johnsjar

I can easily remember running in a snow storm or a blizzard, but I can’t remember the last time I ran in the rain. And what a rain it was! It hit me about 1/3 of the way into my 11 km run today on the trails and it was not only a lengthy torrential downpour, it had some sharp needle like hail mixed in with the rain. What joy! What fun! I was ecstatic! It was exhilarating! The hail part stung a little and I am glad it was not very large hail. But the rain was so intense I could not see clearly because my eyes were just drenched. I was soaked. Even my wet bits were wet. The trail I was running on had so much water running down it, it was exactly as if I were running through a creek upstream. To use a cliche, I felt like a child again! I delighted in splashing my way through this “flash flood” with wild abandon in in ankle deep water!

But the run turned a little uncomfortable towards the last two kilometers as I suddenly needed to find some bathroom facilities. There were none so I literally had to stop and walk for the last kilometer, but even so I did have a small accidental leak. If you have a history of many years of long distance running, I should not have to go into any messy details. Fortunately these events are extremely rare.

So that makes my yearly total a healthy 1020 kilometers since January 1st, 2010. In other news, we had our last karate lesson for this summer season and we are now on a short break. The fall season begins September 21, 2010 and it will go back to a twice weekly lesson of 2 hours each. I will enjoy the break because it will give me a chance to heal up and focus more on my upcoming trail half marathon. Plus it will help me to focus on what I need to know (ie: memorize) for my grading to brown belt.

Next run: Friday, 11 km, followed by another trail/hill training (18 km) on Sunday in preparation for my half marathon on the trails at the end of September.

Why, yes we are! I had a good 11 km run today in spite of the strong winds. Let’s see, it’s exactly 15 days after my blood donation and although I had trouble in the runs immediately after the donation, today’s run was back on track at 11 km and a 6:58 pace. Fifteen days is not a bad recovery time. The donation guidelines state that you can’t donate whole blood more than every 56 days. This is to ensure that you have completely regenerated all the oxygen carrying red blood cells you had before the last donation. So although I have probably NOT replaced all the red blood cells I donated, I seem to have replaced enough of them to make no difference in my stamina.

So my next training run is Sunday when I shall be running a half marathon on the trails. There will be three laps therefore I will be tackling the same set of killer hills three times. I’m going to be running this at a very slow pace however, since it is a hill training session and I need to get used to it.

I managed to eke out 17 km today but only very slowly since I was still feeling the blood loss and consequent lack of energy and oxygen. I also made two pit stops so that took up a lot of time too. But I did get a lot of hills in and I hope that the deficit I have from donating blood will have a training effect. I was otherwise well prepared. The mosquitoes were vicious but I had some 30% DEET so they didn’t bother me until late in my second lap when the sweat washed it all off. I had my hydration pack with me today filled with Powerade which was diluted by the water ice I had made by filling my pack with about 2 cups of water and freezing it overnight.

By the way, if you need a hint: Fill the bladder of your hydration pack with the liquid of your choice (fill it only 1/4 full or less), then put it flat in your freezer so that the tube won’t be plugged by the frozen water. Then take it out in the morning and fill it the rest of the way. Before you freeze the pack, blow air through the bite valve until the bladder is inflated enough to ensure an easy fill and also to prevent water from freezing in the bite valve tube.

At the end of my run today I still had lots of liquid left over in my 2 liter pack. So yah, I did two laps for a total of just under 17 km I think, according to my Garmin Oregon GPS device. I know that I did not follow the exact course for the 5Peaks trail race this September, but it doesn’t really matter since I am still getting in the training.

I tried a new thing today as well. I am not a fan of strange energy drinks such as Red Bull, or Monster type stuff, as well as countless other brands that claim extra energy and stamina from drinking their products. I believe that these products are dangerous, especially for athletes already hovering at their own training brinks, so to speak. But I did try one today only because its ingredient list seemed fairly harmless and in fact consists of mostly B vitamins, and only enough caffeine as is found in one cup of coffee.

I read a lot about it on the net, and most of the reviews were fairly positive, although you always have those wackos who claim you will die instantly if you drink this, and other wild and crazy complaints. A lot of people claimed that the product worked miracles, and some complained that they couldn’t get to sleep for days. There sure is a lot of bullshit on the web these days. The B vitamins may make you feel very warm and your skin will look flushed and red. This is from the dilation of the capillaries near the surface of your skin and the effect passes quickly and is harmless. I did not feel such an effect when I tried it. I also tried it after breakfast, and not on an empty stomach. The product is called 5-hour Energy and costs about as much as a Cliff Shot or other gel, but without any sugars and only 4 calories or so. Anyway, the 2 fluid ounce bottle is very pricey but it’s not something you would use on a regular basis anyway. The bottom line is that I bought two bottles, tried one after breakfast this morning before my run, and I can say that it probably made absolutely no difference whatsoever. If it had any effect at all, I could not detect it. I also had two cups of strong coffee this morning so I doubt if the caffeine in the drink made any difference at all. My unscientific conclusion is that it’s probably a good source of B vitamins, but I probably had enough B in me anyway. Not a seriously controlled test on my part, that’s for sure. I have one bottle left that I will try later on, but I really doubt if it will do anything. As for the taste (I had the berry flavor), it isn’t something you would sip and enjoy, but it was not at all unpalatable either. It was quite pleasant going down and easy to consume.

I think if you eat a proper diet, and maybe use gels when you need them during a run, you don’t need any other “miracle” energy drinks. I rarely use gels even for marathon distances, preferring real food.

So although I am disappointed in my performance today, I did go the distance and stuck it out. I should be almost back to normal in a week or so as my blood cell count climbs back up after my donation. I will convince myself that running after giving blood will have a great training effect. If that’s just a placebo effect, who cares?

I hope you enjoy this inspirational trail running video! There are more like them so feel free to YouTube your way to more of these videos.

It’s how I feel when I run, and it is also my favorite type of run. I’ll be thinking of this video when I run the Devon river trails during tomorrow’s training run.

I wonder if anyone else has experienced a loss of performance after giving blood? Probably. Last Friday I was really pressed for time so I decided to reduce the distance from 11 km to 5 km and I’m glad I did because the previous evening’s blood donation really made me feel like I was lacking in performance.

I think the drop in performance after giving blood is quite significant, since I have felt such an effect at least twice. I also think that the drop in performance only lasts a few days or a week, at least at my level of athleticism. I can’t speak for elite athletes, obviously.

My donations are only allowed every 56 days, which is the theoretical time required to replace the blood loss plus a large margin, I’m sure. I’ve been lucky since my donations have fortuitously been soon after a race rather than before. I know I could not and would not donate if I had a race less than two weeks after a donation.

At least that’s how I feel about it.

Tomorrow, I will be running the hilly trails in Devon’s North Saskatchewan River valley. And now, how about a couple of jokes? I really liked a T-shirt I saw on one of my friends who lives in Saskatchewan. It has a vertical rectangle drawn on it (which is the shape of the province’s borders) and the following text: “Saskatchewan. Hard to spell, easy to draw.

The other joke I have for you I got from Facebook and it goes as follows:

I went to the doctor yesterday and he asked me if I or many of my relatives suffered from insanity. I replied, no, we rather enjoy it.

Have a great run everyone!

Last Sunday I did not run because of the 5Peaks trail race, which was a hill training session if ever there was one so I am counting that as a hill training session. I will post pictures and a breif commentary about that race later on but for now I’d like to report on today’s hill training session.

I went to the same old hill, a 500 meter, 12% grade asphalt hill in the river valley at the crack of noon so the heat would be intense. I like to say I run at this time in order to become used to running in the heat of summer rather than say something like …”I’m frikken lazy and I slept in till 10 AM,…”, which although true, doesn’t sound nearly as heroic.

So I began with a very slow 2 km warm up run on the flat around the Lion’s campground in Devon’s North Saskatchewan River valley. No, there were no lions, but there was one leopard, and a bunny.

After the warm up I stopped and stretched thoroughly before my planned 4 repeats. I ran my first repeat in 4:34 to the top, and 2:45 to the bottom. I rested for 2 or 4 minutes and then ran my 2nd repeat in 4:29 to the top and 2:39 to the bottom. My next repeat was 4:55 to the top and 2:47 to the bottom. My 4th repeat was 4:30 to the top and 2:45 to the bottom. I didn’t stop at the bottom for a rest since I wanted to run onwards for a 1.5 km loop on the flat then immediately tackle a 5th repeat without resting to more closely mimic race conditions. That hill repeat took me 5:00 to the top and 2:50 to the bottom, after which I continued on for a 2.5 km cool down.

I stretched again after and also took to the foam roller when I got home.

There seems to be little difference in my downhill times (about 10 seconds max) no matter what stride length I use or how fast I think I’m running. A short stride with faster cadence or a long stride with slower cadence seems to make no difference. If anything, the longer stride seems to be a wee bit faster, but also it is more prone to slipping out of control so that I end up having to slow down by heel striking.

The uphill times are clearly different (closer to 30 seconds difference) but that is simply the result of being just too darned tired to push the pace. Some of the variation is the result of sort of falling into a daze and not focusing on technique, but largely as the number of repeats increase, the energy level goes down.

So the total run today including hill repeats was just over 11 km. Five of those kilometers were on the hill, 2.5 going up and 2.5 coming down. For me, coming down is easier in terms of getting enough oxygen, but way harder than the uphills in terms of stride control, shock absorption, and so on. My quads and other downhill muscle groups are really going to let me know how they feel tomorrow.

I really like hill training which is why I approach it with so much dedication and seriousness. I like it because I know it is taking me a quantum leap ahead in my ability to run trails. I’ll be talking about my last trail race and how I smoked everyone (that I met) on the uphills, because of my hill training, but I got whacked on the downhills starting about 3/4 of the way through the race. Yes, even those very few hill training sessions I did before the race helped me out a lot. I am quite optimistic what continued hill training will do for me.

Today’s hill training session consisted of a 2 km warm up followed by 4 hill climbs and of course, 4 downhills and ended with a 2 km cool down for a total of 8 km. The hill was the same as last week, a 500 meter hill with a 12% grade. My times were a bit better today. The 4 uphill segments were 4:54 – 4:53 – 4:40 and the last slowed down quite a bit at 5:10 partly because it was my 4th try but also because I tackled it after a 500 meter flat bit just to see how that would feel. The first three hill runs were separated by a 3 or 4 minute rest before the next set, but after a similar rest, on the 4th I decided to try running a good pace for 500 meters on the flat before hitting the hill. The corresponding downhills were 2:44 – 2:47 – 2:43 and 2:55, again a bit slower for that 4th downhill. I noticed that if I shortened my stride and quickened my cadence (2:47), I was a bit slower than if I lengthened my stride and lowered my cadence (2:43) but the difference is not that great over 500 meters. I don’t really know yet what to make of that or what it means. I guess I have to find the most comfortable pace and stride length by how I feel because the times are not all that different.

The uphills seemed a bit easier than last week and I am finding that the ideal stride length is getting easier to recognize – and the same can be said for the downhill runs. I feel that the longer the stride length, the faster I can go either uphill or downhill. Shortening the stride and trying to make up for that by increasing the cadence doesn’t seem to work quite as well or be quite as fast. Also, especially on the uphills, the longer my stride the softer I land and the closer my feet are to the ground. If I go with too long of a stride though, the benefits disappear as I begin to use too much power in what seems to be an inefficient way. The same can be said of the downhills although it feels very different in terms of the amount of effort and oxygen I use than in the uphills. I need to have the longest stride possible so that my feet barely leave the ground without letting my heels drag. I let gravity do as much work as possible. The longer I have both feet in the air the less energy I seem to use. Finding the right balance requires me to go fast enough but not so fast that I lose control and begin to break too hard. You don’t want to be breaking, and above all, you never want to heel strike.

So again, I don’t quite know what to make of all this, but I hope it helps me in my upcoming trail race this Saturday. I will not be running again until then in order for me to heal up from this training session plus I have karate Tuesday night which is always a killer on the legs anyway. That’s why I won’t be running again until the race.

After the race I will be back to my normal training sessions but one day a week will be devoted to intensive hill training. I think I need to run that whole river valley trail system because there are a lot of really tough hills there and that would also be a more realistic hill training session and a change of pace from my regular flat road runs that I seem to have been stuck with these last few years.

I don’t think I will be hill training or even running on the Sunday following Saturday’s 16 km trail race but the next Sunday I think I will measure and tackle a different hill. The one I have in mind is not quite as steep, I think, but it is 1 km long. Did I mention I liked running?

I actually like hill training so far.