Training Log Archive: Bash

Thomass Stars at the Huron Natural Area in Kitchener. It took us almost 2 hours to get there. Even the 401 was surprisingly snow-covered in a lot of places. We probably should have turned around when we saw what things were like, but we'd promised to lend snowshoes to a couple of people, and we'd arranged to give Phatty & Leanimal a ride home. Glad we kept going though, since it was a fun race. There's nothing more Canadian and childlike than playing around in deep, fluffy snow on a sunny morning after a big storm.

It was my first race in my Atlas Race snowshoes. Richard bought them "for me", and he has already raced in them twice! :-) They are light as a feather, but the snow was so deep and fluffy today that the flotation was not always enough. It didn't matter though - it was much better than post-holing in my shoes.

We had a map exchange, and the two maps had scales of 1:7500 and 1:5000. I didn't get a good feel for either scale, but that's probably because my speed was slower too, so distances didn't feel like they usually do. I blew past control D in the first box and ended up at 181. No biggie, I just changed my plan to head for C instead, since it was on my way back to the map exchange, and I hadn't been sure which of the 2 controls to drop anyway. I made a big mistake on the 2nd map because of my bad sense of scale, so I ended up in snow up to my bum - even wearing snowshoes - and I had to contour back to #7 from *much* too far away. I was the first person at #5 (I think), so it didn't seem strange that there were no tracks going in my direction. Sometimes my independent streak works in my favour in navigation races. Other times, not so much.

In spite of my sloppy nav, I guess other people had less-than-perfect days too, plus the race was slow in the deep snow, and my age-gender handicap gave me a shorter distance to travel in tough conditions. I finished 2nd to a speedy young guy without snowshoes who was doing his first orienteering race - good for him!

As always, Nick and the Stars put on a quality event. Thank you!

Reviewing the Thomass series points, it looks like I will come out on top in the women's category this year, but I don't feel like I deserve it because Slice and Leanimal both ran M-Elite. Looks like Leanimal was only 8 points behind me, and I think she should get the win. Not sure how we can handle this without upsetting orienteering traditionalists. Any ideas, Sid?

BTW, I've added a new activity called "Snowshoe Orienteering". It's come up so many times this winter, and I don't like always having to choose one or the other. Now I'll need to go back and make some updates.

Since today's orienteering race was so far from home, 'Bent and I looked at the map to see what else we could do to justify the drive. We decided to try skate skiing at Hilton Falls, since we know other people who go there. Phatty & Leanimal went snowshoe orienteering while we skied. As soon as we started, we realized that it probably wasn't such a good idea. The parking lot had been full, so there were lots of hikers and skiers out. The trails were soft and mostly unpacked. It's been a treat to "shred pow" so much in Ontario this year, but it's not much fun while you're skate skiing. Fortunately, it got better as we got further from the parking lot. I think the hikers were churning up the soft snow and making things worse.

I had an orienteering map and a park trail map in my pocket, plus there were maps on signs at each junction. So there was no excuse for just following other skiers and ending up at the top of the Beaver Dam Loop when we never intended to *go* on that trail. And then we discovered that the west side of the loop was ungroomed and far too narrow for our skate skis. Oops! We were worried about getting back in time to meet Phatty & Leanimal, so we picked up the pace on the way back. Beautiful, sunny afternoon in the woods, and in retrospect, we're glad we took the wrong turn, because we were all set to wimp out and switch to snowshoe hiking after half an hour. This was a *much* better workout. (But should we get credit for the extra training time if we didn't mean to do it?)

DVD with body band. Lots of stretching - mmm.

Before our long ski in the big snowstorm, we needed to tire out the dogs a little, so 'Bent and I took them snowshoeing.



The dogs loved it! They made dog angels and romped through the snow, which was neck-deep on them in some places. Then they paused to get a T-R-E-A-T.

'Bent and I toured around Palgrave East and West in blowing snow. This is right by our house.



Visibility was poor in some of the open areas, and the snow was prickly on our faces. Still, it felt awesome to be out in the storm. Our old ski tracks from yesterday weren't much help.



The Humber River was pretty, but looked mighty chilly.



We stopped by Crash's place to see if she was snowed in, but I guess she was out gallivanting. When we got home, I went to the end of our driveway to pick up the paper - that's the biggest snowbank we've ever had at our place!

Navigation coaching session at Albion Hills with Mrs. Gally, freshly returned from a relaxing trip to Florida. I'd forgotten our snowshoes (hadn't finished my morning coffee, so my brain wasn't warmed up), but turned around 2 km from home when I realized my error. Good thing, since we wouldn't have been able to cover much distance otherwise!

A few weeks ago, I made a comment in my log saying that the 4-day, 3-night Raid International Eco Endurance Aventure stage race sounded "awesome - except for the stupid inline skating". Much discussion ensued. Apparently Attackpoint matters, because the race organizers wrote me and mentioned that there would be no inline skating this year after all!

So now it just sounds awesome, period. When 'Bent and I did the Raid with Tiny and Gazelle in 2006, it was well-organized, creative and loads of fun. The mandatory gear list was short because you're expected to know what to carry and make your own decisions - refreshing! The race had a very international feel to it, with teams from Europe, the U.S. and Quebec.

The organizers are keen to attract teams from English Canada as well, and this year they're offering an amazing location in a corner of our country that we might never see otherwise - let alone while doing our favourite outdoor activities. The Lower North Shore of Quebec is just west of Labrador, inaccessible by road from the mainland. The quickest way to get there is to take a ferry from the northwest corner of Newfoundland. French, English and Innu are spoken there.

I spoke with several adventure racers who had concerns, and the organizers were very flexible about making changes. They will now allow teams of two or four, and they've extended their early registration deadline until May 15, which means a $495/person registration fee for a 4-day race. Also, they've offered an entry to their fall 5-8 hr race as a prize in the Salomon Adventure Running Series. They're looking into a bus from Deer Lake, Newfoundland to make things simpler for teams. I'm impressed at their responsiveness - they really are doing their best to make their event attractive to English Canadians. It's really nice to see such customer focus. 'Bent and I are looking at our schedules to see if we can get there. Anyone else want to ride in the Bullfrog Van?

Around Palgrave West with a detour to visit Crash and DC for coffee and yummy goodies. Brilliant sunshine and deep, deep snow. I could ski on my tracks from yesterday, so I was able to go farther in the same length of time. By the end, the temperature had risen a few degrees above zero, and my waxless skis were really sticky. At one point I was leaning forward on a downhill and my skis stopped suddenly. I think I pulled every muscle in my torso as the momentum took my body in two different directions!

Another storm tomorrow, and hopefully some colder temperatures. This has been *such* a fantastic winter. With BulletDog's surgery, we thought we'd miss our annual Feb/March ski trip, but we didn't need to go away to find snow this year.

Hard Core Live with Caron. She was really *mean* tonight. But that's why we pay her the big bucks.

Power Yoga class. Not sure why, but I started to feel queasy early on. It's hard to relax and focus on my breathing at the same time as I'm focusing on not throwing up. Feeling fine now - maybe I snacked too soon before class.

Another big storm is coming this weekend! Actually, I wish we could save some of this record-setting snowfall for another winter. There have been too many years when we only got 4-6 weekends of decent skiing. Anyway, I fetched a big load of firewood, and 'Bent and I are looking forward to hunkering down with the pooches while the snow flies.

I'd better give equal time to Mocha, Attackpoint nickname "BulletDog", age 5. It is now 8 weeks since her knee operation, and we met with her surgeon today. She's been given the green light to ramp up gradually to full activity over the next 2 months. Yahoo! Sadly, this is a much faster recovery than either 'Bent's or Hammer's knee has made.

We had another snowstorm last night - 15-20 cm, so I went out to Palgrave West to shred some pow. ;-) It was surprisingly hard work to break trail, but at least that made it easy to keep the heart rate up. Absolutely beautiful day, and I was fascinated by the patterns of shadows of trees and branches on snow. Heading back on Swamp Trail, I met The Neighbour Who Doesn't Like Orienteering. He was skiing too and asked about the "nice signs", which he thought got the message across politely about asking people to please not walk in the ski tracks. He looked disappointed to hear that most of 'Bent's signs had been ripped down within the first 24 hrs. So that rules out one suspect!

Tobler (Attackpoint nickname "ThunderDog"), age 11 1/2, enjoying the sunshine yesterday. This might be my favourite photo of her since her crazy puppy days.

Rodney Yee - Power Yoga for Flexibility

Abbreviated Hard Core - a selection of exercises from the DVD that I did from memory, going all the way around the core. My back muscles were the stiffest after the weekend because of the heavy pack with snowshoes on it, so this was good.

Day after a long race. Eat, eat, eat, eat, drink, eat, drink, eat. Nothing really hurts - it's just that pleasant, fatigued feeling of muscles that have been well-used.