Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: 2nd Annual Epic Waterfall of Hamilton (WOH!) Run
 

Trav and Baloney started a wonderful tradition last year - the New Year's Waterfall Run. The idea is to run to as many of Hamilton's beautiful waterfalls as possible in 2 hours with a map provided by Hammer, then consume excellent food and drink in the Traveloney Hottage.



This year some of us ran...



... while a splinter group (Baloney, 'Bent, Hammer, Phil) went mountain biking.



The beasts were invited as well so our whole family enjoyed the party. ThunderDog sprawled on the couch by the fireplace and fiercely guarded the house while everyone was out on the trails. BulletDog came with me.



She ran back and forth in the group to keep an eye on me as well as the lead runners (not me). I knew she was also looking for 'Bent so I had to make sure she didn't run beyond the group in hopes of finding him.



This being a Traveloney event, I barely raised an eyebrow when I realized that the friendly runner I'd been chatting with for a couple of kilometers was ultrarunning legend Monica Scholz, who completed a remarkable 25 100-milers this year, setting a world record.



The crew travelled at a more civilized pace this year so I was able to keep up and chat with Bender about his upcoming parental plans. Although I felt nearly normal after being sick, I decided not to push my luck, so BulletDog and I skipped the final short waterfall loop and headed back to the Hottage. I hadn't taken any pics yet so that's what we did, including a return to Tiffany Falls for the best photo op. (That's the first pic in this log entry.)



What would a run be without a recovery snack? Like, say, strong fair trade coffee, hearty Dutch soup, fresh bagels, Bad Ass Waffles (tm) with jam and whip cream, and Christmas cookies. Yum.



Thank you *very* much Trav and Baloney! It's always a great time at the Hottage and we really appreciated being able to bring the pooches to the party instead of leaving them home alone. You sure know a lot of dog lovers!

Year End Review, Part 1 of 3: Training

After 5.75 years of logging on AP, I've got more than enough training data to totally geek out but I'll try not to do that! Here are my 2010 training totals by activity.

What stands out most about this year is higher training volume. At 608 hours, this was by far the most training I've ever done. I trained 535 hours in 2006. If I'd logged all of 2005, I might have hit 550 hours. But in 2008-2009, I was well under 500 hours, so this was a huge jump. My goal was only 450 hours. So I *totally* messed up. ;)

Specifically:
- I did more running than ever (101.5 hrs vs. 63 hrs last year and 91 hrs in my highest year).
- I did more biking than ever (94.5 hrs vs. 55 hrs last year and 72 hrs in my highest year).
- I paddled *way* more than I ever have (63 hrs vs. 20 hrs last year and 29 hrs in my highest year).
- It was my 2nd highest amount of adventure racing (95 hrs vs. a whopping 172 hrs in 2005).

Top 5 activities were:
Running - 101.5 hrs
Orienteering + Snowshoe Orienteering - 97.5 hrs (includes mountain marathon + 2 rogaines)
Adventure Racing - 95 hrs (including 68.5 hrs for Untamed New England)
Mountain Biking + Road Biking - 94.5 hrs
Paddling - 63 hrs

Because of the early spring and later winter, I did less skiing and snowshoeing than in some years - but I went as often as I could. Yoga was down too but most activities were the same as or higher than usual.

This higher training volume raises a couple of questions: (1) Why? (2) Did it do any good?

(1) The first question has some obvious answers and some less obvious ones. I trained much more than usual in the fall because I was preparing for long events, particularly the Coast to Coast in New Zealand. I also got in some long days throughout the year because I started working with Getawaystix to test race courses. I got more creative about training activities and made a point of doing things with different people, which was fun and inspiring. The weird thing is that I felt more energetic and motivated to train this year, and I have absolutely no idea why. With 'Bent injured and no other regular teammates to race with, I got very discouraged at times, so I don't know why this would be the year I'd feel more motivated. But for some reason, I did.

(2) Yes, I think so. I had a few good race results and felt better and stronger in general. I know my training program needs improvement but it seemed to do the job OK.

Next step is the final report card on 2010 goals, then it's time to make some fun plans for 2011!

While watching the excellent documentary "Black Coffee" with 'Bent. Nasty pouring rain outside on a day we had hoped to ski. Oh well, this is why we set up the Adventure Basement.

More "Black Coffee". After watching this, 'Bent and I were craving the stuff so he made espresso. Inexplicably, mine had a dead cricket in it. It surfaced as I chatted on the phone, so I was forced to suppress my scream.

Rodney Yee Power Yoga for Flexibility. Perfect for post-cricket calming.

I finally got around to rebuilding Princess; my poor road bike has been languishing in a bike box since I got back from Florida. I managed to do it without the assistance of a bike shop this time so things are looking up. I pulled my comfy mountain bike off the trainer and adjusted it to suit Princess. (She is soooo finicky about *everything*.) Then I continued my Daily Show/Colbert re-run marathon on the trainer. 'Bent joined me for awhile for moral support.

Finishing the year on the right foot - and the left one - I did my leg strength routine while watching yet another Colbert Report.

Happy New Year to my AP friends. It is awesome to have such a supportive, knowledgeable, interesting and fun online community to help keep me motivated. Thank you. :-)

"Epic" and "fail" (used as a noun) made the 2010 Banished Words List.

Trekked with 'Bent through the forest in soft, wet snow to and from Crash's wonderful New Year's Eve dinner and bonfire.

Bringing 2010 to a happy conclusion, Frankenjack has just announced a successful dive operation to recover our missing Zastera carbon fibre paddle blade from Monday's excursion. It was resting on the bottom of Georgian Bay in 8' of frigid water about 10 km from downtown Wiarton. Frankenjack is a hero.

Went up to Collingwood both for training variety and to enjoy Dee's excellent company.



We started off with a skate ski at Scenic Caves where - not surprisingly - the scenery is really nice.



Conditions for skate skiing were a little soft but otherwise very good - which was fortunate, since I'm still feeling under the weather. In case you missed the news over Christmas, Dee is now an engaged woman!



We're both building our skate skiing skills and we know we've got a long way to go. (I'm acknowledging that before Goose reads this and slaps his forehead at the photo.)



We were lucky to run into the Tarno family several times today and Mark passed along a few tips to us, giving us some good things to focus on.



We also did a bunch of "legs only" loops on the Wild Goose.

Here's another scenery shot near the end of our ski, shortly before we met the Rydlo family on the trails. Follow the red arrow if you can't find us in the photo. ;-)

While I could hold my own on skate skis, I wasn't feeling good enough to run on snowshoes for more than a few minutes. Dee was great about it and we changed the focus to conversation instead of heart rate. We travelled through gorgeous, hilly forest close to her place. Such fantastic terrain to have in your back yard... I'd be soooo fit if we had a bigger mountain here in Palgrave!

Attended an awesome dinner party at VO2Max's place tonight and met the newest member of the Caledon Navigators - just 3 days old. Welcome to our crazy world, Mari!

Warm-up with Coach Troy "Dropping The Hammer" then switched to The Daily Show upon realizing that I still don't have a hammer to drop. Skate skiing is in the plans for tomorrow so I hope to be feeling normal by then. Big improvement over yesterday, anyway.

Half-hearted ski around Palgrave West with 'Bent. Not feeling 100% today; maybe I consumed too many treats over Christmas.

Preparing for a February race in New Zealand's summer has made for some unusual training experiences. Today I headed up to Wiarton to paddle on Georgian Bay with Frankenjack. When I arrived, he was hot-gluing a pair of expensive new paddle blades to an old shaft since his paddle had flown home with Getawaystix after the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge. (Frankenjack ordered special Zastera paddle blades for us to use in New Zealand but we don't have the shafts yet.)

I wasn't sure what to wear for winter paddling. Luckily, it was -2C when we started, which isn't that cold. I had a dry suit with lots of layers on the bottom and a light polypro base layer on top.



Frankenjack didn't have a full drysuit and he paddled a surfski instead of a nice, dry kayak. Brave!



We paddled along the north shore of Colpoy's Bay. Frankenjack's rules for winter paddling are:
(a) There should be a road running close to the shore.
(b) Only paddle where you can get to land, i.e. no shore ice.



The first hour was amazing. Why doesn't everyone do this? It was beautiful and the water was calm. I was cozy in my drysuit.



Frankenjack's homemade paddle was too short for him so I traded him so he could try my new Epic clone.



After an hour, I realized that my toes weren't actually warm - they were numb. I took my shoes off so I could wiggle my toes. Next time I would stick toe warmers in my socks.

About 10 km from our starting point, we turned around.





A few hundred meters later, at the furthest point from our cars, the paddle felt wrong. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see the hot-glued paddle blade break away from the shaft. To my horror, it sank out of sight within seconds. "Uh, Jack...?"

We floated a search pattern over the area, peering into the depths of Georgian Bay's clear water. With enough time, I think we might have located it, but even if we did, it was going to be too deep for us to get with the gear we had today. Also, we were getting chilled now that we'd stopped paddling. My hands, which had been warm in damp gloves while we paddled, lost their dexterity. I pulled on my pogies, which eventually did the trick, but I would wear polypro liner gloves inside the paddling gloves next time.

So Frankenjack chivalrously returned my paddle and took the "marathon canoe paddle" for our return journey to Wiarton. It was all I could do to keep up with him on his surfski, so clearly he had been toying with me on our outward trip.



A surfski is tippy at the best of times, and when you're paddling on one side, the risk goes way up. Sadly, I don't have a photo of Frankenjack swimming in frigid Georgian Bay after tipping the surfski - which, incredibly, happened just once. I was too busy freaking out and asking what I could do to help, but he heaved himself back in with no trouble. After that, he asked a few questions about my drysuit. ;-)



Made it back to Wiarton around sunset, no worse for the wear. Note the big icicle in my hair!



Absolutely beautiful. :-)