Dawn on the Run

Not posted much lately. It’s not that I’ve had nothing to post about just that my training and life seem to keep me pretty busy. Then there’s Facebook and Twitter to sidetrack me as well so yes I’m afraid blogland sometimes, okay, often gets neglected.

So just how is my training going? Well I’m swimming 2 to 3 times a week and most weeks it’s 3 times. I usually average anywhere from 1200m to 1500m per week and hope to bump that up a few meters in the upcoming weeks. So I’m averaging weekly totals of about 3.5hrs in the pool and over 3600m which is awesome for me. I’ve seen big improvements in my form, breathing and pace. Can’t wait to do my first tri.

My first tri is in May. I’m doing a super-sprint which is a 300m swim, 10k bike ride and a 3k run. Mostly I’m doing this one to practice transitions, etc so I won’t be totally green when I do my Olympic in mid-June. For those who don’t “tri” an Olympic is swim 1500m, bike 40k and run 10k. The super-sprint is in a pool but the Olympic is in a lake. Gotta get fitted for my wetsuit soon.

My running is also going well. I’m seeing great results at my trail races and getting in at least 2 runs per week, sometimes 3. I sometimes feel guilty not always getting in 3 runs but my swimming needs more work then my running. Have to start bumping up my long runs as I have a 10k race on March 13th and then a half marathon at the end of April. Who signed me up for all these silly races??? lol.

Of course no tri training is complete without cycling. I’ve been doing some on my trainer in the basement but today I hope to head outside in the sunshine and put on a few KMs.

Life is good and busy. Oh yeah I ran the last XC race of the season yesterday. I’ll try to update my blog later with a race report. Til then, hope all is well with everyone!

Okay I could ramble on about how the race went and you might fall asleep reading what I have to say or you can watch this just under 40 minute video of the great scenery we get to run through. Sorry it’s a bit bouncy I’m wearing the camera on my chest as the head strap is still on order and well things tend to bounce, what I can I say.

Hope you enjoy the show…and don’t forget the popcorn…lol. Just hit the “PLAY” arrow at the bottom. (Please, be patient as is a large file and may take a several moments to start, thanks)

It was a beautiful day for a race as you can see by all the sunshine. Nikayla almost quit at the beginning but I got her turned around and she had a great race passing a few people ahead of us. I never passed anyone but I did have a great race only getting lapped by 13 of the 8k runners rather then the usual amount. My daughter Carrie took 2nd place in the 4k, not sure what her time was. My unofficial time was 37:21.

Calgary Roadrunners (results to be posted soon)
Next and final race of the series in 2 weeks.

It’s half way through February and I’m still stewing over what to do this year. Heck I haven’t even review what went on in 2009. For now I will say it was a good year but I hope 2010 will be a GREAT year.

Goals for 2010 have been pretty much on my mind since Dec of last year. I’m still trying to rework my training spreadsheet based on which races I finally plan to do. When I finally have a roughed out plan I will post my spreadsheet with the details. I’ve got a blank one to share as well for those who need a log to track their goals & training and will post that soon, too.

Here’s the “for sure” list (some dates are not confirmed):

• Sat Jan-09 CRR – Nose Creek XC 4k
• Sat Jan-23 CRR – 12 Mile Coulee XC 4k
• Sat Feb-06 CRR – Nose Hill XC 4k
• Sat Feb-20 CRR – Weaselhead XC 4k
• Sat Mar-06 CRR – Fishcreek XC 4k
• Sun Apr-25 Police Half Marathon 21k
• Sun May-09 Mother’s Day 5k
• Sat Jun-05 Underwear Affair 10k 10k
• Fri Oct-01 EMS Ambulance Chaser 5k
• Sat Oct-02 CRR – River Park XC 4k
• Sun Oct-17 CRR – Confed Park XC 4k
• Sat Nov-06 CRR – Edworthy XC 4k
• Sat Nov-20 CRR – Okotoks XC 4k
• Sat Dec-11 CRR – Silver Springs XC 4k
• Fri Dec-31 Resolution Fun Run 5k

On top of these there are some I’m still deciding about such as which triathlon or away trip to take. So here’s the list I’m looking at. Trust me I won’t do them all, likely add one or two Triathlons and one away trip.

• Sat Jun-19 Chinook Olympic Tri – olympic
• Sun Jul-18 Coral Springs Tri – sprint/olympic
• Sun Aug-15 Strathmore Women’s Tri – sprint
• Sun Aug-22 Back Nine Marathon
• Sat Aug-28 Moose Mtn – multi distances
• Mon Sep-06 Dino Dash 5/10k (confirm date)
• Sun Sep-19 Corporate Challenge 10k (confirm date)
• Sun Oct-17 RnR Denver half/full Marathon
• Sun Dec-05 RnR Las Vegas – half/full Marthon

It may look like a lot to some but having an event to do keeps me motivated and moving. As for weight, I’d like to lose another 40 pounds by the end of the year.

So what have you got planned for 2010? What races, accomplishments, etc are you thinking about and have you put any of it in motion?

What a gorgeous day for a run! I wore thin pants, a tech shirt and a fleece vest. I ended up removing the arm warmers I had planned on wearing. My daughter and Nikayla both had long johns on which they removed before we headed off to the race start. Oh yeah after hearing the course might be a bit icy I opted to wear spikes and Carrie borrowed my YakTrax.

For this event, we register at the hall and then walk about 3/4 of a km to the race start/finish area. We even get to walk through a tunnel under 14th St. The start of the race is straight uphill for just shy of a km. The only nice thing about that is you get to run down it for the finish…lol.

I started okay, running a bit as we headed uphill but I fell back quickly as I slowed down to a crawl…lol. The hill seemed to take forever and by the time I made it to the top I was dead last. So what’s new! There was a short section of tricky snow – soft stuff that was full of footprints and hard to navigate. Then it was onto narrow hard packed trails which were easily navigated with the spikes, a very good choice today.

There were a few little downs and ups but the next bit for the most part was flat. It meandered through some wide open areas and then through a bushy area. I remembered sinking into a deep hole one year in the bushy area. I was stuck there for a long time trying to wedge my one leg out. Thankfully that did not happen today.

Somewhere before heading down the next hill the speedy runners caught up with me. Rather then stop I sprinted to find a spot where the trail allowed them to pass me as I kept running. I really didn’t want to stop today. I had a goal I wanted to beat and stopping to let others pass while it’s the nice thing to do, my race was important too.

Flat stuff done for now we headed downhill. I barrelled down the hill like there was no tomorrow. Cool, it didn’t hurt. My legs were stronger (another bonus from my swim training) and I was actually enjoying a little speed onthe downhill. A sharp turn at the bottom and we were heading back uphill. I slowed down again. It was a tough slog. I think I spent too much energy on the downhill. Ahead Nikayla had disappeared and the walker I had been trying to catch had made the gap between us longer. Dang I so wanted to catch her.

Finally at the top the next stretch was nice and flat. I could see Nikayla way ahead. Good for her. Danny went by and I yelled “haven’t seen Alan”. Him and Alan have an ongoing battle to beat each other at these things. Of course I’d no sooner said that and Alan went by. I laughed and yelled to Danny “better run, Alan is on your heals”. They both seemed to pick it up. I found out later that Alan did eventually pass and beat Danny.

As for me I picked up the pace in hopes of catching the speedy walker ahead of me. At the 4k mark I caught and passed her. Yeah! We only had the downhill stretch left and how way in you know what was I gonna let her pass me on that stretch. She did briefly pull up beside me and then I kicked it into high gear. My pace went from 13min/k to a 4:39/k by the time I finished at the bottom of the hill. Dang I wish I could run that pace all the time…lol. Either way I was pretty happy to finish with an unofficial time of 46:48 which was mere seconds away from my PB for this one. My PB was back in 2006 at 46:11. Looks like swimming has another added bonus, stronger legs for my running! It didn’t even hurt to sprint downhill today!

Last year I sucked and took 1:17:07, heck I think Karen even beat me doing twice the distance. Speaking of Karen, she ran her 50th XC in a row today. Yeah Karen. I’d be right there with her had I not snuck off to Vegas to run a half marathon two years ago. I missed the race in Okotoks that year. Oh well, it was my 24th in a row and for Carrie plus little Nikayla it was there 28th in a row. My daughter, Carrie has come a long way with her running, she took 1st place female for the 4k today.

I tried out my new video camera toy today but silly me I did not make sure the camera had a full charge on the battery and it died 20 minutes into the race. I’ll post the link once I find a way of uploading it. It’s a pretty big file.

Be sure to check out my link to Garmin Connect. It’s really cool how it shows the map, my pace, and so much more.

My Flickr Photos
Calgary Roadrunners Results
Garmin Connect.

It’s been 2 weeks since this race took place so I guess it’s time I got around to writing my race report. This is another race in the XC series put on by the Calgary Roadrunners. Now don’t let the name “12 Mile Coulee” fool you, we don’t run 12 miles in this race, it’s just the name of the location. It’s a beautiful area for a race but for some reason the weather never seems to cooperate. It’s always cold or windy or snowy and often all three together. So why would this year be any different.

Oh yeah, one other thing, my birthday also falls on that weekend. I turned 55 the day after the race. But that’s the topic for a whole other post. Anyhow, I decided to be frisky and dress slightly different for this race. We have a few runners who often wear tights and shorts at these “cooler” races so I thought I would jump on the band wagon. You can see the results in the photo on the right. You know me, my outfits almost always include pink and heh, why be boring. Someone told me 55 is the new 25, so this is my new youthful look…lol.

Acutually the outfit was quite warm, comfortable and I just might wear it again to the next race. Okay back to writing about the race. I was excited and hoping for a good run. So much for that feeling, a few meters into it my foot found a soft spot, a sinkhole and I went down! Wipeout! Oh yeah this is best visualized by watching the video below.

Actually it was pretty laughable. Unfortunately I fell in the middle of everyone, way too many witnesses. A few offered to help me up but not being a lightweight I ushered them on and eventually made it back on my feet.

Nikayla was just ahead of me. We’ve been running (sort of) together for more of the races lately as her speed demon Mother is usually finished a good 10 minutes (or more) ahead of us…for now. I did turn the camera back on for some more video for a bit of the race. Warning, it is a bit choppy. The terrain was for the most part crunchy icy crap. I was wearing these spikey things you can slip over your runners. They worked pretty good for keeping me upright on the rest of the race.

Well if you watched that you get a pretty good idea of what the first bit of this race is like. After climbing the hill we do a bit more flat and then it’s down into what they call the “Coulee” area. This section is a series of rolling trails that in some areas are very narrow, barely wide enough for one person and seldom room for another runner to pass. So yes, I did a lot of tree hugging once the speedy runners caught up with me. You see the lucky 8k group gets to do the route twice and that’s usually when I’m about half way through this bit of the race route. If I had a dollar for every tree I hugged that day, I’d be rich…lol. Despite the tree hugging, it’s my favorite part of the race to run.

Once we make it through that area, we head up a steep and treed hill. It’s a bit of a slog and very little running for me in this area. So much for a sprint finish. Now there is a small flat bit at the top but the snow in that area prevents one, okay at least me, from again gaining any momentum. Despite all that I still managed to beat the clock and finish under 50 minutes. Woohoo, another good run and again a better time then last year.

My best time for that event was back in 2004,my time 43:22. Since then my times have been over the 50 minute mark and last year 1:03:13. So this years time of 49:38. As for Nikayla she finished at 48:01 and Carrie 31:47.

The next race is tomorrow – Nose Hill XC

Checkout another video of complete race. This one was done by the guy that came in first and another that oops wiped out halfway through the race. It’s about 35 minutes long but worth the watch if you want to know what running one of our races would be like. Watch and enjoy!

12 Mile Coulee XC Jan. 23rd 2010 from Nerd Williams on Vimeo.

My Flickr Photos
Calgary Roadrunner Photos
Calgary Roadrunner Race Results

Wow the first month is already over for 2010. And if all goes well then it will be an exciting year. I’m still not keeping up on my blog on a regular basis. Too many distractions with Facebook, Twitter and yes training.

Now I did start to plan my year. I’ve registered for a couple of races – a 10k in March and a half at the end of April. Of course as usual I will do all the trail races. I’ve penciled in a few other possible races but well they all hinge on something new and exciting.

So yes I’ve been doing some running this month, not a lot but getting there. I’ve added in some cycling and finally I started swim lesson last week. Ya know it’s weird, here I am 55 and I’m taking my first ever swim lessons. I’m pretty much self taught and always thought I was an okay swimmer. But I knew I had some bad habits. I had debated last year taking lessons but nothing ever panned out. However last week I called a race director for a triathlon I am considering and well he suggested I such get a swim coach. So I did the next best thing.

So far so good. It’s a small group so almost like private lessons. The first lesson was all drills. Sunday was a mix of drills and sprints. I can already see a big improvement in my form and my breathing. I’m excited. Classes are Tuesday, Thursday after work and Sunday morning. Heck the amount of time in the pool alone will be a big help.

Now I just have to squeeze in some more running and cycling. Yes there will be a triathlon on my schedule this summer. Just not sure yet which one or which distance. A few more lessons and I will decide, then commit to the event of my choice. Wish me luck as I will definitely need it..lol.

Okay I guess I’ve stalled enough, I really should get this over. Now if you’ve had a chance to look at the videos I posted earlier you already have a pretty good idea of how the race went. For me it was an early start to the day. Thankfully not as early as it could have been had I not had a chance to flag the route the day before.

Instead I was able to sleep in til like 7:30…lol. First order of the day was to load the car with my soup pots, a stool for my daughter who had injured herself and was now going to marshal rather then prerun the route so she could help in the kitchen. Once the car was loaded with everything I needed it was then time to pick up my little helper, Nikayla. I had hoped to drop the soup off at the hall after that but was running behind so I opted to transfer it to Karen’s car as she was heading to the hall after we did our prerun. She would be one of my kitchen helpers for the day.

Karen was already waiting for me when I arrived. We headed out for our prerun shortly after I arrived. Karen, Nikayla and I were prerunning it so we would have times for the race. We took a handful of flags with us just in case some had gone missing or blown away in the wind.

As it was icy I wore my spikes not that I would be moving that fast. We made our way through the course, Karen loved it – challenging yet fun. Nikayla had fun leading the way but took a couple of wrong turns as she didn’t know I had slightly changed it from when she ran me last time. Thankfully the prerun didn’t take as long as flagging the day before.

Of course being done the run was only the start of the day for all of us. Next I waited for my other volunteers to arrive. Karen headed off to help Jeri in the kitchen and well Nikayla hung out with me until I sent her off to her next duties. We both changed into dryer footwear and prepared ourselves for standing around as marshals. Runners arrived and the parking lot quickly filled. My daughter Carrie sat in the car helping with registrations.

Oh yeah, I mentioned earlier that Carrie was injured. Poor kid (yes 31yr old is still a kid, my kid) had fallen at work the day before and had to have 6 stitches in her knee. After helping with registrations she was going to help with the finish line by recording the runners as they crossed the finish. My other finish line person, Derek had arrived and was off running the course so that he too had a time. He’s speedy so didn’t need to start as early as the rest of us had.

Les helped me and others set up the finish line. Then I headed off with my volunteer marshals to point them to their spots and gave them some general rules/tips. It’s a pretty easy job and the weather was great except for the wind. Nikayla wondered off to her marshal spot where she would send runners round the rock. Next Les lead the handful of kids off on their short route. While they were off running I gave the runners some final instructions about the route – “spikes will come in handy, the route is a slushy, icy mess, watch for dog walkers (and poop), don’t take the bridge, cross the frozen creek and follow the flags”. As soon as the little ones returned it was “Ready, Set, Go” and they were off running into the wild blue yonder. Woohoo!

I ran behind shooting pictures and heading for my marshaling spot along the route. I relieved Nikayla from her spot at the rock and moved her to the spot down the hill from me. I stood by the snow fence where I would direct the 8k runners to do it all over again. As I stood there I was wishing I had brought my hubby’s camera. Mine his good but with his I could have zoomed over to the other side where I could see the lead runners already snaking past the 2k point. Man they were moving! Before I knew it I could see there heads on the downhill below me and I was finally yelling “to your right and do it again”. This was fun!

I got some great photos so make sure you head over to Flickr and check them out. The link is at the bottom of this post. I started my timer when the race started. It would help me tell how things were going. By how quickly some had finished the first loop I thought maybe I had made it too easy but judging by the faces on some as they climbed the hill below me, nah, it was just right. Hills, flat bits and sloppy snow conditions make for a fun trail race!

I’d be guessing but I’m pretty sure the last runner was done in an hour. It had taken me that long earlier but then I walked lots. Eli, one of my younger marshals walked up towards me carrying the flags from his section of the race and headed down hill below me to help 8 year old Nikayla collect her flags. Each marshal was responsible for collecting the flags from their section of the route and I had one marshal that was to sweep the course making sure everyone got back safely with all their flags. It’s a pretty good system that way. After the kids got back up the hill we headed to the finish flags in hand.

Everyone was pretty much gone. I thanked all the volunteers and sent them off to the hall for soup & goodies. The finish line stuff was carried off to the parking lot along with the flags. I handed the flags off to the next race director and headed to the hall myself. Still not done I did get to take a break and enjoy some soup myself. I had some of the pasta beef soup that I had made. It was yummy. There was tons of soup so I’ve been eating leftovers all week…lol.

Once there placement results were tabulated I got to do my little spiel telling who placed when for each age group. I hate doing that part as I always mess it up, especially the strange names. All done except the cleanup and well that was easier today as the group using the hall after us wanted the chairs/tables left out.

I was pretty tired after that but it had been a fun day. I’m always happy that it went well and that while challenging everyone loved the race. I got lots of compliments. However despite being happy about how it went I’m always sad it’s over. Oh well there’s always next year. Although one of these days I will have to hand the reigns over to someone else as hubby wants to eventually move back to Victoria.

Race Results – not available yet
Race Info
Photos on CRR Website
Race Photos on Flickr

Yes it was time for a change. But I’m not done with the changes so bare with me while I “Pinkify” this new blog template.

Okay so I got the header done and some stuff but I still can’t figure out how to fix the boxes in my sidebar or the background behind it. I’ve scoured all the file in my template but no sign of what I need to change. I’m not giving up but think I will take a break.

Oh yeah, I also have to figure out how to load photos for the “Randomizer” in the upper left corner. Other then that I think I like this new layout. It give me more room in the body of my blog.

I’ll keep working on it and add in some of the old features I used to have in my side menu as I go along. Still more to tweak but I’ve spent enough time on it today. Let me know what you think so far.

UPDATED
Okay so I figured out just before I went to sleep how to fix the sidebar background and had to wait til this morning to see if my idea would work. It did. I got the header to line up with no gab in IE but had to tweak it again to get it to look good in Mozilla/Firefox. Looks good in both now. I fixed the font size for posts as it was a tad too small.

Still left to do:

• Fix the photo randomizer in the upper left
• Fix the beige toppers in the sidebar, can’t find the code anywhere but it’s there…grrrr
• Clean up the LINKS section in the sidebar. They are all jumbled together and I’d like to separate the types of links into Categories.

Enough of this for now. Got other things to do today…lol.

So a week ago I got Friday afternoon off to flag the finalized route of the Nose Creek race. I had loaded the flags into my car the night before. I had tried a few different totes to see if they would make it easier to carry some 200 flags or so around the route but none were quite deep enough. I took a quick look through my house and found a bright neon pink laundry sack that had backpack straps on it. A lightbulb in my brain turned on. This could work! It was perfect, just the right depth that the flags fit in nicely. At the parking lot I packed a majority of the bundled flags into the laundry sack and left out a few to mark the start of the route.

With the sack on my back I headed off to mark the route. I had my Garmin with me but was frustrated as well I couldn’t remember how to change the mode back to running from the swim setting I had set it at earlier in the week. Oh yeah, I did manage earlier in the week to get in a swim. I checked out a different pool. The one at the Y offers all lane swimming and is much better for training. They also have great workout facilities for adding in other workouts and are near a great place to run for when I start doing “Brick” workouts. I think I might be joining there rather then renewing my current membership.

Okay back to chatting about Nose Creek. I go the Garmin sort of set so it was tracking distances, I would deal with figuring out the rest later when I had a chance to reread the manual. Because the weather had warmed up the snow that had been powder was now a slick slushy slippery mess. I meandered through the route dropping flags as need be to mark the route. I only had a handful of marshals for Saturday so anywhere I thought there would be confusion I added several flags to ensure the runners would know whether to go left, right or whatever. I made a mental note of where I thought it would be a good place to put a marshal and continued on.

By the way while it is a trail race there are few bushes or trees in this park leaving no place to hide for a pit stop and about half way through marking the route I had to go real real bad. Thankfully the park isn’t busy on a Friday afternoon so I hid in a raveen and made yellow snow…lol.

It took me just over 2 hours to get the route marked. The 4k route was pretty dang close to 4k. The 8k route would be a tad short as it was not a complete double loop. The second loop would only cover about 3k of the course. Funny it took me 2 hours to mark the short loop and I bet the fast runners would finish the longer distance in under 30 minutes. Oh to run like that.

The bag idea had worked awesome. As the flags in my hand ran out I would remove more from the bag. By the time I was done flagging I had used all but a handful of the flags I had with me. Time to head home and make another pot of soup for the race.

Saturday is RACE DAY and I will tell you more about in my next post.

Planning Photos on Flickr

Okay so I”m totally borrowing this idea from someone I follow on Twitter, Buzz Bizhop

As anyone who’s been following me for a bit knows, every year one of the events I participate in is The Underwear Affair. This year to raise funds I’ve decided to try a different angle in honour of ack my 55th birthday. Yup by some standards on Jan 24th I will become a senior and entitled to discounts at some stores…lol.

Anyhow my idea is to try and find 55 friends, enemies, family members, heck anybody that will sponser me $55 to raise funds for cancers below the waist, hence 55 with $55 for 55

For those who don’t know, my Mom is a colon cancer survivor. I run this 10k event in her honor and in the honor of other friends I have that are cancer survivors. As long as cancer exists I will keep running.

Anyhow if you’re interested in sponsoring me be it for $55 or any amount, head on over to this link to do so online. Thanks!!!!