Week of June 22-28 (13:44)

If you are a true fan of the sport of running, this past weekend had it all!

Ultra Running:
The Western States 100miler was held on Saturday and was one of the most competitive 100mile races ever. It was a very deep field, added with this some very hot temperatures to provide some very interesting results. The live updates along the way had us glued to the computer at times. Hal Koerner showed exceptional form in repeating as race winner and outlasting the likes of pre-race favourites, Scott Jurek and Dave Mackey who both dropped out. Congratulations to Gary Robbins, who was the top Canadian finishing in 48th place overall after running very aggressively early on and then gutting it out to the end. Anita Ortiz of the La Sportiva Running Team won the women's race in her first attempt at 100miles. Congratulations to Hal and Anita.

Mountain Running:
The NACAC Mountain Running Championships were held in Cranmore, NH on Sunday. The top Canadian finish was by Paul Chafe, who finished 20th in the men's race. Paul is from Sydenham and has won our Sydenham Fall Trail Run in the past, so it was great to see him represent the area well.

Track:
The Canadian and U.S. Track and field Championships were also held this weekend. While many of the times seemed slow in both meets, these were used as qualifiers for the upcoming World Championships so tended to be tactical races.

From a training standpoint, this was another solid week of training me. I cut my overall mileage back a bit, but included some good quality days into the mix including a rolling tempo, flat fartlek, steady Frontenac Park run with Keith and steady 2hr run in the heat. I'll cut back a little further for this week to rest up for next weekend.

Training Log Summary:
Total # of hours this week: 13:44
Total # of runs this week: 11
2009 total # of hours: 297:29
2009 total # of days: 185
2009 total # of runs: 231
Streak: 7,125 days in a row
Training Log Details: click here

School's Out!

Hard to believe the school year has ended.

It's been a fantastic year for both Brennan and Heather. They brought home their report cards yesterday and did extremely well. Very good report cards for both and the thing that I liked the most is that they worked very hard and continued to improve over the course of the school year.
Brennan's grade 8 graduation was last night and it was very cool seeing him so confidently go up on stage. Brennan has worked very hard this year and was rewarded with some excellent grades in the third semester. He has been showing a lot of interest in art, and received a very high mark, and I'm really hoping that he pursues this further.

The big moment...

Brennan and Ryan...

Brennan and Ms. Stinson...

Brennan and his shadow...
Heather also had a great year and received a writing award for her interest and ability in writing...





Here is a video of the Odessa Tiger Tapper Percussion Group performing at the Awards Assembly. Heather is on a green bucket near the left in a green shirt...


With these photos of our Father's Day Hike last weekend into Birch Lake at Frontenac Park, it looks like summer has finally arrived.
Looking forward to lots more summer fun!

Week of June 15-21 (19:20)

Great week of training and continue to feel strong. Good volume and some solid workouts. Continued on Tuesday with uphill tempo runs on the treadmill and pleased that my average heartrate is starting to come down while doing the same pace/incline. Friday was a long run of Frontenac Perimeter with Keith that felt really good. Also added a light track session on Sunday evening to get my legs spinning a little more efficiently. Was fun to get back on the oval again and almost inspired me to want to run a track race...almost!

Training Log Summary:
Total # of hours this week: 19:20
Total # of runs this week: 11
2009 total # of hours: 283:45
2009 total # of days: 178
2009 total # of runs: 220
Streak: 7,118 days in a row
Training Log Details: click here

Frontenac Park Perimeter Run

I had a great run yesterday with Keith "Ditch Dawg" Iskiw, as we set out to run the perimeter of Frontenac Park. We started just after 11am from the Trail Centre and headed in a counterclockwise direction to get the rugged Slide Lake Loop out of the way first. The trail was in pretty good condition, with only a few spots that had quite a bit of growth over it. The northeast end of the park was the most grown over in places due to underuse.

I felt quite good. My knee was a little stiff for the first few hours, but loosened up and felt great on the hills. Very rolling and technical loop, but just beautiful. We saw a few deer, a raccoon and some baby ducks...and no other people. My favourite section of trail was along Buck Lake with lots of soft pine needles to run on. It was pretty hot in the open sections, but nice in the woods.

We ended up breaking my previous best on the loop with a running time of 5:59:37 (yay....under 6hrs!), and a total trail time of 6:19:49 (stops for treating water, pit stops, etc...). Very pleased with how the run went. All fun.

The only hiccup was that the batteries in my Steripen died at 4hrs, so we ran the last two hours with only a half litre of water each (sorry Keith), which we could have used more due to the heat. I'll remember to take backup batteries next time as they are very light (I even took them with me, but left them in the car...stupid me!).

To read Keith's report click here.

Canadian Mountain Running Championships report and video

The Canadian Mountain Running Championships were held on June 13 in beautiful Canmore, Alberta...

Race report and video (Video credit: Phil Villeneuve) >>

Week Ending June 14 (18:21)

I was very pleased to get another solid week of training in. Back to back 18+ hour weeks have left me feeling strong and confident in my ability to recover right now. I had a couple of longer runs including a 3:38 run with Bryon Powell on Friday. Aside from the volume, I've also been very happy with how some of the quality workouts have felt recently. My uphill treadmill workout on Tuesday felt good as did a 40min flat tempo run on Saturday. I expect my daily volume will be a bit less this coming week, but planning to do a longer run on Friday, so it will average out somewhat.

Training Log Summary:
Total # of hours this week: 18:21
Total # of runs this week: 13
2009 total # of hours: 264:25
2009 total # of days: 171
2009 total # of runs: 213
Streak: 7,111 days in a row
Training Log Details: click here

Canadian Mountain Running Championships

The Canadian Mountain Running Championships will be held this Saturday in beautiful Canmore, Alberta. The top finishers will qualify to represent Canada at the inaugural IAAF World Mountain Running Championship, NACAC Mountain Running Championships and Commonwealth Games Mountain Running Championships.

The mens field looks to be stacked with many veteran trail, xc and mountain runners, as well as a few newcomers to the mountain running scene.

Taking a quick look at the confirmed entry list, it's a good bet that the eventual mens winner will probably be one of the following...
Joel Bourgeois
Trevor Caldwell
Adam Campbell
Adrian Lambert
Lanny Mann
Taylor Murphy
Phil Villeneuve

As for the womens field, it looks to be a little more wide open. If anyone has any thoughts on either race, please feel free to comment.

Good luck to all!

Feed me now!

With running fairly high mileage comes with it the added joy, burden and sometimes annoyance of craving any and all food non-stop. Finish one meal or snack and start thinking about what else is in the house to devour next.

I consider the basics of my/our diet to be fairly good. While I don’t eat meat of any kind, I do get a very well rounded diet including lots of fruits, veggies, beans, tofu, etc…

Sometimes though, you just start craving all these things that you wouldn’t normally touch. ‘Feed me now and feed me often’ is becoming my mantra during the day and I don’t give a rats ass what it is….including a rats ass (except I guess that would be considered meat).

Kraft Dinner (KD) is a case in point. I hadn’t really thought about it in years; however during a run with Taylor Murphy last week, he planted it in my head as being his favourite food to have while camping.

So, finally yesterday we hit the groc store and picked up some good old KD for dinner for after our evening run. My stomach was growling with anticipation during the whole run, and wasn’t disappointed.

The White Cheddar KD rocks!...especially when extra cheese, Diana sauce, hot peppers and our secret ‘Freeman Spice’ is added.

The whole bowl of KD only lasted for about 30secs, but was pure joy. This, of course, was followed up appropriately enough with the biggest bowl of Rolo ice cream ever scooped.

Hmmmm….Is it lunch time yet?

Week Ending June 7 (18:48)

I was very pleased with the week. Good overall volume, strong uphill tempo on Tuesday and pleased with 50km long run on Thursday. Also quite a bit of running in Five Fingers; which is making my legs feel very strong. On top of all this, I feel like I am recovering extremely well from my runs right now and always looking forward to the next run. Nice to get back out for a longer run with Sara this past weekend too at Frontenac Park.

Training Log Details:
Total # of hours this week: 18:48
Total # of runs this week: 13
2009 total # of hours: 246:04
2009 total # of days: 164
2009 total # of runs: 200
Streak: 7,104 days in a row

Summer Fun

With the colder than normal weather we’ve been having it’s not quite summer yet, but we’ve still been quite busy having lots of summertime outdoor fun.

Frontenac Provincial Park Camping Trip:
Last weekend, Brennan, Heather, Sara and I camped at Frontenac Provincial Park. We canoed into campsite #4 on Big Salmon Lake. A bit of a tailwind got us there in good time. It's just a beautiful site that’s very remote. The weather was looking a little questionable, but it didn’t start to rain until after we had called it a night, so we got off lucky.

It was so nice just hanging out around the campsite, relaxing, chatting, exploring trails and eating by campfire. It’s funny, as these are many of the things that we regularly do in our backyard, but they always seem that much more special when you get away. We saw lots of wildlife during our weekend including deer, a beaver that swam near our campsite, the biggest black rat snake I have ever seen (over 4ft long), a loon that popped up next to our canoe and our friendly campsite chipmunk named ‘Dizzy’.

A couple of happy campers...
Housekeeping...
Getting ready for the feast...
Tents with extra tarp for the potential storm brewing... Okay, that's HOT!!!...
Fine dining...
'Dizzy' our dinner guest...

Black Rat Snake...
Beaver...

"Are you sure you remembered the coffee?"...

Soccer:
Heather's soccer season is in full swing now. She has a great team and coach. Everyone plays well together and is improving weekly. They currently have a record of 3wins and 1 loss.



Track:
Heather also had her regional track meet yesterday and competed in the 100meters, long jump and 4 x 100m relay. Heather had a great day with some solid long jumps. She also just missed making the finals in the 100m, but then closed out the day by finishing second as part of the 4 x 100m relay. So, the relay team will go on and compete in the area meet next week.

Video of the Odessa Tigers 4x100m Bantam Girls 2nd place finish...

Brennan has also been busy building new mountain bike trails around our property and once they have been completed, I’ll post some video of him riding them.