BCMC * 2

Sunday morning I headed out with my girlfriend Meredith to do some laps up and down the local BCMC trail. The route of the trail is fairly simplistic, straight up and straight down with a number of steps and larger step-ups in between. There are only a few sections of the route that I would call runnable: nearing the top and some of the initiating parts. Unfortunately being the peak of the summer season (and a beautiful day) it was considerably busy on the trail (however, nothing compared to the parallelling Grouse Grind). Needless to say, it was a battle on a number of occasions having to grunt and groan past people coming both up and down. The result was nearly a few good superman's coming down but in the end, all was good. Paradoxically, these same individuals offered wonderful motivation as I was lapping a number of them on my route and double lapping one. I would pass them on the way down, and then have them as my targets on the way back up. They also gave me many bewildered stares and questioning looks. One couple stopped to ask me in the parking lot how many times I was doing it. They were shocked when I said two (little do they know that this is fairly average in the running community and many do much more... eg. Gary Robbins *5). Anyways, great day overall and a good pounding on the quads after the 19miles I ran the previous day. I was definitely feeling it on Monday but any DOMS was virtually gone by Tuesday and I was able to enjoy an 8mile/1:04 effort with an average pace of 8:09 this evening in the misty rain.

Some Numbers for the day:
Round 1: Up (43:53) Down (31:22)
Round 2: Up (43.39) Down (31.05)

Stats for the route:
Total Distance: 3.3 km (one-way)
Average Grade: 25.8%
Elevation Gain: 853 m = 2,800 feet
Start Elevation: 275 m = 902 feet
Max Elevation: 1128 m = 3,700 feet

Throughout the run I was oblivous to my watch and just tried to simply go by feel. I find it an interesting exercise doing this once in a while as it forces me to a) listen to my body more closely b) intuitively appreciate the pace I am moving at and how it feels. Each points I am always trying to improve on.

Anyways, the theme song for the day and one I have been enjoying as of late....