see ya

Leaving on Friday morning for 5 weeks.

My trip will include the White River 50 mile race in Crystal Mountain, Wa (near seattle), the Corner Canyon Ultra 50 km in Draper, Ut (near Salt Lake City), the Tamalpa HEadlands 50 km in Muir Beach, Ca (near San Francisco), and the Walk in the Park 54 km in Kamloops, BC

Week ending July 22 (taper?)

July 16 - July 22

Monday july 16: no run

Tuesday july 17: hiked bear creek; about 5 km's. We went up the trail on the one side and then decided to swim in a deep area of the creek, which was then followed up with the brilliant decision to come back down the creek. Only problem was that we both had forgotten just how big the waterfalls were. Further to the top of the creek was the smallest (about 5 metres high) and right below that was the bigger (about 30 metres high). We actually stood talking about trying to get down the smaller for ten minutes, not knowing how much bigger the larger was. I'm quite glad I won the discussion and we turned back... only to try and scale the cliff face instead of just going back teh way we came, that was probably equally as scary as we had wet running shoes on, and there was crap for handholds on the rock climb.

wednesday july 17::

am: 42.3 km road bike around town in 96 minutes

pm1: 8.1 km mountain bike on the greenway to meet up with the pace group

pm2: 10.9 km trail run in 62 minutes. Pace workout; 10 minute warmup, then did sprint pyramids, then cool down.

pm3: 9.5 km mountain bike home from pace run

thursday july 18: rest day: I had intened on running Little White mtn, but wednesday kicked my ass a bit, and it was way too hot out.

friday july 19: Little White! I parked my car at the parking lot near the top of little white fsr and biked to the bellevue trestle, then hiked/ran to top of little white, a little bit along the ridge and back, then biked back to my car. It was cool and cloudy, so great for running. There was still a little bit of snow at the top, so on the way up it was still a little mosquito infested, but thats alright. One of my favourite runs. Biked 13.6 km, ran 22.5 km with 1,116 metre elev gain.

The summit of Little White

A few shots of the valley from the top of Little White

Bellevue Trestle

the cliff face at Little White; lunch on top!

One of the two big reasons I'm no longer comfortable driving on the KVR

Saturday July 21: Okanagan Mountain Summit run with pace. Ran the divide lake trail to the summit and back. Another beautiful day. I tested perogies as a on the run food this day, seemed to work. Ran 28.2 km with 1,562 metre elev gain.

At the top of Ok Mtn beside Divide Lake

after running I stopped at the bike shop to pick up my road bike; so I couldn't resist going for a quick 14.2 km ride through the hills near home.

Sunday july 22: biked 15.9 km to knox mountain (uphill), then a short 4 km run to test out new shoes (mountain masochists, I like!) and then rode 12.6 km home (down).

Weekly totals:

Bike: 116.2 km

Run: 70.6 km with 3,127 metre elev gain

Total time: 14 hours 55 minutes.

Next week I'm going a 50 mile race, didn't really do much of a taper, but I didn't work this week so I guess I got more rest day. Overall, a fantastic week. I hit the summit of three of the local mountains and it was good.

Sinister race thoughts and photos

I don't know where to really start with this race. So  a few photos will start I guess.

Around 5 km

Around 12 km

Same shot, just after I passed through.

Around 35 km.

This is going to be a horrible race report. I don't feel like breaking down the race blow by blow, describing every intricate detail of what went down.

A few key things. I had a good day, running with old friends and new friends. I had a fantastic little holiday with family who came out to support me on my endeavour. I ended up dropping out of the 148 km race at 87 km. The day was super hot, reaching a high of 39 degrees celsius (103 F). I did start the race at what I thought was a slow enough speed to last. Around 34 km I got my first signs of trouble, with tightness coming and going in my legs, and stomach issues beginning. Even though the race was in the mountains, there was no shade, no clouds, and very little trees to block the sun. By 50 km in I was having real issues with my stomach, just felt horrible. Leaving the transition area heading up the hill at the beginning of leg 4 (around 67 km) I started to feel faint, and didn't make it up the hill well at all. By 70 km I was feeling like a real tonne of ass, the heat felt like it was destroying me. At 73 km, there was a river crossing, the runner I was with suggested taking the shoes off and walking through to keep dry as there was 15 km to go until the next crew spot and change of shoes. I sat down at the water station 100 metre later and when I tried to get up and was lightheaded, dizzy and fell back down into the chair. I didn't go on from that point until I could stand up without feeling faint; that took 30 minutes. When I kept going I decided to go to the next water station and re-asses, I felt basically the same, except worse. I was feeling off feelings in my toes and fingers, I hadn't peed in 11 hours, and as well as the light headedness I was feeling funny in the chest (maybe I was having asthma issues due to the elevation).

I decided to drop out at 87 km around 13.5 hours. I was well within the cut off times, but didn't feel moving on was the safest choice. I could possibly have walked it out to the finish and still beat the cut-off time. But finishing is not worth the possible risk. I knew the next leg included lots of deep water, and with the lightheadedness that wouldn't go away I didn't feel like risking falling in a deep puddle, or something worse. I'm totally ok with dropping. Running myself into possibly risky situations isn't worth the risk, just for the reward of being able to say I am a finisher, the risk vs reward ratio tipped in the favour of risk on that day. I enjoy running more than I used to, and seem to be less willing to destroy myself. So that was that.

Thinking more deeply about my DNF though, I think if I were in another race of that distance and feeling the same I will have learned from this and make a different choice. I came into the water station where I ended up dropping out at 87 km at 13 hours. Total cut-off time for the race was 27 hours for 148 km. To finish the race from that under the cut-off time I would have had to do the remaining 61 km in 14 hours, that's a pace of 13:45 min/km (22 min/mile) which is very doable in itself, as long as you can get your head past your current pain state. Also, the cutoff time for that leg was 18 hours for 99 km. I had to go 12 more km in 5 hours. Very doable.

Now here''s the thing; almost immediately (around 13.5 hours) after getting into the car of the volunteer who drove me from where I dropped to the arena, I started to feel better. Part of that was probably me mentally letting go of stress, but maybe I just needed a rest. And within a couple hours I felt tonnes better already. Maybe all I needed was a major rest, and some wicked food in me to be able to ramp it up. What if I had rested at the spot I had dropped for two hours and then kept going. Even with that much I could probably had run the remaining 61 km in under 12 hours. Or what if I had struggled two the next transition area where my crew was waiting, and then rested under the comfort of family and food. Maybe after that I could have even picked up the pace a bit and pushed on faster. So maybe, having pushed hard enough to work myself a buffer under the cut off times, I should have used thta buffer up to try and recover before dropping.

I think I may have just talked myself into doing this race again next year, wrong decisions that are fixable. I don't regret my decision to drop at all. But I think I have definitely learned something from it. After all, I have only been doing this whole ultra thing since 2010, and this was only my third attempt to run further than 100 km. Growing pains I guess.

Write out the thoughts of the race, and talk yourself into a bit of unfinished business.

Happy sighs.

And I'm a week away from a 5 week vacation. !!!!



Week ending July 15 (recovery and race)

July 9 - 15 recovery and race week

Mon: rest day; travelling back from sinister

Tue: 16 km road bike; to work and back after

Wed: 16 km road bike; to work and  back after

thu: 6.6 km in 36 mins; road running around home at night after work, very easy pace

Fri: no run

Sat: 15.9 km, 903 metre elev gain, 150 mins; easy pace run with pace in knox mtn trails

Sun: 2 km road run easy pace warm up
Sun: RACE!! 8 km road race in 32:05

Weekly Totals:
Running; 32.5 km and 965 metre elev gain
Biking: 48 km
Total time: 6 hours 22 minutes

I took it excessively easy this week to recover from sinister (I still need to get in writing my thoughts from that day) as I didn't want to push my body after having dropped out due to physical concerns. So I feel pretty good about the week in exercise and general health. By tuesday I was able to be fully functioning at work, so that was good.

Road race on sunday. I entered the race just a couple days prior just to see how I would compare to last year. Last year I ran the flat 8 km road race in 32:38 and this year I finished in 32:05 just shy of my 4 min/km pace, but I still feel pretty good about it. It was a fairly humid day out, so it felt harder than it should have been, and I don't think my body was fully recovered from sinsiter yet, as later that day at work I felt like a complete bag of crap all over my body.

Sunday was my last day of work for at least two months. I'm going travelling, and it' gonna be sweet. Starting with a 50 mile race in seattle on July 28, then a 50 km race in draper, utah on Aug 11 and then a 50 km race in Muir Beach, Ca on Aug 25. Plus I'll add in some time sightseeing around the states in between the races.

Another race DNF

I dnf'd at km 87 of 148 at sinister on saturday. Massive heat and zero clouds and zero shade on the course made for an ass kick of a day. I dropped when I was still well under the cut off times; fingers tingling, chest feeling funny with the first hints of asthma I've felt in a couple years (maybe due to elevation), body shakes were coming on their way, and I was feeling faint in the head.

In the past (at the death race for example) I would have pushed on walking to the finish. On saturday I dropped, the other possible options such as making my body worse, or even passing out and getting severely injured were too great a risk to continue. So I dropped. I'm ok with it.

It seems as though the more I run on a daily basis, and the more fun in my daily runs I have, the less I feel like I 'need' to finish a race. I feel like I'm quite deep in the middle of a process of transitioning my reasons for running. Going from running searching for a sense of purpose in life and to prove that I am capable of doing something tough; and now I'm very much moving heavily towards running for pleasure. I like where I'm heading, but still feel a few questions lingering as a result.

I'll write a probably excessively detailed race post later, just felt this thought was worth writing.

week ending july 1 - taper week

This week I only ran three times. Tuesday for 2.5 hours (which was not comfortable yet after my race saturday), wednesday for a evening workout, and saturday for a couple hours.

This year, for the first time in my brief time doing ultra running, I have been mindful of attempting a proper training plan. Doing build weeks, then tapering, and doing specific purposeful types of runs throughout the week. This has been made all the easier by the fact that I joined a running group and have the coach make a training plan for me. The hardest part of the training plan for me to stick to properly is the taper and the rest weeks. I always do much less than advised during the easier scheduled weeks, as though knowing that I will be runniing less and knowing that the purpose of the week is to recover allows me to be less diligant in getting out the door to run. I always feel fine once the shoes are on and I"m at it, but not doing it is harder. The little things, like sitting around after work socialising instead of running becomes an easier choice, and then I've missed a run.

I'm six days away from sinister 7; and I'm getting very very very excited. With getting time off for the race and for travel, I have to work my usual days off, which is making a little harder to try and follow my suggested training plan for the week of the race. The early weeks runs may be nixed in favour of finding time to pack and get ready to leave.

No matter how these last 5 days before the race go, I know I feel ready for it. I feel properly trained, and definitely mentally ready. Every aspect of my training has been with sinister in the back of my mind. I don't have any specific time goals for the race, or placing goals; primarily I have goals based around bodyfeel, nutrition, effort and mindfocus. Hit these goals, and I will be satisfied no matter how I do. But also, anything can happen in an ultra, and all is good no  matter what.

Are we there yet? I want to run it already.

Week ending June 23 (scorched sole report)

 June 18 - June 24 (scorched sole week)

Mon: rest day

Tue: rest day

Wed:

am1: road run up highway 33 to pick up my mountain bike that I'd left at the end of philpott rd; 19.2 km in 103 minutes with 582 metre elev gain

am2: mountain bike back home; 20 km in 46 minutes

pm1: road bike from home to meet up for pace workout; 15.5 km in 37 minutes

pm2: pace workout; little bit of trails and a bit of road hill repeats; 7.5 km, 168 metre elev gain in 46 minutes

pm3: road bike home from pace workout; 15.1 km in 35 minutes

thur: short road run; 5.2 km in 29 minutes

fri: short road bike; 9.1 km in 23 minutes

sat: scorched sole 50 mile trail race: 80 km; 3,275 metre (10,670 feet) elev gain, in 9:48:50

sun: road bike; 26.4 km in 62 minutes

Weekly Totals:
Run: 111.9 km and 4,047 metre elev gain
Bike: 86.1 km
Total time: 16 hours 8 minutes

Scorched sole thoughts:

The race was in an inner city park for the first time; and it was a loop course. Five 16 km loops (each with 655 metre elev gain). I'm not one for loops, but with the race being exactly two weeks before sinister 7 I thought it would make for a well timed last long run and a race day situation to iron out any kinks that may be lingering before the big dance.

Lap times:
1. (1:39:15)
2. (1:44:46)
3. (1:56:13)
4. (2:06:03)
5. (2:22:27)
Finish: (9:48:50)

So, my goal for the race going in truly was to just have a well supported long training run, not pushing hard so I made sure not to over do it before sinister. I went out a little hard, and forgot about this goal for the first lap and a bit, but then slowed down into a better pace that felt right for the day. Someone had registered for the race that I figured to be the race winner, so I was happy with that because then I could know there would be no inclination of trying to shoot for the win, as I am nowhere near as fast as him. But he didn't show up race day. So the race started, and we headed out. I was in front with a couple friends, and a couple out of towners. The one friend had told me she was just going for a long training run, but she's a beast and that means nothing, she's competitive and race day is go time. The five of us were together for the first half lap; then it was just three of us in front. We were hanging together for awhile. the second and third aid station was the same location and coming in to the second time the volunteer asked about the friend that had been behind us coming in the first time, but came through ahead of us the second time, problem was she never passed us. Ha! She missed an out and back section, and then to top that she didn't do a couple km's down to the finish and back at the end of the first loop. Giggles all around, a local that runs the mountain regularly going off course... So she was quite aways ahead (she ended up doing the parts she missed later) but I was quite glad that she passed me without passing me though, because if it had been a normal pass, I may have been tempted to go and try and stick with her. She's a great runner, and I feel like I'm good enough that I could compete with her in a race, but definitely not in a race where my main goal is to not push hard. She ended up finishing an hour ahead of me.

Of the three of us that were left running together, the out of towner pulled ahead halfway through the second lap, but never made it more than 8 minutes ahead of me (but this never concerned me, we were where we were, no real focus on the time) we were usually within site of each other with the two out and back sections of the course. I pulled ahead of the other local friend I was running with halfway through lap three, and then started to reel in the guy in front of me. I caught the guy in front of me during the fourth lap, and pulled ahead after the transition into the last lap. Except, when it came down to 'racing' for the win, my philosophy for the day of taking it easy prevailed, and rather than pushing it and exploiting his tiredness to go hard for the first place male finish, I stopped and waited for the other runner to walk/chat the first ascent of the loop with him, and then at the top of the first ascent stopped and waited again to slow jog the easiest section of the course with him. After the major climb of the lap I had pulled away by a couple minutes, and then at the last aid station I think spent a little too much time chatting it up with the volunteers thanking them for coming out, and he caught me just after the last aid station. We chatted leading up to the last short climb of the course, and then with 3.5 km left I wished him well on his way, it was all downhill from there - he was a good downhill runner - and I didn't feel like pushing, I tried to stay true to my goal of the day, no excessive pushing. But then I was like, oh hell no! I'm gonna chase, so down one of my favouruite descents on the mountain I started to just give it hard. We came off one section of single track that led to some double track, which would then lead to the last descent, I was 15 metres behind him for first male finisher.....

So I stopped to chat with one of the race directors for a couple minutes with 2 km left in the race!!! Nice short chat and a hug and I was back on my way. Ended up finished in 9:48. I`ve only run three 50 mile races (the last three years of this event), different courses every year, I wouldn`t say this was the easiest course, and I got my fastest 50 mile time, without a purposeful effort to hold back. There was good mild rain and overcast skies for most of the race, except for most of the last lap which was a super heavy thunderstorm. I didn`t eat enough the first two laps (too much chatting) and came away with some heavy midsection chafing (didn`t vaseline down there, especially bad on a wet day). Other than that I had a great day. No cramps, no stomach issues. I feel very confident leading up to sinister. Just need to remember to start eating early, before I think I need it, and lube up, as well as the other things I was doing. As always, a good day at the scorched sole.

Week ending June 17 - quitting

June 11 - June 17 - being a quitter rules

mon june 11: no run

tue jun 12: 3 hrs 45 mins and 1,210 metre elev gain over 29.4 km in myra bellevue park. Ran mostly the perimeter of the park, and then into kuipers park as well

wed jun 13:

am: 3 hrs 27 min and 1,077 metre elev gain over 24.9 km in myra bellevue park. First 30 minutes by myself, then had company for the last 3 hours. Quite a nice run, even though it rained... again. The last two days I ran pretty much every trail in myra-bellevue park, and I don't think I can ever get tired of the park.

pm: pace workout (speed session). 15.5 km in 90 minutes with 466 metre elev gain. There was a 2.4 km loop marked, each with 70 metre elev gain, did 6 loops (2 minutes in between), a warmup and a cool down loop with 4 hard loops. I told someone before the work out my goal for the run was for 'total destruction' of my body by the end of the workout, and I feel like I got there. I love it.

thur jun 14: no run

fri jun 15: 14.3 km of road bike in 36 minutes.

sat jun 16: 6.8 km, 460 metre elev gain, in 65 minutes. The goal for the day was to do five ascents of pin cushion mountain (each ascent is 3.4 km up/down with 225 metre elev gain), but work the night before sucked, and then I couldn't sleep so I was running on 3 hours sleep. Cut the run short and went home to nap before work that afternoon. That's why I do longer runs on my days off.

sun jun 17: 15.7 km, 227 metre elev gain in 90 minutes. Road running up highway 33, then garner rd. Feels so weird to run where I usually road bike.

Weekly totals:
Run 92 km; 3,430 metre elev gain
Bike: 14.3 km
Time: 11.5 hrs

The elev gain totals are my most in a week since I've tracked my running, wished I could have got more time in, but saturday sucked and so be it.

I gave notice at my job today, my last day of work will be July 15. I plan on spending August, September, and maybe October travelling and running. Greyhound offers a discovery pass where you get unlimited use of their service for 60 days, I'm gonna buy one of those tickets, travel with a backpack and my running gear and run in some cool mountains. I have a few places to stay lined up already for couch surfing. It's going to be sweet.

The tentative plan is somtehing like this.
- Penticton, BC
- Winthrop, WA
- Redwood forest area, north california
- squaw valley, CA
- marin headlands, san fran, CA
- grand canyon
- boulder, colorado
- oklahoma city
- madiscon, wisconsin
- toronto, on
- montreal
- ottawa
- winnipeg
- calgary
- canmore
- revelstoke

I know I will for sure have couches to crash on in oklahome, madison, maybe toronto and winnipeg, definitely calgary. I'm thinking I may regsister for a 50 mile race mid sept in madison, and then a race in paris, ontario in late sept.

Running vacation in Canada / USA, how would you do it?

If you were to take a couple months to travel to places to ultra run, and then run in those places and drive in between, where would you go?

Who reads this? And Why?

Please comment if you make any sort of habit of reading my ramblings.

I was looking at my stats tracker for the first time in forever and noticed there are repeat readers. I mostly write out my thoughts as a way to look back at my training, so if something isn't working or I get injured I can look back and see what I did and change it. And with a history of alzheimers in my family I write this looking forward to the day that I may not be able to remember the details of the things I write about. And I have found that making sure to write at least once a week that I am more motivated to keep running.

So, what do you the reader get out of reading my blog? And why do you read it?

Today's stupid idea.

So, I was running today on the kelowna end of the

High Rim Trail

I ran to the 14 km marker of the trail. It was awesome.

So I was thinking I would run the whole thing next week. Totally doable, but then theres the logistics of doing it, and I really don't know all that many people able to do it on a tuesday, so I think of ways to get to Vernon and back on my own.

So the plan:

Before the day I do it I need to get my mountain bike to the Mission creek end of the trail.
The day of the run; get up early and drive to the trailhead at Cosens Bay in Vernon. Run 55 km on the hIgh rim trail (probably take 8-9 hours, the fastest time I could find was 6 hrs 15 min). Then mountain bike from the last trailhead to home (27 km), then road bike from home to get back to my car in vernon (56 km).

What could possibly be wrong with this plan?

Week ending June 3: Exhausted!

May 28 - June 3:

Sunday May 27: mistakes were made, frustrations were chased with poor choices.

mon may 28:

am: 7.5 km mountain bike home from work in about 30 mins

pm: 7.5 km mountain bike to work; 30 mins. Three hours sleep.

tue may 29: no run,

wed may 30:

am: road bike 92.51 km in 3 hrs 53 min. Biked from home to ok lake prov park, stopped for lunch for an hour and a half with my dad, then biked back. sweet forearm sunburn

pm: 5.75 km trail run in 50 mins with 200 metre elev gain; easy pace run

pm2: biking to pace run, and after: about 5 km and 23 mins

thu may 31: 6 hrs 15 min in Okanagan Mountain Park; 40.1 km and 1,833 metre elev gain. Ran to the peak via divide lake traila nd down on frederick creek trail and wildhorse canyon. I really love this run, but it's just such a tough run with how rough the conditions are, I will probably only run it this one time this year.



fri jun 1: no run

sat jun 2: 3 hrs 41 min trail running in myra bellevue park, 29.11 km with 1,158 metre elev gain.

sun jun 3: biked to watch a trail race, walked around a bit, biked to work, and biked home: 29.5 km biking in 71 min

Interlude: I have my television on, and point break is on, and there is the one really out there surfer and someone says about him "he's searching for it, the ultimate wave" Endlessly searching; but where do you find the wave? Inside you, from outside?

Weekly totals:
Running/hiking: 11 hrs 19 mins; 3,221 metre elev gain, 77.76 km
Biking: 6 hrs 27 mins; 142.01 km

Total: 17 hrs 46 mins running and riding

I'm quite happy with the total exercise time and elevation gain, even with a full work week. I feel completely exhausted at the end of the week, but that is probably more to do with starting the week on an energy deficit based on poor decisions.

Ramblings

pre-edit: this is probably confusing, any maybe considering how I often omit certain details that make ramblings make sense, it may make very little sense, but I feel like writing.

You know how all over the internet, facebook in particular, you see those memes sort of inspirational pictures with quotes written over them. I always seem to find them less than inspiring. In fact, I seem to find them completely contrary to the way I need to think in order to feel like I'm acting like a good person.

One phrase I find particularly confusing: "It's not about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself". Now, as I typically subscribe/like to lots of ultra running related things on facebook I have seen several varients of this meme from running sites. I assume I, the reader, am meant to feel like running in mountains is an activity that can be used to turn myself into something. As though I can become something better, from this it would seem that philosophically speaking I must first buy into the idea that we as people have any semblence of control over who we are, and if we did that we could change it. Neither of these last two statements do I believe to be true. I don't want to try and pin down any sort of science on a specific age, but surely it can be understood that our thoughts and beliefs are quite solidly formed by the time we are an adult, from both genetics, and from the way we are raised.

The idea that we can create ourself also seems to imply a desire to be able to control ourselves. This is understandable in todays western society where there is the pervailing feeling that an individual can not affect any real sort of change, so of course it would be attractive to be told that you can control something (yourself). The fact that ultra running groups are using this quote is even less surprising. The idea that ultra runners choose to run in the mountains because they are wanting an escape suggests they are not enjoying the society we live in, which is rather opressive (or some would say) so perhaps they feel by running and 'connecting with nature' they are able to exert more control, and create themselves, rather than accepting the fact that society exerts creative forces upon them.

It may be just me, but I find when you exert control on something (even yourself) and creating is an act of control, you never do as good as when you accept instead. the quote for me would better read "it's not about creating yourself, it's about finding and accepting yourself". Consistently I have found in life that failure occurs when I attempt to control and create myself. To do this one requires a certain high internal locus of control, again, only leading to failure.

All my life I attempted to control, only yielding negative results. When I made the conscious decision to turn my life over to the will of another, things started to turn around. Waking up everyday with the request in prayer "to be shown how to act in accordance with anothers will" and to ask especially "for freedom from self-will".

So, for me, it's most definitely not about creating myself. It is about finding and accepting myself, and letting myself be guiding by another in a positive way.

"thy will be done - not mine" is the path to the best life. To do this I think it best to accept the hands I've been dealt and embrace them.

I'm not sure if any of this made sense, probably over thinking, and really don't know if any of this made sense. I wish I could type as fast as I think.

Week ending May 27: feels like summer

May 21 - 27

mon may 21: no run

tue may 22: run 22.42 km with 1020 metre elev gain in 3 hrs 37 min; bike 13.81 km in 58 min

mtn bike from top of little white forest service road to bellevue trestle, ran upper crawford trail and some logging roads and the kvr, bike back to car



wed may 23:

am: 13.41 km road bike in 32 min

pm: 5.74 km trail run in 52 min

thu may 24: 15.61 km road run in 78 min with 224 metre elev gain

fri may 25: no run

sat may 26: 24.06 km run with 687 metre elev gain in 3 hrs.

sun may 27: 33.11 km road bike in 90 mins; 520 metre elev gain, up hwy 33 for a bit, then some fun loops on the back roads

Weekly totals:
Run: 67.79 km; 8 hrs 41 mins; 2,106 metre elev gain
Bike: 60.33 km; 2 hrs 33 mins

Didn't quite get as much exercise time in as I wanted.