Post-Race and Looking Foward

So almost one week has gone since the Around the Bay. All in all, the race went better than expected and for the first time in my racing career I finished stronger than I started. I usually get very anxious and excited standing on the starting line and during my warm-up before a race. My catecholamine levels are through the roof. My heart is pounding, palms are getting sweaty, and my focus narrows - almost like tunnel vision. When the gun goes off the adrenaline surges and I take off like I'm being chased by a dog off its leash - not hard to imagine for us runners who are frequently barked at and chased by crazy dogs, always got to watch for the little ones especially the yorkies (Ya they are cute and tiny but trust me they will expend every ounce of energy in their tiny bodies to latch on to your ankles)

 In this race however, I was able to hold back the intense urge to take off and stayed calm and in the moment. I was able to hold a 3:27 avg for the first 5k or so, and was in a great rhythm. I caught up with 2 other guys at about 8k and we ran thru the 15k split together. I was sneakingly using one of the taller ones as a shield as we ran across the bridge into Burlington. At 15k I saw 54:20 as my split - perfect pace for what I was aiming for, which was sub 1:50 for the 30k adventure.

At 18k the race turned into a battle - i wish there were cameras to capture it. One of the three in our group bolted and left me and the other guy together to battle the rolling hills of Burlington. On every hill, he would leave me in the dust on every downhill, and then i would catch right back up on every uphill. Short strides, power, and a low centre of mass gives me an enormous advantage on the uphills - repeated stress fractures and a fear of the harsh pounding on my legs gives me a huge disadvantage on the downhills. This pattern continued until about 26k where me and my competitor caught back up to the other guy who had left us at 18k. Together the three of us approached the dreaded hill at 25.5k which continued to 27km. About 200m into the hill I dug deep and remembered all the leg presses, calf raises, hip flexes, and hill repeats I had done and passed both of my competitors as if they we standing still. At the top of the hill I took one look back and couldn't see either one of them. To finish at 28k I could see down to copps collesium and one other competitor about 400m ahead. At 29k i closed the gap to about 150m and at 29.7 passed him with ease. My last two kilometers were done in 3:24 and 3:17 respectively.

Overall Time: 1:49:20 - 21st place overall.
Splits: 10k - 36:00, 15k - 54:20, 20k - 1:12:35

After a race, especially a big one like this one with 9000 competitors, a substantial distance, and a race with as much history as this one (the oldest race in North america - older than Boston) three thoughts often go through my head. First, relief from all that worry and stress leading up to the race. Second, for a few days you feel a little down. Many articles have wrote about this phenomena calling it the post-race blues. You see, for months and months (i signed up for this race in October) your training and focus is centered on March 24. So when March 25 comes along, you kind of feel like, "Well, now what." You have trained for 6 months for this race then suddenly you have to shift into everyday life again. Third, to combat number 2 I look ahead to what is next in 2013. I signed up for the Run for Retina Half Marathon April 14 - the day after having exams 11,12,13, and then the Mississauga Half Marathon on May 5. So the third thought or feeling is excitement and finding a new focus for my training. The last 6 months was all about strength for the hills of Burlington, now it's all about becoming a speed demon for the fast course of Mississauga. My goal: run sub 1:12:30 for the half in May.

In my next post, I will give an update on what measures I am taking to increase speed. This week so far has basically been just about getting back to regular training, although that is not to say I haven't been training hard - by Sunday I will have accumulated 16+ hours of training for the week.

Around the Bay Road Race

G - glute, GN gastroc, V - vastus: look at the incredible
activation of the vastus muscle group. 

So I'm almost 2 weeks now into my training for the Around the Bay road race (30Km) on March 24. I find the best way to keep me motivated to train, is to do highly race specific training. By that I mean, if the course is flat and fast I will do a lot of track work - mile repeats, 800s, pyramids, etc. For the around the bay, the course is notorious for its fast downhill start and brutally difficult final 4km uphill. I hear that after the last hill runners are greeted by individuals in grim reaper costumes. To perform optimally on this course, my training has taken a new course - STRENGTH. Almost every workout I do now has a strength component to it, and I am finishing mostly every run with a 30-60 minute high intensity strength session. In my next post I'll have a quick video of the session. Basically, I've been stressing the quad muscles, gastrocnemius (calf), and the glutes. Here's a graph from a great study I've read on horizontal versus uphill running, notice the * indicates significance.

So here's the workout: I'm doing this now atleast three times a week - over reading week I did it three days in a row.

1. 17 - 19k run - hill based run - I've found a 2k hill loop near my house that I'll repeat 6 or 7 times - each time around is about a 35 m gain in elevation so X7 gives about 245 meters or around 700ft of climbing.
Tip: When going uphill focus on high cadence, keeping your shoulders back, elbows back, leaning from ankle not hips. Shalane Flanagan (American Distance Runner legend who holds a number of American records in track and now has branched into the marathon where in her debut she ran a 2:28 in NYC, and PR of 2:25) compares uphill running to feeling like your legs are firing like pistons in an engine.

2. Get home, grab some water and get downstairs to the weight room. For all the exercises try to move from one to another without any break. Start with 1 set of 20 squat jumps with weights. Move to the leg extensions for 1 set of 25. Back to squat jumps, repeat the circuit 4-5 times. By this point your legs should be burning.

3. Move into one legged calf raises, 4X5 sets of 20 per leg.

4. 3 sets of lunges with weights, and try to finish each lunge with a twist - to engage those obliques.

5. Get a resistance band do glute extensions (basically standing donkey kicks) 3 sets. Next go onto the floor and perform 3 sets per side of side leg raises.

6. Finish with bench press, hammer curls, and tricep dips. For these use light weight because let`s face your a endurance athlete- the upper body is not exactly bulging with huge muscles.

6. From here, you could hop on the bike trainer for a cooldown, or do what I do and finish with a 15-20 minute core workout - I`ll post my favorite 20 minute core workout in the next post.

7.  Stretch, hop in the shower, grab some milk or whatever your favorite post-workout recover drink is, and melt away into the couch to watch some Food Network. Hopefully you`ve finished before 4pm so you can see chopped and diners, drive-ins, and dives. Later that night try to have a high protein meal - my go to is an Energy Omelette here it is:

3 Large Omega 3 Eggs
0.25 c. of baby spinach
0.25 c. of red or black quinoa
0.5 red bell pepper
0.5 white onion
1 tsp. flaxseed (putting the omega 3 content thru the roof)
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. Extra Old Low-fat (blue menu) cheddar cheese

Nutrition Facts: 532 kcal, 32 g total fat (6g sat.), 150 mg of sodium (from the cheese), 34 g CHO (6g fibre, 1g sugar), 28 g of high quality protein (quinoa is a complete protein source)