Tested to breaking point

The theme for this blog entry is: Things I might be making up.

To start with, November in Vancouver, the wettest month in the world anywhere, EVER! I do not believe they has been a day when it has not at least rained once. I know, I know, I complained when I got here that it was too hot and that I had come to Vancouver for cooler weather but really this is just taking the aardvark.

Tuesday was a wet run with the club, and because of the weather and maintenance work around the seawall, the normal picturesque run was just running through back streets trying to avoid the worst puddles. I have to say at this point if it wasn't for the running club I don;t think I would have run at all this month. The company makes even the wettest, coldest run, fun to take part in. Also the a beers in the pub afterwards never hurts. The new game at the moments seems to be if we can get the barman and waitress to smile, neither is inclined to do this with any regularity.

Up until this month, Wednesday normally signalled the opportunity to climb up the Grouse Grind in the afternoon. I have a natty little card that records all my times for the ascents and also totals up the total distance climbed and tells you the equivalent mountain you have scaled, with Everest being the goal obviously. Now in all honesty I forget where abouts I am and I'm to lazy to go fetch my card which would let me access the info but I know I'm not quite at the peak of Everest yet. Now the snow has arrived on the mountain and the skiing is open. So after last weeks poor effort due to gale force winds and a snow storm I was ready to give it another shot. 3 more runs had been opened and even thought there was a lot of cloud around and yes it was raining I had faith that the slopes would be above the cloud and it would be glorious. I was wrong.

After getting all dressed up in my ski gear and putting my boots and skis out, I was making one last pass into the lounge (1 step from the kitchen) when I caught my toe against one of my ski boots. In my mind I had shattered every bone in my toe and several in nearby locations. The truth is probably more like I stubbed it and it bruised a bit. But at the time it hurt and certain curse words were uttered and I have no doubt that if any of my neighbours had heard I would now be looking for a new home. With a strapped up toe and with Skis over my shoulders I headed out the door and limped towards the skyTrain Station, as soon as I crossed the road though I realised I had forgotten my ski pass. 5 minutes later and more subversive muttering I was back under away again. 8 stops on the train, a SeaBus and a bus ride later I arrived with little fanfare at the base of the mountain. Another 5 minutes, a lot more whispered profanities and a few worried glances from parents later, I have changed from my shoes into my ski boots (which I have now taken a personnel dislike too) and I am standing at the front of the queue waiting for the SkyRide to take me to the skiing nirvana I know awaits. Only to be told by a far to chirpy girl that the mountain was now closed due to "Poor weather conditions".

ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I found that when I got home, Martin had tried to warn me that the mountain had shut down but I was at that point hopping around holding my toe instead of checking messages. Bugger!

So with skiing now off the cards I decided not to waste the day entirely and I went in search of a doctors. No not for my toe, even I'm not that bad. for the last 7-8 weeks I have had a patch of irritated skiing on my left wrist and even after adhering to the two major rules of skin care:

Rule 1: If it is dry put something wet on it.

Rule 2: If it is wet put something dry on it.

Nothing had worked. So having paid about $200 in health care payments already, I decided to seek out a doctor and start seeing some of the benefits of that money. Luckily there is a doctor within 50 yards of my front door so I didn't have to travel far (which was a good thing or my toe my have fallen off, not sure but I'm just saying...) An hour and a bit later I'm in seen by the doctor and after my tale of bravery and resourcefulness at how I had been battling this ailment, she rolled her eyes and sent me home with some a tub of cream that "...should clear it up in a couple of days". The really annoying things is, it has.

Club night on Thursday saw the first clear nights run we have had in a while and we took full opportunity of it. Steve, Sarah and I had a great extended run around the creek and even picked up the pace a little at the end. Some how I looked a lot more exhausted than Steve but I'm sure that was just the light playing tricks, that all the black spots in front of my eyes. And to top of a good run we even took in a sneaky beer at the pub too, on a Thursday!

For a while now I have been offered the chance to have a go at finding out what my VO2 Max is. Quick explanation of what VO2 max is, the higher the number the better your muscles are at using the oxygen that you breath in. I have put this off for one reason or another but mainly because I was scared. The idea behind the test is that you run on a treadmill which increases in speed and incline until you can't run no more, while all the time being strapped up to some fancy gizmo's piloted my some genius looking people saying things like "hmmm" and "ahhhh". For a change I want bore you with all the details of my heroic exploits I will just say that I didn't get any where near the machine having to use an incline to tire me out I was done long before that, and that I set of numerous alarm bells on the machine, my heart was going a tad faster than maybe it should. I will however include the video I made of my heroic attempts instead. Ha not letting you get away with it that easily.

A big thank you to Sarah and Heather who administered the test and were very good at supporting me and making sure I didn't die. By the way my result showed I was pretty average for a runner, who knew?

After a nice long lie in on Saturday morning I decided to make use of the afternoon by heading to somewhere I saw on a run a while back and thought would be cool to look around, then completely forgot about it until I read an article this week saying it was getting shut down in March so I thought I better get myself in gear and visit promptly. I'm referring to the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park. It is a dome shaped building (a little like Centre Parcs, Sherwood Forest, only smaller) which house some tropical birds and plant life. It is being closed due to the fact the dome needs repairing at a cost of a couple of million dollars. After visiting I can see why it need repairing. It was strangely enough raining outside and it was pretty much raining inside too, there a quite a few leaks in the joins that hold the dome shaped roof together. Even with the leaks it is a great little place to visit, and although it only take 30 minutes to take a quick walk around it has some beautiful species of plants and tress and also having budgies flying round your head and parrots sitting around chattering to you, it makes for a nice place to while away a wet afternoon.

And finally. Sunday morning saw me take my latest adventure into trail running. With my shoes still a little moist still from last week we headed up to Lynn Valley again, but this time to run along the creek and finishing at the Norvan Falls. Speculation again on my part but I think the name might originate from the fact they are in North Vancouver, I don't know, but it sounds plausible. For a nice change it started off dry and we had a nice run up to the start of the trails proper before the wetness set in. I have mentioned before about running along streams and over boulders etc... this took it to a new level today, all the recent rain had made large sections of the run pretty much under water. Sukhi just plain gave up trying to keep his feet dry and just waded through the swollen stream while John seemed to leap the whole damn thing and I lumberingly leaped from rock to rock, every now again submerging a foot or both. The views along the way and especially at the falls were well worth it. There is some amazing places tucked away in the back of beyond and that I'm very glad that I'm getting to see. As an added bonus to this weeks run Sukhi and I were given a brief and interesting history and botany lesson by John, who showed where the old tree logging railway tracks used to be, where slots had been cut into tress to help the loggers cut down trees higher up to make their life easier and also what must have been the highlight of the day, I got to taste a root (actually a rhizoid, I do listen) of a licorice fern, which probably not all that shockingly has the a taste of licorice, and also a little taste of dirt and root too.

Until next time...