Training Log Archive: Bash

Spring Tune-Up - Forks of the Credit Provincial Park

Spring Tune-Up O-Cross at Forks of the Credit Provincial Park.

It's not very often that I assign zone 5 intensity to any activity - especially when it goes on for an hour and a half. And today I wasn't even expecting to work hard, since I'd figured that we would spend a lot of our time in the uplands portion of the park. Well, I was wrong on both counts! Between the big climbs ('Bent's watch measured 491 meters total), three "finish lines" for separate loops, and the fatigue in my legs from yesterday, my heart rate came up early, and it never really had a chance to go down. Now I'm fighting a headache. Dehydration? Body pissed off for working it so hard? Not sure.

For most of the first two loops, I was running close behind Sid. In most cases, we chose different routes between controls, but the distance between us didn't change much. Then near the end of our 2nd loop, he surprised me with a sudden turn to follow a fenceline, and I squeaked out a narrow victory on the day. It looks like we would be well-matched teammates if the opportunity ever arises.

The low point (elevation as well as morale) was a bad fall on my elbow on a rock. At the time, it felt like major damage, but it hasn't turned too many different colours after 8 hours, and the swelling isn't nearly as ridiculous as I've had in the past.

I ran the course for M45s and F35s instead of my own age group, so I didn't pay much attention to results. It was the best that I could do, given my current level of physical fitness. Very, very tough.

It was great to see my new ESAR teammate, Angus, tearing up the advanced course. We plan to give 'Bent a serious run for his money in that event. :-)

'Bent and I biked to Inglewood and back - mostly rail trail with some country roads that included a stee-ee-eep, muddy, rutted hill near the end of our ride.

I used my new ergonomic handle bar ends, which are supposed to distribute the weight on your hands to prevent numbness in the fingers, which I sometimes have trouble with. I'd heard rave reviews on them, but although the bar ends looked undeniably ergonomic, they seemed to make my hands go numb even more quickly. So I think I'll go back to my basic, cheapo gel-covered bar ends. Oh well...

While my hands were going numb, so were my toes! It didn't seem that cold out, but apparently it was.

'Bent and I met up with Knobless, Gorgeous and Nikki to hike from the Grange to Belfountain to try Dave Corner's new cappucino bar, The Shed. We didn't hike all the way from Inglewood because Knobless' knee is pretty painful these days. So imagine our surprise when our local guides veered away from the tame Bruce Trail to follow some little pieces of flagging tape marking a planned trail. First we had an interesting exploration of the huge ruins of the lime kilns, accompanied by great info from Nikki, who happens to be the author of the book "Caledon". After that, the trail's route became more dubious, then finally the flagging tape disappeared. We clung to the edge of the escarpment for awhile, then descended the precarious, rocky, slippery slope to the swollen Credit River. No chance of crossing, so we climbed back up and side-hilled through rocky terrain, actually finding some flagging tape again.

Then we spotted a big pond below, with a mossy old rock dam at its end. We made another long, slippery descent and ignored the sign saying that "Crossing this dam is a chargeable offence under the Conservation Authorities Act. Keep Off." We imagined the headlines announcing that the Conservation Authority had laid charges against a group of well-known environmental activists, including the chair of the Caledon Environmental Advisory Committee, the editor of Alternatives Journal, the head of Caledon Clean Air Clean Energy, a director of the Caledon Countryside Alliance, etc. But we made it across unnoticed, and scrambled up more escarpment on the other side until we eventually arrived at the Bruce Trail side trail near Belfountain. By this time, Knobless wasn't the only one with sore knees! Although it had been difficult going, it was a beautiful area to travel through, and it was surprising to find an area with such a wilderness feel so close to a village.

We carried on into Belfountain and had awesome coffees and snacks at The Shed. Gorgeous led a totally different route back, which saved us an hour and did not involve any clinging to steep embankments by our fingernails. We kind of missed the adventure, but on the bright side, we got back to our bikes in time to head home before dark!

Spent so much time rummaging around for final bits of tax info to send to the accountant that there was no time left for training. 'Bent and I went down to the Running Free Party with Phatty and Leanimal. We only knew a dozen people or so out of the 250 attendees, but that just meant that we had lots of time to chat to all of them. Great party, although my throat is sore from shouting over the ambient decibels.

The deadline on Bubo's photo contest is approaching, and the theme this time is supposed to be Orienteering, along with Yellow or Easter. It looks like there is only one entry so far, and its connection to orienteering is arguably tenuous. This is my team, Barb's Boy Toyz, shortly after we came 1st in the 2006 U.S. Relay Orienteering Championships. Note that Griz is wearing Yellow. Hammer, Sudden and I are not. But we all Orienteered that day, and the event was just before Easter last year. :-)

C3 TNT. My knee feels better running on the road than it feels walking around the house. Go figure.

Hard Core Live - Tonight's theme was "Hard, Harder, Hardest". Caron mentioned how much she enjoyed meeting Valerie and Kris. She was also happy that her team won the 10K Giant's Rib Raid by doing well on the Matrix, since she and her teammates have some navigation experience.

Nice to stretch - especially that pesky right hip that felt tight in the Giant's Rib Raid. Some tougher upper body stuff tonight. Lori Bowden's Mom was working out on the mat next to me. I hear she is a talented triathlete in her own right.

Part of a Spinervals DVD - lots of high intensity.

While watching the Daily Show.

Not logged, but ThunderDog and I went for a trek in Palgrave West. I'm told that I should listen to my body, and my medial meniscus was talking to me, telling me not to go running today as planned. Hence the biking instead. I guess my knee is expressing some delayed unhappiness with the road running portion of the Giant's Rib Raid. Or maybe it's just sharing some pain in sympathy with Hammer's meniscus.

I picked up a bunch of plastic shingle bags that had blown into the conservation area from a roofing project at a nearby farmhouse. The wind came up, and it suddenly became believable that we are going to get 10-15 cm of snow tonight. Four wild turkeys were waiting for us at the property line, and fortunately ThunderDog decided to sniff and ignore them.

A trip to the vet later today resulted in a huge surprise. 'Bent and I had been concerned that our senior ThunderDog had a lump protruding from her skin, and we worried about whether it would be surgically removable, whether it would be benign, etc. Well, it turned out to be an engorged tick! I've never seen a tick before. Luckily, our ticks here don't transmit any nasty diseases, but I'm trying not to think about my poor dog being the victim of a vampire over the past week or more - not to mention the fact that a tick was sleeping on our bed each night. Yuck.

Now that I'm no longer travelling to McMaster to heckle Hammer in class twice a week, 'Bent and I are reviving our Hard Core Mondays. Oh goodie.

Mmm.... that felt good. Especially the stretches around the hips. My right hip was the one body part that hurt during the GRR. At least it wasn't excruciating like Raid The Hammer in fall 2005 when I was recovering from my knee injury.