The last race I entered for 2012, the 10k Energizer Night Run (13 Oct 12) turned out to be a good one. Running at night is a completely different experience from running during the day. It requires more concentration and more effort to maintain both speed and footing. Much like trail running, you can’t let your mind wander or you’ll trip up and land flat on your face. However, it’s extremely fun to race at night and a great atmosphere that I would recommend to everyone. I had

As I gear up for a big race this weekend (another 21.1k in Ottawa), I’ve been reflecting on how I’ve gotten to where I am today fitness-wise. There is no real secret. Just blood, sweat, and a lot of tears. My key is to have become more efficient in when I train and how I train. Nothing has helped me more than the training plan that my old running club in Quebec gave me. The core of their philosophy was high intensity interval training twice a week. These are multiple high spe

If you’re like me, you’re still too cheap to get an athletic massage after a race or a tough workout. A good deep muscle massage will increase circulation and speed recovery. Unfortunately, a real massage from a massage therapist will easily set you back $60-$100 for 1 session, which is not something us normal folk can easily get access too. The solution? Self-massage using any number of devices out on the market. I spoke about the foam roller before, but today I’m going to b

Finally, I’m going to finish up running in cold weather with what’s really important. What to wear. Pretty much I’m just going to outline my guidelines for what I wear, when, why and a couple of extra things you might not have thought of. And no, I’m not going to be your mother and lay your clothes out for you on your bed. Generally, what I wear goes by outside temperature but obviously there is a little bit of play within my temperature bounds based on rain, wind or anything

With winter coming up and fall already upon us, it’s time to gear up to be able to bear whatever mother nature throws at us. Just because it’s cold out or raining doesn’t mean we can’t train. Trust me, running in -40 Celsius can still be fun! Really, the key to running in adverse conditions is all about: 1) Layers; and 2) Fabrics. By keeping those two things in mind, you’ll be happily running in any type of conditions Today, I’ll limit myself to just talking fabrics. If you’r

Winter is upon us and what that means is more often than not running in the dark. Whether it be 5 PM in the afternoon or midnight, darkness is falling earlier and earlier. While it’s seemingly dangerous to be running along the road at night time, especially with all those horrible drivers out there, there are couple of things I do to try to make it just a little bit safer. Other than trying to wear lighter coloured clothing (which is not always easy based on my laundry schedu

On September 18, I ran my best ever half-marathon time (21.1km), in Ottawa during the annual Army Run. At 1:18:51, I placed 11th out of 6423 people. Broken down even further, that’s a 3:45 per kilometer pace and put me at 11/3256 men and 6/613 in my age group 20-29 (which is the most competitive!). That shattered my last personal best (PB) I set in 2009 in Kingston, ON which was 1:20:48. Shaving off 2 minutes is a pretty big deal, especially at those speeds and especially aft

Last week, on my way to Seattle I was lucky enough to be driving through one of the US’ national parks. Knowing that I was due for a run that day and I had my trail runners in the trunk, I decided to stop in and hit up the trails instead of waiting to arrive in the city. Trail running is great because unlike road running, it’s less about speed and time and more about the journey. Nothing beats running through pristine forest trails on a nice sunny afternoon. Trail running is

Training with the running club was extremely difficult due to the the high temperatures and humidity currently enveloping Quebec City. Although, it’s not as bad as the 40 degree weather a little further East, it’s still extremely difficult to train. Today at 1800, we were looking at 29 degrees Celsius with 70% humidity. Not fun when combined with a high volume week and tough intervals this evening. Today, for us 21.1k and marathon runners, was 4 to 5 times 2km with a 3 min br

I ran a 10k last Sunday in Sainte-Marie, Quebec and pulled out a new personal best. Although I don’t really run very many 10k races, it was nice to finally pull out a decent time. Even though I’ve been training with the Laval University Running Club since 2007, I never could best my 10k time from 2008 of 38:20. I always knew I was in better shape than 2008 as my 21.1k time was steadily decreasing but every time I would try a 10k there would be terrible conditions, an extremel

Among all the various running apparel including pants, shorts, shirts, fuel belts, hats, etc, nothing is more important than what you are wearing on your feet. It’s a pretty easy deduction but it still amazes me how most people aren’t wearing what they need but instead what was on sale at the store or what looks good at the time. Especially since what starts at your feet effects the rest of your body including your knees, hips and back. Having the right shoe prevents injuries

Last Sunday I raced the 21.1km Half Marathon in Ottawa, Ontario as part of the Canadian Forces (CF) National Running Championship which was part of the even bigger National Capital Marathon (NCM) Race Weekend. Ottawa is an excellent race. Very well organized and a fast, relatively flat course. This my first return to the CF championships since since 2008, where I placed 2nd in the CF Open Category (age 40 and under). This is an opportunity for Canadian Forces members to put t

You’ve seen them before. Admit it. You probably laughed out loud watching some sweaty guy run past you in a pair of spandex pants. ** Guys only though – No one laughs at girls in spandex. Actually… we guys encourage it ** Now I confess that yes, I run in tights. But no, not just any tights. My tights are actually tighter than your average tights and much tighter than that guy you laughed at. What I am talking about are “Compression Pants”. Compression pants are very tight pan

Biggest running workout this year. Man, it was tough. 4x 3km with a 4 min rest between each rep. That’s right! 3km of hard running at a time! Pretty hard to keep moving at that pace for such a long distance but this is the stuff that pays off when my long distance (21.1k and up) races come up. Beat my prescribed target time of 11:48 per rep with a blazing 11:17 – 11:19 the first 3 then a 11:11 for my last. I lost a couple seconds because of the snow on the ground (yeah, we ha

Just finished a 5k race at Laval University. It was a interesting sort of event as instead of the first that arrives is the winner it’s a prediction race. That means at start you guess what your time will be then the person with the finishing time that is closest to their prediction wins. I guessed 17:50, thinking I was being conservative but I ended up breaking myself after about 3k and after that it was really a rough time. Mentally, I don’t think I was in race mode as I co