HEAT

Let’s have a Resolution Snowshoe on Sunday January 3rd. We will meet at 9.00am at the Jug City on Highway 60, and carpool from there. At least one of us has a minivan that seats 7. The caretakers at the Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve advise they don’t groom the bush trails, but both Buck Lake and Lake Solitaire Trails have had snowshoers on them already, so they should be somewhat packed. It shouldn’t matter whether they are groomed or not, as we can take turns breaking trail if there is fresh snow. It has been suggested that we use the Solitaire Trail. It is 5.4km around the lake, and is beautiful! There is one big hill of about 300m. Other than that it is flat to rolling. Everyone goes at their own pace.

If you don’t have snowshoes, ask around for some loaners. Other than that AO and the Muskoka Bicycle Pro Shop rent snowshoes.

Some clothing and fueling suggestions from Neil (one of our seasoned ultra athletes)… “Everyone should take a small snack and fluids. I just carry a few granola bars, and have warm water with electrolytes. I also dress in layers. For me that is neoprene socks, runners,  high gaiters, running pants, long sleeved running shirts, light fleecy,my cycling jacket, a toque and gloves. Like skiing, it doesn’t take long to get warm.”

After the ‘shoe’ we could go to Muskoka on the Rocks for a beverage!

Hope to see everyone on the 3rd!

Thanks to Don McCormick for publishing this article about HEAT in the November 2009 edition of What’s Up Huntsville/Lake of Bays Magazine.

On the same page, local endurance runner, Troy Cox was highlighted for placing 6th out of 4,930 runners in the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Half-Marathon with a time of 1:12:42 – an avg pace of 3:27/km. Way to go Troy!

Hello!

You’ve found us. We’re a few local Huntsvillians who are initiating an athletic community called the Huntsville Endurance Athlete Team, or HEAT for short.

The goal of this group is to pull together the many like-minded people that live and train in endurance athletic endeavours here in Huntsville and surrounding area.  Why endurance athletes?  There are many active people in our community, and there are several small pockets of people participating in different sports, however, virtually none have an organized group that they can make contact with!  Adventure racing, cycling (road and mountain), running (road and trail), triathlons, and long distance swimming are just a few of the sports that are “unorganized” that we hope we can connect.

HEAT is trying to bring all these groups together through two means:

[1] Though a virtual community. www.heatitup.ca is a place where people can post their training sessions and invite others to join them.  Going for a long bike and want some company…post your workout distance, start location and time, and people might just show up.  Starting group rides and runs, time trials (for running, cycling, and swimming), track workouts, strength workouts…there are a number of possibilities, and it is only limited by what kinds of workouts we can dream up.  It is also a forum to communicate other athletic centric activities – information about carpooling, equipment education, training principles, nutrition, etc.

[2] In person.  Through group meetings a social dynamic can be built in information sessions on a variety of topics.  It may also be a chance to take a break from sport and meet with friends who are like minded.  We are hoping to draw on the expertise of our members as well as outside speakers invited to speak to our group

One great aspect is that the community is driven by your involvement and engagement.  More importantly it is FREE!  We want to promote a team that works together.  With this in mind it would be great if all participants could provide input from their own areas of expertise.  We all have strengths that each of us can gain experience from. In essence, we are hoping to develop a social network where like minded people can get together to do like minded activities and then enjoy each others company afterwards over some food and drink if time may permit!

It is exciting to have the opportunity to build an inclusive community of like minded individuals in the field of endurance sport!  There is truly a great depth of athletic experience in Huntsville.  HEAT is a medium where familiar names and faces can finally come together in an environment where they can freely share information, facilitate continued exercise and training programs and simultaneously encourage other members of the community at large to participate in sport.

In time, we hope that this builds a strong sense of community where it can help better our community through sports representation and advocacy within our town.

If you are interested, please email us at iwantto@heatitup.ca as we are just collecting names of interested people at this point.  We will send out regular updates as we get the whole process going and let you know when our “kick off” event is. You can also subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed to keep up on new postings.

Time to turn on the HEAT!