Alright guys and girls. This week I am asking you to give me a topic to write about. I have been thinking about doing this for some time now and I think now is as good of time as any. As I read over my last few posts, other than the one about us getting robbed, I'm realising they aren't the most interesting.
So please help me out. Sound off in the comments below. Ask my any questions you might have, suggests topics, anything at all.
I look forward to seeing what you all have to say.
Thanks in advance!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Terrible Teppanyaki.
Well, not too much to report from last week. We had a recovery week and so it was fairly uneventful. The week disappeared due to the lack of running, it was needed though. Over the last few days I feel like I'm back in Victoria more than being in Arizona. This has been the longest constant rain I have ever seen. Fortunately it stopped for the exact 2 hours we did our workout in this morning.
Really the only out of the ordinary thing that happened this week was that I had my first teppanyaki experience with Amy. For those of you who don't know what teppanyaki is, click here to find out. I had heard many great things about it and that it was usually a lot of fun, to be honest, I was quite disappointed. Our chef was terrible, trying to do tricks and failing, undercooking some food, overcooking other food. I have decided to erase that experience from my memory and go into my next teppanyaki as though I still had never been.
Usually I like to write about one week at a time and not really mix happenings from one into the next, but this could wait. Today we went to the hill to do surges were we got robbed last time. I'm thinking it might be time to find a new hill, today we saw a guy get arrested for who know what right along our half mile loop.
This is our last week of hard training before getting a little break for the holidays. It's hard to believe that in just over a week I'll be heading to Iowa for christmas. These first 2 months down here have just flown by!
Sorry for the mildly boring blog. I suppose thats the result of a mildly boring week.
Really the only out of the ordinary thing that happened this week was that I had my first teppanyaki experience with Amy. For those of you who don't know what teppanyaki is, click here to find out. I had heard many great things about it and that it was usually a lot of fun, to be honest, I was quite disappointed. Our chef was terrible, trying to do tricks and failing, undercooking some food, overcooking other food. I have decided to erase that experience from my memory and go into my next teppanyaki as though I still had never been.
Usually I like to write about one week at a time and not really mix happenings from one into the next, but this could wait. Today we went to the hill to do surges were we got robbed last time. I'm thinking it might be time to find a new hill, today we saw a guy get arrested for who know what right along our half mile loop.
This is our last week of hard training before getting a little break for the holidays. It's hard to believe that in just over a week I'll be heading to Iowa for christmas. These first 2 months down here have just flown by!
Sorry for the mildly boring blog. I suppose thats the result of a mildly boring week.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
WE GOT ROBBED!
Well, we got robbed mid workout this week. We were out doing 30mins of hill surges. The loop we do the surges is roughly 500m and with the different types of runners all at different levels of fitness this time of the year the 5 of us doing the workout were pretty evenly spread out over the 500m. About 10mins in we saw these two homeless people come near where we had dropped our clothes, one was a guy with a bike and the other a girl on foot. 15mins into the workout Matt kind of slowed down told us that he didn't see our shirts where they used to be, and the homeless couple was walking away. Andrew and I circled back to double check if our stuff was missing, and of course it was. I immediately turned around and run after our lovely homeless couple. I caught up pretty quick as they hadn't made it very far. I may have yelled a few profane words as I came closer to them, as soon as the guy turned and saw me he got on his bike a started to ride away. Since I was in the middle of a surge session I was nicely warmed up and it didn't take me long to catch up to him again. Long story short, Andrew joined me with our culprit soon after and he denied stealing our shirts for a long while until finally admitting to it. We were pretty sure he still had Andrew's keyless entry beeper for his car so we had to go through his entire bag. After searching everything and being careful to not disturb any of his "magical artifacts" we couldn't find it and it is still missing. We're pretty sure he probably had it in his pockets or something in hopes the car will be back one day.
Other than that it was a pretty good week of training. Hard, but good. We were in a volume week so there as lots and lots of running. Everything is going really smoothly so far this year. I've been able to hit the workouts hard each week, and staying injury free. I'm actually looking forward to hitting the track in January.
Outside of track things are great. I'm really enjoying having a girlfriend down here this year and knowing/meeting people outside of the training group. Amy and our friend Brian got out climbing the other week, first time I had gone in a LONG time. It was really good to be on the wall again. We're planning on going again this week since I'm in a recovery week and will probably have a little more energy than any other week. After my solid 14miler on Sunday Amy and I checked out the Tempe Festival of the Arts. It was really cool, they blocked off a good part of Tempe near ASU and had tents set up all over the place. It was actually a little overwhelming how many tents there were. We also checked out a really cool restaurant called Roaring Fork. It's really more of a BBQ place, but I had really been craving a good spinach salad. Turns our Roaring Fork happened to have one and I was able to fulfil my craving. Amy got some fried chicken that was also really good. I plan on going back sometime because I really want to try their Dr. Pepper Baby Back ribs.
As I said I'm in a recovery now, only goal this week is the make the body feel good. More time spent doing self treatment than running this week.
Other than that it was a pretty good week of training. Hard, but good. We were in a volume week so there as lots and lots of running. Everything is going really smoothly so far this year. I've been able to hit the workouts hard each week, and staying injury free. I'm actually looking forward to hitting the track in January.
Outside of track things are great. I'm really enjoying having a girlfriend down here this year and knowing/meeting people outside of the training group. Amy and our friend Brian got out climbing the other week, first time I had gone in a LONG time. It was really good to be on the wall again. We're planning on going again this week since I'm in a recovery week and will probably have a little more energy than any other week. After my solid 14miler on Sunday Amy and I checked out the Tempe Festival of the Arts. It was really cool, they blocked off a good part of Tempe near ASU and had tents set up all over the place. It was actually a little overwhelming how many tents there were. We also checked out a really cool restaurant called Roaring Fork. It's really more of a BBQ place, but I had really been craving a good spinach salad. Turns our Roaring Fork happened to have one and I was able to fulfil my craving. Amy got some fried chicken that was also really good. I plan on going back sometime because I really want to try their Dr. Pepper Baby Back ribs.
As I said I'm in a recovery now, only goal this week is the make the body feel good. More time spent doing self treatment than running this week.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Broken Promise.
Well, I've gotten really bad at this. I keep promising getting better but never really do. I'd like to say this time will be different, but if history can predict the future, I'm not making any promises, haha.
I've been back in Scottsdale since October 25th. Things have been great since being here. I went to a pretty bad ass block party for Halloween. Some of the best costumes I have ever seen.
Starting October 31st we got back into prescribed training, rather than just doing whatever we felt like. Things have been going smoothly. I took the first 3 week cycle pretty easy. I just kept things under control and didn't really push anything too hard. We just finished the 1st week of a new cycle, an intensity week. I still kept things under control but started to up the milage and intensity of the workouts.
November 24th was round 2 of Thanksgiving. One of the benefits of living in both countries, two Thanksgivings!
Last friday I went to my first NCAA football game and tailgate. Unfortunately ASU isn't known as the biggest football school. It was fun, but slightly disappointed.
That about sums up the last little while. I will try to get back on the weekly update train.
Here's to hoping.
I've been back in Scottsdale since October 25th. Things have been great since being here. I went to a pretty bad ass block party for Halloween. Some of the best costumes I have ever seen.
Starting October 31st we got back into prescribed training, rather than just doing whatever we felt like. Things have been going smoothly. I took the first 3 week cycle pretty easy. I just kept things under control and didn't really push anything too hard. We just finished the 1st week of a new cycle, an intensity week. I still kept things under control but started to up the milage and intensity of the workouts.
November 24th was round 2 of Thanksgiving. One of the benefits of living in both countries, two Thanksgivings!
Last friday I went to my first NCAA football game and tailgate. Unfortunately ASU isn't known as the biggest football school. It was fun, but slightly disappointed.
That about sums up the last little while. I will try to get back on the weekly update train.
Here's to hoping.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
8km XC... Why not?
Well, it's crazy to think, but the time has almost come! Only 20 more days and I'll be heading back down to Scottsdale. I'm extremely excited as well as a little nervous. I feel like I have so much to do before I head down. I've already started to get a lot of stuff sorted out.
I wanted to give a huge shout out to both The Running Room as well as Hammer Nutrition. As usual, the man, myth, and legend, Matt Norminton and the Running Room have hooked me up big time. It's such a great feeling knowing that I can always rely on them for any of my training gear needs. Matt was also able to swing a little deal with Hammer Nutrition and hook me up with their best product, in my humble opinion, Recoverite. If any of you out there are struggling with properly recovering after your long and/or hard days, go out and get yourself some Recoverite. It's perfectly well rounded with 3:1 carb:protein, glutamine and a whole host of handy little things that help in all aspects of muscle recovery. Plus, they're based out of Whitefish, Montana basically counts as local!
Other than working like a mad-man and running around getting things organised I have been running. Granted, not as much as I would like to, or should be. I randomly hopped into an 8km Cross Country race this past Saturday. It went surprisingly well. I said to myself I was just going to use it as a bit of an up-tempo in the middle of an 11mile run, but as soon as I toed the line and got into that atmosphere my competitive nature kicked in. I still stayed pretty conservative but I did start racing a little more than I had planned. I ended up in 3rd place in a decent time of 26:48. Still ticked off 11miles that day, made for a slow and painful 10miles on Sunday.
Plan for the next few weeks; start making more sacrifices to get my runs in where they fit rather then saying "I'll do it later" and not ever getting around to it. I also want to get all my stuff organised for heading down to Arizona within a week, just to get that stress off my shoulders.
*On a side note. I no longer have my Facebook and Twitter synced. If by chance you blocked it on your newsfeed (I know I have in the past) you no longer have to worry about 1000 updates from twitter on your FB newsfeed. Promise.
I wanted to give a huge shout out to both The Running Room as well as Hammer Nutrition. As usual, the man, myth, and legend, Matt Norminton and the Running Room have hooked me up big time. It's such a great feeling knowing that I can always rely on them for any of my training gear needs. Matt was also able to swing a little deal with Hammer Nutrition and hook me up with their best product, in my humble opinion, Recoverite. If any of you out there are struggling with properly recovering after your long and/or hard days, go out and get yourself some Recoverite. It's perfectly well rounded with 3:1 carb:protein, glutamine and a whole host of handy little things that help in all aspects of muscle recovery. Plus, they're based out of Whitefish, Montana basically counts as local!
Other than working like a mad-man and running around getting things organised I have been running. Granted, not as much as I would like to, or should be. I randomly hopped into an 8km Cross Country race this past Saturday. It went surprisingly well. I said to myself I was just going to use it as a bit of an up-tempo in the middle of an 11mile run, but as soon as I toed the line and got into that atmosphere my competitive nature kicked in. I still stayed pretty conservative but I did start racing a little more than I had planned. I ended up in 3rd place in a decent time of 26:48. Still ticked off 11miles that day, made for a slow and painful 10miles on Sunday.
Plan for the next few weeks; start making more sacrifices to get my runs in where they fit rather then saying "I'll do it later" and not ever getting around to it. I also want to get all my stuff organised for heading down to Arizona within a week, just to get that stress off my shoulders.
*On a side note. I no longer have my Facebook and Twitter synced. If by chance you blocked it on your newsfeed (I know I have in the past) you no longer have to worry about 1000 updates from twitter on your FB newsfeed. Promise.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Long Story Short
I suck at running and have been working like a maniac, thus no updates.
Plans for the future. Get better at running and get the heck out of dodge and back down to AZ where the living is easy.
Plans for the future. Get better at running and get the heck out of dodge and back down to AZ where the living is easy.
Friday, August 19, 2011
A Year in Review.
Well, once again I have been a little crappy at updating this. I suppose quite a lot has happened, but I think can summarize all fairly quickly and sufficiently.
After the great event in Moncton we bussed out to Halifax for the 3rd instalment of the NTL. The race wasn't overly exciting. With the top guns like Milne and Brannen not at the race, the possibility of picking up 8 NTL points was realistic and one of my goals. Of course running fast was another. However, I think a few of the other guys also had those 8 NTL points on their mind and even with a pacer we went out fairly slow. I ended up 3rd over all, but first Canadian getting the 8 points.
The next day I flew out to Toronto for the NTL finale. With my 8 points from Halifax and points being doubled in Toronto if I was the first Canadian again I had a real chance of winning the NTL for the 1500. I let the thought of beating certain people and $4000 get in my head too much instead of just going out and racing. I finished as 3rd Canadian, so maybe 5th overall in a decent time of 3:44. I still finished 3rd in the NTL picking up some cash.
After that took the next few weeks pretty easy and ran a completely unmotivated 1500 at Alberta Provincials. I wish could have done better and given a better show at provs, but I was just mentally worn out.
I can look back at each individual race and come up with things I could have done better, which is positive. It just means still have room to improve. But looking at the season as a whole I cannot complain. I only had 2 or 3 races that were under my old PB coming into the season. I took over 5 seconds off my PB.
As of late, I took 2 weeks completely off. If you are a loyal follower, you'll remember my post about my two week break from last year, or you can read it here. This year was nothing like that! This has been my tamest 2 week break in recent memory. In the first week I went down to Phoenix to spend some time with my girlfriend. She then got on a plane with me back up to Canadia, as she calls it. We landed in Calgary and drove up to Edmonton the next day to watch the new Mr and Mrs Norminton get married. The wedding was a ton of fun, it was exactly as a wedding should be. Good friends and good times.
I have been SLOWLY getting back into running. I try to get out the door every second day for 3 or 5 miles. Whether I actually go that often is a different story. If I feel the motivation, I go, if I don't, well then I stay home.
Other than that I have been putting some time in at the stores of the Running Room and making some extra cash that way.
That pretty well sums up the last little bit. If anything exciting happens in the coming weeks and months I'll be sure to write about it. If not, I'll make something up and write about that!
After the great event in Moncton we bussed out to Halifax for the 3rd instalment of the NTL. The race wasn't overly exciting. With the top guns like Milne and Brannen not at the race, the possibility of picking up 8 NTL points was realistic and one of my goals. Of course running fast was another. However, I think a few of the other guys also had those 8 NTL points on their mind and even with a pacer we went out fairly slow. I ended up 3rd over all, but first Canadian getting the 8 points.
The next day I flew out to Toronto for the NTL finale. With my 8 points from Halifax and points being doubled in Toronto if I was the first Canadian again I had a real chance of winning the NTL for the 1500. I let the thought of beating certain people and $4000 get in my head too much instead of just going out and racing. I finished as 3rd Canadian, so maybe 5th overall in a decent time of 3:44. I still finished 3rd in the NTL picking up some cash.
After that took the next few weeks pretty easy and ran a completely unmotivated 1500 at Alberta Provincials. I wish could have done better and given a better show at provs, but I was just mentally worn out.
I can look back at each individual race and come up with things I could have done better, which is positive. It just means still have room to improve. But looking at the season as a whole I cannot complain. I only had 2 or 3 races that were under my old PB coming into the season. I took over 5 seconds off my PB.
As of late, I took 2 weeks completely off. If you are a loyal follower, you'll remember my post about my two week break from last year, or you can read it here. This year was nothing like that! This has been my tamest 2 week break in recent memory. In the first week I went down to Phoenix to spend some time with my girlfriend. She then got on a plane with me back up to Canadia, as she calls it. We landed in Calgary and drove up to Edmonton the next day to watch the new Mr and Mrs Norminton get married. The wedding was a ton of fun, it was exactly as a wedding should be. Good friends and good times.
I have been SLOWLY getting back into running. I try to get out the door every second day for 3 or 5 miles. Whether I actually go that often is a different story. If I feel the motivation, I go, if I don't, well then I stay home.
Other than that I have been putting some time in at the stores of the Running Room and making some extra cash that way.
That pretty well sums up the last little bit. If anything exciting happens in the coming weeks and months I'll be sure to write about it. If not, I'll make something up and write about that!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Hub City Track Classic
Well, tonight I ran at the Hub City Track Classic here in Moncton, NB. For a relatively small meet it was able to pull together really good fields for all the races.
I wasn't quite sure how I was going to approach my race, but once the gun went and I found myself shot right into the lead I decided pretty quick. It happened to be Adam Kellar's birthday and I knew he had been chasing the New Brunswick provincial record, so I decided to help try to give him a nice B-day pressy and run 1200 hard for the boys and then just see what happened from there. I made it to 1200 in about 3:00 and some of the guys had started moving on me. After leading 1200 and taking the wind I was pretty exhausted and didn't have much fight left. I figured I had done a good job of making the race fast for everyone so I decided to just cruise home easy. Maybe not my best performance of the year, but at least I made it a race.
The crowd here was amazing. It was a relatively small meet, yet the meet directors did a fantastic job of advertising to the public and getting the media to cover it. It's a shame the bigger cities can't do the same for significantly larger meets. There were more people in the stands here than there were at the Canadian National Championships in Calgary. As I said the people who put this meet on did a fantastic job and I really hope they get the wish of being added into the National Track League next year, they deserve!
I wasn't quite sure how I was going to approach my race, but once the gun went and I found myself shot right into the lead I decided pretty quick. It happened to be Adam Kellar's birthday and I knew he had been chasing the New Brunswick provincial record, so I decided to help try to give him a nice B-day pressy and run 1200 hard for the boys and then just see what happened from there. I made it to 1200 in about 3:00 and some of the guys had started moving on me. After leading 1200 and taking the wind I was pretty exhausted and didn't have much fight left. I figured I had done a good job of making the race fast for everyone so I decided to just cruise home easy. Maybe not my best performance of the year, but at least I made it a race.
The crowd here was amazing. It was a relatively small meet, yet the meet directors did a fantastic job of advertising to the public and getting the media to cover it. It's a shame the bigger cities can't do the same for significantly larger meets. There were more people in the stands here than there were at the Canadian National Championships in Calgary. As I said the people who put this meet on did a fantastic job and I really hope they get the wish of being added into the National Track League next year, they deserve!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Whirlwind Update.
First of all, I need to say sorry for the giant cliff hanger only to leave you hanging for such a long time. I'm not going to write as long of a story as originally intended, instead I will try to recap as much as I can of what has happened since my last post. I will try to be much better in the coming weeks and months to get back to more frequent updates.
So, I wrote a little about OXY, but nothing too detailed, let me do that now. OXY was absolutely amazing. The warm-up, the race, the atmosphere, every other race. In 13 years of running have never felt as good as did during that race. I felt stronger, smoother, and more relaxed than ever have before. I ended up running 3:43.76, which was a 3 second PB, but also only .11 seconds off my carding standard. So I had a little bitterness to go along with my joy. Most everyone who ran OXY from my group either PB'ed or had a fantastic race, so the high from that far outweighed the .11 seconds.
After OXY went back to Scottsdale and spent a few days with Amy before heading back up to Canada. Somehow during my stay at Amy's convinced her to book a flight out of Calgary and join me on my journey. Having her with me really made the trip a lot better. It's actually quite a beautiful drive, if you don't get caught in crazy rain/hail/snow storms. It's also a lot more enjoyable when you don't run out of gas somewhere in the middle of Montana and have to pay a guy $5 for a gallon out of the back of his truck just to get you to the next town.
After the long drive I had a few days at home and then went up to Edmonton to run the Northland Park 1 Mile Road Race. As always the event was a lot of fun and helped fill my bank account to get me through the summer. A few days later I flew to Abbotsford for a little 1500 that was mediocre. When returned home after that finally had a few weeks in one place to just chill and get some training in.
After a solid 2 week training block it was time for nationals. They went pretty well. Heats went pretty much exactly as predicted. I made it through on placement which is a huge step forward from not making it at all. Then in the final I kind of got a little anxious and made some rookie mistakes, but I did beat 1 guy! On a whole, for our group, nationals was a huge success. We had 5 of 8 guys in the Men's 800, and got all 3 medals. In the 1500 we had 5 of 12 finalists, and 3 of the top 4. Lemlem got 2nd by a boob in the Women's 8 and Leanna was close behind her for 3rd.
I had a few days to decompress after Nats and then headed back to Vancouver for Harry Jerome and the start of the National Track League (NTL). As always, Jerome treated me well with yet another PB of 3:41.57, well under my carding standard. Two days later I came back and ran the 3rd fastest time o my life in Victoria at NTL #2. I was pretty happy with the way the west coast treated me.
I am currently sitting in a dorm room in Moncton. I am running yet another 1500 here tomorrow. The facility is amazing, the field is good and I'm excited to race. After this I am headed to Halifax for the 3rd stop of the NTL, move on to Toronto after that for the NTL finale, take about 2 weeks recovery and training then run Alberta Provincials. Provincials will mark the end of my 2011 season.
I already have some post-season plans. On the 28th I'm heading down to Scottsdale to visit my beautiful girlfriend Amy. I'll be down there until the 4th of August when we will both board a plane ad she will join me back to Calgary and then on to Edmonton to witness Ms. Jenn Kemp and Mr. Matt Norminton's wedding with me. I then plan to work my little butt off to make some extra billz before hading back down to Scottsdale to start the cycle all over again.
So, I wrote a little about OXY, but nothing too detailed, let me do that now. OXY was absolutely amazing. The warm-up, the race, the atmosphere, every other race. In 13 years of running have never felt as good as did during that race. I felt stronger, smoother, and more relaxed than ever have before. I ended up running 3:43.76, which was a 3 second PB, but also only .11 seconds off my carding standard. So I had a little bitterness to go along with my joy. Most everyone who ran OXY from my group either PB'ed or had a fantastic race, so the high from that far outweighed the .11 seconds.
After OXY went back to Scottsdale and spent a few days with Amy before heading back up to Canada. Somehow during my stay at Amy's convinced her to book a flight out of Calgary and join me on my journey. Having her with me really made the trip a lot better. It's actually quite a beautiful drive, if you don't get caught in crazy rain/hail/snow storms. It's also a lot more enjoyable when you don't run out of gas somewhere in the middle of Montana and have to pay a guy $5 for a gallon out of the back of his truck just to get you to the next town.
After the long drive I had a few days at home and then went up to Edmonton to run the Northland Park 1 Mile Road Race. As always the event was a lot of fun and helped fill my bank account to get me through the summer. A few days later I flew to Abbotsford for a little 1500 that was mediocre. When returned home after that finally had a few weeks in one place to just chill and get some training in.
After a solid 2 week training block it was time for nationals. They went pretty well. Heats went pretty much exactly as predicted. I made it through on placement which is a huge step forward from not making it at all. Then in the final I kind of got a little anxious and made some rookie mistakes, but I did beat 1 guy! On a whole, for our group, nationals was a huge success. We had 5 of 8 guys in the Men's 800, and got all 3 medals. In the 1500 we had 5 of 12 finalists, and 3 of the top 4. Lemlem got 2nd by a boob in the Women's 8 and Leanna was close behind her for 3rd.
I had a few days to decompress after Nats and then headed back to Vancouver for Harry Jerome and the start of the National Track League (NTL). As always, Jerome treated me well with yet another PB of 3:41.57, well under my carding standard. Two days later I came back and ran the 3rd fastest time o my life in Victoria at NTL #2. I was pretty happy with the way the west coast treated me.
I am currently sitting in a dorm room in Moncton. I am running yet another 1500 here tomorrow. The facility is amazing, the field is good and I'm excited to race. After this I am headed to Halifax for the 3rd stop of the NTL, move on to Toronto after that for the NTL finale, take about 2 weeks recovery and training then run Alberta Provincials. Provincials will mark the end of my 2011 season.
I already have some post-season plans. On the 28th I'm heading down to Scottsdale to visit my beautiful girlfriend Amy. I'll be down there until the 4th of August when we will both board a plane ad she will join me back to Calgary and then on to Edmonton to witness Ms. Jenn Kemp and Mr. Matt Norminton's wedding with me. I then plan to work my little butt off to make some extra billz before hading back down to Scottsdale to start the cycle all over again.
Monday, May 30, 2011
To be continued.
Sooo, I have a crazy story... Buuuut you will have to wait a day or two because it's going to take my awhile to write about it.
Sooorrrrryyyy
Sooorrrrryyyy
Monday, May 23, 2011
Much Appreciated.
I would just like to say a quick thank-you to everyone who has sent me congratulations over the last couple days. It is very much appreciated and I never take any of the support you all give me for granted.
I have to send thanks again to Matt Norminton and The Running Room. Wynn Gmitroski for taking me on this year. And most of all to my parents for their endless support and giving me the opprotunity to spend the last 5 months in Arizona training full time.
I am currently back in Phoenix spending a few days with Amy before embarking on the long drive back to Calgary. All you C-dot peeps can expect me home sometime around 30th or so. Looking forward to seeing you all!
Thanks again everyone!
I have to send thanks again to Matt Norminton and The Running Room. Wynn Gmitroski for taking me on this year. And most of all to my parents for their endless support and giving me the opprotunity to spend the last 5 months in Arizona training full time.
I am currently back in Phoenix spending a few days with Amy before embarking on the long drive back to Calgary. All you C-dot peeps can expect me home sometime around 30th or so. Looking forward to seeing you all!
Thanks again everyone!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
LIVE at OXY!
Hey guys,
Here is a link to watch the OXY High Performance races tonight LIVE. Coverage starts at 6:45pm PST (9:45pm for all you easterners). My race is at 8:35pm PST, but be sure to tune it from the start. These races are completely stacked, just take a look at the heat sheets for yourself, here.
It's going to be a good one, don't miss out!
Here is a link to watch the OXY High Performance races tonight LIVE. Coverage starts at 6:45pm PST (9:45pm for all you easterners). My race is at 8:35pm PST, but be sure to tune it from the start. These races are completely stacked, just take a look at the heat sheets for yourself, here.
It's going to be a good one, don't miss out!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Additons.
Couple additions that I left out of my last post. Flotrack will have coverage of the Oxy meet here.
I also forgot to talk about my culinary adventures this week. On Thursday myself and a few of the guys went to Collin's Pub here in Flagstaff to watch the hockey game. I had already eaten a full dinner before arriving, but decided to take a look at the menu anyhow. The first thing I saw on the menu were the chicken wings, which looked really good. Under the description it said they had a suicide wing challenge. Now, if I had taken some time to think about it, I would have realised that it probably wasn't the best timing to be take on a hot wing challenge. Amy was coming the next day to visit for the weekend, we had out final workout on Saturday, it just wasn't ideal. Needless to say, I didn't take time to think. Before I knew it I was signing a waver saying I wouldn't sue the pub if I hurt myself or died. I then had to anxiously wait about 20 minutes while they prepared my wings. My heart skipped a beat every time the kitchen door opened. Finally they were sitting in front of me and immediately my eyes started watering from the smell. I had 8 minutes to finish 12 hot wings. 7 sweaty, painful, tear and cheer filled minutes and 30 seconds later I devoured the 12th wing. I WAS THE CHAMPION! I was feeling pretty good about myself, I had beaten the challenge and gotten a nice new, way to big, t-shirt. Then the bill came and I found out I still had to pay for them even though I won! I got pretty pissed, but I still had the pride of beating the challenge.
On Sunday Amy and I decided to check out the fine dining of Flagstaff. I went on Yelp.com and searched "Fine Dining" to see what suggestions they had. The first place that came up had a 5-star rating and great reviews. I kept looking and the 4th restaurant on the list was Jack in the Box. We decided to stick with the 5-star rated restaurant called "The Cottage". It was a really nice little place. If you weren't looking for it, you would definitely just pass it without realising it existed. It's just a little house on a residential street with a small sign on the front. We had a really nice evening. When we first got to the restaurant there weren't many people there yet as it was only 5:30. It was actually mildly awkward for the first half of our dinner. We were the youngest in there by probably about 20 or 30 years. Everyone was pretty serious and Amy and I were laughing, having fun and sticking out like a sore thumb. Sitting beside us must have been a world famous food critic or something like that. He had something to say about every item that touched his table. We had a good time silently mocking him. Soon after we sat down it started to fill up and we didn't feel as bad about our topics of discussion or being a little rowdier than most. If you're ever in Flagstaff and want a really nice meal, I suggest The Cottage. The food was out of this world, the setting is really cute, and the service is great.
I also forgot to talk about my culinary adventures this week. On Thursday myself and a few of the guys went to Collin's Pub here in Flagstaff to watch the hockey game. I had already eaten a full dinner before arriving, but decided to take a look at the menu anyhow. The first thing I saw on the menu were the chicken wings, which looked really good. Under the description it said they had a suicide wing challenge. Now, if I had taken some time to think about it, I would have realised that it probably wasn't the best timing to be take on a hot wing challenge. Amy was coming the next day to visit for the weekend, we had out final workout on Saturday, it just wasn't ideal. Needless to say, I didn't take time to think. Before I knew it I was signing a waver saying I wouldn't sue the pub if I hurt myself or died. I then had to anxiously wait about 20 minutes while they prepared my wings. My heart skipped a beat every time the kitchen door opened. Finally they were sitting in front of me and immediately my eyes started watering from the smell. I had 8 minutes to finish 12 hot wings. 7 sweaty, painful, tear and cheer filled minutes and 30 seconds later I devoured the 12th wing. I WAS THE CHAMPION! I was feeling pretty good about myself, I had beaten the challenge and gotten a nice new, way to big, t-shirt. Then the bill came and I found out I still had to pay for them even though I won! I got pretty pissed, but I still had the pride of beating the challenge.
On Sunday Amy and I decided to check out the fine dining of Flagstaff. I went on Yelp.com and searched "Fine Dining" to see what suggestions they had. The first place that came up had a 5-star rating and great reviews. I kept looking and the 4th restaurant on the list was Jack in the Box. We decided to stick with the 5-star rated restaurant called "The Cottage". It was a really nice little place. If you weren't looking for it, you would definitely just pass it without realising it existed. It's just a little house on a residential street with a small sign on the front. We had a really nice evening. When we first got to the restaurant there weren't many people there yet as it was only 5:30. It was actually mildly awkward for the first half of our dinner. We were the youngest in there by probably about 20 or 30 years. Everyone was pretty serious and Amy and I were laughing, having fun and sticking out like a sore thumb. Sitting beside us must have been a world famous food critic or something like that. He had something to say about every item that touched his table. We had a good time silently mocking him. Soon after we sat down it started to fill up and we didn't feel as bad about our topics of discussion or being a little rowdier than most. If you're ever in Flagstaff and want a really nice meal, I suggest The Cottage. The food was out of this world, the setting is really cute, and the service is great.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Responsibilities, what?
Hard to believe only about a week left until I'm submerged back into the real world and have a job (kind of) and other such responsibilities that normal people have. I'm guessing I'll be back home sometime around May 28th or so. I am only here in flagstaff for another couple days. I'm heading back down to Phoenix on the 19th to fly out to Burbank, California for the Oxy High Performance meet. The startlist just came out today and it looks ridiculous. I could try to explain it for you, but I think you should just take a look for yourself. You can view the startlists here. You can view the heat sheets here. In my race alone there is 11 olympians +/-. Needless to say, it's going to be a good one, and I feel a little out of my league!
Along with being overwhelmed with the upcoming meet, I am quite overwhelmed with booking travel plans at the moment. I have put together a tentative race schedule for the summer, which you can check out here. I haven't really had to book all my own flights and hotels. In the past my club has taken care of all that stuff, so it is quite foreign to me.
On a positive note, the bear stayed away this week! I put together a few solid workouts and feel good leading into this weekend.
Along with being overwhelmed with the upcoming meet, I am quite overwhelmed with booking travel plans at the moment. I have put together a tentative race schedule for the summer, which you can check out here. I haven't really had to book all my own flights and hotels. In the past my club has taken care of all that stuff, so it is quite foreign to me.
On a positive note, the bear stayed away this week! I put together a few solid workouts and feel good leading into this weekend.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Da Bear.
First week in Flagstaff is complete. I think it's safe to say I have done more in this week than I have in all my previous time in Flagstaff combined. Kyla Coates, happened to be in Flagstaff for the first few days I was here. Her and I went out and got some Thai on either Sunday or Monday, neither of us can remember. Either way, it was really nice to spend some time with her and catch up.
I have found the wonders of Macy's Coffee Shop. It's a pretty famous and really popular spot here in Flagstaff. You can drop in at anytime of day and there is always a crowd. I am currently there writing this post, I have been about 4 or 5 times since I got here.
I always forget how hard altitude is, but it is never shy about reminding me when I get up here. No matter how fit, altitude makes you feel like you have never ran a step. Our first workout was 2 sets of 5x300. Usually for our track work we go to Sedona, but we can only go on the weekends this year due to some new rules at the school where the track is, so we had to do it in Flag. The extra 3000ft of altitude really makes workouts a lot harder! All things considered it went alright. On Saturday we drove down to Sedona for arguably the hardest workout of the year, and possibly ever. We did 200,1000,300 then 500,800,200. This is what I'll say about that workout; I ran damn near a PB in the 1000 and then the proverbial bear jumped on my back. Don't get me wrong though, I'm happy with the workout. I've recently just been trying to tag on to the front and hang on for as long. I figure eventually I'll just be able to stay there the entire workout.
This next paragraph was suppose to be about how nice Flagstaff has turned out to be. The first couple days were a bit rough as stated in my last post, then the weather turned for the better. Plus, our balcony over looks a forest and faces west so we get beautiful evening sun. We are also treated to a first class view of the sunset every evening. I have made it a bit of a routine to eat dinner around that time. It's quite a treat to be able to sit on out there and watch the sun go down every evening while enjoying a nice meal. However, I took a break from writing this post to go to weights and during that session it proceeded to snow as well as be pretty darn chilly, windy and just plain miserable. So for that, Flagstaff is back in the bad books.
On a brighter note I was informed this week I will be heading out to Occidental College after our training camp here to race a 1500m. They are putting on a high performance middle distance meet with just 800, 1500, and steeples. I really didn't think I was going to get in because the entry standard was set quite high. But alas, somehow I am in and have a great opportunity to run a great time! Hoping for a PB if nothing else.
I have found the wonders of Macy's Coffee Shop. It's a pretty famous and really popular spot here in Flagstaff. You can drop in at anytime of day and there is always a crowd. I am currently there writing this post, I have been about 4 or 5 times since I got here.
I always forget how hard altitude is, but it is never shy about reminding me when I get up here. No matter how fit, altitude makes you feel like you have never ran a step. Our first workout was 2 sets of 5x300. Usually for our track work we go to Sedona, but we can only go on the weekends this year due to some new rules at the school where the track is, so we had to do it in Flag. The extra 3000ft of altitude really makes workouts a lot harder! All things considered it went alright. On Saturday we drove down to Sedona for arguably the hardest workout of the year, and possibly ever. We did 200,1000,300 then 500,800,200. This is what I'll say about that workout; I ran damn near a PB in the 1000 and then the proverbial bear jumped on my back. Don't get me wrong though, I'm happy with the workout. I've recently just been trying to tag on to the front and hang on for as long. I figure eventually I'll just be able to stay there the entire workout.
This next paragraph was suppose to be about how nice Flagstaff has turned out to be. The first couple days were a bit rough as stated in my last post, then the weather turned for the better. Plus, our balcony over looks a forest and faces west so we get beautiful evening sun. We are also treated to a first class view of the sunset every evening. I have made it a bit of a routine to eat dinner around that time. It's quite a treat to be able to sit on out there and watch the sun go down every evening while enjoying a nice meal. However, I took a break from writing this post to go to weights and during that session it proceeded to snow as well as be pretty darn chilly, windy and just plain miserable. So for that, Flagstaff is back in the bad books.
On a brighter note I was informed this week I will be heading out to Occidental College after our training camp here to race a 1500m. They are putting on a high performance middle distance meet with just 800, 1500, and steeples. I really didn't think I was going to get in because the entry standard was set quite high. But alas, somehow I am in and have a great opportunity to run a great time! Hoping for a PB if nothing else.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Bitter Sweet End
Well folks, I truly can't believe it but my time in Scottsdale has come to an end. It really is bitter sweet. I am excited to be here in Flagstaff for some awesome training and to go home and see all my long lost friends and start racing. But I have really grown to like Scottsdale. As I said in my last post, I have just met a really cool group of people, and maybe one person in particular, that I am sad to be leaving behind. Right now it seems like forever until I'll be back down in Scottsdale, but the more I think about it, the more I realise it's not all that long. For the first month I am up here in Flag. It does sometimes feel like time comes to a halt and your time here drags on, I have a feeling this year is just going to fly by though. So many people will be here, plus I have a car that grants me some freedom. Then the following 2 months will be filled with travel and racing so that always makes time cruise by. Then I only have really a month or two before I come back down. Not all that bad really.
Not going to lie though, Flagstaff is making it hard for me to be excited to be here like I previously said. Last night it dropped for 1C(33f), this morning on my run with the windchill was like -5C(28f). It's just been cold and windy. Hopefully it remembers soon that it's May and it should be summer time!
Unfortunately I don't have too much to report. I had some solid faster paced workouts last week. My racing so far this year has shown that I am really strong, I just don't quite have the extra gears I normally do. I was happy to get out on the track and cork off some shorter, quicker intervals. I'll be continuing that trend here in Flagstaff. Next time I step on the track for a race I'll be a tuned up racing machine!
Hopefully some good stuff happens this week so my next post can be a little more entertaining.
Not going to lie though, Flagstaff is making it hard for me to be excited to be here like I previously said. Last night it dropped for 1C(33f), this morning on my run with the windchill was like -5C(28f). It's just been cold and windy. Hopefully it remembers soon that it's May and it should be summer time!
Unfortunately I don't have too much to report. I had some solid faster paced workouts last week. My racing so far this year has shown that I am really strong, I just don't quite have the extra gears I normally do. I was happy to get out on the track and cork off some shorter, quicker intervals. I'll be continuing that trend here in Flagstaff. Next time I step on the track for a race I'll be a tuned up racing machine!
Hopefully some good stuff happens this week so my next post can be a little more entertaining.
Friday, April 29, 2011
5000!
I just wanted to say a big thank-you to every for your continued interest and support. I have officially reached the 5000 views of the website.
I'm just in the midst of packing up to get ready to drive up to Flagstaff tomorrow afternoon. I'm really looking forward to the training camp. I have had great workouts all week and am looking forward to them continuing in Flag. The group that will be up there is out of this world.
I'll make sure to talk more about Flag soon, for now I must go finish packing!
Thanks again everyone, I truly appreciate.
I'm just in the midst of packing up to get ready to drive up to Flagstaff tomorrow afternoon. I'm really looking forward to the training camp. I have had great workouts all week and am looking forward to them continuing in Flag. The group that will be up there is out of this world.
I'll make sure to talk more about Flag soon, for now I must go finish packing!
Thanks again everyone, I truly appreciate.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Fight for you Right!
Just a cute little movie that speaks volumes. I'm being slightly hypocritical in that I am not voting in the election since I am out of country. Because of that I need the rest of you to get out there and make up for my lost vote!
The Beastie Boys had to fight for their right to party, others have already fought for yours to vote, so go do it!
The Beastie Boys had to fight for their right to party, others have already fought for yours to vote, so go do it!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Long Overdue.
Well, once again I must apologise to everyone for being so crappy at keeping this updated for the last week or so. The honest truth as to why is because I have met and been hanging out with someone from outside of the training group. I love being down here, and I love how much I can focus on my training, my recovery and every little detail that I need to, however, it can get a little overwhelming sometimes. It's been really refreshing to be able to completely step away from track and feel like a normal human for a few hours a day, as she is not a runner.
Speaking of running, I had my first 1500m of the year this past weekend at ASU once again. It was a really low key meet called the Sun Devil Open. I had looked up some of the guys on the start-list for the race a few days before, I didn't have too look up to many because the majority were all my buddies from the University of Victoria that are down here on a bit of a training camp. There were about 4 of us with PB's all around 3:46, Kyle Smith and Cliff Childs(UVic) being two and one ASU athlete. So on paper it looked like a pretty good opening 1500 that I could just race to win. When I talked to Wynn about the race he pretty well said the exact same thing I was thinking. He did remind me that I am coming at the 1500 with more a strength background right now than speed so I might want to try making a solid move from reasonably far out. Kyle is fit, he just ran 1:48 the other weekend and looked great in all the tune-up workouts the week leading into the 1500 so I knew he'd be right up in the mix and if I wanted to beat him I'd have take the sting out of his legs. We toed line and we were off, Kyle was on the inside position so he went out kind of hard to avoid getting collapsed down on by everyone and found himself in front. I went out fair relaxed in 4th spot but realised within 200m that Kyle was pulling away a bit and the two guys in front of me weren't doing anything. On the home-straight I pulled up onto Kyle's shoulder, then on the back straight I decided I'd take the second lap for him since it was pretty windy and work as a team to get a good time. I was kind of hoping after the 800m he'd retake the lead until 1200 and then we would race but I decided to make a little bit of a move and didn't expect him to both cover the surge and take the lead. With 400m to go I made another move to try and take as much out of Kyle as possible, but alas with 100m to go his stupid 800m speed outdid my 5k grind and he took the win. We ran 3:50 and 3:51. Good times for an opener, although I really did want to squeak under 3:50. Regardless I am happy, I felt REALLY strong the whole way. I never felt like I was losing form or rigging up or anything. There is definitely a lot more in me for the 1500. After these next couple weeks of working a little more on speed and then heading up to Flagstaff and doing it some more, I feel a low 3:4x.
Speaking of running, I had my first 1500m of the year this past weekend at ASU once again. It was a really low key meet called the Sun Devil Open. I had looked up some of the guys on the start-list for the race a few days before, I didn't have too look up to many because the majority were all my buddies from the University of Victoria that are down here on a bit of a training camp. There were about 4 of us with PB's all around 3:46, Kyle Smith and Cliff Childs(UVic) being two and one ASU athlete. So on paper it looked like a pretty good opening 1500 that I could just race to win. When I talked to Wynn about the race he pretty well said the exact same thing I was thinking. He did remind me that I am coming at the 1500 with more a strength background right now than speed so I might want to try making a solid move from reasonably far out. Kyle is fit, he just ran 1:48 the other weekend and looked great in all the tune-up workouts the week leading into the 1500 so I knew he'd be right up in the mix and if I wanted to beat him I'd have take the sting out of his legs. We toed line and we were off, Kyle was on the inside position so he went out kind of hard to avoid getting collapsed down on by everyone and found himself in front. I went out fair relaxed in 4th spot but realised within 200m that Kyle was pulling away a bit and the two guys in front of me weren't doing anything. On the home-straight I pulled up onto Kyle's shoulder, then on the back straight I decided I'd take the second lap for him since it was pretty windy and work as a team to get a good time. I was kind of hoping after the 800m he'd retake the lead until 1200 and then we would race but I decided to make a little bit of a move and didn't expect him to both cover the surge and take the lead. With 400m to go I made another move to try and take as much out of Kyle as possible, but alas with 100m to go his stupid 800m speed outdid my 5k grind and he took the win. We ran 3:50 and 3:51. Good times for an opener, although I really did want to squeak under 3:50. Regardless I am happy, I felt REALLY strong the whole way. I never felt like I was losing form or rigging up or anything. There is definitely a lot more in me for the 1500. After these next couple weeks of working a little more on speed and then heading up to Flagstaff and doing it some more, I feel a low 3:4x.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Quickie
So just going out with a few people for the team for our last weekend on Scottsdale. It's hard to believe it's coming to an end.
1500 went well today. 3:51.5. Not quite as fast as I would have liked to open with, but it is my faster opening 1500 ever. I can't complain too much about that.
Again, I apologise for the lack on updates. I'll make sure to get back on it leading into Flagstaff.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Happy Easter!
Alright, I'm sorry for not getting an update up this week. I'm racing my first 1500 of the year tomorrow, I'll get an update up after that.
In the meantime, HAPPY EASTER from some of us here in the training group!
In the meantime, HAPPY EASTER from some of us here in the training group!
Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Mother Nature's Spite
The week leading into the race was one of the hottest ones yet. It was almost unbearable during the daytime, but after the sun set it became absolutely gorgeous. Perfect racing weather. Somewhere along the line we must have done something to annoy Mother Nature. It seemed like she was teasing us, giving us this amazing weather and then seemingly out of spite giving us some of the coldest crappiest weather we have had since we got here in January. After two weeks of temperatures averaging probably around 27C(80f) She throws us one day of cold, wind and rain. It only hit about 10C(50f) and rained periodically throughout the day and wind gusts reaching 40km/h(25mph). It must not have been me that pissed Mother Nature off because she calmed things down quite a bit for my race. It was still pretty cold, and the track was quite wet with a few little puddles, but in comparison to the conditions for some of the other races, it was alright. I wore arm-warmers for the first time, which were a huge help. Ever since Geulph in 2007 where I made the rookie mistake of wearing ONLY shorts and singlet, my extremities are quite sensitive to the cold. I also used a neti-pot before the race for the first time. Not going to lie, I would have no problems being a spokesman for neti-pots, it really made quite the difference.
My race went really well. Wynn and I had planned to try and go with 68s this time instead of the 70s from last time. It just so happened that there was a rabbit in the race that was going 67s, all I had to do was sit in the little pack of 4 or 5 and hang on. Wynn got my splits as the following.
68.8 - 67.8 - 68.9 - 68.5 - 68.9 - 68.9 - 67.9 - 68.0 - 68.3 - 71.8 - 72.0 - 71.0 - 33.1
So I was able to hold on to those 68s pretty well... except for the last mile and finish in 14:24.72. I think it was more mental than it was me rigging up. While I was running I could feel I was slowing down, but just didn't dig and grind it out. Good news is, I know I've got about 10seconds more in me!
I am exhausted from a long night of post-race not sleeping. I must head to bed now.
Goodnight folks.
My race went really well. Wynn and I had planned to try and go with 68s this time instead of the 70s from last time. It just so happened that there was a rabbit in the race that was going 67s, all I had to do was sit in the little pack of 4 or 5 and hang on. Wynn got my splits as the following.
68.8 - 67.8 - 68.9 - 68.5 - 68.9 - 68.9 - 67.9 - 68.0 - 68.3 - 71.8 - 72.0 - 71.0 - 33.1
So I was able to hold on to those 68s pretty well... except for the last mile and finish in 14:24.72. I think it was more mental than it was me rigging up. While I was running I could feel I was slowing down, but just didn't dig and grind it out. Good news is, I know I've got about 10seconds more in me!
I am exhausted from a long night of post-race not sleeping. I must head to bed now.
Goodnight folks.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
17s Off.
Boom, 14:24 tonight, 17 seconds faster than last time. Just getting a shower then heading out for grub. I'll update you all tomorrow.
Tonight's the night.
Second ever 5k tonight. I am slightly more nervous for this one as I actually have some expectations for myself. Last time I just went out and ran.
Flotrack is covering the event. I'm not sure how much they will cover, but here is the link anyway. http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238635-2011-ASU-Sun-Angel-Classic.
I probably won't be getting anything up tonight after the race. So stay tuned and I'll get a race report up as soon as I can/feel like it.
Flotrack is covering the event. I'm not sure how much they will cover, but here is the link anyway. http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238635-2011-ASU-Sun-Angel-Classic.
I probably won't be getting anything up tonight after the race. So stay tuned and I'll get a race report up as soon as I can/feel like it.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Here We Go Again!
This week has been really good! It was a lot less chaotic than I had imagined it being. We had an Athletics Canada development camp in town. Wynn was making it sound like there was going to be 50 people at the track all doing different workouts and there was just going to be complete anarchy. This was not the case at all. There was certainly a big jump in the number of people at the track, but it was actually quite a bit of fun. Most of them jumped into our workouts so the groups were huge. Some people don't like that, but I really enjoy it, so it was fun for me. We had about 9 guys doing a 5x400 workout. It was a really good workout for me, I just tagged onto the lead guys and pretty ran fast but controlled the whole time. I can't fully remember but I think I went 59, 58, 57, 56, 56. My second workout went also went really well, however it was more on my own. Geoff did the same workout, but he's just on a different level than me right now. We did a 1200m cut-down, 15mins of Steady State, and then another 1200m cut-down. I went 71,68,62 and 73, 70, 62.
This week is another REALLY easy down week. I'm running another 5k this weekend at the ASU Sun Angel Invitational. Now that I have my first one out of the way and have a feel for the race I'm looking to go a lot quicker than my 14:41 from last weekend. Sometimes these race prep weeks kind of seem like a complete waste of a week, but I know Wynn knows what he's doing and there is purpose behind it all. All I have is a race prep workout tomorrow. 2x200, then 400, 800, 400 at 5k pace. Other than that it's either OFF or RACE PREP, which can mean whatever I want it to.
The group from Halifax is coming in to town tomorrow. It will be nice to get some fresh faces in town. Spice things up a little.
I have to go educate myself on the shambles of Canadian government and make up my mind who I'm going to vote for.
This week is another REALLY easy down week. I'm running another 5k this weekend at the ASU Sun Angel Invitational. Now that I have my first one out of the way and have a feel for the race I'm looking to go a lot quicker than my 14:41 from last weekend. Sometimes these race prep weeks kind of seem like a complete waste of a week, but I know Wynn knows what he's doing and there is purpose behind it all. All I have is a race prep workout tomorrow. 2x200, then 400, 800, 400 at 5k pace. Other than that it's either OFF or RACE PREP, which can mean whatever I want it to.
The group from Halifax is coming in to town tomorrow. It will be nice to get some fresh faces in town. Spice things up a little.
I have to go educate myself on the shambles of Canadian government and make up my mind who I'm going to vote for.
Monday, March 28, 2011
First 5k out of the Way.
This week was a super easy week filled with race prep and ended with my first ever 5k! The race went well, I'm really happy with it for my first one. I ended up in no-man's-land and kind of had to time trial. I was able to hold on to 70s pretty consistently with a few slip-ups in the middle laps.
I'll be running another 5k in two weeks at the Sun Angel. I think now that I have the first one done and have a feel for it I'll be able to be a little more aggressive and get after it a bit more in this next time.
I'm not going to lie guys, I'm super tired and completely unmotivated to write a post right now. I just wanted to put up a quite note about the race. Maybe I'll put one up mid-week this week. There should be lots to talk about. There is a development camp in town this week and there is going to be about 25 people at the track every day. Going to be nuts.
On a side note, I've decided to give twitter a try for one month and see if it grows on me. Follow me at @pcorrigan89
Monday, March 21, 2011
Don't Talk to Stranger.
Well, not a whole lot to report this week. Other than one hard workout I had a fairly easy week filled with long(er) runs. On Wednesday I did 3xMile which was the workout I had kind of been dreading. It turned out to not be as bad as I was imagining. Other than that I just had 75min runs and one set of 3x500 on Saturday. I also learned not to run too far away from the Scottsdale Community College track. It is surrounded by a native reserve which can be slightly sketchy. I quickly found out that many people have vicious dogs that will chase you. And not just run up and bark, but follow you for a good 800m(half mile) bearing their teeth and barking. I had to eventually stop, turn around lunge at and yell loudly at the dog to make it stop. Anyone that knows me knows I have a big soft spot for dogs. I won't lie, I was slightly scared for my safety and when it almost got ran over when it tried to chase me a second time on my way back past the house, I did not feel bad for it. These longer workouts are still somewhat foreign to me. The pain they produce is just totally different than anything I have experienced before. I need to start getting used to it if I'm going to be a 5k runner though.
Speaking of 5k running. It has been confirmed that I will be running my first 5k this Saturday at ASU. It sounds like the race will be a good intro for me to sit in the pack get pulled around and just race. Geoff Martinson won the race in 14:2x last year, which would be perfect.
I finished the week off with a nice little road trip yesterday. Nicole Bush, a steepler from Michigan came here for two weeks to get away from the Michigan winter and train with some people for awhile. We fairly randomly decided to jump in the car and start driving north. We ended up making it all the way to the Grand Canyon, my second time this year. I used to do mini road trips back in Victoria all the time, granted I usually only drove for an hour or so in one direction, not 3+ hrs. We were gone for almost 12 hrs, it was a good thing we ended up getting along really well. Got to the Canyon, explored, walked down the "Bright Angel Trail" for a bit, which is kind of the main hiking trail. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, words just can not express how truly amazing the Grand Canyon is. Even though I saw it two weeks ago, it still took my breath away as if I were seeing it for the first time. It was really cool to see it in the dark too, first time I had been there after the sun set. It was really fun to get totally out of my routine, step away from running and spend some time with, well, with a stranger, haha.
Oh ya, and I'm moving back to Calgary!
Speaking of 5k running. It has been confirmed that I will be running my first 5k this Saturday at ASU. It sounds like the race will be a good intro for me to sit in the pack get pulled around and just race. Geoff Martinson won the race in 14:2x last year, which would be perfect.
I finished the week off with a nice little road trip yesterday. Nicole Bush, a steepler from Michigan came here for two weeks to get away from the Michigan winter and train with some people for awhile. We fairly randomly decided to jump in the car and start driving north. We ended up making it all the way to the Grand Canyon, my second time this year. I used to do mini road trips back in Victoria all the time, granted I usually only drove for an hour or so in one direction, not 3+ hrs. We were gone for almost 12 hrs, it was a good thing we ended up getting along really well. Got to the Canyon, explored, walked down the "Bright Angel Trail" for a bit, which is kind of the main hiking trail. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, words just can not express how truly amazing the Grand Canyon is. Even though I saw it two weeks ago, it still took my breath away as if I were seeing it for the first time. It was really cool to see it in the dark too, first time I had been there after the sun set. It was really fun to get totally out of my routine, step away from running and spend some time with, well, with a stranger, haha.
Oh ya, and I'm moving back to Calgary!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Good, Bad, and BIRTHDAYS!
Well, this week was a mixed-bag of good, bad, and BIRTHDAYS!
BIRTHDAYS
Thursday was my 22nd birthday, which I happen to share with Justin Marpole-Bird. He turned 23. I wish I could tell you I had a really exciting and fun packed birthday, unfortunately that was not the case. It was nice, but fairly low key. We had a workout in the morning, strength in the evening and then we went for some birthday-rittos (Birthday Burritos), and then treated ourselves to some frozen yogurt. I wanted to go to the Flames v. Coyotes game, but by the time we sorted everything out all the decent tickets were gone. Turned out to be not that bad of a thing seeing as the Flames got shut out 3-0. Thanks for the birthday gift Flames...
Good/Bad
The workouts this week went from not so good, to much better. Our training changed quite a lot this week, 3 workouts in the AM and strength in the PM and then just single run days otherwise. Started the week with a 1mile, 10min SS, 1mile on Tuesday. Aaand, that was terrible my miles were hardly faster than my 10mins SS. Thursday was a bit quicker of a workout, 600, 400 for the first set and then 500, 300, 200. That workout was good. I got after the 600 which resulted in a kind of slow and painful quarter, but the second set was all really good. I then finished the week with 4x1200. I felt strong, relaxed and in control the whole workout while running good times. I was really happy to end the week on feeling good in a workout. The long run today was a little bit of a different story. The week had definitely caught up to me a little bit, we still rolled, but just went a little shorter than normal.
I've already received the plan for next week, and other than the 3xMile workout, it looks pretty good. I race in two weeks so I think Wynn is starting to bring the intensity down a little to prep for that. I won't complain.
BIRTHDAYS
Thursday was my 22nd birthday, which I happen to share with Justin Marpole-Bird. He turned 23. I wish I could tell you I had a really exciting and fun packed birthday, unfortunately that was not the case. It was nice, but fairly low key. We had a workout in the morning, strength in the evening and then we went for some birthday-rittos (Birthday Burritos), and then treated ourselves to some frozen yogurt. I wanted to go to the Flames v. Coyotes game, but by the time we sorted everything out all the decent tickets were gone. Turned out to be not that bad of a thing seeing as the Flames got shut out 3-0. Thanks for the birthday gift Flames...
Good/Bad
The workouts this week went from not so good, to much better. Our training changed quite a lot this week, 3 workouts in the AM and strength in the PM and then just single run days otherwise. Started the week with a 1mile, 10min SS, 1mile on Tuesday. Aaand, that was terrible my miles were hardly faster than my 10mins SS. Thursday was a bit quicker of a workout, 600, 400 for the first set and then 500, 300, 200. That workout was good. I got after the 600 which resulted in a kind of slow and painful quarter, but the second set was all really good. I then finished the week with 4x1200. I felt strong, relaxed and in control the whole workout while running good times. I was really happy to end the week on feeling good in a workout. The long run today was a little bit of a different story. The week had definitely caught up to me a little bit, we still rolled, but just went a little shorter than normal.
I've already received the plan for next week, and other than the 3xMile workout, it looks pretty good. I race in two weeks so I think Wynn is starting to bring the intensity down a little to prep for that. I won't complain.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Ghost Rider.
Well, truthfully I just have no been motivated to make a post lately, but I will do my best. It's been almost a month and sadly, not much has happened really.
Training has been going really well. I have had about 4 weeks of really solid training. I had a bit of a tough go when I first got down here. Getting back onto the track and training hard was causing some aches and pains. For a few weeks I didn't have a single run that felt really good. I was always sore and tight and achy all over. That has all changed, and for the better. Runs and workouts finally feel good and I'm even starting to feel kind of fast.
This past week most everyone went back to their respective homes in Canada. I stayed down here in Scottsdale and my parents came to visit. I hadn't seen them since Christmas so it was nice to have a visit. On Monday we took a tour up to the Grand Canyon. We flew out of Phoenix, flew over Sedona, Flagstaff, and did an air tour of the Canyon before landing and doing a ground tour as well. I had been to the Canyon before, but I had never seen it from the air like that. Words and pictures could never describe how truly awe inspiring the Canyon is, but here are some photos anyway.
We also attended a Coyotes hockey game while they were here. That brings my total to 4 games for about $58, about half of one ticket to a Flames game.
In other running related news, my parents got me a Garmin for my birthday and I am completely in love. I always kind of made fun and said that they were unnecessary. I now retract all of those statements. I really am not sure how I got through life before.
My season opener is approaching rapidly. I am pretty excited about that. After changing my mind about 6 times I have finally decided that it will indeed be a 3k here at ASU on March 27th.
I'm going to try and keep these updates weekly, at least, even if there isn't too much to say. I'll just slowly fade off otherwise and kind of forget about it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to watching Nicholas Cage in his blockbuster hit, Ghost Rider.
Training has been going really well. I have had about 4 weeks of really solid training. I had a bit of a tough go when I first got down here. Getting back onto the track and training hard was causing some aches and pains. For a few weeks I didn't have a single run that felt really good. I was always sore and tight and achy all over. That has all changed, and for the better. Runs and workouts finally feel good and I'm even starting to feel kind of fast.
This past week most everyone went back to their respective homes in Canada. I stayed down here in Scottsdale and my parents came to visit. I hadn't seen them since Christmas so it was nice to have a visit. On Monday we took a tour up to the Grand Canyon. We flew out of Phoenix, flew over Sedona, Flagstaff, and did an air tour of the Canyon before landing and doing a ground tour as well. I had been to the Canyon before, but I had never seen it from the air like that. Words and pictures could never describe how truly awe inspiring the Canyon is, but here are some photos anyway.
We also attended a Coyotes hockey game while they were here. That brings my total to 4 games for about $58, about half of one ticket to a Flames game.
In other running related news, my parents got me a Garmin for my birthday and I am completely in love. I always kind of made fun and said that they were unnecessary. I now retract all of those statements. I really am not sure how I got through life before.
My season opener is approaching rapidly. I am pretty excited about that. After changing my mind about 6 times I have finally decided that it will indeed be a 3k here at ASU on March 27th.
I'm going to try and keep these updates weekly, at least, even if there isn't too much to say. I'll just slowly fade off otherwise and kind of forget about it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to watching Nicholas Cage in his blockbuster hit, Ghost Rider.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
How Cool Would It Be?
Just a quick post before bed.
I think New Balance really hit something here. How cool would it be if events like the ones in this commercial actually happened. I really think simple and fun changes to the way meets are put on could really boost a) the fan base and b) the amount of income they bring in. I had friends go down and compete at the Millrose Games this year and they old me there were bands playing and just things going on besides just races. They really made it into a full on performance. Things such as getting bands to perform between races, having races that get the crowds involved and things of that nature would really go a long way for our sport. They could have a contest for a regular Joe Nobody to step on the track and race a big name in track. Give the guy or girl some free shoes, shorts, and a singlet and have the Joe do 400m while the Pro does 600m or something. I understand it couldn't happen at ALL meets since the big names need to race, but maybe do it as a press stunt the day before or something like that.
I also think rivalries, whether real or media created, would be great. Always have everyone looking out for when "A" and "B" race each other. Have runner's names become household names.
Anyway, may be wishful thinking, but those are just my half-asleep thoughts. Hill workout in the AM, I need sleep.
Goodnight.
I think New Balance really hit something here. How cool would it be if events like the ones in this commercial actually happened. I really think simple and fun changes to the way meets are put on could really boost a) the fan base and b) the amount of income they bring in. I had friends go down and compete at the Millrose Games this year and they old me there were bands playing and just things going on besides just races. They really made it into a full on performance. Things such as getting bands to perform between races, having races that get the crowds involved and things of that nature would really go a long way for our sport. They could have a contest for a regular Joe Nobody to step on the track and race a big name in track. Give the guy or girl some free shoes, shorts, and a singlet and have the Joe do 400m while the Pro does 600m or something. I understand it couldn't happen at ALL meets since the big names need to race, but maybe do it as a press stunt the day before or something like that.
I also think rivalries, whether real or media created, would be great. Always have everyone looking out for when "A" and "B" race each other. Have runner's names become household names.
Anyway, may be wishful thinking, but those are just my half-asleep thoughts. Hill workout in the AM, I need sleep.
Goodnight.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Back to Basics
My friend, Kyla Coates, posted this on her blog recently and I had to reblog because I found it really interesting. Not so much his ideas on barefoot running, granted I'm sure they have some truth, but more his idea about how humans use to hunt. I had never realised the stats about being able to run a marathon, at 60, as fast as you could at 19. I found it pretty cool to imagine a huge pack of humans chasing down an animal for 3, 4, even 5 hours. That's bad ass.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Update 1.0
Well, here it is, the attempt at the long over-due update Christmas version.
After making my decision to come down to Arizona in early November, December 23rd was a date that I couldn't wait for, but seemed so far in the future. That was the date of my last shift at work and my last day in Victoria before heading home for christmas and then down to AZ.
Christmas was a blast. I arrived in Calgary on the 24th, and spent the 24th and 25th with my parents.
On the 26th, I spent a fun-packed day with a great friend, Mr. Sean Van Der Lee, who I hadn't seen in ages. We started the day of by heading to our old stomping grounds, the Calgary Climbing Centre, and got gnarly on the walls. And by gnarly I mean, had a few good climbs each and then got our asses handed to us by lactic acid in the forearms. Neither of us had been climbing consistently and neither of us had much endurance. Nonetheless, BAD ASS. We had worked up quite an appetite and since we were sufficiently jacked and could no longer hold on to the largest most generous of holds, we decided to grab some grub. Since I had never been before, Sean suggested we checked out a place that goes way back in his Family's history, Tom's House of Pizza. It's a sweet little place with unreal pizza. We sat, enjoyed pizza, great conversation, some good people watching, and watched Canada play in the World Jr. hockey tournament. Once our stomachs were filled to the brim with delicious pizza, Sean took me to a really cool little bookstore that had EVERY book you could imagine. It even had "The Average American Male" which I had been searching for for years and had never found in a store. I was able to pick up 2 books there for about $10. We then went grabbed a quick coffee to bide time before watching TRON in IMAX 3D, which was quite a show, then called it a day.
The very next day I met up with an equally great friend, Jessica O'Connell. Jess and I decided to head out to Bragg Creek because I thought she wanted to get some moccasins. Turns out, half way there, she didn't want moccasins, she thought I wanted moccasins. So we had kind of gone to Bragg Creek for no reason, since we were out there we still took advantage. We went for a nice little 30min run, after which we ate in a really cool little coffee shop. After we devoured our soup and sandwiches we strolled around the little strip mall in Bragg Creek, which has some pretty neat little shops, eventually stumbling into yet another cool little bookstore! I was able to pick up 3 books this time for $14. Jess and I had a dinner date with a friend of ours so after the bookstore we cruised on home and met Nicki at Ruan Thai for dinner. Nicki is a world-class speed-skater. I always love chatting with her and hearing thoughts and opinions from someone in a similar but completely world of sport. I then dropped Jess off, and headed home for the evening.
My friend Tom Fleming was in town from Edmonton and him and I hit the town for old time sake one night, but other than that it was a pretty low key visit. I didn't really do anything for New Years because I had to fly out the next day and start my drive to AZ.
My day started around 10, got ready, headed to the airport for 11, boarded my flight a little after noon and landed in Victoria right around 1pm, zoomed home finished packing up the car and got to the Coho Ferry right at 2:30 and the road trip officially started.
To be continued...
After making my decision to come down to Arizona in early November, December 23rd was a date that I couldn't wait for, but seemed so far in the future. That was the date of my last shift at work and my last day in Victoria before heading home for christmas and then down to AZ.
Christmas was a blast. I arrived in Calgary on the 24th, and spent the 24th and 25th with my parents.
On the 26th, I spent a fun-packed day with a great friend, Mr. Sean Van Der Lee, who I hadn't seen in ages. We started the day of by heading to our old stomping grounds, the Calgary Climbing Centre, and got gnarly on the walls. And by gnarly I mean, had a few good climbs each and then got our asses handed to us by lactic acid in the forearms. Neither of us had been climbing consistently and neither of us had much endurance. Nonetheless, BAD ASS. We had worked up quite an appetite and since we were sufficiently jacked and could no longer hold on to the largest most generous of holds, we decided to grab some grub. Since I had never been before, Sean suggested we checked out a place that goes way back in his Family's history, Tom's House of Pizza. It's a sweet little place with unreal pizza. We sat, enjoyed pizza, great conversation, some good people watching, and watched Canada play in the World Jr. hockey tournament. Once our stomachs were filled to the brim with delicious pizza, Sean took me to a really cool little bookstore that had EVERY book you could imagine. It even had "The Average American Male" which I had been searching for for years and had never found in a store. I was able to pick up 2 books there for about $10. We then went grabbed a quick coffee to bide time before watching TRON in IMAX 3D, which was quite a show, then called it a day.
The very next day I met up with an equally great friend, Jessica O'Connell. Jess and I decided to head out to Bragg Creek because I thought she wanted to get some moccasins. Turns out, half way there, she didn't want moccasins, she thought I wanted moccasins. So we had kind of gone to Bragg Creek for no reason, since we were out there we still took advantage. We went for a nice little 30min run, after which we ate in a really cool little coffee shop. After we devoured our soup and sandwiches we strolled around the little strip mall in Bragg Creek, which has some pretty neat little shops, eventually stumbling into yet another cool little bookstore! I was able to pick up 3 books this time for $14. Jess and I had a dinner date with a friend of ours so after the bookstore we cruised on home and met Nicki at Ruan Thai for dinner. Nicki is a world-class speed-skater. I always love chatting with her and hearing thoughts and opinions from someone in a similar but completely world of sport. I then dropped Jess off, and headed home for the evening.
My friend Tom Fleming was in town from Edmonton and him and I hit the town for old time sake one night, but other than that it was a pretty low key visit. I didn't really do anything for New Years because I had to fly out the next day and start my drive to AZ.
My day started around 10, got ready, headed to the airport for 11, boarded my flight a little after noon and landed in Victoria right around 1pm, zoomed home finished packing up the car and got to the Coho Ferry right at 2:30 and the road trip officially started.
To be continued...
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