Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

Last Monday I started my new job as a Walkabout Trainer with Clever Canines in Calgary, and so far I am absolutely loving the work despite the long hours that I am faced with whilst going through the learning process. Dog behaviour is so fascinating and in the short time I have been with the company, I have already learnt so much and have a far better understanding of dog signals and how they play and interact with each other - I am also far more observant of the less friendly signals that dogs send out just before they are about to kick off, which is critical to know about when you have the responsibility of walking and training up to 10 of them at a time. Although the job involves a considerable amount of driving to collect the dogs from their homes each day, it is also physically demanding with two walks daily with up to 10 dogs of different sizes on each walk.  So far, I've managed 7 in one go - the smaller ones are barely noticeable, but 2 Alsations, a couple of Labradoo...

Last weekend there was another cross country race, this time down in Okotoks, and whilst I had every intention of running hard, things didn't quite go to plan on the day. Sure, I was happy enough with 4th lady and being 1st in my age group category, but I personally didn't feel that the performance was a true reflection of how my training has been going in recent weeks and as a result, I felt like I'd let myself down. Considering I had a race that day, I'd woken up feeling far too relaxed and even managed to eat breakfast without the normal pre-race jittery tummy. I was looking forward to racing, but I couldn't muster the usual excitement that I would normally feel. My usual pre-race routine wasn't there and I even had a large coffee and a donut an hour before the race which I wouldn't normally do - in all honesty, I don't think my heart and mind were really in the mood for racing. I was rather hoping that the course would be the same as the prev...

Yesterday I had yet another fabulous run. It was chilly,  snowy, wet and muddy, but  it was  a wonderful  90 minutes  or so spent on the trails around Banff  with my best  running partner . I was initially  hoping to try somewhere new but with bad weather moving in along with low cloud, I wasn’t prepared to risk the safety of Wilson let alone myself, by wandering around on unfamiliar mountain trails at high altitude, especially considering how quickly the weather was deteriorating. We ended up starting on Tunnel Mountain – only a baby in Rocky Mountain terms with a height of around 5,500 ft and a relatively easy climb on a well marked trail. We then joined the trails and pathways alongside the river which led us to the Cave and Basin where we joined the Marshlands loop before heading back towards town and finishing at Bow Falls. Both Wilson and I enjoyed the entire run and it gave some me some quality time with my best buddy as well as allow...