Canmore Training Mini-Camp

The July long saw me in Canmore for some terrain training in prep for Xterra Alberta and Xterra Canada. Left the city of fun early Thursday and headed straight to Ridley Cycle to see coach Luke and replace my carbon bars due to an accident Wednesday night. Carbon breaks, who knew!

After the fix, headed to the Y for a swim and run workout. Then headed to Canmore - saw a griz bear along the highway on route. First griz i have seen in the wild.

Friday, Canada Day, enjoyed watching the Canmore "fun" run and the kids running the 3K - so cute. Enjoyed it emensely. Then headed out to the Nordic centre to meet coach Luke for a ride. Turns out Luke forgot his shoes. So i rode alone and got 4 hrs in before i figured i should shutter down before i do something dumb and hurt myself. I did go down once early in the day, luckily i was going slow and i fell onto wood chips instead of rocks. Still hurt the wounds from the crash the night before.

Saturday headed out for a run, wanted to keep it low keyed and as flat as possible and stay off the pavement. About 45 mins in i crossed a lovely looking creek with trails on both sides. Could not resist and headed up the creek. The trailed went away from the creek and looped to about where i wanted to go. The way down back to town was a blast as it was a slight decline and full of rocks. I just went hard thru this section, eyes pinned to the trail to avoid a broken ankle - what fun! After some food and a little rest, Luke and his dad met me at the Nordic centre for a ride. Low HR climbs and bombed the declines. 90 mins with Luke's dad, then Luke i rode for 90 mins at a little higher pace. Fantastic ride.

Sunday was a hike day. Got in 5 hrs on two trails. One was up to and above the Cascade Amphitheatre. Once above the tree it was wet and cold and i turned around well before the summit.

Once off the mountain the sun came out, so I did another small hike in the area and then headed to Banff to make dinner plans with Jason Kucey (Soul Ski and Bike - great shop, check it out next time in Banff). We headed to The Bison and thin crust pizza and beer. Delish!

Monday i headed to Calgary and a ride at COP with Luke. We did two laps of their Thursday night race course, super nice riding right in Calgary. Reminded me of riding the trails in Saskatoon. After that i headed home. One stop in the Hat for a carmel frappachino and cheap booze. Picked up a couple of Italian wines, a dozen Peroni (Italian beer) and some Vodka. All set for summer fun, booze wise.