Training Log Archive: Bash

Barrie Shepley was giving a talk tonight at the Personal Best fitness studio. Ever since it opened, I've thought about running to and from a class - or at least one way - but it hasn't happened. Most of the run is on the Oak Ridges Trail and Bruce Trail, and there are lots of hills. 'Bent agreed to give it a try this evening. We left a little late and had to bail to a road from the north part of Glen Haffy in order to make it in time. This meant running along the shoulder of Hwy 9 for the last 1.5 km - yikes! It was a little cold sitting indoors in damp clothes, even with the extra layers we'd carried. Caron made us coffee, which warmed us up perfectly! The talk was good too - insights and stories about dreams, working toward goals, celebrating the process, etc.

We ran home in the dark - chilly and invigorating! This time we didn't have to hurry so we took snowy trails almost the whole way and stopped to look at the stars. It's a net downhill coming home from Glen Haffy so it's always more fun. :)

Caron's core class

C3 Yoga - nice to have 'Bent there.

We came home and wrestled our new king mattress up the too-narrow staircase. We've done this before and it's not fun so I'd confirmed with the salesperson that the delivery people would do that. No problem - a foam mattress can be folded, and "installation" was included in the $$$$ price. But it turns out that's not true in winter. Apparently, the mattress was "frozen" on the truck and would be damaged if they bent it to fit through the narrow staircase. (FB, is that true?) So they left it just inside the front door, and we got a post-yoga workout.

I had planned a boring hill repeat workout but when the sun came out and I heard that Dave Moule had enough new snow to roll the trails at Hockleycrest today, I changed plans. I hadn't yet tried the new Fischer Backcountry waxless skis 'Bent got me for Christmas. They weren't the right skis for nice, rolled trails - too slow - but they should be great for setting new tracks in deeper snow around here. I was pleasantly surprised to meet Nick de St. Croix and his wife Brenda in the parking lot. They just discovered Hockleycrest recently too.

Dr. Hrkal's Injury Prevention Circuit

AdventureDog and I ran the Hockley Provincial Park loop, sticking to the main Bruce Trail rather than taking the first side trail since we need more hill training. (This route variation doesn't affect the distance much but it really affects the climb.)

The trails are in amazing shape for running compared to anything else around here. Spiked shoes are perfect for most of it; there are a few stealth patches of ice hidden under the snow on about 0.5% of the route. As expected, the ice patches tend to be in the most dangerous places, and I slipped off a step on a steep descent but caught myself before my back slammed into the log.

Otherwise, it was fantastic. I felt like the strength work this month helped me on the uphills. It was my fastest time around this route in almost three years. I give partial credit to our friendly hipster appliance repairman who phoned to say he could come over with the new pump for our washing machine today. The laundry is piling up so I accepted his offer, which meant I needed to be home sooner. I should use that strategy more often.

Metric Race Distances Banned
"The metric system is a disaster."
#FakeNewsDontWorry
https://dumbrunner.com/news-blog/2017/1/27/with-ex...

Mix of free weights, body weight and foothab.

Sunshine!! It's been awhile. Get outside and boost your Vitamin D.

Or else wait at home for the washing machine repair technician to arrive between 11 and 4. Whichever you prefer.

Hard to believe this was our first ski on our season's pass at Highlands Nordic! It's probably best if we don't calculate a $/km figure this year but we like to support them.

The trails were in very good shape although they could use a few cms of new snow, which started falling while we were skiing. For the first hour, I had terrific glide and unreliable grip. I re-waxed for the second hour and did less slipping around. One advantage of a Sunday mid-afternoon ski is that we had the trails almost to ourselves once we got up the escarpment. The snowy scenery was gorgeous.

I went back to the Glen Haffy Dingle where I'd wished for snowshoes on Wednesday. I spent most of my time bushwhacking and following seldom used trails while clinging to BazingaDog's leash. He weighs 90 lb, it's a new area for him to explore, and we had lots of deer sightings so it was like a 2-hour upper body TRX session. What we lacked in pace, we made up for in agility and balance training.

I had to choose routes carefully since I didn't want him to haul me down a steep hill on my face or catch my snowshoe under a log. The one time he came close to doing both of those things, I just missed getting dragged into a running creek as a bonus. Luckily, he took my yells seriously!

We got genuinely lost while bushwhacking along Bazinga-friendly routes and I had to use the compass and Google Maps on my iPhone to get us back to our car. My phone often dies suddenly below 0C so I wasn't expecting to be able to count on it for as long as I might want it but a few glances over 20 minutes got me back to a place I recognized. I'm not making my GPS track public because apparently I did a lot of trespassing on gorgeous private land!

Fortunately, we emerged from the woods in time to make it to Coach LD's and Goose's famous Robbie Burns Dinner, this year with a French theme. (Coach LD likes to keep us guessing.) This included twists ranging from French green beans beside the haggis to 'Bent sporting a jaunty beret with a drawn-on moustache.