Monday 30 May 2016

Reaching For Rundle's - Week Wyth (8)

May 23 - 29   Goal: 60km

Monday - Rest Day

Birthday Breakfast for my Hubby














Tuesday - 8km Steady
7km @ 165m elevation gain
The Birthday Boy Brian
Another super awesome run on the Kenna trails with the DFTC.  Tonight we honoured Brian's birthday with shots of Bourbon/Maraschino liquor, tequila, and Fireball.
















Wednesday - 6x Hills
6.9km @ 320m elevation gain
Hitting the hills with Jon and Phil is equal to dropping your ass from a 10 storey building repetitively.  So I guess I owe them thanks for pushing me to do "one more" repeat until my legs and lungs were deflated!
At the entrance to the park, seemed appropriate!
















Thursday - 5km Slow
5.1km @ 41m elevation gain, 4 cans of beer
KH3 Beer Mile
The Kamloops Hash House Harriers were at it again, this time introducing a Beer Mile to the crew.  I guess that fits into the training plan, too bad it had to pour rain down on us the whole time.

The rain didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirits.

Friday - Rest Day




Saturday - 35km LSD
36km @ 1068m elevation gain
Oh Saturday, glorious Saturday.  Up at 5am for some breakfast and to prep my gear for today's 35km run.  Am I anxious?  Oh hell yes.  I have never run this far in a single effort and I don't feel great about it from the start.  I'm going into this on 5 hours sleep and a double mouse hunt overnight.
Jon and Misty met me in the parking lot exuding motivation for what was to come, well Jon was peppy, poor Misty has been suffering a chest cold for the past week and sounded like a feminine Mr. Burns.  Jon might end up carrying 2 bodies out of the park.

The distance marched by under our feet pretty easily for the first 12.5km as we randomly chose trails to follow with no pre-set route in mind.  The next 10km were a bit more of a push as each of us  started to need calories, hydration or walk breaks.  By 25km we were back at the parking lot for an "Aid Station", refilling water bottles and I snacked on some pretzels that were stashed in the car.  The weather had also begun to change by this point and I seized the opportunity to swap jackets, light wind resistance for light-weight rain resistance.  This proved to be a good decision about a half-hour later as the rain clouds drifted over and the temperature of the winds seemed to get crisper before we reached our goal for the day, I found I was quite comfortable in TNF Fuseform Cesium Anorak jacket.
I accomplished the goal set out for me with Mango Orange Nuun/ Nuun Plus in my bottles and Picky Bars to nom-nom on during the hill climbs.  Happily my stomach survived the entire run and come the end I didn't seem to have same dehydration symptoms of the previous week's long run.

Sunday - Rest Day (well maybe not)
15km @ 228m elevation gain
Blackwell Dairy 15km Race, Barnhartvale, BC  IRA Road Race #6
Okay, so I didn't exactly race it this year. How could I with the lead legs I was ambling around on? No this year I would call it a recovery run.  A 15km scenic recovery run with a great big happy running community also out there racing today.
I walked a couple of the hills.
I stopped to take pictures of my Dad at the turn-around point.
And a picture of a barn reflecting on the water.
I definitely was not racing. But I did finish well and ahead of my expectations, adding only 5 minutes to my time from last year.

Week 8 Summary:
72km/60km completed, 2036m elevation gain

Once again I am over on mileage but I feel I did a better job of moderating the intensity of those extra  kilometres.  I knew full well that I could never race the Blackwell Run the day after my long run but I gave me a great sense for how far my tired legs would continue to carry me if I didn't ask for any stupid miracles from them.
With only a handful of weeks to go before Rundle's I have purchased my bear spray, worn my race vest almost every run to get used to having it on and loaded, and beat down some of my previous misconceptions of my own physical limits.

Sunday 29 May 2016

Reaching For Rundle's - Week Zeven (7)

May 16 - 22  Goal: 49km

Monday - Rest Day  

Tuesday - 7km Steady
Registered this morning for TNF Dirty Feet 21km trail race in Kelowna coming up at the beginning of June.  That ought to make a good training run, especially since it took me 2:51:00 last year to run it. As I recall the route is a whole lotta UP and down in the blink of an eye!

7.4km @ 174m elevation gain
Out with the DFTC in Pineview tonight, running hills and slapping mosquitos.  This awesome crew even brought shots and cupcakes to celebrate my birthday with me. I absolutely love my running friends.
DFTC in Pineview Photo:Jon

Wednesday - 4x 600m Hills
8.9km @ 370m elevation gain
3x 600m Hills
Those were ugly.  Thankfully, my trusted training partner Jon was there to endure the vertical flogging on Tower/Saskatoon trails.
Crazy part was, with each repeat my time decreased to get to the top.
4:59
4:44
4:42

Thursday - Rest Day
And rest I did!

Friday - 5km Slow
5.6km @ 136m elevation gain
A short run on the roads around home.  No sense in going fast or long today with a 20km run early tomorrow morning.

Saturday - 20km
22km @ 597m elevation gain
In typical long weekend fashion it rained.  And rained, and then rained some more.  If it wasn't for the fact that I was meeting Jon and others in the park for this week's LSD I might have stayed in bed.
I guess folks on the coast deal with soggy weather all the time, but it was definitely a novelty for me.

The Soggy Saturday Morning Crew  Photo:Tom
Glad I Brought Dry Shoes to Wear Home



Sunday - 8km Slow
More and more buckets of rain this morning.  I survived yesterday's run, but the princess in me could not bring herself to don the neon trail slippers and go out there again today.


Week's Summary:
44km/49km completed,  1274m elevation gain
This week was again incomplete for total mileage, however I did enjoy a few good days of rest, some great company in less than favourable conditions and I feel ready for the big week ahead.

Friday 6 May 2016

Reaching For Rundle's - Week IV

Week 4:  April 25 - May 1,  Goal: 55km


Monday - Rest Day
Spaghetti squash with meat sauce, broccoli and guacamole and a cocktail.  A little foam rolling of sore muscles from the weekend and off to bed early today.

Tuesday - 7 Steady
8km@214m elevation gain
8km fun run with the DFTC and the warm weather brought with it our biggest group yet.  My legs felt great out there today.


Wednesday - 4x 500mHills
10.3km@225km elevation gain
10km run from home to the Rose Hill trails.  A nice flat 3km to get there and then the fun started.  Found myself a 500m climbing section of trail that started gradually and increased in grade towards the end.  Four times up that curling single track, 2x into the setting suns rays until I reached the stick laid out on the path marking my finish line.  After sucking wind at the top for the last time I made my way home along the flat 3kms of gas line trail, feeling surprisingly good.
Can't see the sweat pouring off me!


Thursday - 5 Slow
5.4km@87m elevation gain
5.4km of awesome friends on trail in the sunshine with a double rainbow arching the valley below.

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday - 8km Steady
8.1km@97m elevation gain
Normally my long run for the week occurs here, but having just arrived in Spokane last night after a long drive and having a 12km road race tomorrow, I thought it prudent to bump my LSD to follow on Sunday afternoon.  Instead this delightful 8km run through growing suburban neighbourhoods skirting the open hillsides and boarding all manner of retail got me out the door in the morning while the house awoke slowly. And I got a strong cup of coffee.
Bonus on the run was re-asserting my claim as QOM (Queen of the Mountain) for a Strava segment around the corner from Grandpas.
Race Day Tomorrow!!


Sunday - Goal: 27km (total)
Blooms day 12km@97m elevation gain,  Road Race, Spokane, WA
What a gorgeous sunny day for a race!   That aspect of the race was great.  Finisher shirts were beautiful too, that's always a well guarded secret at Bloomsday.  This year the shirts paid tribute to the race's 40 Year Anniversary and was printed on a lovely lilac coloured lightweight cotton blend shirt.

1:01:17 is my official race time for my third attempt on the course.  Remarkably  a smidgen faster than two years ago but not the race I was hoping for.  I found the first 2kms a tremendous struggle  to get up to speed in the tight packed crowd of the yellow corral.  Valuable time was lost as was downhill wasted while still fighting for a line of sight to break free of the crowd.  The disappointment from the startling carried on my shoulder throughout the race and I allowed that to weight me down. Definitely something I need to work on if I'm going to tackle 4x that distance and probably more rocks and roots than people.
Following the race, Brian and I dove into a couple beers and burgers, effectively sabotaging my previous intentions of completing the other 15km on the docket for the day.  Oops.

So at the end of Week 4 I'm 11km short of my distance goal.  Thinking that I was going to be able to pull off the race and my LSD run on the same weekend was a little unrealistic I suppose but there were some good workouts included in the kilometres actually logged.