Weekend Fun.

With my taper in full swing, this weekend was not full of longs runs. Friday I did spin class and then met up with some friends for drinks and the hockey game at Joey's. This was supposed to be my teams game chance to redeem themselves (I'm an avid Colorado Avalanche fan).  The night didn't go exactly as I (the avs) had planned but there is still plenty of regular season for my team to shine.

Saturday I had planned on hitting the North Shore for an hour run but I ended up staying home  to read, clean and rest.  It felt fabulous!  I had a couple girl friends over for dinner and then we headed to see a great Canadian band called Ohbijou.  The concert was outstanding, they sounded better live then on their album.  The lead vocalist is Casey Mecija her voice was fantastic live - it's youthful, tender, full of energy and the lyrics are absolutely beautiful.  When you pair her voice with the amazing talent of the rest of the band members who play a combination of the mandolin, violin, piano, banjo, cello and other instruments you have a truly wonderful sound.

Sunday I met Helen and Jessica early in the morning for a two hour run and in the afternoon I volunteered for a great organization called Canucks Autism Network which provides support to children and their families.  Today the we hosted 200 kids and their families to watch the movie Ratatouille, complete with popcorn, oranges and a free Willie Mitchell poster for all the kids.  A great event I was proud to help support!

Grinding it.

Grouse Mountain is one of Vancouver's top 10 attractions it really represents what Vancouver is; beautiful, majestic, vibrant, full of culture, diversity and energy. My favorite part about Grouse Mountain is the Grouse Grind. The Grind was first developed in the early 1980's by mountaineers looking for a challenging, aerobic workout as training for their longer hikes it is often referred to as “Mother Nature’s Stair-master." The challenge trail features rugged terrain and a steep climb, up an approximate 56% slope (30°). Here are some further details:

Length: 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles)
Elevation Gain: 853 metres (2,800 feet)
- Base: 274 metres above sea level (900 feet)
- Summit: 1,127 metres (3,700 feet)
- Total Stairs: 2,830
Statistics: Annually, over 100,000 people hike the Grind
Average Time: On average it takes up to an hour and a half to complete the hike.

Picture at the top of the grind.

I love doing the Grind; I was first introduced to it when I played on the BC Provincial Ringette team.  Our team used it for cross training once a week.  My love of the Grind is kinda twisted.  Normally when I hit the 1/4 up mark I can't believe I'm only that far and no matter how many times I do it, it never seems to get easier my legs still burn for most of it.  I do keep track of my times to go up because I love tracking my process and I'm driven to beat my best/last time. Tuesday night I went straight from work.  I got there right before it was getting dark so time would be a race against daylight. We've been getting a ton of snow on the local mountain so the top quarter was pretty snowy, icy and slippery. I brought my YakTrax, a headlamp and a change of clothes for the gondola ride down. The headlamp was a lifesaver I ended up using it for the last 10 minutes which were the worst conditions the hike and daylight had vanished replaced by winter darkness.  When I reached the top I was really happy to see my time was 40:15 during the summer by best time was 38 minutes but I had expected a slower time due to the conditions.

During the summer I would normally run back down the BCMC which is a trail beside the Grind but the conditions were not safe to run down so I opted for the $5 gondola ride, its not the cost of the gondola I don't like its the fact that your body dramatically drops its body temperature while you wait for it and then standing on it for the 10 minute ride to the base is freezing cold. In the summer I normally go up the Grind and run down the BCMC which is a way more fun way to get down and allows me to run some extremely technical down hill which is my favorite.
The top of the Grind in the summer.

Following the grind I went for a run on the seawall with my heart rate monitor for some zone 1 training. It allowed me to test out my new road runners which I'm pretty happy with.

During both workouts I listened to some new music including a new love - Tiesto - Feel It in My Bones [ft. Tegan and Sara]

A Rainy Night and Some Good Tunes. Long Post.

This week I began my taper for San Francisco which means a reduction in my total mileage but not a reduction in actual the intensity of my training. Tuesday night I went for a run after work with my headlamp for about 1 hour and 20 minutes in my zone 1 heart rate training. I ran at Pacific Spirit Regional Park which is located just west of Vancouver near the University of British Columbia campus. It is comprised of 763 hectares of forest and foreshore. The park is more of an urban forest that stretches across Point Grey separating the city from UBC. It’s a great place for me to run because its super close to where I live, you still get to run in a forest even though its so close to the city and it allows me to run on soft terrain that is hilly.

Wednesday I did a 45 minute spin class and my first zone 3 training session on the tread mill at the gym. Normally I find running on a treadmill in the gym extremely painful (psychically/mentally and I want to stop after like 5 minutes) however this time I really enjoyed it. I ignored that I was inside and focused on the fact that I was doing specialized training. I really believe the in method and I’m excited to see the results. This training session on the treadmill also gave me a chance to pull out my pink ipod. Since this run is similar to a tempo run I put on some of my favorite up beat music - during this run I couldn’t stop listening to the Pet Shop Boys, Kaskade and nothing helps you get through the last bit of a tough tempo run better than Rihanna’s Distrubia.

I used to only run with an ipod because I LOVE music but as I have developed a network of running friends listening to the ipod has completely stopped. I love running without music now – even if I’m going for a run by myself I don’t take music. Running without music on the trails lets me hear everything; the leaves blowing in the wind, creeks, waterfalls, rain, puddles, my breathing, my foot steps and other people, it has heighten the running experience for me. It allows me to go into a tranquility place – sometimes my mind all race with thoughts and ideas while I’m running and other times there is nothing going on upstairs I just get in a zone.

Thursday I did my normal track work out.  Our workout consistent of six hill repeats; run hard up the hill and recovery run down, then we hit up the track for three 1200's (three laps around a standard track at a quick pace) with a lap recovery in between each set.  I only did two sets because my hip started to bug me on the second set.  I finished the workout with a couple extra really easy laps of the track and a good stretch before I headed to pick up Jules for our Thursday night Crossfit session at Lululemon.

This weeks session was called Tabata intervals which is designed to train both your aerobic and anaerobic pathways simultaneously. Its a different method to training as many people believe that aerobic training was largely long slow distance (LSD) work, and anaerobic training was typically regarded as hard-to-measure and mostly left to the explosion sports.

The research and development of the exercise was performed by Dr. Tabata. He concluded that eight sets of twenty-second work intervals alternating with ten-second rest intervals was the most effective interval times for improving VO2 max. Our workout consisted of an all-out effort on the intervals - for the first set you should count the number you can perform in the given time and try to keep performing this number throughout the interval. The four things we did were: Tabata squats, power sit-ups, pushups and kettle bell snatches. There is a ton of research on this subject which is really interesting to read. Here is one site I liked.  It was a fantastic workout and I'm so glad that Lululemon and Mike are putting these on - I'm already getting sad that they will soon end.  Thursday nights will not be the same without my crossfit fix.

Friday I went to the gym on my lunch break and did a hard 20 minutes on the stair climber followed by some jump rope, pushups and sit ups.  (Boy were my arms sore by Friday night.)  After work I headed to the Sugoi Warehouse sale to help them out, it was smoken busy because the sales were awesome.

I helped at the sale Friday night and Saturday morning. As I said the sales were - amazing bike shorts and jersey for $1! You can't beat that plus I scored a new Wallaroo Speedster shirt and a new Helium running vest.  The helium vest is super super light, water and wind resistant and folds up into nothing. My coffee on the way to the sale was more expensive then most of the technical clothing that was for sale.

It was actually really fun helping them at the sale. All the staff was friendly, active and super personable and the shoppers were all active people looking for some great new gear - I loved seeing everyone come to the sale post ride/run in their workout gear looking to scope up some new stuff.

 After I left the sale on Saturday I headed to the North Shore for a 2 hour run (that was all I had time for). I had been hoping to get 25km in but I was not about to ignore my zone training on my first long run. With my mind set, running shoes on, rain clearing, daylight fading and Garmin 405 on my wrist I set off for my first long run with my new zone one heart rate training. I've yet to write about my never ending  issues with my Garmin on my blog because I've been trying to stay positive and accept that it may be a "user error" and not the Garmin that is creating the problem but yet again on this run after fully charging the Garmin first it couldn't locate my heart rate monitor and then the battery died while I was still in the parking lot:( I didn't let this technical difficultly upset up me (for too long)...and carried on with my run at a really easy pace ensuring I could speak without feeling out of breathe. The run ended up being 2 hours and 20km in total, we ran into a fawn which was so cute and didn't even try run away. I used this run to test out a new type of gels which actually made me sick (twice) so I definitely will not be using this brand on my 50km. Overall it was a really good run for me, I felt good the entire time. Saturday night I headed to the Biltmore Cabaret for a concert.  Performing was Wil and the British Columbians - the Napster introduced me to both bands.  The Biltmore is an amazing venue for concerts its small so you end up getting to be so close to the performers you can really feel their emotion and even see the sweat flying off them.  Photo of the girls at the Wil.

Sunday I let myself sleep in for the first time in weeks.  Sleeping in still meant I woke up by 9am but it felt great to not be woke up by my blackberry.  I meant Stephen for a 10km run on one of my favorite running routes on the North Shore its actually the first route I ever trail ran so it holds a special place in my running heart.  And its the route I ran for the first four months I trail ran because I was too scared to explore new trails for fear of getting lost and ending up being eaten by a bear or worst a cougar!

Sunday night we went to watch Warren Millers film which was fantastic and made me feel way less guilty for my recent shopping spree.  In the last week I had the opportunity to purchase half price lift tickets to Whistler/Blackcomb and Cypress so I bought the max I was allowed for both - oops.

After seeing that film and the epic skiing and snowboarding that people are doing all over the world I say bring on the snow!  I can't wait to bust out my snowboard which I just purchased last winter and hit up our west coast p*o*w*d*e*r*.

ps - this post was not supposed to be so long but I have been listening to some super chill music (Ryan Adams, Ohbijou and Stars) and just kept typing. Plus the napster is away visiting her grandfolks so I'm lonely.

Nite for now!

Thinking of You Day

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada, a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War.

Remembrance Day is observed on November 11th every year to recall the end of World War I in 1918. This day has always been special to me because both my grandpa's fought in the war. Today it is particularly hard/special because my younger brother Travis is currently in Afghanistan fighting for our country.

I am not going to get political with my views for or against the war that's really beside the point.  I save my thoughts today for the positive; how brave my younger brother is to go into such a dangerous region of the world in an effort to help improve living conditions for the people that are suffering.  His time there is being spent training Afghan police and special forces.  Every time I have spoken to him since he has been there he has been nothing but positive about the experience and extremely grateful for the people, especially the children he is meeting and helping.

Today take some time in your day to remember what is important in your life; family, friends, health and happiness.  Keep your thoughts positive and do something nice for someone just because.

For my brother congrats and safe stay!

Travis in the upstate New York summer 2009 at my Uncles camp.

Kolton (my baby brother), me and Travis on the seawall in Vancouver fall 2009.

Zoning out

This weekend was my last distance heavy weekend leading into my 50km race which is in 3 weeks. Saturday I ran 35km of the Baden Powell, the goal was to run 40km but part way through I realised I had an appointment (which I had completely forgotten about) at 2:00pm at Peak so we had to cut the run a bit short. We started our run with the Mountain Madness group for the first 6km. Stefan and I continued out to Grouse Mountain when the group turned back. It poured rain but was a good run overall. Again my goal was to run the hills as much as possible and I felt pretty good after we finished.

From the North Shore I headed straight to Peak Centre for Human Performance to meet with Michael McIvor. I will admit I had my Run Assessment weeks ago (October 6th - to be exact) and totally procrastinated receiving my results because I was scared of the results.

The tests that I completed at Peak total us three important indicators about my body and running; VO2 Max, Lactate Threshold and Aerobic Threshold.  For the type of endurance events that I am training for the aerobic threshold is most important because its the zone I should be in when running for 2 hours or more.  Your aerobic threshold represents the speed/pace you can maintain for prolonged periods without tiring so improving your aerobic threshold will allow you to run faster at long distances while experiencing less fatigue.

Once Mike started going through my results I was amazed at the information he was providing me with. It made so much sense compared to how I’ve been feeling during my training.  In particular how I have been feeling about my progress compared to the quantity of training I have been doing. This meeting will now transform how I train moving forward.

Based on the results for the three key indicators (VO2 max, lactate threshold and aerobic threshold) Peak develops a zone training system for you.  The goal of the zone training system that Mike provided is to lower the lactate level for each speed of your training - which means you are producing less fatigue at each speed and able to go faster for longer.  I will be focusing my training in three of the five possible zones:

• Zone 1: Improvement of aerobic fitness and recovery between hard workouts - used for training that is at least 30 minutes or greater.  85% of my total weekly running.
• Zone 3: Red lining zone - To train the removal of lactic acid and increase lactate threshold. 10% of my total weekly running.
• Zone 5: Aerobic Interval Training - Lower production of lactic acid and increase removal from high lactic acid concentration. 5% of my total weekly running.

So to make sure I'm using my new knowledge I'll need to start the following:

1. Learn how to use the Garmin 405. I bought it at the beginning of the summer and have only used once. I know shame on me.  
2. Start zone 1 heart rate training. This means adapting my long runs to using my heart rate monitor and running in the heart rate zone that Mike told me to run in. Sorry to my training partners this may mean a decrease in my speed for a short time.
3. Add zone 3 training i.e. tempo training. I will be completing mine on a treadmill at my lovely gym.  I'll need to increase the intensity to the top of this zone for 2-3 minutes and the recover at the lower end of this zone for 2-3 mins repeating for 20-60 minutes.
4. Add zone 5 training i.e. interval training on a track super short but as hard as I can.  This you run at 100% for 1 to 3 mins and then recover for 4-6 mins for 2-6 repeats.
5. Nutrition, Mike went through some information on my nutrition for my long runs I’m excited that I now have the knowledge to properly fuel by body for Peak performance.  The one sad thing is I must switch gels which is going to be tough because I really love the taste of them.
6. Buy new lulus! Ok, so this wasn’t on Mike’s list but I just had to buy the new Lululemon running tights. They are amazing.

I will be back to see Mike in January to see how this training has impact by progress. I’m confident that these changes in my training are going to help improve my speed, endurance and hill climbing ability.

After Peak I headed to Lululemon where I purchased my new running tights – wunder under.  Then headed for a night on the town filled with delicious wine & appetizers at Sanafir Restaurant & Lounge, wonderful friends, an awesome concert at the commodore; Kaskade and tons of dancing. Picture is my friend Jules and I.  This face is the result of the consumption of too much wine and not enough food and water but the night was well worth it. 

Sunday morning was rough to say the least. I woke at 6:30am after going to bed at 2:00am feeling terrible but I had committed to a point to point run with my friend Grant. I wasn’t even able to eat breakfast but packed a cliff bar and a camel back and headed to meet him in deep cove. This run was truely painful; note to self 35km, wine and no sleep lead to TERRIBLE performance running the following day. I made it through the 2 hour run but barely. Post run I headed straight home to the couch where I stayed most of the day watching Entourage only getting up to eat or do laundry. Mike from Peak would definitely have been disappointed with this performance:(

Monday was a rest day for me so I headed to Lululemon for their free Monday night Yoga session with my friend Jules and then we went to our gym for some girly talk, relaxation and hot tubing.

Tonight is my first run with my new heart rate monitor and zone 1 training – I’m stupidly excited for this run in the rain and to start my zone specific training!

Switching gears to one of my other loves - Get ready for the 2009/2010 ski and snowboard season.  Here is the snow report for Whistler, they are opening 12 days early on Saturday November 14th.  I'm stoked!  I sense an epic snow season leading into the Vancouver 2010 Olympics!

 
 
 
 
 

Lastly don't forget to check out the Warren Miller's Dynasty coming to a city near you. I'm headed to the show in YVR this Sunday and already working on my paper airplane building skillz.

Yasso 800's and Lululemon Style Crossfit

The rainfall warning (30 to 50mm expected) that was issued for the Fraser Valley yesterday didn't stop the Lions Gate Road Runners from embarking on a slopping wet track workout last night. It was a much smaller group then normal not because of the weather but because many people are running the Haney to Harrison race this Saturday. Chris was unable to run due to injury but bravely volunteered to come run/time our workout. He suggested the Yasso 800 which is an amazing marathon training workout and based on how far out I am from my 50km it would be a great time to do it. In principle it’s a simple marathon workout you run ten 800s (two laps of the track) in the same time as your marathon goal time and you get one lap of “recovery 60% effort” in between each 800 set. The basic premise behind the workout is: if you run your 800s at 2 minutes 50 seconds, your marathon time would be 2 hours 50 minutes or if you ran your 800s at 2 minutes 40 seconds, you’d run a 2:40 marathon.


I don’t currently have a road marathon planned for the near future but as a benchmark for my training I use the following logic. If I were to run a road marathon I’d want to make sure I ran it fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon so I would need to run a sub 3:40. So I would want to run my 800s at 3 minutes 40 seconds or faster.

Another thing to keep in mind when doing this workout is not to go out too hard from the beginning – similar to how you would actually run a marathon. Here are my times from last night’s training session:

3:35:0
3:35:5
3:34:2
3:29:5
3:28:0
3:27:1
3:24:8
3:22:5
3:22:9
3:23:9
Average time: 3:27:58

Roger/Chris my fearless Thursday night leaders summed it up best when they said “That was a key workout to complete. Especially since the opposition were sleeping on this wet evening.”

It’s workouts like that one in the pouring rain that not only help physical training but more importantly build your emotional and mental strength to ensure you get through the tight times during races.

Following the track I picked up my good friend Jules and we headed to Lululemon on West 4th to attend their first Crosffit Training session. Crossfit classes are occurring there every Thursday evening from 7-8pm free of charge. There is a maximum of 20 people allowed in the class and you have to sign up in store prior to the class. The Crossfit Classes are being taught by Mark Turner who is a certified CrossFit Coach, Personal Trainer and Agtsu Kettlebell Insturctor at Fitness World in Kitsilano. There were probably 25 people who attended last night which is a great turn out for the first night. Our workout consisted of 20 minutes of the following exercises - going as hard as you can for the 20 minutes:

10 Burgees – including a real pushup and high knee jump
15 power super deep weighted squats
½ km sprint outside the store on a slight incline and back

We plan on attending next week too!

Hiccups and Quills on Chuckanut

I didn't go out for Halloween on Saturday night; instead I did a bit of shopping at Lululemon and baked cookies. This was the prefect way to spend an evening on the eve of a long run especially because Saturday was action packed for me; morning orientation run for The Phantom Race, birthday brunch with friends and then an afternoon of mountain biking on the North Shore.  

I organized a group of runners to meet at 7:30am Sunday morning to head down to Washington State to Chuckanut Mountain to ran part of the 50km Chuckanut Mountain race route.  I plan on running the race in March so thought this was a great time to check out the route.  We adapted the race route a bit by leaving out the first and last 6 miles; this section is supposed to be non technical, flat trail along on old railroad line. 

Nine brave souls turned up for this extraordinary run.  We could not have asked for a more amazing day.  The sky was clear, the sun was shining and the temperature was not even that cold for November 1st.  The route starts off with some up hill climbing and then it levels off as you reach Fragance Lake.  You loop around the lake and then hit another hilly section; similar to the North Shore's Mountain Highway which is quite runnable.  I've really been trying to focus on improving my hill climbing; distance running is new to me and I've notice that as I been adding distance to my runs my hill climbing as been suffering.  This day definitely tested my hill training, my goal is to try run all the hills and not power hike up them.  Tom Craik gave me some great advice during this run and so I'll be focusing on these pointers in all my training runs as I approach my first 50km race.

At one point on this hill Duncan Coo ran up behind me and gave me a little push - just thinking out loud - maybe this is the way I should improve my hills...

The run consists of at least 20 minutes of ridge line running which was spectacular.  Views of the ocean and surrounding areas were picture prefect (too bad I forgot my camera in the car).  This is what makes trail running so rewarding - only a small percentage of people actually get to experience this, it reminds me why I'm so lucky to be able bodied and living here.  People sometime ask me how and why I like to run as far and often as I do.  I prefer to switch the question and ask them why they don't.

This run marked the first time I've seen a porcupine in the wild in real life. He was climbing a tree that was leaning across the trail. I chose to remember him like this but in actual fact he was much larger and not nearly this cute.  This adds to the list of creatures I've seen on my running travels; one bear, a bunch of deers, one scary ass cougar and a porcupine.














After the porcupine run in we continued on towards a very very steep climb called chin scarper.  Once we reached the top of this climb it was almost all down hill switchback running to the parking lot.   At the parking lot I reveiled my baking to the group which surprisingly was a hit.  I guess after 4 hours of running chocolate chip cookies baked by anyone taste good because they all got eaten.  It was definitely a good thing I elected to bake for this run because my car broke down so I delayed the whole crew from getting back to civiliziation by almost 2 hours while we tried to get my little VW started.  Thanks for everyone for making me laugh and not being angry at my poor little Jetta.  I'm tending to her now so this won't happen again.

I used this run to test out my nutrition plan for San Fran.  The plan was to eat a gel every 30 minutes and drink water (I really like to drink water and not a sports drink).   However a gel every 30 minutes was too much gel for one Katie so I'm revisiting my plan: a gel every 45 minutes to 1 hour, a handheld with accelerade, my pack with water and some solid food.

I took Monday off as a rest a day and hit up Mountain Highway Tuesday after work for some further hill training.  This was my first time doing this hill training route by myself (in the dark).  I had a head lamp and managed 20 minutes up which is when I got too creepied out, all I could think about was how tasty a dinner I was going to make for the cougars larking in the dark woods that surrounded me. At 20 minutes I turned around and sprinted back down the hill to the car.  I'm now accepting/recruiting Tuesday night hill training parnters.

Wednesday I got in a great cross training work out in at my gym.  Normally I go to Tim's 5:30 cycle and core class but I had an engagement for work at 6:00pm so I decided to try Rebecca's spin class that starts a bit earlier.  She was a wicked teacher and I manged to really get my heart rate going with some high intensity interval training.  After the class I quickly dashed back to the locker room to throw on my "little black dress" and headed straight to the Lotus Awards which is Vancouvers biggest advertising awards show.  The show was hosted by my agency Rethink Communications, they did a fantastic job and managed to win the medal count for all their fabulous work throughout the last year.

Tonight I'm heading to the track for 800's and then to Lululemon on 4th to try out a new crossfit class they are offering (for free) which I'm super excited to try.

Saturday I'll be running 40km, followed by a session at Peak Performance and then I'm headed to see one of my favourite DJ's Kaskade at the Commodore.  Sunday I will will likely be a degenerate because Saturday night will probably involve the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol.

One month until I head down to San Francisco for the North Face Endurance Challenge and my first 50km trail race!