Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Hypothermic Half a Success
There is a reason why its called the Hypothermic Half Marathon, the temperature was -15 at the 10:00am start and you need to bundle up to stay warm. It was a definite improvement over last years -38.My game plan for this race was not a new personal best but rather work on different nutrition and running strategies. I wanted to complete the race with a negative split based on bpms so for the first half of the race, I set into a comfortable 160-165 bpm, on the return I would ramp it up to 170-175 bpm.
Kelly Drager planned out my race day nutrition consisting of a bagel, 2 hard boiled eggs, a glass of orange juice and a piece of fruit 1-1.5 hours before the race. During the race I was to stay hydrated and drink every 20minutes, taking a power gel one hour into the run. Based on Kelly's recommendations I was able to finish fast and feel strong during and at the end of the run. My completion time was 1:46:13 with a negative split of 50:13, I felt I could go faster but stayed within my 170 - 175 bpms.
My next race is the Calgary Police Half Marathon on April 26 2009, my goal is to increase my lactate threshold to increase my running speed at the same bpms to finish faster and stronger.
Gearing up before the start of the race, I was interviewed by CTV, the short spot aired yesterday which I will try to get a copy to include on the blog, but you can read the article on the website here CTV Coverage
Monday, February 9, 2009
Bittersweet - The finish will never be sweet, without the bitter.
Part One - Avoiding the Knife
It was the summer of 2005 when my best friends from Edmonton had finally convinced me after years of nagging to enter my first triathlon, a Sprint. I was athletic as a child, actively involved in running sports, soccer, cross country and track and field. Biking and swimming however were unfamiliar territories and there were 3 small issues……One, I had no bike. Two, I didn’t know how to swim, and three, the event was only four months away. What was meant to be a short and painless introduction to triathlons, ended up being a 9 month road to recovery.
Prior to 2005 I had taken a couple of years off from sports to focus on my studies and career, needless to say I was very out of shape. Enthusiastic about my new goal however, I purchased all the necessary gear and began training at 150% right away. I would cram the three disciplines into a single day, 6 days a week on top of weight training. My body quickly began to show the tell tale signs of wearing down. With the fatigue, cramping, and tight muscles se
tting in, I was clearly over training, but the event was only two months away, and in my mind I just needed to push through (Rookie mistake #1 – seek professional help!). My breaking point came with an Ab roller during weight training. I’d never used one before and thought it would be a great way to work on my mid section. It wasn’t long before I felt the disks in my lower back bulging while in full extension.
tting in, I was clearly over training, but the event was only two months away, and in my mind I just needed to push through (Rookie mistake #1 – seek professional help!). My breaking point came with an Ab roller during weight training. I’d never used one before and thought it would be a great way to work on my mid section. It wasn’t long before I felt the disks in my lower back bulging while in full extension.
With the pain increasing steadily over the next couple weeks, I figured all I needed was a massage so I had my cousin who was in his first year of massage therapy give me a deep tissue massage (Rookie mistake #2 – seek professional help). The massage only made things worse and extended the now excruciating pain through my sciatica down to my toes. The pain finally led me to a sports doctor which he quickly diagnosed as a herniated L4, L5 disc. Months following the MRI, surgery was suggested as the next alternative. Surgery was not an option for me. I’ve always disliked hospitals from previous sport injuries, but the deciding factor came from a friend of mine who was training with the Bobsled team years previous. He too had suffered from a herniated disc and chose surgery. He is convinced he is worse off than before and wished he never had the surgery, so I took the only alternate route available, professional help, without the knife.
I began an aggressive regiment of Physiotherapy, Acupuncture, Message Therapy, and Chiropractic Care shortly after deciding that being cut open was not for me. I would visit with one of the doctors every other day, and spend a minimum of 2-3 hours a day stretching with resistant bands and working on my core stability with an exercise ball and balance board. After months of therapy, my sciatica was beginning to show signs of relief and I was once again able to sit in the same position for more than 20 minutes and bend forward enough to touch my knees. What felt like years, in reality, 9 months later I was finally able to touch my toes and slip on a pair of socks…..by myself, I was thankful and blessed to be in good health once again.
Re-assessing my goals, and taking baby steps, I was able to refocus on what came naturally to me, running. Within a year of my active recovery, I had completed 4 half
marathons, and my first marathon. Despite having food poisoning the day before the race, I completed the 2006 Honolulu Marathon in 4:35:40. Having never lost sight of my ultimate goal of participating in a triathlon, I once again felt confident and signed up for the 2008 Sylvan Lake Half Ironman. One major issue remained, I didn’t know how to swim, but I was sure they would let me wear water wings, wouldn’t they?
Friday, February 6, 2009
January Training Logs
Over the past several weeks, I have been privileged to meet some incredible individuals by being chosen as one of the Talisman Centers DRIVEN5 participants. In the weeks and months ahead, I will be keeping a weekly journal to share my experiences, heart ships and victories, following my progression, and hopefully inspire you to set some of your own goals. The individuals below will help me reach my goals, and will be talking about them often.
Jon Bird, ETS & Triathlon Coach
Jon is my Personal Trainer who's strength are my downfall, its a perfect fit. His focused but casual coaching style bodes well with my serious yet playful approach to training.
Kelly Drager -Nutrition Coordinator
Kelly is my personal dietitian, who literally knows me inside and out, she is very kind not to judge. Over the coming months, she will guide my pre, during, and post race nutrition making necessary adjustments along the way.
Charlie Morin - Training Partner & my Border Collie
Charlie is ready to go day or not, rain or shine and always has a smile on her face. She makes the mornings bearable.
Jaime Morin - Wife, support team, biggest fan
Jaime is the most patient, understanding, encouraging and loving partner one could ever hope for.
DRIVEN5 - Training Logs
Week one - Mon Jan 12 - Sun Jan 18
December 17th 2008, the day I was chosen as one of the DRIVEN, I knew then only days remained until my life would change. It was therefore a very joyful and gluttonous Christmas season as the consumption of cocktails and goodies were abundant, my days were numbered. When I did receive my 4 week training schedule on January 12 it was 3:28pm. The schedule required a 65 minute run first thing in the am, which needless to say i didn't get around to until that night at 9pm. The Training Schedule was all business, and would take some getting used to, I ha begun the long disciplined 7 month journey ahead..
Monday - 65 minute run overall I felt great but I was tight in the hips almost from start to finish.
Tuesday - 70 minute ride on my bike trainer. It was tough as i needed to get my biking legs back, but 2 episodes of the TV show Entourage pulled me through.
Wednesday - I had a Run Lactate test which was fantastic, i haven't felt that spent and invigorated in a long time
Thursday - School in the pool and Jon taught me some simple floating techniques. I had to leave my water wings on the side.
Friday - An early 5:45am 90 minute run. Charlie couldn't get enough, and the run overall was great, had some minor cramping around minute 70 and head bobs at the office around 10am.
Saturday - My wife and I watched Eagle Eye while I rode for 100 minutes. (Good quality time with my wife now consists of me on my bike and her on the couch while we watch a movie)
Sunday - I crossed trained with 1.5 hours of cross country skiing then 125 minutes of pathway running at a cool time of 8-10pm A little chilly!
Week two - Mon Jan 19 - Sun Jan 25
The initial weeks were filled with pokes, prods and pinches, learning invaluable information about personal habits and where I need improvement if I am to reach my 2009 Ironman Canada goal. Body composition, nutritional analysis & lactate testing were taken to determine my current ability and devise the best action plan to best realize my full potential. The action plan Jon devised did not waste time, admittedly, having an ambitious season of 10 races ahead, there was no rest for the wicked. My first race, The Hypothermic Half Marathon, was only 5 weeks away and there is alot of work to do.
This has been a long week with back to back long runs to test my current abilities. There have been small improvements in the pool, Jon currently has me floating on either my left or right side with the bottom arm stretched forward. The idea is to correctly position my chest allowing my body to float to the surface, then time it so I can turn my face and take a breath, repeat for the full length of the pool and repeat on the other side. If at any point I panicked, choked on water or gasped for air, I was NOT to grab the wall or stand (If able to) I was to RESET by flipping on my back calming myself and then try it once again. At first I was only able to swim 10 meters before grabbing the wall, but quickly increased to the length of the pool (25m) It is one of what i hope to be many small victories that lay ahead.
Training overall felt good, other than being tired from my lack of nutrition before some of the runs. I was looking forward to my meeting with Kelly Drager (Dietitian) to get my eating habits on track. Turned out that I didn't require much changing at all, simply adjusting the quantity of food and the time of my meals.
Sunday was a long run of 130 minutes and has been the most challenging run on my schedule to date. I typically run my long runs around the Glenmore / Weiselhead park for two reasons, the first being new scenery. I am lucky enough to live one block from the city pathways, but running the same paths three to four days a week gets mundane. The second reason is to get used to the Weiselhead terrain as the Calgary 70.3 run is along this path. Charlie was again a little bean, content as can be to be running with his master in the great outdoors. By the time we looped the reservoir, we needed to extend my run by another 40 minutes, mentally I was done as we had completed the loop, Charlie on the other hand gave me a look as if to say "I want to do it again!" I forced a much needed gel down my throat and pushed myself onwards. When the additional 40 minutes was over, I was spent, out of gas, clearly my breakfast lacked the necessary nutrients to get me through.
Week three - Mon Jan 26 - Sun Feb 01
Monday was a test of my current physical condition and ability to recover as Jon had me run back to back long runs, Sunday 130 minutes, Monday 75minutes. On Monday I ran on a treadmill with a 1 degree incline running 5 minute intervals between level 6 and 8. The run felt great, my body had recovered from Sundays run and I was ready to go... Thursday was the highlight of the week with the official launch of the DRIVEN5. I finally met the other 4 athletes, it was great to hear the athletes backgrounds and inspiring stories and was very excited to learn that all 5 of us would be competing in the 70.3 Ironman Calgary! John Henderson from Shaw and his crew, Dan, were kind enough to write a story on Endurance Training and interview myself and another DRIVEN5 athlete Amy Woodward (The story will be available to view online).
In the background of working full time and training, any spare time has been dedicated to building my DRIVEN5 website and making contacts to obtain sponsorship, and raise money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Society. Once the website is launched, I will be sure to include details on my cause and how people can get involved.
Training this week has felt considerably more comfortable than week one. The biggest issue to date has been getting enough sleep. Most of my training has been late in the evenings which makes it very difficult to get up on the morning, Charlie however is good to go no matter what time of day. This weeks swimming lesson followed the official launch. I am slowly feeling more confident and calm in the water focusing on my breathing and proper technique. Its a slow process but i'm convinced I will make leaps and bounds in the near future. Jon has been extremely patient and assures me I am making progress, thanks Jon. Biking and running feel good, I'm at a point where I need to push myself hard to start feeling the gains.
Week four is a rest week, only training for 5 days with the intensity and duration minimal. My body is not used to this amount of training and is welcoming the rest, however I look forward to returning to the intense schedule and improving as best I can.
Jon Bird, ETS & Triathlon Coach
Jon is my Personal Trainer who's strength are my downfall, its a perfect fit. His focused but casual coaching style bodes well with my serious yet playful approach to training.
Kelly Drager -Nutrition Coordinator
Kelly is my personal dietitian, who literally knows me inside and out, she is very kind not to judge. Over the coming months, she will guide my pre, during, and post race nutrition making necessary adjustments along the way.
Charlie Morin - Training Partner & my Border Collie
Charlie is ready to go day or not, rain or shine and always has a smile on her face. She makes the mornings bearable.
Jaime Morin - Wife, support team, biggest fan
Jaime is the most patient, understanding, encouraging and loving partner one could ever hope for.
DRIVEN5 - Training Logs
Week one - Mon Jan 12 - Sun Jan 18
December 17th 2008, the day I was chosen as one of the DRIVEN, I knew then only days remained until my life would change. It was therefore a very joyful and gluttonous Christmas season as the consumption of cocktails and goodies were abundant, my days were numbered. When I did receive my 4 week training schedule on January 12 it was 3:28pm. The schedule required a 65 minute run first thing in the am, which needless to say i didn't get around to until that night at 9pm. The Training Schedule was all business, and would take some getting used to, I ha begun the long disciplined 7 month journey ahead..
Monday - 65 minute run overall I felt great but I was tight in the hips almost from start to finish.
Tuesday - 70 minute ride on my bike trainer. It was tough as i needed to get my biking legs back, but 2 episodes of the TV show Entourage pulled me through.
Wednesday - I had a Run Lactate test which was fantastic, i haven't felt that spent and invigorated in a long time
Thursday - School in the pool and Jon taught me some simple floating techniques. I had to leave my water wings on the side.
Friday - An early 5:45am 90 minute run. Charlie couldn't get enough, and the run overall was great, had some minor cramping around minute 70 and head bobs at the office around 10am.
Saturday - My wife and I watched Eagle Eye while I rode for 100 minutes. (Good quality time with my wife now consists of me on my bike and her on the couch while we watch a movie)
Sunday - I crossed trained with 1.5 hours of cross country skiing then 125 minutes of pathway running at a cool time of 8-10pm A little chilly!
Week two - Mon Jan 19 - Sun Jan 25
The initial weeks were filled with pokes, prods and pinches, learning invaluable information about personal habits and where I need improvement if I am to reach my 2009 Ironman Canada goal. Body composition, nutritional analysis & lactate testing were taken to determine my current ability and devise the best action plan to best realize my full potential. The action plan Jon devised did not waste time, admittedly, having an ambitious season of 10 races ahead, there was no rest for the wicked. My first race, The Hypothermic Half Marathon, was only 5 weeks away and there is alot of work to do.
This has been a long week with back to back long runs to test my current abilities. There have been small improvements in the pool, Jon currently has me floating on either my left or right side with the bottom arm stretched forward. The idea is to correctly position my chest allowing my body to float to the surface, then time it so I can turn my face and take a breath, repeat for the full length of the pool and repeat on the other side. If at any point I panicked, choked on water or gasped for air, I was NOT to grab the wall or stand (If able to) I was to RESET by flipping on my back calming myself and then try it once again. At first I was only able to swim 10 meters before grabbing the wall, but quickly increased to the length of the pool (25m) It is one of what i hope to be many small victories that lay ahead.
Training overall felt good, other than being tired from my lack of nutrition before some of the runs. I was looking forward to my meeting with Kelly Drager (Dietitian) to get my eating habits on track. Turned out that I didn't require much changing at all, simply adjusting the quantity of food and the time of my meals.
Sunday was a long run of 130 minutes and has been the most challenging run on my schedule to date. I typically run my long runs around the Glenmore / Weiselhead park for two reasons, the first being new scenery. I am lucky enough to live one block from the city pathways, but running the same paths three to four days a week gets mundane. The second reason is to get used to the Weiselhead terrain as the Calgary 70.3 run is along this path. Charlie was again a little bean, content as can be to be running with his master in the great outdoors. By the time we looped the reservoir, we needed to extend my run by another 40 minutes, mentally I was done as we had completed the loop, Charlie on the other hand gave me a look as if to say "I want to do it again!" I forced a much needed gel down my throat and pushed myself onwards. When the additional 40 minutes was over, I was spent, out of gas, clearly my breakfast lacked the necessary nutrients to get me through.
Week three - Mon Jan 26 - Sun Feb 01
Monday was a test of my current physical condition and ability to recover as Jon had me run back to back long runs, Sunday 130 minutes, Monday 75minutes. On Monday I ran on a treadmill with a 1 degree incline running 5 minute intervals between level 6 and 8. The run felt great, my body had recovered from Sundays run and I was ready to go... Thursday was the highlight of the week with the official launch of the DRIVEN5. I finally met the other 4 athletes, it was great to hear the athletes backgrounds and inspiring stories and was very excited to learn that all 5 of us would be competing in the 70.3 Ironman Calgary! John Henderson from Shaw and his crew, Dan, were kind enough to write a story on Endurance Training and interview myself and another DRIVEN5 athlete Amy Woodward (The story will be available to view online).
In the background of working full time and training, any spare time has been dedicated to building my DRIVEN5 website and making contacts to obtain sponsorship, and raise money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Society. Once the website is launched, I will be sure to include details on my cause and how people can get involved.
Training this week has felt considerably more comfortable than week one. The biggest issue to date has been getting enough sleep. Most of my training has been late in the evenings which makes it very difficult to get up on the morning, Charlie however is good to go no matter what time of day. This weeks swimming lesson followed the official launch. I am slowly feeling more confident and calm in the water focusing on my breathing and proper technique. Its a slow process but i'm convinced I will make leaps and bounds in the near future. Jon has been extremely patient and assures me I am making progress, thanks Jon. Biking and running feel good, I'm at a point where I need to push myself hard to start feeling the gains.
Week four is a rest week, only training for 5 days with the intensity and duration minimal. My body is not used to this amount of training and is welcoming the rest, however I look forward to returning to the intense schedule and improving as best I can.
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