Training Log Archive: Funderstormin

With some girlfriends at Puslinch. Lovely afternoon but sad that we weren't biking or running as the trails were in perfect shape!

Was heading to TO for the afternoon to visit Stephania so decided to do a run off of 6th Line in Milton my way up. For some reason I wanted to run the BT on the east side, probably because I hadn't run it in some time and always forget how technical it is. My plan was to run down the road first and then come back along the trail, but in a fortuitous stroke of luck, DD11, Julie and Ursula were finishing up a run just as I arrived, so DD drove me down the road to the trail head. Heaven forbid I have to run on the ROAD for a few km!

When I came back out on 6th line at the end of the run, I ran into a confused couple who had parked their car "somewhere" on 6th line, wandered into the trail system and had no idea where they had come out. I ran back to my car then picked them up and drove them back to theirs, which I felt was paying forward the karma!

Lunchtime intervals at the WMRC indoor track. Yeah, that's right, today is the one day of the year that Sally chooses to run fast VOLUNTARILY!!!

I think this calls for a beer. Maybe per interval?

C • It certainly does! 2

Annual trip the Chicopee bunny hills with Allison. Despite the warm temps, the skiing was actually pretty good to two people who know nothing about skiing. I don't mean to brag, but we were probably the oldest people going up the children's elevator. ;-)

Event: Snowshoe Raid Adventure Run
 

This is an entirely Captain Obvious type statement but I think that this SSR will go down as the year that everyone was late!

I don't have the map in front of me as I write this but like most teams we started with a clockwise loop. All time estimates, which we believed to be conservative, turned out not to be, and about the halfway mark we changed our plan and started heading back toward the finish. Our critical mistake was after 55, deciding to go into the land of 33-35. We found 33 no problem and got a bit caught up in the idea of going to get more when we saw Anvil flying through the slippery valley with the greatest of ease. We headed toward 35 but weren't paying as close attention to the map as we should have been and things went downhill from there. At one point, I started taking us the WRONG way down the flagged snowshoe trail and wondered why I saw teams going the opposite direction (duh!). Ran into a non-racer who told me I was headed toward Hwy 26. Oh goodness. At that point, my morale was shot and I knew we were going to be late which I don't think has ever happened to me in an SSR. We followed the flagged snowshoe trail in the CORRECT direction this time but missed a critical intersection to get to 36. So we didn't check out and I believe therefore lost the points we actually did get in the matrix. THEN, because we missed that trail we ended up at the top of the Craigleith switchback trail not exactly sure where we were. There was another team behind us in ROAD SHOES! who had no idea either and said they had just been following us. Fortunately, I have a brief moment of common sense and realized we had to go further and eventually we found ourselves somewhere we recognized but didn't think it was worth it to go back for 36. We'd worn snowshoes, which we both decided was the wrong decision and I decided to take mine off at the top of the last descent as I was convinced I'd be faster in my Speedcross (WRONG!). Managed not to kill ourselves on the downhill and came in 15 minutes late, heads hanging in shame. Definitely not our day out on course but a very fun day and weekend otherwise!

C • Descending in Speedcross! 6

Loop around Hoggs Falls on our way up to Collingwood. We wore microspikes and could see (at this point) why snowshoes were being recommended for Saturday. There was tons of snow there....well over a foot off trail and even on trail it was slog with the spikes because it was so soft.

More frequent yoga sessions all logged at 20 minutes are in part because I discovered Brooklyn 99...I set up my iPad in front of yoga mat in the basement and it's a good way to motivate more frequent stretching and other rehab / preventative type stuff!

Well I really don't know if I should call what I did out there "orienteering!" Since I'm an optimist, I'm gonna say that hopefully this means I got all my stupid mistakes out of my system yesterday rather than next weekend. My first control was definitely an omen when I realized I was looking for it on the wrong side of the trail, but if only I knew things were going to go downhill from there! Of the 16 controls on course, I think I nailed about 2 of them. I'm not sure what was wrong with me but I never really figured out the scale and hadn't been to Claireville before so it was a real comedy of errors. This is the maybe the first time I wished I had a GPS track to share as I think it would result in some good entertainment.

Disastrous orienteering aside, I thought we had lovely weather for this and it was really nice to have an indoor home base for before and after. The temps were perfect and it was fun to run on the icy trails. Also, while my post-race lunch selection disappointed in the beer department (um, if you call yourself a "brewpub," you should really have at least one IPA!), the company was great!

I don't even really know if this is my time. It's an optimistic guess that will likely be proven wrong when the results come out.

C • Comedy of Errors 2

This morning's treadmill entertainment was this movie about a pro baseball player who decides he wants to run Western States: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/diamondtotherough Of course he gets in with his first lottery ticket...

I only paid to rent rather than buy this one and was glad for that decision as I don't think it's one I'd watch again, but it was entertaining, so I'd say it's worth the $5.28 to rent if anyone is looking to watch someone new. Lance Armstrong is one of his pacers.

I have a weird hopefully not PF right heel pain going on right now that is definitely less aggravated on the treadmill than on the uneven trails. It hurt like a b%&$# running on the HAFTA trails on Sunday, but only bothers me for a few minutes while warming up on the treadmill. So while I'd always rather be outside, if this lets me run a bit more and hopefully gives the heel a bit of recovery time, so be it!

C • That film 1

This was this morning's treadmill selection: http://www.rockcreekrunner.com/2014/10/28/trail-ru...

I gotta say...if there is one thing that makes running at 6am worthwhile, it's a shirtless Anton Krupicka!

C • Bookmarked! 1

Clusterf#%*of a run in Halton Tract with Mrs. Tiny...mainly because my overconfidence in knowing the trails meant we ran some three times and never got to where I actually wanted to go. Sunshine made the cold more bearable, as did the prospect of our delicious Mohawk Chop House post run lunch!

Fat biking with Tracy and Ginger at Albion Hills. Brrrr! But also so much fun. The black loop was in great shape for riding...so grippy.

After warming up with a tea after biking, I set out on the Hockley trails for a bit of time on my snowshoes. Didn't need the trails were beautifully packed down but I wanted to spend time on them. Mostly hiking, some running, and a beautiful day where I saw no one else out!

C • Side trails too? 2

Another morning run on the treadmill, which I have really been enjoying, thanks in part to the inspirational movies I've been watching during my run. This morning I went through most of this list: http://trailrunnermag.com/people/article/162-video...

I'd seen most of them before but found the Mystery Drop Bag Video highly entertaining!

I made sure to turn two lights on this when I woke up so that if Timato ran by my house again, he would know that I was indeed awake! :-P

C • Movies 7

Had a cranky day at work yesterday so decided this was the best way to make today less cranky. It worked! :-D

Hello 2017! What a beautiful morning! Started the new year off with picture perfect skiing conditions at Hockleycrest. Like literally I stopped and took a million pictures because it was so beautiful!

No crashes today because I opted for easier trails but my neck is sore from yesterday's crashy-crashy.