Chilly HM and Upcoming Season

Kim after the Chilly HM

Chilly Half Marathon and Pikes Peak Qualifier
Chilly Half Marathon was a big success for Kim. We set a target time of 2:15 which slightly slower than her half PB even though there was really no proper training for the race as Kim hadn't started doing any quality runs in her program yet.

We had a really good day weather wise and the race started off well in the early going. We ended up running with our friend Ryan and I got to spend the first 5km of the race listening to him explain to Kim how Sith Lords are really not as badass and evil as they should be. Seriously I kid you not, my wife is such a geek sometimes.

After that Ryan took off and we settled into a steady 6:20 pace for pretty much the rest of the race. Kim ended up running 2:14:46 so pretty much right on the plan and less than a minute off her PB. Also this was easily good enough for her Pikes Peak qualifier.

As some of you know I am not a big fan of VRpro races and lets just say that I am still not a big fan of their races.  I will continue to try and avoid them in the future that's for sure as I had lots of issues with this race (again). I really don't want to get into details much here but having runners running in the middle lane of the road with live traffic on BOTH sides for the final 5km of a race is a big safety issue particularly when the sweepers on the out and back course have picked up all the cones that were separating our lane from the outgoing traffic lane. Live traffic on both sides and no cones separating the traffic on one of those sides. Golly guys what could possibly go wrong in that scenario.

Racing Season Looking Clearer
The plans for this season are starting to take shape. What I know for sure is I will be running Hynerview 50km, Pick Your Posion 50k and Seaton 50k as training runs for a return to 100 milers. Right now I am thinking I will run 100 miles at Sulphur Springs in May but that will be dependent on where I am at as far as my fitness level goes.

We have registered for the Pikes Peak Ascent in August and I plan to run 100 miles at Lean Horse in South Dakota the following weekend. I fully expect to also run Dirty Girls, Creemore, and Haliburton if my legs are feeling good. Not sure about distances but I expect that I will do semi long to longer distances.

The last race of the season has already been decided as Kim has signed up to run 50km at Oil Creek again this year and she is super excited about this. It was no easy task to get signed up as the registration was open and closed at random  for short windows of time in order to try and keep the servers from crashing. When I say short I mean short, I am guessing 3 -5 minutes. I will return to OC as well to try and get myself another 100 mile finish there. Both of us really love this race. The course is beautiful but it's a tough one particularly so late in the season and the 18,000 ft of climb can
be challenging.

Oil Creek 2014

Current Training
My current training as I work my way back from injury is going about as good as expected. I have settled into 100km weeks which feel fairly comfortable now although I'm not yet at the 120 - 130km volume that I usually like to be at.

I have not started quality workouts yet as I wanted to be careful upping the mileage however starting last week I have added some very hilly runs on the road. I also returned to the trails for the first time since the injury. Nothing gets me back in shape quicker than running some hilly trails. Things went okay on the trail but I got a lot of work to do. The uphills were not so bad but I found that I was having to think a little bit about picking my lines instead of it just happening naturally. I was horrible on the downhills though but I am sure that will all come back soon enough.

Still slow and still got some weight to get off but progressing so I can't complain. Bring on the summer.