Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

 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...

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...