Training Log Archive: BashIn the 7 days ending Mar 8, 2009:
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Sunday Mar 8, 2009 #
Snowshoe Orienteering 6:44:00 ***
Snowgaine Day 2 - State Forests of Cortland County
We got today's map after yesterday's race, so we had loads of time to plan. I was convinced that we had the potential to clear yesterday's course, but I figured we would have to leave out a couple of controls today. The wild card in today's course planning was major uncertainty regarding our speed in the bush, given the high temperature and the fact that we were racing at a different location 45 minutes further south.
We made our plan based on skiing the course, which is what we wished we had done yesterday. When we arrived at the race HQ - a Nordic Centre - it was surrounded by bare ground, and some of the ski trails were just steaming wet asphalt. 'Bent and I ditched the skis and threw our lightweight snowshoes into our packs. For us, this was the right decision. There were places where we would have loved to ski, but there were also some treacherous sections, e.g. steep icy trails that turned into mud and gravel partway down the hill. We had to take the snowshoes off and put them on a couple of times, but it was still worth having them.
The first part of today's race seemed to go slowly, and I wondered if we had made a mistake by going to #60 in the far NW corner of the map (we didn't). I had a couple of body-twisting falls early on when my snowshoes picked up heavy snow on the decking or got caught under a thick crust layer. Unfortunately, my Atlas Race snowshoes aren't designed for that kind of abuse, and the binding attachments broke at the same point on both snowshoes within 30 minutes of each other. Argghh. Luckily, my teammate is Mr. Fixit, so I was able to attach my foot (albeit a little shakily) with velcro webbing on one side and a C-clamp on the other side!
I got some great photos of yesterday's thigh-deep postholing, and I was looking forward to posting them here along with pics of us snowshoeing on bare ground today. But... I managed to leave $450 of camera equipment somewhere on the course. :-( It was on my backpack shoulder strap where it survived the 4-day Coast Raid just fine - but somehow it got ripped off today. At least it is freezeproof and waterproof, so if someone finds it one day, they may be able to use it. And a small silver lining is that I have never liked the photo quality of that camera and have always regretted buying it. So... problem solved. Sort of.
Once again, the second part of the course went faster than the first part. We'd dropped a couple of optional (for us) 30-pointers in the middle of the course, but I always try to save a loop of controls near the finish so we can tackle them knowing exactly how much time we have left. We were able to get all of our final loop with 16 minutes to spare, so there's a chance (but not a sure thing) that we might have squeezed in one of the controls we'd skipped earlier. Our nav went well, and 'Bent was strong. Yesterday felt like a bit of a screw-up, but today felt like a good effort.
Unfortunately, the Canadians were unable to win overall this year, but the amazing Bobkittens and Snowkittens raced together today and cleaned the course on both days, finishing with 1980 pts - a close 2nd (and technically also 3rd) to EMS. MBR was next - 2nd Male with 1950 pts. 'Bent and I won the Masters category with 1810 pts - 10 pts behind the best Coed result, so that's OK. MBR2 had some punching problems on Day 2 and should have been on the Coed podium - and maybe will end up there if the organizers use the intention sheets to update the results.
Big thanks to CNYO for another very fun weekend - our 3rd year in a row, and the number of Canadians keeps on growing as word spreads about this event. Entry fee was only $40 for two 7-hr days of racing with a hot meal on both days. It is a tremendous amount of work to put on an event of this magnitude and calibre, and I think CNYO should consider raising the price to make it worth their while. I have a hard time believing that they even cover their costs!
We got today's map after yesterday's race, so we had loads of time to plan. I was convinced that we had the potential to clear yesterday's course, but I figured we would have to leave out a couple of controls today. The wild card in today's course planning was major uncertainty regarding our speed in the bush, given the high temperature and the fact that we were racing at a different location 45 minutes further south.
We made our plan based on skiing the course, which is what we wished we had done yesterday. When we arrived at the race HQ - a Nordic Centre - it was surrounded by bare ground, and some of the ski trails were just steaming wet asphalt. 'Bent and I ditched the skis and threw our lightweight snowshoes into our packs. For us, this was the right decision. There were places where we would have loved to ski, but there were also some treacherous sections, e.g. steep icy trails that turned into mud and gravel partway down the hill. We had to take the snowshoes off and put them on a couple of times, but it was still worth having them.
The first part of today's race seemed to go slowly, and I wondered if we had made a mistake by going to #60 in the far NW corner of the map (we didn't). I had a couple of body-twisting falls early on when my snowshoes picked up heavy snow on the decking or got caught under a thick crust layer. Unfortunately, my Atlas Race snowshoes aren't designed for that kind of abuse, and the binding attachments broke at the same point on both snowshoes within 30 minutes of each other. Argghh. Luckily, my teammate is Mr. Fixit, so I was able to attach my foot (albeit a little shakily) with velcro webbing on one side and a C-clamp on the other side!
I got some great photos of yesterday's thigh-deep postholing, and I was looking forward to posting them here along with pics of us snowshoeing on bare ground today. But... I managed to leave $450 of camera equipment somewhere on the course. :-( It was on my backpack shoulder strap where it survived the 4-day Coast Raid just fine - but somehow it got ripped off today. At least it is freezeproof and waterproof, so if someone finds it one day, they may be able to use it. And a small silver lining is that I have never liked the photo quality of that camera and have always regretted buying it. So... problem solved. Sort of.
Once again, the second part of the course went faster than the first part. We'd dropped a couple of optional (for us) 30-pointers in the middle of the course, but I always try to save a loop of controls near the finish so we can tackle them knowing exactly how much time we have left. We were able to get all of our final loop with 16 minutes to spare, so there's a chance (but not a sure thing) that we might have squeezed in one of the controls we'd skipped earlier. Our nav went well, and 'Bent was strong. Yesterday felt like a bit of a screw-up, but today felt like a good effort.
Unfortunately, the Canadians were unable to win overall this year, but the amazing Bobkittens and Snowkittens raced together today and cleaned the course on both days, finishing with 1980 pts - a close 2nd (and technically also 3rd) to EMS. MBR was next - 2nd Male with 1950 pts. 'Bent and I won the Masters category with 1810 pts - 10 pts behind the best Coed result, so that's OK. MBR2 had some punching problems on Day 2 and should have been on the Coed podium - and maybe will end up there if the organizers use the intention sheets to update the results.
Big thanks to CNYO for another very fun weekend - our 3rd year in a row, and the number of Canadians keeps on growing as word spreads about this event. Entry fee was only $40 for two 7-hr days of racing with a hot meal on both days. It is a tremendous amount of work to put on an event of this magnitude and calibre, and I think CNYO should consider raising the price to make it worth their while. I have a hard time believing that they even cover their costs!
Saturday Mar 7, 2009 #
Orienteering 6:30:00 [4] ***
Snowgaine Day 1 - Highland Forest Park
'Bent, Leanimal, Phatty and I saw very little snow during our drive to Tully, NY, and the Skyline Lodge was surrounded by bare ground speckled with some crusty little snowdrifts. We decided to wear Yak Trax on our shoes instead of taking skis or snowshoes. Mistake!! Miraculously, most of the race map was blanketed with deep, soft snow. Really, *really* soft snow because of the high temperatures. Several times during the day after postholing thigh deep and banging my shins on logs, I offered passing racers a million dollars for their snowshoes or skis - but I had no takers. In fact, one lady correctly informed me that it would be against the rules!
We'd only had about 15 minutes to plan our map for 7 hrs of racing, so 'Bent and I expected that we might change our plans on the fly. When we realized what a slog it was going to be on foot, we altered our route to take snowmobile trails whenever possible, even if it meant extra distance or elevation. At the halfway point, we decided to drop #43 in the far southeast corner, which turned out to be another mistake. The second half of the course went much faster than the first half, thanks to some running on roads and well-used snowmobile trails. So we got to the finish half an hour early, having skipped a control that we actually had time to get. Otherwise, we would have cleaned the course, a feat achieved by 6 of the 19 teams. For some strange reason, our race time didn't count today - just the points obtained.
Other than the poor choice of leaving our winter sports equipment behind (rather ironic, given how much 'Bent and I love winter), we did OK out there. It was tough physically, but we hit all the controls right on, except for one misplaced veg boundary control. 'Bent did some great towing on roads and snowmobile trails to keep us close together. We both came away with some nasty bruises on our shins from banging into logs under the snow. The last 20 minutes of the race got a little unpleasant when the skies opened up and started lashing us with cold rain. But it wasn't far to the beautiful Skyline Lodge and its fireplace, and there was hot food waiting.
Canadian teams were in good shape at the end of Day 1. Milton Basement Racers, Salomon Bobkittens and Salomon Snowkittens were tied with 990 pts (the full course). MBR 2 and the Tree Huggers were leading the Coed and Masters categories respectively with 950 pts.
'Bent, Leanimal, Phatty and I saw very little snow during our drive to Tully, NY, and the Skyline Lodge was surrounded by bare ground speckled with some crusty little snowdrifts. We decided to wear Yak Trax on our shoes instead of taking skis or snowshoes. Mistake!! Miraculously, most of the race map was blanketed with deep, soft snow. Really, *really* soft snow because of the high temperatures. Several times during the day after postholing thigh deep and banging my shins on logs, I offered passing racers a million dollars for their snowshoes or skis - but I had no takers. In fact, one lady correctly informed me that it would be against the rules!
We'd only had about 15 minutes to plan our map for 7 hrs of racing, so 'Bent and I expected that we might change our plans on the fly. When we realized what a slog it was going to be on foot, we altered our route to take snowmobile trails whenever possible, even if it meant extra distance or elevation. At the halfway point, we decided to drop #43 in the far southeast corner, which turned out to be another mistake. The second half of the course went much faster than the first half, thanks to some running on roads and well-used snowmobile trails. So we got to the finish half an hour early, having skipped a control that we actually had time to get. Otherwise, we would have cleaned the course, a feat achieved by 6 of the 19 teams. For some strange reason, our race time didn't count today - just the points obtained.
Other than the poor choice of leaving our winter sports equipment behind (rather ironic, given how much 'Bent and I love winter), we did OK out there. It was tough physically, but we hit all the controls right on, except for one misplaced veg boundary control. 'Bent did some great towing on roads and snowmobile trails to keep us close together. We both came away with some nasty bruises on our shins from banging into logs under the snow. The last 20 minutes of the race got a little unpleasant when the skies opened up and started lashing us with cold rain. But it wasn't far to the beautiful Skyline Lodge and its fireplace, and there was hot food waiting.
Canadian teams were in good shape at the end of Day 1. Milton Basement Racers, Salomon Bobkittens and Salomon Snowkittens were tied with 990 pts (the full course). MBR 2 and the Tree Huggers were leading the Coed and Masters categories respectively with 950 pts.
Thursday Mar 5, 2009 #
Note
Interesting to see the 14-day forecast for Yellowknife, where we'll be heading soon for the Rock & Ice Ultra. It's down into the minus twenties today as expected, but the current forecast predicts an unusually mild high temp of -3C on March 19! Race starts on March 21.
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/fourteenday/cant0...
(This link goes to the current forecast, so it won't make sense to anyone reading this log entry in future.)
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/fourteenday/cant0...
(This link goes to the current forecast, so it won't make sense to anyone reading this log entry in future.)
Wednesday Mar 4, 2009 #
Strength & Mobility (Legs) 20:00 [2]
While watching Jeopardy. (I won a fair amount of virtual money!)
Note
Following up on my New Year's resolutions at month-end for greater accountability through the year:
1) Strength training - min. 1 hr/week. Leg, core, upper body.
- This went well in February. I was just short of my goal. Better yet, I'm starting to feel the difference.
2) Improve training quality, including speed work.
- Nada. But teaming with Hammer for the Snowshoe Raid was high quality racing, if that counts!
3) 450 hrs total annual training
- Averaged a little better than that this month (1:18 per day)
4) Get weight down to target - and stay there.
- In spite of doing nothing about this, I am down a pound. Still 4.5 lb above my target.
5) Aim to do one training session per week before breakfast.
- I don't think I did even one in February - bad girl!
6) Related to the above... in bed by midnight at least 5 days/week. (For those who have received my 1:30 a.m. e-mails, you'll know how hard this one will be.)
- Much, much worse at this than January. On the bright side, I've implemented a new online event registration system, launched a new website and worked on a bunch of other good projects. But I'm fighting a cold for the 2nd time this winter, and I need to take this resolution *much* more seriously.
1) Strength training - min. 1 hr/week. Leg, core, upper body.
- This went well in February. I was just short of my goal. Better yet, I'm starting to feel the difference.
2) Improve training quality, including speed work.
- Nada. But teaming with Hammer for the Snowshoe Raid was high quality racing, if that counts!
3) 450 hrs total annual training
- Averaged a little better than that this month (1:18 per day)
4) Get weight down to target - and stay there.
- In spite of doing nothing about this, I am down a pound. Still 4.5 lb above my target.
5) Aim to do one training session per week before breakfast.
- I don't think I did even one in February - bad girl!
6) Related to the above... in bed by midnight at least 5 days/week. (For those who have received my 1:30 a.m. e-mails, you'll know how hard this one will be.)
- Much, much worse at this than January. On the bright side, I've implemented a new online event registration system, launched a new website and worked on a bunch of other good projects. But I'm fighting a cold for the 2nd time this winter, and I need to take this resolution *much* more seriously.
Tuesday Mar 3, 2009 #
Snowshoe Orienteering 3:00:00 [2]
BulletDog and I went north of Barrie to look for and pick up controls from an event that happened too long ago - before 2 meters of snow fell on the area. We had only moderate success, but I'm hopeful that some of the missing paraphernalia will surface when the snow melts. I found one flag totally encased in ice and stuck firmly to the ground. I banged away at it, but it's going to be in there for awhile. On the bright side, I discovered a BSF-7 (expensive new SI control) that I don't think anyone knew was out there.
Other than the frustration of not bringing back all the gear, it was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. Lots of sunshine, very chilly temperature (cold toes!) and still enough snow that I regretted going into one control without snowshoes. BulletDog was an excellent companion, and she is sleeping soundly now after bounding through the deep snow for hours.
Time is discounted to allow for standing still while untying tightly knotted cords - and also several cell phone calls with GHOSlow who graciously tried to help when I realized that I didn't have the final version of the map, and one of the controls had been moved at the last minute.
Other than the frustration of not bringing back all the gear, it was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. Lots of sunshine, very chilly temperature (cold toes!) and still enough snow that I regretted going into one control without snowshoes. BulletDog was an excellent companion, and she is sleeping soundly now after bounding through the deep snow for hours.
Time is discounted to allow for standing still while untying tightly knotted cords - and also several cell phone calls with GHOSlow who graciously tried to help when I realized that I didn't have the final version of the map, and one of the controls had been moved at the last minute.
Note
I was out there for almost 4 hrs, so I had plenty of time to contemplate how BulletDog and Hammer compare as snowshoeing teammates.
BulletDog definitely has some strong points as a teammate. She's faster than Hammer without snowshoes, and if I attached a harness to her, she'd probably tow just as hard. She never asks me questions when I'm out of breath from trying to keep up with her. She can go a long time without food or drink, and she never needs to adjust her layers.
But... her navigation sucks. Even when we arrived at flags, she didn't want to stop. Hammer is good that way. And she didn't leave nice big tracks for me to run in - in fact she preferred to run in mine when the snow got deep. Toward the end of the day when it got really frigid, she occasionally sat in the snow and lifted her feet so that I could warm the soles with my bare hands. Hammer *never* does that - fortunately. And even if he did, he only has 2 feet.
BulletDog definitely has some strong points as a teammate. She's faster than Hammer without snowshoes, and if I attached a harness to her, she'd probably tow just as hard. She never asks me questions when I'm out of breath from trying to keep up with her. She can go a long time without food or drink, and she never needs to adjust her layers.
But... her navigation sucks. Even when we arrived at flags, she didn't want to stop. Hammer is good that way. And she didn't leave nice big tracks for me to run in - in fact she preferred to run in mine when the snow got deep. Toward the end of the day when it got really frigid, she occasionally sat in the snow and lifted her feet so that I could warm the soles with my bare hands. Hammer *never* does that - fortunately. And even if he did, he only has 2 feet.
Monday Mar 2, 2009 #
Note
(rest day)
Unintentional rest day, but maybe not such a bad idea. Amongst other things today, I:
- Implemented the new Orienteering Ontario website - http://www.orienteeringontario.ca
- Registered with 'Bent for the 2009 North American Rogaine Champs in Arizona. Our first-ever rogaine was the 2004 World champs in Arizona, and we're excited to go back there.
- Reviewed the final list of competitors in the Rock & Ice Ultra after registration closed last night. The list includes a couple of good friends, some friends of friends whom I can't wait to get to know, a long list of interesting-sounding Yellowknifers, and some impressive strangers, including the Spanish man who holds the Guinness Record for underwater kissing.
There are about 30 racers each in the 3-day and 6-day categories. (There is also a 1-day category, but we won't get to know those people because we won't be camping together.) Half the competitors in our 3-day division will compete on skis and the rest will run on snowshoes. In the 6-day division, where competitors have to pull sleds, only 6 of 29 competitors are using skis, including Slice. I notice that 2 of the 3 racers who skied the 6-day event last year have switched to the 3-day event this year.
After googling our competition, which includes a 3-time winner of the Calgary marathon and one of Canada's top young XC skiers, 'Bent and I know that our goal will be simply to finish - the half-carat diamonds for the category winners are beyond our grasp. Oh well, I guess that makes it more of a vacation! :-)
- Implemented the new Orienteering Ontario website - http://www.orienteeringontario.ca
- Registered with 'Bent for the 2009 North American Rogaine Champs in Arizona. Our first-ever rogaine was the 2004 World champs in Arizona, and we're excited to go back there.
- Reviewed the final list of competitors in the Rock & Ice Ultra after registration closed last night. The list includes a couple of good friends, some friends of friends whom I can't wait to get to know, a long list of interesting-sounding Yellowknifers, and some impressive strangers, including the Spanish man who holds the Guinness Record for underwater kissing.
There are about 30 racers each in the 3-day and 6-day categories. (There is also a 1-day category, but we won't get to know those people because we won't be camping together.) Half the competitors in our 3-day division will compete on skis and the rest will run on snowshoes. In the 6-day division, where competitors have to pull sleds, only 6 of 29 competitors are using skis, including Slice. I notice that 2 of the 3 racers who skied the 6-day event last year have switched to the 3-day event this year.
After googling our competition, which includes a 3-time winner of the Calgary marathon and one of Canada's top young XC skiers, 'Bent and I know that our goal will be simply to finish - the half-carat diamonds for the category winners are beyond our grasp. Oh well, I guess that makes it more of a vacation! :-)