A Weary Odd Duck – 51:23

Wednesday - February 28th, 2007

Well… I got a few answers from the question posed yesterday and they all said basically the same thing but I think Rumon’s “odd duck” comment captured the thread the best

Yesterday I may have looked like an odd duck but today I definitely felt like an odd duck, every fibre in my legs were protesting as I left work -late- for my lunch run.  I missed meeting up with the lunch group so went for an out and back around Macaulay Elementary at a very relaxed pace, just fast enough to get the legs moving and the blood pumping.

I felt pretty damn good after the run and finished off the work day with thoughts of a double but on the way to the Youth Centre it started snowing and after dropping T off, on my way home, I was hit by an enormous wave of weariness (or maybe it was wimpyness) and bailed on that thought.  Instead I lounged on the couch to read and dozed off for a few minutes – Bliss.

Is it really that odd? – 1:26:12

Tuesday - February 27th, 2007

I am enjoying the longer days; the tire and I were able to run with some waning daylight this evening.  Started off with a couple of miles for a warm up, then ran with the tire for 60+’ and then a mile cool down to get some stride length back in to the legs and stretch them out a bit.  It was a very odd feeling to be running without the tire, I felt so light.  The last 15’ with the tire was difficult today, it felt like the tire was grabbing every little bump and incline, even on the down hills, and I had to lean hard and really push to continue moving forward.  The buildup in the legs was incredible - It hurt!

The park was busier tonight than it has been in a few months and while I was running with the tire there were a few people who were so interested they started taking pictures, one couple even hurried back to their car and grabbed their video camera.  Is it really that strange to see someone training with a tire?

Is it Monday already?

Monday - February 26th, 2007

I really could have used some more sleep this morning even after the naps and early to bed I had yesterday, but once the alarm went off and I came to the realization that it was Monday and I needed to get to work, off the bed I rolled.

There was some definite stiffness set into the legs this morning and unfortunately, as I have a desk job, it didn’t get flushed out until I was able to walk some at lunch.  It was a short lunch though so the legs were just as heavy when I left work this evening.  I am hoping that another bath tonight and some stretching will clear them up for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the tire…

2km Short – 2:52:17

Sunday - February 25th, 2007

I made it to Thetis just before 8 this morning and after spending a few minutes getting ready headed out on the Goose towards Sooke.  The pace was a bit slower than yesterday, a 5’45”/km average, but with the pack on it felt very comfortable and I had the added bonus of some music using T’s mp3 player (with a new play list this time).  I went out a ways and then turned around; I was trying to time my return pass by Royal Roads in time for the start of the Hately Castle 8km and timed it almost right on.  Running down into Royal Roads I came across Matty and Mar-Mar on the ‘hill’ getting ready to cheer the runners on, I stopped and joined them.  We watched most of the pack run by that part of the course and then went down to the finish line to cheer some more.  Lots of great runs today and some of the IRR gang did very well.

I joined Maestro and Hodgie for part of their cool down before finishing up my run by heading back to the car.  When I got to the car and looked at the watch I realized I was a couple of km short on my workout but felt very finished and didn’t want to leave the car again

Before coming home I made a quick stop at Thrifty’s for groceries and some Epsom salts then it was bath and nap time.  Now I am looking forward to a night of relaxing and a day of no running tomorrow.

Mommies Boy : ) – 1:54:26

Saturday - February 24th, 2007

Pan-Pan and I met at Commonwealth this morning, he was getting a ride in to town with his Mom, and she was taking part in one of the TC10K clinics that was meeting there today.  We started our run from the pool, getting on to Pipeline road and making our way to the lakes for a modified out and back, basically running the lakes twice, got in a good 23km at an easy, consistent 5’/km pace.  

After the run I made my way back home stopping at Mo:lé for a bite to eat.  Pan-Pan’s Mom took him home and made sure he had something to eat

Not too much else on the go today, had attempted to help Leanne B move a couch but that didn’t work out and then spent the evening with Uncle Jimmy, dinner and some ‘Pride’ fights.  Have made it home fairly early and will lounge for a bit before heading to bed.

The plan for tomorrow is to head out to Thetis early and get my run in on the Goose.  Will try and time it to catch the start of the Hatley Castle 8km.

Take it easy! – 49:03

Friday - February 23rd, 2007

I took it easy today on my outing to the Breakwater at lunch, warmed up slowly through town and tried to get the calves cleaned out in preparation for the back to back long runs this weekend.

I will be heading out for two hours of running around the lakes tomorrow and then need to get 30+ km done on Sunday.  I want to get out on some softer terrain for Sunday’s run so will probably start at Thetis and run an out and back on the Goose, may try and get down for the start of the Hatley Castle 8km.

Remember it’s supposed to go Easy, Hard, Easy, Hard – 55:26

Thursday - February 22nd, 2007

I ran up to the Blue Bridge at lunch with the plan of running some 1 mile intervals with Ased.  During our warm up I could feel that the calves were really tight, lasting effects from running the hills last night, but I thought I’d give at least one a go and see how I felt after that.

I started the interval off easy and attempted to build up to speed but after just a few seconds of hard running the calves fired right up and I had to slow things down.  I pushed as hard as I could and finished the mile in 6’ 37”.  I bailed on running the rest of the intervals and just ran up and down the mile cheering on Ased as he cranked out a couple more.  I should know better than to try to get two hard workouts in back to back…

Tonight T and I had our course and then did some visiting, first a stop in to see Jules and Riley and then a visit with Packman and family.

Still Lost – 2:08:23

Wednesday - February 21st, 2007

Made it out for another clippy paced run through town and out on the Breakwater at lunch.  After work things got switched around a little bit, we didn’t make it to the Youth Centre, T volunteered to help out with a band function so I dropped her off at the school and then went for a run from there.  Ended up making my way down to the ‘Y’, then took a beating from the ‘Seven Sisters’ and finished up with a quick tour of Beacon Hill before heading back to the car.

If you missed Team Gobi on A-Channel last week, head over to www.teamgobi.com and check out the clip there.  We also, with one of Tony Austin’s incredible photos, made it in the Goldstream Gazette.

‘Lost’ is the one show I go out of my way to watch, tonight we were able to make it home just in time to catch the back to back episodes on Channel 16 and all I can say is AHHHHHH!!!!!!

Errand Running – 31:16

Tuesday - February 20th, 2007

A short and quick one today, out at lunch with the pack on getting some errands done around town.  Ran hard in between ‘stops’ and the calves are letting me know it!

Drenched Three Times – 1:57:35

Monday - February 19th, 2007

Soak #1
I got this one during lunch while on my clippy paced run out to the Breakwater.  Got back to work and the water was streaming off me.  The Mom’s at work lit into me, I felt like I was 10 again

Soak #2
Of course today was the day I decided to start commuting to work on the bike again.  This morning’s ride was not too bad but the ride home was nasty!  A very wet and chilly journey, when I got home and walked in the door T started laughing at me, my clothes were droopy and drippy and I was shivering - She is such a wonderful and caring daughter

Soak #3
Had just enough time after getting home to towel off, get warmed up, get changed into some dry running gear and then head out the door to the Youth Centre.  It was another nasty one, down to the Goose, onto the Songhees walkway and then around Macaulay Elementary.  This time I planned ahead and had a couple of towels and some dry clothes waiting for me at the Youth Centre so at least the drive back home was not too uncomfortable.

Burn baby burn! – 35:40

Sunday - February 18th, 2007

After dropping the tires off at the bottom of the course, T and I made it up to the Bear Mountain Clubhouse just after 8am, had plenty of time to set some stuff up and get ready for the race.  From the Clubhouse we were bussed down to the parking lot of Western Speedway and then were herded by the lead vehicle up to the start line.  Hopefully the pictures will tell the rest of the tale

Team Gobi getting warmed up

Hooking up those damn tires and getting some encouragement from Mr. Reid

Off we go, Scooter, me, Packman(who ran out to the course from home) and ‘Atomic Dale’

A couple of Super Heroines, ‘G-Girl’ and ‘K-Girl’(moving sooo fast they’re blurry)

About halfway, I think???

Near the top

Only a few metres to go

Done!

With Scooter crossing the line first, our official finishing time is 35:39

Scooter and ‘Atomic Dale’ at the finish

We had a huge amount of support today, Jess and her Dad were cheering us on all along the course, ‘Dom’ came up with us and took most of these pictures, ‘G-Girl’ and ‘K-Girl’ were out running to support Scooter(and were an amazing incentive to run faster in an attempt to keep them in view), ‘Atomic Dale’ was beside us for the entire run up, bionic knee and all.

Huge kudo’s out to Mark and Nick the Frontrunners Westshore guys who put on a great event at a wonderful venue, full results from the race should be up later today.  You will be able to view the incredible pictures that Tony Austin took on his pbase site soon.

Lots of familiar faces at the awards, Matty, Maestro, Hugh T and Diva were all in attendance and of course when Mar-Mar is around things can sometimes get a little pranky.  Mar-Mar; while I know the apple juice wet willy was gross that pinch on the arm was just plain uncalled for – you will pay for that one


_________
The Rest of the Day:
With T spending most of the afternoon skating with Haley my plan is to vegg at home.  Will let the burning calves relax and prepare for this weeks training, starting with a double tomorrow.

Tomorrow the Summit…

Saturday - February 17th, 2007

It was a wonderfully lazy morning for T and me, we both took our time getting up and then slowly made our way to Mo:lé for breakfast.  We met up with Packman and the girls at Frontrunners Westshore after breakfast to pick up our race packages for tomorrow and then we treated the girls to some donuts from Timmy’s.

T spent the afternoon with her Big, they went out to Ross Durrance and climbed Mount Work and then did some shopping at the Red Barn Market.  While T was out I headed down to Popeye’s with the rest of the Team and we had a quick meet and greet with the EAS rep.

I am having mixed feelings about the run tomorrow, even with taking today off the legs are still feeling trashed, hopefully if I can get some good sleep tonight things will feel better in the morning.

TRASHED – 45:07

Friday - February 16th, 2007

Or if you are thinking in German – “der Schund”, that is how I am feeling today.  I think between the hour of tire towing on Tuesday and the hard double on Wednesday I have beat my self up pretty nasty this week.  Even after the easier run yesterday my legs were still feeling very ugly today, thankfully Ased and Steve were not in to pushing the pace this afternoon during our lunch run.  At least not until the last few minutes of the run and by then I was well warmed up and could hold the pace knowing that we didn’t have far to go

Made one small detour when we finished and dropped in on Scooter at her work before heading back to my office, last night I had time to edit the A-Channel newscast and make a small clip of our spot and delivered a copy to her.  Hopefully the crew down at Atomic Crayon will have a link to it on the Team Gobi site on Monday or Tuesday next week.

I bailed on attempting another double today, just too ‘done’!

Tomorrow will be a Mo:lé morning and we are always open to some company so if you’re in the neighborhood stop in and see if we’re there

Legs of Cement – 56:40

Thursday - February 15th, 2007

The plan for today was to meet Andrew G and Ased at lunch for some 1km intervals on the Goose but after waking up with the legs feeling like cement I thought that it might not be a great idea.  On my run up to the Blue Bridge the legs reinforced that the idea of intervals was a no go today so instead I just tagged along with them and cheered them on when I could.

Was checking in on my favorite blogs this morning and came across this sentence “I need to run a 2:15 into my legs before I am going to run one with them.”  Love that sentence!  Check out the rest of the entry at The Finn Files.

T and I had a busy evening - I left work a little early to catch T’s last basketball game of the season and then we had just enough time to blast home grab a quick bite to eat before heading out again to our course tonight.  After the course we spent some more time at home before driving out to Bear Mountain Arena to watch Uncle Jimmy play hockey.

Team Gobi did make it on A Channel tonight, if you missed us we’ll hopefully have a copy of the spot on our website in the next few days.

Damn that Steve Nash : ) – 1:56:37

Wednesday - February 14th, 2007

With some trepidation I met up with Andrew G, Ased, and Steve B at lunch for an “easy” run.  We went for a cruise down the Songhees and some down the Goose to get a bit more time in.  The pace was much faster than what I would have been running solo and the legs protested at first but after a few minutes of struggling everything eased into place and the pace felt great.

I got in run #2 in this evening, another run from the Youth Centre.  Even after sending out the normal pre-run email to the IRR group I was not really expecting any company and when I left the Centre with no partners was certain of it.  So after just a couple of minutes on the Goose I was very surprised to see a familiar form running towards me - Sylvan.  He turned around and joined me for the journey down to the Songhees Walkway then onwards to Westbay Marina and around Macaulay Elementary.  We ran back to the Marina together and then he shot off and headed home.  We had a great time, lots of laughs (only a few of them at Diva’s expense )

No ‘Team Gobi’ on TV tonight but I guess if it’s for a guy like Steve Nash then having our spot on tonights newscast pushed off until tomorrow is not such a terrible thing.  So keep your eyes peeled for one more day and look for ‘Team Gobi’ on the “A-Channel News” tomorrow night, that’s channel 12 for all you Shaw cable folk.

                                             Happy Valentines Day

Tire Times Three – 1:18:13

Tuesday - February 13th, 2007

My workout tonight consisted of a 15’ warm up and the rest of the time is towing time, I bailed on my cool down (Idiot!) and just came home after taking the belt off and drying off for a few seconds.

Had a meeting right before the workout with Packman, Scooter, Coach Mike and a couple of other special guests to discuss the race and training with the tire – to find out more about that meeting keep your eyes peeled  to “A-Channel News” tomorrow night.

Resting

Monday - February 12th, 2007

Most of my day was spent thinking about how I could get off work early, come home and take a nap – of course reality hit each time the mind started to wander down that direction and I got back to work.  Even when I did get off I had some chores to do before coming home but once those were out of the way I got here as quickly as I could.

Will hold off from sleeping for awhile longer but once done writing this will go lounge on the couch for the rest of my night.

Tomorrow is a tire dragging night, will be giving it the tour of Beacon Hill Park around 5:30 if anyone is into coming out and giving it a go

I am worn out… – 3:11:27

Sunday - February 11th, 2007

Met Packman and Lise at the lakes this morning, Lise had come out to join us for our first couple of laps.  Packman and I ran three laps with an out and back to the summit of Bear Hill on our first one.  It was busy at the lakes, tons of people out being active this morning!  On our second lap we crossed paths with Mar-Mar (who yelled out she had a bone to pick with me) and Matty, looking very speedy and then on our last lap Ased came whipping by.  We finished up with an amazing leg soak in the lake, which I could only stand for a few moments – it was frickin cold!

I spent the afternoon and evening doing not much.  Took a great Epsom salt bath, a quick nap, ate some dinner and lounged on the couch and I am still feeling tired.  I am looking forward to having the day off from training tomorrow.

As for Mar-Mar, she is upset with me for being the cause behind her signing up to run the Bear Mountain Summit Challenge.  I guess she and Matty went and checked out the course and after seeing it she is not happy with me

Anyone want a tire dragging rig made? – 2:01:29

Saturday - February 10th, 2007

I had set the alarm to go off at 8:30 this morning, wanting to get up, out and rolling so that I wouldn’t screw my sleeping pattern up too bad after last nights lateness.  But all I could think about once it went off was hitting that damn snooze button and so I did, a few times.

I finally did crawl out of bed around 9:15 and after a quick cleanup made my way downtown to Mo:lé for some breakfast and then I hit Capital Iron, MEC and the Cook Street Do-It Centre picking up all the hardware needed to build a tire towing rig for Scooter.

Scooter came over in the afternoon and we put her rig together.  I think I should start a tire dragging rig making business – anyone want one?

Some of the hardware

Getting the rope ready

Threading it through the bungee

Scooter with her finished product

Scooter still had to get a belt for the rig and was planning on running to MEC to get one, and with me still needing to get my run in, I joined her.  We went our separate ways after MEC, Scooter running towards her home and I continued my run down on the Songhees.

I finished my run along Dallas Road and on the Breakwater then came home and have spent the rest of the day relaxing.

It’s now time to throw a movie in and laze on the couch, tomorrow is another long one, Packman and I have plans to meet at the Lakes for a few laps – if anyone wants to join us we’ll be out there around 8:30.

Hey Marmaduke – 50:54

Friday - February 9th, 2007

I made it out at lunch for a great solo clean out run to the Breakwater.  I kept the pace consistent and just relaxed on the run.  It was a great break to the day and made for a very productive afternoon at work!

After work I joined the warehouse boys for a few beverages and a couple games of ‘Dock Hockey’ before heading home.  Grabbed some dinner and got cleaned up and then wandered out to ‘Lucky Bar’ late in the evening to hang with some friends and celebrate with 'Hey Marmaduke' at their CD release party.

I can run faster scared then he can mad – 57:11

Thursday - February 8th, 2007

Visualization can make all the difference - Ased looks nothing like a huge pissed off linebacker but today during our 1km intervals I turned him into one a couple of times

Ased’s plan for us was to do 5 – 1km intervals with a 2’ recovery.  My goal was to get a head start, stay in front of Ased and attempt to run all the intervals sub 4’.  I had to cut my recoveries short to keep the head start as Ased was running his intervals anywhere from 35-45” faster then me.  The visualization worked very well and kept me focused on running hard although I wasn’t able to keep all the intervals under 4’.

Here are my splits (and recoveries):

• 3'49" (1'43")
• 3'53" (1'13")
• 3'58" (1'11")
• 3'59" (1'21")
• 4'03"

It was a great workout and I was very pleased with the times even if they dropped on each interval.  There was no way I would of run that fast with out Ased back there pushing me – Thanks!!!


And one more “Thank-you” out to Finn, Mike, and Rumon, whom I borrowed this new format for designating minutes (‘) and seconds (“) from.  They all use this format on their blogs and it looks and reads much nicer then spelling or abbreviating the words each time.

“LOST” is back – 1:59:56

Wednesday - February 7th, 2007

Another great lunch run with Ased and Andrew G today.  We took it easy on the way out to Switch Bridge but then picked it up some on the way back towards town.  They are heading out tomorrow do run some 1km intervals and after a little arm twisting convinced me to join them - we’ll have to see how they go…

I made it out for run number two tonight while T was at the Youth Centre, a very relaxing solo trot down the Goose, along the Songhees and around Macaulay Elementary.

When we got home we grabbed some dinner and then lounged in front of the TV with 'Lost' for me and 'American Idol' for T.

Shampoo, Rinse, and Repeat

Tuesday - February 6th, 2007

Lately life has closely resembled the directions on a shampoo bottle – not many of them and particularly simple.  Mine goes something like this - Sleep, Eat, Work, Run, and hang with T, repeat daily.

The exception to that was no running today, the legs had earned a day off.

Not much on the go tonight, we had picked up a new dresser for T yesterday when we stopped in for a visit with Packman and family last night after the Youth Centre drop-in.  We were able to get that in T’s room tonight and clean up some around the house.  Last night during our visit Mrs. Packman treated us with some dessert, a very yummy apple crumble and ice cream - I like ice cream!

Running Scared – 2:04:03

Monday - February 5th, 2007

Not expecting any company today I was quite startled when Ased popped up beside me as I was winding my way past pedestrians along the Inner Harbour.  After settling down from the fright he gave me, we settled into a nice relaxing pace.  He had been planning on only going for an easy 30 minutes and then hitting the weight room back at his work but I coaxed him into joining me for a trip out to the end of the Breakwater and then back to work.

It was a Youth Centre night for T, this week they have started a “Girls Group” and tonight was a ‘Name Game Night’.  While T was at the Youth Centre, I went for another run, this time on the Goose and along the Songhees Walkway.

The legs are feeling good right now but the Epsom salt bath may have had something to do with that.  Will take tomorrow as a rest day and get back at it on Wednesday.

I found myself today – 3:00:56

Sunday - February 4th, 2007

No I didn’t have an epiphany or any thing like that, those were some lyrics from one of the songs I heard while running with T’s mp3 player this morning.  I had grabbed it while walking out the door thinking that some music on today’s long run would provide a welcome break from the everyday noises you hear while running.  I didn’t give much thought to what might be on her play list and was pleasantly surprised to hear some “A Perfect Circle” start things off and then some “Audioslave”, “Greenday”, and then another surprise as some “Bob Marley” came on.  I was thinking what an incredible musical ear my daughter has until things went more to the young girl music shortly after Bob when I think the entire Hilary Duff collection was queued up to play.  I took all I could but after a couple of songs had to turn it off

This afternoon T and I met some of the Ladies (Linds, Michelle and Rozzy) at Mayfair.  They were taking T out for a ‘coffee’ and shopping date, I came back home and took a nap.  Rozzy dropped T off at home when they were finished and T had a couple of new outfits and a bag of bath stuff.

We have spent the evening relaxing with some dinner and a movie.

Anderson Silva Wins by Submission at 2:11 in the 2nd rnd by tapout!

Saturday - February 3rd, 2007

T and I got to enjoy an amazing sleep in morning; we had nowhere to be and were in no rush to get up.  Once up we wandered up to the Square to enjoy a coffee (for me) and hot chocolate (for T) from Starbucks and then back home for a lazy morning – some breakfast and Saturday morning shows.

Early this afternoon T spent some time with her “Big” and I got caught up with some of the household chores.  Rogerson came over after lunch and we got deep into a game of ‘Axis and Allies’ while T was geeking on the puter’.

This evening T has gone over to Haley’s for a sleepover and I joined Uncle Jimmy for a night of UFC fights and was treated to his "Chicken Surprise" for dinner.

ZYM is yummy! – 52:58

Friday - February 2nd, 2007

My mouth was still sore this morning – it sucked!

Met up with Packman at lunch, he was running in to town on the Goose and I ran out to meet him, catching him just on the far side of Switch Bridge and then turned around and we ran back towards town together.  We got some samples of a product called “Zym”, an electrolyte drink tablet that dissolves in water – you just drop it in your water bottle, let it do its fizzy thing and then drink up.  Packman handed me a tube of tablets on our run and I tried some as soon as I got back to work and was impressed.  I used two tablets for a one litre water bottle, they took only a short time to dissolve, there was no carbonization and it tasted pretty good.

It was a Youth Centre night for T and she had her friend Denny come along too.  They spent most of their night in the gym playing indoor soccer, looked like a blast.  While waiting for them I went for a quick coffee with Fish and then hung out at Mayfair for a bit.

Ran into StJ after work and almost didn't recognize him, he's all bearded up.  He said he was heading home to shave it off so I had to get a picture before it disappeared:

My mouff is frooen – 48:16

Thursday - February 1st, 2007

I got out at lunch for a beautiful tempo cruise on the Breakwater, kept a very steady pace and only had to slow down to get around a few people along the Inner Harbour.  Ased was going out to do some intervals on the Goose but I think I’ll have to wait for next week to join him for those, not sure the legs would enjoy them much after the tire on Tuesday.

Gordie Tupper was doing his show along the Inner Harbour today, right in front of the Empress.  I ran right past him twice and both times couldn’t get up the courage to stop and introduce myself – not sure if it was because I didn’t want to intrude on his space or if I was just plain too chicken.

I had a dentist appointment right after work, had to get a couple of old metal fillings replaced which was not all that fun, my mouth is still frozen.  T and I had our course tonight, but I really didn’t feel up to it so dropped T off and then just came home and laid down for awhile.