Yukon Arctic Ultra 100 Training

Final tire run of the year before getting more snow and switching to the pulk

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about my preparations for the Yukon Arctic Ultra 100 mile. Truth is, between training and work, I haven’t had much of a chance to update. With today being a recovery day, I’m sitting here with my feet up after a very solid training day on Sunday that included a hard 6 hours of running while dragging the pulk behind me.

Training has gone very well as of late. Over the past 10 weeks I have averaged 2 hours of running per day and I’ve kept things very specific towards YAU. This training period started with a lot of runs while dragging a tire. I got some funny looks from people, but without any snow on the ground in November and most of December, that was the best I could do.

Dragging a tire in training is about as fun as it sounds. The novelty wears off quick. I felt it was a necessary evil though and increased to the point where I was running 90 minutes with tire in tow. My volume has been consistently high as my goal has been to stack longer and harder runs together before recovering and starting again. My standard routine before the snow fell was to build mileage through the weekdays and include a hard tire pull on one day, followed by a fairly intense tempo run the next at the end of the mini cycle. I really liked the feeling of doing this, as I felt that running at a faster pace on tired legs was going to be very helpful to build strength and speed. I felt my fitness really starting to come around after a month of this.

One of the first pulk runs of the season. Felt so good to get rid of the tire.

My long runs during the past few months have increased nicely and I’ve found myself feeling stronger at the end of each one. I’ve also been making a conscious effort to finish most long runs at a faster than average pace. Feeling good doing this has been good for my confidence that my fitness is improving.

Now that we’re into the new year, crunch time is on. In just over 2 weeks time I’ll be leaving for Whitehorse, so I don’t have that many more training days before starting to cut back. This is now the fine tuning stage with gear and just getting more comfortable with the pulk.

I’ve been very fortunate to get on some good snow for the past few weeks. While we didn’t have a lot around home a couple of weeks ago, I was still able to get some great training by driving only 15 minutes north of Yarker to do my pulk runs. The Enterprise/Tamworth area seems to be in a bit of a snowbelt region as they have snow when many other places don’t. I was shocked to see how much snow they had on the ground considering we had none. Puzzle Lake is very rugged terrain as well which makes training very interesting. I was even able to persuade Keith to join me for his first pulk run one day too.

Long pulk run at Frontenac Park in great conditions. Cold and plenty of snow

I’m now spending as much time as possible running with my pulk as we now have very good conditions in Yarker. On Sunday  I had the opportunity to do a very specific workout for YAU, while allowing me to test out my gear in as close to race conditions as we may see around here. Here is a link to my workout details. I felt that the run went very well and gave me a great deal of confidence since the weather was quite cold.

I’m feeling that my training is at the point where there isn’t a whole lot more that I can do to improve my fitness, but just a matter of a couple of more good sessions that will be more about tinkering with gear and being comfortable with things than anything else. In fact, it’s looking like I may be borrowing a pulk from Greg and Denise McHale when I get to Whitehorse instead of transporting my own (sorry Bubba!).

With the hectic weekend ahead including organizing the Dion Frontenac Snowshoe Race, I’m looking forward to a few light days of training with a different focus. I’m then planning to join Ray Zahab in Chelsea for a run on his trails next week, which I’m really looking forward to. Getting tips from a guy who has run to the South Pole dragging a pulk is invaluable.

With each day getting closer to race day I’m now past the point where I wish I had more time to train. All things considered, I’m feeling very good going into the final couple of weeks of training, and excited about just getting underway on race day. The only thing that still has me lying awake some nights while in a warm bed is thinking about potentially how cold it could get. I just saw that it was -40 in Whitehorse recently. While I’m sure that I will be able to handle it with proper gear, I think my preference would be a little closer to -20C or so.

2011 Year End Totals
Total Number of Minutes – 589 hours 21 minutes &  50 seconds
Total Number of Runs – 491
Running Streak –  8,041 days in a row
2011 Training Log

Testing gear and having a nap. Not much snow on this day, but fairly cold

First cold day of the winter and a hard long run at Puzzle Lake

Bubba the Pulk enjoying the snow

Rugged and snowy trails made for hard running with a pulk in Frontenac Park

Little Clear Lake at sunset in Frontenac Park. Lots of animal tracks, but pure peace and quiet. Bliss!

Hoping I don't need this in the Yukon, or at least if I do that there's some cherry brandy in there!