Thanksgiving Weekend running recap

   This past Thanksgiving weekend was one of the best ones, weather-wise, these parts (SW Ontario) have seen in a long time---for the most part sunshine and temps in the twenties.
   I took this opportunity to get out a couple of times, once for a timed 5K run and the other for a little session of forest-y hill repeats.
   I have been working diligently at trying to lower my 5K times from somewhere in the low forties back to somewhere in the mid thirties. Lately, I've been having a fair amount of success, generally being able to carve off 20 to 30 seconds at a time.
   Lately my 5K runs have been marked by sections of slow running, tempo running and walking. I run the same route all the time and it is somewhat hilly so I find that these different running speeds all were occurring round about the same portions of the route. What I've been doing is trying to go just a little faster on those sections when I reached them and restrict the amount of walking time whenever I felt like I needed to walk.
   This seems to be working! The nice part is that it means I'm running with a little bit of a plan which has fairly realistic goals attached. Here's what my Garmin's been telling me:

Just getting under 40:00
was psychologically huge!

And a little lower...

Still a ways to go!

   I don't listen to music when I run so what eventually happens that I either have the same few lines from a popular song running through my mind or, more often than not, it's a line of gibberish which pops into my head after I've established some sort of regular run cadence. As I was running on Saturday, though, I found that I was at some point simply counting my steps. Every time my right foot hit the ground, I'd count it. I'd go all the way up to a hundred and then start all over again at "one". This helped immeasurably with cadence and, psychologically, just kept me going. It also occurred to me in a flash that this is what I used to do, way back near the beginning, when I was running in the mid-thirties. Thought this was very encouraging! Later on this morning I'm headed out again and so will give it a try.

Hard to make it look steep in the pic...

   On Sunday, I knew I wanted to run but didn't want to do the usual 5K route so I headed off to Warbler Woods to do hill repeats. I've picked this spot to do repeats as it's quite scenic and features a string of steep hills throughout. Each hill is different and this only helps with the enjoyment aspect of it.
   There's about a kilometer and half of residential area that I run through before I get to the woods and it in itself is fairly hilly so I run to where the hills start and then I run hard up them and walk down the other side. This is kind of my modus operandi once I get into the woods, as well. 
   We've had so much summery weather this fall that the leaves have only just started to change so here's a bit of a photo dump of the forest and then coming out of it on the other side.

Warbler is just in behind
these purple whatever-they-are's

An extremely popular place! So
lucky that I live as close as I do!

Through the woods...

...but not this part...

...over one of the boardwalks...

...and at the gates at the other end!

Climbing up out of the park.

London is known as the Forest City,
so fall is a pretty time of the year.

Awesome colours!

Ooops! I may have said "Forest City"
just a touch too soon!

    
   So there you have it, a little bit of what the running long weekend was like! I'm headed out shortly and am aiming at perhaps cutting another 20 or so seconds off my time. Wish me luck!

The Biggest "Thank You"!

   In my last post, I took the opportunity to thank a couple of people who had provided me (whether they knew it or not) with little bits of impetus toward me getting out of my most recent running funk.
   I quite happily finished that post and then put it out there for the world to read.
   Shortly afterwards, I realized that I really had not thanked the one person who made my whole running adventure happen in the first place---my wife, Doralyn!
   It was Doralyn who, as a birthday present, gave me a Running Room Learn-to-Run membership. It was also Doralyn who got a membership of her own at the same time so that it was something we could do together. This "doing it together" was pretty vital at the time because, as some of you may know, sometimes getting out there for a run has a lot to do with accountability. In the beginning, there were times when I simply would not have run at the appointed time if there had not been one other person with me who knew when that time was and had been counting on being there with me.
   In the years since, she has been nothing but supportive of me and my running, on an ongoing and daily basis. As much as anything, this means I'm gone for reasonably long periods at times when the two of us could have been doing something together. She also happily puts up with the aftermath---the not-so-pleasant smells, the dirty running stuff, and the occasionally muddy floors. So, along with all the other little thank-you's I owe people along the way, THANK YOU, SWEETHEART, AND I LOVE YOU!!

Some goodbyes, some veggies, some shoes, some dogs, and some thank-you's!

   It is with some shock, regret and horror that I notice I have not blogged on this page in over two months! And I call myself a runblogger?!
   I will attempt to recap the last couple of months.
   One of the principal reasons for runbloggers to cease runblogging is that they might also have ceased running. No running leads to no running to write about. For a large chunk of the past two months this has been my sad story. It's not that there was absolutely no running, but the running that actually did happen was so poorly thought out and sporadic that it didn't seem like it was even happening, really. Definitely a case of lost mojo!
  So why did this happen?
   For a variety of reasons, I seem to run less in the summer. This is partly due to the heat and humidity here in London but also as much to do with the fact there seems to be so much else to do. This particular summer, our property has been undergoing a major overhaul and sometimes at the end of a long day slogging away in the garden or building a walkway the running seems to take a back seat. All of this means less running and therefore less runblogging.
   When I say my mojo's gone, I mean it's almost as if it never existed. My last blog post was a recap of the Summer Night 5K race and what I didn't mention in that post was that when I checked the race results I almost came in last. When I crossed the finish line, my feeling at the time was there was a handful of people behind me but, in fact, I was only ahead of one person! Getting pumped for an upcoming race always helps with the mojo but when you're looking at the prospect of possibly being last in the field, it's a little more difficult to let the mojo do its thing.
   One of the surest signs you've lost your mojo happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I was paid and registered to run the 5K in the Springbank Road Races here in London. I picked up my race packet the night before and set everything out before I went to bed. The alarm clock went off in the morning at the right time and I rolled over in bed and didn't bother to go to the race! I just didn't feel like it. I live, literally, five minutes away from the start line and I couldn't force myself to get up and go. And I didn't even feel really all that bad about it. Yes, the mojo was shot. Totally. Gone.
   One of the positive things which has happened in the last couple of months is that I've given up eating meat. I'd been thinking about seriously doing this for the last couple of years and it all seemed to fall into place about a month and a half ago. Essentially, it bothered me that an animal had to die in order to provide me with an unnecessary pleasurable eating experience. I've also been exposed to a whole series of pics of delicious-looking vegetarian meals and this has certainly been an eye-opener as well (thank you, Crystal!)
   This "vegetarian" thing, not surprisingly, has been a whole new learning experience! Mainly, it has introduced me to tofu and a bunch of products which are made from it. I'm pretty sure I've experienced tofu snuck into my Thai food occasionally but this has been my first experience with the original undisguised product. Some things are good and others have already been crossed off my list. One of the good things, though, is that the family has always had some kind of veggie with our meals so the only thing I need to do is complement whatever they're having with a bit of protein of my own. So far so good!


   I am also now a little more into the running on a regular basis. The combination of running and eating more veggies these days has led to about a 6 pound weight loss. All of this combined has me finally running a 5K in slightly less than 40 minutes.This, of course, is ridiculously slow but, at the same time, I haven't been able to run 5K in less than 40 minutes for the better part of a year now. Finally getting under that is huge, mojo-wise.

Inching my way down there.

   So I have been running three times a week regularly for the last three or four weeks. What I've been finding in my march toward getting under that magical forty minute mark is that I've been able to trim about twenty to thirty seconds off of each successive run. Basically, I've looked at the previous run and anywhere I walked in that run I've at least tried to run slowly in the next. Any time I ran slowly one day, I try to run a little faster for that same section the next time out. For sections where I was already running pretty free and easy, I tried to ramp things up a bit. So far, it's working!

Hooray!

   New kicks make this all the more fun! About three weeks ago I picked up a pair of Saucony Ride 8's. I managed to find an elusive Running Room gift certificate and this was all the encouragement I required to go pick up a new pair. They feel awesome---light and cushiony and pretty neutral so the running's good!

Damn!

   While I was at it, thought I'd go to the nearest Talize store (good quality second-hand) and pick up a few shirts. I picked up a red tech shirt specifically for running and particularly so that it would sort of "match" the new shoes. I went out for a run the next day and was feeling awesome in all my new stuff and was looking forward to cutting another thirty or so seconds off when the unexpected happened. As I was running past a young couple and their two dogs, suddenly their beagle leaped up at me and put a paw right through my "new" shirt! Big hole! Now, generally people move their dogs out of the way when they see me coming and I do my part by taking a wider route around than normal but this time we both got a little too close and I think I was a little off my guard due to the relatively small size of both dogs. But never again! The lady with the beagle was very apologetic and if it had been a brand new shirt instead of a previously worn one we may have carried the discussion a little further. To top it all off, this completely destroyed my rhythm and desire to finish the run that day and I basically walked the last kilometer. Bummer.
   Finally, part of what has prompted me to get back into running a little more regularly is that a couple of people I know have just run their very first 5K races and have been awesome at it. One of my co-workers, Tricia, ran her first race and did it in about 35 minutes and the other gentleman, Nacer, is the husband of a runblogger I follow down in Ohio and he ran his in about 28 minutes! Both are times I would die for. So thanks, Tricia and Nacer (and my sis-in-law, Sabrina, for a little bit of a campfire pep talk), for the extra smidgeon of inspiration and motivation! It helps!
   Okay, so for the most part, you are all caught up. I'm trying real hard to get out there at least three times a week. The mojo seems to be slowly seeping back in. Currently there are no races in the forecast. There was a Hallowe'en race scheduled but it now looks as though I will be out of town that weekend. This means the racing is likely done for the season and I will re-approach it in the spring. This is quite fine with me and will give me the winter to build up to a fully-replenished mojo level.
   In the meantime, safe and happy running to you all! And I promise to visit a little more often!
   
    

Summer Night 5K Race Recap

   This past Friday, I ran in the Summer Night 5K, one in the London Honda Road Race series. 

Just before the start of the race. One of the
course marshals said I had the best t-shirt!

   It does not get any more "summer night" than it was that evening---temp was about 26C and I'm pretty sure the humidity was at 100 per cent. It was one of those nights you could reach out and touch the air, if you know what I mean.
   I had not trained for this race. In fact, I had run only three times in the last three months. As previously explained, the last little while has been taken up with playing ball hockey a couple of nights a week and this left little room for extra running, at least for the most part. By the end of the season I was beginning to feel as if my legs might actually accommodate both kinds of running, so good for me!
   One of the cool things about the race was that my Sweetie, Doralyn, and two of my three stepsons, Callum and Quin, were there to cheer me on. They saw me off at the start line and were there waiting for me at the soggy and gasping end! The other cool thing is that this race has much more of a party atmosphere than any of the others and starts off from a bar downtown, The Barking Frog!

Me, with a bemused look and
Callum, my stepson. Don't think either
of us knew our pics were being taken...

   I basically had no plan or strategy around this race. I knew I'd be unable to run the whole thing and therefore was quite willing to incorporate walking breaks. On the last training run I'd done, I'd tried to do 10 and 1's but that had broken down after the first 10 and 1! So last night I figured I'd start with a 10 and 1 and then use shorter run and walk breaks.
   Well, this broke down as well. Essentially, I ended up running until I got tired and then I walked until I felt like I could run again. This meant a lot of walking.

A last-minute "I love You!" for Doralyn,
just before the start of the race.

   As with most races, pretty soon you end up running in a pack with runners who are relatively at the same experience or fitness level. About half a kilometer into the thing, a woman all of the sudden was running beside me as if she were attached to my left elbow. She didn't appear interested in talking or even running at a different pace, she never ran ahead and never fell behind. It occurred to me at one point that maybe she found me running at a comfortable pace for her and was happy just to use me as a pace bunny (giggle). This was more than fine with me, though. She was (and still is, I presume) a very short and compact lady and I assumed that eventually I would just pull away from her and finish ahead. As the race went on and my pace wavered from faster to slower and then back again, she would then end up either slightly behind or ahead of me. In the final kilometer, however, she was joined by a couple of non-racers who then ran with her on to the finish. At this point, she slowly pulled away and finished pretty far ahead of me. I'm thinking this was a woman who'd come to this race with a plan and some support and it had all worked out wonderfully for her. I caught up to after the race and congratulated her on a job well done!

One of the race organizers is just to my right
in this pic. We had just exchanged a sweaty
high five at the end of the race and I think he's
wondering if he needs to call medical staff...lol

   As for myself and my own performance, I will blame the heat and humidity and I will blame the lack of training and I will also (at least a little) blame ball hockey. 
   Now, though, there are no extra sports to sap my energy and I can get down to the business of really training. My time for this race (I am sad and embarrassed to say) was 41:26. I now have 41:26 to beat the next time I am out on a run. My plan will be to continue with trying to implement timed walking and running intervals and then slowly change the length of them until I get back to the point of being able to run a whole 5K all at once. Which I was able to do not all that long ago! Wish me luck!

Back at it again!

      Okay, I'm back again! Who knows for how long I'll be back but I do promise to try and do a better job of this run-blogging thing from here on in!
   By my calculations, I've run once in the last three months! As explained in earlier blog posts, I hooked up with a ball hockey team at the end of Spring and have had my hands full with doing that kind of running, as opposed to any other kind. The ball hockey season (at least for my team boo-hoo) ended a couple of nights ago so now I have the opportunity to re-focus just a touch. 
   Which is good because I have a race in six days!
   A race I obviously haven't trained for!
   Thank goodness it's only a 5K race here in London and thank goodness I've at least been doing some kind of running, in the interim.

That's me in the red shirt on the left, bending
over to take away a pass. There was WAY too much of this lol!

   My team played a couple of nights a week and the kind of running I did there likely mostly equates to speed work or hill repeats for all you regular runners out there. It will be interesting to see the kind of effect this might have had on my ability to run a 5K race. I do plan on getting out today for a run and then hopefully a couple times more before next Friday's Summer Night race.
   This race is one of my favourites on the London Honda Road Race series. It is the only evening race in the series and is an out and back kind of affair which starts of from the Barking Frog bar here in London, wends its way down near the Thames River and then back again. The race has more of a party feel to it and is one of the races where we're also not all bundled up so it's quite enjoyable. There is a slight forecast of rain so fingers crossed but then again running in a warm rain ain't all that bad either!
   So I'm headed out shortly and we'll see where my legs take me. And how fast they take me there! Let you know later on!

Hellacious Hills

   In my last post, I sort of described why I hadn't been either doing much running or blogging about it. Due to the sudden insertion of ball hockey into my life, the legs lately just haven't had the oomph required to get me out there.

Entrance to Warbler Woods

   This does not mean, though, that I have been at home simply sitting on my butt. A couple of times lately I have headed out for long walks through nearby Warbler Woods, in an effort to keep the legs moving and, perhaps even more importantly, enjoy the arrival of Spring! Yay! We're now at the point where things have actually dried up enough to make a walk through the woods an enjoyable experience. This time of year, as well, the leaves haven't blossomed yet and you can see deep into the forest, which is kind of cool.
   On these trips, I began by following the same path I take when I'm on a run. I leave my house and am at the woods in about a kilometer. There's a two kilometer stretch through the woods, I come out on the other side and then another two kilometers on pavement to get back to my place.
   I changed things up a bit though the last two times by foregoing the the final 2K on pavement and simply darting back into the woods after I popped out of them and taking a different route back through.

SNAKE! (upper right-hand corner...)

 
   Okay, this different route back through is hellacious. Warbler Woods is somewhat bowl-shaped insofar as you go down into them and climb back up out of them. My normal route has me encountering one really nasty hill but then I end up running around the upper rim of the bowl without descending into its depths. Going down into the depths brings you face-to-face with at least six hellacious hills, all of which are even more hellacious than the one hellacious hill I was already (kinda) used to.
   I was exhausted several times and, mind you, I was just walking. I can't imagine running these things. They were all pretty well straight up with bendy curves in them and it wasn't even all that easy going down the backsides of them, due to their steepness.
   

A fine example of a Carolinian forest!!

These woods are quite popular with hikers and casual walkers but I couldn't help but think that there should be some sort of disclaimer posted at the entrance, indicating the degree of difficulty. Or maybe it's just me...
    I remember thinking a couple of times at the summit of the latest hill that I was just as winded as if I'd been running. At the time, I thought of this as a good thing, figured I was at least out there getting exercise if I wasn't actually running.
   Also, the first time I did this new route, I stopped several times to rest. The second time, I vowed I would just plow on through, which is what I did.

Part of the trail

   Toward the end of my second walk, things started to catch up to me. At one point, I snagged my toe on a root as I was descending one of these hills. Nothing major that wouldn't normally have been handled by a bit of a hop and a skip but I discovered my legs would not do that hop and a skip for me. It seemed like the legs would not bend at the knee and all of the sudden it felt like I was walking on stilts instead of legs and I envisioned tumbling head first onto the trail and just rolling and rolling and...but I caught myself, thank goodness. It was then that I started to realize the toll all this ball hockey and walking had taken on my legs! I managed to get out of the forest the second time and was left with about a kilometer on

Bit of a boardwalk through
the boggier portions.

pavement to get me back home. Walking on flat pavement was not an issue, it seemed. Back at home, though, I was faced with the four steps of my wooden porch. Normally, I can spring up them. Not the other day. I pretty well needed to crawl up them and afterwards, sitting on the newly-conquered porch, I resolved to give my legs a couple of days off. No running, no ball hockey, no walking. I compromised a little by doing some yardwork the following day but even that was not pretty.
   In the midst of all this, I was ironically invited to do a squat challenge, by Crystal, intrepid leader of the Canuck Running Bloggers. Ha ha ha, I can't even really sit on the toilet or get dressed properly, let alone do a squat challenge!! Did I mention that I think I might have overdone it??
   I am pretty sure that I will return to these Hellacious Hills, however. It occurred to me as I was walking them that they would be perfect for hill repeats. They're evenly spaced enough that recovery time would be accommodated and they're different from each other, so you wouldn't get bored either! If you survived... 

What I've Been Up To!

   Okay, my stats are WAY, way down and my blog is rife with referrer spam so I guess this means I haven't been posting regularly...??
   Well, I haven't been posting because I haven't been running. And I haven't been running because...well...I've been running. My ass off, to be more specific!
   I finally managed to land myself on a ball hockey team for the first time in the last two and a half years. This means I've been spending the last two weeks chasing twenty- and thirty-somethings (did I mention that I'm sixty-two?) around a rink, twisting and turning, stopping and starting, diving, kneeling, blocking shots and, generally, running into people. And my legs are paying for it!
   Before, when I wasn't playing, it was quite easy to schedule my running and run as much as I wanted, when I wanted. Not so anymore. 

Yes, I play for the Outlaws. Cuz I'm badass.

   Right at the moment, I am on someone else's schedule and I run whenever I have to, not whenever I want to. This means that the kind of running I generally blog about has taken quite the hit, so much so that I can't even really remember the last time I did run any kind of distance.
   There have been days when I thought I maybe should have been out there on a run but my legs were so sore that I simply couldn't imagine doing so. And so I didn't. By the time maybe a couple of days had passed and my legs were feeling better then the next ball hockey game rolled around. So I didn't run. Again.
   I'm hoping and believing that eventually the running and the ball hockey will sort themselves out, once my body becomes more accustomed to the new routine. It would actually be interesting to try and compute just how many kilometers I might actually be running when I play ball hockey. Who knows, maybe I actually run farther!