Ah the glamorous life of the wannabe distance runner.   One day you are fine and the next day you are dropping body parts at the pool.  Is there any wonder why I am single?

DC Rainmaker who PR’ed in Ironman Florida

Pamela who rocked the Beach to Battleship in North Carolina

Local ultra-marathon runners Gary Robbins and Tamsin who came in 3rd and 1st in the Mountain Masochist 50 mile trail race.

And everyone who ran in the local Haney to Harrison 100 km race in very wet and cold conditions.

I did manage to make it off the couch on two occasions this weekend after completing my 2 week recovery from the TNFEC 50 mile race .  Yesterday I went to Lynn Canyon for an 11 km mudfest run along those soggy root infested trails.  This was mostly an orientation trip for me in preparation for next weekends 24 km Phantom Trail Run race.  It was cold and pouring rain the entire time however I did enjoy being out in the mountains.  The only exception was running across the Lynn Canyon Suspension bridge which for some reason really creeps me out.  It was great to see all of the other runners out there smiling at me as they worked their way along the trails.

Today I want out for a 30 km run which took me along the Pacific Ocean, through Stanley Park and then up Capilano Canyon to Cleveland Dam.  It was fairly wet out so I pretty much had most of the trails to myself, well,  in the beginning anyway.  The last 2 km up to the Dam were packed with people and their dogs.  There was even a group of Asian tourists that was hiking the trail which really surprised me since the conditions were not that pleasant.   I decided to take a bit of a break since it was pretty crazy busy so I stopped at the Dam to take this video of the huge volume of water that was flying over the spillway (careful, the audio is pretty loud).

I then left the Dam and then continued down the mountain to the Capilano Fish Hatchery.  There were also a lot of tourists there today however they were not there to view the salmon (too late in the season for that).  Instead they were watching the a couple of brave souls that were running the rapids in their kayaks.  I stopped to take a quick video of some of that action before I left (sorry about the finger getting in the viewfinder, still getting used to taking videos with my iPod).

I managed to get in a good 30 km on todays run which certainly helps to boost my confidence as I enter the final month of preparation for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 km race in San Francisco.  Over the next month I really need to fine tune my gear for that race.  I have a new pair of New Balance 749 trail shoes on order (tough to find size 13 trail shoes in Canada) which I hope to break in before the race.  I have also ordered a new pair of Mobil Trail shorts from Sugoi to have as back-up for my current pair.  The coolest thing that I plan to wear is my new Sugoi tatoo arm warmers.  They are wicked!  You get all the coolness of tattooed arms without any of the pain!

Totally rad arm warmers!

An anonymous person left a Remembrance Day poppy on my desk at work this week.  Most people put the poppy on immediately.  However I wanted to pause and think about what the poppy symbolized and more importantly, what Remembrance Day meant to me personally before I wore the poppy. It’s not so easy because I have never met anyone who served in the World Wars, or even the Korean War.  So I had to reflect on this matter for a few days.  I realized that while I may despise war, I certainly  value the contribution that our Canadian troops have made as part of their peace keeping missions.   Especially when those mission put them in dangerous locations like Afghanistan.  So I resolved that I would wear the poppy this week in honour of all of those brave Canadian men and women who gave their lives on behalf of world peace.  Sure there might be critics like Ann Coulter who claim that Canada has it’s head in the sand and is relying on the U.S. to lead world change, however I don’t believe that to be true.  We Canadians do our part, when the cause is just and the need is great.  We just don’t need to seek the spotlight.

]]> http://www.studioyvr.com/?feed=rss2&p=2399 2 http://www.studioyvr.com/?p=2399http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/StudioYvr/~3/0NpC7jY8SZs/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/feedburner/KOfE/~3/H3dF4iVGURc/ http://www.studioyvr.com/?p=2395#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:19:08 +0000 Studioyvr http://www.studioyvr.com/?p=2395 Hyundai Canada comes to rescue after one of their customers car is destroyed by a BMW SUV.  Way to go Hyundai for turning a bad situation into a very funny story.

Bring sally up
And bring sally down
Lift and squat
Gotta tear the ground

Old miss Lucy’s dead and gone
Left me here to weep and moan

• Half of all the food produced in the U.S. is thrown away
• Early religious dogma was based upon the golden rule that any interpretation of scripture that bred hatred and disdain was illegitimate.
• Creativity and productivity is greatly enhanced by taking regular sabbaticals.  1 year of structured learning every 7 years is optimal and has been proven to be financially positive.
• It takes 10 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of food in the industrialized food chain.
• The current urban development model will become unsustainable by 2019.
• Only 2% of all people have the ability/maturity/stability to become great leaders.
• The light that falls onto our retina is meaningless.  Our brain learns to recognize patterns and therefore defines the reality that we see.
• Automobile traffic in the U.S. creates 45% of the worlds air pollution
• It is not enough to do one good deed everyday.  You must do good deeds, all day, everyday; in order to become truly compassionate.
• The essence of the Jewish Torah is “That what is hateful to you do not do unto your neighbour”.  The rest of the scripture is considered by some to be only commentary.
• Independence of nations without infrastructure is meaningless.  Example = Iraq

I am clean shaven and preparing to grow the biggest “Mo” that I can as part of the Movember Canada effort to raise money to fight prostate cancer.   Please consider sponsoring me if you can spare a few bucks.   Here is a photo of me from the 2008 Movember celebration. Motastic!