Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

It's that time of year again where we get to celebrate not just birthdays and Valentine's Day, but also our wedding anniversary, which usually means a mini weekend break for a change of scenery during the long, cold winter months. This year, we tried so hard to find a mountain retreat somewhere at a reasonable price, but spending $300 a night to just sleep in a bed for a few hours seemed completely unreasonable, and we certainly weren't willing to spend that kind of money, supporting local or otherwise! In the end, we went back to our trusted destination - the Holiday Inn Express in Calgary. We've stayed here many times since leaving Calgary and heading back to visit, and being close to Fish Creek Provincial Park, having access to so many nearby dog parks, and being just an hour's drive to the mountains, it's the perfect location for us without breaking the bank. They are also very good in terms of accepting dogs, and as yet, we have never had a problem taking o...

February 20th, 2022 I haven't raced a half marathon for quite a few years now, and by that I mean a half marathon outside of the winter months, when weather conditions are far more favourable and one can actually wear singlet and shorts and a pair of road running shoes. But with a full marathon in my race plans for 2022, I wanted to do a half just to get my mind back into racing on the roads, and pushing the pace when there is no excuse to stop. Today I did the Hypothermic Half Marathon. It was the second time I had done it, and having "given up" a couple of years ago when I did from sheer boredom (yes, I really got bored running on the roads back then!), I kind of made myself go into today's race with a much more positive outlook. This past few weeks, I have been doing marathon paced runs, so I wanted to run the Hypo Half at my target marathon pace. This is currently around 7.30 minute miling, and whilst I still feel like this is a little ambitious right now, that pa...

My training schedule for the past couple of weeks has included more speed work along with some marathon paced runs to get this old body used to running at a faster, consistent pace again. Looking back at the 21k marathon paced run I did on the treadmill back in January, I am really chuffed with how much I have already improved in terms of pace. I guess it helps now that we don't have the extreme cold temperatures to deal with, nor do we have two feet of snow that we have to battle through, although this has now been replaced by extremely icy conditions as the temperatures rise above freezing during the day, only to dip down again overnight. The freeze/thaw cycle is the most frustrating for runners, and you never know whether to wear spikes, road shoes or trail shoes as the conditions underfoot can vary so much, even if only doing a short 5k easy run! The good news is that I have been running outside, and it is only during the week when I have to run in the dark that the ice really ...

The past couple of weeks have seen the weekly speed session recommence, as the focus now turns to getting myself ready for the marathon. It's not been easy as the winter weather has been so up and down, and we are still having that mix of freezing temperatures and snow, then back to melting snow and slush, which then turns to skating rinks overnight on the pavements as everything freezes again.  For us runners, it's been horrendous - add to that another bout of extreme cold this past couple of days, I think we could be forgiven for wondering when spring will finally arrive! Compared to this time last year, my runs have been slow, but then last year I was running during the daytime in much warmer conditions. With working full time, I now run in the evenings, and running in the dark does make it seem like you're running much faster than you actually are. I haven't really minded so much, but now that my aim is to get some leg turnover back, I have been getting frustrated a...

After what seems like forever, the frigid cold temperatures in Alberta finally lifted, and last weekend, I headed up to Edmonton for my run, where I was able to enjoy a 10 mile run in a balmy -18 degrees. It was actually quite nice to have that change of scenery, and I had a lovely run exploring a couple of new to me pathways and trails not too far from the downtown core. It was still quite snowy, but the pathways in the capital had much better footing than I'd been experiencing locally, and I was finally able to pick up the pace a little, although I was still feeling extremely slow. YEG running :)   The slow paces in recent weeks have had me feeling somewhat concerned about my marathon goal in May, and I was starting to wonder whether I was perhaps getting a little ambitious in targeting that sub 3.15. My pace recently has been hovering around 9 minute miles which would give me a disappointing 4 hour marathon if I don't get some speed back in my legs. I am fully aware that a 4...

I'm a little late in posting this - it's January 9th, but I've been so busy with so many other things, and now is the only time I've really had to finally sit down and think about what I actually achieved in 2021, and what my goals are for 2022. Last year wasn't actually so bad, despite not hitting my A goals in a couple of races. I had a few race victories albeit in virtual events, finishing first lady in the Beat Sinister 100k, the Run for Support Dogs 50k, and more recently, I received an unexpected prize for finishing Runukah with quickest cumulative time in the ladies category, and a further prize for covering the most distance in the Advent Run Streak, where I finished with just under 400km in the 24 days. The latter event was bitter sweet for me in all honesty. There is no denying that I am a hugely competitive runner, and if I can smell victory, I will go for it. For the Advent Run Streak however, my main opponent was a "friend", who was ahead of m...

The run streak continues, except now I am half way through the Advent Run Streak, and so far so good. I'd be lying if I said every run has seen me feeling absolutely fantastic - in fact, last Wednesday's tempo run was awful, and I hated every minute of it! Things started off pretty well on Monday with just a nice and easy 6km. Mondays are usually a rest day for me, but given I would be running slowly and it was only a short run compared to my normal distance, I actually quite enjoyed it. The Advent challenge set by Sinister Sports for that particular day was to play our favourite Christmas song whilst out on our run. I don't tend to listen to music when I'm running as I like to absorb my surroundings, but when I arrived home, I did opt for "The Christmas Present" album by Robbie Williams, and with a mix of old and new Christmassy songs, it certainly put in the festive mood :) Things got moved around a bit this week when it came to speedwork, and my usual Tuesd...