Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Banff Jasper Relay

Last weekend I did the Banff Jasper Relay with 13 of my coleagues from work. We entered a team "The West Fraser Warriors" in the mixed Corporate event.
The relay consists of 15 legs starting in Banff by Lake Louise and making it's way up the Icefields Parkway ending in the Town of Jasper. The race is divided into a south phase and a north phase and each team starts a runner on each of the phases at 0700h sharp. Thereafter there are forced starts on each remaining leg to ensure the event finishes in the daylight hours.
Our team performed incredibly and we ended up fourth in our division. I drew two legs because of a last minute injury and did leg 9 - 15.7 kms and leg 15 - 19.7. A bit of a challenge, but I was able to finish 3rd overall on both legs. The first one was all uphill to the Columbia Icefields. The scenery was breath taking and although it was a grind I was able to manage a 7:44 / mile pace.
The finish was also a beautiful run, and it was nice having the whole team there to support and cheer me on. On this part of the course I was able to cruise comfortably at sub-7 minute miles.
After a couple days recovery I am back to full on training but still no definite plans. I'm feeling great and will have to find something to use up this training on.
Happy training!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

A Prolonged Case of Writer's Block

I have really struggled over the last few months to blog with any consistency. Trying to find something interesting to talk about is the single largest reason for lack of production. Perhaps I just have to face the fact that my life is terribly boring! But I don’t believe that to be the case so I am going to try some different techniques to keep some ideas on hand to be able to cobble something together.
Despite my best efforts I have only one event on my schedule and that is the Banff to Jasper Relay next weekend. This team event is segmented into two phases, a north and south grouping. Between the two sections there is a total of 15 legs, which covers 259 kilometres. I am doing it with a group of co-workers and it should be a lot of fun. I have drawn the “Big Bend” leg which climbs 1,300 plus feet over 15.7 kilometres to the Columbia Ice Fields. It will be a challenge but one I am looking forward to.
As far as training goes, I continue to build with no particular event in mind. I am considering the Vineman as that is about the perfect time for where I currently am in my cycle. Right now my weekly hours are at just over 11 which is getting to that mid-cycle point. I was having some struggles with the running but as of late I seem to have overcome whatever was affecting my speed and endurance.
So here is to hopefully having overcome this latest case of writer's block.
Happy training!