Training Log Archive: Bash

This asparagus thief was caught red-handed and thrown in jail. Unfortunately, our vegetable garden is inside the jail.

For our 2nd adventure of the long weekend, 'Bent and I drove a short distance to the Humber Valley with the plan of finding some of Coach LD's orienteering controls. It took us a while to find a place where it appeared legal to park. The police were towing cars away from the edge of Palgrave Forest yesterday. They seem to take a dim view of parking along a road near a closed parking lot so we went to the Castlederg entrance to the Humber Valley Trail, knowing we might not end up spending much time orienteering after all.

That was just as well, given that one of us, who shall remain nameless, had carefully packed his map case, compass and pen but left his map and instructions on the kitchen table. I had mine but it's more fun when we're both navigating. Anyway, we had a long hike to Duffy's Lane so it didn't matter much. Unbelievably, I turned my right ankle within 10 m of the start on flat trail with a small root sticking up. Although it's my right heel that's injured right now, my left ankle is the one that usually turns. I didn't go over too far; I'll call it a 2 out of 10. Then it started to turn again on a small root late in the hike - just a 1/10. I had Barefoot Science insoles in a shoe with a pronounced arch and I think it was just too much force pushing my ankle to the outside.

Aside from that, it was a beautiful hike. We saw our first two trilliums of the season although they're still not out in great numbers. Everyone was polite. We had a couple of nice, distanced conversations with strangers. One was O-vangelism after a fellow noticed my map. He'd orienteered as a child and was interested in getting back to it so I shared some info. We had a longer chat with a kindergarten teacher, Ruthie Sloane (?), who is training for a 100K race.

When we got to the Duffy's Lane parking lot, we decided to turn back and return another day when we both had our maps. Even though we didn't do the orienteering, it was great to be out on different trails!

For the past 7 weeks, 'Bent and I have exercised at home or from home. Compared to most people, it's really easy for us to do that so we figured it was one way we could do our part in the pandemic.

We still don't feel right about going to Collingwood and we couldn't do a lot of the things that we usually do up there anyway. So to celebrate the long weekend, we treated ourselves by expanding our horizons with a 5 km drive to Glen Haffy for a hike with AdventureDog and BazingaDog. It was unreasonably exciting to go to a different place, even though Glen Haffy is one of our regular haunts.

Good news for small business owners - the extension of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) until the end of the summer. I just submitted our application for the 2nd month of CEWS for dental office employees. I now have some experience with CEWS, the Canada Emergency Business Account ($40K loan, $10K forgiven if you repay by Dec. 2022), Canada Emergency Response Benefit (a simpler form of EI) and the upcoming Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program. The money has all been paid out very quickly and for our business, it's been a very welcome lifeline.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/wage-subsidy-covi...

I didn't have quite enough time to work out between admin work and my Zoom drink with Dee and Mrs. Gally. Tomorrow looks gorgeous then it's supposed to rain for the rest of the long weekend.

Another gravel road run from home to the keyhole parking lot in Palgrave Forest + a little extra trail to make up the 5K distance. Almost identical to Saturday's run. My foot is sore tonight but not too bad.

It looks like orienteering will be able to start up again in modified form when Ontario's post-Covid Phase 1 begins on Tuesday:

"Allowing sport activity for individual/single competitors, including training and competitions conducted by a recognized Provincial Sport Organization, National Sport Organization, or recognized national provincial training centres. This includes indoor and outdoor non-team sport competitions that can be played while maintaining physical distancing and without spectators, such as:
- water sports on lakes and outdoor bodies of water (no swimming pool sports), such as rowing and sailing
- low-contact racquet sports like tennis, badminton, pickleball and ping pong
- athletics, such as track and field, gymnastics and figure skating
- animal-related sports, such as horse racing"

Also, Albion Hills quietly removed the line on its website that prohibited cycling! Parking still isn't permitted though so they're trying to limit it to locals. Unfortunately, three of the next four days are supposed to be rainy so a bajillion mountain bikers will come on Saturday. We'll postpone our return until next week.

Another spectacular spring day! I went for a sunny - albeit chilly - midday ride around Palgrave Forest. It was moderately busy but everyone was well-mannered. Fun!

Then 'Bent and I attended a webinar where dentists from Italy, Singapore and Kentucky talked about what it's been like to return to work in the new normal with Covid 19 around. Interesting. The dentist from Italy said she looks like an astronaut now with all the PPE she has to wear. She said she's exhausted at the end of the day. Most patients are coming back although some are nervous. Staff were definitely nervous at first. They can't see as many patients with all the new protocols. But they were all positive and said it felt easier as they went along so that was encouraging.

Rodney Yee - Yoga for Flexibility

This one used to be my "go to" yoga workout and I still enjoy it. (Although I hadn't played a DVD for so long that the batteries had corroded into the remote - oops!) I haven't been doing much yoga lately for a few reasons:

- Caron fell ill last year so our regular Thursday night yoga and core workouts stopped after more than a decade.

- My injured foot doesn't bend forward very well so things like Downward Dog are a bit lopsided. Hopefully, that will improve.

- More annoying is the Dupuytren's Contracture that started in the palm of my left hand in June 2018. This is a thickening of the fascia that pulls my little finger toward the palm so it's painful to flatten it on the floor for push-ups or planks. It's an uncommon condition and often hereditary; my Dad had it too. When I'm no longer able to flatten the palm of my hand on a table, I can get surgery but it sounds like it doesn't always go well, and it isn't a permanent fix.

So yoga isn't as relaxing these days as it's supposed to be! But it's still great for improving mobility and strength so I'll try to do it more often.

It was snowing hard when I woke up today. We may have ticks, unseasonably cold weather and a plague - but on the bright side, I haven't seen any poison ivy yet.

One hundred years ago on May 7, an exhibition opened at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the AGO). The headline in the Toronto Star was, “Seven Painters Show Some Excellent Work”.

Last Thursday, May 7, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection presented an interesting virtual curatorial talk to celebrate. Bruce Cockburn played a song at the end. It's available online now.
https://mcmichael.com/event/g7virtualtalk/

'Bent, the dogs and I attended on Zoom. BazingaDog turned out to be quite an art fan.



Although it was a bit long for him.