Training Log Archive: Bash

Hard Core Live with Caron. Felt pretty good - probably because it's only half as long as the Hard Core DVD!

Power Yoga class. Stretched some parts of me in places where I didn't know there were parts. There was an extended balance section tonight, and I reached the happy realization that I am no longer "pathetic" at balance. I honestly think I've graduated to "average". 'Bent also thought that I was moaning a bit less than most people in the upper body strength section, which was good to hear. When I started back into yoga last fall, my arms would shake in "upward dog", so there was a lot of room for improvement. (And there still is.)

'Bent very kindly installed a female-friendly bike seat and a special trainer tire on my old road bike, then put it onto his trainer and cued up the VCR to a show he thought I'd enjoy. (Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls - a Survivorman-type thing.) I encouraged him to do this in hopes of instilling a sense of GUILT if I didn't go down there and ride. It was a busy day, but our cunning strategy worked, so I rode the trainer for the first time this winter. It wasn't the most fascinating way I've ever spent my time, but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected, and hopefully I'll do this more often.

3.5 weeks after ACL surgery, and BulletDog has HAD it with her "controlled recovery". She's not supposed to run, jump, climb stairs or clamber onto furniture. Amongst other things, we've turned our couch around so that it faces away from the living room, forming part of the wall around the small area where she is normally confined these days. Yesterday she showed her disdain for the rules by lightly leaping up onto the back of the couch from the floor, then balancing like a cat. That's a heck of a leap for a 30 kg Lab, even one who isn't recovering from knee surgery, and we had to grab her to make sure she didn't jump back down and set her healing back a few weeks. I sure wish I could explain it to her.

I'm working toward a deadline for a magazine article, and as of 3:40 p.m., I'm still a laptop potato - other than one doggie physio walk. Ironically, the subject of my article is the high level of motivation that people feel when they commit to an outdoor fitness program, and I'm just writing the section on how anyone can squeeze a workout into a busy day. Oooh, the irony.

This wasn't supposed to be a day off, but 'Bent was tired from the weekend, so I was left to do Hard Core Monday alone, which I didn't feel like doing. Bad, unmotivated girl.

In happier news, the doggie physio had authorized BulletDog to start climbing hills today, which is her ticket to freedom around here, since we live on the Oak Ridges Moraine. No more boring loops around the house - yay! She can do up to three 20-minute walks daily on a short leash and is still banned from running, jumping, clambering onto furniture and climbing stairs. She's supposed to lift her legs to step over obstacles on uneven ground, so we went bushwhacking up hills today. Probably a little more action than the physio had pictured, but she was ecstatic.

Thomass UKR at Vivian Forest. Slice arrived with a fancy new Brunton thumb compass, and the M-Elites looked on with fear. (She runs on their course - and managed to kick most of their butts today.) Eugene had designed an interesting race format where our age/gender handicaps came into play in several different areas of the map.

It was one of those rare days when everything went according to plan, although in retrospect, I can see a couple of legs where I could have made more efficient route choices. When I'm running, I have a tendency to glance too quickly at the map, and twice today I missed trails that could have been helpful. But it turned out to be enough, and I got my first Thomass win in awhile - plus a bottle of wine. I was excited to see 'Bent arrive in 5th place (out of about 50 racers) after his bad luck with navigation yesterday.

Great morning in the woods - a layer of fresh powder and a bright sky. Fun as usual to see so many friends out. 'Bent and I made the most of our excursion by having brunch at Cora's in Newmarket on the way home, then visiting Nature's Emporium - a large grocery store full of organic, vegetarian and otherwise good-for-you stuff. I let 'Bent do most of the shopping, but made sure that we came home with a big jar of organic fair trade dark hot chocolate - yum.

Power Yoga for Flexibility with 'Bent. I think I could do forward bends all day - mmm, relaxing.

Event: Stars Winter Adventure Race
 

[Note: Our race time will be longer, but this omits the time that I spent waiting.]
They're a new club, but the Waterloo Stars do a great job of putting on creative, ambitious events - and the rest of us are very lucky that they do! Today you could do a Snowshoe-O, a Ski-O or a Winter Adventure Race that included both snowshoeing and skiing.

The Tree Huggers, consisting of 'Bent, 3PinJim and myself, chose the adventure race. We knew that Team Hotshot - Tiny, Bender and Nosnhoj, aka the Milton Basement Racers - were faster, but we were determined to give them a good run for their money.

We started with a Snowshoe-O. We had to run together to control #1, then split up to do 8 lettered controls before meeting back at the chalet. The twist was that one team member had to do at least 6 controls. So we assigned Mr. SpeedyPants 3PinJim the 6 controls in relatively flat terrain, while 'Bent and I each went partway up different places on the escarpment to pick up one control each.

We changed to classic ski equipment and - when our team was back together - headed up the escarpment a few minutes behind Team Hotshot. Much of the challenge of the ski-O came from choosing routes that obeyed the rules - always travel the correct direction on one-way trails, and never skate on a classic ski trail. There were some ungroomed, unbroken trails marked on the map that were available as options in many places. It was a clever course design that didn't give a clear advantage to either skate or classic skiers. We used classic equipment, but skated as much as we could when it was legal, even though it was a little awkward.

We skied from #2 to #5 together, then split up to gather 6 lettered controls. This time one team member had to collect at least 4 controls. So we sent our strongest skier, 'Bent, out to gather a loop of 4 controls while 3Pin and I headed out to get one distant control each. I made it out and back to #6 in half an hour, and two members of the Tiny Talent Team were waiting. Bender sailed in a couple of minutes later, so they left, then 3Pin arrived a few minutes after that - greatly relieved that he wasn't the last one. 'Bent was expected around the same time, but he didn't show up. We drank, ate snacks, put on warmer layers, and eventually started to speculate that he'd twisted his knee out there or worse. The nav wasn't that hard, and he's a much faster skier than we are. The 3rd place team arrived and said they'd seen 'Bent at the control that I'd visited. (This turned out to be incorrect, fortunately.)

After half an hour of waiting, I'd decided that it was time to pull the plug on the race and go back to see what had happened to 'Bent. I saw Race Director Nick through the trees and headed over to let him know. And then I saw 'Bent skiing with Nick! He was purple-faced - and no wonder, based on the sky-high numbers on his HRM download. He'd had some navigation issues looking for control E, but the final straw was that he thought we were meeting at #5 instead of #6. Because he had to avoid one-way trails, he'd bushwhacked for 3/4 km along the top of the escarpment through steep terrain and deep snow. As Nick describes it, when he discovered 'Bent, he was actually hugging a tree - or more accurately, hanging from a tree on a steep slope by one arm - so now he knows where our team name comes from! Nick was kind enough to inform 'Bent that he was heading to the wrong meeting place.

From there, we had a quick ski back to the chalet, picking up several more controls on the way and unfortunately falling into the crater that Tiny had left partway down one steep hill. We were handed 3 small map fragments with one control each, and we could pick them up any way we wanted to. Mine was at the top of the big hill by the chalet, so I skied up and down. The boys also decided to ski to their controls on the flats. Amazingly, we still squeaked out 2nd place by a minute or so, but we were a good half-hour behind Bender's Boys.

So... it wasn't our best performance, but it was still fun, and it was a great chance to have lunch, then hang out and catch up with various AR and orienteering friends. Hope the Stars do this again next year!:

Feeling tired. Need to rest before the Stars Winter Adventure Race tomorrow - especially now that Tiny, Nosnhoj and Bender have entered a speedy team with excellent nav skills. We can only hope that there's LOTS of skiing in the race, since they've been spending their winter mostly running.

Hurtn and I did a bushwhacking snowshoe tour of the hills and valleys in Palgrave West and the Koturbash and Wheelie properties. Big snowflakes were falling fast when we first headed out, then we were treated to a pink sky, then orange, then a glorious sunrise through frosty trees. Since I had an artist with me, I made sure to visit several scenic lookouts. Unfortunately, he didn't bring a canvas and I didn't bring a camera, but the countryside was really beautiful in the morning light.

The house that 'Bent and I were checking out from a distance on the weekend has sold already - wow! I noticed the "For Sale" sign less than a week ago. The house two properties to the east of us has also sold after more than 2 years on the market while it sat unoccupied as far as we could tell. Hey, there's a boom in our neighbourhood!

For the 2nd year in a row, the Under-23 and Junior World XC Ski Championships have had to be postponed because there's not enough snow in Europe. So VO2Max and his teammates will have to hold their peak for 3 more weeks. Climate change - it's no fun.

Caron's Hard Core class. She was without mercy tonight, and we began to think of crunches with legs straight up in the air as our rest position. 'Bent is a princess when it comes to those. He made some impressive grimaces.

We held our poses longer than usual tonight - for 5 long inhales and exhales. For some poses, this was tough! I'd noticed that the class was quiet tonight, and Caron commented on it too. I think we were all concentrating more than usual and didn't have energy left over for the usual light-hearted banter that makes our yoga classes extra entertaining (although they might not appeal to the "yoga as meditation" crowd).

Gurlz Ski with Coach LD at Albion Hills. Conditions are great right now - a total contrast to last week's ski there. We did the Red and Blue trails at a good pace (Coach's preferred pace). Excellent way to start the day.

Out the back door into a winter wonderland - a fresh layer of power, fine snow swirling down, -5C and a hint of sunshine. No one else had been out in Palgrave West yet (except for the short stretch where I overlapped 'Bent's commute) and every time I came around a bend, it was another Currier & Ives Christmas card scene. Good thing, because the skiing was a bit of a slog. Not sure why it was quite so difficult. I was breaking trail almost the whole time, which was certainly part of it. In spite of making what seemed like a decent wax choice, my grip was so-so, and my glide was bad. So it was a bit like skiing through oatmeal with maple syrup, but it was so beautiful that I stayed cheerful anyway. High winds predicted for later today, so we'll probably get more trees down again. There are more than half-a-dozen big, branch-covered trees down across the trails in various places, which led to a few surprises when the trails were so fast on the weekend! I moved some of the smaller logs today.

Now that I'm almost better (although sniffly again after yesterday's run), it's time to get back to my New Year's resolutions!

Hard Core Monday with 'Bent, who *really* doesn't enjoy doing crunches with both his legs straight up in the air. Me, I save my whining for the plank section near the end. Ooooffff.

BulletDog got her sutures out today and had a hydrotherapy session. So cute!! She and the dog physiotherapist went into a little plexiglass enclosure with a treadmill on the bottom. Then the door was closed, and it began to fill up with water until her legs were completely submerged. (BulletDog, not the physiotherapist.) Then the treadmill was started, and somehow BulletDog knew that she should walk on it. If it were me, and nobody could explain to me what a treadmill was, and the ground started to move while I was with a stranger in a small container quickly filling up with water, well... I think I could be forgiven for freaking out. But BulletDog acted like this sort of thing happens every day.

So we've survived the first 13 days of her post-surgical recovery. Today was the first time that they mentioned that it's normally a 3-6 month recovery, not a 6-8 week recovery. Say what?!? But the good news is, she's right on track, and we've got a whole bunch of new and even more time-consuming physio to do with her every day. There are a lot of tricks to get her to put her weight on her sore knee. Maybe some of them will work on 'Bent's bad knee, e.g. the "neck twist to eat a cookie being held near his hip" could be fun.

It's been a rough week in the dysfunctional world of southern Ontario orienteering politics. It's gotten to the point that when I check e-mail, I'm praying that I'll get nothing but Viagra ads. Fortunately, my own two clubs are moving forward in exciting ways, and there are some great people to work with in other clubs as well. That makes it all worth it. Maybe.

First time trying Rodney Yee Power Yoga Stamina DVD. Ironically, the Stamina workout is shorter than his Flexibility and Strength workouts. I like this one though, and would have been happy to have another 10 minutes of similar stuff.

If Rodney Yee is your type (and he isn't mine), you'll want to know that he wears a much skimpier swimsuit (or are those black undies?) in this DVD.

Gusty wind for much of the day, and since a lot of trees have come down across trails lately, 'Bent and I stuck mostly to roads today. Finnerty to Duffy's Lane (including 1 km not plowed) to Albion Hills. Small loop in Albion including some cross-country, small loop in Reddington subdivision, then home the same way. Roads were icy, so not much traction. When we weren't running on ice, we were running on soft snow. This was another good test for my lungs, which are about 90% recovered from my cold. It felt like hard work after a couple of weeks of not pushing too hard. Wildlife watch: Big flock (about 30) of pine grosbeaks. Beautiful birds.

When 'Bent and I were house hunting in rural Caledon 10 years ago, we had a hobby that we called "skulking". We were less interested in the house itself than we were in the land around it. So before we'd make an appointment with a real estate agent, we'd try to find out what the property was like, because maybe it wouldn't be worth making the call. We would disguise ourselves as a harmless couple pursuing outdoor recreational activities (and we were pretty darned convincing, if I do say so). We would try to find nearby public land or a trail, and then we'd casually wander as close as we dared, trying to get a view of the property from the back or side, or even (gasp!!) sneaking a little way onto it. Typically we were looking at 10-50 acre treed properties, so fortunately we never got caught skulking.

Fast-forward a decade, and a house just went up for sale on our block of land. It's smaller and looks more like our kind of place. So we couldn't resist. Luckily, we could ski all the way there, crossing Palgrave West and the land of neighbours who have given us permission to use their land. And then we skulked on foot. Interesting topography. Too bad the house is located in what seems to be the least desirable section of the 20-acre property. 'Bent's commute to work would involve some very serious hills, and it would take a little longer to ski to Crash's house. Still, it might be worth calling up the agent just for fun.

Skiing today was often icy and always very, very fast - which was sometimes fun and sometimes terrifying. Regardless, it was a beautiful day to be out in the woods.

This was the actual Skulk. It's a beautiful, varied piece of land. If the house were set further back from the road in a nicer part of the forest, it would be really cool. We only caught a short glimpse of the house, but spent lots of time figuring out where the boundaries probably were. Fortunately, we have permission from neighbours on 3 sides, so we figured that we could always pretend that we'd accidentally wandered off the So-and-So family's property!

Still haven't totally shaken that cold, so I thought a day off might be in order.

Hard Core - Live with Caron. There are several new people in the class, probably doing their part to live up to a New Year's resolution. Other than Caron, none of us makes it look easy - but it was good for the ego to see that the class is challenging for newbies. Maybe I've developed some abs at last.

Power Yoga - with a few poses that needed a particularly large amount of stamina from the core and thighs. An especially cool moment was when we learned how to do yoga squats - for those of us who can't do yoga squats. These are the ones where you come all the way down with heels flat on the ground and - in my case - gravity acts on your derriere to knock you onto your back unceremoniously. The trick is to roll up your yoga mat a bit to give your heels a bit of a lift. This was the first time I'd ever felt what a yoga squat is supposed to feel like, and I learned that it uses those mysterious muscles on the front of the shin that I need for skate skiing - so this is good information!

New Wednesday Gurlz ski at Albion Hills with Coach LD, Leanimal and Slice. Great way to start the day! The ski centre is technically closed right now, and the conditions varied from "pretty good" to "ice-coated sticks and pebbles". It was not a fun day to fall down, as the ground was frozen solid and cushioned by very lilttle snow. We kept up a good pace, especially considering how tough it was to wax properly for these conditions. Poor Slice's ski equipment committed mutiny, making her work harder than the rest of us.

Upper body blasting. Too bad - I'd been looking forward to getting into lots of strength work early in the year, and instead, I've regressed and become a little weaker. But there is still lots of time left in 2008 to achieve my New Year's resolutions!

Arggh - still feeling sick, but at least I'm able to do strength and light aerobic activity. I've got an adventure race in less than 2 weeks, and I don't feel like I could run for more than a minute.

Number of Get Well cards that have arrived in the mail for BulletDog = 2

Number of Get Well cards for me = 0

Out with Leanimal for a fun exploration of some new parts of Glen Haffy. Checked out a few Thomass control locations. Lots of steep hill climbs in a surprising amount of snow. Avalanche risk: Medium to High. But I'm sure we could have used our compasses as probes if necessary.

The non-nav time in Glen Haffy with Leanimal... We ran in to the Secret Starting Point of the Thomass race, then ran even harder on the long way back when we suddenly realized that time had flown while we were having fun, and Dr. Leanimal had to get back to a patient for 4:30! That's a good way to keep my pace up even when the snow makes running tough and my body doesn't feel like it - we'll have to cut it this close more often. ;-)

Desperation skiing - only a few cm of fluffy new snow covering bare ground in some places, but fairly nice in the places that hadn't lost their snow. Sometimes my skis left brown tracks behind them, so I couldn't ski back in the same tracks. I notice that some brave soul descended Big Hill near the Belusas' Forest Limits sign. Was that you, Crash? Or maybe the skier is still down at the bottom of the hill?!

ThunderDog enjoyed it immensely and got all tuckered out. 'Bent had a conference call for his wind energy group tonight, and it was hilarious to see ThunderDog sprawled on his lap snoring loudly in the direction of the telephone receiver.

Meanwhile, BulletDog is on Day 6 of her projected 56-day recovery from surgery. More and more, she is putting weight on the affected leg, which is good. Some dogs maintain a 3-legged gait long after their knee surgery. All the physio we're doing is supposed to keep her leg mobile and convince her to use it. She is getting *really* bored with the limited amount of the house she is allowed to explore - let alone the great outdoors.

Caron's Power Yoga 2

My cold is still lingering. Yesterday's trek in the chilly air was probably more than my lungs were ready for, and they fought back a little today. Still not ready for high intensity stuff. Even Hammer is out-training me.

We dropped Leanimal off at Glen Haffy for more work on her super-secret and extremely difficult Thomass race course. Man, I would *hate* to be one of those elite males - I'll be surprised if more than half of them emerge from the forest before sunset.

The rest of us - Phatty, Goose, 'Bent and I - headed down the Bruce Trail in the direction of our place. Some difficult footing, with a combo of ice, snow and frozen bare ground, and at times I had to trot a little to catch up with the tall people. But there was good conversation, and it was great to be out in the woods. My lungs are definitely not all there yet, but I'm down to one major coughing fit that wakes me up per night, which is good news.

I stayed with the group until the BT met Duffy's Lane, then looped back toward home. 'Bent lasted until south of Albion Hills, then phoned for a Sienna evacuation. As far as I know, Phatty and Goose made it all the way back to Bolton. Good stuff!

The forecast is returning to winter again over the next few days - yahoo! We actually still have snow cover on 40-50% of our property, in spite of 12C temperatures for a couple of days. As most people know, the southern Ontario adventure race companies aren't offering any winter adventure races this year, so let's support the orienteering clubs who are putting a lot of volunteer work into providing fun navigation events in our area at a reasonable cost! Events will take place with or without snow, modified if necessary.

Jan. 26 - Mansfield Outdoor Centre - Waterloo Stars
Winter Adventure Race, Snowshoe-O and Ski-O

Feb. 23 - Horseshoe Valley - GHO
Horseshoe Resort Snowshoe Raid

Forgot to report that our youngest Tree Hugger, VO2Max, was selected this week to go to the Under-23 XC Ski World Champs in Poland next month! He was one of 4 men selected to the national U23 team. Yahoo!

A little test of the lungs. I've still got some recovering to do, but it's time to turn off the "sick flag" on my log. Yay.

Hard Core DVD with 'Bent and the pooches. If Hammer can do it 3 times a week, surely we can do it once!

BulletDog is doing really well post-surgery - maybe a little too well, since she escaped me and ran to the front door on a slippery ceramic tile floor today, which is strictly verboten. Dog physiotherapy sure is a time-consuming job! Ice, massage, passive motion, supported walking, etc. I wonder how much we'd have to bribe Slice to move in with us for two months.

Caron Shepley's Power Yoga for Endurance Athletes DVD #1. I've tried several different yoga DVDs lately, and after doing this one for the first time in awhile, I think it would be my recommendation (from my DVD collection) to athletes who are making the move into yoga. She explains everything thoroughly and offers alternate poses, which is great for beginners, but it's also a good, thorough workout suitable for people with more fitness and experience. It felt great to be doing something again! Not quite ready to run, but hopefully that will come soon. Still have a cough, but the 9-day sore throat is thankfully over.

Some additional exercises - straight leg lifts in various positions, calf lifts in different positions, lunges, lying-on-back-one-legged-bum-lifts (what *are* these things really called?)

At times when I feel this crappy for this long, I would give anything to be able to do a 2-hr run or a tough strength workout. I hope that when I'm healthy again, I will remember this and not let any training opportunities go to waste.

BulletDog is home! I'd asked for sedatives because she's hyper and loves to jump, and I don't want her to wreck her nice knee surgery. But when the technician came out of the hospital with BulletDog, she was completely docile (the dog, not the technician). They explained that she had been totally calm for the past two days and hadn't attempted to chew her incision or jump or bark or do anything bad whatsoever. They just couldn't see this nice little dog needing sedatives. Darn, that BulletDog is a better actor than I'd imagined. We'd been on the road about 10 minutes when I first caught her nibbling at her sutures. And by the time we got home, she was grabbing toys and trying to jump and run around. It's going to be a long 2 months... But the good news is that she seems to be doing really, really well.

Rats, I'm still feeling rotten but haven't resorted to antibiotics yet.

BulletDog is doing well, and her vet says that the post-surgical X-rays of her knee look great. They claim that she's not even barking when they put her in a cage, which must mean that her drugs are really good. Hope to bring her home tomorrow.

Went to the funeral home to see my friend whose wife died tragically in her mid-thirties. Very, very, very sad - especially with young children.

Arggh, it's been a long time since I've been out of commission this long - and I'm not feeling that much better yet. Some chance of strep throat, I guess, so it might be time to fight my way into the healthcare system. I've already got the necessary drugs, but hate to use antibiotics needlessly.

Higher priority tomorrow, however, is animal healthcare. BulletDog goes in for her ACL surgery at 8 a.m. Life is going to be different around here for the next two months.

Spent the weekend in Duntroon watching ski races. We'd hoped to do some skiing, but there wasn't time. And as it turns out, I didn't feel well enough anyway.

Just so my log isn't completely empty for the past few days, we snowshoed up and down hills through some deep snow to find the perfect vantage point to watch Chandra Crawford, Sara Renner and others in the XC ski sprint heats. When we got there, we enjoyed some bonding time with Bobkitten Trish-and-a-half.

Tried to do some yoga, but had to stop less than a minute into it. Not feeling good at all.

Spent the afternoon cheering on VO2Max in the Haywood Noram 20K Pursuit at Highlands Nordic. He had a great race, finishing 3rd in Under-23 and 11th in Open Men. Great start to the national team trials weekend, where he needs to qualify as one of the top four Under-23 skiers. However, the online results posted tonight are wonky, with more than 1/3 of the racers shown as DNF, including VO2Max. We'll have to stay tuned, but I suspect that the timing system managed to capture start times without finish times for a bunch of the guys.

I felt fine during the day, which was *very* chilly, but by dinnertime, I was fatigued with a sore throat flaring up. Hope it passes quickly.

Just received a very sad e-mail about friends who went on vacation down south. It was their first holiday alone in years because they've been busy raising young children and running a business together. Tragically, she drowned. I can't imagine what he and their family must be going through. They're wonderful people, and it's heartbreaking news.

Please give some special people in your life a hug in her honour.

Some New Year's training resolutions... Unlike 2006, I didn't take my 2007 training resolutions very seriously, so most of these are repeated from last year's list. I'll try to review them monthly this time instead of waiting a year to find out how badly I did!!

1) Strength training - min. 1 hr/week. Leg, core, upper body.
2) Improve training quality, including speed work.
3) Improve technical orienteering skills.
4) 500 hrs total annual training
5) Get weight down to target - and stay there.
6) Continue to schedule training at specific times - C3, arranging to meet other people, etc. This is the most reliable way to ensure that I get out on busy days.

Sunshine, green wax, freshly groomed powder and -10C at Albion Hills. We aren't lucky enough to get *that* combination very often! Green trail (warm-up), Red trail (main ski) and Yellow trail (because I just wasn't ready to quit). By the time I was done, the family skiers were out in force, so it was time to leave the trails to them. Even though they slow me down, I'm always glad to see them out. If they're XC skiing, then they aren't walking or snowmobiling on the tracks, and they're sharing our love of the outdoors instead of playing Nintendo, which is awesome. One of these days, we might need those kids to save the world from our generation, so I want them to learn the right priorities!

BTW, my damaged rhomboid muscle, which nearly had my back in spasms 3 days ago, seems to be on the road to recovery. Good thing, since it would be unpleasant to put ice down my shirt when it's only 13C in the house today!

Power Yoga for Flexibility

2007 TRAINING (% compared with 2006, activities listed in order of hrs)
Orienteering - 94.5 hrs (-36%)
Running - 77 hrs (+6%)
Cycling - 72 hrs (+32%)
XC Skiing - 69 hrs (+64%)
Adventure Racing - 50.5 hrs (-46%)
Trekking - 49.5 hrs (same)
Strength - 24.5 hrs (-44%)
Yoga - 21.5 hrs (+231%)
Snowshoeing - 17.5 hrs (+119%)
Paddling - 15.5 hrs (same)
Other - 1.5 hrs

TOTAL - 492.5 hrs (-8%)

- For the 2nd year in a row, the amount of time spent on my "primary" sport of adventure racing decreased by half, dropping it to #5 on my list. This is not because I don't like AR anymore - it's because companies are offering fewer events, and the events that they *do* offer are shorter. This decrease in AR hours more than accounted for my overall drop in training hours vs. 2006, and also accounted for my 2006 drop in training hours compared to "2005" (actually the 12 months starting March 2005, when I started my AP log).

Aside from that, there was also a big change in my activity mix this year:
- XC skiing and snowshoeing were a lot higher due to nice winter weather and ski vacations.
- I did much more yoga and will continue to do even more. It's a great way to prevent injuries and stretch out muscles.
- I increased my biking by a third - a surprise. The routine of the Wednesday morning group ride undoubtedly contributed to that.
- My running time increased a little, and one of the reasons was my weekly Gurlz Run with Leanimal, which got me out in all kinds of weather in every season.
- Trekking time remained high due to our backpacking trip in the Dolomites.
- Not surprisingly, my orienteering time was down by more than a third from last year, and more than half of that time was devoted to less traditional forms of the sport - rogaining and adventure running. I certainly feel the reduction in my skills. My only A meet this year was NavStock. Too bad.
- I'm surprised to see it, but I can't argue with Attackpoint... my strength training decreased by almost a half when I was supposed to be bumping it up. Yikes - gotta incorporate that into my New Year's training resolutions, probably coming up tomorrow.

About 20 cm of fluffy white stuff had come down by late afternoon, and it's still falling - yahoo! 'Bent and I headed out for a ski around Palgrave West, following what appeared to be the remnants of a groomed trail, possibly created by VO2Max's grandfather for the entertainment of the National Team Development Centre members who stayed at their place for a couple of days around New Year's. We had lots of heavy powder to push through on top of the tracks, and it was *awesome*. (Take note, Revy.)