Training Log Archive: Bash

Morning and afternoon ski outings. Conditions are still spectacular. Star gazing out on the lake tonight was excellent, even with the full moon.

Don't know why we never thought of this before, but Bent and I followed a suggestion to ski the perimeter of the Kukagami trail system, i.e. each time we hit a trail intersection, we turned right. It made for a fun and different ski, with lots of hills.

We also went out before dinner for a brief ski to the top of the Porcupine Lookout, where we could see several kilometers of Kukagami Lake glowing in the warm late afternoon light.

Snowshoeing with Bent and BulletDog. This was a valiant effort to tire out BulletDog in hopes that she won't mind being left behind when we ski on the trackset trails where she is generally not allowed. Unfortunately, the more we try to tire her out, the fitter she gets!

The forest was sun-dappled and magical - like being inside a Group of Seven painting. We had to be careful to avoid the low-hanging branches of coniferous trees, which had a tendency to release avalanches of fine powder snow down the backs of our jacket necks.

Heron Trail under a full moon. Not my top pace, since I was well-fuelled with port, camembert, hot mulled wine, lasagna, fresh-baked bread, salad, cherry cobbler and mint tea... :-)

Then back to the cabin to teach myself Sudoku by candlelight.

Amazing ski-in to Kukagami Lodge with Bent and the pooches. Trees were so heavily laden with snow that they looked almost cartoonish. Perfect conditions - they've had a meter of snow this year. In fact, one of the challenges was ducking while skiing under a few branches that are now a lot closer to the ground than they used to be. My wax (left over from last weekend) was too sticky, but the trail was so awesome that I pushed hard to get the feeling of flying through the woods. Best classic ski we've had in a long, long time!!

Started to feel a cold coming on, so had a restful evening and a rare good night's sleep.

I highly recommend Kukagami Lodge near Sudbury to anyone who would enjoy classic skiing on a private wilderness trail system, unlimited snowshoeing, excellent food, and a rustic ski-in lodge that holds a maximum of 12 guests. This was our 11th trip, and it just keeps getting better.

Usual routine of leg strength and The Daily Show, with some regular and oblique sit-ups at the end for good measure.

While carrying firewood inside, a snowy log slipped and landed vertically, right in the top centre of my shoeless foot. Naturally, it was my injured leg. Big ouch - still waiting to see if there will be any other ramifications, but I was able to do the leg strength workout without too much whimpering.

Arriving in Hamilton felt like being transported to a different planet. It is SO wintry up here in Palgrave, and the ground is bare in places there. I took advantage of the good traction to run faster than I've been able to do around here for some time. I thought I was working on my running posture today, but both Hammer and Etoile commented that I'm not succeeding. :-( I tried running the stairs for the first time - 4:20 up and down, so no new records were set.

Street-O with Etoile, looking for lamp posts while exploring Hamilton's various educational institutions, industrial sites and residential areas. We didn't look at the map at all between controls, which was our exercise for tonight. Fun time and good company, with an extended burst of speed at the end to get Etoile back in time to retrieve Adventure Girl! from her ballet lesson.

Skied at Albion Hills with Bent. First time all year that I've used my classic racing skis - they're so light that I practically float along. However, when the tracks get shallow or disappear, as they did in many places, these skis can be tricky.

Fortunately I didn't fall, because my bad knee is twinging after just 30 minutes of cycling yesterday - high cadence, medium gear. Rats. I've been researching Tour de France cycling trips for this summer - the ones where you bike up Alpe D'Huez, then set up a BBQ at the side of the road and wait for the racers to go by. But until I figure out if biking is what screws up my knee the most, I guess we'll have to put that idea on the shelf. :-(

We have a house rule that you're not allowed to watch the Tour de France DVDs unless you are pedalling. And until now, I hadn't seen any of it!

I did the Prologue time trial along with Lance. Passed Ullrich, but Zabriskie won by less than 2 seconds. Oh well, we tried.

Be careful what you wish for! In 48 hours, we've gone from half-bare ground to 40 cm of snow. It is still coming down so hard that I can barely see to the edge of our property. Believe it or not, this is too much snow for skiing. OK, it is technically possible, but very slow in the deep snow, especially with all the fallen branches and leaning saplings. If you don't know where the trails are supposed to be - even big logging roads - you can miss them entirely.

So I went snowshoeing with ThunderDog instead. This was a good compromise, although still difficult to travel at any speed. I used ski poles for some upper body exercise, and climbed a lot of gratuitous hills. It was absolutely beautiful out there. Winter wonderland sounds cliche, and this was so amazing that it felt like I'd been transported somewhere else - maybe into the coastal mountains. Wow!! We've had lots of snow here before, but this may be the biggest storm yet. Bent is going to have a slo-o-ow ski home from work.

Hard Core Conditioning DVD.
Another reason to look forward to Mondays...!?!