end of september

sheesh! the temp sure dropped this week. had to double up the shirts and put on the mickey mouse gloves. not complaining though!

no running monday, just some weights with kim (when she finally showed up - but that's okay - i still luv her) and some bootcamp with the kids at CDS.

tuesday headed out on the humber for some hill/step repeats by the boy scout bridge and some close-grip pushups (105) on a fallen tree.

wednesday seemed like a 'run with the turkeys' day. and no, i don't mean the toronto pylons! went out on the humber again for about 10 miles and came across 3 separate gangs of wild turkeys. the rain held off, and it was a good temp for running. colors are just starting to change.


had to give georgie hell for not posting - as this was HIS idea!!

black-eyed suzies

just a short post to finish off the weekend. christine did a mountain bike race yesterday, and wasn't available for our usual sunday hockley/gen store run. (sad face). i headed out on my own on the humber from the end of the trail down to the fern garden. farmer brown had just plowed his field where we entered the trail into albion so that made for a couple hundred yards of lumpy dirt running.

the section from castlederg just past the entrance has been beautiful lately. both sides of the trail are bordered with tons of black-eyed suzies - one of my favorite flowers.

it's been a long week of training, and my poor legs are feeling it. i put in just over 2 hours today, and almost 12 miles for a grand total of 58. i celebrated with way too many sinful snacks at the glp's, and a double scoop of banana caramel/chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. it doesn't get any better than that!

hope everybody had a great weekend!

dora had some 'splainin to do . . .

so i had planned on running from humber station up to the 5th today, with a side trip to the dingle (which is uphill both ways). i met up with vents at 7 and headed onto the bruce. we weren't sure where onions was, but figured he'd catch us eventually. as we were going through the haunted forest, we spotted this huge owl flying overhead and eventually landing on top of a dead tree. very cool! even sat there so i could get his pic.

i had told the pylons that i would be at cooli's by 8:20 - and i was only 15 seconds behind schedule - not bad! as cy, digger, onions and the beaver came towards me, i couldn't help but notice that 3 of them were wearing their bel monte shirts. did they call each other the night before and plan that? how cute! the grumpy little portuguese was also with them. now knowing i could never hope to keep up with their pace, i tried to explain where i had dropped water. the brains of the 3 married guys instantly focused on something else (because a female was talking), and their eyes glazed over as i gave directions. cy was the only one who seemed at all concerned. so off they went - never to be seen again! not my problem! once vents caught up and we made sure he was okay to head back by himself, me and the glp took off.

we decided to both run our own pace, and once i got her to hwy 9 (she is a little directionally challenged), we split up. as i approached the ladder at the 7th, there was a huge flock of japanese hikers coming towards me. i didn't really need water at this point, so i waited for them to pass, and made my way down the road and eventually over to the 5th. no sign of the 4 pylons. on my way back, i figured i'd better refill my camel, so i went into the parking lot where i had stashed some water the night before. there was a police car sitting there, but i thought nothing of it. as i was rummaging through the bag, i happened to look up and notice there were 2 officers staring down at me. oh oh ! i asked if i was in trouble. they asked if i had put that there, cuz apparently, someone had spotted me dropping a 'suspicious package' last night - oh ya, like i look like a terrorist in my little red mazda3 - and phoned the police. they had already gone down to 'inspect the package' and found it was just a bunch of water bottles. i asked if they'd been waiting all this time for someone to show up. they said not too long. honestly, the people who live on that road have way too much time on their hands. so we all had a good laugh over that, and i thanked them for not 'confiscating my water', and they let me take their picture! too funny!

i carried on, and to my surprise, caught up with the glp on hwy 9. she had been feeling great and decided to go a little further. good girl! we ran back to cooli's together, and after another hug, i left for my final 7km. again, no sign of the pylons. i made it back to my little red mazda with a running time of 4:17 and a total of 23.3 miles. sweet run on a sweet day!


oh yes, the remaining pylons did find the water, and did make it back to the pt cruiser. they love our trails so much that they plan on coming back up next weekend.

and so on sunday, i got this email from digger who was responding to my comment on brain-numbed men. he described what happened when they got to the parking lot where the water was. we have to imagine who was saying what.

"i think she said it was on the right hand side of the parking lot"

"didn't she say something about a tree?"

"but that's not a tree, that's more of a bush"

"there's a tree over there, but it's on the wrong side of the parking lot"

"maybe she meant the right hand side of the parking lot going in instead of coming out"

"let's check under the bush"

"nothing here, must be under the tree"

"found it!"

need i say more??

pros and cons

i seem to recall homey quietly mentioning to vents, while i was doing my situps, that these were the pros and cons of hanging out with a personal trainer. hmmm! i guess he was referring to our running/crossfit session in palgrave today. after a right kerfuffle trying to arrange a start time, we finally managed to get vents puffed, and the 3 of us in the p'lot at 11:50. me and homey decided to throw in some stuff during our usual 2-loop-palgrave-thursday run. i'm not sure vents heard us, as he ambled along happily and unawares behind us. after 10 minutes, i came to a stop and barked out, 'okay, 20 squats and 15 pushups'. vents kinda stood there in surprise, and me and homey farted around doing our exercises. once done, we headed back on our way. this continued the whole run, adding more cool things every 10 minutes, like situps, jumpsquats, walking lunges, jump to a big log, and the grand finale of all of the above, with 15 dips thrown in between each one. the time was exactly 1 hour, which meant we had less than 10 minutes to make it back to the cars, or we'd have to do another set. again, poor vents wasn't sure what was going on, as me and homey pinned it back. woo hoo! 2 loops in record time - 1 minute less than our previous best. final crossfit total was 120 squats, 90 pushups, 100 situps, 90 jumpsquats, 60 walking lunges, 30 jump-to-log and 90 dips. great job guys!!

wild horses and uphill both ways

wednesday is my mid-distance run, so i drove over to humber station, and headed out by myself up towards k2 and the dingle. homey is in the process of replacing the might pimpala, so he was dicking around with car stuff, and therefore, a little behind on emails. still, he managed to catch me on the dingle - which incidently, is uphill both ways - and we came back together.

we both thought we were hallucinating as we approached the gore. there was this phantom white horse just standing in the field. didn't even move as we got closer. very strange!!

anyways, i managed to put in 11 miles with a run time of 1:56. tuesday was 5 miles with a bunch of repeats on the west fern garden hill. and monday was weights with kim and bootcamp with the kids at country day school.

glad to see georgie finally posted! keep it going spongie!

Sponge Bob is Nervous

Okay, this is George " Spongie " Brown.... I will be shocked if you are reading this because I am essentially computer illiterate. Dora is making me post and I do so reluctantly, because I am sober as a judge and it is likely to take an hour or two for me to figure out how to do this.

Stay Tuned for upcoming posts when I have been artificially " juiced " with post training run Margueritas. I promise to be controversial and whine often cause Kendra will be kicking my ass in just a few short months and I am prone to being cranky !

I also want to publicly chide our partners from the Trans Rockie run..... Mimi, Sjohn, Sat, Jo, Christine and most of all my timid, complaining, complacent, lazy and aging friend Freddie, who will soon be an " Ex Knucklehead " if he doesn't join Dora and me, " Spongie " in this latest quest.... We are preparing " Snoopy Fred " for yet another dangerous mission.

Finally, I want to publicly state how honored and excited I am to renew a friendship with Kendra... a gentle soul and a great french kisser ( okay, I lied about the kissing part... but I can tell all of you that she is the best Hugger on the planet.

Nice to meet all of you and in all seriousness, we will both look for your comments and I will be appreciative of any advice any of our readers may have.

frost on the pumpkins up here in canada

so now that i've tried to explain to georgie how this works, i'm hoping he'll start posting his training too, cuz that was the plan.

on saturday, me and homey dragged ourselves out onto the trail at 6am. the thermometer read 2 degrees, there was ice on my windshield, lots of frost on the ground, and it was still really dark. we turned on our headlamps and headed out into the unknown - well, actually into albion hills, but the unknown sounds scarier!! the raspberries along the side of the cornfield were kinda frozen, and they really left a mark when you ran by them - as in i had blood running down my leg once we got through! the sunrise was beautiful, and eventually we were blessed with a clear blue sky. homey had to turn back after 11.5km, but i kept going. i ran into my grumpy little portuguese buddy fatima just after the boy scout bridge, and then later met up with christine and vents just before the tennis courts. they accompanied me back to 23.5k mark before turning back, and i carried on through the next section. the glp was returning from her epic venture out to duffy's, and after a hug, we both went on our way. i made it back to my little red mazda in good time, with a final distance of 31k/19.3miles. total running time was 3:26. legs felt pretty fresh considering i had raced 50k last weekend.

the view from the top of the ski hill just past airport road.

me and christine opted for a more reasonable start time on sunday. we drove over to the 7th line, and the plan was to run the bruce trail over to the 5th and back. i wanted to show her a new section onions and i had discovered a few weeks ago. we were a little stiff to start, but warmed up nicely as the km's clicked by. i did a nice face plant into the rhubarb just before the turn around, and again found myself with blood running down my leg - the other one this time! we also explored yet another freshly cut section of trail, which eliminated a rather nasty uphill on gravel. after inspecting my wounds, and determining first aid was unnecessary, we headed back. and of course, seeing as how we were already in hockley, we rewarded ourselves with a coffee and a yummy snack from the general store!! in all, a great run with an even greater friend!!