Training Log Archive: Bash

Timato did the Cayuga Trails 50 mile ultra last year and enjoyed the experience so much that he convinced a bunch of us to join him this year. This time he coached Mrs. Tiny (Mrs. Timato?) in preparation for her first 50 miler and he planned to support her and other runners with Teeny Tiny's help.

The five of us arrived in Ithaca on Friday evening and had a very pleasant evening at the pre-race social at the Ithaca Beer company. Good food, great company, nice ambience outdoors - oh, and growlers.



'Bent and I had a nice chat with race director Ian Golden. He looks like a guy you might meet in yoga class - or at a casting call for the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar - but he owns the Finger Lakes Running and Triathlon Company, a great local running store.



He's super nice and well organized; he'd sent us several friendly, information-packed e-mails in the weeks leading up to the race. He obviously puts a ton of time into building relationships with the community and local businesses. This event has so many nice touches and well thought out details; it is a class act.

We all did different exploring on Saturday morning then started looking for lunch places. This one looked good for the day before a race. ;)



Instead we went to the famous Moosewood Restaurant. I've had a couple of their cookbooks for years. (Timato: "I don't understand. Why would you own a cookbook?")



Teeny Tiny is so cute, smart and funny! We had a great time hanging out with her.



The food was pretty good too, including yummy chocolate desserts. "Heck, I'm running 50 miles tomorrow - I'm not going to share a dessert!"



After lunch, 'Bent and I went to the Trails in Motion International Film Festival held in the movie theatre around the corner from Ian's running store where we picked up our race kits. It was another nice touch to arrange for this to come to town.

The Ithaca Festival was going on - musicians and market vendors and people in tie dye shirts. There was way too much to do in one day. We will come back to Ithaca. Oh, and we'll go back to Wegman's. 'Bent and I bought a bunch of things we can't buy in Ontario - at least not easily - and we could have explored in there for another hour.

In the evening, all the Ontarians went for dinner. Dee, Mrs. Gally, WandAR and Virginia had arrived, as had Charlotte and Chris and some of their friends. Ang and Sharon joined us for drinks after running a lap of our race course. Great to chat with everyone. I had yummy pasta with shrimp and a big glass of red wine. This was just the kind of day I needed. No pre-race jitters at all since I wasn't feeling any pressure to achieve anything.

Mocha is pretty chipper this morning. Yesterday she was hit hard by a long general anaesthetic she had while getting scans to prepare for cancer treatment. It was scary but this morning she trotted upstairs and leapt on the bed to say hi, then went downstairs and inhaled her breakfast. So it's back to regular Lab Retriever life for now.

That means we can go to Cayuga Trails. June is not going to be fun so a bit of R&R with friends will be good. Oh, and there is that little matter of a 50 mile run in the heat on Sunday. I'm not expecting to do the full distance but I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. It's going to have to be a slooow one to manage my knee and the heat. Cut-offs may come into play before my injury. But anyway, there will be ice cream from the Ithaca Creamery so it's all good.

Cancer sucks. That is all.

Tree Hugger alumnus Logan Tacoma is back at it again! His video contest entry for last year's B.C. Bike Race was selected for the Banff Film Festival World Tour. This time he's trying to win an entry to the Mongolia Bike Challenge. :)

This was a short run in Palgrave West to remind my legs how to move. My knee twinged a little at times. I'm guessing that 50 miles and 12,000' of elevation gain this Sunday might be one of those times so I am mentally prepared to drop out part way if necessary.

I saw a man running toward me in one of the new orange Sulphur Springs shirts. I almost never meet anyone on the trails around here so I assumed it was 'Bent commuting home. I spent a few seconds wondering why he had left BazingaDog and his bike at work before I recognized Mike P. As we said hello, 'Bent rode up with BazingaDog so all was well.

Goose, Coach LD, Phatty, 'Bent and I went on a paddling expedition down Willow Creek through the Minesing Wetland to the Nottawasaga River until it reached Edenvale Conservation Area. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, and it was great to spend time with good friends.

Canoeing isn't a popular pastime in France so it's not surprising that Phatty forgot to get into the boat before sending Coach LD downstream. She came back for him.



It seemed unlikely that we'd find any rocks so 'Bent and I paddled the cedar strip canoe he built - the one we used at our wedding. It's not the best boat for twisty rivers since it likes to track in a straight line but that meant we got a good upper body workout.







There are large sections of wetland where it wouldn't be possible to get out of the boat.







Minesing is a popular area for bird watchers although there weren't many birds out in the middle of a hot day. Coach LD and 'Bent had a spirited discussion over the bird book before identifying a black-crowned night heron.





The coolest part of this paddle is just before the confluence with the Nottawasaga River when you paddle through a magical, shady forest. I kept thinking, "Meanwhile, back in the mangroves..." Earlier in the season when water is high, it can be easy to get lost in here. In this photo, Goose is indicating some debris that got caught in a tree at high water.











Once we reached the Nottawasaga River, it opened up and we could paddle quickly. It was nice to have a shoreline again so we could stretch our legs.



Phatty bravely tried the Doughtys' twitchy racing kayak. We remained ready with the cameras but he did a fine job of staying upright.



This provided a rare opportunity for Goose and Coach LD to paddle in the same canoe!



Alas, my camera card seems to be corrupted so I lost our group shot and the photo of 3 boats precariously balanced on the van roof as we drove back to our starting point.

Nice to have a new adventure close to home!

Congrats to all the Sulphur Springs runners - so many great performances and personal victories! I was undecided about whether to go with 'Bent to cheer for him and my other friends. Then he mentioned that he needed to leave this morning at 4:50 a.m. Suddenly I wasn't undecided anymore. "Bye honey! Race well! Drive carefully! I'll be thinking of... ZZZZZ."

Easy run around Palgrave East single track. My knee hurt more than in my last two runs. I don't have time for that so it will just have to stop.

The first 10 minutes was random as I ran around trying to find the source of a strong wood smoke smell. Whatever it was, it wasn't another forest fire - phew!

It's looking like a healthy poison ivy season. For the first time this year, I'll have to put on gloves and scrub my shoes with soap.

Minor adjustments have been made because I forgot to turn on my GPS right away after moving off the trail when 3 equestrians declared me "kind of scary looking".

Today's highlight was a reprise of both episodes of Boundless Costa Rica with colour commentary by Phatty and a guest appearance by Goose and Coach LD.

This was one of those "Listen to your body" days. Unfortunately, my body wasn't saying, "Go for a 2-hour run." It was saying (amongst other things), "Why the he## didn't you get more sleep this week?"

Last night's wakefulness was no mystery. A delayed out-of-town dinner with distant relatives of 'Bent's meant a late night drive home fuelled by caffeinated coffee. Also, the latest updates from Mocha's oncologist inspired me to consult Dr. Google at 4 a.m.

My body was also saying: "Measure the window BazingaDog broke and order a replacement", "Arrange a meeting with the fence contractor", "Write a DontGetLost adventure running e-newsletter", "Clean up for dinner guests", "Schedule the next Orienteering Ontario meeting" and a bunch of other stuff. My run never had a chance. That's OK - I'm in taper territory anyway.

Sir Nicholas Winton turned 105 this week. Without his courage and initiative, there would be no 'Bent. Sir Nicholas saved 'Bent's Dad's life.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/21/sir-nicho...

Throwback Thursday - May 2004 - Cathedral Rock, Sedona

Not much time today but this was a 20 minute physio session inside a pre-heated 90C sauna so I'll call it level 2 instead of 1 for a change.

(You can tell I'm really worried about my recent problems with heat!)

The most Canadian news story so far this week: Man finds baby moose and takes it to Tim Horton's.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ontario-man-finds-bab...

Haha, we just got an e-mail from the Cayuga race director. They've had to alter the course because of trail closures. The new elevation gain is 12,000' for 50 miles. That'll be the hilliest 50 miler I've ever done. They would like to extend cut-offs but they can't due to park policy. It will be *excellent* training for UTMB. Ironically, participants no longer earn UTMB points, as they did at last year's race. Not such great news for my knee.

Final test for my knee to make a decision on the Cayuga Trails 50 miler, which is 11 days away. Although my knee improves every day, I couldn't leave it any later to do a hard test because the race is so close.



Today was a long, hilly trail run without a knee compression sleeve since I wouldn't want to use one in a long race. I was using poles because I would take them to Cayuga. I ran around the hilliest trails in Hockley Provincial Park, doing random repeats of good climbs and watching my Ambit to figure out which ones were worth doing again. I didn't want to get too far from my car in case my knee protested, and thunderstorms were in the forecast so this compact route worked out well for a couple of reasons.

I ended up with more elevation gain per kilometer than the Hockley Loop with almost no road running - a little more climb per km than we'll have at Cayuga. I finished with a hill climb on 2nd Line since I didn't want to bother hikers multiple times while squeezing in a final repeat up the last hill but that would have been a better way to finish!

My knee felt better than it did during my easier run two days ago. What didn't feel any better was the heat and humidity - only mid-twenties Celsius but it was killing me. I took breaks and slowed way down to keep my HR under control.



I've decided to start at Cayuga Trails. It's set up in loops so I could easily drop out at the 25-mile point since that is also the finish line. With two weeks off running, I missed the final long runs I'd planned to do to prepare so this may or may not work out. The cut-off is 15 hours so I have a ton of time. (My slowest 50 miler to date took 12 hours although I expect that "record" will be broken next weekend.)

Btw I added a photo to Monday's log entry when I ran the Bruce Side Trail up K2 at Glen Haffy. Thanks to the ice storm, I won't be recording any PRs for this section anytime soon.

It's disappointing how much the so-called "heat" affected me yesterday. I still felt a little flat today. I suspect I needed to drink more but that can't be all of it. While doing my physio exercises, I listened to a podcast on heat acclimation for Badwater, which made me feel even *more* like a princess! Maybe I will try sitting in the sauna for awhile, as the medical director for Badwater recommended.

Our holiday weekend kicked off with some history when we had surprise visitors - the couple who built our house around 1970 and lived here until the early 80s. We moved here in 1998. The couple commented on the specific mistakes they made in designing the house, and they were spot on but we avoided comment. :) It was great to be able to ask them how the house had been altered over the years since we have always wondered.

Like us, they were sad to see the big white pine gone since they'd designed the house around that view. Too bad - they only missed seeing it by a few months. We'd had a few large slabs cut from the tree to make into tables so we sent them away with one.

When they first tried to sell the house, they learned that part of the deed hadn't been properly transferred, and Farley Mowat still owned the strip of our property that adjoins the road. They amicably sorted things out with Farley. The first Mrs. Mowat lived across the road from us until her death a few years ago, and Farley wrote his first 10 books there. His son's family still lives in Palgrave.

Some people's dogs crash through their kitchen windows (sigh). Other people's dogs phone 911 when their owner has a medical problem, then wait by the road for the ambulance to arrive.
http://www.abc6onyourside.com/shared/news/features...

A bigger test of my knee - a Bruce Side Trail run to the Glen Haffy stile, a short hilly loop in the conservation area, then back the way I'd come. I only met two people on the trails - Crash (biking home from work) and Joe Gabor (out for a 35 km hike). So there were some conversation breaks.

The ice storm left some damage at the start of the K2 trail in the Dingle.



My knee got sore in its compression sleeve after 80 minutes, which was better than yesterday but obviously not ideal. It felt improved this morning in spite of my 1-hour run yesterday evening so it doesn't seem that I'm doing harm. We'll see how I feel tomorrow morning.

The hardest thing today was the heat and humidity, not my injury. After 49 months of winter (or so), my body is ill equipped to deal with spring. I felt like a sack of potatoes with a high heart rate even though I was moving slowly. Glad I had poles to haul myself up the steeper hills. I normally wouldn't bring them for this route but I'm coddling my injury.

Mick Jagger became a great-grandfather this weekend!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/19/mick-jagg...

Two weeks since smashing my knee on a rock, apparently more thoroughly than in previous such incidents. I don't recommend it. The knee is doing much better but is still sore around the sides of the patella (from my leg bending backward suddenly in the fall, I think), and it hates sitting for long periods bent past 90 degrees. It also didn't like 'Bent rolling over in his sleep and kicking it last night! BazingaDog was so concerned at my "OW!!" that he jumped between us and slept there like a big teddy bear to protect me. Good boy. ;) I think I'm ready to brave a real run today or tomorrow.

It felt great to run - except for my sore knee. Two sports docs have said it's OK to run, and my knee isn't terribly painful but I'm not sure it's ready for a long run - like, say, the 50 miler I'm supposed to do in 2 weeks. This could be the 3rd ultra in a row that I enter and DNS although the more likely scenario is that I will do a shorter distance and drop out early. This is getting old.

BazingaDog, on the other hand, is not getting old; he's staying young and crazy. Our lad finally put himself through a window tonight when he heard fireworks going off nearby. Everyone is fine. While we cleaned up, he cowered in a dark hallway with his face between his paws, unable to meet our eyes. I'd like to think this will teach him a lesson but he's the same guy who tried to play with the porcupine just a few seconds after getting a face full of 53 quills. Sigh, I needed another project right now.

Congratulations to my brother Dave Campbell (left) and brother-in-law Tim Webb (right) on the grand opening of The Gypsy Market Mews Antique Market and their friends' adjoining North Cafe. If you're in downtown Gravenhurst some time, drop by to enjoy eclectic treasures, espressos, Sunday yoga and free wifi. http://thegypsymarketmews.com

'Bent's coach asked him to do a hilly 2-hour hike with a full running pack and poles, which sounded perfect for my recovering knee. We parked at Airport Rd. and 7th Line and explored the hilly Bruce main and side trails south to Hwy 9 and east to Mono-Adjala Townline. It's not an area I've visited a lot because I usually continue on to Hockley Valley if I drive up there.

The forest was pretty and filled with spring flowers, and there were some decent and very runnable hills (runnable on another day, that is). BazingaDog was particularly fond of the creeks, ponds and mud wallows. My knee, wrapped tight in its new compression sleeve, felt OK - not perfect but definitely not scream-worthy like it is when I straighten it to leave the table after a long meal. This was a rare session where I was pushing the pace harder than 'Bent and B-Dog were inclined to go. Maybe trekking is my sport! :)

The only good news in a day of bad news: ThumbsOfDeath thinks my knee injury won't be a long term thing. The current pain is likely from swelling, stretched connective tissue around the patella and tightness that was almost certainly there before the trauma. No obvious sign of new cartilage damage. Priority is to keep swelling under control and watch closely for infection. He did some stuff that was so incredibly painful that it *had* to be helpful! I can resume activities wearing a compression sleeve if I can manage pain and swelling.

Throwback Thursday - May 2004. Reviewing maps with some trepidation before 'Bent and I did our first 24-hour race, the World Rogaining Championships in Arizona.



This summer Browner and I will be tackling WRC 2014 in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Who else is in? It's going to be a fun, well-organized, inexpensive event with buffalo liberally sprinkled around the race course.
http://peakassurance.net/12WRC_2014.html

Since I was able to squat past 90 degrees this morning, doctor's orders allowed me to try a short, body-friendly trail run. I could feel mild pain in my knee as I ran, the same as when I'm biking uphill right now. Time will tell but I seem to have survived the run OK. I wouldn't have wanted to go much farther though. Cardio is fine but the knee is still worrisome.

I've learned what I *can't* do yet - fold my leg under my chair at a restaurant for an hour, then unbend it. Holy *crap*, did that hurt! All the same, it was nice to have lunch at Hockley with Mrs. Gally, DoubleDownon_11, WandAR and Virginia after they did their long run.

Correlation vs. Causation

There is a 95% correlation between cheese consumption in the U.S. and the number of people who die from getting tangled in their bed sheets.
http://www.runnersworld.com/fun/correlations-gone-...

Some local excitement - a bear and 2 cubs spotted in East Garafraxa, west of Orangeville yesterday. We had a mother and cub on the Palgrave rail trail a couple of years ago. So far they have stayed out of trouble.
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/opp-warn-residents-near-...

Errand run to Caledon East via rail trail and single track in Albion Hills and Palgrave West. Lots of trail clearing stops in the first 2 km. Highlights included: chatting with Crash and Skye, hillsides of trilliums, a chocolate pecan tart from Gourmandissimo, finding pumpkin cranberry loaf for breakfast tomorrow, getting home before the thunderstorm, and relatively mild pain in my knee. The low point was finding the first shoots of poison ivy I've seen all year. However, I said I wanted full-on spring so PI is part of the package. That and black flies, which are also here.

I am sooo eager to get back to running but... patience, Grasshopper. I've done it the other way, and it's never good. I keep reminding myself about Timato's recent win at the GRR Half Raid after taking 2.5 weeks off running right before the race to resolve a knee problem. And of course there is Super, who has reduced his running and will undoubtedly impress us with some amazing result one of these days.

The official name for the injury that I appear to have from the Giant's Rib Raid is prepatellar bursitis. That's OK but the common name for the condition is Housemaid's Knee. (!!!) Fergawd's sake, if I have to be injured, can't it at least have a cool sounding name?

Btw Dr. Bell mentioned that CBC interviewed him yesterday about the Vibram Five Fingers lawsuit. His position on the user complaints is: "driver error".

A few body parts that got missed after the phone rang in yesterday's workout.

In case you didn't see the Strava Heat Map when it made the rounds recently, here it is. It's cool to see where people are riding and running in your area. Lots of tracks near our place.
http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#10/-79.70470/44.46...

Ultrarunner Charlotte V. has done it again!

Charlotte Vasarhelyi has completed the EMU 6 day in Hungary. I'm happy to announce that she has set a new Canadian Women's 6 day Record with a distance of 733.34 km. She surpassed the old record of 727.4km held by Antana Locs who has been the record holder since 1991.

This race involved running as many 900 m laps as you can within the time limit - 815 laps for Charlotte. Based on the photos, they were running on pavement - ouch! That's probably harder mentally than any event I've ever done. She was the top woman and 6th overall. Great job!

Off to see Dr. Bell. If he doesn't tell me anything scary about my knee, I will try a short, flat run later. A week ago today, it took a huge turn for the worse and I thought I wouldn't be doing any ultras this year. My kneecap still hurts when I bend the knee much under load (no squats or lunges) but it no longer hurts for the lesser amount of bending involved in walking or running, and it was fine to bend it for the smaller load of cycling. I've taken 8 days off training on foot so far, and it has helped. I'm more optimistic now.

I found a more comfy neck "cone" on the way home from Orillia. The patient is much happier! We've also put a wool sock on the leg she uses to scratch her incision.

No squats or lunges, of course.

We got Mocha back last night with the generous help of Mrs. BGY who was driving past the animal hospital in Guelph at the appointed hour. She's doing well although there are a *lot* of post-op instructions, pills and activity restrictions. The worst part is that she has to wear this embarrassing cone head for 10-14 days. Later this week, we hope to get the final word on whether the tumour was cancerous. If so, she would get a little post-surgery radiation; otherwise, she can get back to running around the forest.

The name of today's event was Scotch and Mountain Bikes - What could go wrong? :)



It was a celebration of the upcoming marriage of Frankenjack and RocksTara.





Frankenjack had designed a fun mountain bike route around Paisley that maximized the number of bridges we would cross. 'Bent and I had never spent time up there, and we were surprised at the great biking and paddling it offers - not to mention Backeddies fair trade organic cafe that serves paddle-in lunches on the patio. Paisley looks like a great location for this year's ESAR.



It was great to see Hodgepodge in real life instead of on the Internet for the first time in a long while. There was a prize for the best riding outfit, and Hodgepodge put most of us to shame.



This ride was a big step up for my knee compared to yesterday. There were some decent hills but they were all on roads so they weren't ridiculously steep. I just slowed down a lot and spun easier gears. It feels like no new damage was done. People were commenting on my ugly bruise, which actually looks *so* much better than it did.



The happy couple enjoy their whisky so the afternoon finished with pizza and Scotch tasting on a private property on the bank of the Saugeen River. Fun!

Mocha's surgeon called again. She has been alert and doing well since yesterday evening (Mocha, that is - not the surgeon) but she won't be released until at least tomorrow. The poor thing will have a cone head for about 10 days. By late this week, we should get the final word on whether she had cancer and whether she needs radiation as well. Fingers crossed. Looking forward to having our little girl back home!

Easy rail trail ride to Inglewood with a stop in Caledon East enroute. I started from Palgrave village to ensure an almost completely flat, knee-friendly ride. With a 50 mile trail race in three weeks, I was supposed to do my longest back-to-back runs this weekend but I'm out of commission for running.

I dropped in on Knobless and convinced him to ride up to the Inglewood General Store.

Inglewood to Palgrave - high cadence, easy gears. I tried to avoid stressing the left kneecap so my right leg definitely got a better workout. Heading both to and from Inglewood, the wind was strong and gusty and usually blowing in my face or from the side. I kept waiting for the relaxing part when I would be pushed merrily along the trail but it never came.

My knee didn't feel any worse for the wear after all the riding so I will attempt the slightly more challenging ride at Frankenjack's and RocksTara's party tomorrow.

It was clear from yesterday's portages that my knee can't handle bushwhacking yet. I was really disappointed since I love testing WT treks but c'est la vie. This morning we checked out a couple of transition areas and had another interesting chat with a local, then I shuttled Bob around to do a big trek on his own. Rain started pelting down as he was outside getting ready to leave and I was in the nice warm car. Even *that* didn't cheer me up. ;)

The ice has finally melted in most places up north so Bob and I headed up to run through the Wilderness Traverse race course.



Today we did part of the big paddle leg, dressed *very* warmly since the water is not much above freezing in the lakes and rivers. By the time we'd chatted with a few knowledgeable people and checked out some transition areas, it was early afternoon. We waited out one rainstorm then paddled only 1.4 km before a bigger storm rolled in with lots of thunder and lightning. We pulled ashore and luckily discovered a shed to hang out in.



After that, our adventures involved actual paddling - lots and lots of it. Our poor upper bodies didn't know what had hit them after the long winter. There was interesting navigation that inspired us both to follow the map closely, different types of waterways, some Bob the Beaver dams, portages, great Canadian Shield scenery and abundant wildlife. OK, so we only really noticed a muskrat and a kingfisher but this is Canada so I'm sure the wildlife was abundant whether or not we were paying close attention.







Many thanks to Wil and Katarina Smith for providing a post-test haven that was out of this world. There was wine and hot dinner on the table at 11 p.m. when we stumbled in all wet and stinky, and our hosts stayed up to chat with us even though they had to be up early for work and kids. They insisted on taking this "after" photo so that Hammer could laugh at the compass around my neck.



The other highlight overnight was watching a massive, spectacular thunderstorm over Georgian Bay. Every flash of lightning looked like a Group of Seven painting - in a horror movie. The storm hit in the wee hours, and I stayed awake until the most intense part had passed because it was so impressive to watch.

Logged time = moving time, including portages

Mocha spent another day at the University of Guelph Animal Cancer Centre. Things went well. She had a third test that didn't find any spread of cancer, and after seeing the CT scan, the docs believe they can safely remove the entire tumour.

Here's where it gets crazy. They found some evidence that wasn't in synch with her original biopsy from a GTA lab that identified sarcoma cells. We don't want to get our hopes up but there's a chance that it may not be cancer. She needs the surgery regardless since the tumour is painful and has invaded a salivary gland. A few days after that, they'll be able to confirm what it was. Fingers tightly crossed.

Fyi 'Bent and some others are doing a Hockley loop Saturday morning, leaving the main parking lot at 9 am. These runs usually split up into groups going at different paces but it's in the ballpark of 3 hours.

A few days ago, I had no idea that I would spend today at an Animal Cancer Centre with our dear Mocha (BulletDog). She is feeling happy and energetic, and I hope that will give her strength as we travel this difficult road together.

Today the docs are doing further tests. Eventually, she may have surgery, radiation and/or chemo, just like a human. It breaks my heart that I can't explain it to her. She must be so confused. :(((

BazingaDog's favourite TV show is The Nature of Things. This episode had exciting footage of muskrats.

Hoo boy, that is one heck of a knee bruise - about 12 cm in diameter and it's probably not done growing yet. My leg will turn many pretty colours over the next few days! It hurts but doesn't feel as horrible as it looks so I'm optimistic about the joint.

On the way home from the Raid, I saw a spectacular meteor out of the car window. I tweeted about it (a very rare occurrence), and my tweet was used in at least two news reports including CBC. I also reported it to the American Meteor Society, which collects reports of sightings and sound. They have confirmed it was a meteor. Based on its trajectory, Storm The Trent racers should keep their eyes open for meteorite fragments along the race course this weekend! Amongst other things, meteorites can deflect your compass needle - uh oh. :)
http://globalnews.ca/news/1311068/experts-confirm-...

Event: Salomon Giant's Rib Raid
 

Salomon Giant's Rib Raid
Tree Huggers with Spirit

I've wanted to race with FB and Willderness for awhile and this seemed like a great opportunity for them to get in some final training before they leave for Expedition Africa.

The weather was perfect - sunny and cool. The race course was fun and varied. Most of the best teams in the race were in our category so our only goals were to enjoy ourselves and spend some time on our feet.

Mostly, it worked out that way. In fact, we spent *much* more time on our feet than planned. Unfortunately, within the first 10 minutes, my foot got tangled in a vine on my way to touch a control flag. I fell downhill onto rocks and smacked my left (good) knee cap hard. The first thing I did was stagger to my feet and touch the flag like a good adventure racer, then it took a few minutes of walking before I stopped hyperventilating from the pain.

FB and Willderness were awesome. I knew they would have taken it well if I'd stopped right there, and I did consider it. It remains to be seen if I called it correctly but it felt like the injury was external (bleeding, bruising and swelling), not an internal joint thing. That didn't stop it from being quite painful, especially while running or on uphills, downhills, rocky areas, or anywhere I had to bend my knee more than 10-15 degrees. In other words, most of the race. I did a lot of gasping and scowling and straight-legged hobbling down hills.

But it was fun anyway, and it was the first long run where I haven't thought about my injured foot at all. Not surprisingly, I had a few lapses of focus in the navigation department but fortunately FB was watching the map too and used his X-ray vision to spot flags. There were some really interesting control locations! I made some longer route choices that were easier on my knee since it was tough bushwhacking through the broken forest from the ice storm.

Both FB and Will are in great shape going into Expedition Africa but they didn't complain about all my walking breaks. I must admit that FB and I were kinda hard on Will until he finally gave in and got his feet wet. I had to remind him that there aren't any hippos here in Canada. His "stay out of the water" strategy probably makes a lot of sense in Africa though. We saw a bunch of snakes, which was also good practice for EA.

We finished an hour behind Lost Bearings, a team the Tree Huggers usually race close to, so that's probably a good gauge for the amount of extra time we spent out there. We were 12/22, which was decent for a day like this. I was sorry to have kept Goose and 'Bent waiting so long (they were 2nd and 3rd overall respectively) and to have missed the chance to catch up with friends after the race. Oh well, hopefully my joints will be happier next time.

Thanks to the Hitchon boys for a (mostly) fun day. :) Happy packing for EA!

Rest day before Salomon Giant's Rib Raid with Willderness and FB but I need to get back to doing physio three times a week.

I warmed up by (perhaps foolishly) putting on a red jacket and hat and checking on the gunshots at the back of our property. I'd yelled a loud, angry "Hey!" after the 2nd shot, which may explain why no one was in sight by the time I'd put on bright clothes and made it back there. Grrr. I hope the turkeys escaped.

There may still be snow patches in the forest but at least the rain is getting prettier!

First outdoor bike ride of the season! This is what happens when (a) winter lasts forever, and (b) I have no adventure races on the calendar yet. There *is* some Wilderness Traverse course testing in my near future, however, and it is entirely possible that Bob may have been training. At minimum, it seemed worth checking whether my bike still works.

I rode single track in Palgrave East, which is mostly in great shape. There was one girlie shriek when I whipped down a hill and almost ran into a pointy broken treetop blocking the trail a meter off the ground. I managed to wrestle it off the trail. The double track has more muddy spots so it's best not to plan to ride too much of it until things dry out. Within the first 15 minutes, I rode over two patches of ice. Yes, ice. On May 2.

This is bike computer distance since the GPS under-measures twisty single track.

Throwback Thursday, Spring 2004. Mocha (aka BulletDog), age 1, with her winning smile. Her muzzle is grey now, and she gets sore if she plays too hard but she still smiles like the puppy she is at heart.

Inspired by the K2 Hurt Locker loops that the Hamilton runners are doing, I used my Ambit to make a map and elevation profile of the steep part of 5th Line south of Hockley and the pretty trails east of it. I did a little bushwhacking but mostly stuck to trails. It looks like I'll be able to come up with a local Hurt Locker loop in this area.

Looking at the elevation profile, I should have done more repeats on the hill where the trail skirts the old ski resort. Too bad there are so many "No Trespassing" signs since I could do a varied and interesting hill workout on the different ski hills but I don't want to get the Bruce Trail Association in trouble. There were people working around there; maybe I could ask permission.

It's been a tough week and this was very therapeutic.

I have to take BazingaDog for a New Client Assessment with a dog sitter and fill out a multi-page questionnaire about him. I feel like a Mom trying to get her kid into a good school. I hope B-Dog is wise enough to put on a good show!