Training Archive: Bash

Trekking 4:15:00 15.5 km (16:27 / km)

Climbed Gros Morne with 'Bent, Tiny and Pixie. Phatty, Leanimal, STORM and AndyCam joined us at the summit, and we all hiked down together. Great views except when we were on top and clouds rolled in temporarily. We saw several caribou and a *big* moose. We got chatting with another hiker who asked, "Where are you all from? A place called Salomon?"

Note

Went to Gros Morne on a rainy day. It was still beautiful there, but we weren't inspired to get our race clothes soaked by hiking in them. It cleared later in the day, and we watched a fantastic sunset with crashing ocean waves at the Lobster Point lighthouse. We stayed in Rocky Harbour and hosted Team Salomon Suunto for an Olympics-watching night.

People in Newfoundland are soooo friendly. We went into a small craft shop, and the owner mentioned that he knew two families from Ontario. We just smiled politely since there are *lots* of people in Ontario, but it turned out that we did know one of the families. They live in Caledon, and he had sold them a house just down the road from the craft shop. (They're involved with whale research.) Small world.

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(rest day)

Flew to Deer Lake with Phatty, Leanimal, Tiny, Pixie, 'Bent and a big pile of AR gear. The Air Canada agent got snippy when so many of us appeared with bike boxes and large gear bags. Phatty & Leanimal got a partial break due to his Elite Aeroplan status, but the rest of us were charged $275/person for travelling with bike box ($75), overweight bag ($100) and oversized bag (same bag - another $100). This is only a 1-way fee, so we'll see what happens at the other end. Good thing 'Bent and I were travelling on an Aeroplan ticket, but this sure doesn't encourage us to fly to adventure races in future!

Nice birthday dinner with the gang at the Irving gas station restaurant in Deer Lake. 'Bent surprised me with a fantastic cake baked by Crash. Thank you!

Note

Got everything settled with our house and dog sitters, fine-tuned our packing one more time, and we're off in the morning. This is the 2nd time I will have spent my birthday travelling to an Endurance Aventure event. Hopefully I'll have a nice day-after-birthday, because a day spent with airlines can rarely be described as fun.

The new excess, overweight and oversized baggage fees implemented on May 15 might stop us from flying to future adventure races - on Air Canada, anyway. We've already been billed part of the fee, but if we get billed "by the book" for our large hockey bag + bike box each, it would cost 'Bent and me over $1100 in baggage fees for the return trip. Glad we're flying on points - that's just crazy!

If you're interested, you can follow the online coverage as the Tree Huggers and Team Salomon Suunto race. In our case, I use the term "race" loosely, as we have agreed to approach this as a low pressure event, taking advantage of this amazing opportunity to explore a fascinating corner of Canada while doing some of our favourite outdoor activities. I've been tapering for about 6 weeks, so I am, like, totally ready.

Coverage will be at http://www.coastraid.com/en/index.html from Aug. 21-24, and we'll be carrying GPS tracking units that should show where we are at any time. As I've already told some of you, if you notice our little dot drifting out into the Atlantic, please alert search and rescue personnel!

Running (Trail) 31:00 [3] 5 km (6:12 / km)

Reverse 5K trail loop in Palgrave West with BulletDog. I'd planned to follow up with some yoga, but I met someone on the trail (which never happens around here) and used up my yoga time chatting.

Goose and Coach LD hosted a terrific Coast Raid send-off dinner for 'Bent, Leanimal, Phatty and me. Then we went to say a quick farewell to Gazelle and Gazette, who will be returning to Tajikistan with baby Justin around the time we get home.

I unpacked all my Coast Raid gear and went through it item by item to get the weight of my bag down below Air Canada's limit. It's a new hockey goalie bag that we bought on eBay - awesome, but it weighs 13 lb empty. I took out a few items, including a lightweight fleece jacket that I might regret, but the real trick was identifying and removing some of the things with the greatest density. We're each allowed two carry-ons of limited size that can weigh 22 lb each. I'll be nowhere close to that, but I've now got an eclectic mix of non-terrorist-looking (I hope), heavy stuff to carry on - a kayak bilge pump, my shockingly weighty new cycling shoes, batteries, a thermos (hope that doesn't frighten the airport security folks), 2-man inflatable pack raft, etc.

C • Have a great race! 3

Note

The taper continues, albeit not intentionally. I followed up on my chilliness during Monday night's swim by getting a good portion of my hair cut off today. Now it should all fit under my neoprene cap, and hopefully it will dry faster.

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The 2008 Adventure Sports Games have been cancelled due to lack of registrations. Too bad - it was high quality and excellent fun last year, and it would have been nice to see BobTheNavigator take it to the next level. Last year's title sponsor, Keen, has moved on to support the Bruce Trail instead, which probably made things difficult.