10 Trail Running Lessons
Here are a few trail running lessons that I have learned over the past year. I thought I would pass them along to see if you can relate to any of them! Don’t eat eggs before you run. They will make you feel heavy and make you even gassier than running normally makes you! This can be a huge problem if you are ahead of your running partner; you may actually lose a partner on this one. Keep your kit tidy! Meaning don’t have earphone wires hanging down so they can swing aimlessly while you gallop along. Tuck those stray wires in your sports bar or in your shorts waist band. You will tire quickly of having to adjust laces, wires, straps…everything needs to be in it’s right place or else 2 to 3 hours down the trail you are going to have a meltdown. I have so I know. Take the right music. Music that sounds great at the beginning of the run can become very annoying hours in. How do you know you have the right music? For shorter tempo runs I always like a few sick beats to get dropped and for longer runs I like something a bit more emotive, nothing that will make me cry mid-run, but soothing enough that it helps me keep on pace. Fight the urge to sit or lie down when you see a soft mossy patch along the trail. you won’t get back up. Always bring toilet paper. Let’s not beat around the bush, because you are eventually going to have to poop in one, so be prepared! There will be slow days and there will be fast days. There will be days that you love it and days that you swear you will never run again. It’s all a part of the process…embrace it! Learn to love walking. That’s right, I have let the cat out of the bag, the key to running for a really long time is learning when to walk and when to keep running. There is no shame in walking a chin scraper of a hill, it’s probably more efficient and energy-saving in the long run; unless you are kind of a big deal like some of the pro’s out there. I am not therefore I am not ashamed to walk every now and then! Running solo is a beautiful thing! Don’t be afraid to head out on the trails by yourself, even for the long runs. Running in a group is a beautiful thing! Learn to run with a group, especially people who are faster than you. You won’t believe how motivating it can...
I run fast past Graveyards
Close to where I live there is a scenic loop trail that I like to run when I’m feeling restless and need to move. The track is wide, has a bunch of intersecting trail options if I want to mix things up, it’s only a 2 minute drive from my door and I’m pretty much in the forest right from the start. It also happens to pass right next to a Graveyard. The first few times I passed by I didn’t even notice it. It’s facade and grounds are a lot more subdued to what I’m used to coming from Ireland where medieval cemeteries lie around every corner, with tall Round Towers and large ornate Celtic crosses. Eventually though, I did notice it. I noticed the gravestones and acknowledged that this was the final resting place for all those people. Sometimes as I’d be approaching the graveyard my pace would have slowed, I’d be in my own head, thinking about problems that I needed to solve which are never really actual problems in the grand scheme of things. I wouldn’t be enjoying my run at all. My legs would feel heavy, my shoulders stiff, my knees tight. But as I’d turn the corner and see the entrance to the graveyard, shaded by the large branches of two old oak trees I’d be reminded about how trivial my problems really were. Here lay people that could no longer experience life in any capacity. What would they give to be able to experience this run that I was on, regardless of how bad I imagined it felt? “Part of us always knows that we’re just a Doctors visit away… from being startlingly reminded of the fact of our own mortality” - Sam Harris Death, to me, is always the elephant in the room. In Western culture at least you can’t even bring the subject up. It’s deemed “morbid” and “macabre”. If discussion surrounding it does come up somebody will inevitably say something along the lines of “let’s lift the mood, eh? Why can’t we talk about something positive?”. I find this utterly mind boggling. Death, to me, should only be a topic that is avoided when the possibility of living life fully is not an option. Western society contains the only humans on the planet that have a freedom to shape their lives how they see fit. The vast majority of people who exist right now have no option but to live the lives they were born into. In the West we have freedom to become what we imagine. We have the resources to do so and the security, largely, to...
The Season Of Giving
“Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body” Here’s a shocker for you. Myself and Spring at Pebbleshoo don’t give each other stuff for Christmas. We don’t give each other stuff on our birthdays or on our wedding anniversary either. This isn’t to say we don’t give to each other. We give a lot, and not just on specific arbitrary days of the year. We try to give in as many different ways as possible. When we need stuff, we get it. So if I’m driven to experience Skiing, I buy Skis… etc. But I guess what’s different is that we don’t necessarily attribute value to products. We attribute value to the memories of experiences that taught us or made us feel something. Products only become valuable to me when they have enabled me to experience something of worth. My favorite bright orange Arc’teryx Jacket is not valuable because of the price tag attached to it, but because it kept me dry when I was crouched on an exposed ledge in the mountains and because of many other similar memories. All of us have items that are more valuable to us because of our history with them. Nearing the top of the couloir Our favorite products act as catalysts for experiences. Experience has value. Life, life has value. I think somewhere along the path to becoming a Consumerist Society some of us have lost this understanding. As I watch the Malls near us becoming chock full with people shuffling around buying oodles upon oodles of stuff I have to ask “Why?” This season we want to encourage you, our reader, to try something different. To try giving differently. We want you to try giving memories before stuff, and if you are giving stuff, to give stuff with stories. So how can you do this? Memories Before Stuff: When you are thinking about a person you love and what you can give them. Giving them something memorable should be key. So, for example, if a loved one rock climbs, the easy option might be to buy a bunch of climbing equipment for them. But what if you’ve heard them talk before about how they’ve always wanted to Kayak rapids but they never got the chance. How much more memorable would be giving that person Kayaking lessons? The gift of knowledge doesn’t just last a season or two, it last a lifetime. Some other ideas: Show them one of your favorite viewpoints, a favorite hike, a book that changed your life, made you smile… etc Stuff With Stories: The...
What motivates you?
I can’t believe I almost didn’t get out on the trails today. Let me tell you how the morning started. The alarm went off at 5:30,which thank goodness for the end of daylight savings time, was actually only 6:30. Nonetheless the alarm was set early as Leigh was heading out on a hike/climb with some friends and I decided to take a day to myself (yes sometimes we do things separately). I thought I may as well make the most of the day, get up with Leigh make some breakfast and coffee and then head for an early morning training session at the bouldering gym, as I would probably have the gym to myself at that hour of the morning. Where Jack-o’-Lanterns go to die? How I would have felt if I stayed home. The bouldering gym. Sunlight beams through the trees. This is exactly how it played out as well. I seen Leigh off and was at the gym by 7:45. I played around for an hour, and I say play because it is way too much fun in there to call it training, and then decided to call it after I started to feel a bit sore and too pumped to stay on any of the holds. Made it home by around 9:00 and decided to have a second breakfast, which ended up being a little more leisurely than it should have been, but hey it’s Sunday! It’s always good to take some time for reflection. After a little perusing on the computer I came across an article (check it out here) by a local ultrarunner about staying motivated during the dark, rainy winter season of the PNW. Now today was nothing but sunshine but it was a good thing I read it when I did, because at that moment I was contemplating a nice long nap! I was starting to lose motivation fast, my mind was trying to convince me I was too tired and that I should be kind to myself. This is the oldest trick in the book though, my brain was trying to convince me of something I knew I would deeply regret later, and I almost fell for it. I read through the article and it smartened me up right quick! “The less you do, the less you’ll want to do. The more you do, the more you’ll want to do.” Those words kept buzzing through my head and as I lay on the bed feeling sorry for myself I firmly decided to get up and just put my running gear on. “You know you’ll feel better after you run.” “Just take...
Do it because you can.
I was reading an article in the August edition of Runner’s World Magazine; an interview with Andre Kajlich, the reigning USA Paratriathlete of the Year. In it they discuss how he went from a 24 year old everyday college student with every opportunity before him, to someone who lost both of his legs in an instant in a horrific accident. This article really stuck with me for a few reasons. First for the amazing attitude that Andre has toward his new life. And second the article doesn’t try to canonize him as some stoic figure, but comes across as a thoughtful and honest discussion. The one quote that stuck in my mind was: “It’s an amazing thing, running-especially at that maximum turnover. It’s also amazing to never do something again because you can’t. I’d like to transfer that concept into everyone’s head, because inevitably it will happen to all of us.” You don’t need to be a runner to understand what he is saying. All you need to know is that you need to be doing whatever it is that makes you come alive before you can’t anymore. If nothing else do what makes you happy, do what you feel passionate about, do what gives you purpose and fulfillment…and do it now, because you can! Don’t let another minute pass you by where you aren’t doing what you love or at least planning to do it at the next available moment. I write this not because I have become adept at doing this myself, but because I need to write it out so I can see it plainly for myself. So that I can see how important it is to live life, get dirty, scrape a few knees, laugh and smile at the little things in life. It’s over faster than we can imagine…make it a good one! Read the article here....
Magic number 50
Yes, I have a magic number. Now it’s not magic in that I believe it has any supernatural traits. No, it’s actually more like this number gives me the ability to remember what I am capable of when I am feeding off of my last ounce of energy, physically or mentally. Repeating this number to myself, as if invoking my brain for some special power it didn’t realize it had, is a way of getting myself through some tough challenges. So what is my magic number? Well up until August 10th it was 42 ( and if I am going to be really specific 42.2). That’s right in kilometers that is the distance of a marathon, of which I have run 2. This is no great feat, as many people have run this distance, but it does provide a keen sense of mental awareness of what your body can achieve. Just knowing the distance you can push your body to run, translates to being able to push yourself in so many other aspects of life. For myself it has become a mantra I say to myself when the going gets tough. During a long hard day in the mountains I can draw energy from this number, if I can run that distance surely I can tackle the physical and mental challenge I currently find myself facing. What happened August 10th? Well that was the day of my first 50km ultra trail race, the Arc”teryx Squamish 50. I tried to post updates regarding my training as the months passed, but as I mentioned in a previous post, this did not pan out as well as I hoped it would. Nonetheless race day came, despite my inability to catalog the months and days leading up to the race. So here are a few thoughts on how that day went. Race day was forecast to be 28 degrees (celcius) but feel like 31, so I was concerned about running in the heat. But when I woke up to a cloudy sky in Squamish I was so thankful! Driving down to catch the bus to our respective races, Leigh to his 23km starting line at Quest and me to the 50km start at Alice Lake, we could see the sun streaming through the clouds above the chief. Beautiful though it was, I hoped that the sun would duck back behind the clouds for just a few more hours. Arriving at the start line, with 1/2 an hour to spare, I seen the familiar faces of friends also running the race. It helped to calm the nerves, just a little bit, and the excitement...
