Training Log Archive: Bash

There's a mix of crusty snow and bare ground in our neighbourhood (boo hoo!) but the skiing was awfully nice on a crisp, sunny day at Highlands Nordic in Duntroon. Yay, winter! :-)


'Bent and I went up there with Goose and Coach LD. Goose took a sit-ski. It will be a few weeks before he's allowed to put weight on his broken ankle.


'Bent and Coach LD looked awesome skate skiing together, and Goose looked impressive coming up the hills with arms only.


He didn't limit his skiing to the easy trails (much to Coach LD's chagrin). I was so sure that he'd wipe out on this curved downhill that I stationed myself at the corner with the camera. But he sailed by looking just fine. It wasn't until the hairpin turn on the final descent to the lodge that he finally tipped the thing over, but fortunately for him, my camera and I were elsewhere and thus unable to document it for posterity.


At one point, a guy in a red coat flew by me, giving me an even worse inferiority complex about my skate skiing than I already have. At the next trail junction, I ran into Guy-In-Red-Coat who said, "Hi Barb". Turns out it was Tarno, so I didn't feel quite so bad about it.

It's Valentine's Day, so 'Bent and I watched a romantic afternoon movie. Well, not exactly. We were on our bike trainers, and the movie was "American Flyers" - a 1985 flick about brothers doing a big bike race in Colorado. 'Bent insists that it was a Girl Movie because a very youthful Kevin Costner was one of the stars (he looks just fine in Spandex) and because the brothers hugged and said "I love you". It was an ideal trainer movie because there were many obvious sections to pedal harder - like when the pit bull chased them down the road during training and, of course, lots of racing scenes. It's the first time that I've ridden through an entire movie from start to finish - hope I can do more of that while the skiing remains so bad around here.

Good news on the trainer tire front. We gave it the Full Monty - hair dryer on the bumpy bits as per Cedarcreek's suggestion, sanding the roller, talcum powder on the sticky rubber and pushing the roller harder against the tire. I've now got a nice, smooth, quiet ride once again! (And I will not be leaving it with the roller touching the rear tire anymore.)

Some of Slowrunner's new upper body routine while watching The Daily Show.

Trainer Tire Saga continued... We were on our way to Queenston for a surprise birthday party and stopped in to see the new Burlington MEC. Nice!!

In the bike dept, I noticed trainers and asked if they had trainer tires. The clerk hadn't heard of them and couldn't see any on the shelves, but checked the computer system and found 10 in stock. She said she'd call a senior staff member to locate them for me. I said I'd come back in a little while, since we didn't have much time to shop. She insisted that I wait for the other staff member, which took several minutes.

The senior clerk immediately started explaining that I could use any road tire on my trainer. I smiled and said I knew that, and I had a road tire at home, but I was looking for a real trainer tire - one of the 10 tires that the clerk had just found in the computer system. She tried to change my mind, and I politely said "No thanks". She turned around and called across several aisles to the junior clerk, "Well, THAT was a total waste of time!"

I was so shocked that I didn't think to point out the waste of my time waiting for her to show up in the bike dept. Oh well, I'm one of the longest standing MEC members (over 25 years) that this obnoxious chickie has ever met, and since it's my first bad experience with MEC staff, I won't worry about it. But next time something like that happens, I'll try not to get stunned into silence!

Not as long as I'd hoped, but my new trainer tire has started making an obnoxious squeaking sound, so 'Bent and I spent awhile trying to diagnose/fix it to no avail. There seems to be a bump on the tire surface, and we're wondering if the rubber deformed while the bike sat unused on the trainer for weeks when the ski conditions were so good. We're hoping it might resolve itself, but my new trainer tire might be landfill already. :-(

Joined the weekly night snowshoe trek from Caledon Hills Cycling in Inglewood to the Belfountain Inn. The weather forecast mentioned "Rain warning", "Wind warning" and "Low +3C", so I made an executive decision to leave the snowshoes at home and wear Yaktrax instead. I took poles with the hope of getting some ski-relevant exercise in the middle of the monsoon. I think Yaktrax and poles were the way to go - also Salomon Goretex shoes and gaiters.

There was a great crowd tonight including Crash, Rocky, Mrs. Gally, Patty, Keith, Rick, Jeff, Leesa and more. The trails were a mix of soft snow, glare ice and a bit of mud. As we got closer to Belfountain, there was more ice, and we really had to watch our footing. With 45 minutes left to go, the rain really began pelting down, so we were all soaked to the skin. There was more uphill than downhill since we finished at the top of the escarpment - my glutes are feeling it now.

It was a truly an adventurous trek! When we got to the Grange Sideroad, Rocky slipped on the ice, and I looked quickly up the hill to make sure a vehicle wasn't coming. Yikes! A cargo van was turned sideways blocking the entire road, wedged between the snowdrifts. He was lucky, since he was just at the start of the steep Grange bobsled run.

The next adventure was descending Devil's Pulpit on treacherous ice, clutching the cable by the cliff. I kept thinking that if any one of us slipped, we'd take out everyone below. There were some interesting moments in the rest of the descent too, including a painful-looking bum slide when Crash went down some icy stairs and fortunately stopped before going into a pond. Crossing the railroad trestle was another adventure - probably best done at night when I couldn't see a darned thing! Last but not least, Rocky had an adventurous time along the entire route since she'd forgotten her light. What a hero - I think I'd have slipped into the gorge without a light.

Arriving at the Belfountain Inn was awesome. We had dark beer and hot chocolate (separate glasses!), and the pub owners very kindly gave us some chili and Caesar salad for free - wow! Everyone, please patronize the Belfountain Inn. Any place that would let 12 soaking wet outdoor fools through the door and feed them free food gets a high rating in my books. Very fun evening!! (But oh, that hot shower felt good when I got home.)

Time to cheer for Urthbuoy, FB and the rest of Team Spirit Canada as they race through Patagonia.
Sleepmonsters reports and photos
Patagonia Expedition Race - Live Tracking
SPOT satellite tracking on the team (hint: patagonia)

Stoopid cold isn't finished after all. Coughed last night, then sneezed today. Scared ThunderDog, who thought I was barking at her. I had to cancel my blood donation for this afternoon. Sigh.

Tired - especially the legs!! I'm declaring my cold to be over after 2.5 weeks. It was strange, mostly happening in my lungs. I wonder if it was a reaction to all the dust in the house from changing our HVAC system.

I was going to whine about the warm weather ruining our skiing, but after reading this Australian's log and looking at his photos, I am reminded how lucky we are to be in Canada worrying about optimal ski conditions...
http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_1524

Fun new upper body routine from Slowrunner, while watching the Colbert Report. Here's Slowrunner demonstrating how it's *really* supposed to be done.