Training Log Archive: Bash

We took the pooches for a hike on the Humber Valley Heritage Trail, which provides ample opportunities for dog paddling in the Humber River. We were out for over an hour - decided to log part of it because the hills are nice and steep.

Standard 30 km loop via rail trail, Centreville Creek and Glen Haffy CA - about 50% trail, 50% country roads. The highlight was HB Hill in the Glen Haffy forest ("Heckuva Big"). It was a refreshingly cool, sunny day, and I came back with more energy than I went out with. That's good, because I want to finish packing for the Raid today. This race has provided us with some hairy logistical challenges just to get to the starting line, but I think all the details are sorted out now, so we just have to hope that all goes according to plan over the next few days. After that, racing should be the easy part!

We've signed up for the Laurentian Rogaine on the weekend of Sept 9-10. Looking forward to another rogaine, but wondering if the Bash Rogaine Partner Curse will kick in and make 'Bent sick.

I had 'Bent drop me at the Hwy 50 gate to Albion Hills on his way into the Big Smoke. I came home by a circuitous trail and country road route through Albion, Palgrave East and Palgrave West. Someone's been riding a motorized dirt bike on the Bruce Trail near Crash's place - not safe for dogs.

Speaking of yahoos, we stopped at the post office enroute. A guy arrived in a big pick-up truck and parked right in front of the "Idle Free Zone - Turn Engine Off" sign, leaving his engine running as he went in. When he returned, I politely pointed out the new sign. He thanked me, then got in the truck and read all his mail with the engine still running. There is a daycare in the post office building and a school on the other side, so it's not a great place to fill the air with extra nasty pollutants (as if there IS a good place). All of us who devote significant time to working on environmental issues have occasional "why do I bother?" moments, and this was one of them. I don't have kids, thus no direct stake in future generations, but this selfish jack-arse probably does. And I'm busting my butt to save the planet for HIS progeny??? Hmmm....

While watching the Daily Show. Jon Stewart says that the logical next step is for the U.S. to impose a regime change in the U.K., since it turns out that the most imminently dangerous terrorists in the world are Brits.

Gazelle and Gazette somehow managed to spirit me out of the house for a 7 a.m. trail run at Albion Hills. 'Bent still isn't sure how they talked me out of postponing my coffee - and frankly, neither am I. As always, when I do an early morning workout, it feels great now that it's over and I have the whole day in front of me. But I'm just not good enough at pretending to be a morning person to make it a habit. Nice run, beautiful morning. It was 9C when we started, and Gazette was wearing a Goretex coat and long tights, while I ran in T-shirt and shorts. (I guess that explains why I'm so useless at 30C!) No wildlife, no bikers, and virtually no signs of life from any of the many campers, even when we finished our run after 8 a.m.

Single track at Albion Hills, trying to work out the bugs in my gears and get in some hill climbing. Great conditions today - perfect hard-packed trails, not too dusty. For a change, it was actually cool in the shade and in the breeze. Mmm... nice.

Wildlife report: 6 wild turkeys on the trail. They are common around here, but they don't tend to hang around on single track, so it was a bit of a shock to come around a bend in the middle of tall weeds and find myself face to face with all of them. Half of them stepped off the trail, and the other half jogged ahead of me to the next junction, while I rode behind them at a respectful pace.

While watching the Daily Show. This was an old recording, from back in the days when people were still excited about Floyd's Tour victory. :-(

Tiny, Gazelle, 'Bent and I went to Island Lake to test various strategies for the discipline of "Adventure Swimming", which we will be doing in next week's Endurance Aventure event. This reminded me of our early days in AR, when everything was new, and we were always experimenting with ideas and having a lot of laughs. Fun morning! Bottom line is that we'll probably use pack rafts, but circumstances (such as an extended trek) might favour swimming, in which case we'll go with heavy-duty air mattresses and swim training hand paddles or webbed gloves.

This was primarily a children's wading beach, and we attracted a lot of attention. One woman saw her young son approaching our pile of pack rafts, inflatable toys, masks, snorkels and fins, and said "Don't touch! Those are BIG boy boats." I had to laugh at the thought that we were acting any more grown-up than this 3-year-old, and I struck up a conversation with his Mom, talking about adventure racing. She asked some friendly questions, then said, "Well, my son has never been allowed to play in mud in his life." I didn't know what to say... what must she think of people who pay thousands of dollars a year for the privilege of playing in mud - and poison ivy and swampwater and thorns? And what's the deal with little kids not getting to play in mud anymore? Isn't it good for their immune systems or something?

We followed up with some paddling practice on Island Lake. There was a stiff breeze, so the sternsmen had an extra tough workout. 'Bent and I are slower than Gazelle & Tiny, which is to be expected, but luckily it wasn't a huge difference. It sounds like I'll need to stern for one of the other guys if we get into whitewater. Should be OK, but it's too bad I've neglected to do any upper body strength exercises since Lance finished his final Tour de France!

'Bent wanted to drop his van off at the office so he could run to work tomorrow. So we both went to Palgrave, then took a circuitous route home through the conservation area. Tonight's forecast low is 11C, and there was a delicious coolness in the breeze that we could just start to feel around 6 p.m. The hills didn't feel as high today. A very pleasant high 23C predicted for tomorrow - yahoo!!!