Training run report and photos – May 8
(Photos by Karen Chow have been posted here. Report by Glenn Pacé below.)
This is more like it!
With the Vancouver Marathon out of the way, we saw a very good turn-out for our second run of the season. All told, there were over 70 trail running enthusiasts ready to hit the trails & get their legs ready for the race in July, despite the fact that it was Mother’s Day. We started things off with a few general details about volunteerism, trail markings, etc…& Curb Ivanic from Core Running (one of our sponsors & a prior finisher at the Knee Knacker) got us motivated with a trivia session & a DVD give-away.
We lucked out & dodged the monsoon that fell the day prior, but the trail was still quite slick. Although we were lined up at the start to get to the singletrack, everyone eventually got into their own rhythm & followed the trail towards Lynn Headwaters. It was a great mix of veterans & first timers & it’s always interesting to hear the variety of opinions from gear (hand-helds vs packs), to nutrition (the merits of cheeseburgers vs gels, or beer as an electrolyte drink), to clothing (socks, shoes, hats, watches, etc…).
The trail took us up to our high point where I joined Ken Legge (another experienced Knackerer ) for the balance of the run. As is the norm on these runs, casual conversation carries ahead to unsuspecting ears & we gave Gitta quite a fright. As she was running just ahead of us, she could hear us discuss Ken’s current training. Suddenly she was feeling quite underprepared….but she didn’t realize that he is training for an upcoming 100 miler late in the summer (that’s right….there are people out there that run 100 mile races or more), so his mileage is somewhat skewed. Rest easy, Gitta….just follow the training runs & you will be more than ready!
We made it to the LSCR Gazebo to refill our water bottles before turning around & going back up what we had just come down (damn you, Fromme!!!). The great thing about out-&backs is that it gives you a great opportunity to gauge your pacing, so I hoped that this 1:25 “out” would turn into a 1:25 return….or something like that. Climbing isn’t my strength, so I sucked up the quad pain on the climb out of the valley & looked forward to the downhill…..which came eventually.
During the return we stopped to analyze the erosion that is taking place on various parts of the trail ( a great way to break up a climb!). Some parts are a little more exposed than others, so run with care. Suzanne Reynolds was looking quite strong as she caught up with us & kept on going….not to be seen until the end of the run. We enjoyed the downhill of the final section & wound our way down towards the parking lot for a 3:05 finish time. Not exactly an even split, but good enough.
This next run will entail a few changes due to the deep snowpack, so stay tuned to the website for updates. Patricia Jensen will be your host on Sunday & she has some great routes for you!!!
For those of you that are fairly new to trail running, there were many questions about gear & nutrition. There is no “right” answer to most of the questions….we are all very different. The best advice is to listen to a few people’s opinions & try one item at a time. You don’t want to do any drastic changes, but if you are looking at trying anything new (such as a hand held bottle or a bladder pack for the very first time) now is the time to experiment. Better to have a failure on a training day than on race day. As the weeks progress, you will want to eventually dial in your systems so that everything works together with ease on race day.
Happy training & see you in a couple of weeks!
Glenn Pacé
