They were THAT bad?

I knew that my running shoes were getting to the end of their service life, but I figured they still had a good number of kilometres left in them. Clearly I was wrong! I also figured that doing all of these kilometres in trail runners wouldn’t be that bad for me. Wrong again! I knew that I was going to get a reaction out of the Running Room staff when I showed them my shoes, but not THAT good of a reaction.

In summary, although I had blamed my recent (light) injuries and training difficulties to eating wrong and pacing wrong, it all comes down to (well, at least a huge part of it was) the lack of life in my shoes. After putting about 200km on them in the last couple of months alone, the previous two years of punishment has summed to one dead pair of shoes.

Hmmm…what is it going to be like now?!

Funny Shoe Story!

About a month ago, I was walking home from school on a cool yet beautifully sunny Friday late afternoon. After walking across an incredibly busy Rideau Canal, I got to the top of the stairs to see a guy sitting on a parking barrier beside the road still sporting his hockey skates. We made eye contact, I said “hello” and he replied with “do you have a cell phone?” Personally, I don’t use my phone very often. I’ll use it every couple of days when the relay of pertinent information could really help either me or a friend out; my usage rarely exceeds 20mins/month.

Since my rates are not the best, I was a little hesitant. After looking at his lack of shoes, and remembering a time last fall when someone else helped me out, I decided to offer. Sure enough the guy makes a call to Kingston, but his reason was legit; his wife and friends were supposed to pick him up but were almost an hour late, so he left a message on their cell.

As I was leaving, he insisted on giving me $5 for the call. Since the call probably cost me about $1, I felt pretty bad taking the money. Since he was so insistent, I took it and finished my walk home. By the time I got home, I had determined that I couldn’t let him sit there in his skates, so I dug up my lawn cutting shoes, biked over and gave them to him. Although he was a little weirded out, I think he appreciated it.

So I’m walking home today and all of a sudden my shoes appeared hanging over a garden post. I walk that stretch most days and have not noticed them yet. I wonder what sort of journey my shoes had. Did they go back to Kingston then return the following weekend? How long were they used for? Did they do some sight-seeing? How many have worn them.

Oh if my shoes could talk!

Overwhelmed by Activism

I’ll be honest in that I knew that Ottawa would be a centre for activism, but I also have to be honest in that it is way more intense than expected. It seems that every place I look, there is another poster fighting the signing of a bill, globalization, and a myriad of other causes that I had never before thought of. Although the bombardment is tremendous, it is also inspiring to see the number of people and organizations ensuring that our democracy is kept honest.

In contrast to my ultra-right wing hometown, the abundance of left in Ottawa is refreshing!

Mountains sure are awesome, but…

After recently returning from a backcountry skiing trip in the Rockies with a friend from Calgary, I certainly feel a calling for me to go out there. The concept of backcountry skiing combined with winter mountaineering is so cool! The skis with climbing skins act like snowshoes on the way up so you don’t sink through the snow and don’t get as tired, once off the skis and doing the ridge walk, the ice axe provides (almost) constant anchors so even harrowing traverses feel somewhat relaxing, the views from the peaks are unreal, then on the way back down, the skis snap into downhill mode and you get to enjoy the powdery descent. What a cool sport!

HOWEVER, I know that I am prone to a “grass is always greener” mentality and have realized how special our province of “Onterrible” can be. The backcountry is so much tamer and geographically more accessible, our lakes are not glacial and hence tolerable to swim in much of the year, the beauty is still there but is just a little hidden, the adventure racing scene is a little more active here, my industry of interest is here, and there are too many friends and family here.

Summary: the Rockies are too cool, but will have to be an annual (or twice/year depending on finances) trip. Can’t have it all I guess.