Goal #2 - Complete

Today I completed another of my goals for 2006. I ran 10 km in under 45 minutes, I finished my 10 km route in 43:46. Considering it's the third time in my life that I've run that far (once 13 years ago at John Abbott & once in January), I'm very happy to have met my goal time already. Maybe I set it too high, but there's still room for improvement.

I've been having some really good runs from work lately. So I figured it was a good time to try another long one. We had another spectacular day here, it was around 15C and I wore shorts and a T-shirt. I felt strong throughout the first half, but my 5km time was a little slower than where I wanted it. The route takes me right by the house and I had left a water bottle on the porch this morning. Once I got some water in my mouth, it made a big difference. I did get some slight cramping in my left calf around 7km, but it never got painful. I did get one tiny blister on my left "piggy who went WEEE WEEE WEEE all the way home." That was because the seam of my Ultimax socks went right over the edge of the toe. No big deal, easy enough to fix next time.

This ended up being a great run for me. At the race last week, I ran 21:54 over 5km or 4:23/km. Based on that time, according this fatigue calculator, my 10km should be 45:37. If you double my 5km time, 10km would 43:48 - and I beat that time and pace today! I guess that shows that I had a very bad run during the race and I had a very good run today.

Nearing the end of the Madness

I'm sure you all know by now, the Final Four has been decided. This weekend proved again why they call it "March Madness". It's the first time since the early 80's that no #1 seeds made the Final Four and George Mason is the highest seed (#11) to make it this far in a long time, and could be the highest seed ever to make the final if they beat Florida.

As for the office pool, there are only four people that still have a team alive. I'm holding strong, but now in second place and all my hopes rest on UCLA making the final and Florida not making the final. Jake is beating me, I think he's getting used to that... If Florida wins, Jake wins it all. If Florida loses their game to George Mason and UCLA makes the final, then I'll win. Those are pretty long odds.

A small rant

Tonight was a night to run home from work. It did not get off to a good start.

Right at the beginning had a little "heart to heart" with the railway police for crossing the tracks after the train had gone by, but the gates were still down. I only got a warning, what a sweety. Then a 400 lb man told to run on the grass, because it would be easier on my knees. Clearly he was an expert.

Usually I use these end of day runs to de-stress after work. Today I was more stressed when I finished.

Madness Baby!

I'm not a basketball fan, but I cannot resist following the NCAA tournament every year. It's one of those great equalizers in life. You don't have to know anything about basketball or you can follow every game, and the odds are you'll pick the NCAA tournament equaly. At work we do a pool for the world's tackiest trophy.

After night #1, I'm in first place. More updates to follow.

UPDATE!

After the first weekend, I'm still leading the office pool. In the first round I picked 26 of 33 games (including the play-in game) and in the second round I picked 11 of 16 games. I have five of my elite eight still alive and all of my final four (Texas, UCLA, UCONN & Villanova). I've picked UCLA & Villanova in the final, with Villanova winning it all.

Race Day

Not a good race. I ran at a good pace, but couldn't get warm. There was a cross wind and my fingers and nose didn't get warm until 4.5 km. I had some serious side stitches from 4 km on. I just never felt that race instinct. I wanted to catch some of my pacers, but just couldn't make the move. I've still not found a good way to eat when running in the morning, today I had a bagel w/cream cheese & a banana, 2 hours before running. My gut just got worse as the race went on. I was happy with my time, but I wish it had been a better run.

Some things I noticed: The guy who was lined up beside me with a DOUBLE jogging stroller got behind because of the mass start, but then blew by me around the 1 km mark.

A kid who was less than 11 passed me after the turnaround and I could barely keep up. He finished two spots ahead of me. While we were in the finishing chute, I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "Hey man, you were awesome." He was kind of shy about it, but the girl who finished right in front of me said so too.

The winner went sub-15 minutes. Holy crap.

My co-worker Jake had a great race. He took off like a bullet and I knew that there was no way I was going to keep up with him today. He finished 56th overall and 9th of 32 in our age group. His time was 20:35.

I finished 87th out of 395, 15 of 32 in my age group. My time was 21:54. The results are posted here.

I still have a soft spot for The Force.

Courtesy of Jason Kottke, I couldn't pass up taking this little quiz. And so I encourage you to take 3 minutes and "let your feelings guide you." - Ben Kenobi.

I don't know what web 2.0 is. For the record, I got 35 and moved out of my parents basement over 9 years ago.

Running Hard

The weather has been amazing here recently. For my last couple of runs I've been wearing shorts. Last week it rained while I was out and when I came in Darcy took one look at me and said, "Dada, why ze watur?" I asked her, "Why is Daddy covered in water?" "Yeah." She was fascinated by the fact that my hair was soaking.

Today is was 18C while I was out, in shorts and a T-shirt, in mid-March. I love it here. The wind was very strong today, but lucky for me it was at my back the entire way (from work to home). I tried to pick things up a notch, but couldn't get the speed that I used to have. Still I managed a very respectable 29 minutes for 6.5 km. My legs felt great the whole time, but between 3-4 km I got a good side stitch. By the time I hit 5km, the hard breathing was getting to my gut. I've had no pain in either ITB for a couple of weeks now. Stretching works.

All in all, I should be happy with this run, but I'm always expecting more out of myself.

Race #1

The seasons first race for me is next Sunday morning. Our local Running Factory hosts the Spring Thaw 5K. The very informal DigiPrint Running Club seems to have disbanded after the Santa Shuffle in December. Chris discovered he has a bone spur on the ball of his foot and Lorne wasn't all the motivated to keep slugging through the winter months. Jake's going warp speed in his marathon training (he'll be running the London Marathon on May 14th). I've had a rough winter, two weeks lost to injury and another 10 days lost to sickness running through our house. So it'll just be Jake and I going at it next week.

I'm not expecting much. I haven't been working on speed, so I'll be happy to finish around 22 minutes.

Can't Deny the Truth

This is just sad. But the thing is, it's 100% true.

Even though I NEVER drink coffee and Sue only does on occasion, we went to Starbucks afterward to get something to help perk us up a bit. To borrow from the great Derek Zoolander, "If I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't do it in that order."