those chickens are organized . . .

and just in case i didn't get QUITE enough crossfit in this week, i figured i'd better finish it off with one more session. 'evil jimmy' was the man in charge today, and he truly lived up to his name. 'so take this thing that looks like an old cast iron kettle, and that weighs about 35lbs, and swing it from between your legs to up over your head 300 times - and see how long it takes you.' good grief, i'll be lucky if i can lift my arms tomorrow - i'll be wearing zip-up tops for sure. thankfully i don't usually bother combing my hair, cuz sure as shit i won't be able to do that either. and to top it all off, i'm pretty sure one of my ribs is out of place !! woo hoo!

afterwards, me and christine headed out on the humber for an easy, lazy run. cindy was invited, but he never did show up. we met up with billllliiieeee who was out on his mountain bike.

after he left, we decided we'd run far enough, so we settled in to grab some fiddleheads. tons of them in the fern garden!

finished up with a coffee and some nasty snacks at timmies. thanks for a great day christine!

once home, i got around to calling my friend andrea, and went over to her place to pick up a 'relaxin chair' for the balcony of the treehouse. took my camera so i could get some pics of her chickens - my sister LOVES chickens ! andrea and i were laughing like idiots as we stomped through the poop in the coop ! her husband declared us both insane, and left us to amuse ourselves further - making up stories about the chickens getting organized, and planning an ambush on us when we turned our backs!!

and please note, no chickens were harmed in the taking of these photographs - although they were a little pissed that we took their eggs . . .

and finally, we received our tentative itinerary for the upcoming pylon road trip to tennessee in june from the captain. details to follow - what could go wrong???

http://www.rockcreek.com/stagerace/

'pardon me, boy
is that the chattanooga choo choo'

wacky wildlife

so let's see, highlights from this week . . .

i was running on the humber tuesday morning and had a coyote/wolf/werewolf cross the trail in front of me! not exactly sure which of the above, but it was fairly big and a reddish/brown in color. very cool ! also tuesday, me and barb rode the rail trail over to inglewood to visit the bike shop and general store. mmmmm - thanks for the cookie barb! i saw a snake, a strange brown bird, a chippie and a bunch of turtles on a log. barb saw a really cute guy on a road bike, and even remarked that he was smiling at me. i figured it was more like he was feeling sorry for me - looking like a homeless person and riding a dirty bike with a pink chain and just one gear! haha!

wednesday i took the mighty alex out running - took a trip up k2. he said something about it being 'dirty' after taking 12 minutes to get to the top. it was at the bottom of the first hill on the dingle that things started to go wrong. i believe it was the left ankle that got twisted first . . . and with my usual amount of concern, i told him to walk it off. he seemed fine after a few minutes, and we were able to carry on. we made it to the extension of innis lake before heading back. i had 'just' finished asking about his ankle, and him responding 'fine', when i heard the sound of a large tree crashing down behind me. uh oh ! this sounded really bad ! upon inspection, i discovered that it was the other ankle this time. and it was way worse than the first. for the love of pete, why couldn't he have twisted the same one! and more importantly, HOW THE HELL WAS I GOING TO CARRY SOMEONE THIS SIZE OUT OF THE TRAIL????

now according to pylon rules, it's each man for himself, but technically, alex is not a pylon, and i felt obligated to stick around! (that and i'm sure he'd get me back with some diabolical wod once we got back to the gym.) in true tuff-guy fashion, he sucked it up and was able to walk back up the trail. i got him to head out to cooli's, while i ran down k2 to get the car, and drive over to pick him up. he sure was a sight walking half-naked down the side of a dirt road !!! and, turns out it was just a sprain, and he was back to working out the next day.

crossfit this week was insane as usual. alex is determined to get me to do a real pull-up, and has so far in april had me do 788 jumping ones. sorest muscle of the week had to be my abs - with 75 glute-ham situps, 75 hanging knees-to-elbows and 75 regular situps. owwww! also determined that my max deadlift for 3 reps is 195lbs. cool !

saturday i had a couple of clients - the artist and the glp - and then i headed out on the humber. saweet morning for sure. and thankyou alice, my legs felt amazing! my right foot sucked, but it just felt so good to have strong legs for a change that i kept going. got up into albion even.

after almost 18 miles in 3:22 i felt great - other than my stoopid foot of course. i finished up on castlederg, and got the bright idea to soak my feet in the humber just under the bridge. it was pretty chilly, but definitely numbed some of the pain. it was really nice sitting there, soaking in the sun and listening to the river bounce over the rocks.

and check out the artwork on the side of the bridge. pretty amazing !

finished off the day hiking with trailman on the rail trail, where we spotted 3 beavers by the big lodge almost at the gore. i just devoured a couple slices of pizza, and am planning on watching a couple episodes of 'picket fences' before heading to bed.

this is for you liz'bet . . .

'it's my life

and it's now or never

'cause i ain't gonna live forever

i just want to live while i'm alive

bon jovi

let's get dirty !

i was getting tired of working the gym every night, so i came up with the bright idea to get a group of people and go play outside. on monday and wednesday nights, a bunch of us - all ladies this session - hit the humber valley trail for some running and some grunting ! i have them do, to name a few, pushups - lots - squats - lots - and hills - lots. the first night most of them were a little nervous - what could go wrong ??! by the third week, however, they were quite comfortable with each other, and, even better, with bitching at me when something was a little too hard. (or in miss elizabeth's case, a little too easy). we've had one casualty so far, and that was when holland took her eyes off the trail and landed in the rhubarb! we all had a laugh when the grumpy little portuguese flopped down in the dust after a round of hill repeats! it's pretty cool to see how each one of them has progressed so far!

great job ladies! keep er going !!

warren zevon

after my crossfit on saturday, and after quite a bit of procrastination, i arranged to meet christine around 4 for a run in palgrave. well, we both ran in palgrave, but just not together. i misunderstood and screwed up the details, and we never did see each other. thankfully she realizes that i'm getting old and stoopider, and is okay with that. she ended up running and then riding with cindy, while i myself put in over 18km. felt pretty good too!

i decided last minute sunday morning to join christine, barb and mrs. gally for a run on the humber.

cindy (aka kevin) showed up too ! me and christine gave him that name after we both kicked his ass in a crossfit session named that. not sure he likes it, but, oh well !! hehe!

here's a pic of christine and mrs. gally. hard to believe she's 6 months pregnant - hell, i look more ready to give birth than she does!

after the run we hung out at timmies and discussed future adventures. something was mentioned about the leadville 100 - but that's for when babies have been delivered and feet are healed . . .

i had great plans to take the misfit over to inglewood in the afternoon, but i was beat. i had a nap, and then later lay on the deck of the treehouse, eating pizza and listening to my new windchimes.

and i had to smile as i recalled an email from robbie. this was what he said after having read about what i did on saturday. "that's pretty f#!*in good. you remind me of warren zevon's song "i'll sleep when i'm dead".

i think i like that !

slow twitch - fast twitch

i've put in about 33 miles so far this week. 2 more sessions with my trail fit group and lots more crossfit. i've been told i have to cut it back to 3-4 times a week, or my endurance will suffer. something about changing my (very) slow twitch fibers over to (not very) fast twitch. this is after consulting moose - thumbs of death, catra corbett - crossfit guru and ultra runner extreme, http://trailgirl.blogspot.com/ and dina - my very most favorite sister. i'll give it a go and see what happens. on another positive note, my blisters from last week have pretty much healed, and i was able to do 150 jumping pull-ups today. woo hoo!

i did a long run friday, starting from cooli's and making it over to the tai chi center. here's a shot from the lookout north of 9.

the pond just north of 9

a red trillium 'almost' open in glenn haffy.

once back, i did a down/up on k2, and half of the dingle.

so a little stiff this morning when i woke up, but overall, doing good. going to try for an easy 12 miles this afternoon.


'life is good'

pull-ups, new shirts and spring things

so i'm continuing my obsession with crossfit. on tuesday, yummy dillon gave us this wicked workout where you had to do 40 squats in a minute. however many under 40 you didn't get, you had to do the balance in pull-ups for the next minute. then you had to repeat the squats, and do the balance in pushups. this continued on for 20 minutes. now i'm not overly fond of either, so i made up my mind to get in all 40 squats. when we reached 20 minutes, i informed dillon that i had yet to do either. hmmm, 'mental note,' he says, 'don't give squats to the ultra runner.' so he gave us 5 more minutes - and woo hoo - still no pushing or pulling ! by the end of the last round, my legs were so pumped that i literally fell onto a bench. in all, i had done 520 squats in 13 minutes. saweeeeet ! dillon says next time i have to do 50. alex says 60. crap!

thursday, seeing as how i managed to avoid the pull-ups on tuesday, alex decided to give us the following workout . . . 50 pull-ups and 30 knees-to-elbows. however, since i've yet to do even one real pull-up, i have to do jumping ones, and i have to do 100. AND, i have to do this 3 times. argh!!! everybodys' hands were fucked by the end - check it out!

here's alex and jim doing knees-to-elbows. whereas it took me 41 minutes to do this workout, it only took them 15. i think i have to practice a bit more!!!

got a few okay trail runs in this week. total mileage was just over 40. not running really strong right now, but i'm loving the weather. did a few repeats of k2 on tuesday and then had a nice rainy stomp through palgrave with alex on thursday. saturday tired me out i think, as i did 35 minutes of crossfit, ran 2 hours, and then hiked another hour with trailman. my legs were definitely bagged by the end of the day.

on sunday, the plan was to meet in kilbirdie for a run on the bruce. me, homey and moose left from the treehouse just after 7 in the mighty pimpcedes. we joined the captain and robbie in the parking lot behind the school.

check out the new team shirts !!!!

my legs were pretty much done from saturday, so i just puttered along, enjoying the weather and taking pics. here's one of a trillium just waiting to open.

and i knew the guys wouldn't believe me, so i had to get a pic of this little dude, sunning himself in some pine needles. good thing homey didn't see him!

what a great day! big thanks to the captain for designing and ordering our shirts. can't wait to show them off at one of the ous races this year. we're going to look especially fine in tennessee this june . . .

april fool

i've been pretty busy this past week, and to be honest, pretty uninspired to blob anything. been too nice outside to sit inside i guess. so my latest obsession - crossfit - has me unable to lift my arms today. nice !! over the past 7 days, i've done, just to name a few, 236 wallballs (where you squat to within 6 inches of the ground, and then push up and toss this 14 pound squishy ball to a target up on the wall), 180 jumping pullups (jumping cuz i still can't do one real one) (and they were all in one session i might add), 154 other exercises that involved squatting (be it with a bar over my head or jumping), and the ever dreaded burpees - 204 of them to be exact. and i SUCK at burpees. so for 90 minutes in total, i pushed myself to the point of failure. i LOVE it!

fridays' long run turned into, as captain labelled it - cuz he did the same thing - the 'toast run'. toast because we both ran out of water and pretty much crawled the last 30 minutes back to our respective cars. i had invited a bunch of people, but everyone backed out except my sexy fast friend ali, and my other speedy friend geoff. oh sure, like i would even consider being able to keep up with those two. they claimed it didn't matter, blah blah blah, but i knew it would be oh so painful for them. so we all agreed on another day. i got going from the tai chi center around 10, carrying what i thought was enough water . . .

made it to the top of the ski hill in hockley feeling pretty good. and check out the snow still on the slopes!

i got over to the far end of the golf course before turning back. and natch i had to get another pic of the snow.

made it back to the 5th line still feeling good. stopped to pull some of the dirt out of my socks. check out the stoopid fly on my foot. oh, and check out my big toenail that's about to fall off!

got close to airport road and made up my mind to try and conquer 'the steps'. now i know me and christine counted them at one point, but i can't remember exactly how many. 67 maybe? anyways, i managed to do it, except for the one that's about 3 feet high!

it was at airport road that i realized i was out of water. gee, i should be fine, it's not THAT warm out. argh! it was the longest 30 minutes i'd run in awhile. i was very tempted to grab a drink out of the creek, but just couldn't stand the thought of potential beaver fever. knew it was bad when my tongue was firmly stuck to the roof of my mouth. stoopid dora !! finally made it back to my car and just lay in the grass for 10 minutes. will make sure NOT to do that again! AND must remember to get me one of these gadgets!!! thanks derrick!

http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442624777&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302696751&bmUID=1270343821078

saturday, my foot was cranky, so i decided to ride instead of run. took the misfit over to terra cotta on the rail trail. it sure was busy. and it sure was interesting to see all the different people out. for example, there was the guy in the wife-beater hauling his kid in a bike carriage while smoking a cigarette. then there was the prissy looking chick carrying a starbucks while her boyfriend ??? was leading her and a big floppy lab down to the swamp. wonder how that turned out? hahaha! and there was the cranky looking woman who was standing impatiently by the bridge while her little kids explored the creek for frogs. at least the kids were having fun! and oh ya, who the hell can look perfectly put together while hiking on a trail???? i mean, the hair, the fancy jeans, i don't get it. you're outside in the dirt lady! even if i try i can't look like i should go somewhere important. i once had to borrow a golf shirt from fireman dave for a funeral. i remember the days when i was married, and me and petey would have to stop off at the quickie-mart on the way to some fancy dinner so i could buy a pair of knee highs! i bought a 50$ strapless bra for my wedding (that was a lot back then) and only wore it for the ceremony. i think it was 5 minutes into the dinner and my best friend's boyfriend was sporting it on his head!! come to think of it, i'm not sure where that ended up. i once invited moose to a 'gala' thing that me and my ex went to. it was the first, and only time, he saw me in a dress. i believe i got a 'holy doodle' out of him. the best part - i had borrowed everything from a friend - right down to the bra. moose still threatens to show that picture around if i'm being particularly nasty to him. i just thought i looked like a big muscly guy in drag! oh oh, i've been rambling! anyways, i had a saweet ride and fit in a visit to caledon cycle to refill my water bottles and exchange a pair of trekking poles for some new tights. and for god sakes, my arse must be getting bigger, cuz when i got home and tried them on, it wasn't a pretty sight. guess that means yet another ride on the rail trail!!.

this morning i had a great run on the humber. started before 8 so it was really quiet. did my final crossfit session of the week - another killer - and am about to head over to the grumpy little portugueses' for an easter egg hunt. just love all these holidays dedicated to chocolate! (hmm maybe that would explain the problem with the 'tights' . . .