Sunday, February 20, 2011

My Running Roots...

I decided to stick around the city (North Van) this past weekend. Peter had left for the week on an unreal ice climbing trip in the Canadian Rockies and I seized on the opportunity to visit/run with some people I had not seen in a while.

When I first got into road running, I ran with the North Shore Athletics marathon clinic. It's no secret that I love this store, the staff, and the people. The same clinic members have been coming for years and years and there will always be a handful of people I know on any given clinic run day. Awesome. This Sunday they were set to run 16 miles. Perfect. I could manage that. Staying the weekend was more of a spontaneous endeavour and I was not as prepared as I could have been. I left my road runners back home in Squamish but did have a pair of Nike free's that I wear for work/all the time. I was pretty confident that they would do the trick but have only ever ran in them once, for 45 minutes. After 16 miles I can confidently say that they were SUPER COMFY. Right on. The Nike free is just an overall great multi-purpose shoe and it packs up super small because of the colapsable top. I am a fan.

Likewise, when I first got into trail running, I started with the mountain madness clinic. It was through this clinic that I learned all the trails in North Van. I ended up running with them on Saturday. I have been writing 'blurbs' on training tips for the weekly newseltter. Heather (clinic owner) calls me the 'virtual coach', it was only a matter of time before I showed my face! Again, another super awesome 20km run with some amazing peeps. One of my clients was there and he made the mistake of telling me on Friday, during our session that he has never run up Homestead hill. Yes, homestead is a doozie and, in the past, it was my nemesis hill. However, I learned to conqeur it and now I run up the entire thing every time, unless I am extra extra tired. Anywho, so I happened to be running with my client at that time and I asked him if he was ready to tackle it all in one go- and of course he was. He rocked up the entire thing and making it look damn easy I must say. Way to go B.Y!

The rest if the day was spent catching up with an old friend. We went to the market (via water taxi) and got an amazing spread of food. Olives, olive baguette, cappicollo, salama, smoked jarlsburg, grapes, and some vino. Walked along the sea wall, taking in the sunshine. A perfect was to spend an afternoon. The city of Vancouver is simply stunning!

All in all, an awesome weekend of running. My muscles were pretty tight after both those runs, mostly in my hammys and groin area. Not sure if that is because of last weekend race or because of 2 days of skiing as well. hmmm....

I think a yoga class could be in my future...i.e- tomorrow!

See you in the trails!

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