My first experience as a pace bunny

I have been leading a group out of my local YMCA for about 2 years and have been running specifically with two women during that time. They are amazing women in their 50s who were totally troopers running through the very best and the very worst of conditions with no fail! One of them decided to aim for a spring half marathon but was not confident she could do it. I put together a training schedule for them and the other woman decided to come along for the ride. I ran twice a week with them, and then the other two runs they did on their own (or together, but without me). I ran their final long run with them so we could run most of the course to scope it out and so that I could see what kind of pace I thought they could hold for the race. They were surprised with this long run that they had gotten faster just by running consistently.

While their goal was to finish, they thought 2:45 was doable for them. I told them 2:40 was definitely doable as well. I was going to run with them for company and to help them keep pace. so i made the pace band for 2:45 but with the expectation that we would likely be a bit faster.

despite the crowd (5000 runners) we were on pace from the beginning and built a 5:00 buffer. we lost this 5:00 at the 3K mark when we stopped for the porta-potty. but since we got some rest in the line, we didn't take the next walk break (we do 12/1). we made up time nicely and everyone was doing well except the usual aches and complaints that come with longer running. I had warned them in training that final 5K was going to be tough. that is when you go beyond what you likely did in training (long run of 10 miles) and will need to just grit your teeth a bit. By the 16 or 17th km mark we were making good time and I was doing a bit of silent inventory to see if they could keep the pace. I stopped telling them we were ahead of schedule because I didn't want them to slow down just because the could. so we keep plugging and just encouraged them to check their posture and not give away any energy that way. In the final two kilometers we played a game. in order to focus on the positive as things got tough i had both of them come up with 5 positive things or things they loved about training for the race. that was a fun diversion.

with the finish line in sight i told them to do their best imitation of someone running well and just go for it. when we crossed the line i asked them to guess the finish time. One said 2:42 and the other said 2:45. When I told them 2:35 they lost their minds. I had never seen anyone happier.

So if you ever get the opportunity to lead up a group (especially those doing it for the first time) take it. It was so much fun to watch these women gain so much confidence during training, and to be so amazed at their ability to cross the finish line. It was also a real experience for me to learn how to remain positive and upbeat for those around me that are starting to struggle. I am usually the kind of person that "clams up" when the going gets tough and often thinks negatively. so having to remain positive and to keep smiling the whole time was a lesson I can take away for my own racing.

Beginning of the week

Monday I decided to have a little Computrainer fun. I had designed a course called "Spiral of Death". It is basically just a course that is 12K long and spirals in on itself. It is totally flat. So I decided to ride it as a bit of a ramp test. I started at a crazy easy HR and every five minutes I shifted gears to up the intensity. Basically I just wanted to watch my HR and wattage and see how the two match up. At the end, you can see the finish line coming up so I made a sprint for the finish. Probably the only time I will ever see 300+ watts.

Last night I met up with the women I run with. This is race week, so the runs are dropping in duration. We did just under 50 minutes. Everyone is feeling a bit sluggish, so we will work on picking up the pace on Thursday to keep our legs fresh.

This morning I decided it was time to start going back to pilates now that the off season is here. So I went to a class at the gym at 7:30. It is led by an instructor that I often see giving private lessons on the pilates equipment. I really liked the way she interacted with her clients, so I knew that I would like her. The class was great. Challenging, but gentle. Despite having not practiced for quite a while I found it easy to remember many of the cues. Of course I am a bit weak from my lack of practice, so it will take some time to feel strong again.

The good news

The good news is that it looks like there is nothing seriously wrong with my bike. The noise I was hearing was just sand and grit still stuck in the chain. The mechanic at the shop was kind enough to break the chain and put the whole thing in the "chemical bath" while I was at the shop. My attempts at cleaning just weren't thorough enough to get it all out. This particular mechanic (I believe his name is Nathan) is amazing. Sometimes finding a bike mechanic is like finding a doctor. You want someone that listens to you, takes you seriously when you propose what you think is wrong etc. He is really good a diagnosing what might be wrong with your bike and always takes the time to explain it to you.

So, still getting a bit of noise from the chain, but it just needs to be ridden a bit to work the rest of the grit out.

It's been a slow week

Nothing official on the workout schedule (that is nothing set by the coach). Just taking some time off, relaxing and enjoying have a bit of time to myself. Or at least I was enjoying myself until about Wednesday and then I started to get a little bit restless.

Tuesday and Thursday I ran with the run group that I "coach". Their big weekend is next weekend when the two of them will run their first half marathon ever. Last weekend I paced them on their final long run (10 miles) and they did extremely well. The planned finish time is 2:45 for the half, so I set the long run pace accordingly. They came in with five minutes to spare consistently hitting each kilometer split 5-6 minutes ahead of schedule. So they are definitely good to go.

Friday I rode the computrainer for the first time since it arrived. I rode a test course and then rode the first 10K of the Ironman Couer d'Alene course. It is way more fun to ride than the fluid trainer. The changing profile as you ride (even if it is just slight changes in grade) makes riding feel so much more realistic. Also, on the fluid trainer you have to shift to a harder gear to simulate a hill (which is the opposite of what you do when you are climbing), but with the computrainer, the change in tension comes from the trainer, so you can shift to an easier gear like you would when you climb. This lets you also practice your shifting strategy, learning to shift gears at the right time when climbing. This is something I still need to work on. So it looks like this should make riding through the winter a lot more fun. I was however disappointed to see how little wattage I was producing. Just goes to show that I am a pretty weak rider. No where to go but up, right?

I had hoped to ride this morning, but I cleaned up my bike last night to get it ready (it was still dirty after the rainy ride in PEC). When I rode it down the road to check everything it was making a grinding noise. Sort of like the noise your chain makes when it is touching the derailleur. But that wasn't the problem. I installed compact cranks a few months ago and they are cartridge style meaning they are sealed. So I don't see how any water or dirt is in there screwing things up. I'm going to take it to the shop this afternoon and see if they can diagnose the issue. If it just needs more cleaning, I'll bring it home and do it myself. I am also hoping that the bottom bracket is still under warranty (if that is indeed the problem). So no ride for me unless I get it in me to get back on the computrainer, but why would I do that when the sun is shining??

PSST, mom, dad, I'm putting one of these on my Christmas list:


It's a bike repair stand. I'm sure any good bike store has some in stock. (hint hint).

Sandbanks to Bloomfield and Wellington...

Alright, final report on riding over vacation.

Woke up Thursday morning to grey skies and a flat tire. Thankfully I found the flat before hitting the road so I could change it in the "comfort" of the camp site. We weren't sure if it would rain or not, the skies were grey but not really dark. With this in mind we left the towels on the windshield of the car to dry and took off.

Our first stop was going to be Bloomfield, but we did some touring of the sort of north west part of the park first as well as a residential area to the west of the main road. Back on the main road it was gentle grades all the way to Bloomfield with a bit of head and cross wind. Bloomfield was not yet totally awake when we arrived, but the coffee shop was open and had been open long enough to have sold out of muffins. But I did manage to get a delightful mini-loaf of banana bread. Sitting outside with my latte and my loaf there were hints of drops of rain. But we decided to go on towards Wellington.

Once on the road it started to rain a bit more heavily, but we decided to keep going as Wellington is only about 15K from Bloomfield. Entered Bloomfield and I had a near mishap on main street as I braked into a turn and fish tailed. Managed to stay upright on the slippery road, but I think I took a few years off my life. We ducked under a picnic pavillion just in time for the down pour and waited it out. We had planned on heading back to Bloomfield for lunch, but we didn't want to enter a restaurant soaking wet and dirty and get cold sitting around in wet clothes. So we by passed Bloomfield and headed back to Sandbanks to get a shower and some dry clothes.

Remember where the towels were? That's right, we left them on the windshield of the car. We tried to dry them in the campsite dryer but they were just too wet and we were racing the clock as they close the showers at 12:45 to clean them. Drying off with a hot, wet towel is pretty gross but at least we had dry clothes.

We opted to drive back to Bloomfield and we had lunch at JJs. Food was really good, service, not so much. After eating we walked along Main Street. For a small town, Bloomfield has some AMAZING stuff. I bought some maple tea at a little tea shop, we visited this amazing bike store and then headed to buy some ice cream. I had been waiting to try this ice cream. By the time we hit Main Street it had stopped raining, the sun had come out and it was getting warm again. But, despite the turn of the weather, the ice cream store still had a sign that said "Closed due to Rain". I was crushed.

Nothing left to do but get back in the car. Since we had missed getting out to Little Bluff the day before due to some road constuction that we weren't sure we wanted to takle by bike, we decided to drive out. It really is worth the trip. There is a cliff with an excellent look out as well as a wetland area and an amazing pebble beach. The entire beach is made up of greyish-white smooth, flat stones of different sizes; some are the size of a kiwi and others smaller than the nail on your pinky finger. The only wildlife we managed to see was a snake carrying dinner in his mouth. We obviously thwarted his plans to eat as he slithered off into the water waiting for us to leave.

IMNA must be reading my blog...

The day after I posted the link to the participants list, they cashed my cheque. I'm sure they will put it in some high interest savings account somewhere and collect interest until the day of the race :)

Well, they haven't cashed my cheque yet...

But THIS seems to have happened in the past few days.

It is really coming together today. I just got off the phone from booking my lodging for IMC. We are going to be spending seven nights here:















Click here for more pictures and info

Sandbanks and Picton

After shopping in nearby Brighton, we arrived at Sandbanks provincial Park in the early evening, set up camp and prepared dinner. For the first week of September there were quite a few people still there, but many of the camping areas have closed for the season so anyone that was camping was placed in one area of the park. So it perhaps felt more crowded than it really was. Having not purchased any firewood, we spent the evening walking the beach in the dark and stargazing.

The next morning dawned sunny and seemed like a great day for cycling. We had a quick breakfast and headed out. Our first destination was Picton. We took a bit of a scenic route, checked out the millennium Look Out just outside of Picton and then hit yet another screaming descent into town. We checked out the large (and I believe first built) church in the town as well as the war memorial. Then the next order of business was finding a coffee shop for some much needed morning coffee. I knew of one place I wanted to try buy could not remember the name of it, so we settled on the Regent Cafe (inside the old Regent Theatre) and took up a nice spot on their front patio. When I asked the woman there how to get to the cheese factory she gave us a great tourism book that came in handy in more ways than one. It was then that I found the name of the cafe I had been looking for: The Bean Counter Cafe. Having my fill of coffee, I decided to try and find an excuse to come back to Picton to try it.

From Picton we headed south east to Waupoos where we stopped at the South Marysburg pub and had an excellent lunch. Shayne has what was probably the best hummus I have ever tasted and I had a BLT with peameal bacon that was delicious. Here we also met up with another cyclist. A retired man that had actually cycled in from Toronto and was touring the area as well.

From Waupoos we headed on to the Black River Cheese factory where we stopped to peek in the shop. Shayne bought some cheese curds and I tasted all the cheese samples. It was a hot day and there was no way any cheese was going to make it back to our campsite.

After the cheese factory we had intended to head to Little Bluff which has an excellent view and a pebble beach. But we found some of the road under construction and we didn't know how long the road conditions would be poor. So we turned around and decided we would drive out there when we had some time. So we headed on towards Milford and then back to Sanbanks provincial Park .

This particular area of Prince Edward County is definitely more hilly. Towards the end of the day the heat and the climbing was getting tougher. Swimming at Sanbanks provincial Park that afternoon was an excellent end to the day.

I think we covered about 75 kilometers or so this day.

Bond Head (Newcastle) to Port Hope and back...

I have been MIA as I took the last of my summer vacation time to do some cycling and camping in central Ontario.

The first day we drove from Toronto to Newcastle and parked at the small Bond Head parkette at the shore of Lake Ontario. We got the bikes out of the car and headed east on Lakeshore Road towards Port Hope. The entire trip between Bond Head and Port Hope is signed as part of the Waterfront trail. The riding is surface is paved and mostly in good shape, although a good portion of the pavement is bumpy like paved gravel and was a bit jarring on a road bike. It is mostly flat with a few really good climbs. Rolling farmland and great views of the lake. There is one very old wooden train bridge that while a piece of history is a bit frightening to cross!

There is some construction going on on the very south west edge of Port Hope as they are building some kind of housing complex out there. They were laying infrastructure when we came through so there was a lot of gravel and sand to negotiate, but it was only about half a kilometer or so. After that, the entrance into Port Hope is (like every port city it seems) a screaming descent down to Main Street.

We pulled into the street with the information center, locked up the bikes and headed inside. When Shayne did he cross Canada bike tour in 2003 he visited this same info center and met a woman working in there that permitted Shayne to camp on her lawn over night. He had hoped to run into her again, but we learned that she had (just that day!) had her second child and was now on maternity leave. So Shayne left her a note, we got some tips on good ice-cream and headed out to take a look at the waterfront. It was salmon fishing season and so the waterfront area was busy with people fishing.

I then needed to satisfy my lust for ice cream so we headed to a little store called Little Lords and Ladies. It is a kids toy store with a penny candy counter and ice cream.

From there we took some residential streets back west, out of Port Hope and retraced our route back to the car at Bond Head. We packed up and head out east for Sandbanks Provincial Park.

First time for everything...

Since starting to do running races in 2000 and triathlons in 2002 I have never had a DNF (Did Not Finish) in a race ever. But there is a first time for everything.

On Sunday I raced the Olympic distance race in Guelph. While I was feeling a little ho-hum about the race I was excited to try and go out on a positive note this year (I was sick for one race and my first Olympic race this year was a tough go). Swim went pretty well. My time was around 30 minutes (times include a HORRIBLE hill climb up to T1). I was relaxed and had no problems sighting.

I felt like I was working hard on the bike. But it was windy and it seemed to always be a head wind or a cross wind. i made the turn around and was feeling happy that I hadn't been begging for the turn around to come like I was in my previous Olympic race. After the turn around I had to stop and open my front brake. It has been rubbing on my rim forever. It seems the mechanics look at it, fix it, but then it starts rubbing again after I use the brake a few times. So I fixed that I realized cycling felt ALOT easier which made me wonder how long it had been rubbing. A few kilometers after that, after turning a corner, I heard that familiar rubber squeaking sound of a tire that is not quite tight on a rim. Stopped, squeezed the tire and sure enough it was getting soft. I rode a bit up the road to an intersection as it seemed a safer location to pull over and fix it. The police officer asked if I had everything I needed as I had just missed SAG. I said I did, and started changing the flat. I screwed in the CO2 cartridge, squeezed the trigger and nother came out. Checked the seal on the valve, tried again. Nothing. Unscrewed the cartridge and can see that the seal had not been punctured. The police officer tried to get some more force behind it. Nothing. So i sat and waiting for SAG that never showed. The police officer drove me back to the race site and I handed in my chip.

Maybe I should have headed out on the run course anyway just to complete the day, but I was a bit discouraged and i had been sitting for so long that I just felt like i was "done".

So my first DNF and at the end of the season with no more chances to "prove" myself.

Let the off season begin.

Better now than Sunday...

Got an early morning massage before work. I haven't seen my massage therapist in quite a while as she was away for a bit doing the oh-so-hard job of being the massage therapist to the Canadian National Waterskiing team. Nice work if you can get it. I was glad to hear her say that I am not as much of a mess as I thought I might be.

Then I walked my bike to the bike store for a quick warranty tune up before this weekend's race. While I was on my way I heard the tell tale hiss that says your tire is going flat. Sure enough the air slowly leaked out of the tire as I walked to the store. When I got it there we found a big ole staple in the tire. My fingers are crossed that that got my flats out of the way for at least a few days.

Hoping to get in a bike workout after I pick the bike up. But I might decide to just head home and call it a day.

Busy cities suck...

When I woke up yesterday morning it was raining so I went back to bed instead of getting up to ride. So after work, in the whipping winds with gusts to 50kph I headed out to make up for it. Just went into High Park to ride the loop there and climb some hills. I really dislike riding at the end of the day. Way to many distractions. People and dogs not paying attention, way more traffic. I Definitely prefer the early morning hours, but this is getting tougher as we lose daylight hours.

Swam again this morning in the hot tub pool. The pool that I have come to love is closed for maintence, so I decided to try one close to my house. It is fine in emergencies, but full of slower old people and the water must be about 95 degrees. Oh well, after racing this weekend the off season begins and swimming may drop off for a while.

Excellent racing words of wisdom from my coach:

"Don’t fear the run. Let the first k be easy and get your running legs back. The ‘despair’ was only because of the situation on the run the last race. This race will be different. POSITIVE THOUGHTS ONLY from now to the end of the race! Visualize yourself during workouts being smooth and strong the whole time in the race."