Last year I had one primary goal, that being the Death Race in the middle of the summer. That didn't work out so well for the months after the Death Race in terms of maintaining my fitness as well as a few other things in life, because I find that maintaining a runnin goal helps me keep the rest of my life balanced.
Yes I will have a few specific races which will be my primary goal races, but I will run more races with the intent of keeping myself occupied because idle hands seem to be the devil's playground.
So.... goals.
1. Finish my degree.
2. Don't do any drugs.
3. Finish the Schorched Sole 50 mile race in under 9:30
4. Finish the Fat Dog 100 mile race in under 32 hours.
5. Run every day.
Number one and two will be the hardest, but I think if I can manage to maintain those two goals I can be much more likely at succeeding at the other two and just be better off in general. And to do these things I am going to try and maintain a slightly different schedule of running for the year. I know that running helps me through my days, helping me have tike to reflect on the day that was and the days to come when I go running, it clears my head. So if I run more often I feel as though I will be more likely to be able to stay focused on my first two goals. This is where goal number five comes in, even if it's only going for a 5 minute run around the block I want to try and do that.
In terms of the 50 mile race I think I can quite easily achieve the time goal. I ran the race in 10:05 in 2010 and apparently the route will be slightly easier in 2011 so if I maintain a similar training plan leading up to it I should be good. Will probably add miles in to the training though.
The 100 mile race. It's only 35 km longer than the death race so it's very achievable, and there are several more palces for drop bags / aid stations on the course so I think it could be easier to plan nutrition and avoid similar mistakes I made during the death race.
In october I had stated that I planned a certain race calendar for the year which looked like this.
Mar: Half marathon
Mar: Dirty Duo 50 km
Apr: Diez Vista 50 km
May: Unknown
Jun: Scorched sole 50 mile
July: Fat Dog 100 mile
Aug: Stormy 100 mile (or 50)
Sept: Walk in the Park 54 km
Oct: Marathon
This plan seems far too heavy on the ultra races and I think I will burn myself out doing that. And I've decided to avoid long travel distances to get to races in an attempt to save money. So I've come up with a new schedule focusing on local, cheaper races.
Feb 13: 10 km race (Vernon)
Mar 6: 5 km race (Penticton)
Mar 27: half marathon (Kelowna)
April 10: 10 km (Oliver)
May 8: 10 mile (Penticton)
May 22: half marathon (Penticton)
Jun 12: Half Marathon (Summerland)
June 25: Scorched Sole 50 mile (Kelowna)
July 10: 8 km race (Kelowna)
July 23: Fat Dog 100 mile (Manning Park)
Aug 14: 10 km race (Salmon Arm)
Sep 4: Walk in the Park (Kamloops)
Sep 11: 10 km race (Penticton)
Sep 18: 16 km race (Kelowna)
Sept: Salmon Arm X Country
Oct: Summerland X country
Oct 9: Marathon (Kelowna)
Oct: Kelowna X Country
Oct: Penticton X country
Oct: Vernon X country
And for a completely arbitrary total km goal for the year I'm going to try and hit 2400 km for the year in running.
Yep, should be a good year. I think my goals are definitely acheivable.
Nazzer
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Looking back on 2010
I started this blog at the beginning of the year and if I remember correctly my one goal was completing the Death Race in August. Everything I did up to that was a planned slow progression leading up to that race and my primary goal of completing it. Well, I finished the Death Race in 22:44:27 so I guess I accomplished my goal.
As well this year I ran a half marathon, 2 marathons, 2 50k ultras, 1 50 mile ultra and 3 short cross country races. I even managed to place 3rd in my age group in the final standings of the local running associations cross country series (by default though because there were only three of us that ran enough of the races to qualify for the final points).
In February I increased my weekly running totals too quickly and injured my right leg, I believe the problem was a stress fracture on my fibula which put a damper on my running for much of March. Which lead to me running a local half marathon at the end of March when I was just barely comfortable enough to run again. I finished the race in 1:42:30, which is now my personal best but I feel I can do better as I hurt too much that day to put any kick in my race that day at all.
The beginning of May saw me take on a double back to back of a 50 km trail ultra on saturday May 1st and then the Vancouver marathon the next day on sunday. I did the 50 k in 4:47 and the marathon in 4:27. I viewed this double as a test to see how my endurance was. I'm not sure what I learned through this, other than not getting enough sleep before the second day wasn't a good idea. I could have run the 50 km in less than 4:30 possibly even less as I was purposely trying to hold back so I wasn't destroyed for the second race of the weekend. But even with holding back I totally hit a wall at the 30 km point in the marathon.
June was the scorched sole 50 mile race. Looking back on the race I think this was my best race all year. No injuries, no hydration issues, no cramping. Probably was helped by the fact that this race is on trails that I regularly train on. I so very much look forward to the 2011 race. I suppose one thing I should take from how easy this race seemed in relation to other races is that I need to prepare better for other races.
August long weekend was the Death Race. I really am happy that I finished this. The race itself was awesome and felt so good to be able to accomplish it, breathtaking scenery, super challenging hills. Yeah I made some mistakes on the run and I could probably do it faster if I were to do it again. But I probably won't do that race again.
I didn't do much running for a bit after the Death Race. It was rather hard to get inspired to run when I had just complete what was the one major goal of the year. So looking forward to this year I need to make sure I have a goal coming up soon after a real long race, even if its just to participate in a small race. I did a fair bit of biking to keep up my fitness. This lead to the 54 km Walk in the Park race on Labour day. I was running strong with the secondary group of runners and doing good but by the end of the race I had hurt my ankle somehow, and this injury lingered on until the Kelowna Marathon in October. I thought I had fully recovered as the week before the marathon I did a long run of 28 km without any pain. But apparently not. The marathon was a double loop of a half marathon course. I did the first half in 1:39, and then around the second half my ankle pain flared up like crazy and did a much slower second half split time of 2:15 for a total time of 3:55:46 which is still a personal best. But again, I think I can do better.
Overall for the year I ran 2035 km (1200 of those on the trails) and biked 1245 km (860 on the road bike, the rest on mountain bike). I only ran or biked 282 days of the year, meaning there was 75 days off. I feel like I could avoid injury better and train better if I were to run more often, that way when I hit long runs there is less likely to get injured, even if I am just adding in 5 km runs on the days I may have not run in the past.
All in all it was a good year for running. Next year I will spend more time on the trails than I did this year, and I will try and be more judicious about increasing my milage to avoid injury.
As well this year I ran a half marathon, 2 marathons, 2 50k ultras, 1 50 mile ultra and 3 short cross country races. I even managed to place 3rd in my age group in the final standings of the local running associations cross country series (by default though because there were only three of us that ran enough of the races to qualify for the final points).
In February I increased my weekly running totals too quickly and injured my right leg, I believe the problem was a stress fracture on my fibula which put a damper on my running for much of March. Which lead to me running a local half marathon at the end of March when I was just barely comfortable enough to run again. I finished the race in 1:42:30, which is now my personal best but I feel I can do better as I hurt too much that day to put any kick in my race that day at all.
The beginning of May saw me take on a double back to back of a 50 km trail ultra on saturday May 1st and then the Vancouver marathon the next day on sunday. I did the 50 k in 4:47 and the marathon in 4:27. I viewed this double as a test to see how my endurance was. I'm not sure what I learned through this, other than not getting enough sleep before the second day wasn't a good idea. I could have run the 50 km in less than 4:30 possibly even less as I was purposely trying to hold back so I wasn't destroyed for the second race of the weekend. But even with holding back I totally hit a wall at the 30 km point in the marathon.
June was the scorched sole 50 mile race. Looking back on the race I think this was my best race all year. No injuries, no hydration issues, no cramping. Probably was helped by the fact that this race is on trails that I regularly train on. I so very much look forward to the 2011 race. I suppose one thing I should take from how easy this race seemed in relation to other races is that I need to prepare better for other races.
August long weekend was the Death Race. I really am happy that I finished this. The race itself was awesome and felt so good to be able to accomplish it, breathtaking scenery, super challenging hills. Yeah I made some mistakes on the run and I could probably do it faster if I were to do it again. But I probably won't do that race again.
I didn't do much running for a bit after the Death Race. It was rather hard to get inspired to run when I had just complete what was the one major goal of the year. So looking forward to this year I need to make sure I have a goal coming up soon after a real long race, even if its just to participate in a small race. I did a fair bit of biking to keep up my fitness. This lead to the 54 km Walk in the Park race on Labour day. I was running strong with the secondary group of runners and doing good but by the end of the race I had hurt my ankle somehow, and this injury lingered on until the Kelowna Marathon in October. I thought I had fully recovered as the week before the marathon I did a long run of 28 km without any pain. But apparently not. The marathon was a double loop of a half marathon course. I did the first half in 1:39, and then around the second half my ankle pain flared up like crazy and did a much slower second half split time of 2:15 for a total time of 3:55:46 which is still a personal best. But again, I think I can do better.
Overall for the year I ran 2035 km (1200 of those on the trails) and biked 1245 km (860 on the road bike, the rest on mountain bike). I only ran or biked 282 days of the year, meaning there was 75 days off. I feel like I could avoid injury better and train better if I were to run more often, that way when I hit long runs there is less likely to get injured, even if I am just adding in 5 km runs on the days I may have not run in the past.
All in all it was a good year for running. Next year I will spend more time on the trails than I did this year, and I will try and be more judicious about increasing my milage to avoid injury.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Christmas Trees on the Mountains!
I've been running up Knox Mountain fairly regularly these days. Snow covered trails, not much ice. It usually takes me 36 minutes or so in good conditions and I'm getting up the mountain in 43ish minutes. But the best part is that someone has decided to decorate a few of the trees into Charlie Brown style Christmas trees.
It's awesome!
It's awesome!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Snow running...
Even though I'm not running much these days I really do enjoy the days where I get time to do long runs in the snow covered mountain trails. Myra Bellevue Park is so beautiful right now.
I ran up Crawford trail to the KVR and then came back down the Lost lake trail. In total that's only about 21 km's. But the uphill to the KVR was pretty darn hard and didn't involve much running at all, mostly just hiking.
I don't know why, but I am really amused by taking pictures of how deep the snow is when I run in it.
This was right around lookout trail, such a nice view. I was lost, or rather I was "temporarily displaced from where I wanted to be", you can't really be lost when any time you don't know for sure where you are all you have to do is walk down the mountainside and you'lll eventually end up back in Kelowna somewhere.
I love this view.
This is at the crawford trail/ lost lake trail junction near the KVR. I was now in the mountain fog, feet were frozen, it was pretty rad. Took me just over three hours to get here.
This is on the way down lost lake trail. I did the 10 km stretch from the top of the KVR down the trail, downhill all the way, to my car in 47 minutes. It was so blissful running down the snowy trails, I'm pretty sure I've never gone that fast down that trail in good conditions.
I ran up Crawford trail to the KVR and then came back down the Lost lake trail. In total that's only about 21 km's. But the uphill to the KVR was pretty darn hard and didn't involve much running at all, mostly just hiking.
I don't know why, but I am really amused by taking pictures of how deep the snow is when I run in it.
This was right around lookout trail, such a nice view. I was lost, or rather I was "temporarily displaced from where I wanted to be", you can't really be lost when any time you don't know for sure where you are all you have to do is walk down the mountainside and you'lll eventually end up back in Kelowna somewhere.
I love this view.
This is at the crawford trail/ lost lake trail junction near the KVR. I was now in the mountain fog, feet were frozen, it was pretty rad. Took me just over three hours to get here.
This is on the way down lost lake trail. I did the 10 km stretch from the top of the KVR down the trail, downhill all the way, to my car in 47 minutes. It was so blissful running down the snowy trails, I'm pretty sure I've never gone that fast down that trail in good conditions.
Something that's nice about snow trail running is it seems to be forcing me to work on my stride, and making me lift my knee higher (due to having so much snow on the ground) which then gives me a longer stride, and makes it easier to land flat on my feet.
Nazzer
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