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.

You’re such a good listener (not)

The nice thing about running is the more you run the better you get. The caveat is the more you run the more likely you are to get injured. Finding the right balance seems to be a juggling act. You could also say the more you practise anything the better you get, it’s just that in running your improvement is so easily noticeable and likewise measurable (for example, being able to run longer, faster). The same cannot be said about soccer (aka football). During my soccer playing days I very seldom thought of training as something that would make me better. Instead it was the necessary evil which allowed me to be in the starting eleven the next game. (This is not completely true as once in Sweden I missed a full week of practise only to be thrown into a new starting role and because we won the game I pretty much kept my spot until the end of the season). I think the one time I really thought I learned something from practising soccer was when I was playing for Nanaimo United in the top division of the Vancouver island league. The coach was great, but he was of the old British school and made us do all these intricate long ball exercises. I never knew there were so many ways of practising the long ball tactic and it was a lot of fun! Take that, Spain! I’m sad to say, however, that there were many times during my soccer-playing days that I almost wished I’d pick up a slight injury so I could skip the next practise. Now, during my fledgling running days I would hate to have to miss training due to injury. Quite frankly I would try to run through an injury.  

According to Swedish marathon champion and favourite blogger Fredrik Uhrbom, runners are always hurt one way or another, sometimes you have to tough it out and get it done and eventually the pain will disappear. I remember being hurt last year, developing what I think were shin splints. A painful ball developed on my lower leg, I tried to ran through it but when it became so bad I had to stop during a run I took a couple of weeks "off" when I only ran sporadically. When I picked up training again, the ball was smaller but still there and although it didn’t hurt while running, I would feel pain afterwards. I kept running and soon enough the swelling had subsided and there was no pain. Perhaps the injury had healed sufficiently during the light weeks of running, but it’s hard to argue with Uhrbom when something like this occurs and I've heard a lot of people with very similar experiences... but really, listen to your body; by running regularly you’ll know what is serious and what is simply a blemish or muscle soreness. The problem is of course to differentiate between the two. That’s why I say, forget about the intervals, the long runs and all the other types of training we do to improve our running, the most important aspect is to learn to listen to our bodies. 

The Xerox 10k through this park is coming up next week..hopefully I can participate uninjured. Photo: Government of Canada, used with permission.

My shin splints occurred in August last year so I’ve been fearing what August had in store for me this time around.. that popping sound when bending my knee surely must develop into runners’ knee soon, I thought.  Instead, the more I’ve been running lately, the less I’ve noticed it. Then came the ankle sprain scare….Tried running on it, and it worked! Because I’ve really been enjoying my running lately I thought I’d keep on running while carefully monitoring how I felt physically every day, and now 13 days later, I’ve run 13 days in a row since!  I’ve been going by the 20-minute rule: even if you don’t feel completely up for a run, start one and see how you feel after 20 minutes, then make a decision to go home or keep running, and I’ve felt great after 20 minutes every time. Not that I’ve had a problem with not feeling like running, training has been going so well I’ve been raring to head out the door each day. I’ve been feeling fresher than ever after a hard workout, which I speculate may have something to do with me getting used to running every day and therefore requiring less time to recover between workouts. I feel like I know when I’m beat and need a break from running and I haven’t felt like that. 

Recently, focus has been on speed, including fast hill-repeats of 300m, the Fartlek I’ve mentioned before (now extended to five cycles of 4:30 min on and off and faster pace ~ 5:40 pace) and 8 x 800m at 5k pace, 1:30 rest. During the latter I managed to hold 5:30 pace but was that ever tough. I thought about calling it quits after 6 repeats citing excuses such as it is hot out, six is enough, but I kept telling myself when it got tough that "this is the last one" and it worked! I think the same attitude could be applied to long runs if the running gets tough in the final miles. Luckily, I haven’t really had to do that during long runs, but I think I could benefit from running further more often. Therefore I ran 14 miles the other day and I felt great as I handily found a pace just below 7:00 towards the end. I just didn’t want to stop, not even to take a break for water. During that run when passing a couple of friends on bikes one of them said “Wow…You’re being over-taken by a jogger, I’m going to post this on your Facebook”.  I told him “I haven’t passed her yet” as the friend decided to play along and sped up to race me but then slowed down allowing me to pass.   

Naturally, it would have been good to take a pre-emptive day off before fatigue set in, but when you’re feeling this good it’s hard to stop and as I entered my 13^th consecutive day running a break would probably have been wiser. Additionally, I broke the 20-minute rule; I wasn’t feeling good after 20 minutes but seeing it was the weekend and not running on a day off would seem like a waste I kept at it after all… Ironically, I had just been thinking about writing a post about the benefits of hill running over speed-work to avoid injuries. Here, I was blasting through a 12 x 400 m session at 5:00 pace feeling Bolt -fast when my hamstring tightened up. Now I’ve iced it and it feels pretty good the day after so we’ll see. Hopefully I’ll be OK to race the Xerox 10k among the trees of the Arboretum on Tuesday. Either way, I’ll come back smarter and stronger. If I can race, I just hope that all the hill training will have paid off, but that will have to be the subject of a different post.

99 km no problems

Dududu-didudu dududu-didu…. Ah, the Olympics, what a great motivation to run (that was the music from the Olympic medal ceremonies by the way). I've caught a fair bit of the action, even waking up at 7:30 to watch the women’s marathon yesterday. I've really enjoyed the action so far. If you missed the distance races, here is what an analyst had to say about the women’s marathon. Interesting I say, but it’s worth noting that the runner who didn’t wait for things to happen, Mary Keitany, finished outside of the medals in 4^th. I’m looking forward to the men’s marathon on Sunday. A Kenyan will win, but there’s a chance it could be too cold like the Stockholm marathon and then anything can happen...

Check out the ruffles... I accidentally grabbed Anais shorts in the morning and had to run with them for 16 miles... They are comfortable.

  After the 10-miler a couple of weeks ago I set myself the task of running faster. It appeared to me as of late I’ve been scared of breathing hard during my runs so I intended to change that. SO after a 5-mile run the day after the event, I should have been sore but wasn’t, I did an 8 mile progression going from 7:30 to 6 min mile pace over the course of the run. When I hit 6:30-15 pace it seemed like I couldn’t run any faster but then I pushed just a little harder and voila a managed around 6:00 pace for the last two fast miles. It was like I needed to break through a wall and once I did 6:00 pace was no harder than 6:15 pace. So don’t be scared to push the pace this summer for a few miles. The week of the race was a 40 mile week with 6 runs.

With the big race in September now in sight I decided to make myself a training schedule for the next few weeks. It was time to push the envelope just a bit and I made an attempt at running each day of the week, which I’ve never done. I did tempo intervals, sprints or strength routines after easy runs, hill-repeats, a long medium-fast run to build stamina, and a 16 mile run. I also set a goal for this training period to make sure I do the little things. By that I don’t mean drinking raw eggs and running slalom around street signs like the guy in Run fat boy run, but rather:



a) making sure I eat a fruit or something little within 15 min of my run
b) doing my stretches after each run
c) consistently doing strength work and
d) not skipping a run because “it’s only a short run and it doesn’t really matter if I go or not”.  With that in mind, I went for a short run the day following my 16-mile run and I’m glad I did. The long run was harder than I thought it would be but now all other runs seem so much easier. The week concluded with an 8 mile run with Anais and I had done it - ran every day of a week for a total of 99.8 km (or 62 miles) and without any pain or fatigue. I kept going into the next week before taking a break after 10 consecutive days of running.

One of my favourite runs was a fartlek run of four times alternating 0.8 miles at near 10k pace with 0.8 miles of slightly faster than average pace (for me 6:50 pace), which works “speed-endurance”, basically meaning how long you can run at a faster pace such as during a 5 or 10k race. The key is not to completely recover during the slower part of the workout. As always, I include about 15 minutes of warm-up before and cool-down of easy running at a very comfortable pace after the run. I’ve had a real pep in my step as of late resulting in a short, fast, relentless stride - it’s almost like speed-walking. Speaking of which, I noticed that the winner of the 20 km Olympic speed-walk event, well, “ran” just a tad slower than my pace during the May half-marathon..

So everything was working out quite nicely, back in shape and ready for weeks of preparation for the half, when on Saturday I went for a long run with Anais. Two miles into the run I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my lower leg and looked down and saw some large insect attached to it, possibly a hornet, which had stung me. During my runs I’ve been chased by dogs, attacked by birds but this was the first time I had suffered an injury...in the process I dropped our water bottle, stepped on it with my other foot and twisted my foot awkwardly. I was in some discomfort but toughed it out and completed the run. The insect sting was alright, but later that night I could hardly put weight on my other foot and was thinking the worst… Even though there was minimal swelling it felt like a sprain. I quickly looked for examples of similar injuries on-line and uncovered that ex-Toronto Raptor Vince Carter, famous for being out extended periods with ridiculous injuries, once had missed two weeks because of a foot sprain, which greatly instilled hope I wasn’t going to miss much more than maybe a week of running. I applied ice and elevated my foot to help with the healing. In the morning it wasn’t much better, I was limping, but as the day went on I felt stronger and the next day I could walk without any discomfort..what  a relief! Today I ran 5 miles no problem, strangely fast recovery.

From Sea to Farm

 We headed to British Columbia for an extended week to attend Amber & Eric’s wedding, some swimming in the ocean and even managed to do some running! We left with great memories, but since this is a running blog I’ll just mention details about running from the trip: The first morning in Vancouver I joined Anais, Amber and Lisa for a 10-mile run along the sea walk around Stanley park in Vancouver..ah the ocean, amazing!  The next day I went for another run along False Creek to English Bay and back for about 7 miles or so, it was very hot for the West coast but oh-so-nice.  I think those runs were on Saturday, Sunday and I didn’t run until Thursday next – just a quick 5 miles in the surprisingly hilly Cedar area on Vancouver Island. A couple of days later and we were back home in Ottawa; landing late in the evening we got out the airport and were greeted by the most humid heat. Crazy hot, what a difference from B.C! 

Kids' dryer is my favourite Stanley Park attraction...

At this point, the big race of the autumn was about two months away so I realized it was time to get training again. So I jumped straight into training for the big race in September and ran Monday and Tuesday, even though on Wednesday I was due to race in the most anticipated Experimental Farm 10-miler. On the day, we were spared the humidity but it was still some 25 degrees at the time of the race. I was really looking forward to measuring myself against the three guys who had finished ahead of me in last year’s race and figured a time around 1:04 (last year’s winning time) could be accomplished, but with the humidity gone, the mind started to wander believing I could go down towards 1:02. At the starting line I was disappointed to see that the runners from last year hadn’t entered this time around. So who would be the competition? Difficult to say because concurrent with the 10-miler a three-person team relay was taking place and it was impossible to know who was racing the relay or the 10-miler, well, until lap 2 I suppose. Yes, we were about to run 3 laps along the beautiful Experimental farm, so I suppose I was half-expecting a centaur or two to toe the starting line, but what I wasn’t expecting was to see this monstrosity of man beside me with muscles like the Hulk, surely a triathlete and a serious one of that, just hope he’s part of the relay…  Immediately, he took off at an unmaintainable pace, and many runners followed suite, but I was thinking “too fast, I’ll catch you latter” and settled into my own pace around 6:15 min/mile, hoping to step it up during the later miles. Sure enough, before the first of three laps was over I had caught a number of runners, but the monster man had kept on running and clearly was part of the 10-miler, darn. To make matters worse, right on his heels was a veteran runner with an unorthodox running style, who looked like he was barely breaking sweat and chasing him were two other runners that I thought I recognize from past races, then a gap and then there was me. The second lap was agonizing as no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t find the next gear to step it up! I just didn’t have the jump in my step and my pace stayed pretty much even.

The finishing area of the 10-miler at Experimental farm with me coasting home in the center in white and VIP spectator area to the right. I heard floor seats were going for a $1000 on the black market.

 The course has two short out-and-back turns where it is possible to gauge how close/far other runners in front and behind you are, but the distance is deceptive and you feel like people are closer than they actually are. Anyhow, when we passed each other by these points the guy ahead of me kept saying something to me which I think were words of encouragement. Or perhaps he was just trying to confuse me.. No need, after two laps I wasn’t any closer to the guys ahead than after one lap, and when I ran by my superfan Anais I told her I didn’t know what was wrong with me but I just couldn’t get my legs going. Ridiculous, I shouldn’t have been able to talk that much! I prepared for a final push but when I counted how far ahead the competition was, about 35 seconds, I realized I wasn’t going to catch anyone ahead of me apart from people being lapped, so instead of pushing hard I simply cruised for the final 1.5 miles or so finishing in 1:03:14, and 5^th place in the race. Although I was disappointed at first, later on I found out that I had been beaten by two guys who have run 1:13 half-marathons and two others with 10k PBs under 35 min (I did however finish ahead of the 3^rd placed guy in a 10k in April). Most disappointingly is I didn’t enjoy myself anywhere near as much as I did last year when I stepped it up for a final fast lap to sneak into 4^th place with an inferior time of just under 1:09.  I haven’t been doing almost any fast running lately, which I contribute to my rustiness and what I perceived as a lacklustre performance, but with the heat and all it was pretty decent showing after all. If I had just stayed with the faster runners from the start maybe things would have gone differently…In the end I just wasn’t going to dwell on this result; perhaps it wasn’t the result I wanted, but the result that I needed as I immediately ordered myself some “punishment training” and so far so good but more about that later… 

See this link for race results: Official Experimental farm 10-miler race results

Turning back the feet of time

In 30 degree Celsius temperatures you have to alter your speed and go by feel, much like during the winter when the freeze made running at a regular pace difficult. About a month ago I was laughing at all the Kenyans who were competing in the Stockholm marathon, and firm favourites to win the race, had to drop out with only 10 km to go because the conditions were too cold for them...This lead to a Swede finishing 5th, which is unheard of these days in international marathoning, and curiously enough, an Ethiopian winning the race (how do you explain that?). Well, let's just say as of late the Kenyans would have been laughing at me, but I'm about to put an end to that! This week has been a step in the right direction towards acclimatizing to the summer heat with finally some consistent running, and that feels good I have to say. On Saturday, I run 13.5 miles in the heat with focus on not running too fast. I kept to the shade when possible and managed to keep it at a around 7:30/mile pace. Then on Monday, I ran about 6 miles with Anais, and the next day I wanted to run 5 miles at tempo pace. I went by effort and found 6:20 pace to be reasonable. For some reason I'm quite good at consistently holding essentially the same pace mile after mile and I ran almost even 6:20 miles for the duration of the run, albeit I had to push a bit extra towards the end. The 1.5 mile cool-down was nearly pedestrian, evidence I had to dig deep, but it was so satisfying to complete the run as  planned! The next day I ran just over 10 km in my new Saucony A5 and, in spite of the heat, I managed to find an almost effortless stride at around 6:45 pace, which was very satisfying. So now I'm back!

Moving forward, the main goal will be September's half marathon, but there will be a few other highlights along the way and after for sure. For example, next up in mid-July is the 10 miler at the Experimental farm. Previously, I mentioned my last race was a disappointment, but really I've been putting ridiculously high expectations on myself. I've only been running for just over a year and I can only improve, while many of the runners I've been competing with have been running for years. We're going on holiday next week, and although we plan on doing some running it won't be a priority. Nonetheless, I will be fired up and ready to compete for the 10 miler as I think it may be my optimal distance. Last year, I finished 4th and it seemed everyone got a prize but me (as top 3 runners and age group winners received prizes), and as you know I'd love to bring home some premium shoe deodorizer or wrist sweat band, I'll be running my best...

Everyone's a winner! Alterna Ultimate run for men's cancer raised over 400,000 dollars :)

Speaking of prizes, I picked up my age-group trophy from the Alterna Ultimate 10k the other day. They couldn't hand them out on race day because, apparently, there had been some kind of mix up with one of the age group winners. Had Ben Johnson competed in the over 50s division, I wondered? So, I went to pick up my 2nd place trophy last week at the cancer institute, but to my surprise they didn't have me on the list! Had I failed the doping test? No, not this time. They were simply looking for me on the wrong list (no, not the women's list, but because of my "unusual" name that's happened before...). I was registered in the 19-29 age category, and as it turned out I finished 1st..yeah! I tried to protest, but to no avail. As a matter of fact, Anais registered me for the race, so obviously she doesn't know how old I am.. best keep it a secret for now..

The unwilling salesman

“Are you sure about this”? The salesman looked at me with bewildered eyes. I’d been in this situation before and I knew just what he was thinking, “This man is mad, I have to save him”! Sure enough, he suggested I try something more substantial. All the usual suspects were introduced to me.  “Well, I really enjoy running in light, fast shoes. That’s why I thought I’d go for the Ronin but I think I’ll go for the A5s instead”, I declared.  “The A5 is really light, significantly lighter than the Ronin and that one is light to begin with”, the salesman countered. “I think I can benefit from it. It will be a good thing”. Then the salesman played his trump card. “Just out of curiosity, how much do you run”? He was only doing his job, saving mortals from the temptation of fast, light running shoes that should be reserved for.. whom exactly?

We’ve all seen them, the flashy racing flats that make the shoes next to them look like plateau shoes; the Saucony A5 is one of them. I used to think, ”who wears those?! Why do they even bother having those, they never sell them”? At my last race, however, I saw several runners wearing ultra-light racing flats, so why not me? After all, I finished ahead of some of those runners. So, I tried a pair on and it felt just exactly what I wanted to have on my feet:  a fast shoe with good ground feel yet without any flimsiness.

The salesman fumbled for words after my reply to his question. “Five to six times.. per week”?!  Suddenly, he started asking me for advice on shoes...

More holes in them than the German defense against Italy

Of course different shoes are good for different people, but I really feel like many runners could benefit from a light, close-to-the ground shoe instead of a heavier shoe that tries to correct your stride, which is just uncomfortable. Luckily, there is a trend towards lighter shoes becoming popular again, with many people looking for “barefoot-like” shoes that are promoted as bringing runners back to nature and such. Don’t get tricked by the latest fad, “barefoot-like” shoes have always existed and are called racing flats and the Saucony A5 is one of them. Racing flats brings you closer to the ground, which leads to unrivaled feedback for your body as well as your mind on how you’re running. That evening I went for a short run and was even more pleasantly surprised than I could have imagined.  I won’t be running every run in the A5s, but on first impression I think they’ll be good for any type of running, intervals, tempo, regular easy runs and eventually long runs. I say this because I really don’t think there is a direct correlation between the weight of shoes and how far you can run in them.  The A5s are lighter than for example the Mizuno Ronin and my NB 1400s, but they have a wider heel and feel closer to the ground and, a combination which results in a stable ride, which should be good on my feet.  Although on this run it felt just good to be back running, but not only that - this was runner’s high! Yes, good to be back running, finally…

Last time I wrote I was talking about that it was time for some hard training again, but unfortunately, it’s been pretty much the opposite since then. I had allowed myself a week off after the half-marathon at the end of May, which I followed with a solid 40 mile week and seemed to be back on track. I then caught a cold, which I tried to run through, but this only made it worse culminating in what ultimately turned out to be a disappointing 10k race on June 17^th. I took a couple of days off, then last weekend I tried to avenge my poor performance with fast paced intervals 3 x 1.5 miles at 5:50 but that was simply not a good idea as I had to abandon half-way through due to the heat, and suddenly running wasn’t so much fun anymore… When returning home after work I didn’t have the feeling I just had to go for a run that I’ve had all year. How ironic then that I had only recently wished to take my running to a new level (investing in short-shorts, sleeveless running tops and starting this blog). Luckily, my rut didn’t last long. A run with Anais to Dow’s lake and back was exactly what I needed, but just in case this wasn’t enough I knew just the remedy to get my motivation to return – you guessed it, new shoes! So now, follow my example, whenever you don’t feel like running, go buy a new pair of running shoes!  Who knows, maybe you’ll end up with as many as me, haha! Conveniently, what helped my cause is, not only are racing flats cheaper than regular shoes, I also had a $20 off coupon that I had received from participating is the Ottawa race weekend. The real message here, however, is that we should listen to our bodies and sometimes it’s ok to take more time off even though you’ve just taken a recent break. You’ll come back stronger and hungry for more. Hopefully, you feel the same about this blog.