Hunting Shenanigans!!

Coffee+oatmeal=only way to get fueled up!

mum and dad brought Bullwinkle for a visit.....

Every year, my parents and a friend go up to Northern BC for a hunting trip in October, usually for a few weeks. Well, I LOVE to go hunting with them, and this year was no different. I headed up for 4 days post-Pocono Mountains 70.3, mostly to unwind a bit and get a bit of a mental break. As Borat would say, "Much success!" I had a blast up there, not to mention we bagged three bull moose (for those not proficient in moose jargon, that's a male moose.) The best part? The three moose are only being split between two families (so that's 1.5 moose each,) which is somewhere in the vicinity of 500-600lbs of FINISHED AND WRAPPED meat!! Enough to keep us going through the winter (and probably next winter too!) Pure, clean, healthy, muscle building protein:)

Yeah. That's 'THE' Buck knife.

Coach had me scheduled for two 'tempo' runs while there, short but fast (just something to keep the blood from going stagnant in the legs!) Well, for those of you who know anything about the backwoods of BC, we have a large number of bears roaming around (although I'm sure they'd take one look at my stringy legs and realize it isn't even worth the effort of getting up to chase me!haha!) So dad, with his bottomless depth of knowledge and experience, suggested I run with my recently purchased Buck knife.

Yeah, a knife. And not Crocodile Dundee's "Now THIS is a knife," knife. A little dinky orange knife (the color would probably be more of a deterrent than the blade!)

This is what me and my 'knife' would be up against.....

When I questioned the ability of a knife to ward off an attacking bear, he very calmly stated (like it's an everyday event,) "just be sure to protect your throat, and jab at the bear's face with your Buck."

No kidding. Now there's a life lesson worth remembering.

Sometimes you need to improvise for a recovery drink!!!

Anyways, lucky for my scrawny self there weren't any run-ins with any bears. But there was a run-in with hills. Let me explain: where we were was at about a mile of altitude. I've never run that hard at any altitude (I've never even run at altitude before in fact,) and I totally forgot about this, until I was trucking up the fourth big hill on my first run. I couldn't figure out why my legs were screaming for me to stop, and it felt like there was a pillow over my face! Once I got back to camp and was playing with my Garmin, I realized why.

This is what a bear sees when I run through the woods......fresh meat!

The trip was a great refresher leading in to Miami, it really helped me to refocus on the upcoming race. I'm feeling stronger than ever, and I know the heat in Miami will work in my favor. I hope everyone's gotten outside to enjoy the sun lately. Once it's gone, who KNOWS when it'll come back!

Happy Training Everyone :-)