Marathon Build

Trail miles with my dog Penny

This time around I will be building for a race that I have been looking at for a long time: The Boston Marathon!
It is on every runners bucket list and it is no easy feat to get qualified for it. It ends up being a qualification time with a marathon (for me under 3:05) in the previous two years. Also, it might be a lottery for the spots due to the quantity of runners applying to go. This year it was around 5 minutes below qualification time was cut-off for the lottery. I was officially coming in with 2:59:20 from the BMO Marathon in Vancouver last May where I exploded in dramatic fashion at 32km and needed 10 km of serious soul sucking miles to drag my butt to the finish line.

It's actually happening! Boston 2020

After that experience (and a few others not too different) I decided it was time to make a priority on my goals and get some guidance on what would be ideal training (for my current state in life and limited training time). With that I employed the services of Jim Finlayson, the legendary runner out of Victoria that has been and still is a top distance runner in the region and now my coach (along with the recent addition of Cam Levins as the current Canadian record holder in the marathon at 2:09:25)

The training boils down to mainly two workout sessions per week and one long run.  There are a few recovery runs between days but nothing significant. I have mostly been able to complete the training as planned.... and that is the single biggest thing I feel will contribute to my success at the marathon. Putting in the training. A non-negotiable time 2-3x/week to conplete it. I feel in the past I have easily (too-easily!) modifided or dropped a workout due to weather or other issues.

Obviously there are still some higher priority things that still moves my training workouts, like kids and work emergencies, but not all the other "things" that I used to think would need a workout changed.

The other good part of this training is my tracked training with my new Garmin smart watch Forerunner 245 that has most of the techy nerd tools to track training. Along with premium strava app that tracks fitness over time, I'm 963% better than where I was at 6 months ago training for a similar timing marathon.

I feel good. I do, however, have no idea how this big race three months from now will go. I know there is lots of work to do but I'm motivated to build towards this and see how far I can get... Isn't that the reason for most things?

2015 Early Race Season

The 2015 edition of the Island Race Series us underway and some friendly and fierce competition has been seen. I truly enjoy getting out and seeing familiar faces and meeting new people at each race. The Comox Valley Road Runners have represented well. We are currently in 2nd place standings as a club on the Island.

Vancouver Half Marathon - Photo Pacific Road Runners

My next running races are:

Bazan Bay 5km March 8th
Comox Valley RV Half Marathon March 22nd
Merville River Runners 15km - April 5th
Series Finale Sooke River 10km - April 18th

Also, upcoming is the Island Cup mountain bike races!

Fit Chiropractic is Moving.

Marching Forward!

Things have come together for the past few weeks. I have implemented a completely new training regime with the help of my coach/mentor Matt. We re-focused my efforts away from short quick runs for efficiency sake and brought back the long-steady-distance plan. And, you know what, it is working!
 I have been trying to get the most out of my limited schedule for years. As much as I want to, I don't have an unlimited amount of time to dedicate to training and performance. For the past three months I have spent some attention to be able to determine my limiting factors (in performance) and then find ways to fix them.

This is where my time spent with MOXY monitor has come in. It is a new sports-science tool to investigate what is the limiting factor in delivering oxygen to the muscles. It is a technique that has been used for a decade in the hospital but only recently has it been made small enough and mobile application for testing performance.
Through this testing I have found two things (so far) that were very important for improving my baseline. My long steady distance training was not long or steady enough! I needed to slow my pace down to a level where physiologic adaptive changes could be made (increase capillary density in muscle, increase levels of mitochondria, vaso-dilation of peripheral arterioles, etc.). Second of all, I had an oxygen delivery problem. I was not getting enough oxygen to my muscles from a limit in my respiratory system or the cardiovascular system.  Through MOXY testing we determined that I needed to work on my strength and endurance the respiratory system.
I have now been using the SpiroTiger system for six weeks. I have noticed a dramatic change in my daily respiratory rate, not to mention when I'm at red-lining!  The system is fairly straight forward: the diaphragm and accessory breathing muscles can be trained exactly the same way we train the rest of our body for performance. It is like a dumbell for our lungs or maybe more like a treadmill. It uses a computer to monitor and modify breathing frequency and a silicon bag attached to a tubing system that directs CO2 out and O2 in.

It is amazing how hard this workout is. I consider it a workout because within 3-5minutes of using it, I will break out in a heavy sweat and it takes all my focus to keep at full effort. The computer on the SpiroTiger warns if you are hypoventilating and going to pass out and it will also sound an alarm when you are breathing too deep (hyperventilating).

In my experience (along with all the research) I have noticed an ability to hold higher intensities for a longer period of time.  The muscles between my ribs and my diaphragm actually get a bit sore after a hard SprioTiger workout! For someone else to use the same set-up all they need is a user-set of tubes and a silicon balloon, the computer can be shared with a few people.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Testing

Time to test my training from the past eight weeks. I have been somewhat scattered in my focus for getting periodized training organized. But, it is what it is and I have to move forward from here.  As I utilize in my clinic, objective data is essential to moving forward.  I have found some new software that is important for monitoring progress, mapmyrun.com.

Using google maps I scoped out a flat-ish road near my house to be able to pace through a 5km time trial. It turned out to be somewhat rolling and an overall downhill drop of 33ft but I'm ok with that! I was aiming to be somewhere between 3:15-3:25/km and I was right near the middle.

View this Course on MapMyRun

This is the first testing situation in over five months. I really wanted to give myself a break this fall and let the years of very hard training on my body recover completely. In hindsight, I think half a year may have been a bit much, included with an indulgent lifestyle while travelling abroad. But, nevertheless, I have been working hard for the past 6-8 weeks on getting fit. I'm not sure when the next race will be, possibly one of the upcoming Island race series.

The Comox Valley!

 We are here! My wife, Amber, and I are starting to feel settled after moving into the Comox Valley. We are very excited to be here and getting to know the layout, the activities, and most importantly the people. We spent many weekends driving up here from our previous home of Victoria and were tired of the long travel days. We both asked ourselves "why not just move there!" So we did.

I have joined the Comox Valley Road Runners Club. A fun run club that organizes and supports many events in the Valley. I'm happy to be part of a run club as it has been a few years since the last running club I have been a part of.  I already have a good group of serious runners that want to go for a run anywhere on a moments notice. This includes beautiful trail jogs or long road slogs or even a rip on the shiny new track.  I will even get some club gear to run the 2014 Island race series and represent.   So far the running training has gone excellently, but I have only been back for a month with semi-consistent training. Hopefully I can keep building the volume with some intensity leading into the spring racing.

I'm very excited to join the local Strathcona Nordic Ski Club. I have never been part of a cross country skiing club but feel that this could be the place for new athletic challenges and experiences. I've been told this is the largest Nordic Club in Canada!  They have the Nordic trails around Raven Lodge at Mt. Washington Ski Resort just 20minutes from downtown Courtenay.

I hope to get out and hit the mountian bike trails in Cumberland along with downhill skiing and Mt. Washington. There are so many outdoor active things to do in the valley. I'm very excited to be a part of!  And, my new chiropractic clinic is in "The Hub" on 4th Street in downtown Courtenay.

Island Race Series: Comox Valley Half Marathon

Yes! A half marathon this early in the season... perfect timing to test out endurance at race-pace over the long distance. The race put on by the legendary Comox Valley Road Runners. They always have a huge collection of athletes and many in the top rankings of the race.  The race went off without a hitch and many volunteers were out at every corner cheering and supporting the runners. I found that there was an exceptional amount of loud shouts at the 15km mark, perfect to get amped for the final push.

Read a good article here about the race. The temperatures were a bit low, in the 5 C range, and made it challenging to warm up before the race. But, with no frost bite or other serious problems everyone had a successful race.
I encountered a serious psychological brick wall about 3km from the finish. I had hammered it and pushed the pace from the 10km mark up until that point and then I slowly fizzled out. I had put in the work to get a finish time I'm happy with, but that leaves more to be desired for the next half-marathon.

Next up, Merville 15km.