Chuckanut Was A Success!

I'm off to bed here soon as I am completely exhausted. I managed to limp through a one hour walk today and then hopped on the road bike for a 2.5hr recovery ride with a friend.

Yesterday's Chuckanut 50k in Bellingham Washington went incredibly well for me. Not only did I manage to cover the full 50km distance, but I actually cracked top ten!! Well 10th exactly, after a hard fought battle in the last km of the race. The event had a pretty stacked field and even top American runner's Scott Jurek and Brian Morrison finished 3rd and 4th respectively, with some speedster from Boulder, Colorado enjoying the thick sea level air as he powered himself to the overall win.

I was on the verge of pulling out at three points in the race, but each time gave myself ten minutes to deal with the pain in my calves and reassess. I told myself that if it got any worse I would have no choice but to end my day early. Thankfully it never got to the point where I believed that I'd be setting myself back in my training for the Miwok 100k in just six weeks time. After a very slow start in which I was down in the 30's positionally after the first hour, I managed to go to work over the mountainous section of the race and really excel at what I consider myself to be good at, which is power running, up and downhill, over tough, steep, technical terrain. The race started and ended with a 9km flat section, which obviously favored the road runner's in the event.

Anyways, I took a lot of positives away from this race and will post a full race report in the coming days. As for now, I need to catch some serious zzzzzzz...oh yeah, and stretch...uggg...I need a personal masseuse, any takers!?

GR

A Few More Steps In The Right Direction

Pretty solid day of training today with a 1hr run and 2hr of mtn biking. This is not huge by any means, but it was my first 'brick' (back to back disciplines) workout in as long as I can remember and in and of itself that felt great!

I started the day off with an early morning run on the Alice Lake trail system of Squamish. The area is a bit higher than town and hence holds snow longer than most other trail networks. The run was a mix of completely clear and snow covered but I did get to run one of my absolute favorite trails of all time, 'Credit Line'.

If I'm ever having an off week for running or training I usually drag my ass onto Credit Line and bomb down it to feel better about myself! I love technical steep trails and this meets both those criteria. I believe you could run it just as fast as you could bike it, but it's the fast turn over and quick foot placements that I love. There is nothing else that can go through your mind except where your next step needs to go so as to prevent you from eating dirt or hugging a tree with your teeth.

I started off around the Four Lakes trail system and the funny thing was that I felt really good out there. I ran harder than I remember running this route in a long, long time, and flew up all of the hills. By the time I hit Credit Line I truly believed that I was on pace to P.R. this loop, but without a watch on my wrist it was all just a guessing game. I felt like I was flying on the trail and powered effortlessly over the few climbs that are involved (seven pounds less will do that I guess!). By the time I was spit out onto 'Jack's Trail' I decided I should stop and stretch. I may have been getting ahead of myself a little as I am definitely sore here tonight, but the trails got the best of me, I couldn't resist feeling like an actual trail runner again!

From there it was off to Corsa Cycles (the best bike shop in Squamish) to pick up my brand new Specialized Epic mountain bike...schweeeetness!! A two hour ride, climbing up to the snow line on numerous different routes ensued before I called it a day and went about tackling some long overdue errands and chores, such as cleaning my stanky doggie smelling car for the first time in six months...I'm a busy guy, things get ranked in order of necessity, and without a woman in my life I don't get any flack for stuff like this, which is obviously not always a good thing!!

I put in a good stretching session tonight, will hit up the road bike tomorrow and am then off to Chuckanut for Saturday. Still uncertain as to if I'll even make it through the entire run, but either way it'll be good to catch up with a lot of familiar faces!

GR

I'm Back...I Think...

Another very positive day today with a solid 2hr run, fully pain free, including hills, and I even decided to push myself a little. I thought I may have felt my calf a few times, but it was so minor that in the end I think I was imagining it.

This was the first time in a full month that I ran anything other than the completely flat 'Squamish Spit' (with my three previous running attempts being there), and at just 2hr in length it ended up being the longest run I have done since Jan 1st! WOW, I've got some serious work to do in the next four weeks of training for the Miwok 100k in San Fran. Having said that though, I am currently seven pounds lighter than I was at my race weight of 2007 and am still looking to trim off a few pounds before Miwok. I know I've lost out on some critical mileage in the last four weeks, so I might as well try to 'lighten up' a little and make the running as easy as it could possibly be over a distance of 100km.

I truly feel like I am fitter than ever, but after just 90min of running today I could notice how my body was tired as it has lost a lot of its specific conditioning for distance running. I'm gonna get out there and test out the legs again tomorrow...and am pretty sure that I'll head down to Bellingham for the Chuckanut 50k this weekend. I know I'll get my ass handed to me, and that I will have to approach this race with a 'feel pain and drop out' mentality, which kills me to even consider as I've never dropped before. The fact of the matter is though, Miwok means too much this year and if either of my calf muscles so much as twitch the wrong way I'll be walking back to the start finish. I'm just hoping to get a nice long run in and continue to get back on track for the rest of 08. Wish me luck!

GR

I Ran, I Ran, I Ran, I Ran!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, it was only ninety minutes, and on completely flat terrain at a very slow pace, but it was 100% pain free!! It just felt amazing to be back on my feet. Once again, it's tough to put into words what running means to me...to all runner's...so I've put together this picture montage to fully sum up what it is that I love about the sport. If you don't get any of them, it's cause you're not a runner. It takes one to know one!!

100 Miles Was Not The Plan!

(The only pic I took all day! Kinda lame, but as you can see the clouds had just cleared, and Bryan Tasaka is one sexy bitch!)

My alarm went off at 6am and I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only was it not raining, but that it did not appear to have rained significantly overnight either. I was a perfect morning, with overcast skies, for a solid day of road riding!

The I.M.S. that I had almost two weeks ago ended up setting me back in my recovery process. This is not common at all, and in the end I went from running pain free for an hour, the day before the treatment, to a twenty minute pain filled run three days afterwards. It's gonna have to be all biking for me for the next little while until I can fully recover. No skate skiing, no ski touring, no hiking, just riding and some gym time.

I put in a solid gym session before work on Friday, then headed to N.V. early for a G.F. breaky and full day of work. The workout routine is front loaded with quad exercises and within the first 25 minutes you end up performing five different, high intensity, quad busting variations. An hour later I basically limped to my car and headed off to work for the day.

Within the first five minutes of my ride this morning I could feel my quads screaming at me! I was wondering if it was a good idea to stick to my initial plan of a big 100k day on the bike. I was going to bike to North Van and then head up Cypress Mtn to check out the final Yeti of the season, The National Championships, which of course I can not compete in due to my ongoing issues with my calves.

My legs eventually started to loosen up and the climbs leading out of Squamish and towards North Van disappeared quickly. The day was looking like it would be perfect with numerous blue patches breaking through, then I hit Lion's Bay. It always rains in Lion's Bay...always!! I got pummeled with rain and although it kinda sucked, I was dressed appropriately and didn't find that I was getting too cold or really hating it that much. I hit the turn off for Cypress in just over two hours.

I have only been up Cypress twice and nothing recently, so I was baffled as to how big the climb was, how long it went on for, or just how much it might hurt. I was completely in the fog for the entire ride up...literally, with as little as twenty feet of visability at times! They mark off each KM and elevation profile, and it seemed to go on forever. I thought MAYBE a 30-40min climb, but it ended up taking 55min to cover twelve km and gain almost 3,000 feet of elevation! After a three hour ride I was pretty toasted when I hit the parking area...which is not to be confused with toasty! I had brought a change of clothes and some warmer gear since I knew I'd be standing around for quite some time, and although it helped I ended up having to steal a puffy coat for thirty minutes to stop shivering.

After a two hour break, in which I used The Yeti post race food as my own personal aid station, I was off again. The sun had managed to crack through and had warmed things significantly. I threw on every single layer I had in preparation for the 3,000 foot descent, knowing it would be cold either way. Thankfully I was layered properly, with my ski gloves coming in very handy, but the cloud was lingering below and at one point I came to a complete stop as I could not even see ten feet in front of me! I thought it might have been fogged glasses, but I should know by now that my Rudy's don't fog up!! I was done up like a Christmas Tree with flashing lights up and down my backside, and rightfully so as I'm sure many drivers were not expecting to see cyclists out on the roads this early in the season.

After loosing about 1,000 feet of elevation the fog dissipated and the sky's grew continually brighter. Just twenty minutes later and I was back at the intersection with the highway. My original plan was to head straight back to Squamish, but there were a few errands I had been meaning to attend to in Lynn Valley (opposite direction), and it was looking to be another glorious afternoon, so I decided to go for it. My new roomie (just moved into his super sweet brand new home) said he'd be in North Van until about 3pm and that if I wasn't feeling like riding the Sea To Sky Highway home that I could give him a shout and hop in with him. I figured the timing to be perfect, took a left and continued further from home. On my way to Lynn Valley I managed to puncture a tire and had an unscheduled ten minute stop. Immediately after replacing the tube I decided to turn on my phone and check my messages. My buddy Adrian has been dealing with some injuries himself and decided against going to the city after all! His message basically said, "Hope yer feeling strong today, cause I can't make it down, sorry!"

I was pretty much in Lynn Valley already, so no sense in turning back now. There would be numerous friends from Squamish heading home following The Yeti after party, so I knew I could still flag down a ride if need be. Once in L.V. I managed to get turned around, a few times, and subsequently ended up climbing and descending the biggest hill I could find, three times! I hauled out the cell, called for help and eventually managed to wrap it all up by 3:15pm. I realized that if I were to bike the entire route now I'd be right on the cusp of darkness, and if I flatted again I'd be hitch hiking. I put my head down and went to work, although my body, now 4.5 hr's into the ride, was not really liking me too much!

As I knocked down the kms towards Horseshoe Bay the weather only seemed to improve. I did some math and realized that I'd be pushing 165km of riding if I were to bike the entire hwy home...it sounded like a damn good number to me so I decided I was gonna go for it, no matter how tired and sore I seemed to be. As I glimpsed at my water supply I realized that I would need to make one additional water stop along the way and was left hoping that The Lion's Bay Cafe, just off the hwy itself, would still be open.

For about thirty seconds, I felt like a pro rider. My friends from Squamish, Chris and Yun drove past, they slowed but did not say a word, Yun was stretching her arm out of the car window with a full water bottle and a smile upon her face. I laughed, she retracted, and then I yelled,

"SHIT, no, drop it, I NEED that!!"

She pitched it onto the shoulder and I was left laughing at the perfect timing of it all. A fresh bottle, some not so fresh legs, and only 50k to go. The views out over Howe Sound were incredible with the sun shining bright and clouds dotting the mtn peaks and islands throughout. I wanted to stop for a pic...for numerous pics, but my body was being very clear about it's lack of interest in pics at that point in time.
"Get me home ya bastard!!"

Shortly before 6pm, I rounded the turn to my new place, a super sweet three level, three bedroom, three bathroom, hardwood floored, detached home. I was actually closing my eyes for stretches at this point as I was truly shattered.

My dog Roxy was just chilling, leash free, on the front patio, and she bolted to my side as she noticed me approaching. It ended up being the energy boost I needed to drag my ass into the house, stuff my face with food, and take a two hour shower. I am currently delaying the stretching bit...

All in all I covered just over 100 miles of road, in seven hours of riding, spanning a 10.5hr time frame. It was the longest ride, both distance and time wise, that I've ever done outside of an expedition adventure race...by a long shot!

My Fuel On The Day:
-1/2 a bottle of Carbo-Pro 1200(600 calories)
-Carbo Pro powder mix (500)
-8 Thermolyte Tablets, for electrolytes (0)
-Four gels (400 cal)
-Two Cliff Shot Blocs (400)


At The Yeti Aid Station!
-1/2 nana (50)
-2x Pomegranate Blueberry Juice (300)

At Delany's Coffee Shop:
-2x Fruit Smoothie (~500)
-1 Planet Juice (~250)

Total: ~3000 Calories, or just enough to allow me to crawl through the door to the house and grab every piece of food I could find. I even started chewing on Roxy's leg until she resisted. If I had located the BBQ sauce it would've been all but over for the pooch!!

Congrats to all The Yeti runner's today, especially the new National Champ, Jason Loutitt

Bed time for this kid...after stretching of course!

GR

The Irony Of It All

I noticed this quote on a New Balance poster at NSA today while I was sitting there torturing myself, yet again, with 'The Stick'.

"The only thing harder than running, is not running"

Pretty much sums it all up right there. Funny thing is that this poster was in the store long before I even knew that North Shore Athletics existed. It is ironic that today just happened to be the first time I actually read the damn thing.

Oh yeah, and the only thing that tops not being able to run, is being told that you are not allowed to run a race. I freakin got shut out of the Knee Knacker lottery last night! It seems like everyone and their dog made it in and I'm stuck on the outside kicking the glass and whining like a twelve year old who had his allowance cut. It's like Grad Night without a date as I seem to know about 60% of the field of runner's. I have decided that the only sensible thing for me to do would be to pre run the course the night before and rip all the flagging down...er maybe I'll just re-route it all to end at the Mosquito Creek Pub and I'll be sitting there, drunk, slobbering, stinking of booze and naked as the day I was born, except for some official K.K. flagging tape dangling from my bits and pieces...I guess this is where I'm supposed to say good luck to all the runner's who made it in...for tonight though, all I can say is screw you ya bastards! (I hope you realize that I am joking when I say this, and venting my frustrations at the same time)

Seriously though, I kinda like that drunk at the pub idea...

GR

Incredible Weather

I don't want to use the word 'spring' but we've been getting damn lucky for the last few weeks. After all the precip we've suffered through in the last 18 months it sure would be nice to get an early spring this year!

I am currently moving between homes, which for the moment sucks, but as soon as I can get this over with and settle into my new place it'll be amazing! Twice the space and moving in with a good buddy, couldn't ask for more right now!

In the meantime, a friend just sent me this vid. It's long but as soon as it started I could not turn it off. If you venture into the backcountry then you HAVE to watch this.



GR

Disappointment...Facing Reality

I have to pull the plug on racing tomorrow, I can feel pain in my calves while I am simply walking and there's absolutely no way that I should consider doing a race right now. The hardest part is that I honestly do not think that the calf pain would slow me down, and believe I could still race strong and do quite well tomorrow...but at what cost?

I went for a hike and road ride with my friend Georgi yesterday and put a lot of thoughts into words, in regards to how I feel, what my season is looking like, and what really matters in terms of racing this year. It's funny how sometimes you just need to vocalize your thoughts to actually hear and listen to them.

Dirty Duo will still be here next year, but I doubt that I would be racing Miwok again next year. The Miwok 100k ultra run on May 3rd in San Fran is an absolute 'A' race for me this season, and the starter's field boasts some of the top runner's in North America and hence the World!! I need to step back and focus on this goal, and this goal alone. Miwok means too much to me to be pushing through unnecessary pain and suffering right now, and to possibly set myself back even further. I've still only run a total of about 15km in three weeks...not exactly what I'd call efficient training for a 100km ultra run!

I need a beer...over and out, and good luck to all D.D. racer's tomorrow!!

Too Much Too Soon, Or Too Little Too Late?

Tried running again today and felt calf pain like I haven't experienced in weeks. I only made it 35 minutes and then walked home, super bummed and disappointed, but I have a friend in town and we went to the Vancouver International Mountain Film Fest tonight, so still a good day! I want to climb Everest...just gotta find the money to do so!

We got up ski touring on Tuesday for a total of six hours, and today did a one hour skate ski in The Callahan Valley before I tested out my calves on the run.

I am left wondering if getting the IMS on Monday, just days before a race, was a mistake, or if I pushed too hard in the days following the treatment? All I know is that I feel like I've taken a step back and that's tough to deal with. Gonna sleep in tomorrow and hope that the extra zzz will help with the recovery. I went to town on the calves with 'The Stick' tonight and am still holding out hope that I can race the Dirty Duo on Saturday.

GR

I.M.S.

I. M.ust be S.tupid

I just paid someone sixty bucks to jab needles into my calves and actually induce cramping into my legs. This service is referred to as I.M.S. (Intramuscular Stimulation) and I was biting the pillow to avoid from actually hitting the nice woman who I had asked to do this to me. I limped out of the damn physio clinic and was told that I should notice an improvement in about 24hr.

Why does it take additional pain to relieve pain?

Like I said to my roomie last week, while I was using The Stick as a rolling pin on my legs, "One day I'm gonna wake up and none of this will make any sense to me any more. I'll be done with racing, done with suffering, and done with all the pain involved and that's that! But until then, I really do love this sh$t!!"

GR

IMS can loosely be described as a highly advanced form of acupuncture, but in reality is much more complex. IMS involves the use of acupuncture needles to specifically target injured muscles, which have contracted and become shortened from distress. These shortened muscles cause pain not only in the affected muscle itself, but also from the resulting stress on surrounding tendons and joints.

IMS treatment causes the muscle to ‘grasp’ the needle, which in turn forces the shortened muscle to release, providing pain relief.

Another 100k On The Bike, and I Attempt To Run...

On my return drive from The Callahan after Thursday's skate ski, I could focus on but one thought, the road is completely clear of snow and ice! It's about 105-110km of riding from Squamish to The Callahan and back, and I decided that Saturday would be the perfect day to give it a go. I managed to grab another local rider and good buddy Dwayne Kress for the ride and at 9am we were off. The local weather forecast said there was a chance of flurries for the afternoon, but after deducing that it was too warm for that to occur, and that our local weatherman is on crack, sorry Russ, we departed in minimal rains. The rain seized shortly thereafter and we ended up with a perfect overcast day of about eight degrees or so. The elevation difference between Squamish and The Callahan is about 3,000 feet, but with numerous ascents and descents thrown in I'm sure total climbing on the day would exceed 5,000 feet.

Riding with Dwayne is great because his slowest speed is equal to most people's fastest...actually let me rephrase that, riding with Dwayne sucks because his slowest speed is equal to most people's fastest! By the time we had crested our first significant climb out of Squamish it felt like someone had punched me right in the I.T. Bands (glute area of butt). I knew I was in for a pretty intense ride and simply tried not to 'blow up' out there. We reached the turnoff for The Callahan in 1h45m and I believe our climb to the parking area was about another 25-30min. I was having difficulty with my shifter and ended up changing gears by simply hauling on the cable itself. Too much road gunk over the previous few days and not enough T.L.C. on my part. When we pulled into the parking area for the Nordic Venue we were greeted with some rather intriguing looks. As if timed we walked right into our buddy Munny and after a twenty minute chat and refuel we were off again.
(I find this pic hilarious because we all stuck out our tongues for some reason and I didn't even realize it until I downloaded it!)

As we were cresting the final climb of our ride the sun shot through the clouds and the temp quickly jumped up to 10-12 degrees! We quickly stopped for a photo at The Tantalus Range pullout and then bombed down the descent into town. After one final climb up into 'The Highlands' area of Squamish we stopped the clock at exactly 4hr of riding.

I remember just last year hearing some competitive riders talk about how many 100k days of riding they were logging in the month of March. It seemed insane to me to ride that far, that early in the season. In fact I vividly remember in the summer of 2005 that I commuted to Whistler for work on my bike a few times. The distance is 65km with about 4,000 feet of climbing and would take almost exactly 2hr. That 2hr ride used to absolutely destroy me! To even think about doing a 4hr ride was out of the question, my body could not handle it. So to sit here in Feb 08 having logged 2x 100k days in the last eight days alone, is to really put in perspective for me how far I have come in terms of training. Now if only I could run I might actually feel fit again...

I refueled again at home and stared out at what was now a flawless afternoon where the temp was up around 13 degrees. I had already rode 105km and was done with biking for the day, there was no way in hell I was going into a gym, and I could not run...or could I?

I figured it was time. I am potentially racing the Dirty Duo Duathlon on March 1st, a race consisting of a 25k trail run and a 30k mtn bike. I want to win it, period. Justin Mark has a three year win streak going, and Wendy Simms is always right on his heels. I managed to squeak out my first ever win in the 50k ultra run last year and there's no way in hell that I can pull of a 50 while still recovering from my injuries, so the Duo it is.

I asked Roxy if she wanted to go for a run, she had not done much of anything all day and after but ten seconds of excitement she simply rolled over and tried to go back to sleep! I asked a second time and again the same response. She had not had a big week, at least not in terms of what she normally covers, and I was wondering what was up? She answered my query immediately after I grabbed my running shoes,

"OH...YOU MEAN AN ACTUAL RUN, WITH YOU ON YOUR FEET! I thought you meant yet another sprint session of me chasing your bike for ninety minutes. A run, following you, that's easy, I'm totally down with that!"

I guess all the biking was taking it's toll on her! She was rearing to go and we were off. I told myself to not exceed thirty minutes. This was just a quick test to hopefully start getting back on my feet again.

Here were my thoughts as they happened:

-Oh God I miss this! Man I love running!
-Oh bit of foot pain, not too bad, seems to be gone.
-Huh, things are jiggling a bit more then I remember from a few weeks ago, that ain't good.
-This is nice, I'm loving this. I want to run for 3hr.

After thirty minutes I was feeling great and told myself that an hour should be alright. I'd need to be able to run at least an hour now to even contemplate racing 25k on my feet in a week! The afternoon was simply amazing, I brought my camera along and without any pressure of a pace, distance, or time, I stopped a few times to take it all in, snap some pics, and realize how much running really means to me. I would be lost without running, it's my first love in the endurance world. In fact when I first got into biking I wondered if I'd ever really 'love' biking at all! I was on the verge of selling my bike and focusing 100% on running at the end of the 2005 season. I had a string of bad races and realized that I either had to take the biking as seriously as the running, or simply give up on pursuing adventure racing competitively. Then came the Primal Quest phone call in mid September and the rest in history. Biking falls only minimally behind running as my absolute favorite thing in the world to do. It took some time to get there, but I could no longer imagine being a one sport guy.

After 1hr15min of an easy paced run, and absolutely no calf pain, I very reluctantly headed home. No need pushing things now, the day was already a success and to push now could do nothing but potentially set me back again, and besides Hockey Night In Canada, the couch and some beers had my name all over them!

Sunday, man are we totally getting spoiled with this weather, another perfect day, it's unbelievable! There must be some catastrophic weather system building out over the Pacific because the last ten days have been better than most of last summer. The forecast for tomorrow is 15 degrees, I might wear shorts to work! Anyways, I grabbed the bike and a reluctant dog and headed out for an easy paced 2.5hr ride. It was a mix of incredible riding on completely clear trails, and reviewing my knowledge of four letter words while hiking my bike through heavily snow covered routes. At least I now know where to and not to go for the next few weeks.
I managed to drag my ass to the gym, as the sun was setting, and put in a solid workout that will leave no doubt in my legs that tomorrow is indeed a rest day!

I have a friend visiting from Banff all week, should be fun. She asked me to repeat myself when I gave her the list of gear to bring along,
-Downhill skis
-Touring gear
-Trail runners
-Road bike
-Sun block
-Bathing suit...I threw that one in there for the hell of it! Who knows, my former racing partner and best bud Mark Fearman (now living in OZ) and I jumped into Alice Lake after a trail run in March of 05. We regretted it for about six hours, but we did it!

In all seriousness though, just one more reason why I love Squamish is that during my ride today I witnessed people partaking in the following sports,
-Running
-Biking
-Rock Climbing
-Golfing
-Returning from skiing
-Kayaking and
-Kite Boarding (look it up if you are not familiar, it involves water and wind!)
That's just what I witnessed, and I know there were snowshoers and x-country skiers out there as well today!

This place is like no other. Squamish Rocks!

GR

The Week In Review

After almost a full week without a proper blog posting, I feel like I should write three or four right now...where to begin?

Quick cap on the week: We have had over a full week of simply incredible spring like weather.

Saturday: It was the party of the year in Squamish, the 'James Bondage Casino Night'. I attended this party in 07 and after seeing people in as little as a leaf, I realized that truly anything goes! My roomie, her boyfriend and our neighbours did some pre drinking and by the time we grabbed a taxi, ten beers in, I was almost comfortable with the fact that I was hitting the bar in a pair of cowboy boots, a pair of boxers, a boa, a firefighters hat and some aviator shades. This is the only picture that will be posted on here!

Sunday: I was pretty hung over and still unable to run (as if I really would have attempted it on this day anyways). Thankfully my good buddy Chad Fox called at exactly the right moment, as I was staring out at a perfect day and trying to convince myself that it was worth getting out of my p.j.'s for. We grabbed our dogs, headed out for a 2hr hike and felt like we should have been wearing sun block! It was so nice that I immediately grabbed my mtn bike and put in 1hr15m of riding. I hit the couch and passed out immediately afterwards!

Monday: I was working in North Vancouver and still trying to adjust to commuting over an hour each way.

Tuesday: It was our normal weekly 6am ski tour. Three of us headed out, Ron Enns, Heather Lamson and myself...oh yeah and maybe two dogs.

The sun crested the ridge line in unison with us and we had a wonderfully long run down some surprisingly nice powder, considering it had not snowed in days. As always, the dogs were more than done after three hours of jumping through the snow!

A few hours later, a friend from Australia, Amanda Austin, who I had not seen since I was travelling Australia and New Zealand in 1999-2000, stopped by. She spent a night in Whistler and then hopped off the bus in Squamish on her return trip to Vancouver. From here she is off to Central and South America for four months! Our original plan was to meet in Squamish and for me to drive her to Van where we would grab lunch together...but as mentioned we were in the middle of a high pressure system that was spoiling us with day after day of nothing but sunshine. I convinced her to go for a hike up 'The Chief' instead. I told her it was a flat(ish) hike, which is how I tend to describe most hikes in the mountains to my friends.

She's only seen snow a few times in her life and the hike up The Chief gains almost a thousand feet of elevation in about 3-4 kilometers. The final few hundred meters was snow covered and she cursed me a few times, but we made the top in a very respectable time and were rewarded with panoramic views. I told her that in two days time, when she would be in L.A. and I knew her legs would be at their peak in terms of pain, that she had to pull out her camera and look at the pics before e-mailing me any hate mail! We enjoyed a great dinner and some beers before she was off again. I miss the life of a traveller sometimes. It's pretty amazing the people you meet out there and the fact that you know that six, seven, ten years down the road you can still catch up with them and thoroughly enjoy their company. (In the pic she's not asking "Is this it?", she's not a fan of the camera and was asking me why I was taking another picture, lol!)

I feel like I should also through in here that we forged our bond as friends while working at the same restaurant in Port Douglas, and then solidified that bond for life after I put out her 'tenter's village' fire at 3am one night. I awoke to sounds of panic and flashes of light across my tent. When I peered out there were four or five people running around in circles and trying to find something to control the fire with. The flames were a good six feet high! I ripped open my tent, ran into the public laundry room, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and sprinted to their site. The fire was out within seconds and I think she managed to salvage a few pairs of socks out of it!

Wednesday: Was lame. It was another beautiful day but I spent the entire afternoon taking care of errands. All of those little things that you can push aside for only so long all caught up with me at the exact same time. It was like a day of work without getting paid, and I actually found myself to be quite stressed. I went for a walk and it took me some time to figure it all out. There were numerous factors, loss of recently mentioned job being one, but it all started and ended with me not being able to run. Stress seems to snowball so quickly. One thing can get to you and then you start picking up on stuff that would normally not affect you at all. You basically become a big piece of Velcro that keeps sucking up on all of the negative things around you, no matter how small.

I was able to break it all down and see that the starting point for my stress lay completely with my inability to currently run. I am sitting on the verge of another big year, with a mainly running slant to it verses the adventure racing focus of 07, and I had not run a single km in over two weeks. I have been diligent with my self massage and recovery, but decided it was time to seek professional help. I called to book in for a physio appointment and was told that the earliest they could see me was March 29th...March 29th!!! Over a full month, and three potentially lost races away! I know there are plenty of physios in Squamish, but I felt dejected and went into a tail spin of thoughts about how my big season was on the verge of collapse due to an injury that I should have dealt with in December. It sucked. I felt like I was the most unfit person in the entire world and that even if I could somehow recover in time to race I'd still be too far gone to seriously compete at anything this year.

Thursday: I think I had something to prove to myself on Thursday, namely that I was still an athlete. I borrowed some skate ski gear from a friend and headed up to The Callahan Valley again. I had not skate skied since my friend Munny tried to show me a thing or two on Feb 8th. I figured he'd shared enough of the basics with me to at least allow me to get out there and push myself. I hit up the Dog Loop first. I've been up there twice with Roxy on my classic gear and had knocked down a few sub 20min laps. My first lap on this day was around 16min and by my fourth lap I had managed as quick as a 12.5 min 3.5km loop. Roxy was starting to cheat and short the course so I knew it was time to head off on my own. She slept in the car and I hit up the main Olympic trails for another 1h15min. I tackled the biggest climbs I could find and watched my heart rate (on my heart rate monitor) climb higher then it had in over four months.

After a solid 2hr and approx 30km of skiing, I had accomplished what I had set out to do. I felt fit, I felt strong, I felt fast. I knew that I just had to get over my calf injury and I would be fine for racing this year. I have certainly missed out on quite a few long runs, as this has been bothering me for pretty much all of 08, but my fitness is better than ever. I headed home and went to work on stretching and 'rolling' out my legs. My 2hr skate ski was about as close to a 25km Trail Running Race Pace as it could get. I felt great! It's amazing the psychology behind racing and I've seen this before with friends. One day they are in the dumps and a few days later they are on top of the world. I guess it's all a part of the game when you are trying to push your body to its limits and constantly competing against people who are trying to do the exact same. I still could not run, but I was okay with that...for the time being at least!

Friday: After two nightmarish commutes to North Van for work I realized that I had to change something about this routine. I decided first and foremost that to get some training in before the drive would start my day off on a high note, so I called up my friend Jen Segger and asked if she'd be interested in a 6am road ride. I think Jen gets up at 3am for the hell of it and she had no issue with a 6am start to the day. We covered about 25-30km and after a 1hr15min ride I was feeling ready to tackle the day.

Two other things I decided to change were,
1) I wasn't going to speed...well not too much at least. I know that road like the back of my hand and am always trying to make time on it. After two commutes in traffic I could see how absolutely pointless this was. I was getting nowhere with it, and creating stress for myself in the process as I was in that pack of aggressive drivers who all seem to be competing against each other. I put on some chilled out music, slowed down a bit, and I must admit it was indeed a more enjoyable drive!
2) I discovered a Gluten Free bakery just across the street from North Shore Athletics on Lonsdale!!! The Mountain Top Cafe and Bakery. There are only a few of these in all of North Van/Vancouver and as I walked through the doors it was like I was dreaming...five flavors of bread, muffins, pastries, brownies, sandwiches, pizza, PIZZA, a breakfast and lunch menu, and all at very respectable prices!! (For anyone not aware I am indeed allergic to wheat) I departed Squamish early and went for breakfast at the bakery. For just five bucks I had a huge bowl of G.F. granola and two slices of sourdough bread. I hadn't had sourdough in over 1.5 years!
By the time I walked through the doors of NSA at 9:30am I could see that I was gonna have a great day! I had also gotten over the shock of my first attempted physio apointment in Squamish and after checking around I thankfully managed to get myself scheduled into another clinic for Monday!

Immediately following work I headed to a job interview. I'm not saying where until I know what's gonna happen with it. What I will say is that I pretty much had the best interview of my entire life. How is this for surreal and similtaniously incredible. Out of the dozen or so staff who were conducting interviews I ended up with a very nice lady by the name of Sherry. Sherry looked over my resume and said,

"Oh, I see you're a P.A.D.I. certified Dive Master. I've been diving for years and absolutely love it!"

I responded with, "Yeah, I completed my dive courses in Honduras in 2003 and really love it as well!"

Sherry went kinda silent for a second, then smiled and said, "What island were you on"

"Roatan"

Well, as it turns out, Sherry spent a few years going to Roatan and Utila to dive during our Canadian winters. It took us all of twenty seconds to realize that we had the EXACT same best friends on Roatan!! We spent ten minutes talking about everyone we knew and she actually filled me in on some people who I had wondered about since I departed the island in late 03. I eventually asked her if we should maybe conduct an interview, she laughed and launching into what I would describe as a somewhat typical customer service oriented business interview. It went amazingly well and I've got high hopes to say the least!

All that blogging and I didn't even get to today, which was by far the best training day of the entire week! I need to get some stretching in and call it a night. Apparently we are going to be blessed with one, maybe two more days of sunshine before the rains find us again, and I want to make sure that I am out there early to soak it all up before it's too late!

GR

How's This For A Blog Post

I wish I had more time to blog but I can't believe how busy I have been this week!
Skate skied in The Callahan for 2hr today and saw numbers on my heart rate monitor that I didn't know existed!

6am road ride tomorrow and then a commute to North Van for work. I figure the 90 min bike ride should ease my aggressiveness on the highway...at least I hope that's the case cause I am already dreading this drive.

Proper blog postings to follow again soon, promise.
GR

This Is Pretty Crazy

VANCOUVER - The founder of fashion company Lululemon says he will start an annual mile-long uphill race in Vancouver that he hopes will raise $1.5 million for B.C. Children's Hospital over the first three years.

Chip Wilson told a crowd of people today at Children's Hospital that the race will be run every June 20 on a steep hill on West 10th Ave. on the city's west side.
To attract top competitors, Wilson says the man or woman who finishes first will win $20,000. He also promises to match donations from participants up to $100,000.
Wilson says the large first-place prize will attract serious runners from around Canada and the United States.

He says the annual event will be called the "Chip's Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile" because when he dies he wants more than an alley named after him.
Wilson says the three-year plan is to increase the number of racers from 1,000 to 10,000 and the number of street-side supporters from 3,500 to 50,000.

Wish I could actually compete at this distance, 20ggggg would be pretty sweet!!

Just had another solid weekend, well this one involved copious amounts of alcohol at Squamish's greatest annual party, The James Bondage Casino Night. Still trying to figure out how it is that every time I have a seriously big night of drinking, that the weather the following day is absolutely picture perfect. It was tough but I dragged my ass outta the house today for a 2hr hike and 1.5hr bike ride...took a quick nap in between though! No pics of the night just yet, I did not take a camera and have to screen whatever I do come across first!

Work tomorrow...boooooo. (not one of my blogger buttons is working here, no spell check still and no picture uploads either...thumbs down to you today blogger!)

GR

Fighting Back, 100km At A Time

I could not take it anymore, on Monday I got up at 6am, only to cancel out on my friend Jen's offer of an A.M. road bike ride. On Tuesday I was up at 5am and cancelled out on our weekly morning ski tour. I hadn't move in two days and felt like I was in a self enforced prison while fighting this cold. When I got up this morning and was peering out at the nicest day of the entire year I ignored all the coughing, sniffling and aching that I'd been suffering from and just went for it!

The sun was shining bright and you could see steam rising from every angle as things were finally starting to thaw out. It felt like the first day of spring! I grabbed my mountain bike n Roxy and was off on a solid 1.5hr 25k ride. The trails were still holding quite a bit of snow and ice, but I'm happy to say that I 'cleaned' the entire route and loved every second of it. By the time I returned home Roxy was ready for a nap, but the day had only gotten nicer. It felt like it was up around 10 degrees or more in the sunshine so I grabbed my road bike and decided to see how I'd feel if I continued on riding.

One hour, became two hours, became two and a half hours, and before I knew it I had covered 75k of road and was sitting at 100k for the day. The sun was starting to crest the horizon and I was heading home to warm up in the shower. It had been an incredible day, the kind of day that makes you truly love life, no matter what your circumstances might be.

I don't feel too bad, all things considered, and think that the fresh air...along with the five litres of sweat, spit and snot that I ejected, actually helped me...at least I hope it did! I guess I'll know for sure when I get up in the morning. Hoping to hit up the road bike again and then some Nordic skiing at night.


On another note, you may be asking yourself why I seem to have this free time mid-week? Well, for anyone not local to Squamish you would obviously not have heard that North Shore Athletics Squamish officially closed it's doors on Monday. This was not an easy thing to take, kinda a dream job for me that is all of a sudden gone. Only one week ago I was looking at possibly buying into this store, then on Saturday I found out that it was over and done with, we were packing it up on Monday! Nine hours later and I hardly even recognized the space that I had spent the greater portion of my days inside during the last fourteen months. It truly is a shame and I know that at least a small portion of locals will be sad to see it go. I am currently weighing out my options for employment, but I know it'll all work out in the end, somehow. Who knows, maybe someone will even take a stab at a new running store in Squamish sooner rather than later. On a smaller scale it just might work, time will tell I guess. In the meantime, a moment of silence if you will. I will miss you dearly NSA Squamish, almost as much as Roxy will. If anyone needs a store mascot please let me know, she's going through withdrawl from all the social interaction already!



GR

Rudy Project Gear Review

I just recieved my new Rudy's for 08, the Ekynox and I was stoked to get outside and try these babies out! I headed up to The Callahan Valley for some skate ski lessons with my good buddy Munro. Munny was very patient with me and eventually I was able to get a full sweat going as my heart rate ascended with each grade that we climbed. Well, Munny climbed and I kinda walked real funny with skis on my feet!


I have always struggled with glasses fogging up on me as I tend to sweat a lot while racing. The Ekynox have these cool slits between the actual lens and frame, and this alone seemed to make a huge difference. I was bundled for the winter conditions yet sweat profusely as we made our rounds, and I was even wearing a ball cap which would normally keep more moisture around the lenses. I was very impressed with the fact that I fogged up but once and minimally at that. On a huge climb where I thought my lungs would explode and yet as soon as I started in on some forward momentum the glasses cleared themselves instantly. Which was nice since I was holding a gun shortly thereafter!! This was easily the most success I've ever had with sunglasses, and at just 1.2oz I hardly even noticed that I was wearing them!


Here's the personal Rudy Project description on the website, and I'll vouch for every word of it!

EKYNOX
The Ekynox™ was developed after years of field research and athlete surveys. Incorporating advanced, fog-free, maximum protection ergonomics and techno-geometric design, the new Ekynox™ is the ultimate sunglass for elite athletes. Using Rudy Project's core platform technologies like adjustable 360° temples, adjustable ergonose™, Quick Change™ interchangeable lenses, optional RX-ability, optional elastic strap, internal goggle conversion kit and double fog free lenses (SGV™), the Ekynox™ is sure to be the ultimate piece of equipment to enhance performance while offering cutting-edge style.

THANKS RUDY, YOU GUYS KICK ASS!!

GR

I Wanna Run!!

What's it been, all of three or four days since I've determined that I can't run...well it's been over a month that I've known I should have been dealing with this, but three days since I've actually decided to do something about it!

Anyways, today I was the 'Event Host' (kinda like Race Director but pretty low key and you get to actually participate in your own event), for the Club Fat Ass Squamish Scrambler. The Scrambler is an out and back snowshoe event that I have been hosting for four years now. The route goes up past Red Heather and out to the Elfin Lakes back country hut in Garibaldi Park. This ends up being a return distance of 22km, which is a big day for snowshoeing since it's so much more of a workout than running without two pounds on your feet tends to be!

I have detailed that I can't really run right now, and I definitely can not snowshoe run as this seems to put an even greater strain onto my calves and plantar faschia muscles. What I am able to continue doing pain free though is ski tour, nordic ski, spin, bike, and water run. I haven't 'sunk' to the depths of water running just yet! With ski touring I have a fully ridgid boot under my foot and have been putting my heel lifts higher than normal to shorten my foot drop. This seems to be working well and has allowed me to at least continue doing one of the things I love. I did kinda stand out today however, as I lead 17 snowshoer's while on my ski touring gear! Sorry guys, I really did want to run it with ya!


The worst part about it all is that I did 22km of ski touring today and didn't even get any proper powder turns for myself, and the snow was great! I thought it would seem like I was ducking out on the snowshoeing for my skis if that were the case, so I decided out of fairness that I would stick as close as possible to the actual packed down snowshoe route. It was a great day out though and I enjoyed getting some people on snowshoes for the very first time, and showing even more people our incredible terrain here in Squamish! It's too bad the weather didn't hold for us as it looked promising to begin with but we ascended into the clouds and ended up in a wintery wonderland with snow flying by the end of it. Most people ended up questioning if my previous scenery pics from up there were legit or not!


I've been regularly torturing myself with a stick, a piece of foam, and a yoga mat, and am happy to say that it all seems to be helping immensely. I believe I could run tomorrow, but don't want to take any chances just yet and will continue to steer clear of the impact of running for the remainder of the week. Thankfully it's finally been raining in town (3000 feet lower than the Elfin Lakes trail head) and it looks like I might be able to hop back on the mtn bike right away, maybe even tonight if I could stop delaying and shut my damn computer off...

Anyone else having issues with the spell check on their blog lately? Not my fault folks, I have A.D.D. and was barely able to sit still while in school, speel chec was desined for peeple likk mi two fehl smrt agan!!

GR

Dealing With Injuries

Yesterday morning I was out with my good buddy Aaron Heidt and we were shredding 20cm of fresh snow at 7:30am! We glanced back over our lines intermittently to see how perfect they were. The 'left - right - left' pattern was completely balanced and symetrical for hundreds of meters at a time, and it would have been absolutely perfect...if we were actually skiing and not out trying to get a trail run in! The low level snow just won't seem to subside this year. It's been one crazy winter here in Squamish and all along the B.C. Coast. We must be smashing the previous snowfall records for the coast because there's been white stuff on the ground for months, verses just a few weeks in the first few years I lived in Squamish.

While I was chasing my buddy Aaron up the Crumpit Woods hill I contiually watched my heart rate climb, 160, 163, 165, 168, 170. My max HR is only around the 180bpm range so I was putting in some serious effort to keep him in sight. I enjoyed the chase however, as I am all too familiar with running and training solo. What I did not enjoy was the continually growing pain in my calf muscles. I've been dealing with strained-stressed calf muscles for over six weeks now and was doing a very good job of ignoring it and hoping it would go away on its own.

By the time we topped out on our climb my body was starting to shut down. Aaron effortlessly dropped me before coming back around and saying,

"What's up? You seem to have hit a wall this morning?"

That's exactly what it felt like because I had finally been forced into accepting the fact that I am somewhat broken right now. With numerous big races just around the corner I am going to have to come off of my running until I can fully recover, and that really sucks!

It was not the happy, endorphin filled start to my day that I'd been searching for.



I spent the rest of the afternoon at work and utilizing a tool called 'The Stick'. This for all intents and purposes is a rolling pin for your muscles. Ten seconds with this device and I realized how serious my injuries were. My legs were so tight that I could hardly even touch them wihtout surges of pain. It's not like this just happened over night of course! I have been pretending this was not occuring since late December, and during the final 3km of last weekends 10k Yeti snowshoe race I was fully aware of the fact that I was doing more harm then good to my own body. I very nearly stopped, but was doing so well in the race that it was not even an option to pull up with but a few km to go.

Throughout my first four years of racing I have been able to get by on a simple five minute leg stretch once a day in the shower. It took me six full weeks to come to terms with the fact that this is no longer the case. With each season my goals and distances grow, and hence the strain on my body becomes greater. I won't be able to recover from this one with time and time alone. I have to take a very proactive stance and get on top of this immediately, for not only is this affecting my calf muscles, but the tension is pulling on my platar fascia foot muscles, and the P.F. is like a runner's kryptonite.

To top it all off, I woke up feeling pretty sick today! Maybe it's the best thing for me right now. As long as I stay on top of my streching and 'rolling pin' recovery then hopefully I can make the most of what otherwise seems like a pretty shitty week...in a beautiful town, in a wonderful country, on a gorgeous planet...

GR

Pre Work Ski Touring

A short video of Roxy and I ski touring before work.

The Wellness Show & The Yeti Snowshoe Race

Working backwards from tonight, I had what I would consider to be a very successful presentation at the Vancouver Health and Wellness Show this morning, topped off by a surprise visit by a good friend from Banff who I have not seen in six full years!!

Saturday was The Yeti Mt. Seymour race and I had by far my best snowshoe race to date. I could tell during my pre race warm up that I was feeling much fresher than I ever had at a Yeti race before. The main reason for this was that I was so busy with preparing this presentation, and numerous other things in the past week, that training took second fiddle for the first time in a very long while. When I hit the start line for this race I knew I was fully rested and ready to hammer!

I was able to run all of the hills in this one, which was what made the biggest difference in my result. For the first time I climbed out of the 5th place position, and all the way up to 4th, haha! I also managed to place 3rd in my age group, so at least I won a beer trophy for my efforts! It felt nice to hold off the same runner who beat me by a few minutes on Mt Wash just a few weeks prior, and in the end, the North Shore Athletics team pulled out the win...for real this time!

Andrew Clarke, Roger Shirt, Aaron Pitt, Jen Segger-Gigg, Dwayne Kress and Yun Ford all put in solid efforts to propel us onto the podium and into a free six pack of beer for our efforts!

After an almost snowstorm like start (well maybe not that bad), the sun managed to break through in perfect timing with the race finish and we were presented to yet another amazing Coastal B.C. day. I love this place!

GR