The GRIZ!

The time has come.

Training has finished.

Taper has finished.

It's time to run.

...and be careful!

Over Thanksgiving long weekend the Grizzly Ultra and Relay was set to take place in Canmore, Alberta. Individuals and teams from across the country were are assembling to take on one of the challenging events put on by race director Tony Smith.

Our team consisted of five runners from all across the board. Initially a family team, injury, moves, weddings and the like unfortunately changed the team make up pretty substantially. A neighbour, an old friend, an ex-pro baseball player and a new friend (we met online through a run group and later at the Edmonton Marathon); we all came together to take on the grueling event.

The course was second to none. The event was based at the Canmore Nordic Centre, an olympic and training facility for cross country skiing and biathlon. The course consisted of five individual legs ranging in length from 5.7km to 14km and each leg was allocated a difficulty rating ranging from one to five (one being the easiest, five being the hardest).

The day was cold. Freezing as a matter of fact and Mother Nature created a beautiful show by adding a dusting of snow on the mountain tops, small flecks of which continued to fall throughout the duration of race day.

The race started at 9am with all of the solo runners and team members running leg one hold up in the starting corral. What seemed like hundreds upon hundreds of runners took off on the path and road leading down hill from the starting arena area. Not to be misleading, the leg offered two fairly sizable hills and two smaller ones; enough to make your legs feel the burn that's for sure. Leg 2 provided a trail that looked more like an EKG reading and a 4 claw difficulty rating. Leg 3 provided a 5 claw difficulty rating and had it's fair share of up hill sections inclusive of one near vertical range where runners literally had to claw their way up on hands and knees. Leg 4 hit where it hurt with a 3km vertical stretch before beginning the descent. Leg 5 was the shortest and was fairly roll-y poll-y.

Our team did a fabulous job. We finished and finished strong. Everyone worked extremely hard and pushed themselves to their limits. It was a successful day as we finished injury free and everyone still had their toenails post-race (always questionable when running trail, especially in the rocky mountains).

It was a long, cold but special day and I am glad I was able to race with the people I did. We couldn't have done any better.

The looooooong slog

Well... today is the day I ran my first 30km run since spring.

Now that was a good effort!

Why is running such long distances important in marathon training?

There is a lot of literature out there to sift through, but the final answer comes down to 'it just is!'

Training runs between 10km and 25km are common for most of us when training for marathons. They aren't anything particularly special. I have a hard time telling my non running friends or even my running friends that don't run long distances, that a 10k run for me really isn't much more than a warm up run. My mid week training runs are 10-15km in distance and all serve a purpose. Frequently I use the shorter (10-12km) runs to work on speed. I run intervals of varying lengths, but lately I have been running 4:1s where I run at a 5km race pace for 4 minutes and then walk or jog slowly for 1 minute to recover. For a more challenging work out out I do 2:1's where I run as fast as I can at a steady pace for 2 minutes and then walk for one minute. This is where my real speed come out when compared to my other training runs. In these shorter interval runs (hey, sometimes even 30s:45s intervals) my pace is approaching the three minutes per kilometer mark. My mid distance training runs, typically 15-18km are all tempo runs. I am still working on pushing the pace with these but I'm not going crazy. The point for these is to get the distance out in a comfortable but fairly fast pace. To switch things up, I also do short hill runs every few weeks.

Long runs on the other had are a different story.

Long run. What to say. They are long and sometimes they are really long!

On this particular day I was prepared to break the 30km distance at the Reservoir in what I was hoping would be a relatively 'easy' two loop track. Breaking the 30km mark is a pretty nice training effort on the physical side of things, but is also important mentally when preparing for marathons. As is common knowledge amongst runners, your bind will give out long before you body does. For this reason, it is especially important to push both. By doing such long runs in one go, it is possible push yourself both physically and mentally. It is also important when it comes to determining your 'bonking' zone, if you will. A 'bonk' in running occurs when your body depletes its glycogen stores (more on this later).

My run started out great. It was a little bit later in the morning than I would have liked but we had just had our roof done and the roofers had come by in the morning to clean up stray nails and staples. I was on dog-duty and had to take her around the block numerous times to empty her tanks and so she could keep tabs on all of the guys swiftly doing laps over our yard with magnetic strips. Anyways, it was starting to be a bit warm by the time I headed out. Preparing for a long, long run I took my hydration belt and a few Honey Stinger gels and then I was off to the races.

Being a route that I frequented regularly over the last few months, the day started off as per usual. The boats were out in full force - sail boats, row boats, outriggers and the big paddle steamer. The paths were filled, almost overflowing with activity. It was a beautiful morning.

The first 5km flew by. By 7km and the big down hill I could feel my knee starting to get a bit tight. By 12km I was at an all out walk. My knee had given in on the flats of the Weaselhead.

I really have NO idea what it is about this particular place, but it seems like ever time I run around the reservoir my knee gives out. One day I will figure out what it is... but I wasn't about to start playing guessing games and experimenting. I was also not about to leave until until I made it to my target distance. I was in for a seriously long walk, and walk I did! 35km later, I was very sore and my knee was throbbing but I made it! 4h 33m but I made it! I was definitely not impressed with my time but I wasn't going to let that stop me. This was only one step in the beginning of my journey post-injury. There would be bad days and good days, but I was going to get to my races and smash them. ...Heck, Murphy's law.... bad training = good race.... While I'd much rather have good training and accomplish many more of my goals in training, I am also prepared to take the bad days with a grain of salt and chalk it up to 'experience.'