Acording to Cathy: "Intervals (intensity), twice a week are what is needed to prepare for the ski season. Regardless of whether racing is on the agenda, it is still necessary to be able to ski up hills with efficiency and fitness, which is why hill repeats are part of the program. When the snow arrives, skiers want to be able to enjoy the skiing rather than having to spend the first 6 weeks gaining enough fitness to be able to actually do the sport. All of you have spent the summer gaining an aerobic base. Now is the time to build on that." TODAY'S WORKOUT Warmup: 30 minutes easy jogging/ ski walking Zone 1-2 (through the maze). Intervals: 33 minutes of hill repeats Zone 4-5 (on Penguin hill). Recovery Run: 1.5-2 hours easy jogging/hiking Zone 1-2 (see route below). The route this week will take us through the maze (where we warmup) down the mountain bike trail to P5 where we will head up the Gatineau Pkwy. to the Notch Road trail (AKA the Brazilian). This trail is a little tricky; at the first major intersection, keep left. After that, stay right until you eventually return to the Gatineau Pkwy. From here, continue south to trail #15 taking the right turn (up the steep hill) toward Mackenzie King Estate. Once on the paved road that leads to P6, turn left (heading toward the Champlain Pkwy.) to trail #7. Running short of time, to get back by 1pm for fireplace service, I turned right on #15 and jogged along swamp to P7. medium hard workout. Started off cool and sunny but clouded over and we got a few drops of rain. Quite windy so leaves are falling quickly. Wet underfoot in places but puddles easy to avoid. Met our neighbour Eva hiking with friends.