Training Log Archive: Bash

Big East River X
May 27
40 km paddling race out of Huntsville
'Bent and I are registered! (Stock Tandem Canoe category)

Toronto Orienteering Club O Cup
Claireville Conservation Area

So nice to have an orienteering event just half an hour from home! And great to see so many friends out practising for the Snowshoe Raid.

Thanks to the quirky weather, there was glare ice on trails, roads and in some flat open areas. The rest was a mix of crusty snow and bare ground. I decided I would put Kahtoola Microspikes on over my spiked Snowcross shoes - heavy artillery. It worked; I had terrific traction on the ice.

I roll my eyes when I read race reports where someone complains about how badly their race went, even though I know they had a good result. I try not to do that but today was a total gong show that somehow finished with a decent result. So let the eye rolling begin!

I was surprised when Oliver called, "Two minutes to start!" I'd been chatting with friends and not looking at my watch. I knew it would take awhile to put on Snowcross with Kahtoolas so I dashed out the door with them. When I heard "30 seconds to go!", I realized that my SI card was still safely stashed indoors so I ran to get it. When I came back out, racers were already running away and I still had to get my Kahtoolas on. I started running while still putting on my gloves, getting an SI card on my finger and getting satellites on my Ambit. I vaguely remembered that I wanted to run away from the parking lot, which some people were doing, so I just followed them without looking at the map while I fussed with my gear. Rookie!

Then I failed to find my first control - F in the O Cup box. When it wasn't where I expected it, I just carried on. I only needed to find one control because of my handicap so I went down the hill looking for E instead. By that time, I'd ended up way too far north so I had to backtrack.

Other than crashing through an icy wetland with bullrushes as tall as I am, things went OK until #6, when I got confused in the trail network. I see now on my GPS track that I was actually on the trail I was aiming for but I was worried so I crashed through some bush to get to the edge of the embankment where #7 was tucked below. The problem was, I didn't know whether to go left or right so I headed over the edge to take a look. Elena Logvina slowed down to look too, and I told her I was untrustworthy right now. She carried on a little farther and pointed out the control to me. Sigh.

We met again at #8 along with Galyna Petrenko. After my mix-up at #7, I didn't want to look like I was following them so I glanced quickly at the map and decided I would cross the big creek right there, without waiting for whatever bridge they were heading for. I broke through the ice, as expected. It was up to my knees and then I fell when I took my next slippery step through the ice. Now I was wet up to my waist and it was *really* cold.

I scrambled back onto the bank and looked at my map. Hey, guess what? Even though the line joining #8 and #9 crossed the winding creek in a few places, #9 was on the same side as #8. Ugh! I started running along the creek.

And then I was on my face and my knee had banged on something. Huh?! Turns out one of the Snowcross gaiters had come unzipped and my left shoelace got tangled in my right Kahtoola Microspike. Basically, I managed to tie my own shoelaces together. I sat on the ground for 60 seconds trying to separate them but I couldn't. In fact, I still haven't. My compass cord got tangled in the MicroSpike too. So I ran the last few controls with my left hand just above my knee holding everything up so I wouldn't trip. When it was time to punch a control, I had to use my opposite hand to pull the SI card up high enough.



Gong show! But I was just happy that I didn't let myself get rattled, even though I can't remember so many things going wrong in 50 minutes. After 14 years of orienteering, I should be able to make it to the start on time, if nothing else, but on the bright side, I was like Monty Python's Black Knight out there! Thanks to my monster handicap, I ended up with a gift certificate as the 3rd woman behind Galyna and Elena. I had to laugh.

Funderstorm arranged a post-race lunch group at Tracks Brewpub in Brampton. Great conversation and 'Bent and I didn't need dinner.

Rocky Mountain Blizzard - fat bike demo

Apollo carbon, front suspension fat bike demo

Albion Hills Fat Bike Festival, Superfly Racing

There were 10K and 20K races but 'Bent and I were just attending as spectators so we could try some manufacturer demo bikes and cheer the racers on.





Veinbuster was there for the 10K Poker Run. It was the first time he's ever put on a race number so we cheered extra hard for him.

Before:



Start of Race:



Final sprint to beat That Other Guy to the finish line:



I tried two bikes. The first was a Rocky Mountain Blizzard that sells for $2,500 at our local bike shop. It's a good quality bike but a basic one - no suspension, no front derailleur, and it feels a bit heavy, as most fat bikes do. These are the bikes that Albion Hills rents out for $35 for 2 hours or you can rent them directly from Caledon Hills Cycling if you want to take them somewhere else. It was my first fat bike ride and it was a ton of fun!

The second one (this GPS track) was a $6,000 customized carbon bike made by Apollo. It was obviously lighter, it had two gears up front, and it had front suspension. It's in a different universe from any fat bike that I would ever buy but I could certainly feel what you get for the additional $3,500! It was responsive with a nice range of gears, and it moved more easily through ungroomed snow.

Although we were just spectators, Sean Ruppel gave 'Bent permission to do a 10K lap of the race course behind the rest of the field. He doesn't have super fat tires but his lap went well and only one racer passed him.



We enjoyed the spirit of the festival. There were lots of costumes and most people didn't seem to take themselves too seriously. Sean and his wife made a huge vat of chili themselves. There was beer for sale, live music and a bonfire.















We had to tell this father that his young daughter couldn't see anything because his poncho flew in her face when they rode their tandem. He tucked it away. Such a cool bike!



Some of you know Steve Hunter and his wife Lynne.

Then we dashed over to the Caledon Community Centre to hear Andrew Yorke talk about the Road to Rio - the story of how he grew up in the sport of triathlon and represented Canada at the Olympics this summer. We've known Andrew since his high school years and it was terrific to see what a good presenter he has become and how gracious he is in crediting other people for their contributions to his success. His parents were sitting behind us and they must have spent most of the past year (and more!) bursting with pride. :)

He said something that made me think about a recent AP discussion about getting itchy in the cold. I think it was FB? Anyway, after his best Olympic qualifier race, which took place in Edmonton in pouring rain and low temperatures, Andrew was not only hypothermic but he had an allergic reaction to the cold and had to take prescription meds for a week post-race!

Snowshoe run around Palgrave East. A third of it was breakable crust with soft, heavy snow underneath. That part was really hard work. The rest was hard, crusty or icy trail with an irregular surface from frozen footprints, bike tracks, ski tracks and snowshoe tracks. That part was hard work for the ankles at times but otherwise good running.

The time includes some trail clearing. Lots of branches are down in certain sections of forest after the gusty winds that knocked our power out this week. A friend's sister was killed by a tree while hiking recently - a heartbreaking reminder to avoid forested areas on windy days.

My cold is almost over but I really want to shake it before the Snowshoe Raid so I stayed inside and kept my heart rate moderate. Luckily, it's easier to resist the outdoors after all the rain that fell on our beautiful snow. :(

Inspired by Funderstorm and FB, I borrowed an iPad and cable from 'Bent and discovered that the iPad will sit on the treadmill dashboard and play sound through the treadmill's built-in iPod speakers. It's awkward to change the film so this works best with a longer one. It took me awhile to figure that out, and I finally got absorbed in "Toughest Race on Earth" with Olympic rower James Cracknell doing the Marathon des Sables.
http://ultraruntv.com/toughest-race-on-earth-with-...

It obviously worked since it took months before I could force myself to stay on a treadmill longer than 30 minutes and I'd never lasted longer than 60 minutes before today. I don't plan to replace my outdoor fun but this might be a good way to boost my training a little.

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