Trestle Challenge - Shawnigan Lake RR

WTF is a trestle challenge you might kindly inquire? Good question! :)

My interpretation is it’s basically an option to do more running over the Olympic Distance and I figured since I could use more run fitness anyways, might as well, right? Turns out I wasn’t the only one thinking this way…

It seems like almost all the people who wanted more running were up to the same no good logic. This made for a strong running field. I was chased down by runners instead of passing them after T2. It was weird but a fun atmosphere. The guy who was chasing me down yelled out “make me earn it!” meaning to go faster you slow poke! ;) Luckily I was able to hold him off just barely and finishing the last kilometre with a 4 minute per km split. Another detail I should add, of course there was a porta-potty at the final turn-a-round and I would have loved to occupy it at the time, but having a small glimpse of a guy running you down called for moments on relying on your trusty steel bladder, which worked out nicely. 

A little bit of rain kinda dampened the bike portion. It felt fast considering we only had to do two loops, I was still used to the 4-loops half iron course.

The swim also felt fast and was definitely a good first test in the wetsuit for the season.


PS - Job pursuit is still on. Little did I know, I managed to chat with someone interested in hiring marine engineers of all people at the race. It's a small world and nice to do some networking at these chilled races.  

Click here to read the team's UBCTC recap.

GF Toronto Marathon RR

Kids, let me tell you a story on how not to run a marathon.

Drum roll please...and here come's all of Winston's weak excuses from the Toronto Marathon broken into 4 simple steps:

Step 1: Take a red-eye flight a few days before race day.

Step 2: Visit your sister and join her Korean BBQ party until 1am two nights before race day.

Step 3: Under-estimate the net downhill course. Note to self: "net downhill" doesn't mean there won't be any killer rolling hills along the way. The latter half of the course near the waterfront also had strong headwinds.

Step 4: Have blindly optimistic expectations that you will be racing at a much faster pace than your training runs on an familiar course. 

And here's the proper way: :P

 

The nerdy breakdown of the destruction can be found on the race site: click here for RunPix info.

While I was in Toronto, it was nice catching up with a couple of UBCTC friends Matt Reeve and Kyuwon. I still had two weeks to kill while visiting my sister, so I decided to take up the CityPass and checkout some of the other attractions. The marathon was just a tact on...obviously. :) 

Sub Thirty-Nine! Sun Run RR

It wasn't pretty but I got to say it's nice to finally break the sub 39 barrier and new PB. Looking back on it, of course I was aiming for sub 39 and was satisfied with the result despite being only a second or two off from not making it. Yes yes I need to do more track workouts...sigh but at least the running gods and goddesses are fair to me.  :)

What was my strategy this time?

Simply brute force as hard as you can from the start line and then let the stronger runners do the heavy lifting and carry you to the finish (approved by a trusted friend Mike McMillan). Pacing was not important, this wasn't a marathon. And besides my weak excuse was my lungs were the bottleneck point anyways. This was a good test for the Toronto Marathon the week after.

How did it unfold?

It was nice bumping into a good friend, Chris Yee. He asked me at the start line what was my goal, and I blurred out sub 39 even though this was really a B-race for me. Chris has improved his fitness greatly and I was happy to keep up for the first few km (he's behind the Ryan Kesler look-alike in the picture below).

At around km 5 just before the Burrard bridge crossing before the elevation gain, I was breathing heavily and I started slowing down.

It was a small pack to run with because the main pack of "heavy lifters" were already gone and started 6 minutes earlier gun time (see same picture below).

In the remainder kilometres I was yo-yoing so to speak with a few runners. I was on pace for sub 38 minutes but saw that bank time evaporating quickly. It was a very positively heavy split (hey I warned it wasn't pretty already).

At the Cambie bridge crossing, I thought I had this guy (in green top in same picture below, last reference I promised) at 9km as I passed him. But I was wrong, he opened a few seconds gap to bring it home. I was happy he beat me because he truly earned it. I apologize in advance for the graphic imagery but will share anyways...I wanted to express my gratitude to this stranger for a great race but had to awkwardly walked away because his "breakfast was also all over the road", so to speak. I'm a terrible person.

A great find from a couple friends, courtesy of the Vancouver Sun website. 

 Another nerdy chart for your viewing pleasure...:).

Keeping Positive + Quick UBC Tri/Du RR

You might think that all I do lately is mope around and feel sorry about myself. Not true friends, I also make massage appointments and do yoga and have to put up with crappy soap operas on TV. Joking aside (although the last sentence may or may not be completely true), I’m definitely staying positive about it and not going let the job layoff bother me. Now that I begin to think more clearly, I’m stronger than that. Fact is these things unfortunately happen a bit too common in my industry and it can definitely hit the best of us, even when we least expect it.

Something I hear constantly from people when I tell them I was let go from my previous company not based on performance is: “You may have some pretty awesome opportunities ahead. Keep your chin up.” My network is amazing and is not going leave me on the side of the road it seems. I’m currently pursuing a couple great opportunities with the help of some friends and words of mouth. Even if these opportunities don’t pan out in the near future, I remain hopeful that more will eventually surface. I am very humbled to be surrounded by a network of really bright and great people, whether it is work/school-related, triathlon, and family. I am really enjoying my time off to reconnect with people and just chat and catch up on a personal basis. So thank you!

My sister is studying her masters in an Occupational Therapy program and although this really didn’t click to me at the time she started her program, but I can see a need for someone to go see an OT. She doesn’t believe that I have any major mental-illness or other barriers and need to go see an OT anytime soon but we’ll see. :)

As for triathlon related news, the good old UBC Tri was a great early test last month. Although only a “B” race, I was happy to see the results on the bike pan through from the 17 or so trainer spins already this year. A huge PB for me. It mostly came from the bike ~ 6 minute faster and a bit from the run ~ 1 minute faster). I never got rid of the "brickiness" feeling in the legs until this year. It should be an exciting season with positive results on the bike-run. Now I just need to do the actual training and increase my run fitness. No more "working-man" excuses. :)

PS - here's a nerdy breakdown over the years of doing this event. Without going too much in depth, I seem to have a bad year after every good year and vice versa. :)

Thank you.

Thank you friends/family/co-workers for the continued support you have given me especially these last few days. And I really appreciate reconnecting with many of my contacts and absorbing all of their insightful perspectives.

It’s been an unpleasant experience to say the least and I do not wish upon to anyone. It downright hurts. It’s not easy being asked to walk away from the identity you built over the last 5 years in just a matter of minutes. But that is exactly what I am going have to do to move on.

The next couple weeks I’m going take some time off to relax, reflect and redefine my career path. Somewhat scary and exciting feeling at the same time. Don't fret, time to read up on those Brendan Naef Monday Motivators and perhaps I should try to bounce higher after what feels like hitting rock bottom. :)

Great Start - First Half RR

I managed to set a new PB (just barely) at the First Half marathon by breaking my previous best from more than 4 years ago by a little over 30 seconds. Talk about a bad running slump finally being broken, and it really has been long overdue.

Cool fridge magnet! 

The good (or ehem bad) news is according to the McMillian running calculator I can still theoretically go much faster based on my result from the Chicago Marathon last year.



Hey it's still only February! ;)

Forgive me for the bad puns...but they are truly endless...here's some highlights.

1) My First Half race

Who knew for such a small event the race field would be so deep? I didn't even crack the top 100!?

I knew my fingers had to be fast just to even register for this race (sold out in 7 hours) but who knew all the fast runners in this city would also showed up! It's like running with the all-stars. From Olympians, pro-triathletes, ultra-runners, top running clubs, to master runners, and me! Oh my goodness, there's a lot of fast runners and pretty neat to see them all co-exist in the same event. Plus...I got my behind digitally spanked by all of them! There's a lot of fast runners in this city, not that that should be any surprise.

Lucky for me, the volunteers driven race was really well organized and I was impressed with the little details. From draw prizes to digital finishing videos and many FB updates, it's no wonder this race is so popular. Check out these super cool nerdy statistics. I don't say this often but I'm impressed! Those Pacific Road Runners really know how to put on a good show.

Here's some results eye candies...

• Link to play a simulation of my run on a map. Click here.
• And also check out these slick bar charts of my results. Click here.

2) My first half marathon of the year

I had very little expectations coming into this race. I had some minor setbacks coming in. The weather for training hasn't been exactly cooperative. Trying some new shoes also didn't help in avoiding the blisters department. I tried doing a 10K LT run in the weeks leading up to the race but couldn't hold pace and had to eventually break it down into two sets of 5K.

3) My first half split was a confidence booster

Going through the minor setbacks, I had nothing to loose. My race strategy coming into this race was to stay on the aggressive side, meaning push push push and then ride the autobus to the finish line. Not pretty. But it's how I usually get PBs. I was happy that I got to run the first 10K in sub 40minute pace considering I failed so many times in training this year. Here's a dorky graphy to show the splits and comparisons with my sun run times (red and purple) and a half marathon from last year (blue).

The latter half of the race had some killer headwinds as you make your way counterclockwise of Stanley Park seawall and into English Bay. The last km leading into the finishing shoot also had a little uphill underneath the Granville bridge. It was a crap shoot. My PB was almost in jeopardy and had to really dig deep. Many runners have been steadily passing me.

I don't know how the website warns for speed bumps and not the killer finishing uphill parts. At least now I know. :)

 

Thanks for reading. 

Running Shoe Connoisseur

I like to think I'm a sophisticated running shoe connoisseur (ehem) but otherwise you'll more likely to deem I'm more likely an unsophisticated huge running shoe dork and hoarder.

It's okay and I don't blame you! Here's proof and just the shoes I've been following closely in the past 4 years. More running shoes are "sneaking" (no pun haha) around in my dad's place.

Only an avid tri-dork would have so many paired shoes of elastic laces ties!

A nerdy pivot-table graph to go with it :)

It was neat to pivot-table the stats because I had no idea how much actual kilometres were being accumulated on each shoe since I switch between them so often. Not surprisingly, most of my runners seem to show its end of service life more or less 600 km. Of course some shoes may have accumulated additional mileage pre-2010 era when I didn't take note of which shoe I wore (shucks I know ;)).

Another neat footnote, check this out. If I only count the Ironmans and Marathons races, most shoes seem to have 3-4 big races before I have to retire them. Sorry I should take my shorter races a little more seriously, and I plan to this year. :)

Okay this is the last nerdy graph on this post, I promise!

I guess this is an opportunity to reminisce the glory days of my retired running shoes

1. Brooks Racer ST (retired after 3 years) (logged 1007km between 2010-2012)

This was probably one of my all-time favourite racing flats gems. If I didn't say I would retire them at my Boston race in 2012, I'll probably still would be wearing them. Had 3 solid years of racing in them. My feet is quite wide and this shoe provided the perfect cushioning to weight ratio. I didn't feel they were too heavy and I got the right padding, also the stiffness was just right to work with you instead of resisting movements.

2. Saucony Type 5 (retired after 1 year) (logged 586km in 2012)

I had a love-hate relationship with my Saucony shoe. On one hand this shoe was dangerously light as feathers and fast for road races. Also these bad-boys were my first and only shoe so far to claim titles of two m-dots under its belt. On the other hand (the hate part), there were two pitfalls. The lightness provided minimum cushioning and as a result perhaps combinations with me wearing crappy dress shoes in 2012, I had some minor acting heel problems on the right foot. Also the large holes in the shoe would accumulate some aggregate rocks as most triathlons are done on light-trail courses. I spent countless hours using my Swiss-army knife picking at the rocks. The dangerous fast and furious element of this forced me to  retired this shoe within the year. 

Okay if you're still reading, good on ya and taking a break from the racing flats and moving onto the trails scene. 

3. Newtons Terra Momentus (retired- kinda until I plan do more trail races) (logged 665km between 2010-2012)

I've never been a huge trail runner per se so I'm quite bias on this point. I always wanted to try Newtons, the hype on the whole forefoot thing. I still remember when I got these shoes at the IMC expo and the Newtons co-founder Danny Abshire was personally hard-selling these Terras to me. It wasn't sold in stores at the time, and to be honest I was young and a bit celebrity star-struck. These shoes were as stiff and hard as bricks, which was a big change for me from the Brooks racers. For the first time in my running career, I had blisters all the time. I wore these for my first and only ultra 50km at Orcas Island but unfortunately these shoes aren't meant for the road even during training. I learned that lesson the hard way, otherwise this is a great trail shoe.

What was neat about chatting with Danny and having a professional scientist analyze my foot, he did advise that my right toe knuckle was 3mm too high elevated up and predicted correctly that I would likely have more injuries on my right foot. My right foot forces were not balanced and would play Ping-Pong on the soul essentially. As time will predict, the heel issues I was mentioning earlier with the Saucony was only on the right heel.  

4. Brooks PureCadence (also a retired-kinda kind of shoe) (logged 599km between 2011-2013)

The PureCadence was a light-weight trainer shoe, so a bit heavier than a running flat but lighter than a typical trainer shoe. Unfortunately because I enjoyed the transition to training on running flats exclusively, the PureCadence never did quite live up to its same-brand-cousin Racer ST. Couldn't quite fill the big shoes left from the Racers ST era (no pun again). These are the go to shoes that I wouldn't mind beating up in the trails and on the snow.

5. Nike Air Zoom Elite4+ (retired) (logged 637km between 2010-2012)

Nike and I go a long ways. They seem to always make wider shoes profiles which fit my foot-shape. They know their captive audience (me!). These trainers definitely were good value back in the day. You'll notice that both these and the Brooks PureCadence have no elastic laces and hence they never seen the racing scene and were the workhorses leading up to races. 

I guess I won't bore you with my current active running shoes. That will be another story for another post. Thanks for reading, hopefully race season returns soon so I don't have to blog about running shoes anymore. :)