Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent and I are excited to announce the impending arrival of Treehugger ABC 2.0!

As country bumpkins, we've loved having a modern townhouse in Collingwood with natural gas, town water, good cell signal, a pool and a short drive to everything, including several friends' houses. It's been completely different from our life in Caledon - an urban getaway with different outdoor adventures nearby.

But it hasn't been ideal to wrangle two big dogs and their poop bags 3-4 times a day in a compact subdivision, and we can't fence in a dog run. The pandemic was the tipping point for us. TH ABC was supposed to give us more opportunities to spend time with friends but we'll need a back yard for that for the next year and maybe longer.

So as of Sept. 15, this will be TH ABC 2.0. There was an O map made of the property (and surrounding area) before the house was built. Do any orienteers recognize this snippet showing our lot?

Coach LD and I set out from her house for a lovely, distanced hike through the local park onto the Humber Trail. It was nice to catch up! On the way back, we detoured to downtown Bolton to get ice cream so I could count this for the Cool Runnings badge in the Summer Scavenger Hunt. Mmm, banana fudge ice cream. :) Coach LD sent me home with even better treats made with local berries and currants - yum!

Purr de France
Stages 20 and 21 - the Finish Line!

My head is still feeling OK so I allowed myself to pedal just a little harder for the final two stages of Le Purr de France. Still kept the heart rate down though.

I'd hoped to do almost all my riding for PdF in Palgrave Forest so it was a drag being stuck on the trainer for the past week. But a concussion would be a bigger drag. For the first two weeks of Le Purr, it was fun to be "forced" to find time for a bike ride on most days, often right after my morning coffee. It became a chore when I had to switch to riding the trainer but c'est la vie. I listened to podcasts.

After crossing the "finish line", I celebrated by awarding myself the nice cycling cap that the organizer sent us all. We posted photos and chatted daily in a Facebook group so it felt like being part of an event. I'd do this again.



The spectators went wild.

Purr de France, Stage 19

Easy, late night trainer ride after an eventful day.

It looks like public health officials may need to be more specific.

Purr de France
Stage 18 (a day late, still catching up)

Another easy session on the trainer, breathing through my nose and keeping my heart rate down. We have another heat warning but I'd still rather be out in the woods! So far, so good with the noggin. I've heard from people who didn't experience obvious symptoms for a few weeks or months though.

Well, we're sure impressed with those great photos of Comet Neowise on social media. It took us a long time to see it with binoculars. Here's what it looked like.

Purr de France

Playing catch-up with Stages 16 and 17 combined - although not the way I'd hoped because of my head injury. I haven't had any obvious concussion symptoms after 2.5 days. Let's hope it stays that way.

I did a very easy spin on the trainer instead of mountain biking in perfect conditions in Palgrave Forest. We're almost at the Champs Elysées so I'll see if I can catch up to the other riders, who did Stage 18 today. But I have to do it without raising my heart rate.

SUP FamJam at the C3 Quarry with 'Bent, BazingaDog and AdventureDog. B-Dog tipped 'Bent into the shallow water near the start but after that, we all managed to stay upright. The dogs sometimes got too energetic if we paddled close together but they showed minimal interest in other SUP paddlers and their dogs. Luckily, no triathletes were swimming today. B-Dog gets very annoyed by that.



As of the time I'm posting this, I'm 41+ hours post-injury and still haven't had any obvious concussion symptoms. I got smacked in the temple, which isn't generally recommended. It can take a while for symptoms to show up so I'll need to remember when this happened.

I am not a morning person so I was dreading the Sunrise Run badge in the CMTR Summer Scavenger Hunt. It was OK, actually, and AdventureDog loved it. I'd imagined a horribly early alarm but as it turned out, 'Bent and I both had pandemic sleep issues last night so we had our morning coffee at 4 a.m. Running at sunrise wasn't my plan but it turned out to be a breeze.

Although... I'm posting this a day late because the wet trails soaked my socks so I slipped on our kitchen tiles, smacked hard into a door frame, and now I'm on concussion watch. 34 hours and no obvious symptoms other than the shrinking goose egg. :( Many thanks to Goose, Coach LD and Mrs. Gally for their helpful concussion advice. I won't be drinking alcohol or lingering online over the next week, and there will be no intensity, i.e. running, mountain biking or boot camp. Ugh.