Sunday, February 1, 2009

SNOW SNOW GO AWAY....but not TOO fast...

Snow snow go away come again another day! I take that back, the snow was so much fun today, well at least before the teeny tiny beautiful snow flakes turned to rain!

I have really enjoyed running in the snow this winter. A combination of better gear (long tights, Gor-tex socks) and Yak Tracks, have made a big difference in running comfortably this year. I haven't felt that the snow has hindered my training at all, if anything, it has made my legs a lot stronger. However, I do wonder if my performance down in California (March) will be hindered at all. Most of my competitors will have been running in warm weather without a flake on the ground. I'll continue to think positive and not worry about it. The weather is an uncontrollable thing, ride the wave, and embrace it for what it is.

Today Peter, Kerry (and his friend Eric for the first half), and I went out for a nice 4 1/2 hour run. I awoke this morning to a surprising snowfall. I was excited because the weather man was calling for snow-rain. I'll take the snow without the rain anyday!. We headed from our house in Lynn Valley, up Dempsey Rd.(great warm-up hill) and made our way along the Baden Powell Trail over to Grouse Mountain and back. It was glorious and a lot warmer than expected. The fresh powder made the surface easier to run on. Eric left us after 2 hours and we headed into the headwaters. It started to get a little bit colder and the snow started to become quite wet. We ran into our co-worker Gary Robbins (who is training for Western States) and another Team Montrail Runner, Aaron Pitt. We bantered back and forth and continued on. It's always nice seeing people you know. We then headed down to Parkgate to refill water and returned the same way. I was happy to be going home and was looking forward to the long climb up Twin Bridges. I started to feel super woozy after ascending the last steep hill. I immediately took down a gel and after a couple of minutes felt 100% better. Its always a weird feeling when you think you're bonking. I had lost track of my fuel intake and it was showing but fortunately we only had 10 minutes left.

After an awesome run and long day, we showered, watched an amazing tennis game b/w Nedal and Federer (Australian Open),ordered pizza (the healthiest of course)and washed it down with a nice cold one! Thank you Shaftsbury.

See you in the trails,

Nicola Gildersleeve

2 comments:

Gary Robbins said...

Yeah it was fun running into you guys out there as well! Totally with ya on the snow, it was great to run in till it turned to rain!
Did I just hear you say you drank beer...what happened to your self inflicted ban on that substance?
POST SOME PICS OF C.R. ON HERE!!
GR

Nicola Gildersleeve said...

I am so confused why you keep asking me that. I have Costa Rica pics on my blog page!