Training Log Archive: Bash

Personal Best Snowshoe/Run Duathlon
Albion Hills

We awoke to a blizzard! Snow started at 5 a.m. and turned the roads into crap, which unfortunately kept Timato in Kitchener. Luckily, we only had a 10-minute drive but it was white knuckle.

Once we arrived, it was a magical winter wonderland. This was a fun race that offered a bunch of options so every category was small. It was based on a beautiful 4K double track trail loop through the forest that had been freshly groomed this morning. Conditions were excellent - a little soft in a few places from all the new snow but that was part of the fun.

Participants could run or walk 4K or 8K (two laps) on snowshoes, or they could do 8K or 16K on fat bikes. Most events offered an optional 4K snowy park road run as an add-on. I planned on the 8K snowshoe + 4K run duathlon.

I enjoyed the snowshoe running although I slowed down a bit on the 2nd lap (25:22 vs. 23:58). I saw other women on the 1st lap, which kept me motivated. All but one of them stopped after 4K. I didn't see the top fat bikers but I saw some back-of-the-pack bikers looking tired on the hills.

I pulled off my snowshoes with shoes still attached and switched to Snowcross so I would have spikes for the 4K snowy road run. I think my transition was about 80 seconds...? I've split it evenly between the two disciplines.

Lots of fun! Congrats to Crash, who won the 8K Fat Bike/ 4K Run event. Kelly L was close behind. Veinbuster did his first snowshoe race, which is impressive in the same week he's been doing the Tour de Sufferlandria.

'Bent won the 8K Snowshoe/4K Run and also finished well ahead of the top 8K snowshoers and 4K snowshoers (on Lap 1). Great job! We got chili and hot chocolate afterward and enjoyed some post-race conversation with other racers.

I've "borrowed" Veinbuster's photo since I didn't take any. :)



Update: Here are a couple of race photos featuring 'Bent in the lead. My red jacket and black toque are just visible in the group shot.

This was the run portion of the race on snowy park roads.

Beautiful ski through new, deep snow with 'Bent and the pooches. 'Bent was skijoring with BazingaDog. Early in the ski, they both had lots of energy.



Eventually, BazingaDog started slacking off though. :)

Thanks to DD11's February Challenge, I had to squeeze in something! I was away most of the day to hang out with Mom.

Snow fell all afternoon and into the evening - lovely! We were supposed to get 10 cm and it might have been a bit more. 'Bent, AdventureDog and I went for a snowshoe trek, mostly bushwhacking through hilly private property and Palgrave East.

It was the first time I'd tried my new Atlas Race snowshoes - the ones 'Bent "helped" me get. ;) We're doing a snowshoe-run duathlon on Sunday so I need to get comfortable with the new binding system. The jury is out but I think I'll like it eventually - not by Sunday though. The snowshoes themselves are great.

I still haven't set all my goals for 2017 but as of this morning, Plan B is finally coming together! My application was accepted for the Ultra Tour Monte Rosa, a run around the 2nd highest Alp. (UTMB goes around the highest Alp, Mont Blanc.)

The RD is Lizzy Hawker, who won UTMB five times, and this is the route she used to train for that. It's a relatively new event and this is the first year she has offered the full 170 km loop route, which has 1800 meters more climb than UTMB.

Because of my sleep deprivation problems at UTMB, I've decided to tackle it as a 4-stage race instead of running straight through and fighting cut-offs. (The 58-hr cut-off is much more generous than UTMB so it was tempting.) We'll run about 40K each day with about 3,000 m climb. It will be interesting to plan a different type of training for this. I love running at night and will miss that aspect but it will be fun to see all the mountain scenery in daylight. They will put the runners in shared hotel rooms each night and feed us dinner and breakfast.

The participant feedback talks about the small, intimate feel of the event compared to some of the big mountain races. I'm sure that will change over time. In the past two years, there have been very few Canadian runners. If anyone else is interested, send me an email! There is also a 116 km distance that can be run as a single race or in 3 stages, stopping in the same villages as the longer course. They will even arrange hotel rooms for non-running friends although they have to find their own transportation between villages.

An awkward slog around Palgrave West. The Oak Ridges Trail was rock-hard and sometimes icy. K-Bash and Wheelie Woods trails were covered with ankle-deep snow coated with a strong layer of ice like a sheet of glass. Breaking through the crust left sharp edges and it took work to extract my feet; I thought I might tear the upper on my shoes. Poor AdventureDog slid around in the icy sections and found it hard work to run through the crusty snow. I think he was wondering what happened to his world!

Hard Core Live with Caron. She was happy to hear Cristina's comment on the yoga video.

C3 class

It's 2.5 weeks till the Transgrancanaria 82K and I definitely haven't done enough specific hill training. I'm sure one or two short sessions will be enough. ;(

I started by running up K2 - something I've rarely managed to do without stopping - on a mix of hard snow crust and ice. When I reached the old stile, I headed north on the Bruce Trail to Coolihan's Sideroad where I ran down the big hill, followed by two up/down hill repeats. It was icy and I was glad that only one car went by the whole time. My spikes were just barely enough to handle all the surfaces I ran on today. I don't think I would run Coolihan's again in winter for safety reasons but on the bright side, I felt great. Must have been the Stoked Oats I had for breakfast! ;)

Injury Prevention Circuit Class - shorter one tonight.

Foothab exercises from Dr. Bell

Tomorrow's weather forecast is nasty so I made a quick trip to Hockleycrest before the freezing rain arrives. It's supposed to be followed by high winds, regular rain and maybe another power failure. Blah. The snow was thin in a few places and drifted in others but the skiing was lovely.

I tried one of Caron's new "20 Minutes 2 Strong" videos, filmed in front of a graffiti wall in Rio. This one was all glutes. She also has some older "10 Minutes 2 Zen" videos that you can put together for a customized yoga workout. All free.
<http://personalbest.ca/videos>