Back At It

So after a short recovery I am right back into the training again. With so many big races this year it's pretty easy to stay focused!

I took a few days off after Baja, enjoyed some beach camping and some barefoot beach running...my favorite type of running! I did a 90 minute beach run, two days after finishing The Travesia and was impressed at how good my body felt overall. I still needed a mid-afternoon nap each day, but I may have been using the race as an excuse for that one?

I have put in a least an hour for the last 6 straight days and am counting down to a few smaller races this weekend.

On Saturday I am teaming up with one of my race partners from last year, Aimee Dunn. We are doing a relay mountain bike event in Vancouver. I get to climb up significant grades for an hour and she gets to bomb down a technical descent for 30+ minutes...I always draw the short straw.

Then on Sunday it's the annual Vancouver Sun Run, the largest 10km event in North America attracting over 50,000 runners!
I have 'competed' in this event for three years now and it still stands as the only official 10km road race that I have even run.

In 2004 I finished the 10k in 42m21s...while seriously hung over. That was the year of Calgary's improbable NHL playoff run and in the first round they were playing Vancouver. I went to a pub in Van the night before the run and said I'd only have a pint or beer per period of hockey...it went to triple overtime! Couple that with the wings, pizza, nachos and sleeping in a car, and well, you have a 42 minute 10km run.

In 2005 I was a bit more focused. By that I mean that I did not get drunk the night before, but I rarely, if ever run roads, so I am never sure of how I will end up doing in this event. My only goal was to break 40m and I pulled off a 37m51s. Not too bad!

In 2006, having not run ANY road since the 05 Sun Run, and doing next to no speed work, my only goal was to break my 2005 finish time. Although I do not do a lot of specific training for this run, I do train quite a bit for longer distances and hence have acquired a decent amount of pain tolerance. I hammered out a 36m31s finish, which was way faster than I thought I had in me!

So now we are heading into 2007, having last run on the roads in the 06 Sun Run (that's a lie, I ran 25 minutes on the road in Feb with some NSA staff in Vancouver). I have absolutely no idea what to expect. My fitness is above last year, but I have done absolutely ZERO speed work in the last 6 months and truth be told, I don't feel that I am 100% recovered from Baja yet...or am I just making excuses again?

Either way I will run in the Sun Run on Sunday, with no pressure, and no idea of how I will do...my goal...to not pee on myself as I did last year!
Yeah, it's true, I couldn't hold it for 36 minutes...actually they kinda lock you in these starting gates 30 minutes before you start, so it was more like an hour...anyways, once the gun goes off there's no time for stopping until they call your name at the finish line!

GR

Oh yeah, and it's sunny and should get up to 15-20 degrees outside today! What a change from the 21 straight days of rain that we had right before I left for Mexico...although with the NHL playoffs starting tonight, I might still end up indoors on my bike trainer!