pickled willies

got a few pics from mfs this week and especially LOVE this one of the benster. note the blue arrow on his forehead - what a mar00n . . .

also got an email from my brother 'uncie ken'. here's a shot of his kiddies - brendan and ethan.

good solid week of training. put in 4 hours on the trail, including wednesdays' 3x15min tempo snowshoe workout that almost killed me. also managed a couple hours on the dreaded trainer - i think i'm into season 3 of 'house'. (thanks trailman)

and 'holy cirque du soleil' - check out sonia and jenn ! they decided to try this after class on thursday! hahaha - imagine me attempting this - i'd have to be taken to moose on a stretcher!

friday night club was busy! we had a choice of deadlifts, hang power cleans, front squats and push jerks, or the aforementioned, minus the front squats, but with more weight !!! so me and the super strong lisa opted for the first one - at the prescribed weight of 95lbs! what the hell were we thinking??? we struggled, but managed to get through it in just over 40 minutes! what an accomplishment - that was hard! GREAT group shot . . .

and luca got an 'owieeeee' . . .

afterward, me, fedon, luca and adam went to 'wild wings'. had a blast and discovered what exactly a 'pickled willie' is . . .

check out the view as i drove into bolton saturday morning !

had a few clients and then did a cf class with dillon. he kept it easy for me, as i was whining about my shoulders from the night before. also got out of doing jump lunges, as the plan was to run 2.5 hours later that day. thanks dillon - you da best! after class, met up with christine, vents and moose at the tennis courts. homey was late, as usual ! the trail was amazing today - perfect conditions!

moose goofing around by the homey shite hill . . .

goth runners . . .

oh look - homey finally caught us at castlederg . . .

on the way back at the boyscout bridge . . .

great great day on the trail. put in 2.5 hours and felt pretty good!

and now, i'm procrastinating big time - have to do a 3.5hour snowshoe run and it's -16. better get at 'er !

um, did i mention

i will be staying here in june . . .

another good week! did some running, some snowshoeing, some painful time on the trainer and some crossfit. not sure what possessed me, but i decided to do 100 ghd situps on monday and my freakin abs were sore for 3 days! stoopid dora ! trails are pretty packed down so i've been wearing the homemade cascadia screw shoes. nice shot on the humber from wednesday's hour and a half run . . .

mfs sent me a few pics this week - here's a sweet shot of 'the benster' at his favorite restaurant in the whole wide world - ick-me-donalds !

and for the love of gawd - my very most favorite sister is trying to kill me. i asked her to send me a batch of those amazing peanut butter chocolate chip cookies she gave me at christmas - like a dozen or so. and this is what i got in the mail on wednesday ! the box weighed 10 pounds - I SAID 10 POUNDS !!! needless to say i had the world's biggest sugar hangover on thursday!

thanks mfs - i still love ya more than anything !

friday night club was a blast - not as big as usual - but the spirit was huge! we tried another creative shot - with all of us jumping over barbells. the first one was hilarious . . . 'okay, go on 3' - 'wait, do we go on 1,2,3 or do we go on 1,2,3, go . . .'

so we got luca looking like he has to take a shit, fedon's belly, sara's sox, and lori laughing hysterically as i belt her a good one when i jump and push her over the bar onto her butt ! let's try again . . . 'do we go on 3, or do we go on 'go'?' poor dillon !

i only had to run an hour on saturday, so i figured i'd be okay to do a class. fuck! who makes up these things . . . 30 minutes later, me and lisa have done 100 toes to bar, 100 box jumps and 100 burpees! and lisa almost barfed in the sink! i sheepishly admit that my 'hour long run' after class was pretty slow. sorry spaff . . .

and sunday the radio said it was going to be at least -27 with the windchill. i had initially planned on running from humber station over to hwy 9 and beyond. after hearing the temp, i made the call to run laps in palgrave forest - good for mental training ! i bundled up with 5 layers on top - including my puffy jacket - 3 layers on the bottom, 2 hats and a fleece buff. only took me 15 minutes to get dressed ! argh! i then packed up the mazda and headed over to palgrave. first 2 laps went pretty good and i ended up taking off my mitts. christine showed up almost at the end of the 3rd lap, and stayed with me for 2 more. that was great! made the time go much faster. after she left, i added on another 25minutes for a grand total of 4 hours and 10 minutes!!! only thing kinda cranky was my hips and probably that was from all those stoopid box jumps i did yesterday! what a great day!!!

one happy runner . . .

'life is good'

north to alaska . . .

well, it's official, got the confirmation email today. BIG road trip in june . . .

'the pink sox people'

ROAD TRIP ! and it was off to frontenac park (north of kingston) saturday, for our first ever snowshoe race, hosted/directed by derrick spafford - fearless leader of spafford health and adventure - and a coach possessing a sense of humor worthy of dealing with me at my best and worst . . .

so me, boots and moose left b'town - after a stop at timmies of course - and made our way to kingston.

the roads weren't too bad until we hit cobourg and then we got stuck behind a snowplow convoy for about 30 minutes. i started whining and moose gave me his i-pod to play on - angry birds i think the game was. hmm, that kept me amused for almost 2 hours! 'simple minds'. we finally got to kingston around 6:30 and booked into our room at the super6 motel - wtf - the walls were pylon orange and there was no carpet on the floor ! moose said that was so they could just power wash it when we left. so strange ! it was very minimalistic, with no dressers, no closets, no coffee maker or boxes of kleenex . . .

after dinner at kelseys and a restless sleep - my hands kept going numb from playing that game so long and i couldn't stop dreaming of angry birds being sling-shot across the screen - we packed up our crap and started the drive to frontenac park. i think moose had most of his possessions with him.

we stopped in sydenham for breakfast - mmm western omelets !

and eventually made it to the park. after finally meeting derrick - i'd only dealt with him over the computer up to this point - and getting boot's new snowshoes - dions of course - we got ourselves over to the start line . . .

ahaha - check it out - the course was marked with pylons . . .

moose didn't quite fit under the start/finish banner . . .

and we're off ! what a beautiful place ! me and boots kept up a steady pace and managed to pass a few people along the way. we came in together and had a great time ! it was so nice ! moose managed an incredible 3rd place finish - waytogo !!

afterwards we went for a little tour of the park . . .

love this shot of me and D at the finish line . . .

the awards were held inside the park office. we all sat by the fireplace and drank hot chocolate - what a great setting! one family with these 4 adorable little girls named us 'the pink sox people' - we were a hit ! here's a shot of moose collecting his prize for 3rd place overall.

in all, it was an amazing weekend. the park/trail was beautiful (i know, i keep saying that) and all the people there were really nice ! thanks D - i had a blast!

and next up - me, captain and boots head to rochester in less than 3 weeks for the 'cast a shadow' snowshoe race. should be awesome !

so this is what i would look like . . .

if i gained a hundred pounds ! eeeesh ! remind me NEVER to do THAT ! thanks for the picture fed . . .

crossfit thursday night - wallballs and pull-ups for rounds of 50-35-20. this is what my hands looked like BEFORE i started . . .

and after. 'sigh' i must be doing something wrong ! at least they lasted until the 81st pull-up.

as usual, friday night club was a blast! led by adorable adam, i did deadlifts, pushups, kettlebells and barfees with jo.

and check out fedon - not even sure what this is called, but it involved a muscle-up, followed by a handstand, and finished with a pushup ! absolutely incredible !

and tomorrow, me, christine and moose are heading to kingston for the 'dion frontenac park snowshoe race' - put on by ultra runner extraordinaire 'derrick spafford'. should be a blast and i'm really looking forward to it!

easier week

first ever snowshoe race coming up this weekend at frontenac park so i've had an easy few days of training. went out last sunday on the humber with christine and dunc. did a smooth 2 hours and felt good - especially happy after having done 3 and a half the day before.

christine coming up the 'windchime hill' . . .

and dunc . . .

by the lookout on the way back . . .

i was really pleased with the fact that i did 67 power cleans at 95lbs at monday's WOD - 'the chief' - BUT - still managed to bounce a few off the old chest. owwww! stoopid dora !

we got some fresh snow overnight tuesday, so my group of amazing trailees hit the humber with their dions and headlamps on wednesday night. LOVE this pic . . .

and my poor legs were tired today, but i still managed 90min on the humber. trail is saweet right now.

ahaha - the classic 'shadow' shot . . .

on a serious note, i have been really bothered by the death of sgt. ryan russell - the police officer who was run down by a drunken asshole loser yesterday. and i was even more bothered by a couple of things i heard on the radio today. first a dj (or whatever they call themselves) was commenting and laughing about watching some guy who was so drunk he was walking sideways, get into his car and pull away . . . WATCHING - as in he actually let this guy drive !? what the fuck?! and why is that so funny?!!!!! and then i heard this ad for 'ex-coppers' - who claim if you get caught drunk driving, you could lose your licence, or even go to jail, and not to worry, cuz they can get you off . . . WHAT THE FUCK ! maybe these clowns should go and 'tell their stories' to the family of sgt. russell and see how much it amuses or impresses them . . .

i am just sickened by this whole thing.
rest peacefully brave soul