Training Log Archive: Bash

Run-walk around Palgrave East for the Street Artistry challenge in the Spring Scavenger Hunt. I don't spend much time on roads - especially not urban roads where artists might paint murals or cool graffiti. I thought about driving to Orangeville to run around their Art Walk of Tree Sculptures.
https://www.orangeville.ca/en/living-here/resource...

But that didn't seem Covid-friendly and I'm still testing whether my injured right foot can run so I decided not to pound it on concrete.

Instead I pounded it on ice. There was also mud and even a few dry sections but there was a surprising amount of ice.





Palgrave Forest has plenty of Mother Nature's art.



It is also decorated with painted rocks and a large community of fairy houses.









My right heel was mildly painful when running but it's also mildly painful when I'm walking around the house. It doesn't seem that short runs make it worse but it's the long runs that I really miss. I hope I can get back to them.

Rodney Yee Power Yoga for Flexibility

Bruce Trail hike with 'Bent and the pooches. The snow has softened enough that it's really unpredictable now. Sometimes it holds you up but every 3-4 steps, you plunge in - sometimes knee-deep. Parts of the forest were still mostly snow-covered - perfect for snowshoes if we'd thought to wear them but it would have been too difficult for the dogs. Other areas were mostly bare, including the hillside in this photo, which I've entitled, "Spring Skiing Conditions". Yes, that's the trail.

'Bent, BazingaDog, AdventureDog and I hiked around 3 Stage, the upper part of Pretty River Valley Provincial Park. It's still quite snowy up there but some bare ground is beginning to show. The dogs went crazy with all the new smells.

Amber and I wanted to have an Orienteering Ontario discussion so we decided to talk while hiking to Duncan Escarpment Provincial Park on the Bruce Trail. It was a bluebird day but there weren't many people out.

I decided to kill two birds with one stone by doing the Waterfall Wonders badge in the CMTR Spring Scavenger Hunt. This loop passes near the top of a pretty waterfall. We needed to do a steep, icy scramble in Kahtoola Microspikes to see water actually falling.

Because it was an orienteering discussion, naturally we missed our turn onto the Bruce Side Trail and ended up hiking back on 9th Sideroad, half of which is snow-covered and closed for the winter.

Spring skate ski at Scenic Caves on a bluebird day. At this time of year, the snow changes texture and speed constantly but on average, conditions were fast. Remembering Hammer's crash on unpredictable snow yesterday, I kept my speed in check. Except for the areas closest to the chalet, the trails were almost deserted.





From the lookout, you can see there's no snow in town and no ice in Georgian Bay.



They're claiming a 50 cm base and it looks like that's accurate.

I prefer classic so I switched but today was made for skate skiing. The tracks softened as things warmed up and got crusty in the shade. It wasn't bad - not by a long shot - but sometimes it felt like harder work than usual.

Chatty 4-dog hike to Metcalfe Rock with 'Bent and Darcie. Some hard snow, some post holing and some bare ground. Darcie baked us fresh challah - yum.

If you're a fan of the Barkley Marathons, you're probably watching already. But just in case, the race started at 3:04 am. It's mostly Americans this year, all of whom have either been vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19. As always, they started with 40 runners and as of 11:25 pm, they're down to 10 runners on Loop 2. Courtney Dauwalter, Jared Campbell, Jamil Coury and Maggie Guterl are still out there. Unfortunately, conditions are nasty - mud and cold rain - and the first loop was so slow that an official finish is unlikely this year. But maybe some of them could complete a Fun Run.

Follow @KeithDunn on Twitter for the closest thing to official updates.
https://twitter.com/keithdunn

There is additional info on Twitter under the #BM100 hashtag.

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