Race Preview: Paris to Ancaster 2016

This will be my 11th Paris to Ancaster!

The Hybrid Years

2006 3:54:44 (970/1096)

2007 2:56:21 (632/1136)

2008 2:48:07 (513/1064)

2009 2:50:34 (429/1202)

2010 2:36:12 (463/1272)

The Cyclocross Years
2011 2:29:32 (316/1188)
2012 3:01:47 (597/1275) 
2013 DNF (mechanical)
2014 3 hours + (mechanical)
2015 2:59:30 (641/1300)

The last few years have been increasingly disappointing... mechanical problems, fitness problems, since 2011 it's been a bit of a nightmare.  

This year I feel... cautiously optimistic?  My gravel riding has been great, got a bunch of long rides in this spring.  Marathon training too, which has helped my cardio big-time.  Not entirely confident with the leg-busting stuff that tends to cause me to cramp - but hopefully things will all hang together and I can get back to a top 500 or better finish.  

Christmas in April

Ah, life in Canada.

We had amazing temperatures all winter... running in shorts in February, wow!

Then we get to April and............ snow.  Below freezing temperatures.

Yep, that's me after last night's run.  Happy spring!

My Own Spring Classics

Paris to Ancaster
Toronto Marathon
Storm the Trent

Man I love these races.

Paris to Ancaster - probably the best cycling event in Ontario, a real classic cyclocross/gravel/mud thing.  60km from Paris, Ontario to Ancaster, Ontario.  Thousand or more cyclists of all abilities and from all backgrounds - roadies, mountain bike guys, gravel guys, whatever.

Toronto Marathon - what's more fun than running from North York, down Yonge Street, through Rosedale Valley, across the Lakeshore, through St. Lawrence Market... it's just an amazing experience to see Toronto by foot.

Storm the Trent - running around in the woods looking for checkpoints, mountain biking, and paddling!  Hits the spot.

The only downside - these three races are all within a 4 week span!

Whew.

Toughest is the marathon - it's my first in years, but my training has been going well so I'm optimistic.  It's just hard to tune up for it with a bike race the weekend before, and then to recover for an Adventure Race 2 weeks after... everything has to go really well for this all to work out for me.

Should be challenging and fun!

Mountain Biking in the Snow: Perfect Temps, Horrible Conditions

I've written about Mountain Biking in the Snow before, but ran into some un-fun conditions this weekend worth noting!

Me in happier snow days

Temps were perfect, snow was a few days old (and had been groomed/packed) so I figured this weekend was going to be really great.

It was not.

Why?  Under the powdery not-very-grippy snow was a layer of ice.  It was pretty awful... couldn't stay upright even, I tried for a few minutes and quickly realized it wasn't happening.

Seems there have been too many thaw/freeze cycles.

Abandoned for the gravel roads.  Gots muddy.

Race Report: Peterborough 1/2 Marathon 2016

El disastro.

Tuesday before the race - did a tempo run, average pace 4:49/km, average heart rate 162bpm.

That felt great, comfortable.  I didn't adjust my goal - still figured I'd go out 5:00/km and see what things felt like.

Rest of the week ... I felt odd.  Not sure if I'm fighting something, but just lethargic and soupy headed. Unusual.  I rested up, figured pushing a workout in there would just cause more grief.

Race morning... back to feeling normal.  Sun was shining, warm temperatures (+9C in Feb, are you kidding me?).  I was optimistic again!  Shorts on, ready to fly.

Race ... disaster.  I could see it right from the start - felt OK but my heart rate was through the roof, high 170's / low 180's at anything under 5:00/km pace.  Backing off didn't help, just couldn't get it down much.  1:45 bunny passed me (~5:00/km), I didn't even try much to stay with him.  By the halfway point I was up at 5:06/km and fighting through it, but the writing was on the wall.

Second half the wind was in our face and life just got miserable.  Averaged 5:39/km (!) the back half.  That's like LSD pace for me... but still, heart rate stubbornly in the high 170's and low 180's.  (which is more like my finishing kick or 5k heart rate!)

Post-mortem

I don't know what the hell happened.  I've had bad races before, it happens, but usually I can pinpoint why.  This one has me stumped - I can only guess that I was fighting off some illness or something.

Original flat course:
2007- 2:07:06
2008- 1:53:55
2009- 1:49:17
2010 - 1:45:26

New hilly course:
2011 - 1:38:54 
2013 - 1:43:18 (119/400, 23/40 M35-39, 97/223 Men)
2014 - 1:42:38 (94/335, 12/28 M35-39, 79/192 Men)
2016 - 1:53:33

Not much I can really take from this - I know I'm faster than this race showed, so as a test it wasn't that useful.  Might have to try another 1/2 before marathon day to find out how I'm doing?  Not sure.

Ah well, onward and upward!

Race Preview: Peterborough 1/2 Marathon

It's that time of year again... Peteroborough 1/2 Marathon!

I've done this almost every year, other than when injury/illness intervened.  It's kind of my first little test of where I'm at.

My previous results...

Original flat course:
2007- 2:07:06
2008- 1:53:55
2009- 1:49:17
2010 - 1:45:26

New hilly course:
2011 - 1:38:54 
2013 - 1:43:18 (119/400, 23/40 M35-39, 97/223 Men)
2014 - 1:42:38 (94/335, 12/28 M35-39, 79/192 Men)

2015 I missed due to being sick.  

I'm actually a bit surprised at how fast I've been at this race, I don't feel like those paces are something I can do right now.  2014 was 4:52/km, seems out of reach at the moment.

I'll try something closer to 5:00/km and speed up if it's there.  To the moon!

+13C Feb 3... in Toronto? And Suddenly Thinking "Marathon".

It was +13C yesterday!  So I put on shorts and headed out for a "winter" run.

My current training plan calls for... well, nothing, I'm not following one.  "Winging it", "doing what feels good", etc.  Just having fun, which for me means going long once a week, hard the rest of the time.  Pain feels good!

So I ended up doing 25.5km yesterday, with some serious hills along the way.  It felt really great to be out.  Pace was fine, heart rate was a little high still, but starting to trend down.

It has me thinking of doing a full marathon in the spring.  I haven't ran a marathon since 2013 (not counting 2014's Ironman).  I'm on target so that transitioning to an appropriate training plan could work.  Weight is dropping.  It's tempting..!

3:39:24 was my 2013 marathon time (5:12/km).  I think I can beat that, with my weight dropping (low 180's and trending down).

Why not?