Tag Archives: Trail Running

The summer post sin 7

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After Sinister 7 this year my body gave me a giant F you. My legs were tired and I felt completely depleted; the week post Sin I ran 40km when I should have been resting this also did not help my cause. So I decided not to sign up for Merriot Duathlon (where I wanted to get top 3 to apply for Tri Canada POO) and not to sign up for the St.Albert Tri and not to do the Edmonton half marathon. I really wanted to do the St.Albert Tri and the Merriot Duathlon this year because I have been putting lots of km on my road bike and in the pool since Sin ruined my legs and I mixed up my training. Two years ago when I did the St.Albert Tri-a-tri I got second so I really wanted to come back and push hard in the Sprint – however there is always next year and the year after that! Next year I will for sure I am going to race a Duathlon qualifier.

For the last few weeks I have been running 30km/week and a minimum of 30-50km on my bike! I even had a 35km road bike business meeting; it was awesome minus the fact I couldn’t clip out fast enough at one spot and ate poo during a meeting so embarrassing. On the long weekends Jesse and I always go to Jasper so of course we were there August long! We hiked/ran Whistlers with Chocolate his first big hike and did all the normal stuff. I got a few good runs in while we were there and our puppy thinks camping in the bomb diggity because the tent is a giant snooze pillow and he thinks deer should be his best friend.

Snoozing in the tent.

On our hike. Someone is more interested in the birds.

So pretty. Whistlers.

Things are finally back to normal this weekend we are going to the cabin, next weekend we race 5 Peaks Chickacoo one of our favorites minus Devon which is the BEST ONE EVER; and then we will be back in Jasper for September long with our best friends and their new puppy. Him and Chocolate are becoming the best of friends.

Then from there we are back to September, which for me is the busiest time of my life; because I work in a post secondary and I start coaching cross country again. I have tailored my training to cross country specific now, last week was my first week back training specific XC and it was awesome. My fastest 5km time was 24 minutes so I am very pleased and my 30×1 w/ 1 intervals went really well. I will be training XC specific with a mix of ultra training thrown in there (Sunday LONG runs) because on October long I will be soloing the Grizzly Ultra 50km with Jesse and our best friends will be there to cheer us on and help with our pup. Love them AND we get to have a big thanksgiving together.

Anyways back to zooming; MY FAVORITE race series of all time starts in a few weeks the Frank McNamara Wednesday night races – fall races are much harder than spring but they are awesome because all the post secondary teams run them so there its lots of people and I get to run with my team! This will be my 5th year of Franks races between all the members in my family including Josie we have a bizillon franks shirts!

I was looking in to doing Canada Pentiction Ironman next year but it is just too much money right now because we want to buy a house and on top of our normal warm holidays registration alone for the full iron = one week in Mexico; so I am thinking of doing Canada Calgary Half Ironman and my dad and I are doing the 175km Tour de’l Alberta 175km together because he road bikes also!

That is all for now and remember to eat healthy because;

hahahaha too funny I had too!

Five Fun Facts

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Fun fact # 1  I made soup. Thats right folks I am the opposite of domestic and I made delicious and healthy vegetable soup. For me this was a HUGE feat. I will also continue to make soup because it is actually really easy.

My creation.

Fun fact # 2 It is starting to get nice out. The other day I ran and it was PLUS 12! I almost fell over with joy because I did not have to wear 32947590576349 layers of clothing. Success.

Fun fact # 3 I have been going to Jasper every two weeks. Lots of fun snowboarding and lots of fun training. MARMOT HAS SO MUCH SNOW = SO MUCH LOVES.

Onsie for the win.

Fun fact # 4 My hip pain is gone but has manifested in to left knee pain. To top off this lovely turn of events I slammed my knee into the wall yesterday. Winning.

Fun fact # 5 Tim Horton’s cups LIE. You DO NOT have a 1 in 6 chance of winning something because I am 0 in over 12.

LIARS

 

In other news I have been crazay busy at my place of employment; training has been going okay minus the fact my body hasn’t been cooperating to the level I would like it too. I am currently only run training 5 times a week and weight training 3. My runs have been kinda wonky noodles lately with my pacing. Some days are great and I am running in the 5:15/km pace band no problem and others I have been struggling to stay at 5:30/km. Josie (aka manfriend) and I have been training together a bit and he said my gait is messed. I am overcompensating on my left side; we ran on Sunday and he said it is starting to get better but I can definitely feel the difference in my training. So I am continuing to work on correction of my gait and get my knee pain to subside.

For the month of March I am only running 30-35km/week to recover and getting ready to up my mileage I am trying to run every km solid and maximize this time of training. aka trying to minimize junk miles. I have been neglecting my yoga practice and I need to slap my self in the face to go more. Yoga is good for me and it HELPS

My training weeks look like this;

Monday – Run off Lift on
Tuesday – Run 5km
Wednesday – Run 5km
Thursday – 8km
Friday – 6km hill intervals Lift on
Saturday Run off Lift on
Sunday 6-10km

As for races I am gearing up for the Spring Franks XC series and then the next big races are 5 Peaks Terwillieger (8mm hardcore trail) the Blackfoot Ultra (25km trail).

5 Peaks Devon

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Last Saturday was 5 Peaks Devon; the last of the series! Kind of a bummer because the 5 Peaks races are AWESOME. For the 100th time and last time this year I will say this but the course was marked amazingly, great volunteers, great overall production.

The first 4km of the course was tough a ton of elevation change and great hills. Very few races make my ass hurt the next day but this one did big time. The last few km of the course were easy and fast; I had a great run.

Here is a crappy screen shot of the elevation map of the course.

Now I really enjoyed the 5.5 km mark because I LOVE running down hills; I run very fast down these hills to boot so I pass lots of slow pokes who are worried about their knees! Just zooming away.

Now back to the part about me having a great run. IT WAS AWESOME. This is the first run of any sorts race, training, LSD, you name it that I did not feel like shitting my pants, rolling over and dying from pain, and or puking. Stomach problems are finally at bay for now, which benefited the crap out of me Saturday. I did not run 100% because I was being cautious about my stomach but I ran hard and well. I finished 11th overall in my age category and was like 1 minute away from being 6th or 7th. It is amazing how much seconds matter in some races. After the race I had so much energy I could have run it again I was bouncing all over the place; Jesse thought I was crazy. I also raced in my new Saucony A4′s since my Fastwitch ones died and the new Fastwitch’s are not as nice; they are equally awesome. All in all such a great race, day, and people.

My training has been focused on cross country/trail as of late. My stomach has also put a damper on the long run training. The next races I have coming up are 2 Wednesday night races (XC) and the Victoria half marathon. Since the half is less than two weeks away so I will try to throw in a few long runs on road before we get to Victoria next Friday.

Week of training

Monday – 6km of hill repeats Keillor Road hill
Tuesday – REST
Wednesday – 6 km George Smith Special Wed Night Race
Thursday – 16 x 1 w/2 Trail
Friday – 8km tempo
Saturday – Rest or 5km road OOKS are in Calgary racing – I am there coaching
Sunday – 15km LSD

Here are some photos from the race on Saturday some good suffer face in some of them!

Suffer faceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ^

 

As the 5 Peakers say…..

Get off the road!

Poop Happens and Edmonton 21

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This past week I raced twice. The Wednesday night race (WNR) at Emily Murphy Park and the Edmonton 21 10km run. I also have been having some pretty shitty stomach problems. No pun intended. They have been effecting my running quite a bit.

The WNR is a 8km race 2 4km laps. My pace time was really good and I was feeling great but I dropped at the 4km lap because I had to poop. Really BAD! This is also the second year in a row I have dropped in this race because of bathroom problems. Its like the poop inducing race. My 4km time was 21 minutes which would have been a good split time.

The Edmonton 21 10km race was not that great. My stomach has been acting up really bad the last few days and I considered not going to the race at all. Finally I made myself to go. There were like no runners there at all; the first sign of a possibly lame race. The course was nice but poorly marked and the last 3 km were not very fun and an out and back to make a kilometer at the 8km mark isn’t worth it; when there were obvious alternatives. The race was at laurier/hawerluk park my training grounds so I know the terrain really well. After the Keillor road hill I passed about 15 people and was feeling really good; then at about the 5 or 6 km mark my stomach really started to act up. I had to stop and walk because it felt like one of two things were going to happen. Pooping of the pants, or passing out. I walk/ran the last 4km of the course. It was very frustrating because my legs and lungs felt good; my pace was 5min/kms no problem when I was moving but I would have to stop because of my stomach. Shitting your pants is out of control so I just hobbled through. I finished in 58 minutes which, is less than ideal but I still finished and didn’t drop. On a positive note no poop in pants and stinger waffle cake things are DELICIOUS. Also a thank you to Morgan and Jesse for taking pictures and coming in the cold.

Pre race freezing

Fighting it out at about 8 km

This week is the Whitemud park Wednesday night race 4 2km laps to make an 8km run and Saturday 5 Peaks Devon sport 7km. Hopefully my stomach starts to feel better for the upcoming races. I have been cutting out dairy and other things that contribute to stomach/digestive problems.

Every runner who has been at it for awhile has had the “I need to find a bathroom NOW” moment during training or a race but it should not be this persistent.

We will see how training goes this week!

5 Peaks Chickakoo and Run For The Lung

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On Saturday was 5 Peaks Chickakoo; I raced the sport distance. The race was amazing. Getting back on to the trail was awesome since, I just came off the Edmonton half marathon. The 5 peaks races are always awesome! So well organized, and super fun. The race course is scenic and fun, I use to hike it when I was really little with my parents. The first 2 km start off super flat and fast then it moves in to rolling hills. A few of the hills gave me a serious run for my money; lots of ups! The course finishes off with about 2 km of flat and slight down which, is nice to come in quickly. I did not run as fast as I wanted too but I was happy to get back on the trails and stay in the middle of the pack. Again, the 5 peaks race directors and volunteers out do themselves!

On Sunday was Run for the lung which, is a race in memory of a girl named Jessie whom passed away from Cystic Fibrosis. Her family is family friends of ours and I work with Cystic Fibrosis Canada so it was a really amazing event. It was a 5 km road race; and I was expecting flat and fast…NAWT two huge hills. The race started off from Original Joe’s in Terwillegar and headed out some direction I do not know which? I was 6th overall and the 2nd woman until about 4km then I started getting a bit of pain and fatigue on my left side so I slowed down a bit and ended up taking 4th for women. I can’t complain about that since I raced the day prior. Overall great event for a great cause!

Now cross-country season is starting so I am working with the head coach to get everything organized for that! It is very exciting that I am a real assistant coach.

My upcoming races are………….dundundun

  • Frank’s Wednesday night fall series! yay budday! Best 6 Wednesdays ever AND starting on my birthday!
  • Edmonton 21 – 10km on September 18th
  • 5 Peaks Devon 7.3km on September 24th
  • Victoria 1/2 marathon on October 9th
  • Camrose open 5km on October 15th

 

Jasper

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Is awesome.

Spent the long weekend in Jasper this year which, was excellent! Did lots of funactivities and adventuring and even saw a bear and 1000000 tourists trying to ride elk. Go figure.

Friday pm- we got in to Jasper pretty late so just set up the tent and went to bed.

Saturday am – We got up pretty early and went in to town so I could get my $1.50 tea from macs that I buy every day I’m in Jasper always. So often I think I keep them in business when I am there for weekends. And bought the $2 muffins from Super A foods that we buy every time we are there because they are DELICIOUS. Then we headed to Mt.Edith Cavell to do a morning hike around the valley; then walked down the river for a while.

How do you enjoy your morning tea?


Saturday pm – Then we headed to Moab lake and the Athabasca pass to run intervals. We did 10 x 1 min w/ 2 down the trails and down to the lake on the way back. The Athabasca Pass is actually a 49km hike so we just ran out on the trails.

Then after our run we went to the beach made lunch and then tanned and swam. In Jasper the beach is on lake Annette its gorgeous and the water is brisk but refreshing!

Sunday am – We got up and headed to the Sulfur skyline trail to run/hike it! Wore our Montrail Wildwoods which, are amazing for the downhills great support for the feet and not hurt on the toes! The Sulfur skyline trail is about 5km straight up and then obvs a super fun 5km down!

This is the view.

This is me doing work!

Sunday pm – As soon as we were done and driving down the mountain is started to pour rain and didn’t stop all day and all night! So we just relaxed hung out etc. I drank tea; big surprise.

Monday am – Leaving day so we got up and did the easy and ever so popular Valley of Five Lakes before driving home! It’s a great little hike approx 4.5 km!

So that was the August long weekend of 2011! This is the famous weekend for the Canadian Death race as well! A new course record was set by Rickey Gates with a time of 12 hours and 18 minutes! No big deal the guy is a mad man! Next year I will also be running in the Death Race with my boyfriend we are splitting it. I will be doing Leg 1, 2 and 3 and then he will run legs 4 and 5! Shall be a grande time I am very excited! We are considering taking a first leg runner so lighten the load a bit but that is still up in the air!