Weekend Recap - Baseball and Long Run

On Saturday we went to the Canada-USA World Baseball Classic game at the Skydome (now going under the craptastic name of Rogers Centre, but for me it will always be the Skydome). I won't go into many details, but it was a great game. Unfortunately, Canada lost in a close game 6-5, but they sure made a game of it. Both teams hit a couple of home runs, we saw some good defensive plays, and it all came down to the wire in the 9th inning. Canada entered that frame down 6-4, ended up scoring one, and then even managed to put a man in scoring position before finally succumbing to the stronger Americans who were able to atone for their loss to the Canadians in the 2006 WBC. Another highlight was watching one of my favorite players Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox (referred to as "the Greek God of Walks" in the book Moneyball). His first three at bats were BB-HR-BB before he finally was retired in his fourth at bat. Also, I love the way he "dances" when he is at the plate getting ready for the pitch to be delivered. It always amuses me, but now it will always make me laugh a little since Owen noticed this and said, "Hey Dad! He's doing the pee-pee dance! He needs to go pee!"

Priceless!

Here are some pics from our day at the game:

Owen and me, with him looking somewhat stunned. Pictures taken where you point the camera at yourself always look a bit strange:

Our vantage point for the game:

Malcolm got a hold of my camera and went a little nuts. Here's a self-portrait:

Owen's rally cap earned the Canucks just one run in the ninth. I should have worn a hat!!!

On Sunday (today, that is) I went out for yet another milestone run. Each week I've upped the long run by 2 kilometres and today the total came to a tidy 20km. My weekly total went down a little since I missed my Wednesday run due to the foot thing (31km instead of the planned 37), but I am still quite happy with how my long runs are getting longer and longer. I ran very conservatively today, which means nice and slow. I managed to complete the distance in 1:53:41 for an average pace of 5:41/km (9:08/mile). My average heart rate was 145bpm, which was where I wanted it to be - right around the 80% of max range.

A new thing happened as well. I ran with two bottles today, one with water the other with Gatorade. By about the 15k mark I had to go real bad and since this has never been an issue in the year and a bit that I've been running it was a strange feeling. As I ran past places where I could have (in theory) ducked in to use the facilities I invariably chickened out and didn't want to do this since it makes me feel guilty to do so without buying something. In the end I ran by a park and stopped off to see if the bathrooms were open, but alas this was not to be. Then, a bit further down the road, I noticed a trail leading off into the woods and I darted in there for some much needed relief. You gotta love trees!

On the injury front the foot is still tight, but it feels manageable. I will continue to run slow and may alter the plan a bit to do a long run next weekend, but shorten the long run the weekend before the Around the Bay race so that I can be as ready as possible for the 30k, which will be a new record distance wise by quite a margin. I'm thinking 24k next Sunday, then something like 16 or 18k the Sunday after that. Better to be undertrained, I hear!

It was also pretty cool to see so many runners out this morning. A real sense of camaraderie with most, but some just don't seem to appreciate a brief bit of eye contact and a friendly wave. What's up with that?!?!

Garmin don't lie.