Training Log Archive: Bash

I never thought I would agree with a column in the National Post. I'm sure it won't become a trend, given their right wing views, but this one hits close to home.

"The Regulated Health Professions Act prevents health professionals from providing services to their husbands, wives or common-law partners, under the bizarre theory that this protects patients from 'sexual abuse'."

"... what if a ...dentist’s spouse thinks her husband is the best in town and wants to continue using him...? Why should she be denied her choice of health care professional when every other Ontarian is free to choose?"

There was an exemption for dentists for many years so it's only for the past two years that I've been without a dentist after many years with an excellent one. 'Bent is the only dentist in Palgrave and he would automatically lose his licence for 5 years if he treated me. I know enough to know that not all dentists are created equal so I would need to drive a long way to find someone with the same philosophy and high-tech procedures and equipment. Grrr.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/06/29/kar...

New tool from Google: What do you love?
http://www.wdyl.com/#adventure%20racing

Today was the Hump Day between recovering from Wilderness Traverse and tapering for Saturday's Creemore Vertical Challenge 25K trail race. So I figured it was a chance to sneak out and do something quickly!

I rode to Inglewood via Palgrave West trails and the rail trail. Dropped by the bike shop to buy gels and a few new tubes. (I think I owe you one, Frankenjack?) Then to the weekly Inglewood Farmer's Market for fresh local strawberries, kale, asparagus, spinach and mushrooms, plus homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam, chocolate chip shortbread and bagels. I snacked on a local lamb burger fresh off the BBQ with homemade sweet chili BBQ sauce. VO2Max's little sister has started baking and selling Cosicakes - elegant cupcakes of various flavours - so I bought a couple for Knobless and me to eat while we chatted at his booth. I rode home (the slightly uphill direction) with a 15 lb pack so it counts as training even though it was fun.

Wow! We have 37 teams confirmed for Wilderness Traverse with only 3 spots left. We'd been kinda hoping we might hit 30 teams this year. To grab one of the final spots, contact Getawaystix at bob at wildernesstraverse dot ca

My Wilderness Traverse course test report has now been posted on June 26.

Ran around the Palgrave West trails. Poison ivy is running rampant! I'm pleasantly surprised at how good I've felt since the weekend. Unfortunately, it's a very busy week but I was craving a long bike ride yesterday and would have loved to run for 90 minutes today. I do have some nasty bruises from splatting various body parts on rocks but it seems that my joints and muscles are OK.

On Sunday morning, both Getawaystix and Frankenjack commented that they were probably going to lose both their big toenails after our long trek. I felt a little smug because my feet were fine - until yesterday when I stubbed my toe on the bathroom cabinet. Now it's purple and it looks like I might lose it... :)

Kudos to our friend Crash who blew away the women's solo division at this weekend's 24 Hours of Summer Solstice mountain bike relay with 20 laps. She had time to do a 21st lap but retired at 23:17 with a 4-lap lead. If she had continued, she would have been 4th of the 38 solos (male and female) in the race but her 5th place overall is still mind-bogglingly impressive.

Time 161419

Just added these two entries to associate the Garmin tracks with this course test. We used my 310XT till the battery got low then switched to Jack's. There was some overlap.

2011 Wilderness Traverse 24-hr adventure race course test

Since last fall, Bob and I have tested every segment of the 2011 WT course, scouted areas that didn't make the cut, and connected the dots to get back to our vehicle. We did it all in daylight so we could check out CP/TA areas and identify safety hazards, private properties or glaring map issues along the course. We recorded GPS tracks with our distances and travel times to help estimate race splits.

But to tell you the truth, we've been kinda soft... Until now, we've done all our course testing at my training (not racing) pace on a full night's sleep. We cherry-picked our favourite seasons and made last-minute schedule changes based on the weather report. If there was a route choice that involved swimming, we chose the other one. (We often tested when there were snow patches around.) We chatted a lot and posed for photos for the website. Sure, we would trek 35 km through the wilderness, but by sundown we were always in a restaurant hoovering down steaming plates of pasta and large tumblers of chocolate milk.

Not exactly hard core.



It's tough for an RD to do a full run-through of an overnight race course. Even an experienced racer shouldn't do it alone. Unlike a race, there is nobody waiting for you to show up by a particular time, nobody watching your location on a SPOT tracker, no team of medics, no easy way to bail out if you're injured or your bike fails, etc. You might need a non-racing friend to transport gear between TAs. You have to carry all your food the whole way since there are no volunteers at TAs to fend off bears. (There were two bear sightings this weekend including a mama with three cubs.)

Because we'd completed the WT design/test by mid-May, Bob and I wanted to do a non-stop course test to get an estimated finish time for my hypothetical team. We know roughly where the Tree Huggers should finish in the pack, which would be useful information for planning cut-offs, confirming the course length, etc. It would also improve the accuracy of our time estimates since we'd hit each part of the course at the right time - when we're fresh, when it's dark or when we're fatigued.

It came together a little differently, however. Jack Van Dorp (Frankenjack on AP) is racing with Bob at Raid The North Extreme and will share the navigation. Wilderness Traverse is designed to reward skilled navigators so a full course test would be a perfect practice session. It would also be Jack's first non-stop session longer than 13 hours so it would be a great test of food, drink, gear, etc.

This change in plans was mostly good news except that (apparently) we were no longer aiming for the Tree Huggers' finishing time. Bob made a couple of offhand, uncharacteristic remarks about tow lines, taking weight from my pack and other ways we could travel faster. Uh oh.

When I say that Bob and Jack are on a different level from me, I don't just mean one or two levels, as in "they're male and under 40". I mean "a few seconds off the podium in Primal Quest" and "top ten at the World Multisport Championship". Last month each of them competed solo in a different large Ontario adventure race and placed first by a significant margin. So we're ridiculously mismatched. I made excuses to stay home but Bob wasn't buying them. I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to the weekend wholeheartedly.



For the Sherlock Holmes types in the crowd, Bob will release the sequence of disciplines and estimated times well before the race. But the secrets aren't mine to reveal so I'll just share highlights from the test. Bob said in his log entry that the total course distance with good nav will be around 146 km. He mentioned the awesome, challenging 35-ish km wilderness trek, "perhaps the most difficult from a nav perspective of any of the past 24-36 hr races in Ontario (lots of route choice and funky terrain)". He also revealed that most teams will do some paddling at night with fairly intricate nav.



General comments... Our "Team Beta Test" (the boys weren't fond of "Bob/Jack Dragging Barb") navigated well in all disciplines. Jack learned a few lessons about adventure race navigation but most of the time, he was bang on. He made me wade through a chest-deep swamp so we know he's not a triathlete anymore. ;)



Conditions this weekend were not as pleasant as our previous visits. Mosquitoes whined and swarmed incessantly. Recent heavy rains had left the forest soaking wet with huge mud puddles on the trails. Light rain fell on and off until the wee hours.



Reviewing the sections in no particular order... The big trek is interesting and tough. I can't say it will determine the winner since there are also navigation challenges in the bike and paddle sections, but it will certainly determine who finishes in the top ten because a big mistake could take awhile to fix. I predict the slowest teams will take more than twice the time of the top team.



Trekking was the discipline where the difference in our speeds was most pronounced, especially since each of us was wearing a 17-lb pack. (Bob took a bag of my food but I carried more water.) I'm sure the guys would have loved to go faster to outrun the thick clouds of mosquitoes. Here's a ritual we performed over and over - spraying Muskol on one other.



We ran most of the time when we were on ATV trails. Bob towed me on some of the smoother trails but I didn't want to risk injury for the sake of a course test, so we didn't tow when the trails got gnarlier. In one 4-km section of technical trail, he ran with my heavy pack on his shoulder as if it were nothing! When we were off-trail, which was quite a bit, the boys motored quickly through the bush.



Their longer legs carried them over fallen logs and other obstacles that stymied me, and I had to hustle to keep them in sight in the foliage. I wasn't keen to become bear bait!

I fell behind on eating because I had to keep one eye on my foot placement and the other on the boys. I wondered if the difference from my usual pacing and nutrition would lead to my first bonking experience but luckily it didn't happen.



I appear to be in shock in this photo in a rare moment of rest while Bob and Jack refilled water. There are two mosquitoes stuck on my chin - so ladylike!



The WT biking is mostly fast, hilly and fun - the best kind of AR riding. There are some good climbs where strong technical riders will do a better job of choosing the best lines through ruts and loose rocks. There are a couple of mucky, ATV-churned sections totalling a few kilometers each, just to remind racers what they're missing out on.



As the team boat anchor, what could make things even worse? How about two flat tires within the first 4 km of one of the bike sections? I've only had one flat tire in 20 years of mountain biking - and it wasn't in a race. Jack and Bob were rock stars, working together in a sea of bugs to fix both flats while I sprayed Muskol and slapped at their bodies randomly. Luckily, Jack removed a thorn from the tire during the second change, which ended my troubles.



I felt relatively strong and smooth on the bike and we maintained a good pace. It wasn't too tough to keep the boys in sight, and we only towed on the few kms of paved road. Bob said they only had to wait after some of the gnarlier downhills where my death wish was less than theirs.

Speed wasn't an issue in the paddle section since we were all in one canoe. :) I'd stashed a can of Starbucks double espresso and a bottle of Coke with my PFD so I was totally wired by the time we hit the water. Poor Bob and Jack had to listen to me sing and I kept dragging them into conversations to make sure they didn't start snoring to the soothing rhythm of our paddles. We flew, averaging over 9 km/hr for the first half hour before settling down a little. Bob and I eventually got chilly from the splashing; it was easy to warm up while paddling but we were cool on the portages.



Because of all the rain, the mossy rocks on the trail were like oil slicks and I had a few good falls onto rock, including one on my knee and one on my elbow that hurt so much that I lay still for a few seconds wondering if I'd broken it. I had the lightest load - just the kayak paddles and the middle seat. Ironically, my biggest post-race muscle pain was in my forearms from the awkward task of gripping three long, unwieldy paddles on the portages.

The navigation on this paddle required close attention, especially since we did some of it in darkness, and Jack did well. He tested the new mega-light that Richard built for him, affectionately known as The Jack O'Lantern. It worked perfectly.



We had to stop for a minute beside a cliff to say "oooh" and "aahhh" because the light reflected off the waves and created a cool, moving laser-style light show on the rock. Whenever we could, we paddled without lights and just aimed for locations along the black silhouette of the shoreline. Amazingly, we didn't crash into any rocks, logs or peninsulas although there were some close calls.

We finished in 22 hours, which we think will stand up as a respectable time even with our relaxed transitions, mismatched teammates, flat tires and couple of nav bobbles. The challenging nav will likely spread teams out so much that we'll need several short course options to keep everyone in the game.



This year's WT race course was a cool way to explore the rugged and beautiful Canadian Shield. Although I was dragging more than usual by sunrise because of the faster-paced trek, it was kinda cool to realize that I could survive it. We sprinted the final 100 meters to cross the finish line at the Stanhope Community Centre. Yay, we were the first team to finish the 2011 Wilderness Traverse. :) Can't wait to see everyone else tackle it on Aug. 20-21.

Good times with great friends who share my love of crazy outdoor activities. Thanks to Bob and Jack for their help, patience and good humour.

For folks not on Facebook, here's breaking news from Kirikou on Thursday night:

"Our little man has arrived! Dexter Anthony James Frank @ 6:39pm 7lbs 15oz. Melissa was a trooper!! We are home and all is well! What an amazing day!"

Mark Burnett's Expedition Impossible premieres tonight on ABC at 9 p.m. EST.

Alas, they would not consider the all-female team of T. Rex, Crash and myself because we don't hold American passports, so we will just have to put our feet up, grab a beer and enjoy!

Time to taper and pack for Wilderness Traverse. No, I'm not doing this excellent race alongside the real competitors in the warm, dry, bug-free conditions we expect in late August. And no, I'm not doing it with like-minded, similarly fit teammates.

I'm doing WT this weekend in cool rain during the convergence of mosquito, black fly and deer fly seasons, and my "teammates" will be Getawaystix and Frankenjack who are treating it as a tough training weekend in preparation for RTNX. I tried to get out of it but GStix wasn't taking "no" for an answer from his assistant RD, bless his cruel little heart.

Angel Sitting on Right Shoulder:
"What a fantastic opportunity to experience a 24-30 hr race course with two of Canada's top adventure athletes on a serious training mission!"

Devil Sitting on Left Shoulder:
"Those boys are going to kill you, Barb. Bwaaaahahahahahahaha!!!"

Around Island Lake in the JKK Eclipse. The weeds have become so thick that it was like bushwhacking through some parts of the lake! I spent a lot of time clearing vegetation off my paddle, boat, PFD and head. Guess I'll need to stay out in the deeper water instead of doing my loop around the shore. There were a few fishing boats lolling about and one couple in a rental canoe. The guy was in the bow with both hands awkwardly clutching the paddle shaft and his bright green hair waving in the breeze. It was heartening to know that for once I wasn't going to be perceived as the weirdest person on the lake. (At least, I don't *think* so.)

Since I was in Orangeville, it was a perfect opportunity to do the mandatory post-adventure race Dairy Queen trip. Harps was missed.

I'd ordered one of our triathlon club's nice custom tri tops and the president coyly suggested that I might want to meet him at one of their triathlon workouts to pick it up. As long as you don't have an ego, it's a good idea to train occasionally with people who are a whole lot better at things than you are. This was one of those nights. Fortunately, it was designed for people like me.

1) 2.5 km warm-up run, which I did with the woman who placed 3rd on the Sport course at 5 Peaks Hardwood (Leanimal's counterpart). I didn't have the guts to tell her that I almost never run as fast as her "easy warm-up pace".
2) Drills (logged separately)
3) 16 X 2 min. intervals with 1 min. breaks, during which the fast people came back toward us slow people. That is a lot of 2 min. intervals!

It was fun although I'm not someone who needs a running group to motivate me to do stuff, so I will continue to do my own thing most of the time. But maybe I'll get out to a few more of their sessions, particularly the road riding where I like to have company. It was nice to see Coach CHuet on a break from late June marking.

The big news is that the club co-presidents suggested that as club members, we could take our kayaks to the quarry where they do their swim training. I'd been thinking that I might broach the subject some time but they said it could actually be beneficial to have a boat around if a swimmer got in trouble, so they have no problem with it at all. Yahoo! At last a place with clean enough water to practise my roll!

Toe walking, heel walking, As, Bs, Cs, grapevine. Passing cars were honking at us in delight. We *did* look pretty silly.

So... I had no events booked after ESAR which felt weird. I've been thinking about doing different things but haven't figured out what. It would kinda help to know what I'm training for.

Raid The North Extreme wasn't in the plans, then I was approached by three experienced expedition racers who came with strong recommendations from friends who felt we'd be a good fit. After thinking for a couple of days, I said yes - just as one of my prospective teammates dropped out and another suffered an injury.

Although there were other RTNX opportunities, I opted to join Team Checkpoint Zero/Tech4O for the 48-hour Equinox Traverse in Pennsylvania the week before RTNX.

They are the 1st place Coed Elite team in the Checkpoint Tracker Series, and as near as I can tell from reading the rules, there's no way I can screw it up for them. :) I'm looking forward to racing with JayXC and Sony, both of whom were at APEX on Team Untamed New England.

That only gets me through the next 4 weeks so I also signed up for the long course in Frankenjack's Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race in August.

The week after that, I'll be managing Race HQ for the almost sold-out Wilderness Traverse, then I'm thinking about the North Am Rogaining Champs in September in B.C.

Beyond that, I like Mrs. Gally's plan of working toward Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc in 2013. Working backwards, I figured I'd better sign up for the Creemore Vertical Challenge 25K on Canada Day weekend! :) Btw, Creemore has a great event atmosphere and appears likely to sell out again, so register soon if you're thinking about it.

Next step should probably be a fall ultra, preferably a UTMB qualifier. I keep gravitating to the Coastal Challenge website - a 6 day trail running stage race in Costa Rica in January. No UTMB points but a very cool experience. Hopefully, 'Bent's joints will be ready for more running soon!

So there's a tentative plan to try on for size and see how it feels in the coming weeks. We sure are fortunate to live in a world with so many awesome choices! (And to have the good health and means to take advantage of some of them.)

Rode to Albion Hills and did a lap of the 24 Hrs of Summer Solstice course. 'Bent is doing it on ThreePinJim's team and Crash is doing it solo. Is anyone else going to be there? Unfortunately, I'm not able to go this year.

Chico has only marked 15 km of the lap so I'm sure they will make some final adjustments to get it up to 16.5-17 km. I took it fairly easy today although "easy" is a relative term since there is a minimum level of "oomph" required to get up the climbs and over the roots and rocks.

Earlier this spring, my biking fitness was out of synch with my diminished technical skills after 7 months of road and trainer riding. It feels like things have converged again. I had to steer very precisely in the northeast section where lush poison ivy surrounds the trail. I suspect there will be some very itchy cyclists next Tuesday!

(Note: My GPS measured the Solstice lap as 14.2 km on twisty forest trail but my bike computer agreed with the 15 km on Chico's sign. Normally the GPS and bike computer distances are virtually identical.)

Emergency Services Adventure Race (ESAR)
Horseshoe Resort

Nice to be back at ESAR after a year away. The STORM/Hark team always put a lot of effort into their events, and it shows.



Mrs. Gally has come back stronger than ever after little Jerrick joined the family last summer. SistaP, who usually volunteers at ESAR, made the leap to the other side of the registration desk - although she couldn't resist loading a few gear bags into a truck.



Our team never takes victory for granted so we prepared ourselves to take Best Hairstyle honours instead. Mrs. Gally planned the hair extensions while SistaP set us up with lovely bike helmet tiaras.



The event format this year was interesting. After designing the Dontgetlost.ca Navstock Raid in this area a few years ago, I knew it would be challenging for organizers to put together a multi-discipline race course suitable for competitors with different skills and speed. The only nearby water is Bass Lake, about 20 km away from the race start/finish, and the area is dotted with interesting public forest tracts surrounded by private land.

I thought their solution to this dilemma was clever although racers further back in the pack must have spent nearly all their time on the bike. We started by riding to CP1 not far from Horseshoe Resort, following a marked route part of the way. Then there were five areas with optional CPs that we could bike to (or not) before returning to CP2 on the Horseshoe Resort property. Four of these areas were detailed 1:10,000 orienteering maps where we found CPs on our bikes on or near forest trails. The 5th area was Bass Lake where there were two floating CPs. We would drop our bikes at CP2 and run about 1.5 km down the ski hill back to the chalet where we would perform Feats of Strength before punching CP3. Then there were four optional trekking CPs we could visit in Copeland Forest before punching CP4 on top of a nearby ski lift and dashing downhill to the finish.

It looked like we could clean the course so our only choice was the sequence of the optional maps. We decided to do three of the bike orienteering sections on our way to the paddle, by which time we figured it would be nice to get splashed on a hot day. On the way back we would break up the long ride with a fun section of single track with five CPs, known as the "ride the line" section.



The racers started out on bikes at the bottom of the ski hill and went straight to the top. Almost everyone pushed their bikes although I saw 'Bent's team riding up - wow! We had a crisis within the first 30 meters when Mrs. Gally's derailleur was sticking out at an odd angle with the chain in disarray. Luckily, it proved relatively simple for SistaP to solve the problem but we were well back in the pack by then. In the marked trail section at the top of the climb, SistaP had a collision with another rider and went down scary-hard. Yikes. A few minutes later, we were on forest trails - still on the marked portion of the course, but now riding with people who were generally less confident off the road than we were. Thus we had to do a lot of passing on sandy double track trails, taking care not to interfere with anyone or skid out and fall on them!

There is no excuse for the huge navigation blunder I made on the way to CP1. Because of where we were in the pack, we had to ride carefully, watching every wheel around us and keeping a close eye on trail conditions. I didn't notice that the marked portion of the course had ended because I was concentrating on other things. I'd vaguely noticed that the clip-on compass on my bike map holder didn't make sense but I ignored it, assuming that it was too far off horizontal to be accurate. When we popped out onto a paved road, I had the thought that we had to turn left when we finished the marked portion of the course, so that's what we did. Argghh. It didn't seem right as we went down the road and turned into a forest tract but I still hadn't figured out why. We were surrounded in the forest by other teams who also didn't get it. Then I simultaneously realized that my compass actually *was* broken - half-filled with air - and that we had ridden off the map on a road that had no business being paved if we were where we were supposed to be when the marked section ended. Sheepishly, we retreated and picked up CP1, saying hello to dozens of other teams coming toward us. Probably 15 minutes wasted on a very silly error. Reminder to self: when you do technical biking on crowded trails, it is hard to focus on nav and things can easily go wrong, so pull over and stop to look hard at the map and compass (if it's working). Don't get sucked in by the need to keep pedalling.

It was kind of fun, in a perverted sort of way, to spend the rest of the race passing people. It will be interesting to look at the SI splits and see how far back we were at CP1. We got a lot of comments as we passed other teams with our tiara-topped bike helmets. Fortunately, we had no nav issues for the rest of the race.



Adventure race biking is not always fun but today it was awesome. It was a nice mix of double track, single track, old overgrown trails and hilly paved and gravel roads - a little bit of everything. There was a big, sandy, rutted hill in Schumacher Forest that tested our hike-a-bike skills.



Mrs. Gally was a powerhouse, usually taking the lead and thus the wind. In a couple of long road sections, we set up a 3-person train with our bike tows. Although the ropes were often slack, it kept the team together and in each other's draft.

It was terrific to arrive at Bass Lake and cool down with a paddle. It was maybe an hour - I didn't keep track. I was in the stern of the canoe and had to fight the breeze hard on two of the three legs. J-stroke with a canoe paddle is so much easier for steering even though it's slower overall, so I always use a kayak paddle for AR.



We dropped our bikes at CP2 and ran back to the chalet. For the Feats of Strength, each team member was assigned a different task and we could only punch CP3 after we were all finished. I had to pull a tire around a field - more fun than I thought it would be.



'Bent also got the tire pulling task although he didn't seem to enjoy it as much.



After that, we ran out into Copeland Forest to pick up four optional CPs. Mrs. Gally remained the strongest, taking turns towing SistaP and me so that our pace stayed as high as possible. When we got to the base of the ski lift, we walked up in the steamy heat to punch CP4, the last one of the day. Then we plunged down the hill to the finish line. Fun day with a couple of awesome ladies!

The Salomon Bobkittens maintained their perfect record of overall victory at races based at Heights of Horseshoe, with a lead of over 30 minutes. Several years ago, it was Slice and Leanimal in 1st place. This time it was Leanimal, Dogrunner and Goose. (I never thought of Goose as much of a "kitten" but I guess he is kinda cute.)





Team Shed Coffee Bar - 'Bent, Shedman and Billygoat - placed 2nd overall and top male team. This was 'Bent's first multi-sport team adventure race since knee surgery and he has not yet been able to ramp up his training to his previous level. Not exactly the perfect time to race on one of the fastest teams he's ever raced on! :) The boys worked well together and had fun although they will need to work on their nav skills before Wilderness Traverse. I was proud of 'Bent and so happy for him. It's been a very tough year.



The Tree Huggers were the 1st Female team and I think we were 6th of about 100 teams overall. After our bad start, we were very happy with that. SistaP and Mrs. Gally were excellent, upbeat teammates - we worked well together.



"The Scenic Route" have developed their skills, fitness and strategy to the point where they are now regulars on the podium. Well done, ladies!



Alas, Mrs. Gally stood up about 90 minutes after the race and pain shot through her foot. It was a total mystery since she had been strong throughout the race. Eventually, she remembered an ankle turn a few hours earlier that had seemed minor at the time. Between the adrenaline and her tight shoes, she didn't notice the injury for several hours. Turns out it's a mild sprain and she will be back in action shortly.

It was a great way to spend a day. If I have one complaint, it's that the STORM/Hark crew make it look easy to put on a well-organized, carefully designed, fun event with efficient gear transport, enthusiastic volunteers who understand their roles, great post-race atmosphere, electronic timing with back-up punch card system and excellent prizing. They make it tough on the rest of us who organize races! :) Thanks, guys.

Packin' for ESAR. Mrs. Gally and SistaP are my awesome teammates. SistaP is in charge of setting a blistering pace through the mountain bike single track, Mrs. Gally will be at the front of my tow rope, and I'll have my face buried in the maps as usual. Weather looks great - should be fun!

Just one week after questioning whether I ever want to do another adventure race > 36 hrs again after our Swiss Fail, it looks like I'm about to cave. So... back in the saddle today for a longer ride. Palgrave West trails and rail trail to Inglewood, then soft, mucky, buggy trails to climb the escarpment between Inglewood and Belfountain, then to The Shed Coffee Bar for TA1. I think 1:46 is my best-ever TTIL (Time To Iced Latte) by trail route to The Shed. I bought one of their cool new women's cycling jerseys. How can you not like a place that sells excellent coffee *and* cycling attire?

I went back via trails to Grange Road then stopped in at Opening Day of the Inglewood Farmer's Market (TA2) where I loaded up my big Salomon pack with exotic local mushrooms and cilantro, both picked this morning. I wanted fresh asparagus too but the asparagus stand was very competitive and I resisted the urge to tackle the person who bought the last bunch. I also filled my pack with homemade scones, bagels and chocolate chunk shortbread and enjoyed a sizzling lamb burger with mint mayo in lieu of eating my gels. Knobless was there and we hung out for awhile. VO2Max Senior stopped by and it was great to catch up.

Some days training is pure fun! :)

I was going to do a light workout today but ThunderDog, who will soon celebrate her 15th birthday, was ready for action. She has a respiratory problem that prevents her from hiking too far before she needs to lie down and rest. Back in the day, she could chase us for a 20 km mountain bike ride but this summer, her doggie dreams are definitely bigger than her physical abilities. I know the best smells are out in the forest, not in our yard, so I took our Lee Valley utility wagon and set it up for pooch transport - like a baby Chariot. I wasn't sure if it would work but she was totally cool with it. We did a 1 km loop on the forest trails with a couple of stops where I lifted her out so she could walk around a little. New smells + Different sights = Happy dog.

"In general successful athletes focus on performance/winning, and then look at the pathways necessary to get to that point. Many amateur athletes look at the pathways more than they do at the goal."

"[Sport-specific] training... must be measured in performance; does it help the person perform better? Otherwise it's just training for the hell of it, and that is not worthwhile unless it's the goal... That's cool as long as you understand what's going on and are into it, but it's not cool when you're claiming to be training for sport X while doing something that is useless for doing sport X better, at least as measured on a time-invested basis."

Will Gadd (Canmore-based outdoor athlete and writer)

These quotes and other interesting reading come from Will's recent blog entries. Note that he does not consider himself to be a sport-specific trainer. He says he's more of a "PIG" (Participation In General) athlete. I have a lot of PIG in me too!
http://gravsports.blogspot.com

So... Mrs. Gally has laid out the plan and I like it.

2012 - Sinister 7 + one other ultra race to get enough points
2013 - Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc

More friends joining the party = more fun. Be there.

Evening paddle at Island Lake with ESAR teammates Mrs. Gally and SistaP. I forgot a middle seat for Mrs. Gally but the ever resourceful SistaP spirited a plastic bucket away from the dumpster behind Boston Pizza. It worked pretty well but left a circular imprint on Mrs. Gally's pants, leading to her new nickname "Bucket Butt".

It was breezy and sometimes challenging to keep our whitewater canoe going in a straight line. The ladies did a great job and we are now ready to take on all those firefighters and police officers on Saturday! At Island Lake and later at the restaurant for dinner, things were rather quiet. Someone mentioned something about a hockey game tonight...?

Barefoot run through the forest in light rain.

That sounds almost romantic in a Hollywood sense - as if I were flouncing down the trail in a long, billowy skirt with daisies in my hair and a basket of wild strawberries. Not exactly. This easy run was the debut of my Vibram Five Fingers Treksports.
http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fin...

They've got a tougher sole than my Five Fingers KSOs so I don't get bruises from stepping on pine cones hidden in the grass. I'm going to use them for running form drills since it's harder to cheat in "barefoot" shoes. Today I tried to be conscious of posture and the lift-off/push-off of my rear foot, something they talk about in Chi running. One of the fastest runners I know once told me that he focuses on pumping his knees forward but that really didn't work for me. I do better when I think about leaning forward from the ankles with good posture and getting the rear foot off the ground properly.

Quote for a Monday morning:

"The tragedy in life does not lie with not reaching your goals. The tragedy lies in not having any goals to reach. It is not a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to not have stars to reach for."

~ Benjamin Elijah Mays (American scholar and civil rights activist)

Tour de Grand in Cambridge. Massive fail at first... When 'Bent loads our bikes into the van, he often grabs the box I've put out with helmet, shoes, bottles and gloves. But it's my job to make sure it comes along, and this time he didn't and I didn't, so after 40 minutes on the road, we were heading back to Palgrave in grumbly moods. (Slap forehead!)

It was almost not worth driving all the way back to Cambridge but we were looking forward to seeing Kirikou and BrentD, so I took over driving to ensure the earliest possible arrival while 'Bent took over emergency texting duties.

We'd signed up for the 72K tour, which started at 9 a.m. along with the 60K tour. There were longer tours that started earlier and shorter tours that started later. After the world's fastest check-in, we headed out at 9:21 a.m. We asked if we could start late and the volunteer answered, "I don't know." We interpreted that as a "yes" and decided to do the 60K tour to avoid inconveniencing volunteers at aid stations. We needn't have worried.

Within the first kilometer, Kirikou joined us on his mountain bike. It was an awesome day for riding - perfect cool temperature, mix of sun and cloud, rolling hills, lots of other riders to keep drivers alert and police assistance at the busiest intersections. Maybe a little more wind than we needed but still really fun and a great workout - especially for Kirikou on his MTB!



In no time, we caught the back of the pack and started passing people, which continued for the rest of the ride. This was a tour, not a race, but we're adventure racers and we just couldn't help ourselves.

Kirikou and I were working hard to chase 'Bent, whose recumbent bike really shines on a rolling road ride. He finally raised his seat to increase wind resistance so he wouldn't go so fast. (Show-off!) I'd warned Kirikou that 'Bent couldn't resist meeting challenges from other riders, some of whom seem to feel there is shame in being passed by a recumbent bike.

Sure enough, there was a guy in a big time trial helmet who kept an eye on 'Bent for most of the ride. When 'Bent got too far ahead, Time Trial Guy would take off after him. His friend would glance at Kirikou and me, and we'd all laugh and start pedaling harder to catch up until they took it down a notch. At one point, I swear we saw them do The Look.

All good fun and we caught up with BrentD at lunch afterward. Nice to see Kirikou one last time before he becomes a Dad!

5 Peaks Enduro at Hardwood Hills. I went early to help at the Salomon booth and had a great time talking footwear. (Phatty is a bad influence.) A shocking proportion of participants had only road running shoes and the advantages of trail shoes were apparent as I kept passing strong runners in the single track sections.

I wasn't sure if my body was fully recovered from APEX two weeks ago. Although we didn't end up racing hard, it was 60 hours of activity in 4 days while carrying a heavy pack (sometimes two packs) up and down mountains. There were a few points today when my legs seemed more fatigued than usual but I think I should be able to get back to full training next week.

It was a fun race course - typical Hardwood Hills up and down and up and down and up, up, up, down, down, down. Lots of tree roots and rocks which made for fun trail running. We did the Gnarly Trail, for those who know the MTB trails. The race had been advertised as 15 km so, like a few others I talked to, I was saving some energy for a final burst in which I planned to pass the woman a few meters ahead of me. Then at 12.5 km, I realized we were plunging down the final hill to the finish chute. Aacckk! I was only able to pass this woman on the uphills! In spite of my best finish sprint, I couldn't do it. She wasn't in my category so it only meant the difference between being 17th of 93 women vs. 16th.

I won the old ladies' category but our group's heroine of the day was definitely Leanimal, who was 3rd overall of 93 women!!!



Too bad she can't use that non-Salomon pack in public.

Another hero was Hansel, who was fatser than all but 5 other guys in the field of 215 racers. He got the 2nd place medal in his age group - but he was 1st coolest.



Poor Phatty turned his ankle but toughed it out to the finish line like the hard core adventure racer he is.

Kudos to Mrs. Tiny, who crossed the finish line just 28 seconds behind me. Given her awesome training this season, I'll go on record now to predict that will be the last time I ever beat her in a pure running race. Great work!

Got Princess all dolled up with a new bike computer with cadence then drove her over to Patterson Sideroad (where the pavement begins) for a trial run. I wasn't sure if I'd calibrated wheel size properly so I used the Garmin Forerunner for comparison, and the distance matched almost perfectly.

It was Princess' first time outdoors since our Lonely Ride of Shame in New Zealand and things felt better than expected. If it weren't for the occasional big truck scaring the crap out of me, it would have been totally fun. I'd chosen a hilly route without really thinking about it so this ride ended up having actual training value instead of just being a gear test.

Average cadence: 71. A little low but it's the first time I've measured it and I didn't consciously try to work on it. Distance/time modified due to initial problems with magnet.

5 Peaks race tomorrow morning - about 15 km of trail running at Hardwood Hills. These events always feel too short and speedy for my slow twitch legs. We'll see how it goes!

Here's the recently updated North American rogaine schedule. Both U.S. and North American Championships are in the autumn this year so there's still time to plan. Unfortunately, the North Am Champs in B.C. conflict with Logs Rocks and Steel in Ontario.

My only training accomplishment today was removing Princess from the Tacx Ergotrainer (after taking a few photos to remind me of where everything goes) and setting her up for riding this weekend. That's right - I'm going to go road riding on purpose even though I have no upcoming event that requires it. What has the world come to? Do I hear ice cubes tinkling in hell?

I might attempt to install my new bike computer tomorrow - the one with cadence measurement. I've been forcing myself to learn to do smaller bike jobs myself so I can save more difficult gear projects for 'Bent. Yesterday's Difficult Project was a broken connector on an SRS 5-piece paddle due to Leanimal and me not knowing our own strength. 'Bent to the rescue!

Leanimal and I did a fun Paddle/Theatre brick today. First we took our kayaks around beautiful Lake Couchiching on what was apparently one of the hottest days in the last 60 years. We hit some wind but it felt better than the places where the air was still. We switched kayaks at half time so that Leanimal could try my NZ racing kayak as well as 'Bent's speedy sea kayak.

Then we went to the Orillia Opera House to see "Sexy Laundry", a comedy that my brother directed. Lucky for us, that's when the high winds and big hail arrived - although it was hard to hear the actors for a few minutes!

It was great to see Weeanimal enjoying the cottage with her grandparents. She'll have a new cousin soon!

Mostly running on the trails of Palgrave East. I tested some of my new Salomon gear - the awesome Advanced Skin pack and women's SLAB-3 XT Wings. Last year I ran my trail races in men's SLAB-2s because I loved the shoe so much. If there was a women's version of the shoe, I never saw it. I've become quite fond of compression calf sleeves too. In addition to the compression, they keep away sun, ticks and poison ivy. What's not to like?

I ran in the hottest part of the day on purpose. I recently read an article where athletes in a study acclimatized better to heat if they exercised for an hour a day in hot weather for 10 days straight. I'm not great in heat so I figure anything I can do to help the process along is worthwhile. I mostly felt good but I'm pretty sure I slowed down a lot as my brain and body overheated. It's nice that I don't have any aches and pains from APEX. I guess there are some advantages to not really racing.

Lots of post-APEX thinking... I love expedition adventure racing and had wanted it to be my main focus over the next while but it doesn't really make sense.

The problem is the team aspect. Exped AR works best for people who have a team they race with consistently. A group of people who plan their year together, who train and race in a similar - or at least known - fashion. Most of the Tree Huggers have moved on from doing AR regularly so this isn't an option.

Only a handful of Canadian teams do expedition races each year. Most teams only want one woman per team and there are many stronger Canadian women to choose from.

So that leaves the option of cobbling together a team of individuals who don't normally race together. It is very hard to find four people who (a) want to invest the time and money in an exped race, and (b) are on the same page in terms of training, preparation, gear, ethics, teamwork, communication, etc. And it's impossible to know for sure until you're in the race. It's a huge risk, given the financial investment and potential safety issues involved in a long race.

Bottom line, exped adventure racing may be my first love but it's kinda impossible for me. It's easier to find one teammate so maybe international events like mountain marathons and rogaines would be a smarter focus. Solo ultrarunning also seems appealing in theory but until I've done at least a 50-miler, it's too early to know. All of these sports lack the multiple disciplines that I enjoy training for, unfortunately.

So we'll see where this thinking goes. I need to head somewhere different.

Tick update: A few weeks ago, our local vet mentioned that she's finding more ticks on dogs this year and that she's had one positive Lyme test on a local dog who hadn't travelled anywhere. She just had a positive test for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a tick removed from a local dog. The dog didn't get the disease. The lab said they'd had another positive RMSF test in the Toronto area. Check yourself. Check your dogs.

Looking for something to do in the Cambridge area on Sunday? 'Bent and I are joining a friend who's doing the 72K distance in the Tour de Grand road bike ride. Only $18 if you register by 6 p.m. today or $22 on event day. That includes a T-shirt and food! It's not a race - just a ride. There are distances from 10K to 160K.
http://www.cambridgetourdegrand.com

APEX Day 4/5 Report is now online.
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920...

APEX Day 3 Report
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920...

APEX Day 2 Report
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920...

APEX Day 1 Report
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920...

Pre-race day report
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920...

For a quick overview, see Hingo's awesome 5-minute slides how.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmA01lA6lx0

Around Copeland Forest with Leanimal and 'Bent, both of whom had more zip in their legs than I did today. Some fun single track, speedy double track, steep climbing and equestrian dodging plus occasional breaks for mosquito slapping and spousal "commentary" while 'Bent analyzed the orienteering map at trail junctions. (Time deducted for stops.) I should be reviewing this map too as Lee, 'Bent and I will all be navigating here for different teams at ESAR in a couple of weeks but my mind is still recovering from APEX so I can't get into it yet.

Great to meet Dee, FB and Urthbuoy for lunch at the Crazy Horse pub afterward. The boys had done a long run over from Midhurst and Dee was playing hooky while Logie did the Canada Cup bike race at Hardwood. It's so nice to get these all too rare opportunities to just relax and share stories with AR friends.

Around Palgrave West with 'Bent. We'd planned to go further afield but decided to make loops close to home in case the distant rumbles of thunder and small bursts of rain turned into something more. The thunderstorms earlier today were crazy!

Out with 'Bent for a Tour de Island Lake in my JKK Eclipse kayak which made the long journey from NZ and just emerged from bubble wrap this afternoon. "Jake" is super light, fast but not surf ski fast, and designed for much rougher conditions than Island Lake will ever see. I'll need to do some work to feel more comfortable but it's going to be great to have a boat I can lift onto the car easily on my own. I've bought a season's pass to Island Lake with the plan of getting out more often.

Great news: Even though Frankenjack's well-worn shoes travelled from NZ in the kayak cockpit and spent 15 weeks in there, it was possible to paddle without a gas mask.

While we were in a kayak frame of mind, who should arrive in the driveway but Urthbuoy and FB! Awesome to catch up with the boys of Team Spirit.

First ever visit to the Apple Store to get help with my troubled iPhone. The guy there was a Genius.

Recovery ride. I would have stayed out longer but the wind in the forest was crazy and I saw a couple of big branches down. I decided it would be more fun to go to town to visit Leanimal and Weeanimal.