No, that's not an incoming snowstorm in the background...
I've been resting lots these days. A few lingering injuries have forced me on the sidelines since CDR - not the best preparations for TR-Run 3, but as I've been saying lots lately, "C'est la vie!" Our body has a strange way of telling you when it's tired and injury is usually one of those signs. So I banked the 'forced' rest, put my feet up and focused on what will be a great last week of training!
I kicked things off Monday with my favourite intensity workout: 5X2min @ full-blast speed! This was my first fast workout since CDR and although it took my body a little while to adjust to the switch, I started craving more speed (and pain) as I counted up the intervals. Despite the lack of training in the past 2 weeks, the rest seemed to pay-off and I (almost) tagged one of my highest heartrates of the summer - Always a good sign!
After a good night's rest, I set up for a long run in the high alpine in an attempt to get a jumpstart on my hemoglobin production which will be required for Colorado. I also brought along a photojournalist/ultrarunner from out East, Oliver Fischer, who had made the trek out West for some promo work he had lined up for Travel Alberta. Hmmm....where to go? Believe it not, I actually had difficulty picking a trail that would meet his high expectation level. But after much debate, I settled on a 'best of' route that would take us from the Hawk Creek trailhead to Sunshine Resort, via 3 mountain passes in the heart of Banff National Park. The trail forced us to 'cheat' a little bit, as it actually started in BC's Kootenay National Park - but with the majority of the trail in Alberta, I figured this 'small' detail could easily be relegated to the fine print...
There's nothing quite like a 10km (9% grade) run through the remnants of the Kootenay's 2003 fire to get the day started! An hour later, we reached Ball Pass (2,200m) which sits right on the Alberta/BC border. What should have been a stellar view of the local peaks, was instead replaced by a hazy and blurred landscaped view...In fact, the extensive forest fire activity in BC was blowing a heavy blanket of smoke East, limiting visibility to more/less 5km - not the best for promoting Alberta's premier trails...
I kicked things off Monday with my favourite intensity workout: 5X2min @ full-blast speed! This was my first fast workout since CDR and although it took my body a little while to adjust to the switch, I started craving more speed (and pain) as I counted up the intervals. Despite the lack of training in the past 2 weeks, the rest seemed to pay-off and I (almost) tagged one of my highest heartrates of the summer - Always a good sign!
After a good night's rest, I set up for a long run in the high alpine in an attempt to get a jumpstart on my hemoglobin production which will be required for Colorado. I also brought along a photojournalist/ultrarunner from out East, Oliver Fischer, who had made the trek out West for some promo work he had lined up for Travel Alberta. Hmmm....where to go? Believe it not, I actually had difficulty picking a trail that would meet his high expectation level. But after much debate, I settled on a 'best of' route that would take us from the Hawk Creek trailhead to Sunshine Resort, via 3 mountain passes in the heart of Banff National Park. The trail forced us to 'cheat' a little bit, as it actually started in BC's Kootenay National Park - but with the majority of the trail in Alberta, I figured this 'small' detail could easily be relegated to the fine print...
There's nothing quite like a 10km (9% grade) run through the remnants of the Kootenay's 2003 fire to get the day started! An hour later, we reached Ball Pass (2,200m) which sits right on the Alberta/BC border. What should have been a stellar view of the local peaks, was instead replaced by a hazy and blurred landscaped view...In fact, the extensive forest fire activity in BC was blowing a heavy blanket of smoke East, limiting visibility to more/less 5km - not the best for promoting Alberta's premier trails...
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| Oliver takes it easy down Ball Pass' steep scree descent - don't want to hurt yourself here! |
Despite the smoke filled air, the immediate peaks offered up some amazing views as we cruised through the Whistling Valley trail on route up to our second pass of the day which would top out at 2,300m!
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| There's nothing better than high alpine singletrack! |
Look at the difference from the same shot...The first photo was taken yesterday, the next one was taken a few years back while GPS'ing the route with Bob Walker, author of Mountain Running in the Canadian Rockies:
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| On a smoke filled day... |
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| On a clear day... |
All in all, a great day in the mountains, and some quality time spent up high, which I think will help as I tackle a few of Colorado's high passes - Take a look at the route profile from my Suunto's Movescount track: http://www.movescount.com/moves/move373663 (Click on the 'Altitude' tab to get the profile).
Stay tuned for more TransRockies updates very soon...
3 comments:
Sounds like you and Oliver had a great run. Incredible to see the difference between the two photos and all the smoke.
Hope you continue to heal up well.
Hey Derrick,
Yeah, great run...I think he'll be back! Too bad we didn't have clear skies, as it's really one of the best alpine trails around - Hopefully photoshop will be able to add a bit of blue to his photos!
Great choice for the route, too bad about the smoke though, it's such a great scenic run when the skies are clear. Lots more elevation going from Hawk too.
Good luck down at TR, you should be all rested up and ready to rock.
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