Training Log Archive: Bash

Lungs are feeling worse today, and I'm wondering if the dusty air from our HVAC system replacement project is the main problem, since I don't have my usual cold symptoms. The new heat pump blows so much harder than the old furnace that we keep accumulating little piles of dead bugs and other dirt beside each vent. I'm sure there are finer particles floating around in the air, and I've stayed home for most of each day while the contractors have been working. Yuck.

So... even though I felt like resting and feeling sorry for myself, it seemed wise to get out of the house for awhile and breathe cleaner air. 'Bent, the pooches and I had a nice snowshoe trek out back on a gorgeous day - actual time has been discounted for photography and general wimpiness.

I could probably log a little Highland Fling from the Robbie Burns Dinner that Goose and Coach LD hosted tonight. Frankly, it's been a few years since the height of my talents...



And Crash definitely gets to log some serious strength training after lifting her Haggis from the oven!

Couldn't sleep last night, thanks to this strange cold that seems to be operating entirely in my throat and chest.

Stars Winter Adventure Race - a very fun event on a chilly bluebird day. We got nice socks as swag, then we pulled on our thinking caps to figure out the complex "Nick-style" rules. Eventually, it all made sense, and it was an interesting race course design! The first discipline was Snowshoe-O. We ran together to #1, then we could split up and do the rest of the course separately, but there were rules about the minimum number of controls each teammate had to do, plus we each had to go up the escarpment for at least one control, etc. The teammate carrying the SI card had to hit the numbered controls in order. Lots of strategy, and it was different for every team. Fun.

Remembering last year's Tree Hugger disaster in this event, I marked 'Bent's route on his map for him with orange highlighter. I wasn't feeling good - lots of coughing - but I was determined to run as hard as I could to #1, then 'Bent would have the maximum amount of time to visit his controls, and we should make it to the finish around the same time. It worked - I got to #1 just behind 'Bent, Tiny and Nosnhoj, then we split up to find our different controls.

Unfortunately, Tiny knows 'Bent too well, and he played him like a violin. Instead of following my carefully-marked route, 'Bent knocked himself out to follow Tiny's path through the woods, which - surprise, surprise - didn't lead to all the same controls that 'Bent was supposed to do. Tiny knew it, and steered 'Bent around a bit.

To my surprise, I met 'Bent coming out of a control that only I was supposed to punch - and it was mandatory that I punch it. A little while later, close to the chalet, I realized that the guy running behind me was 'Bent. Great timing, I thought, but as the chalet came into view, it occurred to me that he shouldn't be with me. "You *did* punch controls 3 and d, right?" "Oh s&*t". That was the only point in the snowshoe section where I slowed down, walking for the next 90 seconds in a blue funk while he ran *way* back to the turn he was supposed to take. Sigh. I reached the chalet before Nosnhoj, but 'Bent was 3.5 minutes behind him, so the Milton Basement Racers had established a firm lead.

We had a mandatory 14-15 minute rest period inside the chalet. It was such a cold day that Nick wanted people to warm up for safety reasons, and I can't argue with that. For our team, it worked the opposite way, because we were warmed up and ready to take off layers for the ski-O, but instead we cooled down and felt damp, so I ended up overdressing for the ski-O.

We did the first part of the ski-O together, then split up to do different controls. Such a beautiful day to be out on the trails! After skiing on and off-trail to our respective controls, everyone had to hit the final control about half a kilometer from the finish. There were no tracks when I got there, so I knew I was first. I visualized people coming up on my tail to make myself push hard for that final section. A few hundred meters from the finish, I glanced back and saw Tiny skating along strongly on his classic skis - eek! So I pushed a little harder and made it to the finish first. I imagined that Tiny and I would stand there waiting for our respective teammates with our fingers crossed, but Nosnhoj was only a few meters behind him. 'Bent came up behind and punched 7 seconds after MBR! When our different rest stops were taken into account, they actually beat us by 1:30. The 3rd place team was almost 40 minutes back.

Great race by MBR! They did a nice job of dividing up their controls for both sections, and they executed their routes perfectly. I'm happy with my race, since I didn't think I would be able to push hard today, but I did - and it's always an honour to finish anywhere near MBR. And hey, we had the fastest ski-O section! My teammate had to buy me a mochaccino and chocolate pecan tart on the way home to obtain (partial) forgiveness.

Fun, well-organized, interesting event by Nick and the Stars. Thanks for a terrific day out! Thanks also to Adventure Guide and Eugene for our prizes. Big congrats to Pixie, who had the fastest time on the snowshoe-O course - even though she didn't see the finish control outside until after she'd taken off her snowshoes and come inside the chalet, so she will place 2nd in the results.

Rodney Yee - Yoga for Flexibility with 'Bent. Instead of doing the relaxation, I took one of my rare trips to our basement sauna and cooked myself for 25 minutes in hopes of feeling better.

Argghh, with the year's first adventure race coming up in 48 hrs, I am now officially sick. Bring on the Cold FX, Vitamin C and tea with honey. I think it was just last week that I was reading about a study that concluded that people who don't sleep enough are more susceptible to colds. And that's one New Year's resolution that hasn't been going so well.

BulletDog and I headed to Glen Haffy to pick up Control C, the last flag left out after Sunday's event. We parked at Coolihan's Sideroad, and I made a perfunctory search for the two missing SI cards in the deep snow where our registration table was. Nada. Too bad - that $70 is a big cut from our profits, but c'est la vie. I ran wherever the snow wasn't too deep - or steep. It was a great workout just to walk off the beaten track. No wonder our Thomass racers looked so exhausted! It was so deep in places that BulletDog practised her Michael Phelps dolphin kick to propel herself forward through the snow without touching the ground. After picking up the control, I headed east to join up with the Bruce Trail, then ran most of the way back to my car. Beautiful way to start the day - now I'm ready for a day of laptop work followed by a long evening meeting.

While watching the Iditarod on the Discovery Channel.

Only for those who can resist Internet shopping addiction, here's a fun web site with some sweet deals. (Currently a women's Salomon Fast 'n Light jacket for $24 US, but it'll change any minute.)
http://www.steepandcheap.com

Sunset ski around Palgrave West after the contractor had left for the day. Only a few more days until we have geothermal heat - at least we sure hope so.

I've been heading into the woods quite often at this time of day, and I'm liking it more and more. The sky takes on different shades - pastel pinks, blues and yellows, with a fiery orange blaze low on the horizon. In the foreground is the forest - trees coated with puffy snow, gnarled branches silhouetted in weird patterns against the colourful sky. And it's quiet. Completely quiet. Mmm.

I spent most of my time breaking trail, since there hadn't been any skiers through most of the trails since we got 20 cm of fresh snow over the weekend. At times, it was almost like snowshoeing on skis! I guess it isn't surprising that it was so difficult, since Urthbuoy says you can't learn to ski in Ontario. All this darned powder really gets in the way. It's not like, say, Kamloops where tomorrow's forecast is "foggy and -1C". Now that's *real* skiing weather. ;-)