Training Log Archive: Bash

Chatty run around Georgetown in the pouring rain with Dee and Mrs. Gally. Nice mix of residential roads and muddy park trails.

Mrs. Gally led us in a great post-run boot camp in her basement. It was going well until I couldn't reach the handle on the rowing machine with my feet strapped in. As I started my first stroke, in a textbook demonstration of poor rowing form, I leaned way forward and pulled back on the handle, planning to bring it back to the right position. Unfortunately, I expected the handle to come back more easily so I pushed back hard with my legs but it didn't budge. I heard a *crack* around one of my vertebrae. I probably did my own chiropractic adjustment or strained a ligament in my upper back but it's always freaky to hear noises near your spine so I stopped boot camping. Mrs. Gally and Dee were great. When we'd established that nothing was hurting or numb, I took over Mrs. Gally's role. I did my best imitation of an army sergeant/personal trainer, yelling "motivation" at the ladies as they finished the workout.

Thanks for the fun, Mrs. Gally. Hope I finish the workout next time!

Funderstorm, Allison, BugsinTeeth, Simpy and I did an evening Hockley Loop, - half in daylight, half in the dark. We were surprised to find snow and ice in numerous sections but mostly it was mud. Without spikes (except for Funderstorm), we were very cautious and sometimes had to go off-trail.

The biggest surprise, however, was the ice storm damage; it was huge. We had to bushwhack away from the trail on a number of occasions. There are so many large trees down, especially north of Hockley Road, that I can't imagine running the Hockley Loop very much this year. The Bruce Trail volunteers have a very busy season ahead. We should see if we can join a work party. Unfortunately, without any chainsaw skills, we probably can't help much. If you run on the Bruce Trail, be sure to buy a membership. They're going to need it.
http://brucetrail.org/

Great company and warm temperatures for this Loop, which felt more like an adventure race than a trail run. I had dinner after 11 p.m. so I'm not improving my sleep habits just yet!

After watching The Nature of Things episode on the latest research on the importance of sleep, I'm trying extra hard! Still falling short though; my brain won't always shut up in the night.

The last class of each month is Tiara Tuesday - an extra tough one. Lots of Tabatas!

Gusty wind warning and some of the trees around here are still fragile after the ice storm. So... the basement it was.

Mix - mostly lower body and core, including some Coach Jeff drills and Dr. Bell-xercises.

Beautiful, sunny Easter trail run in Halton Forest and Hilton Falls, led by local tour guide, Browner. I arrived early at the northern Britton parking lot and was surprised when Mr. Gally stopped in briefly to say "hi" on his way to meet DoubleDown in the southern parking lot! The boys didn't run fast enough to catch us though. Maybe next time. ;)

Our run was a fun mix of rocky single track, mud and rolling double track. Not as much climb as we've been doing in the Hockley area but much more technical - a nice change of pace.

I had a scary moment when I got a Facebook Safety Check text asking me if I was safe after the explosion. Less than a minute later, I got a text from Mom asking me if I was OK. I thought there must have been a disaster in Palgrave so I phoned 'Bent who was fine and had received the same text from Facebook. Turns out they'd made an error in contacting people from around the world regarding the tragic explosion in Pakistan. Did any of you get this text?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/lahore-park-bomb-1.35...

Browner brought chocolate Easter eggs for a treat when we stopped to check out Hilton Falls. At the end of our run, we could have gone a little farther to reach one of our goals (either 30 km or 4 hours) but we decided instead to take our remaining time to visit the awesome Flying Monkey bike shop and coffee bar in Campbellville. Sitting on their patio in the sunshine with a huge home baked cookie and double Americano was the perfect way to end an early spring run. Thanks, Browner!

Much better sleep at Mom's place! Back home now and grateful to all the Hydro One staff who gave up their Easter holiday weekends.

Power still out after more than 12 hours. Not a restful night with huge slabs of ice sliding off the roof and dogs "guarding" against it (not that I can blame them!)

A mix ranging from Bulgarian split squats to soleus stretches.

And now our power is out. Figured that would happen eventually.

Ice storm day with local schools closed, which rarely happens. Usually they just cancel the school buses and make all the teachers drive to work anyway. It's looking like we won't be hit as hard as originally forecast and might even keep our electricity! Still, the forest was icy and rattling, and the roads were slick so I ran in the basement and listened to Silkychrome's TA1 interview. I kept adding 0.2 mph every 2 minutes until it seemed like a good time to reverse the trend. Sure wish I could run as fast in the real world as I do on a treadmill at 1% incline!

Noon run around Palgrave West. I didn't feel great before I went out and it took a long time for this run to feel good. I felt fuzzy-headed for the first 15 minutes. Maybe it was because I ran right after eating or maybe it was because I woke up for 45 minutes in the middle of the night and couldn't make my brain slow down. I felt fine at boot camp last night. On the bright side, I didn't feel sore at all running on trails. I guess those gravel road runs are a lot harder on the body, even though they're a good way to work on running form.

The latest Stormageddon has begun. It's been snowing for the past 2 hours and it is finally cold enough to stick. At midnight, it's supposed to turn to freezing rain for the next 20 hours or so with possible "extended and widespread utility outages". I've filled a few water containers and am charging our big portable batteries. Thanks to 'Bent's lumberjacking, we have a shed full of chopped firewood.

Eight stations instead of six tonight. Caron's getting meaner. ;)

Gravel road run before the big ice storm or blizzard (or both) coming tomorrow and Thursday. Snow fell for a few hours today but it was too warm to stick.

I tried to use Coach Jeff's squat-scoot running form even though my natural tendency is to land like an elephant. The shorter strides and quicker turnover help me go a little faster even though my running style could best be described as "sack of potatoes".

Left knee, quad and hip were a little sore from Sunday's 4-hr run. Not an injury - just recovering from all that impact. It will be nice when I can mix mountain biking with the running although there's no way to avoid those long runs.

I was still exhausted from the poor sleep on Friday night so this felt harder than it should have. I guess it was good training for running when I'm tired, which is going to happen in a 30-hr mountain race.

The weather was spectacular once again and the podcasting was great. I heard Kyle interview Legendary Randy on TA1, then it was This American Life, Laugh Out Loud, DNTO on online shaming and Under The Influence. I had to run a little extra on our property at the end when I realized my distance was going to be 29.97 km. :)

Home via Oak Ridges Trail to Glen Haffy stile - Bruce Trail to Innis Lake Rd. dead end and back to stile - BT to Glen Haffy Side Trail north of Hwy 9 - Loop back to BT to stile, then home via ORTA.

We're dogsitting this weekend so I cooled down with the injured 'Bent by hiking four dogs.

Gally AR Party: Leg 1

Trail run around Silver Creek Conservation Area on a bluebird day! Patty led the way for Funderstorm and me. Mrs. Gally started with us but headed back to switch to her bike since she is still recovering from injury. The forest was beautiful and the conversation interesting. We ran into Mrs. Gally again near the end and she convinced me to do a hill run up 8th Line while she biked beside me and yelled inspiring personal trainer-type things. Thank you for making me do it, Mrs. G!

Gally AR Party: Leg 2

Mrs. Gally's Basement Boot Camp for Adventure Racers - taking it up a notch from last year. Good workout, then it was competition time. STORM won the pull-up contest and 500 m row. Mrs. Gally was top woman in pull-ups - by far. 'Bent was runner-up in pull-ups and also in the planking contest, where he folded at 5 minutes. Mrs. Gally outlasted everyone and looked cool as a cucumber.

And then we ate and drank and talked and hoverboarded. Thank you, Gallys!

Hee hee!

Hard Core Live - tonight with no breaks, for a special treat.

Our class was right across the road from the James McCarty Pub on St. Patrick's Day so we had to have an après-class get-together.

Gravel roads and shoulders, rail trail, a little pavement and some forest trails in Palgrave West. (Finnerty, Centreville Creek, rail trail, Duffy's Lane, Palgrave West.) I delayed my start when we were hit by a heavy hailstorm - and then another one! Young Elise Huet flew past me on the rail trail - good stuff. :)

Mud, dirt, gravel, puddles.

Very proud of Dad, selected posthumously as one of the five 2016 inductees to the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame. "To qualify for this prestigious recognition, inductees must have demonstrated visionary leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the advancement of agriculture in Ontario." I wish he were still here to enjoy this honour but our family is very touched.
http://www.oahf.on.ca/news.html

"Bill was a leader and innovator in the North American sod industry for more than 42 years. A graduate of Ontario Agricultural College, his major contributions to agriculture came from his passion and ability for bringing experts and sod farmers together.

Bill and his company Fairlawn Sod Nursery Ltd. helped to change the face of Ontario’s sod industry from a collection of “Mom and Pop” operations to a thriving agribusiness based on sound scientific principles. As his farms spread across Ontario and into Quebec, Ohio and Florida, Fairlawn Sod became for a time the largest sod producer in North America.

Bill took leadership roles in the sod industry and in his community throughout his life and was instrumental in the establishment of the Guelph Turfgrass Institute.

Year ’55 OAC, in conjunction with the Guelph Turfgrass Institute and the Nursery Sod Growers Association of Ontario, recognize Bill Campbell’s visionary leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship and are proud to nominate Bill, posthumously, for induction into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame."

This photo was taken for the cover of the University of Guelph alumni magazine back in the 70s. We always teased Dad about it! :)

Yay, feeling much improved today! I guess I just needed to climb some hills.

Strength, balance, physio, core, running drills, blah blah.

Last weekend was all about distance and navigation. Today was about elevation gain. I've been staring at GPS tracks, trying to design a run across the Hockley Valley with the same average elevation gain as the Lavaredo Ultra Trail - about 1,000 m of climb per 20 km.

Browner is training for the mountains too so we tackled this one together with trekking poles, yummy snacks and good conversation. We achieved our goal handily although it's not exactly comparable since Lavaredo might ascend 1,000 m in 10K then descend 1,000 m over the next 10K, which will feel different. But that's nitpicking! It was a lot of climbing for southern Ontario and we only did two hill repeats along the route. I'll definitely do this one again.

Conditions were mostly muddy with a few long ice patches on the north sides of hills. At times, we were bushwhacking carefully off the trail. In another week, the trail should be almost entirely bare. Unbelievable for this time of year.

Great catch-up with Browner followed by lattes and delicious treats at the Hockley General Store! Now I'm waiting to see if my cold flares up or just accepts what I did. Fingers crossed...

Hike with dogs.

Mostly Dr. Bell and Coach Jeff exercises and drills. Still fighting a mild chest cold so one more day off cardio.

Hard Core with Caron

Mild chest cold so need to keep things easy for another day or two. I could feel my immune system fading away over the weekend, partly due to poor sleep. The good news is that the Snowgaine didn't make me nearly as sore as expected, probably thanks to extra time spent on strength training, yoga, physio and running drills. But the severe "hit by a truck" feeling 48 hours post-race was new and needs to be figured out.

Feeling *totally* zonked today - no energy at all. I wasn't as sore as expected after the Snowgaine and I was reasonably alert yesterday. I'm hydrating but I wonder if I should be eating more - or different things?

P.S. I've added 'Bent's photos to the Snowgaine report.

CNYO Snowgaine - Day 2

"What? We're doing this again?" ~ My body

Last night I draped a 1:30,000 string across the map and was overjoyed to confirm that we wouldn't have time to make it to the east side of the river on the northeast part of the map. JayXC and I spent some rainy, windy hours up there during Hurricane Irene. It's a long way from anywhere and there are no shortcut escape routes.

This time we only started 30 seconds late but we made a bad route choice right off the bat, taking the cross-country route to 65. There's nothing better to wake you up than crawling under several electric fences while trying to keep your bladder hose out of any animal dung! Eric and Mary Smith beat us there handily - good on them! We hit the road and ran a long distance to 44. This was the one control I'd questioned visiting but it was probably the right call.

Because of the large amount of nasty vegetation marked in this section of forest, I dithered about the correct sequence of controls and probably could have done better. 60-37-19-50-48, then the nice-looking trail along the property boundary that turned out to be not so nice.



Bushwhacking around 50, I did my only face plant of the race but really did a number on myself. As I landed on my face and stomach, my legs flew up into Superman position, cracking my lower back. I was afraid to try to move my legs for a few seconds, then I was afraid to run for a little while. I seem to have dodged a bullet since more than 24 hours later, I'm neither paralyzed nor in horrific pain. It really did not feel healthy.



Then a long run to 28-57-39-53-then a huge logging mess where trails should have been - then 56. Another run to the final group of controls and some nervousness since I'd been watching the time. I wanted to leave 2 hours to get back 13 km to the finish. It was all on roads but it was up and down and I knew we'd be walking the uphills. 'Bent's knee was hurting too.It was a tough call (and the wrong one, as it turned out) but we dropped 33. We got 20-42-46-51. This was the only area where we ran into other teams all day.



Then we ran back 13 km and arrived 23 minutes early, walking all the uphills. It was nice to be totally unstressed at the finish but we should have gone for it! :)



Beautiful sunny day! Great weekend of fun in the forest and so nice to see friends we mostly see online. I just wish I'd had more energy left for conversation but the race was hard work! Huge thanks to Mark and Barb Dominie. I honestly don't know how they do it. They don't seem to have much help on the weekend and they somehow got 51 controls out into the woods.

Congrats to Harps, Hermes and Wokitoki - Team Running Free - the only team to clear the course and they headed home before the race ended! Congrats also to JayXC and LC who took 2nd overall and to Arthurd, Olga and Polina who took 3rd with their all-female team. Abiperk, Broots and ? were 4th overall. Lots of great performances! Thanks to 'Bent for being a terrific teammate again.

Event: 20th Annual CNYO SNOWGAINE
 

CNYO Snowgaine - Day 1
Brookfield Horse Trails

This is one of the coolest events around but when winter fizzled out, I stopped thinking about it. Luckily, Harps kicked our butts into gear and shamed us into going down to Hubbardsville, New York for a tough weekend of training that was heaps of fun, even without skiing or snowshoeing.

Knowing we would only have about 15 minutes to plan the first of two 8-hour days on the same rogaine-style race course, I decided to focus on one of the two maps and just try to get everything. In the past, we and some friends have regretted omitting far flung CPs on Day 1.

Since we cleared the course in our most recent Snowgaine, it wasn't a totally crazy strategy. I would have time to make a real plan for Day 2 and if the course *was* clearable, I wouldn't have shot myself in the foot. (Spoiler alert: The course wasn't clearable for us and I *did* shoot myself in the foot by not dropping one or two lower value controls on Day 1.)

We missed the start by a minute, then 'Bent and I only made it a short distance before stopping to fix his bladder hose. He couldn't get it to work so we would need to drink from one bladder all day. We started running again, then decided that was crazy. We were only a few hundred meters from the car where I had a spare bladder. So our 2nd start was almost 13 minutes behind the real start. :( It was a long time before we spotted anyone else.



There was a thin layer of snow in many places, lots of bare ground and mud, some chilly slush puddles and occasional ice patches. The most challenging surfaces were the horse trails - partially frozen churned mud with deep, irregular, ankle-twisting horse tracks and a delicate, breakable crust. The hills, forests, streams and fields were beautiful with some big blowdowns and nasty thorny areas that caused some good scratches.



I planned our route and did most of the nav; 'Bent towed me on most of the road sections and kept a second pair of eyes on the map and control descriptions. We had a fun day after the stress of the Great Bladder Incident wore off. We saw JayXC and LC more than any other team. They had picked up 65 and lost one of their maps before embarking on a similar route to ours.

For future reference:
15-58-22-31-62-43.
Road run to the 2nd big group of controls.
61-17 (which I should have dropped like Arthurd did), 26, 55.
Run to 3rd control group.
45-23-18-24-36-Run-63
Run - some confusion about roads on private property. Got worried and moved north to a different trail.
47-tired of thorns so changed plans to 21-34-52-30.

Run-54. Unfortunately, we'd asked about the trail leading through private land to 49 and were told it wasn't an official horse trail, i.e. not legal but we "probably wouldn't get caught". So we shouldn't have asked because otherwise I would have taken it because it looked like every other horse trail!

Time was getting tight so we got 38-27 but skipped 49-29, the only controls we missed in our plan. We could have got 49 if we hadn't started 13 minutes late - boo. I probably wouldn't have had the guts to go for 29 regardless since it was a hilly 7 km run to the finish.

I felt pretty good all day. I've been training for a long, mountainous run in late June and I noticed the benefit of the extra strength training. I'll never be a running star but it was encouraging to feel relatively energetic and durable.

Running Free cleared the entire west/south map on Day 1 - wow! The Canadians all joined Arthurd's team (with her junior world rogaining champion teammate!) for a fun Mexican food celebration at La Iguana restaurant in Hamilton.

Drove to "Snow"gaine. Should be a fun weekend!

Exhausted - apparently that wasn't decaf they brought me at the restaurant last night - but I couldn't resist this beautiful snow. That's OK - I want to give JayXC a fair chance when he races against us in the Masters category this weekend.

Conditions were faster today on the trails where at least two skiers (e.g. 'Bent and me) had made tracks. As always, a few hikers stomped on some our ski tracks in spite of the wide trail surface available, but most folks haven't been out since the storm or haven't ventured far into the trail system so it was surprisingly good. Perfect winter day!

"...It’s virtually certain that February handily beat the record set just last month for the most anomalously warm month ever recorded. That’s stunning." http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/03/01...

It's official. My trial of SmugMug was a success so I've bought an annual subscription. I have lots more to learn but it will support my photo embedding habit - and much, much more if I want.

Yahoo - the biggest snowfall of the winter! We have about 30 cm of fresh powder and it's spectacular out there. AdventureDog and I went for a surprisingly slow ski in Palgrave East. There was some trail breaking and floundering, which I'd expected, but at -6C, I was surprised that my skis kept icing up when I passed through sunny patches. I stopped a few times to scrape. Eventually, I happened onto some ski tracks that were better consolidated and I was able to glide a bit. It was still beautiful and fun but the resistance was turned way up.

We met Slowrunner, all bundled up with snowshoes and poles, hauling a big tire behind her in preparation for her mountain ultra. AdventureDog knows her well but not in that configuration, apparently, since he barked like a maniac.



This is 'Bent's worst nightmare. Anytime between November and April, if I ask him to do some trip, training session, social event or race that doesn't involve skiing, he is hesitant. "What if the skiing is good that day? I'd rather do that." It looks like this weekend will be amazing for skiing in Ontario - and we are going to the snowless Snowgaine in NY. Oh well, I'm going to have fun anyway!

Crazy blizzard driving conditions so we snuck over to Caledon East on back roads where we didn't expect to meet many cars (and didn't). After almost 27 years together, I learned tonight that 'Bent doesn't know how to use a skipping rope. Concerned class members came over to give him pointers. Next up was the push-up relay station where my husband was a hot commodity but I kept him for myself!

AdventureDog and I ran around Palgrave East as we waited for the latest Stormageddon to arrive. We have about 5 cm of snow so far and it was lovely to run amid gently swirling snowflakes. Supposedly, tomorrow morning we'll wake up to the largest snowfall of the season but it's pretty tame so far.

Today is BazingaDog's 5th birthday. We adopted him (aka Brody) from a rescue organization when he was about five months old. He'd already lived in five places before he came here so no wonder he was a wild young man at first, worthy of his Attackpoint nickname. Unfortunately, he still can't be trusted off leash but in every other way, he is perfect - a huggable, sweet, smart, beautiful boy. In this photo, taken shortly after his arrival, he weighed 40 lb. He is now 90 lb and can stretch out to take up an entire couch when he feels like it. They grow up too fast. (Although he still hasn't grown into his tongue!)