Training Log Archive: Bash

STORM results are out. Most of all, I'm proud and excited for 'Bent, who finished 1st of 80 teams in all divisions. I'm happy (and surprised) about my ranking in the solo division: 2nd of 22 racers, 19 of them male, most of them younger than me. (Sadly, that pretty much goes without saying.) 'Bent was the only solo who beat me, and since he's usually at the front of my tow rope, that's exactly how I want it to be! For some unknown, bewildering reason, biking and paddling continue to be the disciplines where I do best relative to other racers this spring. For anyone wanting to know my training secrets, you should only paddle during actual races, and you might as well take 6 months a year away from your bike. Yup, throw away your trainer and watch TV without all that annoying sweat and background noise. The one discipline I *have* been training through the winter - trekking/running with navigation - is not really working out for me lately, so my new strategy is to avoid sport-specific training. I'll probably go back to curling in the winters, just to keep a safe distance from any AR disciplines where my performance might be impacted negatively by actual practice.

I was 8th of 80 teams overall, and one of the higher-ranked teams consisted of our Raid The North teammates, 3PinJim and LoTox - yay, more people for the front of my tow rope! If I'd just followed the marked trails in the regular section instead of trying to be cute by using my compass, I could have saved 10-15 minutes on the two misplaced CPs and moved up a few places. But c'est la vie. 'Bent and I each won our choice of Keen shoes, and we were allowed to select from all their styles online - a very nice prize indeed, so I can't complain (too much).

Moving on to the BAD news... I followed up on Hansel's comment about the Backroads Map Book showing the road between CP4 & CP5 at the Frontier Adventure Challenge two weeks ago. I remember using the map book to review several legs of the race, but apparently I spaced out and somehow neglected to check that leg, because as soon as I looked at that part of the map today, I realized that I'd never seen it before. And ohhhh yes, that road is RIGHT there near the start of the trek and would have saved us a ton of time. Dumb, dumb rookie mistake. Well, I got what I deserved for being careless, and hopefully the lesson will stick. (Oh, and uh, sorry 'bout that, guys.)

Ordered some books for our trek in the Dolomites. Getting excited! Anyone know any fun places to rent mountain bikes and go trail riding between Innsbruck and Vienna?

'Bent, BulletDog and I headed north on the Bruce Trail from Hockley Valley Road with the plan of doing a 21 km loop with a side trail that we've never done. I've been in Hockley Valley before, but somehow I still had the illusion that we would run uphill out of the valley, run east along the top for awhile, then come back down to the road. Then we would run up the other side of the valley, run west along the top, then come back down to our vehicle. But how it actually went was: long uphill, long downhill, long uphill, long downhill, long uphill, long downhill... repeat until you miraculously get to the top of the valley, then repeat some more. So when we made it back down to the road, I wimped out and suggested that we take the road back to the car, rather than climbing up the other side of the valley to follow the trail. We've got another race next weekend, so this isn't the time to do a 3.5 hr run!

In case it sounds like I didn't enjoy myself, I definitely did. It was absolutely beautiful in the woods with a carpet of trilliums, jack-in-the-pulpit, violets and lush greenery of all kinds. The forest views and countryside vistas on this section of the Bruce Trail are incredible - one "wow!" after another. And if anyone wants to do hill intervals without repeating the same hill over and over, this is the run for you. We think we finally might have tired out the invincible BulletDog, which is saying something.

Dropped off my bike at Caledon Hills Cycling. 'Bent managed to make the worst of the scary, squeaky metallic noise go away, but I'd like to see it ALL go away.

A wonderful, cool evening in Albion Hills with 'Bent. The trails are in fantastic shape, and the forest floor is covered with greenery. Because of all the rain earlier this week, I would have been better off with knobby tires in a few slippery places, but with all the adventure races in May, I'm just leaving the semi-slicks on.

My bike was making some disturbingly loud squeaky metal sounds. I remember them starting to get distracting partway through last Saturday's race, and I should have done something earlier this week, since I didn't ride at all. 'Bent thinks he might have solved the problem by removing some gunk from the headset, so I'll test it in the morning. Otherwise, we might be spending part of our holiday weekend in a bike shop.

Other than that, it was an awesome, relaxed ride. Two deer ran across the trail right in front of us, but otherwise it felt like we had the place almost to ourselves. Much nicer than fighting holiday traffic, as we had originally planned.

First time I've taken the Forerunner out on our own trails, and it was a surprise to learn that this little run in Palgrave West is over 5 km. I pushed harder than usual for a training run, just to see if I could. I've been worried about how fatigued I've felt over the past ten days, including during Storm The Trent. My legs still felt tired today, but the cold air was so wonderful that my lungs felt great. Poison ivy is THRIVING.

I was looking for a 45-minute loop that I could use as a benchmark and try to improve on. Apparently this one is too short! Route was long way to Thinker's Hill, down Hawk Hill to Bruce Trail, then cross-country to counterclockwise Charlevoix Loop, then Bruce Junction, Raspberry Hill and home the long way through F&M's. (This won't even make sense to Crash, who lives on the same block of land, but I'll be able to figure it out if I want to repeat the run.)

Gotta lose a few pounds. My Christmas weight is still there - arggh.

Mostly this was a new set of exercises for my ankle, which K/O gave me this morning in hopes of making me into less of a gimp. I'm motivated!

No training in today's rain. The closest thing to an outdoor activity that I did was screech to a halt when a beaver scurried out in front of my car. (Yes, this really is Canada!)

Finally had time to review the Frontier Adventure Challenge race results. Surprisingly, our best discipline compared to the lead teams was the bike. (Even with Richard's handlebars snapping in half!) We've had some decent splits on technical bike sections in the past, but we've almost never placed well in road sections. In this race, we did both. I definitely owe that to 19-year-old Pate at the front of my towline on the uphills! :-)

For a change, our worst section was the 2nd half of the trek. We passed teams enroute to the first trek CP, but then we bushwhacked most of the way to the 2nd trek CP while most top teams found roads and trails. Our split was 80 minutes vs. 40 minutes for the lead team. OUCH!!

Nice to meet up with Leanimal for G-TNT after a couple of weeks where we took turns being sick. Before we hit the trail, she treated my ankle, and it hurt enough that it just HAD to be doing me a lot of good. I didn't feel any pain or instability during our trail run, which is great. Just in case though, I ordered another Active Ankle online this morning.

Wow, where did spring go? It was full-on summer when we went out around 11:30. There is something unsatisfying about taking in deep breaths of warm, humid air. I was embarrassed at how slowly I was moving, but Leanimal was nice enough to say that she felt sluggish in the heat as well.

The Forerunner GPS numbers are a little suspect, because we did an out-and-back run, and the elevation isn't close to a mirror image. Also, we were in some thick cedars, and I noticed that our pace changes weren't being picked up. Anyway, we do this run often enough that I'll get another chance to try it. Interestingly, this is a shorter run than the Albion Hills 5 Peaks, but there is more elevation gain - and I think there is actually more ascent that didn't get recorded. No wonder we moved faster in Albion Hills! Good training though.

Hard Core Monday with 'Bent is back. It sure was obvious that I haven't done serious core exercise for the last few weeks. We talked back to poor Caron a LOT today. Something's gonna hurt tomorrow...

My bad ankle is painful in a couple of specific places where I damaged soft tissue, but it didn't swell up, and there is no bruising after 48 hrs. So I'm turning off the injured flag, and I will train normally, using the ankle brace for everything I do on foot. (Sigh...) After reading my log, K/O has offered to give me a strengthening program to fix my "girlie ankles". Thank you, K/O! I'll also be asking Leanimal or Thumbs-of-Death to use some of their magic to help with the healing.