and feet

Now that winter is come, it is time to get these out again:

My Merrell trail running shoes. These are zero lift barefoot runners which are about to be put away actually until later. This winter, like most, I will run in a pair of burned out New Balance trail runners which have packed up quite nicely. I prefer thin soled shoes for running, so the lack of cush is not something I care about. Tonight? Ran about two or three km. 50 paces running, 50 walking, 60 seconds stretching. Rinse and repeat with longer running intervals thrown in. Ramp it up, ramp it down. Every Single Time I start running again, I tighten up my lower calves. This year, lots of walking, lots of interval work, lots of mid run stretching until I can float through a 10 km run sub 50 minutes again. Then, do that five times a week - this was how I survived winters a few winters ago.

It is time for my annual foray into the world of running.

During the winter months, cycling as I prefer to do it becomes more difficult and more challenging. I have no problem with riding in the cold. No fear of ice, snow, the dark, slipping, falling, or winter drivers. I may not like these things all of the time, but I have no fear of them.

The problem for me in the winter is getting any kind of good work out. During warmer months, it is possible, and easy, to get out on my cyclocross bike and spin at a good clip for hours on end. Stress, excess energy, as well as unneeded and unwanted extra pounds melt away. It is good for me, body and soul.

However, maintaining this is more challenging in the winter.

While it is true that I don't fear winter from a cycling perspective, I do respect it. Wandering great distances from home in unpredictable or very cold weather while exposed to the elements (even when dressed right) is not smart. We don't live in a world anymore where a stranger, caught unawares in the country in the winter, can just walk up to a random farm and ask for help. While I might get help should such a thing occur, I am not willing to deliberately put myself at risk. This means as a rule that I am confined to city riding during the winter months. Shelter there is a locked bike and a cafe away.

This means stop and start cycling. Lots of slogging on a heavy commuter bike with heavy tires. It means lousy footwear for cycling (I won't buy specific boots for cycling because I won't ride my fast bikes with clipless pedals in the winter). It means maintaining a baseline of fitness, but not really pushing it the way I would want to. It means that effortless float I get from hours of spinning takes a back seat to reality.

It means, in short, running.

Running, as much as I loath it, is the single best way for me in my current situation - gymless, warm climateless - to float through the winter months with the same manic level of fitness I maintain during summer months.

Wish me luck, because I truly hate to run.

Quick mileage report

Last night's run was both painful and awesome. Running on a salted hard pack snow base with new turning to slush powder on top is horrible.

Dear City of Waterloo and its citizens,

STOP WITH THE SALTING ALREADY ON THE SIDEWALKS WHEN ALL THERE IS IS SNOW ON THEM!!!!  All it is doing is making a heavy sticky unstable slush base which clings to the shoes and sucks the energy out of anyone using the sidewalk. It does not make the sidewalk safer. A good argument can be made that it makes it worse. Feel free to salt ice if you must, but for crying out loud leave off with salting the snow.

Sincerely,

My aching legs.

Anyhow, here are the running totals:

Run: 12.15 km @ 9.64km taking 1:15:40
Run km total: 59.18 km

on snow, early morning runs, Lady GaGa, and Christmas Pagents

Well, here is another mileage report for you:

Run: 9.19km @ 9.63 kmph taking 57:13
Run km total: 34.49

All in all, I am happy with that run this morning. It has been almost nine days since I have been able to do anything at all physical because of my cold kicking my behind so thoroughly. A nice short one like that at a slow speed was just what the doctor ordered; it helped me feel energized, and it helped clear my lungs and sinuses (for the delicate of stomach, I will just leave it at that, ok? ok? nuff said...)

I left at around eight in the morning. Snow was falling. In theory, we are getting a "snow storm" today but what I have seen so far is not much of anything. The snow is falling fairly heavily, but it is so wet that accumulations do not seem to be amounting to much. What it is doing though is beautifully muffling all sounds of the city and keeping most people inside instead of out driving.

Wonderful bliss.

I saw very few cars while out on the run this morning, and almost no pedestrians at all. There was some evidence of other runners (footy prints in the snow) but that was about it. I felt totally alone.

This is something that I enjoy when I run - solitude. Usually, due to time constraints and the time of year I do my running, I end up running in the dark. Those conditions are fantastic for creating a little bubble that blocks out the rest of the world and running becomes very solitary, and thought provoking (let's face it, running is boring, so I get to do a lot of thinking whilst stumping around the city in my running shoes.) I rarely end up running in daylight. Come the start of the cycling season, running will happen once every seven or eight days for the sole purpose of reminding my legs how to do it so that next winter's running season is not so painful to start. I will be too busy riding my bike to think about running at that point.

Anyhow, the run just plain worked once my legs woke up.

Which brings me to Lady GaGa. I run to her music. There is only one problem with it for running and that is the way the beat changes up mid song throughout most of her music. I just nicely settle into a rhythm matching each stride to a musical thump, and she introduces a little hitch in the song which throws my pace off. I therefore just listen to it and totally ignore the beat. This makes me thing I should source some different music which has a more constant beat if my goal is to use the music to lift the running to a more effortless level.

I used to do spin classes a lot - upwards of five times a week - and the instructors were very careful to pick music with a steady beat which matched the rate that they wished us to pedal to during whatever interval drill we were doing. It was possible to completely zone out and float away with a thrumming beat and a long enough drill. I need some of that stuff again for running.

Here is a picture from this morning:

Yep, Angel child in uniform :)


I will leave you with that.

Cheers.

time to lay out some new goals

I am not a fan of new year's resolutions, and think them largely a sham designed to make people feel bad as they are encouraged to make promises they know they cannot keep, only to be made to feel a failure when the predictable happens and they fail. The whole concept is kind of like deliberately tripping someone, and then mocking them for a clutz.

So, it is in that frame of mind that I make the following fitness goals, today, on November 28th. There will be no pressure this way.

It is my goal this next calender year to run about 1500 km, and to bicycle about 5000km. This is not as outrageous as it sounds, and should be doable without really exerting myself too terribly much since I like to do those things. Where this will be challenging is that I want to drop back down to between 170-175 pounds (I am six feet tall.) That might be a bit tougher although really, it goes with the territory of the sports I participate in.

I figure I might as well report my progress here.

So, with all that in mind, here is my first mileage report:

Run: 12.02 km @ 10.72kmph taking 1:07:17 hours.
Bike: 0 km

Run km total:  12.02
Bike km total: 0

Cycling won't start again until the salt is off the roads again in the spring.


Cheers.

a bit of this and that

There is a wonderful feeling when a major project at work is complete. I do love it.

It has been a strange few days around here. Firstly, I managed a 70km ride last Saturday between Cambridge and Brantford. The ride out was fantastic - three of us went - and fast. However, for some reason, I was not into it mentally and "ran out of gas" about 15km from the end. I had to be towed back (ironically, the person who towed me is someone that I got into cycling a number of years ago who, in return, got me back into it this year.) Sucking wheels because you are too weak to keep up sometimes sucks. ha ha. My reason for not being mentally all there had to do with that then unfinished work project.

Sunday, I had a wonderful run. I managed about 12.25km or so at over 11km per hour. I am not fast, but am consistent with my speed. What made the run great was the fact that for most of it, I felt like I was floating. It was as effortless as the ride the day before hurt. Guess who had the work project almost done?

Monday was good too. I commuted in on my bike (30km round trip) and had a terrific day at work. All went wonderfully, and the work project ended complete by the end of the evening.

Which brings us to today's festivities - another 42 km of rail trails. We flew. It was nice and fast and mentally, I was right on and able to totally ignore minor leg burn and just keep the hammer down. Wonderful.

I don't think I should really push it when the work pressure mounts. Good thing it doesn't mount like that often - only three times a year usually.

***

In other news, last Saturday, my daughter flew into the house all frantic and asked (begged?) to go to the place where her friends were going - namely a roller derby in New Hamburg.

We looked at each other.

We thought about it.

We said, ok.

It was not what I was expecting. Let's be honest, I was not sure what to expect, but I was not expecting to have as much fun as I had. All three of us - plus my daughter's friend and her family - had a total hoot.

Here is the result:

The lighting was a challenge. You see, arenas with black painted ceilings to not make for perfect photo venues. I found myself at iso3200 (not an Olympus E-3's strong suit unless you get the exposure perfect) and my lens wide open and struggling to maintain 1/200 a second shutter speed. It was enough to make me pine, ever so slightly, for the 1d mkIII I saw someone using. I shall have to practice a bit more and see what happens next time. I should think with better panning technique, I could sustain a lower shutter speed and drop the iso to 1600 which is a much better option for my current gear. Also, it would give a nice bit of motion blur should I get it right.

Going back is going to happen :)

I have found my runner's legs!

Normally, I won't do a double post in one day, but I am all pleased with things at the moment and felt like talking about it.

I have found my runner's legs again.

You need to understand something for this announcement to make any sense at all: I don't like running. As I mentioned previously, I really like cycling and grew up on the bike. I used to not be able to run more than 100m without my knees really hurting - to the point where I could hardly walk without pain. (Turns out that was the result of a weird muscle imbalance which I was able to fix fairly quickly once I was shown how by a friendly person I once knew.)

Years ago, I used to run a lot. I got to the point where I could run about 25km if I felt like it at a nice steady pace. The thing is, I never really enjoyed it. I did it because it was good for me fitness wise, but I never fell in love with it.

I have, though, a desire to deeply imbed endurance sports into my routines to the point where not participating in them would feel just wrong. Like most people, I am not getting any younger. Unlike some I know, I admit it. It does not bother me much, but I want to maintain a good high level of fitness as I get older so I can reduce potential health problems. Besides, which, endorphins are fun!

So, the discovery of my runner's legs is important.

There is also another factor to consider.

You see, I have this plan. Over the next six months I intend to run during the week, and cycle during the weekends. I will take a day or two off each week for recovery. Once the snow flies, it will be all running - either indoors at a local track, or in the snow and ice. I want to hit the rail trails on my bike next spring with my core fitness and endurance all the way up. 

So, refinding my runner's legs is good.

It is no longer torture to run. I just finished about 10km of running and nothing really hurts. I did some walking, but when I was running, my competative "hulk smash" mentality surfaced and I really hoofed it.

Ahhhh bliss.