Toronto Marathon picture are posted!!!

The only one which doesn't look fuzzy, I am looking at my watch. Damn!


Good luck to all the New York Marathon runner this week end!

213 days to Ottawa

Still a hard day today. It is a little harder than I thought to get back to running. Tomorrow, I'll start bck biking to go to university, so at least I'll be doing some sports.

214 days to Ottawa

This is my first training since my last marathon a week ago... well I can say I had better training session! I am still recuperating from a naughty labyrinthitis infection that makes me dizzy while running, kinda like if I was drunk except I am not. I could only run for 30 minutes until I had to stop. I don't particularly like training indoors either, well, I had to start back one day!

Born to Run: the Human Advantage

An interesting theory on how human's capacity to run long distances may have played a role in evolution.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27well.html?_r=1

Most mammals can sprint faster than humans — having four legs gives them the advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals. On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon.

Three deaths at the Detroit Free Press Marathon

The three runners were running a half-marathon and died within 16 minutes of each other deaths. This is extremely unfortunate as on average only 6 or 7 runners die every year from running marathons in the U.S..



They only ran a half-marathon!

A marathon season ended, conclusions and future plans!

Wow, I still can't believe how much I've achieved this season. I started the season with a dreaded knee injury, I couldn't run (or walk!) for more than 20 minutes without feeling pain in my left knee. Then, everything went back to normal in May, where I could start training again. I was in Nice at that time and I ran the 10km cross in Sophia-Antipolis in 42:30 min. Then, I came back to Montreal and made plans to run my first marathon in October, which I did last week-end! I ran the Toronto Marathon in 3h17:47!.

This is the time of the year when I can relax a little and think about what I should work on this winter to prepare for next year.

My goal for next year are the following:

1. Qualify for Boston Marathon (3h10:59): I'll probably be able to qualify for Boston Marathon in Ottawa in May or in Montreal in September.

2. Run my fastest half marathon (1h34:54): I definitely want to beat that time. I now concentrate my efforts on running marathons, but I've run so many half-marathons in the past, it just seems I can do better now that I am in great shape.

We'll see how I do! I'll post how my training program and how much distance I've run each week.

How much should you drink during a marathon?

It used to be that you could never drink enough during a marathon. However, recent studies found that at the end of Boston marathon, 13% of runners suffered hyponatremia, condition caused by drinking too much water. The runner who most likely suffered hyponatremia are those who drank over 3 liters of water and finished in over 4h00.

The recommandation of the American Medical Athletics Association is:

If you're a marathon runner, what can you do to protect yourself? The standard advice is to avoid guzzling more water than you lose in sweat.

I may had, the only time when I felt I was overdrinking is when I tought that I had to drink just as much water as I could to compensate for my loss of sweat. The truth is, the more you drink, the more you sweat. The only true way I found to gauge my drinking is to listen to my body and drink when I feel thirsty.

Hiking Day in White Mountains Range: Pemi Loop

The Pemi Loop
 
What is it: 53km "day" hike with 2800m of up elevation.
How long: 17 hours

This trail is a 53km loop in the White Mountains Range in New Hampshire. We left at 4:45 am in the morning, all enthusiast about the incoming day of hiking. When I thought of doing 53km in a day, I thought of gentle hike with clear paths. But Pemi loop is not exactly made for the gentle hiker. Most of the path much better described as rock climbing than hiking. We were quite lucky as it was supposed to rain for the day and it didn't until we were almost finished (i.e. only 2 hours before we arrived). But it rained the day before and the rocky path was slippery almost everywhere which significanlty slowed us down as we had to pay extra attention to avoid injuries.

We started with tons of food, nuts, gatorade powder, granola bars, and other indispensible items for such a long hike. Well, at least, there was some left at the end, showing that we could have hiked at least 6 hours more, notwithstanding how exhausted we were at the end. I have to congratulate one of our mates that made it till the end even though he was not training for any marathons at that time.

Hiking Trip: Vallee des Merveilles Mountain Range in South of France

Here are my pictures from my hiking trip in Vallee des Merveilles. This "valley" is at 2200m of altitude at the border between France and Italy. This is on the May 8th week end which is a holiday in France. In Nice, the temperature was about 25 Celsius, which is perfect for the beach. However, as you can see, up there was a little chillier.

The "Valley of Marvels" got his name because of protohistoric rock carvings that were uncovered about a century ago. However, I couldn't see any of them because they were under 3 meters of snow.

A view from the Vallee des Merveilles

We parked the car at 1800m and we snowshoeed our way to the valley. The path is tricky because it was buried by an avalanche earlier this year. It took us about 6 hours to get there and we arrived just in time before the curfew at the refuge.

Another view of the Vallee des Merveilles

This was a gorgeous week end, and at the end of it, my face was tanned just like if I had spent 3 days at the beach. Except, the rest of my body didn't had the same sun exposure.

It was a sunny day

Caffeine and running: should you hold down that cup of coffee until the race?

This is a tricky question. Should you drink coffee before a race or is a habit of drinking one or two coffees a day healthy? Does caffeine has an impact at all on your endurance?

The link between caffeine and running performance is complex and not fully understood. Here are some excerpts to help you determine if coffee should be part of your daily life (or not!).

For athletes, the common worry about caffeine is its diuretic effects and the common belief that caffeine can dehydrate you faster than you would wish for. In fact, in a review study from researcher at the University of Connecticut, it seems caffeine does not have an increased diuretic effect for athletes.

[T]here is no evidence to suggest that moderate caffeine intake (<456 mg) induces chronic dehydration or negatively affects exercise performance, temperature regulation, and circulatory strain in a hot environment.

The New York Times also reported about it.

But is caffeine good for you? In a rather lengthy review article, caffeine was found that have a positive impact on the metabolism of endurance runners.

Caffeine does not improve maximal oxygen capacity directly, but could permit the athlete to train at a greater power output and/or to train longer. It has also ben shown to increase speed and/or power output in simulated race conditions. These effects have been found in activities that last as little as 60 seconds or as long as 2 hours. There is less information about the effects of caffeine on strength; however, recent work suggests no effect on maximal ability, but enhanced endurance or resistance to fatigue. There is no evidence that caffeine ingestion before exercise leads to dehydration, ion imbalance, or any other adverse effects.

Graham, T.E., Caffeine and Exercise: Metabolism, Endurance and Performance, Sports Medicine, Volume 31, Number 11, 1 November 2001, pp. 785-807(23).

Whatever you choose, it is important to be reminded that even though moderate consumption of caffeine can "increase alertness or ability to concentrate", too much caffeine will cause "insomnia, headaches, irritability and nervousness" (Health Canada).

My say on the subject: I'll keep on drinking those two cups of coffee a day!

The Cooper test and VO2Max

My friend came to me about starting out running and I'd like to give a few advice on helping you out. The very first thing to know is are you in good shape? Most training program assumes that you can run three times a week without difficulty and unfortunately this isn't the case of everybody unfortunately.

Thus, before getting you there, you need to know where you stand:

1. The Cooper test

Most training program will ask you to run at certain relative speed, compared to your VO2Max. The VO2Max is the largest amount of oxygen that your body can consume while performing a physical activity. Fortunately, you don't need to put yourself in an oxygen-controlled environment to measure up your oxygen consumption!

The Cooper Test is the most often used test to measure your VO2MAX. This test consist of running the longest distance that you can in 12 minutes. You can then check in a table how fast can you expect to run longer distances based on how you performed in 12 minutes. Thus, all you need to run a Cooper test is a watch and a method to measure your running distance.

How to measure your running distance?

If you don't have access to a running track, there are several tools to help you measure your distance:

MapMyRun

Map my run is a visual, easy-to-use tool based on Google Map, that allows you to calculate how long have you run and save your running history. However the advertisement can get annoying and clusters the website.

Google Earth

Google Earth comes without advertisement, does allow you to calculate your running distance, but doesn't allow you to save it for future references unfortunately.

Hiking: Yosemite Valley

The Yosemite Valley is an absolutely gorgeous valley east of San Francisco in California. I was there in July 2008 during my vacations. I spent two days in the valley, one day hiking the Yosemite Falls and the next day on the Half-Dome Trail. You don't need to be a hiker to enjoy Yosemite Valley as this valley is blessed by a beautiful landscape and much needed sunshine for those who are used to San Francisco weather

The signature "day" trail of Yosemite Valley is the Half-Dome trail, a 22.4 km hike with 1450m of up elevation. If you aren't camping directly in Yosemite Valley, you'll want to start early and make sure you have enough water as this trail is quite long and there is no water fountain beyond a certain point.

 

The Half Dome trail is named after the "half dome" shape of the peak.

Unfortunately, the last part of the trail is a heavily crowded ladder and depending on how crowded it is, it may take you up to an hour to reach the summit from this point. I therefore chose to go back as I feared to miss the last bus. Well, I am honest about it, I never finished the half-dome trail, but I was that close.

 The last stretch of the Half Dome Trail

The day before, I hiked the Yosemite Fall trail which is also extremely gorgeous. Yosemite Fall trail is shorter than Half-Dome trail and can be done in half a day (for a seasonal athletic hiker). This makes it a perfect hike if you arrive in the valley later in the day if you want to reach the summit before sunset.