Training Log Archive: BashIn the 7 days ending May 27, 2007:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||
|
|
|
|
| |||||||||
| Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su | |||||||
Sunday May 27, 2007 #
Note
(rest day)
My race recovery consisted of 9 hours on my feet volunteering at the C3 Caledon Kids of Steel Triathlon - the largest KOS in the country. What a fun day! Some of Canada's top triathletes did the morning duathlon, which was awesome to watch. Then I staffed the bike/run transition for the age 3-5 category - 110 entrants. I removed their helmets, grabbed their bikes, and told them to run with Mommy to the finish line. After that, the older age categories went on the road for varying distances, but we had to watch the little kids carefully because some of them couldn't follow traffic cones, read big signs or count laps. Heck, some of the adults had problems with all that. In addition to lots of arm waving and shouting, I had to fix a 6-year-old's bike chain mid-race and talk to a 10-year-old boy and hold his hand as he lay crying in the road, waiting for medics. (Road rash - he was OK.) I came out of the day with no more desire to DO a triathlon than I'd had going in, but I admire the athletes who do it, especially the brave little kids pushing their limits. I'd volunteer again for sure.
Saturday May 26, 2007 #
Adventure Racing race 3:31:00 [4] **
Each spring we look forward to the well-organized Emergency Services Adventure Race (ESAR), put on by our friends Mr. & Mrs. Flatfoot, with big help from Sherpa and Vin. The race always includes some unexpected twists and turns that add to the adventure. Most of the participants are police, firefighters, paramedics and military, but they allow a few of us civilians to race too.
My usual all-female team couldn't make it this year. 'Bent won ESAR in 2005 and 2006 with teammates who weren't available this year either, and he was looking for ringers to go for the 3-peat. Meanwhile, I signed up Angus, a first-time racer and coach of our high school adventure racers. Realizing the futility of attempting to compete with us, 'Bent joined Team Tree Huggers / Bullfrogpower.com.
Ninety canoes started on the relatively narrow Nottawasaga River, which was splashy, exciting and a bit scary! Although less-experienced paddlers had been advised to seed themselves by staying out of the front rows, I guess some teams didn't realize that they were inexperienced paddlers until they started weaving back and forth across the river in front of the advancing hordes. That made for some fun collision avoidance - and occasional bumper boats. We paddled at top intensity for 5 minutes to get clear of the melee. With three in a canoe using kayak paddles, it's already tippy, so we didn't want to get hit too hard. Even Beowulf, a top AR team, managed to capsize today. We'd made it to 3rd place, just behind our friends, Canadian Outback, drafting them at first, then finally pulling past them on a curve, ironically aided by their strokemaster JZ calling out a good cadence: "One! Two!". Angus was a great captain in the stern, calling out commands to paddle on one side or another, rather than wasting energy on J-strokes. Impressive for someone who's never adventure raced before, let alone paddled a canoe with a kayak paddle. Like most experienced racers, he managed to clock me hard in the head with his paddle once. I should probably just wear a bike helmet in races where I sit in the middle seat, since this is a regular occurrence.
Now in 2nd place, we transitioned from canoes to a trek through the Minesing Swamp at the height of bug, poison ivy and stinging nettle season. As long as we kept moving, we barely noticed the bugs. My tights were insufficient protection against stinging nettles - OUCH - and I even got one in the palm of my hand. The poison ivy... well... I usually don't see a rash for 48 hours, and it hasn't been that long yet - yikes!!! I went through a LOT of PI during the day, and I fell in some at one point, cushioning myself with my right hand (argghh!) My fingers are crossed, but I'm worried that I could have a bad case coming up soon.
We swam across the river, then headed east to meet a north-south trail. It was tough going through the swamp, and we meandered a bit on our bearing, allowing a couple of teams to pass. We had visions of doing several kilometers of trail running, but that didn't work out for us, since the "trail" was really just a long, straight opening in the forest filled with knee-deep, sloppy muck of uneven depth, containing roots and branches. 'Bent asked a couple times if I wanted a tow. Oh yeah - it's very helpful to get yanked on the waist when you're fighting for your balance while stumbling through a sea of mud.
We finally emerged, then skirted the edge of fields to a trail. We passed a volunteer who mentioned that he was the CP for ESAR Lite, the short version of the race. "I'm the CP at the bridge," he said carefully. We dashed on, then I said, "Well, we should be looking for a creek really soon." 'Bent said, "You mean like the one running under the bridge back there?" Um, yes, exactly like that. So we turned and forged uphill to follow the ravine where we should find our CP. We looked carefully and didn't find it. There were several good navigators in the area, including Beowulf and Numsi, and none of us was having any luck. Then we saw a police team run by smiling, so we ran back to a part of the ravine that we'd passed before, and the volunteer was quietly tucked partway down the hill. We ran to CP4, meeting a couple of teams who'd almost got there, and were now coming back for CP3.
Onto the bikes next - a mixture of dirt roads and fun trails. The first section was marked with yellow tape, and we needed to be vigilant. 'Bent missed one turn-off, and we had to call him back. I later heard that a number of teams missed that turn, so we were lucky to catch the error early. For the final leg to Fort William, we took the longer road route, since we would be coming out the same way, and also because we suspected that it might be slower to go up the stairs from the rail trail. Where the routes split, a police team went on the rail trail, and we followed the road. We arrived at the CP in 1st place just before them, so it worked.
At CP6, with our hearts beating wildly, we were asked to assemble a 100-piece children's puzzle! It felt like biathlon - an instant switch from hammering hard on the bike to dividing up puzzle tasks between three of us. "OK, you look for ALL the edges, and I'll assemble the Big Bad Wolf while 'Bent looks for parts of the Three Pigs." It was fun listening to the other teams as they arrived and started working.
More riding, including a long descent on the sandy Ganaraska Trail to the base of the ski hill. We rode around to the snow tubing station, where we were asked to shoot a crossbow at a target. As the day wore on, they only asked one teammate to do it, but all three of us had to hit the target before we could move on. With no shooting background, I was rather chuffed with myself when I hit the target. It wasn't until after the race that 'Bent told me I'd hit the target adjacent to the one I was aiming at!
From there, we headed off with a 1:10,000 base map from 1983 that we'd just been handed, and we were aided by the ski run map. We had a steep slog uphill to CPA, then a nice trail run around to CPB. It was exciting as we jostled for position, and after CPB, I should have insisted on taking 30 seconds to look at the maps carefully, but instead I winged it, and we eventually ended up at the bottom of the ski hill past the point we were aiming for. We were heading for the top of the half-pipe, which meant a bit of backtracking and a steep climb partway back up the ski hill. I'm disappointed with my feeble navigation from CPB to CPC, since we could have won the race if I'd kept my head on straight. We should have followed a sidehill route along to CPC, but at worst, it wouldn't have taken much longer to just plunge to the bottom and run along the ski lifts looking for the half-pipe sign, then run up its small lift. The lead team was with us in this section making the same mistakes, and we hit CPC right behind them. They handed in their passport first, which sealed their victory.
From there, it was an all-out run down the ski hill and across the grass to the finish - oops! - more special tasks. First, we hit a climbing wall. Unlike poor Silence Beckons, with their team of two people similar in height, we were blessed to have Blastin' 'Bent and Big Angus. Next it was the traditional stretcher carry. On my female teams, we've struggled to carry a teammate over the finish line, but this year, I planned to ride through the finish arch like the Queen of Sheba. Wrong. Not that it wasn't a great ride, but it wasn't the end of the race. Into the inflatable fun house we went! It seemed to go on for a loooong time. We slithered under tubes and hauled ourselves up vertical sections with ropes and small inflatable footholds. Finally at the top, we slid down, grabbed our fetid shoes and backpacks, and ran across the finish line.
Fun race!! And a good one for us, too. In spite of my silly nav on the final CP, we were 2nd overall out of 90 teams, only 40 seconds out of 1st place. The winning team consisted of 3 muscular policemen, so fortunately they weren't in the Civilian Coed division anyway! I would have bet a considerable sum of money that our team had no chance of winning our division because of the tough competition. But I guess we minimized our mishaps, which enabled us to sneak past some faster racers.
'Bent, Angus and I worked well together as a team, which doesn't always happen the first time together - especially with a first-time racer. But no one would have guessed that Angus hadn't raced before - he's a very quick study. And of course, I always love racing with my hubby 'Bent.
It's been a fun month with Frontier Huntsville, STORM and ESAR. I sure am glad that I didn't retire from training for AR last fall as planned. No adventure races on the horizon until Raid The North in two months, but there are a few single-sport races for variety.
My usual all-female team couldn't make it this year. 'Bent won ESAR in 2005 and 2006 with teammates who weren't available this year either, and he was looking for ringers to go for the 3-peat. Meanwhile, I signed up Angus, a first-time racer and coach of our high school adventure racers. Realizing the futility of attempting to compete with us, 'Bent joined Team Tree Huggers / Bullfrogpower.com.
Ninety canoes started on the relatively narrow Nottawasaga River, which was splashy, exciting and a bit scary! Although less-experienced paddlers had been advised to seed themselves by staying out of the front rows, I guess some teams didn't realize that they were inexperienced paddlers until they started weaving back and forth across the river in front of the advancing hordes. That made for some fun collision avoidance - and occasional bumper boats. We paddled at top intensity for 5 minutes to get clear of the melee. With three in a canoe using kayak paddles, it's already tippy, so we didn't want to get hit too hard. Even Beowulf, a top AR team, managed to capsize today. We'd made it to 3rd place, just behind our friends, Canadian Outback, drafting them at first, then finally pulling past them on a curve, ironically aided by their strokemaster JZ calling out a good cadence: "One! Two!". Angus was a great captain in the stern, calling out commands to paddle on one side or another, rather than wasting energy on J-strokes. Impressive for someone who's never adventure raced before, let alone paddled a canoe with a kayak paddle. Like most experienced racers, he managed to clock me hard in the head with his paddle once. I should probably just wear a bike helmet in races where I sit in the middle seat, since this is a regular occurrence.
Now in 2nd place, we transitioned from canoes to a trek through the Minesing Swamp at the height of bug, poison ivy and stinging nettle season. As long as we kept moving, we barely noticed the bugs. My tights were insufficient protection against stinging nettles - OUCH - and I even got one in the palm of my hand. The poison ivy... well... I usually don't see a rash for 48 hours, and it hasn't been that long yet - yikes!!! I went through a LOT of PI during the day, and I fell in some at one point, cushioning myself with my right hand (argghh!) My fingers are crossed, but I'm worried that I could have a bad case coming up soon.
We swam across the river, then headed east to meet a north-south trail. It was tough going through the swamp, and we meandered a bit on our bearing, allowing a couple of teams to pass. We had visions of doing several kilometers of trail running, but that didn't work out for us, since the "trail" was really just a long, straight opening in the forest filled with knee-deep, sloppy muck of uneven depth, containing roots and branches. 'Bent asked a couple times if I wanted a tow. Oh yeah - it's very helpful to get yanked on the waist when you're fighting for your balance while stumbling through a sea of mud.
We finally emerged, then skirted the edge of fields to a trail. We passed a volunteer who mentioned that he was the CP for ESAR Lite, the short version of the race. "I'm the CP at the bridge," he said carefully. We dashed on, then I said, "Well, we should be looking for a creek really soon." 'Bent said, "You mean like the one running under the bridge back there?" Um, yes, exactly like that. So we turned and forged uphill to follow the ravine where we should find our CP. We looked carefully and didn't find it. There were several good navigators in the area, including Beowulf and Numsi, and none of us was having any luck. Then we saw a police team run by smiling, so we ran back to a part of the ravine that we'd passed before, and the volunteer was quietly tucked partway down the hill. We ran to CP4, meeting a couple of teams who'd almost got there, and were now coming back for CP3.
Onto the bikes next - a mixture of dirt roads and fun trails. The first section was marked with yellow tape, and we needed to be vigilant. 'Bent missed one turn-off, and we had to call him back. I later heard that a number of teams missed that turn, so we were lucky to catch the error early. For the final leg to Fort William, we took the longer road route, since we would be coming out the same way, and also because we suspected that it might be slower to go up the stairs from the rail trail. Where the routes split, a police team went on the rail trail, and we followed the road. We arrived at the CP in 1st place just before them, so it worked.
At CP6, with our hearts beating wildly, we were asked to assemble a 100-piece children's puzzle! It felt like biathlon - an instant switch from hammering hard on the bike to dividing up puzzle tasks between three of us. "OK, you look for ALL the edges, and I'll assemble the Big Bad Wolf while 'Bent looks for parts of the Three Pigs." It was fun listening to the other teams as they arrived and started working.
More riding, including a long descent on the sandy Ganaraska Trail to the base of the ski hill. We rode around to the snow tubing station, where we were asked to shoot a crossbow at a target. As the day wore on, they only asked one teammate to do it, but all three of us had to hit the target before we could move on. With no shooting background, I was rather chuffed with myself when I hit the target. It wasn't until after the race that 'Bent told me I'd hit the target adjacent to the one I was aiming at!
From there, we headed off with a 1:10,000 base map from 1983 that we'd just been handed, and we were aided by the ski run map. We had a steep slog uphill to CPA, then a nice trail run around to CPB. It was exciting as we jostled for position, and after CPB, I should have insisted on taking 30 seconds to look at the maps carefully, but instead I winged it, and we eventually ended up at the bottom of the ski hill past the point we were aiming for. We were heading for the top of the half-pipe, which meant a bit of backtracking and a steep climb partway back up the ski hill. I'm disappointed with my feeble navigation from CPB to CPC, since we could have won the race if I'd kept my head on straight. We should have followed a sidehill route along to CPC, but at worst, it wouldn't have taken much longer to just plunge to the bottom and run along the ski lifts looking for the half-pipe sign, then run up its small lift. The lead team was with us in this section making the same mistakes, and we hit CPC right behind them. They handed in their passport first, which sealed their victory.
From there, it was an all-out run down the ski hill and across the grass to the finish - oops! - more special tasks. First, we hit a climbing wall. Unlike poor Silence Beckons, with their team of two people similar in height, we were blessed to have Blastin' 'Bent and Big Angus. Next it was the traditional stretcher carry. On my female teams, we've struggled to carry a teammate over the finish line, but this year, I planned to ride through the finish arch like the Queen of Sheba. Wrong. Not that it wasn't a great ride, but it wasn't the end of the race. Into the inflatable fun house we went! It seemed to go on for a loooong time. We slithered under tubes and hauled ourselves up vertical sections with ropes and small inflatable footholds. Finally at the top, we slid down, grabbed our fetid shoes and backpacks, and ran across the finish line.
Fun race!! And a good one for us, too. In spite of my silly nav on the final CP, we were 2nd overall out of 90 teams, only 40 seconds out of 1st place. The winning team consisted of 3 muscular policemen, so fortunately they weren't in the Civilian Coed division anyway! I would have bet a considerable sum of money that our team had no chance of winning our division because of the tough competition. But I guess we minimized our mishaps, which enabled us to sneak past some faster racers.
'Bent, Angus and I worked well together as a team, which doesn't always happen the first time together - especially with a first-time racer. But no one would have guessed that Angus hadn't raced before - he's a very quick study. And of course, I always love racing with my hubby 'Bent.
It's been a fun month with Frontier Huntsville, STORM and ESAR. I sure am glad that I didn't retire from training for AR last fall as planned. No adventure races on the horizon until Raid The North in two months, but there are a few single-sport races for variety.
Thursday May 24, 2007 #
Note
Interested in helping kids have fun with sports? Consider volunteering at the Caledon Kids of Steel Triathlon this Sunday in Caledon village. There will be 700 kids, including over 100 racers in the age 3-6 category. (They use water wings to do one length of the pool.) C3 needs 200 volunteers, and they're still a little short. Contact Luisa at ltruby@rogers.com.
Mountain Biking (Trails) 1:17:00 [2] 26.0 km (20.3 kph)
Rode from Caledon East to Inglewood for a meeting. The morning ride was pretty good - not too warm, and the air along the rail trail was scented with lilacs. The afternoon ride was stinking hot, and the Air Quality was terrible. As of 4 p.m., we have poor air quality everywhere in the province except for Thunder Bay. Scary. You can exercise tonight, but please don't inhale.
Had a nice ice cream break with Knobless at the Inglewood General Store before hitting the trail for home.
Had a nice ice cream break with Knobless at the Inglewood General Store before hitting the trail for home.
Wednesday May 23, 2007 #
Mountain Biking (Trails) 1:20:00 [2] 26.7 km (20.0 kph)
Another smog day, so I rode my bike to a meeting at the Town of Caledon, but tried not to inhale. I was soooo close to Gourmandissimo's fine food shop that I had to stop in afterwards to get some crab cakes with sundried tomato aioli, dark chocolate biscotti and orange walnut salad dressing. Yummm.. Since all that food made my pack heavier, it was better training too.
Tuesday May 22, 2007 #
Running 1:00:00 [3] 8.68 km (6:55 / km) +376m 5:41 / km
Leanimal and I had a beautiful day for G-TNT on the Humber Trail. After struggling last week, I felt lighter on my feet today, and Leanimal felt more energetic too. It was a few degrees cooler and much less humid today, which undoubtedly helped. I coveted Leanimal's cool, new, red, next-generation Salomon shoes - but not her mini-socks, which were conspiring to give her a blister only a few days before the 4-day MIX adventure race in Michigan. Hopefully we stopped running in time!
The Forerunner measured 376 m in elevation gain this week, compared to 454 m last week for the same run. Hmmmm... The distance didn't change, fortunately.
The Forerunner measured 376 m in elevation gain this week, compared to 454 m last week for the same run. Hmmmm... The distance didn't change, fortunately.
Strength & Mobility (Core) 40:00 [2]
Hard Core DVD with BulletDog, who has great abs. 'Bent and ThunderDog managed to escape to eat cheesecake with his Mom for Shavuot.
Strength & Mobility (Foot) 17:00 [1]
Worked on my gimpy ankles while watching Jon Stewart make fun of all the different times George W has said that he's "looking forward" to something, when he is obviously NOT.
Monday May 21, 2007 #
Mountain Biking (Trail) 2:00:00 [3] 23.7 km (11.9 kph)
'Bent and I met up with our teammate 3PinJim at one of his favourite local haunts, the Puslinch Tract in Cambridge. Nice challenging single track with some fast sections in the pine forest and some more technical rock/root riding sections with short, steep, twisting uphills and steeply plunging (but relatively short) downhills. 3PinJim is a fast technical rider! There was a LOT of poison ivy in the woods, including thigh-high woody shrubs with poison ivy leaves on them. We went to the 401 rest stop to wash our hands and legs with soap after the ride, but it may have been too late.
Note
Nice to see Phatty & Leanimal when they dropped by during their training ride today. I think we might have been a bad influence. (Can you say "Mike's Hard Lemonade"?)