Day 2 breaking, off to leg 9

Base camp last night was our good friend Jake's house in Wiarton. Wakeup call 345am. The house is very quiet with only a few snores and the sound of the coffee pot going. When I went to bed last night, the first few night runners had pulled in a lot of time, so my morning leg could be earlier than expected. The headlamp batteries are charged just in case!

Wiarton to Colpoy's Range Road. Local boy and my old Hamilton training buddy, Jake, is on this leg for Team Muscles and is super fast. Should be a good one!

Blaze Day 1, Leg 2

My first run of the Blaze is done! 23km of racing under my belt, a massage and some dinner and now it's almost time for bed.

Simon Donato and Paul Trebilcock kicked off Leg 1 of the exciting day in Tobermory at 1pm with cameras and film crews documenting the big run. Simon of Team Muscles rolled into CP2 on the beach 5 minutes ahead of Paul to send off Scott Ford ahead of me. The first 10km were very technical and took 70 minutes! I took it easy since it's still the first day, but that is a slow run! The next 13km took 50!

There was a story in the WFP this morning about the run too. If you don't have the paper, you can check it out here!

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/amateur/winnipegs-goeres-runs-the-gamut-48144352.html

My next run starts around 630am ON time, leaving from the Wiarton Willie statue!

The SPOT is on and off, but you can check for updates below. BLUE = Mito, ORANGE = Muscles
http://adventurescience.ca/blaze/follow-the-team.html

Blaze the Bruce

On Monday, I will be jetting off to Ontario to Blaze the Bruce Trail. I'll be running on one of two 10 person teams to complete the fastest ever run of Canada's longest footpath (894km) through the Niagara Escarpment UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.

The Blaze the Bruce race will be an enormous opportunity for us to raise awareness for conservation and recreation issues and participate in an innovative physiological study, organized by Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of McMaster University.

The race will be documented by Parkland Media for the film festival circuit and Discovery Channel will be filming for a Daily Planet episode. Many local paper and radio stations will be following closely too!

Check out the race website adventurescience.ca/blaze

I am also excited to announce a new equipment sponsor! Salomon Canada is going to help me stay fast, cool and stylish as we break records and cruise through some of Canada's most spectacular wilderness. Help me thank my sponsors by supporting their great gear! I only partner up with a company if I truly think their stuff is 1st class. Salomon is no exception and I am looking forward to working with them over the next year!

W*A*R

One of the many reasons for my visit to the Yukon was for the Whitehorse Adventure Run. The races usually have slightly easier than normal nav, but around 25km, so it ends up being in the 3h range. My good friend, Chris Piller and I teamed up for the race, and we pulled off a narrow victory over the local Junior National team boys, Colin and Lee.

In the evening, Brent was at the meat station on the grill when the local paper called. "I happen to have the winners right here" might have been a bit unusual in some places...but I have the feeling our reporter didn't find it so surprising. Ah Whitehorse.

Brent's writeup of the race is an exciting account of the day.
Here's the article in the local paper.
Map and our route on RouteGadget

Above Lake Kushawa

It's been a busy few weeks with training camps and racing. My quick visit to Whitehorse for some work and training is almost over. We enjoyed a spectacular run to the alpine yesterday! Not much trail, almost 3h, 1200m up and down.
A little meltwater lake awaited us at the top. Perfect for a little chilling before the trip home!

US Team Trials

My first major races of the year were the US Team Trials, in Santa Rosa County, CA. I had been looking forward to these races for several weeks as the first chance to put my winter training to a very good test. The races were pretty much a who’s who of orienteering in North America and included some strong international runners - in particular, Kristaps Jaudzems, 4th at the 2004 Junior World Champs and Øystein Sorenson, gold medalist at the 2005 Junior World Champs.

Training Group Success!

Our Vancouver training group had some great results this weekend. Øystein and I had very good races in the Middle and Long. Louise had several strong races in the women’s class as well. I am very happy that the weekend went well for us. Hard work pays off.

Mental Preparation

I am in very good shape right now, faster and stronger than I have ever been, but to have a successful weekend, I knew that I had to navigate well. At this time of year, my foremost goal was to be smooth and in full control, making no mistakes. I was extremely successful at meeting these goals and I am very satisfied with my mental preparation so far. Now it’s time to move on and look towards the bigger goals.

Physical Preparation

My winter training has had its ups and downs, but I am in very good shape right now and looking forward to gaining some higher end fitness leading into the summer. I felt very comfortable physically during the races, so that is good feedback for now. I always had lots left at the end of the races, so there is definitely room to push harder. Especially at the end of the long, I was feeling very strong and gained a lot of confidence from the good race.

Next up

A few days at home in Van to recover will be followed by another big stint of travel. Several TCs, work and the Canadian Team Trials will take me to Kamloops, Canmore and Whitehorse over the next month. Stay tuned!

One Step Closer

After a nice rest on the flatlands, a brief training camp in Kamloops was on the agenda to kick off the spring. The terrain is very open, but not as rocketship fast as you remember, with some stony and uneven ground. Still, it was a great way to get some terrain legs back. I was well focused and met my goals of being safe and smooth through the weekend. In many ways, a perfect weekend of training and more than I had hoped for. Many thanks to the Vyses for a comfortable bed and great supper!