BANFF ADVENTURES Spring 2016

I recently spent some quality time in the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Canmore, Lake Loiuse.  Making this place my personal playground for a few days.  Here are just a few of the photos from these adventures.  

Making friends in downtown Banff.. foreshadowing moment here #curiousblackbears

Yamnuska Mountain, just outside of Banff National Park. Ran up and down this twice in a bit under 5 hours. Hike takes you straight up then straight down. You can see the down path just slightly in this picture.. its literally Straight Down.

Nearly to the top of Yamnuska. One must shimmy along a thin ledge gripping a chain rope in order to reach the peak. 

View from the peak. Mountains for DAYS.

When running up the mountain, one must become the mountain.. True Story.

Another Pano of the Northern Rockies from the peak.

Remember that first picture, this is that path straight down.  Running down skreet is fun.  Funny moment here - Someone base jumped with a wing suit from the peak just above me as I was running down.  Happy to say he landed safely.

Camped here at Lake Minnewanka for a night.  The water could not be more still. This picture does not do the beauty of this place justice.

Prepping for a freezing night on the mountain.

I mean really?!?

Camped here the next night. Tunnel Mountain. It was cool to watch the sun come up while lounging in the red chair. 

It is also nice to wake up and see the mountain tent side.  I think this picture is required these days. #staywild

There are Hoodoos just below me here and bald eagles out near the island. Those pictures are with hundreds others in my dropbox.

Mr Elk you should really take better care of your fur.
Elk were in abundance, so were bears, but never saw a Moose, I really wanted to see a Moose.

Rented a cf road bike at Lake Loiuse.  Cycled down the 1A/Bow Valley Parkway 80 km to Canmore, then cycled back 80 k to Lake Loiuse. Stopped a bit for photo ops. 160 km a riding in running shoes then ran 5k up a snow covered mountain... Yup, slowly becoming the mountain.

Got the hook up on a fantastic bike.  Cycling down the 1A is crucial. Never a dull moment.

Glassy crystal clear waters reflect the snow capped mountain range.

Weather was perfect this day.

Spent some time hanging out in downtown Banff too.  Gorgeous little mountain community. Lots of tourists though.. had to make quick escapes back up to the mountains.

Driving my new Porsche around Calgary and Banff.. haha yeah right. it doesn't even have off road 4 wheel drive.

Johnson Creek.  Another essential stop in Banff.  Waterfalls galore!

So tempting to run in for a dip but that water is as cold as ice.  Opted for a bit of the natural 110 degree sulfur springs instead.

Lake Louise. Snowy and ice covered this early in the year.  I ran to the top of that peak on the right.

Lake Loiuse water is just about as clean as it gets. Phosphorus, nitrogen, metals and TSS levels are so low its drinkable. Me = Water Quality Nerd.

A view from the top of Big Beehive mountain.  Just took 3k of running straight up and 2k of tiptoeing over 4 foot snow packs and deep ice pits.  Appeared I may have been the first one up here this year.  I almost died getting down and avoiding a bear and sliding down glaciers, but it was worth it I think.  I had my avalanche gear at least. I did forget gloves, my one finger is finally getting feeling back after a lil bout of frost bite. 

Mirror Lake above Lake Loiuse.  About halfway up to the tippy top of my hike.  

One last quiet evening in Banff recovering from an extreme day. 

Longest falls in the park.  Again, this picture doesn't do it justice.

Till we meet again...

More of my Banff photos can be found in my dropbox,com Benjamin Farrell

2015 Year in Racing Recap

I thought for my own sake it would be good to recap my 2015 races and discuss what my goals were and if I hit them or not.  The overall goal of this year was to compete in races out of my comfort zone and push my limits so that I can become a stronger athlete (mind and body).  These races that don't exactly suit my strengths would include very tough, hot, hilly, and mountainous events.  Again, my goals were not oriented around winning, but more about pushing my mind and body to new places.

The season started with the Columbia Triathlon.  It's claimed to be one of the toughest olympic distance tris in the country due to the hills,  I had a good race here, though my result did not show it.  I flatted halfway through the bike and lost about 3 minutes fixing that. Ran well off the bike for an early season race and still finding my fitness. Considering the tire flat, I was happy with this race. Swim fitness was still building, so my time was relatively slow as expected.

My second event was the Baltimore 10 miler. A very competitive race. I did this to see get a better idea of where my fitness was at leading into the triathlon season and get a good training day in.  I was a couple minutes off my goal of 59 minutes,. I chalk it up to the hilly coarse and a difficult winter to train in.

The third race was Challenge Atlantic City 70.3.  This was my first high priority race of the year.  It was not intended to be anything else than a very fast race and I did have expectations of going fast.  The conditions of the event took a bad turn when rain storms completely turned the coarse inside out.  The swim location was moved and the bike coarse was ravaged by debris and sediment.  My swim time wasn't great, but good enough.  Unfortunately I flatted 2 times during the bike and as it happened I was in the lead at about 35 miles into the race when I flatted.  I could only fix the one flat and was shit outa luck with the second flat. There was no bike support provided.  I was stuck in the middle of know where and had a nightmare of a time getting back to my stuff.  It was so bad that I was refunded my money.  Over the day I think they said over 35 people had flats.  So this race was a bust!

The next race was Challenge Pocono Mountains 70.3.  This was a challenging coarse through the hills of the Poconos, plus it was extremely hot.  I had a pretty good swim, and a pretty good bike ( I finally did not flat!).  I held back a little bit on the bike due to the heat and also thinking I should save energy for the run.  I ended up cramping up pretty bad a couple miles into the run. I couldn't shake them off and ended up walking way too much.  The run was a fail.  But still finished well overall. And best of all I became a stronger athlete from it.

Last triathlon of the year was Savageman 70.3 "toughest triathlon in the world".  Not sure how true that is, but this was a hell of a coarse.  The amount of climbing on the bike and on the run was ridiculous. It was the hardest tri I've done yet, but I had a lot of fun.  The day was about celebrating a great summer of racing and training and being very fit. I had a good swim, great bike (for using a road bike), and a decent run.  I was happy with my race.  I cramped up immediately coming off the bike, but that went away and I slogged through hilly run.  Races like these are more about completing the coarse rather than getting a new personal record. Stoked to have my name carved into the stone road at the top of 'The Wall'.

Next race was the Baltimore Marathon.  I decided to race this about 3 days before the event. I thought it would be a good training day to prepare for a couple ultra marathons coming up.  I had not trained for a marathon all year, but the half marathon training and half ironman racing made me more than ready to run a relatively quick marathon.  My goal was to just break 3 hours.  The last bit of the course was pretty hilly which didn't plan for during the first half of the marathon.  I was thinking I could do two 90 minute half marathons. But I slowed the second half to where a sub 3 hours wasn't possible. At least qualified for Boston 2017.

Two weeks after the marathon was the Roseryville 50k ultra marathon trail race in support the veterans.  I did this last year and had a fun time.  This year was a somewhat different since I ran the majority of it solo, not in a group. Last year I stayed in a group of three until about 20 miles, which helps more mentally than anything else. This year I was gunning to run sub 4 hours for 32 miles.  About 8 miles in I rolled my ankle on some tree roots.  It was bad enough were I could not put pressure down on it and figured my race was over at that point, I mean another 23 miles on it sounded impossible at first. But I am stubborn and going home without finishing was the absolute last thing I wanted so I walked for about a half mile, then began to run slow on it, and eventually the pain went away and I was back to running normal.  I did a 4:07, just over my sub 4 hour goal, but I took it as a personal victory overcoming that setback.

Racing just like life is about overcoming setbacks and challenges, staying positive, and pushing forward.  This year was all about overcoming mental challenges of my mind telling me I need to stop or slow down.  No matter how bad it hurts there is no better feeling than crossing a finish line knowing you overcame the hard challenges of the day and that you've become a better person mentally and physically because of it.

Information about 2016 plans coming soon!

2015 Race Scheduling

Feeling stronger, faster, and healthier than ever.  Ready to start winning some races again.

In addition to joining the NUUN Elite Team in 2015

I joined Team NUUN because I believe in their hydration tablets and in the company.  The hydration tablets contain the electrolytes to keep the cramping away and the vitamins to keep me energized and none of the fluff sugar calories. I believe in the company because they are environmentally conscious and strive for sustainability. #GetElectroLit

Finally I have a race schedule in the works for 2015

Columbia Olympic Triathlon            - May 17th

Baltimore 10 miler                         - June 6th

Challenge Atlantic City 70.3            - June 28th

Challenge Pocono Mountains 70.3  - August 16th

SavageMan 70.0                           - September 20th 

Patapsco Valley 50k                      - Oct. 24th

Challenge Florida 70.3                   - Nov. 8th

Roseryville Veterans Day 50k          - Nov 14th

Summer Travels & Race Reviews

Just saw I haven't updated the blog since July. That's what happens when I don't race or travel too much. This update will quickly cover some travels, some racing (my first full Ironman experience), and what the future outlook for racing looks like.

Back in Oregon
A few words to sum up my couple weeks back in Oregon.. wild, awesome, fresh, perfect, beautiful, amazing, necessary, motivating, adventurous, busy, and just overall brought me back to life! I took advantage of every minute I had.  CAMPING - I camped in the mountains, I camped at the beach, and camped at friends houses in Portland and Eugene.  HIKING - Hiked Mt. Hood a couple days, Hiked the Columbia Gorge a couple days, Hiked around the beach for a couple days, and hiked around Portland and the UO campus.  ACTIVE - Trail-running in Portland and in the Columbia River Gorge, Kayaking and SUP Columbia River, Jumping in waterfalls.  FOOD - Craft Beer & Coffee count as eats, right! Camp fire eats, Wild fruit eats, Restaurants eats around Portland and Eugene, good ole Home cooking at Friends' houses.

That's all I can remember right now.  Here are just a few pictures that capture just a bit of my adventures.

Hiking and beach time Oswald State Park

View at the top of the Oswald hike

Beach walks, good beer, and a perfect sunset with a special person 

Running through the halls of the Shinning's "Overlook Hotel" We found the scary room (actually it doesn't really exist)

The start of a very long day hike around Mount Hood

Great time hiking with this dude, WATERFALLS!!!

I visited during that magical time of the year.. sunny days, low tourist population, and wildflowers in action 

Can't get enough of this place!!!

Race Recaps
I am a Spartan!
I did three races in the span of 6 weeks.  First up was the Virginia Spartan Super 8 mile obstacle course race.  Not really a "race".  Did this with my cousin and his buddies as a team just for fun and to try something new, while getting in some cross-training.  I definitely enjoyed this event! Its a tough course that involved something like 6,000 feet of elevation of running/walking/crawling and about 30 strength obstacles.  I can't say I loved every minute, since I spent a good hour stuck waiting behind people (9,000 participants!) that preventing me from actually "racing". Other than that it was a fantastic challenge and allowed me to put all this strength and endurance training I do to good use. Also, tested a lot of my weak areas such as upper body strength (not something I need for cycling and running or even swimming.)  Despite the time delays during the event I placed well.  Next time I do one of these I will sign up with the elites who go off before everyone else and avoid the delays - and then maybe go back and run with a team of friends - because racing and helping a team is a lot of fun.

It was a muddy good time!

I am an Ironman!
I thought the timing was perfect for me to finally race one of the long course 140.6 triathlons aka Ironman triathlons.  I had a couple solid years of racing half ironmans and I was definitely ready to go longer.  So not only was the timing right but the location was right.  Ironman Maryland took place in Cambridge, MD, which is only an hour and a half away from where I live in Baltimore.  This provided me a rare opportunity to train on the course throughout the summer.  And I made it out there a few times for long Bike-Run sessions on the hot, humid, flat race course.  The training went great and I was expecting to race reasonably fast.  My bike practice had me projected to complete the flat race course in a comfortable 4:35 hours and longest brick practice gave me confidence I could run 3:15 hours after that bike effort.  I did not practice open water swims, but practice race simulations in the pool gave me confidence I get through 2.4 miles in 1:05.  All in all these training numbers gave me confidence I could be pretty competitive in the race overall. But, if you race triathlons then you know a race can be very unpredictable and anything can happen.  The biggest hurdle for racing these Ironman events is Mental.  For me, I needed to except and embrace the fact I would be swimming for an hour, cycling for some four hours and running for some 3 hours.  There is a lot to the mental game and I could write a book about it, but a large piece of the puzzle is to be positive and to simply spend very very long solitary hours training. Good thing for me is that I love training long hours, probably too much - but that's another topic altogether.

In regards to my inaugural Ironman race - it was actually a bit of a let down.  I love racing and pushing myself to my limits.  I feel like I didn't get the opportunity to really do that here.  Mentally it was very challenging for sure, no doubt. But the unfortunate events on the bike took me from "racing mode" to "participating, just cross the finish line mode".

The SWIM was interesting and I actually thought I was swimming quite well.  I had no idea I lost so much time with that rolling start and then getting caught behind people on the second loop, so I was surprised I was 10 minutes slower than projected.

Only a mile or two into the BIKE ride I got myself in big trouble - I tried to pass a group taking up the road by passing on the right side, then got bumped, accidentally, hit a pothole and went crashing off into a grassed ditch. It happened fast and I was back onto my bike fast after collecting my nutrition only one of the two bottles that fell out.  Unfortunately, I quickly realized my seat post had been pushed down a bit and my seat angle was way off (post-race I found my carbon frame took a bad hit and has a small hair-line fracture).  I didn't think too much of the seat issue at first, I just continued to hammer the rest of the way working my way to the front. Truth is - when the seat post and seat angle get messed up during a 112 miles cycling there is going to be consequences.  I felt it after about 60 miles of hammering 25-26 mph, it was like I hit a wall.  The "new" bike position forced me to bike using just quads.  Generally my cycling power comes from a balance of quads, hamstrings, and glutes.  Long story short - I struggled to finish the second half on the bike and came in nearly 20 minutes off projections.

I was excited to start the RUN. Besides the quads cramping up throughout the bike, I had good energy left for the run. I felt good through the first 8 mile lap, but then the wheels just started falling off.  Problem was that my quads were kinda toasted from the bike effort and I demand a lot from my quads on the run.  Physically I had the energy, but my legs were kinda done and I walked quite a bit through the final 16 miles.  I was a little over 30 minutes slower than projected on the run.  I finished in around 10 hours. It felt GOOD to cross that line though! Good is obviously an understatement. All the hours of training, all the time sacrificed from family and being social, its all such a huge commitment and sacrifice. It's worth it though! I love the TRILIFE!!  Its great to finally have an Ironman race under my belt.  But as soon as I crossed the finish line I was ready to sign up for another one.  I want to get this distance right, redeem myself, and race as good or a little better than the training sessions.  Thanks to all the family members that came out to support me. I appreciate it so much! Here are a few pictures that cover my race.

I don't know if is good or bad thing, but I wasn't too sore from the Ironman effort. OK the soreness lasted about two days, but by the next weekend I was ready to race again. I was probably more sore after the Spartan event.  Anyways, I was in good race shape and I wasn't very satisfied with the Ironman effort so I decided to race a local half ironman a week later.  Unfortunately, the cloak of bad luck was still with me on the bike. Shortly after taking the lead about 35 miles into the 56 mile bike ride I get a flat.  "That's okay, I have a spare tubular for this, I lose a few minutes, no worries, I will just hammer to the front again" I thought.  Not even a minute later my rear tire goes flat. My race was over right there.  This particular bike support crew do not carry spare tubulars or spare wheels. The bike roads were less than favorable.. gravel, potholes, speed bumps.  I shouldn't have been surprised when I found myself holding on for dear life going 28 mph over these raggedy roads on the race course. Maryland Roads are incredibly bad. (This is a hot topic for me!).. I'll leave it at that.

Frustrating is the key word for my two triathlons this year.  Things will change next year.  I finally have all the endurance+ that I lost from my year+ off from triathlon racing. It's difficult to predict where I will be racing next year, but plans are definitely in the works.  One thing I do know is that I will be shooting for a marathon PR early 2015 :) .

Working, Traveling, Training, Exploring, and ADJUSTING to life in Baltimore Maryland

What I've been up!?  

The short version - Working, Traveling, Training, Exploring, and ADJUSTING to life in Baltimore Maryland. I'll explain in more detail in just a bit.. Firstly I want to begin this LONG OVERDUE update with some pictures:

TRAVELING FOR WORK PICS

Toronto - CN Tower, hard to miss when walking around the City at night.

Toronto - Railway and Downtown apartments buildings.  Architecture and green design are at the forefront in Toronto.

Passing through Niagara Falls on my way to Canada in the dead of winter. 

The ice covered falls in its glory.  Almost too cold here to enjoy it.

I'll be travelling to Portland for a week of conference and meeting the first of August.  I'll be spending some additional vacation time out there in Oregon to enjoy. Expecting to take some amazing photos on that trip!

NEW YORK 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND VACATION PICS

Celebrating 4th of July in NYC.  Fireworks were moved so we didn't get the view we thought we would get but it was still pretty good.

View from Roosevelt Island FDR memorial NYC

View of Long Island City from Roosevelt Island. 

Spent the day hanging out in Williamsburg Brooklyn and biking around the City. Getting a drink at a rooftop bar here.

View of the Manhattan from Long Island City. Surely a City that never sleeps.

No surprise here my place to be is here on the Beach. We biked out to Fort Tilden from Astoria. 

Evening view of the NYC on the 4th of July.

14 mile hike up at Minnewaska State Park.

At the top of the hike taking it in.

Cant do a hike without a little waterfall action.  After a long day of hiking this was just what was needed.

So I am now back on the East Coast.. for better of for worse

Besides the traveling and vacation I don't have the amazing photos like I used to have when I lived out west unfortunately. The Westcoast has so much more to offer to me and I miss it ;(  But living in Baltimore is going well.  It is by no means Portland Oregon, which I miss daily ;( but Baltimore is a very livable City and Maryland provides me what I need.  Baltimore has potential to be a pretty great City due to its location to the water, row houses (sustainable), shops/bars and tourist attractions.  People always say Baltimore has "potential". But between the lack of parks, trees, bike routes, running paths, coffee shops, the poor planning by the City level, a general dis-concern for trash on the streets and the abandoned buildings and what most people know Baltimore for - The drugs, crime and violence - it has a very long way to go!

I currently live in a nice big old row house in a quiet neighborhood about a half mile from the Inner Harbor and super close to just about everything. I can walk or bike anywhere.  Most of my time, however, is not spent at home. Time is spent either at work or in the parks, pools, and open roads running, swimming, and biking.  Luckily, the location I work is located just outside the City near the Patapsco River State Park-Running trails galore.  The area also has other running tracks and low traffic cycling roads in the area.  Just about every day I will train during my lunch break and train again after work all in this area-outside of the City.  Staying in the area after work also allows me to miss the bulk of rush hour traffic too!  Typically, once I do finally get home after 15-30 minutes of light traffic I run or bike another couple miles to the City gym, which houses an awesome outdoor salt water swimming pool for me to get all my training in. And then I run another 2 miles back home. :)  On the weekends I travel out to various areas in Maryland to bike and run.  My favorite place to go is coincidentally called the Oregon Ridge Outdoor Center.  The center provides a nice place to park before I go out on my 4-6 hour rides and allows me to get in quality brick runs.  It's about 20 miles north from where I live and the area allows me to get in as much cycling and running as I want on hilly (very hilly) country/low traffic roads.  One surprising fact for those that have never been into Maryland - It is HILLY.  Obviously not mountainous like cycling in parts Oregon, but it has the never-ending short choppy hills, which is great for training. Training on hills have easily made me a better runner and cyclist. Only problem is that running on hills the majority of the time has really put the pounding on my body and this requires that I rest more often in addition to doing more strength training. I try to test out new areas to run and bike every other weekend or so.  Sometimes I'll travel out to the hills of Frederick Maryland, Central Pennsylvania or to the Eastern Shore for a reprieve from the hills.

First FULL IRONMAN 10 weeks away

Few things make me happier than being outdoors.  Triathlon training gives me a perfect excuse to be outside all the time.  Now that I have time in my life to train and deeper pockets I've decided to race the inaugural IRONMAN MARYLAND (formerly called ChesapeakeMan).  It will be my first attempt racing a full Ironman distance.  It is is late September, which gives me plenty of time to prepare.  I will more than likely be racing other triathlons before that date, but besides a SPARTAN race in August nothing is on the schedule yet.  The Ironman will be in Cambridge, MD (similar to the Eagleman 70.3 Ironman I've done a couple times).  I've trained on the course a couple times now and it is as flat as flat can get, similar to that of good ole Virginia Beach.  Its pretty wild to think that besides the Wildflower Triathlon I did a year ago with the Oregon Tri Team, I haven't raced a triathlon since 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas September 2012! I never stopped biking, running and swimming!

Training is going pretty great and I am finally getting back into race condition.  Ironman training obviously requires a lot more swimming, biking, and running time and mileage than 70.3 training.  Generally on the weekdays I focus on one bike or run speed session/day and one bike or run active recovery session/day plus a strength/stretching session plus a solid 75-90 minute swim session four times/week. Weekends I focus on endurance... logging 6-9 hours of cycling over the weekend plus 1-2 hours of running transitions off the bike each day.  Right now intensity is fairly low for the run transitions after long bike sets.  I'll speak in more detail about my training in a blog to come, that will hopefully answer some questions people had for me and reveal some secretes to staying injury free. Speaking of injury,  I do have a nagging issue with my hip flexor currently, caused by all the pounding hill running, I assume.  I find as long as I keep them loose and stretched in addition to continually strengthening I can avoid debilitating injury.  I've also been taking a day off from training when they get bad or I just feel very tired. One thing I have started doing is resting more.. I'll take about 1 day off a week plus 3-4 days straight off per month.  The Ironman distance endurance is pretty much there, I want to focus on speed and swim improvement the next couple months.

Senior Stormwater Design Engineer

I've now been in my new position for about four months.  Everything is going great, really great, I couldn't really expect it to be much better.  I am luckily to work for an awesome and supportive green tech company and I'm enjoying my leadership role. I love that I have a career soley dedicated to protecting water quality. Most of my business is in the Canadian provinces as the government has committed to investing in protecting streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans from the pollution runoff from development. Without boring everyone too much with talk of water quality engineering I'll just show some pics and move on.  I still kick myself sometimes for not being able to find a position like this in Oregon, but all is not lost.. the main office is in Portland :).

Stormwater filtration device "Jellyfish FIlter". This particular filter is about 1/4 the size of the typical filter length as these were for a shallow catch basin installation. Look how much pollution they capture!

These filtration units can get massive and expensive. I visited one of our manufacturing plants in Quebec and took a picture our 10' diameter unit, not even our biggest one, and it hold roughly 16 filter cartridges.  The filtration cartridges remove over 80% total suspended solids, down to 1 micron particle!

 Travelling for work as been a new experience.  I've since been to Montreal and Toronto a number of times now.  We do a lot of business in the Calgary Alberta and Vancouver BC areas as well!  Favorite place to travel so far has been Montreal.  Beautiful area with a European vibe, great food, outdoorsy people and beautiful women!  I'll be out to Portland for team meetings and the STORMCON conference the first week of August. Super excited is an understatement.

Training and Life in Baltimore post coming up next...