Training Log Archive: Bash

Thomass TOC at G. Ross Lord Park. 'Bent and I carpooled down with Gazelle (recently returned from Tajikistan for a break) and Phatty (recently returned from the brink of disaster in Hockley Valley). Nice chance to catch up! There was a good turn-out of friends and lots of time to chat pre-race in the chilly sunshine. Great to see MrPither back in southern Ontario and as an added bonus today, The Kempster and sister Molly were there, so we knew the competitive level would be high.

I was having an average but not spectacular race when MrPither and Runit cruised past me on the way to #6. We all zeroed in on the same re-entrant and were convinced the control was misplaced. Others showed up and eventually it was located in a differently-shaped re-entrant about 50 m away. I'd been passed by so many people there that I totally lost my race focus, and on two occasions found myself following the wrong line on the course because I'd mentally checked out. Oh well, it was still a fun day for a run in a park that has lots of variety.

The eventual consensus on #6 was that the map wasn't totally accurate in that area, but the control was in the circle. The course setter expected everyone to take the trail to the control, which worked fine. There were some other features, e.g. a big fence and a vegetation boundary, that weren't quite right in relation to the control, plus the re-entrant isn't nearly as deep as shown. So that was confusing for those of us who navigated using different features. Anyway, if I'd taken the trail instead of trying to be clever and not trust trails (normally a safer strategy), I would have been just fine!

This afternoon we attended the Olympic send-off party for Brittany Webster, our first Tree Hugger teammate to be selected for the Olympic team! Nice to see her and other friends, including VO2Max, Mr. Corner, Goose, Coach LD and Gosling.

Testing Phatty's interesting Thomass course at Forks of the Credit on a beautiful day. Good workout in the deep snow off-trail! I'd recommend snowshoes for those who like them and cleats, spikes or trekking poles to help get down the slippery escarpment. You might want to practise grabbing saplings and tobogganing on your bum too!

Dropped my compass somewhere out there today - before I'd had a chance to use it even once - so went back out to look for it in the snow. 'Bent joined me partway through after finishing his Thomass course test. No success. :-( I'm pretty sure I dropped it on the main trail, so one of the hikers we saw probably went home with a $100 compass and won't appreciate it as much as I did. To be honest, I can't believe it's taken me 4 years to lose it!

Day 4 of the food diary, which is inspiring me to eat less, even though that wasn't officially part of the deal. Glad it's only a 2-week New Year's resolution - it's a lot of work to tally calories and grams of fat, carbs and protein for everything, including foods with no Nutrifacts where I have to make an estimate from first principles. I guess most people could benefit by just writing down what they ate, but I love my Excel analysis, and that makes it onerous.

Weight and body fat % are slowly decreasing. I was ravenous at the end of Day 2 and scarfed down a huge dinner, but otherwise it's been OK. As I'd guessed before, most days I'm not getting enough protein, even with the Hawthorne effect. No wonder I can barely do girlie push-ups! This results from being a non-vegetarian married to a mostly vegetarian cook, and not sharing his commitment to consume lots of soy and other vegetarian protein throughout the day. The vast majority of the protein I get is from dairy, and I'm not anti-dairy, but that can't be good.

Other lessons from the food diary: No problem getting 65% carbs, which is my target. Fruit and veggies are almost "free", as long as you don't overdo the ones with lots of carbs. Full-strength juice uses up way too many calories for the nutritional benefit - and it's bad for your teeth too. Whole wheat bagels have a ton of calories - but they have a lot of protein, so they're OK if I eat more lightly during the rest of the day. And last but not least, milk chocolate is a source of protein!

'Bent and I went to Mono Nordic. He was on classic skis while I skate-skied, which kept us relatively even at hard effort except on hill climbs, where he zoomed away from me. I could zoom away from him on flats and slight descents - not on the steep descents though, since I have an irrational love of my menisci, and the skate skis don't have much of an edge. It was a pleasant surprise to run into Leanimal and ski a short lap with her. We'll have to get out skiing together more often - although I'm still not sure I'm ready to skate ski with someone else - I'm sooooo slow this year.

On the way home, there was considerable excitement at the normally quiet country intersection by our place. 5 police cars, 2 school buses, an ambulance and a tow truck hauling a car with minor damage. We weren't allowed to turn and drive the few hundred meters to our home, and as we turned away, we noticed PGB being waved away as well, so we pulled over and said hello. It turns out a school bus driver had come up behind a car and found a woman passed out behind the wheel, so the police were investigating for possible drugs.

Hard Core Live with Caron. 'Bent returned after time off due to injured knee and ribs - not that he's fixed or anything. He did pretty well, but crunches hurt him. Luckily, Caron has many other nasty tricks up her sleeve!

Yoga with Caron. BulletDog (aka Mocha in her non-Attackpoint life) came with us because it was her birthday and we didn't want to leave her home alone - the thing that upsets her the most. (Our class always has a dog or two since there is an optional outdoor run before yoga.) B-Dog is quite experienced with yoga because we do DVDs at home, so she fit in just fine. The instructor was *very* impressed when she demonstrated a perfect downward dog. I can't believe my little puppy is 7 years old! She still thinks she's a puppy too, and she's still faster than a speeding bullet.

Day 2 of my food diary, and it is interesting to see how things add up - even for someone who reads Nutrifacts religiously in the grocery store. About 1800 calories yesterday, and down 3 lb today from my New Year's Eve midnight benchmark. The decrease is going to slow waaaay down now that the holiday treats are mostly in the past.

Tarno said that endurance athletes should aim for 65% carbs, and yesterday's unplanned food choices worked out to exactly 65%! As suspected in our mostly vegetarian household, my protein was a few grams lower than I'd like. Thank you Phatty and Leanimal for bringing that nice shrimp ring over for last night's hockey game, or else I would have received a D+ in protein! Fat was 15% of calories. Fat, Protein and Carb percentages added up to 95%, demonstrating that the Nutrifacts people do some rounding, but it gives me an idea.

And then I read this article about deep-fried macaroni and cheese in the Globe. Not an ounce of irony, nor any mention whatsoever of health concerns associated with this trendy new "food". It's unfair that some people have genetics that allow them to eat this crap for years without major adverse effects!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/...

Great ski around Palgrave West - about 25% trail breaking, the rest on slick tracks that were fast even on waxless skis. It's awesome here, but it sounds even more amazing and snowy up toward Collingwood. I think we'll need to go north for a ski over the next few days.

Ah, the power of a New Year's resolution to affect my behaviour on Jan. 5! If only it could be so influential in, say, April.

#1 - I did 2 hrs of training today - a step toward the 450 hrs/year goal.
#2 - I started my 2-week food diary. So far it's working the way I think it's supposed to work, i.e. I skip eating something because I don't want to enter it in the diary. In my case, this is mostly due to my geeky need for exact numbers, so I'm avoiding the food in our house that I don't have Nutrifacts for.
#3 - I did an hour of strength training.
#5 - I did it before breakfast.

So... looks like I'm just about done for the week. Time to dig out those Christmas chocolates, pour a big glass of calorie-laden red wine, then put my feet up to watch the Canadian junior hockey team defeat the U.S.

I might have lasted longer, but 'Bent had some silly action movie recording on the basement VCR, and I didn't want to disturb it, so I had to work out with no TV in order to avoid puking at the swashbuckling evil men with swords and the underdressed gorgeous woman with the jewels dangling around her belly button. How do boys watch this stuff?

While watching the first Daily Show of the year. A good one!

Slowrunner left her Boston Marathon jacket at our place the other night and wanted to pick it up before I started wearing it around town. (Which would be a lot easier than qualifying for that stoopid race.) So we combined it with a snowshoe run through the quiet woods of Palgrave West. Beautiful temperature, fluffy snow, hills, and a lot of trail breaking since the trails were mostly not packed down. Great workout - faster than I would have gone on my own - and excellent company!

Yesterday I reviewed my 2009 training summary, and there are a couple of observations to add. Specifically, I am slower than I was a year ago (says my Garmin Forerunner), and I weigh more too (according to my fancy body fat percentage scale). Statisticians will correctly point out the likely correlation between these two facts. Anyway you look at it, it ain't "progress"!

As per tradition, here are some New Year's resolutions to prod me in the right direction. For a change, I'm including a couple of non-training resolutions, since writing things down on AP makes me feel more accountable. On the other hand, the fact that I'm repeating a number of resolutions from last year proves that it doesn't work that well! But optimism reigns eternal. Of the list below, the only one I did in 2009 was #1.

1) 450 hrs total annual training
2) Lose 10 lb. from New Year's Eve midnight weight. Keep a food diary for 2 weeks in January. Find yummy, low-cal chocolate chip cookie recipe (any suggestions? does such a thing exist?)
3) Strength training - min. 1 hr/week. Leg, core, upper body.
4) Do speed and hill intervals regularly.
5) One training session per week before breakfast.
6) Related to the above... in bed by midnight at least 4 days/week. (Tonight won't be one of them.)
7) Do a mountain marathon and a rogaine. And maybe a 50K trail race?
8) On a totally different subject... learn 5 pieces each on guitar and piano well enough that I wouldn't be embarrassed to play them in front of a non-family member - not that I'll likely go that far!

One thing I really enjoyed in 2009 was racing with so many different people, including friends I'd never raced with before. Fun! Thank you, Hammer, Shifty, Rocky, Hingo, Mrs. Gally and - of course - 'Bent. (Hope I didn't leave anyone out!) Already in 2010, I've registered for races with Coach LD, 2-Min, Shifty and 'Bent, so this excellent trend will continue.

Skied around Palgrave West as sunset faded into dusk. Hardly anyone had been out since the snowfall, and it was lovely to be in the woods. I saw a lot of animal tracks including a surprising number of coyotes, if I'm reading them right. The only animals showing their faces were a couple of deer who moved on to a quieter part of the bush.