What's next?

That I’m not sure of, because after doing some trail marking for a 5 Peaks race at Rattlesnake Point in early June, I rolled my ankle pretty bad and needed to take a few weeks off for recovery.

The hardest part now is getting started again, and passing that fear of re-injury.  I am fearful that I am going to misstep and roll the ankle again, and then set myself back even further. I don’t have a goal race set yet, but still have at least 2 more 5 Peaks Ontario races (I will miss Albion Hills due to travel plans) but am looking for something in the fall to redeem this year plagued by injury.

The first step for recovery was taking 2 weeks off doing no running and forcing myself to take longer than I may have needed before lacing them up.

The second step was to slowly return to running, and right now that is where I’m at… This morning I went out and did a trail run at a moderate pace (around 5:40/km) and the ankle felt great – if anything I could tell I hadn’t run in a few weeks because the issues were more around my overall stamina, than anything with my ankle.

The last step will be to keep easing back into a routine, and gradually building back to where I was with 4-5 runs per week, and then setting some long-term goals.

I think I will register for the Oasis Canada Zoo Run in Toronto for late Sept, as this has become an annual run with my son, and now 2 more of my kids have expressed interest to run as well. The summer will be spent getting them ready to complete the 10k distance, and that should also keep me motivated to run and hold me back enough to ensure proper recovery.

I’ll let you know how it goes…

Toronto Oasis ZooRun 10k recap

This event was the second race for my 13yr old son, but with the high-school year starting and the late summer, his training was less than desired. Regardless, he was excited to run the 10k and especially in the Toronto Zoo which would have enough distractions on the course to keep his mind busy.

We made this a family trip, as a friend who works at the Zoo offered us a behind the scenes tour after the race, and with my wife a teacher, this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. The post-race event was kept a secret from the kids so they all thought they were going to watch the race and visit the animals while we were running. We all got up early, ate breakfast and piled in the van for the 90min drive. The roads were packed and the parking lot was full so we jumped out and headed to the bag check and start line with a lot of time to spare as the organizers moved the start time back half an hour to accommodate runners stuck in traffic.

Kris and I were in the red (first) corral as we expected to finish in around 50min, but I could sense his tension being up front and within minutes of starting he started to get cramps. This has been common for him, as he always struggles with his breathing early in races but after walking to let the rest of the runners in the red corral pass we started back up and kept a good pace.

By the time we re-entered the Zoo grounds he was running as his usual pace and looked comfortable so we kept going determined to keep going and finish with the second wave of runners. As we ran through various exhibits it was cool seeing the animals and all of the runners but the highlight was running past the camels who decided to run with us as we went by… I even heard later than one overly excited dromedary tried to jump a small fence to keep going… I wonder what his finish time would have been.

The course wound along the grounds with a very hilly climbs but nothing that would be larger than what we trained on, so it was merely a matter of distance and stamina that would be a factor. Kris kept going and we talked often about the run, how he was feeling, and what he wanted to do, and he wanted to keep going and knew that there was going to only be a little bit more to go.

The volunteers were very helpful reminding us of oncoming runners when there were shared paths as well as giving heads ups for upcoming hills and valleys and always with words of encouragement.

Before we knew it, we had the finish line in sight, and I asked him if he was good to go, and before I heard his answer, he took off for the finish line with a burst finishing strong but exhausted in 57.36 with me trailing behind by a second.

I am so proud of him for running through his anxiety over the race, and toughing out w tough course and I love pacing and coaching him along the way.

This is a great event and I encourage anyone to give it a try at either the 5k or the 10k distance.

The post-race food was a welcome sight and then we met up with family and my friend and his wife who also ran, and we began the facility tour. We managed to get a behind the scenes look at the medical centre, and saw a poor bird with a broken beak about to go into surgery. We saw the plans for the future expansion and then made the trek to the highlight of the day… a 1 on 1 visit in the penguin exhibit. We managed to spend about 20 minutes with Scooby Doo and 2 handlers/trainers who answered our questions and had us up close to this amazing bird. We learned so much and got to unwind after the run with an incredibly interactive event we will never forget.

Summer running

Now that the days are longer, and supposedly warmer, my training program will focus on morning runs to avoid the humidity and late day sun and heat… and even at 5am it is light enough that I don’t have to carry a light (but do to be safe).

My morning run consists of a simple 6+km loop down the hill, and through town, returning uphill to finish off… from here I can add a small paved path run to add on 2km or depending on time of day and add significantly more distance as required.  Ideally I like to run the loop 3x a week and then at least one long weekend run.

I have recently begun running around the lake on a trail and if running this as part of a loop I can significantly add both mileage and difficulty to a simple road run…and if I drop the boys off at the skate park I can do an “out and back” on the trail as part of a 15+km run in under 90min.

The addition of the trail run has been great as it has helped me to train for The North Face Endurance Challenge Half Marathon trail run in July. This race is taking place at Blue Mountain, near Collingwood ON, and I am so looking forward to the experience. This event sounds more fun than Warrior Dash and Tough Mudder, both of which I have previously run. I love the idea of trail runs and am looking at making them a staple in my annual running calendar.

The training plan has merely been a continuation of the half marathon training I did for Mississauga in May, with the trail runs added on to give me more of a feel for what is in store in a couple of weeks. The thought of running up the ski hill is still daunting, but having completed a few obstacle races I am sure it is something that I can handle…

This year my race calendar is full – 7 planned races with the gem being the Chicago Marathon in Oct, but the actual highlight has been my 13yr old son asking to run with me, and to date he has completed a 15k race and today we signed up to run the Oasis Zoo Run 10k at the Toronto Zoo in Sept. He has trained with me in Florida over the holidays and has run with me in evenings and on weekends and his desire to spend time with me and keep active is what is keeping me going.

Having a training buddy is great, it motivates me, and hopefully inspires both of us to remain active and healthy. We are working on healthy eating – gluten-free where possible and have eliminated most processed foods to keep clean. We also fuel our runs with ENERGYbits and PocketFuel as needed. I am beginning to think that Kris runs just so he can have a smoothie to recover when we get home… but I am not going to argue….

So as the summer begins and kids are out of school, I hope to keep going – I set a goal for 1500km in 2014 and am almost halfway there, so with the marathon training kicking into gear, it should be achievable and having my son there to run with me and cheer me on, I am looking forward to the next run….