Dave Reed Spring Classic 5km - Race Report

How to Find your 3km Pace in a 5km race

12/226 Overall, 11/140 Males, 9/43 20-34 Age Group

After 10 days of now running then a relatively light week as I eased back into the swing of things I lined up at the starting line of the Dave Reed Spring Classic 5km in Stanley Park. This race is put on by VFAC and although one of the smallest I have done this year was highlighted by a strong field and good organization.

Coming to the strat line my only speed session in the last three weeks was at Forerunners during their Wednesday Night Clinic in the days preceding this race. The legs felt good after a couple weeks of treatment and rest and although my form is not yet back to normal I felt like I could race this one pretty well.

Air horn went and the first 400m before heading up the hill past Lumberman's arch was pretty narrow. Not wanting to get caught up in narrow stretch and keen to run a fast time I headed out a little bit to aggressive - perhaps my Netwons made me run too fast :)

Up the hill I tried to make sure I found a rhythm and ended up going through the Mile Mark 5:11 in 9th Place and on track for 16:08.

Tried to hold with the group I was in for the next mile but soon discovered around km 3 that there was not a lot of gas left in the tank. Held on for the last 2 km including some agility work at the Brockton lighthouse barriers but pace continued t drop in the last km and crossed the line in 17:10.

All in all was a good hitout and depending on how the tangents were calculated it looks like the course may have been a little bit longer than other 5km's races held on the same loop potentially adding a 100 or so meteres to the course. Regardless was good to "Blow out" after running the first couple of mile at a 3km pace and learn a lesson about pacing and that the "go out hard" plan may not be the one for me.

Next on the list is a couple of weeks of solid training and a slight "taper/rest" ahead of the Vancouver Sun Run and potentially the Victoria Times Colonist.

Post Dave Reed Spring Classic 5km Thoughts

So raced the Dave Reed Spring Classic 5km Today. Came 11/140 Males and 12/226 Overall.

Rumor is course as you run it is around 5.15km depending on the interpretation of the tangents with the seawall/bike path dynamic as was the same course as the St Patrick's Day 5km but Start - Finish differential was around 150m more.

Anyway in the end given the last 3 weeks included 10 Days of rehab with no running and only 60km and 1 quasi speed workout are reasonably happy with the time as with the above information would be within my C Goal for the race.

Started out a little to aggressive and was closer to the front than I would have liked after about 400m and the start of the lumberman hill it would appear and was through the Mile mark at 5:11. Managed to hold on to the group I was with until about the 2 mile mark but then it started to unravel in the last mile and a bit and ended up crossing in 17:10.

Managed to throw up a little post race so I know at least I pushed myself and acheive one of my season goals if I consider this a V02 Max workout. Now looking forward to a few weeks of quality traing before the Sun Run and possibly Times Colonist. Have to get a mole removed form my Calf on Monday so hopefully will have no more than one or two stitches in the leg .

Event was super well run and huge credit goes to VFAC for that and had a good time racing. Warmed down in the trails of Stanley park and may do my tempo progression run there next weekend.

Need to get on the bike trainer for a couple of hours tonight before a swim and more trianer time tommorow.

FYI having not raced this distnace before this counts a PR :)

5km Time - Guaranteeing a PR

Like Joe Namath I am going to guarantee a PR tomorrow (Guaranteeing Victory would not be possible given the fact the field is to strong for me to consider that possibility)

Factors that should help with promise - do not racing 5km before.

The race is the Dave Reed Spring Classic and is held around Stanley park. Being a race in the Timex series the field will be strong and my race plan is as follows;

• Start out hard for the first 500m
  
• Attack the hill up behind the aquarium
• Accelerate on the downhill
• Hold on for the last 3km

This race plan could come to disaster but will also give me a good idea about how hard I can push and if it comes of should hit a good time.

Here are the A, B and C's

A Goal - Sub 16 - No Logic to this one but could claim that I have a 15 min 5km if I run 15:59 :)
B Goal - 16:30 - Based on McMillian Calculator of my Icebreaker 8km Time
C Goal - Sub 17 - Should hit this but you never know

Feel rested up well for this one after the pinched nerve 3 weeks ago. Had essentially 10 days of running and have put in around 60km in the last 8 days and are feeling steadily better. At the moment my gimp factor is 0.25/10 and feeling 98%. If I get sub 16 I will upgrade that to 0/10 Gimp and 100%

Time to lace up the newtons and put in a solid 20 minutes with strides, eat dinner crash then go time tomorrow.

Motto for tomorrow's race - Go Hard or Go Home.

Action Shot

Action shot...50m to go in San Diegoto Half. Haven"t analyzed foot strike but was working pretty hard at this point.

Thanks Elise for the photo

The 4 Minute Post

Waiting for Whitecaps Tickets to go on sale sop thought I would do a post with the plans for Saturday.

Just did an hour swim, think the magic bullet is to learn how to scull, will mean I learn how to pull then put my monster kick to good use. :). Next is buy MLS tickets before coffee and toast. Head out for a trail fartlek run then hit the bike in the afternoon. If I am really good should hit the pool again for 30 tonight.


Here is one of my favorite photos from san Diego, hopefully is a little warmer out in vancovuer today (No 6000ft climbs though)


Out - tickets to buy !!!!!!!

Ghosting, Cleaning and Motivation

Quick Stats March 08 to March 09 competed in 17 Races in which I Swam 13km, Biked 580km and Ran 261km.

Got this stats after I created my motivation wall in the Den as part of the cleanup/build I did.



Races numbers on this wall are;

08 UBC Olympic Tri, 08 Sun Run, 08 Shawnigan Lake Half Iron, 08 Victoria Half Iron, 08 Peachland 10km, 08 Vancouver Half Iron, Ironman Canada, 08 Bike Barn 10km, 08 Sooke Half Iron, 08 Turkey Trot 10km, 08 Fall Classic Half Marathon, 09 San Diegeto Half Marathon, 09 Harry's Spring Run Off 8km. Missing from the wall until found (if I still have them) are 08 Gunner Shaw 10km, 09 Pioneer 8km, 09 Chilly Chase 10km and 09 IceBreaker 8km.


Next is an idea for cross training. Spent 2 hours tonight watching Hamish and Andy clips with Les. Cheaper than going to the movies and freaking funny.



During this internet entertainment did some handy work again today and now have room for my bikes to hang, bike clothing on the wall, shoe rack and swim, run and bike tubs to make getting out the door at the speed of superman possible. Anything that can maximize training time is a bonus.

Chiro went well again today and got a 90 minute spin in while playing MLB 08 on the PS3.

Couple more pieces of toast and vegemite and sleep awaits.

I ran today!!!!!!

Midseason break is over and injury recovery is on the way. Had chiro today on the leg and some Active Release Therapy and some Graston stuff. Really impressed with Dr Carla and got a lot more out of this than my physio visits so think it will be a combination of this and massage going forward (More on this another time).

Felt a little beat up when I left but was able to run today. Did forerunners workout and was able to push at times and except for residual soreness would say felt a 8/10. So into 10 days of rehab limtied recovery running then back to it baby.

Run stats about 11km covered at a variety of speed along with 20 minutes or so of stretching/strength.

Midseason Break Stats - 9 Days - 3 Swims a heap of stretching. Full focus on IMC beigns now and time to begin loving my bike

Off to bed now then office with a run at lunch if recover half decent.

For those of you that have got on the bad side of the "boss" here is a video that is pretty funny - go check out what life is like in the doghouse;

http://www.bewareofthedoghouse.com/

Awesome Crit Racing Video and new Wish List

Best blog post and video I have seen in a while

Ok, so I have had a passing interest in the concept of raod racing. But this post got me interested in the actual concept.

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/03/in-the-thick-of-things/

Sweet video action of a crit as part of this site which would be great for anyone looking to spin to or the like (although is only 10 minutes).

Now on my wish list is the camera so I can shoot some footage of vancouver. Maybe the horshoe bay ride could be a good candidate. Think may pick one up whn I head to seattle for Mariners opening day.

http://www.rei.com/product/782136

Mid Year Break Came Early

Injury Update

So with my injury decided to shut it down for the majority of the week. Also ended up fighting a slight cold so worked out well in the fact I had a week of recovery and was sick at the same time.

So latest update on leg is from what I can tell from my RMT is that it was a tight piriformis muscle which was then causing tightness down in the sciatic nerve and this is evidently called piriformis syndrome

So all that means is that after 2 hours of RMT and 2 physio sessions and about 5 hours of stretching legs feel 100% better than they have all year and really loose. Still need to build some strength back in my left leg so will continue with rehab for next 3 dayhs before Monday Physio assesment and hopeful green light to start running again. I' ll be hones and say I have run a couple of times for 50m on it and feel no pain although like I have forgotten how to run. Will wait till Tuesday before I try for real.

So Training for the week was;

Sunday (1 hour Running ) including 8km race
Monday - 1 Hour streching and 1 hour physio
Tuesday - 2 hour physio
Wednesday - 1 hour RMT, 1 hour streching, 40 min physio
Thursday - 1 hour swim and 45 minutes streching
Friday - 45 minute Swim
Saturday - 2 hours streching - possible trainer ride.

Basically this means I am feeling super fresh, if not a bit irritabel so will need to build back into season with aim to ge tsome good miles in over the next month or so.

So about to strucutre my next month and finalise my race schedule based on the adjustments. Liekly be doing Dave Reed 5km (Have been told it is now a quest for sub 16 by Nick :) ) Sun Run on Aril 19th and will see what else. Just signed up for Oliver Half so may now race Shawnigan as a half, Olive as a Half, Victoria as an olympic and Vancouver as a half. will see though once I check things out.

Streching to do while I think out my plan.

Fashion Crimes of an Injured Runner

Opening this up to comments but I get the opening salvo;

1. Look like a lumber jack in the individual photo
2. Arm Warmers as makeshift calf compression guards - I know they don't match the shoes but they did put some confidence in my head that I would not pull my calf.
3. White socks between yellow shoes and black "stockings" - Left ankle was taped so did not want to run sockless.
4. Tri shorts under running shorts - compress was the them of the day, what else can I say. after diagnose of compressed nerve may have been justified. Maybe should have worn a running skirt instead though to finish of the outfit
5. Backwards hat - Obviously more aerodynamic than peak forward

Feel free to do your worst ..... comments are open.

Harry's Spring Run-Off 8km - March 8th 2009 - Race Report

Harry's Spring Run-Off 8km - March 8th 2009
http://www.canadarunningseries.com/spring8k/

8km - 28:11 (28:15 Gun) - 21/973 Overall and 7/74 in M25-29

Harry's Spring Run-Off is a race in its 3rd year that races money for Prostate Cancer Research and close to a thousand people turned out for the 2009 running. This race is part of the Canadian Running Series and as a result boasted quite strong field so my race plan was around setting a new PR. Gun goes and after the hustle and bustle of the start managed to find myself in a small pack as we headed around Stanley Park's lost lagoon. This was my first time racing in Stanley Park so you do not get to take in the scenery as much as you do when on a training run but it is a beautiful place to run.

As we hit the Seawall I was a few seconds slower than what I had been aiming for at this point but my pre race plan had me taking this race out conservative and building to a fast finish. Unfortunately on this day the "spring" was not in my step and when I went to find another gear it was not there so worked to maintain position and pace for the final 5km. Was able to hold pace fpor the remainder of the race and finish with a strong final km to come in 21st overall and 7th in M25-29 Age group.

In the end although I did not PR as I had hoped was a good hit out in an event that does a great deal for raising awareness around a great cause. Next on the agenda is a focus on recovery for the next few days as the lack of "spring" in my running stride was diagnosed by my physio as being due to a pinched nerve. Once I have my body aligned will be starting to put some bigger miles on the bike and will likely take the seawall on again March 28th in the Dave Reed Spring Classic 5km

Should be at the track - What is a compressed nerve?

No this is not a gambling post. Basically it is just an injury update.

So based on the physio what is causing my calf stiffness which is now essentially relieved is a pinched/compressed nerve (maybe the Sciatica nerve) that generates from my back. Not sure of the exact site that is causing this but could be due to hamstring tightness and my left hamstring is noticeably tighter than my right.

Rehab is essentially the stretches/strength drills associated with running including the hamstring stretch on the linked pdf and calf dips and one legged squats as well as a hamstring strench designed to release pressure on the nerve.

Tommorow I have my already booked massage at noon and then a physio followup at 4:20pm so will definetely get a day of health care attention on the region. So what is the good news about this injury;

• happened early season
• Caught this early (within a few days of it being apparent)
• Only ran a couple times on it (Friday and Sunday) and made the ealry call to get this checked out (I know I could have run through this but sure that a month down the track would have had worse issues)
  
• Know the warning signs now (Felt really bad on a run about 7 days before this happened, had put it down to general fatigue)
• Prevention should be pretty simple and overall beneficial - stretching, flexibility and core work)
• My mid season running break has been forced meaning that can really build towards spring and summer events upon return
• Still ran a 28:11 8km on one leg so are sure speed work has been helping as this was close to a healthy time two months ago.
  

Plan for next couple days is to focus on rehab and most probably not run until a week from now at the earliest if I am pain free and have strength back in my leg. I think the worst thing you can do with this injury is run as you change your gait to avoid the pain and develop other injuries.

Will hit the bike for an hour tonight on the trainer and look to swim tommorow night instead of my normal running workout. Potentially might do my 1500m time trial at this point to see where I am at.

Rant time - Having googled to get visuals of the streches I need to do I found a lot of crap on the internet about this stuff. Why people don;t go to a specialist ASAP is beyond me, I understand the $ factor etc etc but the amount of people wh have tried to run through the pain week after week amazes me and I bet that at least 50% of these have a decent amount of income. So if you have googled and come across this post go to a doctor, physio, rmt or something and at least get a diagnoses that is relative definitive. Tell them you have minimal income and they will likely develop a rehab plan that you can follow without needing to do multiple return visits.

Look in the mirror - Rant over what do I need to in my program to prevent similar instances;

• Strech more - especially when watching TV
• Core work - Keep a focus on this
• Recovery - Keep a focus on this
• Proactive - Potentially book some proactive physio/rmt sessions.
  

Harry's Spring Run Off 8km - Initial Thoughts and Injury Report

8km - 28:11 (28:15 Gun) - 21/973 Overall and 7/74 in age group.

Last Sunday raced Harry's Spring Run Off 8km. As part of the Canadian Running Series has decent prize money and hence a good field. Must say that as my twitter may have shown and my blog was not super keyed up for this race more through the fact of having continual soreness nmy legs.

Calf Soreness = Compressed Nerve (or something like that)

Physio today has put this down to a compressed nerve so after a week or so of rest and appropriate treatment will hopefully be back on my run training. Anyway more of that later in the week. Based on my sore calf I strapped my ankle for a bit more support pre race and sported arm warmers as compression socks and headed down to Stanley Park. Warm up was so so as still felt tight and only really decided to race for sure about 10 minutes out from the gun.

Madness Begins

First mistake of the day was getting tot he start line a little to early and ended up 4 back in the pack. Wanted to respect the quality of the field and not be front row but screwed myself here a little. Anyway once gun went headed out and tried to sit in the pack that I would know would form around or just in fornt of the womens lead. First couple km's went fine but as soon as we hit the seawall could not step up the pace as per the plan and basically just held on for the 5km. as the pack in front of me slowly gained a gap and I ended up TT'g on my own for a while. With about a km to go got passed and tried to hang on but to no avail although did manage to pick off the 3rd women in the last 500m.

End result was 28:11 (28:15 Gun) - 21/973 Overall and 7/74 in age group. After finishing was a little bit dissapointed but happy did not further aggrevate what I had confirmed to be an injury over soreness and in retrospect happy I slogged out the race as felt a little bit more like a tri run than a straight run. From a splits perspective held pretty even but just did not have the "spring" in my legs that I needed to push 3:20 km's for the whole race.

km Splits; 3:19, 3:30, 3:31, 3:34, 3:37, 3:39, 3:37, 3:25

Post Race

Post race did a 25 minute cool down with Jerry (who finsihed 5th) and others through the trials of stanley park. Must do more running on these for sure as they looked quite nice. Felt pretty good but definetely was not running efficently which I think was the same during the race.

Reflections

So at the start of the year (only 2 months ago) would have been happy with the time but based on my trending this year was a little bit dissapointing but the run of PR's (7/7 I think) had to break at some point. Good thing is that this injury has shown I really need to work on flexibility especially in my hamstrings which now needs to be part of my routine and better to catch this early season. Still a long way from Ironman build so 1 to 2 weeks of running won't hurt and will allow me to focus on my swim and bike build which has been on and off.

Can't wait for the fashion shots of me running with sugoi arm warmers as socks to be posted and looking forward to my return to running hopefully in 10 days at which point the program will slowly recommence.

Kudos to the event which raised a huge amount of dollars for Prostate cancer research.

Congrats to all those who rocked UBC Tri and I will awiat for my 2009 debut until May 25th at Shawnigan. Next race potentially Dave Reed 5km depending on legs and the quest for sub 16:30

mmm Good or Bad Omen

So did a progression run today, around the seawall on the same course as the spring run off on the weekend. About 9.5 to 10km of total running in 40 minutes.

First 28 minutes was holding around 4:10 min/km then ramped up last 3 km's with a 3:49, 3:40 then a 3:36. Was happy with everything except did not feel super fresh for the whole run and calves and hamstring were still a little tight.

So good omen bad omen thing comes in. If I am feel tired/sluggish before I race I normally go well however I would like the aches and the pains form track to have dissipated by now. Also I would have like that last km to be sub 3:30 so that was a little disappointing but I am sure I lost some time traversing the lighthouse section on the seawall.

So waht does this random post all mean, I don't know. Lots of strechign and a pool session tommorow along with a few strides and likeyl a long warm up on sunday to get the legs loose. Hopfully this will flip me from feeling weird at the start of my runs to fresh.

Good thing about the day was course recon, is a good 1km up ill at the start followed by a downhill jaunt and another uphill before becoming flat. Plan will be to run the uphill conservitely freewheel the downhill and start racing after the second uphill at the 2.5km mark. Not sure what this will mean time wise but think it may be the best plan. Also going to try a breakfast redbull and see what that means.

Well off to sleep and a day of recovery ahead tommorow, hopefully the body gets tip top ahead of sunday.

Race Time - Harry's Spring Run Off

Due to my procrastination about racing UBC Tri and it filling up I am now racing the spring run off 8km. This is actually a good thing as will be a good chance to spin out in Vancouver and set a baseline for my workout pace going forward.

Stiffness from tuesday and wednesday runs is nearly gone and are wearing arm warmers as calf socks at the moment and they are working sweet. Add this to the recovery mix and life should be good.

Only decided to race post track workout on Tuesday after feeling good at pace so now actually getting a bit psyched about this. Tommorow plan is potentially a 30 minute swim, 45 minute run followed by an hour swim and 30 minute run on Saturday.

In terms of goals thinking this;
A Goal - 26:20
B Goal - 26:45
C Goal - 27:10

PR at this distance is 27:13 one month ago. Aim will be go out at good cadence for the first section and look to build pace as soon as I hit the seawall which will be about the 3km mark. beyond that not sure I can really plan that much, main focus will to be not caught up in the speed of the first km if possible and look to pick of from this point.

After racing will then head back home and watch a few people on the run at UBC Tri beofre either going for a ride outdoors or a long sufferfest on the trainer.

Ice is Nice

Just got my legs out of the ice bucket after my track workout tonight. Focuyssing on my recovery and this does wonders. Will be buying and reviewing compression socks shortly

Busy week over the last bit with work, life etc. Managed to get a good week of training in and now have some good focus to my running plan.

Wednesday bike commuted to and from work with a ride home in the snow which dissipated pretty quickly. Then did the forerunners clinic run. First of two back to back average runs, this one was mainly due to eating a huge meal about 90 minutes before and digesting it during the run...lesson learned.

Thursday was a rest day with a dinner at night regarding the world of business analysis. actually got a few bits form this lecture to use in training and planning as well as a lot for my work life. After this caught up with two groups of people and rocked the first of 3 nights out in a row (Last time for the next 6 months for this approach)

Friday sat down with Jerry from Foreunners and developed a plan for the next few months. Awesome to get the advice here and means I will run less frequently but really focus on nailing the objective of each workout and coming in rested to my speed work. Friday night went for a run and felt horrible, was a long 33 minutes but just put it down to lack of hydration. Friday night finshed of with cathcing up with some friends and a few drinks whihc left Saturday morning to sleep or go ride in the cold. Sleep won and ride happened in the afternoon, good 3 hour hitout around UBC.

Saturday out again at an evolution party on Yukon and saw some intersting uses for a bike tube. Sunday morning bought the $200 of food for the week and went for a 2 hour run around the seawall in vancovuer. Held 4:58km pace a felt good and relaxed for the whole run even if got a little wet.

Monday swam and hit the trianer for an hour. Coming into the swim fresh was sweet and will be my new routine. Felt like held good pace for a mid laner like me (Having graduated from the "development lanes" in the past few weeks.

So tuesday came and bike commute to work. On the return home heard a loud bang then thump thump thump as my tire blew out. Didn't notice unitl my inflating the my spare tub. Tried to boot it but had little success and little time so tried to cyclocross the flat on gravel as much as possible before hopping on the bus and using the bike rack for the first time in my life.

Day wrapped up with a track session. Got a heaps of tips and drills form Jerry to do whcih was awesome and after this we hiot the track. I managed to average around 33 seconds on double rest for 12 200's as per the plan so life was good.

No spot for UBC so are going to race the Spring Run-Off 8km on sunday around the seawall. Will be itnersting to see how this goes and what my race plan will be but will work this out closer to the time. May look to gradually build the pace if possible with the aim of going somewhere in the land of 26 to 27.

Thats the update, must post photos soon and few more "intersting things".

For trianing this week holds

Wednesday - Swim, Bike Commute and Run
Thursday - Med Bike and Swim
Friday - Bike and Run
Saturday - Swim and Short Ride and Run
Sunday - Race then long Ride and swim
Monday - Swim andd Trainer Ride
Tuesday - Bike commute and Track

Now of to fix bike and see if I could have booted this thing with more time.