Almost A Month Later

So it's almost a month since I've last posted. It's ok. Noone reads this anyway.

I have been training 2 a day runs lately to get ready for Death. It's been kind of crazy but I think it has worked out. I ran to work today and then ran 10km at work and the 10km was one of the best runs of this year. I took too much time off for the playoffs and then injured my back wihich caused me 2 more weeks of down time.

Oh well. Canadian death race is only 3 weeks away and I think I will be in top form for the run. 21km through the mountains! Ya I'll do that!

R.

Layed up again

So I made my triumphant return to training only to be halted again! I have now injured my lower back and I am not able to run. I bent over and pulled the muscles and now I can't barely lift my leg without pain. Great.

I got a massage and now I am loosened up a little and the therapist thinks I am dehydrated which probably caused the injury. Now I am hydrating like crazy to try to get back in shape to train for Death.

R.

I'm Back...

I have returned to training. I only missed 2 whole frickin' months! Oh well. You can't have everything. I am now back at it and I am in pain. I have run for the last 3 days. 7km on Wednesday and Thursday and 10km today. I still have my 10km time under 1hr. but not by much. I am dogging it for the last 3km to come in at 57 minutes. I should be fine to do the race in August but I'm not expecting big things as I am just not as ready as I should be for the trail training.

It's good to be back. I missed it and I notice that when I don't run I am angrier and I am less patient. I need to get that back under control and running will assist me with doing just that.

R.

THE NCM HAS PASSED!

So my whole purpose in writing this blog was to break the 4:30:00 Marathon time at the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa.

Well the marathon was today.

I am in Anaheim California.

I guess my 4:30 will have to be officially broken at Toronto international in October.

I am stilll in the Canadian Death Race in Grande Cache AL. in August but that is something completely different.

R.

Training is...

Not Happening.

I have not trained in a week. I am not happy about that but its the reality I am faced with. I am on the road a lot and I can't run from my hotels. Oh well. The body is there. It's just a matter of doing some weight training in the hotel gyms and running some on the tread mill.

R.

PB Baby!!! Personal Best!!!

Let The Season Begin!!!

Today I ran the 1/2 marathon in Montreal. My old PB was 2:09:30 and today I smashed it!

2:02:26!!!

Here are some photos of the race.

My Lovely wife and Duaghter were at the finish to support me with a sign and everything. Thanks guys.

So now it's on to the NCM! The quest for the 4:30 is about to be realized!

R.

Pittsburgh...

I was in Pittsburgh for the last week. No real training. Two 5 mile runs and now I am worried that I have lost a step. I will find out this weekend I guess. 32km on Sunday.

AAAAHHHH!!!!

R.

Ohhh... The Longggg Rrruuunnn...

29km @6:19/km BABY!!!

sundays run was awesome! I am finally at the point where I can feel a wall coming on and run through it. It's been a long time coming. I got to about 24 km when I felt the first signs of a wall coming and I talked my way through it and I ran fine.

I set my Garmin for a 6:24/km pace and I ran 4 seconds faster. Awesome. It may not seem like alot but to me it's pretty significant.

R.

Hills...

I hate hate hate hills. I have to do them though and that stinks. Nothing comes easy when it comes to running. I have to do hills twice a week now just to catch up to where my speed should be. I average a heartbeat of about 154-165 during my runs (a little lower on LSD days) most of the time but not when I do hills. I get up to about 180bpm on hills days and not even when I'm on the hill. I get that just approaching the hill. It's like my body gets nervous in anticipation of the damn hill!

Oh well. Necessary evil I guess.

R.

I'm On My Way...

Yesterday I ran 29km at 7:00/km and I felt great. Must use gatorade in the waterbottle when going on the long runs from now on. Water just doesn't cut it. I used 3 power gels and about half a water bottle of g-ade and I felt like I could have kept going and finished the marathon distance. Whenever I felt the weakness coming on I would pound a gel and chase it with a little drink of g-ade and the feeling would go away. Oh and ADVIL IS MY FRIEND!!! I took an advil at about the 10km mark and I didn't feel the muscles getting stiff at all.

I need to get faster if I'm going to capture the 4:30 time I am aiming for. Right now I am running at about 6:40/km top speed for long distances and I need to get down to a 6:24/km pace. I have started to run hills and I think I am going to put an extra hills day in the routine. I don't know if that's a good idea or not but I'll find out I guess...

R.

I Just Kep' Runninnnn

Saturday was great. Easy 6km run around the glebe. Sunday was 19km at a slow pace and it felt awesome. I was only supposed to run at 7:00 per but I ran at 6:40 instead. I need to get my race time down to about 6:20/km so I am on track. I need to get some time on the weights and hills in order to get this done though.

I've decided that my training for "Death" won't comence until after the marathon at Ottawa. I will be running in the Gatineau hills in order to get ready. I don't want to risk injury on the trails and mountain sides and miss out on NCM. I need to buy trail shoes for this. Damn this race is expensive! $265.00 for entry to the race AND shoes! Oh well! You have to pay to pay I guess.

R.

SHOES DAMMIT!!! S-H-O-E-S!!!

So lunch time came today at 1130 and I jumped on it! I ran to the green room here at the station and put all my gear on! Pants, special underwear, dry fit shirts and socks, shoes...F#*%!!!! Where the hell are my shoes??? You know where they are! At home dammit!

I forgot my shoes so I now have to run tonight at some point if it is even possible!

R.

WOOOHOOO!!!

26km today and it felt great. Well it felt great until I made a wrong turn that cut 2km from the run and I had to make that 2km up by running up and down Macfarlane st. Twice! It was a windy day and to make things more challenging (actually I didn't think about my route so I made things more tricky by accident) I ran through mostly open farmers field road so I had head winds for 2/3 of the distance. Fun!

But there I go being negative again. I did it and I'm happy. I had a 6:47/km average and I am not complaining about that. I had set up the Garmin for a 7:00/km pace and I just couldn't stay slow enough. I tried to run slower and for some reason couldn't.

Tomorrow is a day off (gotta clean the sweaty gym stuff some time) but we are going to ball class in the evening!

R.

BONK!

Today I bonked. HARD!!!

I went out for an easy paced 10km today at lunch and I had a very tough go. I got to about 7km and my energy was zapped! I hate that! I think it means I need to consume more carbs in the morning so that I have the energy needed to complete the run a few hours later. I walked the rest of the way back to the station. I felt like I was going to faint. Can you say more carbs?!?

6km tomorrow. Cereal tomorrow morning.

R.

Tired...

So yesterday was my big triumphant return to the long run and now I am crazy tired. I don't know why. I feel like I'm recovering from some long run or something. I blame it on the time change but knowone believes me.

Oh well, today's a day off so who cares. Early to bed tonight hopefully.

R.

I'M BACK BABY!!!!

So life is as it should be again. I have my family back in my life, I have a family of my own and I'M RUNNING AGAIN!!! After 3 or 4 lonnnng weeks of abscence I have made my return. My shoulder is stil not 100% but I am sure it's close to 85% so I cannot sit still any longer.

Yesterday was the first day so I ran a little 6km steady pace run at about 5:42 per. It was chlly but I was comfortable. Today I pushed myself hard to see what I could do and figure out how much I have lost by not being on the track. I ran 23km at just under 7:00 per and I felt great.

Tomorrow I rest and then Tuesday I begin the real training again.

Thank you to my wonderful wife for her support and her worry.

My love for my sport has returned and now it only hurts a little.

R.

DEATH IN THE MOUNTAINS

I am looking forward to Death!

Best start to a blog entry to date. My Brothers in law (Craig and Al) and my Sister in law (GG) and a friend of theirs have invited me to be a part of their Canadian Death Race, ultra-marathon relay team!!! It is a 125km race through the Rockies in Grande Cache Alberta! I am very excited. Apperently it is one of the most challenging races in the country. People lose toe nails, sections of the race are so steep that some go down on their rear-ends and 1/3 of the entrants don't even finish the race!!!

I am so in!

I wanted to run the Edmonton Marathon but I think if I'm running the relay I might not chance injury.

Check out the website:

Stilllllll Not Running...

So it's been a week since I've run at all and I'm not happy. The shoulder still hurts and I'm falling off the vitamins and greens+ routine. It sucks.

I need to run! This Tuesday I am gong to try a run at lunch and see how the arm feels. Hopefully it feels great.

R.

Still Hurting...Still Not Running!!!

Why is it that getting old has to suck so bad? Normally I wouldn't complain but my frikin' shoulder and neck are not healed yet!!! Why??? I'm only 34 years old!!! So again I ask you WHY??? Am I so far gone that my muscles and tissue have to limp their way through recovery? I need to train damn it!!! I need to run and I can't because every time I try to test it out it hurts like hell. I don't want to re-injure it or make it worse so I don't run. NCM is only a few short months away and I need to get faster.

My lovely wife Kate helps out by massaging the area for me and I am very greatful to her for that. She really does care about me. I don't know what I would do without her.

Need HELP NOW!!!

R.

Ouch...

So here it is Wednesday January 31st and I am not running. Why you ask? Well because I am on the IR, the bench, the sidelines that's right I'm hurt! I injured my neck doing - well I'm not going to tell you what I was doing - it just hurts and it is strained. I ran on Saturday last and after the run I hurt like hell so I have decided to take a few days off so as to not aggravate the muscles. I don't think it will hurt me that much this early in my training and might actually be the smart thing to do.

We men are always bullshitting ourselves into "Oh that doesn't really hurt. I can keep going." All the while our wives, girlfriends, moms what have you, are saying "you know you should rest that so it heals properly." Why don't we listen? Why don't we listen to logic when it is given us? Some claim that "women are the feeling emotional side and men are the logical thinking level headed side of our Yin/Yang world. HA! My lovely wife said I should rest it and I said BAH! I know what's good for me! I ran and now I hurt worse.

Almost fixed now. Won't run today but I will be back at it on Thursday.

R.

Garmin The Great!

I am in awe of my new running toy. It's a Garmin 301 and it's pretty cool. I've had it for about a month now and already I can track my progress. I've noticed that my heart is acting different from one run to the next. On Tuesday I ran 6km at about 5:05/km and my heart rate was 164bpm average which is about 80% of my MHR (max. heart rate). On Wednesday I was to run 10km at the same rate (80% MHR) and I did (162BPM) but my pace was much slower. My pace on Wednesday was 5:45/km. I am guessing that being tired was my big problem.

My body is taking a beating right now. I am doing ball classes on Monday and Fridays (with Mary and Kate) and training for the marathon every other day. Tuesday and Wednesday are my hardest days with Tempo runs on both days.

Need Rest,

Ryan.

Tough Week So Far...

Hey,

It's been a tough run week so far and it's only Wednesday. I had Monday off from running but I took a ball class in the afternoon with Kate which made Tuesday's run a little tired. I ran a "tempo" run which for me means about 6km at about 5 minutes per km. HARD! I am pretty much gasping for air by the end of the run and then it's back at it the same way for Wednesday. Same pace (or at least I tried for the same pace. I actualy ran about 5:45 a km) but this time for 10km! The trick is to be running at about 80% of your Maximum Heart Rate or MHR.

I am happy that tomorrow I am running a "steady" run which means about 6km at about a 6 minute km. Not as tough but it'll still hurt a little bit.

I really enjoy running but right now the training is tough and I just hope I can stick with it for the next 5 weeks at this pace. With the ball classes it should be gradually becoming easier as my core muscles tighten and burn better.

I have noticed that I am crazy hungry all the time again. I must be doing something right. I'm losing a bit of weight but mostly I'm feeling stronger.

R.

Welcome To My Running Blog.

Today is the first official day of my National Capital Marathon training. I've actually been training since November but as of today I get serious. It was -22 degrees outside this morning when I ran and I didn't feel a thing. Layer upon layer of running shirts and tights, yes tights, under the running pants and away I went. The picture above gives you a good idea of how cold it was. I ran 10km in about an hour and it felt fantastic. My Dad says he can do it so much faster in the car.

My plan for this year is to run the half marathon in Montreal in April, the full at National Capital in May, a marathon relay with some family somewhere in Alberta in August, the Edmonton marathon a week after the relay and finally the Toronto International Marathon in October. That is of course if I can stay healthy.

I have great support from my wife Kate and I am trying to complete this my second marathon in just under 4 hours and 30 minutes. My first marathon was in Reykjavik, Iceland in August of 2006 and I finished in 5 hours 8 minutes and 21 seconds. I was very proud of that time but I want better.

Eventually I hope to compete in the Boston Marathon but not until 2008 or 2009. I need to get faster. Right now my qualifying time for Boston is 3:15. I'm not even close. We'll see how this training goes and perhaps next year I will be there.

More later.

Ryan.