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Toast from the Coast – The Third
By:  Tom McCarthy   (2009/06/24)

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These regular updates seem to have turned into an on-going story about me trying to claw may back into form, juxtapositioned against Ed’s maintenance of form and fair success in regional running events. I hope you’re getting some pleasure out of these – I’m finding it interesting having such an easy benchmark on an on-going basis against which to measure my relative success towards my goal this summer season. Which is, simply put, to get ready for some light loppet and other racing this coming winter.

Just a quick update, as I’m sure you’re all hanging on to your seats, wanting to know how Ed did in the Canadian Mountain Running Championships. He prepped for it, as he has recently explained, by running 47k the week before. Just to liven the legs up. Then he drove for 10 hours on Thursday, just to freshen them up even more, to get to Canmore. 

The race was on Saturday. Ed admits he may have started too fast. Youtube video evidence, thanks to the intrepid Phil Villeneuve, confirms that admission – he rounded the first lap in second place, behind his Epic Runs buddy, Gavin. They both faded by the next time we saw them on the video, but faded to admirable opponents, including former Pan-Am Games steeplechase champion and Olympian Joel Bourgeois, Ivan Babikov, and other hard-men. Ed ended up a very respectable 10th, close on the heels of Adam Campbell, a friend and recent 2nd-place finisher in the Vancouver marathon. My point is – he was in good company. 

As for me, I ran a 5 Peaks race that Saturday, at Simon Fraser University, which as you may know is on a mountaintop. The race started with a long and fast technical downhill, which was a blast. Very fun to run a fast downhill with fresh legs. I did fairly well, finishing 3rd, but I certainly benefited from the absence of some faster runners. 

I’ve started rollerskiing already – why, I don’t know, except that mainly it’s been absolutely incomparably beautiful in Vancouver thus far this summer, and it seems a grievous shame to do strength workouts, of any type, indoors. So I’ve been doing some double-poling around the park by our house. Ed, not the world’s biggest rollerskiing fan, has not take part. Track workouts have also continued, and I seem to be improving consistently. I ran a set today that involved alternating 200s and 400s with double rest, which I chose because I seem to be able to find a consistent 200 pace, but have faded badly in 400 workouts so far this year. The goal was to transfer that 200 feeling into a 400 length. It worked pretty well, was able to run my 400s in 71,70,71,72 and 73, which are not perfect but a lot more consistent than a few weeks ago. 

A canoe trip begins in a couple of days, followed by a wedding trip and then a trip to Europe for a short tour. The challenge will be to maintain some fitness during those busy times, so I can get back to it in August and build on some of the work I’ve done so far this summer. 

 
Interesting Reading. . .
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