January Events

2014 is well underway - so far it feels good! We are keeping up with our activities committing to do an activity every day.  Neil has joined me for our local Whonnock Yoga class and he is noticing the benefits of stretching. Our weekend outings are starting to increase in length to prepare us for some upcoming planned ultra events. It finally snowed on the local mountains which allowed us to add snow shoeing to our training one evening this past week. I really enjoy the outings in the dark, whether they be trail running or snow shoeing, there is something magical about moving through the trails with a single beam of light in the dark. I could run all night! (which I have done many times ;-) )

Dog Mountain Snowshoe Outing with a full moon lighting the night. There were sections along the way that were lacking snow and a bit dodgy although some sections were deep with very nice powder snow.

Dave and I with the full moon overhead.

 Nice views of Vancouver below.

Saturday night we attended the Vancouver Canucks vs. Calgary Flames hockey game. Vancouver won but not without it being an eventful evening with several brawls, overtime and finally winning in a shoot out.

 At the Canucks game - a random "passionate" fan bought me a beer!

 

Sunday morning Neil and I met Dave at the Jaycee House in North Vancouver to do a section of the Dirty Duo Trail Race route. We have signed up for the 50 km Dirty Duo in early March so will be training on the course over the next while.  My fellow weekend training buddies have moved away! Craig moved to Kamloops and prior to this Liza moved to Calgary. The last few weekend outings with Neil and Dave I have suggested the guys go ahead and I do my own thing. I have actually enjoyed my solo outings. I carry a smart phone and a few safety items such as an extra layer. Today there were plenty of people out so I never felt concerned. I had a great 2.5 hour outing...just me/myself and I. The plan was to meet back at the car at 12:45 pm.

 I arrived back at the car at 12:43!

I took a "Selfie" to mark the finish of my run once back at the car.

 Here comes Neil and Dave

They arrived at 1:00 pm. That's pretty good that we finished so close in time. 

 

We all set out from Jaycee house to the Gazebo in LSCR, then our routes were different. I ran down Homestead where I saw a few familiar faces and looped back up to head back to Jaycee house. It's a great workout with lots of climbing and I noticed they have added a few more board walks that were less slippery than the older ones. Some of those old board walks are slopped at a terrible angle and the added winter slime make them so dangerous. A hiker ahead of me slipped right off the boardwalk at one point!  Looking forward to me/myself and I increasing the mileage over the next few months.

Happy Trails for 2014!