Training Log Archive: Bash

It's been cold but we've had no snow in the last couple of days so today's gravel road run (Finnerty, Humber Station) was mostly on ice with some mud for variety. I wanted to wear my Spikecross but was horrified to find them buried in my car, where they have apparently been hiding since Raid The Hammer three weeks ago. They are still wet and strangely odour-free but we'll see if that continues now that I've brought them indoors.

So I reluctantly wore my Snowcross, which I'm trying to use only when necessary in hopes they will last as long as possible. Salomon's 2018/19 Snowcross model has no metal spikes, and I've looked everywhere for last year's model in my size without success. I was so miffed that I wrote Salomon's head shoe designer guy in France - the one who has Phatty's old job - and asked him what gives. He said there are different preferences in different countries, and they'll have two different models for 2019/20, with and without spikes.

In the meantime, I need to take very good care of my favourite winter shoes. Seinfeld fans will remember Elaine's word "spongeworthy". I'll be evaluating each run to decide if it's Snowcross-worthy. :)

Hard Core Live with Caron.

C3 Yoga with triathletes.

This felt great - outside in cold air and sunshine! To be kind to my gimpy foot and avoid another ankle sprain, I ran on rolling gravel roads (Finnerty, Duffy's Lane). They were covered with ice, snow, slush and mud so it felt like a trail run except for the exciting risk of being hit by a car on a blind hill. Luckily, I only saw about a dozen vehicles. I tried to run down the section of Duffy's Lane that is closed in winter but it was coated in glare ice with a skiff of snow so I turned back. Next time I'll wear spikes. Can't wait to get back on trails when my foot is strong enough!

He's a little wacky but he's my one and only. Happy Birthday, Richard! :)

Btw this is what he looks like when he walks in the door from work!

Foot was much less sore by the end of the day. Time to get back to it - if I can even remember what "it" is.

Remembering Sharon Adams-Dean, one of my oldest friends, who died a year ago today. Her Ontario memorial was held this afternoon. This picture is from the last time we saw each other.

'Bent and I decided to combine our workout with BazingaDog's and AdventureDog's workouts today. We all snowshoed up and around Blue Mountain, doing things we normally can't do when the resort is open for downhill skiing. We followed downhill mountain bike trails and walked up ski slopes. We got to some new places and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, my foot hurts. :(

We'd been looking forward to meeting Mr. and Mrs. Veinbuster at the Collective Arts beer tasting/pairing event at the Crow Bar but there were freezing rain warnings from Collingwood all the way down to their place so we'll get together another time. We tasted one extra beer in their honour. ;)

'Bent and I got a lot of things done around Tree Hugger ABC during our last few visits. It's starting to feel more homey now that the fireplace is built and some things are hanging on the walls.

Scenic Caves opened for XC skiing today, and 'Bent and I were there before lunch to buy season passes. It's important to use as much of the season as possible! Conditions were surprisingly good for November - a few rough patches and a little ice but mostly nice, soft snow.

It was groomed for skating with no tracks set for classic so we made our own tracks at the side of the trail. The groomer went by us several times. When we started, the staff said they had 8 km of trail open but as we skied, more and more trails were groomed and we didn't miss much of the network.

We said "hi" to Martin Rydlo as he flew by on skate skis, and we saw his wife Stacie Smith arriving as we were leaving. Most of the time, we had the trails to ourselves - magical!

Some people have written me about Salomon's Friends and Family VIP sales. The store manager discontinued them for 2018 but Salomon Store Toronto does have a pretty good Black Friday sale continuing through Monday. They have some really nice winter tights and pants this year; I stocked up.
http://view.email.salomon.com/?qs=1da74df1314d7b59...

While we're talking Black Friday, if you enter the discount code BLACK when you check out at 33-off.com, there are even better discounts than usual. They always have great prices on Atlas Race snowshoes but you can get them for $217 Canadian including tax and shipping. I'm not sure how long the BF sale lasts but that's an excellent deal. The Atlas site sells them for $349.99 + tax.
https://33-off.com/products/atlas-race

Still some pain in my ankle but I started back with heavier weights today, and it didn't feel worse. It's going to be a long road to CCC next year but I'm looking forward to building up to it.

A few people have written to ask about the Salomon Toronto Store's VIP Friends and Family Sale, which used to happen in November. It has been replaced with a new Black Friday Week, which started today. They have running apparel and shoes, nordic and downhill ski clothing, hiking boots, winter jackets, running/hiking packs, Suunto watches, etc. See details at the link. I stocked up on winter tights and pants this year and they've come in handy already!
http://view.email.salomon.com/?qs=1da74df1314d7b59...

Foothab and balance. This highlighted some weaknesses and painful places in my left foot - a good reminder to get back to Dr. Thumbs-of-Death soon. But really, it wasn't that bad considering that I did two orienteering races on the weekend with only Leukotape bracing my ankle.

Got lots of boring stuff done around the house. Not loggable, alas.

O Cup #1 Kick-Start
Columbia Forest

It's O Cup season and it may be the most wintry season opener I remember! It was 'Bent's first time attending the Stars' double header O Cup: one race in the afternoon and one in the early evening. Such a fun format.

Laura Teutsch did a great job setting up the longer afternoon course, which began with a 15-control Box on one side of the map. We could drop a number of controls equal to (2 X Handicap), which for me works out to 10 controls.

Unfortunately, that number "10 controls" stuck in my head as we started running. I stopped a couple of times to confirm which 10 controls I wanted to visit and had started to execute my plan when I remembered, "Duh - I only need to visit 5 controls." So I definitely didn't have the best plan, and it was made a little worse by veering off my line toward an enticing flag that, it turns out, I had already visited.

We passed through the start and flipped our maps over for a set of point-to-point controls through the same area. There were a *lot* of flags out there and at one point, I punched one thinking, "That's not in the right spot - good thing I noticed it." Then I looked down the hill into a re-entrant and saw the *real* control, right where it was supposed to be.

My ankle is still sore from Raid The Hammer, and at least some of the pain came from wearing the ankle brace too long. I didn't want to wear it today so I used about an acre of Leukotape to hold my ankle in position. It worked really well! The one negative is that I was so excited to feel good while running in the beautiful snow that I outran my nav skills. Not that I was running fast but I've lost so much fitness that my brain gets oxygen deprived sooner than it used to.

I forgot to start my Ambit so I'm guessing distance and elevation.

O Cup #2
Starry Nights
Monarch Woods, Kitchener

'Bent and I got thoroughly chilled when we stood around chatting after the first race but thankfully, Mrs. Tiny took a few of us in and fed us snacks and hot coffee. It got cold in the dark parking lot as we waited for the race to start tonight. A few of us did the Chicken Dance to stay warm, and I can report that it's very effective.

Nick designed this course and it was a lot of fun - plenty of variety in a small area. Even by Nick's standards, the instructions were complicated but I think I did the right thing. Once again, I had a couple of nav bobbles. The first error was taking the wrong path out of #1, necessitating a short, thick bushwhack and a chilly creek crossing to get back on the right trail. My feet were going to get wet later so it didn't really matter.

Then in the 2nd O Cup box, I crossed the creek with a half-arsed plan that got me up to the right elevation, then I noticed a reflector and got sucked over to Control B. Whoops - I headed over to #2, then back to B, following my tracks through the snow. From there, it was mostly a road and trail run to the finish, passing two more controls. I think I was 2nd, just behind Wokitoki Jr., who is going to be giving his Dad (Chad) a run for his money soon.

Thank you Timato, Nick and Laura for all your hard work on a terrific event! :)

Didn't quite run 8 km in an hour as planned, lol! Treadmill running didn't bother my ankle any more than day-to-day walking. I'm still feeling the pain on the bone from wearing the ankle brace for so long. Unfortunately, there was a brand new pain - a weird left hamstring full-length twinge that I've never felt before. It's not that long since Raid The Hammer so I'm hoping it's just a minor strain. It eased off somewhat during this session. On Sunday I ran and scrambled for hours in rough terrain with the movement of my ankle restricted by the brace. It wouldn't be surprising if forces were transferred elsewhere.

Less hobbling today. My left medial malleolus is really sore around its bottom and side, which I view as good news since that's where the ankle brace was pressing on the bone for 5.5 hours of Raid The Hammer. The soft tissue pain from the sprain seems to have lessened considerably although it's hard to tell the different pains apart so I'm not 100% sure. I'm hoping to get running on flattish surfaces soon.

P.S. Yay, snow!! 'Bent went for his first ski this morning.



It was a rock ski kind of day.



P.P.S. Ugh, municipal building departments, amirite?

Ouch.

Raid The Hammer
Waterdown
Tree Huggers with Browner and Dee

In the past 7 weeks, I don't think I've tried to run more than 5 km at a time, and it's been on relatively smooth terrain other than Peak-2-Peak, which I mostly walked. So today was a huge stretch; I wore an ankle brace and felt creaky and horribly out of shape.

But what a nice day! The sunny, cool weather was perfect for running. The race course was interesting and varied with some challenging navigation on good maps. My teammates were great with Dee toughing it out with a cold and in considerable pain, while Browner navigated with me and was the strongest of us all. We crossed (and crossed and crossed) Grindstone Creek, squeezed through a narrow crack to climb the escarpment, and picked our way around rocks and crevices near Kerncliff Park.

There were two Matrix sections, one at the beginning (Hidden Valley Park) and one at the end (subdivision streets near Waterdown District High - nasty on my metal spikes). The final large map was held back until the moment we needed it. Our navigation was clean except for a small bobble when I got distracted and started to go to #14 after #7, rather than #8. As one does. Sigh.

I'd be interested to know what people thought about the new rule where racers only need to get within two large steps (max 5 m) of the flag, except for the racers with the SI cards. I thought it was a great improvement - safer and more practical than having everyone touch the flag. We didn't arrive at CPs with other teams very often so I don't know if it reduced cheating but I assume it did.

We raced in the Masters category and placed 3rd of 5 behind some strong men. Overall, we were 16th of 28 if I've counted right. There were also 59 teams in the Half Raid, which didn't exist when I started Raiding The Hammer so our results used to look better than they do now. ;)

My only complaint is that my tights didn't pick up many burrs, making it difficult to test the Burr Paw that I just bought on Work4justice's advice. I wish I'd had this for Peak-2-Peak.
https://www.amazon.ca/BurrPaw-Multi-Purpose-Sticke...

Huge thank you to Anvil, Meghan and the team of volunteers who made this terrific event happen once again!

After a long day of work on the Orienteering Ontario archives with Laura S., I went for a short tour of Palgrave West with AdventureDog. This is the same route where I re-twisted my ankle two weeks ago but this time I was less of an idiot, i.e. I wore an ankle brace. I'll be running a lot farther at Raid The Hammer on Sunday, which will be interesting - although I hear our team will be doing some hiking too. Foot pain is still there.

Hard Core with Caron

Power Yoga for triathletes

'Bent and I were scheduled to try a new boot camp this morning but *everybody* else dropped out so the instructor cancelled. Boo. The highlight of my day ended up being another excruciating visit to Dr. Thumbs-of-Death.

Wild winds today so I stayed indoors and did my first treadmill run of the winter. Not my favourite but Youtube running videos won't watch themselves!

The most interesting one was the Ginger Runner's review of the new Suunto 9. It confirmed my plan to stick with the Suunto Ambit 3 Peak for the foreseeable future. The Suunto Spartan and Suunto 9 are great watches but if accurate data is your thing, you want the bulky antenna on the Ambit 3 Peak.

Sleep was cobbled together from uncomfortable airplane naps and a long nap when I got home. Not the most restful! It’s great to be home with my boys.

All-day films with Myka, Amik and Carbon's Offset, then dinner out in Canmore and a red-eye flight home from Calgary. It's been great but that's enough sitting indoors; it's time to get back outside for some firsthand fun!

All-day films with Myka, Amik and Carbon's Offset. After a spectacular dinner served expertly by CO's friend Sue at Chuck's Steakhouse, we returned for a fun presentation by explorer Sarah Outen and a few more films. We were out from 7:30 a.m. until almost midnight. The Banff Film Festival is an endurance event!

Day 2 of the book festival including a long “Voices of Adventure” interview with mountaineer Doug Scott and a heartbreaking presentation by talented mountain author David Roberts, who has incurable throat cancer. Then Myka, Amik, Carbon’s Offset and I saw the incredible “Dawn Wall” film and a presentation by its star, climber Tommy Caldwell. Wow.

Dirtbag Runners in Canmore - a rare guest appearance! Myka and Carbon's Offset were also running. Tonight's workout was an uphill, mostly gravel road run from the Grassi Lakes parking lot, up Spray Lakes Road to the The Gap. It wasn't as bad as I expected since the slope is fairly gradual. Myka ran the whole way like it was no big deal while I took a bunch of hiking breaks. I blame the air; what the heck have they done with all the oxygen in Canmore? I'm sure it didn't help that I've barely done any running since September but I would have taken walking breaks regardless.

After last week's mishap, I wore my ankle brace, and my foot felt fine on the gravel road. The downhill portion of the run was on the Reclaimer trail, which is steep and rocky, especially at the beginning. Oh, and it was dark by then. I could feel twinges in my foot from the uneven footing but I was verrrry careful and made it to the bottom without incident.

So much fun and the people were really nice. We went to the Half Hitch for dinner and beer afterward.









I arrived in Canmore yesterday, mostly to attend the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festival but also to visit as many local friends as possible. Slice and I went to an event last night.



Today I attended author presentations at the Banff Centre.



... and bought my first few books.