Our Edmonton Iron Paws group met for a social in our beautiful river valley this evening. Afterwards I took Spirit to McDonalds for an ice cream cone. I didn’t even get one stink in’ lick before she deep throated the entire cone. I didn’t even have a chance to pull away from the drive thru window before it was gone. She sure entertained the drive thru staff. She is one happy girl….no sharing with Mom 😉😂🐾🐶 I did manage to capture a few pictures of our Cani-cross.
Filed under Iron Paws, Spirit, Uncategorized
We started 2020 off on the right foot by participating in the Running Room’s Resolution 5k. We like to do this run every year as a renewal of our commitment to remain active throughout the year.
The dogs and I also signed up for our 2nd Iron Paws. I have a couple of injuries that will prevent us from doing much kick sledding so I signed us up for the recreational canicross category instead. The Resolution run also counted towards our runs for the 1st week of Iron Paws…..bonus!!
Filed under Canicross, Iron Paws, Kick Sledding, kicksledding, Races, Spirit
Well it’s official. We received our 2019 Iron Paws medal today for the 2 dog sled category. Even though the weather wasn’t the greatest (damn Polar Vortex), we really enjoyed the challenge. Looking forward to doing it again next year.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Kick Sledding, Spirit
The official video from the 2019 Iron Paws race. There is a picture of Brodie and Spirit at 2:07, Spirit and I at 2:37 and my wipeout at 4:07.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Kick Sledding, Spirit, Uncategorized
Well my first Iron Paws has come to an end. We did pretty good considering we got very few points over the last two weeks because of the damn polar vortex. Overall we finished 75th out of 296. In the 2 dog sled category we finished 7th overall. The Edmonton Regional Group finished 12th overall and Team Spirit came in tied for 2nd place in our region. It was great to meet so many people in our area that love to get outside and play with their dogs. I definitely plan on doing another Iron Paws.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Kick Sledding, Spirit
It has been almost 2 weeks since the dogs have been able to go outside for anything more than a potty break or a brisk 1km sprint. I can’t remember the last time we had such an extended cold spell. And the wind makes it even worse. Sadly we recorded no mileage or points for the final week of Iron Paws. It looks like there might be a slow improvement in temps coming in the next week.
Finally got the dogs out for a quick off leash run. They were so happy to stretch their legs and run free.
Because of the cold, I am falling behind in my training for the 1/2 corked marathon. I forced myself to bundle up and head out for a brisk 4km this morning. The temp with the windchill was close to -40.
February 2nd is National Sled Dog Day. Unfortunately it is way to cold today to go for a kicksled run (-33C with the wind chill) so I have to use pictures from a couple of weeks ago. I played with a few filters to jazz them up a bit.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Kick Sledding, Spirit
This week’s Howladays challenge is to show you and your dogs relaxing and enjoying a movie together. Unfortunately it is hard to fit all three of us on our love seat but we tried.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Spirit, Uncategorized
This week’s Howladays challenge is a little different. It says “Stage 4: Heroes week. Feel free to interpret this however suits your fancy, and don’t forget to share your vision.” I am not sure that hero is the right word but these dogs are my world. They mean everything to me. Before Brodie and Spirit I had never done any dog sports. Now our lives revolve around driving to various classes, practices and trials. They make sure that I get out and about every single day. They give so much but ask for so little in return. They may not be “heroes” in the traditional sense but they are my heroes.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Spirit, Uncategorized
Since our crash on Sunday I have not been able to do much and now it is getting very cold (-20C and even colder in the evenings) so I doesn’t look like we will get much if any sledding or canicross in this week. But we rocked this week’s challenge. We had to take pictures of our team catching popcorn….now this is our kind of challenge!!!
Kicksledding this winter has been fun but painful. I’ve had a few spectacular wipeouts. First run of the season…I made it through the entire run without wiping out. Got to the parking lot and the dogs took a sharp corner to get to Don and I ended up with one ski caught on a snow pile covering a curb and flipped on my right side. Don was so busy laughing and videoing that he forgot to catch the dogs and the sled as they ran by.
Today was my best wipeout ever. We were 1/2 way through the 4km run at Blackfoot. During a steep downhill run, Spirit stopped to gobble up a frozen ‘poop-sicle” on the trail. The sled caught up to her and was going to hit her so I bailed. Got the tow rope and one of the sled skis tangled around my ankle as the dogs took off running again. Big boo boo and fat ankle. Hope this won’t end my Iron Paws season 💔😟 (and yes that is dog hair all over my socks….can’t vacuum with a boo boo right?! 😂). I am hoping that at least I can get some sympathy points…maybe some spoiling and extra attention from the skinny guy. A girl can dream?!??!?
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Kick Sledding, Spirit
This week’s Howliday fun challenge was to play One-eyed-Jack-is-wild virtual poker game. You have to answer 5 questions and your answers are decoded into poker cards. Let’s just say we aren’t going to win the game. You can tell by the dogs’ expressions that we have a really crappy poker hand.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Spirit, Uncategorized
Just for a little winter fun and motivation, I have signed up for the 2019 Iron Paws Stage Race. It is a 6 week virtual sled dog race. The whole idea is to get you and your dogs out and active and meeting up with local like minded people. It also includes some fun challenges that you must do each week.
For our first week we have been challenged to create a magazine cover featuring our team. This is what I came up with:
We accumulate points by participating in races, going on group training runs and participating in regional events. As long as we do at least one run per week we should earn a medal at the end of the 6 week program. The real reward is the time spent and memories made with your dogs.
Sometimes it can be hard to keep motivated during a cold Alberta winter so I am hoping this virtual race and meeting up with other Kicksled/canicross/skijor/bikejor teams will keep us going out and about.
To start our New Year off on the right foot and accumulate our first points, the dogs and I did the Running Room 5km Resolution run as a canicross team.
Life In The Dog House 