Snow Day #2

Once again, I don't think too many people (if any) went running today. I went for a walk yesterday and that was hard enough. Between the puddles in the roads and the piles of snow still on sidewalks and trails, it was very difficult to walk and I couldn't imagine running in it.

Hopefully everyone is out enjoying the snow in some way - walking, skiing, snowshoeing, or curled up in front of the fire with a hot drink. Dan & I saw another set of ski tracks and some snowshoe tracks near our place on Christmas Eve. I still can't believe that we were skiing along Stoney Creek!

Hope to see everyone next Sunday!

SNOW!!!

As far as I know, no one went running this morning. Between the snow and it being only a few days until Christmas, it was hard to get out there. I hope everyone was able to go out for a walk, snowshoe, or a ski instead!

This is the trail along Stoney Creek at the base of Burnaby Mountain. Never thought I'd be skiing in Burnaby!

Oh Run All Ye Faithful

An awesome morning of running, food, mulled wine and friends! Thanks Rainy & Joe for putting this together again!

Route: starting at Rainy's parents' carport, we headed west on the trail, looped around New Brighton Park and back.
Distance: 5km loop run as many times as you wanted. Some only wanted one loop, but there were a few who went out for 5 loops and one (Rainy) who did 6.

Weather: Snow!! -2 to -1C
As you can see, a little snow doesn't keep these runners in bed.

Elizabeth and Little Joe tied for their holiday spirit outfits!

The Fire Chief and her assistant showed up at the end to help fold tarps.

Don't forget about the Trinity Street Light Run on Wednesday, 17 Dec. Meet at the foot of the Bridgeway tunnel at 6:30pm.

Annual Light Run

For anyone following along with the blog, here's the info for next Wednesday's run (6:30pm, 17th Dec).

From Rainy:

I believe the easiest place for us to meet will be at the foot of the Bridgeway tunnel.....parking anywhere along this street. The best landmark I can think of is to park after the big fence we run through when we come out of the trail and are heading towards New Brighton Park.

To get there by car....starting from Boundary Road and Cambridge Street...(as that is a good starting place intersection to reference) head west on Cambridge Street....(going down the hill). When you get to the 4 way stop sign near the bottom, turn right....you are now on Bridgeway. Proceed along Bridgeway going under the tunnel and after the road takes the sharp turn to the left....find a place to park. We can congregate here...then run to the street of lights from this location....not quite as far as running from E.Dailly and easier to get back to after our run. Instead of bringing a toonie for me to collect....bring a toonie or two for the donation boxes along the way. This is a street that you will be more than disappointed to miss.....!! There will be no interval training, no hill workouts, no tempo runs....just a very enjoyable "jingle jog" ....!!!

(Click the map for a larger view.)

Deer Lake & upcoming "Oh Run All Ye Faithful" run/walk

Route: We parked at Moscrop school and ran east along Moscrop/Deer Lake Parkway to the start of the trails that would take us around Deer Lake. We entered the park at Wayburne Dr. We looped Deer Lake counter-clockwise. To make sure we had enough distance, we did two loops of the track at Burnaby Central before running back.

This map is a general overview of our route. The yellow on the left is our route to the trails. The yellow on the right is the route to Burnaby Central. The pink is our trip around the lake.

This is a more detailed map of the trails we took around Deer Lake (follow the pink line). Thanks to the City of Burnaby for the map.


Distances:
Moscrop parking lot to start of trails: 925m
Trails around Deer Lake: 7.745km
To school: 207m
Track: 800m
Back to trails: 207m
Back to Moscrop: 925m
Total: 10.8km

Weather: cloudy, 7C

Next Sunday: 2nd Annual "Oh Run All Ye Faithful" Holiday Spirit Run! Meet anytime from 6am till noon for running, walking, fun, food, and beverages. Bring a little something to share with the group. Joe will be brewing his amazing mulled wine again. Wear your holiday finest!
We will start from Rainy's parents' carport off the alley north of Edinburgh, just west of Gilmore. You can't miss it! The course is a 5km loop around New Brighton done as many times as you'd like.

Eileen Dailly to Raymur and back

Route: We left Eileen Dailly and headed west along Pandora.  At Kootenay St, we zig-zagged to Adanac.  We continued to Raymur, went north to Franklin, and headed east.  We jumped over to Pandora for a change from Wall St.  After running through the PNE, we got onto the trail to complete our run back.

Distances: 
Eileen Dailly to Raymur: 6.5km
Raymur to Eileen Dailly: 7.6km
Total: 14.1km

Weather: foggy, some rain on the way back, 10C 

Next Sunday: meet at Moscrop School parking lot (Moscrop and Huxley - one block west of Willingdon) for a guided run (by Kanta & Dom) around Deer Lake Park on the newly completed trail!

Burnaby Lake

Route: Clockwise around Burnaby Lake starting at the sports complex parking lot. See http://traininginburnaby.blogspot.com/2008/11/burnaby-lake.html for the map.

Distance: approx. 10km

Weather: Cold & frosty, but beautifully sunny! 1-3C

Thanks to Kathy for the pictures from today's run!

Sunday, 23 Nov

Just in case anyone checks - we will be running at Burnaby Lake on Sunday for our 10km. See you there!

They ran across Africa …

They ran across Africa … through three countries… over 4200km…100 marathons… but their work isn’t over…

See- Them- Run

Erin Van Wiltenburg from See- Them- Run is coming to Vancouver to share their amazing documentary and stories from their inspiring journey.

Please join ROOM TO READ’s Vancouver spokesperson, Global BC’s Chris Gailus, and the Vancouver Chapter of Room to Read, as they welcome Victoria’s Erin Van Wiltenburg in support of ROOM TO READ’s educational projects in Zambia.

• Wednesday, November 26, 2008
• 7pm – 8:45 pm
• $20.00
• The Ridge Theatre 3131 Arbutus St., Vancouver

Tickets are available online at www.festivalcinemas.ca or at The Ridge Theatre.

Erin and her running partner Reuben Jentink, along with friend Patrick Donker and a support team, spent four months crossing Namibia, Zambia and Tanzania to fundraise and support sustainable education projects in Africa with Room to Read partners with local communities throughout the developing world to establish schools, libraries and other educational infrastructure. www.roomtoread.org

Join us at the Ridge Theatre on November
26th and be inspired while raising funds for children’s education in Zambia.

Buy your tickets now at www.festivalcinemas.ca

ERIN ~ Born in Victoria, BC, Erin grew up running backyard trails and since then has never found the sense to stop. Her childhood fascination with cross-country running led her to recreationally compete in various half marathons and marathons across Canada, and has fostered an unusual appreciation for long distances. In 2005, Erin initiated a project in rural Kenya in which she worked and learned from abandoned, disabled children. The experience ignited her growing passion for the African people. Erin is highly committed to ideas of global and social responsibility and she exemplifies a lifestyle of ethical intention. She shares her experiences with students across the province, and through public speaking opportunities challenges others to do the same. Erin is currently studying at the University of Victoria and is pursuing a career in International Development. After completing her education, Erin intends to work and live in Africa permanently.

Tim Horton's to Clark Drive and back

Route: Started at Halifax & Douglas (behind the Tim Horton's), along the sky train line and N. Grandview Hwy to Clark Drive at 4th Ave. Returned along the same route.
Distance: 6km each way - 12km total

Weather: no rain, 9-10C

Burnaby Lake

Route: Anti-clockwise around Burnaby Lake starting at the sports complex parking lot.

Map from www.metrovancouver.org.

Distance: approx. 10km

Weather: wet! 11C

Next week: meet at Halifax & Douglas (lots of parking in area) at 8:00am for a run to Science World.

Eileen Dailly to Commercial and back

Route: We left Eileen Dailly and headed west along Pandora and then jumped over to Adanac. We continued to Woodland (one block past Commercial) and headed back to the centre along Wall St and the trail.

Distances:
Eileen Dailly to Woodland: 5.6km
Woodland to Eileen Dailly: 7km
Total: 12.6km

Weather: wet/rainy, 11C

Training schedule on-line

I've put Rainy's full schedule on-line. The document is posted at
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p7Y075o3KMDAOp9FIfyIIKg
You can switch between the two sheets of the spreadsheet by clicking on the links at the top of the page just below the heading.

Eileen Dailly to Barnet Beach and points in between

Route: There were two main groups today. Everyone started off at Eileen Dailly and ran to the north end of Cliffe Ave - purple line on first map. Some folks continued on to Barnet Beach - dark blue line on second map. Most of the runners in each group came back along the Penzance trail - light blue line on first map.

Distances:
Eileen Dailly to Cliffe Ave: 4.5km
Cliffe Ave to Barnet Beach and back: 5.6km
Cliffe Ave to Eileen Dailly: 4.9km

Weather: sunny/foggy, 3C-6C

A place to share info while we're training

I'd actually started this blog last year and never did anything with it. (Possibly because I didn't end up training for a marathon...) Any way, I thought I'd try to restart it and see if we found it useful for our 2008/2009 half & full marathon training runs.

My hope is to map our runs each week and post the images here with brief descriptions. If mapping a particular route doesn't work, I can write up a more detailed description. If others are interested, we can take turns writing posts. It can also be used to share any other info related to training that we feel would be interesting/useful to others.

Let me know what you think. We can revive things as we go.