A busy day in the life of a joggler

This is a long clip of Kenenisa Bekele's 10,000m world record, but it's worth skipping to the end to watch his final lap. How is it possible to run that fast in the final 400m of a 10K?

Bekele just won the 10,000m in Osaka, his third World Championships win in a row.

On Sunday, I had a killer training day. After 2.5 hours of sleep, I dragged myself out of bed at 6 am for my long run. I left the juggling beanbags at home because I was planning to run with my friend Mohammed and didn't want the joggling to get in the way of converstion.

After an espresso and a 5-mile warmup, I met Mohammed at the park and we covered about 10 miles together. I then hooked up with the Shirtless Gang, a bunch of very fast (and shirtless) masters runners who do a regular Sunday 10-miler at a very good pace.

By the time I arrived home I had covered just under 26 miles in under three hours. My run was longer than my sleep. But there was no rest for the weary joggler, because I only had time for a quick shower and snack before I had to head out to the Toronto Buskerfest.

Teaching kids how to juggle at the Buskerfest was so much fun that I forgot how tired I was. If I can keep up with the high-quality training even if my weekly mileage isn't what I had hoped, the record may be still be within reach.

Visualization training

My run home from work today was a mental battle. It was hot, sunny and so humid it felt like running through honey. My eczema was driving me up the wall again and the itch progressed to stinging pain all over my arms, legs and torso.

Last night, I had almost no sleep because of the skin condition. So propelling myself to run uphill with a backpack after a long day at work took some creative motivational techniques.

When I'm feeling sluggish, I like to use visualization techniques to get me through the rough patches. They really work. Here's how to do it:

1) Think of a big race that makes you feel inspired. For me today, this was the Athens Olympic marathon, won by Stefano Baldini of Italy.

2) Imagine yourself as a lead, elite running machine, even if you actually feel like a tub-a-lub slug.

3) Now pick a point partway through your race of choice and picture yourself running alongside the front-runners.

4) Sound out the play-by-play TV announcer in your head. "...and Michal Kapral of Canada has joined Keflezghi at the front. Kapral is on pace for a personal best, even if this searing Greek heat!"

5) Go through the rest of the race and visualize yourself pulling away from the leader at the end. "Kapral's gong to take the gold! Check out the look of determination on that Canuck's face!"

6) You win the gold medal. You feel great. And you got through a tough training run.

The high-intensity, uphill cooldown

Here's the article from Explore magazine. Just click on the photo for a readable version. Hey, does that photo look familiar? What a great shot by John Chou, the Longboat Roadrunners photographer. It's one of the few joggling photos where one of the beanbags isn't "clowning" directly in front of my nose.

One of these days I might actually update my oft-neglected main site, http://www.thejoggler.ca/, with all these press clippings.

On the training front, I wasn't able to pry myself out of bed yesterday morning for my planned speed workout, but I did end up running home from work despite a time crunch to get back to see a personal training client. After a 2-mile warmup, I hammered a 3-mile tempo (uphill, with a backpack, but no juggling).

The last mile of my run home from work iincludes a very steep climb, so it ends up that my "cooldown" ineviteably involves strenuous uphill toiling. I could just add an extra mile after the hill, but that would make too much sense.

Back on track

This morning's workout took me back to my old stomping grounds: the East York Collegiate 400m track. I spent endless hours pounding the blacktop here in the early 2000s with my old training partner, Charles Bedley (who recently ran a 2:23 marathon).

My joggling training has mostly involved speedwork on the roads, estimating distance and time. For this summer's training phase, I'm going to hit the track again once a week. Today's workout was 5 x 800m in 2:30 with a one-lap slow jog in between each. The track is very humbling, in that the distance is fixed, the clock is running and you'd better get moving to hit your time goal.

The great thing about the track is that you know what kind of shape you're in, and I'd say I'm actually in pretty decent shape at this stage in my training for the fall marathon.

From 0 to 60 in ... one week

Some cars can go from 0 to 60 in four seconds. It took me a week.

But I'm talking about running a total of 60 miles rather than reaching 60 mph. My top joggling speed is about 14 mph. Some day I'll find out my 0 to 14 performance rating. Until then, I'm pleased with my first full week of quality marathon training, which I just wrapped up with an early-morning 19-miler (the family's still asleep).

A couple of night's ago, we watched the movie 'Wordplay,' a surprisingly gripping film about crossword puzzles. Benjamin from Chump Change Productions said he's making his documentary about record breakers based on a similar formula. 'Wordplay' has no voice-over narrative, the story is told in the words of the crossword maniacs themselves.

I haven't done a crossword in several years, but Dianne and I recently subscribed to the Sunday New York Times, so we're going to tackle Will Shortz's puzzle today. Let's see if we can do it in the time it takes me to joggle a marathon.

How much joggling should a joggler joggle?

For the next joggling marathon world record bid, I've decided to mix things up a bit. In my preparation for Salt Lake City, I juggled for about 95% of my training runs.

For the Scotiabank Marathon, I'm going to start out doing most of my running without juggling, then gradually phase in more and more joggling, with the idea that this will boost my running speed base. If I'm a faster runner and my jjoggling technique is properly honed on race day, chances are that I'll post a faster joggling time.

Last night I went out for a fantastic speed session along the Toronto Beach boardwalk. It was an 8-mile run and I did four 1-mile intervals, plus a big sprint up a 400m hill near the end. Less than a week into my training, I'm already starting to feel fit.

Up and running

The training has begun. As I prepare for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on September 30, it's time to start thinking about how to fit in all the running, juggling and joggling that I'll need to get into world-record shape.

Here's the plan:

1) Run mostly at 4:30 a.m. or 10:30 p.m. My summer running schedule will avoid the heat, the smog and the traffic.
2) Strength training, core work and plyometrics three times per week after work.
3) Juggling every night with the kids. I juggle, the kids dance around to music and get tired so they sleep well.
4) Saturday morning run at 5 a.m. down to the St. Lawrence farmers' market. Fill backpack with fruit and vegetables and run home.
4) Long joggle on Sunday at 5 a.m. Back in time for breakfast with the family.
5) Tuesday evening runs with the whole family (kids in the Twinner Baby Jogger).
6) Speed work on Wednesdays and Fridays.
7) Ride bike to and from work.
8) Do some of my running backwards to prepare for 2008.
9) Keep working on the 5-ball joggling.
10) Keep bloggling almost every day.
11) Visit www.runningmania.com almost every day.
12) Don't watch TV, except for finale of Top Chef.
13) And as Metallica once said: "Those people who tell you not to take chances / They are all missing on what life's about / You only live once so take hold of this chance / Don't end up like others / Same song and dance."

Juggling at Niagara Falls

My apologies for the lack of posts this past week. I've been away in Niagara.

I did some juggling for tourists (and my daughters – that's Annika in the pink coat in the photo) at Niagara Falls.

On Sunday, I went for a really good long run from my mother-in-law's place in Niagara-on-the-Lake along the Niagara Parkway. My legs feel a bit creaky and I have a strained muscle in my back from lifting an armoire, but I think I'll be well-prepared for the marathon.

Sore all over – time to taper

Today's joggling plan: 10 miles

Zach and I get to joggle on live TV. We have an interview confirmed with KUTV in Salt Lake City on April 20, the day before the race. They're doing the segment outside, so they can get some quality joggling footage.

I did some joggling speed intervals yesterday, followed by 3-club juggling practice. I feel sore all over today.

The rest of the week will be easy joggling to taper for the Around the Bay 30K this Sunday. If I can finish the 30K, I'm guaranteed to set a personal joggling best for the distance, since it's my first 30K joggle. I'm also guaranteed to set a course record for joggling, and possibly a world record too. I haven't heard of anyone joggling a 30-km race ... ever.

BREAKING NEWS: Sport Juggling Company sponsors The Joggler

Today's joggling plan: 0 miles (sore ankle needs rest)

I've got balls!

Sport Juggling Company, maker of the world-famous Sport balls, is now The Joggler's official sponsor for joggling beanbags. They'll be producing an 85 g custom marathon joggling beanbag for me. I can't wait to give these a test run.

This is my first official joggling sponsorship. Reebok has been sponsoring me for shoes and apparel for three years, but I signed on with them based solely on my running, in my pre-Joggler days.

"Holy...!" "Oh my...!" "What the...!?"

Yesterday's joggling mileage: 10 miles

It's all about the speed. Last night's 10-mile joggling extravaganza included 6 x 1 mile speed intervals with two minutes of jogging (joggle jogging?) in between each. I got a rush out of blasting past pedestrians and hearing little snippets of exclamations, like "No waaay!" "Cool!" "You rock!" "That guy's...!" "Holy...!" "Oh my...!" and "What the...!?"

You may be wondering why I log my distances in miles rather than kilometres, given that I live in the metric nation of Canada. (You may also be wondering why I spend such a significant chunk of my life trying to set obscure Guinness World Records, but that's another issue that I'm still trying to resolve in my own mind.)

The main reason for using miles is that joggling 10 miles seems much more manageable to me than 16 km. Kilometres simply psyche me out. Joggling is quite bit harder than running, so I'd rather have larger units of measurement. A 20-mile long joggle – piece of cake. A 36-km joggle – forget it, too many units.

The other logic of measuring in miles is that four laps around a standard outdoor track equal one mile (or just shy of a mile, if you want to get technical), so it makes things easier to calculate in terms of track workouts. Even when I'm doing intervals on the road, I usually think in terms of half-mile, one-mile and two-mile intervals.

And finally, the Salt Lake City Marathon is in the U.S. – that stubborn non-metric holdout – so I might as well get used to setting my pace in miles. I remember the first time I ran the Boston Marathon after training in kilometres, having no clue whether of not I was on pace. I recall crossing the 10-mile marker, looking at the clock thinking: "I have no idea what that means." What it meant, I would discover much later, was that I was running way too fast, and would end up completing the historic road race looking like a very sick, inebriated geriatric.