Training Log Archive: Bash

Hard Core Live with Caron.

I had a weird, twisty fall on Saturday when I caught a cleat in the snow while snowshoe running. My formerly bad shoulder is bad once again, although I'm hoping it won't take 4 years to improve like last time. Side planks are painful, as are forearm planks. I also yanked some muscles on the side of my lower back, which I was feeling in tonight's classes.

C3 Yoga. 'Bent was too scared to attend.

Well, I need to come up with a Plan B for 2017 racing. The Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc lottery was this morning and the computer did not select my name.

Some of you know that I attempted the 170 km UTMB in 2013 and 2014. While the 2nd time went much better, I experienced severe sleep deprivation at that level of effort so I only made it 3/4 of the way around Mont Blanc before it seemed wise to pull the plug before one of my sleepwalking episodes led me off a cliff.

I decided to apply to the 101 km CCC (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix) race that is part of the same event. Except for the first section, CCC follows the second half of the UTMB route. Before Champex, I would be running on trails that I ran in UTMB but I would finally get a chance to run the final 45 km of the course and, if the stars aligned, cross the finish line at last. CCC is a better distance for me and because it starts at 9 a.m. instead of 6 p.m., I'm less likely to have sleep deprivation issues.

Anyway, I'll have to try again next year. I was so optimistic about this year that I'd already chosen flights and identified a few accommodation choices so I could book everything today. Boo.

Benoit Letourneau was also turned down for UTMB, which he did last year. He did very well but fell short of his goal. Like me, he felt that he needed to use what he learned to do the race better a 2nd time. He may be able to find an alternate way to get a race bib.

Year End Review, Part 2 (I've fallen behind on these.)
Report Card on 2016 Training Goals

My major racing goal was the Lavaredo Ultra Trail, a 119K mountain run in the Italian Dolomites. It's the only long ultra I've done where it felt like my training went almost exactly as hoped with no significant interruptions due to injury or illness. I felt reasonably good for much of the race and recovered quickly. I think all the extra strength and mobility work last year made me less susceptible to injury.

I looked back at AP data for four of my long ultras where things went well. I discovered that in the 24 weeks leading up to each one, I did 250-260 hrs of training. I'm surprised it was that consistent. I checked two long ultras that went less well, and I did 50 hrs more training before one and 50 hrs less training before the other.

For the four successful long ultras, running was always the #1 activity in the 24 weeks pre-race but it represented only 35-50% of my training hours, and there was no consistent trend in the other activities. Before some races, I did a lot of mountain biking; other times it was nordic skiing. It's nice to see that a non-standard, multi-sport approach to ultra training seems to work for me.

I reached a high target for strength and mobility training hours in 2016 and crushed my running target. However, I fell short on pretty much every other goal I set for the year including total training, where I was aiming for 550 hours but only logged 495. It was my highest running volume ever but I neglected other sports, especially biking.

List of other 2016 goals that didn't happen, in case any Attackpoint friends want to give me a hard time about it: ;)

- Work from a written training plan each week. This happened for the first 4-6 weeks.

- Second 24+ hour race other than Lavaredo. Maybe I could count my annual all-weekend wake-a-thon at Wilderness Traverse.

- More mini-adventures close to home like the Killarney Loop.

- 7 hrs of sleep nightly. I averaged 6.6, the same as last year.

- I still don't have enough protein in my diet.

- I never got down to "race weight" for Lavaredo although I hit it afterward. Since then, I've been enjoying food and drink a bit too much. :(

So... I need to set fewer or more achievable goals for 2017, or else I need to take them more seriously! In all the years that I've been doing this, this is the first time I've missed most of my goals. I still like the 2016 list so they may re-appear this year.

Not a great report card!

New C3 running injury prevention class taught by Dr. Peter Hrkal, an Orangeville chiropractor. He doesn't normally teach classes but he prescribes exercises to his patients. It's an 8-week session and we're supposed to do the circuit once in between classes. Should be useful. Nice surprise to see Lucy Hingo there.

Ugh, heavy rain is pouring onto our beautiful snow. At least we don't have the gusty winds this time. Our power went out in the middle of last night and stayed off for 9 hours. I am now forced to eat the rack of lamb that was in the freezer. Sad! ;)

Snow fell all day and was supposed to turn to freezing rain by dinnertime so AdventureDog and I went out before that. It had already switched from fluffy snowflakes to ice pellets. Tonight they're forecasting big wind gusts so we're keeping our devices charged and water containers full.

I took it easy because our fun, wintry weekend apparently fanned the embers of my cold that "ended" just before New Year's. I'd planned to go farther but a branch sprang back and scratched my eye so I went home to check it out. It looks like my eye won.

Mix & match, mostly lower body

Sun. Feb. 12, Albion Hills
Personal Best Winter races - Snowshoe, Snowshoe-Run Duathlon, Fat Bike, Fat Bike-Run Duathlon
The snowshoe races are part of the Snowshoe Canada Race Series.
$30 includes park entry, post-race meal, hot chocolate and draw prizes.
http://personalbest.ca/workouts-events-camps/pb-sn...

Browner, Storm, 'Bent and I went into Loree Forest with Scout, Contour, BazingaDog and AdventureDog. Only A-Dog is allowed to be off-leash all the time, which meant we took turns being towed down the trail. It was mostly a brisk hike but there were a few moments when I had to run as hard as I could!

The main Loree loop is well-packed and easy to manage without snowshoes. Some drifts in the open fields are really deep. The trees were coated with fluffy snow like a Christmas card - spectacular. We did a pretty good job of tiring the pooches out.

Turned off my Ambit by mistake during our ski, then started it up again.

'Bent and I went to Scenic Caves to ski just before it closed. We had the place almost to ourselves. After a day of snow squalls, the sun came out and lit up the forest. The trees were plastered with snow. It was gorgeous, chilly and so much fun.

Browner and I met Dee for some Snowshoe Raid training in Loree Forest using old maps. It was a cold day and we had to watch for frostbite in open areas but it couldn't have been a more beautiful winter wonderland.

Browner and I climbed up Mountain Springs while Dee climbed Switchback near her place.





We met Dee in the middle on the Bruce Trail.



We did some bushwhacking but mostly stayed on trails and followed the map to reacquaint ourselves with the area again after 3 years away. Dee was an excellent guide and - amazingly - did it all without her snowshoes, which broke before she met us. She had to head home partway through.

We were out for 4 hours, including time spent taking photos and looking at the map. We did a fair bit of running on the trails and hauled ourselves up a few steep hills using trees to help. It was great and by the time we were done, we were ravenous, thirsty and ready to lounge by the fireplace with dogs and hot drinks.