WESTERN STATES TRAINING CAMP REPORT

The WS training camp is a blast! If you feel like spending 3 days running beautiful trails in sunny California amongst lovely people, then mark the Memorial weekend in your calendar for next year. Kudos to Greg, Tom and Donni plus all the volunteers for making it such a success. The course itself is really nice with lots of variety. Day 1 comprised of 51 km, a lot of it being downhill (with a couple of killer uphills) which absolutely hammers the quads and then on Day 2, you get to run 30.5 km on rolling terrain. Day 3 is a nice n' mellow 35 km with just enough downhills to make your tired, hammered quads s-c-r-e-a-m! Who would have thought that an uphill would look so appealing?!! The scenery is pretty and there's plenty of creeks to cool off in, plus the river in the bottom of the valley offers sweet relief on a hot day. What else can I tell you .... it was the best long weekend I've had in a long, long time doing my most favourite thing of all - trail running somewhere nice and warm! Plus we got to meet some AWESOME people out there. Good luck to everyone who is competing this year; I take my hat off to you. It's going to be one hell of a 102 mile course to run in one go!

WESTERN STATES TRAINING CAMP

We're heading out to Sacramento (Auburn area) for the WS training camp this weekend because it's PLAYTIME! Even though we're not running the race itself, I thought it'd be fun to run lots of mileage over 3 days in a place I've never been to, surrounded by other trail runners and plus it gives me a chance to dig out the tent and camp. Oh, and the weather over there is HOT! It's going to be a blast. It'll also be very cool to run the Western States course as it's a race name we're all familiar with. I'm not sure if my body is ready for a lot of long mileage, especially when it's back to back but it'll be fun trying. I'm also packing a good book, just in case I don't make the cut-off times and get to spend more time in camp. Either way, I'm looking forward to being able to r-e-l-a-x. Yum!

SIGNS

I ran to Canmore and back last Sunday and saw these signs as I approached the Nordic Centre!

Running solo, playing safe

I just bought 2 new toys to make me feel a little safer when I venture out by myself, especially for the longgggg days I'm planning for the summer. The first is my mate SPOT who will be coming with me on all my jaunts. The good thing about SPOT is that if the chips are down and I'm need of an emergency evacuation, then I can call for help regardless of where I am. This will be good whether I'm alone or in a group as we tend to get fairly remote on some of our runs and there is usually no cell phone coverage. The other great thing about this is that I can send an "okay" message so if I'm gone for a few days running, then folks at home can receive a message from me, saying I'm okay. I can also send a "help" message too. It's a very cool gadget to have. The second new toy is a small pen-sized bear banger kit. I bought this for peace of mind as bear spray (which I always carry) is pretty much last resort and hopefully the sound of a bear banger going off will be enough to scare away anything large with big teeth that wants a piece of me! It's not that we're falling over bears and cougars here but they're definitely out there sharing the same landscape as us. Most bears don't want anything to do with humans and vice versa but you never know when there's a bad-ass bear in the area.

Women over 40

THIS IS PRICELESS!

In case you missed it on 60 Minutes, this is what Andy Rooney thinks about women over 40:
60 Minutes Correspondent Andy Rooney (CBS)

As I grow in age, I value women over 40 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:

A woman over 40 will never wake you in the middle of the night and ask, 'What are you thinking?' She doesn't care what you think. If a woman over 40 doesn't want to watch the game, she doesn't sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do, and it's usually more interesting. Women over 40 are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won't hesitate to shoot you if they think they can get away with it. Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it's like to be unappreciated. Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over 40. Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 40 is far sexier than her younger counterpart. Older women are forthright and honest. They'll tell you right off if you are a jerk if you are acting like one. You don't ever have to wonder where you stand with her. Yes, we praise women over 40 for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it's not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed, hot woman over 40, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 22-year old waitress. Ladies, I apologize.

For all those men who say, 'Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?', here's an update for you. Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage. Why? ---> Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire pig just to get a little sausage!

I'M A BAD BLOGGER!

I keep forgetting to take my camera out with me; guess it takes a while to get used to this blogging lark! Had another fabulous weekend with some good weather .... it's great to feel that round, yellow thing in the sky shining down. I love being in the sun! Spent Saturday running some local trails but it wasn't so great. Oh well, sometimes you have one of "those" days where the body just doesn't seem to want to work. I managed to get 2.5 hours under my belt so that was good. On Sunday we hiked up Sulphur Mountain which still has quite a lot of sugary snow but it's in fairly good shape; this time last year we were hiking the same trail crutch-deep in snow (well Steve's a lot taller than me, so it was knee dip for him!!) Got out on my mountain bike after work tonight as it was another beautiful day. They're calling for rain and flurries for the rest of the week but hopefully it'll clear up by the weekend as I want to run something long (and fun).