Yeah, yeah ... so I am a little behind here. Normally, I am unapologetic about these things, since, well, the profit margins remain the same regardless of whether I blog punctually or not.

But I am a little apologetic this time round, because I actually have some great material. But seeing as the likelihood of me back-blogging it all at this given juncture in my life/season is about as high as me eating a can of mushrooms while sporting a pink T-shirt, let's just concede defeat and go with a /photo summary of the last month.

For reasons that remain unexplained, I have recently decided to torture myself on a semi-regular basis by running to the gym for my workouts, and then back home afterward, a total of about 6.4 km (or four miles for the metric-impaired).

My old sneakers just weren't cut out for the task. So I gots me some new ones!

After several months of base and strength training, speed work has officially started for me this week, and today I met my dryland coach at the hill up the street from my house for a workout.

Most people think sprinting hills is a little grueling, but this is one workout you won`t generally here me complaining about. I think running hills is a blast. It`s quick, hard and dirty. It`s like a race against gravity. I love it.

I am in Calgary this week for the first training camp of the summer. I make the 12-hour trek across B.C. and through the Rockies' on my trusty steed (aka Fiona the Aquamarine Mist '97 Ford Escord Wagon ... ) several times a year, either for training in the ice house during the summer months, or for sliding on the track in the winter.