Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent and I went for an amazing ski around the southern part of the ungroomed Kolapore Wilderness Trails. Although we saw a dozen cars parked by the trails on a beautiful Sunday, we didn't see anyone after the first 100 meters.

It felt like a homecoming since 'Bent worked on these trails for years, and we used to ski here when we started dating a looong time ago.

It had been snowing before we arrived and continued snowing most of the time we were out there so we moved at a leisurely pace. 'Bent's skin skis were highly effective at picking up the wet snow so I broke trail most of the time. My waxless racing skis worked fine but touring skis would have been good too. We skied a loop from the old bottling plant through County Forest, Kingsway, Jackrabbit, Quiet Pastures, Southern Crossing and County Forest.

This is the style of skiing we both grew up on, and we love it. It feels more like a journey than a training session. We stopped for photos, snacks, views and interesting trees, and that time is all included.

Highlands red trail - including the Woolner Loop for the first time this year! 'Bent had some technical difficulties at first and didn't pass me until the 6 km mark. The trails were in great shape and pretty fast even though I was just using waxless skis. The trees still had plenty of snow from the storm two weeks ago but it's a more reasonable amount, and no branches are dangling over the trails anymore. It was pretty much perfect, especially when snow started to fall later in the afternoon. I hope the groundhog sees his shadow tomorrow so we can enjoy six more weeks of winter.

Then, with help from Goose and Coach LD, I tested two different pairs of skis. I might be shopping, sort of. :)

Notes on January: This may be the only month in history when I’ve logged more hours skate skiing than classic skiing. To make it even more unusual, I logged more snowshoe orienteering than skiing. I was just under my monthly strength/mobility target and I reached my Jan. 31 target weight and celebrated with chocolate mousse tonight - oops. For the most part, it was a good month other than all the dealings with lawyers and building permits. Snow makes me happy.

The Scenic Caves Rule meant that I had to start with at least 30 minutes of skate skiing. It felt like too much trouble to go back to the car to change boots so I didn’t make my usual switch to classic. This never happens and I’m kinda proud of myself. It might even have been a little fun from time to time! The forest was beautiful with snow-coated tree trunks.

Snow had been falling for a while so the trails were slow and uncrowded. I barely saw any other skiers - not even ‘Bent, who was out there somewhere the whole time. However, I *did* keep passing a friendly, older gentleman who was making deep footprints in the middle of the skate ski track. One time he didn’t hear me ski up and it gave him a start. I thought about saying something to let him know skiers wouldn’t be watching for a hiker in the middle of the trail (hint, hint) but he seemed pleasant and strangely confident. I remembered stories about Bruce Trail users berating people for a trail infraction like an unleashed dog, then discovering they were the landowners. And sure enough, when I asked staff in the chalet, they laughed and confirmed he is the owner.

Tonight after a wonderful dinner at the Crow, ‘Bent and I went to the curling club to watch Amber teach the ropes to Dee and Red. We weren’t dressed for it so we cheered from the lounge but it would be fun some time.

Treadmill run, mostly watching Ginger Runner's interview with coaches David and Megan Roche. David wrote the article about 3-minute Mountain Legs, which I was doing for a while - and may start up again now that it's on my mind.

A few takeaways:

- It's important to keep fun and playfulness in your training. If you take something you enjoy and make it your job, you're less likely to want to do it.

- They believe that people training for mountain races can prepare for uphills by working on speed - even just on flat ground. The fastest runners tend to be the fastest uphill runners. Adding some strength training is helpful too.

- However, they believe you have to do specific training for downhills even if it's just one run every few weeks when you travel to a good downhill and push hard. (I call these quad pounding sessions.) During a race, if you're not properly trained on downhills, you'll feel fatigue on the subsequent uphill. A day or two later, you'll get DOMS. The idea is to be able to do the downhills without getting DOMS, which means you won't have the same fatigue in races after downhills.

- On technical downhills, aim for short strides, stay light, lean forward. If you have a wide open, non-technical downhill, you can lengthen your stride.

- Treadmills can be very effective for training and improving efficiency - even for trail running, as long as you go outside occasionally - but only if you enjoy using them. And that's a big "if".

- David coaches John Kelly, the most recent finisher of the Barkley Marathons, who just won the 268-mile Spine Race in the U.K. and set a men's course record. He's a Dad with crazy work hours so he could only train 50 miles per week. I'm not sure if he's still doing this now that he's moved to England but he used to do a lot of treadmill runs and run commutes - nothing too wild. Eleven days before the Spine Race, he did a big day in Frozen Head State Park (home of the Barkley) where he ran about a marathon with close to 3,000 m of climb. That was the main bit of specific preparation he did and obviously it was enough. Really interesting. As his coach points out, he has a good base and lots of experience. But still.

Mix of foothab, balance and core. My injured heel makes some of my usual foot exercises too painful. It's been 4 days since it got hit, which isn't that long unless, say, you're an impatient person.

On an unrelated note, I'm tired of adulting.

Note 1: Yesterday's run made the furniture-moving injury to my right heel feel a bit worse. It feels more like a bruise around the Achilles attachment than an internal, structural thing but it would still be nice if it just went away. For now, I'll avoid running on consecutive days.

Note 2: I've abandoned the "No Zero Days on AP" goal. I made it to April last year but it just doesn't fit with the way my life works so I don't know why I thought it would work better this year. I've set bigger picture goals and targets for 2020 that should keep things moving the right direction without micromanaging. If I ever mention the No Zero idea again, please tell me I’m crazy.

My right upper heel/Achilles is still hurting after getting hit hard while moving furniture on Sunday. Last week's program of skiing and snowshoeing with very little running seemed to be good for my foot so of course I had to mess it up. Anyway, we'll see if this short run makes it feel worse.

Cooldown after treadmill run.

Alex Hutchinson's latest article on strength training research:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2408204/strength-tra...

tl;dr
"Pick a range of exercises covering the body’s major muscle groups... Do at least one set of each, several times a week, aiming for about 8 to 12 reps, and be consistent about your routine. If you use lighter weights, push close to failure on each set. To maximize size gains, do more sets.

And maybe the most important takeaway of all: every single group in every one of these studies got bigger and stronger. Sure, the details make a difference. But the biggest difference of all is between doing nothing and doing something."