Sunday, May 18, 2008

Hiatus

Jon and I saw plenty of neat sights this past Sunday on our little jaunt around Boyden Lake. There were woodpeckers, turkey vultures, Canada geese with their chicks and of course horses. 13 miles in no time at all.

I'm now in Bathurst helping to take care of my Mom who is doing very poorly but is resting comfortably in the hospital under palliative care. I've been running every day and it's helping to relieve the stress. My posting will be taking a bit of a hiatus as we take time to be with her as much as we can. Please say a little prayer for her. Thanks!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Yet another (Slacker) report

Only the title of this post has been changed to protect unsuspecting readers from unnecessary title duplication.

Wow, It's been awhile since I've had the time or felt the urge to report in on my running around the country. The trip to Ottawa was good and we spent most of the time driving or packing and moving and then driving back again. I found time to squeeze in 2 runs of 6 and 8 miles during the week and made the most of the great paths and trails along the Rideau River and canal system.
And of course my handy camera was always in my pocket at the ready.
Chris got this humongous 27 foot truck for the move and we filled it for the single cross city trip.
And with some help from his buddies and family it all went smoothly and quickly.
And don't forget about Andrew's new apartment. It's very close to everything and he's got some good roommates for next year.

Fast forward to the end of the week, and 11 hour drive back home and quick emails to Andrew and company re our Sunday long run. All systems were go, so the next morning I was up early again for yet another curious border interrogation, "You're going where? And you're doing what??". But they let me through once again.

Nice to catch up with the boys and the run was fairly uneventful except for once when I had to stop because I was laughing so hard at Andrew's joke. And then he made me spit out my cookie when he pointed to a wet patch on the road saying "See, that's what's left of me from last weeks run!" We took it very easy today as I only did 18 miles while J & A went for 20. Since I had some spare time while they did their extra miles I whipped the car down the road and setup an instant water and fig newton pit stop for them at mile 19. They seemed very eager and interested in my offerings.
Since then things have been quiet, just trying to get caught up on chores and work around the house. Real work has been busy as I prepare for a couple of days of meetings in Nova Scotia next week. Running has been almost back to normal as I'm doing 6-8 miles every other day. Total for last week was 43 as I broke through the 1000 mile barrier for the year so far. Today's long run was canceled with Andrew nursing his sore heel and so I just did an easy 10 miles when I had a chance later in the day.

The focus in the next few weeks will be to get ready for the Cabot Trail relay which I'm doing once again. As of now my team is short one runner and I may get double duty with legs 2 and 14 which will give me about 38km of running over 2 days. The legs are not overly hilly and so they shouldn't pose too much of a problem as long as I remember to conserve a bit of effort for the 2nd day (actually night).

Well, that's it for now! I'm hoping to be more regular with my posts and will try to at least log my runs as I go along and try to figure out what's next. Meanwhile, take care on the roads and Happy Mother's day to all the wonderful Mom's out there!