Canadian National Championships Race Report - Tyler Chuang, T1High Performance Team

This is what my training schedule had looked like leading up to the 2017 Canadian Standard Distance Championships. Visibly vacant and unfulfilled. There’s a lot of incomplete (red). There was no glitch in the system, nor did my Garmin stop working. On May 16th, I felt the first pull of tightness on my IT band during a cross country workout. I made it through the workout and thought nothing of it, keeping up with my regular volume and intensity. This was my second mistake. On May 19th, I was 10 km out on my long run when a sharp pain ran down my leg and caused me to default to a limp/hobble 10 km back to the starting point. I knew my IT band was damaged, but I had no idea how bad it would turn out to be. To make matters worse, when I got back to the starting point, the gym doors were locked, with my car keys inside. I proceeded to run another 4 km home on a bum leg. The next morning I couldn’t bend my leg without excruciating pain and could not walk at all. Clearly this was not good.

ALONE AGAINST THE NORTH BY ADAM SHOALTS

Viking, 304pp. 2015

Peter Shoalts is a modern explorer. His ambitious personality and great story-telling draw the reader into the remote wilderness of the Great White North. His intelligent and humorous writing style enhances this adventurous story and kept me intrigued from page to page. From encounters with polar bears to his fight against the frigid cold, I felt like I was on this amazing journey with him.