Preparations for the Creemore Vertical Challenge are progressing smoothly. It helps to have more than 1 week to cram in all the chores, tasks, communications and shopping before the race. Let's start with the fun stuff - the weather!
I take a somewhat perverse delight in watching the long range forecast before the race. It is always something pleasant, or at least provides some room for optimism. Hey! Only 30C and a light breeze. Luxury! Then on the day before the race, they change the forecast to horrific heat, humidity, tornadoes, thunder and lightning. One year we had all of the above! And I don't mind the crazy weather. Why? Because I stand around at the start/finish and cheer people on. Okay, that was low, even for me. I ran most of the course yesterday. It was only 27, but high humidity. I brought one water bottle. I sipped sparingly and it lasted until 19K. I do this on purpose, so that I am aware that running out of water at the aid stations is a really bad idea... For those who want a good chuckle on race day, the current forecast is calling for partially cloudy with a low of 14 and a high of 23. We can sit around the medical tent and joke about it after the race!
As mentioned before, there will be chip timing this year. I know that chip timing is not flawless (there will be manual backup, in case) but I struggled with the homegrown finish time entry system almost every year. The trickiest part was trying to print results. A finisher could not be recorded during the print set-up!
I have just installed a new bridge in the swamp. I'm not 100% happy with it. The leading edge is a bit dicey. However, it is a lot better than the gnome bridge (what did you call it Chris Mc?) and hopefully no one will drown.
The signs have been painted in the CVC colours. For those who missed last year, the new tech T-shirt colours are navy blue art on a lime green background. "Garish" comes to mind, but the shirts are highly visible, even at dusk. There are more signs, although chances are good that someone will get lost again this year. It is difficult to direct runners on country roads. I could use about 15 marshals for the more critical intersections, but I don't have 15 friends... Well, at least those willing to stand out in the hot sun for 6 hours directing traffic! I have also created a sign that reads "Creemore Vertical Challenge" for posting at the race site, to help those new to the race.
The aid stations will have about the same fare as in previous years. This year, there will be no gels. There will be more ice, especially during the afternoon. Aid stations 2 and 3 (which are both visited twice per loop) will have a 220L dunk barrel, as the sponge stations tend to run out of water in the afternoon.
Home base will offer aid station fare. Perfect Pizza and Creemore Springs Brewery are back on board. The water is now being sourced from Dennis Campbell, who has volunteered in past years as the photographer. His work is excellent - check it out:
http://www.denniscampbellphotos.com
Well, back at it! I still have to final-prep the trails, then I can start flagging (in more ways than one!).
Go Sharon Z! (she currently running Western States).
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Niagara 50K Race Report
Reader's Digest version: Good race, insufficient training...
Before I get to the skinny on the Niagara Ultra, Lee Anne and I feel honoured that Charlotte Vasarhelyi has asked us to crew and pace for her on the Rideau Trail (RTA). I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that we are retired and are free on any given day!
The RTA is about 330K and Char plans to run it in 3 - 4 days. After a brief scan of the trail descriptions, I was under the misconception that it was mainly road, with a few trail sections. Until Char clarified that the description provided the name of the road at the trail head. The RTA is influenced by the Canadian shield (granite outcroppings, elevation changes) and has a high incursion of beaver related terrain... Swamp. Can't wait! This all gets going on Saturday (June 21) for Char - we will join her on Sunday.
Niagara 50K: Get Out of Jail Free
Training is a huge component of ultra running. Without training, it is called ultra ruining. When you are young, it is fine to skip a few recovery runs. Skipping the longer "time on your feet" runs is not so good. Doubly so when you head north of 50 years of age. I can't entirely explain it, but my running was simply not very enjoyable during May and the early part of June. I think that retiring was a significant factor. Before May 1, my MO was to crowd the weekend with running, biking, cutting firewood, landscaping, etc. - basically a 2 day attempt to drive myself into exhaustion. But this was fine! I could look forward to 5 days, sitting at a desk, to recover. As Peter Sellers would say "Not any more!". After a mere 3 weeks of retirement, I was bruised, bleeding, sore, tired and dragging in a way that is hard to fathom, if you have been sitting at a desk for the last 30 years!
After 6 weeks, I have lost about 10 pounds and starting to recover faster. I think the saving grace leading up to the 50K was a 25K run on the Bruce Trail that took 4.5 hours. There is no substitute for time on your feet! I also ran a half-decent trail half marathon the week before Niagara. Nothing epic, but 2:09 for 21.1K with a few hills and a sprinkling of technical bits.
So, 2 half-decent training runs and I'm about to tackle a 50K? Yes, I was concerned and worried about the blow-up. I had 3 goals. C: Run to 15K, turn around and run back, for a 30K DNF. B: Beat last year's time of 6:29. A: Run 50K in under 6 hours. The A goal meant that I would not be able to take any walking breaks, as my current long distance speed is damn slow. This was fine with me as I dread walking breaks. The first few are good recovery, but after a bunch, they don't really provide much recovery and it is a herculean effort to resume running. I often joke that I am too tired to walk. It is somewhere near the truth!
So the card you are dealt in running a 50K without much training can range from "Congratulations on a new injury", reactivating an old injury, massive recovery time (6 months anyone?) to, when older, the extremely remote chance that nothing bad happens... Guess where my race fits in?
I started slowly. How slow? At about 2K, I look back to see if there was anyone behind me. There was! I ran for a while with a woman from Great Britain (I think England) but let her go when the pace slowly crept up to "uncomfortable". My plan was to gel every 10K and take salt at the aid stations between the gels. I had a truly ugly race in 2013, although I just found out it was 33C last year, so perhaps there was a reason why I overheated so badly. This year, I even walked the hill at Queenston! I was surprised at how easy the hill really is. I always envision it as being steeper (as steep as Hill #1 on the Creemore course) and longer, but in reality, it is a very easy-to-run hill. I walked it regardless.
Predictably, I started to get tired at 15K, but with no major issues, decided to abandon goal C and try for A or B. It would be really easy to say I nailed the hydration, electrolyte and nutrition, but at the speed I was running, it is not very difficult to do things right. Conversely, it is really easy to do things wrong at any speed! I can only imagine how hard it must be for someone running 50K in under 4 hours, to dial in nutrition correctly.
No issues at 20K. I spent about 2 minutes at the turn-around (25K) and refuelled, hydrated, took Ibuprofen and made sure I was good to go, for another 25K. Of course I forgot something! Fortunately it was simply a timing issue. At 27K, I remembered that I had not taken salt. The dialogue in my mind was brief: "I need to take salt. Should I wait until the 30K aid station? NO! TAKE IT NOW!" The words in caps stemmed from my legs.
Just before the 30K AS, I took another gel. I could no longer make it 10K between gels. I continued to get tired, but was surprised that I could maintain my slow pace without much duress. At 35K, the "Circus of Injuries" started. There is a point in every race where the mind and body join to try and derail your race plans. I think this because pushing past a certain point is tough, both mentally and physically, and the body rebels. The mind is bored, so it joins in the fun. For me, that point came at 35K. The knees threatened to give out, my back was hurting and my right ankle started throbbing. I laughed heartily at my body's feeble attempt to make me stop and continued running. About 38K, I realized I don't have an ankle injury. Hmm. The ankle continued to get more and more painful. I have had ankle pain before at races, almost exclusively at Niagara, about the only race where I run for 50K on pavement. Since I was getting seriously tired and hurting in many places, the ankle pain was nice to have, since it focused my attention away from the real injuries.
At 40K, I was tired, in pain, but doing well. At 43K, I broke my rule and took a 30 second walking break. I needed to take salt, but my fingers were too swollen to unzip my belt and prise open a Ziploc bag while running. At 45K, I filled my bottle and started for the finish. It was great to see the single digit kilometre markers go by! 4K, 3K, etc. With about a mile to go, someone mentioned that if we picked up the pace, we could break 6 hours. Although struggling, I pushed for the first time during the race and was rewarded with a pace that was (probably) slightly faster than a 6 minute kilometre. In hindsight, had I know how much time was remaining, there was no need to increase the pace. I reached the finish line in 5:55:xx. It felt great to post a sub-six hour 50K!
During the last year, I have run three 50K races. Niagara (2013) in 6:29, Toad in 6:14 and Niagara (2014) in 5:55. If I extrapolate into the future, I should break the 50K world record in about 8 more attempts! I know, don't hold your breath...
A huge thanks to the volunteers and race director Henri for putting on a fine show! Dawn Hamel (who dragged me out for the 4.5 hour run on the Bruce Trail) ran the 100K in 9:33, which shaves about 22 minutes off the Canadian record for her age category. Way to go, superstar Dawn!
And now I continue to prepare for the Creemore Vertical Challenge on Saturday, July 5. There will be some changes again this year: Chip timing, a new clay body for the awards and finishing medals, better brighter signs and cooling stations (okay, sponges and head dunk tanks) and a new bridge through the swamp!
Dig Deep!
Before I get to the skinny on the Niagara Ultra, Lee Anne and I feel honoured that Charlotte Vasarhelyi has asked us to crew and pace for her on the Rideau Trail (RTA). I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that we are retired and are free on any given day!
The RTA is about 330K and Char plans to run it in 3 - 4 days. After a brief scan of the trail descriptions, I was under the misconception that it was mainly road, with a few trail sections. Until Char clarified that the description provided the name of the road at the trail head. The RTA is influenced by the Canadian shield (granite outcroppings, elevation changes) and has a high incursion of beaver related terrain... Swamp. Can't wait! This all gets going on Saturday (June 21) for Char - we will join her on Sunday.
Niagara 50K: Get Out of Jail Free
Training is a huge component of ultra running. Without training, it is called ultra ruining. When you are young, it is fine to skip a few recovery runs. Skipping the longer "time on your feet" runs is not so good. Doubly so when you head north of 50 years of age. I can't entirely explain it, but my running was simply not very enjoyable during May and the early part of June. I think that retiring was a significant factor. Before May 1, my MO was to crowd the weekend with running, biking, cutting firewood, landscaping, etc. - basically a 2 day attempt to drive myself into exhaustion. But this was fine! I could look forward to 5 days, sitting at a desk, to recover. As Peter Sellers would say "Not any more!". After a mere 3 weeks of retirement, I was bruised, bleeding, sore, tired and dragging in a way that is hard to fathom, if you have been sitting at a desk for the last 30 years!
After 6 weeks, I have lost about 10 pounds and starting to recover faster. I think the saving grace leading up to the 50K was a 25K run on the Bruce Trail that took 4.5 hours. There is no substitute for time on your feet! I also ran a half-decent trail half marathon the week before Niagara. Nothing epic, but 2:09 for 21.1K with a few hills and a sprinkling of technical bits.
So, 2 half-decent training runs and I'm about to tackle a 50K? Yes, I was concerned and worried about the blow-up. I had 3 goals. C: Run to 15K, turn around and run back, for a 30K DNF. B: Beat last year's time of 6:29. A: Run 50K in under 6 hours. The A goal meant that I would not be able to take any walking breaks, as my current long distance speed is damn slow. This was fine with me as I dread walking breaks. The first few are good recovery, but after a bunch, they don't really provide much recovery and it is a herculean effort to resume running. I often joke that I am too tired to walk. It is somewhere near the truth!
So the card you are dealt in running a 50K without much training can range from "Congratulations on a new injury", reactivating an old injury, massive recovery time (6 months anyone?) to, when older, the extremely remote chance that nothing bad happens... Guess where my race fits in?
I started slowly. How slow? At about 2K, I look back to see if there was anyone behind me. There was! I ran for a while with a woman from Great Britain (I think England) but let her go when the pace slowly crept up to "uncomfortable". My plan was to gel every 10K and take salt at the aid stations between the gels. I had a truly ugly race in 2013, although I just found out it was 33C last year, so perhaps there was a reason why I overheated so badly. This year, I even walked the hill at Queenston! I was surprised at how easy the hill really is. I always envision it as being steeper (as steep as Hill #1 on the Creemore course) and longer, but in reality, it is a very easy-to-run hill. I walked it regardless.
Predictably, I started to get tired at 15K, but with no major issues, decided to abandon goal C and try for A or B. It would be really easy to say I nailed the hydration, electrolyte and nutrition, but at the speed I was running, it is not very difficult to do things right. Conversely, it is really easy to do things wrong at any speed! I can only imagine how hard it must be for someone running 50K in under 4 hours, to dial in nutrition correctly.
No issues at 20K. I spent about 2 minutes at the turn-around (25K) and refuelled, hydrated, took Ibuprofen and made sure I was good to go, for another 25K. Of course I forgot something! Fortunately it was simply a timing issue. At 27K, I remembered that I had not taken salt. The dialogue in my mind was brief: "I need to take salt. Should I wait until the 30K aid station? NO! TAKE IT NOW!" The words in caps stemmed from my legs.
Just before the 30K AS, I took another gel. I could no longer make it 10K between gels. I continued to get tired, but was surprised that I could maintain my slow pace without much duress. At 35K, the "Circus of Injuries" started. There is a point in every race where the mind and body join to try and derail your race plans. I think this because pushing past a certain point is tough, both mentally and physically, and the body rebels. The mind is bored, so it joins in the fun. For me, that point came at 35K. The knees threatened to give out, my back was hurting and my right ankle started throbbing. I laughed heartily at my body's feeble attempt to make me stop and continued running. About 38K, I realized I don't have an ankle injury. Hmm. The ankle continued to get more and more painful. I have had ankle pain before at races, almost exclusively at Niagara, about the only race where I run for 50K on pavement. Since I was getting seriously tired and hurting in many places, the ankle pain was nice to have, since it focused my attention away from the real injuries.
At 40K, I was tired, in pain, but doing well. At 43K, I broke my rule and took a 30 second walking break. I needed to take salt, but my fingers were too swollen to unzip my belt and prise open a Ziploc bag while running. At 45K, I filled my bottle and started for the finish. It was great to see the single digit kilometre markers go by! 4K, 3K, etc. With about a mile to go, someone mentioned that if we picked up the pace, we could break 6 hours. Although struggling, I pushed for the first time during the race and was rewarded with a pace that was (probably) slightly faster than a 6 minute kilometre. In hindsight, had I know how much time was remaining, there was no need to increase the pace. I reached the finish line in 5:55:xx. It felt great to post a sub-six hour 50K!
During the last year, I have run three 50K races. Niagara (2013) in 6:29, Toad in 6:14 and Niagara (2014) in 5:55. If I extrapolate into the future, I should break the 50K world record in about 8 more attempts! I know, don't hold your breath...
A huge thanks to the volunteers and race director Henri for putting on a fine show! Dawn Hamel (who dragged me out for the 4.5 hour run on the Bruce Trail) ran the 100K in 9:33, which shaves about 22 minutes off the Canadian record for her age category. Way to go, superstar Dawn!
And now I continue to prepare for the Creemore Vertical Challenge on Saturday, July 5. There will be some changes again this year: Chip timing, a new clay body for the awards and finishing medals, better brighter signs and cooling stations (okay, sponges and head dunk tanks) and a new bridge through the swamp!
Dig Deep!
Monday, June 9, 2014
Status Report: First month of Retirement
Rather than crowd my first year of retirement with too many objectives, I thought I would keep it simple and assume a limited number of projects. My "normal" tasks, including the races; Creemore Vertical Challenge and Copper kettle Dash, prep for the maple syrup season, cut firewood for a few customers and myself, and a few other projects for this year, including helping to build a house (Lee Anne's daughter Lily and son-in-law Daryl's house), upgrade the bathroom and sunroom and build a cabin on the Singhampton property...
Thrown into the mix is a strong desire to make the races better (new signs, better bridges in the swamp, etc.), spend more time in the gardens, landscape and increase my training (running and biking). I think you see where this is going...
A week has 168 hours. I know this because of my "old" job, which included fiddling with several part ordering systems (parts needed to make Hondas). Some of the more esoteric systems needed to perform calculations based on roughly a half hour breakdown of transit times, staging times ("production" hours) where parts could be unloaded and readied for the assembly lines. On a personal level, I never really analysed the impact of "not" working on my available time. If you exclude sleep (let's factor in showers, breakfast, etc. and call "sleep" 8 hours per day), there are about 16 hours per day that are available for "projects". Let's keep things simple and declare that work represent only 40 of the remaining 112 hours. I know, travel time to work alone used to burn 6 hours per week. Disregard, damn it! So, when I worked, I had 72 "project" hours per week and I now have 112. Not an order of magnitude, which is what I THOUGHT I would have...
A tangible problem with retirement that I never considered, is that I can CHOOSE what to do on almost any given day. This sounds wonderful (and it is!) but it also means that bizarre tasks that no one should consider doing are gladly slotted into my daytime schedule. Let's bike to Owen Sound, or Angus, or Phelpston (all of these were done in the last 2 weeks). I hopped on the tractor and started to dig out the pond. This actually requires some foresight as you need to block the inlet 3-4 days ahead, so that the pond bed has a chance to dry out a little. The muck in the pond is an alarming 3 feet thick. Think of the volume! My smallish pond (about 20' X 80') has about 180 YARDS of muck. That would be about 18 large dump truck loads. I realized I had nowhere to put the mud, so I abandoned the task, until the fall.
So, the Creemore Vertical Challenge SAP (Specific Action Plan) is mostly on schedule, but I'm surprised that I am not way ahead of the plan. What have I been doing, lallygagging?
Running
I am not happy with my running as yet. It is starting to improve, but the curve is very slow. Ran a half marathon trail run on the weekend (12 Mile Creek) in 2:09, which is acceptable, but bodes badly for next week's race, the Niagara 50K. I will run as far as this body will allow, then DNF if I must. No, I don't want to drop to the half, it's not something that would inspire me.
Well, that is about it for now. I will be glad when the CVC is over. Not because I dread it, but because I still have a "job" to do, until it is complete. I think retirement will truly start once I can stop adhering to a schedule.
Hey! Hope to see you are the CVC!
Thrown into the mix is a strong desire to make the races better (new signs, better bridges in the swamp, etc.), spend more time in the gardens, landscape and increase my training (running and biking). I think you see where this is going...
A week has 168 hours. I know this because of my "old" job, which included fiddling with several part ordering systems (parts needed to make Hondas). Some of the more esoteric systems needed to perform calculations based on roughly a half hour breakdown of transit times, staging times ("production" hours) where parts could be unloaded and readied for the assembly lines. On a personal level, I never really analysed the impact of "not" working on my available time. If you exclude sleep (let's factor in showers, breakfast, etc. and call "sleep" 8 hours per day), there are about 16 hours per day that are available for "projects". Let's keep things simple and declare that work represent only 40 of the remaining 112 hours. I know, travel time to work alone used to burn 6 hours per week. Disregard, damn it! So, when I worked, I had 72 "project" hours per week and I now have 112. Not an order of magnitude, which is what I THOUGHT I would have...
A tangible problem with retirement that I never considered, is that I can CHOOSE what to do on almost any given day. This sounds wonderful (and it is!) but it also means that bizarre tasks that no one should consider doing are gladly slotted into my daytime schedule. Let's bike to Owen Sound, or Angus, or Phelpston (all of these were done in the last 2 weeks). I hopped on the tractor and started to dig out the pond. This actually requires some foresight as you need to block the inlet 3-4 days ahead, so that the pond bed has a chance to dry out a little. The muck in the pond is an alarming 3 feet thick. Think of the volume! My smallish pond (about 20' X 80') has about 180 YARDS of muck. That would be about 18 large dump truck loads. I realized I had nowhere to put the mud, so I abandoned the task, until the fall.
So, the Creemore Vertical Challenge SAP (Specific Action Plan) is mostly on schedule, but I'm surprised that I am not way ahead of the plan. What have I been doing, lallygagging?
Running
I am not happy with my running as yet. It is starting to improve, but the curve is very slow. Ran a half marathon trail run on the weekend (12 Mile Creek) in 2:09, which is acceptable, but bodes badly for next week's race, the Niagara 50K. I will run as far as this body will allow, then DNF if I must. No, I don't want to drop to the half, it's not something that would inspire me.
Well, that is about it for now. I will be glad when the CVC is over. Not because I dread it, but because I still have a "job" to do, until it is complete. I think retirement will truly start once I can stop adhering to a schedule.
Hey! Hope to see you are the CVC!
Monday, May 26, 2014
3 Days at the Fair
Perhaps I should call it the weekend from hell. The only great aspect of the weekend (May 16 - 19) was the race itself. The RD's and volunteers fully understand that there are people seeking PB's, national and world records. Their support of the race is truly epic. They understand how to support multi-day races.
3 Days at the Fair offers 12, 24, 48 and 72 hour races. Most runners consider 24 hour races "the fringe". And it is! Anyone that considers 6 hours of running as the warm-up is not a mainstream, pass-the-salt athlete. They are wackos. And someone running 3 days? Scheduling 2 - 40 minute sleep periods per day? Certifiable. I'm usually the last person to judge anyone, but I've been to 2 of these multi-days and whoa! Certifiable! Of course Marylou, Maryka, Charlotte et al will now try to lynch me (they have all the tools necessary) but the running community needs to know about this. How many people do you know who plot a running schedule over 72 hours that results in upwards of 400 kilometres? I worked at Honda and we made these devices that avoided running such anomalous distances...
The drive to New Jersey was uneventful. We left Creemore at 05:30 on Thursday (I like to get well into a trip before I actually wake up) and arrived at the race site circa 2:00 PM. We said hello to a bunch of Canadians, then sought out the hotel. Friday morning, we picked up our race kits and Lee Anne got ready to run. Her A goal was to break her age category Canadian record (28:14) for 100 miles. She was registered in the 48 hour race for the attempt. I was registered in the 12 hour, with a special starting time of midnight, Friday. Not my idea. Lee Anne thought it would be nice for us to run a few laps together every once in a while. The course was exactly 1 mile, so when you reach 100 loops, you've got 100 miles in. Lee Anne's race started at 09:00 Friday morning. So did the rain. Did it pour? The area received 2 INCHES of rain in the next 14 hours. I crewed from 09:00 until midnight. Everything was wet. I'm talking 3 inches of water in the tent. Shelters being blown over, tent pegs flying. It would have been crazy-fun if it was a short 50K race, or something. The first 14 hours of a 48 hour race? Not so much fun...
Lee Anne ran on a "reasonable" schedule, but in retrospect, perhaps a bit slow for attaining 100 miles in 26 hours (the A goal). But it was hard to put in serious laps with everything so wet. Dan (Marylou Corino and Maryka Hladka's crew) and I had quite a challenge simply providing dry fare, sage advice and that special humour reserved for floods...
Want to know a funny thing about 100 mile runs? They take a freakin long time to complete. During these protracted endeavors, things can go wrong. They are also long enough that you can address certain issues and revert back to plan. Think of building a pyramid. If you exhaust your quarry, it's no big deal to source a new one 2 - 3 years later...
Lee Anne ran into very few issues, even during the monsoon. Yes, she was not faster than schedule, but not too far behind. Clockwork comes to mind. And so it went until midnight, when I started running. We ran a few laps together, some apart, but after a short time (3 hours) I wasn't able to run with Lee Anne and went back to crewing. Crewing did not last long! I felt tired. Very tired. I had little sleep the night before (don't forget, up at 05:00 Thursday, little sleep Friday night, a misguided attempt to sleep Friday evening during the monsoon. start running at midnight) but even still, I was overly tired. Since the aid station was all wet and the tent was under 3 inches of water, I put the seat back in the car and tried to sleep. From 03:00 Saturday morning, I would get up every 30 minutes to replenish the aid station, then back to the car, the only dry and warm spot around.
At 05:30 Saturday morning, after running without a major stop for 20.5 hours, Lee Anne woke me up in the car. This was a big surprise to me as I normally don't actually fall asleep when supporting Lee Anne. Something was wrong - with me! Something was also wrong with Lee Anne. She was at 126K and not looking all that good. Near tears, she blurted out "I don't think I can do this". With 22 miles to go, the wheels had fallen off. I tried to provide the encouragement that would entice her to continue, but I also noted that Lee Anne was far from "okay". She had reached a point where a 2-3 hour rest was mandatory. Unfortunately, she did not have that luxury if she wanted to break the record. Dilemma!
We spoke at length about her goals, options and desires. This was no easy decision, but I did not like how Lee Anne looked and would prefer to see her miss all her goals, rather than incur serious injury / medical issues. We decided to pull the plug. In retrospect, I wonder if this had anything to do about how I was feeling. Something was wrong with me!
I packed up the aid station, tent and supplies while Lee Anne showered. Almost. After packing the car, I informed the RD that we would both be stopping, then went to see what was keeping Lee Anne. She was not at the shower. I found her back at the car. She had taken off her running clothes. then passed out naked on the floor of the shower room. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. She could not shower, but put on her street clothed and returned to the car.
We then travelled from New Jersey to Niagara-on-the-lake, where we had booked a B&B for 2 nights. I felt unusually tired during the trip to NOTL. We arrived, checked into the B&B and I promptly started throwing up. Did I mention the diarrhea? Let's make it interesting! I spent the next 2 days in bed (yes, at the B&B) before I had the strength to get up and drive back home. Incredible fun eh?
In comparison, this weekend was great. We biked to Owen Sound to visit with Doug and Joanne Barber (had a great time), then biked back to Creemore. It almost killed me!
Dig Deep!
3 Days at the Fair offers 12, 24, 48 and 72 hour races. Most runners consider 24 hour races "the fringe". And it is! Anyone that considers 6 hours of running as the warm-up is not a mainstream, pass-the-salt athlete. They are wackos. And someone running 3 days? Scheduling 2 - 40 minute sleep periods per day? Certifiable. I'm usually the last person to judge anyone, but I've been to 2 of these multi-days and whoa! Certifiable! Of course Marylou, Maryka, Charlotte et al will now try to lynch me (they have all the tools necessary) but the running community needs to know about this. How many people do you know who plot a running schedule over 72 hours that results in upwards of 400 kilometres? I worked at Honda and we made these devices that avoided running such anomalous distances...
The drive to New Jersey was uneventful. We left Creemore at 05:30 on Thursday (I like to get well into a trip before I actually wake up) and arrived at the race site circa 2:00 PM. We said hello to a bunch of Canadians, then sought out the hotel. Friday morning, we picked up our race kits and Lee Anne got ready to run. Her A goal was to break her age category Canadian record (28:14) for 100 miles. She was registered in the 48 hour race for the attempt. I was registered in the 12 hour, with a special starting time of midnight, Friday. Not my idea. Lee Anne thought it would be nice for us to run a few laps together every once in a while. The course was exactly 1 mile, so when you reach 100 loops, you've got 100 miles in. Lee Anne's race started at 09:00 Friday morning. So did the rain. Did it pour? The area received 2 INCHES of rain in the next 14 hours. I crewed from 09:00 until midnight. Everything was wet. I'm talking 3 inches of water in the tent. Shelters being blown over, tent pegs flying. It would have been crazy-fun if it was a short 50K race, or something. The first 14 hours of a 48 hour race? Not so much fun...
Lee Anne ran on a "reasonable" schedule, but in retrospect, perhaps a bit slow for attaining 100 miles in 26 hours (the A goal). But it was hard to put in serious laps with everything so wet. Dan (Marylou Corino and Maryka Hladka's crew) and I had quite a challenge simply providing dry fare, sage advice and that special humour reserved for floods...
Want to know a funny thing about 100 mile runs? They take a freakin long time to complete. During these protracted endeavors, things can go wrong. They are also long enough that you can address certain issues and revert back to plan. Think of building a pyramid. If you exhaust your quarry, it's no big deal to source a new one 2 - 3 years later...
Lee Anne ran into very few issues, even during the monsoon. Yes, she was not faster than schedule, but not too far behind. Clockwork comes to mind. And so it went until midnight, when I started running. We ran a few laps together, some apart, but after a short time (3 hours) I wasn't able to run with Lee Anne and went back to crewing. Crewing did not last long! I felt tired. Very tired. I had little sleep the night before (don't forget, up at 05:00 Thursday, little sleep Friday night, a misguided attempt to sleep Friday evening during the monsoon. start running at midnight) but even still, I was overly tired. Since the aid station was all wet and the tent was under 3 inches of water, I put the seat back in the car and tried to sleep. From 03:00 Saturday morning, I would get up every 30 minutes to replenish the aid station, then back to the car, the only dry and warm spot around.
At 05:30 Saturday morning, after running without a major stop for 20.5 hours, Lee Anne woke me up in the car. This was a big surprise to me as I normally don't actually fall asleep when supporting Lee Anne. Something was wrong - with me! Something was also wrong with Lee Anne. She was at 126K and not looking all that good. Near tears, she blurted out "I don't think I can do this". With 22 miles to go, the wheels had fallen off. I tried to provide the encouragement that would entice her to continue, but I also noted that Lee Anne was far from "okay". She had reached a point where a 2-3 hour rest was mandatory. Unfortunately, she did not have that luxury if she wanted to break the record. Dilemma!
We spoke at length about her goals, options and desires. This was no easy decision, but I did not like how Lee Anne looked and would prefer to see her miss all her goals, rather than incur serious injury / medical issues. We decided to pull the plug. In retrospect, I wonder if this had anything to do about how I was feeling. Something was wrong with me!
I packed up the aid station, tent and supplies while Lee Anne showered. Almost. After packing the car, I informed the RD that we would both be stopping, then went to see what was keeping Lee Anne. She was not at the shower. I found her back at the car. She had taken off her running clothes. then passed out naked on the floor of the shower room. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. She could not shower, but put on her street clothed and returned to the car.
We then travelled from New Jersey to Niagara-on-the-lake, where we had booked a B&B for 2 nights. I felt unusually tired during the trip to NOTL. We arrived, checked into the B&B and I promptly started throwing up. Did I mention the diarrhea? Let's make it interesting! I spent the next 2 days in bed (yes, at the B&B) before I had the strength to get up and drive back home. Incredible fun eh?
In comparison, this weekend was great. We biked to Owen Sound to visit with Doug and Joanne Barber (had a great time), then biked back to Creemore. It almost killed me!
Dig Deep!
Monday, May 5, 2014
Training for a 12 Hour Race
3 Days at the Fair in New Jersey: May 15. Lee Anne signed me up for the 12 hour race, while she is doing the 48 hour race and possibly stopping at 100 miles if she attains her A goal. We will run a few laps together, but for the most part, she just wants someone out there on the course during the night, lurking. Someone to goad her should she fall off her A goal. What is her A goal? Under 28 hours for 100 miles. Why does 28:14 pop into my mind? Hmm. I am about to run 12 hours, starting at midnight. Fun fun fun!
So here I am putting in massive training, for my 12 hour race. I ran 7.5K today. It was 12 degrees so I ran in shorts, but found it a bit cold. However, it wasn't that long ago (refer to picture) that running was REALLY cold. Funny how quickly we adapt. I am still quite happy to be running trails. Roads are great for speedwork, but after being forced to run road or spend time on the dreadmill for the last 4 months, trail is still a treat.
Oh! I retired May 1. I'm still in "gotta get ready for work tomorrow" mode. It takes a while to get used to such a major life change. I will write more on this once I wrap my head around it. For now, I am trying to juggle a few things... Cleaning maple syrup equipment and lines, finish destroying Lily and Daryl's house and getting ready to start building, ramp up my running, gardening and getting ready for the Creemore Vertical Challenge. I made about 80 medals today. The tractor was starting to overhear, so I changed the thermostat. No better, so I pulled the radiator core and sent it away for cleaning. Hopefully that does the trick. Of course I need the tractor for almost everything but the running. I need to clean the lies before we head to New Jersey and before the house framing starts... My hopes of reducing my work week to 60 hours is currently a bit of a joke.
However, I do get time in the middle of the day to blog!
So here I am putting in massive training, for my 12 hour race. I ran 7.5K today. It was 12 degrees so I ran in shorts, but found it a bit cold. However, it wasn't that long ago (refer to picture) that running was REALLY cold. Funny how quickly we adapt. I am still quite happy to be running trails. Roads are great for speedwork, but after being forced to run road or spend time on the dreadmill for the last 4 months, trail is still a treat.
Oh! I retired May 1. I'm still in "gotta get ready for work tomorrow" mode. It takes a while to get used to such a major life change. I will write more on this once I wrap my head around it. For now, I am trying to juggle a few things... Cleaning maple syrup equipment and lines, finish destroying Lily and Daryl's house and getting ready to start building, ramp up my running, gardening and getting ready for the Creemore Vertical Challenge. I made about 80 medals today. The tractor was starting to overhear, so I changed the thermostat. No better, so I pulled the radiator core and sent it away for cleaning. Hopefully that does the trick. Of course I need the tractor for almost everything but the running. I need to clean the lies before we head to New Jersey and before the house framing starts... My hopes of reducing my work week to 60 hours is currently a bit of a joke.
However, I do get time in the middle of the day to blog!
Monday, April 28, 2014
Pick Your Poison
Full reverse captain!
Even though I live in the area I was a bit surprised to see the quantity of snow on the ski hills at PYP. As in "Hey! There's a bare spot". For me, PYP has been the season opener for a few years. First time I'm allowed out of the sugar shack...
Reports of the trail conditions leading up to the race and on race day were ominous. Snow, ice and mud. Very slow conditions. Perfect! Due to the never-ending syrup season (I boiled down 3 days before the race) my conditioning was laughable. I should NOT be running a 25K race with so little training. A trail race with ski hills. Fortunately, the trails were slow, slippery, treacherous and nearly unrunable in spots. Everyone would have to run at my speed!
I had the usual apprehensions of someone who had only run 28K in the last 2 weeks, during 4 runs. Would I uber-bonk at 20K? Would I make it to 20K? Does snowshoeing out from the sugar shack with a case of syrup on my back count as training? After 40 years of running, I figured something out. If I start slowly and don't do anything really stupid, I can generally make it to the finish line without having to use the Quasimodo lurch. As the race unfolded, all the snow, ice and mud really cheered me up. To indicate how slow it was, first place in the 25K was 2:05! Not the typical 1:45 range. It was tough!
The first 12.5K loop was run at an easy pace, in 1:35. I was tired starting the second loop, but thought I would simply run until forced to walk. I don't know if this occurs because I have leg memory, or some such thing, that tricks my legs into thinking they can actually run for 3+ hours without any training, but I was able to run until the finish. Sure, I took walking breaks up the hills, and my definition of a hill changed dramatically as I slogged along, but I was not forced to slow down due to a conga-line, as I had at spots in the first loop. I don't like slowing down, just to cross a little bridge, or to step over a bunch of logs. Just close your eyes and maintain a steady rhythm, and your feet will figure out what to do. Trust me! So the second loop was completed in 1:39, for a fairly even split and a total of 3:14. Because of the conditions, 3:14 is actually a respectable time. I'm very happy with it and hope that with a modicum of training, I can do better!
So, I went home happy and tired. I was invited to my brothers for supper, which would (so I thought) allow me to hit the pillow circa 10:00 PM. Nope, not even close! Supper turned out to be more of a retirement party (I retire May 1) with 80 - 90 of my closest friends. Quite the surprise! Lee Anne had spent 3 months planning the event and it included family and friends from work, running and old acquaintances. Quite the spectacle! The only problem with such an enterprise is that there were 20 - 30 people with whom I would have loved to spend an hour or two talking. However it was great to see everyone and it helped impress on me that retirement will actually happen! I got home with a bunch of retirement gifts and made it to bed at 02:00 AM.
Well, see you soon at the next race!
Even though I live in the area I was a bit surprised to see the quantity of snow on the ski hills at PYP. As in "Hey! There's a bare spot". For me, PYP has been the season opener for a few years. First time I'm allowed out of the sugar shack...
Reports of the trail conditions leading up to the race and on race day were ominous. Snow, ice and mud. Very slow conditions. Perfect! Due to the never-ending syrup season (I boiled down 3 days before the race) my conditioning was laughable. I should NOT be running a 25K race with so little training. A trail race with ski hills. Fortunately, the trails were slow, slippery, treacherous and nearly unrunable in spots. Everyone would have to run at my speed!
I had the usual apprehensions of someone who had only run 28K in the last 2 weeks, during 4 runs. Would I uber-bonk at 20K? Would I make it to 20K? Does snowshoeing out from the sugar shack with a case of syrup on my back count as training? After 40 years of running, I figured something out. If I start slowly and don't do anything really stupid, I can generally make it to the finish line without having to use the Quasimodo lurch. As the race unfolded, all the snow, ice and mud really cheered me up. To indicate how slow it was, first place in the 25K was 2:05! Not the typical 1:45 range. It was tough!
The first 12.5K loop was run at an easy pace, in 1:35. I was tired starting the second loop, but thought I would simply run until forced to walk. I don't know if this occurs because I have leg memory, or some such thing, that tricks my legs into thinking they can actually run for 3+ hours without any training, but I was able to run until the finish. Sure, I took walking breaks up the hills, and my definition of a hill changed dramatically as I slogged along, but I was not forced to slow down due to a conga-line, as I had at spots in the first loop. I don't like slowing down, just to cross a little bridge, or to step over a bunch of logs. Just close your eyes and maintain a steady rhythm, and your feet will figure out what to do. Trust me! So the second loop was completed in 1:39, for a fairly even split and a total of 3:14. Because of the conditions, 3:14 is actually a respectable time. I'm very happy with it and hope that with a modicum of training, I can do better!
So, I went home happy and tired. I was invited to my brothers for supper, which would (so I thought) allow me to hit the pillow circa 10:00 PM. Nope, not even close! Supper turned out to be more of a retirement party (I retire May 1) with 80 - 90 of my closest friends. Quite the surprise! Lee Anne had spent 3 months planning the event and it included family and friends from work, running and old acquaintances. Quite the spectacle! The only problem with such an enterprise is that there were 20 - 30 people with whom I would have loved to spend an hour or two talking. However it was great to see everyone and it helped impress on me that retirement will actually happen! I got home with a bunch of retirement gifts and made it to bed at 02:00 AM.
Well, see you soon at the next race!
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
New Computer... New Operating System... Old Operator
The title is a bit of a joke. I started at Honda back when the earth was cooling, as a mainframe computer operator. Before then, OS360 was introduced circa 1965 and it was still good enough for the 1980's. In 1985 ish, they introduced OS370, a minor upgrade. Think on that. 20 years before a minor upgrade. Nowadays, the operating system changes faster than I change my underwear. Strike that last bit, it sounds ominous.
Here is how my week has progressed: Friday: Upgrade my work laptop from Window XP (no, not joking) to Windows 7. Monday: Install specialized software until just after the cows came home. Tuesday (today), buy a new laptop with Windows 8.1. Now I'm not Amish, although they think so at work, but this week has been a precipitously steep learning curve. First point, for the designers of Win8.1: Are you out of your cotton-picking minds? Who would consider such an obscure, counter-intuitive system as a good idea? I actually want to FIND C drive. I like to dictate the file path so that way out in the future, such as tomorrow, I can FIND the @%#@$ file. I understand hierarchical databases; I don't understand mansy pansy fog-overlaid file storage, where you find what you stored by wishing on a star.
But let's move on to a topic that has caused me some angst in the last month or so. Maple syrup production. I have 73 liters so far. For those who will be demanding their age category prize of syrup at this year's Creemore Vertical Challenge, this translates into "I have enough for the race". I don't have enough for personal and (this is funny) I don't have the 100 liters that people have already ordered, including the dreaded MMSC (militant maple syrup consumers), who believe that pain is a conscionable method of making me understand what and who are important in the grand scheme of things. The good new is that it will be -10 tonight. I have a very shaky and short reprieve from the budding season, when I will lose all hope (yee who enter here) of filling the outstanding orders...
Running? It is not going very well, but I did get a run in with Everhard, a neighbour who normally runs at twice my speed. Everhard brought a couple of friends who were in need of some hill training. Soon the vertical trash talk started and Lance displayed some fine sarcasm while talking of the 4K hill on Collingwood Street (part of which is hill #1 on the CVC course) by thanking us for choosing such an easy hill...
So, I am resigned to a slow and painful "long training run" at the Pick Your Poison race in 2 weeks. I hoped to ramp up the training to make it more of a race. However, the first (for me) race of the season is meant for meeting up with running friends and talking about the long winter!
Dig Deep.
Here is how my week has progressed: Friday: Upgrade my work laptop from Window XP (no, not joking) to Windows 7. Monday: Install specialized software until just after the cows came home. Tuesday (today), buy a new laptop with Windows 8.1. Now I'm not Amish, although they think so at work, but this week has been a precipitously steep learning curve. First point, for the designers of Win8.1: Are you out of your cotton-picking minds? Who would consider such an obscure, counter-intuitive system as a good idea? I actually want to FIND C drive. I like to dictate the file path so that way out in the future, such as tomorrow, I can FIND the @%#@$ file. I understand hierarchical databases; I don't understand mansy pansy fog-overlaid file storage, where you find what you stored by wishing on a star.
But let's move on to a topic that has caused me some angst in the last month or so. Maple syrup production. I have 73 liters so far. For those who will be demanding their age category prize of syrup at this year's Creemore Vertical Challenge, this translates into "I have enough for the race". I don't have enough for personal and (this is funny) I don't have the 100 liters that people have already ordered, including the dreaded MMSC (militant maple syrup consumers), who believe that pain is a conscionable method of making me understand what and who are important in the grand scheme of things. The good new is that it will be -10 tonight. I have a very shaky and short reprieve from the budding season, when I will lose all hope (yee who enter here) of filling the outstanding orders...
Running? It is not going very well, but I did get a run in with Everhard, a neighbour who normally runs at twice my speed. Everhard brought a couple of friends who were in need of some hill training. Soon the vertical trash talk started and Lance displayed some fine sarcasm while talking of the 4K hill on Collingwood Street (part of which is hill #1 on the CVC course) by thanking us for choosing such an easy hill...
So, I am resigned to a slow and painful "long training run" at the Pick Your Poison race in 2 weeks. I hoped to ramp up the training to make it more of a race. However, the first (for me) race of the season is meant for meeting up with running friends and talking about the long winter!
Dig Deep.
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