sunflowers

went to brampton today with the booton so he could see about getting some new ink. visited our buddy glen at art addictions and of course as soon as i walk into that place i want another tattoo. ended up making an appointment for august 19th and was thinking of this . . .

check out this cool pic of 'the tony' in moab.

it's the august long weekend - already

the first time i saw kristy was on march 17, 2006 - and now that i know her better, i'm surprised she showed up, as it was st. patrick's day, and she loves beer !!! i saw her as somewhat overweight, but determined to get thinner - she had lost 30lbs up to this point. i had her try a few things, and asked if she could do push-ups. 'sure, i used to play hockey, i can do push-ups.' the poor thing tried one and pretty much collapsed on the mat. we had our work cut out for us. she had a really bad habit of putting herself down, so i made her do those dreaded push-ups everytime something negative came out of her mouth. she eventually got really good at them, and improved her attitude towards herself. and i know she hated exercising, because for the first few months, she would come up with every excuse in the book not to show up for our sessions - it's too hot, it's too snowy, i had to let the dogs out . . .

here are a couple of pics of her round about the time we started training.

we got to know each other pretty well, and a couple of things i won't forget is her undying love for the maple leafs and how crazy she was over bryan adams.

after a couple of years, her weight loss was substantial, but we seemed to be stuck at a certain number. so i bet her that if she quit drinking beer, she'd lose more weight. she was up for the challenge, but i think it just about killed her! at the end of the month, she had lost SIXTEEN POUNDS. 'good grief' i asked, 'how much do you drink??!!' she just laughed !

this spring, i had her and her sweet sister erin out on the trail doing hill repeats and squats (and more push-ups) i think it just about killed both of them but they were amazing !!!!

and, unfortunately for me, kristy decided to up and move to the big city -leaving b'town behind her. she stayed with me for a little longer, but finally made up her mind that it was just too hot to train outside, and that she was really tired of the gym. that and she was bored with the drive to bolton. i totally understand all this, but i will really miss her. we had so much fun on monday nights, laughing at all the wankers. my wish is that we remain friends and never lose touch. oh, and by the way, her final weight loss was over 100 lbs. you are beautiful !

so be safe darlin, and be happy! i love ya.

and this is for you . . .

congratulations nick roberts - you are an ironman !

okay, the stoopid hoomidity can leave anytime now . . .

argh! ran up and up the dingle on thursday. actually felt pretty good, despite how fucking hot it was ! while i was dicking around with my camera in the creek, i saw something that looked like a weasle, or a mink - seriously ! just couldn't get the picture as i was slipping in the water. stoopid dora !!!

wasn't paying attention thursday at crossfit when alex put the wod on the board and asked if i wanted to do the first one. DOH! should have looked before i agreed. stoopid pull-ups and kettlebell swings !

friday when i went in, i saw we had to do about a thousand back squats. i told alex i was running in the morning. he asked if it was a race. i said no, just a training run. he said, 'too bad, you're squatting.' nice ! so this pic is actually of me doing deadlifts, but i kinda like it . . .

met homey and vents at 6:15 for our run. oh good god my legs were stiff. the first small hill just about killed me. stoopid squats ! and it was SO hot - the hoomidity was nasty and it felt like we were breathing water. after about 30 minutes we had swamp ass. yuck ! here's a great pic of a bunch of ferns we noticed while procrastinating about getting going again on centerville creek.

then we noticed this poor little dude flattened on the gore who 'almost made it'. a case of frogger gone bad . . .

and finally, this just in ! the beaver has finished his first ironman - lake placid ! swim time 1:33:25 - bike time 6:26:41 - run time 3:43.

TOTAL 11:59:44

now you can get the tattoo . . .

AWESOME !!!

a few more sky diving pics

thought i'd add a few more shots from sunday.

cannon balling

well i think it was back in the spring when this one all started. my tall, adorable friend michael was looking for sponsors for his cycle for sight ride in june. upon receiving my donation, he emailed me and said that if he reached his fundraising goal, the plan was to go sky diving. 'gee, that sounds like fun,' i replied. and holy crap, the next thing i know i'm signed up and we're jumping here on the 18th of july up in cookstown!!!

and, after mentioning it to a few of my friends and clients, little miss betty decided to jump on board !!!

oh, and before i forget, when i emailed the pylons to inform them of my antics for the sunday, digger was the first to try and claim my bikes should 'something go wrong'. sorry diggs, my good buddy wayne gets first call. stoopid digger ! and the captain had a good comment too. 'remember GERONIMO !! should not be followed by OH OH or D'OH. please don't land on me or my car, thx . . . ' hahaha - good one cap !

come sunday morning, i went for a run to keep my mind occupied - not that i have trouble with that - and finally made my way up to cookstown. once there, miss betty was waiting for me and we managed to find michael and his buddies. after a short video explaining the waiver - basically saying if we die, and we try to sue them, we're screwed. so don't bother trying ! haha! the second part of the video explains some of the techniques of jumping and landing - all of which i promptly forgot the minute i walked out of the room. there was a really amusing bit where they demonstrated, a couple of times, what happens when you don't lift your feet on landing (but i will come back to that later . . . )

here's a pic of some of the guys signing their lives away.

while we were waiting around for more instructions, i mentioned to the gang that i'd like the guy that looks like he's from 'top gun' as my partner. hehe! after a couple of hours - it took that long - they finally called the first group to the floor to be suited up. and with some last minute instructions, 5 of our peeps and their instructors headed to the plane ! then they called the next group - including me - number 13 - to start getting ready. my jumping partner, oleg, was nowhere to be found, and finally, with about 5 minutes to go, my wish came true - i was getting maverick - aka j-rodd the hunk ! yahoo ! he came running over in shorts and barefeet, and proceeded to throw me into a barney-purple suit, wrench me into my harness, throw a hat on my head, grab his own shoes, and hustle me to the plane. good grief - i wasn't at all comfortable with this, and even mentioned it to him. he just laughed and said, 'relax, i do this all the time.' once in the plane, he managed to attach me to him (and the parachute), put on his shoes, and give me some last minute instructions. when we reached 12,000 feet, it was time to go. michael was first out of the plane, followed by (oh for the love of god i can't remember his name.) WAIT - ryan just emailed me back, it's joel. (sorry joel) and finally, MY TURN ! 'now remember kendra, as soon as you're out, arch your back and kick my ass.' 'oh, and keep your mouth closed and breath through your nose.' we crouched beside the door and it felt like i was going to be sucked out of the plane! 'ready, set, go . . . ' HOLY CRAP ! the first thing i did was arch my back, kick j-rodd's ass and scream !!! it only took a few seconds to remember NOT to open my mouth ! hahaha stoopid dora !! the sound was deafening and it was all so overwhelming ! i can't describe the feeling, other than pure exhilaration! we were free-falling, i think, for about 45 seconds. when we got to 6000 feet, it was time to pull the chute. i couldn't find the stoopid cord, so j-rodd had to take over. that was really cool too - we stopped real sudden, and then bounced upright into the air. after a few seconds we settled down and it was sooooo quiet. it was amazing. i apologized for not being able to find the cord, and he just laughed and said 'that's why i'm here.' i'm not sure the exact time, but we floated slowly down for about 5 minutes. with 20 feet to go, i lifted my legs and we hit the ground on our butts and skidded on the grass for 5 feet. WOW ! (i found out later that poor brian forgot to lift his feet, and pretty much duplicated what happened in the video). he was okay, and we all had a good laugh over that one!

so here's me and j-rodd after the jump.

me getting my 'first jump certificate'

michael getting his !!! what an incredible guy !! and the really cool thing is that he was actually able to see some stuff while up there ! (i won't mention how nervous he looked just before he jumped . . . )


and the whole gang - except for miss betty - who had already left.



so i guess there's another thing to check off my bucket list - not that it was actually on the list - but what the hell ! thanks to everybody there who made the day so much fun. more thanks to ryan for organizing it. and finally, big special thanks to michael for 'enabling me'.

love you and don't ever stop dreaming big . . .

gotta get me a vest

so i thought i'd try a workout from the crossfit endurance site today. it called for wearing a 20lb vest, and doing 3 sets of 200, 400 and 600m intervals. sounds simple enough. so let's see, from the end of the driveway, to this piece of dog shit, is 100m.

and i don't have a vest, so why don't i just throw a couple of 10lb dumbbells into a backpack. crap - that jiggles around too much !!

plan b - i'll try one of these big suckers instead. owww - that's taking chunks out of my lower back !

plan c - i'll just run with the stoopid thing in my hand, and switch everytime my arm gets tired !!

that more or less worked, and i did the workout in just under 45 minutes. miss lillian was watching from the deck, and pretty much decided that i was out of my mind !!!

so like i said - gotta get me a vest !

july 12

wanting to wish my very most favorite sister a happy happy birthday !! here's to someone whose sense of humour is as distorted as mine . . .

• laughing fits
• balloons at basketball games
• hard boiled eggs on the cabot trail
• running with cows
• elephants
• ugly feet
• false teeth in glasses
• cat picks on road rash
• people in public swimming pools
• thanksgiving turkey phone messages
• chickens

love you lots . . .

yfs

sled drags

after running almost 7 miles on the humber friday evening, i headed into bolton for crossfit. my shoulders were a little dodgy from all the upper body stuff i'd done this week, so i asked the mighty alex to spare them, and trash my legs instead. be careful what you ask for. first of all, he had me put on a 20lb vest. then he wrote this totally dirty workout on 'the board' for me and tony.

run a mile

drag a sled, forwards, weighing 110lbs, for 36m, across the parking lot. (tony had to do 135lbs)

drag above sled across the parking lot, backwards.

repeat each direction 6 times.

run another mile.

yesssssssss !!!

i think i should do this once a week . . .

alex thinks we should wear the vests out on the trail . . .

i think we should wear the vests out on the trail and do hill repeats . . .

what could go wrong?????

check out the 'future crossfitter' in training. this is alex's little guy, lucas doing a pull-up !

and i just had to get a pic of this bunch of black-eyed suzies on the rail trail ! love these flowers !

this is great !

got this from a client today . . .

mmmm i love turtles . . .

check out my new sox !!!!

ultra sexy

so my super speedy friend ali decided to join the island of misfit toys last year and jump into the world of ultra running. his main race for 2010 - the ultimate xc 56k mont tremblant in quebec. as a warm-up he did the 'pick your poison' 50k and came 1st overall with a time of 4:25 !!!

as for tremblant, he was 9th overall in a time of 7:28. OUTSTANDING !!

congratulations my friend - you are incredible!!!

lots of hugs

but i am rock quarry

miss liz'bet

i believe it was about 5 years ago when i first was approached by my friend liz'bet for personal training. like her mother, who i love dearly, she hated exercise - any and all exercise. but she knew she had to make a few changes in her life, and this was one of them. for the first year it was rough. if i had a dollar for every session she missed, i'd be rich. wait a minute - i DID make her pay me - so what went wrong???!!! i was lucky if i could get her on the treadmill for more than 5 minutes, and don't even think about getting her to sweat !

fortunately for her, i am very stubborn, and would not give up. i even dragged her out of bed a couple times!!! after weeks/months of struggle, she finally almost nearly started to kind of like it. and on september 25th, 2008, i actually got her to try 30 second intervals on the dreaded treadmill. she managed 10 of them !!! we slowly built them up and she gained confidence in herself.

this spring, she asked if i thought she could run a 5k. why not ?? so we looked at a few in the fall and got to work. and here's the best part - on thursday we hit the rail trail, and doing 8 minute run intervals with 2 minute walk breaks, miss liz'bet completed 5k!!! how kool is that!?

way to go sweetie!!! you're amazing!!! come september it'll be easy.