Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

Things had been going so well with my running. I'd been doing speedwork once a week - 5 x 800m repeats since you ask - and had been hitting an average of 6.30 miling despite sometimes snowy, icy or windy conditions. When things started to warm up, my easy mid-week runs became faster, and I was comfortably running sub 8s again, which started to give me the confidence that my running really was going in the right direction.  My training schedule recently has included 4 hour hilly trail runs on a weekend, and for the past few weeks, I've been pretty consistent in getting out to the local trails to get those runs in. Unfortunately, when least expected, the husband got called away from work at the last minute. It was only meant to be for a couple of days, but ended up being two weeks, and this inevitably had a huge impact on what, where and when I was able to run. Working full time, plus trying to train at a fairly decent level, and then having three pups that need lots of exercise,...

The past month has really seen the miles increase, and not only have I been hitting the climbs, I've also had double run days which have really tested my resilience to keep going when I really am quite tired. When it comes to running trails, I tend to head out to Devon which is less busy than the Edmonton River Valley, and I usually have the trails to myself, particularly in the winter months. The weekend following our winter camping trip in Banff, I had a good four hours of hilly trails in my schedule, so I drove out to Devon with the intention of doing multiple loops of the same route, enabling me to use the car as a base for refilling my water bottles and stocking up on nibbles. The weather was still on the cooler side, but it was much warmer than the previous week, and with blue skies and bright sunshine, it was actually quite nice running on the trails with the trees sheltering me from the wind. The warmer weather also seemed to bringing out the wildlife, and the sounds of cha...

Hill of a Race is creeping ever closer, and my hill running this past couple of weeks has started to give me the confidence I need, to be able to run up and down a ski hill for 6  consecutive hours! Since my last post, I did complete a weekend of double run days, and I was pretty chuffed how things went. A friend had asked if I fancied joining her on a run that very weekend, and we ended up heading to Edmonton to complete 10 miles of running up and down the Walterdale Hill. For those of you not familiar with this hill, it is long, steep, and tough. Yes, it's on road, but at a good half mile or more, it definitely isn't easy. Add to that ice, slush and snow on the day, it made things a little tougher than running on just plain concrete. I expected to do at least 10 times up and down, and sure enough, I had completed the session and had a good 1700 ft or so of climbing in my legs - they were undoubtedly fatigued and I could certainly tell I'd been running hills, yet I still h...

Last week, Sinister Sports held an online  live Q&A session for those registered  for The Divide 200 in September. I haven’t really given much thought nor planning t o this particular race just yet, especially w ith it still being several months away, but i t did get me thinking that maybe I should  start to familiarise myself with things  a little more, and start to do some  of that preliminary prep. I spent a good hour on Sunday printing out then reading the race information available thus far, and that nervous excitement about a big race started to kick in. After the initial read through, I immediately started to think about my race support crew and possible pacers. My support crew rarely changes when it comes to races, and of course Andy will be there to look after me, making sure I’m eating, drinking, moving and sleeping, but not necessarily in that order! Pacers was another matter, and whilst I have reached out to a couple of friends already, it’s a bi...

Every year in January, a battle takes place between running clubs around the globe, where the goal for each individual is to run 400km for the month of January. The top 5 men and top 5 women count towards the overall score, and should there be a tie, then it moves down to the 6th man and women, and so on until there is an overall winner. It's a team effort and purely just for fun, and it's a great way of getting people active in the new year and setting goals early on. This is the third year that I have registered for the January Battle, flying the flag for Wild Rose Runners who meet weekly up in Edmonton, and they usually do pretty well as a team and always make the top 10. Final run to hit 400km :) For me personally, hitting 400km in a month isn't too much of a strain, especially if I include my lunch time wanderings and dog walks/jogs in addition to my scheduled daily runs. Indeed, today I hit the 402km which is 11 days ahead of the end date of the battle, and I have to ...

On the first Saturday of the new year, the organisers of the Blackfoot Ultra put on a casual, social run in the Edmonton river valley called the Fat Ass 50k. For those that perhaps aren't up to that kind of distance, there is the option to do the Half Ass which is 25km, and both distances follow the pathways and trails alongside the river - one loop makes you a "half ass", two loops makes you a "fat ass". The donation is just $4, and this goes towards stocking the aid station which is located under the Quesnel Bridge at around 13k. A couple of years ago, I completed the Half Ass with a few friends, but this year, I really wanted to do the 50k just to see how my body felt running that kind of distance this early in the year. I'd certainly indulged in lots of chocolates and cakes during the festive period, and the scales were happy to confirm this when I weighed myself at the end of the year. I also hadn't really done any proper long runs since the backyar...

As 2023 commences, I'm excited to see what this year will bring. I've got some really good races planned that scare and excite me at the same time, and I know for sure that all of them will test me both physically and mentally, with some - if not all - pushing me beyond what I thought I’m capable of. This year, I will be celebrating my 50th trip around the sun, and it's crazy to think that I've been a competitive runner for over 40 years! Over those 40+ years, I've had some fantastic results, and just looking back at the archives in this blog alone brings back so many fond memories of the different events I've done - I just wish I'd started this blog earlier than 2011, as I'm sure there are lots of things I've since forgotten. Looking back and comparing my former self to the runner I am today, I’m very happy to report that the passion and competitiveness I have for running and racing is still there. Yet I have to admit to getting a little frustrated ...