Rest Week!

After our big three week block of training with two stints on the Haig Glacier, most AWCA athletes were in need of some well deserved rest! This past week was a much anticipated rest week, I however spent most of it inside my tiny house, sleeping, and trying to recover from a cold I picked up last Monday. After pushing the body so hard for so long, my immune system was pretty weak. Sometimes things like this can be a blessing in disguise however. Instead of taking off on the motorcycle and camping for the week, I was sleeping in Canmore (definitely the better recovery choice of the two, although not nearly as much fun!). One of my biggest weaknesses is saying yes too much, and cramming way too much into a short period of time. I have been guilty of this over the past month. After house/dog sitting, watering plants and cutting grass for neighbors, going through a transition into my new job, and still trying to stay on top of my training load, my body had had enough. It shut down at the perfect time though, and as of today, the start of our next training block, I am back into the regular swing of training. For this next training block however, my number one priority is recovery. We have three big weeks ahead, plus a 10 day camp in Whistler, and if things on my end are anything like last month, I won't make it to the second week!

This isn't so much a blog update, but a written promise to myself, and all my faithful readers (mom, dad, grandparents etc) can hold me to it! Starting this week I begin my Monday, Wednesday PM and Friday PM work weeks, I have no secondary responsibilities besides training, recovering and working and I am going to keep it that way! I want to hit the end of August and be able to say I showed up to all my training sessions prepared, well rested from the previous day and with some specific goals in mind. If I can do that, I will be a very happy camper!

This week wasn't all sleep, I was able to still get out to the Canmore Folk Festival for an afternoon, and spent yesterday doing a short and easy hike with Emma. We headed up to the Old Goat Glacier, near spray lakes campground. The hike is one of the best "bang for your buck" type hikes around Canmore. From the trail head it is only 20 minutes before you are up above the tree line, there is an old glacier waiting for you at the top of the hike and the whole thing is only about 9km round trip, with 640m of elevation gain.

We started roughly a centimeter before the green arrow and headed up!

The first part of the hike is nice and soft moss, with a few crystal clear streams coming down from up above.

Emma about half way up. 

Looking back down the valley we came up, towards Spray Lakes.

Frolicking in the snow!

What is left of the Old Goat Glacier. 

Looking down the valley you can see the moraines left in the glaciers wake as it recedes. Apparently this glacier was a quick way to get some summer skiing in for Canmore skiers 15 years ago. You would be hard pressed to ski on the glacier now as it has receded to the very back of the bowl, leaving very little flat sections. It would be neat to find pictures of the Old Goat from 20, 10 and 5 years ago to show the rate at which the glacier is receding.

Overall a wicked hike and highly recommended for those visiting Canmore, or if you are looking for a short (2.5hr) hike. 

Would you look at that?! Two updates in less than a week! I hope I didn't just jinx it...

Pate