Author: ChristopherKelsall

Okay, so personal update:

Have had multiple calf pulls, because I am too eager once I start sniffing a sense of fitness. I have had some stretches of eight or 10 weeks of 40-65-miles (60-100K), but then inevitably I get a pull — back at ‘er now.

Loving the 30-minute out and back on the same road, at max effort, but not quite max, great low lactate threshold, high anaerobic threshold workout. It’s a Lydiard things and for more context feel free to contact me.

Okay, so I just did this massive interview with a medical oncologist/athlete with unique perspectives, colourful language and frankness on the Violence of Sugar — yup!

Must read: https://athleticsillustrated.com/the-violence-of-sugar/

 … (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

First ElliptiGo Rider of the Month and now….drum roll please……

Person of the Week at Athletics Illustrated.

Boom.

https://athleticsillustrated.com/person-of-the-week-for-may-25-2020-dave-whiteside/… (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Oh wow – what fun.

Thank you to all of the Hip Runners who took in the Global One-hour Virtual Race – what a gas.

The Hip Runners led the team event for a week, which really motivated two Vancouver Island, long-running and tough clubs to get going. The point spread looks like a lot of you are not familiar with cross-country scoring, but they are not.

Carolyn Rosner won the women’s elevation gain category and put the scare into some of the Comox Valley Road Runners who live next to a mountain range. They love mountain running. Dave Whiteside and Tom Fuchs led the Hip Runners with strong performances. You can see all of the Hip Runners in the results. Thanks everyone.

By the way, I could have helped the Hip Runners a little bit. But I dropped the ball – hilarious.

So I registered with three teams: Hip Runners, TNLW and Prairie Inn Harriers. I made three attempts and bailed on the first two. The third one, I warmed-up for 10:30 slowly, as you do. I had it in my mind to remember to mentally add 10:30 to whatever elapsed time that the Garmin showed. Then I lost all the brain sugar from the effort and when I got to around 48-minutes I was thinking, “just 12 minutes remaining, I am going to finish with 12.3 to 12.4 kilometres run – enough to get some points for Hip Runners.

Of course that 10:30 warm-up at 6:30 pace was included. So I stopped at 60:00 and you can see that the first 1.8k is warm up on my Strava. DOH! Total Facepalm.

The silver lining is that the runs were a tremendous stimulus for the top of the aerobic range or mid-range lactate threshold or right at the Aerobic Threshold. Can’t get better stimulus than that.

Thanks, everyone for jumping in. Check out the next unique race thing coming up. It’s pretty cool:

https://athleticsillustrated.com/andrew-russell-and-natasha-wodak-win-the-global-one-hour-virtual-race-prairie-inn-harriers-eke-out-win-over-comox-valley-road-runners/

See results here>>

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Has anyone done a Park Run yet?

I did one today.

5K they are. I ran 23:51. I was aiming for within one minute per km of my best. Missed that, ha ha. 17:58.

Ran 23:38 in January on a flatter course at night. So this one was about the same….

….for the want of 13 seconds….

Might go again next week, stay tuned.… (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Update: June 7, 2019

Well, I ran a hard 11.5K as a weekly sustained pressure run (Lydiard out-and-back). One of the final kms was 4:44, that’s exactly what my 5K race pace was in January. Boom.

Then we had beer and nachos.

That’s right.

Another 60K week…..

I haven’t checked in for a while. I have been busy. Some of that busyness is caused by running which is a great thing.

For context, I used to run 110-160 kilometres per week (65-100 miles). Had two heel surgeries, one for each heel: Haglund’s Deformity or Retrocalcaneal Bursitis. Then the hip – and the prolonged decline….so 8-10 years off of running depending on what you call running.

Two weeks ago, I had my biggest volume week in a decade-ish, 50K. Then a 33K week – but a seven-day stretch in there of about 45K. Then this week 6oK. I could have done more.

Things are coming together.

My average pace is improving.

So, if you are reading this wondering if you should get a hip replacement done because you are limping and not enjoying a good quality of life – get it done.

It was a long decade.… (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Crazy. This time last year, I could hardly run a sub-5-minute km in a run – real struggle. Tonight New Year’s Eve, I ran the Run Through Time 5K and ran five sub-5s in a row including going out too fast at 4:27.

Now 23:38 is humbling, when I have run this race in 18:00, but I am pretty darn happy after 10 years of almost no running – then post hip replacement – two years, raced a Boxing Day 10-mile. I managed two sub-5-minute kms – the first two – doh!

Averaged 4:40.

It isn’t a timed race, it is fun run, but you can see in my Strava account that I ran 5K, plus the required extra 1% over the shortest possible tangents (as per certification): https://www.strava.com/activities/2047648970… (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Ran the Boxing Day 10-miler (handicapped) (16.093km) today in Victoria, BC.

I think my best in this very hilly race is about 63-minutes or so.

After 10 years (+/-) of no racing or intense efforts, I got slow because I got old, but more because I was not running.

A week ago, I ran a 1:40 16.1km run and thought well, I am sure I will better 1:30:00 – and would love to take 1:22:00 – so I ran 1:26:26. It is a double, out-and-back.

Old dog; old tricks. The first two kilometres were my fastest. Oops. Never really learn.

I caught and passed one person, ran faster than a couple others, but about four or five passed me right at the end.

There is some faux-science about slamming or forcing oxygen into the red blood cells by running an intense effort. Like sometimes that effort is needed to shock the system for a future effort – tada!!! I will be racing the Run Through Time 5K on New Year’s Eve – this one is flat!

HR was about 163 average.

Here is the data at Strava:

https://www.strava.com/activities/2037317629

Hip Runners KNOW Hips. Help make the technology better. Take the Survey

… (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Hello Fellow Hiprunners:

My name is Christopher Kelsall, managing editor of Athletics Illustrated at www.athleticsillustrated.com, an online magazine all about the sport of running and field events.

In partnership with Hiprunner.com, we are collecting data through a survey to find out more about quality of life for people who have had hip replacements and would like to remain active, especially with running. Your feedback with the survey is very important to the success of the collection process. Thank you in advance for filling out the survey.

Currently, as you may well know, after consulting with your surgeon, that there is little to no data available about the quality of life for runners who choose to continue to run after hip replacement surgery. There is no real data on lifetimes of various products specific to runners, best practices and volume of training recommended.

With your help, we can have information available to the medical community for improving prosthetics, surgical practices and to better inform surgeons and all other medical practitioners like physiotherapists and physiologist with data that can provide correlations for results.

Perhaps one day, surgeons will tell patients, “please, run all you want,” because they will have confidence in the empirical data collected directly from you, the hip replacement patient – I am one too and will be filling out the survey.

No personal information will be shared by Athletics Illustrated or by Hiprunner at any time. All data collected will be used only for the purpose of understanding the demands that active people put on the skillset of the surgeons as well as the quality of the product related to their activity levels.

Thank you very much for participating. Please share with anyone you know who has had the surgery.

Please see survey form here >>… (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Okay, I designed this course with two-time Olympian Bruce Deacon and a guy named Gary Duncan who is a certified course measurer. It is at a 5-star resort and Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course.

PNW Clubs Champs will be in this so clubs from BC, Alberta, Washington and Oregon would be seeking the title, there will also be masters champs….

2020 Pan Am Cross Country Cup: Course video at Bear Mountain Resort & Spa

… (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Ran a new post-hip replacement lakes loop best, by over a minute. 10K.

49:52 – Saturday, December 15, 2018
51:25 – Wednesday, October 3, 2018
52:18 – Thursday, May 17, 2018
52:36 – Sunday, April 8, 2018
52:48 – Monday, March 12, 2018
54:40 – Friday, February 2, 2018
54:58 – Friday, January 1,9 2018
55:47 – Wednesday, January -something 2018

– 2018 –

56:56 – Monday, September 26, 2017
57:55 – Thursday, September 20, 2017
58:38 – Tuesday, September 12…finally sub-60, 21 minutes to go!
60:43 – Saturday, September 9 – haha cruel and unusual treatment.
1:01 – Friday, August 25 – Ugh…almost there.
1:04 – Thurs, June 15 – 1 hour faster than Feb 26th, first time out.
1:06 – Tues, May 30.
1:07 – Thurs, May 25*
1:08 – Thurs, May 18. (note to self: lose 30 pounds).
1:09 – Thurs, May 4. May the 4th was with me.
1:13 – Sat, April 29 – Need to do more physio. These are the only effort outings I have done….
1:15 – Thurs, April 13 – Taking a week or two off this route as I am just chasing time…
1:16 – Sun, April 9 – ran about 11-12 minutes – 48:00 improvement in 42 days – 10 laps.
1:18 – Thurs, April 6 – ran about 10 minutes
1:22 – Fri, March 31 – ran about 6-7 minutes total – 33 days since first trip around lakes.
1:25 – Sun, March 27 – ran about 6-7 minutes total
1:29 – Wed, March 23 – ran about 5-6 minutes total
1:35 – Sun, March 19 – ran about 1 minute total
1:38 – Thurs, March 16 – no running
1:47 – Sun, March 12, 2017 – no running
1:57 – Sun, March 5, 2017 – no running
2:04- Sun, Feb. 26, 2017 – no running

I used to run this in 37-45:00

Now if you are bored numb, here are the past few trips around these lakes. I have documented most of them:

The bolded numbers are the fastest for that particular km to date.

Today, I went for my two-year X-Ray to see what is going on since hip replacement surgery. I had a right side job, ceramic into cross-linked poly on Dec. 2, 2016.

The surgeon didn’t look happy when he came into the room. I don’t know if he was at first messing with me or what, but then he said, “there is no change in the image from surgery date.” Which is wonderful news. He asked rhetorically, “…and you are not running, correct?”

Last year, this time when I began to talk about running, he cut me off and said, “don’t tell me anything I don’t want to hear.” He said it in a friendly and urgent way, so when he asked rhetorically this time, I said no words at all; speak no evil.

But of course I am running.

The X-Ray covers the entire width. so both hips. He said, “your left hip shows absolutely no signs of arthritis, it is clear the right one was a defect – congenital.”

Last time my genitals were conned….never mind.

So I beam with joy and come close to jumping up and down.

So anyway, Sunday, I shall run myself into a stupor; bonk city.

I have run my 10K loop at local lakes (9.74K) and I have been ever-so-gradually getting faster and faster by small margins. I ran the final 740m at 4:58/km pace in May or something like that and was really excited by that. It was new-old territory.

Well the other day I ran a 4:44 km followed by a 4:53 km and then a 4:31-paced final 140m.

I would like to break into the 30s again for 10K. A-goal would to match my 41-year-old self at 37:12, and my B-goal would be to just crack into the 30s. C-goal is age-grade matching – not even sure what that is. I am 52 now.

…so happy….

 … (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Yesterday, spent the day in bed with food poisoning. Vomited technicolour rainbows all day.

Currently we are surrounded by forest fires and our normally pristine air is graded standard: BEIJING. Suspended particulate-pallooza.

So of course it makes sense to go for a run today. Banged out a 6K steady and dropped the  pace to 4:46 for a km. Fastest km yet since surgery.

Makes no sense.

Lesson learned kids: in the case of emergency, jettison all extra weight by vomiting and smoke a cigarette before running.

 … (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

While in Vancouver recently, I went for a gooder of a little 16K run.

I squeeked, clanked and crackled from where I was staying in Kitsilano and began to run towards English Bay and then through Lord Stanley’s Park – a 16K run (there and back) – I stopped at a cleared area and sought out the refuge of a washroom. I don’t often need to “go” during a run, but alas, after a Venti Americano, I needed to spray something fierce.

It was a wonderful run if not a little warm at 28C degrees. I have THR, right side, cross-linked poly and ceramic done 1.5 years ago.

I saw people everywhere, cycling, running, in the public pools in Kits and downtown. There was a beach volleyball festival going on and people all over False Creek swimming, SUPing, kayaking, sail-boating, power-boating and just lying there like seals, basking, reading or filling their gullets.

The route in Stanley Park was on the inside a bit, treed, so therefore shady and suddenly devoid of the cacophony of the masses.

As I arrive at the clearing, I found that there were no washrooms, so decided to do what men all over the world do, pee on myself.

I found an old Sitka Spruce and when I mean old, I mean before Captains Cook or Vancouver arrived to the area. I leaned up against it and went for it. When peering down to make sure that I still had my utensils, I shot a fine salty stream into my left ear, then left eye and across to my right nostril. I got some up on the forehead and into my hair. I then pointed south and let my legs each take the brunt of the rest of the blast. I peed on my shorts and into the rim of the sock that sticks out of the shoe. I got some in the toe box and felt the incredible lightness of lubricated toes.

As you can imagine, it was warm all over and not nearly as salty as I anticipated, as my eye only stung … (Click Here to View Full Post and Comments)

Surgery: Dec 2, 2016. Ceramic into poly, right side.

Ran my longest since surgery, today, Dec 23, 2017: 20.2km. Went slow….

It was -1 C or about 32F. Doesn’t typically get that cold here. Must be that global cooling.

Merry Christmas. Drink your faces off.

Booya.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1324878548

I took a picture of this very handsome devil before he went on his run.

• 20.2km
  Distance (?)
• 2:17:26
   Moving Time
• 6:47/km
  Pace