Gingerbread and Trails

Today's run club meeting was fairly interesting. We hit the trails for a good chunk of our run and I may well have trail fever now. What changed?
It must have been about halfway through our first segment when I noticed a lack of impact pressure in my hips--not sure I mentioned that I got a diagnosis of mild hip arthritis recently. I could have run all day on the trails.
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I adhere to some fairly strict rules about nutrition. One major rule is that I don't eat foods that promote or cause inflammation (e.g. processed foods etc). Another is that I try to eat foods that reduce inflammation whenever possible (ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, green tea).  I have yet to reach the point when I run without at least a little notice in my hips, but I'm pretty sure I've stopped things from getting any worse.  This is little comfort because I will eventually have to give up serious running at some point.
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As it is now, any run over 21k has to be on a trail.
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Saskatoon's notoriously short autumn is about to give way to early winter.
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Brainsport just announced the 2016 Gingerbread Run.  I surprised myself by registering for the 5K. I'm eager to run a 5K with proper training (i.e. not one day removed from a 30k run... haha).

Autumn Rebound

Autumn has returned to Saskatoon. Since Autumn is not a particularly long season here it's probably a good idea to log those extra miles before we're all forced to wear spikes again. Thanks to the inevitable malaise, I have't been able to get anything done in the last two weeks, but I have a feeling that's about to change.
For starters, I've been able to determine from my Garmin that I have a 48 vo2 max. This is good news since I'm 190lbs, 40 years old and am not in shape (at least not by my standards).  So one of my goals this season is to see if I can raise that 48 to a 50.
I'm also eyeing the Brainsport Gingerbread Run 10K as an opportunity to get a 10K PR. Of course, the race goes off on November 20th, which is bound to be cold (and perhaps snowy as well).
Getting back to my fitness... I'm adding a new dimension to my fitness goals by making them public this time out. So here goes.

1. Lose up to 16lbs (but not less than 10lbs) by November 20th.
2. Raise my Vo2 Max to at least 50.
3. Run another 440k this year. (I'm currently at 872k for the year)
4. Perform at least 1 interval session per week.
5. Run up Andy's Hill (more on this in future posts).

Approaching Storm

Approaching storm. #meewasin #rain

A photo posted by John (@misterspalding) on Aug 4, 2016 at 8:17pm PDT

One really nice thing about living in Saskatchewan is the ability to see oncoming storms. It's quite a thing how they approach so quickly, despite looking so stationary.

A review of Brainsport's 100% Kenyan Roast Coffee

In the very recent past, Brainsport began offering coffee for sale at its store on 10th Street East. I make it a point of buying fair trade coffee from local businesses, so in buying coffee from Brainsport I am holding true to my beliefs.
I picked up a bag of their beans.  I should say at the outset because neither the weight nor volume are listed on the package, it's hard to make an educated guess as to whether the coffee is worth buying without your own scale.
Luckily I have a digital scale and was able to ascertain that the bag of whole beans (correcting for the tare weight) I purchased was 115 grams. Given a price of $8.80, this is incredibly expensive coffee.

But before we evaluate it, let's consider the claims made on the bag.  First, this is organic coffee. Second, it is from Kenya. Those are the relevant claims.  Searching the website listed on the bag, rockpapercoffee.ca, reveals that these coffee beans were roasted here in Saskatchewan.

Ordinarily I'll buy about 300 grams of Organic Fair Trade Ethiopian coffee beans from McQuarrie's Tea & Coffee Merchants for about $12.  For comparison's sake, you can buy about 454 grams of Tim Horton's coffee beans for about $7.50 at supermarkets.

For my review I prepared this coffee three times over two days in order to get a real sense of whether or not I might have an even more expensive coffee habit.

Cup #1. To be sure, after adding three tablespoons of coconut milk coffee cream (no sugar... ever), I was able to determine that, in fact, the coffee tastes like an organic fair trade coffee.  This is a very good sign.  Generally speaking I really dislike vegan coffee cream options, but with this blend of coffee it actually tasted okay.  Still, it's no better than the fair trade coffee I usually get.

Cup #2: Prepared "Bulletproof" style with 15ml of MCT Oil, 2 tablespoons of unsalted grass-fed butter, blended for 30 seconds in a blender.  This method produced one of the best cups of bulletproof coffee I have ever had.  I'm not sure exactly why this particular bean produces such a great cup of bulletproof coffee.  Could it be how it was roasted? Maybe it's the quality of nutrients in the soil where this coffee was grown?

Cup #3: Prepared with three tablespoons of 18% cream.  This was a good cup of coffee, but was it worth the cost?  Well, I'll defer that question.

At any rate, I think the cost of $8.80 (that's after GST is assessed) makes this a little too rich for my blood, though I'm sure I'll buy a few more of these from time to time.  The coffee isn't bad, and it's always a good thing to support local businesses.  I love the idea of offering Kenyan coffee!

New Goals... and the latest

One of the things I've been aware of lately is just how much of my time I've spent obsessing over upcoming races. Now that my racing season is basically over--regrettably, I've decided to give the Queen City Marathon a miss this year--and I don't have any races in the near future, I've begun to accept that I'm now running for fun.
As my body slowly repairs itself from the absolute pounding it took over the course of the 42 kilometres at the Manitoba Marathon, I've begun to miss running with groups.  True, I'm not exactly a social fixture, nor do I talk all that much, but I never-the-less miss the companionship of my fellow runners.
So rather than chase PRs (or PBs) this summer and fall, I want to make new friends and share my own experiences with others.
That said, I can finally tell you that my spouse Jasmine has taken up the religion of running... and she's preparing for her first 5K as well.

2016 EY River Run Classic

So a few days ago I switched my registration from the 5K to the 10K when it hit me that 1) I wasn't feeling 100%, and thus didn't think a 5K personal best was going to happen, and 2) I haven't run a 10K race in over two years.
What made this particular race interesting for me--and yes, the race has been run--is that I managed to get a 10K personal best despite having recently run faster during my training runs, despite having run 10 kilometres faster during half marathons, and despite not feeling anywhere near 100%.
It's odd to call it a personal best because I've done better on several occasions. Yet, oddly enough, because I never seem to train for 10K's or be prepared for them on race morning, I was able to snatch a personal best.
So when I say "unprepared," I mean to say that I've run once in the past twenty-three days. Now, in my defence, I did run a marathon on June 19th, so it's not as if I skipped too many runs.  I should also add that I wasn't even sure what pace I should run--ultimately I ran about the same pace as my last half marathon--or what shoes would make best sense.
No, I just went out and ran. No headphones and no robot voice coach telling me my splits, I just ran. Obviously with my hip nagging me, I found it hard to maintain my stride.  Here is probably where I should note that I had my hip x-ray'd yesterday, just in case; and as it turns out, it would seem that my problems are of a soft tissue nature.
Naturally, I have to decide whether I'm going to now take 2-6 weeks off from running to let my hip heal itself and probably kiss the Queen City Marathon goodbye (in which case, I'd have to switch to the half marathon) or live on anti-inflammatories, suck it up and keep running.  For once, I may just do the sensible thing and cross train while I recover.

The long and surprisingly winding road of marathon recovery

Members of the Saskatoon Road Runners descending the hill at McPherson Avenue (aka "Big Mac").

If I've learned anything, it's that how the first run after a marathon (or a hard-run half marathon) is going to go is usually a mystery until I've actually begun it.  Such was the case on Monday when I laced up my New Balance 890 V5's and joined the Saskatoon Road Runners on their Monday evening hill work session.
It was not until I took the first few steps in a running posture that I felt a sharp (albeit not-painful) bit of something on my let side near my hip flexors.  This was the same stiffness that wrecked my running form near the end of the Manitoba Marathon.
It's hard to say what was happening, but I kept running because I was curious. The feeling eased a bit, but still felt stiff at times.  Stiff.
My guess is that I probably ripped some muscle fibres in my hip flexor near the end of the marathon. When it heals up, somebody needs to do more core work.  Hmmm...

So that's where things are right now.  I've taken it real easy this week--today is the first day I've done any push-ups or core work.  I'm probably going to need to do some planking this evening, along with more push-ups, and probably a bit of stretching as well.

There are just under two and a half months until the Queen City Marathon in Regina.  That's plenty of time to get ready.

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In other news, New Balance Saskatoon is closing.  Given the economic situation in Saskatoon, I can't say I'm terribly surprised. Things are not too bad here, but I wouldn't say Saskatoon can support the kind of businesses that Edmonton and Calgary can.  At any rate, I'm a little sad over the closing since--for whatever reason--I've come to appreciate the New Balance brand.  NB makes some of their shoes in North America, which is a pleasant surprise.

[There's an article here about the struggle businesses on Broadway Avenue are facing].