To cold for the pigeons to fly…
The past couple of days I’ve been working in downtown Ottawa allowing me to see things I normally wouldn’t notice. This morning it was a crisp -21C/-5F and sunny. As I was getting off the bus, I noticed something about a gaggles of pigeons. It was to cold for them to fly. They were all perched next to a exhaust heating duct from a nearby parking garage. They were extremely reluctant to move. I was bundled up in winter clothing but less than I have been in the past. My REI down jacket allowed me to drop a layer of clothing, my Polar fleece 300 jacket which I normally wear as a base layer. In its place, I’m wearing a Polar fleece 200 weight vest. On top, I wear a Mountain hardware toque and on my hands I wear a Mountain hardware primaloft gloves. Tomorrow, I head south to warmer weather and hopefully little or no snow.
Shoveling with an ice scraper
Over the last little while the Ottawa area has been getting a record amount of snow. On the weekend, I saw something that caused me to stop and have a good laugh as a parent was trying to a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_removal”shovel snow/a in their driveway using an a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_scraper”ice scraper/a. They were I think on their way to a son’s hockey practice didn’t have enough time to clear the driveway so they were clearing a path for the tires to drive down with an ice scraper. Meanwhile, I could hear the son in the car beckoning the father to hurry up otherwise they were going to be late. It was funny as I’ve never seen an ice scraper used this way.br /br /wo — 8 hill repeats — warm legs, sore and tired
Hills and more hills
Tonight, I did my first hill workout of the year. It was six repeats of 400 yards up a gradual incline. The rest of the team did eight but I opted to slack off a bit as my legs are still recovering from the race. Over the next couple of weeks, the number of intervals with increase as well as the length of each intervals. It felt good to be running with the team again.
Boxing Day Race
On Boxing Day, I ran my third Harold Webster 10 mile race in Hamilton, Ontario. It was the 87th time this race has been run. I decided to go out at my Sunday run pace which I knew would allow me to complete the race without burning myself out. It sucks running five miles hard only to find that you have to run the next five miles while suffering miserably. The course was familiar to me so I surged on the hills and opened up on the downhills. At mile eight, we were forced to run on a snow-laden road which was like running on a corduroy road, very slippery, undulating and rough. The final two miles were on city streets which flowed downwards to the finish in the city centre. It was a great race as I felt quite relaxed for most of the race while running briskly. At the finish line, I was pleased with my time of 1:14 for ten miles putting me in the top 100 out of 600 finishers.br /1m — 7.25 2m — 7.08/14.33 3m — 7.23/21.57 4m — 7.22/29.19 5m 7.23/36.42 6m — 7.38/44.20 7m — 7.17/51.38 8m — 8.11/59.50 9m 7.19/1.07.09 10m 7.14/1:14.23
Home for the holidays
Late last week, my holiday plans were uncertain. I had a couple of modes of transportation for getting home for the holidays. While surfing I was able to locate a cheap flight to Toronto at an incredibly low price. It bought the ticket as quickly as I could. The past couple of days at my folks place have been relaxing and given me chance to get some much needed rest. I’ve read two books over the last little while. The first, “Cold Mountain,” by Charles Frazier and the other is “Replay,” by Ken Grimwood. Both books are a good read. I am glad that I had a chance to read “Cold Mountain” as it answered many questions that remained unanswered when I saw the movie. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason’s/a father gave me a list of recommended books to read over the holidays and “Cold Mountain” and “Replay” were highly recommended.br /br /Yesterday, I decided to check some of my local geocaches and will head back to them over the next couple of days with a camera. There are some bouldering faces that I want to get Jason’s opinion on as they could be climbable once the weather improves.
Salt
A quick weather update — Ottawa set a new record over the weekend. We received one foot of snow over a 24 hour period. Now we return to the topic of the day, salt. Tonight, I went for a 48 minute run along the Rideau Canal and the path was in good shape. While getting dressed for the workout I noticed something, my shoe laces have become more stiff and white. The road salt in becoming infused in my laces which is making them stiff and hard to tie. I’ll have to give my shoes a bath in a couple of days. Over the Christmas holidays,I’ll be doing a 10 mile race in Hamilton which will be a good workout as I do my final preparation for my second Phoenix half-marathon in early January. The goal for this race is to better my time last year, 1:33.
Ants and Pillows
The UOttawa fitness center is located in the basement of one of the large complexes. Tonight, as I was heading out for my run I had to walk upstairs counter to traffic flow. A massive herd of students/ants (so many) were heading down the stairs to write their final exam in the gym. They all looked worked up/agitated. It became clear quickly as they were clutching third year accounting textbooks. The conditions outside were equally as challenging, a fresh bed of 2″ of snow had fallen over the afternoon and was still coming down quite hard. The main purpose of the run was to get some exercise with the hope of relieving a migraine that I have had for the past couple of days. Running in the snow was a unique experience as it felt as if I had pillows on my feet as the compression of the snow underfoot had a springy feeling to it. As the run progressed the conditions go worse and I cut back at the earliest chance (6.6km).
Snow
Late last weekend we had our first major snowstorm of the year. Over the course of 24 hours we received a foot of snow. I went around town wearing my Sorel Snowlion boots which can conquer even the toughest snow drifts. A couple of days later one of my favorite toys appeared on the scene. Every time I see it I get excited and recall my childhood days. The mystery toy is an a href=”http://www.citysnowblowers.com/machine_specs.htm”industrial grade snowblower/a. Once the snow starts to accumulated on the curb and becomes a hazard out come the a href=”http://www.championmotorgraders.us/content/ourstory.html”graders /awhich move the snow into the middle of the road where a snowblower blows the snow into a passing dump truck. The snow is transport to a snow dump which sort of looks like this a href=”http://www.citysnowblowers.com/gallery2/pages/DCP_1389_JPG.htm”picture/a with the color inverted. The snow sits in huge mountain until in melts in the spring. One of these snow dumps is located near where I live so I usually take a moment to see how to has changed from day to day.
Noonmark and Hopkins Peaks
Late on Friday night I got a call from Chris MacDonald to say that he was organizing a last-minute weekend hiking trip to the the Adirondacks. The plan was to climb Noonmark (3491 feet) and Hopkins (3150 feet). This would be my third hiking trip with Chris Mc this year so I knew what to expect. After catching my breath, I replied that I was eager to go. The plan was to meet at 7:00 am on Saturday morning. I headed over to the 24 hour grocery store to get some last minute supplies.br /br /On Saturday morning, we met at John Galbraith’s house and headed over to meet Kerry McDaniels at her house along the way out of town. Our next stop would be Lake Placid where we bought lunch for Saturday and Sunday. We registered at the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524377802857938″Adirondack Loj /aand then drove south to Keene Valley to a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129523866701749378″start our trek/a up Noonmark. Before heading out we registered at the sign out box a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129523892471553170″a/a, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524309083381138″b/a. As we started to climb the temperature started to drop. a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524042795408610″Ice crystals/a were visible in the soil and we would find a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524201709198674″ice /aat the summit. Along the way we had to climb a couple of neat a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524141579656466″ladders/a. I was the first to reach the summit which was a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524163054492978″cold and windy/a. I was under-dressed for the conditions having left my polar fleece jacket, gloves and hat in the car. Before we heading back down the trail we took a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524244658871666″picture /ain the lee of the wind. It would take about 30 minutes before my hand warmed up. Chris Mc, Kerry and I were the first to reach the trailhead and I took a picture of the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524339148152242″sunset /awhile waiting for John to finish the hike. Once we were all together we headed into Lake Placid for a meal and headed back to the Loj.br /br /I was up at 6:30 am on Sunday and had a quick shower. The cook would bang his breakfast gong at 7:15 am and I wanted to hit the shower before the masses did so. Breakfast took the form of all-you-can-eat pancakes and oatmeal which were a welcome sight. After checking out we headed back down into the Keene Valley to summit Hopkins. Along the trail I snapped a picture of a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524407867629026″myself /awhile catching my breath. As I was getting closer I noticed a rock face off the trail and wondered if a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason /awould climb it if he was a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524467997171202″here/a or a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/Adir_Nov2007_Noonmark_Hopkins/photo#5129524506651876882″here/a. Chris Mc, Kerry and I had lunch on the summit of Hopkins and I showed Kerry how to sight a bearing with her compass. When the sun was out it was pleasant to sit out on the rocks and catch the rays. Once the food has settled in our stomach we started our reluctant slow descent back to the car. As the sun was setting we bid the Adirondacks goodbye and started our trek north.
Swing…
I have been swing dancing for a little while and still amazed by the new moves and variations that we learn each week. The one we learned tonight I still find confusing but will eventually get it. It is a 6-step variation on a Charleston. The move is a rock-step/kick-step/scoop and then a step. The kick step is the neatest part as you kick with your left leg and then it ends up crossed.br /In two weeks, I’ll be sitting in a lean-to most likely at Marcy Dam in the Adirondacks of New York. It is a adventure that I have been waiting for a while. I still can’t decide whether to wear my hiking boots with thick socks or my snowlion boots. We have a group meeting on Monday night so many of the details will be worked out then. Tonight, I bought a new thermarest air matress as I’m adding to the hiking/camping gear that my father and I share. My snowshoes are waiting there first trip stateside.
