Mosquitoes in January?

The Pineapple Express from Hawaii has been providing us with extremely wet and warm weather here in Vancouver. The term Pineapple Express sounds much more glamorous with images of Hawaiian fruit and cocktails arriving via the jet stream. What it really means is torrential rain, high humidity and warm temperatures. Almost all the snow on the local mountains has disappeared so snow shoeing has turned into rock shoeing! 

Today Neil, Dave and I did a 2.5 hour run on the Dirty Duo route in 15 degrees Celsius with very high humidity. It was a sweaty one! We were greeted by a hatch of mosquitoes near the creeks. I hope the wasps stay underground. Weather forecast is for more of the same. Perhaps next January we should just go to Hawaii! 

This week I did 4 spin classes, 1 TRX class, 1 sea wall walk, and 3 runs. Hoping to get outside more next week. 

Dave and I on one of the many slippery board walks on this route. 

Happy Robbie Burns Day! 

Fergus enjoying some Haggis! 

Bye Bye January Blues!

 

Snowshoeing on Mt. Seymour with Dave and Neil.

The lights on the ski runs lighting up the sky and the snow.

Fergus and I on the Buntzen Lake trail. He is small but strong and mighty - wow can he take me for a run!

 

 We are over the jet lag, the colds and the thick fog covering Vancouver has finally lifted. All great excuses to interfere with a runners motivation. It is half way through January and we are now starting to incorporate longer runs into our weekends. Last weekend we completed 2 hours on the Dirty Duo route and today we did 2 hours at Buntzen Lake on the Diez Vista route.The Dirty Duo and Diez Vista are 2 upcoming 50km events I plan to participate in.

 

The spinning classes throughout the winter have helped. I'm trying to join 3-4 spin classes/week, 1 TRX class/week and to get out for 4-5 runs/week. Last Friday night Neil, Dave and I enjoyed snowshoeing up Mt. Seymour. Hopefully this week will bring more snow to the mountains and we can go again soon. I really enjoy an evening snowshoe outing. We wear our headlamps and it is very peaceful and of course a great workout. Occasionally we enjoy a little mulled wine along the route!

The terrain at Buntzen is a bit rocky but Fergus just flies over it!

 

I do my best to keep up!

 

Happy Trails!