TMI?
I don’t think that you ever plan on seriously injuring yourself, but if you do, make sure that you run with Brian M, Brian W, Ron, Colin and Mur! These boys are total rockstars; they will pick you up and carry you out of the trail, they have perfected many lifts, this morning’s included ‘the piggy back’ lift. Note to self, you may be trying to be helpful and help protect his back, but never tell someone who is piggy-backing someone up a steep and technical single track trail to keep his core muscles tight, it doesn’t go over well.
I run a lot in the trails surrounding Hayward Lake. Lately I have noticed that there are A LOT of signs, there are some traditional “don’t litter” types of signs, but there are others that are worth taking a second look at.
I wasn’t expecting to seriously injure myself today, and I certainly wasn’t planning on drowning either, to be honest, I wasn’t even planning on going in the water (you can’t see it, but underneath this sign there is also a no burning sign, tee hee).
Conny is always quick to point out that I could drown in a puddle, she has even had a dream that I sank in quicksand, but it was my fault because she told me to go the other way. I have not seen a sign for that yet, but there should be one, especially near the “likelihood of a mudslide” sign.
I like this sign, keep off the trellises, it appears on the Railway Trail, but I don’t think that there will be any trains using it anytime soon.
This is a good one too, I love the fear in Conny’s eyes as she reenacts it. Conny and I have spoke at great length of exactly what we would do if the dam broke and there was a giant wave chasing us, I still don’t think that we would make it through the blackberry bushes and up the embankment in time, not a wave that size.
This sign (and many others just like it) appears just below the Ruskin Dam
From the looks of all of these signs, an innocent hike or run with family or friends could turn into a near death (or just death) experience. It wasn’t a sign but there was a note on left on the trail map this morning that on June 20th there was a large black bear sitting on the trail and it was not moving. Well, at least we have been warned, nothing left to the imagination, we don’t have to worry about expecting the unexpected, because we have even been told.
Yeah baby, yeah
When I hear the word ‘jog’ I think Austin Powers, I don’t know why. To me it sounds like a word that he would totally use, like shag. So when someone asks me if I went for a jog this morning, or if I am jogging later today, it makes me snicker a bit, but it also makes me want to correct them…I don’t jog, I RUN.
Jogging is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
- to run or ride at a slow trot
- to go at a slow, leisurely, or monotonous pace : trudge
Doesn’t sound like you would be getting anywhere quickly, especially if you are trudging, that to me sounds like something ogres or monsters do. I also found a great ‘jogging tip’ that said “avoid jogging on hilly terrain to prevent injury. Running downhill, you can tumble down injuring yourself”, I’m not kidding, this was not from a how to book from the late 70′s either, it was on a website updated in 2009.
Jogging just sounds silly, you certainly wouldn’t write a song about it …”Jogging With the Devil”, “Born To Jog”, “Jogging Down a Dream”, “Jogging on Empty”, “Jog To You”, “The Long Jog”, ok last one “Jog Around Sue”.
I feel that I am speaking for the vast majority of the running population when I say, even if we are running at a slow monotonous pace, or a trot, we are running, we are runners, we wear running shoes, we suffer from runner’s knee, we read Runner’s World, we get a runner’s high and we are in the year 2010.
5 Peaks Training Clinic
50 crazy trail runners joined me this morning at Golden Ears Park for the first session of my 5 Peaks Training Clinic (officially my largest group ever, woo-hoo)! It was great to see some new faces as well as some that I hadn’t seen since my last trail running session. Once all of the paperwork and pleasantries were out of way, we split into 3 speed groups, each running a variation of the Golden Ears ‘Sport Course’.
Most of us got our feet wet right away, holy crap that mountain water is cold, and by the end of the run even Murray had one wet shoe (Murray doesn’t like to get his piggies wet). He told me on the trail that one of the run leaders splashed him and was off his Christmas list, I thought that he said that she flashed him and was off his Christmas list, I was a bit shocked (she doesn’t seem like the flashing kind) and confused why he had taken her off his list… it was extremely funny but possibly one of those situations that you had to be there for to appreciate.
Even with all of the wind that we had last week, the trails were in pretty good shape, a couple of trees down here and there and one missing bridge, oops, and the creeks were just high enough to keep our shoes clean!
Great job today everyone 
crossing the waterfall
along the beach
Good curling
Today marked the end of our 3rd curling season. Although the end of curling signifies long runs around Hayward Lake, Grouse Grind, the occasional golf game, it also ends Bad Girl Tuesday. We became known as the Bad Girls not because we are bad (well, ok sometimes we curl rather badly) but because of our team hoodies that we wore to our first tournament. We were looking for something a little different, Liz (skip) found some tealish/green/blue hoodies with bedazzled skulls and the words bad girl written across the chest…they were cute, available in our sizes and the price was right, the rest is history. We bring out our team hoodies for special occasions, along with the many matching wigs, hats, earplugs, scarves, mittens and tanks that we have acquired over the years.
The Bad Girls
Bad Girl Tuesday is an all day affair, we usually start around 8:30am and finish somewhere around 1:00pm. After we drop the kids off at school we meet for a quick coffee (strategy talk…whatever) and then head to the curling rink for our weekly match. We play in the beginner ladies league and in addition to being known as the BG’s we are also know as the young team (some of these ladies have been playing for 40, 50, maybe even 60 years) and even though this league is billed as non-competitive, they LOVE to kick our asses!
Many rituals take place in the locker room, but since my swearing off sambuca late last year, I am unable to take part in the team shot (yes, we know it is only 9:30am) but do take part in the team cheer. From the locker room to the ice and then the coin toss, this is my big job as third or vice skip as I have taken to calling myself. Conny (second) teases me, because I always lose, which means that they get last rock (the hammer) but we do pick the colour, which is equally important to us, (we go with red, although Conny threw a blue one today, thank goodness that I didn’t stop it mid ice like I did the last time someone threw the wrong colour).
For a group of athletic “young” women, our record isn’t fabulous, if our one tie was a win, we would have won as many games as we lost (we did win today, but it didn’t count because it was a fun game). We generally opt for plan b plays (which are fluky shots that work to our advantage or at least work), and when Liz steps into the hack, we expect her to clean up all of our mistakes with a tipy-tap or rumpy-pumpy, she is a great curler and total rockstar on the ice, she also proved today that she can sweep. The games do seem to go on a little long, especially for Shannon (lead, and called the short one by one of the lovely ladies from season 1) who openly admits that she is done after 4 ends. By the time that buzzer goes for our final end, we all famished and have decided were lunch will take place and we tear out of the parking lot to get our usual table before it gets too busy.
Curling gained huge popularity during the Olympics, but we knew that it was something special before Cheryl Bernard and Kevin Martin (and our personal favourite, the very handsome John Morris) were household names. It does require perfect throwing weight, huge strategy, athleticism, and it is the only sport where you can scream “Hurry…harrrrrrrd…yes…yes…yes…yes” oh, and we do!
It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it
It’s amazing what a 22 hour break from reality will do for your sanity. Although my hiatus was not a shopping success, it was a classic case of ‘not in my size’ or it ‘looked better on the hanger’, (my only purchase was a very cute Hollister t-shirt that I am wearing right now and it smells so good, if you have ever bought anything from Hollister you will know what I mean, and it was on sale too) it was fun to get away with my man and live large in the city for a bit.
Today was one of those double ab workout mornings, not just because of the double sets, but also because of the laughter. Although we were missing our friend Shannon, her presence was definitely in the room. I don’t think that there will be anyone from the class that hasn’t at some point today grit her teeth, pursed her lips and said something that starts with “ooooooo, you and your….”
Monday is not usually a run day for me, but after a day of living/eating large, I felt that I needed to get out and do bit of cardio, and it wasn’t raining. If I were to describe this morning’s run I would say it was clunky, not smooth, not quick, nothing hurt, it was just clunky, possibly the result of my weekend. No mean dogs today, which is always a bonus, a few squirrels some Canada Geese and a couple of walking walking buddies who I don’t think enjoyed each other’s company much (it was a bit unusual the one buddy was walking a good 10 steps ahead of the other buddy and both wearing earbuds, I can only surmise they were listening to their ipods and not talking to each other on their iphones, guess it doesn’t really matter either way but it gave me something to think about as I was coming back up the hill). Even though they didn’t seem to like each other, they both seemed to like me, they smiled and waved as I passed. I finished my run to “Don’t Stop Believing”, it’s so hard not to belt out a couple of lines when you hear that song, as I live in the middle of nowhere nobody could hear to I did.
I was super on task for the rest of the day, I guess that extra spring in my Monday step helped, I love days when everything seems to fall nicely into place.