Saturday, May 24, 2014

head for the hills ...

last sunday i did an easy 45 in albion.   how can you not smile at this ...


short but sweet - great run to finish off the weekend ...


jack in the pulpit !


sigh ...


weekends are just too short ...


my FAVORITE server at starbucks - the adorable david ...


and then there's kathy - the strangest things turn up when she uses my camera ...

 

this is palgrave on thursday.


everything looks sooo green ...


ferns!


gooses ...


oh ya, i moved, again!  out of the palace and into the forest - palgrave forest!  the perfect place for me!


and saturday was long, hilly run day in hockley!  this is where i started - top of the 5th ...


the minute i got onto the trail i sighed out loud.  i fucking love this place ...



view up over the golf course - kool clouds!


ran beside this creek for a bit ...


saw a bunch of pink trilliums ...


another creek ...


right before the second turnaround ...


sweet sweet trail bliss ...


fabulous run - fabulous day!  3:30 and over 2000 meters climbing!
 

 still lots of work to do, but slowly getting stronger!!  



Saturday, May 17, 2014

seaton soaker

now i know i'm an afrobrutality whore when it comes to t-shirts, but i just couldn't resist this one from burpeessuck.com ...


and so after a year and a half of just playing in the forest, i decided to get my arse in gear and sign up for something substantial - the fatdog 100 in august.  up until this weekend, my longest training run was just over 28k.   me and D thought a 50k would be good to 'get back at it'.   after programming the gps lady in my apple phone, and throwing a sweet potato and a banana in my car, i headed over to pickering to run the seaton soaker.  the captain was running the sprint distance - 25k - and we spent some time in the parking lot before the race making fun of all the pylon infractions!  and of course i had to get a start line shot ...


it was a warm one - up over 20 i think - but the trails were in amazing shape!  one of the highlights of this course are all the trilliums!


my super amazing friend helen - still kicking ass at 67! 


it was a 25k out and back loop, so i had to do it twice.  the first 25k went really well, just under 3:15, but the poor old legs started to get tired as i headed back out.  there were, as always, a few low points - a couple times i just stopped and walked.  i did have a good laugh when francesco came up behind me and asked where eddy was!! yup, i was for sure feeling it but luckily the scenery made for some great distraction!


i ran the last few k's with this guy - dale - which made it go a bit quicker!  man i was hurting!


i managed to suck it up and get across the line in just over 7 hours.  good gawd!  it sure felt amazing to finally sit down!  here's a pic with my buddy chris - one of my R2R2R cohorts!


overall i was pleased.  it might have been a bit overenthusiastic throwing myself into a 50k this early in the year, but it all worked out.  the race was awesome!  course was well marked and the volunteers were incredible!  we got a super kool race shirt and a carnation and a medal at the finish.  it was really nice to see everyone again - people i hadn't seen or run with in a couple of years!  I was even okay with having my ass handed to me by a 74 year old!!  good gawd! 


friday afternoon matinee at cfb was a riot!  we did some snatches, some running and some handstand pushups.  then we used the video feature on my apple phone to get some pics.  THAT was hilarious! 

 
nice ass shot fig ...

there we go ...



 
and finally - exciting news!  rumours were flying all week and finally the official announcement came through.  my super kool amazing friend jason saggo has made it into the UFC!  first fight - june 14 in vancouver! 
 
so, as my buddy jose said, we'll be paying a lot more to go see him fight now ...
 


Monday, May 5, 2014

finally pr'd my snatch !

FINALLY!  after months of sucking at it, i upped my snatch (okay, my power snatch) to 85lbs!  i was constantly spending sooo much time thinking about it before lifting that i psyched myself out.  so kathy came over on friday and said, 'just lift the fucking bar.'  which i did!  wahoo!  thanks kathy!  love this shot with her and to-nay.


great back-to-back weekend of running.  did 3 hours in palgrave and part of the sidetrail on saturday.
 

trilliums were out and up, but not quite blooming ...


caught these little beauties though ...


and ran into richard who was out for a spin on the recumbent ...


i was a little stiff when i got up sunday, but still made it to sunday mass.  did a bunch of stuff for 30 minutes - rope climbs, wallballs, burpees, blah blah - and then hit the breakfast club with thomas (i love thomas), toni (with an i), kathy and kim p!
 
 
then sunday afternoon i headed over to hockley for my second scheduled 3 hour run.   my poor little legs were tired but i still did a shit-load of climbing.
 
 

kool clouds over airport road ...


more kool clouds ...


and the first dog toothed violet of the spring!


by the time i got back to my little red mazda i was beat! 


awesome weekend of training!  now a bit of tapering before seaton 50k on saturday ...