Ultra Runner

Saw this on Adam Campbell's Blog and just too silly not to pass along...

ULTRA RUNNER from Cedar Wright on Vimeo.

Canada Day Weekend

What an incredible Canada Day Long Weekend. Lots of races to follow, good weather and good fun!

A couple of congrats to some SHA runners who competed in the past week. JD survived a very hot day at the Creemore Vertical Challenge 50km. From all counts, the only thing that was tougher than the relentless hills on the course was the brutal heat. EJ also had a very busy period of racing with her debut at the Limestone Mile in a great time of 6:29 on a windy day on Thursday, then following it up by winning the women’s race (3rd overall) at the Sydenham Lakeside 5km on her home turf in a very solid time of 21:46. Great job guys!

Aside from another weekend of searching out race results, we enjoyed a relaxing time hanging out at our home. We find it interesting that for some weekends when we have thought that we’d like to go camping, we usually end up just staying at our own little ‘cabin in the woods’. For two of the nights we stayed out late by campfire; cooking dinner by open flame, enjoying a few beer and just hanging out with the dawgs. Doesn’t get any better than that. We are very fortunate to have this at our disposal on our property and take full advantage of it. No real reason to go away to camp. To add to this, we are also lucky to have a pretty great trail system we can connect to that is only 2kms down our dirt road to hook onto. I guess this is always why we feel that whenever we are at home, it truly feels like we are on holidays. That was certainly the case this weekend.

We didn’t even have to go out to get any fresh fruit over the weekend as we have a huge crop of wild blackberries (or blackcaps in ‘Fitchettese’) this season. It is incredible how many berries we have been able to pick as each day there are loads more that are ripe. Yum!

Our only venture into the outside world over the weekend was going to Sara’s sister-in-law, Heather’s surprise 40th party in Chaffey’s Lock. Heather seemed very surprised and it was great to see Jeff, Heather and the boys again after their recent trip to Australia. One of the highlights of the evening was listening to some great new music provided by Paul Langlois of the Tragically Hip accompanied by Sara’s brother Jeff. Most of the songs were new material written by Paul that will hopefully be coming out in a solo album at some point. Being a harsh critic of music that is currently being put out, I would definitely say that this was by far the best new music I have heard in a long, long time and it was a real treat to hear it in this setting. Can’t wait for the CD.

Running-wise, it’s been great to see Sara feel stronger in her training and being able to put a consistent period of healthy running weeks together. I’m still feeling some nigglies with my knee and achilles, but they seem to be feeling better each day. I’m confident that I’m heading in the right direction and will be able to cautiously increase over the next few weeks and start getting some good long runs in again soon. Yesterday’s 90 minute run felt awesome, but I awoke to some stiffness again today. I had another ART session with Tom this morning and it does seem like my psoas is beginning to loosen up a bit more which is good. Onward and upward.

Training Summary:
Total # of hours last week: 6:28
Total # of hours this year: 290:23
Streak (# of consecutive days of running): 7,496
Training Details of the week

The Missing Link

I’ve had a long battle with a barking knee. It started giving me grief last year about a month after the Haliburton 100 when I tried to train for another 100 possibly too soon. It slowly came around and then I was able to get some solid training in between March to May and felt like I was getting in decent shape. Even during this period though, it still felt like there was something there and just not quite right. Then, I had a pretty bad flareup while race directing with the set up and tear down of the course...

Read full post at La Sportiva Mountain Running Blog >>>

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...

News Update

I have to admit that I don't really tend to follow world news much. We don't have a TV, I don't listen to the radio often and don't go to news websites.

I was therefore pretty shocked to hear about the terrible BP Oil Spill recently.

It was very comforting however to know that BP is doing such an amazing job with their cleanup efforts.



I also recently heard about another spill that BP was on top of as well...



Have a great weekend! :)

Dreaming of WS100 and Racing

The Super Bowl of ultra running occurs this weekend with the Western States 100.

I had put my name into the mix last fall, but unfortunately did not get selected. In hindsight, it's probably just as well with the recent injury flareup. With not feeling structurally sound at this point, trying to run 100miles doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense.

Western States is looking to be an incredible race. The men's race is shaping up to be a four man race between Anton Krupicka, Geoff Roes, Hal Koerner and Killian Jornet. The women's race seems a little more wide open, though Nikki Kimball is probably the favourite. Anything is possible in a 100 miler though, so it is going to be very interesting to follow along. Not as fun as actually being there and taking part, but still it will be fun to follow. There is also a strong contingent of Canadians taking part as well with Gary Robbins, Ryne Melcher, Glen Redpath, Tracy Garneau, Tamsin Anstey and Nicola Gildersleeve. You can follow live updates from WS100 here.

With spring now behind us, I'm a little frustrated that I have nothing to show for it. For the past month I have tried to tip toe around the knee relapse and achilles flareup with the hopes of it coming around. I'll get a few decent days and then have a minor setback. I feel that if I could take a short period of really light days, then I'd be fine. Whether that is in the form of a down period or taper, I'm not really sure what makes the most sense right now. My heart is wanting to run in a race, but my gut is telling me it might not be wise. My body is sitting somewhere in between...though probably leaning a little more towards my gut. Finger Lakes 50 is a race that I would love to do again next weekend and salvage something out of the spring, but I haven't fully decided yet one way or the other. I'm just going to take it one day at a time. If I'm feeling good early to mid next week, then I'm going to consider running. If not, then I'll put a little more effort into rehab.

On the topic of rehab, I had my final appointment with Greg Lehman on Wednesday. Kingston has been very fortunate to have Greg in town for a number of years now. Greg has worked magic for Sara and I on countless occasions. Unfortunately for us, Greg is relocating to Toronto to set up practise there. He will certainly be missed by us and others in the Kingston area. I'd like to say a huge thank you to Greg for all the years of help and encourage those in the Toronto area to check him out if they need some help working through or getting past an injury. Check Greg's website for an announcement about his new clinic hours soon in Toronto.