Training Log Archive: Bash

And it's official - the 10th edition of Wilderness Traverse is happening on the Aug. 24-25 weekend in the Dorset, Ontario area. I won't be able to attend on those dates but I hope to help with course testing and other preparations.
https://www.wildernesstraverse.com/

Foothab and lower legs

The wind was too gusty to go into the forest - too bad because the snow is still amazing. Instead I did a treadmill film festival with some pyramids.

It's not snowing in this video clip of our back yard - just blowing.

It's a winter wonderland in most of Ontario after yesterday's storm - about time!



AdventureDog and I went for a "ski" around Palgrave West. I'm not sure how much snow fell yesterday but combined with existing snow, I was shuffling through 25-30 cm of fluffy powder most of the time. There was nothing for my skis to grip, and I had to double pole most of the downhills but it was still wonderful - especially when a heavy snow squall passed through. We included some bushwhacking since it wasn't any slower than the trails. We ran into Crash with her pooches and had a little party.

Returning on the ski track I made on the way out



Why downhills weren't as fast as usual



AdventureDog loved it.



The one negative is that we've recently recognized that some of the trees on our property have fallen victim to the Emerald Ash Borer. Now that I know what it looks like, I realized that Palgrave West is full of damaged ash trees. I'd estimate that I saw 100-150 trees with severe damage today. When the wind gusts came up and the trees started creaking, I felt more vulnerable than usual although I don't know how long the trees will take to die. I hope they don't hang around too long because it will be hard to feel safe in the woods with barkless trees looming overhead.

Foothab basics. I ran more in the past three days than I've run in a long time, and even though my gimpy foot is feeling pretty good, I don't want to push my luck.

I've been reading about Posterior Tibial Tendon Dysfunction. It sounds like my left foot is at Stage 1 of 4 - or maybe early Stage 2 since my foot alignment looks pronated even though I can do 1-legged heel raises. Ugh. I should dig up the Barefoot Science insoles and give them another try.
https://www.footeducation.com/page/acquired-adult-...

'Bent had a great commute today with an extreme cold warning *and* a snowfall warning. :)

Browner and I met at Scotsdale Farm on a day when the roads were surprisingly bad, given the uneventful forecast. It was sunny and chilly with a bitterly cold wind and 10-20 cm of fluffy snow on the trails. It would have been a perfect day for snowshoeing - finally! I'd planned to bring AdventureDog but decided that might be cruelty to animals.

We were actually quite comfortable in the forest, and it was beautiful with the fresh snow. Running was more about strength than speed today, given the difficulty of getting a foothold in the soft snow, which had ice underneath in the few places where we hit bottom. A couple of trails are rocky and technical so the obstacles were hidden under the snow, which resulted in a few surprises when my feet disappeared in odd directions. Lots of fun, a good workout and great to catch up - so grateful to have friends who aren't fazed by crazy winter conditions!

Long run through Palgrave East to the village, along the rail trail to Duffy's Lane, on park roads through Albion Hills CA, then back up Duffy's Lane and home through Palgrave West.



This was my longest run in 4 months, thanks to the impressively thorough job I did of spraining my ankle in September. There is still some pain after a run because the posterior tibial tendon is tight. It almost always hurts on the inside of the left heel and sometimes there's a sore spot on the bottom of the heel too. Maybe if I did five minutes of heel stretching after a run, it would help.

No time for that today, though! 'Bent and I went for our Last Supper at The Church Pub in Palgrave. With live music and local food and drink, it has been the only place to go out for dinner within 10 km of our place. It’s being forced out of business after 4.5 years and a long, expensive battle with the Town of Caledon. Given our own long battle, we empathize. It's really, really unfortunate.

Rotten sleep last night after a malfunctioning CO detector freaked out at 4:30 a.m. It did the same yesterday morning and I thought I'd solved the problem with a new battery but it was just toying with me. We have a small collection of CO detectors so we know the problem isn't CO. My fight-or-flight response kicked in for a few hours and I finally fell back asleep, only to be awakened by a phone call from the security company telling me that our CO detector had been beeping. Um, thanks. Guess I'll try to sleep some other night.

The wind gusts really came up in the afternoon so rather than going into the forest, I ran a hilly 600 meter loop around our yard with some extra repeats on our main toboggan hill. The snow was soft, about 5-15 cm deep, with ice underneath in many places. It felt like molasses going uphill. It was nice to be out but it sure annoyed the dogs, who barked every time I came into sight. My loop passed close to the road so I couldn't bring them along. This wasn't the most exciting run but it was hard work and got me warmed up for strength training.

Mostly lower body + some rowing and triceps.

I looked at my training data for the 6 months leading up to and including the 120 km Lavaredo Ultra Trail in 2016, a race where my legs performed well even though I battled sleep monsters and took a long indoor break during a thunderstorm. That's the last time I did a race comparable to UTMB-CCC and for lack of a better plan, I'll aim to train in a similar manner since it worked.

Luckily, I'm 7 months out from CCC so I have some time to ramp up - and I'll need that since I was knocked out of the ultrarunning game last year by the B.C. forest fires and a major ankle sprain.

One thing that strikes me about these numbers is that my kilometres across all sports over 6 months were fairly low (1619 km) but my elevation gain sounds crazy high (42,415 m). It's a mountain race so that's good. It sounds hard to do in southern Ontario but I just realized that's actually only 26 m climb per km, and I exceeded that in our back yard today! So as long as I keep doing hilly trails, it should all be good.

FIRST 6 MONTHS OF 2016

Running 154:56:24 1012.75 (9:11) 30,628 m
Strength & Mobility 39:48:00
Orienteering 24:59:58 146.14 (10:16) 3780 m
XC Skiing - Classic 18:51:30 141.74 (7.5/h) 2574 m
Power Yoga 10:38:00
Adventure Racing 10:29:43 108.99 (5:47) 949 m
Snowshoeing 9:10:03 34.58 (15:54) 1657 m
Mountain Biking 8:44:42 125.28 (14.3/h) 1201 m (Not nearly enough!)
Trekking 5:04:21 15.32 (19:52) 794 m
Snowshoe Orienteering 2:56:14 16.04 (10:59) 488 m
Snowshoe Running 1:58:57 13.79 (8:38) 299 m
Paddling 50:00
XC Skiing - Skate 20:18 3.98 (11.8/h) 45 m (So I actually *did* skate ski once in the five years before this season!)
Other 20:00

TOTAL 289:08:10 1618.6 42,415 m

Oh deer!
https://cyclingmagazine.ca/sections/news/tuscon-cy...

Outside, the slushy footprints on the trails have frozen rock hard so it's an ankle twister's paradise. I fired up the treadmill and watched the mini-film festival I put together yesterday - mostly trail running-related with a dash of ski-mo and John Cleese. My favourite moment was Kilian Jornet holding his skis with a big smile, saying something like, "Running is fine in the summer but when there's snow, I'm not going to run." It seems to work just fine for him.

It's not official yet but for those who have been asking, there is a strong chance that Wilderness Traverse will be on the Aug. 24 weekend.

Foothab and balance, aka unplanned rest day.

I hoped to get out snowshoeing after the dishwasher repairman came during his generous 5-hour window. He arrived toward the end of that time, shortly after his company texted me a photo of him and his truck so I’d know who was coming to the door. (Nice.) He stayed longer to get things working, which I can hardly complain about. By that time, it was dark with cold drizzle and the wind was howling so I put together a 1-hour set of short videos for the treadmill. And then the power went out. So I didn't get to run, and I had to eat freeze-dried spaghetti for dinner. The End.

P.S. It could have been worse. I could have been 'Bent in the middle of doing a filling on a patient when the power went out tonight. Now *that* was an adventure!

More from the scientists who brought us the One Minute Workout: McMaster researchers have found that aerobic fitness improves after an intense 20-second workout. Well obviously, it's not that simple. You need to do it three times a week for six weeks. Yes, you'll need to exercise six whole minutes in a month and a half. Better start drawing up a training schedule.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fi...

AdventureDog and I went for a run around Palgrave West in 5-10 cm of snow. The forest was beautiful although it felt like running in sand. That's OK - I need the extra workout. 'Bent skied to work today but said it wasn't quite enough snow to qualify as a *good* ski.

The sun set partway through our run and we arrived home just as it was getting dark. AdventureDog kept stopping with one paw raised, looking into the woods with concern. I guess some animals were watching us.

Mountain Legs, balance, calf stretch, plank

Foothab balance after another painful session with Dr. Thumbs-of-Death, who is now working on both feet. The right sides of both lower legs are tight so I guess I’m at risk of tipping over, lol.

Then instead of strength training, I attempted to repair our dishwasher. Then ‘Bent tried. Unfortunately, I think this problem may be more than YouTube can handle.

Seriously cold outside - and major wind chill too! The current "feels like" temperature at bedtime is -32C but the lunar eclipse was beautiful.

Dontgetlost Snowshoe Raid, 13th edition
Loree Forest

Another creative course design by Bob! This year he managed to prevent anyone from clearing the course although Chad Spence and Greg Critchley came close.

We received Map 1 at race check-in. It showed a subset of the race controls worth about 2/3 of the points available. After one hour, we could pick up Map 2 at the Aid Station. It showed the same area as Map 1 with all the controls, including the ones shown on Map 1. If we stumbled onto a Map 2 control in the 1st hour before we allowed to see Map 2, we couldn't punch it.

Denise and I teamed up once again. She is dealing with a glute-hamstring injury that causes pain on uphills but she's so tough that it didn't affect our race until the final 30 minutes. She is always a rock star when it comes to race strategy. She had to give me a polite, much-needed reminder to stay back to help when a teammate is slowing down. I don't have much experience being strong enough to help a teammate, and I usually have my face buried in the map so I was glad she pointed it out.

Snowshoes weren't recommended so I used spiked Snowcross shoes with Kahtoola microspikes. This was perfect for the conditions. It would have been slow and slippery bushwhacking on hillsides and open fields either way but we were able to move quickly on packed trails. The forecast was frigid - about -15C, feeling like -23C with wind chill - but it didn't feel as cold as last year's race. I overdressed.

We followed our plan almost exactly, including the hurried plan we made at the Aid Station after receiving Map 2. As always, I look at our plan now and see ways to adjust it to get another 50-150 points. (We got 925 of the 1650 available.) But that's true of every team in the race and hindsight is enhanced by things we could only learn during the race. I was happy with what we were able to do.

The top Female team was AdventureGirl! and Hermes. Nicole and Mrs. Gally were the top Female Masters, and we were 2nd of 19. 'Bent and Mick were 5th overall and 2nd Male Masters behind Mr. Gally and Storm. Great performances by a number of friends and a fun post-race dinner at the Gallys' place. Always an excellent day. :)

Snow testing in Loree Forest with ‘Bent and the pooches. This wasn’t all snowshoeing; we were trying to decide what to wear on our feet for tomorrow’s Snowshoe Raid. Conditions are tricky.

On the way back, we all went to Yappy Hour at the Sidelaunch Brewery - a dog-friendly fundraiser for the local animal shelter. Lots of dogs and dog lovers showed up including Heather Arnold and Cait Foisy. There were some snacks and live music. They do this a couple of times a year. Fun!

Using a GPS watch for training isn’t for everyone. Hit men, for example.
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a25924256/mark-f...

Hard Core Live with Caron

C3 Yoga class

Foothab

Chilly sunset run around Palgrave West with AdventureDog, who was on high alert for wildlife in K-Bash Woods. It was almost dark when we got back but we still added a final lap of the 1 km loop that goes through our neighbour's property.

I got thinking that we could have an abbreviated Last Man Standing event for friends at our place. Since it's a 1 km loop, the departure would be every 9 minutes to fit the 100 miles per 24 hours requirement. There are issues involved with the tighter timeframe, i.e. if you need a major washroom break, you're probably out of the event unless you're super quick. (No porta-potties so you'd have to go indoors. No pooping in our forest!) But this would just be for fun and there would be a BBQ and beer awaiting the losers so I don't think anyone would mind. Hmm. :)

3-Minute Mountain Legs!

I still haven't set goals for 2019 but one of them will be 80 hours of Strength, Mobility and Yoga. Upping the ante, I'm aiming to do at least 5 minutes every day since I should be doing physio-type exercises that often even if I don't get around to doing anything else. As of the 15th of the month, things are on track.

Up for tomorrow: Three-Minute Mountain Legs.

Trigger warning for Cristina: there are two active dogs in the video.
https://trailrunnermag.com/training/3-minute-mount...

Trail run around Palgrave East and West on a grey day. 'Bent said I wouldn't need Kahtoolas but he was overly optimistic. I crept along the edges of trails when they got too slippery and tap danced across glare ice on my spikes when there was nowhere else to go. Luckily, I stayed on my feet - a nice improvement from Sunday's skate ski, which left me with a painful bruised glute. I listened to Jenny Jurek on an old Ultrarunner Podcast. After taking an early phone call related to our deck disaster, I ran for 85 minutes without walking any hills so things are moving in the right direction.

Sad news from "downtown" Palgrave. The Church Pub is closing after receiving a large fine from the Town of Caledon for compliance issues with the building department. Mistakes were made on both sides but I have sympathy for the pub, which was much needed in a hamlet that could easily be overshadowed by the highway that passes through it. The Town's building department has poor communications, and most of its staff are bureaucrats who enjoy wielding power more than helping to solve problems of the tax payers funding their salaries. RIP, Church Pub.

Foothab

Full body strength + some foothab. If all goes well, I'll add some more foothab later tonight.

Dr. Thumbs-of-Death worked on both my feet today - OW. Although I had a high sprain on my left ankle in September, I have more trouble with one-legged balance on my right foot. The right ankle is my good one - mostly - but I sprained it for the first time in the summer of 2017 so like most of my body parts, its warranty has been voided.

Especially on my left side, Dr. ToD says it's my tight tibialis posterior giving me grief and causing pain around the bottom of the medial ankle bone. It's hard to massage or stretch but I can try rolling the little spiky ball around the sore spots on my calves and feet. Also, I can try seated calf lifts, turning the feet to different angles. When you're seated, you don't use the gastrocs as much.

O Cup # 3 Toronto Orienteering Club
Claireville Conservation Area

Beautiful, sunny day with temperature around -12C. We've had so little real winter this year that I totally overdressed my upper body! There was virtually no snow but every once in awhile, we would cross a section of glare ice on a trail or in the middle of a field where puddles had frozen. I was waking up all the SI controls until #5 when I boldly left the trail to cross a field of hummocks, tangled weeds and Christmas trees. I didn't bother checking my compass because that's for wimps. When I'd travelled the correct distance, I saw a building to my right and realized how badly I'd aimed. I dashed away from the building on a trail and found the flag in a re-entrant but that's when I saw Pekka Toivanen and Christian Michelsen. I think Pekka was the overall winner. I took home a $20 gift card from Sportchek as the top woman though. :)

Foothab basics

In case you're getting bored with people drawing elaborate pictures with their GPS tracks, here's a woman who runs phallic routes - exclusively. It started by accident - as these things do, I suppose.
https://runningmagazine.ca/the-scene/meet-the-woma...

I couldn't fall asleep for hours last night. Maybe it was the caffeine in the decaf coffee and chocolate cake I had after dinner. (Yeah, I'm on a New Year's health kick.) I woke up feeling spaced out but figured I'd be able to function after coffee. Turns out the spaced-out feeling didn't go away, and I felt so unbalanced that I fell twice while skate skiing, which hasn't happened in years. The second time, I had to take off a ski to get up. Weird - I headed back to the chalet before I smashed into one of those padded trees.

Scenic Caves was a hive of activity with two tour buses and some lesson groups. I chatted awhile with Rick Sommerkamp and his family. 'Bent skate skied most of the network! After years of concerns about his knee, our "mandatory" 30 minutes of skate skiing has turned him into a real keener. :)

I still felt spaced out after switching to classic - hopefully from last night's lousy sleep - but at least I wasn't at risk of hurting myself. Conditions were spectacular and my wax was perfect. It was a sunny bluebird day and I couldn't stop smiling!

1-legged balance with eyes closed in honour of my balance problems while skiing today.

Today is the 1-year anniversary of our Tree Hugger Advanced Base Camp in Collingwood. I grew up in a family that never wanted a cottage so there's been a learning curve. I didn't want this to prevent us from taking vacations elsewhere, and 'Bent didn't want it at all! :) So far, I think it's working out well for us - getting us to explore some new places, helping us find snow to ski on, and giving us new opportunities to hang out with friends.

'Bent and I went to Highlands around midday to enjoy the balmy -10C afternoon weather. They'd received a nice dump of snow and it was a perfect bluebird day. The Doughtys were out on the trails but neither of us ran into them. I had a nice chat with Glenn Edwards. Hope lots of people come out this weekend to enjoy these fantastic conditions in a January that hasn't been kind to skiers!

Some one-legged balance with eyes closed. My left heel is super sore after skiing - ugh. Since I sprained my ankle in late September, my left foot has never been totally happy. Even so, it's usually my better side for balance but not tonight. I'm seeing Dr. Thumbs-of-Death on Monday.

Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc lottery results came out this morning. I was unsuccessful for the past two years so I was allowed to register in the 101 km CCC race in December. 'Bent was accepted today for OCC, the 50 km race, and I'm grateful he won't just be there as a spectator. However, we had 8 Canadian friends in the lottery who were all refused. Boo.

Foothab basics

Trek around Forks of the Credit with Mrs. Gally, Patty, Connie, Michelle and Pete Dobos. Great company and conversation with a yummy lunch afterward at the Tin Roof Cafe in Erin (formerly The Shed Coffee Bar).



We had heavy snow flurries part of the time but the main excitement came from the glare ice on the trails, which had a few steep hills and a scary section running along the side of the gorge. I had Kahtoola Microspikes over Salomon Spikecross shoes. Except for Pete, the others wore Yaktrax or Yaktrax Pro over their footwear. We decided we could have made a great commercial for Kahtoolas today. While the others crawled, clung to saplings and slid on their bums, my Microspikes maintained their traction. It was like being 5 years old again except for the profanity. Awesome fun! :)

A running film festival in our basement

Plankety plank plank.

Great feature article on our local superstar, Angus Doughty.
https://www.what-moves-you.ca/blogs/news

Snowcross + Kahtoolas run at Glen Haffy. The trails were icy with snow on top - sometimes slippery and sometimes snowy enough to provide good traction. I added extra climbs here and there since my goal race (CCC) averages 610 m of climb per 10 km of distance. That's really difficult to achieve in the Caledon area but I can do it around Blue Mountain. There will need to be a balance between specific training for the race (steep climb / steep descent / strength-oriented) and distance running.

One-legged balance with eyes closed - harder because I was too lazy to take my thick socks off. The back inside of my left heel (the foot with the high ankle sprain in September) is quite sore from today's run. Ugh. Let's hope Dr. Thumbs-of-Death can work some magic.

“A different version of hell: Ian Brown tries skate skiing”: from The Globe and Mail. We’ve done the SilverStar Supercamp so this is familiar.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/articl...

Foothab basics

Foothab basics

'Bent has been using the word "Zamboni" to describe the forest trails, and I still have a huge bruise on my upper shin from a Christmas Day run on ice. So I chose the ice-free treadmill and an hour of videos with a few pickups to burn holiday chocolate.

Foothab basics

Caron's Hard Core Live - In honour of the new year, we did 19 each of various core exercises pulled from a hat.

Some regular yoga and some painful poses using massage balls.

Year End Review, Part 1:

2018 Training Hours by Activity + 2018 Report Card
(2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 totals in brackets)

Boring to read unless you are Future Me - I learn a lot by writing it each year.

Total Annual Training Hours = 333 hrs
(468.5, 495, 494.5, 470, 557, 505, 612)

Target was 525 hrs. Until this year, the moderate decrease in recent years was mostly explained by the fact that I haven't done overnight/expedition AR since 2013. My other training hours remained fairly consistent so the lower totals didn't represent major changes in fitness or habits.

This year was different - a complete blowout. I've been logging on Attackpoint for 14 years, and my training totals have ranged from a high of 612 hours (2011) to a low of 426 hours (2008). In 2018, I was almost 100 hours below my lowest year ever.

So what happened? I don't understand it completely but there are some contributing factors:

- Mom decided to sell her house and move to a 2-bedroom apartment in a retirement home. Downsizing and moving are huge, stressful tasks, and her house sold quickly so things were rushed. I now have a room full of boxes of family treasures that I need to sort through. It's been a major life transition for Mom, and my brother and I have wanted to support her as much as possible.

- All year I've been dealing with the fallout of a huge, expensive contractor error on our small raised deck. I've spent full days doing engineering analysis, making phone calls, writing letters and attending meetings - often on short notice. All this has happened against the backdrop of thousands of extra dollars and threats of "enforcement" from the Town of Caledon - the same Town for which I've volunteered hundreds of hours over the years. I could launch a lawsuit since I'm not at fault but I just want my life back and - hopefully - a decent-looking deck and some money left in my bank account. It's been super demoralizing to be treated like a criminal by the Town after paying the contractor $$$$ extra to ensure that the project was approved and legal. There is still no simple way out of this.

- I'm also the primary contact for a relative with health concerns and frequent doctor/hospital visits. I've spent many hours communicating and listening, researching medical conditions and drugs, worrying and wondering from hour to hour whether I should cancel plans and drive to another city. The concerns are legitimate, and I'm sympathetic and want to help but it means that my mind is often elsewhere rather than being fully focused on what I'm doing. 'Bent has been very understanding.

I know people with busy, stressful lives who still find time for training. I could have squeezed in training sessions around this stuff; I don't have kids or full time work. I don't really understand why it has affected my activities so much. It feels like random external forces control my life more than I do, which apparently reduces my motivation and makes me feel defeated. I've had trouble sleeping because my mind keeps churning, and then I don't have the energy for long endurance training sessions. 'Bent and I haven't had a full week of vacation together since the summer of 2017, and he's had his own list of external factors to deal with. I think many athletes have similar lists of external forces, and most of them handle it better than I have been doing. Most of the time, life is good and I'm happy but I haven't done well at translating that into motivation to train.

The external forces will continue for the foreseeable future so I'll need to learn to train when I don't feel like it - or maybe there's a way to convince myself to feel like it. I'm not sure how one does this.

The most compelling reason to get back to training properly in 2019 is CCC - the 101 km race at UTMB - in Chamonix on Labour Day. I did my first ultrarun in 2010. In 2011, a few of us decided to try to qualify for the 168 km Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. I ran it in 2013 and 2014 but only made it 75% of the way around Mont Blanc. I still need to see the last 45 km of the course, and I want the experience of crossing that finish line. CCC will give me both of those things. It's been a project 8 years in the making, and I'm determined to succeed - even if it means giving up butter tarts for a few weeks along the way.

Top Five Activities - 2018

1) Running + Snowshoe Running - 145
(222.5, 250.5, 188.5, 204.5, 153, 190, 138.5)
The 114 km Fat Dog Ultra in August was cancelled due to forest fires in B.C. so I missed my big race of 2018. A severe ankle sprain in September prevented me from doing a different race, and I'm still feeling pain from that. My only ultra was the 60 km Black Canyon Ultra in February, which was tacked onto a busy week of mountain biking and trail running.

2) Mountain Biking + Road Biking - 45 hrs
(53, 33.5, 37.5, 34.5, 60, 77.5, 89)
Like last year, this included the fun 100 km Mohican mountain bike race in Ohio. I need to set up my trainer to log some winter hours since I don't have studded tires or a fat bike.

3) Strength + Yoga - 30.5 hrs (Target was 80 hrs.)
(59.5, 82, 65, 65.5, 52, 36, 30)
Pathetic effort, particularly in the second half of the year.

4) Paddling - 30 hrs
(32.5, 17.5, 22.5, 14, 48, 31, 74)
This included our trip to The Massasauga Park with Timato, Mrs. Tiny, Mick, Laura and all the kids.

5) XC Skiing (Classic, Skate, Roller) - 26 hrs
(20, 30, 60, 38, 45.5, 55, 28)
Still doing my snow dance. It helps that we now have Tree Hugger ABC in the snow belt.

Former Top 5 Activities that missed the 2018 list:

Orienteering + Snowshoe Orienteering - 23 hrs
(18.5, 36.5, 13, 57.5, 55, 66.5, 73.5)
I've been on the board of Orienteering Ontario since 2008 and I also spent a year on the board in 2005. This is mostly a volunteering sport for me, not a sport that I do very often - almost never in its traditional form. Living so far from any club makes it impractical.

Adventure Racing - 8 hrs
(8, 18.5, 30, 0, 112, 26, 163)
I still think of AR as my primary interest but I'd rather do other adventure activities in Ontario than travel a long way for an AR. I'm the Assistant Race Director at the only overnight AR in Ontario so it's been a long time since I've actually *done* an overnight AR, even though I really enjoy them.

Trekking - 17 hrs
(47.5, 10.5, 64.5, 38.5, 19, 17.5, 16)

Part 2 of the Year End Review is "Training Goals", which I didn't write in 2018. Maybe that will help!

Happy New Year!

Storm, Browner, Scout and Contour came to visit last night. We'd planned a night snowshoe in Loree Forest for New Year's Eve but heavy rain kept us indoors, where we happily ate and drank without burning calories as planned.



So this morning we headed up to Scenic Caves to snowshoe up and down some hills. Little icicles hung from every branch after all the rain. It was beautiful! Light snow started falling.











We stopped at the warming hut by the Lookout where we made purchases to support local bakeries while chatting with the friendly staff member. We probably should have climbed a few more hills - oh well!

Storm, Browner, 'Bent and I took Scout, Contour, AdventureDog and BazingaDog for a brisk hike in Loree Forest, which got chillier while we were out there.



On the way back, AdventureDog and Scout - the two off-leash dogs - wanted to hang out together. They were probably talking about the rest of us.

It's a new year and I have a lot of work to do. I'm going to aim for some strength, mobility or yoga every day - even if it's just 5 minutes to maintain the habit. Tonight it was the basics: intense lower calf stretches and one-legged balance with eyes closed. These were the first things Dr. Bell's kinesiologists taught me when I was recovering from injury with their help a few years ago.