TAR TRAINING

Wow.  It's been awhile since I have posted.  I have been busy these days, however grateful that my time is at least getting chewed up with things I love!  Family, coaching, Global, travel and training.

May was a really busy month.  We were gone every weekend but the first.  We hit Salmon Arm for the Salty Dog Mtb Race where I elected to pass on racing this year and offer crew support to Trent & Carter.  Trent teamed up with a buddy to finish the 6hr enduro and Carter did the same with his buddy for the 3hr.  I managed to get our and pre-run the course before the race started that morning... it was bliss!

We also hit Sun Mountain in Winthrop, with the PACE family.  It was a great training weekend again this year and perfect for my prep for TAR.  I decided to do the 50km and used it as a long run on the end of a build week, so without a taper I was pretty excited with my fitness level and result.  Carter also had a great race and won the kids 1km race.  He called it, went in confident and smoked it.  Trent and I were most proud of the fact that he stayed at the finish line and shook the hands and congratulated all the other kids that came in after him.  Another highlight to the weekend, however was road riding with Carter and my friends and just hanging out with everyone from PACE and getting to spend so much time on and off the trails.

The Century Ride was a big deal for my family this year.  It was one of the things that Mary really expressed she hoped to get to do when she was diagnosed with Cancer in November of 2011.  We turned the weekend into a family camping trip and spent some quality time with David, Sue, my Mom, Dad, Mary, Ken, Carter, Trent and me.  Saturday I ended up running from Armstrong to Enderby on the road and got picked up by the boys on the HWY and then proceeded to hike/run Enderby Cliffs.  I was really proud of my brother and Carter and loved the whole experience.

My Mom, Dad & Mary ended up riding the 14km route together which really meant a lot to me and went a long way, I think, for everyone that day.  And Mary felt great and had an awesome ride :) which made us all very happy.  Carter did the 56km for the 2nd year in a row but this time on his new FELT road bike.  What a trooper!  He even had a gel and some shot blocks... "officially training now."  Uh, huh... he's a bit of a big deal ;)

June has been rainy and I'm not gonna lie... hard to get going on my own.  My TAR partner and close friend, Sarah, has been down and out with a back injury :(  I am, however VERY happy that I have managed to stick through it and get the job done week after week.  My fitness is improving and managing 12hrs of running per week very well.  I hit my biggest week last week - 12.5hrs, 15,000 elevation gain in the week.  And the best part is my recovery is going excellent and my energy levels are good the week following.  Now all Sarah and I need is for Leonard (yes, we named him L4/5) to smarten up so she can get moving already!!  We're both positive and optimistic.  Anyone that knows Sarah... knows how tough this girl is... so now we just have to wait and see how Leonard behaves over the next week and a half.

West Fork Methow Trail in Winthrop, Washington with my friend Alison

Other than that, I just wanted to get the ball rolling with an entry and try to get my head back into blogging more regularly.  Looking forward to some mountain trips in the coming months and our charity run from Kelowna to Naramata on July 22nd.