I headed off for a run during our camping trip and I come back to this, Ari catches a fish. She named it Fred, I gutted it, we cooked it and then ate it. Ari did say today she missed Fred.
Training is going well and I am still using my altitude tent. We picked up a trailer last week and took it on our first camping trip to Lac Le Jeune. It was a nice spot over looking the lake and the weather was good for most of the long weekend. With the rain coming on the last day before we headed back home.
I packed an old friend, my garmin 405, for the trip planning to get in a few runs up in the wilderness. I found a trail/logging road that wrapped around the lake and in and out of the provincial park and passing through some cross country ski trails.
A ways into my run I looked at my watch to see what king of pace I was hitting, the trail was tough and wet with a lot of hills so I was taking it easy happy with the fact that I was working hard, my watch said I was at sub 6:30 mile pace and the altitude was at just under 4500 feet. Altitude was something I was not expecting. So yes I got three big runs in at 4500 feet during this camping trip, a tiny altitude training camp; It was funny because I felt good during all of my runs; I did get the arcing heart beat after my run that I am used to while training at altitude but during the run I felt like I was at sea level. I am going to attribute this to using my altitude tent and confirm that it is doing something good for my running.
I am already thinking about heading back up to altitude sometime in my next marathon build-up and taking the trailer. Heading to altitude later on in the summer or early fall should be a good time to do so as the weather should be nice and warm and if I am camping for that time then the better the weather the more enjoyable experience it should be. I have training in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Flagstaff, Arizona in the past but maybe trying a new spot would be an idea; maybe in Colorado or California some where, who knows but I am starting to think about it.
Right now though I am just building towards the start of marathon training which starts in July. I am running on the trails out here in Langley, doing some fartlek and hitting up the track a little, really just enjoying running right now before it becomes a bit of a grind. I have a race this week end in Vancouver, an 8km and a few more planned through out the summer to keep me motivated as well as a few camping trips to acompany those races.
