Ryan J. Allen » sport

CN Tower Climb Fall 2011

Ryan J. Allen — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:27:30 +0000

Last weekend I was in Toronto for the CN Tower Climb. It was meant to be an exciting event to do cooperatively with Will and his girlfriend, however plans changed at the last minute and I ended up doing the climb alone. But Erin and Cathie were at the top to cheer, and that was great.

Now, I wasn’t prepared for the climb at all. I hadn’t trained so I didn’t know the pacing. I had hoped to be climbing with Will and Will’s pace so I wasn’t going to be time trial-ing. Despite the excuse I still ended with an okay time of 15:55. They timed pre-registrants with chips this year, which was great.

I will remain hopeful that Will and I can someday conquer the tower together–perhaps as soon as the spring.

Worst Race Ever

Ryan J. Allen — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:20:44 +0000

The PEC marathon was a disaster. Personally, I wasn’t prepared and it showed. In retrospect I don’t know how I pulled Ottawa off so well. Around 29 km I decided to stop my pace. My first half was a respectable 1:50-ish. From 29 it was quite down hill. I walked many kilometres in the end. I am, however, really proud of myself for finishing.

What helped make the day even worse was the weather. It was easily the worst weather for any race I have ever done. When I stopped to walk, especially near the end, I got quite cold, windy, and uncomfortable. Thankfully I had Alex and Cathie there to help me stabilize in time for the motorcycle ride back to Kingston.

The motorcycle ride to Picton at 6:00 am was awful. It was rainy, cold, and dark. The back end of my bike slid out when I was on the 401 on-ramp–not a way you want to start your acceleration to 100+ km/h. The ride back afterwards made up for it.

I read this week about the 100 year old who completed the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. The guy goes 12-16 km a day. I’d like to do that. I’m currently in a bit of a post-run sloth period but I will have to pick things up soon in preparation for my Christmas holidays.

Anyway, I’m alive.

PEC Marathon on Sunday

Ryan J. Allen — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:07:53 +0000

This Sunday is the PEC Marathon. I’ll be the only one I know running. It has an 8am start time, which should put me in at the finish around noon. I’m in no rush, as I have already beat my marathon goal for the year. I think it will be cool just to finish my third marathon.

Alex might come cheer at the end. Aunt Judy is walking the half so there’s a chance I’ll see someone else I know there, too. I’m hoping I’ll get to see her at the half-way point at least, even if they’re not yet ready to start.

A part of me hates that these running events are always on Sunday. I miss hanging out with God in church.

I’m going to motorcycle there.

MK’s Surprise Party, Bluesfest, Aventure Lafleche Photosets Posted

Ryan J. Allen — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:43:45 +0000

Hi Internet,

I have posted some new photosets to my Flickr account. In chronological order, MK’s Surprise 30th Birthday, Bluesfest 2011, and from a trip to Aventure Lafleche’s aerial adventure. It is worth noting that these events all took place before Stephanie worked her magic on my hair, which is now beautiful. None-the-less, they are enjoyable.

So, enjoy.

Bicycling and Cooking–the Perfect Day?

Ryan J. Allen — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 03:49:00 +0000

I spent my day bicycling and cooking. I’d like to tell you about both.

This morning Adam and I bicycled from my house to Carleton Place. This was almost 80 km round-trip. We took the Ottawa-Carleton Trailway, best described on this page about cycling from Ottawa to Carleton Place. We stopped at Gourmet Restaurant for breakfast and then headed back to Ottawa, actually to the Sippy Cup Cafe before returning to my house. We recovered a bit, cleaned up, and met up with Kyla to start the work on dinner.

Dinner was awesome and I have a few recipes to share. First, appetizers. Eric was kind enough to prepare an awesome appetizer that included shrimp, cheese, cucumbers, and crackers. It was delicious but I have no idea what all was involved so I can not share the details with you. I was able to prepare a tasty salsa, which I have made once before, and I do have the recipe for that. It is based on D’s Famous Salsa Recipe. Modifications are: fresh (obviously) vine tomatoes, and fresh, jalapeno pepper instead of that canned business. I might change the proportions slightly and scale the recipe as appropriate, but this is all done to taste. Both Eric’s shrimp and my salsa were fully consumed, which I believe is a sign of approval.

The entree was a Maple Peameal Roast. I didn’t do an adult and child variant so I doubled the glaze. Most importantly, I cooked the roast rotisserie style on the barbecue. It was perfect. I believe some of the guests may have had some uncertainty about eating bacon as an entree but this uncertainty was washed away in the first byte.

As a side to the bacon we had green beans and Smushed Apples and Sweet Potatoes. I would say that this recipe also rated well. It smelled amazing. I didn’t alter the recipe at all because I haven’t really worked with sweet potatoes in the past. I will say that the apple slices were, for the most part, present in the final output and I was quite happy with things that way.

Dessert featured chocolate chip cookies prepared by Kyla using my Grandma’s secret recipe. They were so tasty that nobody had just one, and most had more than two. The cookies were served with vanilla ice cream and fresh, cut strawberries. I served some of Sippy Cup’s “freakin’ good” coffee. It was satisfaction all around.

There wasn’t much leftover, but I am thankful for the few bytes leftover that I do have. And the cookies.

Sport

Ryan J. Allen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:02:38 +0000

I may have posted already indicating what is upcoming for me with respect to sport, but I thought I’d go over for my own benefit.

On August 20th I will be in Toronto to support the runners in the Midsummer Night’s Run. I will not be running. Some family members are running the 15 km run and I just couldn’t bring myself to run this when there is a 30 km option. I will use this as an excuse to visit Toronto, keeping my quarterly visits up.

On September 18th I will be participating in the Army Run Half-Marathon here in Ottawa. I have entered a team, which is four people strong, and have no hopes of winning. None-the-less, it will be fun. There is some discussion by people around me to do the 5 km run, which I fully encourage.

On October 2nd I will be undertaking my third marathon, the County Marathon. I have heard great things about this marathon and look forward to seeing if it lives up to the hype. I have no specific goal for this marathon other than to have fun.

On October 22nd I’m taking Will and his girlfriend to participate in the CN Tower Climb. It has been a few years since I last participated in a climb, and I have never done the climb in the fall. It should be a fun time and I hope everyone in our group will be successful in completing the challenge.

That’s all that is on the docket as far as sport is concerned. It should lead will into the sloth period that is Winter.

Two Wheeled Vehicle Related Things

Ryan J. Allen — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 23:53:49 +0000

Yesterday morning Adam and I went for a bicycle ride. I was riding my mountain bike as we were intending to go through the Kanata Lakes area. We got 5 minutes in and turned around because the bugs were insane. We ended up bicycling to to Carp–specifically to the Diefenbunker. We turned around and stopped by the Sippy Cup Cafe (don’t worry Null, I still think we should go) in place of our usual after-squash Starbucks run. I had a cappuccino, which was huge, and bought some of their “Really Freakin’ Good” coffee beans.

Yesterday afternoon we did a routine check-up on Adam’s motorcycle. Neither of us are gear heads so its was a learning experience. We had moments of concern, and moments of triumph. We were specifically hoping to resolve some engine cut-out issues that he has been faced with; time will tell our level of success.

This morning I took my motorcycle with newly minted windshield onto a 400-series highway for the first time. Riding behind a windshield in this setting is noticeably different–as it should be. The biggest thing I noticed: my legs are right out there in the wind. This was always the case but it wasn’t as noticeable before. I am going to ride for a bit with the windshield on and take it off for the long weekend. Having said that, with the rain and some work obligations I don’t imagine I’ll get out on the bike all that much this week.

And finally, I decided to go for another leisurely bicycle ride this evening. I bicycled along the newly opened Terry Fox extension here in Kanata. It was nice. It would have been more nice if I ended the trip with another coffee stop but I do want to sleep tonight.

Ottawa Marathon

Ryan J. Allen — Sun, 29 May 2011 22:47:14 +0000

Well, I the Ottawa Race Weekend has come to a close and I couldn’t be happier with the results. Today I ran the Ottawa Marathon and destroyed my 4 hour goal with a final chip time of 3:43:49. This is a pace of 5:18/km (8:32/mile). I am very happy with this time. You can see the nitty gritty details compliments of Garmin. I did have a small technical glitch where I lost a few seconds of data on the Garmin, which explains the time difference from chip time. There was also a bit of data lost when I was under one of the 417 bridges, as it looks like I had a slowdown spike, but that’s not a big deal.

Some comments about the race:

I started just in front of the 4 hour continuous pace bunny. I really wanted to try to pace myself 4 hours but, out of the gate, I just had to go faster.
This was the first time that I had actually positioned myself at the appropriate starting position and I thought this was great. I didn’t feel “stuck” at all. Maybe this was also due in part to the wide, clear Laurier Ave.
I started the race with a small bit of pain in my left calf, but this went away after a few km. I did feel the run through my hamstrings and lower back early on–after about 8 km–and was quite worried that I had bit off more than I could chew, pace-wise.
I took a gel about every hour. The final gel I took about 10-15 minutes earlier (wherever there was a water station coming up) because I thought I would really need the energy for the last 10 km. This seemed to work just fine.
I tried to take a little bit of gatorade and water at each water station. I also used all three sponge stations, and it was my first time using one. I had brought two of my own gels and got one gel from the race crew at a gel station.
For a few of the water stations near the end I walked for a few seconds to drink. These were times when I needed more than a sip of water, but also wanted to be able to breath.
My second-half was about 3.5 minutes slower than my first half. I don’t think you would consider this to be “even” splits, but it’s close enough that I’m happy with it–especially considering how much more difficult the second half was.
A big group of friends came out to cheer me on around the 5 km mark. Thanks guys! And I failed to connect with another at the finish. That sucked. But I did get to see the Foran finish his half, which was awesome. And the other half-ers I was looking for (Cathie, Mark) both finished so quickly that I didn’t get back to the race route in time to see them!
My hair is a bit long at the moment so I wanted something to keep it from bouncing in my face. I used a Buff for the first time. It wasn’t bad, but I did have it configured in bandana mode which made things a bit hot. Around the 32 km mark I removed it, but my hair stayed put after having been forced down for so long.
I took magnesium the night before and day of the race to help reduce the possibility of cramping. I don’t know if it helped but it didn’t hurt.

All in all, this was a great race weekend. I think everyone is pleased with the results. I am pleased with everything. It was a great weekend.

I’d also like to mention that Tiffany treated me to a wonderful beverage at Starbucks afterwards. Starbucks definitely crossed my mind a few times on the run and this just made the drink extra good. Thanks, Tiffany.

Marathon Playlist Song Suggestions Please

Ryan J. Allen — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:29:59 +0000

Hello friends and randoms,

The National Capital Marathon is nearly upon us and I am about to inflict unexpected agony on my body. To help ease the pain I will pass the time listening to music, which should be both motivational and upbeat. The last marathon I ran included some tracks suggested by you the people and I would like to appeal to you again for some updated suggestions.

Please, share your running/workout song suggestions in the comments below. I need to build a playlist that is literally hours long (probably 5 hours, though I hope I can do the run in a little less time) so I need all of the suggestions I can get. Ask your friends!

If you’re in the Ottawa area please also consider finding a place along the route to cheer everybody on!

Update: Here’s the marathon playlist I just copied to my iPod.

Weekend Updates

Ryan J. Allen — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:24:48 +0000

Further updates: I played squash on Saturday morning. Adam and I played an intense match-up. New racquet and new shoes in hand for Adam. It was fun.

Saturday afternoon we got Adam’s bike back on the road. Topped up the battery, pumped up the tires, cleaned and lubed the chain, full oil change with filter. Adam says the bike runs well. It was exciting.

Sunday I got on the bike to go to church. There was stuff going on in Kingston. I got out for a 7 km run at a 5:05 min/km pace. I was pretty happy about that.

Katy’s gone to Africa and I don’t have any vegetables.