Week of Oct 11 - 17

It's been a heck of a busy week with organizing the Sydenham Fall Trail Run, getting ready for the snowshoe season, and having some fast approaching deadlines on some writing pieces. Definitely feeling somewhat overwhelmed and swamped at times.

Running wise, I've bounced back well from being sick. I was still fairly weak for much of last week, but got some decent runs in that included a 4:25 run on Monday and a couple of good 2hr efforts. The 2hr run I did on Saturday may have been a little too aggressive with some of he paces that I ran at. I pushed it a little harder than I've been able to in a while and my achilles barked a bit and let me know that it wasn't entirely happy. A few days of R&R and it will be fine.

Weekly Summary (Oct 11-17):
Total # of hours last week: 10:57
Total # of hours this year: 446:43
Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,601
Training Log Details for the Week

Being Sick

I hate being sick. I'm not good at it at all. Well, actually I suppose considering the amount of times I've been sick, you could probably say that I am quite good at it.

Ever since I was a kid, I've always seemed to get sick pretty often, and usually accompanied with a high fever. Maybe I just have a weak immune system, maybe it's a result of having meningitis when I was a baby, or maybe it's just horse shit bad luck. Then, I was diagnosed with Stevens Johnson's Syndrome in my teens, but thankfully I have been able to control that by taking the proper medication at the first sign of any symptoms.

Actually, over the past few years I have been healthier than any other time in my life, in fact I can't remember the last time I had a cold. And this is all during fairly high mileage training too.

I've made a point of really trying to take care of the little things with lots of rest, eating well, low stress and I have also paid close attention to adding some supplements to my regular routine. Interestingly enough, I have not had a bout of SJS since I started taking First Endurance Optygen. The two main ingredients in Optygen are Cordyceps and Rhodiola, which were first used by Tibetan Sherpas to help them climb Mount Everest, but have been used recently to aid in recovery and performance in endurance events. I've also added Udo's Oil to my daily diet as well.

So, I was somewhat surprised to come down with a nasty cold last week. As Sara told me, it was a perfect storm brewing. It was the week following my ill fated Virgil Crest race where I dropped at 25miles. I guess that I maybe thought that this didn't take too much out of me as I was keen to get back into training after a few easy days. I also had a busy week with quite a few appointments and being around a lot of sick people when I am used to mostly working from home and in isolation. I think the kicker was an eye appointment I had at a very busy clinic which was probably a germ factory.

The short story is that I got nailed hard for all of last week. Most of my running consisted of 20-30 minutes of very easy running each day, just to keep the streak alive. My fever spiked pretty high for a few days and lingered in my chest a bit. The fever left me pretty weak, all week.

By the weekend things were improving considerably, as I've felt much better and started to increase back again closer to normal. I had planned to run long on Sunday, but decided to bump that back to Monday (yesterday) for the extra day of recovery.

With a busy week coming up with organizing the Sydenham Fall Trail Run this coming weekend, I guess if you have to get sick, then last week was a good time.

Here's hoping to a healthy fall and winter, and being able to really ramp up the trail miles!

Weekly Summary (Oct 4-10):
Total # of hours last week: 4:46
Total # of hours this year: 435:46
Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,594
Training Log Details for the Week

The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn by The Pogues. An amazing song that fuses Punk with Traditional Irish Music. Great to see that The Pogues can still play it with passion 25 years later.

One Last Shot

Well, it looks like I may have one last shot to get into the Western States 100 lottery. I heard back from the Stone Cat 50 race director and I was able to get in. Stone Cat is on the final day of qualifying, so it's all or nothing.

I'm really looking forward to it as we've run there in the past and it's a very honest and runnable course. The course has changed a bit since the last time I ran it, but sounds like it may be a little faster too. I have no interest in time, but just looking forward to getting a 50miler under my belt again.

I remember the four loop course at Stone Cat featuring a few challenging sections, but nothing too crazy. I have some good memories of running parts of the race with Jan Wellford of ADK speed record fame, as well as meeting Bryon Powell for the first time, who is now operating the primier website for all things trail and ultra at iRunFar.com. The funny thing about Bryon was that partway through his race he was having a rough patch, and was convinced that a shot of Jack Daniels (the drink, not the running philosophy) would help him. Apparently it did as he left me in his dust over the final loop. Guess I should have taken a shot too.

So, all systems are go. The only problem now though is that I spent a little too much time around sick people last week and I've come down pretty sick myself. Hopefully, only another couple of days of light running and I'll be able to get back out pretty long again soon. I have to say that watching Sara leave to go for a long run at Frontenac Park on Sunday was a challenge, and for a moment I considered going along for a short run and sleeping after in the car. Probably best I didn't though as I was feeling pretty rough. So, I'm on a steady diet of 20-30 easy minutes per day right now, just to keep the running streak alive.

The good thing though about being sick is that I've had a little extra time to get caught up on work. The Sydenham Fall Trail Run is on October 17, and I still have lots of last minute things to get done. We have reached our maximum even earlier than last year and are looking forward to a great event a week from Sunday.

Weekly Summary (Sept 27- Oct 3):
Total # of hours last week: 7:28
Total # of hours this year: 431:00
Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,587
Training Log Details for the Week

End of Summer and WS100 Dreaming

It seems like the end of summer is here. The heat and humidity (and deer flies) are gone and they’ve been replaced with cool nights.

I just love this time of the year for running, and feel very fortunate to be back into a place where I can be enjoying some substantial trail time. My daily volume has continued to be back to a point approaching almost normal amounts again. While I haven’t ventured into many longer runs, I’m now feeling like I can look to test the waters and see how my body responds to some now. Monday is going to be a long run test. This will be a great opportunity for me to see when I think I might be able to hop into a race. Wish me luck!

On the topic of races, I was looking over the Western States 100 lottery information last week. WS 100 has made some really good changes to the system, however I just realized that I’m getting burned a bit in that I currently don’t have a qualifier to put my name into the lottery yet. The qualification period is from October 1, 2009 – November 6, 2010. So, unfortunately my Haliburton 2009 race is a couple of weeks too early, and with my past year of injury, I am in need of a qualifier.

I’ve been looking over races and while I do feel that I’m a ways off of being in decent shape, I’m considering trying to hop into get a qualifier. I expect that the 50mile option will be where I look. We’ll see. The fact that we organize the Sydenham Fall Trail Run in October further limits that number of potential races to look at though.

Back to school time for Brennan and Heather now. Hard to believe it's that time again. It's been an amazing summer with so many wonderful memories. We had enjoyed a final campfire of the summer this holiday weekend.

Training Summary:
Total # of hours last week: 11:32

Total # of hours this year: 364:44

Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,559

Training Log Details for the Week

Slacker

Another solid week of training and I'm really pleased with how my body has handled it. My goal last week was to increase the daily volume that much more, and hopefully feel good running long on the weekend.

Everything seemed to go very well all week with 5 days of running twice a day. I had one planned recovery day of 45mins, and then ended up cutting back to only 45mins on Sunday (instead of a long run) as I started to feel like I was fighting a bit of a flu bug on Saturday afternoon.

The big highlight of the week was my two physio appointments. It seems as though I've finally discovered the final piece to the puzzle of the past 10 months of injury. There have been a number of little things that have been addressed one at a time, but I seem to have the big picture now and through a combination of stretching, strengthening, rolling, sticking and physio manipulation, I have noticed very big changes just this week. The result in just a very short period of time has been that I now feel that I am running smoother and with equal strength and range of motion on both legs. This has been largely generated from freeing up much of the tightness in my right hip/psoas, which had been causing the knee pain, and indirectly the achilles pain.

The only drawback to all of this is the time that I need to spend daily doing rehab. I really just want to be out running, but realize the importance of the rehab work and have been hitting it hard.

I feel that right now I still need to be patient for a while, but am definitely in shape to start getting into shape....meaning that I'm not ready to think about racing to my best yet, but I can see that after another month or so that I could be in a better place to consider testing the waters.

Aside from running, we enjoyed a nice weekend with a couple of meals around the campfire in our backyard. We also set up a slackline between a couple of trees as a fun challenge to work on our balance. Brennan and Heather have also enjoyed giving it a go and I expect that we will be having yet another friendly competition in our house with this new activity.

Training Summary:

Total # of hours last week: 10:38
Total # of hours this year: 353:12
Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,552
Training Log Details for the Week

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Heather mastering the Slackline...

Tired Pipes and Daily Doubles

It feels good going into the new week with tired pipes.

Last week was a great week with an increase in training. Getting back up to 11.5 hours of running again feels good. This is the largest week since early June, when my knee injury flared up. Certainly not where I want to be, but a good start.

The increase last week was mostly due to higher weekday volume, and beginning to run twice a day again. Double runs seem to have been good for my knee and achilles. I have kept my long runs quite moderate for now until I get the green light though. Some faster paced runs have also been sprinkled in which seems to have helped with my stride efficiency. I've also been focusing on a little more flexibility work and continued rehab.

Tomorrow will be another physio appointment to assess my situation a little further and what I need to do next to get me back to 100%. I'm feeling good that I can keep increasing, but still feel that there is something generated from my hips that needs to be tweaked. I feel pretty confident that I will be able to turn it around quite quickly though.

On the armchair athlete side of running, there were a lot of great races to follow along this past weekend. As mentioned on my Twitter, congratulations to SHA runners David and JD for solid races at the Iroquoa Trail Test 32km. Both ran awesome races as final tuneups for Haliburton.

Elsewhere, there were some interesting races on the weekend that included Pikes Peak, Where's Waldo, Transrockies and Leadville 100.

Also, a huge congrats to Gary Robbins for setting a new speed record of 35hrs and 17min on the 220km East Coast Trail in Newfoundland.

Now, it's time to start thinking about when and where Sara and I can consider racing again this fall. We pondered this a lot during our run at Frontenac Park yesterday, but are still a ways off from making any decisions just yet.

Training Summary:
Total # of hours last week: 11:27
Total # of hours this year: 342:34
Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,545
Training Log Details for the Week

Video of Gary Robbins setting a speed record on the East Coast Trail and short interview...

Weekly Summary (Aug 2-8)

Training Summary (Aug 2 - 8)
Back from Colorado and feeling structurally more sound each day. Ran 3.5hrs at Frontenac on Saturday, but tweaked my achilles on a rock and final hour wasn’t fun. Much better the next day though after lots of TLC (Tanda and Zanagen).

Total # of hours last week: 8:13
Total # of hours this year: 323:01
Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,531
Training Details for the Week

Weekly Summary (July 26 - Aug 1)

Training Summary (July 26 – Aug 1)
Colorado trip, so plenty of uphill running. Final shockwave treatment on Tuesday, so achilles was a little sore for a few days after. Each day it improved though and felt very good doing a long run up James Peak on Sunday totaling over 3 hrs.

Total # of hours last week: 7:27
Total # of hours this year: 314:48
Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,524
Training Details for the Week

Ultra Computer Geek

Well, if you can't train or race quite as much as you'd like to, the next best thing is to be a computer geek and follow along online while everyone else is racing.

I honestly can't believe how much time we spent online over the weekend checking out races. From early Saturday morning throughout the day I was following along with all the updates from Western States 100. The race certainly didn't disappoint as Geoff Roes, Anton Krupicka and Killian Jornet waged an epic battle with Geoff finally coming out on top, smashing Scott Jurek's old course record by 29mins in a time of 15:07. Krupicka held on for second, also under Jurek's old CR in 15:13, with Jornet hanging on to third. Tracy Garneau of BC ran an awesome race and won the women's race in a time of 19:01.

Tracy led a strong contingent of Canadians at WS100. In the men's race, Gary Robbins had a stellar 6th place finish, while Glen Redpath also nailed it in finishing a few minutes behind Gary in 7th and was the top master. In the women's race, Nicola Gildersleeve also ran well to finish 11th. A very exciting time for Canadian's in the wonderful world of ultra running. A special mention should be given to Bryon from iRunFar.com for providing exceptional coverage of WS100 before, during and after. You can check out all the great articles and interviews here.

In other ultra news over the weekend, Phil Villeneuve broke the course record at the Ultimate XC 56km race in Quebec, but I haven't seen full results yet. Phil's race was that much more impressive knowing that he is just coming back from a nasty achilles injury. This speaks well for Phil's final preps leading into the Canadian Death Race in 5 weeks time. CDR is going to be an amazing race with Phil, Gary Robbins and Adam Hill all registered. Tracy Garneau is also running CDR.

A little closer to home, it was also fun to hear about SHA runners David and Kim who ran very well on Saturday. David ran a 6km trail race Saturday morning with Strider the Pup, then ran the Perth Kilt Run on Saturday night with Kim. Crazy man! Kim looked to have the performance of the day though with a very strong 38:04, finishing 2nd in her age group. The interesting thing about the Kilt Run was that this was a World Record Attempt to set the record for largest race in the World of runners wearing Kilts. This was succeeded as 1400 runners took part. I was a little surprised as I assumed that these were running kilts that everyone was wearing, but no they were in fact traditional wool kilts. This certainly makes the times that much more impressive.

Training Summary (June 21-27):

Upon having my achilles bark a little louder at me from favouring my knee over the past month, I have decide to take a noticeable drop in mileage for a little while to try and get things under control. Both my knee and achilles are feeling better each day, but I'm hoping that a trip to a new physio today might yield some more answers and put me in a place where I can safely start increasing again soon.

Total # of hours last week – 5:30

Total # of hours this year – 283:55

Streak – 7,489 days of running in a row

Training Details of the Week

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And now in honor of the Queen's visit to Canada this week, I'd like to share my favourite version of God Save the Queen...

Anniversary Frolic and Feast

It was a nice weekend on Freeman Road!

The weekend was highlighted by our 5th anniversary. Sara and I celebrated by enjoying a 'fancy' dinner at home with my own invention called 'sweet tater peppers'. Very yummy if I do say so myself (recipe below). We also had a nice run at Frontenac Park running out to Little Clear Lake. The western tip of Little Clear is just beautiful and was certainly worth having to deal with the deer flies to get there. We actually did the loop and then added on to hit the nicest section a second time and treat water for the final half of our run. No better way to spend an afternoon with my best friend. Hard to believe it was only 5 years ago we were lacing them up for our Rideau Trail Fastpack. Love you S!

Also, a big thank you to Brennan and Heather who dropped off a very cool surprise Father's Day present and card while we were out. Sorry we missed you. Looking forward to next weekend!

Aside from the Yarker area, there were a couple of great races to follow online this weekend.…

The Mount Washington Road Race was held in New Hampshire and boasted a strong field of mountain runners. This 7.8 mile race that goes straight uphill includes an average grade of 11.5%, with the last 100 meters hitting over 30%. 4650 ft of elevation is gained as runners climb to the 6288 ft summit. Chris Seimers won the mens race 1:00:22, while Shewarge Amare won the women race in a new course record of 1:08:21. Top Canadian was veteran Canadian steeplechaser Joel Bourgeois finishing in a very solid 10th place in a time of 1:05:31. This may have been the fastest time and placing recorded by a Canadian in the 50 year history of the race. Sara and I ran Mt Washington in 2004 and would love to go back to it at some point. It’s just an amazing event.

Also taking place this weekend was the Bighorn 100. There was a deep field there as well with the top 5 finishers all having some great credentials to their names. The race was won by Mike Wolfe in 18:43 with Ashley Nordell winning the women’s race in 23:49. It was great seeing Yassine finish a very strong 4th overall. I met Yassine last year at Finger Lakes 50 where he was having some knee issues at the time. It's very inspiring to see him well past his injury and just tearing it up this year. I can only hope I can soon put some of my injury problems behind me as I move forward as well.

Recipe: Sweet Tater Peppers
- Red peppers cut in half
- Smashed sweet potatoes filled into red pepper
- Cheese
- Hot peppers
- Spice with Freeman spice
- Top with sprinkling of sunflower seeds
- Roast in over at ? degrees for ? minutes until peppers are soft. I guess you can tell that I'm not one for details while cooking, but that's the fun part :)

And finally, here is a video of my nephew Matt performing some CCR for a talent show. Great job Matt!

Training Summary (June 14-20):
A smattering of decent runs, recovery days and some injury flareups. Finished off with a nice 3hrs run at Frontenac with Sara. Knee and PF were much better than earlier in the week, but achilles continues to be a bit of an issue on the rolling hills and terrain. A few more light days and hopefully things will come around. Seeing Greg on Wednesday for some ART and acupuncture which should help improve things further. Also pampering with Tanda treatments and Zanagen, which has helped.
Total # of hours last week – 10:29
Total # of hours this year – 278:25
Streak – 7,482 days of running in a row
Training Details of the Week

Confessions of Mr Low Tech

Stop the presses (actually….are there still such things as presses?). I bought an iPhone!!

Yes, the guy who embraces the fact that he is very much anti-tech most things has finally caved into the modern world. Who would have thought?

Don’t get me wrong, I love most things high tech runningwise, including the latest in footwear and gear, however elsewhere we don’t own a TV, replaced our gas lawnmower recently and much prefer cooking our dinner by campfire in our backyard to having a night out on the town or going to a movie.

With the nature of my business and the way Spafford Health and Adventure is evolving though, it is imperative that I have consistent access to email and phone. Part of the straw that broke the camel’s back is that living in what some would call ‘the middle of nowhere’; our rural wireless internet provider can sometimes be very inconsistent and be down for periods of time. This is not good.

So, I figured it was just a matter of time before it happened, but I have to admit that it was a bit nervous and reluctant over the whole ordeal. Even on my way to pick up my new phone I happened to bump into my friend Keith whose response to this was ‘Doing away with the carrier pigeon huh?’ Knowing Keith, I expected to hear him follow this up with, ‘Nothing tastes better than BBQ’d carrier pigeon’.

So, it’s been a few days now and I’m finally beginning to figure things out. Actually, I had originally bought a Blackberry, but after a day of using it, I realized that the iPhone is a better fit for my business needs so took it back (sorry again Kim).

My initial worry of becoming one of those people who are constantly playing with their iPhone and spend far too much time with it seems to be almost the reverse. I have found that it has actually freed up time for me in that I can quickly check my email without having to sit down to the computer, which quite often ends up with much wasted time mindlessly surfing the internet. Being able to reply quickly to emails and staying on top of things will make it that much easier to be more efficient and better organized.

A huge plus for me is that if I am away from the house for a number of hours, say maybe out for a long trail run perhaps (?), I can still check my email and have regular contact if need be. In fact I tried this out during my 4+hr run yesterday and it worked like a charm.

Now this is where things start getting really weird for Mr Low Tech. I have never, ever listened to music while running, but since my iPhone is also an iPod, and I was partway through a particularly long, boring, straight and flat section of railtrail, I decided to try it out and see what the fuss was about. For this type of run, where you are running through uninspiring terrain, I could definitely see the benefit of it and must say that I enjoyed rocking along to The Pogues, Steve Earle, Social Distortion, The Clash and Ramones. It was not long after though that I was caught redhanded running along while happily grooving to tunes as Sara drove past me on the road that connects the trail to our house. Mr. Low Tech was totally busted. I felt like a cat with its paw in the goldfish tank. Opps, guilty as charged.

Gosh, even though I am not a religious person, I feel like this is kind of like confession.

I am actually pretty excited though about how much more efficient I am going to be able to be with work. Now, as far as listening to the iPod/iPhone for every run, I can’t really see it happening. It was really nice getting back out on the trails today and listening to the wind, birds, chipmunks and the rest of things that make trail running so wonderful.

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Training Summary (May 31-June 6):

Feeling good to be ramping back up for a few days, but also throwing in some decent recovery days too. Even got in a good tempo run on Friday. Knee continues to improve, but achilles has been a bit stiff still at the beginning of runs. Looking for a bigger week again for next week.

Total # of hours last week – 12:20

Total # of hours this year – 253:07

Streak – 7,468 days of running in a row

Training Details for the Week

Inspiration, Motivation and Perspiration

Amazing how you can go from an umpteen hour week of running one week, and then drop to under 7hours the next. Blech!

As I mentioned last week, I re-injured my wonky knee a bit last weekend while organizing the Kingston 5 Peaks Trail Race. Running with a heavy backpack while setting up/tearing down the course was just a bit too much for my knee on technical trails with lots of turns. I was actually pretty ok with this for the first few days as I had just gotten in a great 50km trail run a few days prior to the re-injury. I fully expected that things would settle back down again quickly after giving it a bit more TLC and extra focus on rehab.

It hasn't bounced back quite as quickly as I had hoped, but is making slow progress. It had improved to the point where I thought about even trying a local low key race. Malcolm Anderson was organizing the Run for Tomorrow Trail Marathon on his property and with it being only 3km's from our house, we had already signed up for it a few weeks ago thinking it would be a great opportunity to get a long run in. My plan was to see how my knee was during the race and if it started to bark much, I would stop. The course was run on a 2km trail loop, so it made for a good opportunity to pull the plug if I needed to as I'd never be too far away.

My knee actually felt pretty good for the first hour or so, but I did start feeling it a bit more near 90mins, and realized that it would not be wise to try to continue on, so stopped at 2hrs after completing about 25km's. While there weren't a lot of people taking part this year, it was a great event that was as much about the enjoyment and atmosphere of the day, as the running. Malcolm put a lot of effort into his event and even had a live band. We're already looking forward to next years race.

The past few days since Malcolm's run have been progressively better and I feel like I'm already heading back to a good place. On top of the added emphasis on rehab, I have also been focusing a little more on proper form and getting back into a bit more barefoot/Five Finger running again. This has not only helped with my knee, but also my chronically sore, as of late, achilles.

With improved fitness comes the desire to test oneself in a race, and I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I was considering running the Mohican 100 mile race in mid-June, but really don't feel that it would be wise structurally at this point for me. There is no way that I want a major setback now that I feel I am getting back into decent shape. My feeling now is that as long as I can increase my training again over the next few weeks that I may look at a 50miler in June or July; then consider doing a 100 again in the fall. But really, my #1 priority is to get/stay healthy and be able to enjoy lots of long runs over the summer on the trails. Everything else is secondary.

It was with that in mind, that a couple of blogs I read recently really spoke to me and are great reads. Anton Krupicka talks about the very topic of risking injury/further injury at the expense of a race. Then, there was Scott Jurek's story about his big 24hr race recently. Both of these posts provided a lot of fuel for me to ponder during upcoming runs.

I'm really looking forward to doing just that in the coming days, weeks and months. Regardless of the ridiculous heat wave we are currently experiencing, I just want to be out on the trails running long.

Good luck to everyone at Sulphur this weekend!

Training Summary (May 17-23):
Total # of hours last week – 6:47
Total # of hours this year – 229:10
Streak – 7,454 days of running in a row
Training Log Details for the Week

Busy Days

Busy days at Spafford Health and Adventure.

I really enjoy my job. Spafford Health and Adventure has evolved considerably since the early days when I first started. The thing that I like the most is that it tends to be a little different every day, and I am never 100% sure what direction my business may take in the future. I love that I am not locked into doing one thing exclusively, and I wake up each morning feeling refreshed and come into each day (and season) knowing that something is going to be a little different.

The coaching aspect of my business continues to be very rewarding and I feel fortunate to work with such a wonderful group of hard working athletes who I enjoy helping meet their goals. Seeing their commitment pay off with solid performances is very inspiring and keeps the sport always fresh and exciting.

One of the things that I always find challenging however is when a race comes around that I’m directing and a number of my clients are competing. I’m torn as I really want to be able to be a part of their day, chat and generally be available to support them, however the strains of race directing pull me a little more in that direction. However, I’d like to give a quick shout out and big congratulations to Christy, EJ, David and Kim, who all ran awesome races at the Kingston 5 Peaks race. Way to go guys!

I would also like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to my family who are so helpful with supporting SHA events and volunteering. It can be a bit stressful in the days leading up to the race, during the race and even following the race, but my parents, Jack and Rosemary Spafford, and my kids Brennan and Heather were such a big part of this that we couldn’t have pulled it off without you. Thanks again. Then of course there’s Sara too who pours her heart and soul into the event as well…thanks so much Sweetie!

So, I have a bit of a break from race directing with the next race not being until the Sydenham Fall Trail Run on October 17, 2010,

The other aspects of my business includes writing and Dion snowshoe sales. I am also looking into the possibility of other lines of products to offer for sales on my website too, but will only offer products that I strongly believe in and use myself. I have already purchased Succeed S!Caps electrolyte capsules and will be offering them for Canadian sales soon once I finalize shipping costs, etc.

Speaking of Dion Snowshoes, I realize that it’s not the season for it, but lots of excitement for next season. I have a meeting with Bob Dion tomorrow in Watertown, NY and am looking forward to seeing some of the new products for next season. The plan is to also offer Dion snowshoes in some of the retail stores in the area, as there has been such a strong demand for them. We are also looking at offering another snowshoe race in the Kingston area next winter, and are excited to be able to offer a small fleet of demo snowshoes for those who don’t own running snowshoes but would like to try it out.

So, as you can see, it’s always an adventure! Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

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Training Summary (May 10 – 16):
I had a great week of running early on, but I knew it was going to take a hit over the weekend with the 5Peaks race on Saturday. The main focus was to get a solid 50km long run in on Thursday, which I did, running it in 4:20 and feeling strong. The race was a busy time and my body suffered a little. While running with a pack full of marking flags on the course, I seemed to have strained my knee a bit. I am taking it easy for a few days, which I think will do the trick, and then will start bumping things back up a bit again. Really looking forward to a quiet holiday weekend coming up.

Total # of hours last week – 15:41
Total # of hours this year – 222:23
Streak – 7,447 days of running in a row
Training Log Details for the Week

Fred's Bread

I have always had a passion for doughy goodness. I looooooove bread.

As a kid I clearly remember coming home from playing hockey or being outside, and making a bread sandwich. Yup, that’s 3 or 4 slices of bread stacked on top of each other, with nothing else in the middle. The softer and doughier the better.

Sara and I have always tried to eat fairly healthy and I think that all things considered when you look in our cupboards and fridge, we do a pretty good job. Recently, however we have started taking a closer look at some of the foods that we assumed were healthy choices, but when you look at the label, you can’t pronounce many of the ingredients. Bread included!

Just take a look at what’s in most of the whole wheat breads in your local supermarket and you’ll see a whack of ingredients that don’t seem so healthy.

With that in mind we decided to start making our own bread and bought a breadmaker. As with most items in our house, our breadmaker had to have a name, so we named him Fred….Fred the Breadmaker.

Fred is super easy to use. Just dump in the few ingredient (that you know how to pronounce), turn it on and a few hours later, Fred has made a perfect loaf of doughy, yummy goodness. Easy, healthy and delicious!

The only problem with Fred’s Bread is that when training hard and putting in high mileage, it is not difficult to have an entire loaf eaten within the few hours that it takes to make another.

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Training Week Summary:

Going into last week I changed the focus a little. My daily volume had consistently been pretty good, but I felt like I could use a few recovery days to allow my body to recharge and get the jump on a few little nigglies. I also wanted to get in a pretty long run, so this worked well.

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John was visiting his family in Kingston, so we arranged to get together for a long run at Frontenac Park last Friday. The weather was perfect and we ended up getting in a solid 6hrs that just flew by. This was really good for both of us as it was my longest run back since Haliburton and was a great final long run before John does Sulphur in a few weeks time. I felt strong structurally and like I got stronger over the course of the run, other than a little glitch at about 4hrs when I realized that I had been spending too much time talking and not enough time paying attention to refueling. My bonk was a good reminder how sensitive my body is to fueling. Once I got a couple of gels into me quickly, I rebounded and felt strong again for the rest of the run (though probably could have used a few more gels spread out over the run).

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I felt like my body recovered well from the long run, but only did an hour the next day. All systems were good. I then finished off the week with a nice 3hr run with Sara in Frontenac again. This was my third run in Frontenac between Sunday to Sunday, but it was extra special as it was nice to get out for a long run with Sara again. This was Sara's longest run back since her injury and she seemed really strong during it.

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For the coming week, I'll continue to get decent volume in during the early part of the week, but know it will take a hit this weekend with organizing the 5Peaks race on Saturday. Looking forward to the race and hoping for great weather.

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Total # of hours last week – 16:35

Total # of hours this year – 206:42

Streak – 7,440 days of running in a row

Training Log Details

Miwok, Bairu, PYP, McCauley and Crashes

It’s Wednesday?? How did that happen? The kid is a little slow on the blog front this week.

Things have been pretty hectic lately with lots of stuff on the go. The Kingston 5Peaks
trail race is a week from Saturday. It looks like there will be a good turnout for this second year event.

Last week was an amazing week in ultra running and also in Canadian running in general. Here are a few highlights.

Miwok 100km:
This super stacked race turned out to be as epic as all of the prerace hype. Anton Krupicka ran a very well executed race to win in 8:02. Some of the most interesting parts of the day included what went on elsewhere in the top ten. Unfortunately, one of the pre-race favourites, Canadian Gary Robbins had to pull out after 50km. Read Gary’s excellent and honest report on his race (a must read!). Even without Gary finishing, Canadians ran very well with Chris Downie finishing 7th and Glen Redpath 8th overall. There are some excellent race reports on Rod Bien’s and Anton Krupicka’s blogs, plus a great interview that iRunFar.com did with La Sportiva runner Nathan Yanko who finished 4th.

Kami Semick had a great day at Miwok and one the women’s race in a time of 9:10.

New Canadian 10Km Record:
Simon Bairu continued his fantastic season of running by setting a new Canadian record of 27:23 for 10km. This broke Jeff Scheibler’s old record of 27:36 by 13 seconds. Bairu will be making his marathon debut this fall and is looking to break the Canadian record at that distance too.

Pick Your Poison:
The next race in the Ontario Ultra Series took place last Saturday. It sounded like the weather was a bit nasty at times again for this race, but some strong performances were turned in. SHA runners JD and Christy both ran strong races with JD completing the 50km and Christy completing 25km. Complete results are here.

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My Training Week:
Now that I’ve increased my volume up consistently where I would like it to be, I’ve started to add more regular harder efforts into the mix. This has ranged from steady long efforts to tempo runs, with some hills thrown into the mix too.

I had my longest run since last September of 5:09 last Monday and even though it was longer than the week before, I felt much better structurally and my body held up very well. Thursday was a hard, hilly tempo run of 30mins in the middle of a run on a 1km loop. This felt awesome and I handled it well.

The week continued with some great volume and intensity with a run at McCauley Mt on Saturday while Brennan rode his mountain bike. I ran the first 20mins of my run with Heather who ran incredible on the hills, then I got in some more good climbing. Bren had a great time on the trails, but unfortunately took a nasty fall on his final run of the day, by hitting a hidden rut at the bottom of a hill. He went down pretty hard, but was ok and is proudly showing his crash to all his friends.

Sunday concluded a great week with a 3 hour trail run at Frontenac Park with Taylor. I was a little tired going into this, but luckily Taylor showed mercy on me and let me lead …he didn’t have much choice as he didn’t know the route :) . This run was at a quicker pace then I would have run by myself, which was great to get in. It was a hot day as well, so it took that much more out of me too. I had a few nigglies at the end of the week, so looking forward to a few lighter days to re-charge a bit before going long again.

Total # of hours last week – 17:25

Total # of hours this year – 190:07
Streak – 7,433 days of running in a row
Training Log Details

Brennan’s nasty tumble at McCauley Mt…

Week of Apr 19 - 25: SHA runners at Boston, 5Peaks and Limestone City

There were a lot of great performances this past week with congratulations going out to a number of SHA runners in a variety of different races...

Boston Marathon (Monday)
David had his annual pilgrimage to the Boston Marathon again this past Monday. Fresh off the Pittsfield Snowshoe Marathon, he didn’t have a ton of road miles in his legs, but managed to pretty much nail his pre-race expectations with a very solid and evenly paced 3:28:45.

Dundas 5Peaks (Saturday)
Stuart didn’t take much time off after his Seaton Trail 26km from the week before, but came back with a gut busting 12km run at the Dundas 5Peaks Trail Race. The course is quite challenging and Stuart did very well to dip under an hour in this race in a great time of 58:48.

KRRA Limestone 5km (Sunday)
EJ ran an awesome race to finish as 10th female, and 3rd master, in this very competitive local race in a time of 21:57. Race day conditions weren’t ideal with high winds, which unfortunately seemed to slow some runners down by as much as 30-60seconds compared to previous years, but EJ’s time was still a full minute faster than last year!

Congrats to everyone and recover well!

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My Training Summary:
This was my biggest volume week since last August and I’m continuing to feel really good in training. My long run last Monday was 4:30 and was quite comfortable. My achilles was barking for a few days following, but has bounced back quite well with more attention to rehab and using the Tanda SLD unit. I was pleased that I was able to also include some fairly hard, sustained longer efforts mid-late week as well. I’m still looking at upcoming race options and hope to have something picked out soon.

Total # of hours last week – 18:14
Total # of hours this year – 172:42

Streak – 7,426 days of running in a row
Training Log Details

Week of April 12 - 18: Bruins and Seaton

Go Bruins Go!:

The playoffs have started. Once again I'll be following my beloved Boston Bruins in their quest for the Stanley Cup. Unlike last year, when they were one of the potential favourites going into the playoffs, this year they didn't qualify until the final week of the regular season. Maybe that means that they'll go further, or all the way, this year.

They have certainly started the playoffs well with the series with Buffalo tied at 1-1. The Bruins played very well in both games and if they can continue to play with the same intensity, should have a good chance of getting past the Sabres.

Seaton Trail 50mile, 52km, 26km:
Saturday was the first race of the Ontario Ultra Series with the Seaton Trail races taking place in Pickering. While the results haven't been posted yet, I'd like to say a huge congrats to Aaron (5:55/52km), JD (6:40/52km) and Stuart (2:28/26km).

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Aaron ran the 25km at Seaton last year, then progressed to his first 50km at Haliburton in September. With this only being Aaron's 2nd ultra, he has improved a lot in less than a year. JD is coming off of his big race at Susitna and it looks like he is now fully recovered and ready to take on a number of races in the OUS Series. Stuart ran a very strong race in his first attempt at a longer trail distance and this speaks very well for what he has lined up for the rest of the summer. Complete results will be posted here when they are available.

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Training Summary:

My training consisted of a little bit lower volume week than I had originally planned, however there was more quality training compared to what I had done in a while. Wednesday morning was a steady effort over a 2hr route with a good climb, Thursday evening was hill repeats at Little Cat and Saturday morning was a pretty hard 95min progression run from my parents house back to our place. The only real planned hard session was actually Thursday, as the rest just sort of happened. Not always the best approach and I certainly felt the efforts accumulate. I also did some scrambling around on Friday after getting bit by a deer tick, which resulted in a short day. A very busy week, but I'm looking forward to things settling down again for this coming week and getting back into a more normal routine. My right achilles has been barking a bit off and on, which combined with everything else, made sense to take Sunday very light.

Total # of hours last week – 14:02

Total # of hours this year – 154:18
Streak – 7,419 days of running in a row

Training Log Details

Apr 5 - 11: Canadian Ultrarunners Shine

Ok, I admit it, I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to finding race results. And there were some great ultra results on the weekend, with Canadians continuing to shine.

Diez Vista 50km:
This Port Mody race attracted a fantastic field of ultra runners this year. Last years winner Gary Robbins was out out to break his own course record of 4:15, but would have to content with ultramarathon newcomer (though not new to mountain or trail racing) Phil Villeneuve, and Chris Downie. Gary and Phil hammered each other early on, with Gary eventually pulling away to a new course record of 4:10. Phil struggled a little after 3hrs, but gamely hung on to finish in 5th place. Chris Downie ran a great race to finish in 2nd place in 4:25. Gary and Chris will both be running Miwok 100km next month with a qualifying birth into Western States on the line. Gary and Phil will then hook up again at the Canadian Death Race later in the summer.

Mt Si 50miler:
Ryne Melcher of BC also had a great race on the weekend setting a new course record at Mt Si 50miler near Seattle with a time of 5:54. Ryne seemed to be hampered by a knee injury for much of last year, but it seems like he's off to a great start in 2010.
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Bull Run Run 50miler:
Adam Hill from the Orillia, Ontario kicked off his 2010 season in fine form again with another strong showing at the Bull Run Run in Virginia. Adam finished 4th in a time of 6:52, which I believe is his fastest time on the course.

American River 50miler:
Tracy Garneau of BC won the womens race at AR50 in a time 6:43. The men's winner was 2010 ultrarunner of the year, Geoff Roes of Alaska in a time of 5:49. You know that the popularity of ultrarunning is really taking off when you see the finish being streamed live online. Great to see.

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Training Summary:
Personally, my training continues to go well. After a bit of a scare last weekend with my knee, I took a couple of light days early in the week and then continued with a pretty solid week to end up over 16 hrs again for the second time in three weeks. Highlights of the week included another great run with Sara and my daughter Heather on Wednesday, seeing a wolf on a run on Saturday, and then a nice steady run with Keith at Frontenac Park on Sunday. My body felt a little tired after the week, but I am pleased especially with how much stronger I felt on the hills on Sunday. I've been including more hills into my daily runs, which seem to be helping. It's getting to the point now where I feel I can honestly start thinking about hitting a race sometime in May. I'm not really sure yet on the date or distance, but I'll probably decide soon now.

Total # of hours last week – 16:18
Total # of hours this year – 140:16
Streak – 7,412 days of running in a row
Training Log Details

March 29 - April 4: Warning Sign

Funny... when I googled 'warning sign', this was one of the signs that came up. It wasn't exactly what I was thinking of, but thought it too perfect not to post.

Ultra runners sometimes have a very difficult time recognizing warning signs, knowing when to push, when to cut back and when rest a little more. I am certainly no exception.

This was was what got me into trouble last October with my knee injury. Two weeks after Haliburton I felt great and decided that I was going to race another 100miler in November. My first 4hr run back landed me at home with a tender knee. Instead of listening to my body, I continued training hard the remainder of that week and really screwed myself up. The injury was enough that it was February before I felt like I was able to run normally and really start training again. Lesson learned.

I've progressed well since then and had a great month of training in March, really much better than I ever thought I'd have only a few short months ago. However, I had a funny twinge in my knee on Sunday morning which was non-running related. I took an awkward step to the side and knew that something felt different. I didn't really think that much more of it and headed out for my long run. My plan was to go at least 4 - 4.5 hrs at Frontenac Park. My knee didn't really loosen up at all during the run though, so I decided to pack it in at just over 2.5 hours. The thought of late last fall and early winter was still fresh in my mind and I really didn't want to go there again. I proceeded to get right on top of my bag of rehab tricks and cut back a bit for a few days.

This time I listened to the warning sign and I already feel like things are much better than a few days ago. Maybe it was nothing on Sunday, but the twinge was right where I had injured my knee before so I was a little paranoid. Anyhow, all is well again in my world and I'll be looking to slowly increase again for the rest of this week with hopes of a great long run on the weekend.

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Training Summary:
Total # of hours last week – 14:18
Total # of hours this year – 123:58
Streak – 7,405 days of running in a row
Training Log Details

March 22-28: Umstead and World XC

Another great weekend for Canadians on the North American and World running scene.

Umstead 100:
Canadian Glen Redpath started off 2010 the same way he finished 2009...running well!

Glen finished 3rd at the Umstead 100 this past weekend in a smoking fast time of 14:23. Umstead is a remarkably fast course that features very little elevation change or technical footing making it the perfect race to aim for a fast time. The race was won by Zach Gingrich, followed by Serge Arbone in second. Gingrich's time of 13:23 was a new course record.

Glen was the 2009 Trail Runner Trophy Series Ultra running Champion as a result of his great season of racing last year which included setting a new course record at Haliburton 100.

World Cross Country Championships:
Canadian Simon Bairu was the top North American at the World Cross Country Championships this past weekend finishing in 13th place. The World XC Championships are widely recognized as being the world's most competitive distance running race annually as you have runners who specialize at all distances from 1500m to the marathon all competing in one race.

This result certainly bodes very well for Bairu who is looking to make his marathon debut in 2010. If all goes well, you would think that he has a very legitamate shot at breaking Jerome Drayton's Canadian record.

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Training Summary:
Things continue to go well with my training. My daily volume was quite high for the week and I felt like I could continue to run 2-2.5 hrs per day endlessly now. The real test for the week proved to be how I'd feel on a longer run. I had the chance to see on Sunday with a 4:12 run at Frontenac Park. I ran the north end of the Park and enjoyed everything about the run, other than the fact that I certainly was struggling a bit on the uphills. I felt that if I had run this on a flat course that I wouldn't have had any problems at all, but the hills were a real challenge. In all fairness, I was a little tired going into the weekend with having had such a big week, but I know my body well enough to realize that I am still a ways off of racing fitness. I'm ok with that though as it will all come together. I am just thrilled that I am back out there doing some pretty substantial runs daily and doing the training that I enjoy. I still haven't decided when I will look at racing, but there's certainly no rush.

Total # of hours this week – 16:38
Total # of hours this year – 109:40
Streak – 7,398 days of running in a row
Training Log Details