Another Ride.....Another Flat

How is it possible I get so many flat tires?

This morning I left at 5:45 am as the sun is rising later. Someone convinced me riding in the dark isn't safe so I waited until at least there was a crack of light. It was either that or ride inside which I absolutely hate and ranks right up there with watching paint dry.

I was riding for five minutes along Major Mac when I got flat tire. At least it was the front which made changing the tire easier. While I was standing on the side of the road waiting for traffic to pass so I could go across the street and change my tire on the sidewalk under the street light, I nearly got clipped by some idiot. Maybe riding inside would have been a better idea.

Surprisingly, I actually changed the flat in record time and didn't pinch the inner tube when I filled it. Could this mean, I'm actually getting good at changing flats?

Coach said the reason why I was getting so many flats and blowing up so many inner tubes was that the inner tubes I bought from the cycling stores are too thin. When I get my bike tuned up for the final race, we'll install thicker tubes which should a) minimize the possibilities of flat tires and b) not get pinched as easy. Going through all these inner tubes is beginning to add up.

The Brick workout itself was uneventful except for that it was 22 degrees with the humidex making it feel like 30 at 6 am. Summer is not over just yet.

My foot pod needs resetting. It said I ran 11.48 km in 54 minutes. I wish

IM Canada

They're off and running. IM Canada started this morning at 10 am our time and I know three people competing. Good luck to all. One of these days I'll get around to toeing the line.

I had to move some workouts around as Tammy had a 10 km run Saturday morning so I took that as rest day and moved my long bike and run to Sunday.

Tammy's run was ok but I think she was disappointed with her time. It was at Sunnybrook Park and started at 8:00 am but we got there just after 7:00 am. No problems finding parking. I watched the three kids while Tammy ran. One of the vendors at the race was Absolute Endurance. They had a tent set up with a couple of massage tables. Always looking for freebies, I started to talking to one of the therapists and he told me he would be able to give me a free session once the race started.

The first question he asked me was if I wore othotics which of course I do. Keeping one shoe on, Josh performed a couple of simple tests where he told me to resist his attempt to pull or push the opposite leg. For some reason, when I wore the shoe with the orthotic, the opposite leg was weaker and I was unable to resist him but when he took the shoe off, my leg was significantly stronger and able to resist his attempt to pull or push my leg. The point of this exercise was to show that by wearing orthotics it weakened the ankle, leg, thigh and glute muscles leading to repetitive injuries (now that sounds familiar). This is similar to what Kevin (the chiropractor) said about orthotics as well. Both believe the way to counter the weakness of the foot is through specific strength training targeting the glutes especially. Clearly that is my biggest weakness and the cause of many injuries. This is something I'll have to target during the off season.

For this morning long ride I was going to meet up with Lisa as I'm totally bored of riding by myself, however before it got light enough to ride, Tammy came downstairs in pain (from the run) and had a splitting headache. I offered to go to Sobeys to pick up some aspirin as it would help her headache and aches and pains as well. After I got home I left just after 6 am. Normally I would have left earlier but I was going to meet Lisa in North Pickering at 7:00 am but she doesn't ride with any lights or reflectors on her bike so that would mean riding before the sun came up so I pushed it back to 7:30 am. I did the usual twin peaks at Kennedy and Aurora before peeling out to Pickering. I was only four minutes late and we headed south down Tenth Line which is one of the smoothest roads I've ever rode on. It could have been used for Formula One racing. Compared to the crap roads I rode on this was awesome. I hammered it doing about 45 km/hr down the road only to look back and saw Lisa about one km behind me....doh.

All in all it was an uneventful ride but it was nice to ride with someone else. I'm still not sure about riding with a large group as I constantly weave all over the road.

I finished riding about 97 km but wasn't too worried about the distance as I did some solid hill climbing and repeats (I think). We did find one hill that was almost as big as Sixth Line Hill in Milton which I did two climbs.

After I ran about for 35 minutes and a fairly good clip. I switched to my new shoes as after my last long run my old shoes left my knees and feet hurting. I only had them since March this year but they were toast. I also need to reset my running pod on my shoe as during Muskoka Long course, my pod said I ran 13.7 km but it was only 13.0 km. This morning my watch said I ran 6.91 km but when I mapped it out it turns out to be only 6.1 km. It was a painful run as I wondered how in the world I would run another 15 km.

On another note, I seem to be getting the hang of that nutrition thing. I used to take about four gels for a three hour bike ride but found that it was way too sweet so today I used GU Chomps as well as two Salt Stick pills. It seemed to work well as this would allow me to save the gels for the run. Also even though it was warm, I drank four 750 ml of water/amino vital while I was riding and 1.5 liters before I left. That's a lot of fluid for a four hour workout

Post work out drink.......

I could have drank a liter or two of chocolate milk as it went down sooooo goooood

Whew

This morning was a short two hour run as Muskoka 70.3 looms. The only thing is that I left the house at 5:15 am which means I had to get up at 4:30 am to eat. The days of running on an empty stomach are long gone. Last year I did that and found by 11 am I had eaten all my lunch and snacks and was totally starving.

The run itself was pretty uneventful but I'm quite worried about my knee. Earlier in the year, I had lots of hamstring and knee problems. One problem is that I'm simply not built to run long distances. Being bow-legged and having flat feet leaves the door open for tons of injuries which I've pretty much experienced almost all of them over the last 10 years of running.

I've done my strength training for my legs and hamstrings.....sort of. Recently I've been slacking off lately and my right knee has minor aches and pains after a long hard run or ride. So I was a little worried about how it would hold up for today's run. One thing I've been concentrating on is trying to work my glutes. I read a great article by Tara Norton and have tried to incorporate some her tips as I seem very prone to the injuries that she talks about in her blog.





Getting my butt muscles firing! February 18, 2010 By tara norton

February 18, 2010
Getting my butt muscles firing!
Recently I traveled to New Zealand to partake in Epic Camp #3. Over the 15-day camp (including one rest day that only consisted of a 30km ride), I cycled almost 2300kms, ran almost 140kms and swam 40kms. While at the camp, my coach, Scott Molina, pointed out that my 'glutes were shrinking'. 'Tara, you have less booty than ever before!'

How can this be possible when I am putting in this kind of training mileage? The answer is that it is possible because I am recruiting other muscles to do the job of my butt muscles. These other muscles include my hamstrings and adductors.This would explain why my hamstrings have been chronically sore. Due to my weak or non-firing gluteal muscles, my hamstrings have to work harder to take more of the load and as a result become overworked and fatigued.This muscle imbalance in the hips can cause hamstring pain and even hamstring strain. Triathletes also tend to have tight hip flexors which further inhibits gluteal muscle contraction because of the anterior pelvic tilt this hip flexor tightness creates.

It is really important for triathletes to correct any of these hip muscle imbalances with all the daily running and cycling to prevent injury and improve performance. The less the gluteal muscles fire, the more likely the hamstrings are going to be weak due to overuse or compensation and the more likely the performance will be sub-par.

This is what I am doing to try to correct my hip imbalances and get things firing as they should:
1. Stretch the muscles in the front of the hip, or the hip flexors as well as the adductors or inner thigh muscles. Two great stretches include the runner's lunge (done with a wide step and with the torso upright) to stretch the iliopsoas and a side lunge to stretch the adductors.

2. Strengthen the abdominal muscles for support by doing front and side plank poses.

3. Strengthen the glutes with exercises like one-legged dead lifts, glute bridges (Lie on your back with knees bent and put a small medicine ball between your knees. Squeeze the ball and lift up your butt. Hold for a couple seconds, lower and repeat.), side steps with a band around your ankles (for added challenge I go up on my toes), lunges (push through your front heel) and good old fashion butt squeezes to activate the muscles.

Always keep the abdominal muscles contracted for support!So get your butt muscles firing too!

Tara


At the end of today's run (22 km), I was a little sore and I did feel my knee ache but no major problems (knock wood). As coach always says, "you're body is like an elastic band. You can stretch it but you don't know when its going to break." Too true. I just hope my knee can hold out for another couple of weeks. Lots more butt exercises in the meantime.

Orillia Race Report

The day started out ugly and got worse. I got up around 4:30 am as Rebecca was already awake packing her things. Why my six year old daughter was up that early is beyond me. I looked outside and it was just pouring rain. This was going to be a fun day...not.

Throughout the drive to Orillia, I was wondering why I was driving to a race when the amount of time it would take to get to the race would be about the same amount of time racing. Too late, as I already signed up and wasn't willing to forfeit the entry fee (yes I'm a cheap bugger) all $67.

Getting there was no problem and in fact we got there in plenty of time, unlike the usual mad scrabble to get registered and set up. The unfortunate thing was that it looked like it was going to pour all day. By the time I entered the water, waiting for my wave to start, it started to piss and Tammy and the kids were going to get soaked. One thing about triathlons is that its a very small world. While standing in the water, Ed Wong came up to me as he recognized me from previous races. Ed is a friend of my brothers Glen and Paul and has been racing triathlons for many years. He did Lake Placid this year and someone knocked over his bike breaking his aero bar so he had to ride the entire 180 km without being in areo position. Ouch.

I also saw Paula Van Nostrand who is also friends with Glen and Paul. Her in laws own a farm with a pond and they meet every week to do open water swims. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make any of the swims as Rebecca as soccer on Monday nights. Maybe I can sneak a swim in before the end of the season.

As I lined up for the start of my wave group, I was standing beside Andrew Longsbourgh. He recognized me and we chatted before the start of the race. I used to play Aussie Rules against him and is a great guy. It was his first race this year and was toying with the idea of doing Ironman Cozmuel but hadn't been training very much. Clearly he's in excellent shape to even consider such a race with minimal training.

The race started as the rain poured down. I drafted off Andy as he's a much stronger swimmer (and better triathlete) but lost him at the first turn. The water was pretty choppy and ran into swimmers from the earlier wave including many girls swimming the breast stroke and one girl who was swimming back stroke WTF???

I chugged through T1 with my usual fumbling around and hit the bike course. At one point the rain was pouring down and it actually hurt as it was hitting my face. It was a fairly short ride with only a couple of hills so I actually had a half decent average speed (31.7 km\hr) my fastest ever bike time. Whoo hoo, now if I can just match that pace for Muskoka 70.3.

The run was pretty uneventful but I did see my buddy Derek Virgo come racing in as I headed out. Derek just finished Lake Placid in 11 hours. Not bad for his first IM. He also is an very fast swimmer. He once lapped me twice in 50 metres. Now I know I'm not a fast swimmer but.......

Overall, not a bad C race. I finished under my goal of two hours and was 30/71 for my age category. I checked Glen's time from 2003 and he beat me by one minute. Grrr

I'm still worried about Muskoka 70.3 as the bike does not look like fun.

Post race drink..... what else?

Finally now available in Ontario.

When I returned from 6 months in Australia in 1994, I brought back 40 cans of VB. Needless to say, my carry on was very heavy. Andrew picked up a slab (a two-four) before the race. No doubt he quaffed a few when he got home after destroying my time, again. He crushed me at Wasaga Olympic distance last year.

Tips For Dating A Triathlete

A dating guide to understanding your triathlete

"I am an outdoors type of person." Really means: I train in any type of weather. If its raining, snowing, 90 degrees w/100% humidity, or winds gusting at 30 mph. I don't want to hear any complaints because I will still train in it and you're just a big wuss for complaining about it.

"I enjoy riding my bike." Really means: With or w/o aero bars, alone or in a peloton, I don't care. If you can't do a spur of the moment 30 miler then you're not my type. I will let you draft, but if you can't hang and I drop you - I will see you later. I am a capable mechanic, but don't expect me to change your flats or tune your bike. You need to learn that on your own.

"I enjoy jogging." Really means: Lets run hills until we puke. I have just as many shoes as you only mine are better because they are functional and all look the same.

"I enjoy dining out." Really means: I enjoy eating out, in or anywhere else I can find food. Don't be shy because with the amount of food I eat, you can have that main entree instead of a salad and you will still look as though you eat like a rabbit in comparison. Don't get your limbs too close though as I may take a bite out of you. Most importantly don't expect any taste off my plate unless you can bring something to the party like more food. Eventually though if your not burning 4,000+ calories a day your going to plump up and have a terrible complex due to watching me eat deserts and not gain any weight. Friends and family will eventually decide not to dine with us anymore due to my horrid table manners. Oh, and don't ask me any questions during breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon lunch, dinner or recovery dinner as it does not lend to efficient food intake.

"I enjoy quiet walks on the beach." Really means: Walks on the beach warming up into an 8 mile run and then plunging myself in the ocean for a 2 miler. If you get in my way you're going to find out what mass start is and let me assure you that you don't want to find out.

"I find fulfilment in charitable work." Really means: If I am not racing, I am volunteering or cheering on my buddies and I expect you to be there along side me as I stand out in 90 degree weather for 8 hours handing out sports drink to cyclists going 20 mph. Just stick the ol' arm out there and hope it doesn't get taken off.

"I enjoy sharing quiet moments together." Really means: It's taper time. Just back off because I am strategizing, trying to get into the zone and in a pissy mood because I am worried about my "A" race and can't workout.

"I am an active person." Really means: Aside from my 40 hour job, and the 8 mandatory hours of sleep a night. 10 hours a week are devoted to me during the off-season and 20 during race season leaving us 4 hours. 2 of which are spent inhaling food and you not talking to me, so lets make the best of the 2 hours we will spend together on average each day.

If you are a licensed message therapist or doctor this would make the most optimal use of our time together. Nutritionist is also acceptable, but I probably already know just as much as you.

"I enjoy road trips and vacations." Really means: You have your choice of British Columbia, Wisconsin, Idaho, Florida, California, Arizona, and New York, but don't expect to do much site seeing. But if I get enough support from you we might be able to include Hawaii in there.

"I enjoy site seeing." Really means: Lets grab a mountain bike and get our HR's up to 90%. There's plenty of time to look around on the descent as trees and bushes whiz by you at 40 mph.

"I like stimulating conversation." Really means: while we are running, we can talk about food. Then we can talk about how we decided what to wear on this run based on the temperature at start time versus the temperature at the time we expect to finish, how horribly out of shape we are, how many miles we did last week, and how many we will do this week and next week. Then we can talk about food.

"I enjoy relaxing soaks in the tub." Really Means: I'm going to stop on the way home and buy two bags of ice, throw them in the tub with some water, and sit in this torture chamber for 30 minutes.

"I'm interested in photography" Really Means: My camera is permanently perched a tripod in front of my trainer. I obsess over taking photos of my bike position and analyzing them to get the perfect set-up.

"I'm into in technology" Really Means: My HRM and bike computer are my best friends. Until you can give me some hard data that can improve my training, don't bother trying to buddy up to me. You could one day break into the top three if you recognize and feed my dependancy by buying me more gear.

Article courtesy of an anonymous Triathlete who is likely still single, from Toronto, and who completed rather well the Lake Placid Ironman in 2006. For a small fee we'll connect you to this handsome and successful individual...(works "downtown" Toronto in the "money business"

102.4...A Sense Of Satisfaction

I finally broke the 100 km mark for riding and it was painful. As usual, I headed up Kennedy road and did three hill repeats on the Twin Peaks before heading up to Vivian road but this time instead of going west to Warden which is pretty flat, I headed east. Paul S had shown me some of the routes that he rides which is much more harder (ie more like Muskoka).

I headed east to north Pickering. Once I crossed Hwy 48, the terrain definitely changed as it was much more hillier. I rode over to York/Durham line and headed south. This road sucks for riding as there is no paved shoulder and although traffic was light, every once in a while, I'd always get some idiot who seemed to drive as close as possible to me even if there was no oncoming traffic. There was a headwind of around 20 km/hr and riding up hills really slowed me down. Once I reached Durham Hwy 47, I headed east towards Uxbridge but turned north again on Concession side road 2 (actually it should have been Concession side road 3). It made a difference when the paved road turned into a dirt road. Nothing like bouncing around in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road. Sure hope I don't get a flat here.

I hit Davis Drive and was fed up with riding on this crappy dirt road so I headed west and then south again on York/Durham line. The wind was picking up and I was really dragging. My lower back was killing me and was getting tired. I turned west on Bloomington road and rode over to Kennedy and then north again so I could have more fun doing hill repeats on the Twin Peaks. Noticing the time I only did two repeats before heading south to boogie home but riding into the wind there wasn't much boogie.

Once I reached home, a quick change and was out for a short run. I ran almost 5 km but ran at a significantly faster pace than what I would run at Muskoka. That was painful. How in the world am I going to run for another 16 km?

Enough blogging as its Jake's birthday tomorrow and Tammy took the kids to Jake's soccer. I get to clean the house, not that I'm complaining.........

Every thing is life is a trade off and my trade off today is helping clean after four hours of having fun.

If I Were To Sign Up For An Ironman Part II......

My friends and brothers could help me train...........

If I Were To Sign Up For An Ironman......

Sign Up Phase
For most Ironman events, you have to register up to one year in advance. This gives you plenty of time to brag about doing an Ironman. During this phase, you must let all of your non-Ironman friends know that you can't hang out with them anymore, because you just signed up for an Ironman. If you don't have any Ironman friends, then go to a place where runners or bikers hang out. Look for the Ironman symbol (M Dot) on their training clothes. An Ironman would never be caught running or biking without their Ironman stuff.

Training Phase
Training for an Ironman can be compared to having a part time job. You must let everyone you meet know this. This can be accomplished by sighing loudly at work, mumbling how tired you are because you just biked 100 miles, because you are in training for an Ironman. You can also skillfully steer the conversation with your neighbors and co-workers to your Ironman training.

Here is an example:
Neighbor: "Did you hear what President Bush said this week?" Lee: "Were you aware that President Bush is a biker? I just biked 100 miles today. I am training for an Ironman."
Co worker: "Lee, are you working late tonight?" Lee: "No, I have to get up early to do a 20 mile run. I am training for an Ironman."
I even once rang my neighbor's door and when he answered, I said "Sorry Bob, can't talk to you now, I am training for an Ironman."

One Week Before the Race Phase
You need to let your neighbors and co-workers know you will be gone for a little while, competing in an Ironman. Once again, you can steer the conversation to your Ironman race.
Neighbor: "Wow Lee your lawn looks great!" Lee: "My lawn is going to look bad next week; I will be competing in an Ironman."

Race Expo Phase
You must buy as much Ironman merchandise as possible. For years we saved our money to send both of my boys to private college, but sacrifices must be made. Both Derick and Ty will be going to junior college now. You must buy enough Ironman clothes to cover every day at work and training. You must also buy plenty of shirts for your spouse and children. They will also spread the word that you just finished an Ironman.

The Race Phase
At ironmanlive.com you can setup automatic emails and cell phone message notifications of your Ironman timing splits. You can use all of the entries in your email and cell phone address book. Include everyone regardless of whether they remember you or not. It just does not matter, because you are an Ironman.

Post Race Phase
The finisher medal can be worn for one day per the number of miles raced and everyone knows that an Ironman is 140.6 miles. So wear that medal for 141 days (always round up as opposed to rounding down your finishing time). Your children must be trained to say, "My daddy is an Ironman. He gave me this shirt. He's an Ironman." This must be emphasized over and over with your children. I made the mistake of not doing this after I ran the Boston Marathon, and Derick, my oldest boy, told everyone at his day care that his grandma ran the marathon. Your spouse must memorize all of your splits (swim, bike and run). You must also include transition splits as well. Instead of wearing a shirt which states, "I'm with Dummy", your spouse will wear a shirt which says, "I'm with a stud Ironman". All conversations must be steered to your Ironman race.
Co-Worker: "Did you hear about the new work policy?" Lee: "Nope, I did not, I was racing in an Ironman."
For at least one month you can say, "Well, I'm only going to run easy today, I just did an Ironman."
When someone brings up a subject of hardship suffered, you need to remind them that you also have suffered hardship, while training for and racing in your Ironman.

The Most Annoying Workout

Today's workout was a 3 hours and 15 minute bike followed by a 20 minute run. I left the house around 5:30 am and it was freezing!!! I had to wear arm warmers as the temperature was only 12 degrees. WTF happened to summer and last week smoking hot temperatures?

Paul S had suggested riding north on Kennedy (I usually ride southbound back home) as it was surprisingly hilly although nothing like Muskoka. Once I crossed Aurora Road, I hit the twin peak hills and did the three hill repeats stopping at the bottom of the hills each time. I continued north and rode uneventfully until I hit Keswick which was the 50 km point so I turned around and headed back south down Warden. At Vivian Road I turned east and then south down Kennedy so I could hit the twin peaks again. By this time my back was killing me and I was getting tired but I did three hill repeats before heading south. I reached Elgin Mills Road and turned east and was just in sight of McCowan when my back tire began to wobble. I couldn't believe it! I got a flat tire this close to home. I was so pissed. I had been riding for 3 hours and 17 minutes and had less than 10 minutes to go.

Recalling my previous problems of blowing up inner tubes, this could get ugly. At least this wasn't during a race or pouring rain. Pulling out my kit, I noticed the two tubes I bought were slightly smaller than the one I was using. Oh oh, this could be a problem. I changed the tire and proceeded to blow it up using the CO2 cartilage. I disconnected it and BANG!! There goes that inner tube. Swearing profusely, I changed the tire and put the second tube on but clearly the inner tube was not inside the tire all the way as a giant bubble appeared but before I could stop it blew. There goes the second inner tube.

I called home and Tammy came to pick me up. As punishment for being a retard and not being able to change a flat tire, I ran a hard and hilly 5 km.

So close to the 100 km ride but so far away. I ended up at 93.7 km. DOH

Now That Was Fun

There is nothing like running for 90 minutes when the temperature with the humidity is 33 degrees. Because I went swimming this morning and Vanessa has soccer at 6:30 pm tonight, that really doesn't leave a lot of time to squeeze a run. I planned to get home by 3:30 pm and go running but of course I couldn't get away and when I got home, I couldn't find all my gear including Tammy's iPod so I didn't leave the house until almost 5 pm.

I guess I should be thankful as the humidity was dropping and it wasn't as bad as yesterday (40 degrees with the humidity) but it was still a tough run. I ran a 10 km loop for the first hour and desperately looked for sprinklers but none where to be found. However I did run by the water park at Mingay and spent a couple of minutes cooling down as a couple of adults looked at me as if I were a retard. Why would anyone go running when its this hot?

Within the first hour I ran out of water so I stopped off at home to reload my water bottle. In this heat, one gel wasn't enough so I mixed some Amino Vital in my water bottle and headed out to finish the run (yes I stopped my watch while I was inside). It definitely made a difference but by the 70 minute mark I was slowing down.

Lessons to be learned from this run:

1) one gel pack doesn't cut it

2) I need to take some salt tablets as I started to cramp up after the run like after Muskoka

3) Change my route so I find more sprinklers

Update

Saturday's ride was a long three hour ride followed by a 20 minute transition run. Actually I found it easier than doing the Muskoka Long Course probably because a) I didn't swim 2 km before b) the route wasn't as hilly. I really need to push myself harder when I ride. Interesting I rode for 89.7 km and would have went further if I wasn't doing hill repeats. To make things harder, coach told me to come to a complete stop at the bottom of the hill and choose a harder gear to ride up. Seems to make a difference. This Saturday's ride should put me close to the 100 kilometre ride (depending on how many hill repeats I do). Who would have thunk I'd be doing 100 kilometre rides? What's next, 180 kilometres rides?

I took my bike up to the coach's place as there were funny clunking nosies coming from the pedals after Saturday's ride. The crank was loose so coach tightened it up so for Monday's ride it seemed ok but by the end of the ride it was making even louder nosies and I could clearly hear metal on metal with every pedal stroke. That could only mean one thing....more $$$. Again I took my bike up to the coach's place and this time I told him just replace the part as the last thing I needed was my bike falling apart during Muskoka 70.3. Turns out the ball bearings were toast and it was grinding every pedal stroke. I haven't got the bill yet but there goes another $250. And that doesn't include the $350 I dropped at the Running Free sale the week before.

This morning's ride was only a 75 minute ride but Tammy wanted to go to the 6:15 am pump class so that meant I had to be out of the house by 4:45 am. As summer comes to an end, it ain't light out at 4:45 am. That meant riding up Warden ave in total darkness. Coming down the hill on Kennedy road (south of Bloomington) normally I'm hammering down going about 65 km\hr but because it was fairly dark and also mist was rolling across the fields onto the road, I took it easy (only 60 km\hr). I figured visibility was about 100 metres and also as I stayed in the aero position, I hoped the road was clear or I could see any crap on the road and avoid it in time.

I've must have had a good workout as I've been totally starving all day long. Leaving that early in the morning, actually gave me time to do a workout after my ride and I even did some Abs!

Getting back to the coach, I was talking about pacing Tammy for the Toronto Good Life half marathon but because I run over one minute per kilometre faster, I knew it would be a painful run for me. My brother Paul paced Sarah for the New York marathon one year and I think he was hurting more than she was simply because its hard to run at a significantly slower pace than your used to.

Coach suggested I borrow a jogging stroller and run with Jake inside. That would put us on the same pace. Hmmm running up Hoggs Hollow on Yonge street with a stroller. How fun would that be? Can you say, burning quads?