Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

As we head towards the end of yet another year, on reflection, I've had a good year of racing, with 12 races completed which resulted in 2 race victories - the first at Survivorfest 24 hour in the "track n trail", and the second at the River's Edge Ultra 50k trail race. I did my first marathon in over 7 years and placed 3rd in the ladies race, and then I had podium finishes in my age group at another 3 races throughout the year. I also did two more backyard ultras, one of which saw me representing Team Canada at the World Team Championships back in October. I was struck down with Covid twice which hampered some of my racing goals, and the hubby being stuck in Korea for near on three months earlier in the year made things tough for training. There's no denying that I had hoped for faster times or longer distances, but as I head towards my 50th birthday in February, and after 40+ years of being a competitive runner, I have no real complaints. Over the years, I'v...

 After a disappointing performance at the event in Okotoks, I was determined to train so hard to be in the best possible shape I could be, ready to represent Canada at the Backyard Ultra Team World Championships out in BC in October.  There is no denying that my training had gone extremely well. I'd mixed things up this time, and instead of doing 6 hour long runs, I'd asked my coach to schedule timed runs instead, and to give me multiple runs throughout the day on the weekends. This saw me running close to 100km on several weekends, where I would complete something like 2 hours in the morning, an hour in the afternoon, and another 90 minutes later in the evening. One weekend, I did 5 x 10km runs in one day, followed by a 2 hour and an hour the following day, and this seemed to prepare me both physically and mentally for the race. I had also been sure to get some trail running into my schedule. The course out in BC was going to be quite hilly and technical, and the city in whic...

Just a couple of weeks after the River's Edge Ultra 50k, I found myself back in Devon, this time to compete in the last race of the Northern Alberta 5 Peaks trail running series. I had once again opted for the Enduro, which would see me running two laps of the course which would total around 15km or more. I'd had confirmation that I was to join the Canadian team at the team world championships of the Backyard Ultra in just two weeks time, so I went to Devon erring on the side of caution, not wanting to get injured just before my biggest race of the year. It was now October, and those cool and frosty mornings had crept in. The trees looked resplendent with their golden hues, and the trails were in great condition with no muddy patches and certainly no snow. I was looking forward to just taking it easy once again, running comfortably hard but not flat out racing, using this race as a final fitness test before the team event. I took things pretty easy on the first lap, and once ag...

I love the River's Edge Ultra, and yet for some reason, I never seem to have it in my race schedule, and taking part is usually a last minute decision, where I register just a month or so before the actual race. This year was no exception, and I found myself registering for the 50k just before the t-shirt deadline and approximately 6 weeks before the race.  I suppose I'm lucky in that I can decide to take part in an ultra without worrying about whether I will be ready for it - I run approximately 80km/50 miles a week in training, and my longer weekend runs always seem sufficient enough to build the endurance needed to help me to run long. I was in the midst of training for the backyard ultra world team championships this time, so my mileage had been a little higher and closer to 100km per week and a 50km trail run at the REU fitted in perfectly with my plans. Another thing that is appealing about this particular race is that you really can make a weekend of it, with free campin...

 Just two weeks after the backyard ultra, I was toeing the line at my next 5 Peaks trail race, this time at Chickakoo. I'd purchased a season pass this year as I wanted to use the shorter trail races as good tempo or hard workouts for the bigger things, and so far, the plan had been working perfectly. It was another hot and sunny day for Chickakoo although storms were in the forecast for later in the day. I wasn't sure how recovered I was from the BYU but it turns out that I was more recovered that I realised, and I ended up having a really good run/ The course at Chickakoo isn't easy. It starts on wide double tracks, but then as you turn into the trees and hit the single track, things become much hillier and more technical. I was surprised at how well I was running and how confident I was feeling, and I ran the hills feeling stronger than I had done for a while. I'm sure my marathon training earlier in the year had helped with this to some degree, and I was keeping a p...

Having raced Whitemud 5 Peaks a few weeks ago, my focus shifted to building up the miles again, this time in preparation for the Backyard Ultra at the end of July. Even though I had covered 100 miles at Survivorfest 24 hour, I was lacking in confidence about whether I had actually completed enough miles to do myself justice at the BYU. My weekly mileage had been pretty low when compared to my previous attempt, and I was concerned that I just wouldn't have the strength of body or mind to get to 36 hours like I did last time. It didn't help that I had to skip competing at Rundles Revenge 50k this year - Andy was working out in South Korea and I had nobody to dog sit for me whilst I raced again, so I ended up heading to Banff for a weekend of camping with the pups, but with no real running or hiking to get build up the miles. It was Canada Day weekend the following week, so having spoken to coach Paul, we agreed that I would do 3 consecutive days of back to back long runs in the h...

I wasn't planning on doing another Backyard Ultra in 2022. I'd already qualified for the Canadian national team with my 36 yards from two years, but with the increasing popularity of this kind of event, and with the standard of competition following that same upward trend, I wasn't about to be too complacent and make any assumptions that I would definitely be joining the team again for the 2022 Team World Championships in October. Even with my 36 yards, I had been pushed down to 10th on the team list, and with two silver ticket races still to take place prior to the team announcement, I'd come to the conclusion that I needed 40 yards as a minimum to be guaranteed that spot on the team. For the past few weeks, I had really ramped up my mileage and got in some good quality runs and I felt confident heading to Okotoks that I could hit that 40 yards. Of course, I needed somebody else that was able to go for 40 hours or more - either that, or I had to win the event which wou...

 A couple of weeks ago I did my second trail race of the year - the 5 Peaks Enduro event, this time at Whitemud. The course was once again around 14km, and I had an absolute blast! The race came just two weeks after the marathon, and with still having a little fatigue in my legs, I didn't want to go crazy and race things flat out. The organisers had warned us that some of the trails we would be going on were some of the toughest in the river valley, so I knew I would be crawling up those hills and likely losing a fair few places in the process! The first mile or two was pretty flat, and I certainly felt the benefits of my marathon training as I seemed to make light work of the terrain and moved steadily through the field. But when the single track started, as suspected I slid backwards, and people started to pass me once again. I was still doing pretty well on the hills and didn't really walk any of them but my pace really was a shuffle. The downhills felt good, although I wasn...

It's been a week now since I completed the Survivorfest 24 hour event, and I have to say that recovery from the event is going much better than I anticipated. The race itself was never really in my plans for this year, but then a case of FOMO back in March saw me registering, the plan being to use it as a training run for my forthcoming backyard ultra, and hopefully a confidence building if I could hit the 100 miles. Unlike previous attempts at 24 hour events, my longest training runs had peaked at just 35km - long enough to help me have a decent run at the Red Deer Marathon, but not really enough if I hoped to get to the 100 miles in that 24 hours. On that basis, I had no idea how the day would pan out, and my only plan was to keep on running for as long as possible and have fun along the way - if I got bored or my heart wasn't in it before the the 24 hours had elapsed, then I was ok about stopping. There really was no pressure nor expectation - I'd even opted to do the ...

After two years of races being cancelled, things are finally back to normal and the racing season here in Alberta has recommenced. I'd been cautious about entering too many races this year simply because nobody really knew how things were going to pan out, but I'm happy to report that since I last wrote, I have managed to squeeze in three good races, a couple of parkruns, and numerous decent training sessions, including a 5k time trial where I ran 21.20 - an age PB for me, having not ran that quick for a couple of years now. Since I registered for the Red Deer Marathon in October last year, this race has been my main focus during the winter months and leading into the spring. Most of my longer training runs have been at marathon pace, and up until the beginning of March, I was confident that I could hold that 7.30 miling which would give me a finishing time of around 3.15. But then I caught Covid, I missed a good month of marathon prep, and I knew that my initial goal was going...