The best place in the world.

Cypress Hills and it is hot! Very, very hot. Above 30 degrees hot. Today is my run day and I felt that I was ready to go for a longer run so I tried to get out before the heat of the day kicks in. I am on vacation for a week and I hope to get in some quality training while I am here. My mission was to run 25k more or less. I was dealing with some variables such as terrain and temperature. The Cypress Hills are (surprise surprise) quite hilly. This week they are also very hot. The run started from the cabin, around Loch Leven, onto the Trans Canada trail system through a forest of the very majestic lodgepole pine that are impressively abundant in this area.

This trail climbs up to the plateau of the Cypress Hills. I head west towards Lookout point and push on to Bald Butte.
Bald Butte is a big hill that perches on the north side of the Cypress conglomeration. On a clear day, one can seen incredible view of the Saskatchewan prairie. I pass the sign that indicates that I have made it to Bald Butte. The sun is out and I am feeling the heat of the warm prairie air. I continue without stopping and when I get to the end of the pavement the road turns to gravel so I turn around to start my journey home.

A few kilometres later Deb shows up with some more water and Gatoraide to top up my supplies for the run back. This is not a fast run, I am feeling the heat and the altitude. I finished off the run with a loop arrow the lake and after in 2 hours and 20 minutes and I was bagged.
It seemed to be a greater perceived effort than I expected I am not sure why, but even though it was a tough run I throughly enjoyed it. Even with all the challenges, this is possibly the best place in the world to go for a run.

Even with a broken foot.

I recovered pretty nicely from the Great White North half iron distance triathlon and I have had a bit more than a week to get back at the workouts.
Last weekend I was working the Edmonton ITU and was able to see the men's and the women's race from the back of a Suzuki. Hometown hero Paula Findlay had to pull out to rest a strained hip. Still very fun to watch some speedy pros going all out.

This week I am going on vacation, so I was able to join the team for a nice Saturday bike ride. The plan was a 9AM start for a 4(ish) hour ride from Ardrossan, East to Lindbrook and South towards Camrose.

It was a warm summer morning and a pretty good size group (9) showed up and we were on our way. The canola fields are in full bloom and everything else is very green and fresh.

I grabbed on to Mike Cooper's draft as we cranked along some fresh black top. Mike just raced last weekend in the Edmonton ITU and place second in his age group (even with a broken foot).

We put on 101 km in a 3 and 1/2 hours and faced a pretty good headwind on the way back in. This was my longest ride since Ironman Canada last August, so it felt good to be getting a chance for bigger mileage ride.

I am spending this week at the cabin and I plan to get in some swims, runs and I have my bike with me ,so I am hoping to add another big mileage ride to the training schedule.

Great White North 2011.

Great White North 2011.
I get dropped off at the entrance to Hubbles Lake at 7AM for the 8AM race start. It was a beautiful morning and the excitement in the transition area was building. I racked my bike and gave my T2 bag to the truck that will take my runners (I remembered them this year) to the the bike to run transition area. The line ups to the port-a-potty were very long so I opted to start the race without a pit stop. I felt good on the swim and the water was pretty clear. I could even see the bottom for most of the swim.
My transition to the bike went very well and I flew out and onto Highway 16. I was on my way on the 90K bike course.
The wind was not too bad and I pushed it pretty good for the first half of the ride and had a bit of a tailwind on the ride back. The last 10km into town ended up being straight into a strong headwind so I pushed even more and I could feel some of my leg muscles complaining that I was asking a bit much of them.
I hit T2 and slipped into my socks and runners and was on my way. My legs were tired and I wondered if I went too hard early and used up all my energy already. Some of my teammates were on the course to encourage me along so I kept going at what seemed to be a slightly faster than comfortable pace. This was going to be a long tough run.
5 hours into the race and 10K into the run I decided I need to stop at a port-a-potty and take that break I missed earlier.
I ran the rest of the run without trouble, seeing a lot of my friends along the way.
I finished the race in 5hours and 55 minutes.
The difference in my time from last year… about the length of a pit stop in a port-a-potty.


The Stats: (boring for some but I like them).

I finished in 372 in 45/67 place for my age group of 50-59
2010 I finished 390 in 44/82.
My times were:
After the swim I was in 585th place for a swim time of 49:43 and a 2:30/ 100 meter pace.
After the Bike I was in 362th place for a bike time of 3:00:02 and a 30 kph pace.
I was in 314th place for a run time of 2:05:55 and a 5:55 pace.

Total time 5:55:39
2010 time 5:54:10

44/82
562 49:18 2:28
397 3:03:48 29.4
301 2:01:06 5:45
5:54:10