get in some good climbs . . .

were the orders from coach spaff for sunday. and where better to go than hockley. well, they weren't very pretty, but we got them done! even those stoopid steps just by the old ski resort near airport road! owwww!

we decided to start from the p'lot on the 7th line - site of the caledon water bomber incident - just after 10:30. and the really great news was that richard was finally able to join us for a bit!

it was plenty hoomid, so we had to make sure bulletdog was kept hydrated . . .

richard turned back after 30 minutes, but dunc decided to hang in there with me for the duration. there was plenty of whining going on, and the sufferage rate was fairly high - for me at least. dunc didn't seem bothered by any of it.

lilacs were out . . .

kool tree stump just before one of the 285 climbs . . .

more hills, more whining . . . suck it up dora ! we got back almost to the parking lot, and i made dunc run another 10 minutes to the lookout and back to get in the 4 hours.

just as we made it to the car and were ready to drop on the gravel, we met up with moose! he had just arrived after spending the morning watching his kiddies go nuts at the kids of steel events over in caledon village. his daughter kiana came first in the under 20 category in the 5k - she's only 9 !!! gee - wonder which parent she takes after . . .

and, of course, no trip to hockley is complete without the traditional stop at the general store for snacks and a sit-down in the big comfy wood chair !

great run and great company! thanks guys! and thanks for sticking with me dunc!


off to alaska in one more week ! ack !!!

the prowler

yeehaw! finally got to use the prowler last weekend! what a great workout! i figure pushing this around, with the 20lb vest, will get me ready for any hill/mountain i may want to conquer this summer!!!

i combined that with a shit-load of ghd's - see below diabolical sit-up bench - for an all around below the neck ache!

friday night club was busy again! lots and lots of front squats . . .

after a bit of procrastination saturday morning, i finally got my arse out on the trail for a 2+ hour run. took off from humber station, and after running up and up the dingle, came across a few pylons . . . hay, wait a minute - who's the new chick? am i being replaced !??? wtf ??!!

got a great shot of one of my fave spots - the haunted forest by the gore - everything was so green!

tried to get an underneath shot of christine's apple-pee-tree blossoms, but it didn't really turn out.

and just as i'm getting back to my car, who do i see creeping up the side road! bonnie and clyde, aka paul, aka ralph, and nora, with c2 in tow. they were planning on leaving another note, but i caught them in the act !!!

they did mention that the cowboy cookies at the hockley general store were bigger than ever this year, so i think i might make a trip over there tomorrow after my run. mmmmmmm! forbidden cookies . . .

slosh pipes . . .

big thanks to our secret engineer who was able to build a couple of kool slosh pipes for the girls at ghetto gym! they're fantastic !!

AND i got this from georgie the other day! miss you too - find us a race in texas !!!

under the close supervision of miss elora at crossfit yesterday, i managed to complete 120 pull-ups and 120 ring dips with NO skin carnage! not sure if that's a good thing or not!

oh, and i must say, life is really fucking good right now !!!

boston qualifier - JUST !

so before i forget - and we all know i do that a lot - i want to give a huge congratulations to my client elizabeth lagrotta who qualified for boston last weekend at the goodlife toronto marathon. her chip time was 3:49:57. she needed 3:50:00 ! good grief! talk about cutting it close!!!!! excellent job elizabeth - you are amazing !!

had the girls over for ghetto gym on sunday and they tried out our new slosh pipes! kool or what. special thanks to our 'secret engineer' who put them together for us !

and i had an agreement with 'charlotte' that she could live in the treehouse as long as she stayed in the basement. imagine my surprise when i spotted her upstairs on the deck this week enjoying the sunshine! ack !

weather was fab the past few days so we held friday night club festivities outside in the parking lot. here's super strong sara after some running, kettlebells and push-ups.

jimmy after some nasty running and prowler pushing while wearing the 40lb vest. a huge reason why i do crossfit . . .

here we are getting organized for our fnc picture - as usual, 'house of pain' is trying to tell everyone what to do . . .

i wish i knew what we were all looking at in this one ????

ahh! there we go !!

saturday i rode the giant into bolton for some crossfit. spotted this little dude on humber station.

alex made me push the prowler around a few times and then do a hundred ghd sit-ups! feeling those today for sure! afterwards, i meandered over to caledon east for a few extra km's. what a beauty day to be on the bike.

then saturday evening i drove over to bellwood lake to do the trailer park thing with dave, tone and jenny! what a hoot ! made wicked smores with jenny's niece and nephews - sidney, john and andrew. we had marshmallow everywhere!

hanging out by the campfire . . .

my kindred running spirits - love these two now and forever.

and then sunday, i got up at 4:15 and was on the trail running by 5am. still dark but loving it. managed close to 2:30 and the legs were a bit tired. could have had a little something to do with that prowler workout though . . .

and one more day to play . . .

wait a minute . . .

i'm working most of tomorrow . . .

oh well - soon enough i'll be heading to alaska !!!

ARGH!!!

recovery week . . .

so i didn't do much last week. couple of bike rides and some crossfit. i was tired! friday i took miss liz'bet out hiking on the south section of the humber valley trail. and even after making her climb this . . .

she was still smiling!! atta girl - you're amazing!

it was good to be back at friday night club - i'd missed last week with being in new york and all. nice hairy boob fedon!


first day back on the trails was monday. did the humber and felt like shit. water was pretty high by the boy scout bridge . . .

thankfully, wednesday's run was way way better! legs felt great! must have been the new sox!

and now the long weekend is almost here! bestest news is finding out that dave and tone are close by! must make a trip over to bellwood for some gay lovin . . . CAN'T WAIT!!

the north face endurance challenge - bear mountain 50 miler

"so we loaded up the truck and we moved to beverly . . . hills that is . . ."

oops - wrong song! we loaded up andrea's truck and we headed to new york - with 'the girl' in tow !

can't imagine why an intelligent, adorable, second year university student (i'm not sure her age, so i'm fluffing it here) would want to travel with a couple of old farts like me and andrea, but alex turned out to be a really good sport about almost everything!!

along the way we came across a few interesting sightings. first off was a white hearse - kinda hard to get a good pic when we were blowing by it. if you look real close you can see the driver giving me a really strange look . . .

then we met up with these characters at a gas station - and no digger - i didn't show them!

here's a pic of me taking a pic of andrea taking a pic of 'the girl' taking a pic of some fishermen down in the creek . . .

and in honor of our little buddy who couldn't make the trip - although we never did get a really good excuse out of her - PYLONS - lots of pylons !!!

we even got one of a PYLON TRUCK !!! (andrea made me disinfect my hand after touching it)

there was a bit of a kerfuffle trying to find the hotel, as andrea's gps thingy was a little outdated (flashbacks of a past road trip with the boys come to mind) but luckily 'the girl' still has good eyes, and she spotted the sign to the hampton inn!

once we got checked in, we headed over to tgi fridays for dinner. i took a picture of my burger for digger . . .

and LOOK ! ahahaha! an M&M machine! whoda thought ????

the next day we paid a visit to the 'tar-get' store. in true pylon tradition, i stocked up on super-sized candy bars! captain - keep an eye on your mail over the next week or so. (pls note, the flip-flops are not mine, although i did have to put on the green ones post-race due to nasty abrasions on my feet)

we then drove over to the race area so we would know where the hell to go the next day! this was a kool little river/creek along the way.

RACE DAY! this was what i was up against.

Ratings:
Runners can expect technical terrain and rocky footing that cuts to the chase, with some trails heading steeply uphill rather than zig-zagging at a gentler grade. Descents end in wooded hollows before the next rapid climb ending with a breathtaking view. Make no mistake: this will be a tough test of off-road endurance.

Elevation Change: 4 stars out of 5

Technical Terrain: 5 stars out of 5

Overall Difficulty: 5 stars out of 5

ahahaha - what could go wrong???

start time was 5am, meaning i had to get up just after 3am. i had made contact with chris mcpeake from toronto, and he and his sweet wife kim picked me up at the hotel at 4am. good gawd that was early !!

so, true to the above description - the course was everything they said and then some! the first 13 miles took me 3:36 - yikes! i was so stressed the entire run that i only stopped once to take pictures! this is at about 1200' somewhere on leg 4.

at the end of this leg was the first 'hard cut-off' - i hate cut-offs! anyways, as i was picking my way down through the rock, some guy tells me i have 12 minutes to make it. FUCK! i totally ignored the trail and headed straight down. i don't know how i didn't fall! i got there with 6 minutes to spare. oh for gawd sakes! i quickly refilled my pack and started back out. the second 'hard cut-off' was at 34 miles and i made it with 10 minutes extra this time! wahoo! i refilled my pack again and grabbed some jelly beans. as i was starting back out, this guy warns me to keep my pace and i will get to the finish line with only 4 minutes to spare. oh for fuck sakes! now for whatever reason, my legs decided that they were going to try and cramp on me. STOP IT! and whenever i started walking, the black flies were brutal. i was picking them out of my ears! argh!! just imagine how cranky i was getting - good thing i was by myself! i made it to the 44.7 mile mark at 12:27 - giving me 90 minutes to cover just over 5 miles. and the mileage to the next aid station was a meager 2.5 - that shouldn't be too bad - i might just make this . . . ARGH! (should have read the description better - 'this difficult section features several climbs, including the hardest up to the timp pass. the timp pass road descending from the pass turns very rocky.') SO, exactly 60 minutes later i roll into the last aid station. i had 33 minutes to go 2.8 miles. now those who know me, know i'm pretty much screwed. there is NO way i can run that fast, on a good day, on fresh legs, on road, and now i had to do it on crampy, sore legs after 47 miles and 13 and a half hours. i had pretty much resigned myself to the fact i wasn't going to make it. as i trudged out of the station, a volunteer must have seen my face. he yelled, 'get going - you can do this - it's not technical!' well, what the fuck! like i once said to a friend trying to qualify for boston - 'it's going to hurt whether i run fast or slow, so i may as well try.' the first mile was downhill on a gravelly path - yeehaw! 'oh no, another bloody hill - wait, it's not too bad.' 'woohoo, another downhill!' 'fuck - another uphill!' 'WHERE IS THE FUCKING FINISH LINE?????' 'oh, oh my gawd, what time is it - i still have 6 minutes!' 'my feet are KILLING me!' 'ACK!! there's the finish line!!!'

and i maintain this picture is blurry because i was running SO FAST! ahahaha! i got across the line with a time of 13:55:35. 4 stoopid minutes to spare! i was the last official finisher! sweet! i say official, because of the 197 who started, only 146 made it under 14 hours. AND, i was first in my age group! hahaha!

i got this email from digger . . .

" Congrats again on your amazing finish. I was tracking you, and it sure looked like you dropped, I was excited when you came back (and passed the other 50 year old chick, did you see her?). Captain was asking if the time of your first stage was right (3:36 for the 1st 13 miles?). Long day?"

nice!

anyways, i was pretty happy to be done. i was exhausted and just wanted to lay down. andrea and alex herded me over to the shuttle and we made our way back to the car. here's a pic of me and chris after the finish. GREAT JOB !! that was evil for sure!!!

oh, and this is brian -AND - this is why i run ultras . . . (bad dora)

on our way back to the hampton, we stopped at a restaurant and i had a large vanilla milkshake and a bottle of tomato juice! that was about all i could handle. when i went to pull my sock off, i discovered that little bone that sticks out of the top of my foot had poked through, and as a result, the whole mess was stuck to my foot. andrea almost passed out when i ripped it off.

all i could do for awhile was just lay on the bed - i was fucked!

andrea and alex - thanks for a fantastic trip! i had a great weekend and it was a lot of fun! (even when andrea had a meltdown on the way home after drinking a super-sized-extra-large coffee from timmies and ate a box of milk duds!!) coach spaff - thanks for making me a runner again! that was a true test of mental and physical strength! and to the trainers at crossfit bolton - thanks for making me strong like shit! i truly believe that's what got me across the line in the end!


and so, like giving birth (or at least i'm told) you soon forget the pain. i'm seeing maybe another trip out west in my future . . . maybe another race with a really kool name . . .

hehe!