Week of March 8 - 14: Snow Porcupines

This was a great week and actually felt like training again. I'm continuing to feel stronger. I opted to take last Tuesday pretty light instead of doing the uphill treadmill workouts that I've been doing recently, and was rewarded with the rest of the week being very solid. I'm pleased that my volume is back up to almost 2hrs a day average, but will continue to take some very light days when I feel I need them.

The week was highlighted by a great long run on Sunday at Frontenac Provincial Park. Right now we have absolutely no snow on the ground at home, so I was very surprised to see how much snow was still in the park in places. I thoroughly enjoyed my run and being on trails that looked like nobody had been on in weeks, or possibly months. With all of the snow I was post-holing pretty deep in places. Throw in some mud, water and ice and it was a slow loop of Big Salmon Lake.

The other thing that I found surprising was how difficult it was to find the trail at times. I feel like I probably know these trails better than anyone out there (except Sara), but found myself going off trail a couple of times because the it wasn't so obvious with there being no foot prints on the snow. Adding to the mix that I had to go around a few big bodies of water that were blocking the trail, made things that much more challenging.

I had one interesting incident where I was trying to get around a large flooded area. I finally found my way around it and and got back on the trail only to discover another set of foot prints going in the opposite direction. Strange I thought? Even stranger when I noticed the tread pattern in the snow. 'What are the chances that someone else is wearing a pair of Crosslites out here today?' Yup, you guess it...I found myself having done a 180, and heading back in the wrong direction. Silly me. Good thing there was snow on the ground or I might have kept going back to where I started. In reality, it wouldn't have been a big deal as I was about halfway around the loop anyhow, but I would much prefer to complete the loop instead of backtracking.

The only individuals that I saw on the trail were either adventure racers or ultra runners or porcupines.

Andrew Cameron, James Galipeau and Andrew's girlfriend Kim, had camped at campsite #4 on a very nasty night. They came down from Ottawa for the weekend. Andrew and James had just gotten back from doing well at an Adventure Race in Patagonia. The last time I saw Andrew was almost a year ago at Rock and Ice in Yellowknife.

I also bumped into Heather McNie from Trailhead Kingston, and Grant, who were just finishing up their run as well. Another highlight was stumbling upon a very sleepy porcupine who looked like he had just woken up and was just standing in the middle of the trail. Funny, he was only about 5 feet from me, but didn't seem too concerned. We talked for a moment, but I think I was boring him, so I continued on my way.

I really have missed doing longer runs over these past few (five!!!) months due to the knee injury and am so glad to be back enjoying some longer runs in the park again. I'm already just dying to get out for my next one.

Total # of hours this week – 13:10
Total # of hours this year – 80:21
Streak – 7,384 days of running in a row
Training Log Details