Spring-like Trail Run on Vancouver Island (trail photos) - Late February

My good friend Tim and I finished up our seventh week of our 2013 training block. While Tim was dealing with one of Utah's colder snowier winters, Vancouver Island has experienced quite a mild winter, which means spring-like conditions are here a little early. 

I must admit I feel bad as Tim posts about his training runs in sub-zero weather and blustery whiteout conditions. Meanwhile I am in short sleeves and shorts gliding around a mountain, surrounded by succulent chartreuse leaves, and single track bordered by emerald carpet. Tim is definitely building up a nice resistance to the many trials facing us this year by running in the challenging conditions, meanwhile I am getting spoiled and I will not be quite as accustomed to the difficulties that lie ahead! 

I am not complaining though. I openly admit that it is fantastic to run through the budding new life of Mount Doug in February. I still remember when I was training in Utah, and I would stand on the driveway in the dark early morning waiting for a snowplow to clear the road so I could run in its wake, as new snowflakes quickly accumulated on the freshly plowed road. Those seem like great times in retrospect but at the time I wasn't always so thrilled. 

Week seven was a great week for me and the outlined schedule pushed me to run hard and pick up the pace. 

As my degree comes to a close and I likely head out for an unknown future in academia and a new home I find myself already missing Victoria and the Island. It was here where I feel I have grown the most as a geologist, a student, and in life in general. I will always have fond memories of my late winter sojourns on the green sun-drenched slopes of Mount Doug. I guess I better really enjoy this spring as it is likely my last one here anyways!

 Succulent new growth on Mount Doug in mid February!

 The green north slopes of Doug in late winter.

 Late winter trail running on Doug.

A lone arbutus on Little Doug with rural Victoria behind it.

2013 - Week One Long Distance Training Complete

Week one of training with my friend Tim for long distance has come and gone in a flash! We ran fairly low distances with rest days in between because we are just beginning to ramp up to further and further distances. The photos below show some shots taken on Saturday's run (and show up again in the video, sorry for the redundancy). I only took photos on Saturday because of low light and poor weather for the other runs earlier in the week.

On Monday I awoke to the sound of rain pounding the window and I knew it would be a wet run. I left my house in the dark at 6:00 AM. I ran the chip trail which wraps around campus and I wasn't surprised to be the only one on the trail. It had been raining all night and the rain quickly collected in puddles in all depressions along the trail because the pore space in the soil couldn't soak up any more water. The trail is a loop, therefore I found myself for about a quarter of the run, running face first into great big drops of rain as the wind drove it almost parallel with the ground. I quickly ran the loop and crossed bridges which spanned swollen creeks dotted with the large stalks of skunk cabbage. My shoes slopped through the puddles; soaked through. One nice thing about getting your feet wet immediately is that you no longer need to worry about keeping your feet dry so from then on you can just focus on running because your shoes aren't going to get any wetter.

Wednesday had much better weather conditions and was almost too warm for tights and I really worked up a sweat quickly. I really pushed on day two for some reason, my body just felt like pushing it. I really hammered the Chip trail running it clockwise, opposite from Monday's run. I find when I run the same loop route multiple times in a week it is very nice mentally and physically to switch the direction of the route. It keeps it fresh, and helps keep you running evenly, and wards off ennui which can accompany any runner who runs the same course often. I finished feeling well tired, and a bit sore from my pace, but I felt I put in a great workout.

Saturday was very cold for Victoria and saw temps below freezing. It was odd seeing frost and snow on the ground. Even the puddles had a thin film of ice. I chose Mt. Tolmie as my destination. This allowed me to run some flats but also work on my up and down hill running. The sky was bright and the colors vibrant. I spent a considerable amount of time filming the colors and setting up shots for my short video. As I was returning from the summit I saw that my SD card was full and that I had not recorded much at all. The many minutes of video I so painstakingly tried to capture was lost. So the video below only shows a minute or two of footage of 15 or so that I captured. Oh well; it also cuts off abruptly, but I couldn't be bothered with fixing it. I will just chalk that up to experience and remember to check my SD card before running in the future. The run was great and I enjoyed the run immensely.

Tim and I are also swapping music for each run. We each suggest a song from our own repertoire to the other and then run with it as our first song of each run. It has been a lot of fun and has made each run exciting as we each get to look forward not only to running the same distance together, at roughly the same time, but also to the same songs! It also allows us to discover new music. I highly recommend it to any runners who like to run with music and want to spice up their training playlist. It is nice to be able to share the fairly solitary pursuit of long distance running with someone else and connect on another level. I think we will keep this up as long as we can!

My video is the first one with Tim's video for the week shown last!

And here is Tim's video for week one. Same training routine just 1000 miles to the southeast!

Mount Douglas Victoria BC Trail Run with photos Jan. 5th

My best friend Tim and I will start to officially train for the 2013 season beginning on Monday. He lives in Utah about 900 miles to the southeast of my current home of Victoria, BC. So to train together we have to rely heavily on the miracle of technology i.e. social networking, YouTube (highdef video conversations), and e-mail. These modern conveniences let us stay connected as we train together and follow each other's progress while also carrying on long distance conversations about this beautiful art we call running. We will also be doing the same training program; one Tim has designed. This program is tailored to help us get back into the groove of running consistently between now and April (get the cobwebs out after the holidays) and then really hone our speed and endurance come the summer so that we will be able to handle whatever running adventure we can get ourselves into. Besides Tim's marathons and RAGNAR races he has planned, we are also looking at our yearly epic trail run to be a beast and I will blog about that in the future!

This past week I have tried to run some slow distance just to wake up my circulatory and respiratory systems while also conjuring up some muscle memory in my legs. I dropped off my Christmas tree at the University Track and donated to the track team to help support track and field athletics (the track team recycles trees to raise money). I then started my run at Mt. Douglas my usual training ground. The weather was perfect 9 degrees Celsius or 48 Fahrenheit; overcast with a bit of sun peaking through now and again. It felt like running in April in Utah but these conditions are quite common this time of year here on the island. I took my time and worked my way up the side of the mountain focusing on taking small steps at a faster cadence and also staying relaxed. The majority of the trails I run on are devoid of my fellow bipedal com padres since the trails I run require you to get muddy and are somewhat technical. I summited the big mountain and snapped a few shots but it was so crowded with others in the observation nest that I quickly dove off the gnarly steep side of Doug in full retreat. after picking my way down the exposed slippery rocks I ran the Km of slight uphill trail towards Little Mt. Doug; stepping in small spaces between roots and rocks. Little Doug is a small blister on the west apron of it's bigger brother. I really like Lil Doug, though much smaller, it also has a lot of personality (the trails do anyways). I chilled on the summit for a few minutes and reveled in the feeling of running free and the nice relatively warm weather. I bounced down the steep rocky face and finished my run on a trail that hugs the base of Big Doug and takes me back to the trail head. I saw that some of the underbrush was starting to already bud. How I love spring on the island! In Utah winter often gives way to summer with an extremely abbreviated spring (often only a week or so) but on the island spring dominates both winter and summer and often seems to make up half the year. I took little easy strides and focused on my form and got excited for this years training with Tim, and I tried to let that small burst of adrenaline at the thought of training with him carry me all the way to the finish extremely quickly. It was another great run and 2013 is turning out to be a great one. I gave this run 7 out of 10 bean burritos (with Serrano peppers, my after run snack).

A Mt. Doug trail running video.

New Years Day run through Thetis Lake Regional Park

For two years in a row I have ran in Thetis Lake Provincial park on New Years. It is a little gem of a park only about 10 minutes from downtown Victoria. This park can be crowded and is a favorite of dog walkers. The secret to avoiding the masses is to run the narrow and muddy trails on the perimeter of the park rather than sticking to the main crushed gravel trail that circumnavigates the lake shore. This is a great solution if you don't mind getting some swamp feet now and then. The weather was chilly 5 Celsius or high 30's Fahrenheit with a hazy sky but also some sun.

I first summited a small hill (Seymour) just to get the blood pumping and get my core temp up. The hill sits on the southeast side of the lake and gives impressive glimpses of Thetis to the west. Running up the south slope of Seymour is one of my favorite trails in the park because it is a vastly different ecosystem with more grass and spaced out garry oaks and fir trees; it reminds me of running in Utah's Uinta mountains or other alpine forests in the Rockies. The summit consists of a faint trail which rolls over the mossy rocks and is dotted by arbutus and douglas fir.

The descent from Seymour is just as spectacular and takes you right down to the lake shore via a swerving length of single-track that cuts through broad-leaved shrubs and Oregon grape. I ran the main trail for a short distance just to get me to the Seaborn trail turnoff which connects to the McKenzie creek trail. Once you veer off the main trail you are back to solitude and complete isolation. Only a few of the hardiest hikers or trail runners venture down these trails because they meander along side the creek in a fairly boggy area. Many portions of the trail consist of roots, mud, and standing water. The ecosystem is one of moss-covered western red cedars, rocks caked with succulent ferns, mossy logs and an overall swampy biota. A little slice of pacific northwest trailrunners paradise.

With limited fitness at the moment I was forced to take things fairly easy so I didn't run to the summit of Stewart mountain but turned back after a few miles on the McKenzie creek trail. I retraced my steps and did the run in reverse and had a thrilling return trip filled with lots of playful running along the creeks and rolling hills in an exhilarating workout. Overall I give this run 3.5 out of 5 wet Brooks Cascadias; high marks indeed for the first run of 2013!

Running out of land!

Yesterday's run was a bit different; I decided to run along the coast instead of my usual trails that are always draped over mountainous terrain. It was a nice change of scenery and coasts offer unique challenges of their own. For example, the rocky shorelines get hammered by wave action leaving them quite fractured, weathered and slick, many have large breaks and gullies you have to jump and climb over (you can get a small sense from the video I am posting, but the quality doesn't really do it justice). There is also something really awesome about running the strand line separating land and sea, as the waves are crashing and the wind is blowing off the water, it is almost therapeutic after a challenging week full of stress.

I chose a spit of land projecting into the Strait of Georgia as my goal for this run, and decided to run until I was completely out of land. It was actually really awesome and I am really enjoying what I am doing with my running; by shaking things up and running to many different locations it is keeping things fun, new, and exciting. I went out armed with my bulky camera (since it was another clear day free of precip.) and snapped some shots along the way including some funny self timer ones. Mixing photography and running is also making each run more exciting, and I really enjoy it. I would love to take my big DSLR with me but it is too bulky (but the quality is unmatched). My current camera I am running with is no pocket camera, unfortunately the photo quality is out of date and isn't proportionate to the bulk of the camera.

This run like previous runs was not that great, but it was fun, so I really can't complain. As soon as I can get consistent I will start seeing the results I am after.

Self-timer shot on the rocky point after running to the lands end.

This photo shows what coastal running near Victoria, BC is like. Lots of slippery rocks!

A shot of the skyline just as I left the trails and started on the roads back for home.

In honor of Christmas I decided a photo I took of this Holly as I ran by was appropriate.

This is a short video showing me run to the end of the point. Not the best quality but I wanted to film it. I have to admit I ran it quite gingerly because of the jagged rocks, I was concerned if I ate it that me or the camera could get chewed up so I took it easy and you can also tell I was pretty knackered by this point of the run. I hope it gives a small glimpse of what it is like running the coast of V.I. (It is best viewed with the sound turned off because of the wind and the Cure video playing with the sound on. I know I could have just added a soundtrack in moviemaker but I would have had to convert the video format so this was good enough.)

I decided to post some acoustic Cure today. A Cure song has been long overdue on my blog and "Close to Me" has been one of my favorite songs since I was just a kid. I remember being about 10 years old and falling in love with the upbeat melody. One day after Halloween I had to stay home from school because I ate too much candy the night before and made myself sick. I can recall laying in bed with my recorder trying to play this song. I never could figure out how to get the notes right but it is nice to know the 10 year old version of myself had pretty good taste in music even back then. Enjoy!

Winter trail photos

Yesterday was my long run and I headed out to my usual training grounds to get some hill and distance training in. I took along my bulky camera and snapped some shots of the trail, since winter afternoons always seem to have such awesome lighting. I ran a little early before the best lighting right at sunset but still thought it was a great time to run. The run itself was terrible, I just couldn't keep my breath and my shoes are way past due for a replacement. My shins really took a pounding on the downhills. I have had inklings towards trying the La Sportiva Crosslite's instead of my Cascadia's I have been using for the last two years. I will have to try them on and see how I like them. My only concern is they really can't handle the roads like the Cascadia's based on reviews.

I really miss my really long gnarly trail runs and am anxious to start incorporating them back into my weekly routine again. I can tell that many of my trail stabilizer muscles have weakened a bit so I have some work to do. My hills are really poor so I can't wait to start pushing more elevation. It wasn't the best week for consistency or quality of runs but I am just working on my base and hopefully as my distances increase my weight will decrease and I can get back into that fit zone.

Catching Up

The first snow of the year in Victoria and a frigid 20 F (-7C) run on Mount Doug.

It has a been two months since I updated last so suffice to say a lot has happened. The major events that happened in the last 8 weeks were the Haney to Harrison relay race I did on the 6th of November, finishing my PhD proposal, having my Candidacy meeting with my committee and laying out the topics of my exam.

Haney to Harrison Race Recap

My training leading up to this event was like all my running this year inconsistent. I trained well from the last week of September into the second week of October including a 70 mile week. I was consistent and really enjoying myself. Then I was hit with an upper respiratory infection and rather than risk getting sicker I took the next couple of weeks off from training. I figured that if I trained hard and got super sick I might not have a shot to compete but if I took the time off and got better I would be able to race and finish my leg it just wouldn't be fast. My plan worked well and my lungs cleared about the first of November. I got one or two small runs in the week of the race but really my fitness stunk so I just planned on relaxing and enjoying the run.

The family and I headed to Chilliwack a day before the race and met up with my good friend Rob who was excited to have us over for a pasta dinner and really made our stay in Chilliwack happen. He was going to run the second leg right before me but after the Iowa marathon in September he was concerned about a foot injury. So he decided to run support and did a great job with our team. I met the team first thing in the morning (4:30am) on the day of the race and quickly breathed a sigh of relief when I realized the team was comprised completely of amateurs so there was no pressure to kill myself on zero training. The weather was quite foggy and perhaps 40 degrees out. The lead leg gal ran a very slow time and finished her 8 km leg in over an hour which as far as speed goes is nearly walking but she was our oldest team mate and was quite positive, happy, and seemed to enjoy her whole leg other than the last slow gradual hill.

Our second leg runner was actually Rob's Dr. Office nutritionist and was a last minute replacement for Rob. She had an extremely hilly run with tons of ups and downs and nailed her 13 km's in about an hour and twenty. I was waiting anxiously at the change station and the line to the two porto pots was ridiculous so I hit the bushes and when I popped out I saw our team mate coming in to the station. I took a deep breath and jogged over just as she swiped the chip (with some difficulty and unsureness if it worked or not) and handed it over to me.

My leg was pretty awesome. The entire run was through the forest and consisted of about 750 feet of elevation right in the first mile with multiple switch-backs. It then was undulating for a few miles and then was a gradual down grade to the end, the total distance was about 16 Km or 10 miles. I ran the first mile extremely strong and passed multiple runners and stuck with some of the faster runners all the way up the switch backs. My legs felt great but the lungs were not happy due to the recent bout of respiratory drama I still hadn't quite gotten over. After the summit I quickly found a strong pace that allowed me to be comfortable but still kept things moving along. At about mile 4 I began to feel the effects of my strong push at the beginning and I completely melted down to a crawl. I fought through the tough spot and rallied two miles later. This rally carried me at a strong pace for the next 2.5 miles. I felt pretty good but could tell that I was going to crash before the finish. I slowed my pace down a bit and sure enough at 8.5 my lack of training caught up to me and I crashed hard. The next little bit was extremely painful and I just didn't have the speed work or a consistent base to draw from so I basically came to a crawl. I began to get passed by quite a few runners and I got a bit frustrated. I had to keep in mind the majority of the runners are not balancing family, candidacy, proposal, PhD research etc. So I dug deep and with a half mile to go I was chagrined to see Rob waiting to run me into the gate. I pushed like a mad man to match his pace and was able to finish quite strong. My total time was an embarrassing hour and twenty according to my watch but the official time was slower perhaps due to some issues with the transition at the second switch. I was tired but actually recovered quite quickly and could have ran another leg if they needed me to. I drank a gatorade and then we drove back to exchange vehicles and runners for our last four team mates.

I was looking forward to seeing Vye and the kids along the course and was hoping that Vye could snag a picture of me looking epic. Unfortunately I didn't see her along the way and actually spotted her on the freeway on our way back to Chilliwack. She looked visibly upset. After meeting up with her at the hotel she explained how every road was closed so she could not approach the course at all with the children and cameras etc. She finally drove to the finish line and by the time she found parking and made her way to the station the officials informed her I had finished 10 minutes earlier. She was crushed and frustrated and the kids were upset they missed their dad's race. After Vye and the kids settled down we went to the pool and I sat in the Jacuzzi for an hour. We ate and then drove to the finish line to meet up with the remainder of the team. It was fun to see the last person come in and though I believe our team was perhaps the slowest we had fun. I was happy to know that I ran my hilly 16 Km leg in just a few minutes slower than it took two of our team mates to run their 8 Km legs. So I feel even though I was slow and not in racing shape I still was the strongest of our funny little team and we all really enjoyed the experience especially because it was the last official running of the H2H with it being switched to Whistler next year.

Thesis Work

The Tuesday following my race was the date of my Candidacy committee meeting. I had to prepare a presentation to give to my committee and answer their questions. This left little time between getting back to Victoria Sunday night and the meeting two days later. I luckily got a presentation together and felt I nailed it. My advisor and committee then informed me what they would like me to study for my candidacy exam. All and all it well and now I know what to expect for that exam. The timing made it impossible to train for my race properly but I arranged my priorities and figured I have my whole life to run but my PhD is a one time shot so I better not blow it.

What's next?

My running since has actually improved a bunch. I nailed 5 runs last week and I am starting strong this week even though it is quite chilly (20 F or -7 C) and snowy. I am really just doing multiple short runs right now with some longer runs on the weekend and I am just using the next 6 weeks as a base-building phase and will take off with a more tailored training approach after I have been consistent for a bit.

My race goals for next year are nearly non-existent but the trails I would like to run are quite epic. I would love to run from Smith and Morehouse in Utah's Uinta Mountains to Bald Mountain with my friend Tim. I would also enjoy running Mt. Arrowsmith here on the island. I am planning on speed hiking the Golden Hinde as well. Additional plans include the Tushar Range in Central Utah and a few other peaks in the Northern Wasatch. We will see how it all plays out.

New Music

It has been 15 years since the synthpop band OMD (Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark) has released an album. The band started by accident as the two main members used to play around on their synths in their mothers back room on Saturday afternoons. Friends told them to do a live show so they chose the first ridiculous name that came to mind not realizing they were about to become one of the biggest influences on the electronic scene for the next decade and a half. After many albums and hits around the world they broke up and now have released a new album earlier this Fall titled "History of Modern". I love that the band has stayed true to their original sound and though many bands try to reinvent themselves when releasing a new album OMD has taken a different approach and brought back many of the old sounds and styles of Synths from the 70's and 80's. They figured with all the new bands coming out that have a synth component and site OMD as one of their influences that if anyone should sound like OMD it is OMD and there is still a niche for their music. Today as I was chugging in the crystalline morning air one of their new songs was in my mind and powered me over the frozen terrain of Mount Doug "The History of Modern Part 1". I hope you enjoy their new stuff as much as me.