Training Log Archive: Bash

Physio and Foothab

There was a freezing rain warning overnight, which overlapped a snow squall warning for today. Pick a lane, weather forecasters!

We thought the icy part was over but a little rain fell on our way to Scenic Caves. 'Bent hates wintry highway driving so we decided to just ski for an hour and meet back at the van at 11:45 am so we could get home to Caledon early. I broke my Scenic Caves Rule and decided to ski classic for the full hour.

'Bent started on skate skis and texted at 11:25 to say he was back at the van to switch to classic skis. That seemed strange since he would only have a 15-minute ski.

I returned to the van at 11:45 as planned, reorganized my ski bag and boot box, changed to dry socks and boots, removed my damp layers and proceeded to get chilled. When 'Bent was 20 minutes late from a 15-minute ski and hadn't answered two texts, I texted to say I was going back out to look for him. It took 5 minutes to get back into my cold, damp socks and boots and extract my skis and poles from the perfectly organized bag.

When a very experienced skier is 25 minutes late from a 15-minute ski on a day when he had wanted to leave early, it's clear that something has gone wrong. Maybe it was an equipment failure or maybe he'd stopped to help an injured skier - but it wasn't like him not to text me if he was delayed. It didn’t look good. I planned to check at the chalet to see if they'd heard about any injuries, give them my phone #, then ski the trails I would choose if I only had 15 minutes.

As I locked the van, 'Bent appeared at the trailhead and waved cheerfully over the fence. I'll leave the subsequent conversation to your imagination. To summarize, "blah blah Autopause". Bottom line, I could have skied an extra half hour and I get to choose what we have for dinner and watch on TV every night this week. :)

'Bent and I went to Highlands Nordic along with several hundred other enthusiastic skiers. We got one of the last parking spots in the overflow lot! There was plenty of snow on most trails - a little less on Back Red and a few other spots but I felt comfortable using my good skis. I saw Coach LD giving a lesson to a few people on the next trail over.

The tracks were slicker than I'd guessed from the air temperature and my grip was poor so I felt slow. I stopped to rewax a couple of times with warmer wax and it was a little better for a while. I had great glide though! Beautiful day to be out. We chatted with Connie O. and her friends in the parking lot. We hadn't seen her since the Lake Superior Coastal Trail.

'Bent and I came back up to Kolapore after winter *finally* arrived! We just had time to get to Scenic Caves to pick up our season pass and go for a short ski. As per my rule for Scenic Caves, I started with skate skiing and it was *not* a success. The main skate trail heading out from the chalet had a 10-12 cm layer of fluffy powder on top of this morning's groomed surface. It was fantastic backcountry skiing and trail breaking but a bit much for my first skate ski of the year so I headed back to the van to switch to classic.

I didn't have much time left so I headed up to the Lookout to enjoy the wintry view, which was socked in but still pretty.



Then I headed back down with a big smile on my face because of all the beautiful snow.





Even our drive home was gorgeous. I bought buttertarts to celebrate.

Goose and Coach LD came over for a night snowshoe in Kolapore. It was very cold and lovely with a new moon, no wind, lots of powder and snowflakes drifting down. It was great to get out and catch up.

Brisk catch-up hike with Veinbuster along Newmarket's riverside trails with a caffeine break outside the Metropolis Cafe.

Physio and Foothab

No shockwave treatment #6 this week after all. It was supposed to happen once winter sports season was well underway so I wouldn't be running too much between appointments. Also, my physiotherapist can't come to work tomorrow, which I suspect will be a common theme this month.

Snowy run to Palgrave East and around the trails. I hiked some of the uphills. Lots of stealth ice so even the downhills were cautious. Cold but pretty.

I ran into Barrie & Caron Shepley and Tim & Jill Bishop. (Caron and Jill are twins.) I hiked and chatted with them until they turned off toward home. Great to catch up!

Then I ran home, a bit chilled because I hadn't dressed warmly enough for hiking.

Physio and Foothab