Training Log Archive: Bash

It's been such a snowy winter that today was only the 3rd time this year that 'Bent and I have headed north to our ski club, Highlands Nordic. Although it was chilly, there was brilliant sunshine and blue sky, yet hardly anyone was there. I'm not sure why, although I noticed a poster on the bulletin board for the nearby Midland Loppet.

On a gentle downhill on one of the Fingers, a skier whizzed past me in a blur of red and black. Obviously a racer. But at the hairpin bend where the trail turns to climb the next switchback, she started shuffling slowly. Maybe, like me, she didn't have much grip on the uphills. I had almost caught up when she leaned forward to engage her core and flew up the hill, double poling with arms windmilling so fast they were a blur. Oh I get it, she's doing intervals of arms-only. And she's really good. In fact, I'll bet that's Canada's top female distance skier from Sochi. Sure enough, when I caught up during her next break, it was Brittany, home to visit her family. (I'd like to point out that I passed her but it's only fair to mention that she was completely stopped to adjust her layers during her rest interval.) Nice to have a quick chat and offer congratulations although I didn't want to mess up her workout too much. She says she had an incredible, positive experience at the Olympics.

Except on the Hawberry Loop, it was rare to see another skier. Both 'Bent and I thought we saw Goose out there at different times but the man turned out to be an impostor.

Great fun and it felt good for the glutes. As the snow starts to become less ideal in Palgrave in the coming weeks, I hope to get up to Highlands a few more times.

Btw, yes, I did an extra OCD ski loop at the end when I finished in 1 hr 57 min.

Happy 3rd Birthday to BazingaDog! :)

This is Day 1 of my 6-month countdown to UTMB so it was time to try my first "long" run since getting injured last fall. It was a mixed bag - mostly on snow, ranging from ice to packed snow to shin-deep powder. In some places, the trail was fairly solid but pockmarked with deep, frozen foot prints. I ran on single track, double track and snowy roads in Palgrave and Albion Hills. It was the kind of run I wouldn't have thought twice about doing a year ago, and I'm thrilled to describe it as "unremarkable". No pain or fatigue while running so perhaps winter sports have been keeping me fit enough. The real test is to see how my foot feels tomorrow though. I will dare to say a small "yay" about this - but no capital letters and no exclamation mark.

Just noticed that UTMB applicants need 8 points in no more than 3 races for the 2015 event. CCC applicants need 3 points. On top of that, they've reduced or eliminated points for a number of established qualifier races. They're trying to reduce the size of their lottery, and this is going to make it tough to apply in future.
http://www.ultratrailmb.com/page/17/Qualifying_rac...

At 12:30 tonight our time, Billy Wells and Una Hall (each racing solo) will start The Race 24-hr multisport event in Ireland. It looks like there will be live updates once the race begins. Go Canadians!
http://therace.ie/index.php/the-race-2014/course

Looks like Brittany (2nd from right) and the other cross country skiers may have had fun in Sochi.

Quick trek near home to enjoy the brilliant sunshine, blue sky and crisp temperature.

Too gusty for the forest so I made a reluctant return to the treadmill to see how my foot would respond to running three days in a row. It seems happy enough so far. Now to see about running farther... (But not on the treadmill. The kilometers crawl by on that thing!)

15 Excuses Overheard at Trail Races
Yup, I've heard them all. (And I've used #7 but I really meant it!)
http://trailrunnermag.com/people/culture/1209-15-e...

Began the day with Level 5 intensity driving. Near-whiteout on slippery Hwy 9, and the cargo van behind me was following too closely and unable to stop in time when we came upon a long line of stopped vehicles. As I looked in the rear view mirror with horror, we both made the decision at the same moment to pull onto the shoulder. Since I actually had control of my vehicle, I had just enough time to change course. The driver ended up right beside me, and there was no collision. When he looked over at me, I cast what I hope was a withering glance. And then I got the heck off the highway and changed my doctor's appointment.

The entrance to Hwy 400 was closed. Turns out there was a 96-car pile-up but nobody hurt too badly. Wow!
http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/ninety-six-vehicles-invol...

Snowy run on rolling gravel roads around home, focusing on some of the form issues that have come up with Dr. Bell and with Sheldon. I haven't been doing many runs on consecutive days while I've been going easy on my bad foot but very soon I'd like to get into a routine of running Tues., Wed. and Thurs. with Wed. as a medium-long run. I made today's run short since my body first needs to get used to running more frequently. Baby steps. But UTMB is 6 months away so it's time to ramp up to see if I'm going to be able to handle it.

I wanted to run on relatively even ground without playing Russian Roulette with speeding cars on blind hills, so I tried some of the roads in Albion Hills Conservation Area. A few cars went by but nobody was going too fast. Mostly, I was running on ice but luckily, I have no spectacular wipe-outs to report. My Snowcross have really earned their keep this year!

My legs felt good in spite of lingering post-Sheldon-workout upper hamstring soreness from Sunday. Cardio felt good too. I won't know about my stupid foot until tomorrow.

It looks like it may be possible to do some trail running there on packed crusty snow. The double track is out of bounds since it's groomed for skiing but it looks like people have been biking and running on the single track.

The whole enchilada.

I learn so much by watching the Colbert Report. World Science U is about to launch - free online science courses, some of them at the university level. First up: Einstein's Special Relativity.
http://welcome.worldscienceu.com/page/s/splash

From The New Yorker: Arizona Confronting Awkward Realization that Gay People Have Money, Buy Stuff
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzrepo...

As my Olympic withdrawal sets in, I was thinking about a good lesson I learned from watching (and watching and watching). Ski Cross gold medalist Marielle Thompson talked about going off the last jump and thinking, "I'm going to win an Olympic gold medal!" Then she quickly shut that thought down: "First I need to land this jump and cross the finish line."

Figure skater Patrick Chan reported a similar thought during his performance. After landing the difficult quad-triple jump at the start of his program, he got excited and thought about what it would mean to win Canada's first-ever gold medal in men's figure skating. And then he made errors in a couple of elements in his program and ended up winning silver.

Some of the ex-athlete commentators said similar things. When the athlete is in the middle of an event, they need to think about their sport, the process, the technique, and all the usual things they focus on. They cannot think about results or implications of what they are doing. Even if we're not in the Olympics, that's good advice.

I've blown a few orienteering races when I allowed myself to think, "Wow, I'm navigating perfectly today! Only two more controls! I'm going to do well!" And, of course, I almost never do when that happens. On the flip side, I've saved a few nav races by explicitly shutting the results out of my mind, e.g. when I've blown an early control but have put it behind me and finished the race anyway. I've been surprised to get a decent result in some of those races because other people made mistakes too, and I felt less stress in the latter part of the race.

Along the same lines, I listened to an interesting Trail Runner Nation podcast while driving today. The guest was Lanny Bassham, a past Olympic gold medalist in shooting. His specialty is mental management (which he stresses is different from sports psychology), and they talked a bit about his book "With Winning in Mind".

He has talked to many gold medalists in different sports, and he says a common theme is positive self image. After a race, think about your performance in terms of what you did well. Think about aspects of your sport that you will do differently next time. Don't think, "I suck."

Also, rehearse your starts, and rehearse how you're going to respond to predictable and unpredictable types of adversity.

He also says that our parents have a huge influence on building our mental management processes. Instead of asking, "How did you do?" when the kid gets home, ask "What did you do best?" That's because it's human nature to dwell on errors and adversity when someone asks how we did. The next question for parents to ask is, "What did you learn?" The idea is to frame our personal responses to sports events positively and imprint a positive self image in our brain.

I might buy the book but I think I'll read some of his blogs first before I decide. Here's one on making use of the pressure of competition. He talks about the danger of thinking about outcomes rather than the process of doing your sport well.
http://www.mentalmanagementstore.com/06/uncategori...