Training Log Archive: Bash

No, that is not a typo. I was on the trail for all of 8 minutes before realizing that my bike needed some big adjustments by 'Bent. And then suddenly the evening was over, so I'll have to do a pre-race test of my bike another time.

Event: Tri City Urban Adventure Run
 

'Bent and I were both pretty tired from yesterday, but we knew that Nick and the Stars would put on a great event, so we wanted to go anyway. Glad we did! It was a perfect sunny, cool day, and the course was lots of fun.

We started out with a scramble to find 3 controls in the park in any order. Then one or both team members could do a 12-control sprint. I convinced 'Bent to do it alone, to a chorus of groans. Meanwhile, I had an opportunity to study some maps that were posted for a later stage of the race. As I had known he would, 'Bent had a great sprint and moved us up to 2nd behind Mick.

We ran to the University of Waterloo campus next, where we had another scramble to pick up 5 controls, using a cool map that was a patchwork quilt of aerial photo and O map. One of the controls was the boar statue in front of the Modern Languages building, which I remembered from going to school there N years ago. We also went right past the window of my old residence room at St. Paul's College. Wish I'd had more time to reminisce and get all sentimental, but that's hard to do when I'm being hauled along by a tow rope attached to my pack hip belt!

We crossed to Columbia Field, where we ran to the central point of the Star. There were 4 small maps waiting for us, each one showing a small piece of terrain with the start point and a single control. The team could split up, and 'Bent and I each ran out and back to two different controls, finishing at almost the same time - yay. From there, we ran back to the traffic lights and across the university campus. Back at the park, we had a short section of a strip map, where we had to find two controls before the finish. Fun!

For the 2nd half of the race, we played cat and mouse with a young all-male team. They were faster, but several times, we arrived at subtle controls or traffic lights first, making life a little easier for anyone who happened to be just behind us. We reached the finish line about a minute after them, then discovered to our surprise that the overall winners were actually a couple of kids (both teenaged boys - at least I HOPE they were that old). We'd seen them out there in a few places, but didn't really think they could be doing the whole course. We'd never seen them at other orienteering events - where did they come from?? Anyway, that was very cool to see. So we settled happily for 3rd overall and 1st Coed. I turned down the fancy, high-tech hats intended to be our prize (which we already own) to get a box of chocolates filled with cherries and brandy. Yahoo, instant gratification!!!

This was the first race where I tried the trick I'd read about on AP of carrying my Forerunner in my Camelbak aimed upwards, rather than wearing it on my wrist where it could provide minor navigation assistance. How does it work? Well, I'm sure it works a heck of a lot better if you remember to turn it on! Too bad, we would have loved to know how far we went today.

Event: 5 PEAKS TRAIL RUN (Albion Hills)
 

Great to see so many familiar faces at Albion Hills for the 5 Peaks race! I tried to push harder than felt comfortable to avoid settling into my usual 25K pace. It almost backfired because I felt pretty tired around 4-6K, but then I got a second wind. It helped to have pre-run the course - if I ever wanted to take a race seriously sometime, I'd definitely want to do that, because it helps to know what is coming up. I met Slice on her bike 250 m from the finish line, and she rode beside me yelling "Sprint! Sprint!" So I owe it all to her that I broke 56 minutes. (My time was 55:59.9, so it is certain that Slice's support gained me at least that 0.1 second, if not more.)

Awesome races by Hansel and Sudden, both around 40 min. Also pretty impressive to see 'Bent finish at 45 min and Leanimal at 51 min. The results were a bit messed up, so I didn't see how our other friends did. I couldn't have run any harder, and it looks like I was still 1/3 of the way down my age group, just like the last 5 Peaks 10K I did. Kind of disappointing, given that my pace was 40 sec/km faster, and I really felt it. What I don't understand is why I seem to get better race results on roads or smooth trails, yet in trail races, I pass people on uphills and downhills, while they crush me on the flats, which ought to be more like road running. Help! I don't WANT to find out that I'm actually a road runner in disguise!

Leanimal, 'Bent, Angus and I took out the three Mayfield High School adventure racing teams for some navigation coaching in Albion Hills using a 1:50,000 topo map. The team I was assigned to - the TriRacers, Danny, Jeff and Kelsey - were lots of fun, and worked hard to understand the concepts. When they ran, they REALLY ran, which was tough for me after the morning race. I think they'll do great in the high school AR event next weekend!

We stuck around at the end to watch Coach Angus teach them canoe-over-canoe rescue in Lake Albion. Nothing like hearing the screams of teenagers dumped into a cold lake in April, especially when you are an adult who can sit on shore, cheering supportively, oozing sympathy and taking photos. ;-)

Hanging and taking down my share of the controls for the GHO Hamilton Schools orienteering meet. In between, I spent a couple of hours working at the results table. It was incredible to see over 650 kids orienteering in teams of two. In Europe, that wouldn't be a huge meet, but I'd never seen anything like it. Ray Kitowski did a masterful job of organizing the chaos and setting up the volunteers with tasks and equipment.

It was cool to see the students getting excited about orienteering - painting their faces in their school colours and cheering each other on. One teacher at some school had apparently taught the kids to put their maps on clipboards - wow, I can't imagine how inconvenient that must be when you're bushwhacking and trying to thumb your map!

The only negative was that I misjudged what to wear. Yesterday I was happy in T-shirt and shorts, but today I was chilly wearing several layers, including a jacket. I guess I'm accustomed to dressing for outdoor activity, not for sitting still!

Leanimal and I decided to mix it up by heading to Albion Hills to run the 10K course for this weekend's 5 Peaks race. We ran in from Old Church & Duffy's Lane, then joined the race course around the 7K mark and went around the loop. The map is a bit sketchy, and we tried a slightly different (and longer) route than 'Bent and I ran in the northeast part of the course. Compared to last week, I felt a lot better - I'm getting oxygen again, yahoo! However, when we hit the last big hill, my legs died, so I sent speedy Leanimal ahead to wait for me while I chugged up more slowly. I blame it on my new Forerunner which is extremely cool, but weighs 400 lb.

What a bee-yoo-tee-full day it was! Sunny, a bit cooler than it has been. The buds on the trees are almost ready to open. There is a bit of greenery on the forest floor, but no wildflowers yet. I saw one wild turkey, but otherwise the wildlife was hiding. During busy mountain biking times, these trails aren't as fun, but at quieter times, Albion Hills is a fantastic place for trail running.

While watching the news. Not quite as cheery as getting my news from the Daily Show and Rick Mercer.

Hard Core Monday with 'Bent - and with considerable assistance from duelling Lab Retrievers who were delighted to see us on the floor.

Happy Earth Day!

When Canada's 2010 Olympians return to their home towns to visit their families, their coaches advise them to seek out the nearest member of the Tree Huggers team to train with. Hmm... that's probably not it. OK, maybe their coaches tell them to call up Bash, because they're supposed to be resting during their month off, and training with Bash will keep their heart rates nice and low. That's more likely. Whatever it is, our 19-year-old Tree Huggers, Brittany and Pate, home for a break from the XC Ski National Team Development Centre, wanted to go mountain biking at Albion Hills with us today. In the end, Pate got sick, so it was just 'Bent, Brittany (probably Canada's top female nordic skier now) and - a few hundred meters behind them most of the time - me.

'Bent set a tough pace that Britt said was faster than she would ride on her own. Then he drove the pace higher by challenging her up a couple of hills, and she is too good a competitor to let that go! While they were having a great time up front, I pedalled furiously to keep them in sight, and periodically they would slow down to medium speed to let me catch up. For a ride of that length, I was doing about all I could do aerobically, so the only way to close the distance between us was to take more risks than I usually do in the more technical sections. Eeek!

Overall, a very fun ride, mostly going at my race pace for technical MTB. Trail conditions and weather were awesome!! It was great to see Britt and catch up on some of her adventures around the world this winter. It's exciting to watch her and Pate as they progress in the skiing world.

I printed the map for Saturday's 5 Peaks trail race at Albion Hills, and 'Bent, BulletDog and I went out to test the route. I'm not sure if I interpreted the simplified trail map incorrectly, but my new Garmin Forerunner 305 said that the 10K route was actually only 9.33 km. The difference in distance was apparent within the first kilometer, then stayed constant, so perhaps the start line is further back than we thought, or maybe there were trees interfering with the satellites. Anyway, it was a great day to be out on the trails. We slowed down a few times to let BulletDog swim, so this definitely wasn't a fast run. In the race, I'm going to have to force myself to go faster than what is comfortable. It's too easy for me to slip into a pace that I can hold for 25 km. I don't really have the right "gear" for a 10 km, so I'm going to have to try to invent one if I don't want to bomb too badly.

It was fun to watch the Forerunner as we ran along. Just wearing such a massive object on my wrist increases the level of intensity of any workout. The next step is to get Valerie to explain the magic of superimposing our route on a map. I'm really looking forward to that!

'Bent, BulletDog and I started at the bottom of K2 (Dingle), then did a Tour de Glen Haffy on foot. It was intended to be a long, easy run, but in this terrain, any running is hill training by definition.

I didn't have problems getting oxygen, as I did on Tuesday. I could detect some light congestion in my lungs for a couple of days this week, and I wonder if the warm weather has brought us some temporary pollen or mould or other mildly lung-irritating substance. Anyway, that was gone today, but I wasn't feeling muscular whatsoever until halfway through the run. I think the problem is that I take 30-40 minutes to warm up (obviously not a 10K specialist), and we climbed the escarpment 3 times during the first 30-40 minutes, so my heart rate shot up into the stratosphere too soon. By the end, my body seemed a lot more cheerful about things.

The only person we met was Manny of the adventure racing team "Wetha' Fa' Kawee Tribe". He started walking the Bruce Trail in sections on Jan. 1, and he had just crossed the 300 km mark (out of 800 km) shortly before we met him. He and 'Bent were wearing exactly the same shirt - the maroon Salomon Adventure Challenge T. What a fashion faux pas.

Hard to feel anything but pure joy on such a wonderful, sunny spring day. First day of the year running in a tank top, and first day wearing a hat for sun protection instead of warmth. BulletDog had a couple of excellent swims, and enjoyed splashing in the streams. Just a great day to be out in the woods. (There really aren't many bad ones.)

LINK routine while watching The Daily Show, plus a few sets of machine-blasting.

'Bent, BulletDog and I took a circuitous route through some of the Palgrave East single track, eventually arriving at the dental office to pick up the van. The upland trails are very dry. There are still some areas to avoid for awhile longer, but trail biking season has arrived!

No training today. Meant to. Got in an ornery mood while trying to sort out the latest requirements for joining the government's Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program. If you ever hear a politician say that this program will encourage people to move toward cleaner energy, tell them that I'm almost ready to build a small nuclear plant in my back yard because the paperwork would be simpler than for our solar panels.

Highlight du Jour: It was very warm, and I encouraged ThunderDog to step into our tiny garden pond, which was made deeper late last fall, unbeknownst to her. Her eyes went wide as saucers when she realized that she could now swim in her very own back yard. Then to celebrate, she tore around the yard like a mad dog, doing 360 degree turns in the air and diving into piles of leaves to roll on her back.

The Low Point: At the Palgrave Trails public meeting, when I realized that the new trail plan will pretty much kill skiing in Palgrave East. I guess I can live with the other changes, but that one hurts. We're going to lose 10 km of trails over there. They don't realize that a 2-3 km loop is too short, and an out-and-back route is boring. Unfortunately, most members of the advisory committee were there to represent special interest groups - not because they spend much time on the trails in there. I was the only person sitting on the committee simply as a local resident, i.e. not representing a pre-programmed point of view.

After seeing ThunderDog's devastated facial expression when 'Bent took BulletDog for his run to work, I had to take my senior puppy into the woods today. I drove 'Bent's car to my haircut appointment in his building, left T-Dog in the dental office for awhile, then she and I hiked - and occasionally jogged - home through Palgrave CA. She loved every moment of it - wonderful to see her in full doggy action, even though she's slowing down. She's snoring up a storm now.

While watching the Daily Show and a bit of the Colbert Report

Got the results for Sunday's O event - the Spring Tune-Up - and was pleasantly surprised. I won F35 against a couple of people who have beaten me in past years, and if I were M45, I would have been 3rd of 10. 'Bent, who gets discouraged and retires from orienteering half a dozen times a year after making occasional nav errors, ended up 1st in M45. I'm very proud of him! :-)

Still headachey today, and I mentioned it to Leanimal when we met at her office for our run. She offered to work on my neck for a few minutes, and it felt very strange, but made an amazing difference immediately. She says that these types of headaches can come from holding the muscles at the back of your neck tight and shortened while running through the bush. I spent the afternoon pain-free, and now tonight I've got maybe 20% of the pain I had before, but I'm trying to stretch my neck to get rid of it. Interesting. Yay to Dr. Leanimal, the Miracle Worker!

I had a noon deadline today, so we could only get to the high point of the big climb from the Humber River, then we turned around. I don't think we went as fast as other weeks, but it felt more difficult today. The slippery mud made it hard to stay upright, and for some strange reason, both of us felt like we weren't getting enough oxygen. Always nice to get outside though, and the Humber Trail is a great workout.

Later in the day, I was trying to reach an interview subject for a magazine article I'm writing, but I had to wait until he returned from his appointment with Leanimal, which took place after her appointment with 'Bent. Is Caledon a small world or what?

Still feel headachey. Could this really be from yesterday's race, or am I coming down with something?

Even so, we had a great evening. 'Bent, Phatty, JoeG and I had dinner with the injured Milhouse at his local pub. Good food, excellent company, lots of laughs and stories.

Spring Tune-Up - Forks of the Credit Provincial Park

Spring Tune-Up O-Cross at Forks of the Credit Provincial Park.

It's not very often that I assign zone 5 intensity to any activity - especially when it goes on for an hour and a half. And today I wasn't even expecting to work hard, since I'd figured that we would spend a lot of our time in the uplands portion of the park. Well, I was wrong on both counts! Between the big climbs ('Bent's watch measured 491 meters total), three "finish lines" for separate loops, and the fatigue in my legs from yesterday, my heart rate came up early, and it never really had a chance to go down. Now I'm fighting a headache. Dehydration? Body pissed off for working it so hard? Not sure.

For most of the first two loops, I was running close behind Sid. In most cases, we chose different routes between controls, but the distance between us didn't change much. Then near the end of our 2nd loop, he surprised me with a sudden turn to follow a fenceline, and I squeaked out a narrow victory on the day. It looks like we would be well-matched teammates if the opportunity ever arises.

The low point (elevation as well as morale) was a bad fall on my elbow on a rock. At the time, it felt like major damage, but it hasn't turned too many different colours after 8 hours, and the swelling isn't nearly as ridiculous as I've had in the past.

I ran the course for M45s and F35s instead of my own age group, so I didn't pay much attention to results. It was the best that I could do, given my current level of physical fitness. Very, very tough.

It was great to see my new ESAR teammate, Angus, tearing up the advanced course. We plan to give 'Bent a serious run for his money in that event. :-)

'Bent and I biked to Inglewood and back - mostly rail trail with some country roads that included a stee-ee-eep, muddy, rutted hill near the end of our ride.

I used my new ergonomic handle bar ends, which are supposed to distribute the weight on your hands to prevent numbness in the fingers, which I sometimes have trouble with. I'd heard rave reviews on them, but although the bar ends looked undeniably ergonomic, they seemed to make my hands go numb even more quickly. So I think I'll go back to my basic, cheapo gel-covered bar ends. Oh well...

While my hands were going numb, so were my toes! It didn't seem that cold out, but apparently it was.

'Bent and I met up with Knobless, Gorgeous and Nikki to hike from the Grange to Belfountain to try Dave Corner's new cappucino bar, The Shed. We didn't hike all the way from Inglewood because Knobless' knee is pretty painful these days. So imagine our surprise when our local guides veered away from the tame Bruce Trail to follow some little pieces of flagging tape marking a planned trail. First we had an interesting exploration of the huge ruins of the lime kilns, accompanied by great info from Nikki, who happens to be the author of the book "Caledon". After that, the trail's route became more dubious, then finally the flagging tape disappeared. We clung to the edge of the escarpment for awhile, then descended the precarious, rocky, slippery slope to the swollen Credit River. No chance of crossing, so we climbed back up and side-hilled through rocky terrain, actually finding some flagging tape again.

Then we spotted a big pond below, with a mossy old rock dam at its end. We made another long, slippery descent and ignored the sign saying that "Crossing this dam is a chargeable offence under the Conservation Authorities Act. Keep Off." We imagined the headlines announcing that the Conservation Authority had laid charges against a group of well-known environmental activists, including the chair of the Caledon Environmental Advisory Committee, the editor of Alternatives Journal, the head of Caledon Clean Air Clean Energy, a director of the Caledon Countryside Alliance, etc. But we made it across unnoticed, and scrambled up more escarpment on the other side until we eventually arrived at the Bruce Trail side trail near Belfountain. By this time, Knobless wasn't the only one with sore knees! Although it had been difficult going, it was a beautiful area to travel through, and it was surprising to find an area with such a wilderness feel so close to a village.

We carried on into Belfountain and had awesome coffees and snacks at The Shed. Gorgeous led a totally different route back, which saved us an hour and did not involve any clinging to steep embankments by our fingernails. We kind of missed the adventure, but on the bright side, we got back to our bikes in time to head home before dark!

Spent so much time rummaging around for final bits of tax info to send to the accountant that there was no time left for training. 'Bent and I went down to the Running Free Party with Phatty and Leanimal. We only knew a dozen people or so out of the 250 attendees, but that just meant that we had lots of time to chat to all of them. Great party, although my throat is sore from shouting over the ambient decibels.

The deadline on Bubo's photo contest is approaching, and the theme this time is supposed to be Orienteering, along with Yellow or Easter. It looks like there is only one entry so far, and its connection to orienteering is arguably tenuous. This is my team, Barb's Boy Toyz, shortly after we came 1st in the 2006 U.S. Relay Orienteering Championships. Note that Griz is wearing Yellow. Hammer, Sudden and I are not. But we all Orienteered that day, and the event was just before Easter last year. :-)

C3 TNT. My knee feels better running on the road than it feels walking around the house. Go figure.

Hard Core Live - Tonight's theme was "Hard, Harder, Hardest". Caron mentioned how much she enjoyed meeting Valerie and Kris. She was also happy that her team won the 10K Giant's Rib Raid by doing well on the Matrix, since she and her teammates have some navigation experience.

Nice to stretch - especially that pesky right hip that felt tight in the Giant's Rib Raid. Some tougher upper body stuff tonight. Lori Bowden's Mom was working out on the mat next to me. I hear she is a talented triathlete in her own right.

Part of a Spinervals DVD - lots of high intensity.

While watching the Daily Show.

Not logged, but ThunderDog and I went for a trek in Palgrave West. I'm told that I should listen to my body, and my medial meniscus was talking to me, telling me not to go running today as planned. Hence the biking instead. I guess my knee is expressing some delayed unhappiness with the road running portion of the Giant's Rib Raid. Or maybe it's just sharing some pain in sympathy with Hammer's meniscus.

I picked up a bunch of plastic shingle bags that had blown into the conservation area from a roofing project at a nearby farmhouse. The wind came up, and it suddenly became believable that we are going to get 10-15 cm of snow tonight. Four wild turkeys were waiting for us at the property line, and fortunately ThunderDog decided to sniff and ignore them.

A trip to the vet later today resulted in a huge surprise. 'Bent and I had been concerned that our senior ThunderDog had a lump protruding from her skin, and we worried about whether it would be surgically removable, whether it would be benign, etc. Well, it turned out to be an engorged tick! I've never seen a tick before. Luckily, our ticks here don't transmit any nasty diseases, but I'm trying not to think about my poor dog being the victim of a vampire over the past week or more - not to mention the fact that a tick was sleeping on our bed each night. Yuck.

Now that I'm no longer travelling to McMaster to heckle Hammer in class twice a week, 'Bent and I are reviving our Hard Core Mondays. Oh goodie.

Mmm.... that felt good. Especially the stretches around the hips. My right hip was the one body part that hurt during the GRR. At least it wasn't excruciating like Raid The Hammer in fall 2005 when I was recovering from my knee injury.

Happy Easter to all!

Last night's stretching and hot Jacuzzi bath must have been the perfect strategy. I can't remember ever feeling this good on the day after an adventure run.

Event: Giant's Rib Raid
 

Raced the Giant's Rib Raid with Vmeyer and Kissy as the QuantiGHO Queen Bees. A major highlight was receiving the wonderful Queen Bee Adidas jackets that Valerie got for our team. My teammates flew all the way from Virginia to do this race, which was already a big enough gift!

The weather was a few degrees below freezing, with blowing snow flurries for part of the day. I was afraid I might be cold since I dressed fairly lightly, but my layers worked well. It was an excellent experience to race for the first time on a team with three keen orienteers. It took some of the pressure off, since the buck usually stops with me on the Tree Huggers. For the most part, we preferred similar route choices, and with three navigators keeping eagle eyes on the map, we didn't have any errors big enough to complain about.

As always, the race was interesting and included a wide variety of challenges, ranging from road and trail runs to maps with much of the information missing. About halfway through, Kissy was hit by agonizing calf cramps, which didn't disappear completely for the rest of the run, but she soldiered on in nasty pain without complaining. Thanks to Mick for providing Rolaids. I apparently managed to drop my fancy $100 compass while punching the map at 6C, since we subsequently met the team who hung my compass up on a bush there, as well as another couple of teams who saw it. I'm hoping it was still there when Bender picked up the controls...? Meanwhile, Amanda K from Team ESAR generously lent me her spare compass - thank you!

I kept my team waiting in the Matrix while I ran to 11A and 11C. Nothing went wrong, but it was just a long way, and I wasn't setting any speed records by that point of the race.

No results posted yet due to the Toronto-Montreal hockey game, but we know that we were the top female team, somewhere around the middle of the pack. We won a free entry to Raid The Hammer, and my teammates both said "No!" in the same breath. I'm not sure that we sold them on the idea of adventure runs today, given the non-universal appeal of running long distances with icy-wet feet on a snowy day. Regardless, they both did a great job on their first adventure run, especially given the tough conditions. Thanks for making the trip!

Great job by race organizers and volunteers. Thanks for all your hard work to give us a fun time!

'Bent and I returned to my parents' place where we are visiting for Easter, then got hit by a case of Hammer & Etoile Hot Tub Envy. Then we remembered that my folks have a 2-person Jacuzzi in their bathroom, so we soaked away some sore muscles - mmmm.... Actually, I don't feel too bad, and managed to avoid the blisters that I often get when my Ice Bugs get wet for long distances. We did lots of stretching tonight, and I'm looking forward to yoga in the near future.

Some fatigued muscles after last night's yoga, but hopefully that will be gone by tomorrow. I feel like I really stretched my hip flexors and IT bands.

'Bent and I met my QuantiGHO Queen Bee teammates Vmeyer and Kissy for lunch at the McMichael Gallery. It turns out that the lovely restaurant that used to be there no longer exists, but it was still great to chat and look at maps of the Milton area for tomorrow. Thank you so much for the bottle of wine! :-)

Hard Core Live. The general opinion seemed to be that it was a tough night, but it was the first time that there has been much overlap with the Hard Core DVD, so there was a lot of stuff that I've practised many (many, many) times, which made it less tough.

Power Yoga class. Lots of unusual stretches tonight. I asked Caron and a few willing victims to stick around at the end so I could photograph them for a magazine article.

And now I'm officially resting until Saturday morning, when the QuantiGHO Queen Bees (Vmeyer, Kissy and myself) take on the world at the Giant's Rib Raid. Looking forward to our pre-race strategy luncheon tomorrow! 'Bent will be there, but he won't be allowed to listen.

Unplanned rest day - although the only thing I blew off was a 20-minute leg strength workout, so no biggie. I spent too much time with friends today, and that's really not such a bad thing. I caught up with Milhouse, home from his not-so-excellent adventures in Spain. Then I went for a latte with Pate, one of our teenaged Tree Huggers, and ended up having a fun 3-hour chat about his first season of XC skiing at the national and international level.

The best news is that Pate has agreed to join 'Bent and me for the Tree Huggers' first adventure race of the spring, the FAR Adventure Challenge. Woo hoo!!

G-TNT with Leanimal on the Humber Valley Trail. Almost all the ice is gone, and the main challenges now are long stretches of goopy mud. Oh, and the usual hills, of course.

Leanimal and I missed our buddy Crash on the run. We look forward to her company after the Boston Marathon. We ran into Slowrunner looking good on the return leg of her run and excited about a 125-mile, 6-day Trans Rockies running stage race in Colorado next year. Sounds like fun if I could find a REAL slowrunner to do it with.

Our running time over the distance was about the same as in previous weeks (albeit in better conditions), but I was feeling fatigued - partly from the long training sessions on the weekend and partly from lack of sleep. Last night was 'Bent's Passover Seder, so I got to bed at 2 a.m. and couldn't fall asleep, then ThunderDog became ChunderDog around 4 a.m., waking us up and forcing a major clean-up. Don't know what she ate in the yard, and it's probably just as well. Then I had to get up early to head back to Palgrave. Looking forward to an early bedtime tonight (yawn).

LINK exercises + some blasting. ;-)

Arggghh, I've been without e-mail most of the day, thanks to what must be a huge server problem at my Internet provider. If anyone has been trying to reach me, I really haven't been ignoring you!

It's been tough to judge this training photo contest, given all the excellent entries. In trying to narrow it down, I went back to the original contest description, i.e. "a photo of yourself training". Photos of friends or scenery taken while training also qualify, even if you don't appear in the photo. I didn't rule out other types of entries, but I gave greater weight to photos fitting the original criteria.

I decided to disqualify photos where people were sitting in chairs (sorry, Sid), photos advocating violence between blondes (sorry, Slice), and a photo depicting junk food consumption that Hammer sent me that I'm still trying to forget. That still left a strong field. I think urthbuoy's March 28 log entry probably fits the spirit of the contest the best, but I don't think he wants to hold a contest again so soon. So I will award urthbuoy 5 points for having the photo contest idea in the first place and for submitting such a great entry.

Part of the fun of the contest is the spin-off of the next contests, so I decided to assign a contest winner in each country that entered:

Sweden - bubo

U.S. - Vmeyer

Canada - MrPither -for the Swiss O photo. At
least you were there, even though the photo wasn't of you.

Each of you receives 4 points, plus the honour of holding a photo contest in your log based on whatever criteria you may choose.

The grand prize winner is Vmeyer, who receives 1 extra point for her efforts. Why? Well, Valerie isn't an adventure racer, so standing in mud up to her chest isn't a normal part of her sport. That was extreme orienteering!

So the totally arbitrary AP photo contest points standings now are:
urthbuoy - 5 pts
Vmeyer - 5 pts
Bash - 5 pts
MrPither - 4 pts
bubo - 4 pts
arg - 3 pts

LINK legs routine + some of the regular legs routine + some upper body blasting on 'Bent's machine. Need to do more upper body - I've been totally ignoring that training goal for 2007.