Post Race

Finally get a chance to update my blog, and give a report on the Casablanca 8k from last weekend. So as you know I was using this race merely to put some energy back into my legs, and kind of forget about STWM. Even though I will never forget my performance on that perfect day, the race will help me start to look forwards instead of continuing to look back. So the day started pretty early, but not crazy early, since the race had a nice sophisticated 10 am start time. Got there just after 9, so I was able to get a real good warmup in on what was looking like a brisk day. Throughout the skips, and strides back an fourth thoughts about this hollowing wind started to creep in. That south wind that was forecast was even more pronounced than I thought since we were right along lake ontario - Side Note: If I lived in Grimsby, I would run here all the time - just a beautiful back drop with the water, it looked like there was even a trail right by it, and boy the course was flat as a pancake (If I wasn't windy I bet you could just fly on this road). So got up to the line I asked one competitor what time he was going for, he told me with a straight face, "well 8k is not my distance I am a 7k runner." I laughed to myself, well okay maybe a little chuckle outloud as I responded, "Okay, well what time do you normally run a 7k in." He said, "Under 21 min." Again I chuckled a bit to myself, as I looked at his reebok cross fit shoes and knee length shorts - ya I labelled him. Then some more serious looking competition took the line. I've said in the past the problem with some of these smaller shorter races, and why I have essentially given up checking the confirmation list before I go, is because you frequently get these speedy track/XC runners looking for a fast workout and signing up the day of of just before. In this case, three runners from etibicoke track club toed the line, one guy said he was aiming for 26 min and hey that was what I was aiming for, so decided he (Jake) was my rabbit - later found out that he ran in the New Balance Indoor National Championships running a 3:50 or so 1500m - some real speed in those legs.

Gun sounded and we were off, first k was awesome I sat back of the three track runners perfectly shielding myself from the harsh winds, and running probably the easiest 3:08 kilometer of all time. Also at this point reebok superstar over there, dropped off like a stone. We started N into the park cruising along in nice organized 4 person line, literrally almost hitting each others feet as we strided along. I stayed in second place because I wanted to be able to try and react quick enough if the leader tried to push it or not - Remember it is only an 8k race so one bad move or lack of move and there is no time to make a comeback. And as I suspected the leader (Jake) took off and I responded sticking on his heels (we are running 3:16-3:17 at this point - on nice tightly pack gravel). And now it was just me and Jake, him leading, me sticking in behind. At 5k though was the TSN turning point. As we started heading south back to the finish, we were met but a fierce wind. Jake slowed down to a crawl pace - 3:34 - I looked at my watch and I thought this would destroy my time, so I got real aggressive and took the lead over for myself - and I may as well have handed the other guy the winning medal right then and there. He tucked in behind me, I knew I made a mistake, and his coach from the bike on the side told his athlete, "okay just stay in there that's good." Almost like I needed another voice telling me what a bad mistake I just made, because my inner voice screaming at myself in my head saying "you stupid, stupid, idiot" wasn't enough. Well as my inner voice and I suspected my legs got absolutely gased by the effort into the wind, slowed to a 3:26 and then 3:30 kilometer. About 1 mile to go, Jake cruised passed me. For a brief moment I pulled back to his heel, but couldn't stay there, the snap and pop of my legs was gone. Although Jake beat me with 26:52 and I rolled into finish in second place with 27:07 (as I mentioned with the wind this was not going to be an incredibly fast race - just averaging 3:22/km), I think If I had two more kilometers I could have comeback to win. This is based on the fact that I was actually gaining a bit on Jake by the end, and after the race he was huntched over clutching his knees and looked absolutely spent. I came in and was more upset at both myself and the announcer saying the wrong name as I crossed the line than tired - since remember this was my average pace for the half marathon in may, sure this was a harder effort cause of that wind but overall given a kilometer or so I was recovered and could keep going.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I look to learn something from every race. In this one especially there is lots to learn. Firstly, the mistake was not just taking over the lead to get killed by the wind, the mistake happened even before that. It was when I looked at my watch and saw 3:34, panicked about my time, and then decided to take the lead. The lesson is that you have to commit to either winning the race or to running your goal time. Sometimes you just can't do both. If I said I didn't care about my time and just continued to stay in behind Jake, then blast the last few hundred meters, I would've had a much better chance of winning. If time was my goal, than I did the right thing since if I stayed behind Jake and let him do all the work our time would've be in the high 27s, since he had slowed to 3:34, and when I took the lead I brought in back to 3:26. Now having said that, its not to say that if I committed to winning the race and stuck in behind Jake I would have certainly won, because as I mentioned before this is a track runner with close to 4 min/mile speed and a damn good 800m time. So perhaps if I waited until the final 400m to get going, Jake most likely would have the advantage in a 400m foot race. The second lesson, is about goal setting. During the race, seeing 3:34 briefly on my watch set me into a furry because I thought this would destroy my chance of getting my time that I set before the race. And I am not saying that having a specific time goal is wrong, because having specific goals that are measurable is a key aspect of goal setting. For example, If I said before the marathon my goal is to run hard that's not specific or measurable. There is no meter on the side calculating how hard your running, so when you cross the line how do you know if you accomplished the goal or not - could you have gone harder. In contrast, having a time goal is very specific and measurable so it is an effective motivational tool, in that you will know if you achieve the goal or not. Having said that, although specificity is important, goals also have to be adjustable and realistic. Road running is markedly different than say running the 5000 m in a closed stadium on the track. In road running, conditions can play a huge role in your time. For instance if you run say a 31 minute 10k on a exceptionally flat course is it realistic to think you will run the same 31 minutes on a course that has lots of hills? Of course not. Just like, if you run 3:07 and 3:08s on the track with no wind the Thurs. before the race, it is not realistic to think that is possible on a windy day out on the road. As much as setting these time goal is important, I have to learn how to adapt and adjust to the conditions of the course layout and the weather on any given day. And I think that skill will take time and practice. For example, I'm not entirely sure how much time a windy day will add to my pace because I haven't raced in those condition enough yet. Based on this race I can maybe estimate that the wind will add about 7 seconds per kilometer during a 8k. So during a marathon that may equate to something around 5 minutes.

So that's it for the 2013 season. Right now the my training is going well. The goal is to get in at least 2 speed workouts a week, one being a tempo run, and one intervals on the track. For now the intervals are not marathon specific ones like 3x4miles (6.4k) or 10-12x1mile, I'm just trying to work on pure leg speed with shorter ones like 200m/400m repeats. The other day I did a good one alternating 400m/200m 9 times with only 30 sec active recovery in between each. Also I'm currently doing quite a bit of strength work, really trying to strengthen my rhomboids to pull my shoulder blades back a bit. In terms, of mileage this week will be a little over 100k, will stay at that next week as well, and then will try to spend about 2 weeks at 120-130 just building my base mileage for the year. By Christmas I probably be back around 160k. Time to go out for what else another run - first of 3 exercise bouts on the day, friday's will be my day of two-a-days and will bike in between. In other news, my green adios went out on a 9k tempo run on wednesday, the legend lives on.

Refocusing and Rebuilding

After my performance at the STWM which was the grand finale to my 2013 season, it is difficult to refocus and mentally prepare for the next season. I was looking at some of my stats from the 2013 season and since Jan 1st of 2013 until the end of October 2013 (10 months) I ran more than 6000 km, climbed more than 35000m (4 times up mount everest), burned more than 500,000 kcal (just to put some perspective 3500 kcal is 1 pound of pure fat, so 500000/3500 = 143 lbs of energy used), and between running, strength training, and cycling more than 700 hours. With such big numbers it's hard to get myself mentally prepared to do it again next year, and with even more kilometers and effort. Because when it comes down to it the goal is to improve week to week, month to month, and ultimately year to year. In 2012 my biggest running week was  145 kilometers, in 2013 my biggest was 230 kilometers. That is a 58% increase! What impact did that have on performance 2:52 marathon --> 2:34, a 10.5% improvement. Another 10% is a 2:18 marathon, 14.8% would mean Olympics. So how do I get that. Well it won't take one year, not two, not three, but the beauty is I'm 21 yrs old - if I can gain 2% per year math says 7.5 years from now - oh my goodness look at that, that is the year of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

 Nice to dream about the future, but for now the only way to get there is to make it my goal to improve every week, and be better tomorrow than I am today. That starts with re-energizing my legs and my drive for winter base-building by racing tomorrow in the Casablanca 8k. The only unfortunate part about the whole thing is I was so excited to try out a new racing flat-the Nike Lunarspider R3, all 5.6 ounces of it, all of it fast. Living here just north of Toronto, you would think you could access anything you
needed or ever wanted. But no, running stores in Canada don't sell any true racing flats, and now running warehouse has basically stopped shipping to Canada. Must be too difficult to ship to us living here in igloos in the tundra or something. Plus, Saucony Canada is a joke, for God sakes update your site, the cortana 2s are like 2 years old, I wear to cortana3s yet according to their site they are not out yet. Nike, don't get me started, so much flash, sure it looks really pretty, yet try navigating through it quickly and I doesn't look so pretty with loading circles spinning endlessly. Whatever I'll stop ranting, looks like I'll be wearing my marathon racing flats (adios 2.0). I could wear my interval/10k flats the adidas hagio 2.0 but they are currently in palliative care. Just making sure the transition to shoe heaven is painless. In terms of the gameplan for the race,  pretty simple - run fast and maybe try to have some fun along the way. Last night was a great high-intensity average about 3:07 per kilometer on loose gravel track for 7 x 1km repeats (HR got to 191). Now I'm not expecting to go 3:07 per k for 8k but I would be content going 3:13-3:14 for something around 26 minutes. But that be said I'm not going to put to much pressure on myself, the goal here is not to set a world record or anything its just to get myself pumped up for the long winter haul. Conditions or tomorrow look to be okay, but it will be interesting. The temp. looks good 6 degrees feeling like 2, but the interesting part is the 33km S wind. Now you are never going directly N or S, you start going WNW, then NEN, then turnaround to SWS, and back ENE. So yo are always on an angle to the wind, which I have never raced in before, but like I mentioned a couple posts ago, I try to learn something for every race so I can improve for the next one. So until next time, as the kenyans say train hard, win easy.