Race report: Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon

Date/Time: October 10, 2010, 9:00 am
Weather: 10ish partly cloudy with sunshine
Distance: Marathon
Gun time: 3:07:55
10K: 41:48
Halfway: 1:28:58
30K: 2:08:56
Chip time: 3:07:53 (4:28 min/km pace)
Age Group: 6/59
Overall: 109/2643

No need to lookout anymore WORLD, a Winstorm has qualified for Boston with a gun time of 3:07:55! Yep, I’m so flipping delighted; I have to say this feeling is dangerously contiguous! You have been warned. =D

So this past weekend, I was pretty much all business going to Victoria. They say once you have completed your second marathon, you can usher in the new coveted title of becoming a true marathonER. I did my first marathon in this same race two years ago with a time of 3:22:34, but I was just a rookie and ran a near positive 20 minute split. Yuck! I just remember being remotely incapable of running for 6 weeks after that race and the excruciating pain of course.

Zee 42.2K Run

This year I enter the race with a little more confidence in my abilities because of the 2008 experience and I have done a lot more mileage base training in the previous 10 weeks. It really did pay off, I must admit. I ran a near positive 10 minute split this time, which is a huge improvement. Maybe next time I can cut it down to 5 minutes and eventually even-Steven. That would be an amazing improvement on my style points, but until that happens I’ll take whatever finishing time I can get.



I ran with Vince pretty much shoulder to shoulder from start to the halfway point. We were banking a lot of time on our desired pace of 4:20 per km. Vince’s plan was to run faster (sub 3hours), but my plan was to try and hold 4:20 pace as long as I physically could. 4:20s would take me in with an expected time of about 3 hours and 2 minutes with about 9 minutes of buffer time to accommodate for any undesired kinks in the game plan. Fortunately Vince had an awesome race, pretty much holding 4:10ish pace for the remaining half.



I realized by the halfway point, my powerful cardio engine was too much for my legs. The calves and hamstrings started twitching. From about 22K onwards, I felt like if I ran any faster, I might pull something and would risk a DNF. I eased off the killer pace and luckily didn’t walk and started to just run base on what the legs could hold for at a comfortable steady rhythm. Gentle feather feet, I was thinking to myself.

By 32k, I looked at Garmin and knew I just needed a sub 50 minute for the final 10k to reel in Boston. That was my motivation to finish strong. Thanks to Scott and Celeste for bringing me home at the final 1km point.

I enjoyed the final stretch and totally cruised the final 200m with the amazing cheers from the crowd.

km Pace

1 3:50
2 4:04

3 4:09

4 3:58

5 4:11

6 4:17
7 4:12
8 4:17
9 4:17
10 4:09 10k Split: 41:48 (4:11 pace)
11 4:13
12 4:14
13 4:15
14 4:12
15 4:09
16 4:10
17 4:13
18 4:14
19 4:08
20 4:14
21 4:09 Halfway: 1:28:58 (4:13 pace)
22 4:14
23 4:24
24 4:24
25 4:25
26 4:30
27 4:25
28 4:21
29 4:37
30 4:40 30k Split: 2:08:56 (4:18 pace)
31 4:44
32 4:49
33 4:47
34 4:47
35 4:48
36 4:47
37 4:51
38 5:00
39 4:59
40 4:41
41 4:41
42.2 4:41 Chip time: 3:07:53 (4:27 pace)

This was a fun race with music and kids trying to high five me. Joerg Winter and Jesse Chao, my hostel roomies did pretty awesome in the half, both running PBs. There were also many other tri-club members doing the half and full marathon. I think everyone I talked to managed to get a PB, awesome and congrats! Also congrats to Liam Harrap for placing third in his age group for the half marathon! And congrats to Andrew for signing up pretty much fashionably last minute and deciding he would shave off 1 hour of his previous PB. Special congrats to Mel and Vince for also qualifying for Boston!

Thanks again for all the support World, really appreciated it. =)



Thanksgiving Weekend Update

It’s Canadian thanksgiving over here, and I just wanted express how thankful I am to have great friends and family providing me with continuous support and encouragement for a Boston Qualifier. They have taught me, that it’s all right to tune out those little voices inside my head that say I CAN'T.

A taste for what to come.

This is what some had to say leading up to the Victoria Marathon this weekend.

Little WinSistorm showed off her mad Swedish written skills for an assignment and then had to memorize everything word for word:

Hej Lena! Det här är Winston, min bror. Han talar engelska och kantonesiska. Han är från Kanada. Han föddes den 24 Februari. Han är ingenjör. Han utexaminerades från UBC. Han är mycket atletisk. Han älskar att simma, cykla och springa. Deltar han i triathlon regelbundet. Hans dröm är att tävla i Boston Marathon och slutföra Ironman.

Mere minutes before the start on race morning, Andrew Wight said this in regards to qualifying for Boston:

You`ll qualify. You’re not just anybody, you are Winston Guo (pronounced Guwal).

Liam Harrap kindly pointed out to me during a training run this past week:

You`re not coming back from Victoria until you qualify.

Aye yes luckily thankfully I did not disappoint, did I mention I QUALIFIED for BOSTON!?! I’m beyond overjoyed. More to come in my official race report. =)

Pre Victoria Marathon Race Goodies

Personalized Winstorm-ized bib no.

Look out world, a Winstorm is forecast to hit Boston Qualifier in a of couple days.

Operation Organized Free Goodies at Work 

Jesse shows us the look of champions

Powerin' it up at the PowerBar with Vince

These next two pictures are dedicated to a friend, who shall remain nameless for the time being. 

That T-word.

Week 9/10 to Marathon

When I run, I feel like I am unstoppable (as per Newton’s first law of motion).

So you can imagine trying to stop or slow me down at the very least.

But, it’s time to take a step back and recharge those little batteries. How to become one step closer to global domination, STEP No. 22: Chillax.

So ‘chilled’ and ‘relaxed’, I can omit some letters for the sake of chillaxing.

This is probably by far the least exciting part of my 10 week training regime. Sleep for 8 hours, nap midday, and run less often. Yep. Boring stuff. ZzzzZZZZzzz. I'm dozing off just blogging about it.



We do like numbers to back us up when faced with a challenge. Here is the training breakdown during the past nine weeks.



Exhibit A is for those silly people thinking I’m just a madman on runners (usually they’re right).

Exhibit A: See proof, I do TAPER!

Exhibit B reveals the “proposed long run” of the week & actual “long run” kilometres.

Exhibit B: So far so good-ish! =D

Tapering also involves the mental aspect. Selecting race gear and nutrition as well as focusing and becoming familiar with the race details, etc. I think I am ready as one can be.



Alright so the question remains, have I tapered enough for my marathon? Even bigger question, will I qualify for Boston? Or will I have overtrained and dug myself my own grave site?



Stay tuned to this weekend in Victoria for my killer second crack at the marathon distance.



Boston Boston Boston! Maybe the more times I mention Boston, the more likelihood of my chances for qualifying! Eh? =)



Tempo Runs - a creative touch

Week 8/10 to Marathon

Having conquered the peak load stages of my 10 week marathon training program, I feel like my legs can eat 10k for breakfast, 20k for lunch, and still have room for dessert without much discomfort. It’s a wonderful feeling, really! Two weeks ‘til the marathon, I feel confident about getting my main course meal - my Boston Qualifier time (3:10:59)!

All this running mileage building however is not without its obstacles. My body is handling the extra mileage beautifully, though the same cannot be said about the in taking the large icy-syrupy beverages. Lately I have restrained myself from going anywhere within 50 meters of any gas stations or 7-11s to resist the urge of getting a slushie.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Katy_Perry_Hot_N_Cold.jpg

The hot N cold just doesn’t mix well, especially eating yummy shanghainese rice cake noodles after a slushie. It upsets the enzymes apparently - I learned that the hard way while making many visits to the bathroom during the night. =/

To the running and triathlon worlds, it shouldn’t take a great stroke of insight to realize that throwing in a weekly tempo run is the answer to racing your best.

How to become one step closer to global domination, STEP No. 16: Be creative. The Kenyans may get upset at me for using their tempo race secret, but don’t worry, I have a clever idea to add!

We all know the benefits of tempo running. It’s basically a way to teach the body to use the oxygen more efficiently by increasing the lactate threshold. This involves running at a constant speed at a 'comfortably hard' pace that should hover around 85 to 90% of your maximum heart rate.

They also say you should have a warm up and cool down stage before and after the tempo stage.

The problem.

Some friends wanted to do a 10k tempo at 40-42 minutes on this past Saturday after the bike ride. That’s a long tempo run - usually they’re only up to 20 minutes long. Plus, I also live 20k from campus, which means I also have to do the friendly commute. Taking public transit with my Cervelo P2 just wouldn’t be cool.

The solution.

Use the cycling stuff as warm-up and cool-down. Hey presto, kills two birds with one stone (I know that sounds environmentally wrong, but it works). I got in a decent bike workout in. The commute to and back campus was flawless. Lastly I also got in a solid tempo run in. I ran with some friends just under 41 minutes. It felt comfortably hard (avg heart rate 172 bpm).

The 10k tempo Run route

Progression Runs

Week 7/10 to Marathon

Let’s be honest, marathon training can be a bit of a drag even for the most disciplined superhero-runners sometimes.

Interested in getting oodles more fun with less recovery time than the work of normal long steady runs? Then I present to you my recently learned and adapted training secret!

How to become one step closer to achieving global domination, STEP No. 5: Carry yourself like a winner. Or in the words of Jens Voigt, “Shut Up Legs!”

Well actually after doing a little more research, I learned that the secret already exists in structured formats and is well-known to the running world, officially known as ‘progression runs’. More on this later.

The 28km run I did last Sunday started innocently unstructured enough. My original plan was to get some easy feel-good mileages in along the most continuous route, since my marathon was coming up in less than 3 weeks. I started on the Central Valley Greenway and slowly ran to the Olympic Village False creek area and eventually connecting up to the Stanley Park Seawall.

I was holding between 4:30 and 4:55 per km pace for the most part. Alas, that quickly changed halfway on route along the Seawall. I heard these monstrous footsteps behind me slowly bridging the gap. Normally it's a little kid trying to chase me down on his/her bike.

For the next 4 kilometres, this became a friendly wordless-exchanged battle between David and Goliath.

I instinctively ran slightly faster (about 4:15s) to reduce the noise pollution of these monstrous footsteps; however no luck. The footsteps followed, so I tried slowing down (to about 4:25s). The middle aged man ran ahead, and I wasn’t just going let him go that easily, so I was inspired to keep his pace at 4:15s.

After the 4 kilometres I eased up and had a quick water break at the aid station. I noticed that the middle aged guy also eased up, perhaps waiting for me to cling back on his pace. Anyways for the next 2 kilometres, I ran ahead of him and averaged 4:17s. Not too shabby for what was already 26 kilometres in. It was still a controlled pace, yet at a race pace intensity (in other words, it wasn’t my all-out pace).

I finally broke the silence and said, “great pace there buddy!” I learned that he was training for New York Marathon and he had 16 more kilometres to go. At this point as if I wasn't listening, my legs were screaming STOP STOP STOP!

When we separated off, I quickly realized that I had to slow down to 5:30 pace as there was no more help with the sound of footsteps.

So to recap, the last 6km was slightly faster than race pace for about 20% of the 28km run. Did a cool down afterwards and enjoyed a slushie.



There’s a great article on structured Progression Runs at McMillan Running. http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/progressionruns.htm

The article classifies three different types and ironically I ended doing something very similar to DUSA. I did an 8.5 km recovery run the next day with UBCTC and my legs still felt moderately fresh. It was a great experience; I have to start simulating my own progression runs in the future now. =)

T minus 10 weeks to 10/10/10

So my countdown officially begins this Sunday!
The specs to this quest: 10 weeks training plan, 42.2 kilometres of awesomeness, 3:10:59 goal time.

Watch out world, I’m going for a Boston Qualifier time!





...I have a dream we were running from some blazing arrows yesterday...

I absolutely love this song! It shall be my official tune for my marathon training (even though I am quite the stickler and don’t run with tunes).


No matter how EVIL, talk about global domination is no substance without a long term plan. How to become one step closer to making global domination a reality, STEP No. 10: Always plan ahead!

It certainly wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.

Here’s a tentative plan. I have a superb cardio base from cross-training, so I figured I should jump right into the Build phase. I haven’t done a long run since Vancouver, so yes, I’m fully intending on using Sooke as my mileage training.

My bulletproof plan