Another road trip, another mountain, another post

This weekend made a mad dash to Vernon to see my mom and Keith for the weekend. Jammed straight from work on Saturday and got there about 8:30. Put Violet to bed and was crushed from a long day of work and driving.
It wasn't until Sunday that I realized I had totally forgotten to do my push ups on Saturday. Some background: I stated doing push ups every day in January of 2009. I started with 10 a day and have added one to the number I do each week. I'm up to 41 push ups a day and Saturday was only the third day all year that I haven't done them and the first two were because I was literally too sick to get out of bed. So, needless to say I was pretty bummed. I swear that my pecs looked smaller.

Sunday we had all day so after breakfast we headed up to Silver Star mountain just outside of town before heading over to meet my mom for lunch.
Here's Violet crushing a bowl of berries.




Once again I found myself at the top of a lift line wishing I had my bike. It was crazy. We got there just before the lift opened and the mountain and village plaza were empty. Took a quick stroll out onto the mountain to check it out.

Beautiful views of the valley below:





Violet and I hopped up onto a trail that wasn't for hikers to check out a sick MTB bridge built over the path. The end of the bridge we are walking away from is a sick 25 foot 45 degree ladder with a super sharp banked turn at the bottom. It gave me butterflies to think about riding it.




The mountain was awesome and the views were incredible. I just don't know why I keep torturing myself by going to mountains without my bike. It's a sickness.


By the time we walked back to the village the lifts were almost open and the place was packed with tons of super sweet rigs including a girl rocking full armour and riding a bright pink dually that reminded me of a 'roided out version of this girl's ride.

The Vernon area is semi arid climate and all sorts of crazy wildlife lives in the area. Keith took us up to a nature conservatory that's funded entirely by donation so we could check out some of the exhibits and support the local conservation movement. It was rad! We were the only people there when we arrived and the two girls who were working were all over Violet!
The even busted out a gopher snake that was as long as Violet is tall and my little girl was brave enough to let it crawl on her hand. I was pretty impressed.





Met up with mom for lunch and pretty much relaxed in the heat for the rest of the trip. Lounged, ate, slept, repeat.
A highlight of the trip was hearing that my mom is planning to start riding her bike to work! I'm so pumped to hear it. We went to a local shop and picked out a super cool Trek 7 speed cruiser. It's 7km from her house to work and this bike should totally do the trick. I'll throw up a pic if she buys it. So pumped. Go Mom!


***UPDATE***
I just finished cleaning my bathroom and I don't care if they discover that five penguins die for every can they make: I will never stop buying Comet.

Whistler 2010, Summer Style

Hit up Whistler for the July 1st holiday with Jamie and Violet. We were hosted by the Visschers' who put us up in their sweet family pad. Yeah, that's a totem pole in the living room.


Here's the view from the top of the stairs. Totally roughing it.


There were three couples who went up with their kids and each of us was responsible for one meal over the three evenings. Trev and Jen were cooking up some beer butt chickens for dinner the first night we arrived. Meat cooked with beer? What's not to like?

One for me:


And a couple for the chickens:



Trev looking proud and protective of his delicious birds.

Hit it up with a little Slipstream ale and some corn and black bean salad. Good stuff.

The next day I was up early to get a little run in. The weather was really warm and I wanted to get going before it got too hot. The scenery was unreal and I wished I had brought my camera. I had meant to take it pretty easy but kinda clipped along instead. The first section of the run was downhill and the legs just kept going after that. Fitness isn't really there but it's coming along. I got lost following a trail map that I picked up at a take out BBQ place the day before and pushed it a little for the last couple miles.




After breakfast, decided to hit up the village and check out the parade. Olympic reps were there and I got a chance to hold an actual Olympic torch. I applied to be a runner but never heard back. This is as close as I'm going to get. Apparently, the torch runners have the option to buy the torch they run with and there are 14,000 Olympic torches made like this. Pretty sweet!



The kids were super pumped about the chance to see the Olympic mascots Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi who were rumored to be in the parade but they were late to show up and nap time forced us home before the kids all imploded. Violet and Theo (Trev and Jen's son) were pretty stoked to see some giant stuffed versions instead.



Whistler is known for the mountain but there are tons of gorgeous lakes up there as well. Owen (our host) busted out the Kayaks and took us all don to the lake for a paddle. Here he is with Violet after a spin around Alta Lake.




What a view. Hard to believe that we're only two hours from home. Life is good.



Violet was a little played out from all the sun so I went up to the alpine meadow with the rest of the crew to take a ride on the Peak to Peak gondola. It is the world's longest unsupported span of gondola in the world. The cable runs from Whistler to Blackcomb, 4.4 km over a valley between the two mountains. The unsupported length across the middle (distance between the two towers furthest apart) is 1.88 MILES. Yup, big ole gondola, two miles between towers, valley floor 200 feet below and 360 degree views. $40 to ride but it was worth it.


A pic from the gondola on the way up to the Peak to Peak. The lake in the back of the pic is where we were staying. You can see the village at the bottom. It's kinda tough to see but if you follow the gondola lines down you can see a building. That's the midpoint station and you can see some of the mountain bike trails shooting off from there and heading down to the village. Yes, from the midpoint to the village is all rolling down hill all-mountain goodness. And if you're feeling it, you can off load at the top and ride all the way down. Next time I'm bringing the dually.



And a crazy shot of the Whistler glacier from the Peak to Peak gondola. I stopped taking pictures after the first one when I realized that there was no way the camera could capture how majestic it all was.




Four days and it felt like two weeks. Thanks Visschers for a rad stay. Can't wait to do it again.

And for all y'all down south reading this: C'mon up and join us for a couple weeks this February and see for yourself! We're very friendly and your dollar goes a long way!

"Race Report"

OK, so who am I kidding. There's no race report coming. I had every intention of writing one but time got away. I've attached the chart from my Garmin. It was hilly singletrack. It was lots of fun. I'm going back next year. Nuff said.


Training is going well. Running every day with pretty easy efforts. Running on PE about an hour a day and trying to get long runs in on the weekend. Keeping it nice and easy and just trying to build up that aerobic base so I'm ready for when the real push comes leading up to Boston.
Did my first run over 10 miles for some time yesterday ( I did say trying to get the long runs in). Beautiful day here at the coast. Slapped on some sunscreen and headed out for 2 hours easy. Ended with 14.6 miles, 8:12 pace average against HR average of 153. HR started rising a little towards the end of the run due to fatigue, heat and lack of fuel (IE hungry!)
Those of you who've seen me know that I've got a pretty sickly cave tan going most of the year. Sunscreen is a must. SPF 50 is a minimum. And yet, for some reason I didnt think to do my legs yesterday. Moving too fast for the suns rays to catch them. Yeah, not quite.




That white dot is my normal pigment. Check out the sweet sock line. Looks great with the flip flops. Endurance athletes are sexy!

Tomorrow is Canada Day and Jamie, Violet and I are heading up to Whistler to chill until Saturday. I'm looking forward to some epic scenery and promise lots of pics when I get back.

North Face Endurance Challenge 10K

Just a shorty race report with the real one coming. Didn't take the 'advice' of some and run the 50 miler. 10K time of 54 minutes, good enough for 10th overall and 3rd in the AG.
Set a few small goals for myself going in to the race and was happy to have achieved them. Course was tough with a lot of climbing. Lost three spots in the last mile that I could have held if I could descend singletrack faster in worn out road shoes. Next time.
Pics and a bit more detail to follow.

Feedback

Training is going well. The issues with the lower leg from the form work are resolved and I did some barefoot strides the other day with no discomfort. Sweet!
I'm looking for some feedback around how to fill my days between now and when Boston training begins for real.
Originally, I was going to train for 5-10K using Daniels' plan. Then, I thought that rather than train for a specific distance, I'd work from one of Daniels' 'general' fitness plans included in the second edition of 'The Running Formula'. Now, having re read some stuff that suggests staying in 'base mode' as long as possible, Im debating sticking to relatively easy mileage with one threshold run and one set of strides per week until about 20 weeks out from Boston.
I know that as long as I'm running regularly and staying healthy, I'll be in a great spot to launch into a 20 week plan leading up to Boston.
I guess I'm looking for opinions from you guys out there.

Yarrrr...

Last post got flagged for copyright infringement and the song file was removed from my online file sharing provider. Piracy: It's not just for Somalia anymore.
The only song I've posted that's been used by Apple in an ad campaign is the only song that's ever been pulled. Coincidence?
Training is going OK, got over a little set back with my ankle that kept me sidelined for about 5 days. Feeling good and looking forward to building the mileage now that the weather is better, the days are longer and Brian is back running again.
Thinking of heading down to Bellingham to run the North Face Endurance Challenge race in June. The 10K looks good andfor those who are up to it they are offering distances up to 50 miles. It's $50 to enter and includes some decent swag including a shirt and some socks. It's Jamie's birthday that weekend and we're going to send Violet for some bonding with her grandparents for a couple days and make little vacation of it. Might book accomadations here.

Slack Post

Been doggin it a bit on the posting lately. Back training on a schedule again for the first time since early December and Vegas. A little bit of track work and getting the miles up. Found a great grass field near my house and have been running barefoot strides there to work on my form. I've overdone the form work on the track and have beat up my lower legs a little. My ankle is pretty sore so I'm going to take the hint and ease up a bit.

It's been a WHILE since I've put any music up here. Mostly because when I'm not doing long runs I'm not listening to new music.

The girl in the header photo is my 2 year old daughter Violet. This song is not a new one, but it's currently our favorite dance song. She calls it party song and can sing all the words to the chorus. Sweet.

Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls.mp3