Tag Archives: Sinister 7

Dating The Dreadmill

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Dreadmill; “A large usually black item with buttons and flashy lights that allows one to run indoors stationary. This machine is like running in to a brick wall over and over at a variety of speeds.” Some people like to call this machine a “treadmill.”

*Can be used as a verb, dreadmilling and or dreadmilled.

-Teagan G.

So this winter we have been very fortunate with awesome weather. I have been running outside all winter except once or twice where I was crunched for time so I dreadmilled at work. Now the weather is about to poop its own pants on our city and get very, very cold. Check it out;

My running outside rule is go until it goes below -18 to -20 depending on the day. Since this week is going to be frigid as sin I will have to start dating the dreadmill. We have a hate/hate relationship; the only mild like I have for it is that I am running. In my mind artificially. So starting tomorrow we are going to go on our first date at 7:45 am and subsequently during the week until Sunday where I have an 8km snow or trail race depending on the snow conditions.

  • Our first date will be an 8km run
  • Second date will be intrv 20×1 w/1min
  • Third date will be 5km
  • Fourth date will be 5km
  • Fifth date will be intrv 15×2 w/1min
  • 6th date will be a no go I need rest from this beast.
  • 7th I am going to break up with Mr.Dreadmill, until of course its minus 30 again, then I’ll take him back.

After this week the weather is suppose to get normal again thank Buddha! Last week was amazing too; went on a fun filled fam jam run Saturday that was pretty fun! ALSO the 3 of us are half our Sinister 7 team so that is also pretty neat!

Pre-fam jam run!

Anyone else hate the dreadmill?

It’s Almost Christmas

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The weather here has been fairly mild thank the lord. This has made training much more enjoyable however; I am just waiting for the -30 weather and running in a Michelin man suit or slaving on the dreadmill. I have kept my mileage at about 30km/ week along with lots of cross training. In 4 days I will be jetting off to Mexico, I am so excited to run in the heat it is about 30-33 degrees there now so the runs will be enjoyable and the tanning after will be even better. I get back just in time for Christmas to enjoy the festivities here at home. From the 28-31st I am off to Jasper to snowboard, cross country ski, run, AND snowshoe run; then I am home for a few days and then back to Jasper for a work retreat and some ice climbing!

The first race of 2012 will be the Fat and Half Ass 25/50km run it will be on January 7th at Blackfoot. This winter I will also be racing in a snowshoe running race series put on my the Northern 5 Peaks team! I am super excited to race in snowshoes but it is not as easy as it looks. It is like running around in shoe boxes. The first race is January 8th at Victoria golf course it is about 8km. Hopefully my legs are feeling up to it after the Half Ass.

Our Sinister 7 team is complete. I am SO excited for the race this year our team is awesome! I am running legs 1 and 2 (~32 km).

Winter AGAIN

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So it’s winter again in the good old town of Edmonton. It is not really bad out yet but holy cheese nuts it is dark all the time!

Today is the first time in over two weeks that I have had the chance to run in daylight and the whip cream on the run was that there was SUNSHINE! Pretty much amazing. The side walks are starting to get that little bit slippery and I have whipped out my winter runners again.

Not going to lie all this darkness isn’t very fun and starts to wear on people; my runs have almost exclusively been in the dark and when it gets dark it usually gets colder. My training has been good as of late I’m on my last week of 25km/week of training and then it will go back up to 30-40km/week. I am really looking forward to getting more snow so I can start Cross Country Skiing!

These weeks of rest have been nice and training has been consistent! I will be starting speed work again next week and start hill training again!

In bigger news we have our Sinister 7 team all lined up and ready to roll we only need one more runner for leg 7 and then we will be complete! This year I will be running Legs 1 and 2 which will be about 32km! So excited!

Remember just because it is cold and dark doesn’t mean we stop training!

Sinister 7 – Ultramarathon

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July 8-10th was the 2011 Sinister 7 ultramarathon. Sinister 7 is a 146km run through the mountains in Crowsnest pass over a 27 hour time period. Teams and solo runners compete in this ultramarathon every year! Below is the course map. Here is all the gear; getting ready to go.

lots of “potions” (energy gels) as my sister calls them.

Our team #21: What was I thinking? was absolutely amazing every single one of the runners did an awesome job and we finished in approx 18.5 hours. I ran leg 6 which, is the baby blue section on the elevation map. My leg was 14km down a mountain and river in the complete dark. That map is a dirty liar and looks like all downs; but there are a lot of UPS. There were points in my leg where I was running through giant puddles, rock streams, and river type streams followed by a vertical hill that took all four limbs to get up. Running in the dark is hard; I could have probably run that leg significantly faster if I could see more than 1.5 feet in front of me!

Below are some photos of my leg in the light that I found on the Sinister 7 Facebook page.

This photo is about 3 minutes from TA-5 so 3 min in wet feet. That stream is the path.

This is one of 3 GIANT puddles to wade through about 10km in.

This is one of the downhills then up; I remember running it but couldn’t see ANYTHING so it’s nice to see what is in front of you..after the fact.

Finally here are a few photos of me getting ready to go out , coming in, and after in the dark.

Waiting at TA-5 to go out; cold and jittery on Red Bull.

Coming in from my leg; whipping off my pack to hand over timing chip. Notice the suffer face.

After my leg trying to warm up and rehydrate.

All in all Sinister 7 was an amazing ultra; the race directors and volunteers out did themselves and put on a phenomenal race. This is Sinister 7′s fourth year and boomed from 600 athletes last year to 1100 this year and my prediction is that it will keep on booming! Can’t wait for the ultra I do next year; probably death race on a team and HOPEFULLY Sinister 7 on a team as well! If I run Sinister next year I defiantly want to do 2 or 3 legs consecutively. So now the weekend is done and I am looking forward to my next races which, are the St. Albert sprint triathlon and Edmonton marathon.

Back at work. In a super sweet T-shirt. NBD.

SINISTER 7 ROCKED
TEAM #21: WHAT WAS I THINKING ROCKED