burpees at crossfit bolton . . .

had some good runs this week, but none of any distance to brag about. getting ready for the dirty girls next weekend.

friday night, alex - the mighty one - decided that we should all do burpees - 150 of the fuckers. haha! love this pic - guess who's ass sweat these belong to . . .

REALLY missed these two - hadn't seen them in forever it seemed . . .

ah - there's the pic - all wasted after burpees . . .

oh, and look who's back - charlotte - with a ball full of babies in tow . . .

time for another 'relocation' . . .

duke's summer epic 8 hour

yeehaw! big congrats to dunc who placed FIRST in the single speed category at the duke's summer epic 8 mountain bike race on the weekend! sweet victory at hardwood my love! awesome job! (he's the tall one in the middle with the sore looking legs)

and me, i'm still licking my mental wounds from not being able to run fatdog. man, what a shot to the buzzards that was. took me a week to get over it. had a big emotional crash on sunday when i tried running and ended up walking home with my tail between my legs. special thanks to andrea for picking me up on centerville creek and driving me back to my car. and even more gratitude to derrick for his follow-up email (hope he doesn't mind me posting this . . .)

"you were totally due for a run like that. just gets to the point where you're so frustrated and you feel like what's the point. i think it was a really good thing that it happened yesterday. give into it, get it out of the way and now move forward. today will be a better day. lots of fun stuff to look forward to and get your Dora back."

he also added . . .

"without ice cream, there would be chaos and darkness"
don kardong

and thanks to everybody who sent me emails and stuff - it was really kool that you all 'got it' . . .

and next . . .

i'm going to try and be a dirty girl for 12 hours !!

no fatdog for me . . .

The Fat Dog race has been called off due to snow and unsafe
conditions, such as exposure to long falls. We are not able to mark
trails according to permitting requirements. As well, we cannot set up
three remote aid stations. On Skyline, you would need crampons and an
ice axe to navigate the route (and all events must use Skyline to
return to the finish). In some locations, there is a 7 foot bank of
snow on the trail.
There is no alternative route that is not impacted by snow.
Nature has beaten us this year; like other trail races that had to
deal with weather changes.
Your options: you can have a free race entry next year or you can
choose to do another Mountain Madness race such as Dirty Duo in March
2012 in North Vancouver.
For people who sent me an earlier email, we had no Internet access in
the park so could not reply.
The race committee is disappointed and we realize that racers are also
disappointed by this outcome. We hope you will return next year to see
what the course is "usually" like.
Race Committee

the hay is in the barn . . .

first of all, speaking of hay in the barn, i want to congratulate one of my clients - jaimie holland. got this email from her yesterday . . .

OLSEN!!! I got the last qualifying score i needed today...its official...i'm qualified for the pan am trials!!!!!!! so excited!!!

great great job holland! you worked hard for this and you deserve it!!!!! (by the way, she's talking about the pan am games . . .)

it's been a crazy week leading up to today.

last sunday i met up with robbie and digger for a mini pylon reunion . . .

AND finally got that alaska beer to digger. carried it up k2 in my pack, so i had to make sure he didn't open it right away . . .

monday was my last 'leg trashing' session with the mighty alex. 42 minutes of prowler, walking lunges and farmers' walk. owwww! worst one yet!

on tuesday, the shit hit the fan. everything seemed to crash at once and my brain pretty much exploded. my confidence level was non-existent, and i ended up having a melt-down of epic proportions! i was ready to throw in the towel and stay home. even poor coach spaff was concerned! things got a little better throughout the day on wednesday, and by the evening i was coming around. it all seemed to come together thursday night as i was finishing my run through palgrave forest. as i approached my little red mazda, i yelled to the skies, 'look out bc, dora the explorer is coming out to run some mountains!'

today was my last 'long' run before fatdog. i started at humber station and ran over to the dingle creek - one of my favorite spots on this trail . . .

of course, i had to take a stop at my k2 bench on the way back . . .

and so now, this is it . . .

i am ready. i have my plane tickets and have arranged for airport drop-off and pick-up - thanks moose! i have two pacers - the incredibly brave 'banff trail trash' leslie - meeting me out there to run 50 or so miles at night with me, and my 'unsuspecting' friend dunc - to run the last leg (which is 33km - including 20k straight up for 4500' - which could conceivably take 10 hours.) but we won't tell him that until he gets there! hehe

i am mentally and physically prepared. i was even amused when i read on the site that they were 'assessing snow conditions to make sure trails are passable for race day . . .' HA - bring it on ! that's what i went to alaska for!! seriously though, i just have to say that regardless of what happens, i really want to thank coach spaff for getting me to this point. it was almost a year ago that i broke my stoopid toe, and wasn't able to run at all. and i also want to thank my beloved alex for getting me strong as shit. i know i will hear his voice in the deep recesses of my brain at about the 35 hour mark going, 'this is too easy for you . . .'

and if the spirits are willing, then i will succeed.

"so here i go it's my shot.
feet fail me not, this may be the only opportunity that i got.
you can do anything you set your mind to, man."

more insanity with alex at cf bolton . . .

just cuz i didn't quite drag the sled far enough on wednesday, the mighty alex decided we should push the prowler on friday . . . okay, well, i pushed it and he walked beside me - working on his tan and yelling at me to hurry up! he also threw in a few hundred meters of farmer's walk with 2 different weights of kettlebells for good measure - the 37 and the 54 pounders . . . and he was kind enough to bring me the bucket of chalk when he noticed they kept slipping out of my hands - cuz it was like 900 degrees in the back parking lot at 11 in the morning . . .

it's all good though, as i finally managed to locate the elevation profile for fatdog the other day. WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING . . .

saturday the plan was to get up early and do a short run before heading into bolton on the giant. unfortunately that didn't happen - i was so tired that i slept in until almost 9 - giving me just enough time to have a coffee and get on my bike! did a great class with the adorable adam who was very patient in trying to help me with my overhead squats! thanks honey!

took my time on the way home and did a little tour through palgrave.

stopped at the cafe for breakfast . . . (no digger, i didn't eat the toast)

and then made my way back to the treehouse!

going over to the glp's tonight for a flim (spelled wrong on purpose) and some move theatre popcorn! then tomorrow, meeting up with a couple of the pylons for a run through glenn haffy.

2 MORE WEEKS . . .

prepping for fatdog . . .

the mighty alex has me doing a lot of sled dragging in preparation for the mountains i'll have to climb in bc in a few weeks! suicide sleds with jump squats, lunges and sprints are the best! oh, and don't forget a couple dozen really heavy deadlifts thrown in for good measure . . .

close up of the pain . . .

me and dunc took the misfits over to albion friday night to watch the fireworks.

great shot of the sunset . . .

i love fireworks !!!

saturday was long run day - coach spaff wanted 5-6 hours on hilly trail. me and dunc headed out just before noon from humber station and figured we'd see the 'birthday tree' again just after 6pm . . .

we made it as far as the big stoopid ski hill north of airport road before turning back. 'yes dunc, we HAVE to run to the bottom . . .' i had a bit of a mental crank on the way back, but felt better after sitting in the dirt for 5 minutes. we had stashed water on the 7th - sight of the caledon water bomber incident - but it wasn't quite enough to get us back. luckily we spotted a tap as we were coming out of glenn haffy! yahoo! saved the day and made one tired, hot runner really happy . . .

poor dunc was pretty trashed when we finally made it back - he did amazing considering his last longest run was 2 weeks ago up in collingwood . . .

sorry luv - didn't mean to break you . . .

yesss! 6 hours and 44k in the bank! i finished with my own little dance party - and then - time for a burger and a huge plate of fries! and maybe a piece of chocolate caramel cake . . .

soooo, i had the brilliant idea of getting up insanely early on sunday and doing some 'headlamp' running to even further prepare me for fatdog. dunc was pretty much screwed from saturday, so i ventured out into palgrave on my own around 3:30. 'what could go wrong?' i'll just play my ipod really really loud so i can't hear any noises in the bush.

just as i was heading out, i shone the light up into the forest - and saw a set of RED EYES staring back at me! FUCK! what the hell is that?!?! i booted it down the trail, but within 3 minutes, my headlamp started to flicker! FUCK! i ran back to the car, DIDN'T look into the forest, grabbed my other lamp, and ran off again! i was singing really loud and hoping that i would alarm whatever might be out there!! after about an hour, i calmed myself down and really started to enjoy the darkness. this was my view once the sun came up . . .

finished with tired but happy feet after 4 hours. sweet weekend total of 10 hours. as coach spaff would say, 'the cows are in the barn and i'm ready to go'.


and oh yes . . . HAPPY PRIDE EVERYBODY !!!