Made it!

It's hard to believe, but it already seems like an eternity since I was in New Zealand! Funny how that happens once you return from holiday and get sucked back into "normal life". It was a good trip, fun to see family and I'm glad to say that I survived the Tarawera Ultra!

I haven't done a huge amount of mileage so far this year so was pleased to make it to the finishing line, even if it did take 14.40 hours to get there! Maybe the kiwi kilometer is longer than those in Canada?!!

Anyway, I'll try to put a race report together soon. Kudos to Paul Charteris and his merry band of volunteers for putting on such a great show! Thanks Paul.

NEW ZEALAND HERE I COME!!

Only one more day to go and I'll be on the plane to "down under". I'm really looking forward to seeing my family, especially my Dad, as it's been a couple of years since I last went home. Hopefully it will still be nice n' warm by the time I get there (they're just going into early autumn).

I'm also looking forward to getting spanked in the Tarawera Ultra 100km. Oh, I think that's gonna hurt!

Wish me luck.

Racing

Every other week I've been going into Calgary to race in a cross country series hosted by the Calgary Roadrunners. The trail races are about 8 km and are a great way to see parts of Calgary that I never knew existed! They only cost $10 and are the best way for me to get some speedwork under my belt as I'd never run that fast by myself or with friends; the Calgary folks are speedsters so I'm guaranteed to get a lung burner! Afterwards they offer soup, bread and coffee and everyone brings a dessert so it also gives me a good excuse to do some baking every couple of weeks!

Skoki

The Skoki area at Lake Louise is beautiful at any time of year and it's made the perfect venue for my weekly long runs. Skoki Lodge sits nestled some 14 km from where I leave the car so it gives me a nice 28 km round trip on pretty hardpacked snow. There have been times when I punch through but most days it's fairly solid. People ski into Skoki Lodge for a weekend and are extremely surprised to see anyone running in for the day!

2010 RACE SCHEDULE

20 March - Tarawera ultra (100 km), New Zealand
1 May - Miwok (100 km), San Francisco
27 August - Tour du Mont Blanc (100 miles)

Excited? You betcha!!

GETTING BACK ON TRACK

It feels good to be getting back into a routine again after the Christmas break. I'm eating cleaner, going to bed earlier and am exercising regularly again.

Went for an awesome run on Sunday .... 2.5 hours out and back on Lake Minnewanka. It was pretty casual, just went as far as we wanted and then turned around. It was kinda eerie running on the frozen lake as the clouds made all the ice look very black; I'm looking forward to going back when we've got some blue skies!

HAPPY 2010!

It was fantastic having 2 weeks off work for Christmas and New Year but now I'm back at it. I didn't mind returning to work on Monday as I enjoy my job for the most part. And I also felt excited to get back on track as I love eating way too much and think I could quickly become quite chubby if I didn't work out as much as I do!!

At the weekend I wrote out my list of highlights from 2009. This is something I've been doing each year as it's easy to forget all the things that we do every month. 2009 was the best year I've ever had here in Canada and some of the highlights included running my first fastpacking trip (solo), racing 100 miles and maintaining good health throughout the year (except for major surgery in February but I figured that it didn't count).

I tried a few new things .... biathlon, started this blog, opened an on-line trading account, a multi-day race in Central America and tried circus school (okay, that last one was not a great success!)

I spent most of my money on travel, running gear and racing.

I travelled to Cuba, the States and Costa Rica. I also did some neat road trips in Canada.

My biggest failure of 2009 was not being able to get off the sugar train (I'm still addicted!) Guess that one will have to go back on the list for 2010.

And the thing that got me super excited were all the new trails that I ran; a lot of them in my own backyard.

I think 2010 is going to be another great year. I don't have much on the books yet for racing; I'm doing Miwok 100 in May but that's about it so far. I plan to spend the summer out on the mountain trails in this area but will hopefully find an exciting race to sign up for in the autumn.

Happy New Year everyone - make it your best!