2015 Mews 8k

First off, I need to plug another blog post I did for the Canadian Running Series as one of their digital champions.
Running and Family: A Balancing Act
It went live Thursday, and I haven't had much of a chance to jump into people's thoughts on it, as my family and I went to our families cabin for the weekend, and there's no internet service. I know, no internet, but it's by choice. After a relaxing four days, I finally sat down to write about my latest race, the Mews 8k.

This race is a staple on the St. John's running scene, and has been around for a long time. Many people use this race as a primer for the race of the year around here; the Tely 10. With the Tely being 16km/10miles, this fast 8k race is a great predictor for how people will do in two weeks.

I went into this race looking to break 27 minutes, and hopefully get around the 26:30-40 mark, as I felt that my fitness was pointing towards those times. The morning of the race, the weather was on my side, about 8 degrees and overcast. I made my way over to the start area and did my warm up with my hoodie on to try and warm up my upper body. With a few minutes till the start, I ditched the hoodie, did a couple of strides and made my way to the line. The weather gods were on our side this day, as the clouds slowly started to part, and the sun made its appearance, which put everyone in a great mood to start the race.

Once the gun went, I jumped to the front of the chase pack (the two guys every thought would take the race did at the start, and really it was a race for third, or so we thought). Coming into the first km marker, Peter Power, one of the veterans of the local racing scene made a move and darted to second place, which surprised a number of people. Myself, and three others stayed together, and attempted to reel in third place. At the 2.5km mark, there's a right hand turn onto a long straight stretch, and another runner and myself used this to our advantage and split around the other runner, and put distance between him and us, and narrowed to gap to third. Just before the 4km mark, the route makes another right hand turn onto Empire Avenue, which is a steady downhill for the next 3km. At this point the runner I was with made another move to jumped into third and hammered it for the next km to put some distance between us. I locked in between the runner who was now in fourth and slowly reeled him to within maybe 10 feet during this downhill section.
With 1km to go I was feeling great and confident in my race, but noticed that fourth was speeding up, and I was late to match. By the time we were on the last 500m to the finish he was a good 40 feet away, and I started to get disappointed, but I remembered what I told a friend of mine a few days earlier. I can outkick anyone, if we're in a group, or its a sprint to the finish, I'm coming out on top. So, I started to kick, and noticed I was pulling him in, but not fast enough, so I kicked again, and barrelled down on him like a freight train. I played a lot of ultimate, soccer, basketball, baseball, and pretty much everything with short bursts of speed, so this wasn't surprising that I was catching him, the only problem was my timing sucked. I kicked too late and finished right on his heels.
Kicked too late
Lesson learned.

I crossed the line in 26:50, and I'm really happy with my effort and result, as it was a 47 second PB at that distance, and I'm feeling strong and ready for a great result at the Tely this year. Hopefully I'll get that recap up quicker. My training so far has been going great, and I'm excited to see what I can do this year at the Tely, and this fall when I run the #STWM in Toronto.

Consistency

As a runner, there is nothing more important than avoiding injuries. The easiest and best way to avoid injuries; prevent them, and consistency is the main ingredient needed in prevention. I'm writing this the night before my Sunday morning longish run. This year I'm averaging 5.5 run days per week, and have noticed a huge difference in my running. I mean look at this past month alone. You'll notice I take every Saturday off; I have two young children (5 and 2 in August), so I always make that day running free.

Let's compare that to last year which was only 4 run days per week. Last year I had a bad Achilles problem that reared it's ugly head twice, and derailed me for a number of weeks. I tried too hard last year in my build up to the Tely 10 and ignored the first issue with my heel. I had orginally blamed the hot weather (which still didn't help) on my performance, but I limped away from the finish line and know that was my issue. In October of last year I ran the Cape to Cabot 20km road race and finished second, however during my cool down, I noticed the issue again. Since then I have been consistent with my running, getting out as often as I can, and always having a longish run every week. I had a late evening work out with 5km at 5k race pace last week, and nailed my fastest time over that distance, and I owe it all to being consistent. I'd run a 5k earlier in the year, but it was only 3 weeks after I had surgery on my neck, so all things considered I was happy with running 17:30, and know that I can go faster. Also, I ran a half marathon back in May, and finished second but was 2 minutes behind the time I was shooting for. Again I'm happy considering I was by myself, and the only person ahead of me was Olympian Abel Kirui, so I wasn't chasing him, and wasn't worried about my time, I just ran an easy race and held my lead over third.

I have two races coming up next month, and I can't wait to see how this helps my racing times. There was a race today that I have completed in the last two years, and I want to give a shout out to a couple of runners. I won this race last year, and have to say its great fun, and the whole community helps to pull off the event, and the only reason I didn't go this year, is that it's hard to mobilize two young children for a 90 minute drive early in the morning.

First of all big shout out to David Freake for taking the win today in a blazing 24:07 to establish a new course record. Secondly to my buddy Mark Hayward who is working his way back into racing form from a big break, who blew away the time he was shooting for by over a minute. He's quickly hauling himself back into race shape, and letting everyone know he isn't going anywhere.

I'm building a great routine here this summer, and can't wait to continue it through past the Tely 10, and work up to the STWM in October.

EDIT: I realized yesterday that I didn't explain consistency correctly in regards to my running. Last year I averaged 4 run days per week, but sometimes I was running 3, then 6, 5, and so forth. This year I committed to 4 or 5 runs for the first two months of the year, then I consistency started running 5 days a week, and now I'm at 6 days a week. I made sure I ran the same days to create a routine for myself, and it has helped greatly, hence being able to run 6 days a week and no issues. Consistency is about routine (which I am all about with two young children), whether you're running 3, 4, or 5 days a week, or whatever number. Get into a routine and consistency will be the norm.

That was a first

I've been running for years, and something happened this weekend that hadn't happened to me before. I've ducked behind trees, and bushes for number 1 before, but never have I needed to go 2. I know it happens often, but it was a first for me.
I was doing a late evening long run with a number of hills, and just as I was hitting the last hill on the way out I had some stomach pain, and gas. I shrugged it off, as I typically pass gas during longer runs, but by the third time it happened my head was on a swivel looking for a port-a- potty. I came up on one of ball parks in town, and I quickly ran down the lane looking for the bathroom. All I can say, is thank you for still having your bathrooms unlocked at 9pm on a Sunday.
I look at it this way, it's just like getting in the distance; it's 'money in the bank'. It's an experience, and I know what to pay attention to now.
Now on to a better discussion; running. I've finished my first training week for the Tely 10 here in St. John's in July, and I'm feeling great, and if training goes as well for this race as the half I did in May, I'm getting the PB I'm looking for. The weather is finally warming up, and I'm enjoying my runs along the many trails through the city, and surrounding area.
The hardest thing about training with a young family is getting everything done both family wise and running. I typically run at 5am during the week as my family is 'usually' still asleep. With the sun coming up earlier now, our oldest has been frequently waking up when I'm gone, and that in turn wakes up our youngest (not yet 2). They're not getting the rest they need, and they are cranky all day, so I try and do some runs at night, but that takes me away from helping out around the house once they're asleep, and spending time with my wife. If I run in the morning, I can spend lunch time walking with my wife, and then the evenings we watch some TV or read some books. It's a hard balance of running/family life, and I'm trying my best to keep everyone happy. Hopefully as the summer progresses, the children will be tired enough that my early runs can happen and I can to spend as much time as I can/want with my family, and still get in all the training I need for the Tely 10 and the STWM in the fall.