kilbirdie with the captain

so i was actually south of 7 twice this weekend, and once i even drove myself! sunday the captain and i arranged to run at one of our favorite trails - kilbirdie - home of the iroquoia trail test. now the cap knows that i have to work sunday mornings, so he was very kool with waiting until i finished so we could run together. he also knows how much i hate driving south of 7, so he graciously offered to meet me part way! LOVE THE CAPTAIN! now the original plan was to meet at vaughn mills - north of 7 and lots of room to park. then i realized it was kinda going the wrong way and i didn't really want to go to a mall. so after a bunch of emails, a couple phone calls, and consulting the google map, it was decided we would meet at the hornby general store on trafalgar at 10:46. what could go wrong? with directions in hand, i started out the door. wait, i don't have caps' phone number - but i might need it - but that will put me a minute behind schedule - but what if i get lost - i'd better write it down (even though i don't have a cell phone). i got myself over to the 410 - argh - and then onto the 407 - and then the big test - onto the 401! yikes! hay, kool, there's trafalgar road! now it says to turn right on steeles, so i do. hmmm, i don't see a general store. back to the gas station - yay, a phone booth - good thing i wrote down that number. 'cap, where are you?' "dora, i'm at the general store, except that it's been torn down ...' hahaha!! we eventually met up, left the mazda at a car park thingy, and made our way over to kilbirdie high school. it was a great day for a run - trails were in pretty good shape and most of the nasty rock sections were filled with a couple inches of snow - making them way more 'runnable' than usual!

we came across these two young guys mountain biking - now that's crazy!! i could see derricks' son brennan doing this ...

when all was said and done, we put in almost 4 hours and 20 miles - okay, i was 4 hours, cuz i'm slower. we were both pretty bagged! we finished off the day with a burger at kelseys and secret plans for the most ultimate kool race end of april! AND, i managed to make my way back home unscathed - stoopid south of 7 driving.

sunday morning the girls at ghetto were jacked! got their deadlifts up to 105! here's cath warming up .....

and andreaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .....

thanks to the mighty alex for supplying our 'shitty green hampton plates' !

saturday morning i was out on the trails by 8. the forest was beautiful and quite deserted!

wore my knew 'spafford/dion' mitts for an easy 2 hours.

after my run, i drove to brampton (still north of 7) to meet up with my fave couple - lisa and jay. from there, we headed to element crossfit in mississauga to watch some of our bolton members take part in the 'overdose' competition.

here's to-nay getting ready for his third WOD - picking up three plates totaling over a hundred pounds, and carrying them around 30 yards, as many times as possible in 7 minutes! good grief - i used to do that all day with bags of mulch and crushed stone when i worked at the garden center!

father jimmy taking his turn ...

elora carrying 70lbs ...

and kat ...

it was pretty kool to watch, and definitely made me want to try a competition - but not before i get a LOT stronger! all members did amazing, with father jimmy placing 17th, and kat coming in 4th! awesome job guys!!! you did our little box proud !!!

chain squats - squat jumps - jump lunges - box jumps

come on - enough already - my legs are fucked!!! my shoulder's a bit kranky these days, so i've been mostly working the lower body at crossfit. tuesday, the mighty alex gave me 150 box jumps to do - great! then on wednesday, coach D had me do a 10 minute 'tempo-seizure-run' at a blistering 5min/km pace, and a bunch of hill repeats. me and everhard headed over to centerville creek to get THAT done! later that day, the plan was to meet, again, with the mighty alex for a private leg trashing session. i was a little nervous, first of all after receiving this email from him on the weekend, "I got some new toys for your squats :)", and second of all after spotting a bunch of chains lying in the squat rack when i was in there on monday. eep! soooooo, in his rocky balboa voice he tells me to 'put this on your back and squat .....'

good gawd !!

and then he followed that with 150 deadlifts AND squat jumps ! sheesh!

thursday i went into palgrave on my own for an easy hour recovery run. i hadn't been on the swamp route yet this year so i decided to try it out. not really travelled at all, but it was nice!

and surprisingly, the legs were fine ??!!

UNTIL thursday night. da da da da da da . . . the incredible e-lorrrrrra had me do an AMRAP - as many rounds as possible (in 20 minutes) - of pistols/box jumps/jump lunges. GOOD GAWD! me and josh ended up doing 180 of the suckers.

and so yes, my legs are officially 'on vacation' today !!

BUT I LOVE IT !!!!!!! CROSSFIT ROCKS !!

finally got out on the dions !

seeing as how i have this bloody snowshoe race in vermont in march, i was relieved to finally get out and practice today. me and everhard loaded up the jeep with all our krap and headed to mansfield with hopes of finding at least enough snow to get some time in on the dions. there wasn't a ton of it, but we managed.

E had never ran on snowshoes before, so the first 40 minutes just about killed him! 'um, kendra, are my calves SUPPOSED to be on fire . . .'

once he got used to them, he was fine . . .

and i was chasing his arse up and down all the hills !

after 3+ hours we were totally done! i was exhausted and it felt so good to just dump myself down onto the snow while mr. snowmobiler guy took our picture!

had a good group for friday night club this week! love this shot of my super strong awesome buddy lisa who can push press a tractor trailer!

kat laying around . . .

father jimmy and the girls . . .

early morning abs with kat - some day i'll see the fuckers . . .

borrowed this from facebook - love it!

'keep on trudging - trudging trudging . . .'

burpee box jumps SUCK !

well, blow me over - look what came in the mail the other day! a pair of montrail running shoes - and i have NO idea where they came from or who sent them! must be a generous trail fairy out there. saweet!

did an 'easy' 80 minutes in palgrave today with everhard (running with him isn't exactly easy). it was made even harder by the ice hidden under a light dusting of snow.

we came across my hiking buddy with his FIVE very well behaved dogs!

then after some butternut squash and a pork chop - mmmm, pork chops - i went into bolton to get my ass kicked by the mighty alex . . .

he had me do a bunch of back squats (to warm up - cough) and then he proceeded to totally trash my legs. 'okay (in a tough sounding, rocky balboa voice) you're going to put a 45lb bar on your back and do 50 squat jumps - have you ever done these before - and then you're going to run over to the rower, and go as hard as you can for 500meters. you have to do this within 4 minutes, or you will get a burpee for every 10 seconds over. then you will get a 3 minute rest. and then, you will do it 2 more times." oh for GAWD SAKES ! hard as i tried, i was finally unable to avoid the dreaded burpee penalty - damn you possamai !!! i ended up doing 7 of the fuckers! and i almost threw up! it was awesome!!

despite the chilly weather on the weekend, i still managed a couple of good runs. did 2 and a half on saturday - up k2 and over to hwy 9 - and then another 2+ on sunday in palgrave with everhard.

it was pretty icy then too, and we were both glad to have stayed upright!

love this shot . . .

and oh ya, last friday - well, you know how much i love burpees - well we got to do something even more exciting. not only did we have to do a burpee . . .

i HATE burpees,

but we then had to jump up on a box . . .

ONE HUNDRED TIMES !!! and just look at the mighty one laughing at us all!

oh, and seriously, if anyone's looking for something practical to give me for my birthday next year, i'd REALLY appreciate one of these for soaking in after my long runs. i don't have a bath tub . . .

cute guy with the sunglasses optional . . .

january thaw ????

wait a rock-pickin minute - we never got the december freeze-up! normally, i'd be super happy we have no snow and it's mild as shit. HOWEVER, me and everhard, in a momentary lapse of reason, signed up for some snowshoe marathon in vermont in march - so i kinda need some of the white stuff for practicing. this is SO your fault spafford (shaking fist!!)

i spent last weekend south of 7 (to-nay drove) at crossfit toronto doing an olympic lifting certification. that was really kool! trainers were from california and were excellent! we spent all of saturday working on our snatches (shut up digger). so now, maybe, just maybe, i'll be able to do a clean without father jimmy yelling, 'you bent your arms too early.' argh!!!

today was seizure repeat day. i headed over to albion in hopes of finding something relatively flat to run on. i lucked out with a gravel campground road that was about 250m around - the intervals were supposed to be 1km for time - 5 of the fuckers! in spaffords' words, 'Ease into the first couple, but I'd like to see you go pretty hard by the 3rd one and right to the end of the workout. You should be feeling pretty spent on the last couple, not puke spent, but certainly ready to be done. Have fun!! okay, first of all, how in gawd's name could these EVER be considered fun! and second, in all honesty, i was 'ready to be done' before i even started the first one!!

this was my 'track' - good think i had the cascrews on . . .

okay, those pretty much killed me! this was my view when i finished . . .

wednesday i ran through all the single track in palgrave - again - lots of ice!

and again, thank goodness (and richard) for the cascrews . . .

mmmmmm - dinner . . .

i've been doing lots of abs with kat lately, so maybe by the summer we might be able to see more than just one ab - if i stretch my arms up over my head! hahaha!!!

and check out the pic my favorite little redheaded nephew ben took of me when i was out west! awesome!!!! man i look nasty!!

and finally, i borrowed this saying from a guy off facebook . . .

If you can't pick it, grow it or kill it......then don't eat it!!!!