Two weeks to go...

I haven't really been training, so I haven't been posting. That's not a good thing since it's only two weeks until the Victoria Marathon. I have the option of switching to the half. That would probably be the smart thing to do. But, I'd like to see if I can do two fulls within 4 months of each other. I'm sure it's very doable if one trains properly... Oh well, I'll see what I decide in two weeks.

Sunday, 9 Aug 2009

Today was pretty much a repeat of the 19th July run. It was about 14.5km. We ran along the Adanac bike route from Eileen Dailly to Campbell Ave. We went north to Powell and turned east. We headed back the usual way along Wall St. and the trail.

We've been talking about doing a bike ride one Sunday instead of a run. I'll try to post the details when I know them.

Sunday, 26 July 2009

I didn't make it out for Sunday's run - too tired after biking to Comox and not sleeping much. Here are a few of the runners heading out at Burnaby Lake Sunday morning. Thanks to Suzanne for sharing her pictures.

Sunday, 19 July 2009

Today's route was about 14.5km. We ran along the Adanac bike route from Eileen Dailly to Hawks Ave. What a nice neighbourhood - lots of cool homes and amazing gardens. We went north to Powell and turned east. We headed back the usual way along Wall St. and the trail.

Next week (26 July) is 26km. Then, we're going to shake it up a bit and change the Victoria marathon schedule a little. Instead of doing another long run on the long weekend (2 Aug), we'll do a short run (15-16km) and save the long run for the following week. On the 9th, we'll do the two bridges run counter-clockwise. It's about 28km. See this post for a write up on the last time we did it.

See everyone at Burnaby Lake Wednesday for our run & tailgate party!

Back in the saddle

Or, to be more precise... back on the roads. What I'm about to tell you is all Tony's fault. He was training with us for the Seattle marathon, but waited too long to sign up for it. When he tried, it was sold out. No point wasting all that training, so he decided to sign up for the Royal Victoria Marathon on Sunday, 11 October. Well, that got others talking. I said I'd do the half and cheer him on. I've done the half a few times and the marathon once. (It was my first full.) When the group got together for a Wednesday night post-run tailgate party, Rainy & Joe mentioned that they were doing the Vic full. Mike said he'd like to do it. So did Dan. I'll cut to the chase - I'm signed up for the full marathon. Now, "signed up" is different from "doing" it. I'll have to see how the training goes. Tony has been following the schedule for first timers on the Victoria marathon website. Unfortunately, he's already at something like 25km. So much for a break...

So, we'll be at Eileen Dailly this Sunday at 7:3oam for a 15km run. Next week is 26km or something like that. I may or may not map our runs, but I'll try to post our adventures every week.

Happy running.

What's next?

Now that the marathon is over, what do we do now? It's back to running at 8am from Eileen Dailly (shorter, more sane runs), biking, hiking, and other summer activities. We're still running Wednesdays at 6:30pm as well. I think we'll be doing these from Burnaby Lake for the summer. Bring a snack and a chair for the tailgate party after the run! I'll try to post any special events or plans, but just in case I miss one, give someone a call or email if you're not sure what's happening.

Enjoy the sun!

Canada Day 2009

So, what do runners do on Canada Day?

First, you dress up in your finest Canadian running gear...

Then you run...

If you've just done a marathon, you relax while the others run...

Thanks to Suzanne for the great photos!!!

We did it!!!!!

Woooo hooooooo!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! What an event! Eleven of us ran the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll - 9 in the full, 2 in the half.

Back row: Joe, Debbie, Trish, Kanta, Dom, Terri
Front row: Dan, Rainy, John (very brave people - squatting down like that after running a very difficult marathon!)

The two half-marathoners, Joanne and Andrea, were long gone by the time we all finished, so I didn't get a photo of them.

Trish, Terri, Kanta, and Debbie at the start line.

Congratulations everyone!!! Trish & I got personal bests! I broke my previous "best" time by 13 minutes for a 4:51:58 finish! I'm very happy! A very big THANK YOU to Trish for keeping me going through the race. Without her I would've given up and walked much more of the course. She ran so strong and kept a positive attitude. Thank you!!

What a course. It was hot. It was hilly. The three out-and-backs were deadly. The organization of the event was top-notch though - right from the package pickup all the way through to the finish line volunteers. I'd totally recommend any Rock n Roll event - they are superb. (This was my second.) I'm not sure if I'd recommend the Seattle full marathon though. The half is fine, but the full course was very difficult.

Once again, congratulations all. It's time for some very much deserved rest after many, many months of training. It will be a summer of easy running, some hiking, some biking, and lots of relaxing.

Oh yes, a very big THANK YOU to Suzanne and Gary for being our drivers this weekend!!

It's getting close!

The number in the counter at the bottom of the page is getting mighty small....

Sunday, 21 June 2009

Last training run!!!!!

Route: counter clockwise around Burnaby Lake. See http://traininginburnaby.blogspot.com/2008/11/burnaby-lake.html for the map.

Distance: approx. 10km

Weather: a bit of rain.

Next week: NOTHING on Sunday! However, the BIG DAY is Saturday! See you in Seattle!

Sunday, 14 June 2009

Route: We headed along Pandora, through the PNE grounds, to Gastown. We got to hear the clock go off at 9am. We headed up Cambie, over the bridge and back towards Burnaby along the new Greenway path. A few of us tried to sneak out at Timmy's, but only two were successful. The rest of us ran up Carlton to Pandora and back to the centre.

Distance: My GPS said 21.5km. I think Trish's said about 23km. But, the map shows 21.2km.

Weather: a very nice day with a cool breeze. 14-17C

Next week: a very easy, short run! No more than an hour or about 8-10km. Wooo Hooo!!

Sunday, 7 June 2009

Whoops! Sorry I'm so late - Internet problems and then we went to Thetis Island for a few days. I'll post this one and last week's right away!

Route: We've done this one before, but I had to modify it to include Rainy's addition. (See the blue line.) Actually, I'm not sure exactly where she ran, but she was ahead of us coming off the overpass over the highway and didn't hear our whistles and calls over the good song she was listening to. So, she went her way and we went our way. The good thing was that we all ended up at the same spot!

Distance: 13km

Weather: quite nice for a run.

Sunday, 31 May 2009

Route: We started at the Home Depot on Gilmore. We ran east on the new Greenway trail, ran the north side of Burnaby Lake, and into New West. Once there, we ran along railway tracks and some trails to the New West Quay. We got onto the Lakes bike trail that took us to Deer Lake and then back to Home Depot.


Distance: 33km by my GPS, but not quite that far according to the map.

Weather: HOT! 15-18C

Sunday, 24 May 2009

Route: Gotta love it when we run a route we've already done! No maps to make, so it's an easy post today. We ran along the bike route to Cliffe Ave. Just past there (at the 5km point), Jacquie's group turned around. Trish and I continued along the trail to the Barnet Hwy. We turned around at the parking lot for Barnet Marine Beach (about 6.8km). Dan and Brent continued to the loop at the beach.

Distance: Jacquie's group 1 - 10km, Trish & I - 14km, Dan & Brent - 15km

Weather: sunny!! 14-15C

Next week: We are meeting at on Dawson (at Gilmore) at the entrance to Home Depot, 7:30am, for a 30-ish km run. There will be some going shorter distances, so don't feel you need to do the whole route. We are planning on running the new bike trail towards New West, and going around Burnaby and Deer Lakes.

15-17 May 2009 - a bit late...

Route: Dan & I did our long run on Friday instead of Sunday since we were at the cabin in Birken. We drove into Whistler to run on the trails around the Village (see map for more detail). We started at Meadow Park Sports Centre, went around Lost Lake (it's not really lost cuz we found it), through the Village, past Alta Lake, Nita Lake and Alpha Lake. We retraced our steps to Alta Lake and then ran on Alta Lake Road for a bit - there was some construction at Rainbow Park, so we couldn't run on the trail there. Passed a bear having lunch beside the road. Luckily it wasn't interested in us since we didn't have much left in the tank at that point. Ran back into the trails and headed back for a loop around the Whistler Golf Course and then back to Meadow Park. Distance: My GPS and my very rough mapping of the route say we did 26-28km. But, we're sure we did at least 30km given the time we were out.

Weather: sunny, sunny, sunny.

Sunday: Unlike Dan & I, the Sunday group did complete the full 32km. Suzanne and Trish did bike support while Debbie, Tony, John, Dom, Joe, Kanta and Rainy ran. Kelly, Leah, Joanne and Ernie started with the group and turned back at 30 minutes. They ran from Home Depot, along the bike route, down 6th to Main, around False Creek to Jericho and back. From the look of this picture, they had amazing weather too.

Coming up: Tomorrow is a "short" run of about 12-15km. The following week is our last long run (yippee!). We will be meeting at 7:30. I'm not sure if the location has been decided or not.

Sunday, 10 May 2009 - Happy Mother's Day

Route: Starting at Eileen Dailly, we ran the trail to Wall St. and turned south onto Victoria. Up Victoria to Adanac, to Lakewood, and onto Charles. We turned east, ran a bit of a zig-zag route to Carleton, and then to Pandora for the home stretch.
Distance: 13km

Weather: sunny, 11-12C

Sunday, 3 May 2009

Route: The Two Bridges - counter-clockwise. We started at Eileen Dailly, ran along the trail to the Iron Workers' Memorial Bridge, west through North Van & West Van, over the Lions Gate Bridge, through Stanley Park, east through downtown and Gastown, along Wall St. and back to Eileen Dailly along the trail.

The runners were Dom, Kanta, Debbie, Terri & Dan. Dom & Dan were running too fast to be in the photo.

Suzanne gave us all a boost on the home stretch by meeting us on the trail and cheering us on! She was also our paparazzi.

Distance: 29km by my GPS, 28km according the the map. I'm going with 29...

Weather: I didn't look up the temperatures for the morning, but it was a nice day to run! Some sun, not much wind, and just the right temperature.

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Instead of a run, some of us went to Mt. Gardner on Bowen Island for a 17km hike. We had an amazing day for it and lots of great company! It was organized by a friend of mine, Mark, who runs Sea to Sky Expeditions - wilderness adventure tours.

This is the view from the top of Mt. Gardner, looking down at Snug Cove on Bowen and across to West Van and the North Shore mountains.

Yes, there really was snow! We hiked through quite a bit on the way down. This is Kelly, Joanne, and Trish.

Sunday, 19 April 2009 - Sun Run

Route: Most of us know the Sun Run route, so I won't describe it. However, not as many know about the pre-Sun Run route. That starts at Eileen Dailly, heads west along Pandora, through the PNE and onto Dundas. From Dundas to Wall St, up Clarke to Hastings and then to Howe and Georgia where the group meets. While on Hastings, be sure to say Hi to all the guys who wish you good luck in the race.

Distance: somewhere between 8.7-8.9km.

Weather: Great for a Sun Run day! No rain! 9-11C

Sunday, 12 April 2009 - Happy Easter!

Route: We ran from Eileen Dailly to the new trail under the sky train. We connected with it at Home Depot on Gilmore. We followed this east to Clark where we ran up to 6th Ave to Main and then along False Creek to the Cambie Bridge. We crossed the bridge and headed back along our usual route until Raymur. We zig-zagged north to Wall St and ran back to the centre. The big yellow blob at the end of our route is us doing a couple laps around the track to try to get a bit more distance in.
Distance: 24km

Weather: RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. 8C

Thanks to Jacquie who braved the rain and did bike support for us. And thanks also to the two Easter Bunnies who showed up at Timmy's!

Easter Sunday - 12 April

We had a great snowshoe trip to Cypress Mountain on Sunday (the 5th)! As soon as I get a chance to download my pics (or receive some from the other snowshoers), I'll post one or two. We enjoyed a nice walk to Hollyburn Lodge and back. A few of us headed part way up the trail to Hollyburn peak. However, we had to boot it down to make it back in time for some free pancakes, coffee, hot chocolate and sunshine! What a great day.

Next Sunday we are meeting at Eileen Dailly at 8am to do approximately 25km. Others will be going further and there will be some going shorter. There will be something for everyone, so we're hoping to see you out on Sunday! And maybe we'll see the Easter Bunny too... Bring your baskets to collect some goodies.

Snowshoeing on Sunday, 5 April

Have you seen the mountains? They look amazing!! It looks like it’s going to be perfect weather to head up to Cypress on Sunday for some snowshoeing.

Location: We will meet at Eileen Dailly at 8am to carpool up Cypress Mountain to the Nordic area. (If you prefer, meet us on the mountain at 8:45am in the Nordic area under/near the snowshoe tent.)

If you are uncertain about the weather, arrive at Eileen Dailly with your running gear as well so that you have the option to run from ED instead of snowshoeing. (I snowshoe in pretty much the same clothes that I run in, so it’s really easy to do one or the other without brining a lot of clothes along.)

Trail tickets: $10.

Snowshoes: If you do need to rent them, snowshoes and a trail ticket are $25.23 (plus taxes??). You may be able to borrow a pair from someone who isn’t going.

I will put together a couple of suggestions for routes – a hilly route and a not-so-hilly route, approximately 1-1.5 hours long. This is also Springfest – a fun day to thank the guests of the Nordic area for a great season. There will be free pancakes from 9am-11am. A perfect way to wind up our snowshoeing! :)

Sunday, 29 March 2009 - Diva on the Run

Route: There are three sections to today's run.
Part 1: In YELLOW is our "warm up". Debbie, Kanta, and I ran from the Jericho sailing club, along the water to the base of the Burrard Bridge. We turned around and pretty much followed the same route back.
Part 2: In PINK is the Diva on the Run route (approximately). It started at the Jericho sailing club, headed west zig zagging through the park. We turned west and headed along the beach for about 2 or 3km and then did a U-turn to run to the finish line at Jericho.
Part 3: Since we didn't quite get enough..., the BLUE line is our route to Milestone's on 4th for brunch.

Weather: It was wonderful! Sunny the whole time! 2-5C. A perfect run day.

Distances: Part 1: 11.3km
Part 2: 8km
Part 3: 2.7km
Total: 22km

Next week: Snowshoeing! Let's meet at Eileen Dailly at 8am to carpool up to Cypress Mountain. We can do a one hour or so snowshoe and then head back to the Nordic base area before 11am for some free pancakes! Yep, free pancakes. It is the Nordic area’s Spring Fest – where we thank everyone for a great winter season. There’s food (pancakes, bbq), entertainment (races, dummy parade, slush cup…), and prizes. It’s lots of fun!

Sunday, 22 March 2009

Sorry this is so late - haven't been on the computer much lately.

Any way, I didn't run with the group this week - I went with the Eileen Dailly Sun Run training group. The others did about 11km - Eileen Dailly to Templeton and back. That's about all I know of their route.

Next week: The Diva 8k run! We are meeting at Jericho yacht club at 7:30am. Kanta and I will run until 9am when the race starts. The rest of the group will continue their run and head back to Jericho for our big finish. ;) Everyone is welcome to come down. We'll be going for brunch after the race.

Snowshoeing on Sunday, 22 March

We thought it would be fun to go snowshoeing instead of doing our 10km run on the 22nd. Everyone is welcome! Please pass this on to others you think would be interested. No special “skills” required – if you can walk, you can snowshoe.

Location: We will meet at Eileen Dailly at 8am to carpool up Cypress Mountain (http://www.cypressmountain.com/xc.html) to the Nordic area. (If you prefer, meet us on the mountain at 8:45am in the Nordic area under/near the snowshoe tent.)

Trail tickets: $10.

Snowshoes: if you are not able to make it and would be willing to lend your snowshoes to someone, please let me know. If you don’t have snowshoes, also let me know and I’ll try to match you up with a pair. If you do need to rent them, snowshoes and a trail ticket are $25.23 (plus taxes??).

I will put together a couple of suggestions for routes – a hilly route and a not-so-hilly route, approximately 1-1.5 hours long. They will both end at the Hollyburn Lodge where we can have coffee/tea/hot chocolate and yummy food! (They are known for their fruit crisp!)

There is a very easy and flat 1km trail that will take people into the Hollyburn Lodge for anyone who is injured, but thinks that is doable. (You can also walk/snowshoe in to the Lodge along the Parks trail for free if that’s as far as you want to go.) We will take the 1km route back to our cars after “snack time”.

We should be back at Eileen Dailly by 12-12:30.

Did I miss anything? Send me an email if you want more info.

Sunday, 15 March 2009

Route: We (Trish, Debbie, Kanta, Kelly and I) ran west along our usual route to Science World (along Adanac), turned left (south) and headed to Cambie Bridge. We crossed over the bridge and turned left (north) and ran to somewhere between Granville Bridge and Burrard Bridge. We were supposed to meet the rest of the group (Dom, John, Leo, Tanya) that had continued past Cambie and ran across Burrard Bridge, but we were running on different paths and missed each other. We did meet up with Tony and Joe though. We turned around and headed back along the north side of False Creek to Science World and back to Eileen Dailly the way we had come.

To and from Eileen Dailly:
Around False Creek:

Distance: 23km

Weather: 3-4C. We were lucky! No rain, no snow! A headwind on our way back along False Creek though.

Next week: Snowshoeing at Cypress!! Meet at Eileen Dailly at 8am to carpool up the mountain. More details to follow in an email. Contact me if you don't receive info by Monday.

Sunday, 8 March 2009 - 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: -2-0C, cold and clear.

Next week: We will be running from Eileen Dailly (8am), to Science World, to Burrard Bridge, and back (approx. 22-23km). Suzanne and Jacquie are riding their bikes. If you aren't interested in running that distance, join us on your bikes as well.

Snowshoeing: We are are still considering snowshoeing on Sunday, 22 March.

Saturday, 28 Feb 2009

Route: We did the usual route to Adanac and ran all the way to Science World. It wasn't quite long enough, so we ran along False Creek to the Cambie Bridge, up and over the bridge (using the pedestiran access - we didn't go all the way to the end where the cars go on and off), and back to Eileen Dailly along Adanac.

Distance: 19km

Weather: Sunny/overcast, 205C.

Next week: We are going to run our 10km at Burnaby Lake. See you at the parking lot at 8am!

Snowshoeing: We are thinking of snowshoeing instead of one of our 10km runs. The tentative date is Sunday, 22 March.

Sunday, 22 Feb 2009

Route: We ran west along Pandora, jogged down to Adanac and continued west to Kaslo. There we went north to Wall St., turned east and headed back along the trail. The little loop at the end is us going around the track once to get the last little bit of our 10km distance in. :)
Distance: 10km

Weather: rainy, 6C

Next week: The Half Way 5K is on Sunday, so we have switched our run day to Saturday, 28 Feb. Meet at Eileen Dailly at 8am for a run to Science World (~18km) or further for those going longer.

Sunday, 15 Feb 2009 - across the bridge

Route: We had two groups today. Both left from Eileen Dailly and took the trail to the Iron Workers' Bridge, over the bridge and along Dollarton Hwy. One group continued along Dollarton to where it curves north and meets Mount Seymour Pkwy, They turned west along the Pkwy, back over the bridge, and along the trail back to the centre. (The yellow and blue lines.)

The second group cut north about 2.5km along Dollarton. We went up Ellis to Plymouth, then Tollcross and onto Mount Seymour Pkway. We took the same route back as the others. (The yellow line.)
Distances:
Shorter route: 14km
Longer route: 21km

Weather: SUNNY! 0-4C

Sunday, 8 Feb 2009

Route: We went west from Eileen Dailly along Pandora. At Kootenay St., we zagged down to Adanac and headed west. From there, we went north on Lakewood (cut across Templeton School) to Wall St and then east on Wall to the trail and back to the centre.

Distance: 11.3km

Weather: 2-3C, overcast

Next week: Good luck to everyone running the First Half! We'll be supporting you with our own "half" - over the Iron Worker's bridge, along the Dollarton Hwy to Deep Cove and back to Eileen Dailly along Mount Seymour Pkwy. For anyone wanting a shorter run, some of us will be cutting up to the parkway at Plymouth for a total distance of about 15km. There is also the option to run across the bridge and back for a distance of 8-10km depending on your turn-around point.

Sunday, 1 Feb 2009

Route: There were a couple of groups today. The scheduled distance was 19km. One group did a short run to Kensington and back. The other group ran to Burnaby Mountain Secondary and back.
Distance: short run - 8.7km

Distance: long run - 18.6km (according to my mapping software. I didn't run this route, so I'm guessing where they went. I was told that they ran 20km.)

Weather: snowing

Sunday, 25 Jan 2009

Hello all,
Sunday is scheduled to be a 10km day. I won't be running since some of us (myself, Jacquie, Kathy, Suzanne and Trish) will be in SUNNY California... :) So, enjoy the run! We'll send some sunshine up here for you. If Burnaby Lake is the chosen spot, here is the map from our last run there: http://traininginburnaby.blogspot.com/2008/11/burnaby-lake.html.
See everyone on the 1st!
Terri

Eileen Dailly to the Mohawk station

Route: I didn't run today, so my map is a general representation of where the group went. They ran along the trail and Wall St. to the Mohawk station at the corner of Wall and Powell. The return route was up Victoria to Adanac, to Carlton, up to Pandora and back to the centre.

(PS. The pink circle to the right of the yellow route is me. I did 20 laps of the track instead of running. I've got a small crack in my arm and was worried about walking on the icy streets this morning.)

Distance: 11.8km

Weather: foggy/sunny/foggy/sunny, icy roads, 2C

Next week: 5 of us are off to California to run (walk) the Carlsbad 1/2 marathon. I think the group is going to run Burnaby Lake for the scheduled 10km.

Eileen Dailly to Cliff Ave

Route: It was pretty much our regular run along the bike route - Eileen Dailly, along Frances, to the alley behind Kensington. At that point, I get a bit lost. Due to snow along some of the paths we would normally take, we wound our way (somehow) to Cliff Ave. From there we ran along Cliff to Kitchener, along to Holdom, up to Union, then Alpha and back to the centre.
Distance: 8.9km

Weather: grey, but no rain, 4C. For the most part the roads and paths were clear of snow.

SNOWSHOEING: Most of us now have snowshoes (or are able to borrow some). We would like to do some snowshoeing on the local mountains to supplement our running (on Friday evenings), or to replace a 10km Sunday run once in a while. This would be suitable for all levels of snowshoers. Let me know if you are interested. More info to come soon.

For anyone who has been playing along at home...

Let's hit the streets/trails/track this Sunday and go for a run! Even if we don't do the full 10k as scheduled, just getting out there will be good for the body & sole.

See everyone Sunday, 8:00am, at Eileen Dailly!!

Snow Day #3

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more. Or, in this case, I don't think we're in Vancouver anymore. What's going on with all this snow?!!? It's very pretty, but if you want to get any where, it can be a bit of a pain.

Once again, we took a snow day from running. However, four of us snowshoed around Deer Lake this morning. That's Suzanne, Debbie, Trish and I (Terri) in the picture.
The schedule called for a 15km run today, but we didn't get any where near that. Keep getting out and doing something - skiing, walking, swimming, snowshoeing, hitting the gym - and it won't seem so bad when we get back to running.

I saw a few of the Cameron Cruisers on Friday up at Hollyburn (Cypress Mountain). They are just as frustrated as us at not being able to run, so a few of them went snowshoeing. A group snowshoe trip is a great option for us - maybe as an alternative to one of our 10km days.

If you've been doing anything fun during all this snow, send me some pictures to post!