Training Log Archive: Bash

Morning Adventure: We crossed to the south side of the lake and headed west to explore a few islands and a different bay. We expected another blueberry feast but only found two individual berries, even though we checked lots of bushes. It was fun exploring the islands. This adventure was christened, "Blueberry Blueberry". After so much adventuring, we took the afternoon off to relax around camp - nap in hammocks, read books, swim and drink espresso. Tiny made some impressive personal pizzas!
Elapsed time: 2 hrs (accidentally wore watch instead of Ambit)

Yoga on the rocks. (With some help from Teeny Tiny.)

Our Morning Adventure: After plenty of coffee in the sunshine, we paddled west from our campsite, following Teeny Tiny's directions to various blueberry picking sites. We had terrific success and managed to collect some firewood too. Mrs. Tiny made sure Teeny Tiny found a frog, and AdventureDog swam after some sticks. This adventure was christened by TT as "Blueberries Blueberries Galore".
(Elapsed time 1 hr 40 min.)

Afternoon Adventure: The breeze came up after lunch so we headed across the lake and upwind toward the bay leading into Pondweed Lake. We tried hiking on the portage trail at the south end of the lake but it is seldom used, if ever. While getting out of the canoe there, I managed to get both my feet stuck in the mud and was afraid to lift them since I would have lost my sandals. Nothing like a nice wallow in the mud to save your shoes! We enjoyed a nice tailwind on our way back to camp.
Elapsed time: 1 hr 40 mins.

Algonquin bound with Mrs. Tiny, Timato, Teeny Tiny, 'Bent and AdventureDog. We'll be introducing two newbies to backcountry canoeing.

Algonquin Park Canoe Trip

Paddled from Rock Lake access point to the start of the portage trail to Lake Louisa - 4 km

Then paddled on Lake Louisa, looking for the perfect campsite - 3.5 km

(The GPS track also includes our portage.)

Spectacular day! Teeny Tiny and AdventureDog, our canoe trip newbies, behaved perfectly in the boats. Teeny Tiny even helped paddle.



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121 m elevation gain on portage

Portage portion of today's trip - Rock Lake to Louisa Lake with canoes and super heavy packs full of yummy food and drink - also dog food, diapers and other necessities. I can't remember my load being that heavy in a long time - over 100 lb, I'd guess. The portage is only 2.9 km but I went farther because I dropped my gear a couple of times and ran back to help others in our heavily loaded group. Hard work but we got across faster than most groups, even with a 4-year-old and a dog!

Sunset paddle and firewood collection with 'Bent and AdventureDog

Team Sky meets Mini Team Sky
"I saw you running up the mountain. Did you forget it was a bike race?"

Windy tonight - I had to work to get around. My pivot turns are getting better.

Tougher class than usual on the SUP including my "favourite" - side planks with arm and leg raised while the SUP bobbed in the breeze. It's a hot, muggy night so it was beautiful to work out on the water.

It's a dirty job but some volunteer has to do it... On a spectacular sunny morning, 'Bent and I took Yumi by trail to yesterday's SUP CP, then we paddled the four SUPs (using a tow rope), canopy tent (which we didn't actually paddle) and flags back to the Hub. Yumi and I practised SUP headstands. Hers was much better.

Event: RockstAR
 

RockstAR adventure race
Bark Lake

A fantastic weekend of summer fun, friends and adventure racing!

'Bent and I teamed up for the 8-hr RockstAR course. Our route planning back in our room went quite smoothly after Funderstorm and Mrs. Tiny mentioned they'd brought a coffee maker and a large bag of coffee. (Thank you!)

We couldn't do the usual RockstAR bike route because a bridge was under construction so we did a 1.6 km run along the Bark Lake Road to reach our bikes, then rode trails and roads to pick up poker chips at three locations. It was a fun ride with some route choice and strategy. We opted to leave the Lakota single track until the end to avoid congestion so our route was a little longer. We were near the back of the pack on the run (I don't warm up quickly, even when it's 30C) and made up a little time on the biking, finishing at the 70 minute mark of the race.

We had the rest of the 8 hours to find CPs using any combination of foot and canoe. Since the 4-hour race hadn't started yet, we went to CP41, the "dive for a CD on the lake bottom" checkpoint. As expected, there were no other racers and lots of CDs remaining, so this went quickly and felt soooo refreshing. :) Then we headed down to the valuable CPs in the southwest part of the race course. The navigation looked tough but the distances were manageable, and there were trails to take us partway and provide good attackpoints.

On our way into the woods was audio CP44 playing the Tragically Hip - a nice touch! The indistinct Maka Ina trail has been largely reclaimed by the forest so we bushwhacked most of the 2 km to our attackpoint for CP101, which was still 1 km out from the checkpoint. It wasn't hard to bushwhack near the approximate route of the old trail but our time estimates were going to need some major revisions.

We visited CPs 101, 100, 90 and 84. The off-trail navigation in here was challenging, beautiful and fun - in spite of the FDFs. We waded beneath a cliff on a lakeshore and I banged my shin hard into an underwater log. That's the only real pain I'm feeling 24 hours later. On our way back to the Hub, as long as we were attentive, we could see the little-used Zeth "red paint" trail, which led us to the major double track trail leading to camp.

This section took longer than expected and it was already 4 hrs 10 mins into the race when we got back to the Hub. It's mandatory for teams to check into the Hub between 5 and 7 hours into the race. We had planned to paddle north and return just before the 7-hr mark, then get some final CPs near the Hub. Now it seemed more sensible to visit a few nearby CPs and return during the early part of the mandatory check-in period.

It felt fantastic to hop in our canoe and get out onto the water on a hot day. No FDFs there! We paddled up to CPs 40 and 83, the trail building CPs (each team cleared 15' of trail, then got coordinates for a bonus CP), then CP42 where I had to paddle a SUP out to pick up flags from two floating containers. Nice that my SUP yoga classes are now AR-relevant!

It was still too early to check in so we went to CP61 on Storm and Browner's wedding island. If I'd been thinking strategically, we should have headed back to the Hub then and checked in at 5 hrs 10 mins. But it wasn't that much farther to CP45, the inner tube paddling checkpoint, and I was feeling bad that 'Bent hadn't had the chance to do a play-in-the-water CP yet. He enjoyed it so that was a win but the detour added 18 minutes so we were pressed for time as we paddled north after our Hub check-in.

We went via the floating CP60 on our way up to the portage trail at the north end of Bark Lake. I'd originally planned a loop to get CPs but I got cold feet since I didn't know how visible the trails would be, and our time was tight. Instead we headed north and picked up CPs 51, 62 and 50, which were accessed from the portage trail. We met a number of teams but we were definitely going against the flow; most of them still needed to paddle back and check in.

We paddled up to CP46, then continued around to the next bay and pulled our canoe ashore. We had just over an hour before the cut-off, and we wanted to save 20 minutes of that for the paddle back to the Hub. So that meant we could run 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back - no cheating. We picked up CP63 then I had a moment of angst looking at the distance to CP70 on ATV trails that had hills, mud puddles, rocks and a few overgrown bits. 'Bent proposed that we at least try to go for it; we could always turn around when we reached our deadline. Sure, might as well - there weren't any other CPs we could get before the cut-off so there was nothing to lose.

It was about 1.3 km of rugged running on an ATV trail that was easy to follow. We arrived 1 minute past our turnaround deadline (I didn't have the heart to stick to it), then I asked 'Bent to put me on tow. It was 2.1 km back to the canoe at our fastest running pace of the day! When we hit the water, we had 17 minutes to the cut-off - less than our plan called for. I never get cramps but I paddled so hard I got a cramp in my hamstring (huh?!?) We made it in 11 minutes with some help from a tailwind. Phew!

We had so much fun playing around Bark Lake today and it was great to see so many friends on the race course and at the party afterward. The Gally family deserves a special shout out since Mr. Gally, Jacob and his young cousin were the overall winners of the 4-hr course - racing as adult men, not in the Family category! And Mrs. Gally and Emma were the winners of the adult Female category. Awesome!! 'Bent and I were sincerely surprised and thrilled to learn that 1400 pts made us the top Coed team (2 or 3 person) on the 8-hr course, 70 pts behind the male team that won overall.

Thanks so much to Storm, Browner and the wonderful team of staff and volunteers who did an excellent job organizing this event. And of course, thanks to 'Bent for being a terrific teammate. It was a blast! :)

Ready to race the RockstAR!

I was feeling much too comfortable and healthy indoors so I went for a ride around the Palgrave single track to better enjoy the humidex near 40C and the "moderate" air quality. Some of the weeds in there are over my head now! Mostly I went out to test my AR bike shoes. AdventureDog had chewed off one of the buckles, and 'Bent contacted Pearl Izumi and obtained spare parts to repair the shoe. It worked just fine. I guess we're as ready for RockstAR as we're going to be!
(Bike computer distance)

In case you haven't seen it, 'Bent made a terrific video of the 47 km Cortina Trail race in Italy. Storm plays a starring role in the film, just as he played a major role in helping 'Bent get to the finish line.

Cortina Trail 2016 (1080 version) from Richard Ehrlich on Vimeo.

Here's some of the latest info on what you can and cannot bring into the 4.4 square kilometre event area surrounding the U.S. Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio - the area where protests and other gatherings will take place. The potentially serious consequences of open carrying whole fruit and non-plastic containers are so significant that they will override the individual freedom to choose a nutritious lunch. I would have thought that the only thing that could stop a bad guy with a banana would be a good guy with a banana.

Another 30C day and we didn't get the big storm that was forecast so the grass is crunchy dry again. It's been ages since I've done any Bash 'n' Crash 500 m intervals on our usual rolling trail section in Palgrave West. I've done very little speed work this year so expectations were low.

After a 3 km warm-up, I did the first few intervals at what was supposed to be a 5K race pace. I usually try to do B&C 500s all out but it was sooo hot.
2:37
2:36
2:30

Wow, that's slow. I tried two more intervals where I pushed as hard as I could.
2:24
2:22

Wow, that's slow too. I think my PR on this section of trail was 2:05. Maybe I should make this a regular thing. Not that I have any idea what I'm training for.

'Bent and I are able to do RockstAR now so I wanted to try a 25-ish km bike ride with mixed terrain including some technical riding and short, steep climbs. I haven't done much biking this year but it felt fine. All the hill training has kept my legs working, I guess. I rode across Palgrave to Hwy 50, up to the rail trail, into the Albion Hills single track and home via Duffy's Lane and Palgrave West trails.

I only fell once. I was standing still, having a snack and looking at a big map on a sign. One foot was on the ground and the other was clipped in when I took my hands off the handlebars to check my Ambit. The bike suddenly folded and collapsed toward the side that was clipped in. I went down fast - no time to unclip. It probably looked like I'd passed out! Someone nearby immediately checked whether I was OK. Maybe they thought I was lying on the ground crying but I was actually laughing. Soooo embarrassing.

Chris Froome's running form in TDF Stage 12: an analysis
http://www.bicycling.com/racing/2016-tour-de-franc...

The best Tweets
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/best-tw...

Back for another nice tour around the Hockley Provincial Park Loop, this time with Coach LD. We got rained on, which felt wonderful! 'Bent, Goose and Leanimal (visiting from Vancouver) started earlier and ran the full Hockley Loop, then we all went to lunch at the Black Birch. So nice to catch up. :)

The GPS says Funderstorm and I ran 350 m farther when we did the same route on Saturday - hmm, that's not true.

'Bent and I did a quick Poison Ivy Avoidance MTB Tour in Palgrave East before the humidex shot up to 39C. The trails are are in great shape, albeit a little dusty. There is a lush crop of poison ivy along some of the trails we skipped. On the way home, 'Bent decided we should try a little uphill stretch on an overgrown ski trail. I think he needs to do another adventure race soon. [Bike computer distance]

SUP paddle at the C3 quarry on a hot, breezy evening. It was a good workout going upwind.

SUP yoga class with Caron. I tried my first headstand of the year. Not bad but it could use more practice.

Tonight was the C3 midsummer beach party so the quarry stayed open from 5-10 p.m. instead of 5-7 p.m. This attracted some swimmers planning Lake Ontario crossings since there aren't many opportunities to practise swimming in open water at night in a relatively safe environment. They put lights on the buoys to help guide the swimmers.

I brought our surfski and went out for a quiet paddle after yoga class, dodging a few swimmers here and there. I forgot my gloves so I kept it short (and still got a blister). It was a hot, steamy evening with a mackerel sky so it's no surprise that thunderstorms are rolling through now.

Never leave your dog in a car in summer - and never leave a bear in your Subaru. (Seriously, how could this happen?)
http://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2016/07/12/watch-be...

Fa caldo!

Short run around Palgrave West. After the Dolomites, I'm feeling strong on our local trails. I'm surprised by how much I feel like getting back to my regular training routine.

Inspired by Myka's comment last night, I cooled down by taking BazingaDog for a hike in the forest. I had to use the two-handed waterski technique at times, which is why I don't do it very often v.s. just chasing him around our big fenced yard. I'm afraid of losing him in the conservation area and getting hauled onto my face. But he seemed to understand that I was making an effort so he didn't pull too hard most of the time. He jumped right into the new kiddie pool when we got back.

Then I had some liquid gold as a recovery drink.***


***I noticed a charge for $15.29 on last week's grocery bill. The item was "JUJU ORG TRT CHR". It took me a few minutes to figure out it was a bottle of organic tart cherry juice that I'd innocently tossed into the cart. Wow. I plan to really enjoy it, as we will not be buying any more.

For years, I've been curious about Belwood Lake Conservation Area. The lake is 12 km long so if the motorboats aren't too horrible, it could be an awesome place to paddle only 40 minutes away.

The motorboats are too horrible. There are lots of large sailboats and annoying jet skis too. We took a few big waves over the bow while crossing boat wakes and there were some scary moments when it wasn't clear whether other boats were going to turn away from us in time, even though we stuck near the shore. The lake is nice, surrounded by cottages. It would probably be more pleasant for canoeists on a rainy Wednesday morning in October than a hot Sunday afternoon in July.

We took AdventureDog for his first canoe ride. Belwood is not the best place to experiment with a dog in a tippy boat but A-Dog did us proud. He sat in front of me in the bow where he couldn't capsize us. He was nervous at first but was happy to lie down and curl up against my legs. Later on, I encouraged him to sit up and watch (and sniff) the scenery. We stopped for a dog swimming and stick fetching break, then tried to get him to sit in the middle of the boat since he seemed ready to graduate to the next level. Not a chance. The bow is safe; he doesn't trust the rest of the boat. Regardless, he has officially earned his canoeing licence and is ready to go on an overnight trip.

It's been two weeks since Lavaredo and it's either time to get running again and keep my fitness, or take a longer break and try to become a better paddler, guitar player or cake baker. Funderstorm provided a nudge toward the running option by suggesting that we head out on the trails of Hockley Provincial Park.

It was terrific weather after the heat warnings of the past few days - partly cloudy and a little cooler with some welcome drops of rain. We did the side trails first, then ran back on the main Bruce Trail before heading to the Black Birch for a yummy lunch. I'd wondered if this route would be too ambitious but my legs felt good. Great to catch up with Funderstorm. Thanks for getting me out there. :)

Tour de Pierre, Day 6, Part 2

After wrapping up a long work contract, Veinbuster has taken on a new challenge for July. Each day he will ride the winner's time (not distance) in the Tour de France. Today I joined him for his afternoon session. He parked in Tottenham and rode the Caledon Trailway west. I started on our single track at home and rode east after I hit the Trailway.

After we met, we rode to Caledon East where I convinced VB (rather easily) to take a break off the clock so I could enjoy an iced mocha latte and he could have a chilled San Pellegrino. It was HOT, especially in the early part of our ride when there was virtually no shade on the rail trail. There is something strangely unsatisfying about inhaling steamy hot air. Still, it was nice to catch up with VB and test my legs. I've felt surprisingly good post-Lavaredo but I sure wouldn't be ready for an 8-hr ride yet, especially in the heat.

Rescheduled jury duty starts on Wednesday, August 3 in the middle of 'Bent's other vacation week. So I guess we'll make it a stay-cation and avoid making any big summer plans. This time my summons did not include a warning that the case is expected to last 2 months - phew.

We did a longer SUP tour at the C3 quarry tonight.

Caron's SUP yoga class

We got home last night and I have a lot of Attackpointing to catch up on! We didn't always have Internet and when we did, I mostly spent time enjoying Italy instead. It was a great trip and we had fun with friends in the first week. I am sad to report that I came home 2 lb lighter than when I left. I seriously thought I was up 5 lb so I was restraining myself around the delicious food for the last few days. Argghh!!

I'll write a race report for Lavaredo Ultra Trail soon. Once again, lightning was an issue but it cost me less than 10% in the rankings. I have to be happy with how things went; it's rare to have a perfect race. In the meantime, I'll start posting some of our other adventures. On Friday we celebrated Canada Day with a short bike ride from Lucca to Pisa in Tuscany.

Happy Independence Day to our American friends! :)

We met our first Trump supporters at dinner in Venice tonight. It has seemed - not surprisingly - that America's xenophobes prefer to stay home. I was fascinated and horrified by their inconsistent logic. The most talkative woman was an immigrant to the U.S. at a time when her country (Germany) was probably viewed with suspicion - but that didn't register. They don't really like Trump but they hate Hillary. Scary.

Happy Canada Day! 'Bent and I rented very basic hybrid bikes for our last full day in Lucca, where everyone owns a bike. The square in front of the main cathedral was our starting point; it was one of the views from our little apartment.



A typical female cyclist in Lucca wears a nice dress with a floppy sunhat. The only cyclists who wore helmets were people (almost always men 40+) on expensive road bikes dressed in full Spandex kit in team colours. So we were bucking a trend in our tourist gear wearing our trail running packs with hydration bladders.



We planned to ride to Pisa for lunch, a day trip offered by local cycling tour companies. The bike shop gave us a bad map that didn't go all the way to Pisa. I've read too many books so I imagined a relaxing bike ride across Tuscany on sleepy, perfectly paved roads with cars every 10 minutes and friendly farmers offering us tastes of olive oil and ripe tomatoes. Some of this was accurate; most of it was not.

In fact, I barely got beyond Lucca's town walls before I panicked! I've read many wonderful stories of the Carbons and Revys riding around Europe so I knew cyclists would get more respect here. It still didn't make me feel any better about riding in 4 lanes of busses, trucks and cars as we left the city. We found a short bike trail, then rode on the sidewalk when we could but sometimes it was unavoidable. I almost turned back but kept giving it "a few more minutes just to see".

It is true that Italians will give a cyclist adequate space - but only if they don't have oncoming traffic on the narrow roads. Also, it's a tourist area so not every driver is cyclist-friendly. Mostly we were given space but not always, and we rarely had a shoulder. The "quiet road" we were promised toward Pisa wasn't too bad since there was a faster alternative that attracted most of the traffic. Still, we were passed frequently, and oncoming vehicles loved to cut corners when the road twisted. When I relaxed enough to look at the view, it was nice though.



The final 6 km into Pisa was terrifying - cars whizzing past in both directions on a narrow road with no shoulder and the feeling of air rushing through the narrow space between a passing car's mirror and my arm. There are no photos from that section; I was terrified of hitting a pothole or manhole cover and lurching in front of a transport truck.

I am a mountain biker.

But it was really pretty. If there weren't cars on roads, I would love road biking too. 'Bent enjoyed it a lot.



Obviously, I had to drink with lunch. We found a quiet square in Pisa and were spoiled by a server who gave 'Bent a little free wine so I wouldn't have to raise my toast for Canada Day alone. :)



Then we went to the Leaning Tower, which both of us had visited in our university days. Not surprisingly, it was a zoo! You can't walk on the grass anymore, which makes it seem even more crowded. We didn't stay long.



Everyone is standing in funny poses trying to get the same shot of themselves holding up the tower.



As we've seen in many tourist areas, there were soldiers with machine guns. There was a metal detector for anyone climbing the Tower, something we saw in Florence too. This was the first trip when I've thought much about potential terrorist attacks at places like this - well-known tourist sites or popular train stations or airports that would make big headlines. Ugh. Cortina was quiet but we saw soldiers and machine guns regularly in Tuscany. Even when we arrived back in Canada, we were met by a team of serious looking officers who checked everyone's passport before we were allowed off the airplane!



We had to celebrate Canada Day with our own silly poses.





We took the train home with our bikes so we could clean up for a Puccini opera recital. When in Lucca...

Cycling from lunch to the Leaning Tower

Relaxing, civilized ride around the town walls of Lucca after our train ride home from Pisa. We were the only ones in helmets.

Happy Canada Day!

Some tips on how to be a Canadian: