Tag Archives: Health

Iroquoia Trail Test

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On Saturday, I ran the Iroquoia Trail Test in Kilbride, Ont. When I ran the ITT last year, it was the first trail race I’d ever participated in. I was out of shape, unaccustomed to running on technical terrain and got lost six times. In short, I had a blast.

As this would be the last year for the 32 K race, I didn’t want to miss out on this final opportunity to run through rivers, scamper over slippery rocks and take a dozen wrong turns along the Bruce Trail. Sadly, I only got lost once (for 20 minutes) so perhaps I didn’t get my money’s worth this year.

With only three weeks left until the Haliburton 100 Miler, I didn’t want to push things too hard, but rather see how I felt running at an even pace. I ran the first 8K at a nice pace, following right behind David Bohn. After this first loop, he pulled off to eat and I just carried on. After awhile, I caught up to Laurie McGrath—an OUSer legend—who gave me some great tips for Haliburton. Then I proceeded along to the 21K turnaround, which I hit at the 1:51 mark. After this, I decided to pick up the pace, but also managed to get lost on a 20-minute detour. To be fair, I was distracted by another runner who came flailing past me like a madman on a long, technical downhill section. Rather than paying attention to where I was going, I hurried after him as I wanted to find out if he was drunk or just a little crazy. I couldn’t believe that he didn’t fall on his face and die. Anyway, I didn’t have to pay extra for this extra mileage, but I did need to retrace my steps so that I wouldn’t be disqualified. Continue reading →

Happy Anniversary!

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As I was eating my cereal this morning, my wife turned to me and asked, “Do you know what today is?” Panic ensued. I looked at the date on my watch: June 11. Frantically, I tried to remember what significant event had happened before on this day. We were married August 3, so I didn’t forget our anniversary. Phew. Birthdays… no, can’t think of any. Um, um, um, “The day we got engaged,” I suggested weakly.

Well, it turns out that today is the seventh anniversary of the day I started running. While I’m glad that I’m not in the dog house for forgetting an important anniversary, I’m even more chuffed by the fact that my wife has this date recorded in her calendar.

A little less than seven years ago, I attended a wedding for some close friends. Rochelle and I had been married for a year, and I was really enjoying the experience of sharing life with her (I still am). Part of this life involved me cooking all of our meals. I actually took evening classes in Culinary Arts at George Brown just to improve my skills. Well, shortly after attending our friends’ wedding, we received photos from the event and I was shocked by what I saw. After being fairly skinny and athletic for most of my life, I had managed to gain a fair bit of weight in just one year of marriage. I blame it on the fettuccine alfredo made with sticks of butter and whipping cream.

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The Comeback Kid (Sulphur Springs Report)

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Under the direction of John Turner and Bruce Smith, the Sulphur Springs 100 Miler in Ancaster, Ont., is a great race to participate in. The logistics of the event are well organized, the trails are clearly marked and the volunteers and aid station captains are encouraging and supportive. The course follows a 20 K route through hilly forest trails that is repeated eight times by the 100-mile runners.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a great race. While there is nothing easy about running 100 miles (160 K) through a forest, the race became so much harder for me due to severe cramping and diarrhea early on in the race. It was one of those days that should be spent in bed at home feeling sick and weak, not running a 100-mile race.

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The Final Countdown

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Sulphur Springs approaches. In four days, I’ll lace up my La Sportiva Crosslites and run my first 100-mile race. If I’m not too nervous, I may even remember to pull on a pair of shorts and a shirt as well.

Despite my impending doom, I’m about as relaxed as I’ve ever been before a big race, which is surprising given that I’ve never run this distance and I’m not sure what to expect. Although I would have liked to have trained more, I feel good about the training I’ve done and believe that I’m adequately prepared to finish Sulphur. So far in 2010, I’ve put in over 235 hours of running, which is decent for a guy who works 8-5 in an office and has an active toddler to play with at home.

However, I haven’t slept well for the past three nights. The first night I had to finish some work and was up until 1 AM. Even after going to bed, my mind kept racing (but not about the race). Then, for the past two nights, some of our neighbours lit fireworks well into the early morning, so that kept us awake as well. And last night, both Kieran and I were sick (ate something bad at a holiday BBQ), so that didn’t help the situation. So, the goal at this point is to try to catch up on some sleep, keep hydrated and hopefully feel strong again soon. I’m sure that cutting back on the running over the past week hasn’t helped me sleep either.

At some point today, I plan to pick up the stuff I still need for the race (ie gels, shot bloks, spare headlamp, batteries), so that everything will be accounted for. This way, if I’m having trouble sleeping again, at least I’ll know I’ve got everything ready.

My right knee has been a bit tight and sore lately, so hopefully that won’t pose a problem on race day. I’m sure that it has more to do with the tapering process than with any potential injury. I’m going out for a 45-min run this evening, so I’ll see how it’s holding up.

Total hours of running this week: 6:06 (3:03 trail; 3:03 road)

Colds, DNFs and Vampires

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April was a scary month in which I faced great adversity. As I type this report, my head is pounding, my eyes are burning and I’m wondering what I did to deserve such misery. Perhaps I should go sit in the garden and eat some worms. When I lived in Zimbabwe, I did eat worms and they tasted pretty good. Well, they were actually large caterpillars that were roasted and charred black. They were crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, but would soften nicely when added to stew or soup. They did have a bit of an aftertaste, though. I also ate flying ants, which are more like flying mealworms. You catch them in a bucket of water, take off their wings and then fry them in oil and add some salt. Anyway, I’m rambling. I get a bit disoriented when I’m sick…

Here are some of the scary things I experienced this month.

The Taper. Ooh, the taper is truly a dreadful experience. I’m not sure if it’s contagious or not, but it does seem to affect large groups of runners at the same time. After running for months as much as I wanted to, I stopped running so that I could be a better runner on race day, or so the experts say. Essentially, the taper encourages people in really great shape who can easily run for hours on end to cut back on their training for two to three weeks so that a 10-minute run will feel laborious on race day. The taper also helps people to experience phantom injuries, so that otherwise healthy people can feel sharp pangs of pain in their feet, ankles, shins, calves, quads, hamstrings, hips, backs and egos. As well, given that the body is used to regular exercise, the taper also helps to ensure that runners will have trouble sleeping due to pent-up energy.

The Cold. I’ve managed to avoid being sick most of my life (except when big assignments were due in high school), but was hit hard this past week. I’ve actually been sick now for seven days, which is crazy. My wife and son were sick first, and after looking after a toddler who becomes clingy when sick and insists on coughing in my face and wiping his running nose all over me, I suppose it was inevitable that I’d get sick, too. On the first few days, my whole body was weak. I actually tried going for a run last Sunday in Edmonton, but after 25 minutes, my body wouldn’t let me run anymore. All I wanted to do was lie down under a tree and sleep. It took me over an hour to walk back to the house, and I had to pass hundreds of comfortable looking trees to get there. I’m still congested and dizzy and my eyes and head hurt, but I can run a bit again, so that’s a positive.

The Rest Day. I took six days off from running. And probably had another two weeks of low-mileage running. See the above paragraphs. While it may be good for the body to rest, I have to say that I just become an irritable jerk when I don’t run enough.

The DNF. Despite exposing myself to the horror of the taper, my first race of the season was a colossal failure. Follow the carnage here.

The Vampire. Well, more like a wannabe vampire. While descending on one of my hill repeats last night on the trails, I saw this black shape come out of the woods near the river. When I got closer I saw that it was a guy dressed all in black. When I got even closer I saw that his hair, lips and finger nails were all black as well. As I passed by him, he turned his head toward me, bared his teeth and hissed at me. Not sure if he thought he was a vampire or something, but he was definitely a bit of a freak. Now I need to watch out for pitbulls and wannabe vampires on the trails.

My wife often says to me, “You’re so drama!” Of course, she also says that I’m ridiculously good looking, so I’m not going to dispute her reasoning. At any rate, I suppose that April could have been a lot worse. I mean, as I approach my first 100-mile race in four weeks, I could have just finished my second-lowest month of training since last year. Or have just run half as much as I did in March. Oh wait, that did happen. Scary!

Total hours this week (April 19-25): 6:54 (2:14 trails; 4:40 road)

Total hours this month: 38:09 (27:06 trails; 11:03 road)