Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent and I went for a 3-dog run in Palgrave West, mostly to tire out K-Dog before taking him to a friend's house for dogsitting. Unfortunately, he snagged himself on a pointy stick (or something) and got a pretty good gash. So he and I spent the afternoon together at the emergency vet clinic in Brampton where he was a rock star. The vet thought he would need a general anaesthetic but he was so stoic, she was able to stitch him up with a local.

Then on to 'Bent's family dinner, a few minutes later than planned. Shana Tova to all!

Blah, migraine from last night until early this afternoon - fortunately, not a really bad one. 'Bent went paddling with Goose, and I decided to stay home to munch Ibuprofen and work through a long "to do" list before heading north on Tuesday to spend two days helping with Virginia vs. Bruce.

My headache wasn't improved by Goose's phone call to tell me that 'Bent (whose phone had mysteriously stopped working, I suppose) had dropped his very full key ring into the murky river, including my expensive, programmed Subaru key. So I got to drive over to the river after all, to give them my other key; I just missed out on the canoeing part.

This may be the only time I will ever log a "Celebration of a Life" as training but when it involves a triathlon club, a hilly Bruce Trail loop, and Fast, Medium and Slow hiking groups (guess which one we picked), it can be a surprisingly good workout.

This was a hospital fundraiser in memory of Paula Coats: mother of two daughters, high school sweetheart and wife of Don Coats who owns Caledon Hills Cycling, athlete, accountant and member of our yoga class. She passed away after a brief illness earlier this year. There was a terrific turnout and we adjourned to the Busholme Inn in Erin for pub food, conversation, memories and drinks.

GPS missed part of the loop.

Bob, Greg Diamond and I tested parts of the Wilderness Traverse race course with Joel Perrella of Breathe Mag along to film some of the fun.

As we have all come to expect from Bob's course designs, the biking was mostly downhill on smooth trails, the trek section looked like Rivendell and only crossed a few contour lines, the paddle CPs were easy to find, and the portages - if you can even call them that, they were so short - were wide, smooth trails sprinkled with fairy dust.

I'll post more photos later. This pic shows us getting ready to ride from somewhere to somewhere.

Anyone looking for a running partner who will really push you during your intervals but won't leave you by yourself on the trail?

Kato has been staying at our place for the past couple of days while he looks for a new family. (His original Mom went to Saudi Arabia for work.) Coach LD is his aunt so she knows him really well. He is a very good boy, polite and quite affectionate. He is close to 5 years old, quiet, healthy, 50 lb, tall, loves to run but is trustworthy off-leash, and gets along great with our dogs. I'm sure he'd be fine with kids too. He reminds me of our Labs with his personality and friendliness but he isn't as food-motivated.

He will go on Petfinder.com next week where he will be adopted out through a rescue organization. In the meantime, I thought I'd see if any runners might be looking for a loyal training partner. If you live near Coach LD (who lives near us), you might be able to line her up for occasional dog care since she loves Kato but isn't able to take him. Cuddly people only, please - that's what Kato likes.

19 years ago today, 'Bent and I enjoyed some mountain biking, paddling, trekking, socializing and a few speeches in Algonquin Park.

That was before most people had heard of digital cameras so we don't have many digital photos of our wedding since we haven't embarked on a scanning project. Luckily for us, Veinbuster recently did! Thanks for giving us our first digital wedding album. :)

A few of the photos are below. More are on Facebook. And there are more still. Yay!

Our wedding weekend was based at Arowhon Pines lodge in Algonquin Park. The ceremony was a 2 km paddle from the lodge, on a canoe campsite on Joe Lake. We worked with a rabbi and a minister who presided over an interfaith ceremony, hence the chuppah.









Back then, we only knew a few people who have since become Attackpointers.

Wasn't Flight a cute little thing? :) Veinbuster is her Dad but he was taking these photos so he doesn't appear in them. (We didn't have selfies back then.)



Hingo, one of the four original members of team Tree Huggers, was there. He married Lucy the following year. Now that they have 4 kids, they have less time to stand around looking glamourous - but they could still pull it off if they wanted to.



Our other original teammate, TheMinister, was there too, along with his wife Rose. He was the father of the bride at yesterday's wedding.



We paddled back from the ceremony to the lodge in the cedar strip canoe that 'Bent had built a few years earlier.





Happy Anniversary, 'Bent!

So... last night both AdventureDog and BazingaDog snuck out the front door of the relative's house where they were staying and enjoyed a brief, unaccompanied stroll along a busy street in North York in the dark. All's well that ends well but I was too stressed to get much sleep.

Luckily, I'd made an Albion Hills biking date for the morning so I didn't waste the "coolest" part of the day when it was only 42C with humidity. (Or so.) Jill and I are racing Storm the 'Scarpment. She is a triathlete who owns a little-used mountain bike so we wanted to ride together and figure out what kinds of trails or obstacles we'll want to walk, etc. Her improvement in confidence in an hour was impressive, helped by her good bike fitness, although we have no rocky Kelso-like trails here so it wasn't a full test of what we will face.

'Bent started with us, then headed onto some tougher single track to test his new bike. Fail.

(Also an Ambit button-pushing fail so I've updated the numbers.)

Around Island Lake with 'Bent, Coach LD, Goose, T-man, Pops and Susie on a *very* windy day, followed by our semi-regular Labour Day picnic on the beach with Coach LD's yummy cold salads and Susie's fresh-off-the-vine garden produce. To close off the evening, we had a 3-car, 3-route race to DQ. It was a terrific back to school and anniversary celebration!