Wapta Traverse

This picture was taken while Mitch, Mike and myself completed a four day traverse of the Wapta and Waputik Glaciers in Banff and Yoho Park in British Columbia and Alberta. This picture shows us going to to Balfour Col.

Temple Mountain

This is a picture that I took while I was resting on a climb up Temple Mountain in Banff National Park. We started climbing at 3:00 a.m but failed to summit due to whiteout conditions on the summit. We knew it was a big gamble going up in late September, but eh. This photo was taken in late September, 2008. Down below, you can see part of trail that we were on much earlier in the morning.

Corks

My Dad has a massive collection of wine corks in and he keep a portion of them on display in a pottery bowl in our living room. He has corks from all over the world. When I was in South Africa I brought home several corks from him. Also, he has many from wines produced in the Okanagan region of Canada. So here is a snap shot into the life of the Pedersen's in Calgary.

A glorious week

What a week this has been. I spent a couple days on Vancouver Island enjoying Nanaimo, Victoria and Tofino. We only took one wrong turn on the drive to Tofino, but we did get to see Mount Washington. Along the way, we stopped at Cathedral Grove to view some massive trees. It was also the location of the Ewok scenes from Star Wars VI.

In Tofino, we walked the beaches, had some pub food and turned around. In Victoria we went on a glorious pub crawl, interrupted with a visit to the IMAX.

Now to the running. Early in the week I whipped off two 8k runs and felt very good after increasing my easy run mileage from 6k to 8k. Saturday I ripped off another 8k run and I was feeling great. Now just one run to go and it was going to be great. I was a little nervous as it has been a while since I ran 20km and i didn't do a long run last week.

The Long run went great. I skirted around the seawall from Stanley Park to the Cambie S. Bridge in Vancouver and then headed up Cambie towards King Edward sky-train station. I finished off the run right at the station and hopped the train home. As I was stretching at the end of my run I was touching my toes to stretch out my legs and a passer-by asked if I needed assistance (I think he was ready to take me to the hospital). I said I was okay and thanked him for his concern. I actually felt much better than I expected after running 20km. I went a little bit fast averaging 5:00/km but felt great so I kept it up. Next week I might slow down a little bit. Overall I ran the 20k in 1:40:47.

Weekly total: 44 km

Yearly total: 128.4 km

Ski Boot

I was playing around one day and took some photos of my telemark ski boots. I have no idea why I chose this subject but some of the photos came out really nice. Below is one for you to enjoy.

I am still compiling, choosing, and editing photos for South Africa as we speak. So hang on for a little while longer. Until then, enjoy the boot.

COMING SOON

COMING SOON TO TRAIL TO TELEPHOTO!!

I am currently working on two photo collections and I will post them up here soon. The first will be a photo tour of Southern Africa and the second a photo tour of Southeast Asia. These will both be photos from my travels in 2008.

Check back often and i know you all look forward to seeing those in the very near future.

Horses Approach

As I was shooting on my Grandpa's farm, this horse walked up to me to investigate. Now, I am terrified of horses, so it took all of my courage to stop what I was doing and take some close-ups of this guy. He was actually really nice. He didn't try to kick me or bite me at all. But, I still took some pictures and scrambled away as fast as aI could. Horses, just not my thing. But, enjoy the picture.

Kimberly Trees

This photo was taken a couple years ago a Kimberly ski hill in British Columbia, Canada. We started the run off with an easy moderate run before cutting right and heading down a black diamond powder run. I stopped halfway down the run to take pictures of my skiing partners (Geoff and Roman). After Geoff made some beautiful turns past me I looked up and saw these trees peering over the top of the run. So i snapped a quick picture before my fingers froze. It was a very cold day at close to -20 celsius.

Alberta Farm

I am changing the image of my blog—quite literally. It is  far cry from a platform for my miserly reports about running it was before. I am breathing life into this site and I will use this website to categorize and share the adventures, runs, and photography of me—Chris Pedersen.

Fall 2008, I visited my grandpa's farm near Stony Plan, ALberta to take some pictures. I have currently revisited them to edit some and send them on to family. It was emotional walking on the farm again after a decade of familial abandonment. We used to come to the farm as children and float boats down the stream, play in the haystacks and visit my grandpa and his horses. It was an amazing place to be as a child. My grandpa always had candy ready for through his pet tiger and many adventures for us to embark on.

Stanley Park Loop

Living in Vancouver and training for any kind of race, ultimately brings me to Stanley Park. I run a very nice little 13km loop that skirts around the entire park and ends up back at the Olympic Torch. Check out the route below. If you are ever in Vancouver and have an hour and a bit to kill, check this out.

View Stanley Park in a larger map

A good week

It has been a very slow transition back into running this year, after four months off (due to school and teaching) and I designed it that way. I used the end of January and February to transition from athletic failure to marathon trainer extraordinaire.

I have gradually been increasing my weekly totals and this week was my biggest yet.

The previous week, was very stressful (in terms of my teaching practicum), filled with extra-curricular activities and cold weather. This week on the other hand was bigger, badder and better. I did my third long run of the year and it is now a ritual for me on Sundays. I love just running, running and running.

I have also been injury free, which is another reason for my slow re-education into running. I have jumped too quickly into sports in the past and maimed myself. I did not want that this year. Especially as I have 2 minor races, one epic trail run and one ultramarathon coming up in the next 8 months. Do not want to get hurt by jumping into the deep end too quickly.

Anyways, I digress. I should be talking about this week. It started with a great 6km easy run (4:30/km pace) on Tuesday. I felt great, my legs were fresh and I love running in the rain. Then, due to stresses at school I was unable to run until Saturday where I ripped off another 6km easy run (4:27 pace). It was gorgeous and sunny in Vancouver this weekend. So it was a great day for running.

Sunday was the epitome of a great run. I did a 14km loop (5:04 pace) of  Stanley Park and watched the boats in the harbour, the waves on the rocks and the photographers line the seawall. I love running around Stanley park, especially when it is sunny. I did not intend to go this fast, I was aiming more for 6:00/km, but I started off and just kept hitting this pace and felt great. My legs were not even sore yesterday.

I am really excited my training is starting to ramp up now. Next week my goal is 32km and I will slowly be increasing it every week until I reach 80km sometime in June/July. Wish me luck.

I have also started to include a run on Saturdays, whereas I was not planning on doing this before. But I have the whole day off with little to do, so it will make it easier and I can take a week day off instead. Sometimes it is just hard to run after teaching all day.

Weekly total: 26km
Yearly total: 70km