Training Log Archive: Bash

We'd hoped to ski today but there was a skate race at Highlands, and Hardwood Hills suggested rock skate skis (one of the few types missing from our quiver). So we decided to wait for a little more snow to fall, and instead we joined Gary Black to run the Milton Quarry Loop.



Gary had posted this run on the Run Trails Ontario Facebook page because he hoped to find a couple of running companions while he was home from Ottawa. It caught on like wildfire, and 16 runners showed up this morning! It was a fun, chatty run. 'Bent, DoubleDown_on11 and WandAR were the other Attackpointers; I recognized almost everyone from their Facebook photos and had met most of them in real life before anyway.



Thanks to Alexa (DD11's wife) and Barbara for the wonderful Christmas goodies. 'Bent and I went home by way of The Shed to get lattes and paninis. I'm feeling pleasantly fatigued now. I've purposely done less running over the past couple of months to give myself some recovery time so we'll see how my body responds to suddenly doing 43+ km over the past 28 hours. The good news is that my gimpy foot didn't squawk out there - at least, no worse than it does when I'm walking around the house.

DoubleDown_on11 and I were talking about how the Milton Quarry Loop compares to the full Hockley Loop. It's almost the same length - about 2 km longer, and the time/km is similar. Today's loop was relatively flat but quite technical. It was great training for agility, strength, balance and mental focus. It would be soooo easy to turn an ankle so I was uber-cautious. Hockley Loop, on the other hand, is great training for hills and strength. Both loops have some smooth sections where you can take a mental break and just run. I look forward to doing this one again!

One of the best Christmas greetings *ever*. Céline Bourdon (Animal-O) of TOC did 37.63 km of biking today.

Salomon Store Winter Solstice Run hosted by Ryan Barrett. There was a thin layer of snow on the trails so there is hope! I did two laps and had a great time chatting with a bunch of people. DoubleDown_on11 joined us for one of the laps as a break from Christmas shopping (see below). As always, I stayed there far too long and ended up buying as much for me as for the people on my Christmas list. :)



While driving there and back, I listened to two CBC "Rewind" podcasts. Cool! The first one was on Gordon Lightfoot; the host commented about recent tweets that were making the rounds after Lightfoot performed in the Grey Cup halftime show. Some young football fans weren't sure who he was; they thought maybe Gordon was Justin Bieber's manager. (!!!) I hadn't realized that his career dated back to winning the Kiwanis Music Festival (vocals) at the age of 8. It was fun to hear clips of interviews throughout his career. When I heard Peter Gzowski interviewing him - really well, as he always did - it was all I could do not to cry as I drove. I know I'm not alone in missing PG (the Canadian one) terribly.

The other podcast was about the early days of CBC television. It had some great clips of shows and political speeches from an era when no one knew what kind of future television might have as a medium.

I'm trying to get back into the multi-sport training routine that I had before Coast to Coast two years ago. I felt ready for anything that spring! So I got on the kayak trainer today with a "CBC Laugh Out Loud" podcast - and it wasn't so bad. I never have time to listen to all the podcasts I download so this accomplishes two things at once. Today is the first day of winter so I'd much rather have been skiing or snowshoeing - maybe soon. I paddled moderately hard and tried to engage core, back and legs. I ended up with blisters on my thumbs; I guess the paddling is realistic enough that I should wear gloves - oops.

Included 15 teapots on each side in honour of Coach LD.

'Bent's mother (who is Jewish) gave me a terrific Christmas ornament that honours a well-known Canadian rodent. Naturally, I've named it "Bob".

My favourite yoga class every year... Lights low, big Christmas tree, Patrick Dilkie playing live piano, Caron teaching, guests invited at no charge (we had three), cookies and conversation with friends afterward.

It was already a wonderful day because:

(a) We got some snow after the freezing rain stopped.
(b) I finished some big Christmas tasks so I'll have time for training again.

(c) Best of all, we received a handwritten Christmas letter from our friend Joy who is almost 90 years old. We met her paddling the Nahanni River nearly 20 years ago, and I always hold my breath until her card arrives. We don't know her family and would never hear if something had happened. But fortunately, nothing has - nothing bad, that is. She's been doing 5-6 hour hikes with her club on Vancouver Island (although she confesses that she is now at the back of the line), and she has signed up for 4-day snowshoe trips on Mt. Washington in *each* of January, February and March. And that's just the winter; she has a busy year planned after all that relaxation.

I want to be like Joy when I grow up. We really should go to Victoria and hike with her.

Why I'll probably never be an Ironman.

Eighteen months into this amazing journey, I've pre-registered for Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc 2013. If I'm lucky enough to have my entry accepted, I'll be attempting to run 168 km through France, Italy and Switzerland at the end of August.

'Bent is pre-registered for the 100K Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix (CCC) event with his entry linked to Mrs. Gally's, i.e. they will either both get in or both *not* get in.

I was over the moon to find this beautiful set of maps of the race route. 1:25,000! :) ***Swoon...***

Here's the list of registrants. If you pick "Canada" or "United States", you'll see some familiar names.

One thing that strikes me about the list of registrants is that a number of people have confirmed registrations already - presumably those trying for their 3rd time. The qualifying standards were toughened up this year so it's possible that fewer people will apply to the lottery but who knows...? Fingers tightly crossed. I will need to come up with an exciting back-up plan so I'm not too disappointed if I don't get in for 2013.

A fun idea for your family's Christmas gathering. Recreate an old photo from 20 years ago. (It's more work than you might imagine!)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/family-ch... (story)

The end of an era... Starbucks has opened in Bolton. Although this is good news for a coffee lover, I'm a little torn since it means that Starbucks will never again feel like a special occasion treat for this country bumpkin.

Monday night Bounding Babes - functional strength and ski bounding in random places around Bolton with Coach LD leading the way. These sessions have proven beyond any doubt that I am completely without fast twitch fibres. But it's fun to pretend I can jump!

Here's tonight's program from her log:
http://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_9846/pe...

For the first time in who knows how long, I took a full week off running to give my foot some healing time in addition to the strength training and chiro treatments. It just has never been bad enough to stop, so I haven't bothered. A couple of years ago, I never would have imagined that I could miss running at all, let alone this much! I'm now going to start building up again. After all, it may be less than 6 months until my first 100-miler. :)

In the end, it's an ad - but I like it!