Training Log Archive: Bash

Snowy Easter with Mom.

Trevor Wurtele's Oceanside 70.3 race report. I don't usually check out triathlon news but (a) I know Taylor Reid and Lionel Sanders, mentioned in this video, and (b) it's seriously entertaining (and short).

It's always a short sleep after 'Bent's Passover Seder.

Beautiful, sunny Good Friday run and a nice catch-up with Browner. She doesn't have spikes so in solidarity, I didn't wear spikes either. We planned a route that started in Albion Hills and allowed us to bail out to some hilly country roads and rail trail if needed. Although we found some great stretches of clear trail in Albion, we also found a few glaciers in the shadier sections. We negotiated a number of the smaller ones but decided to head out of the park up Duffy's Lane. The winter-closed section was a mix of ice and mud but the rest was dry.

Since it was on the route now, we stopped by our place to visit 'Bent, introduce Browner to the pooches and show her the adventure basement (guests welcome to train here!)

Then we headed a few kms down Humber Station Rd., took the rail trail back to Albion Hills and braved more trail in the park - a mix of mud, soft ground and ice. Many times today, we had to hang onto trees and get traction from bits of debris on the ice but it all went well. I was the only one who fell - a victim of slippery mud, not ice. Browner got to meet a Friendly Country Driver speeding over a blind hill but after living in the city, she is skilled at evasive maneuvers.

Great to kick off the holiday weekend with a long workout since the rest of Easter / Passover will be family time. Wishing everyone a happy holiday weekend!

Hard Core with Caron, tonight with extra pain.

Caron's yoga class with all fees donated in memory of a regular class member who passed away suddenly last week, 4 days after a cancer diagnosis. She was my age and very active. Impossible to wrap my mind around.

GPS track for Eiger Ultra Trail - just wanted a place to play with it.

Phew, I guess it paid to rest and drink tea with honey; my cold is nearly gone.

AdventureDog and I returned to do the same Hockley Provincial Park route that we did with 'Bent on Saturday. I was glad to have Microspikes in a few treacherous places but things have changed a lot in a few days and it's forecast to be 10C warmer tomorrow. Next time I should be OK in Spikecross except for the steepest descents where my ice climbing experience will continue to come in handy.

The trails were 50/50 snow/ice and mud but everything was softer than a few days ago; there's no frozen bare ground anymore. The time saved by only needing to lower myself with saplings down a few luge runs was offset almost exactly by the extra energy needed to push off the softer trail surface.

AdventureDog is an awesome athlete. He demonstrated some progress today in that he stopped to relieve himself which, strangely, he seemed to think was against the rules during a run so he was sometimes ready to burst by the time we put him in the yard at home. We made less progress on the "drinking from the stream" front. If I cupped water in my hands, he would drink but he wouldn't drink directly. Twice, we met the same group of 8 dogs with dog walkers. Considering that he was the odd man out running into a group of boisterous friends with their party well underway, he handled it pretty well.

Kilian Jornet and Ueli Steck have announced a new Extreme Sky racing series.
http://trailrunnermag.com/people/news/1697-kilian-...

Workout with Slowrunner. She assigned my toughest balance exercise to date: 1-legged squats on an upside-down Bosu. If at some future time it ever appears that I have jumped out a window to my death, please be skeptical of that and check the room for an upside-down Bosu.

Fingers crossed, I think my rest days have paid off so I can run tomorrow. My cold kept me awake for hours last night - ugh.

Boo, I was hoping to run today but after the lecture I gave Willderness last week when he was exercising while ill, I'd better wait. It feels like I *might* be able to fend this one off before it goes into my lungs. More tea with honey coming up!

'Bent has officially released his Norway video!

I've started planning for the Eiger Ultra Trail in July and just realized that it's the same distance as CCC - the 101 km event at UTMB - with 600 m more elevation gain and a 30 minute shorter time limit. I'll need to start climbing some big hills soon.
http://www.eigerultratrail.ch/en/trail-e101.html