Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: O Cup #4 Ukrainian Club
 

O Cup #4 UKR
Earl Bales Park, Toronto

Organizers thoughtfully delayed this race until 11 a..m. since it would have been unfair to Canada's Olympic hockey team to draw away so much of their TV viewing audience to do a popular orienteering event.

This was the first O Cup race of the season that I was allowed to run, which was a treat. I haven't run on uneven ground very much in recent months so I've got my fingers tightly crossed that my foot will feel OK tomorrow.

The trails were mostly packed down and runnable, although there were frozen foot holes that could turn our ankles if we weren't careful. When we ran across snowy open fields, it was some of the hardest work I've done in a long time - tough, breakable crust over heavy, shin-deep snow. Earl Bales also has a downhill ski centre so there were some hills!

Toward the end, when the snow running was the toughest, I noticed Val coming up behind me, which inspired me to push to level 5 intensity, which I rarely do. (Thanks, Val!) I think I was the first woman but it's an age-gender handicapped race so that's only semi-meaningful. I came home with a nice bottle of ice wine. Lots of fun. Thank you, Eugenius and UKR!

Sheldon Persad's Running Strength Session #2, focusing more on the lower body this time.
http://www.personalbest.ca/workouts-events-camps/m...

Funderstorm, BugsinTeeth, WandAR, 'Bent and I were there again. It was definitely harder work than last time but I guess we have to expect a greater challenge as graduates of Session #1. ;)

Good stuff - Balance, Agility, Drills, Plyometrics and Strength. When we have limited time, we're supposed to focus on Balance and Strength. Like last time, I've counted some of our track work as running, although I'm sure our real distance was less (but more work than regular running). Fun! Also, we got to visit South St. Burgers and Running Free before the class and Starbucks afterward. For country folk like us, that is really hitting the big time.

Canadian Adventure Racing Association booth at the Outdoor Adventure Show. Nice to see some AR friends and (if we're lucky) some future AR friends!

OK boys, our women's teams won gold in 3 events in 24 hours. Your turn now. Go Canada!



(Oops, I see that CO already posted this on Facebook!)

Snowy road run near home. I tested the new Yaktrax Run traction devices just to have a change from my Snowcross. They're OK but the traction isn't as good, and sometimes the wet snow clumped up under my heels. The only reason I got them is that sometimes you think you'll be able to run in regular shoes but you end up somewhere where you'd rather not. These are small enough to carry along and aren't as hard core as the Kahtoola Microspikes, which would have been overkill today. Snowcross would have been the right choice. Again.

This run was shorter than planned because:
1) Hockey overtime
2) Major leak at the place where I'm housesitting
3) Driving wet snow

The snow was an issue because I didn't have glasses or goggles, and it was coming at me so hard that I could only see by squinting one eye slightly open - not the best situation on a hilly road in low visibility conditions for drivers. Fortunately, one of the drivers I encountered was 'Bent, and he didn't hit me.

Big excitement today. Only 1 lb to go to meet my March 31 deadline. I think I'll have cake to celebrate.

Hard Core Live with Caron. Small class due to the weather.

Various shoulder stretches built into all the poses. Ouch, that's my kryptonite.

I'd hoped to get in a ski before tomorrow's Rainfall Warning but by the time I could get out, our beautiful powder had turned to wet concrete so it was nicer for snowshoeing. With such heavy snow, it was a better day for strength than speed so I just hauled myself up and down a few local hills.

Meanwhile... I've become a mad snow raking fool! I also tossed up two roof panty hose salt bombs, which is not as easy as it sounds on the Internet. Kind of like doing a basketball free throw with a heavy medicine ball - if a medicine ball were as flexible and awkward as an overweight snake and needed to end up in a perfectly straight line in a roof valley. It took a few tries for each one, followed by fine tuning with the snow rake - very careful adjustments to avoid tearing the panty hose. Functional fitness! After being cautioned about the ice avalanche risk, I wore safety gear today.

Time to resume my old leg strength routine in addition to all the physio. Feels good but I've lost strength for sure.

Bobsleigh athletes seek sponsorship.

The February Challenge officially ended for me today. I got outside but spent my time cleaning up snow and ice, which was a nice change from cleaning up water and drywall chunks inside - both at our place and at our friends' place where I'm house sitting.

It would have been another amazing day in the woods but given that I started antibiotics today, maybe it's time for a break.

In the display at the front of their store, Canadian Tire has snow shovels of every size and colour, huge bouquets of snow brushes, and stacks of 20 kg bags of sidewalk salt. After a careful search, I located their only snow rake in the gardening department tucked at the bottom of a big display of summer landscaping tools - because *that's* what we're supposed to be buying now.

It's no wonder I'd never heard of a snow rake! Canadian Tire clearly doesn't care about them. How is it possible that I learned about snow raking from (gasp) an American?!

After I managed to get the 5 meter rake assembled using cartoon instructions, this turned out to be a surprisingly good workout - lots of upper body effort with arms lifted above the shoulders. I was warned not to do much snow raking alone where the roof is steep, and I can see why. The raking set off some avalanches ad brought down a few heavy ice chunks. It is awesome, even though it only removes the snow, not the ice. With the insulating snow removed, I'm hoping some of the thick ice dams will melt in the sun and rain later this week. When 'Bent is home, we can tackle some of the scarier portions of the roof since there will be one spouse available to call 911. ;)

Next step: Locate panty hose to fill with salt, as per Cristina's suggestion. The salt was easier to find than the panty hose since I've used it more recently.

Leak #3 sprung today, this time in a room that has never leaked before, and it's coming out of a light fixture - oh joy. It's been a long time since we've had leaks but we spent a lot of money 10-15 years ago on different contractors who promised to solve our problem in different ways, and finally one of them did - until now. I suspect something went awry when our siding was replaced last year.

Happy Family Day to all!

Another bluebird day! We did a lot of bushwhacking through powder in corners of Palgrave West that we rarely visit because they're hard to travel through in summer. It was a great workout to haul ourselves up hills between saplings, relying heavily on our poles.

It's all fun and games until someone loses a binding - and today that was 'Bent. So we made our way to the nearest broken tracks and enjoyed an easier ski home. Conditions are still absolutely perfect!

I'm still not feeling 100% but 'Bent is well on his way to recovery. We weren't healthy enough to do any big expeditions over the long weekend but given our two leaky ceilings, we needed to be close to home anyway. I'm house sitting for a friend who also has a leak so I'm getting pretty good with the buckets and towels.

Although I continued doing 5K+ on foot outdoors this weekend, I decided on Friday that two weeks was long enough for this year's February Challenge so I'm not going to make any special effort to keep it up. Time for different priorities in the second half of the month.