Training Log Archive: Bash

Joined Goose and Coach LD for paddle down the Humber River from Duffy's Lane to Hickman St. For some reason - probably because it requires a car shuttle - we'd never done this paddle before, even though it's only 15 minutes from home. It feels like wilderness in the Humber Valley, but we came ashore in the heart of downtown Bolton - very cool.



The pooches enjoy paddling, so we brought them along. Not such a great idea, as they found the sights and smells of the narrow river much more stimulating than our usual flatwater trips, and they didn't want to sit politely. At one point, BulletDog leapt out and started swimming when we ran aground, then panicked that we were going to abandon her and tried to do chin-ups on the side of the canoe to get back in. She seemed poised to leap out much of the time, and when we met the odd dog or hiker along the shore, she went ballistic. ThunderDog was more sedate, but kept switching from one side of the canoe to the other, throwing our balance off at odd moments.



All of this wouldn't have been too bad on flat water, especially with the ballast of canoe packs to stabilize us. It wasn't so great on moving water, and it would have been nice to be able to focus on paddling this section of river properly, i.e. with 2 hands on the paddle! I guess it's Class 1 - you'd have to work hard to get into trouble at this time of year, but it still wouldn't be fun to tip.

We had some good wildlife sightings - a couple of deer that bounded by and splashed across the river, a beaver swimming with a twig, and a great blue heron that can be seen taking off at the right side of this photo. Fun little adventure!

Went up to Horseshoe with Hammer and MrPither to hang flags for the marathon-length Navstock Raid. After wandering around the area alone for many hours this year preparing for the two Raids, it was a treat to have company for a change, and it sure made things go quickly. Slice came along to do some training, but since she is doing the race, we had to send her away during all the top-secret business.

Bob-the-Navigator had vetted the course on Thursday - many thanks. Was he able to get all the CPs within the 6-hr time limit? Sorry, but that's classified information. Did he get any mosquito bites? Um, yes, I expect so, based on my day in the woods.

Logging in one area wasn't as bad as advertised, so Hammer and I added a new control in a very pretty section of forest. It was a treat to watch Hammer running through the woods on his bionic knee. I've run behind lots of people in the forest, and it's cool to watch what's different about the way a talented orienteer moves - light steps, looking ahead to make good micro-route choices, and not slowing nor seemingly even caring about slips, off-balance moments or even what appeared to be minor ankle twists.

Got together with my ESAR teammates, Hurtn and Damuhl, for a canoe paddling practice session around Island Lake. It was raining, but warm enough that it wasn't an issue. Hurtn and Damuhl both had canoe paddles, and I was in the bow with the choice of my kayak or canoe paddle. Hurtn checked out our speed on the GPS, and there wasn't a huge increase when I used the kayak paddle. Makes sense, since the boys either had to slow down their normal pace to keep in synch with one side of my stroke, or else they had to speed up to stroke whenever my paddle hit the water. So we used canoe paddles most of the time, and that's what we'll do in the race. Our paddling went well - it's going to be a good discipline for us. The only potential problem is that my teammates are avid fishermen who get a little distracted whenever we get near likely-looking shallow areas...

It was still raining a bit, and we decided that we'd squeeze in a bike ride and a short run. We went through Palgrave West to Palgrave East and got through the first part of Salty Steven. Damuhl had an incident where his pedal hit something, and he bounced up, then came down hard on his seat, which tipped forward and down, freeing his leg to get dragged down along the gears. He's a tough guy (or maybe a rough guy), so he persevered for another few minutes before he realized that he was losing *way* too much blood out there. We headed back home where Dr. Hurtn did a fine job of fixing him up. When it was flushed out, it was kinda scary how much flesh he'd torn off his calf - and yet he'd kept on biking stoically. Obviously a true adventure racer! But now I am feeling guilty for attempting to kill my teammate...

Hard Core Live with Caron - last class until September.

Power yoga class. The forward bend is my friend.

'Bent and I rode to and from Albion Hills for the inaugural 2008 Wednesday morning group ride.

Another perfect day! Cold enough to wear arm warmers at 9 a.m., but warm enough to take them off after half an hour. Beautiful sunshine and great company for our ride - Leanimal, Ross, Dunc... and eventually Rocky, who had to arrive late. Nice job of successfully guessing where we were and chasing us down! Our group rides are intervals of good technical riding at our own pace interspersed with social chat (not logged) at trail junctions where we regroup before heading into the next section.

'Bent and I turned for home near the north end so that he could get ready for work. Halfway up Duffy's Lane, he glanced in his rear view mirror and said, "I wonder who's chasing us down?" I looked back and recognized VO2Max in the distance. He hadn't had the same good fortune as Rocky! He'd arrived late and spent half the morning riding around Albion Hills looking for bike tracks, watching for clouds of dust, putting his ear to the ground to listen for approaching herds (or social chat), etc. At least it was a good training ride for him, and we got to say a final farewell before he heads off to Whistler tomorrow to start training for next year's skiing, lucky guy.

Fantastic cool, sunny day - perfect for running! My legs are still a little tired from Saturday, so I did an easy run of the 5K trail loop that I measured out on April 28. I aimed to run up all the hills but not go anaerobic, and I didn't let myself push hard or look at my watch. Not bad - my previous time trial on this loop was just over a minute faster, although that time I had to bushwhack around a big fallen tree that has since been cleaned up.

We had a farewell lunch with VO2Max, since he's heading out to Whistler to start training for the 2008/09 nordic ski season. He mentioned that their coaches tell them to focus on technique whenever they get tired, since that makes them use their energy more efficiently, even though it seems harder. Since I was a little tired today, that's what I did, focusing on posture and moving the arms in a back-and-forth direction without much side to side motion. After spending a full day volunteering at a triathlon, I was reminded about the "triathlon arms" that we learned about in Robert Taylor's running clinic a couple of years ago - where your arms move sideways across your body instead of helping to provide forward momentum. I'll never be speedy, but surely I can learn to swing my arms in the right direction!

Caron's Power Yoga DVD #2

More Kids of Steel photos from the professional photographer, who also works for Sports Illustrated. These little kids are soooo determined (and the big kids, too)!
http://www.trishots.com/08/kinetico/index.html