Sunday 3 June 2012

Blog#L


Renew the Love and the 401

Sorry folks, I guess it has been a couple weeks since that last blog so here we go. Topics for this blog post; work,  post 10k, 401 recap, for the love of running. Hold on tight.  So the past few weeks have been super busy with work.  I have been doing some really nice work lately.  This past week I built a great deck and pergola.  It has to be one of the most impressive things I have built to date.   Check it out. 


I was super happy with it. Lots of attention to detail in the herringbone corners and the posts beams and trim.   The Homeowners loved it. All is good!

So back to the week after that 10 we talked about in the last blog. Holy hell folks that hurt.  I hurt for a full week.  The legs were just beat up, I was able to keep working out and keep the mileage up it just took longer into warm-ups to get the calves working.  I didn’t get back to feeling normal until the Saturday after, which was basically just in time for the 401 distance series to get started.

So onto the 401 distance series.  5000 on the Wednesday night down there in London.  High quality deep fields on a good night with only a little wind.  So I found myself in the second heat, with a great pack of guys.  One of the first times in my life folks I ran smart, hung out in the pack rolling 71...laps.  And as I felt myself naturally move up on a guy I went around and found myself right behind a guy in second with just over a 1k to go.  I was feeling great, I actually thought to perhaps make a bit bolder move and take the lead with 800 to go but hesitated and then the leader made a bit of a move and I was just trying to hang on.  I rigged up a bit in the last 500m, ok perhaps got a bit ugly.  I ended up running 14.54.07 just under a 6 second PB.  That last 100m hurt, I don’t really recall much thought I held it together better, but apparently I got to the line and just flopped over. Left some of my stomach on the Western Turf and called it night.  Check out the race here, Heat 3...


It still hasn’t sunk in to me that I am a sub 15 guy, that was my biggest fear going into that race that I would not break 15 again and everyone would say I was a one hit wonder like Aqua or Hanson.  Then when I was loading the video I saw it was 15.40 long. I said to myself “damn I wont even see myself finish”  I am excited.  In the words of Ricky Bobby “I wanna go fast”

Early this spring when the list of races came out and we were told to fill out when we would like to race I put in the Speed River Inferno column “if shit gets crazy John Mason 1500m”  Suggesting that if pig could fly or if it snowed in june that I John Mason would spike up for a 1500m.  You see folks I have not raced in a 1500 since grade 12 at the county meet.  My PB would be 4.29 with an unofficial PB coming in a 3000 later that summer in 4.25.  But after that 5k I was pumped to see what I could do in the 1500, knowing it would for sure be a PB.  I really had no idea how this 1500 would feel, nor did I have a clue how to run one, but I knew there was less than four laps so it couldn’t be that bad.  So boom the gun goes and I find myself in the mix of a 1500, there were a bunch of French guys, some high school lads.  Hey ever wonder why French people always look so fit? All of them, even if they are not, those Frenchmen looked 10x as fit as me on that line.  Anyway, were off first lap was good 63 and then things settled in a bit and we went through 800 in 2.11-2.12.  You see before my warmup I told Taylor Milne that if I broke 4 min I would do something to the track and that he would have to clean it up.  So through 400 knowing my lack of closing speed Milne yell “gotta go johhny you need some money bank” Through 800 Milne now getting worried by the slowing pace yells “really gotta go you need more money in the bank” Any who from there on I took the lead and started to push, I realized the was less than 2 laps left and I hadn’t started to hurt yet, so that was new.  I don’t know the rest of the splits but so hot shot high schooler had more wheels than me and I ended up second in 4.01.  It was good enough for a post race interview with DST, probably should have put a shirt on. Ladies eat your hearts out 


Full race is here

This racing a bunch has been fun, I like it, a lot.  I haven’t been taking it too seriously .  I think that has been good.  Last fall I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well, you kind of have to do well when you only work part days so that you can be better.  If I wanted to be average or mediocre I would have a full time job and do this running on the side. But I want better.  So one night this spring having coffee with a friend,  I told said friend how I needed to get my shit together and be better.  Said friend told me to not stress over it so much, enjoy it, do it for the reason you do it because you love it.  This friend explained that I really was doing things right and that I had to get better.  So I have tried to apply that,  all races this spring I have showed up just in time to warm up and do my own thing. I haven’t thought about paces or time, or watched splits, I have just gone out and raced, and so far its going well.  I was thinking about this today on my long run.  I was in the Dundas Valley trail system.  This set of trails is incredible, some serious rolling hills that go on forever.  I could have easily run for hours there today, I was planning to go out for 90 + minutes and ended up getting back to the truck just under 2 hours.  I love it in those trails, just love it.

I got to thinking the other day that there are three type of people in the word.  There are wrench people, vise grip people, and people that don’t know what I’m talking about. You see wrenches are designed for nuts and bolts, they are cut to the correct size for a specific nut/bolt.  They are well crafted, take skill and knowledge to quickly grab the correct size from the tool box.  Vise Grips or Locking pliers are a handy man special, they are adjustable, they also do a half ass job, they can round off the corners of a bolt and make one heck of a mess.  Dont get me wrong vise grips have made many a field fix on the farm and can get the job done.


So in life you have three options you can be a wrench, you can be a set of vise grips, or you can be an average tool.  Either way stay safe out there folks


John

1 comment:

  1. Dude, you gotta let me know when you come to Dundas Valley

    ReplyDelete