Last Chance

Well, today is the day. It's all or nothing. I won't be holding back. There will be no what ifs. There will be no regret.

I'll be going all-in and swinging for the fences. 

We have a small but accomplished field. The race goes off at 2:50pm MT. You can watch The Donovan Bailey Invitational live on flotrack starting at 2:15pm MT. Hopefully the weather co-operates.

Watch Live!

   - Linc

Come Together

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Some of it due to all the traveling I've been doing and some of it due to frustration.

My races just really haven't come together the way I would have liked this year. I've known that my fitness has been there for a while but things just didn't seem to be working out for me. Whether it be in a slow heat, a couple of re-starts etc. My 1500's this year have just been frustrating.

I knew Harry Jerome was going to be a good opportunity for a fast pace and it didn't disappoint. I came through the 800m significantly faster than any other race this year and I moved up really well in the last 200m. It felt really good to finally close well again; especially off a quick pace.

My final time was 3:39.32, good for 7th place behind all the Americans. I wish I had kept myself a little closer earlier in the race so I could have made my move from 4 or 5 places farther up...It was nice to finally put things together and have a breakthrough and I should be happy, I guess. But, I'm not. There is still a lot of time to cut off and not much time to do it in. So, there's no room for contentment or complacency right now.

I just wanted to provide a quick update as I'll be racing the 1500m again on Wednesday night here in Victoria. I know there was some more in there yesterday, so hopefully a new PB awaits me in the B.C. capital.

You can check out last nights race below:

   - Linc

Nite Runner

I'm back in California again, this time for the Oxy High Performance meet. It's held at Occidental College, in between Pasadena and Los Angeles.

I'll be running the 1500m tonight at approximately 9:00pm PST. It's getting down to crunch time and I need to start running some fast times in these next couple of races. Tonight will be a great opportunity for that. The race will be a bit crowded with 18 people in there, but the pace should be fast.

I'm fitter than I was when I ran my PB, so lets hope I can show it tonight!

You can watch the meet live starting at 6:15pm PST here:

WATCH LIVE

   - Linc

I'll Be In The Sky

One week has passed up here in Flagstaff and, yes, the wind is still howling. Luckily, my sleep has improved the last couple of nights and my appetite has subsided a little bit. Other than that, not much has changed.

Our first workout at NAU last week was on a rather chilly and gloomy Wednesday morning. I have to admit, I wasn't in a very good mood. We had two sets with about 15 minutes recovery in between. The first set: 400, 600, 300, 200 all at 15 pace. The second set was 8x200 with a change of pace. Having only been at altitude a couple of days, the workout looked pretty daunting at 7000ft of elevation. However, the first set was surprisingly smooth. 57.6, 1:25.5, 42.9, 26.9. Feeling really relaxed. I remember thinking "maybe this won't be so bad..."

Then came the second set. First one in 26.5, uh oh. 27 high x 3. Halfway there. 27 high, this is starting to hurt. 27 mid, 3/4 of the way there, the last 2 are going to hurt, bad. 27 low. One more. 28.3, dying horribly in the last 50m. Lots of pain. Done.

I can't remember the last time I actually had to lie on the track suffering after a workout. Until Wednesday. I tried sitting, but that wasn't enough. I had to go into the fetal position with my lungs burning for a few minutes before deciding to move again. It wasn't pretty. At least it was a solid workout.

Saturday we drove down to Sedona for the workout; elevation: 4500ft. Yes! Back to some more oxygen, warm weather and sunshine. I didn't think the workout seemed too hard. It was fairly short, with 1x 800m as the first set, 20 min recovery and then 5x300m. The 800 we were looking to hit 1:51-52 and then run 1500m pace for the 300's.

GMart had the first lap of the 800 and then I was taking over through 600-650 followed by Nate to finish it off. We wanted to come through in about 55, but I had to pick it up a bit to go by him and we were about 54 flat. I decided to just keep it rolling and we ended up at about 1:20 mid through 600m. Feeling remarkably good. We continued closing well as Nate went by me and until the last 80m it felt pretty relaxed. The last 50m definitely hurt but when I stopped my watch as I crossed the line, I couldn't believe it; 1:48.9.

My first thought was Holy #%$! 1:48!? Awesome. Then I remembered we had a second set and wasn't so happy. Either way, running that in practice (we talkin bout practice!?) is a pretty good sign! Things are coming around...The second set still went really well as I ran 43.0, 45.1, 44.0, 42.2, and closed in 40.0. Not a bad day at the office.

We have a tough week ahead of us with 3 workouts this week as well as a couple of power sessions. We'll be up in Flag for the first two and then down in Sedona again on Saturday.

In the meantime, more NHL playoffs. I only wish Pierre McGuire had really gotten the Montreal Canadiens GM job. It would have doomed their franchise for another decade and finally rid us of having to listen to him every night. Ohh, what could have been...

    - Linc

Pumped Up Kicks

Back in Flagstaff again.

I'm sure I complained about this place last year and not much has changed. I still don't like this place. The trails for running are pretty nice, but sometimes they're hard to enjoy when there's a constant, unrelenting 25mph wind whistling through your ears causing non-stop, irritating noise.You literally can't even think properly sometimes. You just want to shout out some curse words at it; well, I do anyways. There's also the lack of sleeping ability due to the altitude, the constant hunger, the cold(er) weather and the added pain caused by workouts or trying to run at a faster pace up here.

It's safe to say I'm not a fan.

Penn Relays last weekend went relatively well. It wasn't a great race, but it wasn't horrible either. I ran a 2:54.00 negative splitting each lap. Something like 60, 58, 56. I allowed myself to get a little boxed in, so when they made their move at the front, I wasn't able to respond right away. I closed pretty well after that though. I just need to make sure I don't let myself get boxed in again. I need to be smarter than that...Overall, our team finished in 4th place with a time of 9:23.34, which was a little disappointing.

It's always a great feeling running at Penn Relays and this year was no different. The crowd was out in full force and although the weather was a bit chilly, it wasn't a bad day. It always feels good to put on the Canadian Uniform. Having the chance to do it at a meet such as Penn Relays is even better! You can't help but be pumped up. As coach Groves at Penn State used to say, "If you can't get excited for the Penn Relays, than damn it, you aint got no soul." It truly is an amazing meet.

Here's video of the race:

Even up at the altitude in Flag and Sedona this week we've had a couple of solid workouts. I'll get some more details up about them later.

    - Linc

You Can't Always Get What You Want

This past weekend of racing was fairly successful. We were planning on using the back to back races as a trials/finals simulation and I think it went pretty well. The 1500m on Thursday ended up being a little more hectic than expected though. Originally, I thought I would be in one of the 3 sections racing on Friday, so booked my flight accordingly. Unfortunately, I didn't get in the faster heats, so I was racing at 3:30pm on Thursday; with a flight landing at 11:15am.

Sitting at our gate around departure time, they announced that our plane still hadn't left Salt Lake City yet. Great. The flight ended up being delayed a little over an hour, so we landed in LAX a little after 12:15pm. Then we had to take a shuttle to the rental car pick-up, hop in the car and battle LA traffic over to Walnut, where we were racing. We pulled in just after 2:00pm, I went straight to registration and then made a beeline for the check-in tent. Check-in supposedly closed 60 min prior to the event and I got there at 2:25pm with 5 min to spare! Not exactly ideal. But in the words of Ashley, "Whatevs."...You just have to roll with it.

As for the race itself, the goal was to run for positioning like in a heat, but with hopes of still running fast. The pace ended up being a little slower than I would have liked with a 60.5 and 2:03.1 through the first quarter and half mile. Definitely too slow on the 2nd lap. I was 3:01.9 at the 1200 and closed with a 41.9 last 300m and 55.7 for the last 400m. I took the lead earlier than I would have liked, but I was in danger of getting boxed in, so I think it was the right thing to do. My final time was 3:43.88 which I wasn't especially pleased with, but with a solid last lap and the chaos leading up to the race, I wasn't terribly disappointed. Check it out below:

After the race, I got some recovery drink/food in me as soon as possible and had a relaxing night watching the NHL playoffs to get ready for my 800m the next day. 

This race was all about running fast. It was a solid field and we had a rabbit supposedly taking us through in 51.0, so I figured I'd go to the back and pick people off on the 2nd lap. I wanted to be somewhere around 53.0-5. Unfortunately, the rabbit was 53.5 at the bell, making me a dismal 55.3. I knew it was slow at the 200m mark, but there was no sense making a drastic move so early, and really, I didn't have anywhere to go. I ran my next 200m in 26.4 to hit the 600m mark at 1:21.7(still slow) and then my final 200m was 26.8 for a final lap of 53.2! My overall time was a 1:48.64 for a new PB; even with a negative split of 55.3 - 53.2. Not exactly the best way to run a fast 800. I'm pretty confident I have a 1:47 and sub 3:40 in me right now. I just need the right race! You can see the 800m below:

We had an easy workout on Monday and our tune-up workout this morning in Scottsdale. Tomorrow 6 of us in the group will board a plane to head back east for the Penn Relays. I missed them last year for the first time in a decade, so it will be great to be back. It's one of the best meets in the World! Canada has 2 teams this year. Along with the standard 2 from the U.S. there are also four other teams, and they just happen to be probably the most challenging 4 other countries in the world for this event; Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco and Australia. The World Record for the DMR is 9:15.56, it might go down this weekend.

Hopefully, I can send an update from Philthadelphia.

Hopefully, in a good mood because the Dolphins made an intelligent 1st round selection in the NFL draft.

   - Linc

California Love

Well, I'm heading back to the golden coast tomorrow for a couple of races. I always enjoy being back in California. Why? Well, as a teammate of mine once answered Bob Barker while we were on the Price is Right, "Three reasons, Bob, the weather, the ladies and the beaches." To which Bob replied "But not necessarily in that order."

Unfortunately, another downfall to being injured and out of shape last year means I don't really have any good times to use for entries this year. Since most meets use times from the past year, my PB is a little too ancient at this point. I had already booked my flight when I found out that I wouldn't be in one of the Invitational sections on Friday, so tomorrow will be a busy day. Early shake out run, leaving for the airport at 8:15am, flight at 9:50am and arriving in Los Angeles at 11:15am. Then we have to hop in the car for a (hopefully) less than one hour drive out to Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA for my 3 o'clock race time! Should be interesting... 

I'm also running the 800m on Friday, so I'll be using the races to simulate a trials and finals situation. Running the 1500m tomorrow will be strictly for positioning, more specifically, the W; forget about the time. Then Friday will be more like finals with a hard 800m. 

Most of the races will be live online, although, it doesn't look like mine will be. But you can still tune in to catch some other track action and find my races in the video archives! Here's the link: 

http://live.flocasts.org/mtsac-live.html

I'll have my race recaps up as soon as I can.

    - Linc

Wild Ones

I'm not going to lie, it's not nearly as enjoyable to write a race recap when you're not very happy about the race. Hence my slacking in getting this up sooner.

Saturday was the season opening 1500m at Sun Angel. I knew the times we were aiming to run were a little ambitious, especially for the first one of the season. But, you have to get after it at some point, so why not right away... We had Geoff Harris to rabbit us and he did a nice job hitting splits. Unfortunately, I ended up falling in behind him. It's not the position I wanted to be in because I find that you feel sort of like the rabbit yourself there; never relaxing the same way you would in 3rd or 4th and worrying a bit too much about the splits instead of just running. No one else was going to tuck in though, so if I hadn't done it, there would have been a huge gap between him and the pack and there was no reason to waste the opportunity to run fast. The other downfall was that when Harris stepped off the track, I was the rabbit for the next 300m or so. You won't find me doing that again.

As for the result, 3:43.30, I wasn't too pleased. Breaking 3:40 was a little optimistic, but a 3:40-41 would have been a lot more satisfying. As it is, I think it's the fastest 1500m opener I've ever had, but I'm not taking much solace in that. I need to be running faster. No excuses.

Next up will be Mt. Sac and then the 1200m leg on Team Canada at Penn Relays for the USA vs. The World DMR.

This morning, Ellerton, Justin and I had a nice run on the trails up in North Scottsdale. We ran with some wild horses, which was pretty cool, and Ellerton and Justin narrowly escaped an encounter with a Diamondback rattlesnake. A pretty good sized one too. Hearts were racing a little bit. Luckily, I happened to be a few feet farther over or I may have needed a change of underwear as well.

After the run, we sauntered over to The Good Egg for some sunshine and huevos rancheros on the patio before heading back for an afternoon of NHL 2012.

Not a bad Thursday.

Here's a video of the race: (due to the video skills of an unnamed source, you can't actually see my last 80m. Which might actually be a good thing, cause I don't think it was pretty.)

   
      - Linc

Feel So Close

I'll keep this one short and sweet as most of what needs to be said is in the video below. This is the latest workout by our group down here in Scottsdale. We seem to be clicking really well up at the front right now and have been having solid workout after solid workout. I can't remember the last one where I didn't come away from it pleased with the results.

It's definitely a nice change to workout on the ASU track instead of the one at Scottsdale Community College. The Athletics Canada development camp is in town as well, so there were plenty of people at the track watching and helping to keep us motivated.

Check out the workout below! "Feel So Close" was playing in my head for almost the entirety of the workout, so I figured I might as well make it the soundtrack. Feel free to leave any questions or comments you might have...(That's me in the blue short shorts, if you couldn't tell.)

   

   - Linc

Run This Town

Another race, another W.

It was a pretty low key week leading up to the race yesterday with only a tune up workout on Wednesday which consisted of a 500m and some 200's. Other than that, training was fairly light and it was probably my lowest volume week since October or November. I mostly sat around watching NCAA basketball non-stop. I probably saw a little bit of every game that got played in the first couple of rounds. Thank you Internet streaming and split screen technology!

Saturday was race day. Unfortunately, it was also Elite 8 day in PHX. I've always wanted to attend the March Madness tournament (one of the best in all of sport!) and when I was lucky enough to get a hold of some tickets for the game courtesy a former teammate at Penn State, I couldn't resist. Ellerton and I packed our bags for the meet and headed to the US Airways center to take in the action. It was a great game and an incredible come back by Louisville. Rick Pitino is awesome to watch on their sideline...We headed straight from the game to the track and arrived with a few minutes to spare before warming up. I don't think Wynn would have been too pleased if we missed the race for a basketball game. It wasn't exactly ideal race prep, but being 10 rows from the court definitely made it worthwhile!

As for the race, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The time was a little slower than I had hoped, but you can't complain too much about a win. It's just nice to have some confidence back and be in the hunt to win races again. I don't care what anyone says, losing sucks. That's what made last year so frustrating. I know I'm not going to win every race I run this year, so I'll enjoy my modest winning streak while it lasts. We went out a little slower than we had hoped for and that cost us a second or so in the overall result. My splits were 27.8, 56.6(28.8), 1:25.2(28.5), 1:52.8(27.6), 2:21.0(28.2). Official time of 2:21.08 for a PB. Good to see that my last 400m was my fastest. When Ellerton pulled out a little before the 800m mark I definitely eased up a bit with no one to go after. I think had we been a second faster from about 300-500m and if I had someone to chase I would have dipped under 2:20 which is what I was hoping for. It was a solid effort though. I've included the race footage below... (Thanks to Lisa and Nate for the colour commentary)

We also ran a 4x400m at the end of the night. Kyle to Darren to Ellerton to Me. I think the last time I anchored a 4x4 was back in the good old high school days. I didn't exactly light the world on fire with my speed, but I went out easily in 23.3 without having done any speed work yet;  so at least that's a good sign. We ran 3:15.61 all alone for an easy victory.

   - Linc

Ca M'Énerve

Race recap.

Well, the first one is out of the way. It didn't quite go as well as I was hoping, but it wasn't a bad result. I wanted to run 1:48 and thought I was ready to do it. But, annoyingly, the weather and Texas A&M didn't co-operate.

We had planned on having Ellerton take us through in 53.0 at 400m and hopefully 1:20 point at 600m. However, the Texas A&M guys had other ideas. Suddenly, they all thought they were David Rudisha getting ready for a WR attempt. Or maybe thought they signed up for the 400m...In any case, they left us standing in the first 100m and went through the 200 in 23 point. I hit the 200m mark in 5th place at 24.6 (probably the fastest 200m I've run post surgery haha!). They slowed coming through 400 in 51 point and I hit the bell in about 52 flat. I got a bit boxed in through the turn as the pace started to slow significantly. I was able to get out on the back straight around the 550m mark and closed the gap on the first place runner. He started rigging on the turn, so I had to pull out and go by about half way through. I hit the home straight in the lead and immediately felt like I ran into a brick wall. I tried to tell myself beforehand that the wind wasn't too bad, that it would be fine. But, it was brutal. I couldn't even hear anything as I came down the track; it felt and sounded like I was trying to run towards a jet turbine. I just tried to keep my legs moving, finish strong and hoped no one was coming. Luckily, they weren't.

Although 1:50.43 wasn't the time I was looking for, it was nice to open the season with a W; and considering the wind readings of 4.9 and the amazing A&M pacing job, it was a solid result. I'm not exactly happy with it, but it's a start.

I've included the race footage below. Enjoy!



       - Linc

Ready Steady Go

It's that time of the year again: Racing Season.

I'm only 2 days away from toeing the line for the first time in 2012. I honestly don't remember the last time I was this excited to race...I'm not putting too much pressure on myself for this first one. Just looking forward to going out there and having some fun; hopefully, less than one minute and fifty seconds of fun!

The weather in Scottsdale has been fantastic! Seemingly sunshine and 80 degrees everyday with rarely a cloud in the sky. It couldn't be better for training and racing. The snow birds are out in full force down here as traffic has noticeably picked up with the start of MLB spring training. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays are in the grapefruit league and not the cactus league, or I'd be watching their impressive 11-2 start in person everyday! At least one of the Toronto sports teams has some hope...

As for training, I've had a couple of workouts in the past week that I was really happy with. Last Thursday, we had 500, 300 with 2 min recovery. Then 400, 200, 200 with 2 min  and 1 min recovery, respectively. My times were 64.9 and 40.9 in the first set and 51.6, 26.6, and 28.2 in the 2nd set. I died a little in the last 200m, but otherwise, it was a solid workout. Then came back on Saturday with 400, 800, 400 off one minute. Had 10 minutes recovery and then a second set of 300, 500, 200. It was very similar to the workout from a few weeks ago, but this time we had to do it on the Scottsdale Community College track instead of the brand new mondo at ASU. My first set was 58.3, 1:57.2, 57.9. Second set, 40.8, 69.7, 26.4. Despite being at the tail end of a difficult week, it turned out pretty well. I'm definitely happy with how easy 1:57 is feeling right now.

Consistent Progression.

Now it's all about relaxing and enjoying the March Madness for the next few days. 

Go Tarheels!

   - Linc

Memories

I’m Back in State College again. For some reason I can’t recall the last time I was here; but, it doesn’t seem like long ago. Even though I’ve raced here more recently, it’s probably going on 5 years now since I’ve run some of the trails here. Nevertheless, I still remember them like the back of my hand; every side path, every turn, each hill, the exact spots the mud patches form after some precipitation. And I still get winded on the same hill, no matter how fit I am. It’s good to be back. There’s something comforting about it, sort of like that feeling you get coming home after you’ve been traveling for a while. I have lots of fond memories of this place I called home for 6 years of my life…

I can’t say that I was entirely happy to be leaving the warm confines of Scottsdale to travel to central Pennsylvania at the beginning of March though. I don’t find running in cold weather to be at all enjoyable. I really don’t know how I trained in it for the majority of the winter before joining the group down in Arizona. Running in this type of weather the entire winter is awful. Sure, you can bundle up. But, the intensity and quality of your runs suffer, as well as having a lack of motivation to get out the door on numerous occasions. Then there is the safety issue of slipping on the snow/ice. I can recall several instances where I tweaked something because of poor footing. It’s safe to say that I don’t miss training North of the border during the winter. Not even a little.

The reason for my trip to State College wasn't running, it was wedding planning. It was a busy weekend as Mel and I found a florist, baker, and officiant. We also did our food tasting (which was excellent!) and met with our photographer for a short engagement photo session. Everyone we chose seems to be great and very easy to work with, so that should make things easier; especially planning from afar. 

In between all of that, I had to fit in some runs and a workout while I was there. I forgot how unforgiving and incessant the wind is on that stupid Penn State outdoor track. It’s seriously just a wind tunnel. I was doing 500’s and it was pretty miserable. The effort was good, but my 200 splits were ridiculous. 30 point for the first 200 followed by 35 for the second 200; thanks to the 35 mph wind that felt like hitting a wall as you came around the corner. Now I remember why I pretty much never had a good workout outdoors the entire 5 years I was there…

Despite the cold, it was a very productive weekend and it was nice to see my whole family again. However, I certainly wasn’t upset boarding the plane knowing I’d be stepping off into 70 degrees!

We have a pretty intense week of training, so I should have some good workout updates next week. Stay tuned…

   - Linc

Take A Minute

It was just over 1 year ago that I started my blog/website and it’s now over 20,000 views! And, no, my own visits don’t count in the total so it’s not skewed by a couple thousand hits or anything like that. I wasn’t sure how frequently I’d keep the site updated when I first started it, but I think I’ve done pretty well; other than a little procrastination here or there.

There are only 4 months until the Olympic trials. 4 months! Time is flying by. 

I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks to everyone for their continued interest and support. I hope that you’ll all continue to follow along as I make the final push towards London…

    - Linc 

Morning Glory

Well, it’s official. I’ll be opening up my season on March 17^th with an 800m at ASU. I’ll be following that up with a 1000m on March 24^th and a 1500m on April 7^th, both at Arizona State as well.

I’m already beginning to get excited. Last year, it was more like dreading the first race, so it’s a nice change! It will also be nice to have the first 3 meets at “home”. Not having to travel will help with fatigue, loss of training and cost; as well as being able to stay in a familiar routine for the races…Less than a month away!

Leading up to this week, I wasn’t really sure what kind of shape I was in. Workouts have been getting progressively better, but there hadn’t been a real test yet to let me know with some certainty where exactly my fitness is. Then came Saturday’s workout. I actually got a little anxious about it beforehand, because on paper, it looked pretty ominous. 

The workout: Set 1 - 400, 800, 400 with 1 minute recovery. 

                         Set 2 - 400, 500, 300 with 1 minute and 2 minutes recovery.

I was definitely dreading only having 1 minute of recovery after the 800 and knew the 500 in the second set was going to be pretty painful. That was probably what worried me the most…By the time the workout rolled around, the weather was just about perfect; almost no breeze and not even a cloud in the February morning sky. There would be no excuses.

The first set started off with a 58.5, slightly quicker than expected, but relaxed nonetheless. A good sign for things to come…The 800 was much of the same, as I cruised through the line in 1:58.0. Again, a touch faster than expected, but smooth the whole way. The next minute went by rather quickly before running a 58.1 for the last 400 of the set. A very good first half of the workout.

The second set started with a bang. If someone had asked me what the time was, without looking at my watch, I would have said 56-57; and would have been way off. It was 53.8. I was pretty shocked, it felt way too easy. Ultimately, I’d pay for that pace to start the set though. I only followed it up with a 71.4 in the 500m and rigged home in the last 50m of the 300 to a 43.4. It probably didn’t look too pretty. As Coach Groves would have probably told me at Penn State “You looked like a god damn raped kangaroo at the end of that.”

All in all, I was really happy with the workout and it definitely provided me with a bearing on what kind of shape I’m in right now. It feels good to know you’re getting fit and that progress is being made. But, there’s still a lot of work to be done!

-         Linc

Walk The Line

Indoor records are seemingly getting knocked off everywhere you turn. The American, Collegiate and High school 5k records, the American 2 mile, the collegiate mile, collegiate 1000m…I can’t even keep track of them all as they appear to be falling left and right. The last two weekends of racing have been crazy. Centrowitz made a 3:53 mile look easier than a 3:53 1500m and 8 guys went under 3:58 in the same race. It wasn’t long ago that it seemed like only 8 guys did it during the entire indoor season.

What the hell is going on?? 

Oh yeah, it’s an Olympic year; where people come out of the woodwork rolling. Every 4 years it happens. The depth seems to be greater and the times seem to be faster. People find it within themselves to give it one last shot, work that much harder and really get after it as they cling to hopes of a chance at making the Olympic trials; and for the lucky few, a trip to London to represent their country at the pinnacle of our sport; The Olympic Games.

I’m not going to lie. The last couple of weeks it has been painstakingly difficult to sit around and watch these times be thrown down by fellow competitors with no race of my own in the foreseeable future. It’s definitely made me anxious to race. Very anxious. I won’t be running my first race until mid-late March. But, there is method to the madness. Instead of sacrificing valuable training for a few races indoors, we’ve been getting in some solid blocks of training to better prepare for the season that actually matters.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement, which I myself have been guilty of in the past, but you have to stay focused on what’s important. Often times, staying smart and consistent with what you’re doing will take you farther than trying to push even harder and do all this extra work. That’s how you end up injured; and you can’t do anything from the sidelines. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be working hard. But, there’s a fine line between working really hard and working too much. You need to find that line, and walk it carefully.

Training has been going really well down here and track work is starting to feel good again! We had 2x 600, 500, 400 towards the end of last week and I ran 1:30, 73. 58 – 1:27, 72, 56. It felt nice and controlled, so things are continuing to move in a positive direction. 

Other than that, things haven’t been too crazy around here…I went to a Coyotes game last week, a dueling piano bar, hiking in Sedona and Go-Kart racing. Gotta love recovery weeks.

-  Linc

Spoonful of Sugar

Recovery week is here again; just in time. Training has continued to go really well for me these past couple of weeks, but I got a little sick this week and have been fighting through it. I was still able to do the workouts, but my overall volume suffered a bit as I tried to stay rested to prevent any prolonged illness. A recovery week is just what the doctor ordered.

I took the day off completely today. The one day of rest I get to look forward to every three weeks. I actually got a bit bored though and almost went for a run anyways. Recovery can be just as important as the training itself though and often gets overlooked, so I thought better of it and returned to the couch for some more NHL 12. 

We’ve started getting on the track more recently, so it will be nice to get a better idea of where I’m at with fitness. We had 5 workouts and 4 weight sessions in 11 days leading into the weekend, so I’ll only highlight a couple of them...

Two weekends ago was the first real workout where we got a bit anaerobic. The first set was 600, 500, 400 with 2 min rest. Then we had 300, 500, 200 off of a minute. I expected to really struggle through that second set, but it went surprisingly well. After the first set at under 60 second pace, we dropped it down some more in the next set and I hit 42.0, 69.8 and 27.2; feeling relatively comfortable the whole way. Definitely a good sign.

A few days ago we had 2x (4x500) with 5 minutes between sets. Again, we started out slightly slower and got increasingly faster as the workout progressed. In between hacking up a lung, I managed to run 76, 75, 74, 73 in the second set. I think after the 7th one, GMart turned to me after having run the interval just in front of me and said “Man, are you gonna be okay? Sounds like you’re dying back there”. I was able to get out “I’ll…(inhale)…be…(inhale)...alright” before heading to the line for the last one. It will be nice to be able to breathe again. Not being able to catch your breath the entire way through a workout isn’t pleasant.

Even with the sickness I averaged 82 miles for the last two weeks and in the next day or so I should be back to normal and ready to rock.

In the sports world, things are looking good. The Giants won me some money in Vegas and a Burrito from a teammate. Now, hopefully, Big Bro will bring his talents to South Beach, where he already has a condo, to try and keep pace with Eli in the ring count. (They both have more than LeBron…) Even the Leafs are playing good hockey these days. Hopefully, Toronto fans don’t get to delusional with hopes of grandeur and  being able to trade Komisarek, Kadri and a 2^nd round pick for Rick Nash. Seriously? What is wrong with Leaf fans sometimes. Our spare parts will not combine to bring us a superstar; unless we’re trading with Calgary... A simple trip to the playoffs this year will suffice. 

Keep it Classy.

    - Linc

Flashback

What can I say?  I’ve been slacking with my blog. Hopefully, this is the start of me getting some consistent writing done again.

I haven’t provided a real running update in a while, so here we go…

Compared to the fall/winter training of the past couple years, this year has been great.  I’ve been healthy, motivated and getting fit.

I thought it would be interesting to see exactly how much better Fall/Winter training in 2011-12 has gone compared to Fall/Winter of 2010-11, so I got out my log book to have a gander. Last year was pretty pathetic:

September Miles: 0

October Miles: 0

November Miles: 0

December Miles: 0

January Miles: 59

February Miles: 116

You get the idea…I didn’t get a lot of running done. My total mileage from September 1, 2010 until the Canadian Nationals on June 22^nd, 2011 was 821. An average of 19.5 miles per week!? Pretty disgraceful. At least it makes me feel a little bit better about some of the times I posted last year; the equivalent of a sub 4 minute mile on 19 miles a week!

This year I reached that amount (821) by Dec 15. and have already surpassed it by 400 miles. My past 2 months of weekly mileage have looked like this:

82, 92, 60, 84, 73, 71, 84, 91. I didn’t know I could count that high last year!

My workouts and weights have been consistently progressing and our first training cycle of the new year has gone very smoothly. Everyone arrived in Scottsdale by Jan. 3, in time for our first “official” practice of 2012. With everyone back in the fold for workout sessions, the intensity has definitely picked up.  We hit the track last week for the first time and did 2x (4x400m w/ 60 sec recovery). I was 64, 64, 63, 61 – 62, 61, 60, 57.7. Not bad for the first one. The first set felt like a jog and we just cruised through the second set nice and controlled. It was nice to get the legs spinning on the track again! Certainly better than the 5x2 min jog, 3 min walk that my chubby self struggled through at this time last year! 

We’re on a recovery week right now so I’m enjoying the low volume and getting ready for the three workouts in store for us next week.  I think I’m the lightest I’ve ever been at this time of year since I was about 16 or 17, so I’m definitely happy with where I’m at right now.

The next 2 cycles will be all about working hard and staying consistent. Then it will be time to start thinking about racing...

Amat Victoria Curam.

   - Linc