Gettin’ it Done, the Long Run of 21….

Ahh, Canadian winter. Is there anything better?! Yes, anywhere else, as far as training goes. I’ve decided to get off my duff and start being more disciplined about training again, and unfortunately, that means making the best of what can be bad situations. Case in point, it’s cold, but I want to bike. Now, I can bike in my basement, on a traininer, which I regularly do, but that get’s boring, right? So to mix it up a bit, I decided to bike to Dave’s for today’s training run with he and Kevin. Seemed like a great idea. Rather than talk about the run, you can check their blog, I’m sure they’ll write about it! The sun was shining, and it was ONLY -8C when I left. Yeah, except for that damn little thing called WIND. Geez Louis, can’t we turn that stuff off? Anyway, it was a relatively short 11km bike to Daves, followed by a reasonable 12.5km run, capped by the return 11km bike. Well, by the time I returned home, I was nearly dead! I think I may not have eaten enough. It’s all part of my winter training for Adventure racing. I’m trying to get a feel for what works, and what doesn’t, as well as how much food I need for colder racing. I’m also hoping to do some winter AR races this year, so I had to test my gear. Anyway, it was an okay training day, and I had a blast running with the boys. If it wasn’t for them motivating me to run, it would be awfully easy to just veg at home on the cold weekends! Thanks Boyz.

Welcome back to my first official post of the racing season. I’ve been putting off posting in any great detail lately because things have really been up and down for me the past few weeks. Since being told that I have a recurring injury, I’ve been doing my best to recover from it and strengthen my left leg. I thought things were going great, and was about to post to that effect last week when BAM! I relapsed quite badly and was told once again not to run. Not a good prognosis, given that I was slated to not only run, but race, in three days’ time. To remove any suspense, I did indeed race, but tried to go easy on myself. I grabbed 5th Place in the male category, and the rest of the details will follow below.

If you’ve been paying attention to my blog, you will have noticed that the Mad Trapper snowshoe race was actually not listed as my next upcoming event. As a result of my injury, I had removed it from my ‘official’ events stream. However, after a few good weeks of recovery, I registered anyway (actually, I registered for all 3 events!), hoping to go for it. Training runs with Grant and alone had been going well, with fairly little pain coming back. However, after a full training week, and seriously upped mileage on my feet, the pain eventually came back strong. The only way to lick it is to rest more. So, I’ll do more biking, swimming and weights, but less running for the remainder of January. But enough about that, what about the race, you ask?

Well, hot off the heels of volunteering at a weekend adventure race, Jody and I decided to head out for another selfless act of volunteerism. I wasn’t scheduled to do any volunteering or racing for the National Capital in the first place, but as usual, plans can change rather rapidly. Truth be told, I really didn’t feel like even watching any of the marathon drama unfold this year. This was mainly due to the fact that I’m still unable to do any running whatsoever myself, so I really don’t feel like watching others go to it and get their goals. However, when the call for help came out at the last minute at work, I decided to set aside my selfishness and volunteer. As usual, we’ve got some pictures online, and there’s more to my story, so read on.