running and crossfit

put in a few miles this week - half of them on the humber valley. took alex - crossfit instructor superstar - out on wednesday. still can't believe how well he hauled those beauty quads up the hills. managed over 9km - wow!

did 4 crossfit sessions - absolutely lovin my latest obsession! and whoda thought i could jump 20" ???!! still can't get over that one!

saturday i ran the bruce from cooli's over to the tai chi center with vents and onions. forgot my camera, but will confirm that vents was in shorts! and it's not even april 1st yet. homey made an appearance - first in a long time coming off an injury - and did about an hour. temp wasn't too bad, and finished off the day with a 2 hour misfit ride on the rail trail.

sunday my awesome buddies dave and tone finally made it up for a run - only took them 10 years! we were joined by speed demon geoff peat from king city and christine. i think the last time i saw geoff was at cabot trail in 2oo1 ! christine ran with us over to duffy's before turning back.

the rest of us kept going almost over to castlederg.




what a great day! finished off with a hike in palgrave with trailman. so sad to see the end of the weekends.

an afternoon with my dad

it was 7 years ago today that my dad died. man, i still miss him. it was 2003 and i was training for my first real crazy adventure - the canadian death race in alberta. i remember arranging with my friends to meet at main street in bolton so we could toast him. i was overwhelmed at how many people showed up - so much so, that i didn't know what to say. luckily my good friend the booton stepped in and said a few words. thanks b. and so today, i decided to do something special. i headed over to hockley - one of my favorite places to run - with a can of guinness - my dad's favorite beer - in my pack.

the temp was a little chilly, and there were even some flurries. however, the robins were out!

as usual, hockley was awesome! i ran into a few hikers, but for the most part i was on my own. after about 2 hours, i found a spot and pulled out the guinness. crap - i probably shouldn't have run that far with it bouncing around in my pack! nice foam!

so i played a song on my ipod that always makes me think of dad - love thy will be done, by martika - and had a few sips of the guinness.

and as most of you know, i don't drink and a couple of sips is about all i can handle. i poured the rest on the middle of the trail, threw the empty in my pack and made my way back to my car.

i love you dad. hope you enjoyed 'our run'.

xo

inglewood

http://www.caledonhillscycling.com/Index.html

the temperature was above 20, and not wanting to waste the day, i took the misfit on the rail trail over to inglewood. i made it to caledon hills cycling to see my buddy don and fill up on water. i'm really liking this bike shop!!!!

while there, i noticed they had trekking poles - my 'super star' friend paula had asked me to find her a pair. saweeeeet! 'put 'em in a bag'. oh wait, i didn't bring my backpack. no worries - mike was able to strap them to my bike, with only a small chance that i might impale myself. he also said there was such a thing as a holder for my pump when he noticed mine was just duct-taped on. doh!

anyways, thanks guys! i made it home in one piece - and didn't get a flat !! in all, i was out for 2 and a half hours.

march???

spent lots of time on the trails this week for sure. was on the humber valley wednesday and thursday - it's in great shape! the rail trail finally dried up, so was able to get the misfit out a couple of times without any major spills.

check out the view from today.

biking in shorts in march - who'da thought??


wednesday i did another crossfit session with alex. he showed me some exercises, and then set up a WOD for as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes - consisting of 15 deadlifts, 12 front squats, 9 situps on this insane, masochistic bench and 9 box jumps. after over 13 minutes, i had completed 4 rounds and figured i was done. 'gee, you did those too fast', he says, 'you'd better do another round'. are you kidding me??? 'ya, get over to that bar and get moving'. argh! i puffed through the deadlifts, fluffed one of the squats and was made to do an extra, almost fell off the situp bench and barely managed to not kick over the box as i was attempting to land on top of it. again, i was just a wobbling as i walked out of there. INSANE!

i'm going back on monday for more! woohoo!!

'cindy' and hilton falls

what an exhausting weekend! saturday i got up early and ran for an hour forty on the bruce. headed north of 9 and did my 2 favorite switchbacks. slow but steady. finished up just as it started to rain. in the afternoon i had arranged a session with alex at crossfit bolton.

http://www.crossfitbolton.com/

i got there at 2:00 and after chatting for a bit, he gave me my workout of the day (WOD) which was 'cindy'. this consisted of 5 pullups (alex gave me a box to jump from, cuz i couldn't even do one), 10 pushups, and 15 squats - for as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. once i got going, he was amused at how i managed to get faster with each round. i explained that was my endurance training, and that it usually takes me an hour to get warmed up when i run. after almost collapsing my triceps a few times on the pushups, and speed-squatting the last 15 to get in 20 rounds, i was done! crap! that was awesome! i was sweating like mad and my whole body was shaking. i'm definitely trying more of these. and it was great having someone tell me what to do for a change!

did i mention that alex looks like he could pull a bus by himself . . .

sunday was a run with the pylons in hilton falls - i drove over with onions, and we met up with the captain, digger and cy, and after a few more directions, ultimately robbie found us. i knew we were in trouble when the first 20 yards of the trail was under 6" of water. conditions were varied, from snow to mud to ice, throw in a few river and stream crossings, and not forgetting the general technical terrain of that area - rocks, lots of rocks! and man was that water cold!!!

a few lacerations and abrasions were incurred, but overall we survived. i was crazy tired of trying to navigate rocks and stuff by the end, so was doing some walking - and some bitching! robbie probably got big grief from connie as he was supposed to be in hamilton by noon - i believe he got back to the cars by 1:00. DOH! total running time for me was 5 hours. my feet probably would have been sore, but they were pretty numb from all the water crossings! onions was craving grease, so we hit a harveys on the way home.

and today, i am so stiff i can barely move. it hurts to lift my arms, and my legs are cranky. but like the captain said in an email to me last night, 'dora, is there anything else you'd rather be doing this morning, than running thru ice water with your buddies?' 'dead tired, freezing, soaking wet, it does not get any better.'

i couldn't agree more! thanks cap!

wayne warned me . . .

did some sweet trail runs on tuesday and wednesday, even bumped the time up to 1:40, but unfortunately my poor feet paid for it last night. they were good and numb, and were tingling up a storm by the time i got into bed. felt better this morning though. so, seeing as how the powers that be are calling for rain this weekend, i decided to take advantage of the sun and get another ride in on the misfit. now because of the 'above-mentioned' foot problems, i had my awesome buddy wayne change my candies for platforms. this way i could wear my trail shoes, and give my bones some cushioning. 'be careful,' he warned ! 'if you slip off those puppies, your shins will be ground beef.' 'oh sure wayne, but i'll be fine, i'm an experienced rider.' what could go wrong???!!!

check out a minor 'slip-spin-wack' from flipping off the pedals on the rail trail.

FUUUUUUUUUUUCK ! did that ever hurt!


despite the punctures and forthcoming contusions, i kept going and had a great ride. oh, and thanks wayne for not saying 'i told you so'.

xo

no tights allowed

what an awesome day. the temp topped 12 degrees and the sun was brilliant. no reason whatsoever to wear tights. did a 2+hour run over to k2 and the dingle this morning. could have gone for hours.

still lots of snow at the top of k2

found this note attached to my windshield when i got back. real funny paul! just wait, one of these times somebody will call the cops on you and your lovely sidekick!!!

even managed to get some tan lines! saweeeeet!!!!!!

finished off the day with a hike in palgrave with trailman. still sporting the shorts and got told by some guy that he was mountain biking yesterday, and was glad he wasn't the only weirdo out in the forest. hmmm! so you're calling me weird, i asked . . . funny to see him try and backtrack on that one!!!

'it's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. i hope you had the time of your life'
green day

off to the big city

got up around 7 this morning so i could squeeze in a run before i go to the city. have to pretend i understand a bunch of stuff for 4 hours on optimum weight loss strategies. and it's so nice out! run was good except for this big furry rat-bastard of a dog that insisted on steam-rolling me, jumping at me and then chasing me. i tried swatting at it, but that made it worse. really impressed when the owners mumbled a 'sorry' and still couldn't manage to get control of this stoopid animal. stoopid dog owners!

i luv fridays

hay trailman !!!!

tgif

watch out for that treeeeeeeeeee

the captain was in town! yep - decided to lower his standards a bit and take a real easy day of running with dora. after having to pull over a half dozen times on the way up to attempt text messaging with his daughter, he finally arrived at the treehouse - only 15 minutes late - which wasn't really technically late according to pylon standards. we both opted for shorts - no snowshoes or gators - and drove over to duffys' palgrave. temp was perfect and trail conditions were pretty good - he'd been running in mud and ice on the don the past few days, and found this a welcome change. just past humber station, i slightly grazed my head on a low lying branch - which of course did not go unnoticed by the captain. 'gee dora, did you not see that branch???'. haha, good one cap, i guess not. anyways, we made it almost to centerville creek before turning back. i was leading and just as i got past the above-mentioned branch, i heard a rather loud thud, a slight groan, and turned to see the captain lying face down in the snow! hahahahahahaha! in true pylon fashion, i laughed a good minute or two before i asked if he was okay. (he would have done the same.) 'gee cap, did you not see that branch???' and if he hit head-on, why was he lying face down??? only thing we can figure is that he twisted while trying to stop his watch as he was falling! after a few more minutes of hysterical laughter, we managed to compose ourselves and eventually get back to the car.

what a great run! thanks cap! and sorry i burned the soup - only took me 5 minutes to scrub it off the stove! hahaha! stoopid dora!

frozen turkey legs

thought i'd try out k2 and the dingle today. the thermometer read over zero, so pylon constitution recommends shorts. no worries, it felt pretty warm out. not sure what condition the trail was in, so i loaded up a bunch of stuff - the dions, gators, tights, blah blah blah. when i got to centreville creek, i could see that nobody had been on the trail. cool - i can wear my snowshoes. it looked pretty deep, and i briefly considered putting on tights or gators, but was too lazy. what could go wrong?! the first short section kicked up a ton of snow, and the back of my legs got covered. fortunately, once i hit the bottom of the climb, someone else had been through, and it was stomped down fairly well. i managed to run the whole way up - about 12 minutes - without having to stop for extra oxygen! the dingle wasn't as clear, but still not bad. again, i was able to run all the hills - woo hoo! it wasn't until i started coming back down k2 that i noticed my feet were pretty cold. i stopped at the bench, took off my shoes and tried to rub some feeling back into my poor old toes. not working - fuck it - just run down real fast and change sox at the car. no problem! owwwwwwwww! by the time i got back and put dry sox on, my toes were on fire! i cranked the heat and was rubbing my left foot as i was driving home. it managed to thaw out by the time i got back to the treehouse, but the right foot took a bit longer! man that was painful! and it was at this point that i noticed the back of my legs - nice! they were all red and splotchy, and i suddenly remembered wacking my calves a few times with the dions on the downhills, obvious from the big red slashes. not sure if you can see it from the pics, but it was pretty funny!

despite the minor casualties, it was an awesome run, and my legs felt great! spring is coming baby!

weekends aren't long enough

so let's see, saturday christine and i had planned a run/hike on the snowshoes. well the snow was deeper than we thought, and she was a little hungover, so we did a bit more walking than running. not to worry!

as you can see from the pics, it was pretty blustery when we first started out.

i had been emailing georgie in dallas before we left, and told him we'd take a couple pics of the two of us. after tossing out the idea of snow angels - it's been done - we opted for a 'snow georgie'. and so after rolling things around for 15 minutes, we ended up with a pretty good replica!!

smile georgie!!


saturday afternoon, i went over to richard and barbs', with my cowbell and canadian toque, to watch the olympics on their monster-screen tv. jan and neil joined us, with their 3 dogs - and, when added to the 2 resident dogs, made for A LOT OF DOGS!! here's a pic of me and richard trying to get a glimpse of the tv around 2 of them! thanks for inviting me over guys - that was awesome!

note: the dog under richard weighs 110lbs!

after a few hours of sitting on my arse, i left and met up with lexi-girl. we ended up stomping around palgrave forest for over 2 hours on the snowshoes and didn't even need the headlamps once the full moon came up. what a sweet night, and we only got lost once!

sunday, me and vents did an hour-fifteen on the bruce. without snowshoes! wasn't too bad, as we were able to follow the tracks from the day before. another wicked workout!

and then finally, went back over to richard and barbs' to watch the hockey game. nnnnnnnice! big thanks to both of you for letting me hang out in front of your tv all weekend. AND for the yummy dinner and dessert that followed!

woo hoo! yay canada!!