BMO Vancouver 30.29km - My Smiling Thirty in the Sun

In 2008 I ran my first sub-3 hour marathon ever at my home town race of Vancouver and placed 3rd female - awesome race!  In 2009 I went into the race with a nagging SI injury and dropped (or rather Gary Robbins persuaded me to stop running as I was a hobbling and sniffly mess at just over the half way mark).  In 2012 I ran my current PB of 2h42 at Vancouver some 8 days after moving back to the city and was first female - awesome race!  In the 2013 version of the BMO Vancouver Marathon, held this past Sunday, I went in with niggling ankle pain and dropped 2hrs/ 30.29kms in.  Morale of the story - if I have an awesome race at Vancouver under NO circumstances should I sign up the following year!

Gordon & Bryan, fellow volunteers at BC Athletics booth at the expo, day before the race

Dropping out this year was much easier than in 2009.  Although I hoped that miracles might happen and that no ankle pain would materialise I was realistic that it would and I just hoped to get as far as I could, without doing any damage, and put in a decent paced run.  Yes, I did hope for that miracle but I had back up plans should it not happen.

Start of the Half Marathon in Queen Elizabeth Park

At the race start line I was relaxed and just looking forward to a great day out, it was going to be hot and sunny and I couldn't wait for it - I'd not run outside for 2 weeks as right now my ankle prefers the smooth surface of the treadmill, so I'd got plenty of heat training in in a stuffy gym :)   I also knew that even if I made it to the finish line the focus was not on speed but on running solid; no need to run with my eye balls bursting out from the start.

I had friends who I knew would be at various points of the course and they'd been given strict instructions to physically remove me from the course if I was looking rough.  I also had 'Comrades' written on my arm along with a piece of my Comrades medal ribbon around my wrist to remind me that, however much I'd be tempted to push myself into the pain bucket, today was not the day to do so.  Comrades is my 'A' race and today was a stepping stone rather than the final destination.

Reminder of the year ahead...

Early on I ran along side my buddy Hassan (Sammy) Lofti-Pour, who has represented Canada at the World 100km several times.  It was great to run with Sammy and be in a pack with a few guys to keep things light hearted and social.  Early on I was surprised by how bad my quads felt despite having run way less mileage recently than usual, the little ups seemed especially tough - darn my physio Ramsey who has had me doing lots of squats - lead-like quads from the get go (and I thought I had trail runners quads, obviously not!)  Ramsey, Allison and Brooke were out on the course along with lots of VFAC team mates such as Steve, Barry and Janette, as well as Gili.  I looked forward to seeing them and would give them the thumbs up as I passed as my ankle was feeling good, especially given the net downhill profile of the first half of the course.

As we approached the top of the descent down Spanish Banks hill I looked up and said out loud 'wow, look at that view!'  The Pacific was glistening below us and the snow capped North Shore mountains looked just stunning, Vancouver was showing off for sure!  By this point, about 19km in, I was running with a woman from Seattle and tried to help her with course tips as she'd not run the route before.  I think she may have thought it was a little crazy that her 'competitor' was sharing course strategies but I let her know that I was unlikely to make it to the finish and we enjoyed quite a few kms together.

Cruising in Kits.  Photo: Ryan Allderman

Coming into Kits I knew I should drop at about the 2hr mark, although my ankle was ok it was not great and the full 42.2 wouldn't be smart.  So I decided to ensure that I enjoyed my 2 hour outdoor run and smiled my way though and even high-fived a person in an oversize blue bear costume at the side lines (normally I hate those sort of official mascots with a passion!)  On the Kits side of Burrard Bridge I pulled over to see Ramsey and Allison (physio couple extraordinaire) and told Ramsey I would drop the other side of the bridge.  I did ask what he thought of me walking the final 12km (it was such a lovely day after all!), he rolled his eyes and suggested I could go on a walk later that afternoon.  Despite being an ultra runner, I'm pretty good at following instructions so I agreed that I didn't really need to walk 12km, and off I went for my final 500m or so.  Thankfully on the other side of the bridge I could see my VFAC team mate Jo so I beelined over to him to drop out.  Note to any runner that ever thinks they might need to drop out of a race - find someone to run to, otherwise you feel kinda stupid just stopping by the roadside on your own :)

By mistake I got given a Half Marathon t-shirt at package pick up, I guess that was some sort of omen!

Overall I am really happy I took part in the BMO Vancouver marathon despite not finishing.  I had a super 'custom' run and was glad to feel part of the event and see so many friends.  A HUGE thank you to elite coordinator Lynn Kanuka and all volunteers out on the course.  Vancouver truly is a stunning city and the marathon showcases it at it's best.

Onwards and upwards to the next run....

BMO advertising and memories of an awesome race in 2012.

Men's winner, Thomas Omwenga in 2:24:09, rocking his Montrail Rogue Flys!

The South African Speed Session

‘Two Oceans, One Spirit’ – the tag line of the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon held in Cape Town, South Africa, every Easter weekend for the past 40 plus years.  Well, maybe ‘Two Hills, One Ridiculous Wind Storm’ would be a more accurate description; there is definitely a reason why the local rugby team is called ‘The Stormers’, it pretty much reflects the city’s trademark weather.  I guess that it’s also worth noting that South Africans don’t just refer to 42.2 km races as marathons; the super scenic Two Oceans route along the Atlantic coastline, through Fish Hoek and up and around Chapman’s Peak and Constantia Nek is in fact 56.2 km, but hey – what’s an extra 14 kms when you have stellar views and the South African spirit to keep you rolling?

View from Chapman's Drive pre-race day

As the wind began to howl the afternoon prior to race day I knew it might slow our race times but to be honest I thought it might be to my advantage; with many of the top ladies in the field boasting marathon PBs in the 2:20s or 2:30s, my 2:42 is sluggishly slow in comparison, so I figured that the gnarlier the course was made by the weather, the more my trail experience of battling the elements would give me an edge.  Even so, the wind was roaring, buffeting the furniture around on the patio of our hotel.  This speed session was not going to be easy.

I call Two Oceans a speed session as I was realistic that this is what it was for me given it is a road race and only 1/3 longer than a marathon.  From my experience at Comrades I knew that Africans tend to go out hard and as I stood I good 10 rows back at the start in the dark streets near the University of Cape Town it was impossible to know how many women charged out ahead of me as the bugle of a fish horn heralded the 6.30am start.  I had decided to go out at 4:00 min/ km pace; the first kms were rolling but relatively flat and as ever I’m always surprised by my ability to click right into pace – 4:01 for the first km, 3:59 for the 2^nd – good I thought, a smart start.  However, I was already getting blown around by the wind, I would try to tuck in with a pack of men, but just like at Comrades the men love to use women to pace off and in my Nedbank kit they obviously thought I knew how to pace, so as I turned I saw the shadow of about 10 men in my slip stream but few of them seemed prepared to take the lead from me.  And to be honest, even when I did work my way behind them, invariably the wind was swirling and changing direction so shelter was limited, not to mention that I was taller than many of the lithe African men so it they didn’t really provide much shelter from the elements.  It had been worth a try …

Pre race with Nedbank team mates Tim Stones & Camille Herron

I had no clue what position I was in until a supporter at the sidelines held up six fingers, I held up six fingers back in reply and she nodded her head.  Ok, I knew the Russian Nurgaleiva twins were ahead as well as USA marathoner Camille Herron, and I guessed another two Russians.    I soon moved into what I thought was 4^th but then passed another woman who I didn’t recognize, ok no way I could be in 3^rd and soon I began to pass yet more women who I didn’t recognize.  Clearly I’d not been in anything like 6^th so I was back to having no idea where in the pack I was, oh well, best to run my own race anyway and hopefully I’d get more reliable positioning information later on.

We turned away from the oceanfront at about the 20km mark and as we moved inland to begin the approach of the climb up Chapman’s Drive I hoped we would be moving away from the wind.  No such luck; the wind continued to come in fits and starts making even the supposed ‘easy’ flattish sections seem much more of a battle than I’d anticipated.  I had hoped to feel somewhat relaxed and cruising before attacking the first climb but this was hard when often it was a matter of pushing into the wind to progress forward.  The effort was much more draining than it should have been.  Up Chapman’s Drive we began to climb, the road slowly snaking along the cliffside with jaw dropping views of the turquoise Atlantic Ocean crashing below, white-capped waves showing the power of the wind.  I worked my way up steadily; in our preview drive around the course two days earlier I had been told to take both the climb and descent of ‘Chappies’ with caution – to save something in the tank for Constantia Nek, the second of the two famed hills.

I was delighted to crest the top of ‘Chappies’ but at the summit we were hit by a crazy strong headwind - I actually felt like I might not make it round the corner such was the strength of the wind.  However, I powered through and began the descent only to then have to fight alternating headwinds and tailwinds on the decent to Hout Bay.  A tailwind sounds good until it’s so strong that you are fighting to stay upright.  It was fun, it was wild, it was a little crazy, and it was certainly harder than I had envisaged this section would be.

By now I was alongside a guy and we were working together in sharing the pace.  It was good to have Tokyo France (yep, that really was his name!) alongside me and to feel we were pushing each other, although I passed a few women there were still not many in sight so I needed someone to help me ‘race’ rather than accidentally lull into just ‘running’. 

Somewhere around the 40km mark, on the approach to Constantia Nek, I was joined by a cycle marshal, meaning I was in 10^th position - hmm, further back than I had hoped but at least I knew for sure that I was in top 10 (top ten receive ‘gold’ medals) and I just had to make it up the climb to the 47km mark and then I would hit the hammer for the final 9km, which was pretty much all downhill to the finish.  On the climb I was tiring and I’ll admit that I was tempted to walk but I knew I couldn’t – I’d not come all the way to South Africa to wear my Nedbank kit to walk.  I owed it to my team and to myself to carry on running hard and despite struggling on the climb I passed several more women which spurred me on to push as hard as I could.  In 2012 Devon Yanko had secured her 3^rd place finish by catching several women in the final kms so I held onto this thought and knew I could also catch women; though I doubted quite how many I would pass, I knew I had to try.

As soon as I crested Constantia Nek at 47km I switched gears and began to pound the descent hard, now there was not a hint of holding back, it was ‘trash the quads’ and ‘pinwheel’ the arms time!  Whee hee!  By now the men were spread thin but I passed one after another and knew that there were about 7 women ahead of me and still hoped I could catch a few.  The slight uphills were now a struggle but they were short and soon done, and before I knew it I was into the final 2km and passed another women and could see my Nedbank teammate Nina Podnebesnova in front of me with less than half a km to go to the finish line.  I doubted that I would catch her as I was running out of real estate but that wasn’t going to stop me giving it a shot.  We entered the finishing area – about 200 metres on grass until we would pass under the finish banner; I hate running on grass, it saps all the energy out of my legs at the best of times, let alone when trying to push to an ultra finish line.  But with about 20 metres to go I passed Nina, I was going hard as I could but she switched gear back at me and with 10 metres to go she cruised past me, knocking me back to 7^th again.  For anyone that doesn’t think that seconds matter in ultras, well they do in a competitive field – in fact one lonely little second lay between mine and Nina’s finishing times.  To top it off I missed the Scottish 50km record (taken as a split) by 15 seconds.  Ack!

Here's a link to a funny video showing my total inability to sprint :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4fuKcvdVpFI#t=14849s

Coming into Two Oceans I had hoped that I could finish close to 3h40 but in reality was unsure of how I would fare having never run such a short road ultra before.  I targeted a 4:00 min/ km pace and hit an average of 4:01 min/ km – heck, it would be silly to dwell on that especially given the windy conditions … but 3:59 min/ km sure would have been nice!  Of course everyone out there this past Saturday tackled the same weather so I can’t use that as an excuse but sometimes you simply have to accept that there are runners out there on race day who are just plain faster than you.  My finishing time was close to what I had hoped for; I’d just hoped it would earn me a higher finishing position.  And next time maybe I’ll push harder a little earlier, but I can also go away with the knowledge that I had the fastest female splits from 42km to 50km as well as from 50km to the finish … maybe I just need a longer race course to work my way up the pack J.

Easy run along the waterfront day after race day.

Montrail Fluid Feel Shoe Review

Spring time!  The temperatures are getting a little warmer, the buds are starting to appear on the trees and new lines of shoes are showing up on the shelves of the running stores :)  Just like spring flowers there are some pretty awesome colours appearing in running shoe design but I'll try to be a little more useful than just colour commentary in my thoughts on the Montrail Fluid Feel...

Having been trying out some of the lighter weight shoes in the Montrail line up (Fluid Flex and Rogue Fly) the Fluid Feel immediately looked quite a bulky and heavy shoe when I pulled it out of the box, which it is in comparison to a lot of the trends these days, but at. 8.7oz for women's it is not really a heavy shoe at all.  Like most Montrails, I popped them, thought they felt good for a test run, and went out for a standard 2 hour evening run.  When I got home I looked at my feet and realised I'd been meaning to 'test' the shoes when in reality I'd forgotten within minutes that I was running in new shoes.  Personally this is what I want out of an every day training and ultra racing shoe; something that is almost boringly comfortable and in many ways, unremarkable.

Montrail Fluid Feel - hybrid, neutral shoe, women's 8,7oz

Let's give an example; last November I headed off to JFK 50 miler in Maryland, I'd heard a lot about the course but had never actually set foot on it.  I knew that there was some decently technical trail, then some crushed gravel and finally a good chunk of tarmac, plus at 80km I was going to be on my legs long enough to get some pounding.  I packed 3 different models of Montrails in my bag but ultimately I threw on what I call my 'slippers' - that is my trusty Montrail Fairhavens which I have run anything from 50km to 100 mile races in, ranging from roads to some pretty rugged trails.  They just 'do' for anything.  This is how I feel already about the Fluid Feel - they are an awesome all round shoe (they are a 'hybrid' designed for both use on road and off road) that is not some radical new direction but simply a shoe that fits well, is solid enough to tackle varying terrain and yet is not so heavy so I will happily road run in them too.  This might make the Fluid Feel sounds rather bland but I think this is almost  it's appeal - whilst it can be nice to have a wide range of shoes in our cupboards the expense adds up and non-running partners can ask if you really need yet another pair of shoes!!  Well, with the Fluid Feel you could almost have just one pair of shoes and be good to go (great when travelling too and wanting to limit what you take with you).

A true test was my 24km run the other evening - for about half I pounded the pavement and the other half I was on snow or splashing my way through what is normally a rocky trail but has for the moment been transformed into a mini-river (welcome to winter rain storms in North Vancouver!)  The Fluid Feel had excellent grip on the wet rocks, I felt they had enough bulk to the shoe to protect my feet from  the possible knocks of a gnarly trail, and yet when I hit the pavement they performed well to picking up the tempo.

Check out the more technical specs here, and if you are in North Van both Forerunners and North Shore Athletics have a full range of Montrails on their shelves.

Montrail Fluid Feels - a perfect office shoe!

Running for Books, Buildings and a Brighter Future

Yes, this post might not seem to have a lot to do about running but PLEASE take 10 minutes of your time to read it - a child in Ghana will say THANK YOU if you do, and there are some GREAT draw prizes on offer....

...

All my running, which I do a reasonable amount of, is a rather selfish task.  And while we all have our selfish lives, it seems the way of the Western world these days, of spending much of our free time being able to do what we want and have chosen to do, not everyone in the world does.

I live in a country where I took the fact that I would be well fed, well clothed and well educated for granted.  Never was there a concern that I didn't have clean water to drink or a desk to sit at at school.

This spring I am extremely lucky to be able to make not one but two trips to South Africa to race, to do what I love to do, compete at Two Oceans 56km and Comrades 89km.  So I have decided to tie into these trips a fundraising effort for a school in Ghana, to try make my running more meaningful.  There are quite literally thousands of good causes out there so...


Why have I decided to raise funds for Dekpor School Development Organisation (DSDO)?

- The founder, Linda, who lives in Ghana, is the mum of a friend of mine here in Vancouver, so it's a cause I know is well run by a small group of passionate people.

- My friends Jess and Bill recently got married in Ghana, they have been there themselves and have seen the good work done on the ground.

- DSDO is a very small and very efficient cause.  They are really in need of funds and their administrative costs are kept to an absolute minimum (when I made a donation last year I was emailed my tax receipt 'to save on the cost of a stamp') meaning that money raised really will go to help kids in Ghana.  When Linda was recently visiting Vancouver a call went out in the running community for used sports water bottles so she could take them back in her luggage - no costs of buying new bottles or shipping them out, more leg work but more efficient use of resources.

School children in Dekpor

So what does Dekpor School Development Organisation do?

Their mission is to support Dekpor Basic School's students, teachers and community through the funding of building, repairing and upgrading structures, through the support of teachers and students by volunteer efforts on site, through the individual sponsorship of teachers to enrich the education of many students, through the individual sponsorship of students to assist them in furthering their education, and other projects that will better the ability of Dekpor residents to achieve success.

In 2012 they sponsored 21 students and 8 teachers, they got 57 students on the food program, covered 56 children with health insurance, started a small computer lab, repaired some of the schools structure and much much more.  It sounds all so basic - but that is why this work is all the more important.

Kindergarten children learning outside.

How YOU can help?

I am aiming to raise as much as possible between now and time time I run Comrades on June 3rd.

Donations can be made in all currencies by PayPal or credit card by the link on the page under 'Please Donate' here. I think you can enter my name on the 2nd page so they know where the funds have come from, but if not - no worries - at least they'll get your donation!

How Much should I donate?

As much as possible!  Skip your daily Starbucks for a week and donate $25!  Skip your Starbucks for a month and donate $100!

- $150 will buy a child breakfast AND lunch for a whole year.

- 130 notebooks cost $50, as does one school desk + chair.

- Even if you don't know me personally, please still donate - this really is an excellent cause.

- Those who donate $25 or more will be emailed an official tax receipt (issued quarterly).

Learning without paper, let alone computers!

A Little Incentive to Donate

Many of my fantastic sponsors have jumped on board to offer draw prizes to those who donate minimum $25 or minimum $50.  Draw prizes are listed below and in order to be in with a chance to win please donate minimum $25 or $50 via the link AND email me at dekpordonation@yahoo.com with your name, address, country of residence and how much you donated.  I will draw the lucky winners in early June and announce winners then.  Draw prizes are random, i.e. no requests for specific items, and some  prizes are only available for certain countries of residence.  One item listed below per donation.  Those who donate $50 or more will have a chance to win prizes listed in both the $25 and the $50 list, those who donate $25 to $49 will have the chance to win prizes in the $25 list only.

Minimum $25 donation (or £15, or other currency equivalent)

- Mountain Hardwear ball cap (6 available) (all countries) or...
- 2 pairs of Drymax socks (5 packages available) (US/ Canada only) or ...
- 1 box of Clif bars (12 bars) (US/ Canada only) or ...
- 1 pair of Sundog Eyewear sunglasses (2 available) (all countries) or ...
- 1 bottle (941ml) of Udo's Oil 3.6.9 blend (4 available) (US/ Canada only)
- 1 x Petzl Tikka XP 2 headlamp (all countries)

Minimum $50 donation (or £30, or other currency equivalent)

- 1 Mountain Hardwear Effusion jacket (Canada only) or ...
- 1 Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer jacket (Canada only) or ...
- 1 pair of CEP quad compression sleeves (Canada only) or ...
- 1 pair of CEP compression shorts (Canada only) or ...
- 1 pair of CEP compression socks + 1 pair of Yurbuds headphones (2 packages available) (Canada only)

That's a total of 25 prizes available!

For more info

- Have a look at Dekpor School Development Organisations website by clicking here.

- 'Like' them on Facebook to keep up to date with their news by clicking here.


THANK YOU!

Thank you SO much in advance for your donation, I truly appreciate it as will DSDO and the Ghanian children who will benefit.

Please spread the word and ask friends to donate too!

I will post regularly on Facebook about the cause and donations coming in so follow my Athlete page here.

Digging a water reservoir.





Thank you to these great companies for offering their support for my Dekpor School Development Organisation fundraising project

A few musings from a Half Marathon

Ok, ok, it's Wednesday evening and I ran the Pacific Road Runners First Half Half Marathon on Sunday morning, so in blogging terms this is old news - but hey, Monday was Family Day so I enjoyed a day away from the computer and then the past 2 days have been extra busy catching up on work after the day off!  So, a half marathon is not an ultra which makes a race report seem rather excessive to this mileage junkie who only raced 21.1km, but here are a few brief thoughts:

- My pacing was kinda bad.  I mean it wasn't awful, but heck - I had not much clue what sort of 21.1km shape I was in so I would surge with speedy optimism and then in the next km be reigned in by more sensible pacing thoughts.  I ran the first km in 3.33.  I was a little over excited :)

- About 2km in a guy running next to myself, Catrin Jones (eventual female winner) and Lisa Harvey said 'nice going girls, work together - that's good'.  Uh, thanks 'boy' - we were managing ok without your encouragement and I especially think that Lisa, a former Olympian, doesn't need advice on how to race :)

- When Kevin O'Connor shouted at me 'You're not going to let her go are you?' as Catherine Watkins was gliding past me, I decided he was right.  This made the second half of the race much more intense than the first, but Catherine's and Kevin's motivation were much needed and age graded Catherine Watkins is downright amazing.

- Ultra friends clearly love to cheer on half marathoners - it was fab to see Ferg Hawke, Adam Campbell, Ward Beemer and Pat Malavi, among others cheering us along.

- I recently paid $80 for my senior membership of BC Athletics.  In coming 2nd I won $100 from BC Athletics - $20 in the plus and it's only Feb 11th - woo hoo!

- Pacific Road Runners do a FANTASTIC job at organising this race - a local run club that raises about $50, 000 each year for Variety and puts on a race that sells out in less than a day is impressive.  Thanks guys!

- I wore my Montrail Fluid Flex's.  It was most exciting to wear my beloved Montrails in a true road race - and man was I glad they only weighed 6.1oz - as I scraped a new PB by a mere 5 seconds.

- Rita Ivanauskas takes amazing race pics that truly capture 'the moment' - see below.

- I ate a whole Yaletown Brewpub pizza after the race.  Clearly I am used to refuelling 'ultra style',  ooops.  I did run 43km the next day though so that should have burnt some of it off :)

Happy tarmac and happy trails to one and all.  6.5 weeks til Two Oceans 56km, best be off to the gym now tonight's Nancy Greene-threepeat (a slow one) is in the bag.

Montrail Fluid Flex Shoe Review

First I should start this post with the note that I am decidedly not a gear freak.  Second I should mention that, in all honesty, I'm not the most knowledgable on the specifics of this running shoe and that.  Please don't start throwing around words like 'drop', my eyes will glaze over instantaneously.  I don't read shoe reviews or eagerly await the release of new models.  Bad for a sponsored runner?  I don't know, I'm too busy out running and leave the discussions of the ins and outs of all things new in the shoe world to the product designers and gear junkies.  I just like a good pair of shoes; ones that get from A to B as fast and as comfortably as possible.  I'm also more inclined to wear a heavier shoe than many these days, oh and did I mention that I hate trying new shoes for fear that I might have a 'bad' run.  Yeah, I'm a little stuck in my ways.

So last week I got delivery of a pair of Montrail Fluid Flex's which Montrail were keen I try out.  They looked cool!  They looked slick!  But oh man, these are not like any other Montrails I've worn before.  Was trying them out going to 'ruin' one training run?  Hmm, I padded around in the house and to the store in them a bit, but was a little hesitant to actually go run in them.  After a few days I decided to take the plunge, after all - they are running shoes so best to try them for what they were designed for.  Otherwise they're a kind of expensive pair of slippers.

The Montrail Fluid Flex are a light shoe (in this more technical report by my Montrail team mate Max King, Max notes the womens 8 weighs in at 6.1oz).  They are NOT Montrail Masochists.  And for you real old school peeps - they are most 100% NOT Montrail Hardrocks.  The Fluid Flex are light but feel pretty squishy and spongy (yep, those are technical shoe-review terms!)  Certainly the upper wraps securely around your feet but I worried that the softness on the ball of the foot might not provide enough cushioning as I was used to.  So I started my run with 1.5kms of downhill - yeah, always good to try that fear of lack of cushioning on the ball of the foot with a downhill tarmac mile :)  

On my first outing I ran 10km in them and would have kept them on for more but I decided to ease into them gently rather than risk pounding my legs more that they were used to (Little Miss Cautious).  Last night I ran 11km in them to the start of my speed workout (which was to be 4 miles, 1 mile, 1 mile) with a spare pair of more trusted road shoes in my Mountain Hardwear Fluid 6 pack just in case.  I never took the Fluid Flex off my feet and and now sure I'll be wearing them for my first race of the year - a road half marathon in a few weeks time.

Where I'll not be wearing these shoes any time soon is on the technical root and rock strewn trails of Vancouver's North Shore.  If you are used to a lighter and more minimalist shoe I can see some might be happy to run technical trails in the Fluid Flex but for that I'll stick to my Montrail Bajada's.  The Fluid Flex's are a hybrid shoe and I certainly feel 100% stoked to run on tarmac with them, and would have no hesitation on running on non-technical trails and crushed gravel paths in them.  For right now, I'll also stick to about 30km or shorter runs in them, again - if you are used to a lighter shoe I am sure they would be suited to longer runs but I'm not used to light shoes, and as I've said before - I'm a little cautious :)

And for all you gear junkies who can't wait to get your hands on a pair of these, they should be on store shelves come February 1st.  I can highly recommend them.

Hope you all started your training year off well.  I always like to run 50km on Jan 1st and as the shower facilities were closed it seemed sensible to rinse off in the Pacific.

Getting High

I've always loved camping; you know that feeling when you unzip the tent, crawl in and nestle down for the night, often with images of the mountains outside.  Good thing that I like this feeling as I am now camping out in my bedroom every night in my shiny new Hypoxico altitude tent!

But wait I hear you say, what race are you doing at altitude?  I don't see Hardrock or Leadville or any Himalayan adventure on the 2013 schedule?  And no, I'm not racing at altitude but then neither is Shalane Flanagan or Ryan Hall or many other track & field athletes who likely either use an altitude tent or travel to train at altitude, and I'm pretty certain that the swimmers, boxers and host of other athletes who Hypoxico support aren't competing at altitude either.  In fact none of us question it when Paula Radcliffe packs her bags for a stint in Iten, Kenya, as the benefits of altitude training have been known for a long time even for athletes competing at close to sea level.  So that was my reasoning when I contacted Hypoxico; I don't need to be competing at altitude to see the benefits of using an altitude tent, and given I live at about 100m above sea level I'm certainly not naturally training or sleeping at altitude.  Of course I am still training at sea level (awesome run with crashing waves along the West Van seawall last night!) but the philosophy of 'sleep high, train low' has been discussed and the benefits documented.

Good night from 6000ft (easing my way up gradually)

I've always been a bit of a puritan when it comes to training - forget all the fancy gadgets and nutrition programs - just go run!  And I am never going to be a gear freak or the one reading all the latest things to do other than 'just run' to make yourself a better runner, but equally I do want to try be the absolute very best runner I can be and so feel that adding things, such as an altitude tent, are part of this to see just how good I can be.  Yes, I realise that not every study says altitude tents are 100% proven, but there appears to be enough evidence to support their use that I think it is worth a try.  So thanks for Hypoxico for your support with this!  Check out more about their products here.

I'll be sure to post more about my experiences of using an altitude tent in future, but in the meantime here's the basics from Wikipedia,  an article by Ian Torrence on iRunFar, and a neat video I found of a runner training for Leadville which shows how easy the tent is to put up.  And if after watching the video you wonder why 'just your average runner' is using a tent - do a little googling - a lot more people are using them that you might imagine.

And don't worry - I'm not getting lazy - I'll still be doing plenty of this...

Running Hard.