Training Log Archive: Bash

A little running to make a shoe choice for Saturday. Normally I'd always use my featherlight Salomon S-Lab XT Wings for a long trail race but when I need a security blanket, I go back to my XA Pros. I'm going to start in the S-Labs and put the XA Pros in a drop bag that I'll see a couple of times later on the course. If my injured foot is screaming, I'll switch to heavier shoes. My ankle brace will be in there too.

My foot has been feeling better without running this week but even this short jog tweaked it. Just in case my foot started to feel really good, my body decided to throw a light head cold in my direction. I'm full to bursting with tea and honey, zinc tablets and ColdFX. Oh, just remembered there is Oil of Oregano upstairs. Better try that too.

And that is that. Just about finished packing and should get to bed 4-5 hours earlier than I usually do before a trip. Funderstorm and I will get to San Francisco mid-afternoon tomorrow. We'll be tourists on Friday followed by an early bedtime and early race start (5 a.m. for me) on Saturday. Weather looks spectacular. I'm not in a great position going into my first 50-miler but I believe I've done all that I can under the circumstances, short of dropping out of the race - which is what I would do if I were afraid of DNFs. So what happens, happens. Thanks for the terrific support! :)

Just checked in for my flight. Air Canada now considers 1 checked bag to be "excess baggage" when flying to the U.S. Which reminds me...

American Airlines Now Charging Fees To Non-Passengers

FORT WORTH, TX—Cash-strapped American Airlines announced a new series of fees this week that will apply to all customers not currently flying, scheduled to fly, or even thinking about flying aboard the commercial carrier. The fees, the latest introduced by American Airlines in a continuing effort to combat its financial woes, will take effect on Monday. According to company officials, these charges will include a $25 tax on citizens traveling with any other airline, as well as a mandatory $30 surcharge for passengers who decide to just stay home for the holidays instead...

...Arpey went on to note that some additional charges would also apply, including a $15 fee for every piece of luggage customers have inside their bedroom closet, and a one-time payment of $40 for any American whose name is Greg.

..."Watching television last night cost me $250," said Baltimore resident Michael Peterson...

Heavy, heavy rain at the end of November when it should be snowing instead. Boo. Had a long lunch with Getawaystix and enjoyed a full ARWC play-by-play with maps and commentary. So interesting!

Happy Significant Birthday to 'Bent! :) Moab, here we come.

22 teams have entered the Jan. 22 Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Snowshoe Raid already. Earlybird deadline is midnight Wednesday, btw. All race categories are well represented with the exception of Open Males, who are widely known to be wusses. Either that or they just prefer to pay higher entry fees...

Endurance Challenge 50-Mile Championship Preview of the Men's field. Wow, if it weren't going to be so dark on Saturday at 5 a.m., I could enjoy a view of the rear ends of some of the best ultrarunners in the world - for a few seconds, anyway.

The Canadian trail 50-mile record holder, Adam Campbell, a member of the Salomon Flight Crew, is mentioned as one of many contenders. Philly Cheesesteak, our Flight Crew's fearless leader, will also be there to pace last year's female winner, Anna Frost of New Zealand.

Ankle still sore - will see Thumbs-of-Death tomorrow. I reviewed the results from last year's North Face Endurance Challenge 50-mile Championship in San Francisco. The 2010 field was "arguably the most competitive ever for a trail 50 miler". With $10,000 each for the male and female winners along with other cash prizes, this event attracts top international runners.

Knowing that the field was more talented than average, it's daunting to see that only about half the racers finished under 12 hours. An additional 14% of starters completed their run in each of the 13th and 14th hours. (That's the time limit.) Almost 20% DNF'ed and/or missed time cut-offs. Median time for female official finishers was 11.5 hours.

On the registration form, we were asked to estimate our finish time. It was a few months ago, and I took a wild guess of 12.5 hours, 90 minutes under the 14 hour time limit. It was before I got injured, before I knew the race was 51.2 miles and before I looked at last year's results. Now I'm guessing 13.25-13.5 hours - or a DNF if the ankle is too painful. That's pretty close to the cut-off so it's going to be one of those races where I do a lot of math!

They are supposed to give us info on how spectators can follow our progress realtime, probably through Facebook. I'll post info here so you can help me do the math if you'd like!

C3 multi-sport club year-end banquet tonight. The spellbinding keynote speaker was Captain William Fielding, the first Canadian pilot since World War II to be shot down in combat. He's on the left.

It happened last year in Afghanistan. After landing the badly damaged, flaming Chinook helicopter as softly as possible in a field while still being shot at, he and the co-pilot were the last of the 20 people onboard to exit (because that's what captains do). Every moment they waited, he thought the burning aircraft might explode.

Once they were outside in the flat open country, the enemy could see them better and shoot at them more accurately. Next came lots of running, ducking behind mud walls, diving into ditches and firing by both sides. They all made it to safety about 20 minutes later after they encountered armoured Canadian vehicles coming to their aid, but he is not permitted to tell the full story of what happened in between.

After his tour of duty was over, docs at home discovered serious problems that the military docs had missed including broken vertebrae, a tumour along his spine that grew from scar tissue, a torn ACL and brain trauma, not to mention post-traumatic stress disorder. For awhile, he lost vision and hearing on one side but it came back, and now he can fly again. So he's able to work but his life will never be the same. He has strong reactions in certain situations, e.g. when he smells smoke or hears loud noises. He used to love to run but he can't now because of his back.

It was a noisy, boisterous crowd with many calls for silence throughout the evening as awards were presented and speeches given. But while this guy spoke, you could hear a pin drop. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking about how easy my life is in comparison. And thinking how silly it seems to label a tough uphill run - or almost anything I do - as a "mental challenge" when this guy can't even hear a kid screaming in the grocery store without jumping out of his skin.

Fascinating and disturbing. It left me with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and sympathy for the people who serve our country.

Here's the full story if anyone is interested in more details.

Easy trail run to tire out the pooches before picking 'Bent up from the GO Bus after his birthday weekend playdate with the Fast Boyz. Tried out a new way of taping my ankle that wasn't as annoying.

My foot hurt like crazy last night while walking in the city. Thursday night's yoga balance poses didn't feel good and may have strained something that was partially healed. So I'm going to stop running for the final week before the race. At this stage, my fitness is what it is, and the best thing I could do to prepare for the race is give my body some healing time.

Obviously, now that I realize how much worse this sprain was compared to others I've had, I should have taken off a week or two right after it happened. I just hope I'm not being stupid by doing the race. Or if I am, I hope I recognize it and stop before I wreck myself. Fortunately, my pacer is a physiotherapist and ultrarunner (M&M) so I am in the best possible hands.

The 4 p.m. deadline has passed, so it's official... 'Bent has $1,696 in donations which puts him first on the 61-member "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" Movember team. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

He just received an e-mail saying that the top three guys will have their moustaches judged by Ron MacLean and Olivia Chow. Moustaches can be improved using products like waxes or gels, but colouring and artificial extensions are banned. We need a good moustache stylist - someone with experience in problem moustaches. It will be fun (for me) to experiment. 'Bent is not looking forward to it quite as much. It's not easy being a prospective TV star.

With today's 4 p.m. deadline fast approaching, 'Bent is positioned well to be the top fundraiser for the "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" Movember team. He's leading $1,556 to $1,160 - although someone may be holding back a last-minute surge. Unfortunately, the top three guys will be judged based on the quality of their moustache before the producers decide who will be flown to Halifax for the TV show. I dunno - we aren't sure 'Bent's moustache could win a beauty contest. We'll keep you posted.

Thanks to all the folks who have supported his campaign to fight prostate cancer. Last-minute donations are welcome at:
<http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1149766>

'Bent will reciprocate donations to fellow Mo Brothers - just let him know. The national campaign doesn't end today, only the "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" team competition.

Hand Bike For Sale... 2-Time Silver Medal Paralympian Regains Use of Legs after Bike Crash and is now aiming for the 2016 Olympics. Can you imagine!
<http://runningmagazine.ca/2011/11/sections/news/pa...>

Hard Core Live with Caron

As a result of all his kneehab, 'Bent has become a yoga machine. Still no flexibility, of course - that would be asking for a miracle!

Discovery of the Week for post-run recovery:

Dark Chocolate 1% Milk. With the same fat, 2 g more protein and 5 mg more Iron than regular 1% Chocolate Milk. (Yeah OK, a few more carbs...) Some days the universe is on my side.

Since my ankle sprain six weeks ago, I've been gradually upping the ante in different ways:
- no runs, short runs, long runs
- flat roads, hilly roads, smooth trails, technical trails, off-trail
- ankle brace, ankle tape, no ankle support

I've made it up to "long runs on technical trails without ankle support" and "long runs off-trail with ankle brace". Today I stretched the limits with two more variables:
- BazingaDog hauling on the leash while I ran on technical trails without ankle support. A little scary at times! There were numerous puppy stops for sniffing and territory marking; I paused the Garmin for the longer ones. In between, the pace was higher than I usually run.
- A thin layer of ice on north-facing and shaded trails. This was not planned. I should have worn my spikes. BazingaDog certainly did.

This was a momentous occasion - a cross-country run to 'Bent's dental office for an appointment, returning by a circuitous route. An old dental crown shattered only days before I am going to fly out of the country. The Royal College of Dental Surgeons granted 'Bent written permission to do an emergency temporary crown. If he were to do a permanent crown, however, the provincial government would consider that to be sexual abuse because we are married. Grrrr.

I'm still waiting and hoping for that law to be changed back, and there seems to be a good chance that it will be. I haven't found another dentist since the government took away my freedom to choose to be treated by the only dentist in town. 'Bent noticed a couple of obvious cavities but he isn't permitted to fix them, so apparently I can't keep waiting for the legislative wrangling to finish. :(

Little Logie made his first shopping trip to the Salomon Store today.



Motherhood suits Dee.

Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour... Every year, seeing the trailer makes me want to paddle the Amazon, trek across Antarctica and climb a Himalaya. Before lunch.

BulletDog and I headed into Palgrave West on a chilly day. No ankle brace and no ankle tape for the first time in over 5 weeks. Livin' on the edge! I had to be very careful with my foot placement but this felt better than running with any kind of ankle constraint.

It's a tough call... I was planning to tape my ankle for the race but I have to weigh the risk of turning my ankle vs. the risk of pain over 50 miles from running with a repetitive, unnatural, constrained gait.

Warm-up followed by 6 hills (3 Raspberries, 3 Hawks) then cooldown on the way home. I feel strong on these shorter runs so I guess the painfully slow long runs have had some benefits. Although BulletDog doesn't always get the point of intervals, she was great today and even anticipated my turn-around points sometimes.

While watching The Daily Show.

At tonight's AGM, the Caledon Navigators orienteering club voted to dissolve by the end of 2011. To everything there is a season.

Wilderness Traverse is confirmed for Aug. 18-19, 2012. Website is being updated. Getawaystix will send an e-newsletter soon. (Write Bob AT WildernessTraverse DOT ca if you're not on the list.) Hope to see you there!

So... I printed the Participant Guide to do detailed planning for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler - aid station locations, food/drink types provided, time cut-offs, gear bag locations, what I plan to pack in the bags within a 10 lb limit, etc.

I knew organizers had to revise the course last month due to major trail repairs so maybe this is a recent change, but maybe I'd never really focused on the final line of the Pace Chart:

Finish - 51.2 miles

Excuse me??!? The TNF 50-mile Championship is 51.2 miles? This revelation of an extra 2K of mountain running was surprisingly distressing, given that I'd already proven my foolishness by signing up for 50 miles. The time cut-offs remain the same so I guess I'll have to sprint that last 2K. Ha!

From "The Future of Self-Improvement, Part II: The Dilemma of Coaching Yourself" by Jocelyn Glei, writing about the work of author and resercher Joshua Foer.

"...Those who excel beyond all others in their fields – do it differently.

Foer identified four principles that he saw the experts using to remain alert and to keep learning:

1. Experts tend to operate outside their comfort zone and study themselves failing.

2. Experts will try to walk in the shoes of someone who's more competent than them.

3. Experts crave and thrive on immediate and constant feedback.

4. Experts treat what they do like a science. They collect data, they analyze data, they create theories, and they test them."

It sounds like Attackpoint was built for this!

Thomass Kick-Off - "winter" orienteering at Starkey Hills. Raid The Hammer was supposed to be my only orienteering race in November for ankle reasons, but I found the promise of a post-race pub lunch with fellow orienteers too enticing - not to mention the excitement of Harps' debut as course controller.

Great to see lots of orienteering and adventure racing friends, especially my little buddy Weeanimal who has grown like crazy since I saw her a few weeks ago.

This is a fun, intricate map and I had moments of perfect flow followed by a big error heading for F when I incorrectly thought I was at a bend in a trail. Alas, I arrived at a re-entrant near a pond as expected so it took a couple of minutes to realize my error and get back on track. Since I'd gone all the way over there, I picked up E and made my way back to the west. Unlike Hammer and 'Bent (Snowshoe Raid teammates travelling together), I chose to go directly from #15 to the Finish rather than heading to #1. Maybe they were thinking of doing a 2nd rep? ;) Silly boys, their detour gave Eugenius the win.

It looked like GHO had a good day - we'll have to see the totals in the club competition. My Garmin time was less than the SI time even though I accidentally left it running at the finish, but that will affect everyone the same way.

A gentleman and his wife drove up in a nice car as we were chatting by the road and rolled down their window to ask what was going on. I explained that it was a running race and showed him my map and compass as I told him about the navigation. "It was a running race?", he repeated. "Yes." "With your legs?" "Yes." Hence the extra descriptor on today's log entry. :)

Last long, hilly run before the North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler two weeks from today. (I'm supposed to do 16 km next weekend but that no longer feels "long".)

Today's challenge was choosing a run that both my feet would do.

Left foot: "I am *not* doing a 50-mile race in an ankle brace. If you make me, I will chafe and blister until you regret the day you were born. The trails in Marin County aren't technical. I need practice running on smooth ground. I vote for dirt roads."

Right foot: "You know my sore heel that flared up for a couple of days and gave you a scare? If you don't take me back to the nice, soft trails where we belong, I'll do that again. Enough with this road running! You're training for a trail race, doofus!"

The right foot won. I taped my gimpy ankle and ran from home to Glen Haffy and around some trails there. I was super cautious on the many trail sections where loose leaves conceal off-angle roots and rocks. I got lucky - no ankle twists and no heel pain after the first few minutes when I realized that I couldn't heel strike because it hurt too much, which was not a terrible thing.

Although weather was cool and grey, more people than usual were on the trails. (Around here, that means I met someone every 20 minutes or so. Not exactly a traffic jam.) There were a number of Garmin pauses to chat with hikers and fuss over dogs including a very friendly pit bull who, I learned, is inseparable from his sidekick, a tiny dachsund. I even met two ultrarunners at different times - Homey (also considering his first 50-miler) and Slowrunner.

I'm getting to the part of the taper where I don't need to do very much except pack my bag and drink red wine. This is going to be fun.

Just an fyi from Canadian Running News...

Balding, naked jogger spotted near London

The temperature was likely cold enough to cause some “shrinkage,” but that didn’t stop a man from jogging in the buff on Tuesday morning near Woodstock, Ont., just outside of London.

Police say two female runners spotted the man around 5 a.m. They described him as a 50-something, balding man with a beer belly. He also had a mustache. It’s unclear if he was growing the facial hair as part of the Movember fundraiser, or if it was simply part of his personal style.

Oxford County police say it’s not the first time a naked runner has been seen in the area. [Phatty???]

Looks difficult to get into the 2012 World Rogaining Champs. Good thing these restrictions weren't in place in 2004 or I might never have tried the sport in the first place.
<http://www.rogaining.cz/wrc2012/files/entry_criter...>

Oh fergawd's sake, now my slightly sore heel from Raid The Hammer has flared up into a really sore heel. The kind of sore heel that inspires one to google "bone bruise" and "stress fracture". It's not the foot with the ankle pain; it's the foot I've been pounding harder than the other foot during the time I've been training with an asymmetric gait. In other words, it's exactly what I've been worrying about.

I thought about roller skiing instead of running since my ankle might be strong enough for that, but then I remembered how much force I feel on the inside of my heel (the part that is sore) when I skate ski. So for today, I hopped on the bike trainer and pushed hard because I was mad. I'd planned to go longer but my Dad dropped by with skim lattes and chocolate macaroons which changed my priorities in a heartbeat.

Hard Core Live with Caron

C3 triathlon club power yoga.

Late Autumn Report Card on 2011 training goals

It's been awhile so it's time to refer back to the ol' checklist and see how I'm doing.

The idea was to take the 12 weeks between Logs Rocks & Steel and The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler to build up my running fitness. Although I've done more running than usual, I've spent much of that time doing rehab for a sprained ankle rather than building my trail running volume and strength. Grrr. However, that's not unusual in sports so I just need to suck it up.

It's not a "fail" yet but I think the TNF 50-miler is going to be about survival. If I hadn't convinced several other people to travel to California with me, I probably would have postponed my first 50-miler for another couple of months. San Francisco with Funderstorm, M&M and Hingo is still going to be fun. I don't think the race will hurt me but I won't be giving it my best. I've long felt that I could fake a 50K trail race based on my usual AR training but not a 50-miler. Well, we're going to find out.

THE GOOD
Two 24-hour rogaines:
Did Eco-Endurance Challenge with Crash and CNYO Rogaine with JayXC. I love rogaines - just wish they had a different name!
50 km trail race and maybe a 50-miler:
50K - check. 50-miler - coming up in 2.5 weeks. Tentatively targeting Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc in 2013 and several of us are aiming for the Canadian Death Race in August 2012. This will, of course, depend on whether the 50-miler kills me.
Running 2+ hrs/week:
There's nothing like training for an ultrarun to make this goal seem quaint and old-fashioned. :)
Expedition adventure race(s):
Unranked finish in 4-day APEX event in Switzerland. 3rd Coed in 48-hr Equinox Traverse in Pennsylvania with JayXC and Sony. Not enough expedition adventure races for my liking but c'est la vie.
Quality training, any discipline 1+ sessions/week:
On and off. I've done more hill training than usual. Need to bring speed intervals back.
Total annual training 550+ hrs:
Already at 570 hours with 6 weeks left in 2011.
Make an effort to train/race with more people more often:
A little less so lately, now that I'm doing long, boring, ankle-friendly runs. But for the most part, it's been a good year for this.

THE BAD
Seems that everything is either Good or Ugly!

THE UGLY
Strength training 1+ hrs/week:
Tiny was right. I suck.
Get 7+ hours of sleep on most nights:
Sometimes but not often enough.

July mini-goal:
Increase running cadence:
I did some testing and - as expected - my cadence is lower than it should be (155-160ish). Haven't done anything to change this since I've been focused on recovering from injury instead of changing my running form.

I'm going to add another mini-goal... Get some formal training in Chi or POSE running. Any comments on differences/preferences between the two?

Now that I'm into the easy 3-week taper phase, I'm all over my 50-miler training plan! :) Today called for 8 km, which felt like nothing. Somehow I don't think that doing it 10 times will feel like nothing but it's a good sign, anyway.

With a reasonable portion of the healing done and the ankle brace off on even surfaces, I'm almost back to my normal gait and even felt strong pushing up some of the hills. There is still pain but the ankle doesn't feel particularly unstable.

Today's route was a bunch of rolling hills on dirt roads - the kinds of hills I hope to run in San Fran. I'm sure there'll be plenty of walking too but I've practised that enough. Really nice to start to feel nimble again.

Now if only I'd been able to resist the Skinny Peppermint Mocha at Starbucks...

While watching The Daily Show.

'Bent is the current leader in donations (by a small margin) on the "This Hour has 22 Minutes" Movember team of 60 men. The winner will get The Jack, the 22 MInutes Team's much-coveted new trophy awarded in memory of Jack Layton. (Yes, that *is* Olivia Chow in the photo.)

If you'd like to support the fight against prostate cancer through this campaign, please donate to your local Mo Brother or click on 'Bent's donation link from the 22 Minutes Team Page. Thanks to those who have already helped out.

P.S. If you go to 'Bent's page, you'll see that the moustache is... well, let's just say I'm looking forward to Dec. 1! :)

Here's something I've never done on the day after a Raid... a long run! It's three weeks till the 50-miler so this weekend I was supposed to do one of my longest long runs before starting the taper. Raid The Hammer wasn't long enough for that purpose so I'm hoping back-to-back long runs will do the trick.

Given that my ankle injury messed up the training program, this is not the first time I've used creative licence. I have no idea if it'll be enough but four of us have had flights booked to California for awhile so I'll give it my best shot. DNF-ing international races has been one of my specialties this year so there's nowhere to go but up.

It was weird how much zippier my legs felt today than yesterday. Maybe it was the podcasts - much more interesting than listening to music on a long run. I stopped the Garmin a few times for various reasons - to chat with Crash as she drove by, meet friendly dogs and play with the iPhone. No ankle brace today. I don't want to use one in the race so it's time to wean myself off.

I started reading "Daniels' Running Formula" this weekend - about two decades too late but that's OK. He divides runners into quadrants and I would fit into the "Low Genetic Ability / High Motivation" quadrant. Apparently, Daniels likes to keep people like me around because we're "fun to coach" and we "may inspire the High Genetic Ability / Low Motivation runners" who actually have a chance of achieving something significant. It's awesome to realize that I have a higher purpose in the sports world.

Huge thanks to T. Devil for his generous offer to help get M&M to the aid station in the Marin Highlands where she can start pacing me in the North Face Endurance Challenge. This has been stressing me out and I'm very, *very* grateful.

Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Raid The Hammer with 'Bent and Hingo, the original Tree Huggers from our first Raid in 2002. It was a fun and varied race course with many changes of pace, both mental and physical. Steep climbs and descents, splashing through creeks, trail running, technical orienteering, walk the line - always something different. We had real 1:10,000 orienteering maps for the entire race. Luxury!!

It was great to see so many volunteers in the woods. For the first time, I didn't see any teams cheating by not visiting CPs together. The weather was perfect for racing and as usual, the organization was terrific. Loved the Pita Pit sandwiches after the race. Well done and thank you, Dontgetlost!

This was 'Bent's return to RTH after knee surgery and he was strong and maybe a little too tow-happy given my injury. Hingo can always pull out a good performance in a race, and this was no exception. As for me, meh. I felt very, very cautious of my ankle - only 3 weeks till California. I made both macro- and micro-route choices with terrain friendliness in mind so we probably spent more time on trails than most teams. Between the safe routes, my grippy Salomon SpikeCross shoes and the new PSB ankle brace, there were no major incidents. I'm icing a slightly swollen ankle tonight but it's nothing!

We ran into Men of Constant Sorrow, another Masters team, frequently even though we often made different route choices. They are fast runners! Starting at #12, we also leapfrogged the C3 High Performance team of triathletes till the end. This year's Matrix suited teams with runners who don't navigate so we couldn't use our advantage there. Otherwise, it was a good course for us. My navigation wasn't as focused as usual, sometimes because I was thinking "ouch" instead of "map" and other times because I was trying so hard to keep up with the boys.

At #19, Men of Constant Sorrow were a few seconds ahead of us but we made different route choices to #20 and #21. We ended up in a sprint to the finish with the C3 triathletes close behind us in the subdivision approaching the school. Surprise, surprise, they got us by 28 seconds. We knew the Men of CS must be close behind and we saw them on the track behind us as we approached the final control. We pushed to the finish line for the win in the Masters division (9 teams) but only by 44 seconds. We were 19th overall. Disappointing but not surprising.

Awesome to see so many friends I rarely see in the real world although frustrating that time was so limited that I couldn't even say hi to everyone, let alone have a decent chat. Wish there could be a Raid The Hammer after-party but our lives are all too busy so I guess we'll just have to keep hanging out on the Inter-Web like a bunch o' geeks. 'Bent and I got to spend some nice "real life" time with Bender afterward at Domestique where the snacks and lattes were yummy.

Congrats to Nick and the Foreigners on yet another Raid victory in 3:05! Great job by Bender and his team who placed 2nd by just 37 seconds - oof! Nice job by Mick, Run-it and Tyson to place 3rd. Our token American team, JayXC and co., finished just off the podium in 4th, only 17 minutes behind the leaders. I think they were also the top team with no familiarity with the World Cup course - so... bonus points. Tough race - well done to all the lead teams!

[Garmin somehow turned off right after the start and I turned it on after 74 minutes. I've combined JayXC's Garmin track with ours to estimate total distance.]

"Hey Bash, I'm just taking the dogs for a quick hike then we can get our stuff ready for Raid The Hammer. Really looking forward to a relaxed afternoon after such a busy week. Uh oh, hello Mr. Porcupine..."

SNOWING!!! The first I've seen this fall. Yahooooo!!!!

First run without an ankle brace in 3.5 weeks. I stuck mostly to hilly dirt roads with one unpleasant kilometer along busy Hwy 9. Mostly I was running on smooth, hard dirt with loose stones but sometimes I ran on the soft sand and gravel shoulder, and the ankle held up nicely even then. I'm not ready to run without a brace on trails where I can't see the footing under fallen leaves, but this is good progress.

It was a good idea to run up here today as the main road was closed further south to investigate a stabbing murder that took place, ironically, on The Gore Road. Yikes.

Earlier in the day, I took the dogs on a 40-minute hike on trails, also without an ankle brace. This was brave, given that BazingaDog has become so strong that when he sees a deer, I have to grab the leash handle with both hands and lean back with my full body weight to prevent him from dragging me off into the woods. Or twisting my ankle.

Now, I hate to generalize but I think we can all agree that men are silly. They tend to ignore good advice from their wives. For example:

Me: You may not want to commute home by trail tonight, honey. There are high wind gusts in the forecast.

Honey: Oh, that's not a very high wind. I'll be fine.

Luckily, the wind came up after he got home last night - a little later than predicted - because here are three different trail blockages the dogs and I found today within 800 meters of our place.







Longtime readers may remember the 70-acre forest fire set accidentally by our new-to-the-country neighbours. This is what happens four years later. :(

Hard Core Live with Caron

C3 power yoga class. Tougher on the ankle than last week.

Trailer for Zoolander's upcoming film, "Go Death Racer". If you're considering joining the group doing the 125 km Canadian Death Race next August in Alberta, registration opens Jan. 10 and sells out quickly. Mrs. Gally is leading the charge; it's on my calendar, assuming that I survive my first 50-miler with even a tiny smile.

Shortly after Wild Rose headed out on the final bike leg at the Adventure Racing World Championship, I hopped on my trainer to do a little late night riding with them. VJ (Carbon on AP) has been an inspiration to me over the last year with her dedication to structured training as she has recovered from major surgery and become fitter than ever. She could make excuses but she doesn't. We've enjoyed long, geeky e-mail chats about training, exercise physiology and gear. She's had amazing success this year and it's well-deserved. This one was for you, VJ. Congratulations.

Ran at puppy pace with BazingaDog to Palgrave East to see the devastation from the new 8' wide "fire guards" they've put between some sections of pine plantation forest where nice trails used to be. At the moment, they're just loose earth and mud - as if a bulldozer destroyed our trails. Thinking positively, I guess this means we'll have some ungroomed skate ski trails close to home.

BazingaDog likes single track; BulletDog sometimes cleverly cuts the switchbacks, but our little guy likes to go fast around the twisty corners. The idea of these runs is to tire the puppy out so he won't do crazy things in the house. Mission *not* accomplished. Shortly after this run, he tore apart a wicker basket that had been on the counter. Sigh.

Ran around our hilly country block in the rain. I think this is the first time I've gone clockwise and it feels more daunting since the only flat section is over early.

On both runs today, I was testing the new PSB ankle brace that just arrived from England in the mail. Charm recommended it as she used it for the North Face Endurance Challenge marathon distance last year. She heard about it from Ali Crocker on the U.S. national team, I think. It's interesting and very different from the Active Ankle. I think they could both give blisters if used for a long time but I can see alternating between them for different runs. The PSB brace is much less bulky and doesn't press on the ankle bone. My hope is to be unbraced for the NFEC 50-miler on Dec. 3.

I went to Thumbs-of-Death afterward for another excruciating treatment. If it doesn't kill me, it'll make me stronger. It's much better than it was.

The Gay Lifestyle - well written and good for a smile for my gay and gay-positive friends - which I hope covers all of you.

BazingaDog and I went for an easy run around Palgrave West, going at an uneven pace due to puppy intervals, doggie doughnuts, wildlife chasing, sniffing and territory marking. Grey, damp day but nice for running.

Exciting! With only a 90-minute bike ride to the finish line after 6.5 days of racing in the Adventure Racing World Champs, top Canadian team Wilderness Traverse is neck and neck with two other teams fighting for 13th-15th place. The race finishes with a big lap of a track and there have been some exciting sprint finishes there, including a 1-second difference between 4th and 5th places. It should all wrap up around 3 p.m. our time then it'll be time to cheer Wild Rose in around dinnertime.

Slice on Team Tecnu just arrived at the finish line in 12th place as the top Canadian racer (on a U.S. Team).

For those who haven't been watching, Team Spirit is camping along the Arthur River during a mandatory dark zone. They should be finished by dawn tomorrow our time. Unfortunately, the Milton Basement Racers dropped out of the race at the TA at the start of the big paddle. I'm sure they're disappointed but race officials are not aware of any major problems.

So proud of all our friends at this tough event!

Includes a few stops

The third annual Bolton Fall 50 originated as a birthday celebration for Coach LD. It's a multi-sport event - paddle/bike/run - that travels 50+ km through Caledon and finishes at Goose and Coach LD's place for dinner. It is a tour, not a race. If there are injuries or if people want to divide themselves into "single track/double track" or "walk/run" groups, we sometimes split up - but only temporarily.

Coach LD and Goose hosted such a terrific surprise birthday party for me in August that a mere thank you note would not suffice, so I offered to organize this year's Fall 50. We started on foot at the Innis Lake Rd. entrance to Glen Haffy Conservation Area. Coach Huet sprained her ankle last weekend so she and Mike skipped this run and joined us later at the trek/bike TA.



When we reach a particularly beautiful place in our outdoor explorations, Coach LD sometimes likes to sing "Oh Canada". And there was a gorgeous hillside in Glen Haffy that deserved it.



The hikers who arrived a minute later (who were among the very few people we saw all day) asked whether someone was about to drop a puck. We ran close to 10K along the Bruce Trail Side trail to our place, which was TA1.





Coach Huet dropped off Mike at TA1 and drove Tammy down to Bolton where the two of them would start biking north to meet us. The first half of our bike route was going to be Palgrave and Albion single track, which was too risky for Coach Huet's injury, but the second half was advertised (by me) as travelling on leaf blown double track and quiet roads. About 30K in total.



Between my ankle injury and my focus on running, it's been over a month since I rode a bike. Remind me never to do *that* again. Not only did I have to be cautious with clipping and unclipping my injured foot from the pedal (with one excruciating miscalculation), but my biking fitness and technical skills felt rusty already. Still, we couldn't have asked for a more spectacular November day to be in the woods.





They were setting up a cyclocross course at Albion Hills! Maybe next year.



We locked up our bikes at Goose and Coach LD's place, then headed up the hilly Humber Valley Trail on foot. In the excitement of managing things at the TA at our house, I'd neglected to toss my running shoes into my pack when we started biking. So on this trek, I was wearing a pair of borrowed shoes one size too small with my ankle brace wedged inside. Definitely better than 5K in bike shoes on a gimpy ankle!





It was around this point that it occurred to me that the 5:50 sunset time I'd culled from some website could not possibly have taken the clock change into account. We were supposed to have 3 hours of light left but we only had 2 hours. It was going to be tight!

When we got to the trek/paddle TA, Crash (who had just joined us for the run due to a shoulder injury) surprised us with a birthday party complete with champagne, personalized chocolate cupcakes, balloons and a linen tablecloth. It turns out that we had four November birthdays in our group - Coach LD, 'Bent, Rocky and Coach Huet - so we raised a toast to them all. Crash is a professional chef and sommelier so she does this sort of thing *really* well.



If 'Bent's smile looks a little forced, it's because we called him over to be in the photo as soon as the sparklers were lit. Unfortunately, he had just collapsed to the ground in agony with a severe leg cramp. But sparklers don't wait for anyone so he had to suck it up and get in the picture. Naturally, you can't even *see* the sparklers in the photo.





We slipped into the river for the final paddle down the Humber River to Coach LD & Goose's place. The light was already getting dim in the valley and we had about 90 minutes of paddling in a twisty, shallow river with good current and lots of obstacles to steer around and duck under.

Rob and I teamed up, as we did in the Wild Boar earlier this year. I managed to turn my feet into popsicles by getting out a few times to push us off something, but otherwise things went well. We got off the water after sunset but before dark, and everyone was still smiling. Total distance was 53.5 km so luckily, we didn't have to do anything else to achieve the required 50K.



We had hot showers and a yummy potluck dinner followed by beautiful birthday cakes, also baked by Crash.





Happy Birthday to all the November people out there! :)

Total time: 5:49
Total distance: 53.5 km
Climb: 498 m

Why don't I train in the morning more often? It's such an awesome time of day and it feels great to be home by lunchtime with a long training session completed and the rest of the day free to do other things.

Alas, I have a problem with alarm clocks unless I'm meeting someone - and luckily today I was meeting Mrs. Gally and SistaP around Silvercreek and Terra Cotta Conservation Areas. We had a great trail run - easy pace, good hills, some very technical terrain, excellent conversation, lots of laughs. Time flew by.



I won't be sure where I was until I see the GPS track. As frightening as this will sound to those who know her, Mrs. Gally was the primary navigator today.

As we reached the bottom of the escarpment for the last time and saw our cars a few meters ahead, I looked at my Forerunner which said 2 hrs 54 min and felt a great sense of accomplishment - until Mrs. Gally said, "Sorry ladies, that's not 3 hours yet. Turn around and run back up that hill!" &*$%!! And so we did, of course. When we got to the top, I made sure we ran far enough past the summit that we'd be over 3 hours by the time we came back down. Phew! This is why you don't want to run with a professional personal trainer. ;)

My ankle hurt but I didn't do any new damage. Other than RTH, I don't expect to run on super-technical terrain again until after the 50-miler. Just as well!

Not sure if it made any difference but I thought I'd give my ankle two days off in a row from running to see if it would use the time to heal a little. I know part of my current pain is bruising from the ankle brace. Long run with Mrs. Gally and SistaP (my ESAR team) tomorrow morning.

I've always wanted to to go Churchill, Manitoba at this time of year to see the polar bear migration. Now, thanks to two HD webcams operating for the next month or so, we can watch for polar bears during daylight hours even if we can't get to Churchill. As with any wildlife watching, you may not see anything - but I did just see a polar bear walk by on the tundra buggy-cam. Cool!

Hard Core Live with Caron. A little hard to concentrate with 'Bent begging her for mercy.

C3 Yoga class. Ankle still hurt this week but I was better at holding balance poses on my left foot, and at no time did I have to suppress a scream. Major progress from last week's class!

Late afternoon trail run, measuring more of the Bolton Fall 50 route with BazingaDog. The poor little guy started limping the day after our 10K run last week. It looked like a sore paw and we had roofing contractors dropping a few nails around here, so we aren't 100% sure it was caused by the running. Just in case, I let him set the pace today and take walking breaks and sniffing breaks whenever he wanted. When we hit 7.0 km on the Garmin, I switched to walking for the final 2 km. He's been fine after a number of 5 km runs so we'll increase his distance more gradually.

I didn't have my camera but a 6-year-old friend captured a nice picture of the two of us running today. Those of you who know us will see that this is a really good likeness.

More from NevMonster's Raid The Hammer teammate:
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/fitness...>

As people (and mice) get older, there is a gradual decline in "intrinsic drive" to exercise that precedes any change in physical capacity. A new study shows that aerobic exercise stimulates the growth of new mitochondria in the brain as well as in the muscles. The implication is that there may be a physiological basis underlying the desire to exercise or the lack thereof. That is, the more you exercise, the more you will want to exercise.

Ran over to Palgrave East for a tour of twisty, rolling single track. As RD of this Sunday's Bolton Fall 50, I need to measure a few distances this week, as they're a tough crowd. ;)

Thumbs-of-Death had inflicted his weekly torture on my ankle earlier in the day and it felt pretty good in the brace with the SpikeCross shoes. Kinda stiff tonight but let's face it, I deserve that.

If this works, it will be the first Garmin track posted through my MacBook.