Training Log Archive: Bash

Today is my 12-year Attackpoint-iversary! On March 12, 2005 I did a winter adventure race at Hardwood Hills with navigation on skis, snowshoes and mountain bikes. It took almost 4.5 hrs and I wrote in my first-ever AP log entry that it was the best race of my life. That is probably still true. Out of 26 solo adventure racers, mostly men, I had the fastest snowshoe navigation section, led the solo category overall for awhile and finished in 2nd just a few seconds behind the top man. It will never happen again but it was amazing that everything worked so perfectly that day! I think Hammer, Tarno and... maybe Martin Rydlo? were the overall winners, racing as a team.

In honour of the occasion, I'll make a donation to Attackpoint. Thank you for everything, Ken!

Yay, Goose is finally able to fly again after his concussion! 'Bent, Goose and I went up to Hardwood Hills to find some real winter.

Here is our back yard today. BazingaDog likes it but it's not what our back yard should look like on March 12.



This is what things looked like at Hardwood Hills an hour north of here. This will be FB's new back yard!



If it were mid-February, I might have hoped for a little more snow to soften the trails and cover the debris but given the conditions elsewhere, I'd give Hardwood Hills an A+ today. It was supposed to be -20C with windchill but it felt a lot warmer as I skied in the sunshine. After the eastern half of the Sochi loop, I went back to the chalet to trade my hat, buff, gloves and vest for lighter versions then I did the hilly west side of the Lillehammer loop.

When we first arrived, we met a skier bundled up from head to toe with only his mouth and nose showing. We correctly guessed it was Al Magi hiding in there. Then Rick Sommerkamp showed up for an afternoon ski. I guess if you want to ski, this is one of the few choices.

There was a fat bike championship on the same trails we were skiing and it really wasn't a problem to share the trails, which was great. Maybe if I were skate skiing, it would be more of an issue but it was cold enough that most people were skiing classic today so we had our own lanes.

Fantastic to get out skiing again! I was afraid we might be finished for the season.

I got into photography in university and as a result, I am the proud owner of thousands of colour slides I never look at. For years, I've planned to scan them but let's get real: I won't. I will be too busy skiing or biking or doing laundry so I can go for a run or out for dinner.

I just did my first scanning test with a local camera store - our 2003 backpacking trip to Iceland. I'm going to try getting my next scans done by a place that does higher resolution and individual colour enhancement but it was a treat to re-live a journey that has been fading in my memories. Here are a few:

Treadmill run while watching the first part of Eco Challenge Morocco.

Foothab

AdventureDog and I went for a trail run around Palgrave West. The ground is mostly bare and a little soft, and there are some big stretches of ice. My cardio still isn't back to normal but my legs felt strong. Progress!

Hard Core Live with Caron - lots of dynamic exercises. 'Bent came to class tonight and we surprised each other by secretly wearing our identical Transgrancanaria race shirts. Too cute. Other people in the class offered to take our photo but we resisted.

Tonight's class involved lots of balance, dynamic movement, minimal rest and various positions where you hang on tight to your big toe while doing other stuff, which can be challenging.

There may not be much winter left but there are *lots* of top quality, discounted Atlas snowshoes at 33-Off.com right now. The discounts they claim are legit; in fact, the regular prices are often higher than shown. I bought a pair of Atlas Race snowshoes from them earlier this year. P.S. Thanks, Super.
<http://www.33-off.com/snow-shoes/>

Too windy to go outside so I did some foothab physio for the first time since we got home. My good foot is currently my bad foot thanks to a pushy runner who stomped on it early in the race during his uncontrolled descent.

Upper body: My main objective was to figure out a way to use our weight machine to simulate the motion of canoe paddling since we're doing the 40K Big East River X race in late May. It works but I'd only use it for strength training, not for an extended "paddling" session. I'll probably train on the kayak erg too since there's some overlap even though it's not canoe-specific. I'll be kayaking in Storm The Trent before the canoe race so I should do that anyway. At the rate winter is slipping away, we may be on the water soon! :(

My hip has mostly recovered from its weird plane ride injury so I figured I could handle Caron's Power Yoga class. It was a tough one and I was surprised by how tight my back felt when I twisted from side to side, which was one of today's themes. I feel sooo much better now!