Georgetown

Took a jaunt with my good buddy Tom Zidek down the Georgetown trail in the Canmore Nordic Centre today. It came with the usual Zidek twist however as we took a sharp turn off the main trail and explored about 4 km of old overgrown single track. This was a lot of fun and would make a great winter snow shoe run from town in a big snow year - here's hoping! We finished with the obligatory Zidek bushwack along the Bow river.

10km, 1h 10m

High Line West connector

Time was at a premium this morning due to other commitments but fortunately I was able to get in a quick run up the west end of the Highline Trail. It was a beautiful morning and the trails are in great fall shape. Here are a few shots I took along the way.

Total distance just over 8 kilometers. Total ascent 300 meters

What a difference a few days makes.

Last week I ran the Highline trail in Canmore in it's entirety, and except for the occasional muddy patch it was clear and dry. Check out this morning's run. Yup, old man Winter is on his way.

The Highline trail

Canmore's Highline trail is a total gem, and a regular route. It's a short distance from where I live and there are several variations depending on how much time is available.

My preferred running direction is East to West, as I get a nice easy leg stretching warm up on the flats, running from downtown Canmore to the Three Sisters Area a few km east. If you run all the way to the West end and descend down the Riders of Rohan descent, or the newer switchbacks of the West Highline it drops you out by the dam, a couple of km from the Nordic centre. From there, it's an easy cruise downhill to down town. Around 15-20km depending on the finish with close to 500m elevation gain. It's possible to do this one all winter as it's popular and there's usually a well packed down trench the whole way.

Looking up to Ha Ling

At the top of the East end climb

Looking down from one of the middle section gullies

It's well signed, the whole way, so you cannot get lost!

Mental running

I was in Wilcox Saskatchewan for Thanksgiving dinner this weekend with an old friend. Four days without running was a bit much (though the multiple games of shinny on the ice at Notre Dame school may have made up for it) so I ventured out for a 15 km run before dinner. And it had to be the most utterly boring run I have ever done. Essentially a big square on completely flat grid roads, and a hefty wind to boot. Mental toughness, that's what I kept telling myself I was developing. Sask runners must be tough.

Suunto MiniPod

I got a Suunto foot minipod last week - bought online through mec.ca. I was a little hesitant at first as I had initially thought it was one if these 'measure your stride length' devices and it will then estimate distance, which obviously isn't a great solution for trail/mountain running. However, it actually works by calculating your stride length with it's accelerometer and sensors, so it's a very clever, sophisticated piece of kit.

It pairs up very quickly with the t6d, and out of the box seems very accurate though I have yet to do any 'official' calibration. It seems to work better than the GPS pod which is a bit finicky in the woods, though seems great out on the mountains.