Brooks haunted house & Half Marathon training

When shoe manufacturer Brooks parked a double-decker bus down the street for me I just had to check it out, kinda looked like they converted a carnival/fairs ground haunted house into some kind of promotional gimmick, nice! There were some people sitting by a table, who promised prizes if I gave them my name and address. Sure, stop by to clean up our place any time! I won Run happy sunglasses. Finally I will be able to act like a serious runner running in hi-tech sun glasses..not really, just cheap dollar store shades (Anais says they look like classic Ray bans). Well, at least now I have a new pair to match Anais’ new pair; she just had laser eye surgery and now has to wear sunglasses when outside and when sleeping. I was a bit concerned as now she would be able to really see what I look like but she hasn’t left me yet so it’s ok. Actually, she is “working late” right now, so maybe I take that back…

Who is brave enough to enter? Me that's who!

But here I was in front of the Brooks haunted house bus and then I noticed there was a pair of My Little Ponies on the table of prizes so I inquired how one could win one? I was informed you could not but that they would consider exchanging for a really cool toy. Since I was on my way to the grocery store I offered a plastic bag I had brought with me and pointed out that “it’s a great toy for kids to play with”...They weren’t convinced of its value so I had to reinforced it, “it’s full of air, after all that’s what runner need, isn’t it”? At least they thought that funny and offered me a free gait analysis. This will be fun. So I entered the bus, up the stairs, signed a waiver and onto treadmill. After a brief run my feet were shown on a television screen and it was pointed out to me there was an angle between my foot and my leg of about 172 degrees when landing (as opposed to 180), therefore I was pronating and promptly recommended to run in the beefiest shoes available… terrible conclusion and a very lame gait analysis. I was told my feet were bending but I sure couldn’t see it, not even in slowest motion; in fact, after landing on the treadmill my feet looked surprisingly stable with no inward bending after foot-strike! At least to the guy’s credit he said to stick with what I currently use if it works for me.  “Run until you can’t run no more” was his advice... One thing to come out of it was that there was no difference between my right and left foot in the foot-to-leg degree regard, which I thought there might be. I’m not sure if the foot-to-leg degree really is of any importance. Indeed, when you run your foot should land close to under the centre of your body and consequently your leg will not be perpendicular to the ground, hence the deviation from 180 degrees between foot and leg as noted by the Brooks gait analysis… 

Meanwhile, Half Marathon training has been going really well since returning from injury, with plenty of speed, distance, and speed combined with distance, yet no hamstring or knee pain at all! The only blemish, a blister under my big toe nail..ouch!  That’s what happens when you run this much (in chronological order):

Wed 12.5 miles. Long run along canal (Campus, Mooney’s, Dow’s), felt very good, no feeling of hamstring at all.. pace, a speedy 7:06 average. 

Thu 5.5 easy on tired legs.

Fri rest

Sat 13.0 Long steady-turned-temp run of 8.8 miles: 6:22, 19, 19, 23, 26, 44 (Hog’s back hills were killing me), 28, 26, 18.. very tough in the end, but this is promising. Route is a simulation of Army run half (Rideau to Hog’s back, to Arboretum/Dow’s).

Sun rest, another day off to make sure hamstring is ok.

Total: 38.1 + 1214 = 1252.1

Week 25

Mon 12.6 Afternoon run on Labour Day; deceptively hot (29 Celsius, “feels like” 33), I felt over-heated early on and planned on cancelling the 3 tempo miles I thought of doing at the end of this long run. Included 1.1 of fast running at mile 9 (it just happened) 6:15-5:55.

Tue 5.8 in the rain..felt nice to be running when almost no one else were, and Cannonball cool-down did the trick afterwards (plus planks).

Wed 11.1 Fartlek: 8 x alternating 0.6 miles ~½ mara goal pace (ave 5:57), 0.4 miles ~6:50 pace. Hot and humid evening run, so I was very pleased. “Rest” segments were difficult to keep up towards the end, but the final one I even managed to step it up for some 6:20 pace..felt very good afterwards. One year ago I was doing tempo runs at 6:50 pace!

Thu 2.7 Easy run before dinner at Anais’ parents to rid of tired feeling in legs.

Fri 10.6  Tempo for 7.5 miles: right on target! 6:02, 03, 02, 00, 5:59, 5:59, 6:01, 5:55. Caveat being I took a break jogging over the locks by Arboretum @ mile 5… right now keeping up the pace for extended periods is mental – get over it! Still a good effort though.

Sat 5.6 easy in the wind but perfectly timed between thunderstorms and heavy downpour.

Sun 13.7 Long with Aaron initially which was very nice, @8-8:30 nice as well for a change, then approximately 7:00 pace until mile 10 when I did a 3-mile threshold run, mile paces: 6:06, 5:53, 5:44. Perfect running conditions, about 17 degrees, overcast.

Total: 62.1 + 1252.1 = 1314.2 miles

Week 26

Mon Rest

Tue 9.2 Intervals: 3 x 2 miles, 2:40 jog in between, 5:50 min/mile pace average. Good stuff.

Looking back at this I notice that almost every other run has been over 10 miles, which goes along with my belief fast-paced long runs are perfect preparation for the half marathon. Last week equalled my longest ever milage week, but this week I’m taking it easier with the blister needing some care and the race coming up on the 23^rd… I can’t wait!

The No Race report

Last week I strained my hamstring during a speed session. I quickly put on my doctor’s outfit and prescribed myself some rest, about a week I thought should do. Problem was the Xerox 10k race was only 3 days away and given how well my training had been going until the injury I badly wanted to race! I had had no problems walking normally, but a short run the day before the race revealed there was about 99.9% chance I wouldn’t be able to compete the in the race – there was just this dull tightness in my hamstring that inhibited my normal movement . Of course on race day I just had to give the 0.1% a chance. I met up with Anais at home and as we made our way to the Arboretum rain clouds were gathering over Ottawa, some relief from the heat, ideal for running!  However, when I tested out my leg it was clear I wasn’t 100% - jogging felt fine and perhaps I could have given it a go, but chances were that sometime during those 6.2 miles the hamstring would have given in and all I would have accomplished was additional weeks off running… so, no race for me.

Part of the Xerox 10k race course map. First one to crack the tree numbering code wins a prize! I hung out in the recovery area, but there was no miraculous return from injury this time...

Oh, well. What's a race in the Arboretum? After all, I suppose it would be frightfully dull, and..and..and boring, and..and completely... completely  wonderful! But enough of quoting Cinderella -I was fine with not running in the race.  In fact, seeing so many people race made me happy inside and cheering Anais on was fun. Perhaps there was indeed a Cinderella in the park that night. At the bustle and hustle at the start someone lost their shoe..and it was Anais! If my shoe had been stepped off by someone else I would have been angry and possibly quit, but Anais carried on as nothing had happened, impressive! The race was three laps around the park so I got to cheer Anais on three times – the same number of times as I got to see her during the NY Marathon last November…great memories! I hope one day Anais will be able to cheer me on during a NY Marathon, but right now that seems far away, but I digress. It was the perfect evening to race in August: overcast and surprisingly mild. In the end, there were a bunch of runners who finished in the 35-37 min range, so I bet it would have been a lot of fun to have been involved, but my lack of discipline left me injured. This day, however, I was disciplined as it turned out a good decision not to run. More importantly, when was I going to be able to run again? After all, a hamstring pull is a tear of the hamstring muscle, not just a discomforting, aching muscle due to training. A quick look online suggested anything from running through the pain (which was also heavily opposed by the majority) to 4 weeks off with no running for a mild hamstring strain. Luckily, I found the real answer in my favourite book. Yes, now that I wasn’t running I found myself with some extra time on my hands, and I managed to read and best of all water color the street in front of our house (or let's face it, a very limited portion of it).

So my favourite book, Anais simply refers it as “the green book”, is formally known as The Secret life of Tony Cascarino, and a great (soccer) book!  Or as the reviewers put it: “Compared with the standard-issue footballer’s autobiography, this is Tolstoy” or simply “It’s a lot more interesting than David Beckham’s”… yes, it’s that good…Anyhow, in this masterpiece, pro-footballer Tony Cascarino pulls his hamstring during a game of tennis, plays a game of soccer three days later but he was not OK and likely aggravated the pull and ends up missing another week and a half due to the injury. Not to tout my own horn, but I ought to be in at least the shape of an Irish footballer in the top British beer-infused league of the 90s (book spoiler alert: Tony Cascarino wasn’t really Irish but got away with it and became one of the country’s most capped players).  Therefore, about a week or so off running and then back on track, I thought. A week never went by slower, but there were benefits. I felt fresher. Now a week later and two runs post-strain, it seems like I really made the right decision. In fact, during my week off my right foot made a complete recovery from the sprain it suffered during the “insect attack incident” (previously, after runs, it felt dull and numb and I was favouring it a bit during sprinting, which probably led to the hamstring strain). So something good came of all of this, and I’m rested, healed and with a few weeks to go until the half marathon there is every chance I can still have the best race possible. After a couple of regular runs, focus will be on race pace and long tempo runs from now, exactly the type of work-outs I enjoy, and focus, focus.