Training Log Archive: Bash

Upper body strength workout to help with XC ski poling. It's been a long time since I've done this, and now I need to use lighter weights than the ones I had previously marked on the wall chart. Need to work my way back up to where I was in the summer when I was paddling.

Leg strength exercises.

I feel like I could enter 15 extra minutes at Level 5 to account for the time and energy spent hauling, lifting, sawing and installing our 7-foot Christmas tree today. Phew! You know that lady in the Canadian Tire ad who makes their new tree stand look so easy to use? Well, she must be a WAY better trained adventure racer than I am.

Trail run around Palgrave West with ThunderDog, who was full of beans. She kept throwing quick glances in my direction to make sure I was looking, then she would tear off in a different direction to follow a deer trail, swim in an icy pond, or locate nasty, smelly things on the ground. I explained to her that she was showing complete ingratitude for the $3500 of back surgery, but that didn't really improve matters. On the bright side, I got more off-trail running time today than I'd originally planned on.

Since I can't go to TNT, I figured that TNT can come to Palgrave! I set out to do some intervals - my first speedwork in many months. It wasn't long before it became clear that my chest cold hasn't cleared up enough to do really intense exercise. So... I decided to invoke the Thomass age/gender handicap rules to drop several of my planned intervals! Did 3 intervals of 3:15 with 1:30 off, then ran home. I need to find a loop of the right size so I can try running a fixed distance.

Speaking of canine ingratitude, I'd left ThunderDog at home for this part of the run rather than having to worry about chasing her. When I returned home, I found the empty plate that used to hold Bent's birthday cake! :-(

Leg strength exercises while baking Bent's surprise birthday dessert... The surprisingly large number of items requiring cleaning after the unfortunate egg handling incident showed once again why Bent is normally the chef in our house.

We still have snow, but warm rain has been falling on it all day. Looks like we're back to autumn for another few days.

First Thomass Winter O of the season - a snowy race at Kelso. Still fighting the last remnants of my cold, which might explain a couple of lapses in concentration. Early in the race, we had a long, moderate climb to the top of the escarpment. I ran about 70% of the way - more than usual. Unfortunately, I didn't see control #8 on the map, which was just off the trail, so I went to the top of the hill and visited all the controls that I had to do in the Thomass box before noticing my error. I wasn't sure if my race would be a DNF, but retraced my steps downhill in the wrong direction to pick up #8 before making the climb and long run around to #9. Sigh... always room for improvement. The last section was straightforward navigation, although it was challenging to run on steep, snowy slopes, some of them covered with slick rocks or debris.

The good news is... my knee was a total non-issue, even with all the sidehilling and hidden logs and rocks. I can't remember the last run where I didn't feel any pain at all. Luckily for me, the race organizer accepted my out-of-sequence control. I didn't notice, but Adventure Girl told me that I was the 1st woman to finish. Woo hoo!

I was just wondering yesterday if my max heart rate is still in the low-to-mid 180s, and apparently it is. I was curious about where I'd hit 180 in the race, and assumed that it would be somewhere during the early climb up the escarpment. But when I downloaded, I saw that it was at the finish line - funny that I was apparently pushing that hard in the last few hundred meters.

Another perfect winter day! Fat snowflakes drifted down as Bent, ThunderDog, BulletDog and I skied to Palgrave East and all around. Snow was deeper and fluffier than yesterday. We met four heavily-bundled mountain bikers pushing their bikes through 20 cm of the white stuff. We asked if they were preparing for a winter adventure race, and they laughed as if WE were the crazy ones. Didn't look like much fun to me - we never saw any evidence that they actually got to sit on their bikes. Skiing, on the other hand, was fantastic!!!

Since I haven't gone running for 9 days since getting sick, I thought I should go out for a slog through the snow to see if I'm ready for something as strenuous as tomorrow's "long" Thomass race on a ski slope. Verdict: Well, my nose was still running, but so were my feet, so I guess I'll go. Bent has decided to stay home and spend another day or two getting healthier.

Leg strength exercises

It doesn't get better than this! :-) Perfect winter morning with 15 cm of fresh snow and a light dusting of crystals drifting slowly down, glittering as they caught the sun's rays. Fireplace burning, big pot of coffee, dogs romping around. Mmmm... Although we are both still recovering from colds, this is the beginning of Bent's birthday celebration weekend, so of course we had to head out on the ski trails with ThunderDog and BulletDog, who were insanely happy to have winter back. Today I moved up a level and used my waxable classic "rock skis", suitable when there might still be debris poking through the snow. They are faster and require better technique than the waxless, so today's extended Charlevoix route was good training. Knee continued to twinge, but never got worse, even when I did a couple of knee-pulling sharp turns at speed. Now we have giant snowflakes falling with no wind, and and it looks like a Christmas card out there. :-)))

With the forecast suggesting that the snow will be gone by Monday, I couldn't resist going out for another short ski at twilight. Our tracks from the morning had frozen, so it was much faster and I worked harder too. Every time I planted a pole, I was reminded that I shouldn't have stopped my upper body strength workouts just because paddling season was over. Oops! One more thing to add back to the list.

First ski of the season!! :-)) BulletDog and I went around the Charlevoix route as light snow was falling. I'm still recovering from my cold, so I used waxless skis and didn't push too hard. Those skis are *slow*, so it was still a pretty decent workout. The only sour note was a twinge on the medial side of my knee. I've been very worried that my injury might affect my skiing, which would be the very worst sport to lose. Anyway, it wasn't that bad, although I didn't do anything too technical today, so it wasn't a serious test.

Thanks to the recent windstorms, we need to do some more trail clearing work, but ski conditions were great with a nice amount of fresh snow.

Leg strength exercises to help my knee. Hey people, you're supposed to be making rude comments if I don't do these every other day! Do you KNOW how long it's been?

This is my 4th day of complete laryngitis. Bent is trying to pretend that he misses my helpful wifely nagging. ;-) But the good news is a SNOWSQUALL WARNING!! We already have 5-7 cm on the ground and trees - very pretty. It sounds like we'll have another 10-20 cm by tomorrow evening. So my goal is to get well enough by tomorrow to go skiing or snowshoeing for the first time this year. Yahoooooo!!! :-)))

My cold started last Thursday, but luckily, I felt pretty good until I lost my voice partway through the Tree Huggers AR Party. Since then, I've been too sick to leave the house - maybe it's flu? This is my 3rd consecutive day with no voice whatsoever. When the phone rings, I have to wait until it finishes, then check *69 if there is no voice mail and e-mail the caller! I would love to go out and run the full Tree Huggers Adventure Run - something I never did in one go while I was course setting. But needless to say, this hasn't been a great training week so far... :-((((

2nd Annual Tree Huggers Invitational Adventure Run.

Great turnout this year - 35 racers and 60 total at the party. Other than forgetting to draw one of the 31 controls on the final version of the map (which only Hammer noticed), things went well and everyone was back safely before dark. Nobody returned with any injuries or traumatic stories of adversity, other than some serious burrs on Griz and Storm. Great performance by the boys and girls from Mac.

Today was my final vetting of the Tree Huggers Adventure Run race course. Bent will be doing it tomorrow, and hopefully the flags will all stay up until Saturday!. It was a beautiful, cold day with heavy snow flurries at times. Yahoo, it's almost time to get our XC skis out!

I'm predicting a winning time just under 90 minutes, using my usual rule of thumb that anyone who has ever lived in Scandinavia can do anything athletic twice as fast as I can do it. The course is longer than last year, but the higher quality map makes it go faster. The race will probably come down to success on the bonus questions, as it did last year.

I did the entire course in 3 hours, mostly running at medium speed, and making occasional stops to beef up the visiblity of some flags and word clues. I spent 5 minutes wandering around, unable to find one of my own controls when I came at it from a different direction - oops! The biggest diversion was 10 minutes of looking for ThunderDog when she suddenly dashed off into 40 acres of farmland where some aggressive guard dogs live, and disappeared from view. It wasn't pretty - I was running around in thigh-deep weeds, calling her name, blowing my whistle, and eventually crying when there was no sign of her. Just as I was about to phone Bent to tell him that he had to cancel his patients for the afternoon and come search for her, she appeared around the side of the farmhouse, looking very pleased with herself. Phew!!!

Hanging the final flags in Palgrave West for the Tree Hugger race. There was an impressive wind making all the trees look like the Whomping Willow, so I just ran in and ran out. I'm hoping to test run the course tomorrow morning, if I can get map and control descriptions finished tonight.

Hanging flags for the Tree Hugger race, counting only half of the time I was out. ThunderDog came with me for the first 90 minutes, but this cold rainy November weather was not fit for Man nor Beast. So I (Woman) took the Beast home, and went out alone for the next few hours. I got totally chilled and lost dexterity, which made it hard to hang flags. It was a good reminder of why most hypothermia happens in this type of weather, rather than in winter. If I'd been in a survival situation, I would have been incapable of doing fine tasks with my fingers, as one might need to do to start a fire on a rainy day. But luckily, I never got more than 2.5 km from home!

There are lots of controls in this score-format race, and it will be interesting to see if anyone can get them all within 2 hours. I'll test the course later this week, and if I can do it, then it will need to be made longer! :-)

Hanging flags in Palgrave West for Saturday's Tree Hugger race. We have a stronger field this year, so I'm making the course longer. BulletDog and I were out for 2.5 hrs, and I'll count half the time. I think I deserve a gold star for going bushwhacking with my blistered feet and sore quads on the day after Raid The Hammer! :-)

Event: Raid the Hammer
 

Raid The Hammer 25 km Adventure Run. This year's team was Crash, Bash and Bent. (Our regular teammate and talented back-up navigator, Hingo, is out with an injury.) Crash did an awesome job in her first-ever adventure run, including towing me up the Molson Mountain Climb (without complaining) at the very end of the race. Wow, that girl is fit!

It was an awesomely fun race. Congrats to Hammer for once again devising a fun, clever, creative and challenging race course. He just keeps surprising us! On the ride home, Crash asked what was different about this adventure run compared with previous ones, and it wasn't at all difficult to come up with a list. That's pretty amazing, considering that I've done all 8 adventure runs since 2002. Thanks for all your hard work once again, Hammer. We appreciate it.

Our race went quite well at first. We were running with people we were very proud to be seen with! :-) That all ended on the way to control 5D in the advanced section (yes, the really easy one). We wasted 15-20 minutes after a very simple map reading error convinced us we were at one stream when we were really at another one 400 meters away. We even decided that the control had been stolen at one point, before I finally (**finally**!!!) saw my huge mistake. Other than that, I was satisfied with our navigation. And hey, no penalty loops for the 3 micro-O controls!

We are proud of the great performances of many of our friends - but especially GHO Canada GHO, who totally blew away the competition on a tough course. Way to go, Coach Sudden! (I think you're the only one who reads Attackpoint.)

I'd been worried that I wouldn't be able to finish the race because of my stupid knee. I'd figured that if I couldn't even do a 4-5 hour race, it would be the end of endurance sports for me, and I was prepared to take it really hard. Today's results were mixed. I did finish the race, which was a huge relief. But I was in a lot of pain for the last 5 km - mostly my hip because my knee wasn't making its usual contribution. Also the arch support has changed the biomechanics of my leg. If nothing changes, I won't be able to do 25-km trail races because the pounding hurts. A 25-km adventure run is actually easier because of the greater variety in motion.

Anyway... it was a fun day, excellent weather, beautiful scenery, and a great chance to see friends. Almost everybody we know from racing was there!

Trekking and trail running around Palgrave East with BulletDog, finalizing the eastern portion of the Tree Hugger Invitational race course. I've subtracted 30 minutes to account for all the time I spent just standing still, overwhelmed by the complexity of the challenges that I'm inflicting on my friends. Heh heh, not really.

Here's a big hint: Both yesterday and today, I came home covered with burrs. So that gives you an idea of where we are going on the map. BulletDog often twists and turns to reach the burrs on her back. A couple of times today, I felt warm breath on my shin, and looked down to see her gently removing burrs from my tights with her teeth, then spitting them out. That's a new trick, and I'm mighty impressed.

The controls are spread out over a large area, and this will be the more advanced section of the course, so I had more opportunities to run than yesterday. My knee didn't feel wonderful, but at least I didn't feel crippled like I did yesterday. There is still hope for Raid The Hammer! Which is good, because if my stupid knee forces me to drop out of a 25 km adventure run, I'm afraid that I may get all girly and blubbery. This is my first long race in 3 months that will involve running, and I really would like to believe that I can still do this sort of thing.

Long trek with ThunderDog around (and around) Palgrave West, finalizing control locations for the Tree Hugger Invitational. I don't want to give too much away because some of the THI racers have been known to read my log. Let's just say there was some trail running, some lovely open forest, some frustrating bush-bashing, some steep hills to clamber up, and a few cold, ankle-deep swamps. It snowed on us a few times, which makes this the first official Tree Hugger Snow Report of the season.

Wildlife Watch: We saw tonnes (herds!) (flocks!) (gaggles!) of white-tailed deer today. It was almost ridiculous - they were everywhere. It is hunting season, so perhaps they are all hiding in our conservation area where hunters are not permitted to follow them.

I'd planned to follow up with a faster run, but my knee was killing me when I woke up this morning, and it didn't get better after 2.5 hrs in the forest. Sigh...

This wasn't supposed to be a rest day. And this wasn't supposed to be a day where all I did was talk on the phone to tech support people and hang out at the local computer shop trying to get my laptop to talk to the Internet again. But that's the kind of day it was. And I am borrowing Bent's laptop tonight. :-((((

Leg strength routine, with small adjustments from the sports med specialist. I really must do this on alternate days, like I'm supposed to.

Trail run in Palgrave West with ThunderDog. Not much time in the woods today because I have to prepare for an interview tonight. I moved a bunch of fallen branches from yesterday's wind storm. I don't want people making excuses for slow times in the Tree Hugger Invitational Adventure Run!

ThunderDog was surprisingly energetic for a dog who was limping last night after over-extending herself in Cootes Paradise. She insisted on swimming again today, even though it was 10 C. When we returned to the house, she attempted to board the Purolator truck in our driveway - perhaps she thought the driver might have some lunch left. Fortunately, her quick action prevented him from leaving with my package!

Trail run in Palgrave West with BulletDog. I tried to focus on running more efficiently. It feels like I expend more energy than I should on up-and-down movement, rather than focusing on moving forward. We non-speedy people need every advantage we can get!

Two months of reduced exercise due to injury has taken its toll on my fitness, not to mention the 3-4 extra lb. that I am now lugging up the hills. Rats - Raid The Hammer is going to be tough.

I've started reviewing medical literature on the link between running and arthritis, following up on my sports specialist's comments. The first few studies I've read agree that runners live longer, and there isn't a strong correlation between running and arthritis. However, there is a correlation between degenerative changes (like my knee) and later arthritis amongst both runners and non-runners. So the question is, does it make things any worse if I run? Or am I likely to get arthritis around the same time regardless? There are lots of scientific papers left for me to read in hopes of finding some semblance of an answer!

Today was my long-anticipated appointment with the sports specialist to discuss my knee. I like this guy. He was willing and able to explain things using physics, after I mentioned that I'd done a Masters in biomechanics. He isn't over-serious. One of his first comments was that the reason I have so many knee problems is that I had an MRI. (I guess he subscribes to the "if a tree falls in the forest with no one there to hear it, then it made no sound" theory.)

He suggests that I ignore the torn meniscus unless it produces more serious symptoms, and then I would get the knee scoped. Although I've got a degenerative tear that can't be fixed (which I already knew), this type of tear is less likely to cause problems than the traumatic tears young basketball players get.

He believes there is hope to stop the kneecap pain by working to get it tracking correctly. He was happy to hear about my leg strength exercises, but advised against a couple of exercises that cause the kneecap to move laterally (to the outside of the leg), e.g. wide-stance squats. (The exercise routine was developed when it looked like I had ACL problems, so it's not surprising that it needs a tweak or two.) He also advised against doing leg extensions on the weight machine. Apparently my hip flexors aren't flexible, so I should do some stretches. When these muscles are tight, they torque the femur, which moves things out of alignment.

I asked the dreaded question about whether I should change my level of activity. First, he said that no study has made a strong correlation between running and arthritis in later life, even though this is generally assumed by physicians. On the other hand, since I already have degenerative changes, my odds go way up. What is not known is how much worse my odds will become if I keep running. It is possible that my future will unfold pretty much the same way regardless of what I do. He advised listening to my body and not doing things that hurt. (Hmmm... pain is the whole point of adventure racing!) Then he immediately told me that he ignores his own advice and participates in sports with a sore knee. Interestingly, he hasn't had an X-ray or MRI yet. He believes strongly that symptoms are the important thing to consider, not fancy tests.

So... lots to think about.

Night-O at Tyandaga Hills. This had the potential to be awesome fun, but it just wasn't my night, between my light failing and my knee twinging. Next time!

Running before and after orienteering, including a nice long uphill on Kerns Road.

Tomorrow I am finally seeing the sports specialist about my knee. I'm looking forward to it with equal parts of excitement and dread. Maybe he will be full of helpful ideas and reassurance that all will be well in a few months. Or maybe he will tell me that it's chronic and degenerative, and I'm crazy to be doing all these things when I should be sitting in front of the TV eating chips. I may be faced with some tough choices. :-(

Trail run in Palgrave West - Loop #1 with ThunderDog. This loop was slower because of diversions to sniff trees, chase squirrels, and do a full-body immersion in a mud puddle. Oh, and ThunderDog found lots of things to do as well. (You could see that one coming a mile away, couldn't you?)

Trail run in Palgrave West - Longer Loop #2 after dropping ThunderDog off at home. I used the same combination of shoes, arch support and knee brace that I used at the Wine Classic, and things went pretty well. It felt like the knee was going to start really hurting any minute, but it didn't happen. I felt energetic today and went out of my way to run up some good hills, but I ran out of steam at the top of several of them. Oh well. I think I might try to fit in another long run before RTH, just to try to get my confidence back after Sunday's debacle.