Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

At the beginning of the year, I took a fall on some ice. It was about the eighth time I'd fallen this winter thanks to the fluctuating temperatures in and around Calgary - one minute we would have crazy low temperatures and the next, we'd be up to +10, causing the lying snow to start melting only to refreeze overnight and making the pathways lethal, even by day. This last fall was different - there was no obvious bruising or swelling but I was in considerable discomfort and occasional pain, particularly after a run. I took a few days off which seemed to help, and following a gentle 5km run with young Wilson to test things out, I felt that the pain had subsided and I could handle the discomfort. With that in mind, I decided I would run in the cross country on the Saturday, knowing full well I wouldn't be at my best but figuring that if I did enough to win my age group, I would be happy. The race was at Nose Creek in the north of the city, and having done the race la...

As a runner, there is nothing worse than not being able to run. What's even more frustrating is when the inability to run isn't even due to an overuse/over training injury, or even as a result of running itself - well, not directly anyway. New Year's Day was pretty awesome as I spent a good few hours on the trails around Canmore with some fabulous running friends. It wasn't too cold and we even got some sunshine, and although there was still some lying snow, the actual trails were in pretty good condition with compact snow making for easier running. Having covered around 18km on one side of the valley, we headed over to the opposite side for another 10km or so before heading home. Beautiful trails in Canmore - New Year's Day (Photo taken by Kim) It was a little more icy on this side, particularly on the more popular pathways leading back in to town which had been mostly cleared of snow, although what remained had melted and refrozen, making it a littl...