I am so behind on posting, here we are two and a half months into the “new” year. How did that happen? I have been running, I swear, though with mixed success. I seem to be working hard on my runs but not necessarily making progress. Or at least it doesn’t feel like it.
That said there have been a lot of fun runs and more snowshoe running than I have ever done. Some of that running included an afternoon out with CBC Ottawa’s Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco and my family to film a segment for his news series “Cold Play”. You can check out that segment here:
https://drive.google.com/a/ocsb.ca/file/d/0B74RsvCDhpDEN3ZrUTRTYUJCMFk/view
It was a fun afternoon though I can tell you that you do a lot more standing around than running for a t.v. shoot. At -25C we were more than a little cold out there when not in motion! The part we really enjoyed was Omar’s invitation to come to the CBC Ottawa news studio the night the segment aired. He gave us a full tour of the studio and the boys got to hang out at the anchor desk with host Adrian Harewood after the show.
If you watch the Cold Play segment you will also see Omar’s piece about snowshoe Ultimate Frisbee. Madtrapper race director Mike Caldwell organized what I believe was the area’s first such tournament as part of Ottawa’s Winterlude. Mike, the boys and I joined up despite three of us having no knowledge of the game. Evan was introduced to it this year in grade 7 so he was able to fill us in on some of the rules. We also invited our neighbour who has played for years to join our “Ultimately Doomed” team in the hopes we would not be totally slaughtered! We ended up playing some serious ultimate types (including a few who didn’t seem to notice that they were playing against a 10-year-old and were all over him – really?) but had an amazing time. Three losses and one tie – not too bad! We are already planning on signing up for next year.
As for running, well like I said I have definitely been out there. I had to take a week off in January because of surgery to try to fix the finger that I dislocated back in June while trail running. The surgery was somewhat successful but the finger still does not like to straighten, or completely bend for that matter.
Otherwise I am usually managing to fit in 40-50k of running (or snowshoeing) a week. I believe snowshoeing season is officially over now. There is still snow out there now but when we went out last week it was so wet my snowshoes ended up raised off the ground due to the build up of snow in the crampons.
This winter that started late made up for it by dumping lots of snow in the last half of the season. It certainly made running a bit of a challenge when you had days like these:
This is my driveway!
Fun on a snowstorm day!
Note the wall of snow beside the sort-of ploughed sidewalk.
Let it snow!
It wouldn’t be winter without ice. This is not a lake, it is a field near my house.
I have tried hard to do more specific runs; tempos, speed intervals, strides and of course long runs. Yet somehow I am running slower. I feel like I am working harder for slower paces. One of the advantages of starting running later in life is you get P.B’s at an age when long time runners are slowing down. Perhaps as I approach 47 I have hit that stage of losing pace. I am hopeful though that as spring comes I will still find the odd P.B.
Right now my eyes are on the Around the Bay 30k race. It is only 3 weeks away and I admit I am mildly discouraged. On the one hand I know I can do the distance. In long runs I have done a 23k, 24k, 25k and 27k plus a half marathon and a 14k snowshoe run (which time-wise converts to about a half marathon). I would have liked to fit in a 30k run before the race but I don’t think that will happen. I will do one more long run next week – probably 27 or 28k – and then start the taper. Yesterday’s 27k long run wasn’t bad, in fact I ran it only a second per km slower than I ran the race 2 years ago. Technically I know I should be happy with that for a training run. My worry is I just don’t feel like I have it in me to go faster for that distance. When I ran the race in 2014 I finished in a surprising 3:04. The weather was perfect and I felt great that day. I really would like to get a sub three-hour time this year but I am not feeling confident.
Probably what is not helping is the fact that last weekend I ran a very disappointing 2:04 Hypothermic Half Marathon. While I wasn’t looking for a super fast time at that race, I did expect to be faster than that. Last year at this time I ran a 2:01 half in Prague and I don’t think I was running any more than I am now. The half marathon last weekend beat me up, physically and mentally. I just kept getting slower on a perfectly flat course. I am hoping it was the lack of fueling that was the root problem. I opted to wear my hydration backpack filled with Tailwind only to discover that despite the beautiful sunny day it was still cold enough to freeze the hose, meaning nothing but water from the stations until it started to thaw around 14k. For me, that is too long to go without taking fuel. At 18k I actually had to stop and take a long walk. I suppose the lack of a taper may have played a role too given the fact I had run a 25k long run the weekend before. I did get a nice medal and a full brunch afterwards so all was not lost. The advantage of having a slow 21k run is that I also still had energy in the afternoon and was able to get 5k of snowshoeing done, though admittedly there was more walking that running!
So I now find myself trying to be cautiously optimistic. Technically I should be able to run at least a slightly faster time at ATB this year. Realistically, there is a possibility that I will be slower. Hopefully I will at least enjoy the run as much as I did last time.
Happy spring running!
Just a little wet on our road!
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