Sulphur Mountain - 1st hike of 2014!

Yesterday was a blast in the mountains. I didn't realize how much I missed playing in the mountains until I got out there again. Being injured and missing most of last summer and now it being winter, it's been quite a while. Usually I kind of hibernate in winter and stick to road running - I realized I have absolutely no idea why I do that! I've always had yak trax which are decent on a little bit of ice but not on anything serious or if you want to hike in the mountains. So I went out and bought myself a pair of Microspikes which are freakin awesome. It feels like you can tackle anything wearing those!

With all the warm weather going on around here, it's been melting like crazy in Calgary and then freezing at nice so crazy slippery. But I wasn't sure what it would be like in Banff with it not getting quite as warm but still warm enough for some melting also. So my friend Tara and I grabbed the microspikes, our dogs and headed for Banff yesterday to hike Sulphur Mountain. We actually found no ice at all but we still wore these as they made the hiking super stable and much easier on the packed snow which can sometimes feel like walking a bit in sand with just trailrunners on. It was a total trip of 12km and about 2300 ft of climbing.

It was just a beautiful beautiful day in Banff and I finished thinking, from now on i'm going to make sure I get to the mountains at least once every weekend. My knee is still a huge bugger right now but it's doing fine while hiking - and lucky for me I can pretty much hike all day. So if that's what i have to do to keep training for now, then so be it. It's so much fun!

Me and Logan at the top - Logan hiked like a superstar and put us to shame.

Hope I'm still doing that when I'm around 75 :)

Oh right, I forgot to mention that Andrew and I are off to Mexico this weekend for a friend's wedding. So I guess all my mountain time will start when I get back :) Definitely looking forward to a little beach time for a week that's for sure!

Cheers to a Happy 2014!

Well I didn't post a typical blog like most people do - reflecting on the past year, looking forward to the next. I thought about it, and then I got busy having too much Christmas fun :) Now it's January 9th and I felt the need to write something! I'm stoked for the new year - am really hoping to train smart which includes a good amount of cross training, to be able to toe the line for all the great races i've got lined up in 2014. As shown over on the side of my blog, my exciting trail schedule includes the following

• Yakima Skyline Rim 50km - April 20
• Miwok 100km - May 3 (Registered)
• Scout Mountain 60 km - June 7 (Registered)
• Sinister 7 100 mile - July 5 (Registered)
• Squamish 50/50 (50 mile & 50 km) - Aug 16-17 (Registered)
• Lost Soul Ultra 100 km - Sept 5 (Registered)

Registration hasn't opened yet for Yakima but i'm pretty sure i'll do it. Have been wanting to do that one for a while. It is only 2 weeks before Miwok though so I will definitely have to not overdo it there and make sure I'm having a lot of fun and soaking up the views!

On a side note - January isn't off to the best start running wise as out of the blue on Dec. 28th my knee just started slightly hurting during the end of a run. Then the next day it hurt more and the following day a lot more. This was the knee that I fell on and injured last year and couldn't believe after running pain free for 3 months, not doing anything crazy like upping mileage or pace out of the blue, it just started aggravating me! So I took a week off and this week i've been slowly getting back into running by doing the walk/run thing on the treadmill and gently testing out the knee. It seems to be handling this well so far and hopefully it was just being cranky after an icy run I had up at Nose Hill.

I wanted to take part in some snowshoe running and racing that's coming up but 1. I want to take it easy on my knee and 2. my running snowshoes have completely disappeared. I've searched everywhere and can only find my regular pair. Grrr. Hopefully they're around somewhere. I might hold off on this anyway until after Mexico - we head out to a friend's wedding in Cozumel in 2 weeks. I'm pumped! I'm hoping to get a lesson in SUPing. I've been wanting to do this FOREVER and I realize it's much harder than it looks. Wish me luck :)

Happy New Year!