FERNIE, BC - My New Love!

I just spent an amazing week in the quaint Mountainous town of Fernie, BC and LOVED it!  My husband was participating in the Furious 3 MTB race with a few of our friends from Salt Lake City.  They boys plan a climb or cycling race every year and we meet up for it.  So we hunkered down in a nice little townhouse to recreate, visit and hang out for the week.

It created an ideal playground to get in some training miles for TAR and luckily, my two girlfriends from Salt Lake are marathon runners with a huge taste for adventure and were up for the training runs with me!  The first day we hunkered around Fernie Provincial Park for a few hours.  Sweet single track, running past beautiful alpine flowers and waterfalls.  The next 3 days, we took advantage of the course markings for the Furious 3 race and ran pieces of the course every day.

The first day of the race we took in the climb and surrounding trails around Crown Mountain.  The girls did 3hrs with me and I added another hour and ran into town and meet them and the boys at the finish line. 

The second day we managed 3hrs together in trails that took us through Fernie Provincial Park and into the ski hill and back.  The day brought a lot of rain and the trails were wet, slippery and dirty.  Not so great for the guys riding, but fun for us runners.

 On the last day of the race we finished a 4-day running block on a new section of trails that we accessed right from town.  During the run, my friend Shelly rolled her ankle.  So we made it an aid station and they girls took a ride down to the finish and I carried on my own to finish up another 4hr run. 

I was really happy with how good I felt during the 4 days.  My legs weren’t sore at all and the fatigue I felt a bit in the start of the 4^th day went away as I got warmed up.  I noticed I was running more hills and much stronger than normal.  I have been working on this, so it was very motivating for me.  Before we left Fernie, Trent and I hunkered up Fernie Mountain for a 10km hike and 3.5hr outing.  I noticed the last .5km approach was pretty uncomfortable for me.  My legs were tired and breathing was higher than normal.  The ridge was really fun and exciting.  Trent guided me along the scramble and the views were spectacular!  The decent brought on some aching in the ol’ quads… which was good.  I hit my limit that week and it showed me where I was at.

I finished the week with another 3 day block of back to back runs once I was home in Kelowna.  I feel like I really hunkered down and set the pace for the last few weeks left before TAR.  My mind and body feel focused and the trip to Fernie really helped with that.  I am ready for the bread and butter blocks that will follow over the next 50days before we step foot in the Alps.