Training and the return of winter...

This past week I was lucky enough to take a three day training session on Learning Organization Community of Practice (LOCoP) for advanced practitioners, focusing on strategic planning. The session was facilitated and led by Sylvie Lapointe, who is an absolutely fabulous teacher. She started her own company, L2Emerge, a few years ago but used to work for CFS. If you ever need a facilitator, I highly recommend her!
The days were intensive, but very productive. The funny thing is that we never thought that we would actually talk about strategic planning, vision, etc. Beforehand I thought the session would more focus on the preparation before you facilitate a session, which we talked about as well, but it was so much more! And on top of it all, it fit in perfectly with our National Research Forests session that we planned for Monday and Tuesday.  We received some great guidelines for a 'Taking Stock' exercise. Guess what was on our agenda for Tuesday morning? Indeed: Taking Stock. We thought we would just talk about it for a bit, and move on, but now we actually have the tools to make it successful. Same for a mission statement we're trying to come up with; we now know how to tackle this effectively without it being too dry, and making sure everybody is involved and have their say!
This training also fits in very nicely with the SRI International training I took in the fall. The approaches are slightly different, but they both offer very valuable points and advice, and we'll be using both strategies next week. It is just really nice that an investment in training is actually useful.

I was supposed to leave for Petawawa this morning to guide a group of university students around the PRF, but woke up to a crazy blizzard! It was a bit unexpectedly, especially since we received 30mm of rain yesterday, and were maybe secretly hoping that winter would come to an end. No such luck! So I decided to cancel my trip, and now I'll go up tomorrow morning instead. Missed my coffee date with Krista though :(
We almost went running as well, but decided last minute that it would probably be a disaster and went snowshoeing instead. Never knew that snowshoeing in wet, fresh snow could prove to be such a great workout! We were both sweaty and had our heart rates racing! We put them on about 5 minutes from our house, and just snowshoed down the streets. There was more than enough snow, and now plough in sight! Until this afternoon of course, when we could go out and shovel the end of our driveway again. I guess being on a corner lot does have one disadvantage: we seem to be getting an awful lot of snow dumped on our driveway. And consequently, our snowbank is the highest in the street!

SRI and more photos

This past week, I spent two days in Pointe Claire, near Montreal, for a SRI Workshop: The Five Disciplines of Innovation. Senior Management of both the Fibre Centre and FPInnovations had taken the training, and most project leaders and scientists were asked to go as well. Since not everybody was able to go, there was a list of 'back-up' people in case they had some extra spots available. And you guessed it right, my name was on that list and I had the privilege to attend the two-day workshop.  It was an intense two days, but very much worth it. They showed us how to think differently, especially when you are working on a project. We learned about value propositions, and how to look at your project proposals from a different point of view, or look at the end product, rather than at the process. This way you make sure there is a need for that specific product or service, and why your proposal is better than the competition. Of course, it was so much more than that, but I would need several pages to explain it all! In short, it was a very interesting two days, and I am very happy I was able to go.

By the time I came home Thursday night, I was pretty much toast, both physically and mentally. The last few weeks have been pretty busy, with the house, the marathon, travelling for work, visitors, and work in general. Not that I'm complaining, not at all! But my body just shut down, and I decided to stay at home on Friday, and recharge the battery. It was hard, but I didn't do anything that day! I just read the paper, read my book, went for one of the best runs in a long time, and had a nice long bath. And guess what, it felt so good, and I really think I recharged that battery!

Saturday Walter and Deb came up from Belleville, and they brought Steph with them. It was a really nice visit, especially since we hadn't seen them in a long time, and it was nice for them to finally see how we are living here in the Ottawa area. But overall, it was just nice to catch up. We went for a nice walk in the Greenbelt, and again fed the chickadees. Especially Steph loved hanging out with the birds!
Today, we decided to sleep in and skip running in town. We finally cleaned up the garage, so the car can finally go inside, and started putting the floor in for our fitness area in the basement. After a really nice chat with Renée (which we should do more often!), we decided to go for a run. Of course, at that point it was raining and cold... But that couldn't stop us, tough as we are :-) The rain was definitely cold, the wind was nasty, but we still managed to get a 5k in. Nolan hadn't run in a week, so especially for him it was nice to get out there. And for me? Even though I'd run a nice 10k on Friday, it felt like I had to start leaning again right there. But with some strong perseverance, we manage to do it.

Here are a couple of photos left from my mom and Annette's trip. Finally some pictures of my mom as well!

My mom during our walk at Stoney Swamp

Nolan and I

My mom and Tante Louk in Belleville

Tante Louk and Annette

Our last day's breakfast, Canadian style. Needless to say we weren't very hungry for the rest of that day...

Getting closer to Marathon Day

Yesterday we did our last 'long slow distance' run in preparation for the marathon, next week in Montreal. Compared to two years ago, when we were also training for a marathon, the one in Prince Edward County, the training this time around felt much more comfortable, comprehensible and manageable. Not sure what the difference was, maybe experience, maybe the fact that we didn't have too much time to think about it because we were occupied with realty business? We were dreading yesterday's run a little bit, because last time, we thought 'Oh, we ONLY have to do a 16km run, how hard can that be?'. Well, turned out it was the hardest run of the summer.
This time around, we were a little apprehensive, maybe more realistic, and it payed off. We did a very comfortable, relaxed and great 17.5km. We hit the trails in the Greenbelt again, and it's just a joy and privilege to run there. We really discovered the trails this year, and did most of our long runs on the trails. It's very forgiving for our bodies, since we're not pounding the pavement as much. Maybe that's why we stayed virtually injury free this time? Also, Nolan's blisters are pretty much non-existent, which is huge! All in all, I think we're ready for next week's run. This week, we'll do maybe two short runs, but rest our legs for the most part, so they'll be fresh for Sunday. The only thing we'll be doing I think this week is pack, pack, and pack!