Hot, Hot, Hot!

This week has been fairly quite on the activities front. Work has been keeping me busy and I'll admit to the fact that when I haven't been working, I've been trying to sleep.

Monday's run felt like a lot of hard work after Sunday's 16 miles. My legs felt very heavy and it was a bit of a slog to get myself around the course. Add to the fact that we started having a record heat wave here in Vancouver on Monday, it made for tough going.

After having moved away from Houston I had expected to enjoy having temperatures that didn't melt the bottom of my trainers, but within a month of being here I'm hearing new stories with titles like 'Once in a lifetime heatwave' and 'Record highs'. In some areas of the city the record was smashed by 4 to 5 degrees Celsius. We have had highs of 34, 36, 35 and 37 this week, which is normal for Texas but then I don't try and run out side in Texas and the buildings all have A/C.

To continue my moaning about the heat, I have continued going to the running club, Pacific Road Runners (PRR), this week. On Tuesday we did a group warm up (ha ha) of a couple of miles before heading out in our separate groups for a run. After the warm up I was sweating more than I normally would after a 10 mile run, but still not wanting to look weak in the eyes of my new running mates I headed out after the pack. Now some of these guys are fast and I'm talking, 'oh bugger where did they go?' fast, but after some phrases like 'we are going to take it easy' and 'phew it is hot, we won;t be pushing it today' I felt a little reassured that it would be OK. Wrong, OMG, WTF!

The route was great, we ran along the coast line and through a couple of beaches, which due to the weather were packed, and they were sine great views of downtown Vancouver. That was the good, the bad was my heart rate hitting nearly 95% of max within the first few K trying to keep up with the pack, the ugly was how I looked when we got to the half way turn around point. Before we got to Jericho Beach which was our half way point I did actually cave and ask the dreaded question, 'are we there yet?' quickly followed by 'how much further?'.

When we finally got there and we stopped for water I had little choice but to half stand under the beach shower to try and get my core temperature down to below critical levels. This behaviour drew some very odd and worried looks from the other runners but at this point social niceties and pride be damned, my brain was melting!

Having got my heart rate below that of a meth-amphetamine junkie on a week long bender, we headed back to base with more than a few concerned backward glances in my direction. The run back actually was not to bad as there was a gentle decline and the heat had finally had an affect on a couple of the other so I could disguise my weakness as the desire to chat and get to know people better. And as for the cold shower after we had finished, all I can say was I apologise to the guy next to me in the showers as I was make some very odd sounds and I think I may have freaked him out slightly.

Thankfully a few of the group decided on a beer or two afterwards which at $3 dollars a pint went down very nicely indeed, probably didn't help with my severe case of dehydration but hey, what you gonna do?

Wednesday night saw the third night of the Celebration of Light and it was the UK's turn to shine. Now I'm trying not to be biased but frankly we kicked arse. I don;t know if it was the stirring national anthem or the choice of the soundtrack including some classical greats but I have to say I was proud to be British that night. I have included a link to a video of the show on the right hand side of this page. Also because of the weather we are having and after the rain on Saturday's show, it seemed all of Vancouver had turned out, the beaches were heaving. Not being able to find anywhere to sit by the time I got there, I had wait standing up for an hour before the start and due to some poor wardrobe decisions I was soaked with sweat with in a few minutes, suddenly the kids in swim wear were not looking too stupid.

Partly due to the heat and mostly due to still feeling the affects of Tuesdays effort I decided to put of Wednesday's run but Thursday I was back at the club. Thankfully this time I made the decision to 'get to know' some of the other runners so I took it at a much more leisurely pace.

Hopefully the next few days will see the back of this hot front and things can get back to normal, things like being able to sleep or sit in one place with out leaving a David shape sweat mark.

I hope to have a few things happening this weekend so will report back in soon.

Back to the point

Given the title of this blog, I thought it appropriate to write an actual entry about my current running endeavours.

Out of pure narcissism and for the record so I can look back and compare here are my current personal bests (PB's):

5K - 21:14
10K - 41:27
Half Marathon - 1:36:01
Marathon - 3:24:37

I'm currently training for the 2009 Chicago Marathon which I'm running on Sunday October 11th with Andy and Martin. We will all be running separately, aiming to hit our respective goals. The reason I picked Chicago to run at is that it is a fast flat course, you are constantly in the city with things to look at and it is fast becoming recognised as one of the top marathons in the world.

My goal for Chicago is to get my time down below 3 hrs 20 minutes. I was hoping to do this in Paris but due to heat, inadequate amount of drinks and mainly due to me not training right, I missed my goal by 4 minutes and change. I say this is my goal but to steal a quote "I have a dream..." (I'm thinking more Martin Luther King than ABBA here) I would love to use the Chicago Marathon to Qualify for Boston.

For those that don't know, the Boston Marathon to some is the pinnacle of marathons, the Everest to which some of us strive to reach. It is the only major open marathon (I think) that requires you to have done a qualifying time at another marathon to enter. In my case for my gender and age I have to have completed a marathon in 3:10:59 seconds. So I have basically got to cut 14 minutes of my time, which may sound easy, but you are going to have to trust me on this, it isn't!

So there is my ultimate goal, 26.2 miles / 42.2 kilometres in 3 hours 10 minutes and 59 seconds. To achieve this I have changed my training plan from the last 3 marathons I have done and I'm using a plan downloaded from Runners World specifically created to help me run the distance in the time.

Now this is where reality sets in. I've now just come to the end of my fifth week of training for the race and this is the first week I have completed all of the runs I'm meant to do at the pace and distance I'm meant to do them. I could use the fact that I moved to Canada at the very start of the plan and it has taken me a few weeks to settle in but don't be fooled this is just an excuse. The truth is that it is damned hard and I have used any reason to dodge out on a run even though I really want to achieve this.

But enough with the negativity, as I said, this last week I did complete all the training for the week. I now feel awful as a result but there is a happiness in that aching, exhausted feeling. I'm on my way now and I have to keep it up. Over the next few weeks I'm going to try and turn it up to 11. I want to drop about 7lbs to get back to a better race weight, improve my flexibility and start training in the gym again to help rebuild my core strength that will keep me going over the distance.

So that is where I stand at the moment. For any that have made it this far in to the post and have managed not to fall asleep or be put off my the excessive use of the word 'marathon' (11 times by my count) I have included links at the very top right hand corner of this page which shows you my last 5 outdoor training runs. When a link is followed, you can see the route I took for that run, the distance I did, how long it took me, how big the hills were, how high my heart rate went, pretty much everything you didn't want to know and more about my training effort.

For those who are still left, thanks for sticking with me, it is appreciated, as are any comments on you might have on this blog experiment.

Celebration of Light and Rain

Having started on Wednesday the HSBC Celebration of Light goes on for the next fortnight. Each Wednesday and Saturday there is a 30 minute themed fireworks display linked to a country. The idea being that on each night a different team do the organise the display and then you vote on your favourite show.

I missed Canada night on Wednesday which had a Wizard of Oz theme, I admire the person who came up with the link, 'no place like home'. Last night was South Africa night and the theme was 'Tapestry of Colour'. Then next up on Wednesday is UK night then Saturday is China night.

Not to be out done, this is where Mother Nature decided to step in. At about 6 o'clock a large thunder storm came rolling in off the sea and over the mountains. With my camera ready to go for the show later I thought I would have a go at capturing a picture of some lightening. After about 100 or so empty frames and my frustration building to rather silly levels I finally managed to get this one. I'm not sure what it hit but in the full size version you can see something glowing on the ground.

With the show starting at 10pm I thought I would head Downtown at about 8pm to give me time to get down to English Bay and find a place on the beach to view the barge in the harbour from where the fireworks are set off from. The storm well underway by this point and the rain was fairly heavy but due some atmospheric reasons that are well beyond my understanding even though it was bucketing down the crowd on the beaches were treated to an amazing sunset which again seemed to be saying anything you can do I can do better!

The fireworks themselves were good, the problem is after having lived in Texas where everything is bigger, then it is hard to be impressed sometimes. I have included a link on the right hand side of this page so you can check out the Canada night show and make your own mind up. More photos of lightening and fireworks can be found on Facebook. The streets were packed after the show as everyone headed home soaked but happy. Even with a small queue to get on the skytrain, I go from beach to front door in 45 minutes.

Starting to socialise

Last night was my first time going to a running club.

After looking around and procrastinating, Martin finally kicked my arse into gear and I emailed a couple of clubs and having received only one response the choice was easy.

The Pacific Road Runners meet near downtown at a place called Granville Island which is about 30 mins away from me, no matter if I go by bike, car or train. Having had a quick look round last night I can say that I will be going back to explore the place in more details as it seemed full of cool bars and restaurants.

And now I come to think of it, While Martin was here we tried a couple of nice Granville Island beers which I guess came from there too.

Anyway back to the running. The group seems to be good cross section of people and they were all friendly enough and kept the poking with sticks to a minimum. I went out with a chap called Suki (sp?) for the first part of the run over one of the main bridges into downtown and then along the seawall to Second Beach in Stanley Park.

At about the 5k mark we caught up with another group of runners and so I merged into them so I could meet and chat too as many people as possible. After a quick lap around Lost Lagoon (not sure what is so lost about it) we headed back along the seawall and back to the club. The pace was maybe a few seconds a K faster than I would have normally done it, but that is one reason I wanted to joining a club so I could push myself a bit more.

So for a first run with them I had fun and it was great to run with people again along a very scenic route. I'll be going back on Tuesday for another run and thinking I'll be joining up with soon after that.

After the run I was feeling a little peckish so I stopped in on the way back to an 'English pub'. Well to be fair the name is Three Lions Cafe which it certainly does what it says on the tin. I had a very tasty bangers n' mash served in a Yorkshire pudding bowl. I can highly recommend it. I also decided to go against an English beer and try some more local fair. I have forgotten the name of it now but it was a very good pale ale which did the job nicely.

Due to my solo nature, I managed to get a seat up at the bar and got chatting to a couple of locals and the staff. Who turned out to love impersonating the English accent and quoting lines from a bit of Fry and Laurie.

All in all a very pleasant way to spend an evening meeting some new people and starting to build a bit of a routine into my life.

Welcome to my world...

Hello,

I have decided to give this blogging thing a go. As I have just reached Vancouver and I'm starting out fresh in a new city/country I thought now was a good time to try this out and jot down a few notes on my experiences and adventures.

I hope that some of you will enjoy it all the time and all of you will enjoy it some of the time, that way I should be pretty covered.

I will try and minimise the use of emoticons and explanation marks but I do love them so beware! :)

As for spelling and grammar, while I'll endeavour to use spell check and punctuate properly, I will mess up frequently. Always feel free to take a dig.

Right I will get on with living so I have something interesting to write about.

Catch you all soon.