Yaaaarg

I guess it’s been awhile since I last checked in.  Well, I’m in the midst of a high stress level couple of weeks.  Why?  Change.

Yes it’s time to change from speed to base.  From summer to fall.  From sleeping in to getting up early.  Back to taking care of the little things like tiny aches and pains endured from a season that has almost all but finished.

Change isn’t always a bad thing.  And on that note I’ve decided to hire a coach this year.  With some careful consideration my decsion was to go with the folks at LifeSport.  I had a nice long chat with Paul, one of the top coaches and it seemed like a good fit for me this year.  I’m excited for this “change”.

On the weekend I had another taste of pace bunnying.  I you remember, I paced the half marathon (1:39:51) for the Ottawa Race weekend.  This time I got the promotion for the 1:30 bunny at the 2nd annual Army Run.  My longest run up until this point had been about 12K .  But the pacing went really well.  Great in fact. 

My pacing was bang on for kms 2-15 and 17-21.  I had about 10-15 people with me until the 15K mark.  At this point it got whittled down to 6.  At the 15K mark there was a “blip” which caused a few people to fall back.  I mean for Ottawa standards it was a hill.

The coolest part of the entire race was at the 20K mark I met a gentleman who was walking.  Myself and another chap encouraged him to keep going.  He joined in our group and finished in just under 1:30.  Turns out he needed to go under 1:30 to qualify for the New York Marathon!  I was pumped to see him accomplish that goal.   I ended up finishing in 1:29:44. 

I’m thinking that I’d like to continue pacing but move up to the 1:25 time.  It’s a great way to get in a long tempo run while helping people achieve their goals.

Lastly it was Figs birthday on Monday.  Hard to believe the little guy is 1!  Hopefully it’s a good sign of things to come.

Up next is a trip home to Nova Scotia to get some time with the fam.  Also, I’m going to be promoting multisporting to some of the local schools.  Should be a great time!

Happy (Figs stop eating Amandas sock!) Trainin!

Cliff