Stanley returns to Boston!

You may be wondering if I'm referring to some runner named 'Stanley' who is planning to run the Boston Marathon on Monday. That would probably be a good guess since I tend to talk a lot about running on this blog. There may well be a Stanley, or several Stanley's, running the marathon, but the Stanley I am referring to is Lord Stanley, as in the Stanley Cup!

The NHL playoffs have begun and for the first time in a number of years the Boston Bruins are one of the favourites to win it all.

Ever since I was a kid, I have been a Boston fan and have had to put up with a lot of disappointing years, in addition to a lot of crap from all the dreaded Montreal Canadian fans. This year I am hoping that the Bruins return the Cup to Boston for the first time since 1972. I still remember that Cup victory and it gives me chills just thinking about it. Hopefully, the Bruins can pull it off. Interestingly enough, they start their drive to the Cup in the first round against arch rivals Montreal.

It should be a great playoff ride and even though we don't have a TV, you can bet I'll be watching for live updates online and catch any games on the internet.

Here is a photo that Sara took of me while in Yellowknife for the Rock and Ice Ultra at Trout Rock Lodge. It's an autgraphed Bobby Orr hockey stick and photo of 'the goal'. The photo is without a doubt among the best sports pictures ever taken.

Let's hope for a similar photo in 2009. Go Bruins!!

Week of April 6 (11:15)

Week Ending total: 11:15
Total # of runs this week: 11
Total # of runs this year: 135
Total # of hours this year: 145:18
Streak: 7,048 days in a row
Training Log details: click here
Comments: Quite pleased with how the week progressed. Only started feeling better last weekend, so nice to be back to this amount of running again. Each day seemed to get better as the week progressed, with larger volume days on Friday, then a decent long run on Sunday. Was half considering racing Seaton Trail 78km next weekend, but after long run yesterday, I realized that I'm not quite ready for that yet. Still coughing a bit, but much better. Looking forward to more sunny, mild days on the trails.

Bell Canada Sucks!

I hate Bell Canada!!! I always have and always will. Bell's customer service is the absolute worst of any business on the planet and they keep getting worse.

At one point, we had our home phone, cell phone and internet service through Bell. Following getting screwed around by one thing after another, we eventually cancelled all of our services with them and even chose to get rid of our home phone line and replace it with another company’s cell service as our home phone. We finally thought that we would never have to deal with Bell and their brutal service and business practices again. Until today that is.

Today I was scheduled to meet a friend for a trail run at Frontenac Park. After a few minutes passed, I tried to check phone messages on my cell, but was out of range so could not. No problem I thought, Frontenac has a pay phone that I'll use. I had enough change and the calls were just local so I thought it would be no problem.

Well, seems as though the pay phone at Frontenac does not take coins (?). Still, not a problem as I had my credit card, so just used that instead. That apparently was a huge mistake and one that I hope no one else ever makes. I had to make four phone calls with my credit card and I found out later upon checking our credit card statement that Bell Canada charges $5.00 per phone call! And, once again, these were just local calls that were listed on the phone as 'only' costing 50cents to make. How they see fit to charge $5.00 per call is beyond me. So, just to make a few local calls and check phone messages set me back 20 bucks! That is just criminal in my books.

So my message to all is to boycott Bell Canada whenever possible and choose another provider. They are by far the most incompetent company I have ever dealt with and if you haven't been swindled by them yet, just give it a little more time and it's guaranteed to happen.

On Freeman Pond

We love our backyard. For the average person to look at it, it probably doesn’t seem like much and is certainly not landscaped according to what you would see on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (is that still on TV?).

For running, we are fortunate to have a grass 500m track, combined with a 1km loop that meanders around the edges of our property line. This is great for barefoot running, or simply just collecting a few extra miles at the end of a run with the dogs.

It is also home to some of the other fun stuff we enjoy doing including snowshoe running, dogsledding, skating, xc skiing, mountain biking, unicycling, campfires, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, volleyball, badminton, frisbee, golf, star gazing, napping, dog park, swimming and kayaking.

The last two activities may surprise those who have visited in the summer as there is no body of water on our property. Each fall and winter however, our beloved backyard floods, possibly due to an underground spring (?), and we are left with a new and exciting playground. We have awesome skating in the winter, then a large pond in the spring. A few years ago, Brennan and Heather actually took advantage of this watering hole on a particularly warm day in early May to go swimming (brrrr).

This past weekend, was another opportunity to try something else in our backyard. With all the rain we’ve been having lately, our pond was the biggest and deepest that we’ve seen it and a perfect chance to add kayaking to our list of activities at home.

A quick trip to our friendly neighborhood kayak rental place and we were soon out on the water and seeing our property in a completely different way. Brennan and Heather had a blast spending the weekend kayaking through the trees, and at times during heavy snowfall. The dogs were somewhat intrigued by this new activity, but enjoyed following along just the same.

Northern Thoughts...

It’s been a week since we arrived home from Yellowknife, but I still find my thoughts drifting back to the north regularly.

As I mentioned in my training log update, I am beginning to feel a little better and look forward to getting back out running more. That will certainly help to reduce some of the disappointment that still lingers from getting sick at the worst possible time at Rock and Ice.

The above photo was sent to us by Barb Campbell and is of Sara and me running together on Prelude Lake during the snowstorm on day #1.

As I look out the window this morning, there are a few snow flurries in the air. A quick check with the Yellowknife weather also indicates below 0C temperatures with snow in the forecast.

While it’s great to be home, there is a part of me that wishes I was still up north…or heading back soon.

Week of Mar 30 (2:40)

Week Ending total = 2:40
Total # of runs this week= 7
Total # of runs this year = 124
Total # of hours this year = 134:03
Streak = 7,041 days in a row
Training log details
~ Could only muster 20-30mins per day, just to keep the streak alive. Still felt pretty rough during most of the week, but was nice to finally start feeling a little better on the weekend. Really looking forward to getting back out running a little more again. I would love it if I could get a few decent medium-long runs in and think about possibly running a race soon to benefit from the R&I training. However, if that doesn't happen, then I'll probably just hold off racing anything until June.