How Far?

The evidence from the last two polls we conducted here seemed to indicate we were runners, or at least winter runners, at heart even if in our souls we're committed tri-geeks. So, we continued the running theme with the last poll, where we asked you "How far did you run between December 25 and Jan 2nd"?

This was the first time we've run a poll with numbers (as opposed to yes/no type answers) and we saw that the data was roughly normal, but somewhat skewed (and this wouldn't be the first time the TA, or indeed many triathletes, will have been accused of being "normal but skewed"). Some 20% of you got out for less than 20 km, 13% each between 40-60 km and 60-80 km and 4% (or one answer) in the Mark Campbell category (>80 km); we wonder if it was the man himself (or maybe Ron MacDougal). Just under half of you reported running between 20 and 40 kms that week.

The TA has seen published studies that showed for age-group triathletes there was a U-shaped relationship between training hours and injury frequency. Training only a few hours a week and training over 12 hours a week was associated with higher injury rates. Training between seven and ten hours a week was associated with lower injury rates. Running between 20 and 40 km a week fits nicely into an 8 hr training week so it sounds like we're all doing the right thing (whether we meant to or not).

Don't feel too bad that some people were in the >60km range. We can only speculate that these are the people already training for an early spring marathon. You wouldn't negatively judge your training frequency against those already training for IronMan, so there's no reason to negatively judge your running miles against those already training for Boston (or Fredericton or, God help you, Bluenose).

While we're on a running theme, we thought we'd ask this week "What is the longest single run you have ever done?". We've put it at >10 km (the run in an Olympic is only 10km, why would I run longer?), 10-21 km (up to and including a half-marathon), 21.2-32.2 k (because 20 miles is a nice round number and the highest initially recommended long run when preparing for a marathon), 32.2-49k (encompassing the marathon), 50-60k (Cape Chignecto), 60 - 70 k (26.2 is sooo arbitary) or Mark Campbell.

To inspire you, we're also publishing Mark Campbell's account of last years two-man assault on the Cabot Trail Relay (below or here); inspiring stuff indeed. Thanks Mark!

Stay warm in the cold and watch out for the ice...

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