Training Log Archive: Bash

Another gorgeous day! 'Bent, BazingaDog and I went snowshoeing at Glen Haffy. We mostly bushwhacked up and down hills in deep snow; it felt like we had big suction cups on our feet! That was just to get a better workout though; there are several nice snowshoe tracks to follow.

Photos of a boy and his dog. Oh, and also his wife.

Warm-up and cooldown to and from the main trails, mostly breaking trail in powder.

Sunset snowshoe run around Palgrave East and West on another beautiful day. Technically, today would be more beautiful if 'Bent and I were both feeling 100%, and if water weren't leaking from our ceiling into buckets in two different rooms on opposite sides of the house. But I digress.

I met a friendly fat biker and a couple of hikers accompanied by an outgoing vizsla dressed in a fashionable coat. Other than that, no one was out. I'd foolishly forgotten my gaiters and had to stop a few times to remove ice chunks from my shoes. I ended up with a blister on my heel anyway - entirely my fault so I can't complain too much. Lots of fun anyway!

I was close to dropping out of the February Challenge after a busy day that included a walk-in clinic visit to get an opinion on the almost-but-not-quite cold I've had for the past 4 weeks. I suspected an inner ear problem, and the doc suspects the same. Hey, maybe when I get better, my balance exercises will seem easy! My poor Valentine 'Bent was hit hard with a real cold yesterday so our holiday weekend will include even more Olympic TV watching than expected.

I knew skiing would make me feel better so I took BulletDog for a quick sunset tour of Palgrave West on tracks that a few of us have made. If you look up "Joy" in the dictionary, there's probably a photo of BulletDog leaping about on a snowy day so it's very rewarding to have her company. For the first half, she insisted on running in the tracks ahead of me. Unfortunately, I had better glide than she did so I had to stay alert and ready to stop or veer to the side. Because she's 11, we took a few breaks to let her catch her breath. Then the little ingrate pooped in the tracks. Twice! With a whole forest available on either side! So I had to do some extra trail clearing work - sigh. At least she had fun.

And then home to watch the latest incarnation of the Curse of Canadian Male Figure Skaters at the Olympics. A silver medal is still a win but oh my gosh, that was heartbreaking.

News from Sochi: Based on her first two Olympic races, an excited Brittany Webster has been assigned to the anchor leg for tomorrow's XC ski relay! She was added to the Olympic team at the 11th hour when other countries decided not to use all their spots, and she's not on Canada's national team at the moment. This must feel so sweet. :)

Hard Core Live with Caron.

I was tempted to stay home and watch Olympics but I really needed to stretch everything out so I'm glad I went - even though tonight was one of Caron's "Hard, Harder, Hardest" sessions.

Who does UTMB? In 2014, about 40% of race starters will be men aged 40-49. Half the participants come from France or Spain although 67 nationalities will be represented on the start line. Per capita, there are twice as many Canadians as Americans.

One statistic is *very* different from North American ultras. Only 8% of us are women. Last year was the same, and I felt like I'd gone back to engineering school all over again!

http://ultratrailmb.com/page/227/Statistiques_insc...#

Snowy, icy road run in brilliant sunshine. It felt great to bump up the distance a little. I tried to focus on strong feet and strong core, both of which are central in my physio exercises. There isn't much traffic but it still feels a little too much like Russian Roulette on blind hills with the big snowbanks we have right now. I'll need to find another way to do runs over 5K.

Tree Huggers alumnus Brittany Webster kicked butt today in the Olympic Women's 10K Cross-Country Classic event. She was the top Canadian of four women and finished 42nd of 75. At this level, a top 50 finish is a reasonable goal for her so this was a triumph. For once, we got lucky with the coverage, which featured her skiing into the stadium and around to the finish line. Yay!

Another ski around Palgrave West on a bluebird day. I purposely didn't rewax my skis, thinking that I could get an extra upper body workout. It worked. At least 2.5 km of this ski could have been logged as "Floundering in Knee-Deep Powder Without Grip - Level 5". Some of that was bushwhacking on the west side of KBash Woods, where I haven't explored in a couple of years. Still waiting to win the lottery so I can buy that 100 acres some day. (And since I never buy a ticket, it will be a very long wait.)

I spent another 1.5 km on trails where I was the second skier on shin deep, powdery tracks, and about 3 km on faster tracks that had been skied by several people. I met the conservation area staff on the Bruce Side Trail with chainsaws, which bodes well for the future. Palgrave Forest and Wildlife Area is still closed due to hazard trees so they were polite but not effusively friendly. I suppose they'd rather not have to worry about skiers when they're knocking trees down, and that's fair enough!

Sunset run on snowy roads. I was feeling good after Dr. Bell tried to bend and break me earlier today. It's cool that he can show me physical proof of changes over the past 3 months - improved range of motion, etc. I can also see changes in my physio exercises, e.g. my bad foot is now better at some things than my good foot so I need to work equally on both sides. It hasn't been a quick fix but things are moving in the right direction.

Seen on Twitter: "Russia has oligarchs but Canada has moguls." :)

Thanks to the February Challenge, I had to drag my tired, post-race legs outside to do 5K of something! BulletDog and I went snowshoeing on and off-trail in Palgrave West on another snowy, sunny day. Most of the time we were breaking trail, even on the Bruce Side Trail where I'd expected it to be packed down. Most areas off-trail were so deep that I had to fight to lift my knee for each step. Hello, hip flexors! I love that kind of snowshoeing but it takes forEVER to do 5K of it, and I had to monitor how hard BulletDog was working too. At age 11, she needs breaks (even though she doesn't know it) so I mixed in some trail sections to let her catch her breath.

Snow shovelling and firewood hauling logged @50%. No longer is 'Bent's van snowed into the garage, and if there is a fire, we can now get out the side door.

Did all my physio in preparation for tomorrow's appointment with Dr. Bell. There has been a lot of improvement over the past month, however, running is harder on my foot than anything else so I'm still worried about it.

Training advice for walking in ultras with a couple of UTMB references. Canadian ultrarunner Charlotte V. has done these treadmill sessions, and now she just glides uphill when she's hiking.
http://ultra168.com/2014/02/10/walking-in-ultras-s...