NorAms 2010

NorAms are done! Today's race finished off a weekend of excitement, thrilling competition and even a touch of controversy. The organizers put on a spectacle with great courses through rocket-ship terrain, a buzzing arena and top notch competition.

I had a slow start to the weekend, but it improved day by day as I ran to a silver in the Long Distance yesterday and earned my gold in the Sprint Distance today. The competition was tight everyday and I was proud to race against such a good field of athletes.

The American Team won the Bjorn Kjellstrom Cup for the 2nd time in 16 years, so we are hungry for a victory on the road in two years!

After the regular courses finished up, the elite 'red group' race began and I heard nothing but praise and excitement from anyone who stayed to watch. It was great fun to have everyone gathered and cheering for each race and the supportive atmosphere was hugely motivating. Thanks to everyone who came out to cheer us on - we appreciate your support and look forward to putting on a show in Norway!

Pulling myself together for a good end to the weekend and running to a narrowly won gold. Good push in the finish thanks to the dude in the toque. ;) Just like Tuesday night.

the prologue

Day 1 of the US Champs is underway. The racing is done, but that's only one small part of the day! After a lot of travel and waiting for the races, it was good to finally start racing today. For this weekend, I am training through the races so that I'll be a bit more primed for next weekend and ultimately the Worlds in 6 weeks. You can't rest for every weekend race, but doing a lot of travel at this important time of year makes it even more tricky to have optimal preparation. Ideally, it would be all about quality training and being rested, but 4500km of driving puts a small spanner in the works. The last few days have been a balance of rest and increasing the training load bit by bit to wake up the legs.

I was getting the question - what does a race day on the road look like? It's always surprising how quickly the days slip by! Although the race is only a small part of the day, the rest of the day's recovery and training revolves around the race. Today was a 10:45am start.

630am. Wakeup.

645am. Easy morning jog, silly walks and light dynamic stretching and some pre-race mental exercises. The purpose is just to get the body going, metabolism running and the brain running!

745am. Breakfast (3h before start). Oatmeal, fruit and good strong coffee works for me!

815am. Shower (if it's hot, a cold shower, if I'm tight, a hot shower does wonders to loosen up), change, pack bags.

845am. Off to the race.

930am. Pick up race package, bibs, etc.

945am. Change into race kit, warmup, dynamic stretching, strides, pre-race mental exerices.

1045am. Race. Today was a 35-minute sand dune slog!

1130am. Cooldown, recovery drink, some stretching.

1215pm. Head back to the cassa.

1pm. Shower, lunch.

2pm. Compression tights on for a bit of chill time, reading, listening to some tunes or a nap. Resting hard is just as important as training hard!

3pm. Up and ready for the pre-dinner reco workout.

330pm. Easy bike, water run, jog depending on how long the morning race was!

530pm. Ice bath, swim in the lake, massage. Depends on where we are and what we can find!

6pm. Dinner!

7pm. Some post-race analysis from the day. What went well? Some pre-race prep for tomorrow -reviewing goals, looking at old maps for tomorrow or for Norway!

8pm. Some relaxing time, hanging out with the team, checking email, watching the US get beat by Ghana. Ouch.

900pm. Getting ready for bed and ideally fast asleep by 10pm.

That's it! It's a full day. More and more, I find the mental focus especially important but also more tiring on the big, important days. Increasingly, it's super important to make time for recovery and relaxing. Every sport psychology book in the world talks about it, but it's something you have to figure out for yourself too!

And for something completely different...With ARK all wrapped up for the summer, it's cool to see some kids still having fun while they get stronger for the fall - the CXC Team blog talking about the St. Croix Valley Ski club. Good blog.

le Tour

Spring is officially over and the weekend will kick off a long series of races on the west coast. My main goal of 'le Tour' is the North American Championships in Cranbrook and everything else is training and preparation for August. It's a fairly intense programme with lots of racing and travel, so it will be important to stay healthy and rested and keep the main goal in mind!

National Team Coach Magnus Johansson recently announced Team Canada for 2010 and I am very proud to have been selected for the 2010 World Championships in Trondheim! August 8th-15th will be the big week.

I'll try my best to keep the blog updated regularly over the next 6 weeks leading up to the Worlds! Here is the programme:

Sat, June 26: US Champs Middle (Moses Lake, WA)

Sun, June 27: US Champs Long (Sprague, WA)

Mon, June 28: US Champs Sprint (Spokane, WA)

Fri, July 2: NorAms Middle (Cranbrook, BC)

Sat, July 3: NorAms Long (Cranbrook, BC)

Sun, July 4: NorAms Sprint (Cranbrook, BC)

Mon, July 5: Junior Training Camp, coaching (Cranbrook, BC)

Tues, July 6: Sage Sprint (Kamloops, BC)

Wed, July 7: Sage Middle (Kamloops, BC)

July 9-14: Barebones Multiday (Whistler/Vancouver)

And speaking of the other Tour, if you've never seen the blog Painting le Tour, check it out! It's a good time to be a sports fan!

On target and aiming high

“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
-Michelangelo (the painter, not the turtle)

Last weekend's US and Canadian Team Trials in NY were a great test after the winter and spring training. I had two solid results in the sprint and long, which were great feedback after the winter and spring training. I was fully focused and ready to race - just where I need to be. The biathlon analogy would be perfect shooting and strong skiing! The trick now is to get to the targets faster, shoot just a bit quicker, but still hit them all. Still work to do, but we're on target!

Several of us spent the week leading up to the races in a training camp and based out of a little cottage on a nice cold lake. It was a perfect chance to rest, refocus and charge up for the races and the upcoming training block.

With the spring races now over, the specific goals of the year - NorAms and Worlds - are starting to occupy every corner of my brain as the days move on. Every day has a purpose and every minute counts! Training, recovery, mental training, race prep, ice baths, and a few new secret weapons start to fill up the days. The summer races are coming soon. Stay tuned!

Always one foot on the ground

TC Harriman - looking towards the site of US team trials, May 15/16

The spring is moving along at full speed with training and lots of work keeping me busy. After two weekends on the road for racing and training camps, the upcoming weekend is shaping up nicely for some Hammer time.

On Saturday, the trail running season kicks off with 5 Peaks in the Dundas Valley. As of right now, I'm not sure if I'll race as I'm trying to cure my foot, but I will be there hanging out in the Salomon tent. Come try some new shoes from our demo fleet if you're racing! The Sport and Enduro courses are full, but the kids race is open to on the day registrations.

On Sunday, I'm looking forward to hearing our friend Mark Tamminga as the first Adventure Speaker for ARK. Then on Monday, I get to start my own spring speaking season with a talk for Guy Brown elementary in Waterdown!

Flying start to the spring

My domestic spring racing season started in Ohio last weekend with the Flying Pig. It's been a while since the last race, so I was eager to put my winter training to the test. I pulled off a win at each of the 3 races, so am happy with that...though results were only secondary goals! It was a good weekend and I'm fairly satisfied with where I'm at right now. The nav side was really solid, but my physical training is a bit behind. That will come with time. Most importantly, it is a good benchmark and gives us lots of things to work on over the next while.

This weekend, I'm back state-side for a training camp with the CSU crew. The legendary Harriman State Park will be our playground for the next 4 days!

On Saturday's long distance race, there was a pretty good leg about 75 minutes into the race to checkpoint 14. Which way would you go? Bear in mind - almost the end of the race, the hills are slippery, trails are only so-so with all the horse traffic, and the green wasn't too bad!

Around the Bay

After a big week with the official launch of ARK, today was day one of Around the Bay's Health and Fitness Expo. ATB is North America's oldest road race, and in a town with such great running history, we were looking forward to sharing our programs at the event this year. We looked pretty slick with our new banners thanks to Allegra's great work. Who wouldn't stop at such a good looking booth with rock star Kate MacNamara (2x ATB winner) there?

The other big project for the week was getting our new 365 program going. AdventureRunning365.ca is now up and runing. Official launch is May 2010 and we're currently looking for test pilots!

CSI DV

We had a great training camp last weekend in the valley. The Ottawa crew came down for a character-building weekend of hard training in the wind, rain and cold. I spent most of the weekend on the mountain bike to give my foot a rest and had a fairly solid wipeout on Sunday morning. Downhill, sharp turn, foggy glasses and greased brakes ended up in an endo into this large craggy hole! I got lucky on that one. And now spring is here and the training is ramping up - only a few weeks to go before the first test of the year!

ARK is picking up!

We had our first night of ARK last week and had some happy, tired kids by the end. The evening featured some running games, silly walks, some bounding-by-headlamp and a fun night-nav vs core race. The kids loved it!

Media is picking up the story! Read the McMaster Daily News featuring an interview with Mike and Mark.

Tomorrow morning, we'll be doing interviews on two Hamilton radio stations: 6:45AM EST on 900AM CHML and ~9AM 94.7 WaveFM. You should be able to tune in online as well.

Adventure Running Kids in the Hammer

A lot has changed! The New Year brought with it a new job, new training buddies and a new home. I've moved off to Hamilton for an exciting job opportunity as Program Director for the Golden Horseshoe Orienteering Club. Thanks to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, we'll be starting up a series of awesome programs in the next little while.

As a current elite athlete, it is important to make decisions for my own training, but I also think it's important to give back to the community which has allowed me to succeed. Adam has a lot of great things to say about this. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, do it! Working with GHO will be a great compliment to my own training, but also great chance to make a big impact on the local community and the Adventure Running scene in general.

The first main project on the radar is to kick off Adventure Running Kids. Check it out! We'll be starting a pilot project in the next few weeks and the official program start date is March 24. Stay tuned to the website for more details!