Category Archives: Training

March 15, 2020 · 15:57

Our World has Changed

On Monday I was over the moon excited when I was informed that one of my art quilts had been juried into the National Quilt Show. Just days later and our world has completely changed in a way that no one could have ever dreamed. Like so many events, there may not be a National show this year. We had almost every weekend booked between now and the end of June with dogs stuff. Sadly, almost everything has been outright cancelled and a few have been tentatively rescheduled. Almost every hour I get a new email from some organization talking about the virus and what they are doing. I’m just feeling sad and overwhelmed.

I woke up this morning feeling more like myself and ready to take on this new reality. Even though it was miserably cold I forced myself to go for a work out.

90177794_10158297805557652_1749787144022392832_n This is what 8km at -24C looks like. Take that Mother Nature and Coronavirus you aren’t going to win 😉😂

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Filed under Fitness, Training

October 28, 2018 · 08:35

Intro to Pulling

Pull1A
Yesterday Brodie and I took a dry land pulling clinic at the Nordic Ski Club in Fort Saskatchewan. Dogs with any kind of obedience training have a hard time transitioning to pulling while in harness and he was no exception. We did manage to get him to pull me on the scooter a few times. My hope is that he will like this pulling game so that he can join Spirit and I kick sledding this winter. Thanks to Marc Debrule for the great pix.

Pull2 Pull1 Pull3 Pull4

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Filed under Brodie, Kick Sledding, Training

Tagged as Golden Retriever, Kick Sledding

December 14, 2016 · 16:06

Meet McMullin

mcmullin1

We have a short term addition to our fur family. This is McMullin and he is one of the puppies that were donated to Hope Heels to train as a service dog. He is an 8 week old smooth Collie. He will be staying with us until he has a puppy raiser family to go to. He’s only been in the house for a few hours but he seems to have settled in just fine.

mcmullin2 mcmullindogs

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Filed under Foster Puppies, Hope Heels, Training, Volunteering

Tagged as dogs, Hope Heels, training, Volunteering

October 10, 2016 · 16:53

Snow….No Thanks

oct09-2016

Sunday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. October 9th is way to early for snow and winter to start…and not great for Thanksgiving. We were supposed to do a 20km workout in preparation for our upcoming half marathon. After looking at all the snow, we decided to opt for a 10, leave our 20km for today and use it to work off some of the turkey and stuffing we snarfed last night.

oct09-2016-2

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Tagged as training

January 24, 2016 · 14:27

Beautiful Morning Workout

Finished 18km (-2 degrees)

What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday’s workout was unbearably cold. Contrast that with this morning’s balmy -2. Even though we went 2km further (18km vs 16km) we sure look a lot fresher and less frosty at the end.

Finished 16KM (-31 degrees celsius)

This is what I looked like after spending a couple of hours outside with the temperature at -26 (-31 with the windchill).

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Filed under Training, Uncategorized

March 1, 2014 · 10:19

-30 degrees….Am I crazy?

For the past two days I have run at record low temperatures. Prior to this, the coldest I had ever gone for a run was -23. Yesterday I ran to the gym and it was -26 degrees Celsius with the wind chill putting it in the low minus 30’s. This morning I ran to the pool for my aqua aerobics class and it was -30 degrees without the windchill….I don’t know how cold it was with the wind chill factored in. It has been so cold all week that I haven’t been able to take the dogs with me and Wally is very unhappy at being left at home. When I put on my workout clothes he paces at the front door in anticipation of our adventure to come. I feel so guilty when he looks at me with those big, sad, brown eyes when realizes that he isn’t going with me.

I had on 3 layers of pants, on my upper body I had on 5 layers if you count my bathing suit, two layers of mitts and I had a head band, balaclava and hood to keep my face/head warm. The only parts exposed were my eyes and the bridge of my nose. Don met me at the pool with a x-large hot Timmies to warm me up. He took this picture of me all covered in frost. Even my gloves had a layer of frost on them.

The good news is that it’s only 9am and I’ve had two workouts, watched a beautiful sunrise and I have the whole day ahead of me.

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August 26, 2013 · 08:10

Edmonton Derby Half Marathon

Yesterday I participated in the half marathon. It was my first one this year compared to three 1/2’s and one full last year. My emergency appendectomy earlier this year really messed with my race plans and training this year. Don has some injuries so he didn’t train with me or participate in the race so it was a little lonely by myself…..not even Wally by my side (no dogs allowed). I was thrilled with my results, a new personal best. Fifteen minutes faster than my old half record and I even managed to come in 3rd in my age group. The only benefit to getting older is that in the long distance races there are less people in your age category……otherwise my times are not really that fast. The ‘grand-poo-pah’ himself, John Stanton, presented me with my 3rd place medal.

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Filed under Races, Training

Tagged as Races

January 1, 2013 · 12:14

Healthy start to 2013

Once again this year we spent New Year’s morning with at least a thousand other crazy people doing the annual Brita 5K Resolution Run. Last year it was in the minus 20 degree range but today it was sunny and 0. I over dressed so I had to start stripping off layers at the 2K mark. Unfortunately we didn’t win any of the draw prizes but we had a good pancake and sausage breaky.

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Filed under Races, Training

Tagged as Race

September 20, 2012 · 18:41

Chopper Girl

This past weekend Team Tango participated in a multi-agency mock search in the Slave Lake area. The training scenario was a plane crash in the remote wilderness with 15 passengers and crew that needed to be located and rescued. The search included 4 helicopters, 2 fixed wing aircraft, 3 boats, approximately 30 quads and 110 personnel. They utilized an actual 1975DEC29 plane crash site which added to the realism of the search. The disaster scenario tested the readiness of many agencies including Slave Lake Regional Fire Services, RCMP, Environmental and Sustainable Resource Development (Fish and Wildlife, Lands and Forest), Slave Lake Regional SAR, Edmonton Regional SAR, local aviation companies and of course the Canadian Search Dog Association.

Team Tango was deployed to two search areas and travelled by quad into the crash site. They also did a person search demonstration for the Slave Lake Regional Fire Chief. The big thrill of the day for Don was getting to ride in a helicopter with Tango. I think Tango was more fascinated with the flashing lights and reflections inside the helicopter than she was with the actual flight. Our girl is a little OCD when it comes to watching and chasing reflections. Here is a video and some pictures from the mock search:

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Filed under SAR, SAR Dog, Search and Rescue, Tango, Training, Volunteering

July 1, 2012 · 16:14

31km on Canada Day

Happy Canada Day!! We decided to celebrate our country’s birthday today by going for a 31KM walk…not really…..it just happened to coincide with our training calendar. I can’t believe that I actually speed walked for 31kms and lived to blog about it. This is the longest distance I have ever tackled and I’m now thinking that maybe, just maybe, I might actually be able to complete the Derby Marathon in August.

We left the house at 6am and it was a comfortable 14 degrees celcius with a light breeze. By the 20KM mark it was cold, windy and pouring rain. We actually completed the last 11kms that way hence the lovely photograph. We had to strip out of our soaking wet clothes at the front door. Don headed for a long, hot shower and I jumped into the hot tub to try and warm up. We are both suffering from numerous, giant blisters but darn it…….”I feel good“

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Filed under Training, Two legged family