300km In 15 Days...

That's what I just realized I have run in the last few weeks. No wonder I was tired and lethargic throughout the weekend!

After a solid 100 mile week which included 'The Juan De Fuca' and 'Club Fat Ass Enduro' runs, I was hoping to sustain similar mileage on a follow up week for the first time...well ever really. The week of May 4th-10th would be just my third 100m week of the year, and 4th ever. It most certainly took the cake in terms of intensity of volume as well, and I guess I should not have been surprised when my body started to falter on me a few days back.

Just three days after my 70k CFA run I somehow found myself doing a tempo workout with friends up Mtn Hwy, the 2000 foot climb I have mentioned before. We...and by we I mean NOT ME, decided to scatter the starts so that the slower runners started first and the faster runners started last. It was an attempt to get each person to finish in around the same time, and to force everyone into a bit of a racing mentality. I managed to negotiate myself out of the last starting time, but only by 1m. Off the get go I could not believe how terrible my legs were feeling, and I was shortly passed by R.M. who had started behind me. Ryne quickly opened up about a 250 meter gap on me before my racing instincts kicked in and I shut out the pain and simply dropped my head and suffered it out. In the end I caught up to Ryne, passed one runner who started ahead of me and topped out the 6.7k 2,000 foot climb in a time of 36m40s. On the turnaround however my legs were not up for the pounding of the descent and I finished dead last out of the seven people who had showed up on the night. Either way, I was well impressed with the results from everyone, as all but me ran a p.r. and to our knowledge the male and female records for this run were broken at 58m30s and 1h03m respectively!

By the time Friday evening rolled around I was finding myself in a physical deficit the likes of which I had never faced before. My entire body was completely exhausted and after an early morning 30k run I struggled just to make it through the work day. I actually found myself in bed at 8:45pm, on a Friday night! I don't think I've EVER done that in my entire life...well maybe, maybe back when I was 13, but only cause I was grounded and not allowed out!

When I climbed out of bed the following morning at 6.30am I made the mistake of believing that a somewhat rested body meant I should go for another run. Just 10km later and I regretted every step of it. Again off to work, and yet again I was in bed at 8:30pm...I knew for a fact that I could have fought through the exhaustion and 'stayed up late' to work on some things, but in the end it made ZERO sense to do this. Roxy kinda looked at me as if to say,

"Really? Really Dad, you're serious about this...again! Can't I stay up late tonight please..."

I started the mental toil of pondering how serious this fatigue really was. Had I over trained myself in the last few months? Was I sick? Would I have to shut it down for an extended period of time? Would I get my last few weeks of mileage in before my taper for Western States? Was this a short term or long term thing I was dealing with? What if I had worms or something? Swine Flu? Sars? Typhoid Fever again? Low Iron? Thyroid problems? And on, and on, and on, until I finally drifted into an unconscious state.

I was supposed to be meeting friend/teammate Lisa Polizzi in Squamish the following morning for a long run, and I very nearly pulled the plug on it altogether. In the end I figured I'd head on up, start off the run, and simply call it short if my body were demanding so. We met in the parking area for 'The Chief' at 8am. 'The Chief' is an infamous climbing wall in Canada and there is a great, and obviously steep trail up the backside of the face. It gains just under 2000 feet in about 2.5km! When I lived up in Squampton I used to hit up this run about once a week, and I once managed a full descent from 'First Peak' to the parking area, in under 17m!
(You sure you got this Dad? Lemme give you a hand!)

I felt decent on our running of The Chief and decided I'd continue on and see how I fared. From here we drove just into town, parked at the local Golf Course, and then initiated an even larger climb, albeit much lengthier as well. We topped out this additional 2500 feet in just over an hour. By the time we turned around to bomb down some singletrack, my entire body was feeling FANTASTIC! Maybe it was the beautiful sunshine. Maybe it was the trip down memory lane as I lived in SQ for three years and had not run there in well over a year. Maybe it was simply the fact that I had allowed my body the rest it needed throughout the weekend. Whatever it was, it propelled me back down that mountain with perma-grin smeared all over my face!

We linked up a few more climbs to snag another 8,000 foot day. Lisa had to jet a bit early, and I added on a few km around the Golf Course to close out a 45km, 5hr run. It was truly one of the highlight runs of the year for me so far. This was partly due to the relief in knowing that I was in fact still healthy and able to train hard. On top of that though I ran into numerous friends out on the trails, the sun was shining bright, I had a great running partner, and I ran past my old home, and the SPCA shelter where I rescued Roxy just over three years prior. All in all, it was a perfect day that I finished off with a dip in the river, laying in the sun, and visiting a few more acquaintances.
(Some of the CRAZY bike stunts in SQ. Look all the way up!)

I actually felt guilty on the drive home for not spending more time in my old stomping grounds. It is an incredible running destination to say the least!

So in the end I logged a weeks total of 115km of running, with 16,000 feet of climbing, and 25km of biking. I am currently at the very end of two FULL days of rest and looking forward to an early morning run/ride tomorrow...The Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race, in Squamish no less, is happening this weekend! I may not be able to navigate myself to a win without Todd, but I know I can nav my way to the bar without him, and that's my only real goal heading into the race this weekend. Well, that and to not finish dead last...did that once, do not need to do it again!

(Lisa with a face full of mud after catching her foot on a root!)

GR
P.S. Oh yeah, I had to change my Twitter account name to gary_robbins, in case you are interested in that stuff. I'm gonna have my crew down at Western doing live updates throughout the race!!

Sometime It Just Feels Like You're Going In Circles

And other times...you actually are...

Last week ended with a bang for me as I decided to try and attack a local 'Fat Ass' event called 'The North Shore Enduro'. The premise is that you run a 7.8km loop as many times as you can in under six hours. The route consisted of a fairly flat entry of a few km. This lead you into a short but steep switchbacked climb. From the top you are filtered into a technical yet subtle descent. Eventually you find yourself hitting a few steep switchbacks down to the flat route you came in on. From there you run back out to the start-finish area, and your drop bags. For those who know the area, it's the Lynn Loop from The Gazebo and back per loop. Each lap would involve around 800 feet of climbing and descent.

A record turnout saw 41 people toeing the line. Most, if not all but myself, were simply out to enjoy the day. With Western approaching like a freight train I took the opportunity to get a bit more intensity training under my belt. The course record was held by Randy Hunter, who used to run on the Canadian 100k team. He managed to lay down eight laps in a time of 5h39m. I was hoping to better this if my legs would hold up after running the JDF just five days prior.

I went out hard and ended up with a first lap time of 36m. I had no idea if I could sustain this pace, but I intended to do so for as long as my body would allow. After a ten second transition I was off and running my second loop. Again I managed to return in 36m, and after another quick transition I opened up a bit more on my third lap. I found myself back at the start-finish in 35m this time, and after changing my shirt and grabbing some fluids I was off once again. The fourth lap was the same as my first two at 36m, and I managed just one minute slower at 37m for my 5th lap.

I had logged almost 40km and 4000 feet of climbing in exactly 3hr. My initial goal in my head was to somehow try and knock down ten laps in the six hour time limit. I was half way there, and right on time...but fully aware of the fact that it was in serious doubt as to if I could continue the same pace for three additional hours.

I was again able to sustain a 37m lap for my sixth attempt. By lap number seven I was really starting to hurt, and my 'pacer' could not have arrived at a better time...Ryne Melcher has agree to come down to Western States and help pace me at the end of June! This is incredible news for me as Ryne has more ultra experience than any other person I've ever met! He also seems to know the course inside out and is taking a genuine interest in my training leading up to the race. Ryne has been a big contributor to my current fitness level and I can't thank him enough for that! His knee was still a bit bothersome from our Juan De Fuca run earlier in the week unfortunately and he decided to just run the last few laps with me.

I have never utilized a proper pacer before and I was amazed at what a difference it can make to have someone with fresh legs leading you along. I wanted nothing more than to stop and walk, as my body was now screaming at me to slow down, but Melcher was having none of it. He forced me to dig deep and we matched the previous lap time with another 37m. By lap eight I knew I had the record, and was also aware of the fact that there would be no ten laps in under six hours! My final two lap times were 39m and 41m giving me a grand total of:

70km, 7000 feet, 5h34m

1-36m
2-36m
3-35m
4-36m
5-37m
6-37m
7-37m
8-39m
9-41m



With an additional, and incredibly painful, 10km the following day I ended off last week with my third 100 mile training week of the year. With each passing week, as I log more and more miles, and manage to evade serious injury, my dreams for a top finish at Western States seem to be getting closer and closer to reality. Just 43 days left to put this theory to the test...
(The four on the right are all heading down to run Western in June)

Our friend Mr. Smokey decided to follow us to the CFA event to help cheer us on!!


Gear:
Montrail Mountain Masochist Shoes
Mountain Hardwear shorts and shirt
Carbo Pro 1200
Thermolytes
Recover immediately following the event!

GR

Juan De Fuca Video (which I am very happy with I might add:))

Melcher finally paid someone smarter than himself to download the pics n vid to a c.d. for me today. I got my hands on it at 9pm and should have been asleep hours ago. With my new laptop however, there is a GREAT video editing program and once I started I could not stop! Here's the final edit. This is my first attempt at a vid in a long, long, time but I am very happy with the end product:) I would like to get more of these put together to encapsulate future adventures and hopefully they will get better with each additional attempt.



Coincidentally enough, ultra-runner/athlete Matt Hart just put together a SWEET vid the really captures the spirit of ultra running. He is doing a presentation about the sport, with fellow Montrail athlete Sean Meissner at The Mountain Hardwear Store in Seattle on May 13th...umm, I guess that's today isn't it...damn I need sleep...

GR

How NOT To Run The 47k Juan De Fuca Marine Trail...

My Third Running Of The JDF

I had run the 47km Juan De Fuca Marine Trail twice before. Once in 2006 where the lead three of our pack of nine finished in about 7h15m. The second time I ran the trail was at the end of my 'West Coast Double' in 2007, in which most of the trail was done at night, and all of it was completed after having run the 75km 'West Coast Trail' plus an 8km stretch of road that connects these two trails. The total distance of that one was 130k and I somehow managed a 9h10m effort on the JDF that night. On more than one occasion during this attempt I found myself wondering exactly how I managed to pull that one off?

The understatement of the year is that the Juan De Fuca Marine Trail is tough. In my humble opinion it's about as difficult as a coastal B.C. 'running' trail can get. To help put it in perspective, the current speed record for the route is 6h15m. The trail never forces you higher than 660 feet above sea level, and only climbs over 500 feet once, yet the total elevation gain and loss for this trail...I love this...is over 8,000 feet!!! That's all you need to know right there. To see a side profile of the JDF is like looking at a saw blade. If ya ain't climbin yer descending, and that's the Juan De Fuca in a nutshell.

I have a fairly large 'to do' list for 2009 and I am looking to cross some of the larger things off that list early, before the summer evaporates. With just two days off, and having supported some friends for the Vancouver Marathon on Sunday morning, Ryne Melcher and I departed for Vancouver Island at 2.30pm on Sunday, catching the 4pm ferry to Victoria. We both knew what the trail record was, and although not our sole motive during this journey, we openly discussed our plan of attack...run hard, and when we start to falter and tire, run harder!

We arrived in Port Renfrew, where we were to camp for the night, at 8:30pm. As I was telling Melcher about my bear encounter just prior to the park gates in 2007 Ryne looked at me and said,

"Was it THAT bear?"
(Melcher gets photo credits for this gem of a shot!)

Sure enough, in almost the EXACT same place as two years previous, there was another black bear feeding on the side of the road! As with most bears in areas like this, they have become so accustomed to human interaction that they rarely even flinch at the sight of people...which is not the most comforting feeling by the way. Especially when you are setting up camp just 400 meters away!

We drank a few beers while dropping down our tent and called it a night by 10:30pm.

The initial plan was to awake at 5am and start at 6am, so as to leave us plenty of 'post trail time' to figure out a way back to my car...more on that later:) The rains began around 11pm and at 5am it was still coming down hard. We knew that due to low tides we were not pressed to make any mandatory beach crossing by a certain time, so we reset the alarm for 6am. Nothing had changed by six, and we both happily closed our eyes for another hour. At 7am it was still raining, but had started to subside. We decided to break camp and wait in the car if need be. Thankfully though the rain had ceased all together and we initiated our attempt at exactly 8:23am.

I was certain that the rains would have left the trail in rough shape. There is a ton of woodwork, boardwalks, and trimmed tree stumps to navigate on this trail, especially in the first 1/3. Of course we can't forget about the mud either, and within just meters we knew it would be a long, wet, day of running.

Sixteen Minutes...

That's exactly how long it took before one of us bailed hard on a slick boardwalk...ok, it was me that went down hard, but I was just taking one for the team! Before I could even react my legs were gone and unbeknownst to me I had decided to break my fall with my hip and my wrist. It is now Friday, four full days later, and my hip is yellow and my wrist still hurts! Ryne eventually peeled me off the ground and we agreed that we would 'run smart' and not care about making time on the nasty stuff...only problem was that it was all nasty!!

I believe the first 14km took us close to or just over 2hr...and we were working hard to make this happen! We decided to forget about the trail record and just stick to running strong, enjoying the views, as the weather had now somewhat cleared, and taking it all in. Ryne had never even been to Vancouver Island before!

We shot a ton of video, upwards of eight minutes, and went snap happy on the pics as well. The trail, for all the misery you encounter through mud, roots, rocks, climbs, and descents, is actually amazingly beautiful. I guess it had better be if you're gonna suffer that much to get through it!

Going into the run we were told that our main concern would probably be downed trees, as the trail was supposedly untouched from the fury of the West Coast storm season. We were very relieved to quickly learn that this would not play a factor in our run whatsoever. The trail, for all intents and purposes, was completely clear of any 'serious' obstacles.

Eventually the boardwalks are replaced with mud, beach crossings, and the occasional suspension bridge. The mud was ATROCIOUS, but we fully expected this. Neither of us lost a shoe, although both came close on numerous sections of trail. The beach crossings are each beautiful in their own right, and on one particular crossing we decided to take the 'short cut', which almost involved swimming...I WILL BE ABLE TO INSERT A VIDEO HERE, AND ELSEWHERE, WHEN MY PARTNER IN CRIME ACTUALLY LEARNS HOW TO DOWNLOAD PICS AND VID TO A C.D...



First 27km=4hr, Final 20km=2hr?

Ryne has been fighting through a torn meniscus since The Dirty Duo in March. I had been amazed at how well he has fared in the last few months. Unfortunately though, the JDF was really taking it outta him. We had originally discussed that if one of us was feeling stronger than the other, and if the trail record might be within range, then we would let that individual go.

We were 27km into the trail, and it had taken us just over 4hr to get that far! Ryne looked at me and asked how I was feeling.

"Pretty good."

"You think you could knock down the last 20k in under 2h15m?"

I thought about this for a second, not sure if I was wanting to leave Ryne on his own on a trail he had never been on before? He spoke up again,

"If you think you have a shot at it, get yer ass outta here!"

"You sure?"

"Yeah, but it'll take one hell of an effort to do so. If you don't knock down the next five km by 4h32m you're not going fast enough. How bout you go and if you're not on pace, or not feeling it, you chill and let me catch up to you again."

"Deal. 4h32m you say?"

"Yup."

And with that I was off. It was 4h02m30s when I sped into my solo mission. The terrain through this section is the toughest of the entire trail. The biggest climbs seem to go back to back...to back...and it truly feels relentless in what the terrain is able to throw at you. I was loving it!! I truly felt like I was flying up and over the ascents and that I was being ruthless on the descents. I was going for broke, and it felt amazing!

The trail is sign posted for the entire 47km and I hit the 32km post, with 15km to go, in exactly 4h30m flat...GAME ON!!

I chugged back some of my Carbo-Pro 1200, dropped a few Thermolytes, swallowed a gel, and put my Montrails to the test on some of the harshest singletrack around...figured the sponsors would like that subtle plug! Would you believe me if I told you that the trail was so dark under all the canopy that could not have done it without my Princeton Tec headlamps? Oh yeah, and that I was only fit enough to run this trail because of all my Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing experience...there, that should put me in the good books for the rest of this month:)

You Don't Look Too Happy With Me...

Having run the trail twice before, I knew it became somewhat more runnable over the last 8-10km. I hit the 37km trail marker in almost exactly five hours. Only ten km to go, and 1h15m to better the trail record. I thought it might just happen and was even motivating myself into a sub six hour mindset. It most certainly had the 'horse blinders' on, which is why I didn't quite notice the massive black bear I was running straight towards until the last second.

'Smokey' as we so very cleverly named him, was about twenty five feet in front of me now. To make matters worse he was standing right in the middle of the trail itself. Black bear protocol states that you should make as much noise as possible and try to make yourself look as big as you can. I threw my hands over my head and just started yelling in as deep a voice as I could muster. Smokey however, was completely unfazed by this and he was simply staring straight at me, which in case you happened to be wondering is not such a good feeling when you are standing alone in the middle of the forest! I reached for my emergency whistle and blew into it as hard as my ears would allow. Smokey in turn rubbed his own ears and seemed none too impressed with me. I again threw my arms over my head and yelled as loudly as I could. At this moment, my new friend, Mr. Very Large Black Bear, decided he had had enough of me and my stupid little antics. Smokey stood up on his hind legs, leaned into a tree, and started rubbing his nose against it. As soon as the smell of my own urine cleared I proceeded to slowly back down the trail the same way I had come. My initial hope was that I could sneak by the big furry guy and still grab my trail record. I would of course leave Ryne back behind me on his own, bum knee and all, to fend for himself against this trail guardian. I was POSITIVE nothing bad could come of this, but none the less, I retreated to the last safest point, a bridge, and awaited Mr. Melcher's company once again.

Melcher, Meet Mr. Black Bear

A mix of me feeling good, and Ryne feeling progressively worse meant that I was stretching on the bridge for almost 25min. Ryne admitted when he arrived that he was happy to have a trail partner once again. I told him that I tried to replace him with a black bear but the bear wouldn't run with me. We both grabbed javelin like sticks and proceeded with caution down the trail. The bear was nowhere to be seen, but with all the fresh mud around there was no mistaking that he was still somewhere in front of us.

After about 2km we were thinking we must have scooted past him somewhere down the line. Then we popped out onto the very aptly named 'Bear Beach'.


Another twenty minute sitting session ensued before we were ultimately able to hug the water line, rocks in hand at this point, around Mr. Smokey and back onto the trail now in front of our newly found friend. Unfortunately he's not on Facebook so I doubt we'll ever hear from him again.

At this point there was about 7-8km of running left and Ryne was really starting to hurt. We took it down a notch and once again just appreciated the fact that not only were we in one of the more beautiful sections of the world, but that we were fortunate and healthy enough to be able to even attempt something along these lines. We had only seen four people all day up to this point, but as we neared the end we came across numerous hikers, and even a school group.

"So which of you kids might be the slowest runner? Well you might want to tie someone Else's shoelaces together bud!"

We were spit out into the parking lot finish area at exactly 7h31m. We had run out of food and water, and our celebration consisted of one of those really lame attempts by two exhausted white guys at a high five. Which is to say that we basically slapped each other in the face.

The Juan De Fuca is one hell of a trail, and would probably be best enjoyed as a multi day hike, as it is of course intended to be.
(I enjoyed Eddie The Eagles company much more than Mr. Smokey)

I do still believe, that even in the conditions presented to us this past Monday, the trail record can and will come down to at least the 5h30's range. I'd love to get back over there and put my money where my mouth is, but unfortunately I have a big mouth and a small stack of cash. We shall see. I have re-added it to my seasonal 'to do' list in the hopes that I might get one more shot at it again this year.

There is one additional story to tell, which involves how we actually got back to our car and eventually home again. The story is a bit long and will be told in my next posting. It involves a few rock stars, primarily Kitt and Devon Stringer, both of MOMAR fame. Without them Melcher and I would still be out there cuddling with our friendly neighborhood black bear!

Club Fat Ass 6hr Enduro run in the a.m., which means I am off to bed.

GR

How's This For Motivation...

North Shore Athletics has recently started sponsoring a program which is designed to get street kids, with little to no direction, into running. The goal is self explanatory and from all accounts it most certainly seems to be helping. I met these kids a week back and my first impression was that they were a bunch of punks...kinda to be expected given their circumstances...however, we all know not to judge a book by its cover...

Thanks so much for all the great gear. The kids wore it proudly on the marathon.
Speaking of the run, it was a great success. All 5 boys ran it and finished between 4 and 4.5 hours.
Marcos finished even though he broke his arm on Friday night and wouldn't go see a Dr. for fear that he wouldn't be able to run. Tough kids.
here is a photo of the kids. They're champions!
left to right: Tony Xie (his 4th marathon); Frankie Joseph (14 and his 2nd); Lawrence Bolan (16 and his 2nd ); William Vu (14 and his 2nd); me; Marcos Da Silva (14 and his 2nd).
Thanks again for your tremendous support. You make these kids feel important.


I was out supporting some friends during the marathon on Sunday, and I vividly remember seeing 'Marcos' run past. I cheered him on, even though he did not recognize me. My lingering thought was that he had absolutely zero running form, and that he was making the run a hell of a lot harder than it had to be...of course I later learned that his arm was broken and that was why he was slumped to one side!

I know one thing for sure, the next time I find myself in a tough mental place in a race...I'll be dedicating some 'toughen up time' to thinking about these kids. Champions for sure, and motivational to say the least!!

GR

D.V. Race Vids For Sale, & I Is A Twitterer!

Yes I know proper and improper English BTW...

Diez Vista: Once again Brett Daly was out capturing all of the days action unfold and he has since put together a great DVD of the race. The video consists of a mix of footage pre and post race, along with numerous sections throughout the race. However most importantly is that Brett filmed each and EVERY competitor crossing the finish line (except for the last 5, as he had to leave before they finished), so you know you are almost definitely in it! I know we don't all look great when we cross that line, but personally I think it's kinda nice to have a memento like this after a big race!

Brett is most certainly only doing this to try and capture the spirit of the event, for even though he has since spent many an hour editing it all together, he is only looking to charge $5 per DVD, including shipping!! FIVE BUCKS, that's about what most people will pay for their next 1/2 caf, soy frappa, chocolate mocca, london fog, sugar steamed, dairy free, Starbucks concoction!!

You can drop Brett a line at: handheldpictures@hotmail.com
and I'm sure he'll get your copy out to you asap so that you can view it over, and over, and over again:)

On another note, I somehow got talked into the world of Twittering, you can now find my Twitter account at 'lifeontherun01'.
I must admit, for someone who really didn't think much of the whole Tweetin thing not so long ago, I am adamantly impressed that you can update your page through a simple text message. This past Monday Ryne Melcher and I headed out to run The Juan De Fuca trail on Vancouver Island, and I was able to update our progress whenever we had cell reception. At the very least, I know my parents will be interested in this sorta thing and that I'll pick up at least one 'follower'.

JDF hopefully coming tomorrow...

GR

Another 3,000 Feet

(Google Earth overlay)

(Roxy and I, with 'The Lion's' behind us. Still lots of snow up top!)

Great morning today, on only 5hr sleep, as it seems no matter how tired I am I can never quite get myself to hit the hay before midnight?

Lisa. P, as always, was right on time and we heading out to run to the top of Grouse Mountain and back. Our 6am start meant we were on top of the world staring down at Vancouver before 8am...quite the beginning to a day:)
(Looking down on West Van from the top of Grouse)
(Roxy got jealous!)

I was surprised at how my legs held up on the climb and even more impressed with how they handled the 1h10m descent. All in all another great day in one of the best places in Canada! As April fades into May it is hard to believe how nice the weather was these last four weeks. Growing up in Newfoundland I feel like summer should be coming to a close after seeing the beginnings of an actual suntan!
(I LOVE my GPS watch!)

Thankfully, the best still is yet to come...on so many levels!

GR

The Mountain Is Open

With my lead up to Western I fully intended to make May 'The Month of Quad Killing.'
What does that mean exactly? It means hills, lots and lots of hills. Hills for breakfast, hills for lunch, and hills for dinner. This is not to suggest that I don't already spend most of my time running hills, kinda hard not to do just this on 'The North Shore'. What this means is that my singular focus for the month of May is to get as much direct climbing as humanly possible. My goal for the month is to have my quads screaming at me on each and every run!

I decided to jump start the May starting date and after a 15k run before work this morning, my main training partner, Ryne Melcher, and I headed out to tackle our first Mountain Highway lap of the season.

Mtn Hwy is a 15k return run that climbs an average of 9% and over 2,000 feet in just 7.5km. It is a gravel road, which is actually perfect for mimicking much of the terrain I will face down in California at the end of June. 'The Hwy' holds snow late into the year, but towards the end of April they plow the route so that machinery can make its way to the base of the Grouse Mtn Ski Resort. 'The Hwy' officially opened last week.

Melcher and I headed out for our very typical 'easy run'...which somehow NEVER ends up being an easy run! We started slow and before I knew it Ryne was trying to make me puke. He very nearly succeeded and we topped out on the climb in 36m30s. Then it was my turn on the descent. Again we started slowly before upping the pace, and before we knew it we were dropping slightly over 3min kms, gravity assisted of course! We hit the water fountain at the base in 24m08s, for a total time of 1h00m38s. I only know of one person running a sub 1hr time on this route before, and it happened to be Melcher in Sept with a 59m and change during a Club Fat Ass event. Something tells me this 'record' might just fall in the very near future...either that, or one of us will be hunched over on the side of the trail loosing our lunch!

Lisa Polizzi is meeting me at 6am for another 30k day tomorrow...and she is NEVER late, so I'd better call it a night! Tentative plan is to run from my door to the top of Grouse Mtn and back...we'll see how the legs hold up. I'm just gonna throw it at em right from the get go and see how they handle it. Good luck quads, and I'm sorry...but not really!



P.S. Best of luck to all people heading down to the Miwok 100k this weekend in Cali. My advice for this run...keep yer head up around km 75 and try to avoid the scenic 105km route:)
Plenty of locals hitting up this race including Nicola Gildersleeve, shooting for a hopeful top three finish. Gilder's boyfriend Peter will also be running, and if I'm not mistaken it's his first attempt at the 100k distance. Surrey speedster Darin Bentley will be down the to represent, along with my first ever personal training client, Jurgen Watts. Let me just follow that up by saying that I AM NOT a personal trainer, but Jurgie didn't care about that and after asking for the third time I gladly put together a three month training program for him. He has since dropped ten pounds and is now running his first ever 100k race! I'm very excited for Jurgen. His goal is just to finish and I have no doubt that he will do this and more:) Best of luck to all, I'll be following along online!

GR

Weekend Quickcap, Mission Accomplished

(Departing North Vancouver on an absolutely perfect April morning!)

It's late, I'm tired, there are stories to tell and you're gonna have to figure them out via the pics I post cause I'm off to la la land here very shortly. The short version,
-Bike 100km to Port Alberni Sat afternoon
-Meet up with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins. My one cousin just graduated U.Vic and is off to teach in Nepal for four months!
-Eat, drink, be merry, drink, get drunk, eat, up late, eat, drink some more, pass out
-Sunday morning lay in sun counting down to dreaded departure back to North Van
-Back onto road bike, ride 100km home. 80k on Van Island, 20k on the mainland. Expecting there to be a 6pm ferry, there is not. 7pm is delayed, off ferry at 9pm, have to cycle home in the dark. Thankfully I never leave home without my Princeton Tec Eos Bike Light and Swerve Bike Light...a life saver on this night for sure! Arrive home 10pm

-Up 6am, Vanier Park for City T.V. Big Chop Paddle Race news spot
-9.30am-12.30, run 30k with teammate Lisa. P
-2pm-4pm Grab all you can eat sushi lunch with a friend in Vancouver.
-5pm-11pm Home, couch, hockey, bed...back to work this morning...booo work...ahh, I love it at NSA, just wish I could get paid to travel instead...hmmm, something to try to figure out for sure...

(Quick story worth telling, I used to work with 'Pana' at The Chateau Whistler in 2004. At the time he spoke of wanting to open a barber shop and leave the hotel. I talked about wanting to get into running and adventure racing...and leave the hotel. He currently owns two Barber Shops, one being 'The Village Barber' in Lynn Valley, on top of that he now has three houses in Canada, four in India, and is officially 'retired'. Although I am nowhere near retirement, the running and adventure racing has come a long ways for me. It was really cool to randomly run into Pana, having not seen him in four years, and to realize that we had both accomplished so many of the goals we had laid out for ourselves just five short years ago!)

(Don't ask cause I just don't know...)

(300-800 year old trees)

(Stopping off to appreciate the old growth forest)

(And the games begin...)

(I forgot to get a pic WITH Shane, but my friend is the FnB Manager at this resort in Parksville, so I stopped off and begged for some free caffeine to help with the ride home!)

(Proudly rocking the spandex on the ferry ride home!)

(Beautiful end to a great two day weekend on the island)

(Kayak on the water for our 'City T.V.' morning news spot for 'The Big Chop' paddle series)

(Me trying to look cool)

(This new device is INSANE! It's called a Gull Wing and attaches to a surf ski to give it lateral stability like nobodies business. This guy called it 'surf skiing for dummies'!)

(Towards the end of a 30km run with Montrail Teammate Lisa Polizzi...this of course being Roxy and not Lisa!)

(Typical beautiful Vancouver. Mountain, ocean, and some cherry blossoms)

(I caught up with my friend Amber for some all you can eat Sushi to officially cap off my three days away from work. All you can eat lunch for ten bucks...yup, ten freakin dollars and it's got all the good stuff including sashimi, nigiri, tempura, etc, etc, etc!)

An awesome three days off for sure! Training last week. Bike 250km. Run 50km (the 30k with Lisa goes on this week, which will hopefully be a big one)

That's it, I'm already asleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Fun Weekend Plans

(Stanley Park and The Seawall preceding Vancouver's skyline backdrop, from Lion's Gate Bridge)

I'm trying to squeeze in as much as I can over the next few days. I just got back on my feet post Diez on Thurs, having done a few shorter road rides earlier in the week, and I knocked down a pretty solid double run, pre and post work today. I'm off to bed here soon, once my laundry is done, and then up early to ride 100km to Vancouver Island's Port Alberni.

I have some amazing extended family on the island, consisting of first cousins, aunts, and uncles. I mentioned last August that I went over that way for a wedding and at the time I had not seen most of them in over a decade!! It was one of the absolute highlights of 2008 and this will be my first time catching up with them again since. One of my cousins just graduated U.Vic and is off to teach in Nepal for the summer, so his Mother has organized a surprise party for him...should be a blast!! Yes, this weekend will once again involve a hangover of some sort, and I can't believe that will now make four weekends in a row for me. This is by no means typical of my training regime, but hey, if it ain't broke...

There were many outstanding memories while I attended that wedding last August, but by far the best was when my Cousin Randy (who is off to Nepal), and I, were up dancing and singing with my Grand Mother to the song 'I Kissed A Girl'. (as a side not it was certainly not ten years since I had seen my Nanny:)

On Sunday I will retrace my ride back into North Van. First thing Monday morning 'City T.V.' will be doing a feature on 'The Big Chop' paddle racing series at Jericho Beach in Vancouver. This series is organized by MOMAR Owner/R.D. Bryan Tasaka and he has recruited me to be one of his 'next top models'. I'll then be meeting up with a few Montrail teammates and heading out for a long run along Vancouver's best beaches...all in all, I rarely get three days off in a row, and I am going to attempt to make the absolute most of these three...hopefully my legs will hold up!
(Mt. Baker from Lion's Gate Bridge)

Side note #2, my blog has most certainly been lacking a bit on the picture front in the last month, and the reason is that my camera went for a trampoline type bounce while I was in Germany...without the trampoline of course. It hasn't been the same since and most pics now have a slight blur to them. I have not made room in my budget to get a newbie just yet...gotta get on that! I did haul it out a few days ago and it still takes pics, so I've just gotta suck it up and start packing it along again!

GR

Diez Vista, Version 3.0

Outside of my annual 'Club Fat Ass New Year's Day Hangover Run', the Diez Vista now stands alone as the race I've participated in the most, this being my third edition. Version 1.0 in 2006 will forever be known as my worst ultra ever, and the closest I've ever come to DNFing. Version 2.0, in 2008, was a solid race in which I managed to finish 2nd, 1m03s behind Aaron Heidt, who just happened lower Phil Kochik's course record down to a 4h21m47s. For Version 3.0 there would be no Aaron Heidt, there would be no Brian Morrison, no Matt Hart, no Hal Koerner, no Darin Bentley, etc, etc. The race dates were pushed back two full weeks, which is great in terms of local weather, but I think this puts Diez into direct conflict with numerous races south of the border including The Mt Si 50 miler this past weekend and Capitol Peak 50 miler next weekend.

It's rare for me to be able to do a race annually like this, and as trail running is such a 'course specific' sport, I was taking this to be one of my very few direct fitness comparisons to my 2008 running. With that in mind, the goal was simple, I set out to try and break Aaron's course record.

A Beautiful Day On The Trails

The gun went off...not sure why I always say this cause there is no gun...race director Paul Slaymaker said go, and we were off! I have rarely, if ever, shot to the front of a pack at the beginning of a race, but after last months Dirty Duo experience I was carrying a new level of confidence in myself and I knocked down a 3m45s first km around the lake. I wasn't sure who would accompany me and was happy to see that two runners, Michael Moody, and Mark Bennett also running up front.

After about 2.5km Michael took over the lead and helped pace us up and over the first and largest climb of the race. I have been working hard on my hill running for about six weeks now and it was showing immediate dividends. I was easily running terrain that even last year I had hiked up and over. Once we reached the crux of the climb Michael asked if I wanted by and I graciously accepted his offer. From there it was game on. The descent off of the first ridge in this race is now officially my absolute FAVORITE section of any race that I have done to date. The singletrack evaporates below your feet in a tangled mess of moss, mud, rocks and roots. It's 'hang on for the ride' and hope for the best for much of it and at times I felt like I could have outrun a mountain biker on the way down. Gettin into a 'flow' over technical terrain like this is what epitomizes what trail running is to me. I found my flow and felt like I nailed each and every step...and every step matters in this section because with one wrong placement you are on your ass and praying that you have not seriously hurt yourself. I didn't remember this section being so long from my two previous experiences, but I was not complaining, I loved every second of it! In fact this was the first time, in my three attempts at this race, that the weather had actually cooperated for us...I finally know what it is called The Diez Vistas Trail!! I had trouble remembering I was in a race along the top ridgeline and numerous times found myself looking out over an incredible vista of mountains, ocean, and islands below, while simultaneously trying not to take a race ending face plant!


I Didn't Think You Were Allowed A Pacer?

Once you get spit out at the bottom of this trail you end up on a flat'ish hard packed gravel road while heading into the main aid station and your 'drop bag' area at 23k. I was just finding my groove and concentrating on my cadence when I caught up to a few casual runners. I called trail and the girl told her boyfriend to step aside. I passed without issue. About three hundred meters later I heard footsteps catching me. I thought I had dialed the technical descent enough to have gained myself a decent lead? I shoulder checked, and what I saw completely threw me for a loop. The guy I had just passed, had decided to drop his girlfriend and he was now chasing me down! I hit a small climb, took it down a notch, and watched him blaze on past me. I think I actually threw my arms up in the air and shook my head...what was this guy all about!? I was aggravated for a second before I thought to myself,

'I could use a pacer right now...game on buddy!'

And with that I was off and racing a race within a race. I caught up to the guy shortly thereafter and as I passed him he indeed upped his running pace! This continued for almost 3km leading into the midway aid station, and the pace only got quicker as he continually tried to pass me! The terrain is flat'ish, but with some undulation and the last 2km of this foolishness were knocked down in sub 4min fashion with a 3m45s thrown in there for good measure. I can't say the guy was a jerk because he eventually introduced himself as Bert while we were running, but having said that, he was fully aware of the fact that I was in the middle of a 50k race as he knew all about the Diez Vista. Eventually I think he heard his girlfriend screaming at him from about 3k prior and he turned back. I actually should have thanked him for helped to push me along though!

I hit the aid station in about 1h50m, and my legs were feeling it. I dropped one empty bottle and grabbed two full ones. I hardly broke stride and was off and circumnavigating the lake I had just sprinted half way around with Bert, in no time. The next section of the race for me was all about just holding it together. I was on the verge of cramping numerous times and my calves in particular seemed none too happy with me. I was devouring my 'thermolyte' tabs with my 'Carbo-Pro 1200' mix and thankfully this seemed to keep them from shutting down on me completely.

Walk The Line

The mid section of the race for me was like walking a tightrope. I was trying to pace myself to my limit, while not loosing my legs all together. I found myself at the base of the switchback climb, which leads to the out and back section in about 2hr40m. This is a three way intersection that each racer goes through twice. The guy in charge of setting up this area had his back to me and I startled him when I said to him,

"It's up here right?"

He jumped a bit, confirmed what I already knew, and helped cheer me on as I started up one of the final ascents of the day. Last year I hiked the entire thing, this year I managed to run half of the climb, but I knew what lay ahead, about 8k of downhill after this out and back, and I had to conserve my legs enough to handle it without major issue. I hit the turnaround in 3h10m and could finally see what was happening behind me. Michael, who had won the Dirty Duo 25k, was running his first ever ultra, and he was staying strong late in the race and still holding down second. It was about nine minutes before I passed him and we cheered each other on. Mark Bennett was still in third, and then in fourth and fifth were the two top women. Tracy Garneau is one of Canada's most experienced and decorated ultra runners, having won such prestigious events as 'The Canadian Death Race', and 'Trans Alps', not to mention pretty much every ultra in B.C. at some point in time! Tamsin Anstey is my partner for 'Trans Rockies' and she was running her FIRST EVER ultra race. I was in the process of doing a time check on Tracy to let Tamsin know, when I saw her, where she was in the field. As I was trying to focus on my wrist I looked up to see Tamsin coming straight for me,

"TAMSIN!! She's right in front of you, go get her!!"

"REALLY? I heard she had a seven minute lead at one point!"

Seeing the other runners is always a huge boost as people exchange pleasantries and this was all helping to push me along and forget about the pain I was suffering through. I intersected with the top of the switchback trail in exactly 3h30m and now knew that there was virtually nothing but a long and arduous downhill to the finish line ahead of me...the course record was well within my grasp.

Thank Goodness For Downhills!

I opened up, as I love to do, and my legs responded nicely. They flinched a few times, but overall I was very impressed with how my body was doing at fighting off the lactic acid overload I was throwing at it! Eventually I cleared the final turn of the switchbacks and I knew I would not see another person, outside of the final aid station, until the finish line. I eventually hit up this last aid station and devoured a few cups of coke, some watermelon, and grabbed an orange for the final climb of the entire race. This final ascent, had somehow almost doubled in length from last year! At least that was the difference between how I remembered it, and how it played out, seemed to be! It was TOR-TUR-OUS and I kept hitting up my watch for the split times I was facing. I was going SLOW, and no matter how hard I tried my head could not process any math at that point. All I knew was that I had to get ready to hammer out the last 3km of trail that lay ahead once I crested this final climb.

The final descent was actually a bit treacherous as it was somewhat slick from the rains just 24hr before. I had the course record dancing in my head though and it helped propel me through the final few sections of the race at a much faster pace then I was actually comfortable with! With under 1km to go you find yourself running along the opposite side of the lake that you rounded over 49km prior. There are numerous stairs on this section of the trail and as I was trying to 'double step' one of these sections my leg seized,

"Not now, not now, not now...pleaassseeeee, NOT NOW! Only a few minutes to go, just hold on dammit!"

That last thing you have to conquer in this 50km race is a staircase climb consisting of 50+ steps...I got through it exactly like I had each time before...

"F'in Slaymaker, F'in Slaymaker, F'in Slaymaker..."

Up and over, and hard to the line...Roxy sprinted out to pace me in...4h15m21s...NEW COURSE RECORD!!!!

Michael held on for an impressive ultra debut in second, and Mark Bennett claimed third. In the Women's race Tamsin had managed to pass and gap Tracy and she won the women's race, in a smokin fast 4h49m! Very few women have cracked 4h50m on this course and the more Tamsin and I get to know each other the higher our sights get set for Trans Rockies in late August!

Thanks, as always, to Paul and his wife for putting on a great event, and each and every tireless volunteer who ensure that this race goes off without a hitch annually. Oh yeah, funny side note, my first EVER pair of trail runners were the Montrail Diez Vistas! Who knew...who knew.

My Gear:
-Montrail Mountain Masochists, now two for two in these shoes!
-Mountain Hardware shirt and shorts
-Carbo-Pro 1200 x900 calories
-Thermolytes x14
-Shot Bloks, x1 individual block
-Aid Stations, coke x about 500ml, watermelon slices x4, orange slices x1

(Age Group winner and 'old guy speedster' Rob Lang to my right...I wonder what Rob will have to say about that?:), Second place Michael Moody to his right. For some reason the full pic of all winners did not come out, sorry Tamsin!)

Full results will eventually be posted here.

OH YEAH, and MASSIVE congrats to Montrail Canada teammate and training partner Ryne Melcher for WINNING the Mt Si 50 Miler this past weekend as well. Ryne tore his miniscus during the Dirty Duo and is supposed to be heading in for surgery...he has been told not to run on his knee...so he cut his weekly mileage back from 120 miles to just 100 miles...he should be fine!

GR

Montrail Sweeps Cdn Ultra Runners Of The Year For 2008

I just got this in my inbox first thing this morning:

Ellie, Gary,

On behalf of ACU executive, I am glad to announce you that you have been named the 2008 - ACU (Assoc Of Cdn Ultramarathoners) ultrarunners of the year. Your constant in your races has been, for both of you, a great factor in your nomination.
All Provincial representatives had to make proposals with the criteria established, and at the end, the ACU executives had to make the final choice...Your are our choices!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Michel Gouin
ACU president
www.acu100k.com

(This is how I felt when I opened this e-mail! Notice the old school Montrail Masai shoes in there:)

First off, huge congrats to Ellie for grabbing this award, although I am sure she won by a landslide! I honestly can not remember the last time she did not win a race?

For myself, I am truly flattered by this. I won't lie, when I decided to fully pursue ultrarunning in July of last year, I had set out a long term goal for myself to try to win the 2009 ACU ultrarunner of the year...to win it in 08 however, was way more than I thought possible in such a short period of time! This is a by-product of a longer term goal and as such definitely took me by surprise!

Thanks so much to The ACU for this honor. I was almost speechless when I found out...almost.

Diez Vista 50k in three days...just gotta stick to the taper plan and not let the excitement of winning this award allow me to get carried away on my evening runs right now:)

I should also throw in a quick thanks to all my sponsors, they truly are amazing:

-Montrail
-Mountain Hardware
-Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing
-Carbo Pro / 1200 / Thermolytes / Recover-Amino Power
-Princeton Tec Sport Lights

GR

21st Fastest Of 08?

I just randomly found my name on another blog and learned that apparently my 17h39m, 100 mile time at Stormy last August, was good enough to get me the 21st fastest North American 100 mile time of 2008...huh, I'll take it! Not too shabby for my one and only attempt at the distance I guess. The top 100 times can be found here.

Many other B.C. and Montrail athletes made the top 100 list in distances ranging from 50k on up. David Crerar has been kind enough to pull and paste the highlights onto his blog, which you can link to here.

Congrats to everyone!! It's really cool to see so many locals doing well on 'the big scene' down south, and collectively we only seem to be getting faster with each and every race. I think a part of that is knowing that the guy/gal who lines up next to you here in B.C. is able to compete against the best of the best south of the border...so why can't you and I do the same?
Who knows, it might only be a matter of time before we start claiming the top spots in the biggest races of them all...

GR

60k, The Hard Way

(There are numerous out and backs on this route, in case you are looking at it thinking it's short! I started from home and linked together 60k with under 10k on road, and over 7,000 feet of climbing:)

I generally don't like to make life too easy for myself, and most certainly have an issue saying 'no' to anything that sounds like it could in any way shape or form be considered fun by myself and at least any one other individual on this planet...which is to say, I often get caught trying to do too much.

As mentioned, last night was my good friends b.day get together, and there were ten of us, pretty much all from the running community, heading out to party it up. Long story short is that I had already hit 100k on the week and was going to make my 100 miles regardless of how the party went. For a short time a few days back I flirted with the idea of hitting 180k of running this week...but sleep won out for once!

Last night was a ton of fun and I consumed many a drink...somewhere into double digits, but not sure exactly how far I got? Anyways, I told myself that there would be absolutely ZERO excuses not to hit my mileage today. At 6am, after 2hr of sleep I awoke to cold sweats and wasn't so sure how I was going to pull this off? The answer lay in a bottle of ibuprofen, a few liters of water, a few more hours sleep, and then caffeine...lotsa caffeine!!

It goes without saying that it was a long day on the trails, but I was proud to knock down that 60k today and the sun actually broke through for the last thirty minutes of the run! I told myself there would be no excuses and I ignored the numerous, very rational I might add, ones that continually presented themselves to me. In the end I hit my running miles for the week and came up shy on the biking mileage at just 75km. However, the biking is a secondary, no stress to log time or miles, compliment to my training. Which is to say, if it rains, the bike stays inside!

It's time for some serious sleep. Diez Vista 50k is this Sat, so I even get to sleep in tomorrow, and I might just do the same on Tues as well!

GR

Trying To Do It All

Ahh Thursdays, the day I am not supposed to be on the internet...can't I just tell you that I wrote this yesterday and then 'time stamped it' to appear on here today? OK, it's over. It's been over since before it started. I can not go a full day a week without internet. My main goal was to simply ensure that I was not wasting too much time on here...I don't own a t.v., and although I surely spend too much time on Facebook catching up with people, I am actually quite happy with my internet limitations...or at least that's what I will continue to tell myself!

I got caught last night trying to do it all. I had an incredible week planned out for myself, of which I am now in the middle of. It consisted of trying to get 100 miles of running in. I also wanted to add in 100 miles of riding. To 'balance' out the week I was going to attend a concert on Wed night, 'Friendly Fires' were performing at Richards on Richards in Vancouver and my friend had taken care of tics. I had never been to a concert at 'Dicks on Dicks'...yeah, that's what it's known as, and I was excited for the evening.

To finish out the week I had also planned to throw in dinner tonight with a few friends, a birthday party out on the town on Sat night for fellow Western States attendee Wade Repta, and then a 60+km run on Sun. This of course would all have to fall outside of working a full time job.

I guess I forgot to 'schedule' in the sleeping side of things because last night I lay down to grab a quick nap before heading to the show and I ended up missing the entire thing! I actually set my alarm wrong and my thirty minute nap was set to be a 23h30m nap...uhh, yeah, I usually do a good job of listening to my body, thankfully this time my body subliminally took over and kept me down for the count. I still have a ton to conquer in the next 3.5 days, which is just one more reason that I should not be on here right now! At least I got my one night of proper sleep taken care of for the week!

GR

It's All In Your Head

I've often said to other runners, "We're not out here training our bodies to be stronger, we're training our minds to be stronger."

I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between, but all you have to do is to look at how long it took competitive runners to break the four minute mile. Roger Bannister was the first to accomplish this in 1954, and yet within just six weeks of this incredible achievement, a second runner not only broke the four minute barrier, but also lowered Bannister's World Record! Here is an interesting snippet of an article:

Bannister stuns world with 4-minute mile

By BRUCE LOWITT

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 17, 1999

For years, the 4-minute mile was considered not merely unreachable but, according to physiologists of the time, dangerous to the health of any athlete who attempted to reach it.

For Roger Bannister, it was vindication.

When he crossed the finish line with a time of 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds, he broke through a psychological barrier as well.

John Landy, considered one of the great milers of that era, never had gotten closer than within 1.5 seconds of the 4-minute barrier before. Within 46 days of Bannister's breakthrough, Landy surpassed the record with a 3:57.9 in Finland. Bannister and Landy raced later in the year in the "Mile of the Century" at Vancouver, a runoff to decide who was the faster miler. Bannister won in 3:58.8 to Landy's 3:59.6, the first time two men in one race had broken 4 minutes. By the end of 1957, 16 runners had logged sub-4-minute miles.

-This additional article found its way to me today. It's in regards to researchers finally learning exactly how caffeine can be 'performance enhancing'. I have highlighted the main text that I will take away from a write up like this. Personally I don't touch the dark stuff, kinda think it tastes disgusting to be honest!

Caffeine helps athletes to run longer or faster by releasing calcium, researchers in Hamilton have found.

Recreational runners and racers have known for years that downing a cup of java before heading out for a run can give them an extra jolt.

Most assumed that the performance-enhancing drug boosted their running the same way it helps people stay awake.

In Friday's online issue of the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, however, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of McMaster University Medical Centre found caffeine tricks an athlete's brain into delaying the perception of pain and fatigue.

More importantly, it also prompts muscles into releasing more of the calcium needed to contract and relax.

"The caffeine is allowing a little bit more calcium to be released into that muscle," said Tarnopolsky. "It would make that muscle contraction a little bit stronger, so you can actually either run at the same pace with less input, or run at a faster pace for the same input."

Research from the University of Guelph showed caffeine in high concentrations can actually have the opposite effect, which is one of the reasons it is no longer banned at the Olympics.

"Understanding that very small doses of caffeine enhance performance somewhat, larger doses tend to erode performance," said Dr. Andrew Pipe of Montreal, an adviser to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports.

-I know it says 'more importantly calcium' blah, blah, blah, but what science can't measure, what they can't put into numbers, what they can not graph, is how an individuals 'heart', how that single persons drive and ability to ignore pain can make them a better, faster, more accomplished runner than a more talented individual with greater athletic prowess who might be standing right next to them (yes I know that's one hell of a run on sentence, and I'm ok with that)...at least that's what I tell myself when I line up for my races.

I know I'm not the fastest guy in the field. I am certain during almost all of my races that there are many other runners who could beat me on shorter courses, who could outpace me on flatter courses, who could most certainly teach me a thing or two about 'proper running and technique'. But what I will never give away at any starting line is the single belief that I am as mentally tough or better than each and every person who is toeing that line with me. I know that this belief alone has allowed me to accomplish things that perhaps I should not have been able to, at least according to what a scientific test might tell me. In fact when I first started racing in 2004 my best friend and then adventure racing partner, Mark Fearman (currently residing in Australia) would test higher than me on absolutely everything that our then coach/trainer could throw at us...yet Mark did not beat me in a single event that year, or any year thereafter. Val, our coach, would tell us that it must have boiled down to mental toughness? Mark was no slouch, but I refused to believe for a second that I could not beat him, and then I proved it time and time again.

It's been interesting in the lead up to Western States...80 days from now, how much time I spend on my training runs dreaming about possible outcomes during that event. The best in the sport will be there. It will prove to be my single greatest athletic challenge as an individual to date. All I know for sure is this, I will toe that line as I have every other event in the last five years. I know I will not the be fittest (although I will have trained my butt off), I know I will not be the fastest, I most certainly know I will not be the most genetically gifted, but what I do know is that I won't give a single inch when it comes to seeing who is the toughest over the final 30 miles to that finish line. I dream about it everyday, and I can not wait for it to be here already...although maybe I will start forcing my way through a few cups of joe...just in case 'the calcium theory' is legit as well!

GR

Hiding From My Blog, The Euro Pic Tour

I feel like I've been hiding from here lately because I have the whole German week long travel/drinking experience to put into words...and I dread not doing it justice. I've been struggling to find any free time as of late, but my training is going great and the miles are continuing to add up. In fact I am currently on an 11 day running steak that will see me hitting 13 days through the weekend before finally taking a full day off on Monday. Top that off with the fact that I am somehow in the middle of a nine day work stretch and by next Friday April 10th I'll end up finishing a 17 day stretch where I will have run 16 times logging somewhere over 250km, and worked 14 of those days...huh, I didn't actually recognize all of this until right this instant...ok, I don't feel so bad for not updating on here now...I'm busy DAMMIT!

On that note, here are some of the highlight pics from the trip, and a brief overview:

Ten days out I managed to convince a local friend to join me for the excursion. As it turned out she had a best friend who moved to Germany one year ago and ended up marrying her German boyfriend. My friend Amber had promised she would travel over to see 'Stacy and Stefan', but wasn't sure how she was going to make it happen. In the end Amber talked very BIG about how she would book the flight if she could find the same deal...as she was very clearly not able to locate the same pricing...at which point I jumped onto the computer and found the EXACT flight for just $20 more. As Amber was delaying her decision I was already typing in her CC details!


-Tues into our Wed departure, sleep 4hr:
I worked all day Tues and had yet to pack a bag! It was midnight before I even made it to my friend Amber's place. 4.30am wake up to make the airport on time. Arrive in Munich 9am Thurs, catch a train South and meet up with Stacy and Stefan in Ubersee for early afternoon. Head immediately for some German beers, follow that up with dinner and end up out till 2.30am local time, or 5.30am Van time, which would put us up for over 24hr!




-Thurs into Fri, sleep 4.5hr:
Up 7.30am as my body just couldn't sleep...and quickly learn that due to the lack of preservatives in the beer, the hangovers are virtually null and void! Across the street to local bakery, where of course I can not enjoy the wonderful baked goods...but the owner makes me an all you can eat, on the house, ham and eggs breaky...and then cracks a beer for me! Beers for breakfast...it's what they do in Bavaria!

Tour the town, make contact with my friend Paul who is North of Munich. My initial plan to join him for a weekend party excursion in the North of Germany falls through due to a broken down car on his part. Random Facebook update that goes something like this:

"Gary is struggling with this German keyboard!"

A good friend who I have not seen in almost eight years, Brady Anderson, to me,

"Where are you right now?!!"

At this moment I realize that Brady 'used to' live in Germany...but the 'used to' is actually 'still does'...

"Ubersee, what's your number!!!"

A brief conversation ensued and quickly ended when I realized I had twenty minutes to make the train station if was going to meet up with him that evening. Amber decided to join the adventure and we were sprinting to catch a train 19 minutes after I hung up the phone. 3.5hr later and we were wandering around a train station looking for my long lost buddy Brady! The meet and greet filtered us straight into drinks as we of course needed to catch up over beers!

A full tour of the town ensued and we eventually hit up an all night Snitzel house at 5am. Back to Brady's for 6am and to finally call it 'a night'. Oh yeah, and there may have been some table dancing earlier in the evening...and the first EVER documented full extension onto the wall, while holding onto the pole...umm, like this,



Oh yeah, Brady just happens to work for Adidas, and he just happens to be in charge of their compression tech and development department, of which I had no idea...more free gear and even prototypes that haven't hit the market yet!! Brady's goal is to make compression so effective that it will eventually be banned from The Olympics! Having had lengthy conversations with him about this topic I can honestly say it is only a matter of time before he reaches this goal!

-Fri into Sat, sleep 5hr:
Up 11am and out for an all you can eat brunch. Brady lives in Nurnberg which is an area steeped in WWII history as it was a major staging ground for Hitler and his armies.


Brady rounds up some bikes and an friend and we do a 20k scenic tour.

While stopping off at beer gardens along the way of course!

Return to Brady's for 7pm, expecting a nap, but somehow we are sitting in a restaurant 35min later with pretty much the team of developers and department heads of Adidas in Germany!


I was told we'd be home by 11pm...so right on time, at 2.30am we make it back to Brady's place.

-Sat into Sun, sleep 3.5hr:
Up 6am to head North to Poland to visit another friend, Linda who I met many years ago in Costa Rica. She is Swedish and attending med school in Poland, obviously a long story, but figured it'd be cool to see a second country and to catch up with an old friend. I was struggling to find the proper train connections to get me there in good time...so Brady offered up his Audi to me for a few days!! I was very literally speechless...an Audi on The Autobahn!!!!

Depart Nurnberg at 7.30am after dropping off Amber at the train station heading back South to Ubersee. Hit THE AUTOBAHN!!

Brady to me: "Don't do anything stupid, it cruises nicely at 160k"

Me to Brady: "Me...stupid, of course not!"

About two hours later I achieved a childhood dream...

205 km/hr on The Autobahn!

Six hours after departing I arrive in Szczecin, Poland...and there was no official border crossing, just drive on in! I eventually find Linda in town and head out for lunch to catch up, thankfully and finally without beer! I actually managed to grab a nap a few hours later before heading out to dinner and getting my first proper nights rest of the entire trip!

-Sun into Mon, sleep 6.5hr:
As mentioned Linda is a student so while she was off getting an education I went about exploring the town on my one run of the week. I managed a 21k jaunt, but unfortunately I felt absolutely every step of it as my hip had actually gotten worse since DD with all of the sitting...and well, drinking and lack of sleep probably wasn't doing me any favors either! I had a great run however, and ran the circumference of the 3rd largest graveyard in all of Europe! It was just under 6km in distance and had everything from the near indescribable,

on down to a basic mound of dirt and a cross.

It was somewhat startling to stare out over an absolute sea of graves in every direction, but beautiful none the less.

From here I was able to link up onto some trails across town and to fully test out my Montrails on some foreign soil!

I came across a very random and apparently elaborate structure that had been bombed upwards of sixty plus years prior. I struggled to understand how a building that was hidden by itself in the forest could have even been considered a threat, and then so precisely destroyed.

There was little evidence of damage on the grounds surrounding the structure. Thanks to my Garmin 405 GPS google earth download, I was later able to determine that what I had found was previously a 47 meter tall tower overlooking the entire area! Kinda made more sense after I discovered this pic of its former glory.



-Mon into Tues, sleep 7hr:
Up early to walk Linda to school and then off to hit THE AUTOBAHN again! I actually did keep it under 200k/hr on the way home...I swear it Brady!

Back into Nurnberg for 4pm, catch up with Brady again before eventually boarding a train South to Regensberg to meet up with my original planned friend to visit, Paul.
(Paul and Amber grabbing some 'za')
Amber had trained it up from down South and at 10pm they met me in the train station with beers in hand...it was St. Paddy's Day!!

Pints upon pints ensued, especially since it was our last night of our six day German odyssey! We ended up crashing out at 3am, with the alarm finding us at 6am!

-Tues into Wed, sleep 3hr:
Alarm, train, bus, airplane...and yet the tour was not fully complete just yet...
My pacer for Western States is Luke Laga, who I paced to his first ever 100 miler last June at The Kettle Moraine 100. I met Luke and Emily back on Roatan in Honduras in 2003. They are now living back in Madison, Wisconsin and have an amazing kid named Spencer.


Luke and Em are teachers. Luke and Em live 3.5hr from Chicago. Amber and I were stopping over in Chicago for 4hr. Luke and Em called in sick for work, drove 3.5hr ONE WAY, picked us up at the airport, treated us to lunch and an hour in a nice local park, dropped us off back at the airport...and then turned around and drove home!!!! ROCK STARS to say the least!


All I know is that I most certainly would not drive almost seven hours to see me, so I'm always floored when friends make such incredible efforts. It's what confirms in me that we'll be friends for life and that I have the absolute right pacer for Western in June.

Then back on the airplane, 4.5hr back to Van of which I slept every single second. Into a taxi, onto a bus, home in my own bed at 3am...back to work for noon...and that my friends, is what I like to call, my German Odyssey Version 2009!! I get tired again just thinking about it, but energized to think of how much can be accomplished in just six short days. I've spent over two years travelling over the years, and this six days ranks right up there with the best of the best!! And with that, I need to be up and running again in six hours...the trails beckon me, and the sun will be there to greet me, of which I don't want to miss a second of it!

It's all about 'the no plan, plan'...60% of the time, it works every time!

GR...even The Blues Brothers made it to Poland!

Battling Injuries

I ended up skipping out on the Chuckanut 50k ultra ten days ago because my hip was still 'ultra' sore from my 50k run at Dirty Duo. Almost immediately after 'the duo' I was on a plane to Germany (stories still to follow), and what ensued was a week long expedition racing style mentality where sleep was at a minimum, beer was the substance of sustenance, and sitting on transport was the order of most days. I most certainly did very little to help my injured hip get any better, and during the one run I managed during my six day drinking fest, I could feel every single step. It hurt from start to finish, but I made it 21km before calling it a day. Somewhat surprisingly it felt minimally better the following morning, but I was about to be locked back into that sitting position until returning home a few days later...with only a few beer stops along the way to break it up.

I arrived home at 3am on Thursday morning, and headed into work for noon. My one day off was supposed to be for the running of Chuckanut on the Sat. I headed down with Aaron Heidt and due to some road closures ended up having to run a water bottle up to an aid station for him. It was all worth it when I saw him blazing through the second to last aid station with a 5 1/2 minute lead! Shortly thereafter I myself had to run down the long steep descent that the racers were following. By the time I reached the bottom I was back to limping around like I'd been shot. People would look at me and say, "When did you start limping?"

"I don't wanna talk about it!"

On Sunday morning, having run only twice in over two weeks, I realized I had to get back to business. I hit up a 16km run and a 25km bike ride...and I paid dearly for it. When I hit the sack on Sunday night I was at my absolute lowest point mentally all season. So far in 09 I've run somewhere around 1200km. I have NEVER even come close to logging miles like this before and at least once a month I truly thought my body was broken and that I'd miss significant time with injury. The only thing that I feel has kept me going is that I have done a very good job at listening to my body along the way and I have not pushed through these warning signs. There were more than one runner lined up for Chuckanut the day before who confided in me that they themselves should not have been there...but they just couldn't say no to the race!

Monday was a terrible day and absolutely everything seemed to hurt. It started with my left hip, but both shins and calves were also seized up. I took the day off of training and spent most of it on either a foam roller, a myofacial ball, using 'the stick', or in an ice bath. I also got in to see my physio and having seen her just prior to The Dirty Duo she was able to confirm,

"You knocked your hip out of alignment when you fell on it during that race."

She did her thing and it seemed to feel somewhat better as I left her office an hour later. I was now aware of the fact that I could pretty much run flat and inclined terrain, but should avoid serious downhills. I was also fine on the bike, so I went about trying to get my hours in for the week.

The week went incredibly well for me, not only did I work seven straight days, but I managed to log 120km of running and 125km of biking, for 16.5hr of solid training. The best part was that I felt better by weeks end then when it began...which I have said on more than one occasion this year, in fact I even managed a 50k run and 50k ride on the Sunday to close it all out. It was not easy, and I had to be really tentative during the early stages of the week, but by Sunday I was finally running some decent downhill terrain at a decent pace once again.

I have since gotten into the habit of hitting up a ten - twenty minute ice bath after EVERY single run...and this alone seems to be helping more than every other 'recovery strategy' combined. Second to 'the ice bath' would most certainly be the recovery drinks. I mix in a scoop of Vega, with a few scoops of hemp protein powder, and top it off with six daily tabs of 'Recover Amino Power', which former Ironman world champ Peter Reid used to call his 'muscle candy'. I also stay on top of a daily fish oil supplement, and I always add in a few thermolytes after an intense workout. It's pertinent to get these fluids into your body as quickly as you can after your workout and I took this for granted for much of the year. As I sit here today, on the Tues, I am about to head in to get a sports massage, which is to say it's a hell of a lot more pain then pleasure, but I can honestly say that I haven't felt this good in well over a month...of course this could all change again tomorrow, but for now I'm gonna revel in the fact that I'm still moving forward and have fought through so much to get to this point.

88 days till Western.

GR

Aaron Heidt Race Report & Newspaper Write Up

Aaron just posted a great race report to our Montrail Team blog. Check it out here.

Also a quick write up in the local Bellingham newspaper.

Congrats again guys!
GR

MOMAR Winner, And Chuckanut Results

And The MOMAR FREE entry winner is: 'King Arthur'

Congrats Arthur!! Lin was first in, but unfortunately he overlooked the second part of the first question, "the locations of both races"

I just got back from the Chuckanut 50k in Bellingham, Wash. Unfortunately I was unable to run the race as I still seem to be dealing with some lingering issues from The Dirty Duo. Funny enough, I briefly spoke with Arthur down there this afternoon, but had no idea who had won the entry at that point, nor did I even make the initial connection as to exactly who Arthur was...sorry Arthur, but CONGRATS on the FREE MOMAR race in May!! Drop me a line to work out the exact details, robbins_gary@yahoo.ca

CHUCKANUT UPDATE:

Canadians kick some ass!

Aaron Heidt raced to the overall win and the third fastest time in Chuckanut history! He was just five seconds behind the second fastest time, and, well, over ten minutes behind the legendary Uli Steidl's course record, but that's Uli!

Aaron ran a smoking fast 3h53m54s to become just the fourth runner to eclipse the magical 4hr barrier. Greg Crowther was second, and Hal Koerner third. Montrail Canada teammate Aaron Pitt placed a solid 10th, and Ryne Melcher, torn MCL and all, finished respectably although I am unsure of his exact time and placing.

In the Women's field, Ellie Greenwood won yet another race...has she ever lost?? Ellie posted a solid time of just over 4h34m! I am sure this would put her pretty high herself in the overall female historical times, but don't have the time or energy to figure that out myself right now! Montrail Canada teammates Lisa Polizzi and Cheryl Beattie finished 3rd and 5th respectably...and it was Lisa's first ultra since giving birth to her beautiful son Jett just eight months ago! All in all, a HIGHLY successful day for the team...I, unfortunately, was team photographer on the day. Gotta figure out this hip thing ASAP!

Special thanks to our gracious host last night, Barbara Evans, who placed an amazing 7th in just her second ever ultra! Also congrats to Daniel Probst on a Chuckanut P.R. (pictured here with Barb)


GR