On Saturday evening I competed in my first track race of the year at the Victoria Track Series Race #4. I chose to do the 1500m since it was the shortest distance available (well there was an elite 800m too, but I didn't feel like coming in last!).
I hadn't done a 1500m since probably grade 7, so I didn't really have many expectations. I wanted to go under 5 minutes, which means each lap should be 1:20 or 1:00 for the first 300m, nice round numbers. Since there weren't a huge number of racers in this distance we were combined together - women, men, open and elites. So naturally I went out a little too quickly with my first 300m in 55s. My second lap was a littler slower, with the clock at 2:20 (1:25 for the lap), and my third lap was at 3:41 (1:21 for the lap). On the final lap I picked it up as there was only one guy anywhere near me, and he was only about 20 meters in front of me. On the back straightaway I passed him, and continued to pick up speed and sprinted the final stretch coming across the line in 4:50. Pretty much exactly what I was aiming for, and I think I was first in my age category for open men too.
In two weeks I'm competing in the Mile race, then the 800m two weeks after that.
 On Sunday I competed in my first ever CrossFit competition - the CrossFit Zone Games. I entered in the "open" category since I didn't meet quite a few of the requirements for the Advanced category. It was a blast. There were 3 workouts in the event - the first was short and sweet: 60 seconds to do as many reps of clean and jerk (floor to overhead) of 115 lbs. The second was slightly longer at 6 minutes of max reps of 6 burpee barhops (push-up then jumping laterally over a barbell), 6 pull-ups, and 6 sumo deadlift high pulls. It was called "6 Degrees of Hyperventilation", and it was a fitting name for sure. And the final workout (called "Victory Lap") involved a 1000m row, 40 backsquats @ 65 lbs, 30 double crunches (like sit-ups), 20 push-ups, 20 thrusters @ 65 lbs, and finally an 800m run.
Each workout proved to be very challenging in different ways, but at the end of the day it was a great competition. I ache all over and definitely need a few rest days!
This year's TC was awesome: the weather was perfect, there was well over 10,000 finishers, and I put in a performance that I'm happy with. I am usually disappointed with my results at the TC, but this year for the first time in a while I went in with very little expectations and just wanted to run it, and enjoy it. My training has been pretty inconsistent, so I knew that I wasn't going to run a 10K PB, but I secretly hoped that I could break 38 and maybe even get a new personal best time for the TC (having run 37:42 two years ago).
Going into the race my goal was to try and run the first 5K in 19 minutes, and then push the second half and see what happened. I almost ran according to that plan except for my first K which was too slow (4 mins). At 5K I was at 19:22, and on the uphill section from 4-6 I started picking it up, and much to my surprise I managed a few K's at 3:40 pace. My second 5K was 18:48, making for a decent negative split, something that is quite unusual for me! I finished in a time of 38:10, which is not quite what I hoped for but you can't expect great results if you don't put in the training!
It was nice to see some fellow Harriers and friends out there. I ran the first part of the race with Mike Janes, and then with Chris Moore from my gym. I saw Jeff Hunt cheering everyone along Dallas Road near Clover Point (get better soon Jeff!), and Sandi and Dee near the finish line. I also got some good encouragement from Nick Best at around the 8K marker when he yelled out to me "Don't forget to keep swinging your arms Chris!". Very helpful actually, it was nice to focus on that when I was running out of energy. And great to see Ming Kang back out running too!
The Bazan Bay 5K this last weekend was my first real race since the TC10K last April, it's been a long time! Leading into the race my training has been improving, but my weekly mileage is still very low (30K usually). I did a few track workouts (mostly 5x1K) in the last month and was feeling optimistic about the race, secretly hoping to get a PB (sub 18).
Overall I am pretty pleased with my time of 18:08, but naturally being only 9 seconds off my PB is frustrating. I've now run five 5K races all between 17:59 and 18:08! My goal was to keep my splits between 3:30 and 3:35 each kilometer, but after the first K I couldn't quite keep up the pace: I can't complain - my splits are reasonably consistent and most importantly my knee felt fine during the race (expected) and after the race, even days later. So I think that's positive. I actually felt so good after the race that I went down to the CrossFit Zone gym a few hours after the race and set a new personal best dead lift of 275 lbs and also got my first muscle up! And no that is not me in the video, although I would love to sport a stache like that!
So, what's next? I think I'll continue to build up my mileage and try to peak for the TC10K at the end of April. Last year I was a few seconds over 38 minutes, so naturally I plan on being under 38 minutes this year! And who knows, maybe I'll also do a few of the new Victoria Track Series races too...
The elevation map tool no longer works as Yahoo has discontinued support for flash maps.
I've created a pretty useful Elevation Map (using Yahoo Maps) that lets you enter in a route and it will show you the elevation profile. I know that other websites can do the same thing, but since I'm a web developer I wanted to do it anyways.
Single left-click on the map to add a marker. Then left click again to add a second point. The elevation profile will show the elevation at the two points. You can also click on the little red markers on the map to show the distance from the start (along the route), from the previous point, and the elevation. You can also search for an address, and then add the search marker (orange) to your route.
It doesn't fit onto this small screen very well, so click here to open it in a new window.
 This year has been my worst running year so far. The knee injury has taken almost the entire year to heal and still isn't 100%. But in the recent months I've started enjoying life again (well the sporting part of my life anyway) mainly because I've taken up CrossFit. I've noticed many similarities between why I love running and why I enjoy CrossFit. With running I love pushing myself, trying to set personal records at the various distances, the fun competitive spirit between friends, and especially the social aspects like going out for brunch after a long muddy run in the woods. With CrossFit a bunch of friends (usually a pretty equal distribution of girls and guys) warm-up together and then do out a workout that consists of various exercises like rowing, running intervals, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, squats, box jumps, dead lifts, ring dips, should press, etc. But the key is that almost every workout is done for time, so it's quite comparable to a small friendly running race. The few workouts that aren't for time are usually max reps (e.g. how many pull-ups can you do in a row?), or max weight (max dead lift?). Also, if you are competitive like me then you'll love it because not only do you see huge improvements in your physical fitness and strength, but there is a leaderboard for every workout. So it's very easy to set goals and push yourself to get stronger. I used to try to go to the gym once or twice a week to strengthen the other parts of my body that running doesn't, like my core, back, and upper body. I usually found these gym workouts to be boring and unmotivated (and hard to make the effort to do). Now at CrossFit they are fun, social, competitive, and most importantly killer workouts. Just as I love the Harrier's Tuesday Night Workouts for the friendly competition as we push each other on intervals and then drinking gatorade and munching on some (or in my case many) candies afterwards. The same happens at CrossFit. Minus the gatorade and candies. But there is a big social aspect to CrossFit: lots of social events, parties, and competitions (often for charities). One common misconception about CrossFit is that you have to be really strong to be able to do the workouts. But that is completely untrue. Every workout can be scaled. If you can't do a pull-up (which many people can't!) then there are different sizes of thick rubber bands that help you up. If you can't do a push-up then you can do them on your knees. If you can't lift the required weight then you can scale it down to something more manageable. The workouts are all posted with many different zones that involve scaling the down the weight, doing fewer repetitions, or shorter time. And a few more things about CrossFit. Since there are so many different skills and techniques involved, there are always coaches around watching you to make sure you are doing the workouts properly and safely, and to yell out encouragement too! So it's sort of like having a personal trainer. It's not free, and it's mostly done inside a gym, but the bottom line is that it's fun and an incredible full body workout. I've been going to the CrossFit Zone gym downtown (613 Herald Street, just off Government St.). They have really awesome coaches, good location, and a great group of people. Your first session is free too! Every day they post an informative blog post that tells about recent success stories (similar to Runner of the Week), or has tips on nutrition and recovery, or shows videos on how to do certain exercises. And at the bottom of every blog post is a description of the WOD (workout of the day) including how the workout can be scaled. I rarely can do the workouts "as required", but I'm getting closer.  There is also an awesome social website (it's the Facebook of the CrossFit world) designed by my friend Sean for tracking CrossFit workout results and for interacting with other CrossFit members called myfrantime.com. "Fran" is the name of one of the most well know CrossFit workouts that involves doing 45 pull-ups and 45 thrusters for time. CrossFit Zone location:
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It was awesome to get out racing again! I haven't done a serious race since the TC10K back in April, although the Thetis Lake Relay wasn't very serious as you can see in the photo... I joined up with Simon, Nate, and Mike to make up the PIH Prancing Bambies relay team. It was a fun day: good weather and very muddy trails, and lots of great headgear. The highlight for me was Simon running the relay with the impressive horns on his head, and seeing everyone's reactions. It was also great to be on a very evenly balanced team! All four of us finished the ~4.3K loop within 2 minutes of each other, and ended up finishing in a time of 1:14:35. This was 6th in the Senior Men's division, and 11th overall. Pretty impressive considering we were all out there just to have fun...
I did the first lap in a time of 18:08. It wasn't pretty, as usual went out to hard and died near the end on those hills. Next up was Nate who came in right around the 20 minute mark. Third was Simon who flew up the hills (I think he was part goat) and came prancing in at 18:02, and the Mike cleaned up the last lap in 18:20.
Anyway, since it's been months since my last post you can probably guess that I haven't been running much, or at least not running anything worth writing about. The knee is slowly improving, I hope. I've been seeing Scott Simpson (physio) for the last few months and I've certainly improved quite a bit in that time. But the knee still isn't strong enough to let me train properly on it. So to keep me busy I've started going to the CrossFit Zone gym down town. CrossFit is an amazing full body workout which combines a lot of basic exercises (pullups, pushups, situps, burpees, squats, etc) with some olympic weight lifting (deadlifts, cleans, jerks, etc) and some short running intervals. It takes boring gym workouts and makes them fun, competitive, and often time-based and always leaves you feeling like you really got a good workout. It is free to try as well.
I recently decided to go get a second opinion on my knee injury, so I went to the Synergy Health Management group and saw Dr. Jamie Grimes. His diagnosis is that my left leg is about 1cm shorter than my right leg. It certainly seems to makes sense given my condition. He noticed that my right quad and glute are much larger/stronger than the left side, obviously compensating for my short leg. For now I've been given a 5mm heel lift, and I have two incredibly painful massage sessions (mostly on my right hip flexor and IT band) a week. Hopefully it will solve my problem. I found this interesting article on Leg Length Discrepancies. The author lists 4 problems associated with short leggedness: - Iotibial band syndrome (pain on the outside or lateral part of the knee)
- Piriformis syndrome (butt pain, not to be confused with sciatica, where the pain runs down the back of the leg)
- Hip pain
- Low back pain
I have been experiencing at least 3 of those symptoms... Oh well, for now I'm enjoying volunteering at races, and spending more time in the gym. This weekend is the Peninsula Runners Cool Half Marathon in Oak Bay, I'll be working the bag check.
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On Sunday I competed in my first ever CrossFit competition - the CrossFit Zone Games. I entered in the "open" category since I didn't meet quite a few of the requirements for the Advanced category. It was a blast. There were 3 workouts in the event - the first was short and sweet: 60 seconds to do as many reps of clean and jerk (floor to overhead) of 115 lbs. The second was slightly longer at 6 minutes of max reps of 6 burpee barhops (push-up then jumping laterally over a barbell), 6 pull-ups, and 6 sumo deadlift high pulls. It was called "6 Degrees of Hyperventilation", and it was a fitting name for sure. And the final workout (called "Victory Lap") involved a 1000m row, 40 backsquats @ 65 lbs, 30 double crunches (like sit-ups), 20 push-ups, 20 thrusters @ 65 lbs, and finally an 800m run. 
