Training Log Archive: Bash

Trekked cross-country from our place to Thomass Palgrave and back again. Such a treat to be able to walk to a race! (Although Crash had it even better.)

Thomass Palgrave - a fun course designed by Eugene. With the warm weather, the snow was *heavy*. I was glad to have snowshoes, but when I sank down and got snow on the decking, it sometimes took serious effort to get my foot up again. My legs sure felt the fatigue from yesterday's unexpected 3+hr run.

We started with a Thomass Box, then came out to #1 where I was happy to see Crash, 'Bent, Rocky and Ilona. Harper, Bob, Hammer and Tiny appeared shortly afterward, but they had more controls to do in a 2nd Thomass Box before the finish, as did Crash and 'Bent. I saw 'Bent leaving the final control #7 and was running 100m behind him near the pond when one of my snowshoes came off - the heel binding strap must have caught on something. Andrei passed me and commented on my predicament. I looked back and saw Crash and Rocky approaching looking strong. Eeek! I grabbed the snowshoe and ran to the finish line wearing one snowshoe while carrying the other in my hand and listening to Crash and Rocky gaining on me. I was luckier than my Snowshoe Raid teammate, Hammer, who arrived with one of his snowshoes in three pieces!

I squeaked in ahead of Crash, who squeaked in ahead of Rocky. We were the top 3 women, finishing 3rd to 5th - woo hoo! Andrei was 2nd, and the winner was... (drum roll), for the 2nd Thomass in a row... 'Bent! I'm very proud of him, although pretty soon he's going to be completely out of excuses for why he forgot to read his map in the Stars Winter Adventure Race, ahem.

Awesome fun girls' adventure racer party hosted by Mrs. Gally at her Granny's amazing place in Milton and coordinated by Dee. Thanks so much! :-)

Heh heh, you're probably as surprised to see this in my log as I am to be putting it here! I misinterpreted the party invitation, which mentioned some group snowshoeing at 2 p.m. before cocktail hour and acknowledged the possibility that some people might not have snowshoes, so we might need to trade around. I envisioned a sociable snowshoe trek around the perimeter of Mrs. Gally's Granny's farm, admiring the view and chatting with the ladies.

Um, no. Well, we *did* do a lot of chatting, so that part was accurate. It turned out to be a 3hr 20min run, mostly in energy-sapping, soft snow on the rocky, rolling Bruce Trail north of Kelso, with a few km of road running and a cross-country trek through thigh-deep snow at the end. It's just as well I didn't know the plan - I would have been sure that I couldn't do it since I haven't run since my marathon two months ago today. But actually, it went surprisingly well, and I was able to stay in the middle of the group. (Group was Mrs. Gally, Dee, Kelly, Funderstorm and Patty. Lenora, Audrey and Mrs. Flatfoot wisely arrived post-run.)

The only minor problem was that I hadn't brought anything to eat or drink, and I didn't want to share anyone's water since my stoopid cold is still hanging on. So I guess I looked pretty hard core - yeah, hydration is for wimps. Who brings a Camelbak for a few piddly hours of running?

I'm guessing that I might not be too energetic in tomorrow morning's Thomass race... :-)

Skied around Palgrave East and West with 'Bent. Fantastic, sunny day. Trails were fast even though I was wearing 'Bent's waxless skis. He was testing grip tape, and we traded skis near the end. There were several variables, so I can't say for sure what the problem was, but I was slip-sliding all over the place with the grip tape in these conditions (about -2C, mostly packed trails). He headed out for an extra loop, and I took the most direct route home. Poor ThunderDog was cowering because one of our smoke detectors had a battery problem and was making a piercing "beep-beep-beep" sound every few minutes. I let the dogs out, and she refused to come in until I eventually thought to bribe her with chicken.

Spent most of the day at Mountainview Ski Centre in Midland, volunteering at Goose's XC ski race for 450 students. Great to hang out with kids who have so much fitness and enthusiasm!

I really didn't have time to ski, but conditions are so fantastic right now, and it's all going to be wrecked in Saturday's warm rainstorm. :-( So I went out for a quick tour around Short Bruce Loop shortly after dark. The moon was about 2/3 full, casting a bright light that projected weird-shaped shadows through the forest. Awesome.

Hard Core Live with Caron

Power Yoga class - lots of twisting poses tonight. It was a good chance to test whether my right shoulder has more mobility after Leanimal's treatment yesterday. I think it might, but the main difference was that it hurt differently. My right shoulder often hurts with a sharp, intense, focused pain, and tonight it was more diffuse - a little less scary. So maybe there is some progress already on treating a very old injury!

Fantastic ski around Palgrave West. Conditions are excellent - I'm soooo bummed about the rain and high temperatures forecast for Saturday and the warm week to follow. I hope things go well for the CSMers, all of whom have been training so well.

Time was tight today, so I skied faster than I usually do. Fortuitously, it appears that 'Bent deviated from his commute significantly, so I had the benefit of speedy pre-skied trails through much of Palgrave West.

I'd hoped to try out the new upper body strength program that Slowrunner gave me today, but with all the errands in town, the day flew by far too quickly. Thanks, and I can't wait to try it soon! :-)

I'm determined to do a better job of monitoring my 2009 training goals as I go along so that I don't wait till year end to figure out what's working and what's tanking. So... here's my January report card.

40 hrs of training with 6/31 rest days. That's OK, given that I was sick for the last 10 days of the month. It's on track for my goal of 450 hrs/yr. About 60% XC skiing, 25% snowshoeing - what a fantastic winter this has been!

Strength training was only 3 hrs - aiming for 4 hrs, which is a pathetically easy goal compared to, say, Leanimal's strength training. But I'll give myself a break for being sick and having contractors in the house for two weeks.

No points for training quality, and I think I only did one workout before breakfast. The bedtime before midnight plan (5 nights of 7) got off to a very bad start, but improved when I got sick, and hopefully I'm developing better habits.

Skied to the Palgrave post office and back, taking some detours along the way. Fantastic conditions! Unfortunately, the long range forecast says that we'll have daytime temps above zero for 7 days straight starting Saturday, so 'Bent and I are planning to ski as much as we can this week! Next week, it'll be snowshoeing and the bike trainer.

While watching the Daily Show

Although I've taken off the sick flag, my respiratory system is still under the weather. After such a busy weekend, I figured that a day off might do more good than my planned snowshoe run. As it turned out, I had a tough 10-minute non-snowshoe slog in snow over my knees when I had to chase after ThunderDog who seemingly decided to start hiking to Crash's house on her own through neck-deep snow. Given her age, I was torn between being proud of her and being annoyed at her! The groundhog saw his shadow, and already we're getting 5 cm of snow tomorrow - woo hoo!