it to race day as fresh as possible and not hurt. So adjusting your training accordingly is important.

Following Phase 3 I got my checkup from my physiotherapist and we found a slight weakness in one of my legs. So I am also incorporating a little more strength training into the week's work. Being as strong and balanced as possible will lead to a strong finish you can walk away from with a smile.

And I also went back to Kinesic Sport Lab  to get another Blood Lactate test done. Initial results looked really good with only slight alteration to my heart rate running zones. That is great to see that I haven't fallen back into  my old routine of running in the "junk" zone.

Race 3 of 2013 - The MEC Highlander Citadel 5K

So this past Sunday I took part in the next of the MEC running race series, as put on my the Halifax MEC. These are meant to be grass roots, simple, cheap and accessible races. In my experience they deliver a great bang for your buck timed event with a fun atmosphere.

This was the third time I ran this specific race, which takes place on Halifax's hilliest course. In the past I have run both the 5K and 10K options. This year I opted again for the 5K as I like to see what sort of speed I can put on with the incredibly steep hills on offer. Last year I won this event and was at least hoping to better my time from last season.

The weather was decent when we arrived before the start but it was obvious that the wind was picking up and the sun was disappearing behind the clouds. I had opted to run in shorts and just did my best to keep warm prior to the start (heavy coats do a good job).

Thanks to Parks Canada, the send off for this race is great. The Historic Sites Highlanders show up and send us off with a booming fire from a black powder flint lock gun. Nice.

In this racing series all competitors start at the same time and for this race we race the same course (the 10K does 2 loops of the course). So if you want to find your competitors you need to look for the colour of the bibs and do your sleuthing ahead of time. Not really knowing the speed of most of the other runners, I opted to just go for it.

The course starts inside the fort, then you pop out across the drawbridge and onto the perimeter road. At this point in the race I was in third place overall and running a fine pace, of course this was maybe 400 meters in (ha ha!).

As it turns out the guy right in front of me was actually running the 10K race, so I wasn't too concerned about him and put my sights on the 1st place runner.  Sadly as we approached the first drop to street level (and quite the drop it is) I was becoming aware that the guy in first overall was darn fast.  His lead started to increase by the time we reached the second drop to street level and my legs were burning on these super steep hills. So I was starting to settle for holding my decent pace and not worrying too much about the win.

I also started to realize that second place was mine for the taking or losing. I had a clear advantage over third place and was happy to even be second in the race overall. Last year some of the runners from the 10K were so fast they stayed ahead of me the whole way, whew!

Now having second place in your sights and losing sight of the first place runner starts to make you a little complacent and at one point on the back side of Citadel Hill I noticed my pace sliding. I wasn't over extended, I was just mentally not there. So I talked a little smack in my head and picked up the pace back to where it should have been.

I entered the fort for the last time and ran up to the ramparts, dodging the guns and watching my footing as best as possible, all while taking in a bit of the view.

As I was starting to approach the finish I actually checked the time on my watch and it was at 18:40. I kicked it up a bit again, really trying to see if I could go sub 19. I pushed through the finish line and stopped the clock at 19:19. Darn, but still close to 10 seconds faster than last years time. I also know I could have run this faster, had I had the first place runner in my sights and not had a mental laps. But that first place guy ran a staggering 16:50, and I had no chance of keeping anywhere near him. Huge congrats on that time. I can only imagine what he could do on a flat course.

So two races into the MEC series and 2 second place medals for me. Though they now have a nice new look!

Last season I managed 3 second place medals and 1 first. We will see how things go.

Okay, other than second place, how did I do from a racing stand point and how is my training going. Well, I think I can say it is going really well. I have limited any serious injuries, put in a lot of low intensity Zone 2 training and it is paying off really well. Here is my chart from the race:

As you can see from the bottom graph, the hills are in green and quite up and down while the red and blue lines are pace and heart rate. I would normally have expected to see those go crazy all over the place as well, but I managed to keep them nice and steady. That bodes well for a strong aerobic system as the season of longer races is coming up. But we will visit how this are really going in the next post as I just had another Blood Lactate test with Jeff Zahavich at Kinesic Sports Lab.

Run Training Phase 3 - This One Might Hurt a Little

Wow, where did the time go. I sit here writing and growing my beard as we are finishing week 2 of the Phase 3 of the run training program. That means we are 14 weeks into the 24 weeks. Luckily my running is so much better than my beard.

So what does Phase 3 mean and why would it hurt a little? Well so far we have established our base, we have built our endurance and we have pushed our aerobic engine a little bit. This means our bodies are primed for learning how to deal with a little bit of speed. This means intervals and repetitions.

Phase 3 adds to our key workouts. So far we have had two key workouts a week, the long run and the threshold run. Our third key workout is intervals pushing us to 3 hard sessions a week. Ouch. Of course due to their more intense nature, interval workouts also mean that our overall weekly mileage does drop at first, then builds back up to the end of this 6 week period.

Intervals or speed work are a great way of working on your anaerobic engine. This is burning fuel without using oxygen and is generally associated with sprinting, but for distance runners can be very useful as well. Not all sessions need to be anaerobic either, by doing intervals at the maximum edge of your aerobic running boundary, you get to prepare your body for the speeds you may wish to achieve during races. And by doing these session as intervals with rests, you get the benefits of the hard run while limiting the stress and potential injury of just trying to do a fast long run. Sure, we will likely push ourselves during a race to hold these paces for a longer duration, but during training our goal is to get to the next training session injury free and well rested. After a race we can afford to take some time to recuperate and rest.

So yeah, speed work is great in that it can help make us actually faster, with a goal of limiting injury, but there is an even greater reason to do it. If you run within your limits you will generally find that you run correctly. It is very hard to run fast for any distance and run incorrectly. What does this mean? It means you will start to recruit the muscles fibers you need for economical running. Doing frequent repetitions of these runs will be like your body forming a proper running habit. Habits / nerve pathways / muscles take 3-6 weeks to become part of you, thus this 6 week phase.

As each week passes the intervals will change, sometimes getting longer, sometimes faster. Generally the longer an interval is (say up to 1 km or 1 mile) the slower you will go (ideally you run an interval at a consistent pace) while the short intervals (1 min or 200 m or so) are about as fast as you can go without sprinting. Always though, there will be a decent level of recovery between each interval that will allow the next interval to be run at a similar or slightly faster pace.

There are some great ways to figure out exactly what pace you should be doing these intervals, otherwise you can go by heart rate and try to stay within your Zone 5 (maybe high Zone 4 for longer runs). If neither of these ways are interesting or you don't have a fancy running watch, then intervals can be a bit of trial and error. As I said, try to run at a pace that is sustainable but hard for the duration of the run.

The specifics of this phase are hard to deal with in a small blog post. Entire books get written about interval training. Having a coach or seasoned runner with good knowledge helping you out is a good way to avoid injuries.

So this Phase is likely to be the hardest. We are still quite far from the goal race and can afford to push the key workouts. Allowing for decent rest is a must, throwing in some cross training won't hurt. I also suggest seeing your physio for an assessment at the beginning of this phase as an little issues are sure to show up here, but you will have plenty of time to deal with them prior to Phase 4.

I am excited as my athlete is showing some great progress already compared to last season. We are adjusting some aspects of her running and I am eagerly awaiting Phase 4 for her.

By the way this is a great phase to throw in some early season races, especially shorter ones like 5 km races. These will generally replace a speed session (threshold or interval) or if long enough (10K or over) a long run.

Back to Basics 8 Miler 2014

So my first real running test of the season happened Sunday out in Goffs, the Back to Basics 8 Miler. Yes, I had already done 2 other races this year, but the first 5km race I did was during my base training and the Tri the Oval winter triathlon was a multi sport event, not really allowing me to see how my run was progressing.

The Back to Basics is a nice out and back road race which is 8 miles long. The entry cost is super low and there is pretty much no bling associated with it. But there is a ton of food for hungry runners, including hot soup, when you are done. This is the perfect kind of race in my opinion.

Being 8 miles long I had to decide what sort of pace to run it at. Also I had to take into account the fact that it was on the road, the route was rolling hills, and the weather was sloppy. I mean I have been doing most of my running for the past few weeks indoors, including long runs, so this was going to shock the system. Eight miles is 12.8km so too long for 10km pace but short for half marathon pace. But in the end I decided to go with a half marathon pace to see how things would go in a couple of months at the Bluenose. I was aiming for a 4 min kilometer average, far faster than last years 4:09 pace at this race (which ended up being my Bluenose Half marathon pace as well!).

I arrived early for registration (a mere $10) with temperatures at the zero mark (so quite balmy compared to the last few days) and moderately dry roads. The dry roads quickly disappeared though, as a light but steady snow shower started up.

I registered, finalized my running attire (long sleeves, light glove liners, yellow tinted glasses, tights, and head band), and set about chatting with folks. I then headed out for a brief 2 kilometer recon of the course / warm up.

Soon it was race time, and we all lined up for the start.

And like that we were off!

As usual I took off far too fast, staying with Matthew White. That was never going to work. But I quickly started the slowing down process, so that I would sky rocket my heart rate for too long. At this point 2 runners passed me, and that was fine as I was still running too fast. Eventually I got it down to the 4 min/km pace I was hoping for and I was passed by one more runner. He didn't take off on me though and kept just slightly ahead.

As we ran by the first mile marker, someone was standing there yelling out mile splits, which was rather nice to hear. I hit the first mile at 5:58.  And I wasn't hurting.

Slightly before mile 2, I looked and my pace had slipped. This section was a little up hill and I as I glanced at my watch I was running about a 4:09 pace. That wouldn't do, so I pushed a little bit, passed the runner in front of me and held that pace. This would show up later in my data as the slowest kilometer split I ran.

The road was now very wet, including some puddles. As well the snow was starting to creep from the edge, making a slick slide to the road, and there were times I could feel my feet slide about. I aimed for the less saturated sections of pavement as much as possible, but it was inevitable that the water started to seep into my shoes.

At the turn around I was still in 4th place, which was great as I was hoping for another top 10. I grabbed for a water at the water table, but sadly dropped it. I continued on, not too heart broken but I hoped I didn't spill it on the volunteer.

At this point you finally get to see everyone who is behind you and they all look so menacingly close that it almost forces you to pick up the pace. But I held strong in my desire to maintain a solid pace and not burn out before the end of the race.

I did have one more secret desire in this race. I really wanted to get a proper fast 10km split in here. I wanted to beat my last 10km best time of 39:54 which I set 2 years ago. Last year I really never raced a 10km so I didn't know how well I could do over that distance. As I approached 10km I held my pace and rolled through at 39:18. This does of course, now want to make me find a flat 10km race where I can head out and try to break 39 minutes. But that will be another story.

I continued on in the driving snow, slightly downhill, steady pace. I was finally willing to peer behind myself and saw Ray was a decent distance behind me. Ahead of me I was making no change in the gap to Lawrence. All seemed good. Except my feet were wet, oh so wet. Blah.

Soon I came across my 1 km to go mark, which I had established during my warm up run. It was still too far to really pick up the pace, and as I was never going to catch 3rd place, and didn't seem to be in danger of loosing 4th place, I just made sure to stay as steady as I could pacewise, especially with the finish being uphill.

All along I kept reminding myself, run tall. I would drift to a slightly bent posture occasionally, but did my best to keep that core strong, the cadence high and the form good. I did receive a few comments about that from other runners, so that was nice. Still some work to do there for the long runs.

The finish line loomed. I picked up the pace, gave a few thumbs up to the volunteers guiding me to the end and crossed the finish line in 4th overall with a time of 50:05, better than last years 52:52 and an average pace well below the 4 minute mark I had hoped for with a 3:55 min/km. Wow, that was great. And judging by my Garmin output looks like I can keep a steady pace quite well:

Also my average heart rate was in mid Zone 4, just where I would want to be for a half marathon. So with more than 2 months to go to the Bluenose Half, I still have plenty of time to find the endurance I need to go with this speed. And who knows a little more speed might still be in there as well.

I'll post about the next phase of my training soon. The heart rate stuff and keeping the majority of your runs easy really can help to get you fast.

Next up, Moose Run? We'll see.