Training Log Archive: Bash

AdventureDog and I ran the Hockley Provincial Park loop, sticking to the main Bruce Trail rather than taking the first side trail since we need more hill training. (This route variation doesn't affect the distance much but it really affects the climb.)

The trails are in amazing shape for running compared to anything else around here. Spiked shoes are perfect for most of it; there are a few stealth patches of ice hidden under the snow on about 0.5% of the route. As expected, the ice patches tend to be in the most dangerous places, and I slipped off a step on a steep descent but caught myself before my back slammed into the log.

Otherwise, it was fantastic. I felt like the strength work this month helped me on the uphills. It was my fastest time around this route in almost three years. I give partial credit to our friendly hipster appliance repairman who phoned to say he could come over with the new pump for our washing machine today. The laundry is piling up so I accepted his offer, which meant I needed to be home sooner. I should use that strategy more often.

Metric Race Distances Banned
"The metric system is a disaster."
#FakeNewsDontWorry
https://dumbrunner.com/news-blog/2017/1/27/with-ex...

Mix of free weights, body weight and foothab.

Sunshine!! It's been awhile. Get outside and boost your Vitamin D.

Or else wait at home for the washing machine repair technician to arrive between 11 and 4. Whichever you prefer.

Hard to believe this was our first ski on our season's pass at Highlands Nordic! It's probably best if we don't calculate a $/km figure this year but we like to support them.

The trails were in very good shape although they could use a few cms of new snow, which started falling while we were skiing. For the first hour, I had terrific glide and unreliable grip. I re-waxed for the second hour and did less slipping around. One advantage of a Sunday mid-afternoon ski is that we had the trails almost to ourselves once we got up the escarpment. The snowy scenery was gorgeous.

I went back to the Glen Haffy Dingle where I'd wished for snowshoes on Wednesday. I spent most of my time bushwhacking and following seldom used trails while clinging to BazingaDog's leash. He weighs 90 lb, it's a new area for him to explore, and we had lots of deer sightings so it was like a 2-hour upper body TRX session. What we lacked in pace, we made up for in agility and balance training.

I had to choose routes carefully since I didn't want him to haul me down a steep hill on my face or catch my snowshoe under a log. The one time he came close to doing both of those things, I just missed getting dragged into a running creek as a bonus. Luckily, he took my yells seriously!

We got genuinely lost while bushwhacking along Bazinga-friendly routes and I had to use the compass and Google Maps on my iPhone to get us back to our car. My phone often dies suddenly below 0C so I wasn't expecting to be able to count on it for as long as I might want it but a few glances over 20 minutes got me back to a place I recognized. I'm not making my GPS track public because apparently I did a lot of trespassing on gorgeous private land!

Fortunately, we emerged from the woods in time to make it to Coach LD's and Goose's famous Robbie Burns Dinner, this year with a French theme. (Coach LD likes to keep us guessing.) This included twists ranging from French green beans beside the haggis to 'Bent sporting a jaunty beret with a drawn-on moustache.

I spent the past two days cramming for a race that's one month away and I could sure feel it today! It's *possible* this might be an ineffective training strategy...

Tabata TRX class with Caron. I was already tired after 90 minutes of running in snow. What was I thinking?!?! Good stuff though.

Caron's Core class has a different theme every week and this week was... Tabata Core, starting just 15 minutes after Tabata TRX ended. Noooo!!!

We finished with yoga. Tonight was more strength-oriented than usual - or maybe it just seemed that way since my muscles have been a little overworked in the past 36 hours. Looking forward to being really strong - and also looking forward to taking Friday off.

AdventureDog and I went "running" in Glen Haffy although with all the soft snow, there was usually nothing to push off against so I felt like I was running in place on the flats and I hiked up the hills with poles (but no baskets so they were only moderately helpful). There was a lot of slick ice on our K2 descent so I tried an alternate ascent route that hadn't been used by humans for awhile. This was really slow - uphill through heavy snow, 15 cm deep with breakable crust. Even walking with poles got my heart rate up as high as it ever goes on a run. Snowshoes would have been smart if I'd known I would be off-trail.

Although it was slow, I climbed a bunch of hills, which was the plan. It wasn't great specific training for mountain running but it was one of those "makes you stronger if it doesn't kill you" days. I could definitely feel last night's strength workout in my calves and hammies.

We had to brake for rogue wild turkeys in two locations on our 6 km drive home.

Trail run around Palgrave East through a mix of soft snow and hard ice. There was occasional excitement when I hit soft ice or hard snow. It was good for all my stabilizing muscles anyway!

Injury Prevention circuit with Dr. Peter Hrkal. I'll be sore tomorrow. (It's supposed to prevent injuries but it causes sore muscles!) As per Klepperton's comment last week, I asked Peter if his Dad was a handball coach and he confirmed it. He also remembered Klepperton!

Love this quote from David Hoyt on Twitter: "The thing the dystopian novels could never predict was the sudden rebellion of the national park social media managers."

If you've been on social media in the past 24 hours, you probably know that some National Park Service employees have set up rogue Twitter accounts to communicate with the public since they have been silenced officially. They've been sharing a lot of climate change and environmental science, which is what got two national park Twitter accounts in trouble yesterday.

If you're on Twitter and agree with what they're doing, follow the "Unofficial Resistance Team of the U.S. National Park Service" to show your support. (Does this link work? I'm logged into Twitter and I'm not sure the link works outside of Twitter.)
@AltNatParkSer

A similar Twitter account has popped up specifically for unofficial tweets from Badlands National Park:
@BadHombreNPS

It's a sign of the new world order that I'm worried about the safety of these people. But good on them.

A New Musical

Picked up some of the Snowshoe Raid controls with 'Bent, BazingaDog and AdventureDog. Timato and Teeny Tiny joined us for the first half hour. Time deducted for playing, building snow thrones, etc.

Event: Snowshoe Raid Adventure Run
 

Dontgetlost Snowshoe Raid
Blue Mountain / Loree Forest

Dee texted me first thing to let me know that she wasn't feeling well and hadn't been able to eat or drink in 24 hours. She was willing to try the race but if it got bad, she might have to hike home. I warned Bob that we might do something funky and I'd text him if we did.

Then she proceeded to kick my butt for the first 45 minutes of the race! We started with the big climb up Mountain Springs; we were the first Masters women up the hill to #40 and won a prize for that. Then it flattened out as we ran toward the Matrix. Well, actually it was a run/walk since the snow was so soft and my heart was still pounding from the climb. Dee was strong.

Bob had recommended snowshoes after putting the controls out. 'Bent and I had driven up to Loree Forest the previous afternoon, and I agreed that snowshoes would be best for me. Not because the snow was deep in many places but because it was uneven and unpredictable with some ice patches, and snowshoes would work in all conditions we would face.

I think the best footwear for this year's race was whatever winter footwear with traction a particular racer was most comfortable with in 15-20 cm of heavy snow. Many of us were in the snowshoe camp. Many others, including Dee, preferred shoes with spikes or traction devices. I carried a large pack so I could remove my snowshoes and carry them.

We entered the Matrix on the east side of Loree and picked up 31 together. Then I went for 34 while Dee went for 35. We lost each other for 3-4 minutes around our meet-up point before climbing together to 33, then making our way over some hills to 56 before ascending a big spur to the Bruce Trail. As we neared the top, it was 90 minutes into the race and it had been very physical so far. With no fuel in her system, Dee felt light-headed and was unsure about continuing. We agreed to stick together closely and see how it went.

What we *should* have done was pick up 55 nearby and turn back. My bad. Instead we continued north as planned to get 54. Then we *really* should have turned around but the siren call of 53 (150 points!) and our original plan were too hard to resist. Unfortunately, I started looking on the wrong spur and wasted 4 minutes that we didn't have. We arrived there with Sudden and Isak Fransson with 58 minutes left on the clock. That wasn't going to be enough and Dee was still feeling off.

We ran the trail past 52 (but no time to get it) to limit bushwhacking and elevation loss - not sure it was worth the extra 300 m of distance. We ran the blue Bruce Side Trail to the white main trail, then got to the Aid Station where I put my snowshoes in my pack and switched to Kahtoola Microspikes for the final run, which was soft but not deep. Maybe this 90 second switch wasn't worth it - not sure it made me that much faster. However, we needed to stop for some of that time anyway for Dee to show our Matrix control map punches to the volunteers and then punch SI controls with our card.

We left with 16 minutes on the clock and 3 km to go. It had taken us 36 minutes to get there at the start of the race. It would take less time because we would descend the escarpment on the way back but a lot of it was flat snow running. We picked up 36 and 37 along the trail, then descended the icy Mountain Springs escarpment trail quickly but in control. We started our descent just as the 3-hour time limit ran out; it took us 7:07 to get to the finish. We weren't too proud of that but some experienced teams took longer than we did. Unfortunately, with a 30 points/ minute penalty (which I totally support), more than a third of our points were wiped out. We finished 2nd in the Female Masters category to some longtime Snowshoe Raiders who ran quickly and had a great plan. Well deserved - good on them!

This is always a super fun event. Big thanks to Bob and Hermes, who did a ton of work beforehand, and to the race day volunteers including FB and Greg D. It was great to see so many friends out with big smiles after playing in the woods. Special congrats to Timato and Nosnhoj on the win and to Gally/STORM on 2nd. Wow!

Avoided the news most of the day. Ugh.

Phew! It's Jan. 19 and I finally received a 2-page handwritten holiday letter from our 92-year-old friend Joy in Victoria. She was in our group when we paddled the Nahanni River back when she was merely 70. Whenever her annual letter is delayed, I start googling obits and hoping not to find anything. Her family doesn't know us so we wouldn't hear anything otherwise.

For her 92nd birthday, she went on an 8-day group mountain hiking vacation to Manning and Cathedral Provincial Parks in B.C. She was able to do most of the daily 4-hr hikes. These are typical vacations for her; she stays very active.

My favourite part of her letter: "We endured a horrific hail storm on the ridge above the lodge at Cathedral. The Camp Warden was sent up to find us. He passed me coming down on the trail and stopped to talk to a group further uphill behind me. He said he'd been sent out to find a 92-year-old woman and a man with a limp. He was told 'You already saw the 92-year-old and we have the man.'"

I want to be like Joy if I'm lucky enough to be 92 some day.

Hamilton peeps or peeps within a short drive of Hamilton: Anyone feeling spontaneous? Interested in a little mountain adventure?

At the Dontgetlost Icebreaker, I won two tickets to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in Hamilton Thursday, Jan. 19 - which is tomorrow as I write this but will soon be TONIGHT. Etoile and I were planning to attend but she is getting sick so I now have one ticket available. If it's like most towns, I expect it's sold out so I could scalp this ticket for big bucks - YUUGE bucks. But I'd rather give it to a friend.

It starts at 7 p.m. at Sir John A MacDonald H.S. 130 York Blvd, Hamilton. I'm aiming to get there at 6:30 to get seats. Or seat. :( I'll update this entry if the ticket is claimed. UPDATE: Ticket is claimed.

Just For Laughs podcast. When I discovered I could connect an iPad to my treadmill speakers for movies, I also realized that a small adapter would allow me to connect my phone. With all the ice and 0C all day, I *could* have run in the forest but I didn't feel like I was missing much.

I spent half the day in court waiting to testify as a witness but the case was postponed for a few weeks.

Injury prevention class with Dr. Hrkal. He amped it up tonight with two circuits of 19 stations. It's a good collection of exercises, many of which I've done before but some are new.

More of Plan B: Mohican Mountain Bike 100
June 3
Loudonville, OH
'Bent and I are registered for 100K. This is the week after the Big East River X.

Nice day - but only if you don't have to go anywhere.

Big East River X
May 27
40 km paddling race out of Huntsville
'Bent and I are registered! (Stock Tandem Canoe category)

Toronto Orienteering Club O Cup
Claireville Conservation Area

So nice to have an orienteering event just half an hour from home! And great to see so many friends out practising for the Snowshoe Raid.

Thanks to the quirky weather, there was glare ice on trails, roads and in some flat open areas. The rest was a mix of crusty snow and bare ground. I decided I would put Kahtoola Microspikes on over my spiked Snowcross shoes - heavy artillery. It worked; I had terrific traction on the ice.

I roll my eyes when I read race reports where someone complains about how badly their race went, even though I know they had a good result. I try not to do that but today was a total gong show that somehow finished with a decent result. So let the eye rolling begin!

I was surprised when Oliver called, "Two minutes to start!" I'd been chatting with friends and not looking at my watch. I knew it would take awhile to put on Snowcross with Kahtoolas so I dashed out the door with them. When I heard "30 seconds to go!", I realized that my SI card was still safely stashed indoors so I ran to get it. When I came back out, racers were already running away and I still had to get my Kahtoolas on. I started running while still putting on my gloves, getting an SI card on my finger and getting satellites on my Ambit. I vaguely remembered that I wanted to run away from the parking lot, which some people were doing, so I just followed them without looking at the map while I fussed with my gear. Rookie!

Then I failed to find my first control - F in the O Cup box. When it wasn't where I expected it, I just carried on. I only needed to find one control because of my handicap so I went down the hill looking for E instead. By that time, I'd ended up way too far north so I had to backtrack.

Other than crashing through an icy wetland with bullrushes as tall as I am, things went OK until #6, when I got confused in the trail network. I see now on my GPS track that I was actually on the trail I was aiming for but I was worried so I crashed through some bush to get to the edge of the embankment where #7 was tucked below. The problem was, I didn't know whether to go left or right so I headed over the edge to take a look. Elena Logvina slowed down to look too, and I told her I was untrustworthy right now. She carried on a little farther and pointed out the control to me. Sigh.

We met again at #8 along with Galyna Petrenko. After my mix-up at #7, I didn't want to look like I was following them so I glanced quickly at the map and decided I would cross the big creek right there, without waiting for whatever bridge they were heading for. I broke through the ice, as expected. It was up to my knees and then I fell when I took my next slippery step through the ice. Now I was wet up to my waist and it was *really* cold.

I scrambled back onto the bank and looked at my map. Hey, guess what? Even though the line joining #8 and #9 crossed the winding creek in a few places, #9 was on the same side as #8. Ugh! I started running along the creek.

And then I was on my face and my knee had banged on something. Huh?! Turns out one of the Snowcross gaiters had come unzipped and my left shoelace got tangled in my right Kahtoola Microspike. Basically, I managed to tie my own shoelaces together. I sat on the ground for 60 seconds trying to separate them but I couldn't. In fact, I still haven't. My compass cord got tangled in the MicroSpike too. So I ran the last few controls with my left hand just above my knee holding everything up so I wouldn't trip. When it was time to punch a control, I had to use my opposite hand to pull the SI card up high enough.



Gong show! But I was just happy that I didn't let myself get rattled, even though I can't remember so many things going wrong in 50 minutes. After 14 years of orienteering, I should be able to make it to the start on time, if nothing else, but on the bright side, I was like Monty Python's Black Knight out there! Thanks to my monster handicap, I ended up with a gift certificate as the 3rd woman behind Galyna and Elena. I had to laugh.

Funderstorm arranged a post-race lunch group at Tracks Brewpub in Brampton. Great conversation and 'Bent and I didn't need dinner.

Rocky Mountain Blizzard - fat bike demo

Apollo carbon, front suspension fat bike demo

Albion Hills Fat Bike Festival, Superfly Racing

There were 10K and 20K races but 'Bent and I were just attending as spectators so we could try some manufacturer demo bikes and cheer the racers on.





Veinbuster was there for the 10K Poker Run. It was the first time he's ever put on a race number so we cheered extra hard for him.

Before:



Start of Race:



Final sprint to beat That Other Guy to the finish line:



I tried two bikes. The first was a Rocky Mountain Blizzard that sells for $2,500 at our local bike shop. It's a good quality bike but a basic one - no suspension, no front derailleur, and it feels a bit heavy, as most fat bikes do. These are the bikes that Albion Hills rents out for $35 for 2 hours or you can rent them directly from Caledon Hills Cycling if you want to take them somewhere else. It was my first fat bike ride and it was a ton of fun!

The second one (this GPS track) was a $6,000 customized carbon bike made by Apollo. It was obviously lighter, it had two gears up front, and it had front suspension. It's in a different universe from any fat bike that I would ever buy but I could certainly feel what you get for the additional $3,500! It was responsive with a nice range of gears, and it moved more easily through ungroomed snow.

Although we were just spectators, Sean Ruppel gave 'Bent permission to do a 10K lap of the race course behind the rest of the field. He doesn't have super fat tires but his lap went well and only one racer passed him.



We enjoyed the spirit of the festival. There were lots of costumes and most people didn't seem to take themselves too seriously. Sean and his wife made a huge vat of chili themselves. There was beer for sale, live music and a bonfire.















We had to tell this father that his young daughter couldn't see anything because his poncho flew in her face when they rode their tandem. He tucked it away. Such a cool bike!



Some of you know Steve Hunter and his wife Lynne.

Then we dashed over to the Caledon Community Centre to hear Andrew Yorke talk about the Road to Rio - the story of how he grew up in the sport of triathlon and represented Canada at the Olympics this summer. We've known Andrew since his high school years and it was terrific to see what a good presenter he has become and how gracious he is in crediting other people for their contributions to his success. His parents were sitting behind us and they must have spent most of the past year (and more!) bursting with pride. :)

He said something that made me think about a recent AP discussion about getting itchy in the cold. I think it was FB? Anyway, after his best Olympic qualifier race, which took place in Edmonton in pouring rain and low temperatures, Andrew was not only hypothermic but he had an allergic reaction to the cold and had to take prescription meds for a week post-race!

Snowshoe run around Palgrave East. A third of it was breakable crust with soft, heavy snow underneath. That part was really hard work. The rest was hard, crusty or icy trail with an irregular surface from frozen footprints, bike tracks, ski tracks and snowshoe tracks. That part was hard work for the ankles at times but otherwise good running.

The time includes some trail clearing. Lots of branches are down in certain sections of forest after the gusty winds that knocked our power out this week. A friend's sister was killed by a tree while hiking recently - a heartbreaking reminder to avoid forested areas on windy days.

My cold is almost over but I really want to shake it before the Snowshoe Raid so I stayed inside and kept my heart rate moderate. Luckily, it's easier to resist the outdoors after all the rain that fell on our beautiful snow. :(

Inspired by Funderstorm and FB, I borrowed an iPad and cable from 'Bent and discovered that the iPad will sit on the treadmill dashboard and play sound through the treadmill's built-in iPod speakers. It's awkward to change the film so this works best with a longer one. It took me awhile to figure that out, and I finally got absorbed in "Toughest Race on Earth" with Olympic rower James Cracknell doing the Marathon des Sables.
http://ultraruntv.com/toughest-race-on-earth-with-...

It obviously worked since it took months before I could force myself to stay on a treadmill longer than 30 minutes and I'd never lasted longer than 60 minutes before today. I don't plan to replace my outdoor fun but this might be a good way to boost my training a little.

Hard Core Live with Caron.

I had a weird, twisty fall on Saturday when I caught a cleat in the snow while snowshoe running. My formerly bad shoulder is bad once again, although I'm hoping it won't take 4 years to improve like last time. Side planks are painful, as are forearm planks. I also yanked some muscles on the side of my lower back, which I was feeling in tonight's classes.

C3 Yoga. 'Bent was too scared to attend.

Well, I need to come up with a Plan B for 2017 racing. The Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc lottery was this morning and the computer did not select my name.

Some of you know that I attempted the 170 km UTMB in 2013 and 2014. While the 2nd time went much better, I experienced severe sleep deprivation at that level of effort so I only made it 3/4 of the way around Mont Blanc before it seemed wise to pull the plug before one of my sleepwalking episodes led me off a cliff.

I decided to apply to the 101 km CCC (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix) race that is part of the same event. Except for the first section, CCC follows the second half of the UTMB route. Before Champex, I would be running on trails that I ran in UTMB but I would finally get a chance to run the final 45 km of the course and, if the stars aligned, cross the finish line at last. CCC is a better distance for me and because it starts at 9 a.m. instead of 6 p.m., I'm less likely to have sleep deprivation issues.

Anyway, I'll have to try again next year. I was so optimistic about this year that I'd already chosen flights and identified a few accommodation choices so I could book everything today. Boo.

Benoit Letourneau was also turned down for UTMB, which he did last year. He did very well but fell short of his goal. Like me, he felt that he needed to use what he learned to do the race better a 2nd time. He may be able to find an alternate way to get a race bib.

Year End Review, Part 2 (I've fallen behind on these.)
Report Card on 2016 Training Goals

My major racing goal was the Lavaredo Ultra Trail, a 119K mountain run in the Italian Dolomites. It's the only long ultra I've done where it felt like my training went almost exactly as hoped with no significant interruptions due to injury or illness. I felt reasonably good for much of the race and recovered quickly. I think all the extra strength and mobility work last year made me less susceptible to injury.

I looked back at AP data for four of my long ultras where things went well. I discovered that in the 24 weeks leading up to each one, I did 250-260 hrs of training. I'm surprised it was that consistent. I checked two long ultras that went less well, and I did 50 hrs more training before one and 50 hrs less training before the other.

For the four successful long ultras, running was always the #1 activity in the 24 weeks pre-race but it represented only 35-50% of my training hours, and there was no consistent trend in the other activities. Before some races, I did a lot of mountain biking; other times it was nordic skiing. It's nice to see that a non-standard, multi-sport approach to ultra training seems to work for me.

I reached a high target for strength and mobility training hours in 2016 and crushed my running target. However, I fell short on pretty much every other goal I set for the year including total training, where I was aiming for 550 hours but only logged 495. It was my highest running volume ever but I neglected other sports, especially biking.

List of other 2016 goals that didn't happen, in case any Attackpoint friends want to give me a hard time about it: ;)

- Work from a written training plan each week. This happened for the first 4-6 weeks.

- Second 24+ hour race other than Lavaredo. Maybe I could count my annual all-weekend wake-a-thon at Wilderness Traverse.

- More mini-adventures close to home like the Killarney Loop.

- 7 hrs of sleep nightly. I averaged 6.6, the same as last year.

- I still don't have enough protein in my diet.

- I never got down to "race weight" for Lavaredo although I hit it afterward. Since then, I've been enjoying food and drink a bit too much. :(

So... I need to set fewer or more achievable goals for 2017, or else I need to take them more seriously! In all the years that I've been doing this, this is the first time I've missed most of my goals. I still like the 2016 list so they may re-appear this year.

Not a great report card!

New C3 running injury prevention class taught by Dr. Peter Hrkal, an Orangeville chiropractor. He doesn't normally teach classes but he prescribes exercises to his patients. It's an 8-week session and we're supposed to do the circuit once in between classes. Should be useful. Nice surprise to see Lucy Hingo there.

Ugh, heavy rain is pouring onto our beautiful snow. At least we don't have the gusty winds this time. Our power went out in the middle of last night and stayed off for 9 hours. I am now forced to eat the rack of lamb that was in the freezer. Sad! ;)

Snow fell all day and was supposed to turn to freezing rain by dinnertime so AdventureDog and I went out before that. It had already switched from fluffy snowflakes to ice pellets. Tonight they're forecasting big wind gusts so we're keeping our devices charged and water containers full.

I took it easy because our fun, wintry weekend apparently fanned the embers of my cold that "ended" just before New Year's. I'd planned to go farther but a branch sprang back and scratched my eye so I went home to check it out. It looks like my eye won.

Mix & match, mostly lower body

Sun. Feb. 12, Albion Hills
Personal Best Winter races - Snowshoe, Snowshoe-Run Duathlon, Fat Bike, Fat Bike-Run Duathlon
The snowshoe races are part of the Snowshoe Canada Race Series.
$30 includes park entry, post-race meal, hot chocolate and draw prizes.
http://personalbest.ca/workouts-events-camps/pb-sn...

Browner, Storm, 'Bent and I went into Loree Forest with Scout, Contour, BazingaDog and AdventureDog. Only A-Dog is allowed to be off-leash all the time, which meant we took turns being towed down the trail. It was mostly a brisk hike but there were a few moments when I had to run as hard as I could!

The main Loree loop is well-packed and easy to manage without snowshoes. Some drifts in the open fields are really deep. The trees were coated with fluffy snow like a Christmas card - spectacular. We did a pretty good job of tiring the pooches out.

Turned off my Ambit by mistake during our ski, then started it up again.

'Bent and I went to Scenic Caves to ski just before it closed. We had the place almost to ourselves. After a day of snow squalls, the sun came out and lit up the forest. The trees were plastered with snow. It was gorgeous, chilly and so much fun.

Browner and I met Dee for some Snowshoe Raid training in Loree Forest using old maps. It was a cold day and we had to watch for frostbite in open areas but it couldn't have been a more beautiful winter wonderland.

Browner and I climbed up Mountain Springs while Dee climbed Switchback near her place.





We met Dee in the middle on the Bruce Trail.



We did some bushwhacking but mostly stayed on trails and followed the map to reacquaint ourselves with the area again after 3 years away. Dee was an excellent guide and - amazingly - did it all without her snowshoes, which broke before she met us. She had to head home partway through.

We were out for 4 hours, including time spent taking photos and looking at the map. We did a fair bit of running on the trails and hauled ourselves up a few steep hills using trees to help. It was great and by the time we were done, we were ravenous, thirsty and ready to lounge by the fireplace with dogs and hot drinks.

In case you fail to follow Super's AP log (your loss!), check out these great prices on Atlas Run and Atlas Race snowshoes. Very limited quantity left.
http://www.33-off.com/snow-shoes

Sunset snowshoe run with AdventureDog, mostly in Palgrave East. Where there's been traffic, the ground is rock hard after all the rain so it's lumpy from frozen footprints. Snowshoes were a good choice since it would have been easy to turn an ankle in regular shoes. Where there hasn't been traffic, the snow is soft enough to sink in. Nice to get out in the woods!

Hard Core Live with Caron - nice to have her back after some time away! 'Bent made a special guest appearance at tonight's classes. He's looking more toned already. :)

C3 yoga class

A French cyclist set a new 1-hour record today in the Masters age 105+ category. Just in case we thought we had any excuses! http://cyclingmagazine.ca/sections/news/105-year-o...

Too gusty to go into the forest so it was the treadmill for me - oh joy. We'll have more branches and logs to clean up after this week. Today's podcast was The Bugle.

I have a hard time believing my treadmill. I know it's easier to go faster with the "ground" moving underneath you so I guess I'll just enjoy the fantasy numbers. It is true that I never try to run this fast on the trails so maybe it's not quite as fake as it seems.

Boot Camp with a substitute instructor who didn't try as hard to kill us as Caron does. ;) I kind of missed that so I did a few things to increase the difficulty.

Year End Review, Part 1:
2016 Training Hours by Activity
Only really of interest to Future Me

Top Five (with 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 totals in brackets):

1) Running + Snowshoe Running - 250.5 hrs (188.5, 204.5, 153, 190, 138.5)
2) Strength + Yoga - 82 hrs (65, 65.5, 52, 36, 30)
3) Orienteering + Snowshoe Orienteering - 36.5 hrs (13, 57.5, 55, 66.5, 73.5)
4) Mountain Biking + Road Biking - 33.5 hrs (37.5, 34.5, 60, 77.5, 89)
5) XC Skiing (Classic, Skate, Roller) - 30 hrs (60, 38, 45.5, 55, 28)

Total Annual Training Hours = 495 hrs (494.5, 470, 557, 505, 612)

My big race was the 119 km Lavaredo Ultra Trail, hence lots of running and strength/yoga - by far the most hours ever for both of those activities. My total training hours were almost identical to last year - but I made sure I snowshoed long enough on New Year's Eve to log that extra half hour. ;)

I logged almost the same number of hours of Orienteering, Mountain Biking and Skiing. I would have liked to ski a LOT more but we didn't have much winter last year. I haven't done a 24-hr rogaine in a couple of years, which is why my orienteering hours used to be so much higher. I wish there were more of them! The drop in total training hours compared to earlier years is mostly because I didn't do any overnight or expedition AR. I would like to get back to doing more biking. I'm going to set a training goal this year and make it happen.

Feet, ankles, calves, hip flexors, balance with weights.

Albion Fat Bike Festival with demo bikes available - Sat. Jan. 14. Spectators just pay the usual entry fee to Albion Hills. Beer is available for purchase after 11:30 but the chili is only for racers. I'm planning to go early and try this sport out at last!
http://www.superflyracing.com/race-series/albion-f...

One of my plans for 2017 is to take a photo outdoors every day. So far, so good!

Super fun ski at Hockleycrest with 'Bent in advance of the rain. Trails were in great condition; I hope they survive the soggy weather coming in the next 36 hours. We stopped in briefly at Dave Moule's place to say Happy New Year and thanks for all his volunteer work to maintain this 14 km network for public skiing.

Waterfalls of Hamilton Run, 8th Edition
Hosted by Trav, Baloney and their way-too-cute, 12-week-old puppy Roxy

What a spectacular day to kick off 2017! As always, the Traveloney New Year's gala attracted a large crowd of keen runners and waffle/baffle connoisseurs, along with the odd national team orienteer or Olympic athlete.



'Bent decided this morning to bring BazingaDog for the first time in a few years so I ran with AdventureDog. The trails were quite icy so we ran beside them where possible - and it wasn't always running. It was touch and go at times when I had to hold A-Dog's leash but he never took me down. Charlotte V. ran with us; this was the 2nd run of three today for her!



The valley was beautiful - more wintry than the bright green Chedoke Golf Course just down the escarpment but considerably less wintry than Palgrave. Southern Ontario has had a lot of weather around freezing lately, which can lead to very different results depending on which side of zero you are.



The WoH post-run feast was perfected years ago. I pigged out on a steaming bowl of Dutch soup, a waffle with maple syrup *and* berries, a bagel and lots of strong coffee. So nice to see friends on a relaxed day for most of us, which meant time for real conversations instead of 2-line Facebook/Attackpoint comments. It was great to see people's kids too! Roxy was the undisputed star of the show, though. I would have taken a photo of the celebrity pooch but she was always surrounded by a sea of children.

Thank you, Mark and Joany! :)