A Snow Day is a Slow Day

I awoke this morning to find that the great outdoors had received something of a snowfall.  Wonderful news, I suppose, if one enjoys gazing at the lovely snow-covered rooftops across the street and making nostalgic comments about winter and Christmas.  If one actually has to run in this white mess…not so much.  Nevertheless, I threw on my windbreaker and tights and headed out for a run.

It was cold and rather unpleasant.  The snow had that granular and therefore slippery quality to it.  The lack of tread on my shoes only compounded this problem.  Forward progress was difficult (I believe they call this “two steps forward, one step back”).  Oh, and then there was the wind.  31 km/h, according to the weather network, and brutally cold.  I was out for one miserable hour.  It was all I could stand.  Thankfully, I’m on a down week at the moment, so I’m not too concerned about running a certain number of miles.

This post has been little more than a bunch of whining.  Basically, I need to HTFU.

Oh, and I uploaded a whole bunch of photos from cross country season to facebook.  Check ‘em out if you enjoy bizarre facial expressions and self-deprecating humour.

CIS Championship Race Report

I haven’t updated this in a while, so I thought it would be fitting that my return to blogging consisted of an epic race report (also posted here)!  Read on…

Race: CIS Cross Country Championships

Date: November 10^th, 2007

Location: Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, B.C.

Official Results Page 

The CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) Cross Country Championships have been a source of either exhilaration or terrible disappointment for me in the past.  Emotions run high every year as the women of the best university teams in the country toe the line, ready to battle it out over the next five kilometers.  I knew I was in great shape this year, and I was certain that I would improve upon my disastrous display of running last year at the national championships.  In addition, the CIS championships are used as a means of selecting the national team that will compete in the world university cross country championships, which will be held in Mauquenchy, France in April 2008.  The top five women and top six men in the race would qualify to represent Canada at the race.  My goal for the CIS championships was to place in the top ten, but my secret “pie-in-the-sky” goal was to make the national team by placing in the top five.

This year, the CIS cross country championships were held out in Victoria, British Columbia, at Beacon Hill Park (right off the road from mile zero on the Trans-Canada Highway).  I, along with my fellow members of the Queen’s University cross country team, made the trip out to beautiful British Columbia in order to run in this great event.  Because we had to travel so far to get to this meet, we had the luxury of arriving in Victoria early.  On the day before the race, we were able to do some shopping downtown, and more importantly, jog the race course before Saturday’s effort.  The course was, in my opinion, a perfect place to have a cross country race.  I may be a bit biased, since I prefer the good old days when cross country required competitors to negotiate some rough terrain (OK…maybe I’m not that old).  Nevertheless, most cross country races are held on golf courses these days – terrain suitable for a nice leisurely afternoon jog, but not for an epic contest of endurance and guts.  Yes, folks, I’ll say it:  cross country has become little more than a 5,000 meter track race held on grass.  Thankfully, this year’s CIS cross country championships was held on a comparatively tough course.  The women’s course consisted of two 2.5 km loops.  There were a few good hills and lots of uneven footing.  Yes, this was a course that would favour the strong cross country runners, rather than the scrawny track athletes who desperately hope their 800m speed would carry over in a 5k cross country race.  But enough about the course and my rants about the state of cross country races today.

I woke up on race day feeling strong and confident.  My legs felt great – I’m glad I finally listened to my coach this year and actually tapered before the championships!  Breakfast went as usual: a sesame seed bagel and tea.  Three cups of tea, in fact.  This was probably not the greatest idea I’ve ever had, but fortunately I was able to “empty the tank,” so to speak, before the race start time. My pre-race routine and warm-up went as usual.  By the time I had laced up my spikes and done a few experimental strides, I was confident that I was going to have a good race.

At 1 PM, the gun went off, and one hundred and seven women took off.  The start was fast, as is usually the case at the CIS champs.  It is the nature of cross country that everyone starts much faster than they would like, out of fear of getting stuck behind slower runners once the course becomes narrow.  I charged hard off the start line and was able to find a position at the front of the pack.  I focused on staying there, regardless of what pace I was running, for the first 500m of the race before settling in to a good pace.  It didn’t quite work the way I expected.  I think the adrenaline surge I got at the beginning of the race caused me to get a bit excited, and I ended up leading the race until the one-kilometer mark.  I was informed later that we ran the first kilometer of the race in 3:22.  It certainly hadn’t felt that fast at the time!

At this point, a runner from Guelph took the lead, so I focused on staying on the shoulder of the second-placed girl.  We ran together throughout the first lap, putting a gap on the group behind us.  We finished the first lap of the course crossing the halfway mark in about 8:47.  By this time, first place had put some distance between her and us.  I continued to run in third place, fighting to stay with second. As I began the second lap of the course, fatigue started to set in.  I tried to ignore the growing pain in my legs as I worked hard to stay with the second-place runner.  I could tell that we were both tired and starting to slow down, but I knew that there was a chase pack of two or three girls who weren’t far behind us.

With about a kilometer to go, I snuck a look over my shoulder as I ran around a corner.  The nagging fears I had had throughout the second lap were confirmed – the chase pack was gaining on us.  By the time we hit the final hill about 300m later, two or three girls had caught us.  The last hill was short, but steep and painful to run in my current state.  I charged up as best as I could and fought to stay with the group.

With 500m to go in the race, the situation looked something like this: first place was way ahead, and I was in a group of four or five runners, so tired that I could no longer think straight.  We all wanted a medal, and we were all in similar states of pain.  With what courage I had, I decided that it was now or never.  I surged ahead, leaving my fate up to my lactic acid-filled leg muscles, desperately hoping that I had a little bit more fight left in me than my fellow competitors.  I was in third place with about 100m to go, and then – a sudden agony, worse than any pain I had ever felt in my life.  Searing pain shot through my limbs, my lungs burned, and I wanted nothing more than to collapse.  I saw myself slowing down, being passed by one, two women, but there was nothing more I could do.  My body had given me everything it had to give.  I crossed the finish line in fifth place, simply unable to go another step.

My time over 5 km was 18:07. As soon as I had made it out of the finishing chute, I was informed that I had been selected for drug testing.  Lucky me.  As such, I had a chaperone following me around for a while.  After about half an hour, a group of us were taken back to our hotel to basically wait together in a room until we were able to produce a sample (which is a nice way of saying “pee in a cup!”)  I actually don’t remember much of the time I spent at the race course before returning to the hotel.  I had gone so hard during the race that I was completely out of it for the next few hours.  I was pretty pale, sick, and generally incoherent for a while.  Now that I think about it, it was pretty funny, though I wasn’t laughing at the time!  In any case, I was able to produce a urine sample after a while, and was free to leave the doping control area.  Unfortunately, I never got a chance to cool down after the race, so my entire body was stiff for the next few days.

When I reflect upon my race and my cross country season, I realize that I couldn’t be happier with my results.  I had worked hard throughout the summer and the fall in order to prepare for this race.  I had run over 80 miles per week for every week until my taper, running in both the morning and the afternoon on weekdays.  I was extremely happy that my training had paid off this year, and that I had been able to peak at the right moment.  The days following the race were pretty emotional for me.  On the one hand, I was in disbelief at my success.  On the other hand, I was ecstatic because I had put so much time, energy, and passion into this cross country season.  Most importantly, I am very excited to be going to France in April to compete in the world championship!  But first, I will be taking some much-needed rest!

Two Workouts Done and Three Sleeps Until Western…

It’s been a tough week, compounded by the fact that my wonderful housemate has infected me with his cold.  Today I woke up feeling awful, though my ability to breathe improved after my morning run.  I still went through a box of kleenex in two days, though.

Monday’s workout consisted of 4 X 1 mile with three minutes rest in between.  I felt pretty strong on this one.  My intervals were 6:04, 6:09, 6:01, 6:09.  I was happy that I was fairly consistent, since it’s tough to keep pace on intervals of that length when running alone.  Plus, the workout ended a less-than wonderful day on something of a positive note.  I had spent the entire day shuffling around campus at a very slow pace because of my blisters.  As a result, I was late for most of my classes.  I was also late for practice, since it took me a good ten minutes to get from class to the Phys-Ed Center, another few minutes to change, and a bit of time to tape my feet up again.  The group left without me.  Thankfully, I was only a few minutes behind, and joined them for the intervals.

Tuesday proceeded according to routine.  4 miles in the morning, and 10 at practice.  The time in between was spent sneezing and suffering.

Today’s workout was interesting.  It consisted of 12 X 400m with 1 minute rest.  We were supposed to run them in about 90 seconds, but our group ran in the 85-88 range for most of the intervals.  I was probably overthinking this one, as evidenced by my incessant babbling to my teammates about how to wrap my head around this workout.  I haven’t done intervals this short since January, so I had no idea how to deal with this workout!  Regardless, I ran pretty well, and I’m feeling strong for Western.  I’m getting really excited about this weekend’s race.  I don’t think I’ve ever been this pumped!

Goin’ Long

I woke up this morning to discover that my legs didn’t feel a thing from yesterday’s race.  My head, on the other hand, was certainly feeling yesterday’s several glasses of wine (more on that later).  My primary concern for today’s training, however, was the state of my war wounds on my heels.  I made my way over to the drug store to get some supplies to patch up my feet.  I couldn’t find second skin anywhere, so I opted for the spray-on bandaids.  It seemed to work well, even though it stung like hell for a bit.  I later read on the package that it was for small cuts, not large patches of skin that had been rubbed raw.  Oops.  I then applied real bandaids, and tape over that, so that the bandaids wouldn’t slip.

 The entire anti-blister configuration held up well over the course of my two-hour run.  I barely noticed the tape, and there was no pain to speak of!  As for the run itself, I found it to be the most enjoyable long run I’ve had in a while.  I started out with Liza, my housemate, for the first hour.  We explored Belle Park and Golf Course.  It was a nice run, since I rarely get out to that area.  We talked the entire time, moving along at a good but comfortable pace.  I set out on my own for the second hour, heading off in the opposite direction towards the Rideau Trail.  Over the course of my solo hour, I slowly picked up my pace.  I had no idea how fast I was going, so with about ten minutes to go, I made a mental note of where I was and my route from there to home.  Upon my return, I mapped out that section of the run and calculated that I had been running 7 minute mile pace by the end of the run.  I was probably my fastest section of the run, since I was pushing it to get home, but I’m happy that I was able to start the run at about 8 minute mile pace or more and gradually bring it down to 7 min/miles.  Usually, I’m extremely tired and slow by the end of a two hour run.  I logged it as 15 miles, though it was probably more.  Oh well.  It matters little what my training log says I did…what matters is what I’m capable of when I’m on the start line.

XC Intersquad 2007

My plan to rest up on Friday worked rather well.  On Thursday, my legs were pretty shot.  I had a theory that since I’ve been doing double runs every day, I could recover quickly with a single day of rest.  I took Friday off completely, and by Saturday morning, my legs felt great.  I think Friday was my first real rest day in about three weeks.  I woke up for the 5k intersquad race on Saturday morning feeling fresh and ready to pull a fast one.

The intersquad race consisted of only the Queen’s team, for the purpose of selecting those athletes who will compete at the Western Invitational next week.  I was happy to race it, since my legs were itching to go fast, and I wanted to test myself at this early point in the season.  It had rained on Friday night, but the ground was still pretty firm over on the Fort Henry course.  The wind, however, would be a foe to contend with, as is typical of that course.  As of 1 PM, the Kingston Airport measured the wind speed at 22 km/h.  Of course, it could have been more than that up at Fort Henry, since we were on top of a hill and right beside the lake.

The start was something of a fast one.  I believe Liz Miller, a former sprinter (in front), has a tendency to just take off at the start of a race.  But after about 400m or so, we managed to settle in at a good pace.  The race consisted of two laps of a 2.5k loop.  Nadia Tatlow, a fast rookie from Calgary, and I led the first lap.  The course was tough, since we ran the first bit of each lap with a tailwind, then battled a fierce headwind as we headed back towards the start line.  A few switchbacks provided some temporary respite, but before long, it was straight into the wind again.

 

My 2.5k split was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 9:10, but I was hurting from fighting that headwind.  Thankfully, we made a 180 degree turn around the halfway mark, so it was easy again for the next kilometer or so.  I kept my effort level the same as it had been while I was running into the wind, and managed to put a gap between myself and Nadia.  At this point, I started to notice that my heels were in pain.  I had had the brilliant idea of running in my spikes without socks.  Needless to say, it was a big mistake.  I ran alone for the entire second lap, and my motivation was not staying ahead of everyone else, but finishing the race as quickly as possible in order to get those bloody shoes off of my feet.

 

I finished the 5k race in 18:44, and proceeded to sit down and remove my spikes immediately.  I was very happy with my time, since it was the fastest I had ever run on the Fort Henry course (in windy conditions, to boot!)  I was also very impressed with the effort that everyone on the team gave.  I was a bit worried that because of the wind, everyone would be bunched up into a tight pack (not working as hard as they should have, and making for a very difficult team selection job for the coaches!)  But instead, it appeared that everyone chose to “man up” (yes, it’s a politically incorrect term, but see the current issue of Triathlete for more details) and take the wind themselves.  And I’m all for a mentally tough Queen’s team!

 Oh, and since you’re probably curious…

THE AFTERMATH:

Leslie vs. the Wind, Take 2

 Yesterday was tough.  I did my usual four miles in the morning, and a workout on the Queen’s Invitational course with the team in the afternoon.  This course has finally been cut, so we are no longer stumbling through long grass.  The workout was a structured fartlek — 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, with 1 minute rest in between.  I started off with the front group of girls, moving at a good pace.  This went well until the second four-minuter, when the wind became very gusty and we worked a lot harder to maintain our pace.  On the next interval, I tried to maintain the same effort, but without the wind to slow me down, I ended up putting a gap between me and the rest of the group.  This was only about 30 seconds into the interval, and it had already started to hurt like hell, but I was stubborn and stupid, and didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment of going off on the front, then having the group reel me back in.  So I pushed hard for the last two, and just felt absolutely thrashed by the end of the workout.  That definitely wasn’t the plan for the evening, since I wasn’t feeling great at the start, and I wanted to take this week pretty easy.

 The fatigue is really starting to set in this week.  I can’t wait until Friday so that I can have my wonderful day off.  No class, no running, just putting my feet up and relaxing.  My theory is that my body will be able to recover a substantial amount in a day, since I’m so used to running twice a day.  I won’t do any double runs over the weekend, so hopefully that should help, too.  We have an intersquad competition on Saturday, which will decide who makes the varsity team.  My hope is that it will help me to get rid of some of the nervous energy I have, by putting in a solid effort.  Also, it will be a low-volume day, which will also be helpful.  How I feel on Sunday morning will determine how far I go on my long run.  I’m anxious to do another two hour run, but I could probably live with myself if I went shorter.

 I’m still figuring out my needs for nutrition.  I’ve finally gotten rid of the bloated feeling I’ve had since I got back from training camp.  It was really throwing me off, since it was skewing weight readings on the scale.  I’m currently back down to my pre-camp weight (116-7).  I’m still eating constantly, though.  And it’s at times when I don’t normally eat.  For example, I used to be able to do my morning run (4 miles) without eating beforehand, and eat breakfast when I came home.  Now, I need to eat a Vector bar in the morning because I feel hungry and weak when I get up.  And the snacks…I can’t believe how much I’m snacking.  Ideally I would be eating five small meals throughout the day, but I’m all over campus in the morning and the afternoon, so I’m stuck eating energy bars rather than salads.  I’m still playing around with nutrition, so I’ll have to see how it goes during this week and next week.

Apparently, Kingston is Windy…

Why do I never seem to be able to remember this simple fact?  But I’ll start from the beginning.  I woke up at about 8 AM to do my morning run.  It was grey and raining slightly, one of those days where one is hesitant to simply leave the house.  The run could definitely be called a recovery run, since I seemed to be unable to dip under 8 min/mile pace.  This never really bothers me, since I’ve accepted the fact that I’m not a morning person (plus my legs are always hurting from the previous night’s workout or run).  My morning runs have always been slow.

 Training session #2 consisted of a 42k bike ride.  It’s been week since I last hit the roads, as I’ve been busy getting used to cross country training for the past week.  I went out hard, all the while afraid to ask myself why 30km/h felt so easy, even on slight uphill grades.  As soon as I reached Joyceville and turned to head west back to Kingston, the gusty winds hit me and I slowed right down.  I tried to push hard, but every time I came to a hill, fatigue hit and my legs failed me.  I think I need to spend more time on the bike!  At least I was able to reward myself with a nice roast beef sandwich afterwards.  I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of that stuff.

I’m definitely going to need more sleep if I am to keep up with all of this training.  I don’t have very many morning classes, but I was completely exhausted during my 4-5:30 class today.  So it looks like I’ll either be going to bed early, or taking a midday nap.

I finished off my training for the day with a 10 mile run with the cross country team.  Actually, most of them went shorter, and I tacked on some extra at the end.  My legs felt a bit flat, but I survived and didn’t feel too tired in the last half-hour.

 I also found out some information about my university’s triathlon club.  It’s a competitive club, rather than a varsity team, so I won’t be forced to compete or attend every single practice if I join.  This is important to me, since I am currently attempting to balance the demands of competing for the varsity cross country team with my personal aspirations of training for triathlons.  With the triathlon team, I would be able to get some practices (swims, rides, and spin classes during the winter) in and meet some triathletes to train with.  I think I’m going to go for it, if my schedule permits me to do so.  I’ve also signed up for a stroke improvement swim class, so that I can hopefully stop flailing in the water as I attempt to drag my muscular runner’s legs down the lane.

 It’s going to be a busy year!

Salutations

Here begins my lovely training blog.  Why, you ask?  Well, on a personal note, this blog will help me to keep track of my training and how I feel as I work towards some longer triathlons.  I’m also writing this to (hopefully) entertain others (if anyone else is actually reading this thing), and network with other triathletes.  And, heck, athletes like Simon Whitfield have blogs, so why not be more Simon?  It won’t make me any faster, but this blog will provide me with a place to geek out, in more ways than one.

 Enjoy!