Training Log Archive: Bash

Today was the complete opposite of yesterday! The whole family was up early for the Furry Friends 5K trail race at Albion Hills. It's a charity run/walk to raise funds for animal rescue. There will be another Furry Friends 5K in Burlington on Oct. 21.
http://www.furryfriends5k.ca/burlington

'Bent and BazingaDog ran together so it's a good thing B-Dog eventually returned home last night. You can see them helping to lead the charge in the photo above.

My teammate was AdventureDog. I set him up with a harness and elastic cord attached to my waist pack so I didn't need to use my hands (except when he slowed down, as you can see here).



Crash and her dog Sadie, both of whom are good friends of A-Dog, were a short distance ahead and greatly inspired at least one of us for the first 2K. I was being pulled so hard on the downhills, my feet barely touched the ground! At the 2K mark, A-Dog lost interest in racing and when we finished our first 2.5K lap, he paused for a long drink from one of the water bowls at the aid station.





Brody did the same, I hear.



When I guided him back onto the trail for Lap 2, he sat down at first. Who runs the same 2.5K section of trail twice in a row? Even at a gentler pace, we soon caught up with some of the walkers, which confused him at first. He learned that when I said, "On your left!", it meant "Keep running".



We were 3rd in DOGF (woman + dog category) after the 1st lap but dropped to 6th due to our very positive split - 13:27 vs. 15:18. Crash and Sadie held on for the silver medal.

In this photo, I'm putting on the brakes at the finish. I have no idea why there is dog spit all over my leg but it wasn't from A-Dog and it wasn't there in the Lap 1 photo.



'Bent and BazingDog were 4th overall. Fun event, even on tired legs!

The annual World Naked Bike Ride was held in Toronto today. Yes, there are pictures. Ouch. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/world-naked-...

This is the kind of training day I imagined when I started reading real estate ads looking for a Tree Hugger Advanced Base Camp.

I started with 4 climbs of Georgian Peaks ski hill - and only 3 descents because after the last climb, I continued into shady (and mythical) Loree Forest. After that, it was a flatter and sometimes technical run that eventually got me onto the Bruce Trail. I descended into Blue Mountain Village on The Village Way, then ran home via some road shoulders and the Georgian Trail. This was my longest, toughest run in awhile. If it doesn't kill me, I might still be able to do Fat Dog in August.

Alert readers may have noticed the flaw in my plan. It was fun to do a point-to-point run that finished at our place but my vehicle was still at Georgian Peaks. So after a snack, I hopped on my bike and rode back on the Georgian Trail to pick it up.

Just as we sat down to dinner back in Palgrave, BazingaDog ran away for an adventure. He was gone for more than an hour although we had a sighting about halfway through. I spent most of that hour biking and hiking around, calling his name. He eventually appeared on our driveway, walking toward our house from the direction of the road (arggh!) He was covered in mud and probably poison ivy. The spouse who accidentally left the gate open had to give him a bath. I can't imagine how heartbreaking it would be to lose our big guy and I really thought this might be it. :(

Pre-dinner hike/run up and down Blue Mountain twice to get my legs fatigued in advance of tomorrow's run. Up via Cascade, down via a ski slope road, then up and down The Grind. Beautiful evening.

I ran to/from the polling station via trails in Palgrave Forest, gravel road and half a km of paved road. That was easier than deciding where to place my vote.

Can you imagine a woman or black man with Doug Ford's background - which includes more experience with drug dealing than provincial politics - leading the polls to become Premier of the largest province in Canada?

Training consisted of lifting heavy boxes for Mom and helping her prepare to downsize to an apartment this fall.

Spent the day singing the Building Permit Blues.