Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

February has always been my favourite month, and even more so nowadays. When living in England, it was a sign that we were past mid-winter, and by March, the daffodils and crocuses would start to emerge from the ground, and we would be looking forward to the first day of spring. Being in Canada is much different, and I'm pretty sure there may be some colder days and maybe even some more snow to come over the coming weeks, yet it doesn't change the fact that spring is on its way and with that will come lighter nights and warmer temperatures. But it isn't just the weather that makes February my favourite - it's also the month when Wilson joined our family, it's Valentine's Day, it's my birthday, and it's also our wedding anniversary this month - so many things to celebrate and look forward to, even in these Covid times :) Add to that that I usually do my first race of the year by the end of February, it sure gets things off on a positive footing moving for...

Running so far this year has been going great, and I'm really happy with how my training and fitness is progressing. I've not been doing high mileage per se and have just been topping out at around 50 or so miles per week, but my pace has started to improve again which makes me happy. Of course, gyms are still closed here in Alberta, and with my treadmill still in pieces and waiting to be fixed in the basement, it means I have to get outside for all my runs. I much prefer to run outdoors anyway, but winters can be tough for us runners, especially when there's a heavy dump of snow or we face extreme cold. The winter weather usually means wearing more layers which can weigh you down, whilst breathing in the cold air plays havoc with the lungs sometimes, and don't even mention the running in deep snow or dancing on ice! Last weekend, I did have 2 x 10- mile time trials to complete on Saturday and Sunday, the idea being to run the same route both days and try to run a littl...

 After spending a few days in Jasper just before Christmas whilst I completed "The Snow Queen Ultra", it was nice to get home and have a few quiet and relaxing days with Andy and the pups. We didn't do much at all - just a few nice walks and some gentle runs, and it was nice to wind down for a few days. New Year's Eve was also a quiet affair - we've never really had anybody around over the festive period so the provincial Covid restrictions didn't really impact on us - and it was just Andy and I sitting around the firepit in the backyard, drinking a couple of beers before ringing in the new year. family time on New Year's Eve I'm sure many of us entered 2021 with caution but also a sense of optimism having been through what we had last year, and whilst there is hope on the horizon thanks to the vaccine, things definitely won't change overnight and I've already resigned myself to the fact that things will still continue in a similar vein, at lea...

 I felt so organised this time 12 months ago, and I was looking forward to knuckling down with my training, ready to work hard to achieve my racing goals for the year. Things started off well with the Hypothermic Half in February (a personal worst due to boredom running on the roads), and a fairly good result at the Weaselhead Cross Country race in Calgary a week later. But then things went tits up and all my planned races started to get cancelled. It would be another 8 months before I got to do another in person race ( Big's Backyard Ultra - World Championship ), and even that was very different from what I'd been used to. Thankfully, race organisers did a great job throughout the year to keep us runners motivated, and wanting to support them as much as possible in these strange times, I entered so many virtual events and challenges that I ended up running my highest annual mileage ever during 2020. By December, I had already ran close to 6000km for the year, but when my coach...