Hornby Island Energy Bars Review
Delicious, natural and healthy snacks for mountain adventures is something we are always on the lookout for. Long days in the mountains require a lot of calories and what you’re eating has to taste good to encourage you to keep eating. We have recently discovered the deliciousness of Hornby Island Energy Bars and need to let you know that this may just be your new favourite snack bar for adventures! They are made with simple natural ingredients that you can easily pronounce, so none of that chemical mumbo jumbo, they taste amazing and are made locally right on Hornby Island in British Columbia. Currently they have 4 scrumptious flavours. Here is a quick breakdown of the four bars and which ones are our personal favourites: Tahini This is my personal favourite! Made with ingredients like oats,dark chocolate, sesame tahini and coconut it is the highest calorie bar in their lineup with an impressive 420 calories and 11 grams of protein for an 85 gr bar. This bar will give you enough energy to keep hiking or climbing for hours! Carob Made with ingredients like oats, peanut butter, coconut and carob. Never tried carob? Then you are in for a treat. Try this bar and see if you can tell it’s chocolate free, the carob will leave you pleasantly surprised. At 375 calories and 11 grams of protein it’s a tasty choice. Sesame You don’t live and die for chocolate? I know there are a few of us out there so this bar is for you. Made with ingredients like oats, peanut butter, molasses and sesame seeds this is a delicious mix with 364 calories and 13 grams of protein. Gourmet Sesame This is Leigh’s favourite. It’s the Sesame bar with a little extra decadence added in the form of dark chocolate. Made with ingredients like oats, peanut butter, molasses, sesame seeds and dark chocolate this gourmet version is 385 calories and 13 grams of protein. A few things to note is that these bars, except for the Tahini, are not nut allergy friendly as they all contain peanut butter. They are also very calorie dense bars so are best consumed during high activity - hiking, climbing, trail running and probably not as snack bars for daily use. We now put a Hornby Island Energy bar in every backpack ready to keep us energized for every adventure. If you haven’t tried them before we highly recommend them…and when you do let us know what your favourite flavour is! We would like to say a big THANK YOU to Hornby Island Energy Bars for the opportunity to test out their product and give our...
UPrise Performance - Hawaiian Trail Running Retreat
“I am so honoured to be part of your journey.” These are the words I heard from lead coach Paul Romero as we traversed our way through the Waipio Valley trails on my third day in Hawaii. Up and down along a narrow trail that weaved it’s way through the tropical jungle forest. The clouds were closing in and you could feel a mist that was threatening a downpour. Even though our group of nine women, oppressed by the humid heat, wished for the rain to come to refresh us, we pushed on passing small waterfalls and made our way to the next viewpoint of curving coastline and crashing waves. Just being on such beautiful trails, with such passionate and supportive people was an experience I won’t soon forget. This was just one of the moments I remember from my time at the UPrise Ladies Hawaiian Trail Running Retreat. The weekend was filled to the brim with notable memories and take-away’s that I know are going to make me a better, healthier and stronger athlete over the coming months. You do not arrive at this camp to be given an agenda of running to do or to be given a training plan. Instead they provide you with a completely holistic, whole body, approach. They want to improve how you are as an athlete from the inside out. What you put into your body is just as important as what you are trying to get your body to do. Their goal is be able to simplify your approach by providing you with the necessary tools you need. As Paul said during one of our Nutrtion 101 sessions “I have spent countless hours doing the research to give you the information you need. That’s what I am here for, to make it easy for you.” Nutrition, mobility, strength - these are the building blocks. The most notable aspect of the camp was how all encompassing it was. They have the tools knowledge and skills to provide you with more than a training plan. They provide you with all the information you need to adapt and improve your lifestyle to become an overall better athlete.; to get the most out of your body,your skills and mental strength. Being part of a group of women who are all striving to become better and increase their abilities as athletes is an extremely motivating and inspiring atmosphere. Not only do you feed off the energy from the group but you are led by a world class Coach, Paul Romero, and Physiotherapist, Annemarie Alf of Olympus Movement and Mobility, that that are also incredible athletes themselves. They...
10 Things My First Ultra Taught Me
Technically anything over the marathon distance of 42.2 km (26.2 miles) is classified as an ultra distance. With this in mind it means I officially ran my first ultra trail race in August 2013, when I ran the Squamish 50 50 km (31 miles) trail race. However, it wasn’t until I decided to run my first 80 km (50 mile) trail race that it actually felt like I was entering the ultra arena. This felt monumental and to be honest a little outside of my wheelhouse. But I was committed to running it, not just surviving it, and I tried to focus hard on training. Seeing as I am not a professional and fairly new to the trail running scene, my approach to training, although a little more refined recently, could be called somewhat clumsy and haphazard. I have several sports/hobbies that I like to pursue - rock climbing, mountaineering, ice climbing,skiing - so my attention and energy can be diverted easily. Because of this my training became a bit of a juggling act. I ended up learning a lot while training and running my first ultra. Here are the top 10 things I learned during the process: 1) Run a lot of hills - Yes this means hill repeats. BORING! That’s probably what you are thinking and I know because I thought the exact same thing. In fact I remember one elite trail runner say that you know are deep into training season when you have a fair share of boring runs. Yes, not every run is going to be about having fun but about pushing you outside of your comfort zone. Besides if you are anything like me, slightly masochistic as most long distance runners are, you will find joy in these training runs too! 2) Run back to back long runs -The LSD (long slow distance) is the trademark of endurance runners. Spending a lot of time on your feet, not worrying so much about the actual distance covered, but about the hours you spend out there. So run a big 6-8 hour run on Saturday and get ready to run at least another 2-4 hours on Sunday. Let your body know your mind is in control and you are running whether the body protests or not; run on tired legs. 3) Eat a lot while running, even when you don’t want to - I learned this when I let a podium finish slip through my fingers because I didn’t focus on getting calories into my body early on in the race. It was only when my friend, who was keeping pace with me that day,...
Running the Squamish 50 - 50 Mile
So I actually did it. It still feels a little bit like a dream really. The months of physical preparation, the mental anguish I put myself through, were finally put to the test on August 16th when I got to run the Squamish 50 (50mile/80km) trail race. There was so much trepidation leading up to this day, unsure I would actually be able to complete the full distance. The longest run I had done leading up to race day was 50km and I just hoped that race day endorphins would pull me through the extra 30km that my legs would need to carry me that day. But how exactly did the day unfold? My good friend and fellow racer Sarah toed the line with me that Saturday morning for the 5:30am start. We hugged each other, wished each other a strong race and didn’t see each other until the end. In my mind that morning, I had Sarah’s advice floating through my mind, “for your first 50 miler go uncomfortably slow for the first half”, hopefully this would help me reserve energy for the second half of the race. Coming into AS #2. Re-fuel Getting words of wisdom from Leigh The first 10 km was flat and despite the easy start to the race I forced myself to keep the pace I knew I wanted to hold. ALOT of people passed me and I tried to not let it bother me as I knew there was a good chance I could catch some of them on the second half and it also gave me a chance to find a rhythm; pacing is an art that I was hoping to master that day. The first aid station was 10 km in. Here I saw Solana & Jay, cheery as always, manning the station and cheering the runners on. This is when I first saw my personal crew, my favorite person and better half, Leigh. He was there with a “How are you feeling” “What do you need?” and with a few clicks of the camera and a kiss, I was off. The next 10km had a hilly and technical middle portion. Sarah and I had actually discussed the previous night how we were not looking forward to this particular section as it seemed so brutally steep on the last training run. But this day it didn’t feel as bad as I had remembered, maybe because I knew there was so much more ahead of me that day. It was still steep, dry and dusty so there was some hard power hiking happening. Climbing is something I have the long gait...
Squamish 50 Orientation Run
June 22nd was the last of the orientation runs for the Squamish 50. I knew I wanted/had to run the 47km for peace of mind. I woke up that morning tired, unsure of being able to run the full distance. I actually thought to myself I would cop out and probably choose the 37km halfway through, as there is a point in the run where the 47 and 37 runners split. Anyway, I had my good running friends Adam and Sarah(both wanting to run the 37km) with me, so with their combined stoke we walked and laughed our way to Escape Route, the start of the run. I started off nice and easy, I wanted this to be a long slow run for endurance training. Adam took off like a shot and within after about 3km I didn’t see him anymore. Sarah and I yo-yo’d a bit but were generally always in eyesight of each other. I knew I wanted to keep it really slow and forced myself to take it easy. I arrived at the 18km aid station to find Sarah fueling up on coke, cookies and other ultra type foods that one only eats during an ultra (Scott Jurek dies a little inside at reading this). Adam was already gone as Sarah told me that they were goth going for the 37 distance. I wasn’t too excited for the additional 10km loop but the thought of getting to hit the aid station after the loop was pretty enticing and when asked what distance I was doing, they keep track of all runners for safety reasons, I immediately said 47km. I chugged a bit of coke, had a few salty chips and a Hammer Bar and then told Sarah I was off. However during the time spent at the aid station Sarah succumbed to a bit of peer pressure from other runners at the station and she was shamed into running the 47km. So off we went.Not going to lie, this worked to my advantage as it was nice to have company on that extra 10km. Not a bad view. Going UP! The theme of the race. Another lovely view en route. I think it may have been a mix of the coke, the calories from the hammer bar and just starting to get my second wind but i was starting to feel good again. The 10km loop was beautiful, with one steep uphill section and the rest classic flowy squamish bike trail. Only the last few km’s were on logging road and I forced myself to run until I seen the aid station. Most times on logging...
