If you read the blog, and I hope you do, you know that I started running less than two years ago in an effort to not not run. I’ve had two injuries since then — one a serious ankle sprain that kept me off my feet for nigh on ten weeks, and the other a nagging owie of the hip that I’ve learned is altogether normal for folks who run long distances.
While I’ve completed six half marathons and a full marathon in the past 12 months, I’ve done less and less training as time goes on. I’m going to ease off the official races — I now have a war chest of tech shirts, each with event logos and sponsors plastered all over them — I plan to spend my energies on a more consistent routine of distance and elevation.
I know what you’re thinking:Jason, consistent routine? Jason Kurylo?!?!?!? Yeah, this is taking me by surprise, too.
So what’s the point, you ask. Between doing the Portland and Seattle Rock n Roll half marathons — which I enjoyed — and the BMO Vancouver full — which I most assuredly did not — I had spent most of the early summer tapering, resting or building domestic karma so my wife didn’t mind me going all over hell and highwater to collect a few more finishing medals. Then came Vancouver’s heat wave, which made it just plain unpleasant to put in any serious mileage. Three weeks ago, finally, I started running again.
I decided not to ease into it. Rather than just hitting my regular haunts, such as the Central Valley Greenway in and around Burnaby Lake, I decided to enter some hills into the mix. Where before I would keep to flats and vary only my pace, I’ve now jumped straight into several kilometres of hills to start each run. Hey, I live in North Burnaby. Why not make Broadway to Hastings a regular thing, amirite?
It’s paying off, too. While I haven’t attempted a half marathon distance since Seattle#Gr, I’m seeing results on that granddaddy of local rites of passage, the Grouse Grind. For those in the don’t-know, the Grind is under three klicks in length, but puts hikers through nearly 900 metres of elevation gain before rewarding them with a stunning view of Vancouver, Stanley Park, Burrard Inlet and North Vancouver. I mean, what a pill to swallow! Well, at least the snacks are overpriced.
When I first started doing the Grind a few years ago, I was twenty pounds heavier, and took in the neighbourhood of an hour and a half to get to the top. After a while, I slimmed down somewhat but just could not break the one-hour barrier. Two summers ago, I started running, to train for our (successful!) attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Somewhere in there, Dr Rob pulled me up the Grind in just under an hour.
Last year, I took a pass on Grouse Mountain altogether, but with this spate of hill training, I bought a season’s pass and have gone up once a week. On Saturday afternoon, I managed to turn in a time of 56 minutes and 16 seconds, knocking more than a minute off my previous personal best.
There are thousands of people who do the Grouse Grind more quickly than I, but how many of them are setting personal records as they creep up on their 45th birthday?
Onwards and upwards. My next goal is a two-parter: set personal best marks in both legs of the Vancouver Rock n Roll event in late October. The 10km event is on Saturday, October 24. If I cross the line in the same 56:16 time I got on the Grind this weekend, it’s a PB. The following day, we run the half marathon — 21.1 kilometres. There, I have to beat two hours, thirteen minutes and some-odd seconds. I hope to knock at least a few minutes off that bad boy; let’s say anything under 2:10:00 will make me as happy as an onwards pig in upwards poop.
Or some simile involving less disgusting visuals.
