Training Log Archive: Bash

Our 3-year-old niece is visiting from Yellowknife, and today was our day to take care of her. We went to the Toronto Zoo - the first time in many years for me. She enjoyed the jellyfish exhibit the most, followed by the gorillas. 'Bent and I were a lot more interested in the lions, tigers, rhinos and giraffes than she was. She was a lot more interested in the fencing, vehicles, coloured leaves (uncommon in Y-Knife), and painted symbols on the pathways than we were. A hike around Palgrave would probably have been just as exciting for her, but this option was more entertaining for us! Given our inexperience with the younger set, things went surprisingly well.

As you can see, if 'Bent logs any running for today, it's perfectly legitimate. One of our tricks for keeping up the pace between exhibits was to stage races between 'Bent with toddler on shoulders vs. Bash pushing stroller.

'Bent, Crash and I hiked over to a Toronto Region Conservation Authority trail work day in Palgrave, planting dogwoods on a couple of closed trails. Afterward, several of us hiked around the trail system with the TRCA rep looking for possible reroutes. Great day to be moving briskly outdoors. It was awesome to see Crash lookin' good after the World Xterra Champs in Hawaii!

The trees are starting to look quite bare, and the ground is multi-coloured and beautiful. The light in the forest and in our house is much brighter. With today's gusty winds, there won't be many leaves left on trees after the weekend.

Tried the first part of Workout #2 on our new Bryon Kest DVD. It would have been worth finishing, but 'Bent had cooked a great dinner!

Great news for single male orienteers... Brainiacs are Babe Magnets!

"The idea of dating or hooking up with a prof is one of those kinky dreams I'm sure many girls have.”

Oh my.

We went out for a team practice for Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Raid The Hammer - with BulletDog acting as the stunt double for Hingo, who was not there. It was a beautiful, surprisingly warm autumn run around Glen Haffy, and 'Bent and the pooch were running well. About 80-90% of the leaves are off the trees now, so they have gently drifted over the ruts, rocks and roots on the trails. This provided a great test for my unbraced ankle, but I didn't want to test it too much, so I took the downhills pretty carefully. We went through all kinds of terrain ranging from steep escarpment trails to wet boggy areas where we balanced on slimy logs to overgrown horse trails where we collected tiny sharp burrs everywhere - ouch! Lots of clean-up work to do while watching TV tonight. It didn't make for the fastest run at times, but it was probably perfect practice for the tough terrain we'll be running through next weekend.

Hard Core class with Caron. She wore some orange tonight, which is always a sign that she plans to make the classes a little harder.

Power Yoga class - just what the doctor ordered.

We have coyotes howling under our bedroom window some nights, and we can see where they sleep nearby. I wouldn't have thought that a pair of coyotes would attack a hiker - although VO2Max's Mom was surrounded by a group of them last year while running in the woods near our place. Very sad story from Cape Breton.

Big "to do" list this week and not much training. Probably just as well, since I'm resting the blister on my heel. BulletDog and I headed out for a quick run around Palgrave West. Finally, that draggin' feeling is gone! I forgot my ankle brace, but things went OK. Nice day except for all the gunshots. I'm pretty sure they were coming from the shooting club about 2 km away, but on some days, the weather conditions make you think that the hunter is right behind you. BulletDog wore her orange vest. I forgot and wore my nice navy STORM tech shirt, which was as good as wearing camo at 5:30 p.m. in the forest. Sorry 'Bent, I know you don't have that life insurance policy on me yet!

Attended the memorial service for Bender's Mom at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto - a beautiful and moving tribute to a classy lady. It was nice to see Bender for the first time since he abandoned us to work for some sports event happening in Vancouver this February.