Running: The Trail Ahead

My second summer of ultras came to an end with the cancellation of Lost Soul, and so it is time to reflect on what has been and plan for what will come.

Training for the Blackfoot 50-miler didn't get off to a great start with the severe allergies at the old job, and then the last three weeks of training were wiped out by a severe chest cold. I survived the race, but it was by no means the kind of performance I had hoped for at close to 12 hours.

Unfortunately after these disappointments it was difficult getting things back on track with my training. I did make it to the gym fairly regularly, and I was running home from work most days of the week. But upon reflection it seemed more struggle than joy on too many days.

Next it was off to Sinister 7, but inexperience lead me to overdo the pre-run snacking that lead to a lot of GI distress through leg 4. It also left me more than a little worn out, but I got the job done. After about an hour into leg 5 I was feeling better and the joy was back, and running leg 6 in the dark was great too. But after the race it seemed more struggle than joy again as I returned to preparing for Lost Soul in September.

I have never had much success with running in hot weather, and that became my nemesis during long runs in August. Long runs inevitably became shorter runs as I had problems of all sorts throughout the month. I started having foot problems. I had tried making some changes to my running mechanics, but they were not as effective as I'd have liked and changing back wasn't great either. I was still logging a lot of distance, but it felt ineffective and a burden.

The long weekend seems to have lead to injury after a bit of slipping during our descent from the snowed in North Kananaskis Pass. It really didn't manifest itself except for a couple non-consecutive days of intermittent soreness that ranged from annoying to painful, so I didn't concern myself with it and rested in preparation for Lost Soul. Of course Lost Soul was cancelled, and the replacement run on Monday turned into a very painful experience remeniscent of the pain I suffered after my fall into the puddle on the Canadian Death Race course the previous year.

So I haven't been running really at all the last month, nor have I been getting to the gym at all. Mostly I've been in my head wondering what I want (or need) to do about my running at this point. I never doubted I would continue to run, but I did need to consider what my goals would be and how to achieve them.

And this is what I've decided.

• I will take some time off from running until after we finish our move the beginning of November.


• In the mean time, I'm going back to the gym at least three days per week to work on strength, core and x-train on the bikes. I want to continue this through into the new year too.


• Commit myself to doing more stretching at home and replace my ineffective foam roller to help improve my biomechanics and reduce the tension in my leg muscles.


• Take next year off from racing and volunteer instead. I may still run Lost Soul next year (to check out the course as much as anything) because I have a guaranteed entry, but I don't have to make that decision until February.


• Focus on rebuilding my running base with more effective speed, hill and endurance workouts.


• Spend more days in the backcountry with some solo fast-packing trips. (Aerin is using all her available vacation days for her trip to China, so I will be ahead of her next summer.) This will also include bagging some more peaks.


• Attempt the Alberta Triple in 2010!

If you know what the Alberta Triple is, then you know I have big plans. If you don't, to complete the Alberta Triple I need to finish the Blackfoot 100K, Canadian Death Race (125K) and Lost Soul 100M that year.

To these ends I will formally plan more of my training and invest in some training aids. What I need most right now is a heart rate monitor, so I will start there.

So it's been a tough year to be running, but I'm looking to approach the coming year with renewed purpose and enjoyment.

Games: FallCon Game Convention

Last weekend was my weekend to play games at the FallCon game convention (the website is currently down) in Calgary. This annual September event was in it's 21st year, and I've had the pleasure of attending 13 of those years.

This year I ran a Flames of War tournament on Saturday morning and afternoon, raced to glory playing Formula De Saturday evening, and concluded with a very slow game of BattleTech on Sunday. Here's the synopsis of my weekend.

I have run a Flames of War tourney at FallCon for three years now, and I have yet to get a full event. This in itself was a little disappointing, but I did get to play as a result. This is a bit hard to do without tipping the balance, but at the same time with only three games to play I don't want people sitting out. I briefly considered just pushing the tables together for one big battle, but that has it's problems too. In the end everyone had a fun time. Players brought armies that included the First Special Services Force (American/Canadian infantry), South Alberta Regiment (Canadian armour), Governor General's Foot Guards (Canadian infantry), 21 Panzer Division (German armour and the winning army), 2 SS-Division (my German infantry), and another generic German infantry company.

I had setup three tables: a crossroad in bocage with a farm, Normandy "nearly" coastal town, and an Italian village in a pass. I spent a lot of time in the previous few weeks building my bocage, but the glue let me down as it slowly let go of it's green foliage over the day. Despite this disappointment it looked just great, and I look forward to going back with better glue to fix it up and add the extra foliage needed due to an insufficient supply for purchase at the store. I will also add some more long sections to the collection to ensure I have sufficient quantities for a larger table. It was an absolute blast to play on this battlefield.

Hopefully someone emails some pictures from the game because I completely forgot my camera. I want to post some pictures if I can since it really does do better with pictures.

After the boardgame and miniature auction (which I recouped $124 from the stuff too long sitting in boxes in our apartment) it was time for a game of Formula De. This is a great boardgame! It's a game of Formula One racing that has all kinds of tracks available for you to race on. It does an excellent job of simulating both the driving and excitement of racing using differently numbered dice to move your car around the track. This year I had all the luck with my rolls (as evidenced by my lack of luck with the dice in my other games) and quickly went from second at the pole to first and not looking back.

We played a three lap game with all the rules for car construction and weather on the Valencia track. It doesn't have any long straight aways for getting up to speed, so I setup my car for a lot of sudden downshifting and maneuvering. Luckily for me I started with soft tires that got me into the corners in fine form. I don't think I've ever had so much success in cornering while playing this game. And it really showed since I was pretty much dominating the race half way through the first lap.

When the weather changed to rain with two corners to go to the finish line, my car was in great condition to fend off a late hard charger with barely any rubber on his rims or fuel in his tank. He spun out coming out of the second last corner, and I was free to cruise across the finish line with the competition cringing at the sight of my rooster tail on the track two corners ahead of everyone else.

Sunday morning was my last game of BattleTech. I was a real fanboy of the game and the game universe back in the day, but I have since outgrown the slow and overwhelmed game mechanics and more of the same-repacked-as-new support that does little to interest me. The game proceeded entirely too slowly yet again, so I'm pretty sure that's it for me. I have considered simply holding onto my considerable BattleTech miniature collection and continuing to work on the fast play rules I started on years ago for large battles, but in the end I prefer Flames of War and other systems to having to come up with my own.

My game of BattleTech did accomplish one thing though - I made some contacts with people interested in acquiring some of my collection. So I will begin the process of slowly selling off chunks of my collection. I do have some real attachment to bits of it, but in the end it will likely all go. I've already started an inventory that I will send out.

This is one very fun gaming convention. I'm already looking forward to next year at FallCon. The return of the CalCon game convention in March 27-29, 2009 after a long absence will bring new opportunities for games. I'm currently considering running some games there too, but I have to finish moving first...

Running: Lost Soul Ultra Report

The short version: CANCELLED DUE TO RAIN.

We arrived in Lethbridge on Friday afternoon with lots of time to pickup my race package (which included a very nice jacket) and check into the hotel before dinner. We found a local Boston Pizza for pasta to do the carb loading thing.

On our way back to the hotel it began to rain heavily with lots of wind on top of it. (It is Lethbridge after all.) I was certainly glad not to be running in it, but I couldn't help but feel badly for the 100km and 100 mile racers currently outside.

Back at the hotel I did the last minute obsessing about the gear and had everything ready to go before Aerin and I hit the hot tube for a soak. At this point it was still raining a little outside, and I was hoping it would let up long enough to save the course from being too muddy. We met another couple that was there for the 50km race, so we talked about running and traded war stories.

It was time for bed about 9PM, but little did we know as we drifted off that they were already shutting down the race due to the rain. The clay gets very slippery, so they decided that it was too dangerous to continue to let the racers go through the night. Of course it wasn't until 6:30am at the race meeting that I learned my 5am wakeup to get ready was in vain.

Needless to say I was disappointed and more than a little grumpy about not getting to run my race, but in the end it would seem to be somewhat fortuetous since I'd be having an odd occasional pain in my left knee. After trying to get a couple more hours of sleep, Aerin and I spent the day relaxing. We visited the Japanese garden, did some pillow shopping since the old one didn't do well on the new mattress, caught a movie, and generally took it easy.

The movie we saw was Kung Fu Panda, and we both enjoyed it enough to put it onto our DVD wishlist. Watching the movie reminded me of an article I'd read in the paper when the movie was first released. Why do they shell out a lot of money for big name actors to voice characters other than the name recognition when it comes time to promote the film? They certainly won't help the movie if it just stinks to begin with. But now I'm straying off topic...

So in the end, we stayed for the breakfast on Sunday morning to collect my Rock with no time, have some food and trade a few stories again before heading home.

Running: Losing My Soul

It's now about 11:15pm as I start to write this. I should be sleeping, but I have finally been struck by taper madness leading up to my run at Lost Soul this Saturday. This basically means my mind is going a little crazy as it focuses in on what I am undertaking.

It's kind of odd to be doing only 50km. This will officially be the shortest race of the year. I actually haven't gotten in a great deal of running in the past few weeks between traveling to Edmonton, backpacking and just generally being low on the mojo. In the end it won't matter a great deal since I'm confident I will finish the distance anyway, but certainly not in any timely fashion.

I mentioned the lack of mojo because I've been thinking (probably way too much) about what comes after this weekend for me and my running. My goal when I started running two and bit years ago was to run the Hard Rock Hundred Mile Endurance Race before I turn 40, and I've been thinking more about how I'm going to achieve that goal. The big thing I need to work on is consistency in my training, and that means better planning and maybe some coaching. How I'm going to make this happen is a bit up in the air, but I have some time still to make this happen.

Anyway, I still have to make it around the course this Saturday, and then we've also got the move to the new place to take care of. Lots to do, and still not enough time to do it...

Life: The New Bed

The new bed was delivered yesterday, but the delivery guys didn't go for my suggestion to just chuck the old one off the balcony to save them from having to carry it back down the stairs.

The initial impressions from the showroom held up once we got to try it out again at home. The one thing that Aerin isn't quite happy with is the height of the mattress and box spring. Our night tables turn out to be a fair bit shorter compared to our old bed, and we got the standard nine inch box spring without thinking this would be a problem. I don't have a particular problem with the height of the bed, but Aerin seems concerned about taking a spill and the position of the lamps for reading. So it might be that we exchange the nine inch box spring for a six inch box spring to lower it a bit.

On the comfort side I had a really good sleep last night, and I hope for more of the same tonight. Aerin was awake most of the night with stomach pain, so hopefully she gets to enjoy a good sleep tonight.

Gear: GoLite Chrome Dome Umbrella

When I still lived in Edmonton and got outdoors with the Grant MacEwan Mountain Club, several other club members would forgo rain gear for umbrellas when it began to rain. I have found most umbrellas less than favourable for this task as mostly too small or too wimpy or too heavy to be of much use. That changed when I started looking at GoLite outdoor gear.

The GoLite Chrome Dome Umbrella was the answer to the umbrella option. The umbrella is quite light at 8 ounces, is almost two feet wide, has carbon fiber (looks like it to me anyway) full stick handle and spars that hold up in the wind, and a metallized finish that does a great job of deflecting the suns rays. (You can get it regular colours too.) The handle is easy to grip, and it's not tiring to carry either. Overall it did a great job with the wet weather when we hiked into Forks CG last Friday night.

Why an umbrella you might ask? And, "Stuart, if you are such a ligthweight fan, why add more weight with an umbrella?" Well those questions have a multi-part answer. First of all, unless it's a vertible sidewise downpour, the umbrella keeps you drier than a GoreTex shell, for example. Since I am not likely to be moving at a pace to keep be from perspiring, I don't end up with really damp clothes from the moisture trapped inside my shell. In light rain conditions, or showers, it's easier and faster to have the umbrella on hand rather than worrying about getting in and out of a shell - the umbrella is only there when you need it. And finally, the reflective finish does a great job as mobile shade on a sunny day when you don't have any shade from trees or mountains. And probably the best reason, the last time I went backcountry in Jasper National Park they had these green outdoor toilets without any overhead cover on them. 'Nuff said.

I'm not entirely sure about the availability of these things (or any other GoLite product for that matter) in Canada these days, so I had to order mine from the US. But if you want a solid performing umbrella for the backcountry or the commute, this is a great choice.