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!