Fast is relative....at nationals 2006, on a 5x10K course, my goal was to not get lapped by the National team guys, as I figured that they would be doing ~24-25 min 10K loops and I'd be doing ~30/31 min per 10K. The course had >4000 ft of climbing. I got caught at 39K (they were at 49K), just as we entered the stadium...pretty pathetic and embaressing even though I was on a PB pace. Let me just say that I can race closer to elite skiers than to elite runners. When elite skiers race 2 hours, I am 20-30 minutes off the back...for runners doing a marathon I am more than an hour off pace...

Edit: By the way, were you in the stadium when Dahlie and Fauner entered for that sprint? I can't imagine being a Norwegian that day though! At least Koss was cleaning up....he lives in Toronto now and runs this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_To_Play

Dev

I was out in the woods watching that day - the crowds went nuts during the sprint I recall, good times.

Koss was the big national hero during and after the games, a good guy with a lot of heart, still is I guess.

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Another IM in 2016 - hopefully..

Today's run was 22.5 km in at Myra Canyon Trestles. Kelowna has been stuck in a nasty inversion since the beginning of the year, clouding it in with a dreary overcast grey. Headed up to Myra to get some sun above the clouds. Beautiful minus 8 Celsius. Managed a pretty quick first half, then succumbed to postholing, wet feet and general soreness. Even the dogs were tired at the end.



My running partners, posing while I hydrate.

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

Beautiful pics Cap, Thanks

Very sad to see all that fire damage from the 03 fires.

It seems that everyone but me runs in paradise. If I took photos of my runs, you would see basically a lot of houses and cars.

It is kind of sad looking in the winter. In the summer it is inspirational to see the rebirth of the area. Vegetation is coming back, the trestles have been rebuilt, and it is basically deserted in the early AM. I did not see one person for 22.5 km today. Good thing I managed to get my truck unstuck - I pulled in a little too far on what looked like a plowed road and turned out to be a snowmobile track.

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

If I took photos you would see a bunch of other treadmills, a window, and some mirrors!

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

My favorite XC race was the one won by Stefania Belmondo in the 15K in Salt Lake :

"She won the gold medal in the 15-kilometer free race on the opening day of the Games at Soldier Hollow despite snapping a pole with 4 1/2 kilometers to go. Skiing with one pole, crying and angry, Belmondo fell back to seventh. When a coach brought her a replacement, she renewed her vigor and chased down -- wouldn't you know it? -- Lazutina, beating her in the final 100 meters."
(http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/.../24/maisel_belmondo/)

I saw it live and was awed!

Does anyone have a link to the race video?

God I miss snow!

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Richard

"You're only young once, but you can be immature forever" - Larry Andersen

I would post the same, only it's often dark when I run so you would not even see that!

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Francois-Xavier Li @FrancoisLi
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." George Bernard Shaw
http://www.swimrunfrance.fr
http://www.worldofswimrun.com

I ran a double - there was exactly an hour between these, foam rolling, stretching, and lifting. My legs felt so tight and awful on the first run that I knew if I foam rolled/stretched they'd feel better - sure enough, the second run was AWESOME. My legs were sore but they felt nice and light.

First run - 5 mi, 40:10

Second run - 8 mi, 59:46 (splits: 8:18, 7:27, 7:18, 7:04, 6:52, 6:56 then 2 mi c/d in 15:49)

Treadmill at a 1.5% incline for both.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Belmondo was awesome....puts a new spin on the name "pocket rocket".

Today's workout, minus 20 but great footing....15x30 seconds acceleration/sprints with 60 second cruise, followed by 10x1 min @ 4 min per K pace with 1 min cruise. 52 min, 11K.

Didn't even realize that the Myra Canyon run was number 50. Halfway there and feeling pretty damn good. I am definitely among those for whom this challenge is a real stretch. I understand that increasing my volume this much puts me at some risk, but I am also very conscious of my body day to day. When my legs feel tight I do what I call a "recovery run" which is just a nice slow jog. I have no day to day plan at this point, just getting my runs in whenever possible. I am making sure i get at least two longish runs in per week, as well as a couple of "fast" shorter runs. I put fast in quotes because I am not even on the same page as a lot of you run studs.

I am way happier that today I managed to get back onto the 10 km per day pace. Hopefully I can maintain that pace even though I am going to get back on the bike trainer this week.

Happy running everyone!!!

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

I bailed on my 2nd run of my double yesterday. I felt a small twinge near my heel on my right foot which was definitely Achilles-related. Fortunately today I just swim and bike, so giving it a day off then going out nice and slow on Thursday should hopefully stop any issue before it starts for me.

CC: Grats on 50 and awesome pics above. Looks like an amazing area to run in!

I just wanted to say "well done" to all of the people who have apparently stepped on something over the last two days, but are nevertheless continuing with their running.

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Over 4.5 years bike crash free.

I think the key is to not increase mileage substantially from what you were doing in ~Nov. My total for 2008 was >3000K or 60 k per week including super easy weeks and taper weeks. Which basically put my average "actual" training week in the 65-80 kilometer range. My goal this time around is to not change that average weekly mileage much, just do more hard stuff...hills, sprints, accelerations and intervals up to 1K in length, hopefully leading to some fast 10K and half marathon times over the spring-summer-fall. I am currently "2 runs behind" and will likely fall further behind as I go into a stretch of 4 XC ski races in 4 weekends. To some extent, this is by design as I wanted to pile on some run mileage in March when I need to do it given the proximity to running and tri races, vs being a hero in December (and selfishly, that is why I moved the start date to mid Dec, so that the final stretch of mileage would be better timed for spring racing). If I was completely selfish, I would have lobbied for Jan 1 start date, but I felt that having it on during the holidays would help people with keeping the weight off and burning off some Xmas cake.

Dev

Dev you selfish bastard...first not telling people that they can injure themselves by being complete idiots and now this admission ;-)

Totally agree about not increasing mileage. My mileage has stayed about the same it always is, 30-40 miles a week but frequency is up. Think breaking it up this way actually decreases the chance for injury. As always the challenge is great because it makes me force myself to do extra runs, should pay off nicely in the spring.

The biggest payoff is June 5th...dual Salt and Vinegar Chips + Coke stops on River Road in Lake Placid. Just like the Challenge the entry to Epicman is free and the chips and coke come with it (along with endless posers on Harley's)....just like the challenge you have to put up with me and my smack, but as they say, you get what you pay for :-)

Agreed about the salt and vinegar chips. This year I really have to find out if the "Cops for Cancer" guys are actually in favor of cancer or they just picked an unfortunate name for the organization ;-) I was about to get an answer last year when you threatened violence with your pump then I never saw them again...

Real payoff will be out running ML again at harriman :-0 Now if I can just ride fast enough to hold on to what he spots me out of the water...

So Dev EpicMan 09 is June 5th? Are you sure? Is there an Iron Tour on the calendar? How are you going to get Tri_yoda to come out if there's no WhiteFace?

-Chris

"Real payoff will be out running ML again at harriman :-0 Now if I can just ride fast enough to hold on to what he spots me out of the water... "

ML reports he is in deep, deep, top secret training during his sabbatical, and is already carbo-loading so he can "knock the snot" out of Dev at Epicman and Timberman, where he plans to run sub 1:25 after a blazing bike ride.

Dev, if they do the waves like last year, (splitting M40-44 into 2 waves alphabetically) we will be spotting him 3 minutes at the start.

My weekly mileage, modest as it is, is up just a bit so far. I started this challenge fully expecting to struggle for bronze. However, by keeping my runs close to the minimum on most days, I'm still within easy catch-up range of platinum. My biggest personal challenge has been that this is not a run focus for me. I'm still swimming with masters 3x per week and following a bike program that currently calls for 3 or 4 intense trainer sessions each week. Fatigue is an issue but I think I'm adapting and starting to feel a bit more caught up on rest. I'm hoping to start extending at least one longer run per week but something else may have to give for that. Just seeing how it goes so far, but I think this challenge is exactly what I needed right now. Thanks Dev!

Irontour June 19/20th...Whiteface climb on evening of June 19th followed by beach to beach to beach swim and then all you can eat buffet...June 20th 3K swim-190K bike with two toll road climbs to booth and reverse keene on loop 1-7K run....Triyoda better show up. Last year he chickened out cause the big guys Mike Lavery and Dave Harju showed up to put down a 50 minute time!

just wanted to thank you Dev. Last year I didn't do the challenge because I didn't think my body could handle it and that was probably a good decision.
This year I spent the last 6 weeks working entirely on frequency, running twice most days, in addition to riding and swimming. All of those runs were just 4 miles each, but that still totaled out to between 44 and 52 miles of running per week.
Today I did my first tempo track workout and it was one of the fastest workouts I have done in about 6 years. This has been a great start to the new year.

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Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

Mike, I hope I can report similar gains when I hit a few 10K's and half marathons in the spring/summer/fall...for now I have 4 XC ski races in 4 weekends...not sure if all this running will help (increased general fitness), or hurt (not specific to my near term races)...glad you are enjoying....I was eyeing your studly progress.

Dev