Monthly Archives: August 2014

#100happydays Day 84 Run for the Trails!

#100happydays Day 84 Run for the Trails!

We are always happy when we have a local event to promote. Run for the Trails is a local event that will be held on September 14th, 2014 at Scanlon Creek just outside of Bradford, Ontario. Put on by the Friends of Scanlon Creek, this race will showcase all the work the group has been doing the last few years to make Scanlon an excellent place to run. Proceeds of the Run For The Trails will support of the revitalization of the Scanlon Creek Conservation Area.

Run for the Trails

Run for the Trails

The run, as you might have guess, is all on trails. Scanlon offers wide swooping double tracks, some challenging single track trails as well as lots of great hills with a little bit of woodwork thrown in for fun. The day includes challenging 7 Km trail run/walk and a fun 1 Km trail run/walk for a maximum of 150 enthusiasts.

You can register on line here or I believe if the race isn’t full there will be race day registration starting at 8am. The race starts at 10am. Click here for more information.

 

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#100happydays Day 83 Hill Training

#100happydays Day 83 Hill Training

Hill Training Motivation from Get Out There Magazine

Hill Training Motivation from Get Out There Magazine

This morning was the first day of a weekly rotation of hill training. Only 4 hills today but over the next few weeks the number of repeats will increase as will the angle and length of hill.

Hill training is a necessary evil when training for a race. We often skip speed work to work on our strength (as well as improve our form) and hills do that.

Hills - Down and up.

Hills – Down and up. (The hill is actually a lot longer and steeper than it looks here. I’m just not too good at capturing it with my camera.)

There are lots of different ways to approach hill training. Check out these tips in Runners World.

The best way is just to do them.

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#100happydays Day 82 Cross training with a hula-hoop!

#100happydays Day 82 Cross training with a hula-hoop!

So the other day we were running through Walmart looking for bug spray when we passed a bin of hula-hoops, on sale no less.

Laughing we selected two of them. A couple of years ago we went to a Hula-hoop exercise class called Hulabics. What a hoot! Trying to get the ring to circle around us was one thing but then while ”hooping”, trying to walk & run, kick a ball, play catch and jump about. We cracked right up in the class. Apparently I do a great chicken walk while “hooping”. It was a good thing it was a small class.

It really is a lot of fun, the look on my face is just concentration to keep the hoop moving!

It really is a lot of fun, the look on my face is just concentration to keep the hoop moving!

It looks a little silly, an adult playing with a hula-hoop but the games we played as children actually will benefit us as adults. Hula-hooping has many benefits. It is aerobic, it builds core strength, flexibility and balance, stamina and concentration oh yea, and it’s fun, all of which we all can use more of.

We spent $4.00 on our hoops, probably the cheapest piece of exercise equipment we will ever own.

 

 

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#100happydays Day 81 The Monday Long Run

#100happydays Day 81 The Monday Long Run

It’s not often we get to run long on a Monday. We started out in the forest but the bugs drove us out onto the side roads. We ran in new territory today but sure enough we ran into another runner that we knew. I could tell by the way he ran that it was Bob.

Long run day and there are the Queen Ann's Lace, their fragrance is lovely.

Long run day and there are the Queen Ann’s Lace, their fragrance is lovely.

It was a hot run in the muggy sunshine so after the run it was into the pool and a nice holiday afternoon with friends. Hey Sister!

After the run - the pool!

After the run – the pool!

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#100happy days Day 80 Back to Basics

#100happy days Day 80 Back to Basics

This long weekend is proving to be a busy one for us. Yesterday was the Bad Ass Dash (which we are feeling the effects of today), today was the last day of the sale at Running Free and we both worked, (great to see all our running friends) and tomorrow is the first long run of an intensive schedule getting us ready for the next “big event”.

We are both really looking forward to this month’s training run. July was a busy one with races or volunteering every weekend. In August we are going to concentrate on our training and get some long slow runs in. I think we both miss running for hours on our back county roads. August is the time for Queen Ann’s Lace, daises and the dreaded deer flies and I think we miss all of them.

Road side wild flowers

Road side wild flowers

There is a little story about Queen Ann’s lace or Daucus carota– wild carrot. Queen Anne was tatting white lace.  (Tatting is the all-but-lost art of making lace by hand.)  The beautiful white lace she was tatting became the white lacy flowers of the wild carrot plant.  She pricked her finger and one drop of blood oozed out.  This became the central dark red or purple sterile floret that is present on some, but not all, Queen Anne’s Lace flowers. Now you know.

Queen Ann's Lace

Queen Ann’s Lace

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#100happydays Day 79 – The Bad Ass Dash Challenge!

#100happydays Day 79  The Bad Ass Dash Challenge!

Wow, what a hoot! We just finished the Bad Ass Dash at the Roc in Georgiana. I’ve had to add a new category to the blog – Obstacle Races – because this race had 37 obstacles and not one of them involved mud! The Warrior Dash was a walk in the park compared to the Bad Ass!

Bad Ass Girls!

Bad Ass Girls!

The overall distance was only 7k but half way through, after 20 obstacles that involved running, climbing, somersaults, climbing over transport trailers, pushing tires, running pump tracks, carrying sandbags, dodging heavy bags, walking balance beams and crawling under stuff, we were beginning to feel it. In the video you can see that the first bag I passed swung back and walloped me!

 

After balancing on floating dock supports (I think that’s what they were) we found ourselves running up and down the Roc’s ski hill about 4 times then wadding through a waist deep pond.

At one point Glenis ended up on her belly on the floating dock things. I just crawled across them, my knees are shot!

At one point Glenis ended up on her belly on the floating dock things. I just crawled across them, my knees are shot!

After that it was back up the ski hill. Part way up we had to crawl on our backs up a water soaked sheet of vinyl under a cargo net while two eager volunteers sprayed water on us with fire hoses. That had to be the toughest obstacle yet. I just wanted to lie on the ground to recover from the effort but no, we were off to the slip and slide, the inflatable over, under and through thing, the monkey bars, the tunnels in the sand and the over and under rain soaker.

#100 happydays - Sliding in to the finish! Too much fun!

#100happydays – Sliding in to the finish! Too much fun!

The last few obstacles gave us as another chance to climb over hay bales and some sort of cargo container and then it was up cargo netting and down the huge inflatable slide into a pool of water. I don’t even think I have listed all the stuff we did here. We both agreed that if we did all of this once a week we would be in great shape!

Along the way we ran into another Running Free Team athlete who was going to race the canine race with his beautiful dog. It was great to see a face that we knew at the event.

Gord

Gord

While all this was going on, Phil the photographer was there taking some great action shots. I’ll update this post when he post them to his site.

 

 

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Categories: #100HappDays, Obstacle Race | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

#100happydays Day 78 Gone in a flash!

#100happydays   Day 78 Gone in a flash!

We can’t believe July is over! I think we are still waiting for summer to start and then all of a sudden we are hearing back to school commercials!

Now the count down is on to our next adventure! 6 weeks to go!

 

What happened to July? Half the summers is over!

What happened to July? Half the summers is over!

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