Training Log Archive: Bash

Raid The Hammer
Team of 2 with Browner

Neither Browner nor I have been running much so we had modest goals today. We wanted to finish the full distance, which would be a record run in recent times, thanks to my Achilles issues and her plantar fasciitis. As a team of two, we got to run just a little farther in the two sections where teammates could split up. We knew there were two other female teams and we hoped our nav experience would keep us in the mix.

It started out chilly with sleet fogging up my glasses, making it hard to see the map. (Note to self: remember to bring a hat with a brim on days like this.) As the day went on, it warmed up a little and even got sunny for a while before the ice pellets started. It was perfect Raid The Hammer weather.

The trails were covered with wet leaves so rocks and roots occasionally surprised us. Browner rolled her ankle badly on a hidden rock in the first third of the race and was really hurting from then on. She is a trooper and kept pushing hard but it looked painful and was starting to swell.

Our nav went pretty smoothly; Browner and I work well together. Amongst other things, she has a real knack for seeing flags. Our speed reflected our training. We saw the other female teams on the course several times. One stopped early after missing a control. The other female team added a male friend and became coed. We finished ahead of both teams we were aiming for but ended up 1st out of one team in our category - impressive, haha! We were a looooong way back overall. Teams with our running speed normally choose the Half Raid, which now attracts twice as many teams as the Full Raid.

It was a fun course that took us through a lot of Hamilton and didn't get us *too* covered with burrs or torn apart by thorns. It was a fast course for those who could go fast. Bob, Shannon and Scott were 1st overall. 'Bent, Storm and Bender were 1st Masters by about 40 minutes and finished just 22 minutes behind the overall winning time - great job. 'Bent cramped up badly several times while watching TV tonight so I know he worked hard.

Nice to see so many friends. Big thanks to the organizers and volunteers who gave us such a fun day! BazingaDog and AdventureDog had a great day too, hanging out with Scout and Contour in Milton while we were racing. They really didn't want to get into the van at 5:30 this morning though. "Are you out of your mind? It's the middle of the night!!!" :)

[Distance/time adjusted since my watch accidentally turned off for 25 minutes.]

4-dog hike on the Bruce Trail south of Grange Rd. with 'Bent, Jan and Neil. Great catch-up for humans and dogs, followed by lattes on the covered patio of the Caledon Hills Cycling cafe.

Charlotte V. suggested a hike since we haven't seen each other in 3 years, thanks to you-know-what. We met at Riverside Park in Guelph and hiked randomly around the trail system to the north. Because of our randomness, we didn't get up to Guelph Lake or the GORBA bike trails but it reminded me that it's a really nice trail system. (Thanks for the introduction, Funderstorm!) It was great to catch up.

The geothermal technician came for the 9th (?) extended service call in the past two years for one of our heat pumps. Bottom line, he still couldn't fix it and he found a random electrical issue that required shutting down the other unit. So we have no heat. It looks like we'll be OK until Saturday night when the temperature dips below freezing. No run today. :(

For Dr. Waddington and other science lovers, this was the reading on my CO2 monitor while our full Airbus 321 was being de-iced in Calgary. It's by far the highest CO2 level I've measured - yikes.



CO2 monitoring is used as a proxy for quality of ventilation, i.e. people exhale and if the space they are in is well-ventilated, their exhaled breath doesn't stick around too long and neither do any bacteria or viruses they might breathe out. In the great outdoors, the CO2 ppm is in the low 400s. A measurement below 800 is considered to indicate decent ventilation in a room where people have been hanging out. You could still get sick from someone sitting beside you but a lower CO2 level reflects a lower risk.

When we've flown, the CO2 levels have been 1500-1800 in the air and up to the low 2000s on the ground when the ventilation system isn't running. Airplanes do have HEPA filters so the exhaled air from passengers far away from you will mostly be cleaned before you breathe it in, even though their CO2 may still be there. The HEPA filters don't help with people sitting near you, whose exhaled air reaches you directly. It looks like pilots turn off the plane's air intake completely during de-icing, which lasted about 20 minutes for us.

So the moral of the story is, if you're planning to wear a mask for some or all of your journey, know that the risk is higher when the plane is on the ground and *super* high when it's being de-iced.