Training Log Archive: Bash

The Little Run That Grew! Awhile ago, Kirikou offered to show me the 12.5 km lap I'll be doing around Pinehurst Conservation Area at the Run for the Toad 50K trail run in a couple of weeks. Our idea was so excellent that three more runners signed up - Hansel (doing the Toad 50K), Bender (Toad 25K) and Tiny (who just loves to run).



As our group grew, so did the distance - from one lap of the course to either two or three laps. We attempted to run the first lap all together slowly but after 6 km, I waved the white flag. The guys weren't breaking a sweat while I was running the pace that I should have done (but couldn't) when I tried to qualify for Boston. Kirikou stayed back with me to be sociable while Hansel, Bender and Tiny went ahead. Tiny eventually let the speedsters go too. Even Bender claimed that he was begging Hansel for mercy by the end of their 37.5 km run!

Kirikou dragged me along kicking and screaming much faster than I wanted to go. Actually, we each thought we were just keeping up with the other person and that drove the pace up compared to my usual long runs - but that's a good thing. Based on the GPS track, we managed to navigate around a second lap that was almost identical to our first except for a major blip near the finish line. (The race map is a little hard to match to the terrain.) There are more hills than I'd expected - nothing too crazy or technical but there is some variety in the course, which is nice since I'll be doing four laps of it on Oct. 2.

A training session like this would be incomplete without a hearty pub lunch accompanied by beverages. This was an interesting combination of friends that I'd never spent time with all together before, and it was great to catch up after a sunny morning on the trails.

Here's another pic of the crew. Fortunately, I'm the only one who looks like a dork here.

The Reluctant Road Biker, Chapter 2

Having done my first road bike ride in 15+ years three whole days ago, the obvious next step (in my warped world) was to do a race. Luckily, the Centurion 25-miler in Collingwood was a fairly gentle introduction. Participants included recreational riders, serious racers treating it as a sprint, and riders checking out the terrain for tomorrow's 50 or 100 mile events.

J-Yip and Coach Bill were in the starting corral.



We'd previously been asked to seed ourselves according to racing experience and a coloured dot was placed on our race number. I'd chosen "Casual" which was the 3rd of 4 categories, just above "Beginner". While waiting in the corral, I re-seeded myself according to new criteria, rolling my bike ahead of any rider who:

1) Had a kickstand, particularly if they were *using* it
2) Had a bag on themselves or their bike with any dimension larger than 10"
3) Wasn't using clipless pedals

That seemed to get me in about the right position in the pack. Given my novice road biking skills, today's goals were simple:

1) Keep the rubber side down.
2) Ride predictably.
3) Pedal smoothly.
4) Change gears early since I'm just learning how they work.
5) No drafting since I'm also learning how my brakes work.

For all those people who said that I'd find my road bike fast and fun... well, I have to admit you were right. I realized today that all it takes to make road riding enjoyable is a police officer at every intersection stopping traffic and waving me through red lights. So if you know of other places where I can do that, let me know.

Here's the race course. Click on the pic, then click the magnifying glass to see a larger version.



Although I hadn't planned to "race", of course I couldn't resist. I knew that my plan to avoid drafting was a poor race strategy, especially since the wind was strong, but I didn't feel ready so this was a time trial. About 10 km from the end, a paceline of 3 riders passed me, including two women. Oh well... they'd pushed me down the rankings by riding more confidently - good for them. Two minutes later, they all crashed going around a corner and I got to experience one of those swerve-to-avoid-bodies-on-the-pavement moments that I've seen so often in the Tour de France. Yikes. Sometimes it helps to be a mountain biker.

It was a good day for learning the more aggressive riding position that a road bike demands, since there was considerable incentive to try to be aerodynamic in the wind. On long, flat sections by myself, I tried to imagine Fabian Cancellara's pedaling action. Not that it necessarily made me go any faster but I don't think there's any female cycling fan who doesn't enjoy daydreaming about Fabian's glutes. ;-) There were a couple of big wind gusts that nearly knocked my little flyweight bike over. It's no wonder some riders took almost 3 hours to complete the 40 km course.

Comparing it to mountain biking... for some reason, this was easier on my knees. Not surprisingly, it was more painful for my back (lower right) and, um, chamois. Although there was 356 m (almost 1,200') of elevation gain on the course, I barely noticed it. I never came out of my big ring although I used the full range of my back gears. I'd been warned that if I wore a Camelbak, it would humiliate not just me but legions of my friends, so I put a water bottle on my bike and (as I expected) ate and drank absolutely nothing for the entire ride. Silly roadies.

The top few guys finished 40 km in 1 hr 08 min on a windy day - wow! The main peleton of fast riders finished around 1:16/1:17. I'm accustomed to my friends doing well but here's a results list you won't see very often:



And here's something that hasn't happened yet in my off-road sports... my award was presented by an Olympic gold medalist. I was pretty pumped on my 5th day of owning a road bike!



This wasn't a super-competitive event but my adventure racing background got me through the course in 1:26, 2nd of 27 women in my age group. The 1st rider in my age group was also the top woman overall, placing 9th out of 305 riders. Paula Newby-Fraser was the 2nd woman overall and I was 12th of 135 women. I don't plan to make road riding a habit but now I'm curious to try the 50-miler or 100-miler next year just to see how things would go in a more competitive field. So maybe I won't sell my bike in March after all...

I think the best Simon Whitfield photo was this one with John & Jackson Yip. Simon was clearly missing his kids and chatted away happily with Jackson. He stuck around afterward to shake hands, hand out prizes and pose for photos with every single podium finisher in every age group. What a good guy - and he could have been forgiven for staying home, given the nasty crash that took him out of the Triathlon World Champs two weeks ago.

Tempo run on the rail trail with tunes. This was partly Toad training and partly a test to see if I have any chance of hitting the 5:12 pace required to run a half-marathon that would qualify me for the 2011 New York Marathon along with Super, Bender, Hansel et al.

Garmin says my pace was less than 5:00/km for just over half the distance which is better than I would have guessed, so the NY qualifying time is probably just within the realm of possibility. But then I remembered that I was never going to run another marathon on pavement again in my life, so what the heck am I doing even thinking about this?

As slow as this was by most of your standards, the 10K time was the fastest I've ever been officially clocked at. So there is still hope for improvement!

Today's rain was ridiculously heavy - but what's a girl to do when her new birthday-gift-from-Mom-and-Dad Forerunner 310XT arrives in the mail? I couldn't train indoors - that would just be wrong. BulletDog and I did a short tour of Palgrave West including part of KBash and Wheelie Woods. The 2nd kilometer included a bunch of scrambling over logs and freshly fallen trees but the rest of it was smooth sailing over rolling moraine with the biggest puddles I've ever seen out there.

The 310XT is waterproof to 50 meters which was perfect for today's "build an ark" storm. When you turn it on, it vibrates and buzzes like a spacecraft about to take off with your wrist attached. Given my conversations with 'Bent and Trav about their new Forerunners, I ought to have known that it would automatically take a lap time at each kilometer by default - but when the spacecraft started liftoff at the 1 km mark, I nearly jumped out of my skin and stopped to see what was wrong.

So far so good. I can now do a 20-hr training session without recharging the battery. That probably won't come up a lot but the 10-hr battery time was a little on the low side. (Which only proves how insane my hobbies are.)

My 305 has found a new and happy home with our appreciative young skier friend VO2Max at the Alberta World Cup Academy. We're hoping to see even more medals this season!

Crash generously - and bravely - offered to be the tour guide for my first road bike ride in years. OK, maybe she wasn't 100% brave about it but who could blame her?



My bike is so cute that I want to ride it even though I don't want to ride it. Her nickname is "Princess", chosen by 'Bent - for obvious reasons.



We parked near Hockley village and toured some quiet paved roads in the Adjala/Loretto area. Traffic was fairly light and the drivers were polite. There were a few decent uphills and downhills which gave me a chance to play with the weird roadie gears. Crash rode her cyclocross bike "Jake the Snake" with knobby tires which was a sufficient handicap to enable us to ride together without her getting too bored.

And...? It was fine. It was great being able to chat with Crash while riding, which can be difficult on a twisty trail. (Not that I could stick with Crash on a twisty trail!) There was a headwind but we rode at a decent pace - even hitting 58 kph in a 40 kph speed limit zone, yeehaw!





However, I am definitely a mountain biker at heart and today just reinforced that. I missed bouncing over obstacles, feeling the wind rustling the trees around me and seeing wildlife. Although the views were fantastic on today's ride, pavement is monotonous compared with trails. And I didn't test it but I'm sure that falling would hurt a *heck* of a lot more.





One huge advantage of road riding over mountain biking is the cuisine. Instead of just gulping down gels, we stopped at the Hockley General Store for a latte and a cookie. Yum. Must do this again soon!

In anticipation of my first road bike ride in years... from The Onion.

"10 Million Killed Annually By Stepping Out Of Comfort Zones

WASHINGTON—A new report published this week by the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that more than 10 million Americans are violently killed each year while attempting to break away from their regular everyday routines and try something new. "We found that getting out of your comfort zone and facing your fears resulted in premature death nearly 78 percent of the time," HHS researcher Madeline Hersh said. "People always ask themselves, 'What's the worst that can happen?' Well, according to our research, anything from being bitten by a poisonous snake to dying in a hot-air balloon crash can happen." The report found that the safest individuals were those who surrendered to the soul-crushing monotony of habit and then convinced themselves that they had things pretty good."

Interesting comment on intervals from nordic skier Bjoern Daehlie:

“I only ran uphill intervals. But they don’t need to be super steep. When you’re running uphill, your VOmax is the limiting factor, and your heart rate will go up quickly. That’s just what worked best for me,” Daehlie explains. “But there is another point here too: wear on your body. When you run uphill, you only reach a fraction of the speed you would on flat terrain. Hard running or time trials on easy terrain or a 3,000 meter on the track takes a huge toll on your legs. Uphill terrain is much gentler in this regard,” Daehlie explains.

Over to the Dark Side. I now own a road bike...

Within 5 hours of paying for the road bike (I do not have it yet), I have registered for my first road biking event. It's this Saturday - just the short Centurion (25 miles) in Collingwood, since I'm busy on Sunday during the longer Centurion events. Does this mean that I am embracing my new sport? Not exactly. I just really like the idea of closed roads and police-monitored intersections for my weekend ride. I'm such a pavement wimp!

In theory, I should be doing my last long run before the 50K Toad on Oct. 2 right around now but the unscheduled break from training for Untamed NE has meant that I haven't built up to a decent long run yet. This was the longest in awhile - Bruce Trail Side Trail to Glen Haffy, then some exploring of Glen Haffy to the south and north to Hwy 9, then home through Palgrave West to add some extra distance.

The hills are too big and the trail too technical for this route to be the best choice for a pre-Toad long run, but - ironically - I was too lazy to drive to a place where I could do an easier run.

As suspected, my new hot pink iPod shuffle provides more inspiration than the old silver one. Best songs of the day were all oldies. ("Best" always depends on where they fall in the run - a song can be good in one run and boring in the next.):

- "U Can't Touch This" - in a section of cedar swamp with roots and mud and sections of slippery boardwalk. It was like one of those agility exercises where football players have to lift their feet quickly as they run over obstacles. And it just happened to fit the beat of the music.

- "Born to be Wild" - in a section of sweet single track with a few rocks and roots, but mostly very easy to open up and go as fast as I could.

- "Brick House" - This came on as I approached our house - perfect timing. ThunderDog came outside and stared at me in disbelief as I boogied all over the lawn to celebrate finishing 27 km.

I felt pretty feeble around 10 km then realized that I'd probably started the run dehydrated due to a mild stomach bug. So I stopped the clock for a serious eating/drinking break and that seemed to help.