I haven’t posted since directly after BMO, so let me sum up the last three weeks of my running.

Everyone recommends a gradual, gentle build-up after a marathon (everyone except for Dean Karnazes in “50/50”, who recommends going for a jog the DAY AFTER. WTF – don’t do that, go stroll around like a pimp but don’t run or jog). So I planned on the subsequent weeks post-BMO being a fairly gradual buildup, starting with the first week being almost off from running.

But I don’t need to just build back up, I need to derail slightly and start approaching things specifically for Transrockies. Which as Tom likes to point out involves a very large amount of elevation gain. Elevation is a cruel mistress and can easily make 4km take 90-minutes instead of an easy 20 on nice flat terrain.

So, I went to the woods. Week one after BMO I didn’t really run much but led a group of friends backpacking on Gambier Island. We tried to bag a few peaks while there but weather and a branch smacking me in the face cut that plan a bit short. Despite my week having ended in an emergency room getting my cornea looked at, the forest had taken hold. The metamorphosis was underway.

In the second week, I went to the woods. Anchored by a couple of relatively short, fairly normal, runs I spent quite a bit of time running not in Vancouver. Tom keeps highlighting the elevation gain, so fuck it, I’ll run up a mountain. I kicked off my long standing plan of doing a weekly up/down of BCMC (like the Grouse Grind for people that don’t find the Grind to be the be-all, end-all of hiking). I also paid a visit to one of my favorite shorter loops, Brothers Creek, and took a hard fall on a bridge that was ravaged by wind fall (no trip to the ER for that one though!). The long weekend made the week have 8 days, so on the 8th day I went to Squamish, got totally lost and felt totally exhausted.

In the third week, I went to the woods. I also ran like an octopus, because that’s what friends are for. Friday was another BCMC assault, Saturday was Lynn Peak, and Sunday I tagged along for the Knee Knacker training run — which was an absolute blast and makes me very much want to do the race next year. So much so that I registered as a volunteer for this year’s race.

But more to the point, I feel like I’ve made the switch. I went to the woods and now I feel like it’s game on for some insane trail running. The metamorphosis is complete. To hell with pace runs, let’s log some hours and some vertical gains.