Training Log Archive: Bash

O Cup #2 - Summit to the Stars
Puslinch Tract

Creative format designed by Dale with two O Cup Stars instead of O Cup Boxes. Too complicated to explain but for anyone interested, here it is.
http://data.whyjustrun.ca/files/4/6/kHOMjDudI7RnDT...

Puslinch Tract is a surprisingly intricate area with a dense network of mountain bike trails that can hinder more than they help. It often took me a moment's thought to simplify my route to the next control since the map had so much going on. In the first star, I was flying by the seat of my pants on the long leg between a and f - lucky I was on a good bearing since I missed my other cues.

There was a nervous 800 m marked trail run to the finish control. Nick passed me like I was standing still but I was running hard by my standards! I really should have gone for a cooldown run afterward; I rarely run at high intensity, and I felt wiped out when we got home. (I'm sure the post-race beer had nothing to do with it.)

Those #$%&! ARK kids are too darned fast but thanks to my significant handicap, I managed 3rd overall and took home a large bottle of alcoholic, pumpkin-spiced apple cider (yum!) as the first woman.

Great lunch and catch-up afterward at The Old Marina, organized by Funderstorm - thanks!

Home strength session with the first set of exercises Slowrunner gave me plus a few old standards.

Dad's not feeling well so 'Bent and I spent today in Brantford helping Mom and visiting them both. This year my parents moved and Dad closed his business office so there are still boxes to open and deal with. BazingaDog demonstrated excellent empathy and bedside manner.

Happy Birthday, 'Bent!

Trail run around Palgrave East and West with 'Bent and BazingaDog. Time includes trail clearing from the wind storm. We met a man on an ATV with a chainsaw strapped to it. He's a dog owner who does vigilante trail work before the TRCA can get to it. Great stuff; even as trail captains, we will not be reporting him for a motorized vehicle infraction!

A recent AP discussion talked about finding motivation in November, e.g. picking some new challenge for the rest of the year rather than just coasting until January when most people get inspired again. That lit a fire under me to do something I'd already been thinking about - work with a personal trainer to develop a more demanding strength training program.

There were two reasons for this. First, I've been reading a lot about the benefits of higher weights, lower reps for endurance athletes, contrary to older thinking. Second, there is a ton of science showing that strength training becomes more important as we get older.

So today I met with Slowrunner, a friend and personal trainer who had worked with us in the past. She is an ultrarunner and is very, very strong. Today was an assessment to see what I'm doing now, where I need extra work and what limitations will be imposed by my injured shoulder. For example, I can't do push-ups on the floor so I'll have to do wall push-ups for now. Good stuff - looking forward to more.

Hard Core Live with Caron - Tabata Edition. Holy crap!! All of us were totally knackered except for 'Bent - but that's only because there weren't any exercises where we had to lie on our backs with both legs sticking straight up in the air. If anyone ever wants to get state secrets from 'Bent, that's how you'll get them.

Tonight was one of Caron's Hard-Harder-Hardest power yoga classes; it definitely worked some muscles.

Trail running around Albion Hills - hanging final flags, locating and running with high school students who took a wrong turn, and taking down flags afterwards.

This was a volunteer clinic with Saara Naudts' grade 12 physics class from North Park Secondary School in Brampton as part of their unit on magnetism. I'd wondered how this might go, as it was the first time I'd coached people who were not learning navigation from the perspective of sport or outdoor recreation.

On the one hand, it was cool because physics students are my peeps. On the other hand, I remember that most of my peeps would not have enjoyed running around the woods on a 0C November day.

As it turned out, these kids were amazing. I would guess that many of their parents were not born in Canada, and their teacher had warned me they were city kids who would need guidance on how to dress for the outdoors. Luckily, only one kid wore shorts, and most (but not all) wore toques, gloves and comfortable shoes. A couple of the girls returned after 40 minutes and announced they needed a rest. They sat at a picnic table for 3 minutes and sipped politely from their water bottles (which they'd been carrying anyway), then headed back into the woods. So cute!

Perhaps because these were physics students approaching it primarily as an intellectual exercise, they picked up map and compass concepts extremely quickly. The small group of boys who ran out of the park by mistake included members of the cross-country team so the teacher was surprised when some of the better athletes were among the missing. There is obviously some advantage to going more slowly when you're learning! We send them out in teams of two, and I have all their cell phone numbers and they have mine, so we don't have to waste much time worrying. Fun morning!

Looks like it may be a good winter for skiing! (Sorry, Harps.)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/winte...

Crash wanted to practise her orienteering skills in anticipation of doing some O Cup races this winter. I wanted to hang some flags at Albion Hills in anticipation of another high school instructional session tomorrow. So we went out for a little Night-O!

I can't count this as orienteering since I just followed Crash and did a little coaching but we were out there for 1 hr 20 mins, including lots of stops. Yesterday's wind storm caused considerable damage including at least one tree across a mountain bike trail on a blind curve that could be dangerous. I'll let the guys at Albion HIlls know tomorrow.

This was great since it means I don't have to be out there at the crack of dawn tomorrow. There are just 3 flags left to hang before the kids arrive. This is a physics class studying magnetism so it will be a slightly different way to present the subject of navigation.

Crazy winds! Power has been out for an hour so far. Feeling thirsty already.

(Apologies for the duplication from Facebook but I'm so touched by this!)

I was surprised, honoured and deeply moved to receive the Kim Pace Award of Excellence at last night's C3 Canadian Cross Training Club banquet. The award, given annually to a female athlete, honours the memory of Kim Pace, who founded IRONDames after she was diagnosed with cancer and decided to train for an Ironman and raise funds for the Wellspring Halton-Peel Cancer Exercise Program. She crossed the finish line at Ironman Canada in 2010.

I wore my lovely new Irondames Buff on today's long run! Here is their mission:

"Believe. Inspire. Persevere. Building Strength.

We believe in the expansion of WELLSPRING Halton-Peel's Ground Breaking Cancer Exercise Program because research indicates that exercise has significant benefits for people coping with cancer.

We hope to inspire everyone... to make exercise part of their daily life as well as challenge them to help make a difference in the lives of others.

Together, we shall persevere to raise $200,000 to construct and equip WELLSPRING Halton-Peel's New Cancer Exercise Facility through a series of team and individual fundraising challenges."
http://irondames.ca/our-founder

'Bent, BazingaDog and I went for a family run around Palgrave East and West in wet leaves and mud.

We both wore HRMs because I'm trying to get a handle on 'Bent's weirdly high HR in races. Not much has changed since the old days when we both wore HRMs and trained together a lot. Most of the time, he runs about 10 bpm below me when we're going the same pace. Sure, we weren't going race pace today but it's hard to believe that a guy who did this trail run around 130 bpm would average 170 bpm for 10 km of the Vulture Bait 50K where he was supposedly going easy.

A mother and son at last night's C3 banquet approached us afterward with some ideas on 'Bent's nausea issues. She is a nurse practitioner who works with vascular surgeons and thinks 'Bent may have mesenteric spasm and ischemia that could be helped with meds. Her son is interested in the sports psychology angle, which he is studying, and he discussed techniques to lower the pre-race arousal that affects stress hormones, etc. They said they'll send more info. Cool!

The Banff Film Festival World Tour trailer is out. If you're going to watch it (7 minutes), it's worth expanding to full screen and switching the resolution to HD.

Aieee! Stressful week preparing our keynote presentation on UTMB for the C3 banquet tonight - 200 people, many of them successful athletes including a sprinkling of world champions.

"How We Spent Our Summer Vacation: Getting a DNF"

(Not the actual title.)

We have about 10 cm of fluffy snow so I skied the trails of Palgrave West to Wheelie Woods on slow waxless rock skis. So nice! The steeper hills were a little dicey since there isn't enough snow to bury debris but it was a real treat to ski that far from home in November.

Hard Core Live with Caron. She incorporated small foam rollers into some of the exercises.

Our yoga class finished with a bunch of different foam rolling. This was a first. Caron figured that so many people buy foam rollers then don't use them, so she wanted to teach our class how to work on different body parts.

Windy winter wonderland. Sure glad I drove I-90 at midnight on Sunday rather than Monday!

It has taken awhile for us to figure out what's next after our long UTMB quest. After a comment from Cristina at NAOC, 'Bent and I decided this was the winter to try a big Scandinavian ski race. So on March 21, we will be skiing the historic 54 km Birkebeiner from Rena to Lillehammer in Norway with 16,998 of our closest friends - including (hopefully) Cristina.

I even like their liability waiver!

I am fully aware and conscious of the ... dangers caused by gravitational forces, be it during training runs or during the actual competition. I recognise that there is a risk in reaching excellent results which requires me to stretch my physical abilities to the absolute limit.

Here's the Birkenbeiner story. In typical European fashion, it's based on something that happened in 1206.

Some parts of the world are a little *too* Boundless! :) Here's National Geographic Radio with Zoolander discussing his latest Adventure Science expedition, including a helicopter rescue by Madagascar's military and the discovery of dinosaur tracks.
http://omnyapp.com/shows/national-geographic/scien...

There was enough snow that I had to go out and ski - if only to make 'Bent jealous in Belize! I did an F&M Loop in wet snow 5-7 cm deep. Not great conditions but hey, I was *skiing*!

I felt Mocha's spirit on the trail since we had done so much hiking there recently. Also, she had been my companion for many ski outings in the past - something Brody can't do since he's untrustworthy off-leash. Feeling a little sad, I came into our fenced yard, let Brody out and skied around with him for 5 minutes. He didn't really get the idea; he just wanted to play keep-away.

I've just learned that the Salomon Friends and Family VIP sale (40% off for invited guests) is this Wednesday. When my hard drive crashed, I lost my usual invitation list. In the meantime, if you'd like me to forward you the message, please write me. If you would like to attend, go ahead and RSVP to shop.toronto@salomon.com and let them know that I invited you.

Fountainhead Regional Park, VA

We don't have UltraLong solo orienteering races in Canada (nor a Hudson Highlander or Billygoat) so this event was one of the main attractions of the weekend for me. The female elite course was almost as long as Raid The Hammer with a similar number of controls - very fun!

I signed up for the elite category to get as much orienteering as possible but one thing hadn't occurred to me until I read the course notes this weekend: Men who run the Red course are given a 1:10,000 map but the only women's category on the Red course is F-21, and elite women are required to use a 1:15,000 map. So if I want to run the Red course in future, I may want to sign up in a men's category!

Although I was nervous about it, the map scale turned out to be a non-issue for this course. This event mostly tested route choice, running speed and endurance but the control locations were fairly obvious once you got to the right area - not tiny depressions or low cliffs. I'd expected to need my compass magnifier in addition to my reading glasses but I never did.

Unlike the past two races, things went pretty smoothly except for a minor hiccup on #20 when for some reason, I ran happily toward a rootstock on a spur, knowing full well that I expected to find it in a re-entrant.

I ran 1.5-2 km longer than Joe (we compared notes afterward) to avoid climb but that probably helped to save energy. It was a mass start but as a slow runner, I was by myself most of the way, which I really enjoy. The terrain was gorgeous!


Photo by Aaron Linville - not sure who the runner is

For some reason, falling was my thing today. My toe caught a root within the first half kilometre, and I crashed my ribs and knee into rocks when I went down. A later fall banged the other knee and made my index finger bleed inconveniently onto my compass for 20 minutes. Just to make sure the other side of my body didn't feel left out, my feet slid out as I was descending a steep slope, and as I plummeted to the valley bottom, I smacked my back on a couple of hard objects and filled the back of my shirt with dry leaves like a scarecrow. All very glamorous.

My ranking wasn't anything to write home about, however, there were considerably fewer people on the Red course today and a bunch of DNFs and MPs too. Almost everyone ran in their age category to compete for the U.S. Champs. So I'm much happier than I was with yesterday's disaster. I could have gone a little faster but I was pleased with almost all of my route choices, and that's good enough at this point in the season.

Great job by Jon Torrance, Valerie Meyer and a big team of QOC volunteers. I really enjoyed the weekend - nice to catch up with some orienteering friends. We should get a bunch of Canadians to do a road trip to the next U.S. UltraLong Champs within range of southern Ontario. I think a lot of you would really enjoy it!

The drive home was long and tough compared to the drive down. I had to pull over for two naps, and a snowstorm started within 60 seconds of crossing into Canada and continued for the rest of the way. I got home at 1:40 a.m. Blah.

UltraLong Championships - Red - Splits

Run to the start - and then some. Missed seeing a flagged turn-off when I spoke with someone so I ran way down a hill and had to come back up. I was already late because I had missed seeing a turn-off while driving to the race. And I was tired because last night I missed my turn-off on the way to the hotel. That one I saw but Hwy 66 has some weird thing where shoulders are sometimes shoulders and sometimes driving lanes, and cars suddenly appeared to my right so I couldn't exit.

At least bad things come in threes, right?

So it turns out bad things *don't* always come in threes. I'm not sure why this was such a bust but maybe my brain was more tired from yesterday than my body. I haven't orienteered much in 2014 but this was ridiculous.

I ran confidently along the spur toward #1, which almost never happens. When I got to the end of the spur, I saw a flag a little to my right. Yay! I checked the code - 75. Nope, I was looking for 77, the code I'd memorized at the start line. I tried to guess which feature this flag could be on, then I ran around like a crazy person trying to make sense of the spur, and it wasn't working at all. Finally, I glanced at my control description sheet to confirm the feature and saw that I really *was* looking for 75. Ugh, almost 8 minutes lost for no reason whatsoever in a Middle Distance. That was a first - and hopefully a last.

Then on my way to #5, I decided to start following features instead of looking at my compass. Don't ask me why I didn't do both simultaneously, especially in terrain where everything looks very similar - re-entrant, spur, re-entrant, spur, re-entrant. So I got up on the wrong spur and had trouble understanding it, not surprisingly. Runners kept appearing where they shouldn't have been so I didn't doubt myself soon enough. I decided to try to make my way back to #4 but I ended up finding #12 instead, which was close to #4. Fantastic, not only was I able to find #5 easily after that, I also knew exactly what #12 looked like.

Things went fine for the next five controls, then I headed back to #12 with supreme confidence. After punching it, I glanced at my map and realized I'd come there from #10 because, hey, who needs to look at a map when you know exactly where you're going?

At #13, I was expecting control code 66 and had a second of angst when I saw a 99 hanging down from the control. Luckily, I figured it out. :) Sheesh, what a day. Pavlina finished in less than half my time, which shows what a world class result would be for someone my age. (Literally. She's won gold at the World Masters Champs.)

Middle - Red - Splits

Event: QOC Long Day's Night
 

Model course for Night-O at Oregon Ridge and 400 m climb up a former ski hill to get to the start. Given how cold it was, it was a great way to warm up.

Note to self: Remember to bring small emergency headlamp to point down at the map. I realized my omission too late and had to wear my small backup headlamp along with my BashBlaster for distance lighting. Definitely overkill, not that comfortable and made me look like the Borg. I always remember this for Rogaining but I think I made the same mistake at the U.S. Night-O Champs two years ago!

Long - but good - drive to the Washington D.C. area for a weekend of fun orienteering events hosted by QOC.

Tonight was the U.S. Night-O Champs. Since I'm the wrong nationality to race in the championship, and since I'd driven a long way, I raced in the elite category to get a longer course. I certainly got my money's worth! I lost almost 20 minutes on the first 2 controls but after that, things went pretty smoothly.

The first control was a typical, not-quite-focused-enough-yet Control 1 error. I forgot to turn on my Ambit until I was already wandering along a hillside in the dark looking for rootstocks but it looks like I was very close to the right spot in the first place. I ended up circling back to the start triangle since it wasn't that far away, then I had no trouble finding it the second time.

The second control turned into a huge mess! I wanted to build confidence after the first control so I decided to take a safer road route where I hoped to do more running. What I didn't know was that these maps have a different convention than Ontario maps for indicating private property. We use an olive green colour or purple out of bounds lines. I saw a bunch of buildings dispersed on a hillside mapped for orienteering so I was expecting summer camp buildings or the like. Instead I found myself running through a fancy subdivision. WTF?

There was a wooded ravine in the place where I'd planned to leave the road and it looked pretty wild - probably part of the park, I thought. However, a woman called down to ask why I was on her property. I apologized and assured her that I didn't want to be on her property so I went back out to the road and ran a loooong way around to get back to the park another way - over 10 minutes lost. The stupid thing is that later in the race when I was more confident with the map, I would not have considered that route choice. When I looked hard, I saw a grey line that was probably a park boundary (later confirmed by Jon). Not a convention I'm accustomed to, but I know it now!

Otherwise, things went fine, the course was challenging (18 controls on hilly terrain in the dark!), Valerie's results set-up was awesome, and I had lots of fun. So much climbing! Even though I botched it, I wasn't the only one apparently, so I was 3rd of 6 in F-21. I stuck around until most runners were back due to my jury duty, then I missed an exit on my way to the hotel in Fairfax, which was already 80 minutes away. Driving around D.C. is brutal. Long day. Tired. But it's good tired.

Night Championships - Red - Splits

I still haven't written my UTMB race report; the longer I leave it, the easier it is to leave it even longer! However, 'Bent and I are the keynote speakers at the C3 Annual Banquet next Sat. Nov. 22 in Caledon. I'm busy putting together a Powerpoint presentation that will be my first official race report.

Barrie Shepley suggested that we let our AR friends know in case anyone is interested in coming to the banquet, which is open to the public. We are C3 members, even though most other members are runners or triathletes, since it's the only endurance sport club in our area. We usually attend the banquet - silent auction, celebration of athletic accomplishments, chatting with interesting people, a presentation or two, etc. Apparently, they are only selling tickets until this Thursday night (tomorrow), although I wouldn't be surprised if they could squeeze in an extra person or two after that date. If anyone is interested, it would be great to have a few adventure sport friends to sit with us and smile understandingly while we speak. :) It's going to be more than a little daunting.
http://www.c3online.ca/index.php/events/91-2014-c3...

Rode to Albion Hills since I was finally able to reach the friendly park manager so I could pay for our mountain bike orienteering event. While I was there on such a sunny, warm day, it would have been a shame not to do a little single track before heading home.

Daylight Saving Time: The Movie. A week late but whatever...

Event: Raid the Hammer Adventure Run
 

DontGetLost Raid The Hammer with FB and MPopik. Longest run since UTMB by *far* - ouch! The boys kept up a good pace so this was tough - lots of towing and pushing in the first few hours. Thank you, teammates! FB was primary navigator and I was his backseat driver; it seemed to work out well since he is a faster runner.

It was a fun race course with lots of variety - mud, hills, Dundas Valley spaghetti, urban areas and a great 15-minute break at Domestique Cafe where we were able to connect with other racers and volunteers while drinking our hot chocolates.

We had a few minor bobbles and inefficiencies, which is par for the course in a long nav race, but mostly things went pretty smoothly. We were in the toughest category - Masters - which included the 1st and 3rd teams overall in the event. We were 10th of 41 teams on a day when only three teams were sub-4 hours so it was a decent run. Fun day in the woods! :)

Lousy week for sleep and for working out. My brain has been staying in high gear for most of the night.

Signed up for the U.S. Night and UltraLong Orienteering Champs. I really enjoy these formats but we don't get to do them around here. It'll be good to get away, too. As an non-eligible competitor for the champs, I'm going to have my first opportunity to serve on an event jury!

Caron did progressive core tonight, e.g.:
8 double sit-ups
8 double sit-ups + 8 double bird cages
8 double sit-ups + 8 double bird cages + 8 star fish each side
Etc.

Ouch.

And then it was progressive yoga, divided into balance work, standing poses and floor work - tougher to hang in there than it usually it is. My shoulder was less of an issue tonight - partly because of the things we did and didn't do, and partly because it's been doing better over the past week. Fingers crossed it's on the mend.

We brought Mocha to this class last week, and I got a little teary-eyed mid-class thinking about that. :(

January 7, 2003 - November 2, 2014
Rest in peace, Mocha.



Mocha, nicknamed BulletDog, joined our family when she was eleven months old. We didn't know her as a baby but she sure was a cute little fur ball.



Her original family cherished her but they were too busy to entertain an energetic chocolate Lab puppy. We fell in love with this sweet girl who needed a new home. She was a city dog who took some time to get comfortable with our forest trails, crazy smells and fields of tall weeds.



Our seven-year-old Lab, Tobler, fell in love with her too. They lived as sisters for almost eight years - playing, competing, sharing and cuddling. Mocha adored and looked up to Tobler; she was often alone as a puppy, and she was thrilled to share her life with another dog.











Mocha was even more attached to her favourite humans, including several outside our family. She loyally followed us around the house and through the forest, shared our mats when we did yoga, lay outside our shower, supervised our cooking, lay between us on the couch to watch movies, slept by our bed, and nudged us with her nose or paw when she wanted a cuddle. She knew she was loved but she liked to be reminded.





Mocha could be tentative about new situations or dogs but she hated to be left out so she tried extra hard to be brave. We called her our valiant dog.



She matured into a sweet, well-behaved adult. We could take her anywhere and we trusted her completely. It's hard to remember that we ever needed her leash, except around cars. She was popular in Richard's dental office, where she relaxed patients of all ages and helped staff with their lunches. She was unfailingly gentle with the smallest children but took awhile to warm up to men with grey beards.





Mocha loved the outdoors and was an elite athlete for most of her life. She accompanied Richard off-leash on his cross-country work commutes and joined us on canoe trips, bike rides, hikes, swims, skis, snowshoe treks and runs.

















It wasn't all smooth sailing. When Mocha was five, she twisted her knee and tore her ACL. After surgery and three months of rehabilitation, she came back strong. When she was eight, she lost her beloved Tobler. We took her on an Algonquin Park canoe trip for some family bonding time; she had fun but lacked her usual spark. Tobler had usually been the leader and Mocha seemed lost without her.





We hadn't expected to bring a new dog into our family so soon but Mocha's sadness encouraged us to adopt her brother Brody. She avoided him for ten days, then finally brought over a tug o' war rope and showed him how to play, as Tobler had shown her years before. The two of them became very close in their three years together.









When she was eleven, Mocha was diagnosed with cancer. There was hope because we caught it early and she got excellent treatment but we only had six more months together. She felt well until her final week, and she enjoyed hiking and steak on her last day.



We took her paddling a few times this autumn since we hadn't taken the dogs with us for several years due to her boisterous brother. She got excited when she saw the canoe, jumped right in and loved every moment on the water.



Richard made this wonderful paddling video in her last few weeks with us.



We miss her so much and are grateful to have shared our lives with her. If you have a pet, please give him or her a big hug in Mocha's honour. :)

Sadly, Mocha's health declined steadily after her seizures last Sunday. We made the tough decision yesterday and spent the weekend spoiling her with hikes, cuddles and steak, then she left us peacefully tonight. We miss our sweet girl with all our hearts, and our house is full of tears. However, we're grateful that we had time to say goodbye, and we're relieved that she is now free from cancer.

Bolton Fall Fifty, time deducted for stops and for the singing of "Oh Canada". This is Coach LD's annual birthday event - always a great time. Even though we weren't able to attend the full event, we enjoyed joining the group for a trail run from our place into the Palgrave forest. We gave Coach LD a satellite map with hidden treasure marked on it (turned out to be chocolate chip shortbread cookies). She did a great job getting us there so we had to take a more circuitous route home to ensure the group got their required distance. (Age = Kilometers at this birthday party.)