Training Log Archive: Bash

After a weekend in Collingwood hosting my in-laws (MIL and SIL/husband) and eating great food, I had some energy to burn off. A 5K trail run around Palgrave West on a cool day was just what I needed. My legs felt fresh - the benefit of never training, I guess - so I decided to push myself a little. Pretty sure training would make things feel even better so I may just give that a try.

Dances With Dirt Results

Our team (Canadian Chicklets) placed 4th of 31 female teams, which surprised me - in a good way! We were only 23 minutes behind the 2nd place team, who were 1 hr 23 mins behind the winners.

Our rank only improved to 3rd of 31 teams when our handicap was incorporated, which surprised me too since I thought that was our strong suit. All women are given a 12.5% handicap. All runners get 1% for every year over 40 and 1.5% for every year over 50. The handicaps for the five team members are added together and divided by five to get an average handicap for the team. Our team handicap was 20% and I'm proud to say I made a significant contribution! :)

'Bent and I went to the Dances With Dirt 100 km trail running relay in Michigan. He raced with Tarno, Almageddon, Gus and Ed. I raced with Jackie, Milla and Alanna Tarno, and Kay Kay Magi. We both had fantastic teammates.

The race course runs in and around Pinckney State Recreational Area, where I did the Trail Marathon 50K a few years ago. The relay has 15 legs that start/finish in 5 different places, sometimes more than once, so it's a busy day of running and driving.

There are close to 300 teams of five runners, many of them in costume. The atmosphere is super fun and friendly.



I think our female team did reasonably well but results take a while to come out. In addition to the regular ranking, teams are assigned age/gender handicaps so I was very valuable to our team in spite of being the slowest runner. :)

I ran Leg 6 from Hell Creek to Nielsen's Rating. The first part is nice trail - rolling and sometimes sandy and slow. It was super hot, and shorter distances aren't my specialty so I got passed regularly. Although this leg was rated "Poison Ivy: Extreme", it was fairly easy to avoid it.

Around the 5 km mark, we left the trail and bushwhacked over to a waist-deep creek at the edge of a mucky, swampy, treed area. I had no idea that my mud/swamp running skills are *that* much better than the average person but apparently it's one of my (not very useful) strengths.

Alas, we popped out onto a rail trail for a couple of kms to finish the leg so some of the swamp people passed me on the way in. A high school track team was there with buckets, tubs and hoses so we could get cleaned off in exchange for a donation. Nice!

I beat my estimate by 5 minutes. Jackie started running Leg 7 shortly before I came in - a legal practice called "cheating" that you can start at this point of the race. Teams just keep track of their overlap times so it can be added on to their finish time.

Legs 12 and 13 from Half Moon to The Farm had to be run together since organizers hadn't been able to arrange parking at the transition point. This was the hottest part of the day so I didn't feel too perky.

As with Leg 7, we started out with sensible trail and a bit of gravel road, then it turned into an off-trail adventure where we hopped over fallen logs as we wove our way through the beautiful forest. This time the poison ivy was unavoidable so we'll see how that turns out later in the week! I scrubbed with Tecnu afterward.

There were more hills on this leg, including a couple of steep, slippery descents. That was the one type of terrain where I felt my recent Alpine experience helped me out. Just before the Farm finish line, we were directed to follow a rope through a pond. It felt great!

My 2nd run since CCC, led out by AdventureDog. The Ambit says I need 18 hours of recovery after less than 40 minutes of running, which is its way of being sarcastic about my recent training volume. I'm filling in for someone at the Dances With Dirt trail relay in Michigan this weekend, which will be a very different kind of running from what I've been doing.

It's now the second half of September so I've spent enough time being lazy! It's time to get back to AP logging and a bit of training.

I've decided to stop tracking my sleep on a regular basis. I started doing that after sleep deprivation wreaked havoc on my 2014 UTMB race. I think my habits have improved over the past 5 years even though they'll never be perfect. I failed nap time in kindergarten so this is not new! I sometimes worry too much about the sleep numbers so I think I'll just try to stay well rested.

I've added some log entries for the first week of September - the week after CCC. Lots of photos, lots of scenery, not much text. Guest appearances in Chamonix by the Cameron/Mueller family and Benoit Letourneau. I still need to write the race report.
https://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/p...

I finally remembered my Ambit today! Dee, Shannon M, Browner, Scout the dog and I ran up Switchback and over to the Lookout near Loree Forest before coming back. Trails were slick after all the rain.

Browner and I went back to Three Stage. The rocks and roots were slipperier after hours of rain overnight but the trails weren't too muddy. Fun ride and we loaded our jersey pockets with ripe apples!

'Bent, Mrs. Gally and I went to Three Stage for some rocky biking. We made a few stops to eat tasty apples.

'Bent, BazingaDog and I went to Albion Hills pick up flagging tape, pin flags and signs from Trail Fix. I did a little running and it didn't feel too bad. I've felt surprisingly good since CCC a week ago.

Happy 23rd Anniversary, 'Bent!

We spent it volunteering at Trail Fix. :) Great to see so many friends out.

Got the dogs back today so our little family is complete.

And... two trains to Milan and a flight back to Toronto. Home sweet home!

The last few days since my race have been busy with lots of time on my feet. Today I announced that I would read, pack my bag, drink coffee, go out for lunch and dinner, drink wine and eat chocolate. It was a lovely day but it turns out that I'm not cut out for sitting still. I think a nice balance after a long race would be a half-day of lollygagging and a half-day of touristing.





We did have to walk into town twice for lunch and dinner so I wasn't a total spud. And 'Bent went for a morning run.





It's our last full day in Italy so I had gelato for lunch *and* dinner. :)

'Bent made good use of the balcony for his morning coffee.



But that was the end of sitting around and relaxing with our feet up. The #1 thing to do in Stresa is a boat ride to visit three nearby islands with beautiful villas and gardens that go back 5 or 6 centuries. It's a long, interesting day and we had spectacular weather.







Isola Bella and Isola Madre have historic villas with beautiful architecture, art, furniture, clothing, dishes and more. They are surrounded by well kept grounds and gardens with statues. Isola Madre has peacocks and other large birds.







Below the villa on Isola Bella were half a dozen "caves" decorated with seashells and statues that were used as a summer palace in the days before air conditioning.



Isola dei Pescatori (Fisherman's Island) is a small village with shops, narrow alleys and excellent restaurants. Mick would have liked this shop.



We had lunch here - grilled lake fish for variety after last night's grilled seafood.





After a long day of walking and stair climbing, we had a "light" dinner of pasta with fresh porcini mushrooms. Mmm.

We spent 10 nights in Chamonix in a fantastic 3-bedroom chalet apartment a few minutes from the UTMB finish line. I would definitely stay there again if we ever go back! When I booked it, we knew 10 people in the UTMB lottery so we assumed we'd share it with at least one other couple and split the cost but unfortunately, everyone failed in the lottery. We ended up having the place to ourselves except when the Cameron/Muellers visited. I'm glad we had space to host them.



'Bent and I took 5 trains in 6 hours to travel from Chamonix to Stresa. We've done a few races in Europe and we've learned that Italy is a great country for post-race recovery. The food is yummy so it's a nice place to be hungry. Our apartment had a large balcony with a terrific view of Lago Maggiore - perfect for sitting, reading and drinking wine.



Some of the art in our apartment



The price of the view was a 10-15 minute walk downhill to restaurants and shops - and uphill on the way back. Stresa has a beautiful lakeside promenade.



We picked up some food for breakfast and resisted the wine sold by the glass in the grocery store. How convenient!



Then we headed into Stresa's old town and tried the grilled seafood. Yum.

Phatty, Leanimal, Weeanimal and Ewen arrived in Chamonix on Thursday in time to eat pre-race dinner with me and welcome 'Bent to the finish line. They headed home today after a relaxed morning. Tomorrow is the first day of school. Weeanimal was *not* pleased.



Then we met Benoit Letourneau, Richard Turgeon and Guy Doiron for lunch before they head to Italy for the 330 km Tor des Géants trail race. There was a slight breeze so I used that excuse to wear my CCC finisher's vest (as did half the people in downtown Chamonix!)



Benoit was loading up on calories since he often can't stomach food during long races.



I'm writing this entry in mid-September so Tor Des Géants has already taken place. All four Québecois runners finished it in 4-5 days: Benoit, Richard and Guy, as well as their friend Eric Deshaies. They all did well, finishing between 60th and 125th places out of 930 runners. Several hundred runners did not finish.

Since this was our last night in the Land of Cheese, 'Bent and I went out for a celebratory fondue.