Some Random pics

Crab hunting anyone? (a pic from Lisa's camera, I'd already gone home)

One hot couple(at Johnston Canyon)
What did you just call me?
Post IM training

On the way back from Johnston Canyon there were all these cars parked on the side as well as on the road. All that interest only means one thing in Banff..... wild animals. I usually make fun of all the tourists with their cameras, this time I joined them and happened to get a pretty good shot of two big elk disagreeing about somthing. They put on quite a good show right in front of us all. Check it out.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq--UO74QGU

For all of you IMC 2010 athletes here's some inspiration!

This is one of my favorite, most inspirational write ups on IM, and it's all about Ironman Canada!! It's long but don't worry, if it doesn't bring a tear to your eye and send shivers down your spine(inspiration, not fear shivers) ..... well I don't know what will. Nuff said, enjoy the read. It still puts a lump in my throat after having done two IMCs. Cheers, and GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=940442;search_string=inspiration%20imc;guest=115510944&t=search_engine#940442

Effing poop fairy!!

Yesterday Curtis and I went out for a longish run, longish as in longer than a regular weekday run, but not long anymore in terms of the actual weekend long run. We started from my house and cruised south towards fish creek. I tried to poop before leaving but couldn't really manage much, I had a bad feeling about that as we left. Sure enough like 2-3 miles into the run she was right in my face harrassing me to the point where I had to stop and walk a few times. It was NOT pretty!!! I contemplated knocking on someone's door. We also ran by someone waiting for their dog to finish it's business and I soooo wanted to go "Look over there!!!" and add some to the dog's pile for them to pick up. Can you imagine the look on the owners face when he looks down and sees the amount of crap down by his feet, and the thoughts just went from there. Curtis and I would have howled talking about that, I think he did, but I kept it down as I probably would have had an accident. We finally made the turn and headed back, eventually we came upon a bathroom that was open and I relieved myself. WOW, that felt good!! The rest of the run was pretty uneventful. The flies were extremely annoying though. I had to tilt my head down at times pulling the hat down over my eyes to avoid getting them in my eyes. I ate some of them though, yummmmm. 11.5 miles I believe done in 1:3X:XX with some stops along the way to pinch. We'll see what I do this weekend.

Not sure yet if I'll up the long run, or do another med length run and wait for the next weekend to run another killer long run. I def. like the versatility of doing a ultra, and I'm right on schedule or maybe even a bit ahead so if I need to take a weekend off of the long run build, I can. It would however mean I'd have to build up a lil faster.

Runnin Long

Hey there,

Sorry I haven't blogged for awhile. There's less to talk about now that I'm down to a single sport. I run.... that's pretty much. Somthing new though is that I'm possibly doing a Ultra marathon. I was talking with Mark Nalphin a while ago, I think I asked about possibly doing a 50k this fall. I knew he'd be interested since I know he's done the frozen ass 50 and has talked about doing the Canadian Death race next year. Well he immediately suggested doing a 50 miler!!! At first I was like nooooooooo way that's too far!! But I thought about it, checked out the course and time. It all is actually good timing, plus it's a bit of a bigger challenge than JUST a 50k, hee hee. I've never been satisfied with big challenges, almost more interested in the Mammoth goals. When I first signed up for my first marathon I had just completed a 4.5 mile run as part of a marathon relay. I think I completed a few smaller races, a 5k, maybe a 10k, but I didn't do a half marathon till I'd completed several full marathons.

So anyways the course looks pretty flat, it's mostly a long a country gravel road. I know 50 miles is a long way to build up to in a relatively short time period. So I'm gonna give it a shot as long as my body stays healthy. I've done 14,20, and 24 miles as my long runs so far. For me to have a good shot of running the whole way(yes my tentative goal is to run all of it, other than filling up bottles) I think I'll need to build up to 35 miles in training. Yikes even that scares the crap out of me!! The 24 miles last weekend was breaking new ground for me already as I'd never gone that far in training. I used to do 22-23 miles as my longest long runs while training for the marathon. This is part of the reason I don't even know if Ultras is my thing, this is a real experiment. "An experiment of ONE" - John Collins. I've never run further than 26.2 miles so how would I know?

The ultra is a unique challenge. The biggest challenge I have is that I don't yet have the patience. You totally have to find another gear. But unlike any other foot race the gear that you need is a slow slow gear. Not even so much for a 50k, or even a 50 mile, but DEFINATELY for a 100 mile run. Gotta keep the effort level even through out. It's really hard because the effort is so low that your mind starts to wonder, I get bored easy. Even the hills, where normally I'd try to power up keeping the pace nearly level. Not so with Ultras, I'll slow down, shorten the stride, the goal in my mind at least is to save what ever energy I have what ever way I can. So that means slowing down to a crawl while running up hills. Keeping awayyyyyy from any increases of efforts. The longer I can keep running the better.

Another thing that kinda worries me. Most Ultra runners, at least the beginner types walk at some point in the long ones. Especially since most of the Ultra courses are brutal. I'm only trying to run this one since it's a very flat course on gravel road. Most ultras even a 50k, I think I'd walk up the very steep hills just to avoid any kind of extra fatigue. K, getting back to the concern. I tend to run till I drop. I can hold a pretty good pace till I need to stop and walk, and then it's such a slow walk it's like I'm not moving at all. So I'm a bit afraid that if I do end up having to walk at all that the pace will slow to almost a stop.

Oh well I have a ways to go and I don't even know if I'm gonna do the race. I promised myself I would pull the plug the moment I feel any kind of injury. I have lots of time for ultras or any other challenges no need to rush it. Part of me is relieved though, it feels sooooo good to have another big goal on the horizon. I think I'm addicted to feeling overwhelmed?!?!? Maybe that's why I prefer going long vs going fast. I'd prefer to enter a event not knowing for sure if I can complete it. Sure I tried for a few years for time goals in the marathon and IM, but those finishes still are never guarrenteed. No matter how fast you are, I think everyone has multiple times during the race where they don't even know if they can finish. So that's I think what makes me tick.

I'm back in the saddle again

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack as Mr. Tyler says. The trip was awesome, I have some pics up located here http://picasaweb.google.ca/Darryl.Penner few highlights and lowlights were.

Highlights:

-Meeting the inlaws. They are grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat, Lisa's dad and I spent a lot of time hangin out joking around, etc.
-Time at the beaches, to get to the one you see in the pics you have to go on a windy, twisty, narrow road to get to. It was nesttled right in the mountains with thick rain forest all around. Really beautiful
-Swimming with Dad(in law) he loves the water almost as much as I do. I think I even taught him a few things on open water swimming
-meeting the uncles,aunts, cousins
-The trinidad people are super nice, despite not being able to understand them at times(yes even though they're talking English)
-The hot humid weather, I loved it!!!
-I didn't get burnt at all, weird cause it didn't rain all the time, some each day, but there was still plenty of sun.
-Going bareback at the track(it was just too himid to run with a shirt, hello 100% humidity) and not being made fun of too much for being so damn white
-Talking with a triathlete from Trinidad(he saw my IM shorts)
-The food!!! (lots of curreys, Roti, chicken, goat, duck)

Lowlights:

-loosing my wedding ring :( (although it's not my fault, I gave it to Lisa for safe keeping while we swam) I swam every where around there on the sandy bottom looking for it with my goggles
-understanding what people were talking about. They speak english, but with such a thick accent and slang(or w/e you'd call it) that at times I couldn't even get the jist of the conversation. I got better towards the end of the second week and was starting to get some sayings. A popular one is YEAH BOY!!! (you would say this as a greeting to pretty well anyone, no disrespect meant at all)
-huge blisters on my feet from the longer runs I did have on the track(Dad and I went to the track a few times to run/walk) because it was soooo humid my shoes got soaked.
-delayed flights, all 6 of them!!!

That's pretty much it, feel free to ask questions if you like. I might actually answer them. Other than that I'm back and running, not so much swimming or biking. I might give ultra marathoning a go this fall and next year. We'll see how my body likes the extra miles. Ran 20.5 miles yesterday and it wasn't too bad. I have a slight hip thing that comes and goes, doesn't bother me while running though later after sitting for awhile and I get up. Cheers,

DP