Training Log Archive: Bash

While putting up the final controls for the Hamilton Schools Meet with Laura. This was a terrific day - brilliant sunshine, although with a chilly wind near the lake where I was stationed as a volunteer. I'd been fooled by the 14C forecast and hadn't brought the down jacket that I really needed. Brrr!

As usual, Ray K was the meet organizer extraordinaire. (With wife Terri keeping a close eye on him, undoubtedly for quality control purposes.)



We had almost 800 kids from elementary and high schools racing in teams of two. When they weren't racing, they played soccer, football and frisbee, or they sat on blankets and ate picnics. Some of them were wearing fairly fashionable street clothes to go running. What an awesome school trip!







The kids were excited to check out their results.



AdventureGirl! and Chloe took the bronze medal in Bantam Girls, which was a HUGE division. Congrats!!



Although it gave me a warm feeling to see the kids enjoying their adventure so much, it wasn't really warm *enough*. I was chilled when I went to my car. I remembered visiting a nearby Dairy Queen after orienteering in the area before, and that didn't sound appealing at all. Imagine my joy (soundtrack: chorus of angels) when I noticed this new business and screeched to a halt. Hot cafe mocha with whipped cream - yesss!!!

After a seemingly endless tango with Hydro One and OPA since 2005, we have finally been credited $850 for the times our electricity meter has run backwards, feeding power from our solar panels to the grid. Also, we've just received our first cheque under the Standard Offer Contract, paying us for the solar power we have generated since last June. (I signed that contract in Aug. 2007, which gives you some idea of how complex the journey has been.)

Thus we've *finally* got our hydro bill problems sorted out, so yesterday we signed up for Bullfrog Power, the squeaky green electricity that has been powering 'Bent's business for several years. Yahoo - we've been looking forward to this!!!

Hansel, wish you could have been here to join us in the celebration as our house moved a big step closer toward carbon neutrality (solar + geothermal + Bullfrog - yay).

Pathetic, really. Still avoiding the turkey hunters, who were blasting all yesterday morning but kept a low profile today. It appears that none of the nearby neighbours gave permission to hunt on their land, and it's not allowed on conservation land, so we have illegal hunters running around. Joy.

Started the day at 7:30 a.m. with a loud explosion/gunshot sound that seemed to come from right outside the house. I've heard guns go off before, but never as loud as that. I believe the shooter was on our property. I ran outside, freaking out that 'Bent had been shot in the driveway as he prepared to bike to work, but he was as wide-eyed as I was. An hour later, there were a couple of gunshots further away, sounding like they came from the direction of Palgrave West.

Stoopid first day of turkey hunting season... Yes, most hunters are responsible, but based on the number of alcoholic beverage containers left behind at some hunting locations, some of them aren't. And for me, that's a good enough argument to ban hunting with guns in populated areas like this.

It took me awhile to get on Facebook, but that's old school now. Look at all the communication options there are! ;-)
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM...>

'Bent and I rode to scenic downtown Palgrave where we picked up Leanimal and Goose, who had been dropped off by Coach LD. We then took a brisk rail trail ride over to Inglewood, meeting Coach LD and KD a short distance from town (they'd parked there). Our pace was higher than expected for the first long ride of the season (why the heck isn't Leanimal tired after her 82-hr race?!? puff! gasp!), and unfortunately LD/KD didn't get much of a ride. So we continued on a little farther, then stopped in to see Knobless and pooches.

Next stop was Caledon Hills Cycling, where we dropped off our Atlas Race snowshoes to send them back to Atlas to install the 2009 bindings that will hopefully not break in the middle of a race! Then back to the Trailside Cafe in Caledon East for some goodies, then home. 'Bent and I have decided that Duffy's Lane leading to Crash's house will henceforth be called "The Four Hills of Newton" (a scary-sounding name for Boston hills that aren't that big!), which means that the final climb south of Crash's place is Heartbreak Hill. We crushed it. Great ride, and we managed to squeeze it in between a couple of heavy rainstorms.

While watching the first half of "The Last King of Scotland", which of course is about a doctor in Uganda. Good movie so far. We'd been planning to bike outdoors, but the combo of stifling heat wave and impending nasty weather (thunderstorm, hail, highest wind gusts since 1978) drove us downstairs with the doggies, who were relaxed after a good swim in Palgrave Pond.

Took a road trip into Toronto to check out the new Salomon store with Phatty, Leanimal, Goose and 'Bent. I did my part to help the economy! We made a brief visit to the Tilley Store, which has high quality stuff mostly aimed at better-dressed travellers than us. It's worth going there just to try out the features of their fancy Japanese toilets. (If you dare.) (They *are* a little scary.)

My AR teammate Hurtn gets new tents each season from his sponsor Eureka, and he has some new and lightly used tents available from previous seasons, in case you're looking to gear up for your next adventure. Tent details in the comment on this note.

Indoor intervals while watching the news. (I wimped out when the rain came.) This was harder than expected because you risk getting flung off the treadmill if you let up for even a second during an interval. And apparently, I occasionally cheat during my intervals!

My teammate Hurtn has put together a great 9-minute video of his first adventure race - ESAR 2008 with his brother Damuhl (also a first-timer) and me.
http://harkevents.com/home.html/?p=208

This video is a tiny piece of his multi-year Into The Arctic project.
http://www.intothearctic.com

I had a great taper for Boston, then did some serious carb-loading followed by some nice recovery time. The only thing I didn't do was actually run the Boston Marathon. Thus I am a little overweight and undertrained right now, and I headed out onto the trails with BulletDog. There are a lot of days when my body doesn't feel like running, but that's OK because I feel so good once I get out there. This was not one of those days. I was happy to be outdoors as I always am, but the running never felt easy, and there was a serious twinge in my bad knee. Maybe tomorrow will be better...? The woods were full of white-tailed deer, which was entertaining.

Happy Earth Day, everyone! I'm celebrating by heating our house with geothermal energy tonight. Details available from Urthbuoy.

Heading home!

'Bent just posted his Boston marathon report including photos he took while racing.
http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_921/pe...

Boston Marathon - awake at 5 a.m., then a busy day of running around Boston with J-Ro, trying to be good spectators. My throat is sore from cheering. There were all kinds of runners - some had written their names in big letters on their shirts, some were covered in Canadian flags, some were grandparents, some were raising money for charity, some had disabilities, some were in costume, some were filming us as we cheered for them... it was never boring and often inspiring. (Not that it made me any more interested in doing another marathon on pavement!)







At 16 miles, the leading men were going faster than I could run a 100 meter sprint. J-Ro and I arrived just in time to see the lead women go by, but not fast enough to get a photo.



J-Ro's Dad kept us informed of our husbands' location via text messaging. We were happy to hear they had been together at the halfway point because we figured they would talk sense into one another regarding the pace. They ran with Harper Forbes for awhile too (photo taken by 'Bent on the run).



By 16 miles, Superwes wasn't feeling as good, so it was 'Bent who came by first. My camera had gone into power saver mode, so I scrambled to restart it, and unfortunately (from a photographer's perspective) he came running over to say hi - and thus he is blurry. Sad to say, this is the best photo I got of 'Bent, but I got lots of great photos of people I don't know - and of Superwes, fortunately. Thank heavens for Marathonfoto.com!





After the boys went by, we jumped back on the subway and made our way to Kenmore station where we found a great spot below the Citgo sign at the "1 mile to go" point. This is what the runners would see there.



Some passing runners were ecstatic, high-fiving the spectators. Others were in horrible pain, walking with straight legs and tortured faces. Everyone we saw was near the front of the pack, so I can only imagine what it must have been like further back, but I expect there were even more people who were hysterically happy - and even more people in pain.

J-Ro's Dad texted us when 'Bent passed the 40K point. His fastest pace was in the 5K after Heartbreak Hill. (BTW, none of our first-time runners even recognized the hill until they were over it - it's just a small bump to an adventure runner.) Although we both looked hard for 'Bent, we didn't see him - and we didn't think we could have missed him. So when Superwes ran by looking OK (albeit not zippy) and tapped his abdomen, we wondered if he was trying to tell us that 'Bent was having stomach trouble. For a couple of moments I worried, wondering what could have been so bad that 'Bent would stop within 2K of the finish. But then J-Ro's Dad told us that 'Bent had already finished with a time of 3:17:58. He didn't achieve his goal of a Personal Worst Marathon, and he took about 20 photos too! (I'm leaving most of them for his log entry.) Woo hoo!!!!

It isn't easy to walk around downtown Boston near the finish line. There are almost 30,000 racers and their families and friends. And lots and lots of barricades.



It wasn't the race Superwes had wanted, but he was happy to have one of the beautiful finisher's medals.



'Bent and Crash were pleased with their results. Crash set a PB for Boston with a smokin' 3:42. 'Bent was aiming for 3:20 and did a little better. Looking at the results, his pace was consistent throughout the race - which can be partly attributed to Superwes keeping them steady in the first half of the race. I'm wondering if 'Bent's long layoff from running actually helped - maybe his body arrived at this race less battered than it usually is during running season, but still in good shape from skiing.



Rocky was dwarfed by her husband's coat - it was chilly! At 4:02, she had a good race - and took a bunch of photos too.



Back at our hotel, the boys went through their post-race rituals.





And then, of course, more seafood!! I think this will be our one and only trip to the Boston Marathon, but I'm sure we'll be back to Boston. I'm not much of a city person, but I like this city.

Woke up to a beautiful morning and walked through the Boston Common. Superwes and 'Bent did a LOT of walking today. If I were doing a marathon tomorrow, I would have been more of a wimp.





I didn't realize it until I saw this photo, but Superwes is married to Sarah Jessica Parker!



'Bent and I did some Tree Hugging.



MyNextRace.com put on a Team Canada breakfast where we met up with Crash, Rocky and their family and friends.



I made some new American friends.



We went to see the finish area, and there was a buzz of excitement and activity - even today.



We ran into Harper Forbes at the race number pick-up. He and 'Bent are starting in the same corral.



Race shirts are nice - long-sleeved tech shirts.



We spent a couple of hours at the busy race expo.



There was some nice race clothing, but I didn't feel right buying it if I wasn't running, and 'Bent just isn't a very good shopper! Superwes bought a jacket, as did Rocky.



Then we went to Starbucks to spend some enjoyable time with my university friend and grad school housemate, Pete, who lives in Boston. I had a chance to come down the road and cross the finish line. For me, that'll be a "once in a lifetime" occurrence!



After another too-large dinner, the runners are ready to use gravity to their advantage in the downhill sections tomorrow. J-Ro and I will be learning the public transit system and tracking down our husbands (if we navigate well). I wouldn't want to attempt to drive a car around here.

Good luck to all!

Long travel day! We picked up Superwes and J-Ro in Oakville, then drove the Bullfrog van through New York and Massachusetts to Boston. It was about 12 hrs from our place - and about a million toll booths.



For future reference, if you cross the border with British-born Superwes, you can expect to be pulled aside by U.S. Immigration officials and subjected to more intensive questioning. Luckily there were no body cavity searches this time.



The landscape got nicer as the drive went on. It looks like 'Bent and Superwes will be running through some pretty scenery. We're staying in the Beacon Hill neighbourhood of Boston, and we like it so far. It feels almost European in places.



Best of all, we've already accomplished our major goal at Boston. Not that we could finish all that! (Although 'Bent gave it his best attempt.)



More pre-marathon exploration coming up tomorrow.

http://www.baa.org on Monday

Bib #s
Wave 1 (10 a.m. start)
Superwes 3480
'Bent 5475

Wave 2 (10:30 a.m. start)
Crash 17081
Rocky 18884

If you want to sign up for e-mail alerts instead of checking the site, it's easiest to ask the runner to do it for you. So let us know if you'd like to do that.

Wildlife Watch: We see wild turkeys in our back yard all the time, so I didn't even blink when I noticed a gnarled red head outside the window. Then it spread its wings, and I realized there were two huge turkey vultures sitting on the lawn about 3 meters from the house. Strange. Then I noticed a dead baby raccoon beside them. Not sure what happened to the poor thing, but it hadn't been there long. A wild turkey was rummaging around the yard too. Where is National Geographic when this sort of thing happens?

The vultures saw me moving in the window and moved back about 10 meters, hanging out for awhile looking like they were chatting in a Far Side cartoon. They preened a bit, then eventually returned to look at the raccoon some more. I guess it was too fresh for them...?

Like the good wife I am, I responded to the emergency call when the hard drive on 'Bent's new laptop failed at work - yes, the same new laptop that he bought to replace the old laptop with the hard drive that had failed. Sigh... He needed a back-up drive and some rescue CDs quickly, so I hopped on my bike and headed to Palgrave, then took the long way home via the Palgrave East single track on Crash's recommendation. Some of the double track is still too soft for riding, but all the single track was dry and beautiful - yay, sand!! There are sticks and pine cones on the trail that cause the occasional skid, and a couple of trees have fallen across the trail, so it's wise to control your speed if you can't see around the corner. But for the most part, it was an amazingly fun first technical ride of the season!

Boston Marathon weather: Chilly, windy and rain beginning after lunch. Crash will have an advantage after the monsoon she ran in the last time she did Boston. Sounds like a great day to be a spectator standing still with a camera (NOT).

It's official - I'm doing ESAR on the all-female team "Beowulf Tree Huggers" with Mrs. Gally and Rocky. Woo hoo!!! :-))) My paddling and navigation experience will be assets to the team, but I know these ladies are going to kick my butt on foot and bike! So even though my legs still felt a little beaten up from Saturday, I dragged myself out the door - and was glad I did. Although my legs still felt a little "damaged", they were also surprisingly energetic.

What a fantastic spring day - the first time this year in 3/4 tights and short sleeves, and I was too warm! My running companion BulletDog went for two rolls in the snow, two swims, and a mud bath - fortunately not in that order. The Palgrave West woods are so sunny right now - no leaves yet. I didn't notice any spring flowers, so we're a little behind the Milton area. It won't be long.

This was the first time I'd come up with my own yoga routine, and I was surprised at how much I could remember. (Even though I only did a short session today.) I watched the news and felt sad for a few families tonight.

Just ordered a Taiga Glacier Cap. I borrowed one from 'Bent's brother in Yellowknife before the Rock & Ice Ultra, and it turned out to be an awesome piece of gear. I didn't take it off the whole time - just changed the layer I wore under it.
https://www.taigaworks.ca/cart.php?m=product_detai...

Met Coach LD in Palgrave on a beautiful Easter Monday. (Goose was supposed to come too, but that's another story.) We rode a short distance past Caledon East, then returned to the Trailside Cafe for a cookie break. Then we rode home via Centreville Creek and Finnerty. Fun! Thanks for getting my legs moving after the GRR, Coach!

Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Giant's Rib Raid 2009

Phew - I think this Raid was the toughest on the body since 2002. Or maybe it's just my body that's getting wimpier. But I see that Hammer has already declared it to be the longest and toughest GRR yet, so hopefully it wasn't just me. I wore my Forerunner, and it logged 32.7 km - and it sometimes measures a bit short in the woods, so we undoubtedly went farther. And we weren't running on flat roads or trails - there were long sections where we picked our way across rocky terrain, carefully avoiding the deep crevices that have gobbled up many an unsuspecting orienteer over the years.

We were out for over 6 hrs - I don't think that's happened since our first Raid where we placed 44th. This was more than the cumulative total running time I've logged since my marathon on Dec. 7 - although I have done a little running that was logged as snowshoeing. But still, I'm a looooong way from my best running shape - and even that would be slow compared to most people's running. That's what happens when you do a ski marathon at the end of March!

However, I wasn't worried about my lack of preparation because I was teamed up with 'Bent and Rocky, both of whom are running the Boston Marathon next weekend.



We'd agreed that this would be a "gentle race". For the first time, there was no tow rope to keep me with the speedier folks. At times, I chose "Boston routes", i.e. slightly less aggressive route choices that looked safer for my teammates' ankles. But in spite of all the talk, the two of them kept up a strong pace and didn't even have the decency to appear tired as the race went on.

Rocky was, well, a rock. Or maybe a rock star.



At one point, she was looking down and ran hard into a large, partially fallen tree, taking the full brunt on her forehead. There was a loud cracking sound, and even *we* saw stars as she was flung to the ground onto her back. She felt fine after recovering from the surprise, and I queried her about possible headaches for the rest of the race, but it looks like she will get away with only a small goose egg - phew. It only slowed down her running for about 90 seconds, then I was chasing hard after her once again. Her eagle eyes were incredible at spotting orange & white flags at long distances, and she could see trails that no one else could.

There was plenty of variety in the race - long trail runs over rocky and smooth ground (mostly rocky), picking our way cross-country over mossy boulders, wading through icy marshes that felt soooo good on my Achilles tendon, which got very painful again for the first time since Yellowknife - argghh. But more than anything else, this race course featured crevices in the escarpment - and even a CP in a cave.



We ran into STORM's team in one crevice.



We liked the new rule where all team members have to touch the flag. This removes the ambiguity of the old rule which stated that team members have to be "together" at CPs, even though they can be 50 m apart on the course. In recent Raids and rogaine-style races, I've seen people waiting at trail junctions or at the bottoms of big hills while their teammates went off alone to punch controls that sometimes weren't even in view. In our first year of racing, we did this too because we didn't know any better and we saw other teams doing it, so I can understand how teams watch each other and become uncertain about the rule. In adventure races, we've met people who were knowingly several kilometers away from their teammates.

In rogaines, the international rule is that both teammates have to be within 20 m of the control when it is punched and always in verbal contact distance of one another. Some rogaines include the additional requirement that both teammates must see the flag. Since we started rogaining, I've tried to stick to the "20 m, must see the flag" rule for our team for all orienteering-style events. The different interpretation of this rule by different teams in adventure and orienteering events gives some teams an advantage, and it's great that GHO has set a clear standard.



It was a perfect spring day! Bright sunshine and temperatures in the single digits were ideal for running. We smelled wild leeks and admired beautiful wildflowers.



The course was much drier than last year due to the earlier snow melt. Our feet were wet throughout, but we didn't do nearly as much knee-deep wading. Late in the race, we noticed Thumbs-of-Death leading his shorter teammates through a frigid marsh that went chest-deep on him - yikes! We had walked around that marsh - less than 50 m out of our way - a minute earlier, so we got to watch the fun.



The course design included the usual mix of different map types and challenges. As always, the controls were correctly located in interesting locations. Unfortunately, a typo in the instructions for the Walk The Line section led to confusion. The Matrix was unusual for me since it was the first-ever Matrix where I didn't punch any controls. Rocky and I ran together, and since she's the faster runner, she did the punching.

We had already run about 28 km when we returned to Rocky Ridge Ranch to pick up the map for the final Mystery Section, which took close to an hour more. Oh, it was hard to head back into the woods when the top teams were enjoying their burgers on the patio!

The Mystery Section was a map that had no trails and 4 controls to find, but what made it more challenging was that we had to leave that map to find a control on our regular map, then return to the Mystery Map to find another control on our way to the finish line. I was stressed during that section - it went OK, but I think gut instincts helped me since I was soooo tired that my brain wasn't very sharp. We made it to the finish line as the 2nd place Masters team and 12th out of 40 overall in a race dominated by strong male teams. We would have been 3rd Coed, so we made the right guess on which category to enter! Congrats to Nick and the Foreigners on taking the overall crown. Eugenius won Masters as expected, cleverly choosing a team that included Dobos Jr and himself - both below the Masters age - and Everest summiter Dan Mallory, a ringer 58-year-old who raised their average age sufficiently! ;-)



The overall winners took about 4 hrs instead of the usual 3 hrs, so it was a longer race for everyone. It was a very physical course that favoured the top male teams - and there were some excellent teams in this event. Tiny's Milton Basement Racers were the top Coed team and 6th overall. Congrats!!



Most of us looked a lot rougher than Tiny at the finish. In fact, Sid looked more like a tough biker than the Prez of Orienteering Ontario.



Hammer and Griz designed another technical, challenging, interesting race course. Thanks for all your hard work, guys.



Thanks also to Backwoods, Etoile, Goose, KD, Sherpa, Mique and the many other volunteers who gave up their time to make this event happen for us!

Looks like I'm tapering more for the GRR than intended - oh well. It's a busy week for us multi-faith families.

'Bent and I are finally going to try our first mountain marathon after several years of thinking about it. Since our background is outdoor tripping, it has always seemed like a fitting type of event for us to do. It will be a great birthday present for me, although - as usual in recent years - I'll spend the day travelling. It'll be tough to beat the birthday dinner I had in a Newfoundland gas station last summer with Phatty, Leanimal, Tiny, Pixie and 'Bent (plus yummy cake from Crash).

Continuing our recent northern trend, we've chosen the Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon about 200 km north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. (Check out the race video if you have time.) Time for some language lessons from Carbon, Sudden, Bubo and even Hammer!

A surprisingly nice ski around Palgrave in snow conditions worthy of mid-winter. I don't think I've ever XC skied in April - and now it's two days in a row! Back to working on taxes now... :-(

I've added some canoeing photos to yesterday's log entry. They provide a great contrast to the photos I'm about to add from today's skiing just a few kilometers away!

[Edit: Picasa is doing some strange things - the photos are disappearing occasionally today. Why?]

We're supposed to get about 20 cm of snow today - it's still falling! Of course I had to go skiing, since we're almost never able to ski in Caledon in April - especially not the day after a sunny canoe trip on the Humber River.

I was surprised at how good it felt to ski. I'd sworn I wouldn't put on my ski boots till November because I got a blister and Achilles pain from the Rock & Ice Ultra, but my feet were happy today. I would have stayed out longer but the wind was stronger than I like it to be when the trees are laden with such heavy, wet snow - and creaking in scary ways.

DLevine, I know you'll be curious about what this means for the upcoming GRR. Milton is either getting snow or heavy rain today - it's about an hour southwest of here. Your feet might get wet next weekend!

'Bent and I did the Rodney Yee Power Yoga DVD that we borrowed from Leanimal. Good stuff! (Although neither of us was willing to risk the biggest back bending poses right now.) Rodney makes the occasional comment like, "Let the flesh of your buttocks move down away from your waist." I'm really not convinced that's a good thing, but regardless, it will probably happen on its own over the next couple of decades!

Paddled in a good current on the Humber River from Duffy's Lane to Hickman St. on a sunny April afternoon. This may be the earliest date I've ever gone for my first spring paddle. With some luck, we might be able to ski tomorrow, given the forecast for 20 cm of snow!! Going skiing locally after our first canoe trip would be another first.

We had a good crowd out today. Goose, Coach LD, KD, Scooby, Rocky, 'Bent and I started together, and when we stopped for a cookie break at the halfway point, Phatty and Leanimal appeared from behind just in time to get their hands into the cookie jar! Rocky broke her streak, failing to do any swim training this time. Fun trip!



Cookie Break



Coach LD and Rocky did some interesting acrobatics where a tree had fallen across the river. The rest of us portaged.



Thanks to Goose and Scooby for the photos.

'Bent, Phatty, Scooby, Leanimal, Coach LD and I ran from the Doughtys' place back to Duffy's Lane on the Humber Valley Trail (28:30), then back to our vehicles. Phatty & Leanimal kept going on the HVT, since it's not long till E-Fix. I was feeling strong but I could tell that I haven't been running much lately. By the time I got home, my Snowgaine back injury had flared up the worst it's done so far. Looks like it's time to introduce Dr. Leanimal to yet another faulty body part - I think my warranty has expired.

While watching the first half of "Mystic River" with Sean Penn. The story was so gripping that I didn't look at my watch for the first 30 minutes, which is a record for me on the trainer. I pedalled harder during the stressful bits, which meant that I did a lot of hard pedalling. 'Bent had done a 2-hr Boston training run with Crash earlier, so he stopped a little earlier - but kept watching the movie. Now... to see how the story ends!

According to a quiz in the Globe & Mail, my "brain sex" score is 11/20, where 1 = very male and 20 = very female. So apparently my brain is on the fence. This may explain the mystery of my membership on the high school physics team. The author points out that your "brain sex" doesn't always match your biological sex, so 'Bent needn't start to worry. His brain is a guy brain with a healthy feminine side, based on his score of 6/20.

One of the questions that pushed me in the male direction was my "yes" answer to the following - and I'll bet most women reading this would say the same thing:

"I can find my way more easily using a map rather than landmark directions."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM...

Rode via Duffy's Lane to the Gore Rd. parking lot where I met up with Hurtn, who is back in training for his upcoming Arctic expedition. Nice to catch up - it's been awhile since we talked, and he always has lots going on. Beautiful sunshine, and I was able to get away with relatively light clothing, although I did wish that I'd brought long-fingered gloves for the first part of the ride. The rail trail is a little soft in places, but mostly in pretty good shape. Duffy's Lane was wetter and muddier. I rode around on roads because the trails in the woods are definitely no-go for now - even footprints are problematic in places. (Although I notice that a truck or ATV has been going around Palgrave West and causing damage to the trails. Boo.)

Hard Core Live with Caron. It's been a long time since I've been able to go, and this was a tough one!

Mmm, this felt goooood. It highlighted a couple more rusty body parts that I will need Dr. Leanimal to fix!

PhattyJR is a star! (And I'm not April Fooling.)
http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/20587...

BulletDog and I went for a nice late afternoon run in the woods. There was some zip in my legs that was missing in Monday's run, which was good to see. The Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Giant's Rib Raid is just 10 days away, and I'm just starting to run for the year. Yikes! 'Bent and Rocky are doing the Raid with me even though they are both doing the Boston Marathon the following weekend. For that reason, there will be no towing in this race. So I've got 10 days to become a runner - eek! (Of course, I've *never* been a runner, so that's kind of like saying I've got 10 days to become a violinist or a neurosurgeon.)

Today's weird moment on the trail: I ran past the hunting blind that points onto the trail (not exactly legal). I always feel uncomfortable going past that spot because I need to check that nobody is sitting in the blind, and then I like to run quickly past the guy's house so it won't look like I was snooping around his hunting blind, which is just behind the house. I kept BulletDog close by so she wouldn't detour into his back yard, and we went over a little rise - and there he was, standing in the middle of the trail looking right at us. Gulp!! He was talking on his cell phone, so we just exchanged little waves, and I kept going.

While watching the news

While watching the Daily Show