Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Inspired

I like the idea of trying something new. There are no expectations. It keeps me fresh. And so the idea of running an ultra has appeared. In particular, the Whistler 50 miler (80km).

Keeping life simple is and has been important to me for some time now. That doesn't mean not thinking ahead. For me though, it's about not over thinking whatever it is.

Some ideas capture my imagination. The idea of writing the book that I did, did that. The process of writing it, well, that took some planning and time.

As I prepared for the marathon on Sunday, I thought back to what I read about Steve Jobs. I haven't read that much about him. I never met him. I knew nothing about him other than he was Apple in every sense.

But I read that he often asked himself, what if today was my last day on earth? It was, as I understand, a way for him to simplify and focus on what's important now, as Michael Phelps talks about.

It's an idea that I think is a positive one. It's about not letting all of life's little distractions stop you from moving forward. It's about rolling one's eyes when someone says something that is absurd. It's about taking a breath when someone says the obvious.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." - Steve Jobs

Monday, October 10, 2011

Superb season ... and it's not over yet

Margreet Dietz is having a superb running season. To be honest, even I struggle at times to remember all that she has accomplished. And so here's a short recap:

First half half marathon, 25th out of 1100, 89:46

Sun Run, 40:09

Vancouver marathon 5th overall, age group winner, master’s champion 3:07:41

Scotiabank half marathon 2nd in age group, 89:44

Squamish 10km, 3rd in age group, top local woman for third year, 40:14

Bellingham Bay marathon winner 3:09:40

Victoria marathon 8th overall, age group winner, master’s champion, PB 3:06:06

*In Victoria yesterday, Margreet was handed her trophies by two running legends: Kathrine Switzer and Bart Yasso.

As the numbers show, Margreet has run three Sub 3:10 marathons within six months.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Age-graded sub three marathoner

Well .. I didn't really think I was going to run Sub Three in Victoria but by one calculation that's exactly what I did.

It's the age-graded calculation.

My actual chip time was 3:16:38, which I'm very happy with, though of course I had planned to run faster. I can't ever think of finishing a race and not having thought I was going to go faster. It's important to be confident.

Victoria was my third fastest marathon and the fastest I have run in four years, when I set my current PB of 3:10 at the Gold Coast in Australia. To be fair, I haven't done much specific marathon training in the last four years but I'm fit and I always believe that I should be able to leverage my triathlon training into success across the sporting spectrum.

One of the stats from Victoria is that I finished 10th in my age group. While I no doubt have so much work to do, I'm encouraged by the prospect of finishing in the top five of a marathon equivalent to Victoria in the near future. I'm not defining 'near' at the moment.

One cool stat from the race is that of my age-graded time: 2:59:17!

Ha. I'm a Sub Three Marathoner.

I found an age-graded calculator at Runner's World and it offers the following explanation:

Your age-graded score is the ratio of the approximate world-record time for your age and gender divided by your actual time.

Age-graded scores have been categorized into these broad achievement levels:
100% = Approximate World Record Level
Over 90% = World Class
Over 80% = National Class
Over 70% = Regional Class
Over 60% = Local Class

To reach 100%, I'd only need to run 2:17. Hmmmmmmm.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Top rating for Sub Nine!

5.0 out of 5 stars

An excellent contribution to collections focusing on women's accomplishments in sports
, October 7, 2011
This review is from: Sub Nine: History's Fastest Ironwomen (Paperback)
Sub Nine: History's Fastest Ironwomen is an anthology profiles of the fastest known female triathlon participants, each of which completed the grueling course in less than nine hours. A handful of pages offer a brief summary of the life and training of each woman, recorded highlights of her career, and her comments in her own words if possible. An extraordinary and inspirational reckoning of women's athletic excellence, Sub Nine is an excellent contribution to collections focusing on women's accomplishments in sports.

Here's the link to the amazon.com page

*As for how the Midwest Book Review works. It's an independent group. I shipped two copies of my book for consideration for a review. I have no idea who did the review nor did I have any input into the review. And I was given no advance notice that it was going to be posted today.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Ready to Run

I've been running a lot the last two months. In fact, I even had one 100km plus week in the mix.

As Margreet has noted in recent posts, the more you run, the more fit you become. I too am feeling fit.

On Sunday I will give it everything that I have at the Victoria marathon. It will be my 10th marathon, standalone one that is.

I am going to wear a Garmin GPS. The first time I have done so. I want to make sure that I don't start too fast as has been an issue for me in the past. And I also want to encourage myself to keep moving fast and faster in the final 10km.

I'm reluctant to set out here my time target, though of course I know the pace that I intend to run based on the training that I've done. I want a PB - so faster than 3.10. I'll leave it at that.

What motivates me a bit more this weekend is what Steve Jobs had to say to students graduating from Stanford in 2005.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

I take that as go for it. Go for it now. Live in the present.

Jobs also reportedly was motivated by a quote that said, in effect, live today as if it is your last.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Margreet's first novel is available!


An excerpt:

“... it was dark and we were in the forest, again, hiding. We had run when we heard the soldiers were coming. Your mom was only a baby and I had to keep her safe. I had found an area with thick brush to cover us. We were quiet like mice. But your mom, she was scared. Of course, she was just a baby. And when she heard a branch breaking nearby, she cried. Just a little. And he found us. Underneath that brush. He didn't have good intentions. I know he didn't. And I had to protect her. To keep her safe, I had to stay alive. It was him or us.”

In the novel, Nadia is challenged by running a 100 kilometre ultra and as her mind wanders in the early darkness, she reminisces about her grandmother and the realization that there are many parallels between these two generations of strong willed women.

http://www.margreetdietz.com/