Life: New Year of Possibilities

So begins the 36th calendar year of my existence on this rock hurtling through the vaccum of space. I can't really say that this event holds anything special for me. It's just more of the same. I've had a few years practice with passing the time. I certainly don't like waking up the New Year's Day when Ursa wants some attention, food and a bathroom break way earlier than I'd like. But with the changing of the calendar comes a whole new year of challenges and dreams.

So first on the list is what to do with my running. I'm still not entirely happy with how this is going with continued back problems that don't seem to respond to anything with ongoing positive results. I am running, but not in any sort of volume I would consider truly useful to undertaking much more than a gimpy half-marathon distance if I raced this week. And yet I find myself desiring to lighten my wallet with race entries for a number of events.

I have currently decided I want to run the single lap of the Blackfoot 25km baby ultra since it is the only distance other than the 100km I have yet to run. Since I won't be running the 100km this year it seems a reasonable compromise. My other decision is to enter the Lost Soul 50km again given the disappointing lead up to the race due to the dislocated rib. My hope is that continued progress, however slow, will make for very different race this year.

The chance to run a couple ultras as part of a relay team has presented as a possible option. This is currently in the discussion and exploration phase. The Iron Horse and Sinister 7 are the two I'm most interested in. After some reflection I have no interest in the Canadian Death Race until I'm ready for a solo attempt. If this doesn't quite work out I have alternate plans to do more exploration of the trails in the Canadian Rockies this summer.

There are plenty of shorter trails to run, but I would also like to run some of the Glacier Trail and over Jonas Shoulder. There are some passes that I might be able to transit in a day too. A lot will depend on the kind of mileage I'm comfortable with by the time summer arrives. I'm not particularly interested in unsupported runs of more than 6 to 8 hours unless I think my body is up to it.

And speaking of the Canadian Rockies, there will certainly be more time spent there this year. Ursa will be pretty much finished growing this summer, so we will do some light trips into the backcountry. Car camping and a few overnight backpacking trips will begin the summer. Hopefully this will work out the kinks for a multi-night backpacking trip with Ursa by the end of the summer. Lots of day hiking is also on the menu. With Ursa being up for almost 3 hours of snowshoeing last weekend I think she will do just fine hiking around the mountains for more than a few hours.

And winter has not yet left us, so there is still snowshoeing to do. No doubt we will go out to Kananaskis a few more times before the snow starts to disappear. Some trips closer to home at Nosehill or Fish Creek will no doubt happen if the snow isn't all melted away by chinooks. I have little motivation to run on a cold weekend, but if the chance presents itself I will certainly head for the south side of the river on snowshoes or just shoes with appropriate ice gripping attachments. Either way me, Aerin and Ursa are still getting out lots between our walks and other activities.

Aerin and I are looking into buying a house this year. Who knows if this will actually happen, but we have started discussing our options. Wrangling a down payment and what we would actually spend the money on our the top two house conversations. We have little interest in buying something for the sake of buying since the cost of certain fixes or renos to make things liveable are not an option for us. We really would like to find something we can say we're still happy with ten years later.

We really enjoy our Friday night boardgames with our friends. It is by far one of our favourite events of the week. I am currently organizing a regular Flames of War league at The Sentry Box. I get to play some games, meet some new players, and generally have some good motivation to get things done with my terrain and miniatures. I'm so lucky and thankful that Aerin lets me play my games. We're both going to need to sit down with some paint again to move things along. Thanks for helping Sweetie!

That's all I can think of for now. I'm certain the year will whiz by in a blur of barely remembered details - 2009 certainly did.

Life: Puppy & Stuff

I would seem odd to mention our interest in getting a trailer for traveling in a post about Ursa, but it does have a connection.

Our major consideration is how do we travel with a large dog. A Kia Spectra5 isn't the biggest car in the world. So we thought about getting a car top carrier. I have a number of issues with this. Security and aerodymanic profile are my two big ones. I'm not sold on how you would keep things secured. Since we car camp we're pretty much stuck with reloading the car with a lot of our gear just to go somewhere other than the campsite. Any large enough to carry what we need would make the car significantly top heavy and high profile. This is on top of the relatively low cargo capacity of the axles when fully loaded. We'd likely still need space in the car, and then there's the matter of fitting Ursa in there too.

Thus, we come to the trailer option. While more expensive up front I think we do better for space and cargo capacity for the reduction in fuel efficiency. There is also the plus that the trailer we're considering is all aluminum construction. It will hold up pretty well over the long haul so long as we continue with vehicles that have a trailer hitch. We do need a trailer hitch for the car, but that is a relatively minor thing overall. A car top carrier may or may not work down the road, and, frankly, the construction is nothing by comparison to the trailer. I'm sure that Meg and Geoff could also get some use out of it too.

As for Ursa's arrival we have a tentative date of June 2 with departure on June 1. Exact times and cost are to be determined. This means we can hold off on a few final decisions (trailer, dog stuff) for another week. We will make the trip to Edmonton to volunteer at the Blackfoot Ultra without having to worry about Ursa. Our first official trip with Ursa will come in June when we go camping at Dinosaur Provincial Park.

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.

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...

Running: Blackfoot Ultra Race Report

This was my post-race report that I posted on the Running Mania forum with some tweaks.

For those that are happy with the short version... 11:38

For those interested in more details, read on... (mostly [short] form from here on in)

Considering that I was really only physically able (severe allergies to that point with the old job) to start any serious training in March, and then have my last three weeks of training wiped by a chest cold, I really didn't know what I was going to accomplish at Blackfoot.

Aerin and I got up and going about 4:30. Taping my feet took a little longer than I'd hoped, so we got to Islet Lake about 6:15. A visit to the washroom, change into running shoes, throw on the pack and away I go for my out and back 5km to start. The plan was to walk everything uphill and evaluate as I went whether another loop would happen. I paused to stretch at every aid station and regularly along the course when my legs felt like they needed it.

I started out pretty slow, just trying to get warmed up and a feel for where my body was at. I haven't played with the watch or Garmin for proper split times, but I did the first 5km in about 38 minutes with an additional stop to get the tummy settled in.

My first lap went well enough. It was nothing spectacularly fast. I ran with another guy from Calgary until the Central Alleyway aid station. I stuck to the plan, and I got back into the start/finish area for my first transition with a little soreness in about 3:15. I had some eats and headed out again.

The second lap was slower than the first of course. I was getting a little more soreness in the legs, but I kept to the plan and kept moving. I was doing well running the "level" parts and the downhills until Central staging area when I seriously hit the wall. I just plain ran out of gas. I gobbled a bunch of food at the aid station, kept popping my gels and shot blox, but I really didn't recover my energy until the start/finish area transition again. Second lap about 3:50.

At that point it was just time to keep moving, even if it was just walking. Actually it was more like marching in every sense. I fell into what Size5 calls my "military pace". My legs were sore, but I kept them moving at a good clip. Fighting gravity on the downhills was too much work not to run, so I basically ran/sprinted at whatever pace didn't hurt for those short interevals. But in the end it worked. My last lap was over in 4:05.

After it was all said and done, I apparently won my age category. I'm not certain of this since since there was supposedly someone else ahead of me on the finish board, but the RD called my name yesterday at the presentations. Sunday morning I could bend over to pickup a spoon. (Sorry, no pics S5 ) I have a few blisters, and I will apparently lose the nail on the second toe of my left foot as is now becoming tradition post Blackfoot.

All that for an 11:38 finish. Next year...

I won my age category because I was the only 34 & under male running this year. The other person that beat me in was female. Yes, I got beat by a girl...

Running: Sinister 7

I run a lot, and I love running on trails. Since I began running in April 2006, I have completed the 50km (2007) and 50-mile (2008) Blackfoot Ultra. (For those unfamiliar with running these races are called ultras because the distance is great than a regular marathon of 42.2km or 26 miles.) I have also completed leg 3 and 4 (58km) of the Canadian Death Race as part of a relay team. I did run a half-marathon road race for kicks and training in the fall of 2006, but I much prefer trail races.

This coming weekend is the first running of the Sinister 7 ultra trail race. It is a 135km course in the Crowsnest Pass area in Alberta. The race is run solo or as part of a relay team. I am part of a two man team called "Two Fun Guys". I am running legs 4, 5 and 6 for a total of about 62km. I'm not quite so fast as my relay partner, so I will be done in about 8 hours.

This is a new ultra trail race for Alberta. I had been living in Edmonton, AB until last summer, so I'm looking forward to getting into a new area of the mountains to run. The late spring has meant that running in the mountains has been delayed since I'm not a huge fan of post holing in thigh deep snow. There's been a lot of warm weather in the Crowsnest area lately, so I'm hoping things won't be too slippy or muddy for the run.

I'm feeling much more relaxed going into this race. Prior to the Blackfoot ultra I had picked up a bad chest cold that wiped out my plans for completing my last four weeks of training. This left me pretty freaked out about my prospects of even finishing. I haven't gotten in as many long runs between Blackfoot and Sinister 7, but I'm much more confident in my ability to finish the distance strongly going into this race than I was leading up to Blackfoot.

Back to work!