In my January training recap, I mentioned having ramped up my training a little quickly after having just returned from a big trip over the holidays – not so much in terms of mileage, but time-on-feet which is how I measure my longer efforts. I had started strength training again along with weekly speed work at the track.

February’s focus continued to be on building a good foundation of speed and strength to get ready for a couple of shorter races coming up in March, including the Yeti Snowshoe Race at Cypress and the Coast Mountain Trail Series Cap Crusher, while starting to build volume and doing some recon runs for April’s Diez Vista 50k.

When I started running about 5 years ago I jumped pretty much straight into the half-marathon and marathon distance. Far from a high school or collegiate running background here. As I began to follow a formal training plan, I found the tempo runs and speed work to be more difficult than the longer distance runs but I quickly realized how important they are even for marathon performance.

Inspired by the likes of fellow Salomon West Vancouver Ambassador Solana Klassen, I’ve decided to start doing monthly training recaps in hopes that some might find it interesting, if not a little educational, and possibly even useful. It’s already mid-February, but better late than never, right?

In The Seven Sins of Memory, author Daniel Schacter describes the ways that the mind forgets and remembers. He divides memory’s malfunctions into seven fundamental transgressions or ‘sins’, while arguing that these features of human memory aren’t necessarily good or bad but all serve a useful purpose. For example, persistence is one of the sins of memory that can lead to things like post traumatic stress syndrome but it is also necessary for long-term memory.

Joffre Lakes is one of BC’s most beautiful and relatively accessible alpine lake hikes or runs. There are three lakes in all (Lower, Middle, and Upper Joffre), with Upper Joffre being by far the most picturesque.

I’ve actually never been there in the summer, but a group of us did decide to run it the first weekend of December including my friends Chloe, Shannon, and Joel. It took just over 2 hours and we had a great time playing in the fresh pow.