Monthly Archives: February 2011

Freeze Your Gizzard Half Marathon Win!

Posted by Erin Poirier in Half Marathon, racing, Winter Running and tagged with , , , ,

A wise person once said that running is a very lonely obsession. Yet the paradox is that it builds confidence & strangers look out for each other.  This quote was on my mind today as I raced my first tune-up race of this training cycle.  I’ll tell you why in a moment.

For the last 4 years, I’ve come home to PEI to run the PEI Road Runners Club’s Freeze Your Gizzard Half Marathon in Montague.  I have the option to do the Halifax Hypothermic Half but “Freeze your Gizzard” is way more fun to say and it’s a tradition that my aunt Dawn, a runner, and I share with each other.

Half Marathon start line on a cold day

Freezing Freeze Your Gizzard Start Line

This morning, when I woke, the race day forecast was -15.  Not really ideal race temperature.  Indeed, I was worried that my gizzard may in fact freeze.  My Asics & Aerobics First sponsored Speedstars were making their race debut.  No way the Speedstar’s gizzard was gonna freeze, she’s smokin’ hot (pink).

I was mildly nervous about the reaction to my flaming hot pink shoes but no one paid me much mind as I registered and warmed up around the start.  Exactly one other runner was warming up- a sign of how cold it was.  My head felt like an ice cube during my 3km warm up but the rest of me was warm.

Soon, we were off, headed to “downtown” Montague.  My race goal was to run at marathon pace, 4:30/km.  The first 5km passed quickly without much incident, I was careful not to run too fast because it would have been very easy to run faster than goal pace.  4:30 splits (time for each km) are easy to count.  I passed a few runners as the field evened out. I was aware that I was the lead female.

At km 7, at the top of a very steep hill and on the crest of a beautiful downhill, I caught up with a very nice male runner.  “I was waiting for this downhill!” I said.  He agreed.  He was running a good pace and I would have blown my pace if I passed him.  So I stayed next to him (or sometimes a few steps behind).  For the rest of the race.

Herein lies the beauty of being a runner, in a community of road racers, where you look out for strangers .  And strangers become kind and dear race partners.  I never met this guy before.  Yet we contentedly ran together for 14km.  Around km 12, I asked him his name.  He was Mike.  Mike is good because I already have a running Mike and he’s great.  New Mike and I had a similar race goal.  He was worried about falling off pace.  I was worried about losing female lead.

Winter Half marathon runners surrounded by snowbanks

Racing a few steps behind new Mike

I didn’t think about much between km 5 & 15.  I was counting my splits in my head, meeting my splits more or less, give or take an uphill or a downhill.  Occasionally I said a few words to Mike.  I thought once or twice about my coach Cliff and about how I believed I could run this pace because he believed I could run this pace.

My lovely aunt Dawn chose not to run this year and became Lead Cheerleading Officer, along with her brother Dana.  I was super happy to see them every few km.  She made one double-back to warn us of a particularly icy area where the lead male fell.  She called out our place in the field and I said to Mike, “Good, we’ll hold this and you’ll be 6 and I’ll be 7.”  I wanted him to know that I wasn’t going to hang on with him, let him share the work with me, only to blow by him like a jerk during the last km.

Last year, during this very race, I placed second female, after leading the race until km 15.  Fast Islander Rebecca caught me and I couldn’t catch her again.  There’s one turn-around point in the race around 8km and I saw then that she was about 800m behind me.

1:04 was the last coherent split I thought of and this wasn’t even a correct split.  The ability to count is a mental faculty that I always lose in a race.  My real Mike will confirm that it sometimes even shuts off in our workouts with Cliff.  Between km 12 & 16, I was imagining fast Rebecca breezing by me again.  I didn’t struggle this race except with this fear.  Finally around km 16, I asked Dawn how far back she was.  Dawn said, “way behind, run baby!” so I ran easily from then on.  Cliff told me to pick it up at km 16 but I didn’t.  There are 2 huge hills in the last 5km, and aside from course difficulty, I didn’t want to be a jerk in a fun tune-up race.   Race friend Mike fell on the ice at the turn-around at km 18.  I stopped with him until he got up, we walked a few steps and then continued because he was unharmed.

We crossed the finish line 6th & 7th and I held onto lead girl to win the female field in 1:35:44.  We hugged.  The win felt great.  This was my first race as Erin Poirier and with my pink panthers (Asics Speedstars).  Happy to report they both race well!  Full race results here

Racers hug at a half marathon finish line

Finish line hug from fellow racer, Mike

Why I am Eating Butter with Peanut Butter

Posted by Erin Poirier in marathon training, Sports Nutrition and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Special blog, cowritten by Erin Poirier + Janna MacKay

My dad isn’t too happy about my plans to run across The Gambia.  “You’re just a little slip of a thing.  It’s too much running!” he says.  Somewhat true. I am a “slip of a thing” or to be more technical: skinny. But the running, I know that I’m fit enough to do it.

A look at a marathon runner's lunch box

What I pack for lunch, pre-Janna

Last year, during my Boston Marathon training cycle, under Coach Matt Sheffield, my natural body weight seemed to reset.  I started in mid 120 lbs and ended less than 120lbs, where I’ve remained.  Nutrition and weight are important factors in my training.  My weekly mileage is 85+ km per week.  I’m hungry all of the time.  Except at 3:30pm every Tuesday and Thursday when I absolutely must eat to fuel for my track workouts.  Sometimes I lament my hunger & force-eating problems to people in my life and they say “I wish I had that problem.”  I smile and nod and think to myself, “Sure, it’s easy.  All you have to do is run 85km per week.” I digress.  I need to fuel myself properly for my running and I’m concerned about maintaining the best weight.

Runners often wonder if losing weight will make you faster.  The answer is almost always yes.  But only to a point. Lose too much weight, and you become weaker and slower, not stronger and faster.  According to Runner’s World’s Amby Burfoot, healthy runners will race about two seconds per mile faster for every pound they lose. Weight loss boosts maximal aerobic capacity (VO2 max), an essential contributor to distance-running potential, because the less weight you carry around, the more miles per gallon you get from your oxygen. And because losing a few pounds makes running easier, you should be able to increase your workout distance and speed. So losing weight helps you train harder. Read more here

In terms of finding and maintaining my healthiest weight, as well as my fastest weight, I don’t really know what the actual balance is.  Last year at Boston, I raced really well at my newly reset weight under 120lbs.  But I also know that I’m skinny and that I likely hover close to “becoming weaker and slower.”

This January, with my father’s words on my mind, I thought about how I would stay healthy through this long training cycle and onto my plane to Africa.  It became clear that I needed nutrition help.

I thought of a super Sports Nutritionist colleague,  Janna MacKay, who I met while working on Public Health’s response to the H1N1 outbreak.  I loved working with Janna because we could talk about sports.  She seemed like the perfect person to help me with balancing maintaining weight and staying fast.  During our first meeting, she asked me about my goal.  It was simple: “don’t be too skinny when I leave for Africa.”

I submitted 4 days of food diaries to Janna and we were off and running!

Take it away Janna!

Sports Nutritionist Janna MacKay

Meet Janna MacKay!

Thanks Erin!

Erin (and her father) are smart to enlist the help of a nutrition professional in this expedition. So often, athletes log hours and hours of training only to come to race day and wonder what they’re going to eat. Nutrition is a key part of training and I’m happy to be a part of this fantastic journey.

My goal for Erin is to ensure that she stays at a competitive weight leading up to Boston and is able to quickly transition to training for The Gambia.

Basically, what I did was get an idea of how many calories Erin was eating (through her food diaries) and how much she was burning through lifestyle & activity. It sounds simple, but this aspect of the job is difficult. It is highly variable and depends on the accuracy of food databases, nutrition facts panels, activity calculators and of course, Erin. From this I was able to compare Erin’s estimated daily caloric intake to her calorie needs for age, height, weight and activity level. This gives me a starting point to make recommendations, which Erin and I will modify together throughout her training.

Erin not only needed more calories overall but also better timing of carbohydrate & protein in regards to her training schedule. Some days Erin was easily burning 1000+kcal just for her workout, and up to 3000+kcal in one day. Many people exercise to slim down, so high calorie burns is a good thing. For Erin, and other athletes, this fuel needs to be fully replaced… which can be difficult if you don’t have a strategy in place.  Erin is eating about 2300cal per day and I’d like to see her average 2800-3000 calories per day.
Marathon runner's high calorie, high protein lunch

What I pack for lunch, after Janna's intervention

One of Erin’s concerns was that she feels like she’s always eating. So, my goal was to find ways to incorporate more nutrient & calorie dense foods, without increasing the volume of food, hence the addition of peanut butter to her buttered bagel. Erin also drinks about 2-3L of water per day, so I suggested swapping out a few glasses of water with pure juice or milk. Mixing up a few of her snacks to include a good mix of carbs and protein will also help fuel her workouts. Some examples are: an apple and string cheese, greek yogurt & berries, clementines & trail mix or peanut butter & jam sandwich.

Marathoner adding butter to high calorie lunch

Mmmm Butter...

Other goals we are working on are: hydration methods as well as pre-exercise, recovery and training nutrition.  Right away, I’d like to see Erin consistently take in 30-60g of carbohydrate per hour during her long runs.  This will include fuel from energy gels & sports drinks. I think this will make a difference in allowing her to maintain energy levels & performance during long training sessions. This also gives her a chance to practice different refueling strategies that she will use during competition.

The training diet is something that needs to be practiced and tweaked. I look forward to working with Erin. She is a hard worker and highly motivated, which makes my job that much more rewarding.

This is just the beginning. Stay tuned!

Asics Sponsorship & Eating Pink Words

Posted by Erin Poirier in Running shoes and tagged with , , , , , , ,

My “campaign CEO” Luke MacDonald came up with another Love4Gambia campaign win for me this week.  He pitched my campaign to run across The Gambia to Asics and together they are sponsoring my footwear.  This sponsorship begins now, in my Boston Marathon buildup, which is totally sweet!  Luke For The Win!

I met Luke at Aerobics First today.  I’d shared with him that I needed a new pair of lightweight racers asap.  My racers usually last me 400-500km and my last pair’s life expired 2 weeks ago.  I’m lucky to be a light runner and am pretty biomechanically efficient so I can take advantage of lightweight performance trainers for speed training and racing.  My left foot does pronate (rolls inward) a little bit so I need to use Arch Molds (click here for more info) in my racers to maintain biomechanical efficiency.

Some of you may know my pink-running-thing.  Thing being don’t wear pink.  I can’t really explain where this came from, it’s just always been my thing.

So I meet Luke at the store and he’s really excited to show me the performance trainers that he’s ordered from Asics for me.  “There gonna be really fast!” he announces.

“Are you ready?” he asks.  And he opens the box:

Asics Speed Stars

“Oh. My. Gawd.” I say.  I look at him with a mix of disbelief and laughter in my eyes.  “Those sure are pink!”

“Asics Gel Speed Star! Couldn’t find a more perfect shoe for a sponsor to put you in” he says happily, very satisfied with himself.

Gotta agree with him here.  Probably these racers will start a few conversations.

The Speed Stars fit like a dream.  They feel like light and bouncy cocoons on my feet.  They sit close to the ground which I like for speed and response but, at the same time, I can feel the gel cushioning that I so love Asics for.  They also have asymmetrical lacing- a feature I also like a lot for smooth fit.  And “Speed Stars”- totally cool name.

Luke, Erin and PINK

I can’t wait to try these out tonight.  My workout is long marathon-pace intervals, a perfect beginning for Speed Stars.  I have the PEI Road Runner’s Freeze Your Gizzard Half Marathon next weekend so I’ll look forward to sharing a review of my Speed Stars’ racing debut with you on my blog.

Now here is what I think (while I eat every single anti-pink word ever spoken). Pink is the new fast.  Just call me Pink Panther.

Asics Speed Stars

Asics Speed-Stars made Runners World’s 2010 honour roll, see the review here

 

Seinfeld on the Track

Posted by Erin Poirier in marathon training, running and tagged with , , , ,

Indoor track

I train twice a week with coach Cliff and club members and I was thinking that I would write a blog about a hard track workout.  It would describe what I think about, what it feels like, how I get ‘er done, especially when they are physically challenging and environmentally challenging (read indoor hamster track inexplicably shaped like an octagon).  Last week, we ran indoors for one workout and I was solo- my guys were both racing on Sunday.  The workout was 8 x 1km repeats @ 10km pace in sets of 2 with 30 seconds rest between and 2.5 minutes between sets.  So perfect material.

But, I can’t write that blog because what I learned is this: Seinfeld.  What do I think about while running 8 x 1000m?  Nothing.

Aside from counting my splits, I had about 3 distinct thoughts.  Mostly, I was out there just counting up to 4 minutes and 8 seconds per km.  For me, counting is mentally soothing and rhythmic and relaxing and goes like this on a crazy-shape-and-distance track: :57, 1:54, 2:51, 3:48, 4:08.  I love knocking these off systematically.  I’m running hard, working hard but, like I said, it’s relaxing to hit these times repetitively.  Occasionally, I make eye contact with my coach and and he nods approvingly and says, “Good girl.  Keep it smooth.  Stay relaxed.”  I also love this because it’s relaxing and soothing and the opposite of him yelling (and he can yell loudly) to slow down because I’ve disobeyed his pace orders or to clean up some part of my stride that we’ve been working on improving for weeks.  So he just smiles and nods and I just run and count to 4 minutes and 8 seconds.

Occasionally, I have what’s like an automated PSA from somewhere in my brain that tells me to run tall or to clean up my footstrike or to length my leg extension through my hips.  Sometime these are transmitted in my voice, sometimes in Cliff’s.  I think they work on a bio-feedback cycle that I don’t have control over because they never start with a thought like, “wow, my footstrike is really sucking right now.”  So I don’t count them as “thoughts” because they aren’t really conscious.  They are just messages that I respond to.

What were my 3 thoughts during 8 km of running @ 10k pace?

1. Wendy’s big bacon classics are delicious
2. I am going to draft off him (one of Canada’s best masters runners) for the 22m that he is close to me every lap because his stride is so damn beautiful
3. This is the last one

Seinfeld & nothing over and out.

Runrunners Relay: PSA voice asking for leg extension and "Kenyan arms" was strong

 

Kinetesis Sports keeps me running

Posted by Erin Poirier in marathon training and tagged with , , , , , ,

Let me tell you a little bit about you Dr. Jason Gray & Kinetesis Sports Injury & Performance Clinic.  Like several kind others, Jason will be helping me reach my goal of running all the way across The Gambia through his generous sponsorship.  Jason’s role is specific.  He is a chiropractor and through an in-kind donation of free treatment, Jason will help ensure that my body is strong and healthy when I run my first steps at the Senegalese border, heading to the Atlantic Ocean in Banjul.

In the sports film, “Invictus,” President Mandela (Morgan Freeman) asks rugby player Francois (Matt Damon) how he is doing.  Francois answers “to be honest, you’re never really at 100%.”  This stuck with me as I feel the same way during a marathon training cycle.  You pray you’ll be 100% on race day.  But during training, amid high mileage, long long-runs and challenging track workouts, you’re often not at 100%.  During your training, pros like Jason, can help keep you as close to 100% as possible.  Kinetesis Sports Injury & Performance Clinic uses a number of highly effective diagnostic and treatment techniques – including video motion analysis, biomechanical assessment, Active Release Techniques®(ART®), functional rehabilitation exercises, and sport specific conditioning- to both treat existing injuries, as well as help athletes prepare their bodies for peak training and competition.

I’m not injured right now and Jason’s expert care is helping me stay that way.  We’re working on areas of biomechanical weakness- treating areas with scar tissue build up and strengthening my body so it can run its best through spring race season and onto my plane to Africa in July.  This stuff, conditioning and strengthening work, is really easy to ignore in favor of more fun activities (i.e. more running!) It’s also easy to ignore by rationalizing your performance.  I could tell myself that I’m not injured, that my body is adapting to 80km/week, that I ran a 1:33 half marathon in late fall, that I can totally just focus on running!  But if I’m going to survive this long training cycle, strength training and correcting biomechanical problems may be one of the most important parts of this training cycle.

Also, as part of his biomechanical assessment, Jason provided me with video evidence, including glowing arrows pointing at my weak spots.  Kinda like a cartoon with a neon sign blinking “Bad! Bad!”  Even I can’t rationalize that!  He’s a smart man. If you want to access some of Jason’s knowledge right this second, read his sports blog or view the webscasts on his Kinetesis website here.

A marathon is a long race, a long time to run and a long time to think.  I always save the mid-miles of a marathon, kilometers 21 through 32, for thinking about the people that allowed me to get to the starting line.  Come April 18, at the Boston Marathon, Jason will be among these people.  So thanks Jason & Kinetesis Sports for keeping me on the roads and for generously supporting my mission to run across The Gambia in July.  I’ll have plenty more time to think on the 430km road to Banjul.

Dutifully performing Myrtle Hip Routine aka "Shakira Hip Routine"