Training Archive: BashIn the 7 days ending 2008-03-16:
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Sunday Mar 16 | ||
| XC Skiing (Skate) 1:33:00 [4] | |
| Beautiful day - cool and sunny. It's amazing that we still have excellent ski conditions in mid-March, so 'Bent and I took a road trip to Duntroon to celebrate. We arrived just as a 20K loppet was finishing up. Too bad we didn't know about it, because it would have been fun! We ran into Goose and Coach LD, who had both had great races. Goose chased Almageddon and ended up just 3 seconds behind him, taking 3rd Masters and 5th place overall. Impressive!
Ski conditions were fast and fun. 
Scenery was pretty. (Except for that person blocking the lens!) 
Unfortunately, we came upon a gentleman in his early 70s who had hit a post with his groin, then skied a short distance before collapsing from terrible pain. 'Bent took charge with help from several of us, as a couple of people tried to get a cell phone signal to ask for a snowmobile. The poor fellow was just able to communicate, and the pain was spreading so that he also had chest pain and tingling arms (yikes!) He was obviously Canadian, because he apologized for causing trouble, and when asked if he had any medical conditions, he gasped, "Not until now!" So we knew his brain was OK, but it was awful to see someone hurting so much. A group of us transferred him from the ground into a child's pulk where he could recline and stay warmer. There were no obvious signs of internal bleeding, shock, elevated heart rate, hypothermia or anything that we could figure out with our basic knowledge. The most useful thing any of us did was when 'Bent asked him to start breathing more slowly, and he managed to stop hyperventilating, even though he kept moaning. We collected a few jackets and emergency blankets to warm him up. The ski patrol arrived, did an assessment, put him on oxygen, then took him down in a toboggan. 'Bent was asked to ski behind the toboggan and watch the poor fellow. Since the pulk owners had continued on when their children got cold, I got the job of skiing back to the lodge with the pulk, including a big downhill. A few people asked what I was doing, obviously curious about whether I knew that there was no longer a child in my pulk! The ambulance took the fellow to Collingwood, and we will probably never know how it turned out. They seemed to be leaning toward a diagnosis of a broken bone - pelvis or femur, which wouldn't be great, but would be better than severe internal injuries or a heart attack, both of which we had worried about while we waited for help to come. Lesson #1: Always carry the phone number of the ski centre - or wherever you happen to be. It was tough to get and keep a cell phone signal, and precious time was wasted calling Directory Assistance. At least we always carry a cell phone, which was a start - but not good enough. Lesson #2: Emergency blankets aren't just for adventure racing. I wish we had been able to add ours to the pile. Lesson #3: The gentleman was almost unintelligible, but he managed to tell us his sons' names, and said "Cell phone". Their numbers were there, and in fact he was carrying a sheet of "in case of emergency" information in his fanny pack. His son was able to be contacted before the ski patrol took him down the hill. If I had an accident, I don't even have ID with me sometimes, and there are no numbers saved in my cell phone. Hmm. Lesson #4: It's been a few years since my last Wilderness First Aid course. Time to recertify. And I'm sure there will be other lessons as we think about it more. It was heartbreaking to see someone my Dad's age who had the spirit and fitness to go cross-country skiing on a beautiful day, and realize that he's probably got a long road to recovery ahead of him - and maybe he'll never get back to skiing. Life isn't fair sometimes. We went for another short loop after the ambulance left, but our motivation was gone, so we headed home in a pensive mood. | ||
| C • First Aid 10 | ||
Saturday Mar 15 | ||
| Note | |
| Fantastic films at the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour last night! Each year the inspiring images and music in the intro trailer make me want to paddle a kayak over a waterfall, parasail off a mountaintop and ski off a 1000 meter cliff - ideally all at the same time. (Oh, and I'd like to survive!)
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| Running 2:17:00 [3] | |
| Only 4 weeks until the Salomon Giant's Rib Raid, so 'Bent and I needed to run. With the temperature at +4C, I figured that it would be less frustrating than classic skiing!
After a week of warmer weather with minimal precipitation, these are the best snow running conditions we've had since early February. The snow remains over knee-deep in some places, but it has consolidated a lot, which makes it easier to move through than the bottomless fluffy stuff we had at the last couple of Thomass events. Too bad about tomorrow's race postponement... We followed the Humber Valley Trail and went off-trail in a few places to see how the snow was. It was an out-and-back route, doing the first half on snowshoes, then making the return trip on foot to see the difference. Our times in each direction were virtually identical, even though the portion on foot had a net elevation gain. There was some post-holing and trailbreaking both on foot and on snowshoe, but it all seemed to balance out. However, we agreed that the snowshoes were more fun and better suited to winter conditions. When we got close to Bolton, the trail was mostly packed down. 
When we were on foot, it would have been nice to have Yak Trax or spiked shoes for the hills. I missed the traction of my snowshoes more than the flotation - even though the snow got quite deep in a few places. 
We only met two other people out there exploring the forest - Slowrunner and Lexie (sp?). 'Bent looks pretty happy posing with the ladies. 
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Friday Mar 14 | ||
| Note | |
| The Orienteering Ontario Annual General Meeting scheduled for this Sunday (48 hrs from now) has suddenly been postponed until April 27, when many of us will be busy with other spring pursuits. This isn't the first time that an OOA-related meeting has been rescheduled on ridiculously short notice. It's not even the 2nd time.
It's also not the first time that I've tried hard to encourage people to come out to an Orienteering Ontario-led meeting, then got embarrassed when the meeting was suddenly postponed. But it *was* the last time. A number of us are working to raise the profile of orienteering as a sport in Ontario. This requires that we demonstrate a level of professionalism that today's decision lacks. Can you imagine the Ontario Cycling Association moving its AGM on 48 hrs notice? As an aside, I should mention that today's decision was not supported by the entire OOA Board, so a pat on the back goes to the people who tried to keep the meeting on track as planned. The stated reason for moving the AGM is that the race that was to have preceded it would take place in deep snow (like so many of our events lately), and some people don't want to race in deep snow anymore. Lucky for them, the race was postponed for two weeks, giving them the opportunity to do the final winter orienteering race of the year in deep slush or maybe even mud. As for me, in future I will focus on winter events like the SnowGaine or the Stars Winter Adventure Race - events that celebrate the season and expect competitors to deal with whatever conditions they find. Sadly, the wonderful Thomass winter orienteering series has become far too political and controversial for what was originally intended to be a fun, recreational series. | ||
| C • So... how do you really feel? 7 | ||
Thursday Mar 13 | ||
| Strength (Core) 21:00 [2] | |
| Hard Core Live with Caron. Tonight's theme was working some of our body parts (like legs) to exhaustion so that we had to rely on core strength if we wanted to keep doing the exercises. Ouch! Caron's new car was rear-ended earlier this week, so I guess she had to take out her frustration on somebody! ;-) | ||
| Yoga 48:00 [1] | |
| Power Yoga class with Caron. Small class tonight because of March Break. I don't know why I felt so good - I didn't have the best day. But every move felt like the perfect, tough stretch for exactly the right body part. I felt more flexible and better balanced than usual. I think if she had told us we had to fly, it just might have worked tonight. But that Rodney Yee thing where I'm supposed to think of my toes as buds ready to pop open in springtime... nope, that still wouldn't have worked for me. Not even tonight. | ||
Wednesday Mar 12 | ||
| Note | |
| Someone contacted me today to ask me to vote on their behalf at this weekend's Orienteering Ontario AGM. We will be electing the 2008/09 Board of Directors, and we've seen how important it is to choose effective Directors. Sometimes there are other motions to vote on at the AGM, but nothing has been made public.
So... if there is anyone out there who is a member of a southern Ontario orienteering club who cannot attend the meeting this Sunday afternoon, you can download a Proxy Form from the meeting website and appoint someone to represent you. I don't know everyone who will be attending, but I'm pretty sure that Phatty, Leanimal, Sid, Nick, 'Bent and I will be there. Maybe Bender too? The more the merrier - we want our provincial association to represent our views. And besides, Sid is ordering us a yummy lunch. AGM information is here. (Don't be concerned that it says "2007". The AGM is always considered to cover the previous calendar year.) http://www.orienteering.on.ca/events/OOA/AGM2007.h... | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 33:00 [3] | |
| Just a quick ski around Palgrave West, since we had to take turns waiting for Purolator to deliver my new blue laptop (Dell M1530). Fantastic conditions, and it sounds like we'll have at least one more wintry day before we head into the spring slushfest. | ||
| Strength (Legs) 26:00 [1] | |
| Leg strength exercises while watching the news. Must do more of these! | ||
Tuesday Mar 11 | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 1:10:00 [3] | |
Leanimal dropped by after surviving yet another dental appointment with 'Bent. It's not often that someone starts skiing with their face already half-frozen! Officially, Tuesday is supposed to be our day to run hill intervals on the road, but we'd probably be breaking some law if we went road running on such a perfect winter day! We toured around Palgrave West on waxless skis. The temperature was around 0C, and the snow conditions changed a lot as we went in and out of the sun. More often than we would have liked, one or both of our skis would stick to the ground like glue - often quite suddenly when the momentum of the upper body was well ahead of the feet! It added an extra dimension to the challenge. Regardless, it was a beautiful day, and there was enough deep snow, hill climbing and trail breaking to get our heart rates up.
Taking this photo at the lookout wasn't easy. The camera was precariously balanced on a few flimsy twigs - it fell in the snow a couple of times. Before Photoshopping, the horizon was at a 45 degree angle.  | ||
Monday Mar 10 | ||
| Note | |
| At last - an article in the media that doesn't portray our snowy winter as a "bad" one. Also, it points out that our larger snowfalls are likely another aspect of climate change - which shouldn't be called "global warming" because of the confusion that term causes.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM... | ||
| XC Skiing (Classic) 1:45:00 [3] | |
| I wasn't feeling terrific today, but decided that I had to go skiing on what might be the nicest remaining ski day of the season. The weather is forecast to warm up over the next few days with rain (aack!) on Thursday. For the first half-kilometer, I was breaking trail in deep snow. There were big snowdrifts on the trail - and no sign that 'Bent and I had skied there on Saturday during the storm.
Our neighbour's bench isn't so easy to sit on right now. 
It's not often that we see tree wells in southern Ontario. 
In some places, my ski track had a 40 cm vertical wall of snow beside it. Conditions were fantastic, and every time I came around a corner, there was another nice view. 
I turned onto a little-used trail leading to a wetland and saw a gentleman snowshoeing through deep snow, carefully avoiding the ski tracks. I caught up, intending to thank him for being so nice. Then I realized... hey, *that's* no gentleman - it's Deep Bakes! 
What a nice surprise! He'd come up from Georgetown for a dental appointment and a bit of birding. (Only two crows and a chickadee so far, but let's hope it got better.) | ||
| Note | |
| OK, confession time. Maybe this will be useful to some other outdoors-loving folk. Remember the Bear Attack in last weekend's SnowGaine? Well, it turns out that when I got home and looked more carefully in a good mirror, I could see a small puncture/scratch right where one of the dog's teeth bit me. Since I was in the woods all weekend, it could have been from a stray branch or something, but I wanted to know that the dog was up to date on rabies shots, since rabies is 100% fatal. If necessary, I could get the series of rabies shots.
I wasn't sure how to check on this, since all I had was an orienteering map showing the house that belonged to Bear the dog. I phoned the New York State Police and eventually got directed to a nice Deputy in the Oswego County Sheriff's Office. He offered to drop by the house based on my description from the SnowGaine map. Less than 3 hours later, we got a call saying that he'd checked the dogs' papers, and they'd had rabies shots in 2007. Story over, or so I thought. Today I got a call from the Oswego County Public Health Department. They're disappointed that the police brought them into the case so late. Normally they would confine the dog for 10 days to watch for symptoms in addition to checking the dog's papers. (I'm kinda glad they didn't find out any sooner, since the 10 days would end tomorrow, so they're not going to do it.) They are going to check into it further and get back to me tomorrow. I've stressed to everyone that I'm not complaining, and this isn't a bad dog - just a dog that got over-excited when a couple of people ran by his driveway, so he jumped up and nipped one of them. Anyway, I guess this is all good, since now I will be doubly certain of the dogs' health. And as a corollary, I'd be surprised if these particular dogs are allowed to bite any passing runners ever again! | ||
| C • Deep Bakes 5 | ||