I just put in a quality week of training, 18hrs to be specific with each workout counting. I lost a lot of leg power over the past few months so I have still many hard workouts ahead to get my climbing ability back to a level that I am satisfied with. I'm mixing in some bike workouts as well and these seem to do wonders in terms of keeping my legs fresh.
For once the weather man was right and the snow really did come Friday night as expected. As much as I'm enjoying my ski days on Whistler/Blackcomb this year, it's been incredible having very little snow in Squamish. The trails are busy with mountain bikers and runners so in a selfish way, I've been excited about that. I planned out this weekend to be a great adventure on my feet but when the white stuff fell, plans changed instantly. No way was I NOT going to run outside, treadmill running in my opinion is best kept for sub 45min runs and only when in a desperate time pinch - ie - 5am training sessions or -30 temperatures. Neither of those were the case this weekend so outside it would be.
Dressing appropriately was the key and other then that, who cares about much else. Oh wait, good food, you gottta have good treats to eat so I made a batch of those Manitoba Harvest Hemp Cookies (see blog below) and my training partners made some other healthy snacks! I used my Yak Traks for both training runs so that ice wouldn't be an issue. The shoe of choice this weekend was the Salomon XT Wing, still my go-to shoe when I know that hiking and knee deep snow might be a possibility. Wool socks underneath my arcteryx shell pants and salomon tights worked like a charm. I layered the top with a Salomon wool baselayer and jacket and kept spare Ibex gloves and toque in my pack. SATURDAY
In the dark at 7am, Jenni Chancey, Paola Chadwick and Chochi and I set out on the Garibaldi FSR for a long sustained climb to Red Heather. Jenni was still ill so turned back early, leaving us some treats for the rest of the run! Paola and I climbed the road up as the snow fell. It was beautiful, making a logging road climb seem pretty cool and not boring. We then made our way into knee deep snow, breaking trail to the top of Upper Power Smart and onto Galactic Sheisser. The snow was so deep though and the creek crossing wasn't really passable. We decided to turn back and descend the logging road. This was ok, I needed to train the downhill muscles anyway! 4hrs later we were back at the car and on our way to see friends at Beans Brackendale for a warm-up coffee!SUNDAY
I took advantage of a few extra sleep in hours and then 2 cups of yummy espresso and my eggs/cream cheese/avocado breakfast down, it was off to meet Paola and Chochi for another run. We left from Valleycliffe and underneath a gorgeous sunny bluebird sky, we cruised up 9mile hill! Perfect running conditions, yak traks not needed as it was a grippy hard pack until we reached Lava Flow. We power hiked through the snow up to the Rip, stopping for a few minutes at the lookout for some food. Then, it was down The Rip (yes covered in snow but great none-the-less) and down The Plunge (in great shape.) We ran back to the cars via Fartherside. AWESOME. Another solid 3hrs30mins done. This run in the summer takes me about 2.5 hrs but who cares, it was covered in snow and AWESOME!!!Ski day tomorrow............
