Training Log Archive: Bash

I didn't really get this much sleep but if I don't log a number, it doesn't get included in the calculation of weekly sleep average. Now that UTMB is over, I suppose I can go back to my previous horrible sleep habits. ;)

Event: UTMB® (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc®)
 

Weather forecast is about as good as we could hope for in the Alps!
http://www.chamonix.com/weather,11,en.html

Restless night but I eventually got a couple hours of sleep here and there. Pre-race sleep is never good for me. Poor 'Bent doesn't feel well today so he's getting more rest now.

UTMB GPS track - race report pending

After Ken did such a nice job of enhancing Attackpoint to import ultrarunning (60-second recording) tracks, I made the same mistake as last year and forgot to turn off my Ambit when I stopped racing. You'd think I could do better after 42 hours without sleep! At least this time, I thought of it a few hours after I left the race course but then I couldn't figure out how to shut the Ambit off. It only took me 20 minutes to remember that I'd locked it (as I always do in long races) so I had to push two buttons instead of one. As a result, my Bus Ride of Shame can be seen on the track. I guess this is further proof that my brain was not sharp enough by then to handle mountain trails alone in the dark.

Note: New Ambit battery was at 27% after 35.5 hours.

Here's the scoop on UTMB for anyone who may be interested:

We'll start at 11:30 a.m. Ontario time on Friday and - if all goes well - finish Sunday morning Ont. time. It's 6 hours later in France.

Our progress will be shown at http://utmb.livetrail.net/coureur.php

I'm Bib #972 and 'Bent is #980, or you can just look up our names. ('Bent is the only "Ehrlich".) Ang (1973) and Carbon's Offset (2263) are racing too.

The time limit is 46 hours, and most finishers take over 40 hours. Last year in perfect conditions, only 2 out of 3 starters reached the finish line. I was not among them after I missed a time cut-off at 95 km. I'm going to give this thing one more good try. It's definitely near the limit of my abilities (in one direction or the other) but however it may turn out, this journey sure has been loads of fun. Thanks for pointing me in this direction, Mrs. Gally!

My shoulder hasn't improved much over the past 2 days, and it started to hurt when I carried my pack in that hand for awhile today. I can use my right arm to do almost everything though, and that's the main thing. I was worried when it looked like I wouldn't be able to put on a fleece, tie my shoes or fill a bladder without several minutes of awkward fussing. Other than that, I'm feeling relatively well rested after making sleep, relaxation, nutrition and hydration my priorities for this week. It feels like an eternity since I went running; I hope my body remembers that part!

I'd love to receive brief texts during the race. I'll read them as I leave full aid stations, which are 3-5 hours apart. I won't answer until after the race. I'd be thrilled to get anything from "knock knock" jokes to happy or funny news from home; they don't have to be race encouragement although that can be useful too. The important thing is that I'll be thinking of friends as I start each big climb. If we haven't texted before, please sign your name so I know it's you. I got some mystery texts last year - much appreciated but I felt like I had to respond to find out!

Our landlord paid her Internet bill last night so here are a few pics from the past two days, which we mostly spent riding around in cable cars and trains to preserve our precious feet. ;) We visited the Aiguille du Midi, Brévent and the Montenvers railway and Mer de Glace. We also cheered in the winner of the new 50K OCC race at lunchtime today.

Just testing the Ultrarunning mode on my new Ambit again. The track is actually part train ride, part walk, and includes an ice cream stop. :) I've changed the logged distance to just our walking distance.

Easy run around Chamonix to see how things feel. It seems like a long time since I've gone for a real run but I'll be taking care of that soon enough. I was able to use poles; maybe it will hurt after awhile but it's OK in the short term.

Just like the last time I had this shoulder injury, it escalated over a few days until I was quite disabled, stayed that way for a few days, then the worst of it faded away over 24 hours. I guess that's what happens when the inflammation dies down after rest, ice, chiro treatment and meds. I don't have full range of motion (i.e. access to all my pack pockets) and there is still some pain but a couple of days ago, it felt like my brain was no longer connected to my right arm. I would will it to move and it would just sit there. This was scary and the pain was nasty, especially at night. I'm so glad to be able to do basic things again.

The owner of the apartment we're renting forgot to pay her Internet bill so I have lots of spectacular photos that I can't post. We went up the Aiguille du Midi on a perfect day, then checked in for the race, had a nice dinner with Ang and Matt, and cheered in the winner of the 119 km TDS race. Here are a few pics using cellular data - yikes.

Mont Blanc - the star of the show.





Guess who was at the race expo?

Rain all night, then rain all day. Great for someone who wants to choose between two different waterproof-breathable jackets. :) The current forecast for race weekend is rain, rain and rain.



'Bent and I have visited all the good outdoor stores in Chamonix now. Mostly, it's about the fun of seeing gear we don't see at home although it is also good to know where to buy stuff of different types, just in case. Just when we'd run out of retail establishments, the race expo opened so we checked out all the booths. We had a good chat with José and Matt from the Trans Gaspesia race. They were thrilled to hear that Spaff is 'Bent's coach; they had only nice things to say about him.

With all the rain, the Rivière l'Arve put on an impressive show today with logs flying past in the waves. Low-lying streets were barricaded, restaurants were cleared out, and crowds gathered to watch.







I looked up "Chamonix flood" and discovered that they've had major floods, avalanches and fires here. It's a rather unlucky town! No wonder the rental contract for our apartment specifies that we have to accept the risk of avalanches. I wonder what's happening to the mountain trails and streams. One year they had to stop UTMB because of a landslide in brutal weather.

But it's not all bad news today...



I took that picture with my right hand! I can even take selfies although I promise not to inflict too many on others.



In the past 24 hours, I've gone from being unable to brush my teeth with my right hand to raising my arm forward about 45 degrees above horizontal. I can raise it up almost horizontally to the side. It's a far cry from being able to do yoga but I don't feel disabled anymore. It's possible to tighten my shoes, take off a backpack or put on a raincoat in bad weather. I'm almost certain that it will be safe to race now. Yay. :)

Pouring rain. We indulged in our favourite Chamonix outdoor stores yesterday when it was merely cloudy so we'll check out a museum today as well as the race expo, which opens after lunch. So much cool trail running gear in this town!

I can move my arm forward a little bit this morning. It hurts but it was feeling like that muscle was completely torn so that is encouraging. I've finished reading about paracetamol (Tylenol):
- safest painkiller during exercise
- maximum 4,000 mg/day in 4 doses at least 4 hours apart (but don't mess around - a woman died of liver failure after taking 2,000 mg with a glass of port)
- safest painkiller when taken at recommended dose but more toxic than other painkillers in case of overdose
- virtually no anti-inflammatory properties
- more effective at pain relief when alternated with anti-inflammatory meds, which are also more effective that way
- side effects of any kind are rare

I think I'll set a personal maximum of 2,000 mg/day, only if required.

I need to read more scientific info about ibuprofen and naproxen dosage during exercise since my usual plan to avoid them may not work. They aren't great for kidneys and stomachs, especially when slightly dehydrated, and they mess with your electrolytes too.

It is progress that I'm thinking in detail about medication dosage. I think my chances of starting the race have moved a little above 50/50 this morning. My brain is moving on two parallel tracks. I need to get ready for the race as if I'm doing it; there are still things to do, and my gear will change a bit depending on the weather report, which isn't great right now. The other track of my brain is dealing with my injury and planning how to support 'Bent if I don't race.

Although I woke up a couple of times in the night, my shoulder allowed me to have a good long sleep. Yahoo!

I'm unable to lift my right elbow away from my body in any direction except backwards - not too useful. I'm trying to do everything myself so I can find out if there is anything I absolutely cannot do. It's a challenge to brush my teeth, put in a pony tail, put on or remove clothing, put on shoes, etc. However, 2 days ago the pain was severe and constant when I was just sitting still so I'm grateful to feel better than that. If I don't sound too distraught about UTMB, it's because I'm more concerned about my inability to do simple things like drink a glass of water with my right hand. When that's fixed, I'll start worrying about whether I can go 100 miles!

'Bent and I went for an easy run around Chamonix, mostly on trails. (I was testing the 60-second GPS mode on my Ambit again so the track is approximate.) Although my right arm can't swing forward, it didn't hurt too much. Of course, this was just 45 minutes. I need to do that 60 more times - and climb a bunch of mountains too. Also, I need to be able to use poles. I'm postponing that test to give my shoulder more time to heal.

Today was the start of the PTL race - La Petite Trotte à Léon. It's an unmarked 300 km course with 26,500 m of elevation, and it doesn't always follow trails. It's for teams of 2 or 3 people at least one of whom must have completed UTMB, Tor des Géants or PTL. They have 6 days to finish. Right after the start, they came up the hill by our chalet (visible across the road in the lower photos). We yelled "Bravo!" and "Bon courage!" like everyone did for us last year. They seemed to like it.







Then we paid a visit to Monsieur le Moustache, a favourite restaurant of the Canadian contingent last year.

Ugh.

'Bent and I spent a few hours hanging out with Leanimal and Weeanimal as we explored Annecy's old town and the Sunday market.





Then we drove to Chamonix. What a treat to be back where we spent so much time last summer! Even though we'd only planned to buy a few groceries, we couldn't resist buying a few treats in a trail running store, and we ended up in several conversations with other runners. Lots of Skin packs and compression wear worn as street clothing. :)

Here's the view from our place.



And here is 'Bent checking out the finish line, trying to remember which race he is doing. ;)



I remain uncertain of whether I will be able to race. There's nothing I can do for my shoulder except ice, anti-inflammatory meds and rest. I am quite disabled, e.g. it is too painful to hold a drinking glass in my right hand or use a key to open a door. Last night I was awake for hours because every position I tried to sleep in was extremely painful - including standing up. I cried enough that I woke poor 'Bent up, and he did his best to help. Perhaps the leftover Tylenol 500s from his rib injury were what finally put me to sleep some time after 2:30 a.m. It was very important to me that I get more sleep leading up to this year's race. Let's hope tonight is different. There are a couple of body positions that don't hurt like hell now so that's some improvement. Blah.

My shoulder was killing me so I couldn't do much. 'Bent and I went to the old town in Annecy and I hugged a tree for good luck. Getting an emergency appointment with Dr. Leanimal was certainly lucky.

One of those crazy things... I have a chronic rotator cuff problem that started when I was training for Coast to Coast several years ago. Mostly, it's no big deal. But in carrying all my luggage on the way over here, I managed to aggravate it. I didn't feel it until a few hours after the last time I lifted anything heavy but it is getting worse each day. This morning I had to drink coffee with my left hand since it was too much to lift a cup. The important question for UTMB is whether my arm can use a trekking pole, which is essential. It would also be difficult to change layers by myself. Just a wee curve ball...

We were tourists at the Col de Forclaz near Annecy today. What a spectacular place!







Weeanimal liked the cows.



It's a very popular place for paragliders. Weeanimal likes them too. (Who wouldn't?)





Carbon rode Leanimal's bike there and back.



Leanimal and Weeanimal hiked, watched paragliders, ate lunch and picked raspberries.



'Bent, Carbon's Offset and I went for an easy trail run. I was still feeling the rogaine in my legs.





Because our run was 7 gruelling kilometers, we broke it up with lunch at the Chalet de l'Aulp where Goose famously tried to clear out all the cheese from their fromagerie.



The new version of Moveslink isn't giving me an XML file to upload anymore. Is that happening to any other Ambit users? In the meantime. I've exported a GPX, which isn't nearly as good since it includes our lunch break. I was testing Ultrarunning mode again (60 second recording) so we actually went a little farther.

UPDATE: The latest version of Moveslink 1.2.8 does not export XML files to the hard drive. Naturally, Ken has already added support for SML files! :)

Pizza by the lake tonight in Annecy with Phatty, Leanimal, Weeanimal, Carbon and Carbon's Offset. Now I need to sleep, sleep, sleep.

YYZ. Hope I remembered everything since I was rushed, tired and distracted while packing. On the bright side, Chamonix is the best place to be if you need ultrarunning gear. Last year an acquaintance's luggage for TDS (the 119 km event at UTMB) was stolen from her car during a lunch stop. The organizers let her do CCC instead, which gave her a day to buy all the high tech running gear she needed. This was entirely possible!

This was supposed to be a stressful day because I had to spend most of it in Guelph for Mocha's chemo and wait till tonight to finish packing, volunteer tasks, preparing for the house sitter and so on.

But instead it was a stressful day because the oncologist didn't give Mocha chemo. The cancer has spread to her lungs. All we can do now is hug and spoil her and keep her comfortable. She's been bouncy and happy lately but she's not pleased to see us packing tonight; I wish we weren't leaving her now.

I'm grateful that some excellent veterinary specialists gave her the best possible chance to beat this cruel disease but sometimes it just can't be done.

Flew home from Rapid City. Slept a bit on the plane. Interesting conversation with my seatmate, Chen, a young athlete and U.S. war vet who got curious when he saw me working on my UTMB pace chart and map.

Post-race nap followed by a nice steak dinner and good conversation with Browner, Timato, M&M, and Mr. and Mrs. GHOSLO.

World Rogaining Championships - aka my 24-hr birthday party!

Report and photos to come eventually.

Browner and I are in the Windy City on our way to Rapid City. We both had 2 hours of sleep, and we're racing through the night tomorrow. That's how it's done, right?

Pack, pack, pack.

So... When I was still bursting with inexplicable energy at 3 a.m., I began to wonder how much caffeine could possibly have been in the large decaf latte I had with TheMinister at lunch yesterday. There's always a little - even in decaf - but was 1 p.m. really too late in the day? Then I remembered... I hadn't looked at the cups to see which one was marked decaf. I wondered how soundly TheMinister was sleeping right now. I wanted to phone and ask. Grrrr. (Turns out he took a pleasant afternoon nap and slept through his planned workout! He thought about making coffee but figured he'd already had a large latte.) At 4 a.m., I started setting up my new Ambit2 Sapphire because... why not? I was wide awake.

Exercises with Dr. Bell's kinesiologists. Two of them and the doctor commented that my feet look healthy and strong, which may be the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my feet. They kindly refrained from pointing out that several of my toenails look like crap - but that comes with the territory.

Test run with my pretty new Ambit in a custom-configured Ultrarunning mode, i.e. reduced recording rate for longer battery life. The GPS track demonstrates the compromises of this mode. Distance recorded is shorter than it really was because the watch doesn't know about all the bends in the trail. I'll guess 5 km but the watch measured 4.37 km.

At UTMB last year, the numbers I looked at most of the time were Altitude and Time of Day. Distance was much less meaningful to me than the amount of climb remaining to the pass so I can live with the reduced distance accuracy in exchange for battery life. Time of Day is important to me because I'm so close to the cut-offs.

Drove all over the GTA today - lots of construction and other slowdowns. TheMinister and I had a nice catch-up lunch after I did some final pre-race shopping at the Salomon Store.

Rodney Yee - Power Yoga for Flexibility

Lots of final UTMB prep today, given that I have to pack for the World Rogaining Champs and UTMB at the same time! Amongst other things, I selected the food I will carry and calculated its caffeine content. Note for comparison: a Starbucks grande latte is 150 mg.

I went over to Albion Hills to see Funderstorm and Graham at the 5 Peaks trail race. It turned out Simpy was there too and before you know it, we were all in Bolton eating Caruso's pizza and talking up a (funder)storm. Very nice! Big thanks to Graham for sneakily buying lunch for all of us. :)

Pre-dinner Tour de Palgrave West, keeping it short to avoid aggravating Ye Olde Stupid Toe too much. This would have been a good weekend for a Hockley Loop but my final "long run" before UTMB will have to be my 24-hr hike with Browner at the World Rogaining Champs.

Test run with my pretty new Ambit in a custom-configured Ultrarunning mode, i.e. reduced recording rate for longer battery life. The GPS track demonstrates the compromises of this mode. Distance recorded is shorter than it really was because the watch doesn't know about all the bends in the trail.

At UTMB last year, the numbers I looked at most of the time were Altitude and Time of Day. Distance was much less meaningful than the amount of climb remaining to the pass. Time of Day is important to me because I'm so close to the cut-offs.

Stupid baby toe blister - grr.

Throwback Thursday: Our first puppy Tobler (AP name ThunderDog) was born in the first week of August 1996. She's no longer with us but she can still make us smile.

Deliciously cool twilight run around Palgrave West fuelled by fresh raspberries during the warm-up and cooldown. Felt great except for my sore baby toe, which needs to get with the program tout de suite. So nice to run without a big pack for a change!

Running-specific. Just maintenance at this point. It's not the right time to try anything new and difficult!

Relaxing paddle at Island Lake with Goose, Coach LD and 'Bent. The summer is flying by so it was nice to squeeze in some time with friends on a perfect afternoon.

This was preceded by a cheese tasting at our place since we had some delicious Québecois souvenirs to share. :)

Home sweet home.

'Bent and I were really looking forward to today. As much as we enjoy training vacations, it's nice to have some R&R time too. Today was going to be that day - a 3-hour run in the morning followed by a sunny patio lunch with microbrewery beer and a couple of hours to explore Mont Tremblant at a leisurely pace - browse in shops, watch the unicycles, maybe visit the lake.

To add context, 'Bent's office is closed for 10 days of vacation but as The-Nicest-Brother-In-The-World, he agreed to spend 5 of those days in Toronto babysitting his 6- and 8-year-old nephew and niece while his brother and wife go on holiday. So with two driving days to and from Québec, our time was limited.

And... cue the nasty grinding noise in the same van that spewed clouds of pink steam on the way to the Doughtys' Robbie Burns Dinner in January. The van I'd suggested someone might want to replace before our next big road trip... So instead of running this morning, 'Bent spent some quality time with a really nice auto mechanic. We'd been hoping the guy would give his blessing to drive it home before getting it repaired but when he put it up on hoist, this is what he found. A brake had seized - a lot.



'Bent tried to rent a car from Discount and obtained the numbers of several taxi companies. The mechanic was so nice that he just offered the keys to his own truck. Wow. It had a clever security modification where you had to turn on an interior light in order to start the ignition. This will become important later in my story.

'Bent returned triumphantly to pick me up. I was all ready to go except that my shoes and trekking poles were still in the van. At the mechanic's. On the hoist.

OK fine, we started at noon. No patio lunch but maybe a microbrewery beer afterward. We climbed to the summit ski lodge via Caps and Sasquatch trails, mostly power hiking with a little running on flats. At the very top, I followed 'Bent in ducking under a low canopy tent and smashed my forehead on an unseen metal bar. Oi! We took an unscheduled break in the summit lodge while I waited to see how bad it would get.

After half an hour, when it seemed that I would live, we ran down on the Nansen road - a long novice ski trail in winter on the far left of this map. My focus for today was long, quad-pounding downhills rather than uphills. This fit the bill with a 650 m descent on gravel road although I could only feel my stupid sore baby toe. My quads seemed fine.



Near the bottom, 'Bent said casually, "Instead of going right back up, I'd like to check on the truck." I've been married long enough to feel an immediate sense of doom upon hearing such a statement. Turns out he wasn't sure if he'd turned off the interior light after starting the truck. Turns out he hadn't. Turns out the nice auto mechanic's truck wouldn't start. Well, crap.

We decided it could wait a little longer while we spent another hour climbing partway up the mountain on trails and running down on the road again. Then we watched 10 minutes of the unicycle world championship cross-country race. Unfortunately, we missed the elites but we got to see lots of racers. Both of us were unexpectedly reminded of an orienteering championship. There were competitors ranging from young children to grandparents, from novice to expert, and there was a sense of community - as if they knew each other from other events. It had a really low key feel. It was very common to see people bail and land on their feet. Competitors seemed supportive of one another, not annoyed that someone fell in front of them. Maybe the elites would have been more intense.









We would have loved to stay and cheer for a lot longer but we only had 45 minutes to get the truck started and take it back to St. Jovite to swap it for our van. No worries, the man is an auto mechanic so the truck will have booster cables, right? Wrong. Tough break but luckily, everyone carries booster cables so we'll just approach someone in the tourist parking lot... Another lesson learned. Apparently 'Bent and I are among the 2% of Canadians who keep booster cables in our vehicles. We must have smelled pretty bad post-run because some of the people I approached looked at me as if I'd proposed a drug deal. Certainly, a lot of people thought it was an unusual question.

And then I saw them - guys that looked like my engineering classmates, back in the day. "They'll have booster cables." And they did. And the truck started and the clouds parted and the angels sang and we got to the auto mechanic's place only 12 minutes after he closed. We are safe to drive home - phew!

And that is the story of our R&R day on this vacation. I think we need more practice!

It's not every day you stumble onto the World Unicycling Championships!

Mont Tremblant Village was full of mountain unicyclists of all ages and sizes. Very cool! Today was a practice day; tomorrow they'll be racing - uphill and downhill.





'Bent and I did a longer route today. Although we did more running than yesterday, there was a lot of unrunnable trail so I guess I'll average things out with yesterday by calling this a trek. We have been carrying all our UTMB mandatory gear so we look really over-prepared.

There were pretty waterfalls.





There were some nice views too, although much of our day was spent in beautiful forest without views off the mountain.





We took the Grand Brûlé trail to the summit lodge. It's a longer, more technical and more scenic trail than the ones we were on yesterday. Then we took Les Sommets trail across the ridge.

Along the way, we reached the top of Pic Pangman, the 8051st highest mountain in Canada. Woot!



When we got to Pic Johannsen (our high point for the weekend at 935 m), we headed into Parc national du Mont-Tremblant on the Le Toit des Laurentides trail. It was really slow going - much like some of the wet, rocky trails we did last year in the Adirondacks.



There was a place where they'd hung a rope to aid the descent.



We went down for awhile longer but it wasn't what we were looking for today so we finally turned around to head back up. Back to the rope!



When we got back up to Pic Johannsen, we turned and headed down the Johannsen trail back to the ski resort.

See? There was some running - more of it as we got lower and the trail got better.



There were some beautiful sights on the way down.







And... we made it to the village and raced back to the lodge to let the pooches out. Fun long day! Both of us felt like the climbing was no big deal. Of course, this is nothing compared to what we're training for but it's more sustained elevation gain than we get at home. Unfortunately, my baby toe is still killing me from last Friday night's long hike. It's not the first time it's had a bad blister but the timing is really not good.



Except for the summit lodge break, our time includes all stops. Distance is from 'Bent's Garmin.

'Bent and I are in Mont Tremblant for some hill training.



The trails we explored today were really nice! We went past a waterfall and many streams.





There were rocks, mud, moss and shady forest. Best of all, Francis Falardeau had assured me there is no poison ivy in the Laurentians. So for once, I didn't have to scan the ground 100% of the time.





Here's a viewpoint partway up.



Here's the summit of the main mountain with a big ski chalet, cafeteria, gift shop, zip line, etc., etc.





A storm seemed to be coming in but it missed us until the evening. It might have been nice since the 28C temperature made me feel like crap for half an hour until I doused my head in a cold creek. Other than that, the climbing felt good.



Spaff's instructions to 'Bent today were to do some tough climbing but don't push too hard on the downhills. We took this literally and availed ourselves of a rare opportunity to focus on uphill trails only and take a gondola downhill!



We took the Caps trail up the first time and a mix of Vertigo and Sasquatch the second time. Sasquatch was our favourite - didn't see anyone. We didn't have time for a 3rd ascent because we had to get back to the dogs so we finished with a couple of small loops near the summit. I'm calling it running in the same debatable way I will use the word "running" for UTMB. We ran the flats and downhills unless they were too technical but mostly we hiked briskly uphill.

In the village afterward, I celebrated with a Queue de Castor (TM). Abizeleth, take note. To add to my bliss, there was a Salomon store across the street. :)



We are staying in the dog-friendliest accommodation I've ever experienced. We have a beautiful suite with full kitchen by a lake with dog day care onsite, a lake where pooches can swim and a network of flat forest trails. Before dinner tonight we got together with the lodge owners, the other guests and their dogs for their Saturday Yappy Hour. Free dog biscuits, wine and beer for sale, and 10% of proceeds go to the SPCA.

Nous sommes au Quebec!