Training Log Archive: Bash

Hiked around Albion Hills with ThunderDog, checking out snow conditions for the Giant's Rib Raid. Snow depth was over the kneecap in a few places, but it was mostly ankle-deep. River is high and will get higher as the warm weather continues, so I took note of the bridge locations. Beee-ooo-ti-full day!

Flying Pig Classic Distance Course. Perfect day - sunny and cool, really fun to be out in the woods exploring a new area. Lots of mud left over from yesterday, but it wasn't as much of a factor. Went faster than yesterday, although the min/km was higher because I didn't always take a straight line between controls due to the long distances. Not many opportunities to use trails, so needed to concentrate all the time. Looked for one control about 50 m early in a different re-entrant, but otherwise found everything exactly where I expected. Made a really bad route choice to run a winding trail between #9 & 10 instead of having the confidence to strike out cross-country - was thinking like an adventure racer instead of an orienteer. Won my category and was less than 2 minutes behind the more experienced Gator women, who each won their respective categories. Overall, a fun weekend and a very good learning experience. I've got a better idea of the weaknesses that I need to work on. Very proud of the excellent performance of the GHO Canada GHO High Performance team - Hammer (two 1sts and a 2nd while injured), Sudden (4th in Classic), Hustler (2nd and two 3rds) and CPiller (ranking steadily improved with each race).

Flying Pig Middle Distance. Nasty, evil day with driving rain, high winds and temperature just above freezing. Ran through lots of standing water and ankle-slurping muck, and had quite a challenge to haul myself out of some steep-sided gullies. Overshot one control, but otherwise nav was OK. Felt really, really slow - just couldn't get my shoes moving in the mud. Highlight of the day was the post-race hot tub! Finished 3rd of 4 racers in my category. Several of us were close together, so I guess nobody was setting any speed records today.

Event: Flying Pig IX (US Team Trials)
 

Flying Pig Sprint - Fun course running trails, crossing muddy gullies and weaving between buildings at Camp Friedlander (Boy Scout camp). A bit psyched out by the formality of the A Meet procedures. Brain totally lost ability to match map to terrain at the moment I turned the map over - this happened on all 3 days of The Pig and wasted considerable time. Must find a way to work on that! Overshot one control and slowed down at one point when the map didn't seem to match the terrain, but otherwise pleased to do OK in the O format that least suits my abilities. Won my category - only 3 racers though.

Packing for The Pig today - and hoping I won't be last in my category in all 3 races, although based on past results of the other competitors, it is a distinct possibility!

Hydrospinning Class - Drills & Technique. The 6 a.m. class always seems like a great idea when we sign up, but feels like a horrible mistake when the alarm goes off at 4:20 a.m. Watching sunrise through the big windows in the paddling pool as we get into a rhythm, it starts to feel like an excellent plan once again. By the time we get to Starbucks for the post-class latte and espresso brownie, it seems like a bloody brilliant idea, so of course we sign up for the following week...

Intervals. Two separate exercises today:
1) Motion of the paddle blade is a "square".
2) Drive the hip first, then the arm follows.
I must have done something right, because paddling is definitely feeling like a full body sport. Oooh, my glutes are sore!

Hardwood-Charlevoix trails. Tempted to skip this run due to sleep deprivation, but ThunderDog gave me the Big Sad Brown Eyes treatment. More of the snow in the woods has turned to ice, and more of the ice has turned to mud. Tried to maintain my short course race pace in spite of occasional surprise postholes into mid-calf-deep snow. Felt strong! Time to taper for the weekend now - and drink lots of chocolate milk. (I do sports primarily because I get to eat large quantities of chocolate.)

Hiked in northeast Palgrave with BulletDog, mostly off-trail. Practised navigating using my new "thumbpass", as Bent calls it. It won't feel natural enough yet to use it at The Pig this weekend (should have tried it at Peak-2-Peak), so as usual I will look more like an adventure racer than a real orienteer. Temperature went up to 13C today! It really felt like spring, although the forest floor is still covered with over-the-ankle snow and deer poop (not over the ankle).

New incentive to increase training. Bought a skirt today and fit into size 4 for the first time since university. Am thinking of sewing the tag to the outside of the skirt. :-)