The Runner Diaries — Corey Bellemore

8am – Woke up to get some forms completed for the Francophone Games. I eat my usual bowl of cereal (Honey oats) with almond milk, a glass of OJ and a banana.

9am – After breakfast, I make my way to the University of Windsor campus where I drop off my forms for my VISA to the Ivory Coast to a friend who is heading up to the embassy in Ottawa that day.

Noon – I head home to get a quick haircut before going home for lunch. Lunch is rice, chicken and pork, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, greek yogurt and some veggies and hummus.

2pm – After lunch, I go for an 11km (~6.8-mile) run with a teammate and afterwards, have a few guys over to swim and play some basketball. We all enjoy a pint from my Flying Monkeys keg of Confederation Amber Ale. For dinner, I have burgers, pasta salad, and some potatoes.

7pm – I go to my girlfriends house and spent some time with her dog and family.

Daily Mileage: ~6.8 miles

Tuesday – Day Two

8:30am – Wake up to have breakfast — honey oats with almond milk, a glass of OJ and a banana (again)…pretty standard!

9am – I jump in my pool to wake myself up, then got my stuff together for track practice.

10am – Since Nationals are this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (I’m running both the 800-meter and 1500-meter), the workout is just a speedy tune up. I do 5×250-meters while my teammate Melissa Bishop does 650-meters plus 150-meters. It’s a quick session and doesn’t take very long, but it was a good confidence booster going into the weekend.

1pm – I have a follow up doctors appointment at the travel clinic by my house just to ensure I have all the required shots in order to go to Ivory Coast towards the end of July.

2pm – Lunch is a chicken salad, a greek yogurt, apple, some trail mix and some leftover potatoes.

3pm – After lunch, my twin and I sit by the pool and enjoy the sun while we listen to some music on my bluetooth speaker.

5pm – I take a nap after spending 2 hours in the sun (sleep is very important this week to feel fresh for the big, busy weekend of racing).

6pm – I wake up from an hour nap, just in time to get dinner ready. Dinner is pasta with a creamy cheddar sauce and cut up Italian sausages, with a garden salad on the side.

7pm – For the rest of the night, I do a lot of packing since I’m leaving for Nationals and driving to Ottawa tomorrow at 9am.

Daily Mileage: ~1250 meters of speed work 

Wednesday – Day Three

8:30am – Wake up and have typical, standard breakfast!

9:30am – I get picked up by a coach and teammate, and then we’re off on the road for the next 8 hours or so to Ottawa! We stop 3 times or so on the way up to stretch out the legs and get some food. I packed a bag of snacks for the ride (trail mix, Ritz crackers, apple, etc) so I only had to buy a pita on the way up as my meal.

5pm – Once we get to our Airbnb, we get changed and go for a little shakeout jog down the Rideau Canal trail. I run 10km (6 miles) and do some easy stretching afterwards.

6:30pm – For dinner, a friend from Ottawa who invites us over for a big meal of lasagna, salad, bread, and then pie for dessert. It was a great meal that left us full and fueled for the big week ahead. We stayed a little while after to play ‘Telestrations After Dark’ and had some great laughs!

11:30pm – We call it a night and head 20 minutes down the road back to our AirBnb to catch some Z’s.

Daily Mileage: 6 miles

Thursday – Day Four

5:30am – I wake up to the sun shining into my bedroom and am frustrated because I wanted to get a big sleep two days in advance of my race! I try to lay back down until around 9:30am, but was just dosing in and out.

9:45am – I (finally?) get up to have breakfast around and have Vector cereal, a glass of OJ and a banana..very standard! We hang around the house, play lots of charades, listen to some music and watch some track most of the morning and afternoon.

1pm – Lunch is a turkey and ham sandwich with an avocado, an apple, and greek yogurt.

3:30pm – We head to the track to do our pre-race shakeout, which consists of a 6km run, some dynamic drills and 4×150-meters of strides.

5pm – We go back to the house after the short session at the track to shower, get a snack and hang out for a bit.

7pm – After around two hours, we go back to the track to watch our teammate Joe compete in the 800-meter prelims. He has a solid run and qualifies into the semi final round because of it!

7:30pm – We leave the track just after his run to go back and cook our steaks, sweet potato fries and asparagus. It was a great dinner, to say the least!

8:30pm – For the rest of the night we play some more charades and finish off the night by watching the live stream of the meet where some fellow teammates and friends were running the 5000-meter final.

Daily Mileage: 6k run, ~600-meters of strides

Friday – Day Five (RACE DAY!)

9:15am – I have a much better sleep the second night in the AirBnb and wake up just after 9am. You can probably guess what I had for breakfast today.. same as Thursday! haha.

10am – After breakfast I go for an easy 15-minute shakeout run, just to make sure my legs are warmed up and loosened up for the 800-meter semi-finals tonight.

Noon – Another afternoon of hanging out, watching the live stream of the track meet, and playing some charades. For lunch I have two eggs, an avocado, greek yogurt, some strawberries, and a ham and chicken sandwich. I try to have a somewhat bigger lunch, since I’m not racing until around 8pm tonight.

2pm – I take an afternoon hour-long nap just to rest up for the race. When I wake up I listen to music, hang with the guys at the house and get my stuff ready for the track. I have a PB & J sandwich before we leave, and a coffee on the side.

6:30pm – We arrive at the track and warm up shortly after. We run for 15-minutes before doing some quality drills & strides to get primed to race.

I am in the 3rd heat of 3 heats. Robert Heppenstall (a fellow competitor who came in 4th in the 2017 800m NCAA final) is in my heat, and we talk before the race about each of our race plans. He tells me he is going to get out hot, just to stay out of trouble. The only event he’s competing in at the championships is the 800-meter event, whereas I am doing both the 800m and 1500m. Therefore, my goal is to conserve as much energy as possible in order to make finals, and race well in finals in both events.

RACE RECAP: I end up 2nd in my heat, which is perfect because the top two finishers automatically qualify into the final — and I didn’t have to run overly hard to do it, which is a huge plus.

7:30pm – After the race, I go out for a 15-minute cool down and then head back to the house to cook some pasta. We eat pasta with kale and spinach salad on the side – another simple but nice meal!

8pm – I take a shower after dinner, hydrate a bit and then head off for bed. Saturday is looking to be the hardest day of the weekend. 1500-meter semi-finals are at 11:55am, and the 800-meter final is at 7:10pm!

Daily Mileage: 45 minutes warm up & cool down, 800-meter race

Saturday – Day Six

7:30am – Wake up early, as I have to be ready to go for the 1500-meter heats around noon! I have another one of my regular breakfasts while listening to some music to settle down some nerves.

10:30am — I head to the track around 10:30am with a fellow teammate who is also racing the 1500-meter heat. We do a 15-minute warm up, our drills and a few strides. Then we’re ready to race!

11:55am — RACE RECAP: The race went out very easy and we closed the last lap fairly hard. I win my heat, which sets me up nicely for the final tomorrow. I try to conserve as much energy as I can, as I have the 800-meter final later tonight.

1pm — I get back to the house shortly after the race and enjoy a medium-sized lunch, consisting of a sandwich, two eggs, an apple, an avocado and some strawberries. I vow to rest until the 800-meter final at 7pm. For the next few hours, the boys and I share stories and memories from previous trips, giving each other a few laughs.

5:45pm — Off to return to the track for the 800-meter final! This race for me is all about getting into it, and hanging on.

7pm — RACE RECAP: I expect the race to be fast, and it is. Brandon McBridge, a fellow Windsorite, took it out and never looked back. I went out hot as well, but my legs were feeling a bit fatigued from the 1500-meter earlier in the day. Overall, I finish 4^th, with my fourth fastest time ever — so, not too bad. I’m still fairly discouraged, but I know I have to stay positive for my race tomorrow.

8pm — Dinner is chicken, asparagus and some salad. We play a few rounds of charades, and head off to bed early to get ready for the 1500-meter final in the morning!

Daily Mileage: 15-20 minutes of warm up, 1500-meter race

Sunday — Day Seven

8am — I wake up just before 8am because the 1500-meter final is around 1pm. Another day, another ‘Corey breakfast!’ I want to get in a small walk before the race, just to wake up my legs. My teammate and I walk down the street to a coffee shop to get a nice, warm coffee for a nice jolt of alertness and readiness!

11am — I have a PB&J sandwich before making our way to the track.

1pm — RACE RECAP: This is my last race of the championships, so it was all about just letting whatever was about to happen, happen. The race starts out slow (as expected), with lots of pushing and changes in pace. With 400-meters to go, my teammate surges to the front and attempts taking off (leaving the pack). I think that it’s a bit too early to start your kick a whole lap out from the finish, but I roll with the pace and gauge off the other guys.

With 200-meters to go, I find myself neck-and-neck with the lead runner. With 100-meters to go, I can feel my legs start to get a bit heavy. All of the weekend’s races are starting to take their toll on my legs. I end up finishing fourth, with only one second between myself and the first place winner.

Despite the fourth place finish, I’m satisfied with the race overall after a long weekend. I don’t think I could have done anything different to change the outcome in that race.

1:30pm — After the race, I do a short cool-down before having a cold beer with my teammate and a coach to say, “Cheers!” to a solid week.

2pm — We rush back to our Airbnb, have a small snack, pack our things, and head out for our 8-to-9 hour trip back home.

Daily Mileage: Walk, warm up & 800-meter race

A Look Back — Thoughts On The Week