My apologies folk(s)- I sort of checked out from the blog for a bit, and initially had a recap written for the Queen's Open, but it never got posted, and since Waterloo was yesterday, I'd say I'm due for a decent update. I'll start right into it with the events preceding the Queen's Open.
Arriving into Kingston the Friday night before I wasn't even confident I'd be racing, since I had a hamstring flare up on Thursday that threatened to derail my plans for the weekend. The only comfort with this issue is that I've had it before- I always feel a little better when I know what the potential recovery time will be as opposed to facing the dim prospect of the unknown. In the case of my right hamstring, it was almost exactly a year ago that a similar flare up (and that's really the best way I can describe it) derailed my plans to crash the McMaster team time trial. The mistake I made last year was continuing to run when a certain pain threshold had been reached. This year, I played it cautious when it was clear the pain was approaching a similar level, and so weekly mileage goals were sacrificed to give myself the best chance at being back at 100% quickly.
Saturday morning bending my knee did not produce noticeable pain, and the pre-race warmup at Fort Henry Hill resulted in some tightness but overall nothing that had me worried about a setback, and so I elected to go with the original plan to tempo the first five kilometres of the race and then go into race mode from there. I was aware that the Queen's boys were following a similar plan, except that the racing for them would start with 2.5k to go.
Off the gun, the entire field went out conservatively, and I went out like a Wetmore-coached Buffalo from the University of Colorado (at the back of the field). During the first lap, I was thoroughly enjoying this particular reintroduction to collegiate cross country- the pace I was moving at was reasonable but well within my control, and it was a beautiful sunny day, albeit a bit warm. Without being in the racing mindset, I had no concept of place. Ahead of me were singlets from Guelph, Queen's, York, and others, but as to how many, I really wasn't concerned.
By the second lap my tempo pace began to allow me to move up through the field and I settled in with a decent pack of guys sitting back from the boys from Queen's leading the race.
At 5K, I was feeling great (the best I've ever felt on-route in a 10k race to be truthful) and increased the pace into race mode as planned. I didn't catch many guys after the third lap as most of the horses in front of me were of a certain quality, but I was also never passed by anyone once I went by. Overall I ran 33:24 for a less than full-out effort- not a bad day at the office for me.
I enjoyed the rest of my weekend in Kingston, but paid for it come Tuesday with a sore throat that signalled a cold on the way. After a workout that evening the symptoms set in with full force and until Saturday my days were a toss-up between 5 easy miles or no running at all.
Saturday I was well enough to attempt a tempo workout and did so. Despite having fluid in my chest, it was a good workout considering the days preceding it and Saturday quickly turned into a double day with some easy miles in the afternoon. Red flags should possibly have gone up when my right vastus medialis (one of the muscles that makes up the quadriceps) felt sore in the evening, but I thought nothing of it and went ahead with the planned long run the next day.
Unfortunately I chose to run 26 kilometres in Gatineau Park as a straight out-and-back, meaning the nagging pain I felt an hour into the run could only be treated with the knowledge that I was roughly 45 minutes from home. Eight minutes later I was adjusting my stride and seriously worried I would be leaving myself an extremely long walk back. Attempts to stretch out the muscle were unsuccessful, and so I continued to chop my stride and adjust in order to continue at a decent pace as I had other engagements planned in the hours after my run.
I managed to grit my teeth and get on with it until roughly three kilometres from home, when my quad locked and would shoot with pain when I attempted to lift my leg. The remaining distance was covered by walk-limping.
Similar to the hamstring issue the week previous, my only comfort in being hit by such a setback was the knowledge that I'd had the same issue two years before in Peterborough, albeit in my left leg. Knowing that any running before the muscle was feeling completely normal would only sideline me longer, I planned to cross-train as soon as I was able to. Monday it was still hurting to walk and so anything at all would have been counterproductive. By Tuesday the muscle could handle some low-resistance biking but no ellipticaling, Wednesday regular biking was in the cards, and Thursday a double day on the elliptical was successful enough that Friday I ran an easy 5 miles in the morning with extremely tight hamstrings (likely from my aggressive cross-training the day before). Based on this progression, I deemed myself fit to race the Don Mills Open at the new home course in Waterloo.
To get there was a combination of bus rides, train rides, car rides, with brief stops in Oshawa and Richmond hill and an overnight stay at the comfy Chez Bark.
Upon arriving, it was hard to argue for better conditions for the race, as the day had yielded a brightly shining sun and a hint of fall air to match the changing leaves. My trusty grey cotton gloves, which had featured the previous couple of years in wet and chilly conditions, were kept in my jacket pocket in a pleasant delay of the inevitable cooler weather.
I must say the time before the race passed remarkably quickly as I chatted with alumni, current team members new and old, and even a parents out to support the team (including my own). The girls were off in no time at all and promptly swept the top 3 places. Upon watching the girls coming in, one of the team trainers asked whether or not Guelph was racing, to which I had to admit the competition was not quite at that level, but regardless, a sweep of the podium is something I have never witnessed by a Waterloo team at any event in five years, and so the excitement was justified.
I patched together a warmup while watching the girls, and though my hamstrings were still tight, my quadricep felt fine. Throwing on spikes eased some of the burden on my hamstrings, and while I can't say I felt great, I was also not feeling like a guy who had missed the better part of two weeks training (which for someone who has a bit of history being a total head case over these types of things is surprising). At the same time, I was concerned that the intensity might come as a bit of a shock to the system and so planned to go out sensibly off the start.
I was therefore surprised when the race took off at a pace that seemed to resemble a high school race. I commented to those around me "what is this, OFSAA?" and meant it- it felt frantically quick to me. I therefore started off in the back of the field, just like Queen's, but immediately began trying to move myself through the field while running under control on the first lap of three.
Romaniw commented to me after the race that he figured I'd started off in about 100th place, which is a bit of a stretch considering I don't think there was 100 guys in the race (will have to check the official results sheet), but it's true I left myself some work to do in sitting that far back early on. I'm a little ashamed to admit I was not even slightly concerned with the lead pack in the early going- I doubted that I would bring any of them back and I was focused on reeling in the boys from my own team who I felt were within reach. Devon, coming off sickness, was the first notable who came back, and my eyes shifted up the course to the rookies Daniel and Brent. The gap that had opened meant there was what felt like significant space, but with groups of guys dropping off the pace there was usually a body to chase. Somewhere on the second lap I passed one rookie then the other while barking for them to come with me. They weren't able to go but held themselves together quite well for two solid performances that should earn them a place on the OUA squad if they continue running this well moving forward.
Once the young guns had come back, there was really only guys dropping off the lead pack to chase. Up ahead, I could see Michael was slipping during what he would later describe as an off day, and at the start of the third lap I caught up with him while saying "work with me!". His response was a confident "nah man I'm dying". Despite not having his best day, Mike kept it together and finished two spots behind me.
Upon passing Michael, the reserves I had seemed to be all dried up. I hadn't really contemplated catching him, so once the chase was complete, I tried to work for the next group but ultimately was unsuccessful, and may have even hurt myself a bit when I remarked to two guys sitting on me early on in the third lap that I was going to need some help if we were gonna reel in the guys up ahead. They both agreed, and promptly took the pace and dropped me. On the hills, where I felt I was making my gains during the first two laps, I felt quite beaten on the third. But outside of the two previously mentioned, no one passed me from the point I started moving up on the first lap, and I competed well enough to finish as the top Warrior with Charly absent, with the only quad pain creeping up in the cool down. All in all, a better day than expected.
I also got a bit of an ego boost when I told one of the trainers who was working on my quad post-race that I was on co-op in Ottawa/Gatineau, who responded by exclaiming I was the "fast Patrick" he had been hearing about who was in Ottawa. In truth, it's was only really an ego boost in a way that made me chuckle momentarily before I fell back to the earth and responded that I'd have to disappoint on the fast front…especially if he knew the rough shape I was in injury wise. Reality hurts sometimes…but c'est la vie.
A couple comments on the course and atmosphere today. I felt the new course, set up by coach Kevin Shields, was great, with the Terry Goodenough course extension well presented and laid out. The spectators, though obviously incomparable to places that draw bigger crowds like Guelph, were loud and all over the course. Rarely did I get very far without hearing a cheer for Waterloo or someone calling my name. Just overall very electric, which makes racing that much more fun.
On that high note, I can hopefully get back into some good training in preparation for Guelph in 2 weeks and OUA's in a month. With a couple good showings from the rookies, a healthy Justin Spalvieri, an amped up Michael Stewart and a fit Charly Allan, who knows what we can pull off team-wise?
