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As the number of COVID-19 cases increases and more rules are put in place to help flatten the curve, runners around the world have to tread lightly. Now in Canada, many parks, trails and tracks have been closed to the public. Because of the runners who are breaking the rules, the rest of the group looks bad, but we want the world to know this: most runners are doing what is asked of us in these difficult times—we promise.

Not all bad
In any group, there will be rule-breakers. One person’s actions don’t represent the group as a whole. For example, while criminals exist, most people don’t break the law. With that being said, some rule-abiding runners are being villainized for the actions of the few who are ignoring the social distancing and quarantine rules that have put in place amid the coronavirus outbreak.

For the most part, runners are doing their part during these weird times. In countries like Canada, where we can still run outside, we’re doing that alone. In places like France, where people can go outside, but only a certain distance from their homes, most runners are following the rules and staying within their boundaries. In the U.K., yes, there are people going for double runs, but most aren’t.

It’s easy to see reports on all of these rule-breakers and to think that all runners are bad, but that’s just because no media outlets are reporting on runners who follow the rules. Those would be pretty boring stories, wouldn’t they? Think of the headlines: “Italian man follows lockdown protocol, runs on treadmill at home,” “Toronto runner gives six-foot berth to everyone she passes,” “British woman goes for morning run, spends rest of day inside.” Would you read those stories? Probably not.

Do the right thing
As for the people who are still going on group runs–please stop, because you’re painting the rest of us in a bad light. Here’s the good news, though: you can still turn things around and join us in following the rules. It’s for the best, not just for runners, but for the world.

It’s also important to keep up to date with the rules. New sanctions and laws seem to be put in place every few days, so you could unknowingly break a rule, and you might even get fined for it. You don’t want that, so to avoid that hassle, it’s best to follow the news and government updates so you know what you can and can’t do.

The longer runners disobey these rules, the more rules will be put in place and the longer this will all take to settle. It’s too bad we can’t run with our friends right now, but so far, in Canada, the rules are lenient enough that we’re able to safely get our daily miles in. Just do the right thing, follow the rules and log some solo miles in training for the next few months. It’s really not too much to ask.

Our last run together - until things change

LATEST NOTICE waldencrosscountry Please be advised. With the Province’s recent order to close all outdoor recreational areas, the City has posted a sign at the parking lot at the Walden Trails stating that the trail facility is closed.

 

 

 

HOW TO RUN SMART IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

Rocks!! and Longboat member, Tim Uuksulainen,

Well-known writer, athlete and researcher Alex Hutchinson recently wrote about the best way to exercise to maintains a strong immune system, during this time of heightened risk for contracting the Covid-19 virus. We’d like to expand on his advice to help you with your spring 2020 running decisions, given our abrupt changes of plan and the sudden disappearance of spring races.

THERE ARE TWO CAMPS OF LONGBOATERS

To start with, none of us should now be training at a high level, as if we were a month away from a peak performance. Most of us probably fall into one of two groups:
1. You may have been looking to have your peak performance at Around the Bay in late March, or at an early spring half- or full-marathon (like Mississauga).
2. Or, you may have taken it easy over the winter and been planning to crank your training up starting now.
So, the landscape has changed, drastically. Here’s what you can do now, in either case.
If you are in group one, you have already invested 3–4 months of progressively hard workouts. So, you would be wise to take a 2- to 4-week active break, as if you had raced. Trust me — you won’t lose much fitness. You’ll be starting back from a higher fitness level than you were at when you started your build.
If you are in the group two, there is less urgency to build your fitness level up, without any prospect of races until the summer or maybe the fall. You just want to maintain, and get some base training kilometres in.

YOUR EASY RUN PACE

So, what should you be doing? As the Hutchinson article discusses, the optimal level for maintaining/gaining fitness and optimal protection for your immune system is to keep your runs at between 60% and 75% of your maximum heart rate.
If you don’t know what that is for you, just use this simple formula: 220 minus your age, plus 10. If you’re 50, that gives you a max heart rate estimate of 180 beats per minute. (If you know your max heart rate — i.e. if you have smart-watch heart rate data from the final kilometre of a recent 5K race — use that number.) Another formula you may use is take 206.9 – ( 0.67 x your age) so same 50 year = 206.9- 33.5= 173.4. Between the two you should be very close for most.
For you,, it means doing the majority of your runs at an easy or comfortable pace that invigorates you but still feels relatively comfortable. You may find it hard to stick to the 60-75 % of Max HR but in any case try not to exceed 87- 90% even on your one harder workout of the week and below 80% for the rest
Depending on your current fitness level, the pace will vary for each of us. It doesn’t have to be super-slow, it just needs to feel comfortable. You can probably do one moderately-hard workout per week that leaves you (at most) pleasantly tired, but not wiped out. (If you feel you need a nap after the workout, it was too hard.)
So for example, if you have been running your tempo run at 4.45 / km pace, easing up to 5.00 / km pace would be prudent and still provide good maintenance benefit. Or relative to the track, if you have been doing 400 metre repeats at 95 seconds, ease up by 3–5 seconds with same rest, or alternatively keep the same pace and take an extra 30-45 seconds of rest between each repeat.

ALTERNATING YOUR LONG RUNS

In terms of your long runs, 1 suggest alternating your distances each week to avoid accumulating fatigue. So if your long run is currently at say 21–30 km, you could alternate weeks of 15–21 km or 20–30 km respectively.
You can do the same can be for your weekly volume. Rotate it week to week, aligning it with your long runs. You can also add a fourth rest week, where you can cut back even further or add more strength training, HIT or biking as the weather gets warmer.
Hutchinson’s article suggests targeting for 60-minute runs at a comfortable pace as the optimal standard to keep up your fitness, while maintaining a strong immune system. I think this is prudent and for most of us that means you are covering anywhere from 8–13 km based on your fitness level.
By following the above plan, you’ll still be 80% ready to tackle your next race goals when we get the green light, hopefully by the fall. Once that happens you will only need 6–8 weeks to be race ready, by honing that final 20% through race specific intervals, long runs and of course inspired by getting back to doing workouts with fellow Victors!
Stay healthy, stay safe. Tough times don’t last, but tough and smart people do!
Tim Uuksulainen,

 

 

Welcome to the Quarantine Backyard Ultra!

This event is a Free Backyard Ultra, completed in self-isolation or quarantine, streamed live on Youtube, with the largest, most competitive field ever assembled! You will be competing for the soon to be World’s most coveted prize: The Golden Toilet Paper Roll! Plus… Did we mention it’s FREE! Whether you plan to do one lap, 50 laps, or more, come in and join the fun! The first bell will ring at 7:00am Mountain Daylight Time (GMT-6) on Saturday April 4th, and the race will finish when there is only one runner left on the livestream. Everyone has just enough time for a taper. No training, no race prep. Let’s see who goes the distance.

All Information Here

Who will accept the challenge?

Our western Rock!! Martin Parnell did just that

Early Saturday, April 4th I was standing on my treadmill, in my basement, waiting for a race to begin. In total there were over 2,400 participants from over 55 countries and we were about to participate in an event the likes of which had never been seen before. A couple of weeks ago, my wife Sue was listening to CBC when Dave Proctor, a Calgary elite Ultra runner was talking about an event that would connect the world. With the spring racing calendar being totally wiped out due to COVID-19 Dave was looking for something to pull the global running community together and he came up with the Personal Peak Quarantine Backyard Ultra. Originally, Dave was planning a Trans-Canadian speed record for May, and his crew was going to be made up of the Personal Peak team. However, with the coronavirus outbreak, he had to cancel the attempt. Instead of letting his training go to waste, he decided to use it for a virtual race. Along with Personal Peak, an endurance training company, he organized the Quarantine Backyard Ultra and sent invitations to the world’s best ultra-runners. The event was also open to non-elite runners. For the Quarantine Backyard Ultra, all runners had to log into Zoom. Racers had a choice between running on a treadmill or running outside as they had to complete a 6.706 km lap in less than an hour and prove it by showing the Zoom audience their GPS data if they ran outside or their treadmill screen inside. Then they could move onto the next lap with every lap starting on the hour. Having had my Boston Marathon cancelled, I was looking for something to fill the space. I certainly didn’t want to waste my weeks of training. The other thing I wanted to do was to use the race as a fund raiser. I decided to combine the donations I raised from my Year End Run with the Backyard Ultra and see if I could hit the $10,000 fund raising target for the Boys and Girls Club of Cochrane and area. So at 6.45 am MST and with 15 minutes to go, my hydration and nutrition were prepared and I set up my laptop so that the camera could view me on the treadmill. I then logged into Zoom. The screen was filled with 30 runners from around the globe, just a small fraction of the 620 that were in my starting group.

At 7.00am MST a bell rang and we were off. I decided to watch some TV and my friend Wayne suggested “The Kindness Diaries” on Netflix. I had set a pace of 7:30 minutes per kilometer and with 6.71 kms to run it took me 53:40. Now the goal I had set myself was to run a marathon (42.2 km) so if I ran for 7 loops (7 hours) that would give me 47 kms. The first 5 loops went well. I started to struggle on loop 6 and Sue told me that I was too close to the back of the treadmill. I was definitely having a hard time holding my pace.

I had toyed with the idea of doing 10 loops but on loop 7 I knew that was it. I didn’t want to get spat out the back of the treadmill and splatted against the back wall. At the end of the 7th loop I got off the treadmill and logged of Zoom. That meant that I got a “Did Not Finish” (DNF). In fact every participant would get a DNF other that the winner.

Over the rest of Saturday I followed the event and learned about several of the participants. There was “The Living Room Guy” who ran around his sofa, “Coffee Shop Matt” who did loops inside a closed coffee shop and Anna who was running in Northern Sweden through the ice and snow. By 7.00pm that night there were 671 runners remaining.

Sunday morning, after a good night’s sleep I checked the You Tube live feed at 7.00 am MST. A total of 24 laps had been completed for 160km and 71 runners remained. Over the next 12 hours a number of the top contenders had pulled the plug including Dave Proctor who was dealing with a hip flexor issue. At 7.00pm MST, 36 loops were done for 242 kms and the final 14 remained. Time for another sleep.

Monday morning at 7.00am MST I checked the Personal Peaks Facebook page. A total of 48 loops had been completed, 322 kms covered and only two runners were still going. Mike Wardian from Arlington, Virginia was doing loops around his neighbourhood and Radek Brunner, from the Czech Republic, was running on a treadmill he had purchased a week before.

I checked the feed every hour and this epic battle continued until 9.00 pm MST. Mike and Radek had both finished lap 62 and were about to head-out on lap 63. The start bell sounded and Mike headed off. Radek was on the treadmill but wasn’t moving. For 2 minutes he stood there and then he started to run. However, the rules state that you must start running right away and Radek was disqualified. A very tough break.

Mike finished his lap in 31:05, his fastest lap of the entire race. Mike wanted to keep going to break the record of 68 laps but he was told that the rules required he could only do one lap after the other person had dropped out. In total Mike ran 422.3 kms over 63 hours and was awarded the grand prize: The Golden Toilet Paper Roll.

It had been an amazing event bring people together from all over the world in this very difficult time. There was a real connection that is so important in this time of social distancing and isolation.

And the cherry on top was that my combined Final Year End / Backyard Ultra fund raiser hit the $10,000 target for the Boys and Girls Club of Cochrane and Area. Now that is worth celebrating.

About the Author

Martin Parnell is the Best-Selling author of MARATHON QUEST and RUNNING TO THE EDGE and his final book in the Marathon Trilogy, THE SECRET MARATHON-Empowering women and girls in Afghanistan through sport, was released on October 30th 2018. He speaks on having a “Finish the Race Attitude – Set Goals, Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Outstanding Results” and has written for, or been covered by CNN, BBC, CBC, The Huffington Post, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, Runners World, Men’s Journal, Canadian Business, and Maclean’s.

 

 

Nuff Said - and run solo

   

John doing what he loves best

   

Brent at the end of the ski season

  

Amber in Attawapiskat: 3 hour run across the Attawapiskat river and on the now closed winter road. The land is muddy, wet, icy uneven. It was cold and windy out. Initially, it felt like there was a sense of foreshadowing... something to come. As I headed back to the community, the setting sun broke through the grey and pushed away the fear, the loneliness. It was beautiful to watch. Even though I was cold, I still felt warm.

 

   

Running Man pulls out the bike. Super Weekend of some social distancing sport after a tuff week of work. Laurie and I and of course me on my own for the big faster workouts. staying a safe distance does mean you have to run and bike fast

 

 

Ski season done for Sara. Now the bike. Bike Touristing today with Neil. Checked out the blue historic signs that I’ve driven by the past few decades but never stopped at. Tried a ski this morning on the lake, but up to our shins in slush. Swapped them out for the bikes instead. I guess it’s time to put the skis away

 

Kaylie Making the most of these chaotic times. Still working away at being ready for the TCS NYC Marathon in November 2020, and especially now I have lots of time to focus on just that! Although I have a shin splint that I can't get treatment for, I have a stationary bike in the comfort of my home that allows me to maintain my cardio while I let it heal. Using the time to do all the things I should have done to avoid getting a shin splint- rolling, stretching, sleeping!

Laurentain Lake Trails with geese social distancing

 

Temporary home office distraction

Isolation Distraction (bunny eats our tree)