A broken wing test

So, I'm out running on Saturday and when I'm not concentrating on form, cadence or breathing, I was trying to come up with something to post this week. Training wise it's been pretty uneventful, so there was nothing of interest to post in that department. So as I'm pondering this, out of the corner of my eye I see movement. It was a morning dove on it's back. Not being a bird expert, I assumed the poor thing had a broken wing. Sigh. What to do, what to do...
This is a test..
Whenever I'm put into a situation that involves some sort of action on my part, I think of it as a test. Not a test from the Almighty (I'm actually quite non-religious, at least in the conventional sense, spiritual - yes, but that's a topic for another day); this test is more like "ok, here is a situation, what's the BEST course of action?"
What to do.. what to do..
Find a rock? Put it out of it's misery? I'm a confessed softie, especially when it comes to animals, I've had to put an animal out of misery and I can't say I pariculary enjoy it. But if it has to be done, it has to be done. So I look for a rock to do the job. Well everything is snow covered and no large rocks are presenting themselves. Hmm...
What to do.. what to do..
Pace. Hmmm.. Ok, let's examine this little guy. So I pick up the bird, I can't tell if it's wing is broken or not, but there is a small and fresh wound on it.
What to do. what to do..
Smash it on the ground? As barbaric as that sounds, it would end its' suffering - quickly. Mercy is a good thing.
What do do.. what to do..
I swear at this point the little guy looked at me and said 'what now boss?" Sigh, in for a penny in for pound. So I run home (about 5k away) with a morning dove in my hand wrapped in kleenex. I get home, put him in a box in a darkened area of the basement. Well, I'm in deep now.
What to do.. what to do..
Google knows all. Look up on Google on how to fix a broken wing and think that I could probably pull it off. Call my vet, who refer me to the Wildlife rescue guys.. who are conviently located a good hour away! No pick up service of course. Ahh crap, I've gone this far, can't turn back now (sort of like an Ironman!). Sally and I were heading in the direction of the Wildlife rescue guys to attend a party, so if we left a little earlier we could drive a little extra and at least give the little guy to the pros, at least that way he'd have a chance. So that's what we ended up doing.
Two FREE lessons learned. 1) *Always* try to do the *best* course of action, regardless whether it's easy or not. 2) Sometimes you just can't go back. Yup, now that I think of it, I got alot more out of trying to save a bird then meets the eye. Life, ya gotta love it.

As for actual training..
Run 5 times. Shortest 52 min. Longest 70min (X2)
Bike 1 time. For an hour. On the trainer. Yes the bike is offically on the trainer.
Weights & core: 3 X 15 min sessions.

Cheers!

Bruce Trail, Wierdness

Quite often when I think of 'fun' things to do, others think I'm just plain wierd. I look at the Bruce Trail, all 768km of it, and I think it would 'fun' hike the whole thing. I look at a map of this beautiful country that I love so much and I think it would 'fun' to cycle from coast to coast. I look at the epic wilderness of the Arctic and I think it would be 'fun' to go camping on Ellesmere Island. Maybe I am an odd duck, perhaps people do think I'm 'wierd'. Then again, I think many people are wierd for wanting to sit and watch TV for 5 hours a day.

On Saturday, I went for a challenging hike-n-run along the Bruce Trail with Cliff. A fairly rugged 23k looped section of the Bruce with some pretty good elevation gains. It took us 3.5 hours (exactly the same as last year!), so we weren't blazing the trail or anything, but with the all the elevation gains and losses, by the time we got back to the car, we knew we had a great workout.
During the hike-n-run we'd talk tri stuff, training philosophies etc.. At one point I said I'd like to do this loop twice, make a day of it. (ok, THAT would be a tough workout) You know what? Cliff didn't look at me wierd, I could see the glint in his eye - yea I could probably talk him into doing it. Smile.
He mentioned he'd like to do a back to back 200k destination ride. Two words: "I'm in." I guess we are both wierd.
It was a great day and I felt like a million bucks afterwards. We agreed, we would try to do it once more before snowfall. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

Ran 6 times last week. Good stuff. Running legs are at about 80% and climbing steadily. Brought the bike inside, probably for good. Still *thinking* about swimming.

Cheers!

Sick no more

Been a relatively crappy week. Finally caught that bug that was floating around, pretty much knocked out any will to work-out for a week. Got back up on the horse on Friday and got a decent run in for both Fri and Sat. So this week I'll attempt something a bit more 'normal'.

Next Saturday, I have a planned 25k hike-n-run, which I'm terribly out of shape for. Am I backing out? Hell no. Sorry guys, you don't get off that easy. I have one confirmed buddy joining me, hopefully I can grab a couple more and make a party out of it.

Earlier in the week I was pondering about how triathlon has made such a positive change within me. No one ever asked 'why or what is tri'fusion?' Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Tri-fusion isn't about triathlon. The title actually means the fusion of mind, body and spirit through triathlon. A bit of a play on words. I experience such a peace within myself when things are going well training wise. I try to share that with others.. I feel it's a positive thing. However, I wasn't able to do this until I made the positive changes from within first.. only then was I able to share with others. It could anything from urging a coworker to quit smoking to picking up a piece of garbage on the street. It's all positive change and if I can be some small part of it - that's a good thing. Hey, we all of that power, might as well use it.

Cheers,
Darren