Training Log Archive: revy

Well we haven't got quite the rain the coast got but it has been drizzly on and off. Looked at the radar and though we had a decent window so decided to risk it. Wasn't too bad - only a few drizzly periods and one 10 minute section with heavier rain. Trails were certainly slick though. Up the ski hill trail, Faultline, Crowbar, back on the rough trail Rob had cut. I then ran home on my own via some of the Arrow Heights trails. Felt quite good - ran the whole initial climb and felt OK right until the end.

Went out for a ride - started raining as we were finishing. Up Flowdown, Dusty Beaver, berm Donor, Tantrum. A bit slick in spots. Forest felt very green today. Wrist was just a bit stiff but riding carefully.

Easy run on the CPR and Toaster trails. Felt pretty sleepy to start.

Macpherson (lower loop) with Courtney and Jordan. Had a good crash on Quarry - tire skipped on a rock and washed out when it landed. Body slammed the ground pretty hard. Despite some nice abrasions on my left arm and chest my shirt survived with no tears - interesting given the skin damage. long sleeves probably helped minimize the road rash. Right hand and wrist seem to hurt most afterwards rather than the left sided stuff. Contusion and sprain likely. Finished the loop but wasn't feeling up to riding more. Hopefully that is my one big crash of the year.

Courtney requested that we ride Joss today. Actually ride/hike is a better description as once again only able to ride about half the climb. Quite hazy in the valley but a bit better up high. Atsuko came along as well though she was a bit tired from jetlag and no biking for a month while in Japan. We had to wait a bit for her today so car to car time was a bit over 5 hours. She persevered and made it to the top though and we had a nice ride down. Tired now...

Super nice run up at Sunshine Meadows, Monarch Ramparts and Healy Pass with the Carbon's and Courtney. Despite having grown up in Calgary I have never been up to Sunshine in the summer. We paid for the lift up in the bus and started with a loop through the heavily travelled meadow loops. Wildflowers have faded already so not quite the experience as it would have been a month ago. Left the busy trails behind (although they weren't that busy) and headed to Simpson Pass and Eohippus Lake. This unofficial trail (in BC actually) was pretty nice running. Stopped for lunch at the lake then hiked up to the top of the Ramparts, ran along the ridge and then down Healy Pass trail. Doubled the length of my longest run this year I think… Felt OK a bit tired along the ridge but the run down was fine.

Nice views - got hazy as we were driving away and progressively got worse as we drove home to the point that you can barely see across the valley. Seems to be from forest fires in the Okanagan and Washington State.

C • Smoke alert 1

C • Beautiful! 1

Highline out and back from the dog park. A bit slick (and cool) after the rain/snow yesterday but a good challenge. GPS seemed to crash part way through.

Canmore Nordic Centre with Courtney, Carbon and CO. I think we rode a good portion of the trails there over the course of the afternoon. Luckily rain held off until the end.

Greenbelt paved path. 5km tempo section in the middle. Legs are not wanting to run that fast as hard to maintain even 4:20 kms. A bit slower than last year for sure.

TT bike on Airport Way. 20 min warm up, 20km TT (30:10), 10 min cool down. Felt pretty good during the TT.

Good run with Courtney on SOB and Chair to Begbie Falls (and back). Nice and cool in the forest.

Checked out the Mt Sproat lookout hiking trail. Surprised to see how much vertical I gained - didn't seem like that much. Tread of the trail is in surprisingly good shape for a 60 year old trail that gets minimal use. The last km was pretty rough though and essentially a flagged route. Too bad as I was thinking of riding up the ATV trail and down the hiking trail. Might still try it… have to go up when the weather is better to see the full view anyway.

Another local epic checked off the list - Silvercup ridge. Haven't' heard of too many people doing this ride. The ridge is traversed by an old mining road as well as several sections of hiking trail (some of which are pretty faint or even non existent). Couldn't find much beta online either but google earth and some hiking guidebooks made it seem doable. Brendan and Brad joined me for the adventure. Weather wasn't looking too promising a few days ago but forecast today seemed better. Overall our weather was fine except for a thunderstorm that rolled through as we climbed American Creek road (stopped for a 15 min snack break when the rain got too heavy). It passed and the rest of the day was clear though quite hazy due to forest fire smoke in the air.

We did the ride as a loop so that added an 18km warm up on Hwy 31 (gravel with only two cars going by) and a 12km/1300m climb up the American Creek road. Grade was reasonable for the most part - a few steep sections that required some spinning. I walked once but Brendan made it all the way on his bike. The guys were a bit faster than me on the climb as I was content to spin without killing myself. Closer to the ridge the grade steepened and had some more hike-a-bike sections before doing a few km traverse along the mining road. Eventually the road ended and we pushed our bikes for a bit on the crux of the trip. Not much evidence of trail and we ended up side hilling on some sketchy scree before finding the trail. next time I would climb a bit higher before the sketchy section as most of it could be avoided.

The trail we found started off a bit rough but eventually became quite nice. There was also way more trail then I expected. Some steep bits where we had to push our bikes but overall very fun and rideable. Eventually we rejoined the mining road for several km before the final single track descent. The top was fun, middle was less so (riding the brakes) and bottom was fun again. Pretty fun adventure despite the large amount of climbing. Less hike a bike than Cartier. Only thing that put a damper on the day was having an unexpected two sailing wait to cross the ferry as Hwy 3 and 33 closures due to forest fire smoke significantly increased the ferry traffic.

SUP with Rich. This was Courtney's request but unfortunately after we rented the boards she got called to a delivery. Glassy water above the dam today. Coursier Falls, Waterworld, across the lake and back. Seems like cruising speed of these boards was 5km/hr. Very warm (33C) and water temperature was actually not freezing so took a few swims as well.

MacPherson with Courtney and RIch - took him on a loop below the highway as he had never been then up to TNT afterwards.

Riding at MacPherson with Courtney - Griffith Creek parking lot. Got stung by a wasp as I was descending Dusty Beaver - that hurt - worst possible time too as it wasn't the best time to be swatting at it.

Stimulus at MacPherson - wanted to measure a possible twoonie race course. Maybe a bit too soon after dinner as stomach was a bit bouncy…

Surprised a small black bear on the trail - he was maybe 5m away but he took off right away (Logan was behind me at the time drinking in the creek and I don't think he even noticed).

Day two hiking with Courtney and her parents. Chose a shorter hike today as yesterday was a good physical challenge for them. Went to Sale from the upper parking lot. Continued on the ridge past the cabin and convinced them to do some off trail travel to connect to the lower trail via a couple nice lakes. They did fine despite the occasional uneven footing.

Abbott Ridge with Courtney, the in-laws and Liz. The forest section seemed to take much longer than the last time I was up here but great views up top again. Took the long way down and was more scenic but lots of flat sections so can see the appeal of the short cut. If I was running up would take the long way. GPS accuracy is dubious when I am walking - found the same thing in the Dolomites. Trail is supposedly 6 km from the parking lot (8km down the long way) but watch says 18km round trip. Better accuracy when moving faster.

Greenbelt with Courtney. Felt pretty energetic.

CPR and Toaster with Courtney.

Larch Hills with Jordan and Courtney. Really nice ride - I quite enjoy riding it in this direction as the uphills are just challenging enough to push you without being deadly and the down is really fun. Trail is dry - so dry that the creek is not running. Will have to remember that for future trips out here in the later summer. As it was felt a bit parched towards the end. Highway was busy but again used the old road bypass to avoid the worst of it.

Added bonus was one more section of single track got built since last time. I don't understand why it never gets announced anywhere but it is nice none the less.

Parked down past the airport and ran a loop towards the river. Nice that this year the reservoir is not very high and the grass never got flooded. The road along the river was pretty overgrown with some sections where the grass was over my head. Just had to keep running trusting that you were in one of the two wheel ruts and that there was no obstacles on the path. For Logan it was like running in a tunnel for those few km.

C • Reservoir 2

Standard Basin with Courtney, Caroline and Pete. Still the best alpine trail around here… Flowers are starting to die already and no snow in the basin. Full parking lot and some traffic to deal with on the trail. High cloud so not the best for views but kept the heat from getting unbearable.

Inspiration Woods with Logan. Ran everything although somewhat slowly - it is a hilly trail. Did the loop in both directions.