Final "SOS" week

"SOS" means a run that is "something of substance" - long or higher pace, be it speed, strength or marathon pace. This week was the final week of that - Wednesday for strength intervals, and Friday for marathon pace. Long distance is done with already. 

Monday (19): still have a lingering sore throat from my recently banished cold. I slept an uninterrupted 8 hours thanks to a new firm pillow. Hoping for sleep like that every night until race day. 

13k recovery run through Fish Creek Park, into an unpleasant wind initially. Too fast, each time I looked at my watch. Hope that bodes well. Did the 13k, which includes the always trying Sikome Hill, in 1:05. Next!

Tuesday: 11.5k recovery. 17 degrees and felt a little tired at times, though on each occasion when I checked my watch I was going too fast. Core workout after I got home was good, though wobbly for the first set of lunges and single-leg deadlifts. I actually felt quite energized. I made sure of that by having the biggest bowl of tortellini you've ever seen.

Wednesday: last strength run - 6x 7 minutes at 4:15-4:20/ minute pace. 20 degrees for a run feels like the heat had come along all of a sudden. It's taken until May 21 to run in a singlet. The inevitable posers with no shirt on appeared too (If anyone is a "not a real runner", some if these men might count - only doing it for vanity). 

Once again, almost every time I checked my garmin, I was going too fast. I'm a world champion sweater, and despite that, what felt like a 4:15 effort was actually 4:10 and under. I did the whole 16k, which includes 5 sets of traffic lights at the start and finish, in 1:15:30. 

Thursday: just a nice core workout in a boiling hot gym that may have forgotten to turn on the air-con.

Friday: final SOS run - 17k at marathon pace. 23 degrees and partial cloud cover. Very sticky. Again I'd check my watch and have to slow myself down. 

What does all this mean, having to repeatedly slow myself down during training? I might be faster than I think, but I should also take care during the race to control my enthusiasm and speed. 

Saturday: like every Saturday, bus to the gym and run home after weights. As it's taper time, I did 2 sets of my 12 exercises rather than 3. 13 k run home with backpack on in 17 degrees, so got a little messy. 

Sunday: 13k, shortest Sunday run since early March. Felt much better at the end. Energy level seems to be rising. 

There you have it, my first training cycle using the Hanson method pretty much out of the way. All that's left now are easy runs, nothing more than 10k.

Unexpected obstacles

In all my caution not to pick up an injury, the last thing I was expecting was to pick up a spring cold. Around the office, I've noticed quite a bit of coughing and general grogginess. Somehow I managed to pick it up.

Monday (12th) afternoon, I felt everything switch off. I spent Tuesday at home, missing a 10k easy and core/ weights in the evening. 

Wednesday, I managed to do my strength-intervals run. I had an attractive coughing fit in the changing room once I finished. Thursday was just weights, no real problem. 

I was off on Friday, and slept poorly, having woken up several times at night. I reluctantly gave my marathon pace 17k a miss, in a daze from that lack of sleep. Later on that afternoon, it seemed I had an eye irritation as well, so I also had to keep on checking the mirror and washing it. When it rains, it pours.

Saturday was much better, slept almost straight through after working out that I only coughed if I changed sleeping positions. Did my weights and ran 16k home. My balance was good at the gym, and legs strong at the end of the run. This was all probably helped by having done some 25k less during the week. 

Sunday's 16k took place at the gym, due to thunderstorm. Felt quite good, though annoyed I couldn't be outside. Still coughing a bit, and more than anything want all the symptoms gone. This past week has been beyond aggravating, and not just for the cold interfering with my training. After peek week - 3 weeks from race day - is when the real excitement and build-up to the startline begins. I've had to put all that on hold. Time to get pumped up again, and take aim at that PB. 

Peak week

Here goes, highest mileage ever in a week for me. Then it's a gradual taper to race day. 

My current marathon PB of 3:20:47 from 2012 was set on training of at most 70k in a week over 4 runs. Since late February, every week featured 6 runs totalling over 70k. Since early April, weekly distance has alternated between 80 and 90+km. In April 2012, I believe I put in just under 300km. April 2014 saw me log 372km. 

So how did peak week go?

Monday 5th: more sleet for my 13k easy run. Tried to concentrate on rolling my left foot for smooth toe-off to ease the load on my slightly sore left calf. Otherwise, a great run, kept on having to slow myself down. That's usually a good sign, right?

Tuesday 6th: 11.5k easy run in still chilly conditions. +1 just enough for shorts but with light jacket and gloves. No big deals for the year-round Canadian runner. There were a few out there who looked like they were not year-rounders, but had committed to racing on June 1, wearing hoodies and grimacing, but getting it done. Welcome aboard, if you're reading.

A small piece of cake in the afternoon, as a co-worker was had announced her retirement. Fuel for my core workout 3 hours later at home. That second workout every Tuesday is getting harder to do: it's when increasing fatigue is most noticeable. 

Still, I got all my side-lying hip abduction, lunges, single-leg deadlifts, leg raises, marching bridges, crunches, squats with kettlebell, the one I have no name for (a squat with dumbbell, then raise it in the air with opposite foot off the ground), calf raises, static balancing, planks and leg & arm raises done.

Wednesday 7th: a little too fast perhaps, not that it felt tough. Another good sign? I concentrated on good posture and making sure my left foot in particular was rolling nicely. 

Thursday 8th: "rest day" of just core/ weights. I felt a little wiped, though that gradually went away. The weird thing was to see people going around the indoor track for 20 minutes plus during +15 sunny weather. Lunacy. Still, this workout cured the headache I'd had all morning. 

Friday 9th: woke up with a tight left achilles, but it passed with a few stretches at the office - I have a standing desk. 

Fridays are marathon pace runs. Back in February, they were 10k. Every 3 weeks, the distance increases by 1.5k. This was the first 16k. The last one in 2 weeks time, will be the last run of substance - just easy runs after that before race day. The plan says to add in warm-up and cool down, so I do 1k extra. 

Today's 17k then was going to be wet. Even the hourly forecast was spot on - maybe a Calgary first. I dressed for warm weather, plus a waterproof jacket - a favourite Puma souvenir from Japan. 

The area where the river bends north-west after downtown is its own micro-climate with its steep hillside and trees. Drizzle, became rain, back to drizzle, then heavier rain and finally light drizzle at the end. At times I'd pull my hood on when the wind and rain picked up, though I had to use my sunglasses to keep it on. 

Time and again when I looked at my watch: too fast. I slowed myself down as often as I could. A good, thoroughly soaked run. Although I didn't feel sore or hurt, I walked quite slowly for the rest of the day.

Saturday 10th: first item of business was weights/ core at the Y. The place seems more crowded these days. I'm usually there early, and haven't used the static weight stations since November anyway. No more delays "discussing" the merits of working-in with others. 

13k run home, and as usual the legs felt weird for the first few minutes. When I started months ago (running home from the gym, that is), my legs would feel strange the entire run. Got home to a bowl of tortellini. 

Birds in Fish Creek park seem to be getting close to nesting season. I'll be watching my head until mid July. 

Sunday 11th: the evening before I noticed I was getting a sore throat. The start of a cold? When this happens I drink plenty of hot water. Things were a little better when I headed out for my 26k. A fair bit of spitting, I held a good pace until the hill at the end. 2 hours 12 minutes later I was back home stuffing my face. 

You talkin' to me?

I am now rather slow around the house, especially up the stairs. Just under 98 km for the week. Technically, the taper starts here. The next 2 weeks amount to the same as this week just gone, but with 16k next Sunday and 13k the Sunday after that. So more hard training ahead without the exhausting Sundays. Looking forward to the emergence of my racing legs.

Just the end of April/ start of May log

Monday 28: 10 k recovery/ easy run. Somehow dodged rain slivers of rain clouds unloading on the pathways. Not so with the wind. Slapped in face by the drawstrings of my hood, like a hyper version of the Monty Python fish slapping dance.

Tuesday 29: Cometh the sunny warmth, Cometh the fair weather runners. This started off with someone from work I'd introduced to the google pedometer map tool. 

Later on during this 10k easy run, the fastest runner I know, Adam, nearly got flattened (or so it seemed) and simultaneously another co-worker said hi, later asking "what were you laughing at?" 

Many at work were expecting to see me, though I must admit I did return a few greetings not immediately recognizing the other runner(s). 

Feeling quite good, I got home to my usual core/ weights workout in the basement. Being my second workout of the day gives it an endurance element, and I do need to drag myself through the last 20 minutes. Final challenge of the day is not eating dinner too quickly.

Wednesday's strength run - long intervals at 4:15-4:20/ km pace went well. I probably did my 2x21min too fast, but strength and speed are 2 good vital signs I'm getting recently. 

Calgary Marathon medal and shirt reveal came later on, once again both getting better each year.

The medal will triple as a bottle opener and belt buckle. Good bling value, though perhaps bending over to pick something up will be a bit challenging given it's size.

The gong is a great touch, may induce singing Kool & The Gang's "Jungle Boogie". 

Thursday, and the month of May begins. Strange to have the marathon June this time, still the one month countdown has begun. The only day without a run, my core/ weights workout still managed to stage a few minor strange events. I bumped into my ex-boss for the first time in over 2 years. 

After all the hip abduction, single-leg deadlifts, lunges, squats, etc., I came out of the shower to see a lady in the changing room. 

My sunglasses went missing during my workout, but I probably left them on top of the locker. I was going to buy a new, less clunky pair anyway. Maybe it was meant to be?

Back to super-chiroman: from the increased toe pressing on the left has come other stresses on the left calf. I have to concentrate on rolling the left foot properly, and it should work out. More tape, this time with branding to make me look like a racing car.

One odd thing: for most of my life, my left foot has been a centimetre longer than my left, and my left leg has correspondingly been longer than my right. This had been changing over the last 2 months. At times they've been the same length, then the left was shorter (probably as a consequence of the calf problem affecting the hip), now the same length again. 3 months of running 6 days a week is leading to an overall rebalancing? 

So sponsored, Friday May 2nd was a 15.5 k marathon pace run. The next 3 Fridays will be 17k. It was start of a window of bad weather, no colder than -3, but messy with rain and snow. Good speed throughout, just yucky weather. 

Saturday, time for gym and 16k run home. Messy and slushy in places, with trees bombing me with snowballs. The snow melted on most of the pathways, so not too bad, just mildly annoying. Pleasingly, legs lost none of their speed and didn't stiffen at the end.

Sunday was a 16k run. My new sunglasses have so far only been used to stop snow getting in my eyes. Sunday was however better than Saturday, apart from a tree dropping a snowball and me kneeing it up to go "pooof" in my face like a cheap magic trick. For the second time I ran past a friendly lady asking everyone "hey, you running Calgary?" An emphatic "yes" and grin each time.

Peak week coming up - around 95k, then the gradual draw-down to race day.

Paths less travelled and blue tape

I just bought a box of clif bars, and the sky is less dark when I head to work: The Calgary Marathon weekend must be getting close. Training is still on course, just about. I had started to feel the left hip flexor get tight, which didn't seem to bode well. 

Chiro-man has me coming in every 2 weeks, and pointed out the left calf was the main culprit. It's certainly tender when using the stick. I've got some magic blue tape to help my left foot spring back between strides.

In monitoring my stride the next day, I could hear my left foot slapping down while the right was fairly quiet (yet another reason not to wear headphones). A bad old habit had crept back in on this one side: lifting my toes. Too much load on the calf then leading to the upper leg doing too much impact absorption. I had to resort to pressing my toes on foot fall, which made for discomfort in the calf and achilles, but since then the upper left leg has felt the same as the right. Got to keep the engine room in top shape. 

Amongst all that, I've run on a few pathways that I've never taken in all these years. Out to the east of downtown Calgary is the zoo, spread out across an island in the river and a small piece on the north bank. There's a pathway on this bank, overlooking the opposite island. So on a lunchtime run, I saw a black bear, some monkeys, a moose, 2 bison and a plastic diplodocus. What takes you aback are the signs that state, "the flood waters reached up to here," above my head on a pathway at least 10 metres up from the river.

I've also been through the area on the southern bank, where there's a bird sanctuary. Having taken quite a hit during last year's floods too, it's a bit stop-start in places. Still, a new path away from the crowds that often walk in moving walls, and the few fair-weather runners who don't know proper pathway etiquette.

Edworthy Park (nw of downtown Calgary) is a true escape, especially on the south side of the river , right down to the coyote warning signs. Unfortunately, it's yet another stretch of pathway closed for flood damage repair. Still very much under repair are the banks connected to 2 bridges in east Fish Creek Park. I will have to wait before I can once again do such a varied 26k - wooded areas, open scrub, twisty paths, long straights, right by the riverbank and up on a cliff edge. I decided to look at a new community I'd spotted on the other side of the Bow river 3k from my house. 

Over the 22x highway, up the hill to Cranston, down the other side and there's Riverside. 760k for a new villa. No way to the river that I could spot. Still, I got to explore and while improving myself, all it cost was a bit of shoe rubber and a bottle of gatorade. The top highlight was seeing an eagle catch a fish.

26k in 2:17 with 3 sizeable hills on that Sunday. Surprisingly good feeling in the legs, and the same on Saturday running 13k home from the gym after 2 hour core workout. 1:12 is a couple of minutes better than I've done it previously. The end of that Saturday is usually a stiff grind, so I'll take that good feeling and run with it.

On my mind that weekend was the beautiful win by Meb Keflezighi at Boston. A year on from the unspeakable, the first American win since 1985, from a man who walked across an Eritrean desert at the age of 12 to escape a civil war. A perfect result.

Marathon training - end of part one

"One final time, I will do a 'time on feet' run rather than doing the prescribed distance," I told myself on the last sunday of March. 20k over 2 hours instead of the 24.5k on my plan. Fresh snow meant a lot of crashing foot falls, flailing about and swearing at the cold wind. January weather is bad enough in January, so I was more than happy to get it over with.

Monday's 10k easy run was also cold, but it wasn't snowing and the wind had backed off. My toes hurt - or rather the part at the top between the bridge and toes. Doubtless from sunday's ordeal of random crash landings. The hope is that this won't happen again until next winter, though I wouldn't bet on it. 

Tuesday was still rather chilly, but one more easy 10k with fewer rattles and squeaks than Monday. New shoes got their first outing, no drama there as I've been wearing Adidas Response Cushions for 3 years.

Tuesdays are also a core/ weights day, 2 circuits of 11 different exercises. I tend to feel it little lifeless after this, though after dinner all's good.

Wednesday was shorts time. What are shorts? I'd almost forgotten myself. I buy running shoes 2 pairs at a time, so this was time to start wearing in the second pair. 

This was my final speed run of my marathon training, next week will be the start of strength runs - long intervals at between half and full marathon pace. Today's speed finale was 3x 6 minute intervals at with 3 minute recovery in between. Target pace is under 4:00/ km. I slow down if my garmin says I'm going 3:45 pace which to my delight I had to do several times. 

Thursday is a core/ weights day and the only day without a run. My least favourite day, but there's a plan to follow. On the whole, the fact that I have to restrain myself works in my favour. There are few times when I have to talk myself into it, though on the March Sunday I had to crowbar myself out of the front door. 

There was also a visit to the chiropractor, as I've been doing every 3 weeks since February. Calves especially tight this time, probably from sunday's crash-bang session. That and high mileage led me getting the choice between 2 or 3 weeks. 2 it is. Easy decision really.

Friday: marathon pace run, and warm enough for shorts again. Just the occasional bit of ice under bridges. I did a small amount of exploring and carried on the north side of the river on a pathway that passes through the middle of Calgary Zoo. For the record, one moose, 5 turkeys, a snow monkey, and a plastic diplodocus.

Saturdays are for my take on the biathlon. I take the bus to the gym, only 5 minutes away. I do 10 minute warm-up on the rowing machine, followed by 3 circuits of my core workout routine. I then get changed into running gear with as much preparation having been done before my core workout (drinks, etc). I eat a couple of granola bars while getting ready. I then run home with a small backpack on. I either run 16k which is followed by another 16k on Sunday, or 13k followed by 26. My legs often stiffen in the last 3 or 4k, though in the past couple of weeks they've been recovering quicker and quicker. 

Sunday's 16k found me trying a new path over the river in Fish Creek Park, turning around just as I got to the hill up the other side of the valley. I just managed to keep ahead of a dark rain cloud and back home to noodles for lunch. 

12 hours a week rather than 8-9 is having an effect on my weight - thinking the scales were off in my work changing room, those at the gym also say I'm lighter than I'd usually be at peak week. That's a whole month early. Most of the extra hours are at "fat burning pace" and more efficient use of fat for fuel is what my plan is designed to do, so probably a good sign. Saturdays involve core workout then 13 or 16k run home. That 3+ hours on my feet is probably mostly responsible for my trousers getting loose.  There are good signs, but I'm not going to take anything for granted. 

Overcoming Injuries

Did someone say the I-word? Nearly every runner has had to deal with this unmentionable at some point.

So, once there, we're all thinking about how to recover to get back to running. What do you do, and where do you go?

The best 1st step is to see a sports injury specialist

I see a sports chiropractor myself. First of all, where the pain is isn't necessarily where the ultimate problem is. One example is ITB syndrome. While felt just above and at the top of the knee, it comes from the hips and glutes pulling upward. 

Once diagnosed and being treated, quiz your expert for exercises and stretches which help towards recovery. Injury usually shows up your body's weakest link, so continuing with such exercises post-recovery will also help in stopping the same injury return. 

Listen carefully for the recovery timeline. 2 weeks for a purely muscular issue is what I myself am commonly given. I've been going to the same chiropractor for nearly 10 years - since my overweight, pre-runner days in fact, which has the added benefit of him knowing my quirks particularly well.

The first instruction I'm given is not to run

Humbug. Non-impact cross training will keep general cardio fitness from dropping too much, though it could suffer just a little. The stationary bike is a common go-to machine. You can even replicate speed work on them, to a certain extent. 

Tip (& joke): if you've been on the bike for more than 30 minutes, cover your mouth when getting off to muffle the squaking yelp you will probably let out from sitting on the diamond-hard seats they tend to be fitted with. 

I've used the elliptical for cross training, but suitability can depend on the injury in question. If it doesn't feel right, switch to something like the bike. Swimming of course will be gentle on the joints. 

The 1st run back

You might have been itching to run again, I always am. However while away, many of us over-analyze what state we're in. If you're pain free and are within the timeframe you were told to start again, it's time to lace up. A 30 minute trial run if you're used to going an hour+. Take corners nice and gently, slow down a little for them. 

Ignore doubts and slight any "tightness" or niggles. Even when uninjured, there's often a random ache during warm-up. A left hip here, a right shin there. The point is to wait until after warm-up (give yourself 10-15 minutes) to truly assess what's going on unless experiencing actual pain. 

Go at an easy pace, but not slow enough to make it a jumpy walk which can be worse. 

Post-run assessment

How do you feel at the end of the run, a couple of hours later, and the next day? If all feels good the next day, then recovery has gone well. Aches and tightness a few hours after are ok, within reason. Each runner being a little different will learn these nuances over time, and can gauge how quickly to rejoin a prior training plan. 

Planning for prevention

Long term, body and joints strengthen and become more resistant. An enthusiastic beginner should keep in mind that the goal should be to have a high annual average mileage rather than monthly. Over the years this will reap benefits especially when it comes to marathons. Increase mileage by spreading it out more - run on more days rather than making individual runs longer. Weight training has its place, especially free weights which enhance core strength, balancing and stability. 

Each injury, as with each race is a chance to improve. Research, analysis and advice from what went wrong - or right - should lead to an improved and more suitable training plan which in turn makes a runner both healthier and more potent on race day.