i did a 'first feel' review of the skechers gorun 2 a while back, and while my initial impressions were that skechers had a solid pair of shoes on the market my opinion was definitely limited in scope and experience.
thanks to an online sale from The Shoe Company, i decided to pick up a pair and give them a real go(run). am i ever glad that i did.
this second generation design from skechers intended to promote a more mid-foot (read biomechanically efficient) stride pattern has garnered just about universally positive reviews. and even though all of the other shoes that are part of my running rotation now are zero-drop (no differential in sole height from heel to toe), i had wanted to test out this 4mm drop shoe for marathon race-day because it could potentially help with the late-stage muscle fatigue that accompanies constant running on the balls of my feet. i've now logged three runs in the gorun 2 - two easy runs of 10k and one tempo 10k run (which produced a PB for that distance). these shoes make me completely unaware of the work that i'm putting my feet through - which is fantastic. check out the video review below:
they will definitely be my kicks of choice on sept. 15 at the erie marathon, where i (once again) hope to finally attain a boston qualifying time. given my experience with the skechers performance division so far, i've got to say that these guys know first hand what its like to rewrite (their) history.
remember this lawsuit-worthy footwear?
haters beware! skechers has moved from the detention room to the dean's list. the gorun 2 is definitely worth of a five (out of five) footprint rating.
i read on dailymile the other day that my friend stan chose (wisely) to bail out of a planned 32k training run at 24.3k. he attributes it to soreness having raced/paced a 30k on the weekend, plus anticipating a half-marathon this coming sunday. i read that post with admiration and respect, because i'm not sure that i'd have the wits or courage to call off a planned training run. and as it turns out, i didn't. this morning my coach had on the schedule a 10k tempo run at 4:15/km or faster. i'd managed to produce a 4:16/km effort for the same run last week, and that was on the heels of an exhausting 9 days working at the Rogers Cup - so i felt like after a comparatively easy week that this should be more than manageable. however, a couple of factors managed to complicate things. first, i ran my longest training run of this cycle this past sunday - 39k. second, it was humid like crazy today, and factoring that in the temperature at 6:30am this morning felt like 26° celsius. i went to bed last night thinking "if it's raining in the morning, i'll take an extra day's rest and run on friday instead." the weather gurus have forecasted friday to be a cooler, much less humid day. but it wasn't raining when i got up. so, being the stubborn, 'if i'm supposed to run i'm gonna run' kind of guy that i am, i hit the road with a 4:15/km 10k tempo run in view. what i got was 10k in 44:38 (4:28/km pace), and sweat-soaked everything. i'd call that a bad workout. and with under four weeks until my next race, it's a little deflating. still, everything that i've read is that just about everyone experiences at least one or two bad workouts in a training cycle, elites included. the difference between 'joe casual runner' and 'addis ababa joe' is how you well you can put the lacklustre performance behind you and get back on track (without injuring yourself).
i don't plan on doing anything crazy like trying to jam in an extra tempo run this weekend. i'm not dripping that much machismo that i have to prove myself before this week's out. i will trust my coach, stick with the plan, and believe that this one workout will not define me or my performance on race day. i know that i've put in many strong workouts during this cycle - pushing myself to go at faster paces than i'd ever trained at before - and that my (short) racing history tells me that i tend to be able to capitalize on a proper taper to produce actual race paces that top my training paces. bad is bad - but it doesn't mean that i'm in a bad place.
no doubt this post will come across as the sour grapes of someone who has never been a 'winner', but is instead a whiner. as of late i was reminded of the mentality that some people associate with the spirit of competition ... and the pluses and minuses that go along with it. so one of the tv shows that i follow with regularity is the reality series ink master - not because i'm a tattoo guy (although i will almost certainly get at least one tattoo before i expire) but because i enjoy dave navarro as a host (back from his rockstar: inxs days) and because somehow my kids started watching before i did. walking past the tv and hearing all of the *bleeped* out profanities, i had to exercise my parental duty and find out just whether or not i needed to censor this programming from my kids' lives. instead i decided to join them.
this (third) season of ink master has one artist named joshua hibbard, who's easily become the antagonist of the bunch. he's demonstrated an unapologetic cut-throat style of competition, deciding not to let the best tattooer emerge on top but instead to try to undermine the chances of the other contenders by using devious ploys and mind games. he's employing the crab-in-the-bucket, survival-of-the-fittest mentality. a character like joshua makes for great tv ... specifically by getting on everyone's nerves. contrast that with the most recent viral video offering from (chris) ashton kutcher emerging from last week's teen choice awards:
his acceptance speech is all about keeping it real, working hard, being smart, generous, and creating your own life. not about keeping the other guy down, measuring yourself relative to the position of others, or having to pretend that your something you're not. what does any of this have to do with running or racing? i run because i'm better for it. i race because it pushes me to train hard, to have goals, to focus on crossing the finish line. i don't do it because i want to brag, or belittle others, or show that i can just as good as any kenyan (however impossible that may be). i don't do it so that i can differentiate 'joggers' from 'runners'. i don't do it so that my name can appear before your name on the results list.
i don't need you to lose for me to be able to win. agree or disagree, i'm just going to go ahead with trying to become the best me that i can be. and my hope is that you'll strive to do the same for yourself.
i'll call this a race report even though it's marketed as a 'tune-up run' for the scotiabank toronto waterfront marathon. the beaches jazz run comes in a variety of distances - 20k, 10k and 5k, and i registered for the 20k as a tempo run/test-the-waters distance to see just how ready i am to hit a BQ come september in erie, pennsylvania. pre-race i tried to treat this like any other race, although it falls smack-dab in the middle of a normal-ish training week. from stocking up on the appropriate gels, to drinking everyone's favourite refreshment all week - beet juice - to hitting the hay at 8:30pm on saturday night to ensure a decent 4:20am wake up, i tried to leave no pre-race stone unturned. the one thing that may well have tripped me up in terms of my race-week preparation is that my coach had prescribed a mini-taper approach to the runs leading up to sunday. my thursday tempo run i actually ran faster than required, and i may have overcooked my system a bit even though it didn't feel like too much. more on this a bit later ... race day the plan was to trek down to my buddy stan's place and park in his driveway, as it's about 1km from his house to the start line. we met up at around 6:30am (after he'd downed his sausage mcmuffin) and proceeded to the 'expo' tent. it wasn't really much of an expo since it wasn't a race (no chip timing), but that also meant that the kit pick-up was no-muss no-fuss. after depositing the goodies that we received are part of the kit back at his place, we got ready to put in an easy 2k warm-up. i say "got ready" because it took my garmin 305 about three or four minutes to find the satellites.
yes, in the middle of the park it asked me if i was indoors.
by the time that we'd returned to the start area from the warm-up, it was practically countdown time. we located our pacer - as this run is a tune-up for a full marathon, we found that they provided pacers who targeted 3:10, 3:15, 3:20, etc. the 3:10 pacer walked into view and we flagged him down ... only to find out that he didn't know up until he arrived that he was pacing, so he didn't even have a watch with him. it was going to be up to us to let him know whether or not we were on target. in the 'chute', the 3:10 pacer was at the front of the line, so stan and i actually got to take the starting pose that you see many elites in as they are poised at the leading edge of the pack. probably the only time i'll ever get to be in a situation like that. the race we started off into a decent headwind on a cloudless morning. our pacer took us out at what he thought to be the right pace (having paced numerous other marathons apparently), but our handy-dandy GPS-enabled wrist computers told us that we started out just a bit on the quick side. typical of early-race adrenaline. it was at about 5k that we settled into a decent pace - 4:24ish/km. peter the pacer (aka peter rabbit) was clear of stan and i by about three metres and expanding his gap. at 10k i'd hit my PB for that distance (43:41) but was also starting to feel the stride shorten up. stan was still moving like clockwork - it was both amazing and distressing ... but hey, this guy's gone sub-3:00 for the marathon and is training for sub-2:50. at 15k the fabled 'elastic' between stan and i broke, and i was on my own to finish up. this was the point at which i began to seriously wonder if pushing out 8k at 4:17/km pace on thursday had been a good idea. i tried to muster up more energy but it just wasn't translating to increased speed. kilometre by kilometre i was slowing, and one or two people passed me by. at 19k something really odd happened - i'd never felt anything like it before. i can only describe it as a spasming of my diaphragm ... it wasn't like a side-stitch, but like my entire core was tightening and i could only take in maybe a 1/3 of a breath of air. i liken it to hyperventilating, and it felt like all systems were shutting down, and i was in (audible) yelping mode. my pace dropped to something like 5:12/km, but it did allow me to breathe a bit better and when i felt like i'd regained the use of my lungs and abdomen i picked up the pace to finish at a 4:23/km pace. i crossed the line 1:31:03 (for 20.18k) - and i gotta say that it's now a strange feeling to finish a run wearing a bib and not receiving a medal. i need to become more of a purist. post-race stan and i lingered just a little bit at the recovery tables littered with juice boxes, bananas, fudge-striped cookies as well as the required gatorade and water cups. we wrapped up with a 2k cool-down run, after which i noticed that there were some sore spots on the bottom of my left foot, the result of some hot spots from wearing the skora phase as a distance race shoe. i'm pretty sure that while they're one of my favourite interval/tempo run shoes, they're going to fall out of contention as my race day shoes come sept. 15. then i got the privilege of hanging out (in my sweaty gear b/c i didn't bring a change of clothes) at chez ong. after getting schooled on the race course i got schooled in the way of beyblades and was treated to a delicious vegetarian (i know ... me, vegetarian???) meal of curry udon noodles, soy-protein pseudo-veal and stir-fried veggies. all in all, a day well spent in the beaches. and i didn't even take in any of the jazz fest.
the beaches jazzfest 20k tune up run - race report
if you've been disappointed that i haven't been posting as regularly as i once was, i'm sorry about that ... the summer has been jam packed with work as i'm helping to get our volunteer team ready for the Rogers Cup tournament starting on august 3rd. what started out as a fun volunteer gig for me with Tennis Canada has become a passion and a seasonal job working as part of the volunteer office coordinating the logistics and resources for our over 1000 volunteers each summer. good times - just busy times!
but fear not, good townspeople ... this fanatical runner continues to log the kilometres. even in this wicked heatwave.
on my coach's recommendation, i've begun to use a 4-bottle hydration belt (generously given to me by my friend trevor) on my long runs. for probably 98% of all of my training over the past three years i've had no fluids, solids or gels with me - regardless of distance. perhaps not the smartest move, but i've been reluctant to strap on anything that (a) restricts or constricts my body and (b) few things motivate me to move faster than the lure of refreshment/replenishment at the end of a good run.
now that the fuel belt (and yes, it is a FuelBelt) has been incorporated to my sunday morning routine, i've also decided to try bringing along gels to help get me through the 30+ km distances. for those of you unfamiliar with gels, they are small packets (larger than fast food ketchup packs) of energy, often providing much needed
carbohydrates
sodium/potassium (which helps stave off muscle cramps)
and sometimes caffeine
... for the endurance athlete. they come in various flavours to suit just about any palate, and are usually quite affordable at a couple of dollars per single use gel. they're usually sold at running specialty stores - but as i discovered with glee (and relief) they can also be found at well-stocked bicycle stores such as T.I. Cycle in gananoque.
i've tried most of the major brands of gels - powerbar, gu, hammer, clif. to-date i've found that gu gels provide me with the most bang for my buck, although hammer nutrition's gels (promoted as all natural) are the easiest consistency for me to swallow.
in the gu brand, the flavs that i stock up on the most are:
strawberry banana
mint chocolate
jet blackberry
chocolate raspberry roctane (uber-caffeinated to wake me from my stupor during the late stages of the run)
while not everyone subscribes to using them, i've found that they work for me ... in the right proportion. i'll usually take one every 35-40 min. during a long run/race, because it takes about 30 min. for them to really kick in as an energy boost. other people can take them less frequently, and apparently lance armstrong can take them once every 12 minutes - but then i'm told he takes other stuff too ...
are you a gel-eater? what brands or flavours do you prefer? and how often do you consume?
if you don't take them, what do you know that we don't?
