I am officially back from my trip and did manage to get my running in - although I ended up running much shorter on Sunday than I was supposed to. My scheduled distance was 26-K but I only managed to get in 13-K. In my view, that is better than nothing. While in Toronto, I got my Tuesday run of 6.4-K run in and then ran my 13-K on Wednesday night when I got back into town. I feel good about this and have stopped beating myself up over my shortened run on Sunday.

The key thing was that I got at least some of the run in. I am now fully back on schedule and feeling good.

I have to go to Toronto on business this week and am a bit worried about my running schedule. I am supposed to run a 26-K run tomorrow and then a run on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I have spend some time in T.O. before but not when I was a runner. I know down by the lake there is a whole network of trails, but I have no odea what they are like in terms of safety, length, etc. I am hoping my hotel concierge will be able to help me out.

My strategy is to do what I can and not focus too much on the distances. Something will be better than nothing.

Another week down and I have logged some serious kilometers this past week. According to the Garmin, here were my stats:

Total Distance: 54.63-K
Total Running Time: 4:42:04
Average Pace: 5:09 /km
Total Calories: 4359

I pretty much blew the calories this weekend as it was Easter - oh well. The runs were fine, except for Fridays which I talked about in my last post.

This weeks run starts on Sunday with a shorted long run of 16-k which I am looking forward to doing. It will be a nice change after last weeks 23-k. I make a real push at increasing the mileage over the next few weeks. I feel that my speed is improving and this will be a real test of how I can sustain that at the longer distances. Bring it on…

My run yesterday was one of those runs where it felt like I was schlepping around two dead weights. You know the feeling, your turnover feels super slow and the fir the whole run you can actually feel the weight of your quads as you lift your feet off the ground. It sure made for a long run.

I never really came up with a good strategy to deal with this. If I ran slower it was actually worse because I did not have the momentum. If I ran faster, it was no better as my legs began to burn quicker than usual. I thought about packing it in a bit sooner but the obsessive compulsive in me did not let that happen as I knew I had to finish 11-K or I just would not feel right.

So I persevered and ended up finishing the run and was proud of myself for doing so. I guess sometimes we just have these types of runs and rather than give up, it is probably better to continue on and finish. After all, in a race we can’t just give up because our legs feel heavy. No way.

If you are a guy and you have run for any extended period of time, then you will be very familiar with what I am about to talk about. If you are woman, then I have no idea if you go through the same thing but I suspect you do.

I made my nipples bleed the other day. That’s right – my nipples. Not something you hear everyday, and before I was even a runner I did not know that a guy’s nipples could bleed. I mean, I guess it makes sense that they can but it is not something I spend even an iota of time thinking about.

My nipple problem seems to flare up when I run in the rain. There is something about getting my shirt and jacket wet and the friction that creates to rub me just enough to open them up. I never really notice it while I am running – adrenaline, serotonin, whatever – but after I finish, take my shirt of and get down to some relaxation the burning hits me. You know the feeling – a pain that does not go away because if you put a shirt on the rubbing continues the irritation you and if you go shirtless the air freakin’ burns. No escape from the pain. I won’t even go into what happens when you get in the shower and the water pelts your nipples like a shotgun bringing a grown man close to tears.

I tried to explain the situation to my wife, but she had no sympathy explaining that our two kids took a round out of her when they were breastfeeding. This situation is not really something you discuss with the guys – “hey Frank, how are your nipples?” That could bring a guy more trouble than just bleeding nipples.

So here I am writing about my pain, using the only outlet I know of to talk openly about the plight of the male runner.

After a bit of research, I have discovered that there is some help. Some companies, although somewhat covertly, advertise and sell body chaffing reduction devices that more often than not never refer to the nipple for fear of offending someone. Other suggestions out there are to smear Vaseline on them, but then you are just a guy running around who looks like you are lactating. The best solution for me – the band-aide. I just stick a couple of these on and wa ‘la – no more bleeding nipples. At least until I forget to put them on and head out for a run in the rain….

The best invention for runners was the Sony Walkman. I think I was about 5 when that first came out and I remember it was big. However, I imagine runners at that time were in seventh heaven. I am sure it was much better than running with a ghetto blaster on your shoulder.

Look at where we are today, almost 27 years have passed and now I run with a 40gb iPod that plays videos. Quite a leap we have made and I can’t wait to see where we go next.

I listen to a variety of things on my iPod. For example, yesterday during my long run I finished listening to an audio book called “Ugly Americans” by Ben Mezrich that documents a bunch of stock traders making it big in Japan. Sometimes I listen to hard rock like Black Label Society and other times I listen to Lucian Pavarotti - it all depends on my mood and what I need to perform at my best during that run.

What do you listen to when you run?

I finished week 5 of my 18 week training program and I definitely feel like a stronger, more confident runner. I ran a total of 52-K with an average pace of 5:37, which is slightly slower than last week’s average pace. I did run about 11-K more this week so I cannot complain.

I started the week doing pretty much a half-marathon which felt good - I ran it much slower than I would have run a race but the whole point of the run was to ensure that I am building up endurance. I was tired once I was done, but not like I would have been had I run it as a race.

The Tuesday and Thursday runs stayed the same as last week (4.8-K), but the Wednesday and Friday runs have jumped up to 11-K. This is a lot to do during the lunch hour, so as I think I mentioned before I have started to get these runs done before work. My routine is that I head downtown at about 4:45 am, get my weight training in (got to build the guns!) and then head out for my run. It is very refreshing and energizing for the day. Makes for a pretty early bedtime however.

You can see how this week played out in the chart below:

I have been running with a Garmin Forerunner 201 for quite awhile now. I have read a few times about uploading the data from the watch to a site or program that allows you to view your route on a satellite map or street map. I thought I would try it out.
I started by trying out GPS Visualizer. GPS Visualizer is cool and I give the folks over there kudos for developing such a robust, and free, tool for GPS users to use. There are a million different settings, which took a while for me to figure out. My biggest complaint about the system is the file size you are allowed to upload.

The is a 2mb max on upload but my .hst file from my Garmin was over 8mb. I had to use a Forerunner Log Splitter to split my file into individual runs in order to use it with GPS Visualizer. The whole process just seemed to be too onerous.

I then came across SportTracks, which I found to be very interesting. SportTracks is free to try, but they hope that people will give them a donation for using their software. If I continue to use it I will definitely do that.

You are required to download the software onto your computer, but that went easily with no problems. I then made an export of my data from the Garmin Training Center and uploaded it to SportTracks. I was then able to view data on my runs, analyze them, and view detailed route maps.

I think that a user can effectively replace the use of the Training Center software that comes with the Garmin Units (other than for downloads from the watch). There are many ways to analyze your running data, see where improvements can be made and adjust your training program as a result.

The coolest thing was the integration of your running route into a satellite image. The program will overlay your route onto a map. You can zoom in , out and move around. An example of one of my routes is below. This is downtown Calgary running along the river.

One other cool feature I would like to mention is the ability to open your route in Google Earth. Maybe not too much extra you can do with this feature in terms of analysis, but it is cool nonetheless.

My 2nd favorite toy (next to my iPod) is my Garmin Forerunner 201. I love this thing. I do however consider it to be more than a toy. I truly believe that it improves my running performance.

I use the watch to track my distances required for each day of my training program, the pace I am running at, and the time it has taken me. These three metrics provide me with the crucial information I need to become a better runner.

Each day, I have a specific distance that is part of my training program. It is important to adhere to this distance correctly to ensure I don’t over or under train and to build up the correct mileage for the race I am preparing for. I found that prior to getting the watch I never really knew how far I had run – I knew how many minutes or hours it took – but I never knew the distance. The watch tells me how far I run in a given training session.

The other thing I didn’t know, which I consider to be more important, was my pace. I use pace as most other runners do; to determine how fast (or slow) I need to run to meet or beat a certain race time. I try to train to pace by varying my pace during different workouts, some faster, some slower. After running a few weeks with the watch I got to know my pace and when I was running faster or slower than average. For more detailed training, it has helped me train to a specific pace so that I am ready to meet my marathon goal of under 4 hours.

The last factor I look at is time. I don’t use time too much, other than to gauge how long it took me to run a certain distance. I use my pace more for this, as I know the faster I run the quicker I will reach my target distance. However, it is fun to watch as you break a new 10-K time knowing that your previous PR on a 10-K was 55 minutes and today you did it in 51-minutes.

One thing I have not got into at all with my watch is using some of the online features, such as the ones over at GPS Visualizer or RunOutside.com.

Today was a day of from Marathon training and it felt great. Yesterday was a 21-K’er that was pretty long for me and I had some sore dogs as a result. Today was a day of no running. I find that I really need these days off for a couple of reasons:

1. Give my legs and feet a rest
2. Makes me excited about getting back to it and completing that next run. Even though it is just one day, I find that I miss it enough to get motivated for that next day of training. Sometime, one day is not enough but not very often.

I consider rest days as part of my training plan and it works well for me. Some people like to run everyday or cross-train on the bike. I do strength training but usually completely avoid any emphasis on my legs. It works for me.