Training Log Archive: Bash

Thomass Sunnybrook. Fun race and great to see so many friends! As soon as I saw the map, I knew the course design wouldn't favour women or masters competitors, so I just focused on trying to make good route choices while running. The course was fun and varied, but treacherous in places due to the ice and steep slopes. On one really steep trail (that I initially mistook for a cliff), Eugene almost slid down into the river on his back - which would have disqualified him, since the river was out of bounds!

With the heavy snow, I felt like I was running through molasses at times, and I was orienteering moderately well, but not *really* well. Since Adventure Girl! wasn't at the race, this was good enough to finish as the top woman (I think). There were lots of guys ahead of me, as predicted - including speedy Sid, whose Ironman training is showing.

'Bent and I enjoyed the orienteering, but our trip to Toronto included a couple of other highlights - lunch at a gourmet burrito place on King St. W and a couple of hours of shopping at MEC for Arctic accessories. Fun!

Around Palgrave East on a beautiful day with fresh, fluffy snow. I can't remember another winter day when I've met so many people out there. Most of them were a little lost, but that's par for the course in Palgrave East. I did some hilly bushwhacking, some untracked trails and some trails where others had created tracks. Days like today are why we live where we live!

Time for some year-end analysis. Unlike Superwes, my statistics look unimpressive compared to previous years. Here's the training I did in 2008, with activities listed in order of volume:

2008____Hrs
Running  91
Adventure Racing  71
Cycling  52,5
XC Skiing  49
Orienteering  37.5
Snowshoeing & Snowshoe Orienteering  37
Yoga  27
Strength  22.5
Paddling, Trekking, Other  39

Total  426.5 hrs, 376 sessions

Notes:

1) Big dip in training hours. In 2006, I posted 536 hrs, and in 2007, 492.5 hrs. However, I can account for a lot of it. In both 06 and 07, we did a vacation that included 35 hrs of mountain trekking. I did two 24-hr rogaines in 2006 and one in 2007, but we weren't able to fit in any this year. If I exclude those two differences, I'm within 7 hrs of last year, which doesn't seem so bad. At least it means that my habits haven't changed significantly for the worse.

2) Running took over as my #1 activity in terms of training hours, mostly due to my uncharacteristic focus on running for the six weeks this fall when I was marathon training. Also, Slowrunner makes us get out there!

3) Orienteering had been in 1st place for the past two years, but it dropped to 3rd place - if I include my new activity of "snowshoe orienteering" in the tally. In 2006, I orienteered 146 hrs, and this year it was only 66 hrs. No wonder I feel rusty every time I go out. I deserve to.

4) I did more adventure racing this year as we patronized a wider variety of event organizers. Even so, I did 100 fewer hrs of AR than in 2005 when the sport was more active around here. Boo.

5) With the excellent winter, my snowshoeing hours more than doubled. On the down side, my XC skiing hours decreased by about the same amount, so I didn't get to play in the snow any more than usual. This was mostly due to the fact that we didn't take an XC ski vacation, as we usually do - and that was because BulletDog needed heavy duty care for a couple of months after her knee surgery. (Hey, I think I'm seeing a useful pattern here. We need to take more vacations if I want to stay fit!)

6) I added quite a few more yoga sessions, including some of the shorter Rodney Yee DVDs, which were easier to sneak into busy days. It really helped.

7) Despite good intentions, my strength exercises once again averaged about 25 minutes per week. Pathetic!

8) Cycling decreased from 72 to 52.5 hrs, but the number of biking sessions remained the same. Instead of averaging 1.5 hrs per ride, I averaged an hour per ride. Not sure why, but it's probably related to the demise of the Wed. morning group ride.

Later this week, I'll set some training goals for 2009 using this information as input.

Very fun ski with 'Bent around Palgrave West, exploring and bushwhacking through a lot of private land (with permission), including Wheelies and Koturbash. Amazing, beautiful winter day. Great practice for the Snowgaine! What was really interesting today was finding all sorts of ski tracks in the woods. Crash admitted to being the other skier who was bushwhacking, but it looks like someone held a New Year's Eve XC ski party. I wonder who they were! Normally we see almost no sign of other people in these more remote areas - other than Crash, of course.

We skied beside a long section of the new TRCA fence to see what the animal tracks were doing. Mostly, animals seem to walk up to the fence, walk beside it for a bit, then they head away from it. We found one spot where a small canid - probably a fox - seemed to have squeezed through one of the wire rectangles in the fence. Ouch. The snow had drifted high in another spot, and that was the only place where we saw a deer jump the fence. Even though deer can theoretically jump this fence anywhere along its length, they don't seem to do it in practice. We'll have to do this again some time to continue our informal study. I'm not a fan of this stoopid, animal-unfriendly fence!

What better way to start 2009 than with a skate ski on a frozen lake? After a few hours of sleep (*very* few), we headed out into the beautiful winter morning.



We headed out across the lake and did a circumnavigation of Chief's Island before making our way back. We saw two large coyotes along the way. My view usually looked like this.



I informed the crew that my New Year's resolution is to find new friends who are less fit, since it's so hard to keep up with all these great athletes! I'm sorry, but that goes for you too, Crash, Rocky, Slowrunner, PhattyJR, Hammer, Tiny, Slice, Bender, FB, Urthbuoy, Revy, Carbon, Mr. and Mrs. Gally, Sherpa, Dogrunner, Flatfoot, Zoolander, Hansel, Nick, Meridian, Superwes, Mick and... well, the list goes on and on, doesn't it? 'Bent has asked for special dispensation to remain on as "spouse".

Did I mention what a beautiful morning it was?



Here's the gang in action - from L to R, Leanimal, Phatty, Coach LD, 'Bent and Goose.



Thank you to Phatty and Leanimal, our gracious hosts for New Year's once again.



Happy New Year to all!

Chilly, speedy and fun trip around the revised trail system at Hardwood Ski & Bike. Goose, Coach LD, Leanimal, Phatty, 'Bent and I kept moving at a good pace to stay warm in spite of challenging conditions for grip - very cold, but somewhat icy in the tracks. With K-Rock coming up, we'll need to do more of this.

Great New Year's Eve party later on at Leanimal's folks' place in Orillia. We missed a lot of the regular attendees, but dinner and party games were as fun and competitive as ever. After the Canadian Trivia game, Identity Crisis, Charades and Taboo, the girls' team was declared victorious over the boys, thanks to our greater verbal abilities at 3 a.m. (Jildo was the exception by that point. Leanimal has a great photo to post to her log that will explain all.)

Nice big snowflakes falling for most of the day, so I'm hopeful that we'll have great ski and snowshoe conditions soon. About half the ground is covered with snow 2-3 cm deep, and the rest is covered with very heavy snow about 30 cm deep. Here and there, the light snow covers glare ice - fun. I decided to resort to the trainer again, watching the first half of Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life". I did a harder workout than Sunday, including four 1-minute level 5 intervals.

Off the bike trainer and onto the paddle trainer, still watching the movie. Had to dial back the tension a lot compared to the way 'Bent uses the machine. Left shoulder a little sore - that's a new one.

Next I did upper body weights on the machine. Upper body and core strength need to improve for the K-Rock. I only want to have to deal with the weather conditions. I don't want fitness to be an issue - and it shouldn't be if all goes well, given that we're only skiing about 45 km/day. The Canadian Ski Marathon is much longer and hillier - but the trails are groomed, temperatures are usually warmer, backpack is lighter (except for CdB Gold), and aid stations are closer together and better stocked. So it'll probably be a toss-up for difficulty during the day. Aside from the cold, the preparation of meals, carrying our own race food, drying our clothing in the evenings, and sleeping out for 2 nights will make the K-Rock feel harder - at least, that's my guess.

Skipped the last machine in our basement gym - the treadmill - in favour of a trip upstairs to do leg strength exercises while watching The Daily Show. These are some of the exercises that Slowrunner gave me three years ago when I wrecked my knee. I felt a lot stronger after a winter of doing them - gotta keep reminding myself how good that felt.

It's official! 'Bent and I have signed up for the K-Rock Ultra - a 3-day, 135 km ski marathon in March in Yellowknife, 500 km below the Arctic Circle. We'll need appropriate gear for potentially very cold temperature skiing, and we need to be prepared to sleep and make our meals in floorless tents at -40C. My little brother, who winters in Miami, will be horrified.

Here's what happens to your property when you let those geothermal guys loose with their heavy equipment!



Oops, wrong caption. These are actually photos of our nearby forest trails after yesterday's wind storm. Now you know why we stayed indoors and rode our trainers!





*This* is what happens when you turn geothermal guys loose on your property. And boy does it happen quickly!

ThunderDog and I went for a strange snowshoe hike late this afternoon. Strange because we were sometimes walking on bare ground and sometimes in a foot of heavy snow. We surveyed the fallen branches and trees from yesterday's storm and noted a couple of places where deer had walked up to the new conservation authority fence, then opted to turn back rather than trying to jump it (which they're supposed to do quite easily, according to the conservation authority). It must have been hard work for ThunderDog out there today - she's sleeping by the fire now, and I don't expect her to be too lively tonight.