Week of March 1 - 7: Snowshoes and Dogsleds

Some great races this past weekend...

Pittsfield Snowshoe Challenge (Marathon, Half Marathon and 10.5km): A huge congrats to David and Kimberly who competed at the Pittsfield Snowshoe Challenge yesterday in Vermont. David finished 5th overall in the marathon on the killer course that climbs up and down a mountain four times in 5:42. Kimberly finished 4th female in the 10.5km one loop course in 1:33. The weather was mild, but sounds like conditions were challenging with very soft slushy snow. Congrats guys! Look forward to hearing more details. Race info and results (eventually) can be found at http://www.peakraces.com/ .

.

Can Am Crown Dogsled Races: My friend Duane Ramsay of Inverary competed in the 6 dog - 30 mile race at the Can-Am Crown Dogsled Race in Fort Kent Maine on the weekend. He had a great race and finished in 16th place. Duane is one of the most recognized and respected mushers in the area. His knowledge and care for his dogs is unparallelled. I've had the good fortune of learning first hand from Duane and even raced his 'B' team on many occasions, including twice at Can-Am in the past. Two of our dogs, Willy and Jesse (and Cody before), came to us from Duane's kennel, and are enjoying their retirement from racing with our pack. Duane's passion for the sport of dogsledding is very inspiring as evident by the fact that now in his 70's, he is still out there training with his dogs daily.

U.S. Snowshoe Running Championships: Sara and I have run the U.S. Snowshoe Running Championships twice in the past and always had to travel quite a distance to the event. Too bad that we were both injured or coming off injuries as with the race being held in Syracuse, NY it would have been a nice short drive to get there. We had even considered going down just to watch, but decided that a relaxing weekend at home was more appealing. I still haven't seen results posted from the race, but conditions looked good and Dave Dunham has a race video posted here .

.

---------------------------------------------

.

Training Summary:
Things continue to go well with my training. I was very pleased with how I've felt with the continued increases in volume. I'm still splitting up most of my runs into two runs per day most days. My long run was up to over 2 hours yesterday at Frontenac Park and felt great, even though much of the run was done on snow that was ankle deep in places. I've also kept up with two quality uphill workouts per week on the treadmill, even though I really don't enjoy this. The uphill sessions have already jump started my fitness level and I feel that I've made pretty good gains in a short period of time with minimal strain on my knee. Structurally, my body feels very good and I'm pleased with how my knee seems to be getting stronger each week. I've even found myself getting excited with looking through the race calendar and thinking of upcoming races. I do think that I'm a ways off of racing right now though. Racing for me is usually secondary...I'm just so happy to be back out putting in some decent length runs again.

.

Total # of hours this week – 11:51

Total # of hours this year – 67:11

Streak – 7,377 days of running in a row

Training Log Details

Week of Feb 15 - 21

Busy times with lots of fun stuff going on.

Sara and I took Brennan and Heather to Barrie with us on the weekend and had a fun mini-work/mini-vacation at Horseshoe Valley Resort. I was going to be working at a Dion Snowshoe Booth at the Snowshoe Raid Adventure Race for a few hours, but the rest of the weekend was going to involve fun in the snow.

The Snowshoe Raid Adventure Race is one of the largest snowshoe events in Canada, and you can see why. Race director Bob Miller is very thorough and organizes a fantastic event. I’ve never done an adventure racing or orienteering, but it looked like a blast and they had great conditions for the event. Congrats to rookie participants Keith and Aaron who finished in 8th place out of over 90 teams. Keith and Aaron said the Dions performed well.

After the race, we headed back to the resort and spent a few hours downhill snow tubing. What a blast! Check out the below photo and videos. I was quite surprised with how fast we went down the hill. The sun was bright and temperatures were warm during the day, but had started to drop so it was lightening fast and icy. Fun stuff.

We all worked up a pretty big appetite after the tubing and had a great meal at the Crazy Horse Restaurant, before heading back to watch a little Olympics and an early night.

Horseshoe Valley Resort had a nice indoor pool that Heather was really looking forward to using, so we took advantage of that after breakfast before the drive home.

We were really surprised with the snow conditions in Barrie and with how nice the area is. We’re definitely looking to return there for some more winter fun in the future.
.
Team Zima (Aaron and Keith) in their first Adventure/Orienteering race...
Downhill Snow Tubing...

Heading uphill with the tube...


Brennan and Heather spinning downhill...


Brennan, Heather and me spinning wildly downhill...


Training Summary:
I was pretty pleased with my week of training. I increased quite a bit in the early to mid week, took a recovery day on Thursday, had another bigger day on Friday, then light days on Saturday and Sunday. I now feel that I have moved further along with the injury and in a good place to keep gradually increasing. I’m finding that I can take a few bigger days in a row as long as I take the odd recovery day now and again. I’m very happy to be at this point. I’ve also found a few specific procedures, treatments and rehab that I can do myself that I’ve learned from Greg. I’m still going to continue to keep my long runs under 90mins for a while, but feel like some double days are helping me to move forward.

Total # of hours this week – 8:00

Total # of hours this year – 45:37

Streak – 7,363 days of running in a row

Training Log Details

Week of Feb 8 - 14

Well, this past weekend was a very exciting weekend of races.

The Olympics are now underway and always fun to follow along with how the Canadians are doing. I have to say that I was more glued to two other races though.

EJ had a very solid run at the KRRA Twosome run with a time of 22:30. This was her second fastest time ever over the 5km distance, and although it was a little off of her breakthrough race in Florida last month, her training has been a little more relaxed since then with a focus towards the spring/summer. Having said that, she did place a very strong 4th master in the women's race in a very stacked race that may have been one of the stronger masters races in the area. Looking forward to what the spring has to offer for EJ.

Elsewhere and not quite as local was JD's big race in Alaska (report here). The Susitna 100 was JD's first 100miler and he nailed it. Participants had to pull their supplies/emergency gear in a pulk for the entire race. Conditions sounded like they were slow in places, but JD not only finished, but did so in a fantastic time of 36:59. Truly amazing. JD's hard work certainly paid off, as did his mental toughness in this killer race.

Congrats EJ and JD!

----------------------------------------------------

Training Summary:
~ I was really quite pleased with how the week went. I have felt pretty good with increasing the volume of my training a bit. My longest run was 86mins which felt great. The pace was not quite as slow as I thought it would have been either, so happy with that. I'm doing a lot of runs in the 45min range, but don't feel comfortable increasing the length of my long runs quite yet. I will continue to stack runs together with quite a few doubles until I gain more strength back in my knee. I actually ran 11 times last week and this approach seems to be working for me right now.

I am still feeling some discomfort in my knee, but it is much less than it was a few months ago when I was only running 20mins per day. I'm not at the point of ignoring the tightness or discomfort, but just going to plan to stop dwelling on it as much and start thinking more positive. I've mentioned that to clients in the past that you get to a point that you need to stop focusing on every little ache or pain when coming back from an injury. I believe that is part of the healing process. I think I find myself at that point right now. As long as things stay the same or continue to improve, I will be mentioning my knee issue less and less in my training log and think that is a good thing. Onward!

Total # of hours this week – 8:51
Total # of hours this year – 37:37
Streak – 7,355 days of running in a row
Training Log Details

Rocky Raccoon 50 miler

Congratulations to Oliver, who just completed his first 50miler at Rocky Raccoon in Texas.

I just got off the phone with him and he was pretty excited about his race. It didn’t unfold quite the way he had envisioned it, but ended up with an incredible result.

Oliver started the race very conservatively as planned and ran the first 16+ mile loop very relaxed. At about 20miles he was knocked over while meeting a runner who was trying to pass another runner on a narrow section of trail and went down hard on his knee. His knee was banged up pretty bad, combined with some stomach issues, but he got up and made it through the loop.

Once at the aid station at about 33 miles, he had to receive 10 STITCHES to his knee! They asked him if he wanted to drop out, and his immediate reply was ‘No F-ing way!’ He then got back out on the course and ran some of his fastest running of the day during the final 16 mile loop and finished in a great time of 10:10:44. Wow!!! That is truly impressive. Love it.

I’m sure that Oliver’s knee will be barking a bit tomorrow, but expect that he’s not feeling a thing tonight. Congrats again!

Week of Dec 28 - Jan 3

The softer snow conditions this week have been a huge welcome for my knee. I've been able to get out a little bit longer while doing every run on my snowshoes. There has been a little bit of stiffness and the ocassional soreness, but much less than when I was only able to do 20mins per day. I feel like my knee is getting stronger and as long as it continues to feel the same will keep increasing moderately. So thankful for so much snow and getting in some decent runs again.

A big congrats to EJ who ran a great 5km in Florida this past weekend, setting a new PB of 21:35. This on a cold and windy day and coming off being sick. This was good for 3rd female, 11th overall and top master.

Training Summary:
Total # of hours this week: 4:49
Total # of runs this week: 7
Streak: 7,313 days in a row
Training Log Details