Jarhead's Running Myths & Misadventures

After taking a few days off I’m ready to get rolling again and with my next goal race, the Elk/Beaver 50-Mile, just 6 weeks away it’s time to really crank it up.

My plan is to take one more rest day (today) and just head out for an easy jaunt and then rip back into things tomorrow with a Run/Run/CrossFit triple – run at lunch and then head out for Packman’s Lulu run group tomorrow night and then hit up Crossfit Zone for a WOD after that – should be a great way to jump back into training!

There are a couple of shorter races between now and May 1st that I’m planning on running, the Fletcher’s Challenge in Nanaimo on April 2nd and I’ll race the TC10K with Team Crossfit Zone on April 25th.

I was reminded of a few things this past Saturday during the Dirty Duo race in North Vancouver.

• Some people are incredible technical downhill runners… I am not one of those people.
• If you want to race fast on trails you need to train fast on trails.
• I love to run!

Packman, KDF and I ferried over to Vancouver on Friday after a leisurely morning which included a Birthday Breakfast at Mo:Le.  After dropping Packman off at his in-laws KDF and I kicked around North Van for a bit while we waited for the race package pick up to open at North Shore Athletics where we had also arranged to meet Pano, one of our incredible hosts for the evening.

We hung out at NSA for awhile chatting and then made our way down to the www.trainharder.com residence for dinner and a relaxing evening getting to bed fairly early.

I woke up a few times through the night to the sounds of heavy rain pounding down, at one point climbing out of bed to take a peek out the window to make sure I wasn’t dreaming it. I wasn’t!

Saturday morning came early and after some breakfast and some gear assembly Linds, KDF and I made our way to Jaycee House where we met Packman.  There was time to check in, get our drop bags together and do a bit of visiting before the start.  During the race brief I saw Gary Robbins across the room and after it finished we finally got to meet in person.  He was not racing but was there volunteering and said he’d be at the drop bag check point which we’d get to pass four times.

The 50k solo run and 25k relay run both started at 8am and they were right on time.  I have never run on the trails in North Van but Packman had given me the heads up that they were pretty gnarly so I went out easy.  On the way out I had the opportunity to meet another trainharder.com blogger, Chris “Pricey Runs” Price.  Chris was running the 25k relay loop and was cruising on by but slowed up to chat for a bit.

I won’t go into the course as there are a bunch of reports out there already that describe it much better than I ever could (2010 Dirty Duo Race Results & Reports).  I had set myself up with three goal times which were dependent on the course conditions and weather.

• A Goal – sub 5 hours
• B Goal – sub 5 hours 30 minutes
• C Goal – sub 6 hours

Well… I just made my C Goal coming in at 5:58:52.  I’m pleased with my run, it was my first true ultra race since the two ultra stages at TCC last year, and I come away from it knowing where I’m at and where I need to go.

I’ve been taking the tapering process much more seriously this week.  After running the Bazan Bay 5k on Sunday I took Monday off completely.  Went for an easy run on the trails around Thetis Lake with KDF on Tuesday.  I hit the Songhees Walkway yesterday for an easy 6ish km and then did a really easy WOD at Crossfit Zone after work and today was another very easy run on the Songhees of maybe 8 or 9 km but there will be no WOD tonight – I’ll just head home and chill.

Things are feeling good, the legs are feeling potent and I’m ready to give’er!

I finished the Bazan Bay 5k in 19′52″ which met my goal of a sub 20′.

Am I happy?  Yes!
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But -  I’m feeling a little blah about it too, I’ve run it faster.  A 18′50″, over a minute faster, in 2005…

While I obviously realize that I’ve not been concentrating on short distance speed for a few years apparently there is still that ‘thing’ somewhere in the back of my brain that thinks I should be running that fast.

Having said that I also realized on Sunday that I have no real desire to run a bunch of road races, I much prefer to have some mud and dirt under my feet.

My splits from the race.

• 1km: missed it
• 2km: 7′44″
• 3km: 3′58″
• 4km: 4′06″
• 5km: 4′04″

Finish time: 19′52

The other big piece of knowledge I gained from Sunday’s race was that the training I’m getting at Crossfit Zone has definitely produced some changes in my conditioning.  My strength increase is very noticeable and my recovery has been awesome – my legs felt great post race and even better yesterday.

I’ll continue to take it a little easier this week, maybe  an easy WOD or two and a few runs to keep the legs moving and then I’m stoked to be heading to the Dirty Duo this Saturday.

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your future, and for motivating yourself to turn this vision of the future into reality.  Since starting CrossFit I’ve been focusing more on setting goals, specifically fitness goals, for myself and I commonly use the SMART criteria.

The acronym SMART has a few different variations which can be used to provide an extensive definition for goal setting:

• S – specific, significant, stretching
• M – measurable, meaningful, motivational
• A – agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
• R – realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
• T – time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

I find that my running and CrossFit goals fit into this criteria incredibly well and I’ve been setting multiple goals for myself in both activities.  These goals may change and get modified on occasion like last month; My CrossFit goal was to complete 20 unassisted pull-ups unbroken and I had chosen February 15th as my completion date.  I went in and attempted the feat on that day but my hands started to tear so I stopped at 14.  I jumped off feeling disappointed but knew the strength was there to finish.  While cleaning up I reset my pull-up goal for the 28th and made a second goal to take care of my hands over those next two weeks.  Unfortunately I couldn’t make it into Crossfit Zone on the 28th but I did on March 1st and completed my 20 unassisted pull-ups unbroken then!

My next fitness goal is for the Bazan Bay 5k this Sunday.  It has been a few years since I’ve raced a 5k, the last 5k I ran was in March of 2007 when I finished the Bazan Bay course in 30′59″ (I had run out to the race from James Bay that year), the last time I raced a 5k would have been in 2006 on the same course and I finished in 19′33″.

I’m truly not sure where my 5k speed is at right now but I did run a couple of mile repeats around the Beacon Hill Park loop yesterday to asses just that and from those results I’ve set myself an “A” goal of sub 20′ for Sunday’s race.