Cross country

Hey all,

Or just me, I'm doing fine despite being off my running legs for a bit.  I've been running a fair amount and one snowy slippery day I was spinning up the last hill in a lunch time run and I felt a sharp pain in my hamstring.  Luckily I was right at the end of the run as I found it painful even just to walk.  Even after some 18 years of running I still can manage some new first time injuries.  I've never pulled a hamstring before.  Oh well I'm thankful that it didn't happen during my Ironman build up, and there's lots of time to heal up before it's time to get serious with training again.  I'm also very happy I can cross country ski!!  I've gone out twice now with the skis, did just over 9km the first time and 10.5 km today.

I was doing quite a bit of quality workouts, my goal and hope was to get faster before the marathon build up next year.  Oh well now that's on hold for a bit, and I'd wanted to start skiing anyways so this was a perfect nudge onto the ski trails.  I didn't have ski boots so I had to go out and purchase those.  The boots I had first purchased with the skis hurt my feet so I returned them.  These boots that I bought now also caused my pinky toe a blister so I had to return them as well.  It turned out that I had to move to a Salomon boot to prevent these pesky blisters.  This boot uses a different binding so I had to replace that.  Lifesport gave me a really good deal, first off they let me trade in my boots after I used them once, they also swapped my bindings and only charged me the difference even though I didn't buy the original bindings from them.  Pretty good deal, good service goes a long way.  So if you're looking for skis in Calgary check out Lifesport.

My plan is to ski 1-2 times a week, run the rest.  Maybe get enough fitness to do some long skis(wink wink Moraine lake road Cam!!) and maybe do the Canadian Berkie!  I've had my eye on that race for a few years.  It's apparently a well run ski race 55km long on very nice trails near Edmonton.  I know I wouldn't do it quickly, 55km would be a long ways and I def. would not be able to "race it" I just want to enjoy it, do something different!!

I'll keep up the running while skiing.  Hopefully I can do the Calgary marathon and also maybe a ultra marathon or two??  I'd like to test myself with something longer than the marathon, someday possibly even a 100 miler.  I'm not quite sure I'm ready to go too long just yet.  I still want to run faster and I really believe switching to a ultra mode will kill any possible speed I have left in these legs.  Crazy eh?

I also have some crazy ideas about some solo adventures.  I've been following a really inspirational ultra runner named Killian Jornet, check him out on youtube.  He's been winning 100 mile ultras in brutal mountain terrain since he was 21 years old.  Now that he's won so much, he's gone to some incredible mountain ascent/descent records.  In several years time he's planning on setting the record for Everest as well.  He's done Kilimanjaro already and broke the record by over an hour!!  Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJztgs-jXuw  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjZH6CfKLxE.  Anyways I'd like to do some similar challenges, obviously not as difficult and I don't have the money to travel all around the world.  But we got mountains in our backyard.  I'd like to do some climbs, maybe some tough hikes, trails.  I'm not sure exactly which ones, maybe Sulfur mountain to start, I've always wanted to see if I could run up that trail.  Then maybe a big mountain, temple mountain?  There's also the skyline trail near Jasper, anyone have anymore challenging climbs/hikes that I could run?  Cheers,

DP

PS:  here's a very inspirational video of a ultra won by Killian  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhgiUvMrV9k.  The UTMB, just over 100 miles, through 3 countries in europe, super scenic, nearly 10,000 meters of elevation.  Simply incredible what the human body is capable of.  Never ever underestimate it!!  over an out