Friday started off early with a 6am alarm to an incredible sunrise. Check out this shot taken from within my bedroom! Not hard to get going when you are greeted by days like these! I hit up the road bike with a friend for a 1h15m ride before commuting to North Van for work. After an 8.5hr shift I met up with fellow Montrail team runner Rune Melcher and we headed out for a 1h15m run with some intervals thrown in. I have not done intervals in longer than I can remember and I am finally realizing that these need to quickly become a weekly addition to my training. I actually love intervals, but unfortunately that damn calf was speaking to me again so we cut it short by one sprint session. In the car, back to Squamish and then to a benefit concert called 'SAMapalooza' for an hour, with all funds going towards HIV/AIDS relief in poverty stricken communities in Zambia. It was pretty much a high school party, but I knew some volleys so instead of just dropping off my donation I hung out and caught up with some friends, and even managed to 'win' some goodies on the silent auction table!
Today was the big training day for the week, 7hr split between riding and running. I stayed up late last night watching 'The Matrix' on t.v., as it's one of the best movies ever...even with Keanu Reeves in it! Seven hours later at 9am I was outta bed and planning my day. An incredibly blue sky lay before me and I initially intended to do my 3hr run first, but while having breaky I happened to catch the daily forecast and they were calling for cloud, rain, wind, and falling temps by late afternoon. It was hard to believe this while staring out the window, but in the last week alone we've had numerous days where it's gone from an incredible spring day to a full on snow storm and back within a few short hours, so I did not doubt their predictions. I have always found running in the rain much more 'enjoyable' than biking in it, so I reversed my plan and was out the door at 10am...a late start for sure, but as mentioned I couldn't not watch 'The Matrix'!!
I grabbed the mtn bike and managed a solid three hour ride while climbing three significant routes. Thankfully, even with these intermittent snow storms this week the trails are still clearing off nicely. I had Roxy with me so did not want to push her beyond the 3hr barrier while biking. She was right by my side the whole time and amazingly enough, seems to be full of energy again right now...damn super fit dog doesn't take any down time anymore!!
I then hopped on the road bike for an hour to make up my 4hr of riding for the day. As I hit my turn around on the ride, the weather did indeed change almost instantly. By the time I reached my home again I was freezing, it was windy, and the rains were looking like they would only get worse. Damn weather woman actually being right!!
(the nice weather on its way out)I fueled my tired body for thirty minutes and headed out again, minus Roxy, for a 3hr run. I started slowly and honestly wasn't sure what to expect after my calves had flared on me less than twenty four hours previous, but as the minutes eclipsed I could feel that I was gonna be alright and slowly upped the pace. I again threw in some nice climbs and felt surprisingly strong so decided to run what I would normally hike on a long training day such as this one. I took one walking break around the 2hr mark and then decided to push myself for the remaining hour. The rains were picking up so the motivation to run faster was already there! I found myself on my back patio after exactly 2h59m of running and pretty much completely shattered from a solid day. It took me a good 45min to come around and if not for Hockey Night In Canada I probably would've lay down for a nap. Glad I did not as the Oilers managed to squeak out a mandatory victory to keep our playoff hopes alive.
(a rare shot of Roxy chillin, with her new roommate Marley)Now however, it's bed time...if someone could just get this crazy dog to calm down. I'm seriously thinking about cutting her training hours here, before she becomes too fit for even my long days of training!
On another note, big congrats to all finishers at this year's Baja Travesia, especially the two DART-NUUN teams who after a hard fought battle decided to cross the line together to share the win. Lina Augaitis' team Yoga Slackers ended up finishing a solid 3rd, in a sprint finish! If you can believe it, after over three days of racing there were numerous sprint finishes. The race directors Karen Lundgren and Paul Romero of Team Sole did an incredible job this year and the online coverage was some of the best I've seen. I still find myself hitting up the site for updates...even though the race is completely over and done with! Todd and I are hoping to make it back to this race in 09.
GR
1 comment:
Darn it...the weather here in Calgary is all snow. I am so glad it is a rest week so all i had to do was a 1h15min run on saturday and 2hour ride on sunday (which was all on the trainer due to snow).
Hopefully this week I can get around 13-15hours of training though. I do miss the trails there and MTB season doesn't roll around until may at the earliest. So lots of road riding and road running for me.
I starting to get tired of running on the road as well...my longest has been 2 hours and it is rough on the feet. Can't wait until summer!
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