First 3/4 — Father’s Day

Glenn was run­ning the 24 hr relay and rais­ing funds tor kids, a very worthy reason to miss the train­ing run. A few other were off bag­ging peaks …

Despite being nearly the longest day of the year, the weather gods had not yet wel­comed in summer. We are still waiting.

The group met at Lynn Canyon and arranged for shut­tles back to the start at Nelson Creek. A good sized crew showed up, 45 or so? includ­ing mis­cel­la­neous pets*. We headed up from the Nelson Creek park­ing lot around 8 am. There were no bag­pipes to send us off.

This is the first train­ing run of the year to head up and over Black Moun­tain, and for some its their first time on this steeper part of the course. This can be a good test, or a wake up call. The route starts on the trail to Whyte Lake, with its new bridge, fancy board­walks and solid cedar out­house (worth check­ing out). The lower woods were peace­ful with birds singing and not a vuvuzela to be heard any­where. From here the route rejoins the BP trail for the steep climb up to Eagle Bluffs.

One of the best parts of these runs is the chance to catch up with friends. Doug and I started at the back of the pack, talked a lot and the faster run­ners soon left us far behind. As we left the old road sys­tems and headed into the woods we looked but there was no sign of the crazy grouse that haunted the lower trail a couple of years ago. We gained alti­tude and the weather became misty and much cooler and the boul­der field was slip­pery. For some run­ners this is their first chance to expe­ri­ence the awe­some views from Eagle Bluffs … but not today.

Above Eagle Bluff the snow on the trail was melt­ing very quickly, there was far less than 2 weeks ago. I’d be sur­prised if there is much left by mid July. The melt was leav­ing behind smaller patches of snow in var­i­ous states of decay and large stretches of mud. Karen and her camera were strate­gi­cally located beside one large mud bath, taking photos of those caught unaware. We saw only a few others out hiking in this alpine area.

The trail from Black down to Cypress Bowl was as steep, ill designed and as tough on the thighs as ever. The new lodge area was very quiet. On the tra­verse over to Holly­burn, we saw very fresh bear poop, and a fellow hiking through the mud in his Top Siders. At the sign post at the junc­tion of the Mt Holly­burn trail there was less than a meter of snow. We ran a short dis­tance on snow on the cross coun­try trails and left that snow behind before we got to the warm­ing hut. The trail was in good shape (watch your head!) all the way down the Holly­burn shute and the rest of the way to Cleve­land Dam. Doug and I had Father’s Day noon cur­fews, so we called it a day at the Dam. The rest con­tin­ued on to Lynn Canyon.

Until next week …

Ken Legge

*editor’s note: Knee Knacker dis­cour­ages pets on the Sunday train­ing runs.

Well…the week­end started off promis­ing enough…seasonally warm & sunny, unlike the past…oh….6 weeks!!! Even the pre-run car shut­tle in Deep Cove had every­one ready for a warm & sunny train­ing run. Unfor­tu­nately, once we arrived at the start of our run….Cypress Mountain’s cross coun­try ski area…there was a heavy mist falling from the sky. This has got to be the wettest train­ing year on record! Although the sky didn’t com­pletely let loose, the driz­zle was enough to send a few of the early arrivals on their way. The remain­ing 45 run­ners waited a few more min­utes for direc­tions & tips & were off…..off to Deep Cove.

The rain didn’t last all that long, & the tem­per­a­tures were actu­ally very com­fort­able. We made our way down the Holly­burn Chute & into Cleve­land Dam within an hour & it seemed that the group was moving at a very com­fort­able pace….Nancy Greene Way looked eerily sim­i­lar to race day as a long line of run­ners made their way up towards the trail.

I man­aged to hang out with August for quite awhile & we chat­ted about var­i­ous adven­ture runs on the West Coast & in Europe…eventually I had to let him go as I felt that I needed to slow down & he sped up. Although he won’t be racing the Knee Knacker this year, you should keep an eye on this sea­soned veteran…his climb­ing abil­ity is almost effortless…as his sub-6 hour PR proves.

Race day is very dif­fer­ent from a train­ing run in many ways. Today, I had the luxury (or excuse) of stop­ping & chat­ting with a vari­ety of people that were also on the trail. Some of you may have seen a fellow in a green jersey run­ning the oppo­site direc­tion on the Fromme sec­tion of the trail….it was 10 time fin­isher Rick Arikado. We caught up for a few minutes….turns out he was in the middle of one of his train­ing staples….what he calls the “Two Bridge Run”. He starts at home in Kits, runs over 2^nd Nar­rows, then up to LSCR & onto the Baden Powell, where he pops out at Grouse, & then over Lions Gate bridge via the Capi­lano Pacific.to home.

I turned back towards Deep Cove & plod­ded along…admittedly some­what slug­gish still….not sure why, but August seemed to think it was rem­nants of the Juan de Fuca trail 2 weeks prior. I’m not sure what it is, but I found it ironic that I had men­tioned the impor­tance of recov­ery in my last post. A group gath­ered as we made our way through Lynn Creek & even­tu­ally up the Sey­mour Grind. The sun had started to show itself & life on the trail was good. Although that last climb is a bit of a brute, I take some solace in know­ing that there is a great down­hill towards the finish (despite those nasty climbs in the last 2 1/2km). As I closed in on the final 10 min­utes of the course, I saw Sue head­ing back out….”just going back to Grouse”, she said. !!!! Another Fat Dog 100 hope­ful in mid-training.

No sooner had I made into Panorama Park among many others of our group, than 1^st time hope­ful Chris­t­ian fin­ished as well. We rested for a short while & chat­ted with the group, before head­ing back out to retrieve his car. I man­aged to make it home in time to get ready for a birth­day party for twenty-four 13 year olds….if the run­ning doesn’t kill me, it’ll be some­thing else!

I’d like to throw out a spe­cial thanks to all for coop­er­at­ing in making the car shut­tles pos­si­ble. We wouldn’t be able to do this kind of train­ing with­out the coor­di­na­tion of the group.

Rod will be coor­di­nat­ing next 2 week’s train­ing run as I am involved in the 24 Hour Relay this week, & the fol­low­ing week I’ll be enjoy­ing the 34 degree heat of Squaw Valley as I have the honor of pacing a friend at the West­ern States 100.

Have fun!

Glenn Pace

This was one of those train­ing runs that the expe­ri­enced Knacker-ers look for­ward to with some trep­i­da­tion. Known as a “char­ac­ter builder” the train­ing run is a simple out-and-back from Grouse Moun­tain to the top of the Sey­mour Grind (or for the truly determined…Old Buck).  It is an exer­cise in patience, endurance, pacing, & nutri­tion. There are many ways to turn this run into an epic slog…go out too hard, eat too little, mis-manage your elec­trolytes, under­es­ti­mate the hills.

The park­ing lot at Grouse was full of now-familiar Knee Knacker hope­fuls — about 58 of them (us). Some had never done this one before, some had. Appar­ently ultra-runners have an issue with short-term memory loss. The order of the day was to figure out a pace that would allow one to return in the same time as it took to go out & the goal was to get in a qual­ity 4½ to 5 hour run.

Despite the threat of rain, the weather coop­er­ated. For the most part, the clouds never col­lapsed onto us & what little rain that did fall, was stopped by the forest canopy. Now that we’ve had a few train­ing runs together, it seems that people have fallen into famil­iar pace groups.

Per­son­ally, I didn’t manage my pace very well. The “out” por­tion went quite well, but the return found me hit­ting a wall. Appar­ently I wasn’t the only one. But as they say….misery loves com­pany. One of the won­der­ful tru­isms of ultras is the fact that as low as one feels, it will even­tu­ally pass…..of course, highs can pass as well. So it goes. Anyway, the climb up those inter­minable stairs out of Lynn head­wa­ters sucked the life out of my quads…in the group of 5 or 6, I wasn’t the only one complaining….though most of them man­aged to find an extra gear on the “flat­ter” sec­tion at the top. My ego took a bit of a beat­ing as I tried to gain some ground on some­one who had started at the base of the stairs at the same time. Now that we were on the flat sec­tion, she was still fairly close. The sound of deep breaths & jin­gling of a rattle and some baby-talk indi­cated that she was clos­ing in….yes, a mother with an infant in a back­pack was gain­ing on me. At least the trees weren’t pass­ing me….yet.

Even­tu­ally, I started to feel better….some water, some gels, a cool creek cross­ing, a down­hill….& I was back into a groove. Short term memory loss kicks in & I’m back in love with run­ning trails.

Many were already back at the park­ing lot when I got in. Many had man­aged their pace very well & weren’t worse for the wear. A bit muddy & sweaty, maybe. Some had turned around early, others opted for the whole hog (John!). Pat decided that it wasn’t enough & headed back up the BCMC to log some extra time …???!!!! (actu­ally, he is one of a few who are train­ing for an upcom­ing 100 miler this summer).

Each of you should get a hearty pat on the back for your train­ing achieve­ments so far! It really is quite a feat & one should not under­es­ti­mate the impact on one’s body. Remem­ber to rest a bit durng the week…your body is taking on a bit more than usual & recov­ery is just as impor­tant as activ­ity. A simple way to ensure that you are not over train­ing, is to take your pulse before you get out bed each morn­ing. You should see a con­sis­tent heart rate, or even a low­er­ing trend. If you notice a trend towards a higher heart rate, it could mean that you are over­tax­ing your system. Take a break!

As far as recov­er­ing & nutri­tion goes, make sure you are replen­ish­ing your reserves. Carbs are your fuel, but pro­tein helps rebuild worn & tired mus­cles. Don’t forget to take in some extra sodium…perhaps in the form of soy sauce, or better yet…. a bacon double cheeseburger!

Gotta go….I’m hungry.

Glenn Pace

Impor­tant notice!

Next week’s planned run may need a slight mod­i­fi­ca­tion.

We are still plan­ning to run from Cypress Moun­tain to Deep Cove & there­fore we will still plan to meet at Deep Cove at 7:30am in order to coor­di­nate the car pool.

Cur­rently, the park­ing lot at the Sky­line Trail on Cypress Moun­tain is closed for con­struc­tion. It may not be re-opened by Sunday. If it is not, we will con­tinue up the Cypress Moun­tain road to the Cross Coun­try park­ing area. From there we will run to the Ranger’s Cabin & follow the Baden Powell all the way to Deep Cove.

Over­all dis­tance & time should be the same.

Here’s an update on the trail con­di­tions in and around Black Moun­tain, as well as the Cypress to Holly­burn sec­tion, from Knee Knacker vet­eran Darren Lauscher (9-time finisher):

Just wanted to pass on a trail update about Black Mtn. A group of us did it last Sunday and the snow level is rapidly decreas­ing. Snow from fur­ther in the tree line at the bluff onwards to halfway down into the bowl. The only area of con­cern is the scree slope and boul­der field as some­one has flagged it as a straight line up both fields as opposed to the trail which is a zig zag. The boul­der field one is par­tic­u­larly nasty now at the top of it because of this wear on it. Oth­er­wise the Cypress to Holly­burn is pretty good with some snow but rapidly clear­ing, still very knarly. Some­one has been work­ing on dif­fer­ent parts of the chute so its pretty decent. Haven’t encoun­tered any blow downs to crawl over yet and don’t expect to.