Seak the peak and back!

This morning Peter and I set out for an epic run. Our new Wednesday run theme is: start at sea level and run straight up to the top of Grouse Mountain and back. There is a lot of elevation gain in Knee Knacker, so the more practice the better. I left today knowing I was going to put forth a hard effort and didn't let me heart rate dictate my run.

We wanted to do the Seek The Peak route that goes from Ambleside to the top of Grouse. Instead of going to the peak of Grouse Mountain (as the race does), we just turned around at the top of the Grind and came back the same way. Going up was great and I felt really strong. I think I under use my glutes when I run hills and that is why I struggle with them. I heard that to activate your glutes (if you don't naturally) you literally have to tell your glutes to fire. So, all day, I was constantly talking to them and I could really feel the difference. It saves my quads from doing all the work. I ran all the hills, except for the Grind of course. I am sure it wasn't my fastest time but I kept a very good and steady pace all the way up.


(The Outdoor Stairmaster)

It had rained a bit and some of the logs and rocks were pretty slick so we took our time coming down. After running down the grind and Nancy Green Way, my legs felt like Jello. It's a mix between feeling like your floating and getting a really good ass kicking deep tissue massage. I really wanted to test myself here and push through the bla feeling I had in my legs. They felt like they did after the 7 mile logging road downhill near the end of White River 50-miler (which I may be doing this year). In that race, I found it so challenging to push through the crap feeling I had in my legs for the last 10km of technical undulations to the finish. Today was perfect training for that and I must say, I felt way better than I thought I would. It must have been those beans in tomato sauce I had last night with dinner!

Anywho, it was 2:40 round trip and the soak in the river post run was very refreshing. Can't wait for Yoga tonight to stretch out the tight muscles and an easy recovery run tomorrow! Knee Knacker here I come!