Training Log Archive: the kempster

warm up and down for xc plus some stretching.

5km time trial, but I took it easy since I was exhausted from yesterday. The hill was a killer today, but what was even worse was that somebody in one of the houses was having waffles, so whenever we ran past, you were overwhelmed by the smell of waffles. Which wasn't a bad thing the first time around, but by the third time, it just made me wanna puke!!

Event: OOC Cité des Jeunes
 

Ran a great race all except for one control. Started out well nailing the first two controls. But then I think I might've run off the map trying to get to 3. Couldn't figure out the features at all. I'd think I was in one spot, run to where the control should've been, and then...no control. Finally, after about 18min of wandering around, relocated off a giant boulder and then walked right into the control. Might've been a better route to 4 with less climb, but I found it alright anyways. 5 I was dumb and ended up on the wrong side of the stream, so had to cross it getting icky smelly mud all over one shoe before attacking the control from above (ahha, I did learn something from the training camp!!) Eric had passed me at 3 and then I caught back up to him going to 7 but didn't pass him till 9. Almost did a 90 degree error leaving 7, but caught myself in time. Was right behind Eric and another runner at 9, but I don't they looked at their control descriptions, cause it was at the top of the cliff and they went all the way around the spur and then into the re-entrant on the other side before actually finding the cliff and going to the top. Coming out on the trail after 10, Eric was right behind me, but then afterwards, I didn't see him at all. I think that he lost his concentration after he saw me and then it just went downhill from there. 11, 12, and 13 were all fine (sickest of all routes to 13 right down the re-entrant) but I fell off the hill a little bit on 14. Thankfully, the field was mowed so the long run around wasn't too bad, but the climb up to 15 was killer! Noticed how much faster I was running through the woods which has really improved since last season. Was absolutely exhausted when I got back which is good cause that means I am pushing myself to go faster enough. Fell on my wrist pretty hard twice, both on trails which is kinda weird. How is it that I'm a klutz on the trails, but not in the woods where there's a million different things to fall over?!?! Anyways, excellent race and it'll be interesting to see how everybody else did (I think that most people on both long and short advanced had some trouble on the 3rd control).

Was actually out there for close to 2hrs, but that was mostly just sitting around while my dad and went to check control sites for a small meet that he's hosting. When we actually were biking, we did a single track loop which was pretty tricky especially since I was still getting used to being clipped in. Not sure if it makes me feel safer being attached to the bike or not, but I definitely have more control. Didn't do any major wipeouts although I did catch myself on my bad wrist trying to 'pop' over a log...not a smart thing to do!!! After our single track adventure, we hopped onto the trail up to Pink Lake which was awfully grueling!!! Could definitely feel the lactic acid burn in my legs!!! The best part though, was coming back down!! Absolutely exhilarating!! Some parts, you didn't even have to pedal for ages since it was just all downhill. Definitely felt like a speed demon all the way back! Planning on playing rookie from jazz band on Tuesday (and yes, my band director said that I could miss Tuesdays if I needed to, just, he didn't specify what for...) and doing the same loop minus all the sitting around!

Long Advanced - Splits

Finally got pedals with clips for my mountain bike. Toodled around down by the river and only fell over twice while trying to get over a log and gave myself a charlie horse. Then went over to Hampton Park and did the sand pit a few times and then along the top of the ridge. Hit a tree and bruised my hip, but I think that was the worst. Can definitely clip in and out easily enough, it's just doing that before I'm on the ground... :P

Took Molly out to the local trails. She was kinda unsure at the start, but by the end she was looking forward to the next time! Added a bit more road rash to my collection which I was expecting, but this really stings! (bare leg+scraping up against a tree=pain!) The good part though, was that I figured out how to jump up with my bike, so I was practicing on roots on the trails, and leaves on the road.

to and from grocery store

Intense mix-it up spinning class which included intervals, 2 strength sessions, and very little recovery! Time also includes biking back home and then down to McKellar Park while eating my breakfast! :)

Did a pre-ski season training run although only 4 people showed up, so we just ran around Westboro to see if the other members of the team were still sleeping and we actually managed to get one other guy out of bed!

Warm up run down to Notre Dame to meet another xc guy who also misses Thursday intervals because of band. Another warm-up run around the school, then 6x100m sprints on the grass since there was a soccer game going on in the middle of the track. He smoked me on the sprints, but then again, I smoke him on the long distance. Was great to be able to have somebody else to run with, finally!!!

Biking to all three of the outdoor stores on Richmond to try and find some mountain bike pedals. No luck though. It seems as though they were all out of stock of the ones that I wanted. Might have to go for the more expensive ones with clips on both sides instead of the ones with a clip on one side, and then a flat on the other.

Ok, found out actual time for my race since it was in the newspaper. 16:39:9. Not quite as fast as I would like it to be although I think the beach really slowed the pace down and I think that's the only course that actually has a beach run. Maybe I'll try doing 1km time trials to see how fast I could 1km and then do a little bit of math.

Kinda jammed in a bike ride after dinner which turned out to be absolutely fantastic. The first part, to Kingsmere, was the most technical which was good since we still had some daylight left. Noticed a huge improvement from the last time we did that trail. I think it was 20min compared to 35min! After a quick consultation with the map, we decided to go over to P7 and slug up the Penguin and then keep going over to Keogan. Took out our lights about 1km away from Keogan, but even then it was super hard to see anything flying down the hills. Almost went flying on one when I went off a big rock. Still, such an exhilarating feeling! The only downer was that my glasses kept fogging up so that it was like being half blind! Having my flashlight illuminate all of the vapour droplets definitely didn't help the matter either. Stopped to look out over all of Ottawa and Gatineau 1/2 way back down Penguin which was fabulous. All the millions of lights were twinkling from the heat coming off the asphalt and we could see the giant business building downtown all lit up. Quite an exciting ride down to P7 and we passed a guy going up with the brightest green light I have ever seen! Personally, I think it was a traffic light cause we were totally blinded, but he could probably see every bead of sweat on our foreheads! Took a few detours trying to get back to the Parkway by making a few wrong assumptions (the worst was: 'a road to Kingsmere can't possibly be called Swamp Road' we paid for that one by having to climb back up a monstrous hill that we had just flew down and realized that we hadn't gone up it on the was there a little too late). Beautiful ride down the parkway with the practically full moon and sky full of stars lighting up the road. Pretty much all downhill back to Pink Lake which made for excellent speed! Couldn't asked for a better nighttime ride, although it was my very first one. Found it a bit spooky on the trails in the woods, but other than that it was awesome!
Was a bit worried about my wrist and all of the bumping it would have to go through. So I duct taped it, and then wrapped it with a tensor bandage. Didn't feel it at all!!! Duct tape really is a miracle! :P

Biked to and from the xc meet which turned out to be a beautiful ride despite the strong head-wind no matter which way I was going. Only had to go on Island Park, and then the rest was on bike paths. Left around the same time as the bus, and got there just after them, plus I made a short stop at home, so it took about the same time, and I helped save the planet! :P

warmup run and stretching with Mel who was the only other junior girl running from Nepean.

Don't know my exact time, so I'll have to wait until they email the times to my coach. The course started out with a 200m run from the finish, with a hill immediately after. Didn't take it too hard out of the gates since I knew a lot of people would, and then die on the hill. I was right, and passed quite of few people who were struggling up the hill which put me in fourth. There was then a really long stretch down to the end of the park and then a loop around onto the beach. Absolutely brutal running on the sand and it was such a long stretch!!! By this time I had made it up to second place but I was in between two St. Peters runners (who were twin sisters) and so whenever we ran past one of their coaches I'd hear, "don't let her catch you Rachel!" and then "come on Rebecca, you can catch her!" What was really annoying was that the girl who was leading kept cutting corners and then once actually started running off the path until I had to call out to her that the flagging was actually over here. We only had to run the hill once, but we had to do loop A twice which meant running the beach again. Before the race, my coach had said that at about the 10min mark, and should step up the pace and really go hard for the last part after the beach. Fortunately, I actually remembered to start my watch, and so at around the 10min mark I started closing in on the leader. I wasn't going to go too fast right before the beach, but then I saw that she was slowing down so I passed her and booted it down the beach. Had enough distance in between me and the St. Peters girl so it wasn't a race into the finish, but I still came in strong. Absolutely exhausted and bloody hot after I finished which is good since that meant that I was going hard enough. First ever xc race that I've ever been the leader let alone won, so it feels really good!

This is the course

C • Good job! 3