hackmatack trail racing

August 08th, 2019

8/8/2019

Here are 12 key exercises to help keep your strength well balanced and your body injury free. My personal routine involves about 20 more exercises with the arms , legs, core and feet, but these 12 are the most important ones. Whenever starting a new routine, always ease into it over a few weeks and start with body weight only to wake up the target muscles and associated nerves.
The red arrows represent the direction of movement.
Click on the PDF file below the image for a version you can actually read.

key_excercises_for_trail_running.pdf
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The Traveller in Baxter State Park

9/15/2015

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Recently I ran a wonderful loop in Baxter State Park in Maine that included the Traveller. a remote peak in the NW of the park.
Here is my .gpx , .kml file and my Suunto moves count data.
As you can see, it took me 4:23:45 for 13.4 miles and 5154' elevation gain.

move_2015_07_25_07_17_04_trail_running.gpx
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File Type:	gpx

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move_2015_07_25_07_17_04_trail_running.kml
File Size:	1086 kb
File Type:	kml

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Suunto, moves count data

This route starts and finishes at the South Branch Pond ranger station. I went up South Branch Mtn trail to Black cat mtn and down to the southern end of Upper South Branch Pond where the SB mtn trail ends at the Pogy notch trail. Then I went north on the Pogy Notch trail to catch the Center Ridge trail up to the Traveller via the Peak of Ridges. The trail up high on this loop is hard to find in spots and schwacky in places. There are cairns which are a big help. The blueberries were popping that day and I enjoyed them heartily. Then up and over North Traveller and down the north ridge to the campground and ranger station at the north end of Lower SB pond. Qute a wild and less used part of the park. You will find no crowds on the Traveller. The tall red pines and intermittent views on the way up the Center Ridge Trail were a highlight for me.

Black Cat mtn looking south to Katahdin.

Upper and Lower South Branch Ponds from the center ridge trail.

Peak of ridges looking east to the Traveller

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My Sweet and Tasty Trail Running Camera Set-up

10/15/2014

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    Well, being a photographer and wanting to take pretty pictures that accurately depict where I was and the feelings I experienced there, I have always struggled with a quick and easy way to carry a nice camera with some sweet glass in a lightweight, and quickly accessible way.
    Sweet glass and a nice camera usually have meant heavy and not light weight. But I smartened up and got myself a Fujifilm X-E2 mirorless camera with a Zeiss 2.8/12mm (18mm full frame equivalent) to do just that. I use a B-Grip EVO Camera Belt Grip with a B-Grip Travel kit and quick release adapter to attach the camera to my Ultimate Direction Scott Jurek hydration vest.
     I can not only hike, but run on quite technical trails at a good clip, bounce free without looking super weird and nerdy. Just slightly nerdy, which I am OK with.

My lovely wife Sadie took these pictures. aren't they great?
So first with the straight poop on the vest. It is a super light weight one with every possible consideration having gone into keeping it light. I did make a few modifications to make it work but they were minimal.

I sewed a small patch of hook velcro to the under side of the port side bottle holder because I have found that nary a vest out there has quick, easy hydration hose attachment system off the shelf. I actually prefer the bladder and hose style to the bottles because I find eating more of a hassle than hydration. I had some trouble getting used to that UD Kicker valve but once you get the hang of it, it works really well. I never thought I would have to read directions to use a water bottle but here they are. It sure helped me out. I am now a red nipple advocate.
One of the reasons I got this vest is so when I am running long, I can easily put 4 of my home made sweet potato-beet gels in each bottle pouch and squeeze them out as I go. Besides, with the camera set up I am with out one bottle anyway.

now for the B-Grip attachment set-up. In order to attach the B-Grip belt piece securely to the vest I had to heat up my olfa knife with a torch and send it through the Hexmesh in just the right spot to send a small strip of old headband elastic with a fastex type buckle on it for the lower portion of the B-Grip piece. The top is securely fastened with the included rubber strap. The quick release plate is fast and easy and has a lock too that again is easy to do up.
As you can see in this photo and the next, I twisted the camera a little inboard to avoid the lens hood from hitting the extra elastic buckle I put on there. Where did the starboard side bottle pouch go you ask? It is squashed nicely beneath the B-Grip thingum.

See how that quick release plate is a little caddy-whompus? That again is for lens hood clearance on my added elastic buckle.

    And now for the camera and lens. I chose this set up because it is almost half as much as my last set up.....Nikon D800 and a 14-24mm/2.8 fatty lens. That last one was not as bad as I thought it would be, but not much better. It was more than bulky, it was balky.
    The Fujifilm X-E2 has a decent electronic view finder (EVF), takes 30MB, 16 megapixel RAW images and shoots up to 7 frames per second (and really does). This is essential in any camera shooting fast moving, endurance chumps and gals as they are always drooling or drooping their eyelids and this ensures that at least a few pictures are usable. I use a plastic shower cap to put over it when it rains. I also run without the lens cap on for quicker shooting action.
    I got the 2.8/12mm (18mm in 35mm equivalent) prime lens to go with it instead of the wider f4/10-24mm Fuji lens because it it lighter, and faster with a wider aperture. You can never go wrong with Zeiss optics either. Here is an in depth review of the Fujifilm X-E2.
    The first time I used it I ran 25k on the Fundy Footpath with Tim Barry on his Epic 135km Fundy Trek run on October 4th.

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Katahdin / Russell Pond loop

10/15/2014

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     I have always wanted to do this loop at Baxter state park in Maine around, up and over Katahdin. We made a day trip out of it which made for a very long day but good times were had by all. Shawn McCardle and I left from my house in Mascarene at 1:30 am. That's so early, it's late! We met Jeremy Ritcey in Woodstock at 4 am and kept on going to make our parking reservations.
     We had perfect weather, although I do prefer a little more drama, for mountain travel and we started out at the Roaring Brook trail head. From there we went up to Russell Pond on the said trail and then took a left onto the NW Basin Trail. Once above treeline, we continued to the saddle, up to the peak and across the Knife Edge to Pamola. Then down the Helon Taylor.
     Some of the trails were not well maintained and so running was a bit squirrely. The Helon Talyor was all scrubby with thick krummholtz branches continually holding you back so you had to bob and weave and bust through.

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19.5 Short Chignecto run

10/11/2014

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     Well, I am a little late posting about this run as some friends and I did different interpretations of it on June 21st of this year, (2014) We were lucky to camp that night and hang out a bit the night before.
     Runners that came along were, Matt Tibbets, and Bruno Hache who did the whole proper loop of ~29miles, (47k). Bernie Doucet who went for a 10 hour run around the loop and then out to us and back again for a long training day leading up to his phenomenal VT 100 run where he placed 12th. Tim Barry and I started at Eatonville and ran a cool 19.5 miles, (31k).

I had a funky set up so I could bring along my DSLR and take snappy pictures during the run. It was big and lumpy but it worked. I have a much lighter and less bulky set up now that I will post about later. It was a great run though and I really have to thank all the guys for letting me pass them continually as I ran ahead to catch them at scenic sweet spots, letting them run by, and then letting me pass again for another go at the next photo op. So thanks for your patience all.

Here are some pictures from that run, Enjoy.

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Sweet potato / Beet "gel"

7/28/2014

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It is always a challenge to manage hydration and electrolytes on longer runs and races all while trying to be quick and efficient about it all. Although some energy bars work great for me, they can often be too dry to choke down quickly on the run and force us to drink more to compensate. I have also been feeling a little guilty (I was raised catholic) for not eating whole foods on the run and have wanted to go that way for a while.
I too have been having a hard time getting those CLIF bars down and the S-caps during a race and so I made a sweet potato/beet gel that has been working pretty good for me.
First off , buy a box of those little snack size ziplock bags, roughly 17x8cm. The gels go in these and the air can be sucked out and when it is time to use them, the corner can be bitten off, (but don’t litter!) and squeezed in the mouth. Here's the recipe, use organic for all ingredients that you can. You may have to experiment with how much to put in each zippy.

Makes 4 @ roughly 85-100g---350-400g total

175g boiled and mashed sweet potato
50g boiled beets
30ml maple syrup
4 S-caps capsules opened and sprinkled in
70ml apple juice
25g raisins
1 t tumeric
1 t finely ground black pepper
30g chia seeds

Blend this all up well in a food processor or fatty blender.

Then divide into roughly equal lumps and put in those little snack bags.

I start having one 1.5 hours into a long run and have one every hour after that. If it is a race I'll start with one 1 hour into it.

The tumeric is a natural inflammation reducer and the black pepper helps the tumeric absorb faster and more effeciently.

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The Fitz Frenzy trail run is coming up folks!

5/13/2014

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So this year the Fitz Frenzy trail race in Scotsburn, NS is offering a 7k, a 14k and a 21 k (for which I am the only ow signed up so far) and it should be fun.
Here is a map of the route;

AND. . . . the site to register at: Fitz Frenzy Reggie page

I hope to see you there!

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2014 Herring Run!

4/25/2014

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Get ready for the 2014 Herring Run!

Well, I have the poster ready and will be sending it to the printers soon.
In the next few weeks we will do the first of two trail work days as well. This year I will be calling the trail work days only about a week ahead of time to avoid super rainy times (This could be next to impossible in the Maritimes)...So if you can make it, Great!
but if not, no worries. I hope to see you there!
More info about the race here.
and to make it sweet and easy
you can even register here.

Get your gumption on....register here!

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20 miler on Massanutten Mt. VA

1/21/2014

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Well, no pix this time. What a fun run though. This was the longest I have gone since Chignecto at 29 miles but I felt much better this time. Tired but no aches. I think I just showed myself what I can do if i take it easy, eat right and just keep going.
I started at the Buzzard Rock trail head and went up the ridge. there was only 2" of snow at the higher elevations on the north side of the mountains which was a nice treat for a northerner. I did it in 3:58 which I thought was good. I certainly was not ready for the hills.

Here is a Google Earth link for anyone who cares........ . . .

massanutten_20.kmz
File Size:	60 kb
File Type:	kmz

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Patapsco Valley State Park, Maryland, USA

1/21/2014

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The Cascade in Cascade Trail.

On a whim I decided to Facebook Ryan Seth of the Annapolis Running Shop in Maryland, USA for some tips on trail running in the area. Here is their FB page as well. Ryan rustled up some savvy trail runners and we headed out to Patapsco Valley State Park just to the east of Baltimore, MD. Check out their site as their PDF maps are printable and highly detailed.

Thanks again Ryan and Josh for coming with me, enduring my calls for reshooting pictures and worse, running that hill just one more time! I had a great run and hope to come down again sometime.

Heading down the Cascade Trail.

It was such a treat for me because of the 40-50 F weather and no snow or ice. The trails were in great shape as well.

Most trails are well marked.

Buzzard Rock Trail

Saw Mill Trail. We lucked out with glorious weather.....for a Canadian!

Saw Mill Trail, technical creek x-ing fun

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Bryan Gagner

I have been trail running for about 30 years and am rejuvinated by it. Breathing deeply in the woods and wild places is something everyone should do, what ever their capability.

August 08th, 2019

The Traveller in Baxter State Park

My Sweet and Tasty Trail Running Camera Set-up

Katahdin / Russell Pond loop

19.5 Short Chignecto run

Sweet potato / Beet "gel"

The Fitz Frenzy trail run is coming up folks!

2014 Herring Run!

20 miler on Massanutten Mt. VA

Patapsco Valley State Park, Maryland, USA

Bryan Gagner

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