Training Log Archive: Bash

Went to Sovereign Lake today - such an awesome nordic ski centre. Even though they've hosted World Cup races, you still get the feeling that it's a small-time local club staffed with and frequented by people who have a pure love of XC skiing.

This morning we tried our first skate ski of the season - and talk about starting it off with a bang! The place was crawling with racers in matching softshell jackets and muscle-rippled tights, covered with sponsor logos. Many of them had large bags of skis, and they were testing their skis and waxes - sometimes with a different ski on each foot, sometimes waiting in line to go down a short hill and test the glide. When they finally set off skating on their chosen skis, they absolutely powered up the hills, and they often flew by in groups of two or three. Meanwhile, I was still trying to remember my skating technique, and it was a bit of a challenge to start off the year with a long uphill climb at altitude. Oh well, it felt better as we went on, but I still can't skate-ski in hilly terrain without going anaerobic.

It was cool to run into VO2Max and his coach. At first, he was testing his skis, and then later he skied a short loop with us. 'Bent raced him up a steep hill and paid for it when his knee started to twinge 20 minutes later, thus bringing our ski to an end. I'm looking forward to more skating practice on the more-reasonably-sized hills in Ontario!

After lunch, we went back to our classic skis and climbed up Aberdeen to the summit. Today was the first day that Silver Star opened limited runs to downhill skiers, so we checked out the action before descending Lars Taylor to the Sovereign Lake trail network. Snow conditions are fantastic at the top. Some of the lower trails had a lot of small spruce trees growing in the middle. I guess when your average annual snowfall is 23', you don't worry about a small forest growing on your trails.

Nice home-cooked Italian dinner tonight prepared by Almageddon with assistance from Tarno and clean-up by KenHaw.

'Bent's birthday dinner last night with VO2Max and me became even more of a party when Revy and Courtney happened to show up at the same restaurant, fresh from their trip to South America. Fun evening!

'Bent and I skied loops on the lower Silver Star XC ski trails on a spectacular winter morning. Conditions were fair to good. Views were amazing - we were mostly above the clouds this morning. We came back via the Knoll, an area of very expensive ski-in/out vacation homes. I was gawking so much at one point that I slipped and fell hard on my hip. Wrenched my neck too. Serves me right. Ouch.

We'd intended to go to Sovereign Lake this afternoon, but changed our plans when the ski lift suddenly fired up outside our window, carrying nordic skiers to the top of the mountain where the snow is in excellent shape. How often do we get a chance to ride a lift and XC ski all over a downhill ski area that has no downhill skiers or snowboarders? Awesome.

We beefed up our layers for the long, cold lift ride, which also meant getting out our daypacks to carry our jackets down. By the time we got to the lift, it was turned off, and they told us that all the nordic skiers we'd seen riding it earlier were Silver Star staff. Oops. So we skied most of the way up to the summit from the Silver Star side, taking a winding route. It gets dark early by the standards of us easterners, so we decided to head for home without making it right to the top.

The resort is not open for downhill skiing yet, and I think we're seeing some desperation as multiple truckloads of man-made snow are dumped by the Village, and large ski grooming machines make repeated small loops, apparently taking aim at passing nordic skiers. Just before we reached the safety of the lodge, I was laughing at a monster grooming machine that seemed to be targeting 'Bent, who was taking effective evasive maneuvers. Suddenly, it changed direction toward me, just a couple of meters away. I took one step backward and felt my sleeve rustle as a ski patroller (of all people) shot by at top speed, ignoring the huge "SLOW DOWN" sign. All is well, but if I'd taken another half-step backward, it would have been a serious medical emergency at the speed she was going - one or both knees would have been twisted for sure. Immediately afterward, I was in semi-shock at what had almost happened to me, but now I wish that I'd gone down to join her and the other ski patrollers for a little chat about mountain safety. People like her are part of the reason that I gave up downhill skiing.

A nice hot tub soak took away the remaining stress, then we had dinner at a pub with a few of the speediest Masters men - Tarno, Almageddon and KenHaw.

Made it as far as Vancouver so far. Until the final 15 minutes of our free Aeroplan flight in Executive Class, our journey had been pretty sweet. But then I learned that the main differences in Executive Class are: (a) I got to watch "Hairspray" while 'Bent watched "Transformers", and (b) When they forget to put your luggage on the plane even though you checked in 90 minutes early, you get a nice little telegram delivered right to your seat. At the moment, we don't know which bag of mine is missing - or maybe both of them are. Most likely, they've forgotten our skis. And for some inexplicable reason, they took a pass on the next 5 flights travelling to Vancouver from Toronto after ours, so the bag(s) haven't even left Toronto yet. The earliest our bag could make it to Silver Star would be after midnight tonight. Things aren't looking good for 'Bent's birthday ski. :-(

Yup, it was just our 4 pairs of XC skis that Air Canada forgot to bring, and they'll probably appear around mid-day tomorrow. But they gave us a voucher for free ski rental for today, so 'Bent's birthday ski was saved. Or so we thought. We got to Silver Star and discovered that the rental shop closes at 2 p.m. in the off-season. So we went across the street and paid $70 for rentals. Waxless classic skis were the only choice.

It was only about 20 minutes till sunset, so we headed off right away without (gasp!) taking a second look at the map. Hmm... these waxless skis are pretty quick compared to the ones I have at home. Of course, I'm going down a good-sized hill. Hey, wait a minute - we've made a wrong turn onto a downhill ski run. AieeeEEE!!!! That almost set back 'Bent's knee rehab a few months - oops. After a nice warm-up consisting of herringboning back to where we'd started, we found the Meadow Loop and went for a great ski in heavy snow flurries. It was dark by the end of our short ski, but at least we got out!

Heading out now for a birthday dinner with 'Bent and VO2Max.

It was wintry with borderline snow conditions, so Leanimal and I decided to use our midweek Gurlz Adventure time for a snowshoe-bushwhack around Albion Hills. Big snowflakes began falling, so we had lots of atmosphere, even though the snowshoes were not strictly necessary. It was definitely more fun than running through the snow would have been! We looked for steep hills to walk straight up and down so we could use our arms (with poles) and different leg muscles. Gotta love all those metal teeth on the MSR snowshoes! After running a few errands in town, I drove home in a full-on, 5 meter-visibility blizzard which ended almost as soon as I pulled into the garage.

Now it's time to finish packing, clean up for the house sitter, and get ready to enjoy the 15 cm of new snow that just fell at Silver Star. Yeehaw!

Short tour in Palgrave West with a very happy ThunderDog. I was testing the new titanium Atlas Race Snowshoes that 'Bent got me recently. They are light as a feather, but have enough flotation for most southern Ontario conditions. They do fling up the dreaded rooster tail, creating the sort of skunk-bum-stripe that Leanimal has modelled on past snowshoe treks. I would still use my workhorse MSR Denali Ascents for serious off-trail exploration because they have more teeth for sidehills, and they seem indestructible - but the Atlas snowshoes are pretty good in both those departments too. I can't wait to try running in them!

Starkey Hills Thomass on a sunny, snowy day - perfect winter orienteering weather. Good turnout, including lots of adventure racers. A number of longtime orienteers have made positive comments to me about the AR community's involvement in Thomass events. It's a great way to spend a winter morning, and it's fun to see so many friends running around the woods.

I had a sloppy race. The first 7 controls were on features close to major trails, so I kept my brain on "lazy mode", which was sufficient. #8 took us a short distance away from the trail - still no problem. Then there were a few controls where I needed to focus, and I simply didn't make the switch to concentrating properly. I could see before we started that the Thomass Box design wasn't going to give masters and women an equal chance to finish near the top, so I wasn't too concerned about where I finished. Still, it was frustrating to get passed by sooooooo many people when I made a major screw-up between G and H, running about 300 m too far, then coming all the way back. Ugh.

Slice and I had a nice little run around the rockpiles together, then parted company on the way to #13. She and Leanimal ran the male elite course and put a few of those guys in their place! Between #13 and the finish, I somehow got my compass cord tightly wound around a branch and shared a laugh with Sid as he sped by toward the finish.

Skied around Palgrave West with 'Bent. A very different ski from yesterday because the temperature has increased from -10C to +1C, so we both used waxless skis. That solves the wax problem at higher temperatures, but they sure are pigs! Regardless, it's always nice to be out in the woods in winter. This early snowfall surprised a few trees that hadn't lost their leaves yet. We had to weave our way through low-hanging branches and bent-over saplings in a number of places. Fun outing! That'll probably be our last ski in this snow, since the forecast is for warmer temperatures.

Speaking of warmer temperatures, we went to a good workshop today on carbon footprint and carbon offsets with Dr. Ron Dembo, founder of Zerofootprint. Before going to the workshop, we were encouraged to use their calculator to determine our own carbon footprint - something I'd done a few years ago with a different calculator. Some things don't change, and by far, the largest contribution to my footprint is flying, so it's helpful that we've been purchasing offsets for our flights.

See:
http://www.zerofootprint.net
http://www.greenmyflight.com

Met Coach L-D to go skiing on a Christmas-card-perfect morning. We warmed up by taking the rail trail from Patterson to Humber Station Road, then headed into Albion Hills to explore the trails. We had to climb a few fences at first, but once we got into the main park, we found ski tracks on a lot of trails. (Thanks, Crash!) Great fun and spectacular winter scenery. Good thing this is all supposed to melt before we head out west or else we'd be disappointed to be going away.

Big snowfall to start our winter off right - fantastic! Leanimal and I should have planned to go snowshoeing instead of running, but that didn't become clear until, oh, about 10 steps into our run at Albion Hills. And by then it was too late because we hadn't brought our snowshoes. It reminded us of how the running feels in Thomass winter orienteering races - a hard slog, and some of the energy is wasted because your foot doesn't find traction on the ground. I confess that I was a wimp today, suggesting routes that would minimize our hill climbs, since we were already working hard enough on the flats. As usual, the limber Leanimal kept up a good pace. I wished that I'd brought a camera because it was absolutely beautiful.

Surprisingly, there were no other footprints on such a nice day. Or maybe not so surprisingly, because when I got into my car and drove to the grocery store, suddenly it seemed like a nasty, slushy, slippery, frigid day. It's amazing how different it feels to spend time outdoors vs. being indoors and just stepping outside for a few seconds.

ThunderDog and I headed out into the forest shortly before sunset - a fairy tale scene of pink clouds and glowing snow-draped branches. T-Dog is 11.5 yrs old, and I'm *so* glad to see her romping full speed in her excitement at another winter snowfall - one of her very favourite things in the world. We stopped in the meadow where she always makes dog angels, and it took her a minute to remember, then she dropped to the ground and started rolling enthusiastically. Nice to be out in the snow, and I hope to get out XC skiing in the morning, since today really flew by.

Hard Core conditioning, live with Caron.

Power Yoga class

Crash and I had planned a 7:30 a.m. run to kick off a productive work day, and when the alarm went off at 6:45 a.m., the feeling of virtuousness practically oozed out of my pores. However, over the sound of the oozing, it soon became hard to ignore the pelting rain, growing steadily louder as the temperature crept just above 0C. When the phone rang, I pounced on it, hoping that our run was cancelled - and indeed, Crash was on the verge of a cold and preferred not to head out in this weather. YES!!

The weather didn't change much, but I figured that I'd do a little Tour de Palgrave West before going for my flu shot. I try hard not to be judgmental about weather - almost every kind of weather is good for some human, animal or plant. But I can't think of many superlatives to describe a run in the rain at 2C. Big snowstorm in the forecast tonight. Bring it on!!!

A young friend of mine who is training at the national team level sent a very interesting description of their "mental toughness camp".
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We did pretty much every type of workout imaginable. We did 4 hour roller-skis, ski walks, strength circuits, agility circuits, time trials, races, swamp runs, and intense interval workouts. The most interesting workout we did had to do with decision point training. A decision point is where you are faced with a fork in the road and you have to choose a path. In high performance sport, that decision point usually comes at the end of a race, or hard interval workout where your body says, "I need to stop, or slow down." At this point you let your mind take over the situation and you make a decision. You can either give into the agonizing pain or dig a little deeper, push a little harder and go further and further into the "pain cave".

The pain cave is that dark hole that every athlete is afraid of. You know you have successfully entered the pain cave when your body is on that fine line between blowing up and hanging on minute by minute. At this point it is all in your head. The only thing keeping you from going over the edge is your mental capacity to embrace the pain and push through. Eventually everyone gives in and comes out of the pain cave, but races are won and lost by one's ability to enter the pain cave and remain in there, with the walls slowly closing in, and not come out until you have done what you need to do. That's why training this mental ability is so important.

At the camp we did a series of intervals ski striding up a steep hill. The coach would not tell us how long each interval was going to be until 30 seconds before we started. Some intervals were only 15 seconds while others went up to one minute. The idea was to get to that decision point as quickly as possible, enter the pain cave and get used to the feeling of pushing your body when it is screaming out in pain. The rest between each interval was also not known until after the interval was complete. By doing numerous intervals that varied in time, we had lots of opportunities to make the decision. If you felt you gave in too early on the previous interval, you had a chance to prove to your self that you can go farther and harder on the next set. I would have to say that this was probably my favorite workout of the week.

Cover Story of the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Canadian Geographic magazine:

"THE CAT IS BACK: Cougars Prowl Ontario Again"

I'm hoping that this will inspire me to work on improving my running speed - something that has been on my to-do list for far too long.

Spent the day in downtown Toronto. If I were there every day, I would quickly come to dislike Christmas carols. MEC has been completely changed around since my last visit. I am drawn to backpacks the way Imelda Marcos was drawn to shoes, and I spent quite awhile ogling the Gregory Jade 50 for "lightweight weekends or fastpacking". As if I actually *do* that very often these days. And as if I didn't already have 3 packs that would do the job. Hmm... the price is very reasonable, and the women's model is a cute pale blue...

I drove to Crash's place to drop off her containers for the yummy brownies we ate at the party. Then I ran down Duffy's Lane into Albion Hills to pay for the Chalet rental, then ran back to get my car. I felt slow and heavy today, which may have something to do with those yummy brownies! Ah well, it was worth it.

Absolutely no energy on this beautiful sunny day. Not too surprising, I guess, after such a busy week. AndyCam came over and treated us to the extended 4-hour version of his Tour d'Afrique presentation, and I can *still* honestly say that we've only scratched the surface. What an amazing experience.

AR Wrap-up 2007 and the 4th Tree Huggers Invitational fun race at Albion Hills. It was nice to chat with so many friends (although it is never long enough, especially as the event organizer), and it was great to see people enjoying the outdoors on one of the coldest days of autumn so far.

Excellent performances by too many people to mention, but Bender (1st overall) and Leanimal (1st Female, 3rd overall) deserve to take an extra bow.

It was a nice step forward this year to co-present the event with 5 adventure racing/running companies, and we were grateful for the support of 11 additional sponsors, including Bullfrog Power, who offset the CO2 from the electricity used for the party. (Thank you, Hansel!) Thanks also to the people who stepped in to volunteer where they saw a need.

I enjoyed all the photo presentations in the evening and was especially intrigued by the longer slideshows of AndyCam's Tour d'Afrique and Slice's & Leanimal's Raid The North Extreme. We're luck to have friends who do such cool things and tell the stories so well!

'Bent and I did our final vetting of the Tree Hugger race course today. He did 9 controls on foot, and I did the rest of them with a combination of biking and hiking. It's always risky when I renumber the controls at the end to assign scores to them, so in addition to making sure that the flags are all there and the clues are all legible, we also needed to ensure that the control descriptions and clues were still correct for the renumbered controls. Phew.

The good news is that the flags were all still there. The last two race courses I've designed were in Palgrave West, where a crazed neighbour went a long way off-trail to tear down flagging tape, even though I'd explained the race to his wife and had purposely kept controls away from his house, which is 10 meters from the conservation area boundary. He collected a big bag of flagging tape and ranted at another neighbour, rather than phoning me up. Part of his argument, apparently, was that we had "no right" to be in there. He obviously doesn't know how much money we pay the TRCA and the insurance company! Anyway, I lost one flag in Albion Hills earlier this week, but that's not too bad, considering the number of people who go there vs. Palgrave.

Time: 2 hrs

Challenging biking today, thanks to a light dusting of snow on top of wet leaves and tree roots. I was reminded of why I stopped using clipless pedals in winter, since today I was frequently getting off my bike to visit controls, and the bottom of my cycling shoes accumulated big ice balls on the cleats.

I guess I can't call this orienteering anymore, since I know where all the controls are by now!

Hard Core class with Caron.

This was easier than last time, but not a cakewalk. Today's theme was holding positions much longer than usual, which makes even easy poses become shaky and difficult eventually. I think Caron was being nice to us because she's doing the Philly Marathon this weekend, so she's tapering.

'Bent came along for his first class this fall. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things you can't do with a gimpy knee and neck, so he had to sit that stuff out. :-(

It's been almost 3 months since the North Am Rogaine Champs, and today I lost my 3rd toenail from that event. That sure was a tough-on-feet race.

Saturday's C-wood beer mile claimed a few more people today. Very bad timing on our part to schedule the AR Wrap-up this weekend - although there really weren't other choices, given the other Chalet bookings, the upcoming Christmas season, and our inability to orienteer at Albion Hills during ski season.

Living in a time when 'Bent needs to do dental work to fix up little kids who drink Gatorade at recess, I *like* this energy drink commercial!

While 'Bent and BulletDog tested the southern part of the course, I finished posting clues at the flags in the northern part. It was a wet day, so my cycling shoes were even less useful as I scrambled up and down the steeper slopes. (Oh, and believe me, the slopes will be VERY steep.) It was still fun to be out, and mountain biking is definitely the best way to get around a big race course.

'Bent found a few typos on the clue sheet and - quite helpfully - noticed that one clue could be answered correctly without seeing the info on the flag. You can bet that Leanimal would have been all over that one, but now she is going to have to find the control like everyone else. ;-)

Due to 'Bent's concerns, I rode over to map a short section of new logging road that is near a control - and thus could be confusing. I met all kinds of kids - maybe grades 7-8 - who were doing all kinds of things. Some of them appeared to be orienteering (using what map, I wonder?), some of them had yellow hard hats on, and others seemed to be looking at birdhouses and things in the woods. I know that funding was cut for outdoor education programs, so I'm not sure what the deal is - but I was really glad to see them out there.

Total time - 2 hrs (logged less)

Sunny day - great to have an excuse to head into the woods again. I was on a tight schedule today because Canadian Blood Services had called with an "urgent need for my type of blood", and I didn't want to turn them down just two days after Remembrance Day. So I had to work toward a deadline, since they advise you against doing exercise right after they've removed a pint of blood from your body. Undoubtedly, it would be considered *really* bad to exercise off-trail in a near-deserted conservation area, carrying the only existing copy of the race map.

I was putting clues on the flags today and got 2/3 of them in place. Like control hanging, I'm slow because I make changes to the clues on the fly, e.g. simpler clues at controls closer to the Chalet where kids might come, more difficult clues at controls where only Bobkittens may roam.

Total - 2 hrs 30 min, an hour of which I didn't log

I rode my bike on the trails at Albion Hills to reach the closest access points for all the controls. It was fun to get out on single track again, and I enjoyed having a mission that forced me to ride trails in a different order and in different directions from what I've done in the past. At one point, I came around a bend in the single track, and a 20-something, football player-sized guy was barrelling right at me head-on. I reacted like the 7th generation Canadian that I am - that is, I flung myself and my bike off the trail into the bushes while simultaneously calling out an apology. The fellow didn't answer - just carried on with a determined look like a world championship was on the line.

After getting my bike close, I had to bushwhack in cycling shoes the rest of the way to the controls. Not as bad as it sounds, but I had a few good skids on steep slopes. Beautiful day.

Hung the final flags for the Tree Hugger race on a drizzly afternoon. There are 30 controls this year - I wonder if anyone can get them all in 90 minutes. I hope not! Former North American champion Griz is vetting the course on Saturday morning, so I'll have a good idea of what's possible before the race starts. But no, I won't be telling anyone what his time was until after the official race. :-)

Legs felt a bit fatigued today, but really not bad. I remember having to walk downstairs backwards after some adventure runs because of muscle pain. Apparently, something is working better than it used to. (I don't get to say *that* very often.)

Event: Raid the Hammer
 

Raid The Hammer with Hingo and Goose. Weather was perfect for a November race - cool and cloudy, but no rain. Big crowd of racers - 79 teams, with about 75% doing the 25K race and the rest doing the 10K.

We had a fun day! We didn't have a perfect race, but most of the things I would have changed were things that would have saved us seconds on different CPs, not minutes. The only major exception was in the Walk The Line section when I steered us down - and partially up the other side of - a deep ravine, convinced that Hammer was evil enough to make us do that - and equally convinced that I'd seen it on the map. After a nasty skid down there on wet clay, I had to inform my team that we were going back up - sigh. As an aside, all of our team agreed that we'd like to campaign for a 1:10,000 map next year. We're all starting to squint a little too much to see the contours, and - shockingly - there are even older teams than us who do these races!

The other bobble was when we climbed up by the beautiful waterfall at CP8. Goose was just ahead with the SI unit, and I saw him about 2 m from the CP. It was a tough climb where we had to grab saplings to avoid skidding backwards in the mud (lots of those today), so I went back to focusing on my climb. We were nearly at the railroad tracks when Goose asked, "So do you see it anywhere?" It turns out that I was the only team member who had seen the control, and I thought it was so visible that it wasn't worth mentioning. Oops. As Hingo said, "We have Y chromosomes. We can't multi-task. We're either climbing or we're looking for flags." So... lesson learned - it's always worth checking if you don't see your teammate actually punch the control. We needed to tire Goose out a bit anyway, so it's OK with us that he got a little extra elevation gain/loss on the course! ;-)

The only other negative was that I felt slooooow out there today. I took forever to warm up, and just had no zip in my legs. I treat RTH as an off-season event during my autumn rest and recovery season - and I really felt it today. I don't feel sore now because I've stayed moderately active, but I didn't feel energetic on the course.

We ran into a few speedy Coed teams more than once - The Tragically Quick, Salomon XT Wings, STORM/Running Free and Beowulf. As long as we were running into people like them, I knew we were having a decent race!

There were two Matrix sections, which was a nice enhancement, giving us all a chance to find our own controls.

The physics section was cruel - I can just hear Sudden and Hammer laughing, bwaah hahahaha. The E=MC2 section had us run off in pairs to find a (M)ud control, (C)limb control #1 and (C)limb control #2. I did Mud (not muddy today, and it felt great to walk through the cold river water) and Climb #2 (holy CRAP, that was steep!) I'd been told that the race course was relatively flat this year, but it didn't feel that way at all. Maybe it's because so many of the climbs were steep, but I don't remember clinging to the sides of slimy ravines by my fingernails as often as this in previous years!

Goose felt very fresh at the end and gave me a high-speed tow down the final stretch of road. Having got to that point of the race without wrenching my injured ankle, I was *very* alert in this section. We dashed through two small forested ravines before arriving at the finish control in the school yard. Lots of fun, and Hingo and Goose were great teammates. Considering that Hingo hasn't been able to run for longer than an hour since August due to an Achilles injury, I was impressed at how well he held up for 4.5 hrs! A little ice on his ITB at the end, but he had no trouble leaving me in the dust. As for Goose, we're going to have to hook him up with 'Bent (after his recovery) and ThreePinJim for an event sometime. Those speedy boys would have a great time together!

Speaking of 'Bent, he and the pooches volunteered. They were in the woods for 4.5 hrs, directing teams away from a property whose owner had made it clear that trespassing was verboten.

A fun time as always - well organized, great course. Thanks to all the volunteers who worked behind the scenes to put this event on!

Hung more flags for the Tree Hugger race on a spectacular, sunny day. I brought BulletDog along again in hopes of tiring her out more so that she'll be a good little Raid The Hammer volunteer tomorrow. I'm not sure that my plan is working. Instead of tiring her out with all this exercise, she just seems to be getting fitter! She found something else disgusting to rub her shoulder blades against today, so a partial dog bath was needed for the 2nd day in a row.

I made a fateful decision to cross a fenceline for a shorter route back to the car. It appeared to be a fallen cedar fence - no big deal. Then I saw the rusty one-meter-high barbwire fence with loose bits of wire dangling from it. To my horror, BulletDog took a trusting dive through some invisible hole in the middle of all that wire and landed on the other side. I stepped over the fence and headed toward her, looking carefully for any signs of blood or pain. Well, *she* was fine, but I turned my good ankle hard because I was looking at her instead of watching my step. Bad timing with the 25K Raid The Hammer adventure run tomorrow. :-(

Hung about half the flags for the Tree Hugger race. Feeling less than totally enthusiastic about it, having just received a "No" RSVP for the AR Wrap-up party from someone who posted on the Evite website that he and three other invitees would be running a beer mile instead.

I wasn't going to hold the event this year after a 3-year run, but agreed to do it when some folks convinced me that it was a good tradition for the AR community to maintain, and offered their help to make it so. We are truly grateful and overwhelmed to have so many strong supporters of our event in the AR community - all the major AR companies in Ontario, several top-notch corporate sponsors, and many of the best racers in the country. I'm happy that so many of us will have a chance to get together and have a great time with good friends next weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it. But it's a pain to work so hard on something for other people on a volunteer basis, then get a stupid comment like that from someone who obviously doesn't give a s**t, especially since attendance is down this year, and we may not cover our costs. (Oh, and it makes me *really* wish that Billy had won that trip to Oz.)

OK, rant over! BulletDog and I went around Albion Hills on a damp, grey afternoon. I'm not fast when I hang flags because I'm constantly re-evaluating what I've decided on paper. "This rockpile is close to the Chalet, so parents will come here with their children, who might not see that ruined barbwire fence, so I'd better move the control to that pit down the hill." "This hill is right on the border of the conservation area during hunting season. If someone goes too far, it could be dangerous. Better move that flag." "This pond is really stinky and mucky, and people's dogs and kids will get filthy. If it were farther away from the Chalet, I'd keep the control here, but I think everyone will try to visit this one." And so on. I got bitten by the last one myself, as BulletDog immersed herself in the stinky slime, then followed up later with a good shoulder blade rub on the disembodied leg of some dead animal. Yuck. I had to head home early to make sure there was time for a dog bath before we headed out to the photography awards reception. :-)

I'd planned to get over to Albion Hills to hang some flags for the Tree Hugger race, but it's been a busy 24 hrs for Raid The Hammer Registrar duties. Also, ThunderDog was full of beans - repeatedly ringing the doorbell (a bell hanging on the inside knob) to indicate her desire to get out for some training. Given that she'd done some hind leg extensions yesterday, sweeping a few things off the kitchen counter as she searched for goodies, I knew that I needed to work at tiring her out. (Although I've never had a toddler, I think I understand some of the basic principles.)

So out the door for a hike that doesn't merit logging, but there were a few points of note:

1) I found the location where I took the photo that won the award! I wasn't really looking for it, then it suddenly jumped out at me. No need to squint or use the imagination. It was quite obviously the place. Interestingly, it was the apparent contours that were messing me up - and here I'd thought that I should be paying *more* attention to them. It appeared to me - and apparently to some others - that the forest path was relatively flat. In fact, it was an optical illusion - that path goes sharply downhill. In the end, it was a broken-off birch standing in some logging debris that caught my attention. I'd looked at the two hills before, but hadn't considered that I should turn, back up a few steps, and look down the steep incline.

And the answer is? The photo was taken at a spot that I can jog to in less than 60 seconds from our front door. No wonder it looked so familiar, and no wonder 'Bent insisted that it had to be on our next door neighbour's property. It was.

2) Snow is here!!!! And it's sticking to the ground. The blades of grass still extend above it, but it's looking wintry. Yahoo!! Who needs to go to Silver Star?

3) I tried my new Marmot Thunder Ridge jacket for the first time. It's nice because the lining zips out so that it becomes a Precip-style rain jacket when you don't need a winter jacket.

And now ThunderDog is snoring, so my cunning strategy worked.

Went out for a jog to see if I could find where I was standing when I took my Oak Ridges Moraine photo. The answer has proven to be more elusive than I'd expected. Part of the problem today was that I went out too late, so I was rushing around in poor light. A few weeks ago, I heard of another cougar sighting in our area, so I didn't want to be out running alone at dusk. 'Bent and BulletDog commuted home in the dark. They're not afraid of no stinkin' kitty cat.

Since yesterday's run with Leanimal, I've had a sharp pain beneath the upper patella on my bad knee. Of course I'm not suggesting that Leanimal is responsible, just because she is competing in our category in Sunday's race, and just because she's an expert on what makes knees hurt. It is simply a bizarre coincidence.

Please take a moment to welcome my ESAR 2008 teammates who have just joined Attackpoint. The race is still seven months away, but it's never too early to make them nervous about how many people are keeping an eye on their training. ;-)

Hurtn is my neighbour, a landscape artist who wants to improve his physical fitness for an active painting expedition in the
Arctic this summer.

Damuhl is his brother, who will be accompanying him on the backpacking trip. Damuhl's nickname arises from the role he's anticipating on the journey - helping Hurtn haul stacks of canvases, brushes, paints, palette, paint thinner, HD cameras, satellite phone, microphone, etc. He figures that "da brodder will be damuhl".

Tuesday Gurlz Run with Leanimal and BulletDog. The rain was about as cold as rain gets before it turns to snow, but it wasn't too bad once we got going. Much of the trail surface was slightly wet clay, creating that soothing "oil slick" running experience. Very good for developing agility! BulletDog was higher maintenance than usual today - not being bad, just being a dog. We had several encounters with other dogs enroute, plus a small mess to clean up and a couple of wet dog shakes after river swims. Thanks to Leanimal for being a good sport about it. She is sleeping *very* happily on the couch now. (BulletDog, not Leanimal.)

A nice surprise today... I won the Land and Water category for our region in the Monitoring the Moraine Photo Contest. My photo will be included in an exhibition that will travel across the Oak Ridges Moraine. I even get to attend a reception at a winery to receive my prize. Hmm... an artist joined my adventure racing team just a few days ago, and already I've landed my first exhibition. Coincidence?!? I think not! :-)

It bugs me that I can't remember where I was standing when I took the photo, but it's one of a small group of photos that were taken on a hike behind our house several years ago. There's been some major logging since then, not to mention the forest fire, so I may have to rely on terrain contours rather than trees to identify the location.

So there's the long story to explain why ThunderDog and I went out for a brisk hike today in the cold drizzle. I didn't print the photo and bring it along, which I obviously should have, since I didn't find the location. It might be off-trail somewhere. I might need to call in the senior Waddingtons to assist!

As promised after I felt like a 98 lb weakling doing planks in last week's yoga class, I started an upper body strength routine today. I used to do this stuff regularly, but over the past couple of years, I've worked more on core and leg strength. Those are the right priorities, but things have gotten ridiculous in the push-up department. The chart by the weight machine showed the weights that I was using before, and for the most part, I had to go down a level, which makes sense. For some reason, I've kept my pulldown strength from 18 months ago, but I had to cut the weight *way, way* down for one-armed rowing. Not sure why that would be. By Zoolander's standards this was definitely only a mini-blast.

Goose, BulletDog and I went for a morning trail run around hilly Glen Haffy while 'Bent and ThunderDog took a brisk hike in the same area. It took us a little while to sort out the dogs, since they both felt strongly that our "pack" shouldn't be separated. I ended up running on tow behind BulletDog, which was good practice for next weekend's Raid The Hammer, and it was no trouble to keep my heart rate up in that terrain. According to the HRM, about a quarter of today's run was anaerobic, puff, gasp.

Brilliant sunshine, cool morning air and panoramic views here and there - nice! With most of the leaves down, it was hard to see rocks and roots, so I was overly cautious with my footing to avoid wrenching any joints before next weekend. Goose is in great form, since he's doing multiple training sessions each day with different groups of students. Perfect job for an endurance athlete!

'Bent and I headed to the McMichael Gallery to catch the final day of the Robert Bateman exhibition. I know that some people think it's unsophisticated to appreciate his work, and those same people probably also think that it's unfashionable to be fond of the Group of Seven. Well, those people wouldn't have enjoyed our afternoon at all. But as someone who has spent time in the kinds of wilderness places where these guys painted, I love sharing their experiences - seeing things in the paintings that most of the "sophisticated" critics probably don't recognize at all, having spent their entire lives in cities.

Bike ride with my new teammates on Team IntoTheArctic.com. Hurtn lives in Caledon, and his brother Damuhl was up for the day, so it was a good chance for us all to get together for the first time. (Their official Attackpoint nicknames are TBD, since they may be signing up too.) They are training for a backpacking, painting and filming expedition in the High Arctic next summer, and I recruited them to join me for the ESAR adventure race next spring to give them another reason to train. Should be fun! They also pointed out that they both have cute daughters who are in or approaching their teens, so the Dads need to start looking physically imposing to prospective boyfriends.

Today's ride was about as nice as you could ask for in November in Caledon. Still some autumn colours, bright sunshine and crisp temperature. We did a nice little loop in Palgrave East and West. 'Bent had more time, so he started with us, then turned north to do an extended loop on double track while we did some single track, which is still verboten for 'Bent. I think we've got a good team - and 'Bent's team will just have to try to catch us!! :-)

We've been watching the progress of Rocky, Crash and Slowrunner at Ironman Florida today. See www.ironman.com. At the moment, after the swim and 73 miles of biking, they are all within 10 minutes of each other. First Slowrunner, then Rocky, then Crash. Go Girls!!!!!

And the final results for our amazing Caledon IronWomen:
Rocky - 12:22
Crash - 12:30
Slowrunner - 12:49

Also a smokin' 10:46 for Scooby. Wow.

Yay!!!!!!! You guys worked hard for this, and we're so proud of you!

Tired from Thursday night training! It feels like every muscle was used in some way. Good!

Phatty & Leanimal are local adventure heroes again.

C3 training night. Our coach Barrie was out of town, but his wife Caron told us that he'd called from the airport after she dropped him off. He'd been standing at a urinal when another guy came up beside him. As per usual, he didn't look over, but then he suddenly realized that a lot of people had arrived in the washroom at once, so he glanced around. It was the Dalai Lama standing at the next urinal!

Some easy early season intervals on the road tonight, plus the run there and back. Felt good.

Hard Core Live with Caron. Tonight's theme was Hard, Harder, Hardest. Ouch.

This was also a Hard, Harder, Hardest session. I can't remember yoga getting my heart rate up this high very often! I've decided that I have the arms of a 98 lb weakling, and I'd better do something about it before someone kicks sand in my face.