In the mood for a rant:

What's with Jay Leno last night?   There was this guy on a unicycle skipping a burning rope.  After his 'stunt' the guy puts the burning rope in a bucket.  Leno then goes and picks up the bucket!?!?!?  Then he starts insulting the guy's intelligence for putting a burning rope in a plastic bucket.  Obviously Leno thought the bucket was metal, otherwise he would not have been stupid enough to pick it up... 'cause picking up a burning metal bucket is totally safe.  IDIOTS!  That show is so lame.

What's with all of these companies with hardons for stickers?  Why do they have to put stickers on everything?  Stickers on cars.  Stickers on cutlery.  Stickers on drinking glasses.  Stickers on food.  I bought a metal roaster the other day.  It took me over an hour with a steel scouring pad and a dremel motor tool trying to get the freaking stickers off.  QUIT IT ALREADY!

Shaw:  Quit raising my cable bill every 3 months or I will find an alternative.

Oh, and to say that I'm not impressed with the government purchasing 3000 olympic tickets for a price near one million dollars with tax-payer money would be an understatement.  Bunch of crooks... all of them.  Some Canadians laugh at the Americans for voting in Bush twice... but we voted in Campbell THREE times.  *sigh*

Coca-cola coffee at the Olympics?  How Canadian is that??? *sigh*  I don't drink the stuff but even I know that's retarded.  

I've actually been in a pretty good mood this week.  I ran 17km on Monday in 1:33, which is actually quicker than the 16km that I ran the week before.  On top of that, I still had some gas in the tank.

On Wednesday I ran my uber-flat 10km route in 50:34 which totally floored me.  I NEVER thought that I'd be able to close in on a sub-50 minute 10km.  Oh, and I'm still thrilled with my Turkey Trot time even though it was a fair bit slower than Wednesday's run.  It's way easier to run fast on a route that you've ran before.  Also, all of the weaving and dodging definitely does add up.

Twenty-three days until the Fall Classic Half Marathon.  I'm getting pretty excited about that.  Here are my goals for the run:

Goal #1 Crush my SVHM time of 2:17.  I'd be disappointed if I failed to improve on this time.
Goal #2 Finish within 2:06.  I'd consider it a successful run to meet this goal.  I think it's doable.
Goal #3 Break the 2hr mark.  I have serious doubts about being able to do this despite Monday's run, but... who knows?  If I did, though, I'd have to treat myself out to a present of some kind.

I just hope the weather's nice!

The next phase of my training will begin after the Fall Classic and I'm starting to get excited (if not nervous) about it.  My goal is to do the... ... ... triathlon, but first, I'd need to learn how to swim.  Swimming.  My achilles heal.  My nemesis.  I will conquer you... I think.  haha.  At this point, the idea of me being able to swim half a mile (or longer) seems absurd, but... so did the idea of running half a marathon not too long ago.  I do not know if I can realistically expect to accomplish this in 2010, but I would like to try.  I just hope I don't get discouraged early on.

Well, I guess that sums up what's in my head.  What's in yours?

Later,
se7enTse7en

Turkey Trot

Well, I just ran my first Granville Island Turkey Trot.

Lots and lots of corners on this pretty, flat route.

It sure felt cold today... ~4C.  Next time maybe I should wear a toque or something.  My wet sweaty head gave me a bit of a brain-freeze afterwards.

A good run.  Not my fastest 10km run (I've ran a bit faster during training) but my fastest during a race.  The first kilometer was a bit slow trying to keep from stepping on people and at the same time trying to get around them.  Nowhere near as bad as the Sun Run though.  'Traffic' cleared by the first mile.  Still, I had spent more energy in that first mile than I would have liked.

My plan was to really pick up the pace in the last 2km, but at the time I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough gas to make the distance.  I chose to side with caution, and waited until the last last km.

Would have liked to start my final kick earlier but kinda got bottled up around a couple of people near the end.  If I had a better idea of my time near the end, as I wasn't as concerned about it at that point, I would have certainly pushed just a wee bit harder to try shave off an extra second... or 1.9.

Still, I'm quite pleased with my result.

Good effort.

Chip time - 52:01.8

Next up: Fall Classic?  Yikes, I don't even want to think about that just yet!

Having just finished reading the book, "Runner's World The Runner's Body: How the Latest Exercise Science Can Help You Run Stronger, Longer, and Faster", along with a couple of other articles here's what I've learned (or have reinforced in my mind).  The following is my understanding.  (All errors are mine)

Running is good for you.

Lactate isn't evil.
Lactate build-up may be a contributor to fatigue, though I'm not totally convinced.
Lactate is a fuel which your body can use and can transport wherever it wants.  ie.  From the arms to your legs, or from your legs to your heart or your liver.  (Lactate Shuttle)
Lactate is created at all exercise intensities.  No 'Threshold' exists.
Lactate is not created due to oxygen-debt but rather because it is a more efficient fuel... and your body knows it.
I now think of it as a double-burn process.  The first burn is done without oxygen which gives you energy + lactate, then another burn is done with the lactate and oxygen resulting in more energy.
Your muscle's inability to efficiently make use of this fuel is likely what causes the buildup.
Training increases your muscles' ability to make use of Lactate.
Elite athletes generate much lactate, however their muscles are capable of using it more efficiently and can work harder before a build-up occurs.
Injecting lactate into the muscles of rats actually gave them energy.
Lactate does not cause DOMS. (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
I think I need to read up more on Lactate.  I find it interesting.

DOMS is not evil.
To reduce the severity of DOMS that one experiences, gradually increase your activity over a period of time.  Don't just go from couch potato to 5km overnight.  Start slow/short and allow your body to adapt.  Listen to your body.
DOMS is not due to dehydration, lactate buildup, etc.
Exercise creates micro-tears in muscles and DOMS is related to the teardown and repair process of these muscle fibers which is GOOD as the result ends up with you being stronger than before you started.
Avoid using drugs (anti-inflammatories) to ease the discomfort of DOMS.  This hinders the teardown and repair cycle.

Bone matter is torn down and repaired just as muscle is.

Overtraining is when your body is incapable of keeping up repairing all the damage that you do to your bones, muscles and everything else.

Dehydration is not evil.
It is better to be dehydrated than over-hydrated.  There have been several cases of marathoners dying (or at least knocking on death's door) due to drinking too much.  No serious ill-effects have involved dehydration in marathoners.
An elite marathoner can lose ~10lbs in the course of a race.
Electrolyte concentration is the key.
Gatorade does not hold the secret.  It does not have the 'perfect' electrolyte balance that your body needs... far from it.
Sweating does not decrease the electrolyte concentration in your body... it increases it.
Drinking Gatorade (and or water) decreases the electrolyte concentration in your body.
The electolyte concentration in your body is much saltier that your sweat, and saltier than Gatorade as well.
Don't overdrink.
Sprite has it right..."Obey your thirst".
Dehydration does not cause exercise related muscle cramps.

Muscle cramps are still a bit of a mystery.
Some people are more susceptable to muscle cramps than others.  (Luckily I have yet to experience one!)
Dehydration does not seem to cause muscle cramps.
Muscles that cramp are the muscles being worked... not some 'random' muscle.
Crampers and non-crampers have similar electrolyte levels and in many cases the crampers are more hydrated than the non-crampers.  Yes, I typed that right.
Muscle cramps are likely due to fatigue more than anything.  (Pushing yourself harder than you normally would)

Starting a race quickly, struggling in the middle, yet somehow finding enough energy to sprint at the end is also common among successful elite runners.  Many, many world record breaking 5km and 10km races have been run this way... though it may not be ideal.

Eat smart.  Eat real food.  Supplements are a waste of money and more often than not they're completely ineffective.

Forefoot vs Midfoot vs heel striking... which is best? 
Much debate appears to exist, though it appears to me to be related closely to the speed that one is running.  The quicker you run, the more of a midfoot/forefoot striker you become.
Becoming less of a heel striker by not over-striding is a good idea though.

Running economy - doing more with less oxygen.
VO2max - being able to activate more muscle which in turn uses more oxygen.
VO2max is not the be all and end all of performance potential.  In fact, running economy may be even more important, though it is much more difficult to quantify.  Little research has been done on running economy compared to VO2max.
Can't do much about your VO2max (it's an inherited trait) though running economy can always be improved upon!

Plyometrics may help one become a more economical runner by learning to take advantage of the stretch-reflex mechanism.

Maybe more to come later,
se7enTse7en

Currently Runner's World The Runner's Body: How the Latest Exercise Science Can Help You Run Stronger, Longer, and Faster (Runners World) By Ross Tucker, Jonathan Dugas, Matt Fitzgerald see related

Well, I went and did it.  I signed up for two runs this fall.  I decided to do the Turkey Trot 10km in October and the Fall Classic Half Marathon in November.  I know it's early (especially for the Fall Classic) but I should get a free cap for being among the first 700 to sign up!  Yay to free stuff.

My goal for the 'Trot' is to try and and finish within 53 minutes, which would be a considerable improvement over my Sun Run time.  As for the Half, my goal is to try and finish within 2:06 which probably should be doable, though I promise not to be disappointed as long as I improve on my SVHM time... which really was a bit of a disappointment.

I'm so not looking forward to the end of summer.  Even this much more reasonable heat-wave we're experiencing is bringing a hint of sadness that it will be over all too soon.  I must keep trying to take advantage of the weather while I can!

I bought the book, "The Runner's Body" (I'm not a fan of Canadian book prices, but I so don't want to get into that right now) and I've been reading it the past few days.  I must say, a very interesting book on the effects of running on the body.  So far it has challenged several popular myths regarding DOMS, lactate, hydration, VO2max, cramps, etc and I'm only halfway through it! 

My Yellow Brandywine tomato plant has been awesome this year.  I've enjoyed several bacon and tomato sandwiches, bocconcini and tomato salads, chopping them up into several 'boring' dishes, and even eating them whole.  There are still around half a dozen tomatoes on the plant that should be ripening in a week or two.  Yum.

The plant has started flowering again, but unless we have an Indian Summer, they likely will not get a chance to ripen.  It was a great decision to grow heirloom tomatoes this year!  I'll have to grow them again next year.

Later,
se7enTse7en