Back to Basics

The world has changed. And so have my goals.

With the cancellation of almost all running races this summer I was initially bummed out. But, after a few days I realized that it would be a selfish attitude to think that my personal fitness goals are more important than the health of my neighbors, the city, province and country, and the world I live in.

It also made me realize that I can get back to enjoying the process of just running for the pure joy of running. Getting outside and moving myself through space on my own steam (blowing off steam in the process). It brings back the thoughts about the importance of healthy self-coping mechanisms to get through life. And, right now it is one of those stressful times that out of one's control.

I've coincidentally had some small injuries accumulate over the recent marathon building phase that have limited my ability to push high intensity with volume. It's annoying to dial back training after all the work I have put into this marathon build.  But, actually, it's possibly the best time to actually recover properly and build strength correctly due to all the races being cancelled.

I'm unsure if I will compete in the Boston Marathon this September 14th (the postponed race date) and train through the summer. Possibly, I will redo this build phase next winter to start the process all over again in the fall to race next April in Boston. To be decided.

In the meantime I will be spending days with my family and building strength back up so I will be stronger next time.

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?

Life on the Run

It's about time to get focused. I cant believe it took me this long.
In the aftermath of the debaucle of my Vancouver Marathon experience in trying to qualify for the 2020 Boston Marathon, I have realized I needed to let someone else take the reigns and give a run-specific training program.

It was a long process to get to this point. I felt like for the past 10-15 years I have made it okay with my own collection of training ideas and programs. My self-coached program was mostly tied to busy-life accessability. Maybe a speedwork session at lunch if I had 45 minutes, or maybe a hill repeat session in the evening after I put the kids to bed. Maybe I would occasionally skip the weekend long run to go for a fun bike ride and beers instead. I worked my training schedule around my social/family/work life. And, this mostly works except when it doesn't.

In the past four years I haven't really had a pure top-performance that I can say I was actually completely at my capacity. I would like to feel that again: the sensation that everything is clicking, the internal gauge is parallel with how I'm actually functioning.

I've gone with a serious thoughts on either just giving up the longer distances completely so there is less chance of total destruction. Or, the alternative, is to challenge my norm and give the coaching reigns up to someone else and completely do the work so I don't have any more excuses of why I don't feel at my potiental. Insead of alway wondering what I could accomplish. I want to actually make a solid effort and in good or bad, at least I made the attempt to push it (and hopefully accomplish it). Also, I need something to work towards bigger than my current work/life balance and build some motivation and momentum.

Started in December 2019, I have employed Jim Finlayson to guide me to the Boston Marathon for some more serious success at racing. It has just started to get tough but I feel the changes happening, more on this later.