Training Log Archive: Bash

Snowy run on Finnerty and the closed section of Duffy's Lane while my winter tires were being put on. My Achilles felt surprisingly OK after yesterday's painful physio treatment.

2 km of rowing + dumbbells

Physio and shockwave appointment #4. There is now only a small location where Josh can cause white hot pain with the shockwave - a dime-sized area on the lower right of my heel. This seems like it should represent an improvement but I'm new to the shockwave thing. The tendon loading exercises are supposed to be the more important part, and I'll keep doing them for at least a couple of months after the shockwave is done.

A manifesto from Twitter:
"I refuse to put winter tires on my car..."
My fave part is "If I have tires, the government can track me in the snow."
https://twitter.com/kiteie/status/1464810881091469...

P.S. I'm getting my winter tires put on tomorrow.

Happy 60th Birthday and much love to 'Bent!

His #1 birthday wish each year is to ski - even if it's a short desperation ski on a few cms of snow on our lawn. This year was much better than that. There was a little snow when we arrived in Kolapore on Friday but not enough that 'Bent was tempted to go out. It snowed lightly all day today and it was pretty good for early season skiing. We skied over to the Richlers' place where Marla was also celebrating her birthday. We picked up her daughter Darcie and skied around their big field and back through our tree plantation. A perfect birthday celebration!







Before we left, I chose a Christmas tree. Then we drove home, lit Hanukkah candles for 'Bent and ate birthday cake - just to cover all the special occasion bases.

After some post-vaccine exhaustion and chill yesterday, I awoke at 5:30 am ready to resume normal life - well, as normal as it gets these days.

'Bent and AdventureDog went to Pretty River to run with Tarno and Ed. I took BazingaDog for a walk on the Kolapore short Bruce Trail Loop through the winter field. The snow wasn't that deep on the field so we were still walking through weeds but it was nice to be back on that route. It was probably a little more than BazingaDog needed as he is still recovering from his injury but he had a fantastic time and enjoyed rolling on his back in the snow.

Later, 'Bent was surprised on the eve of his birthday when friends arrived for dinner. Exciting! Four guests made it the largest crowd we've hosted indoors in almost two years. A brief taste of sweet normalcy!

First to the door to say "Surprise!" were Coach LD and Goose.



Then it was Dr. and Dr. Tarno.



And Koko, who wisely made herself at home on the dog bed in front of the fireplace.



Our dogs were surprisingly gentlemanly about it.





For the record, I was there too.

After my 1st and 2nd Covid shots, I just had a sore upper arm. This time my immune system is making it clear that it’s doing something. I slept most of the afternoon and had no energy to move at all. Dee texted to ask how much snow we have at Kolapore and I was too zonked to get up to look out a window. Bedtime was 8:30. Take that, Covid!

'Bent and I got our 3rd Covid shots during my volunteer shift. I'm eligible because I work in the clinic. He's eligible because it's his job to let unmasked, unvaxxed people spit near his face. Today is the last clinic before kids start coming in so 'Bent got bonus superhero posters!



As an aside, we both chose to mix it up because of the possibility of increased immunity from challenging our immune systems in slightly different ways. Following the lead of Dr. and Dr. Tarno, I got Moderna after double Pfizer. 'Bent did it the other way around.

The last 36 hours were a write-off due to a colonoscopy tonight. Be grateful if you're under 50! In addition to the usual fun, I was chilled for more than 24 hours and couldn't warm up. Apparently, nutrition is useful for many things.

2 km rowing + some upper body and core

Nice catch-up hike around Glen Haffy with Storm, Browner, Scout and Contour. BazingaDog stayed home to give his back more time to heal but AdventureDog picked up the slack and played with the other two dogs. Then we had yummy takeout lunch from the Caledon Brewery, watched Brad Jennings' new Wilderness Traverse film and sang an early Happy Birthday to 'Bent. Somehow I'd managed to keep his birthday chocolate mousse cake hidden in the fridge just by placing 4 cans of beer in front of the box. Luckily, he didn't get thirsty. :)

Here's Brad's new Wilderness Traverse film! Because we had two cohorts, he was able to come back the day after he raced to get additional footage.

Masked rail trail group hike from Town Hall to Cory Trépanier's stone on the Caledon Walk of Fame and back again, led by an energetic bagpiper who must have had very cold knees. Cory was a national ambassador for the Trans Canada Trail, which includes the Caledon Trailway, so it was an appropriate way to finish his outdoor Celebration of Life. All the dignitaries who spoke at his book launch four weeks ago returned to the podium - the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Mayor and the CEOs of Parks Canada, the Trans Canada Trail and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. His family was touched by all the support.

2 km rowing, physio exercises and some other dumbbell exercises. Baloney mentioned Turkish get-ups in her log again, which caused me to look it up on YouTube again - but this was the first time I tried a few. Using a tiny weight, I think I got the idea but it was hard! I can imagine what a good exercise it would be with a heavy weight.

Always good for a smile: the Comedy Wildlife Photography awards.
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2021/11/1...

I noticed a couple of my favourite outdoor gear items that I would buy in the MEC Black Friday sale if I didn't already own them. It's possible that other places have better BF deals on these items but these prices are pretty good if you're looking for this sort of thing.

Garmin InReach Mini satellite communicator - for safety/tracking/communications where cell service is unreliable or non-existent. Need to buy a plan. Marked down from $450 to $380. Seldom marked down very much.
https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5060-919/inReach-Min...

Black Diamond Distance Carbon FLZ Poles - I've used these for mountain ultras where poles were allowed and I've also used them to hike on rough terrain when I'm trying to protect my ankle. They're not the most durable poles and the length isn't adjustable but they are super light and I've never broken one in spite of numerous "attempts". Because they're so light, I don't mind bringing them even if I don't end up using them, and that's a big plus. Marked down from $245 to $183. There are other BD FLZ models at a lower price point, also on sale.
https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5057-640/Distance-Ca...

Physio appt: Shockwave #3 + active release of the right calf. I'm not sure if it means anything but today's shockwave was the most painful yet - only in one small area near the lower right back of the heel, almost at the bottom. Otherwise, I think it was less painful than usual.

Short treadmill run to confirm that I land a little more heavily on the right side (habit from my left ankle sprains) and drop my shoulder a bit to the right too (opposite to my guess). There's nothing glaring about my gait though. The biggest issue we've found so far is the huge difference in calf strength between right and left legs because I've protected the right Achilles for so long.

The traditional "I deserve a reward for driving Hwy 9 all the way to Newmarket" latte has been moved from Starbucks to the much superior Metropolis Cafe downtown. Veinbuster and J walked over to meet me there and we bravely sat on the chilly patio to avoid sharing indoor air with strangers since the next Covid surge seems to be underway.

First treadmill run with films for a long time. I'm hoping it will be easier on my Achilles.

Short basement workout, about 50% rowing.

I received a disturbing email from a friend today, sent to a large group of contacts. He shared his story of childhood sexual and emotional abuse by a man who became his Scoutmaster, and discussed his lifelong battle with shame and guilt.

Here's the part that absolutely crushed me: "My silence as a child continues to hurt me as an adult. I still cry about it and I am now 91 years old."

He is a retired professor and scientist, a published author and poet, and an experienced outdoorsman. (It's not a problem to share info about him, as he invited us to share his email with others, which would reveal his identity.) He originally wrote this story as an essay for the Globe and Mail but it wasn't published. Now, as dementia starts to steal his memories, he wants to share his important message and try to heal.

There was a ray of light at the vax clinic for the first 45 minutes when we had a rush of booster shot clients along with a few stragglers getting 1st or 2nd doses. We had hit rock bottom in terms of client cheerfulness; it will be nice to get back to seeing people who want to be vaccinated. Amongst other things, they tend to wear better masks around us! By next week, I expect there will be lots of boosters and in a few weeks, we'll probably start seeing elementary school kids, which will be a huge change. I suspect a lot of them will get their shots at school or from a family doc so maybe it won't be like the big rush of teenagers in the summer.

Three weeks ago, I attended artist Cory Trépanier's book launch, celebrating the final stage of his 15-year "Into The Arctic" project that included long expeditions, oil paintings, feature films and educational modules. I wrote about the book launch here in my log. The event was outdoors and Covid-small but it included a number of important people and he was showered with honours and laudatory speeches.

Sadly, Cory passed away from cancer at age 52 less than two weeks later.
His family published his obituary.

Last night 'Bent and I drove 4 hours to Sudbury (by way of Hammer and Etoile's place) so that today we could see the final "Into The Arctic" exhibition at Science North - the grand finale after 4 years of presenting his collection of Arctic paintings and films at different galleries, mostly in other countries. When the show was announced, I told Cory I would be there on opening weekend. It's hard to accept that he won't see his final Arctic exhibition but I wanted to keep my word.











Longtime AP readers may remember that Cory, his brother and I became buddies as we prepared for an adventure race - ESAR 2008. They were training for an Arctic expedition where their packs would weigh 100+ lb with all the painting and filming gear. They even logged their training on AP for a while.

Cory and his wife Janet did most of the filming on this short film of our race. 'Bent, Timato and Goose (particularly his rear end) are featured as well. A highlight for us was that we had to record our visits to some trekking checkpoints by copying simple drawings that were posted by the flags. We may have been the only team with a professional artist doing that! The trek in the film took place in the Kolapore Uplands, where we now have our chalet.



Cory's legacy will be his paintings, films and book, his two daughters, and all the honours he received over the years including a stone on the Caledon Walk of Fame and medals from The Explorers Club and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. But I'll remember him best as an enthusiastic, funny, skilled, ego-free, first-time adventure racer who helped us reach the top of the Coed podium, then retired from AR while he was on top. :)

Yesterday’s run, where I tried to land the same way on right/left feet, made my Achilles pretty mad - but it isn’t negotiable.

Sunny morning run on rolling gravel roads around home. Since starting my physio exercises, I've been noticing how much I've been protecting my injured Achilles. That explains how I've kept my pain scores fairly low as the injury has continued but it has led to major imbalances. My right calf has become much weaker than my left, which is one of the things we're working on.

Today I worked on landing closer to my midfoot - not a change in running gait, just trying to land in the same place on my right foot as I do on my left. I realized that I'd been landing with more weight on my heel, as I did when I was protecting it, then I would consciously force a push-off in an effort to stop protecting it. It was better than nothing but it still didn't match the left side. Either I'll be on crutches tomorrow or this might have done some good.

A few exercises at home after my physio appointment and 2nd shockwave treatment. "Tell me when it gets really painful so I can focus on those spots."

Lovely tribute to Veinbuster's wife, known as "Mrs" on Attackpoint - a beautiful human being, a tireless fundraiser for cancer research and a dear friend of 35 years. We'll miss you, Leslie.
https://www.arbormemorial.ca/taylor/obituaries/les...

Physio + some weighted core and upper body

Gorgeous morning! I was overdressed and felt slow.

Poor BazingaDog overdid it yesterday and wasn't really able to walk today. We're hoping it's just sore muscles. He also ran into a stick or thorny branch and cut himself around the eye and on the nose. He has antibiotic cream now - poor guy.

Annual Fall 50 hike around Palgrave West to celebrate Coach LD's birthday on Fri. Nov. 5. VO2Max was in town for a quick trip so we celebrated his Nov. 4 birthday as well. Hikers were Crash (Sarah), Rob & Tammy, Kevin & Gunda & McKenna, VO2Max, Mike and Chris Huet, Goose & Coach LD, and 'Bent, BazingaDog and AdventureDog. It was a beautiful morning - way too warm for November - and I mentioned to Chris that after walking through long weeds and leaf litter, we'd all need to do good tick checks.

Back on the patio at our place, we had yummy potluck birthday treats. I've eaten nothing but sugar all day and I'm typing very, very fast right now, lol. So nice to catch up with friends in person!

After eating about 1,000 calories of dessert with coffee, most of us headed out on bikes for Part 2 of the party, which was largely spent on the Caledon Trailway. I'm still feeling kicked in the gut from the past week, and I knew I wouldn't have the energy for a 44 km ride so I turned back at Caledon East.

When I got home and did a tick check before my shower, look who I found on my shoulder - gah! This female blacklegged tick hadn't been attached very long so there's nothing to worry about. My tick tweezers worked very well.



When the group got back, we finished up with more desserts and chatting. Thankfully, Richard is making us a real dinner with actual vegetables now!

Beautiful, sunny ride around Palgrave East single track. Lots of people were out hiking, including Gordon and Christine Chu and their daughter, which was a nice surprise. They don't live nearby and I had no idea they ever came here. I said hi to all the dogs I met and learned their names.

Otherwise, it was a tough, spirit crushing day. On Thursday and Friday, I lost two good friends to cancer. My emotions were already in high gear after the unsuccessful search for Kyra's Mom on Tuesday. #FuckCancer

New physio exercises. There's some pain from yesterday's run, a little worse than before I ran.

After yesterday's physio appointment and exercises, I wanted to test whether I should run on the same day as the strength exercises or on the "rest" day. It was a beautiful morning - around 0C so the ticks were asleep! I ran over to Palgrave Forest on Finnerty Sdrd and came home on trails - about 80% trail, 20% country road. I'll need to do some icing then see how things feel tomorrow.

First appointment with Josh Carty, a physiotherapist at the Newmarket clinic where I saw the sports medicine doc in August. I think I'm going to like working with him. Today's plan was assessment and treatment planning for the insertional Achilles tendinopathy on my right foot.

He said it's time to move on from eccentric heel drops to tendon-loading therapy, i.e. exercises with dumbbells on alternate days to allow time for rest and rebuilding of the tendon. He also gave me the first of five planned shockwave treatments. The exercise program is expected to last 12-16 weeks but after the shockwave is finished, I probably won't need to go in person. Wisely, he emailed me an app with my assigned exercises so he'll *know* if I miss doing them.

Random notes so I remember:

- For now, I should avoid stretching/flexing my feet so a lot of yoga exercises are out.
- Additional strength exercises are encouraged.
- It's OK if I run; we'll find out by trial and error whether my foot prefers running on the same day as the exercises or on the rest days.
- Ice to reduce inflammation from running - probably in the evening on the day of a run.
- As with my left foot, the pain may be largely coming from the retrocalcaneal bursa.
- Based on my ultrasound and his assessment, I don't need to worry much about sports causing further damage to my Achilles insertion. However, since I'm sometimes told that I'm limping from inflammation, I could mess up my biomechanics and injure a different joint. So that's the main reason to avoid pushing too hard. This, in particular, was a relief because I've imagined my faulty, calcified Achilles tendon fraying into little threads if I run too often.
- I should bring running shoes to the next appointment so he can watch me on the treadmill. He doesn't believe in making too many changes to natural gait but there could be an obvious issue.
- A lot of patients say they have high pain tolerance but many of them - usually men - do not, lol! I may not be much of an athlete but apparently I scored high on pain tolerance during today's treatments. I'm Scottish - I like to get my money's worth. ;)

I joined the search for Denise Gloster in the Dundas Valley and Mineral Springs Road area. First we were asked to register and attend a police briefing on how to look for a person with dementia in cold weather. They'd had no sightings of her so they were happy for searchers to look anywhere. We were hoping for more specific direction so I asked Kyra for her parents' usual hiking routes. There were two main routes so I took one and Laura Smith and her in-laws checked the other. The Hamilton Spectator photographed our planning session.



I hiked slowly while I was searching then jogged back along the trail Laura had already searched. Because of Denise's hiking fitness, I started a road search, driving along Hwy 99. The police phoned in the early afternoon to say she had been located. Soon afterward, sadly, they announced that she had passed away. My heart is breaking for Kyra, her Dad and their family. Denise was well loved.

UPDATE: She has been located.
————
For anyone in the Dundas Valley area or up to 30 km away, police are no longer looking for a woman walking. If she remained outdoors, she would most likely be hunkering down a short distance off a road or trail - maybe at a tree line or fence. A cold person’s instinct would be to burrow to get warm so look underneath vegetation.

UPDATE: She has been located.

More info in this new Spec article around 6 pm:
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2021/...

Dontgetlost orienteer Kyra Paterson's Mom is missing in the Ancaster area. She left her home some time during the night. She is hard of hearing and mostly non-verbal but she's a great hiker. The last time she left home, I think she was found 24 km away. If you want to help search, please go to the police command centre on Slote Rd just south of Mineral Springs (at top of hill) which will move to the Copetown Community Centre by Tuesday morning. Please share this post using the link below and I'll update it when I hear she's been found. [Update: she was found deceased on Nov. 2.]
https://ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/pe...