Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: Wilderness Traverse 2018
 

Wilderness Traverse 2018 racer check-in and more HQ and GPS tracker planning and preparation.

WT prep

This time of year, I'm totally immersed in Wilderness Traverse but I was determined to get out for a run today because it was sunny and cool, and it would be healthier than sitting with a computer on my lap. It was a good theory.

I was just going to do a quick 5K on the gravel road. In fact, I was just going to see how that felt and if I felt strong like my last run, I was going to take a chance on entering a race that I haven't really trained enough for. Recent events have reminded me that life is short and opportunities don't necessarily come along more than once.

BazingaDog raced down from upstairs and stood in the front hall after hearing... I really don't know what he heard - my shoes being laced, maybe? He gave me his most forlorn look, which he has practised well. I decided to take him along, which I rarely do because he is so strong. But he's getting older and easier to control so I figured it would be fine.

For the first 600 meters, it was excellent training for one of those races where a too-energetic teammate insists on towing fast from the starting line. Then for the next kilometre, it was excellent training for those times when a formerly energetic teammate starts making excuses, sniffing around trees, and peeing every 2 minutes.

But then I cranked my ankle. Badly. I don't think it was BazingaDog's fault. It wasn't even the trail's fault since it's relatively smooth. I think it was a combination of a too-thin sock in a too-loose shoe on a person who has turned her left ankle multiple times in 22 years and hasn't been keeping up with her ankle strength training. (I remember the first sprain because it was a few weeks before our wedding and I was only able to try on the right shoe when I shopped for wedding shoes.)

After rolling around on the ground saying bad words for a minute, I decided to pretend it wasn't that serious and I kept running slowly. I lasted another kilometre before I was forced to admit that no, this *was* serious. BazingaDog and I hobbled back home. The pain got worse after I stopped.

The silver lining is that I almost dropped a lot of money on a race and flight just before this run. I can barely walk tonight so racing in October is out of the question. Next goal: Raid The Hammer.

BazingaDog was so pleased I took him out. That's the other silver lining.

Wilderness Traverse prep

Folks in the Dundas Valley, a missing dog is believed to be hanging around on or near the rail trail.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=...

Thanks to my engineering class reunion last night, a pile of Wilderness Traverse work, and a BazingaDog chase around the yard with a headlamp at 5:30 a.m., I felt blah this morning. But it was a gorgeous day and I wanted to breathe cool air in the forest so I took my bike for a quick tour of Palgrave East single track.

So glad I did! For the first time in weeks, I felt like pushing hard. I rode about as fast as I ever have through the twisty, rooty single track and it was a blast! These trails aren't maintained frequently so I had to be alert for damage from Friday's storm - the one that passed through here and eventually caused tornadoes around Ottawa. This was on our neighbour's trail; I didn't run into any trees across the public trails.

A few of my besties from engineering school at the University of Waterloo. We had 22 classmates and 13 partners at our reunion; that's about a third of our classmates who are still alive. Big thanks to 'Bent for his support and for staying up well past his usual bedtime!

Final planning for tomorrow's university class reunion mixed with Wilderness Traverse preparation made for a long day!

Speaking of long days, Jamieson Hatt spent 20 hours on the Bruce Trail today. He's in Dundas tonight at the end of Day 11. Just 136 km left to Queenston! I'd guess he'll get there on Sunday afternoon.

Jamieson was so grateful for company and conversation on the Bruce Trail yesterday that I decided to go find him in west Caledon. I need some time on my feet and I might as well help someone out. The only problem is, he is unique among Bruce Trail through-runners in his preference for being on the trail from 3 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Yikes! But I would do that for a race so why not?

At 5:45 a.m., I arrived at the corner of McLaren Rd. and Puckering Lane near Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. If I could park there, it would be possible to run back by a more direct route after spending a few hours with Jamieson. I wasn't totally surprised to find "No Parking" signs around the intersection but I *was* surprised at how far they extended. With the narrow shoulders, I could see why. I turned around a couple of times looking for options and I finally ended up 0.6 km downhill in an offroad parking spot with no signs in sight but I still wasn't 100% sure it was legit.

I checked his GPS tracker on my phone. While I'd been faffing about, Jamieson had crossed McLaren Rd., climbed the big Puckering Lane hill and turned onto the single track. He was about 1.8 km ahead of me. I don't like to run alone in the dark, especially that far from home, but after getting up at 4:45 a.m., I wasn't going to let him get away! It took me a 3.2 km push with a lot of climbing to catch him.

We came down through Forks of the Credit and up to Devil's Pulpit.



We went over to The Grange where his parents had set up an aid station. From there, we passed to the west of Inglewood.



We were excited to see the new Bruce Trail blazes taking us into the Cheltenham Badlands area, which has been closed for a few years.



The main Bruce Trail doesn't have a view of the Badlands but there is a short Badlands Side Trail. Jamieson didn't need any extra distance but on my way back, I took the detour.



Jan Hannah waved from the IFAW van as we headed up Olde Baseline Rd. I continued to the corner of Mississauga Rd. and Boston Mills Rd. west of Spirit Tree Cidery. At that point, it would take me about 10 km to run back to my car by the shortest route so I turned back.





But I knew exactly what Jamieson needed as he headed toward Georgetown: Mrs. Gally! I texted her and she went there straight from work. I haven't heard any updates yet - just that she found him and her phone was dying. I'm sure she gave him all the motivation and conversation he could handle, and that's exactly what he needed. Thank you, Mrs. G!

His tracker link is here in case anyone else has the time to hang out with Jamieson on the trail. Now that he's in more populated areas, I hope he'll have company most of the time. Hope to see photos of him in Queenston in a few days!
https://share.garmin.com/JamiesonHatt

I'm logging this all as a run today although Jamieson is just hiking briskly because of his sore foot. I probably ran about 40% of the distance.

My entire GPS track is shown here but the time logged for this session is just for my run up to Hwy 9.

Jamieson Hatt from the Windsor area is doing a through-run of the Bruce Trail. He'd originally hoped it would be an FKT but he is now just aiming for a finish. He is being supported by his Mom and Dad, who are pulling a rented camper trailer that has had a few issues.

The Ontario trail running community embraces Bruce Trail through-runners - typically one per year. The current male and female FKT holders have spent hours on the trail with Jamieson. A stranger (to them, not to me) showed up one day, took their laundry home and returned with clean clothes. People have appeared with vegan food for Jamieson. People have offered to drive up with parts for the camper. He and his family have been blown away by the support.

I went Jamieson hunting this afternoon. I parked at Coolihan's Sideroad and ran the Bruce Trail to Hwy 9. No sign of Jamieson. I refreshed his tracker, which had been near the highway twenty minutes earlier. Hmm. Then he appeared and we introduced ourselves. Turns out he'd taken a 15 minute nap because he was zoning out. He said it really helps to have company and conversation to help the time go by and to distract him from some foot pain. He's in great spirits for someone who has gone 600+ km in the past 9 days. At this point, he's hiking briskly at about 5 kph. He has placed 2nd at the Haliburton and Sulphur Springs 100 milers so he is a strong ultrarunner.









We had a nice chat, then at Coolihan's, I handed him over to his parents and his next pacer: the current male FKT holder, Adam Burnett.



He'll be heading into the Georgetown/Milton/Hamilton area over the next couple of days. If anyone has a chance to get out to spend a little time with him, he really appreciates it and he's a very nice guy. He tends to start before sunrise and stop around dinnertime or early evening. You can find his location here.
https://share.garmin.com/JamiesonHatt

This was the hike back from Hwy 9 to Coolihan's Sideroad with Jamieson.

I wanted to do some strength work but it was such a beautiful day that I didn't want to be inside. Luckily, I figured out a way to have it both ways. I followed one of Caron's online workouts with lots of lunges and squats, then added some foothab at the end.

Happy 25th anniversary to my brothers, Dave Campbell and Tim Webb! They threw an awesome party, and their talented theatre friends provided great entertainment at the open mic. At one point, we were chatting with Veronica about ballet when it dawned on me: she is *that* Veronica. Weird to be somewhere without any adventure racers in the crowd but they were all very friendly to us anyway. :)

Timato and I planned to do Georgian Peaks repeats but the main hill is closed for construction - work related to snow making equipment, I heard later. There is a large fence and some signs warning trespassers to stay out so we headed to Blue Mountain instead.

It was as hot and humid as mid-summer and because we're idiots, we chose the Straight Up trail, a steep, open climb up the ski hill. It gains almost as much elevation as Georgian Peaks but it gains it faster. I felt pretty good on my 1st climb but sunscreen and sweat got into my eyes so I stumbled up the 2nd climb with my eyes half-closed. It didn't help that my stomach was feeling lousy before I even got out of bed, and it didn't improve when I climbed hills in crazy heat and humidity. After a break to chat with my neighbour, I did a 3rd climb then decided to switch to The Village Way, a longer trail that stays mostly in the shade.

I was starting to crave an icy drink from the Village so I lowered my goal for the day from 5 escarpment climbs to 1,000 m, finishing on Straight Up again. I met Timato who had just finished his 6th (!!) climb and felt *quite* ready to stop. I climbed until my Suunto assured me that my goal was met, then dashed down for a chilled Starbucks drink.

We'd brought two canoes up north and I was supposed to sit in for Hammer at a Wilderness Traverse paddle training session this afternoon. Since he has an injured wrist, I figured that meant I would need to sit in the bow of the canoe and moan a bit, waving my hand limply from time to time. Unfortunately, Tarno couldn't make it at the last minute so 'Bent and Browner went paddling on their own on Georgian Bay in spectacular, calm weather. I got to hang around Tree Hugger ABC with 4 nice dogs, which wasn't the worst thing.

Mrs. Tiny and I went up Switchback and headed west to some snowshoe trails that petered out. If the timing had worked, it would have been *much* better to have Dee lead us on a tour in the right direction. We ended up bushwhacking up the escarpment to the Bruce Trail, then we ran around The Mythical Loree Forest. We stopped a couple of times for wild apples - tart and delicious.

Then we packed up and headed over to Hank's 1st Birthday Party at Petun Conservation Area - so much fun! Thanks, Hermes and Bob. :)

It was just one of those days with family health issues, a huge building permit problem, issues with the university class reunion I'm organizing next weekend, Orienteering Ontario stuff, etc., blah blah. Boy, do I ever love running in the woods. :)

AdventureDog and I went into Palgrave West for a short run with a few Bash & Crash intervals, which are 500 m on trail. It's been a long time so I did the first two at 5K trail pace (I think). I used to do 4-5 of them, all at level 5 intensity, and today I just ran the last one that way. It was embarrassingly slow but there is room for improvement even though I won't get back to my PB. AdventureDog thought intervals were really exciting.

Late afternoon ride to Albion Hills and around a bunch of single track. The trails are much less busy now that Albion's bike racing season is over; I saw two trail runners, two deer and one bunny but no other bikers. I also saw three trees down across different trails and was grateful that I hadn't ridden up too fast.

Normally at this time of year, we'd be promoting the Star Tracks Mountain Bike Adventure at Albion Hills but we're taking a break for 2018 - and maybe longer.

I'd planned to run but had an unexpected visit from Radek and his son Ryan from Australia. Ryan has changed a lot; instead of being 7, he's about 25.

They needed a dog fix so we took BazingaDog and AdventureDog for a hike around Palgrave West and caught up on each other's news.

(Logged 1 hour of a longer hike.)

Rain, rain, rain.
Shana Tova to anyone who celebrates Rosh Hashanah.

While testing the Wilderness Traverse course with Bob ten days ago, my GPS tracker detached from my pack somehow. I noticed it missing right away and we searched the area where I thought it had fallen. If you have to lose something, this is a good choice since it broadcasts its location to a map. However, when I went home, I saw that it hadn't tracked since the moment it went missing. I figured it must be face down or waterlogged. I started looking at the new models at MEC - much lighter but $500+ including tax.

I checked the tracker map again a few days later and saw that it had started tracking again 32 hours after I dropped it. It continued tracking in the same location for 27 hours then said its battery was critically low and shut down. This wasn't a location we had searched thoroughly and I love a good mystery so I asked Coach LD to go up there with me today. I figured our chances of success were about 10% since I'd dropped it on a trail where someone else might have found it in the past week.

The fastest way to get to that spot was a bushwhack from a road. When we got to the area, I said, "I was standing just over there." I walked over, looked down and there it was. Boom - less than 60 seconds!



Unbelievable! I was getting ready for some kind of grid search since there was lots of low vegetation.



We took an efficient route in but on the way out, we took a more adventurous route around some wetlands. The forest was beautiful! Trekking time includes a long scenery break because why not?

Since we found the tracker so quickly, we had time to spare so we went for a short paddle and hike on our way home. Thank you for the great picnic lunch, Coach LD!



We noticed that some leaves are starting to change.

Happy 22nd Anniversary, 'Bent!





Photo credit: Veinbuster (thank you!)

Parked at Coolihan's Sideroad and ran south and north in Glen Haffy, mostly on the Bruce Trail. I added some gravel road hills.

Jamieson Hatt will attempt to set a Bruce Trail FKT starting on Sept. 11 at 5 a.m. in Tobermory. There is a Facebook group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/236098290546890/

And a GPS tracking link.
https://share.garmin.com/JamiesonHatt

AdventureDog and I did a short Tour de Palgrave West. I love this cooler weather! We met an unfamiliar trail runner with an unleashed dog who doesn't like other dogs, according to his owner. Hmm, maybe a leash would be good then.

Foothab and some lunges, squats and step-ups. Finally getting back to it.

Now that Mom is set up in her new place, I was able to devote 5 hours to the Orienteering Ontario Archives project today. There is a pile of boxes in our garage a little smaller than 2 m X 1 m X 1 m - and that's not all. The rest of the boxes are at Mick and Laura's house.

There are some fascinating finds including handwritten letters from Hammer and Eugene looking for student mapper jobs, and a detailed note from Griz about national team selection. There is much that should have been discarded a couple of decades ago. Unfortunately, the boxes were not stored carefully so I feel like I need to wear a hazmat suit and work outdoors because of all the mildew and rodent droppings. It's going to be a loooong haul and I may not get to put my car in the garage this winter!

'Bent and I ran the Track and Tower trail. There were thunderstorms last night so the trail was very wet but we had occasional glimpses of sunshine. There were a number of slick boardwalks and wooden staircases that tested the grippiness of our shoe treads. Around the halfway point was one of the nicest views in Algonquin Park.

I was totally exhausted last night - barely able to keep my eyes open after dinner. It wasn't just this week; it's been a busy summer. It was so nice to sleep so long - mmm.

'Bent and I ran the Mizzy Lake loop plus a little extra to get to/from our van. It was drizzling for part of the run, otherwise just humid and damp.



The forest was beautiful anyway. This is known as a wildlife trail but we only saw homo sapiens. And fungus.



The trail is very rooty with occasional rocks; luckily, my Speedcross Pros do a good job in those conditions although caution is still required. We had to rush to get back to lunch on time so the final rail trail section went quickly.

'Bent and I went for another pre-dinner paddle at Arowhon Pines, this time to explore the twisty creek that feeds Little Joe Lake from the north.

'Bent and I rode the Minnesing Trail in Algonquin Park. The farthest loop is closed so we repeated one of the inner loops. It's been awhile since we've ridden here because parts of the trail had become severely eroded and often very muddy. Some improvements have been made but the sign at the trailhead said they are actively seeking ideas and assistance to rehabilitate the trail. Regardless, it was surprisingly fun! There are still some slippery boulder fields that are hike-a-bikes for us but a good portion of it was challenging without being ridiculous. I earned my lunch buffet today. :)

'Bent and I paddled a couple of plastic pig-kayaks to visit our wedding location on Joe Lake. It's a popular canoe campsite so we're rarely able to step onshore but it's nice to paddle by and remember.

On our 10th anniversary, we paddled over with a few family members who had joined us. That time we were brave enough to ask whether we could visit for a few minutes. The campers were delighted to hear our story; the older gentleman was a justice of the peace who officiates weddings.



L to R: Dad, Mom, Mimi ('Bent's sister), Bash, 'Bent, 'Bent's Mom, Frank (Mimi's husband)



This year we got chatting with canoeists as they arrived at their campsite. The five women immediately invited us to pull up our kayaks, then one of them asked, "Wait a minute! Are you the people who got married?!" I laughed, "I don't know how to answer that!"

As we continued talking with Toni from North York, we discovered that she had been camping nearby with her daughter on our wedding day 22 years ago; she had seen us and our guests as we went by, and she was one of the many strangers who waved at the bride from shore. It has been one of her standard camping stories ever since, so all the women were as wide-eyed as she was. They asked us to show them where we stood, and we gave them the full tour: "The string quartet was over here", "We walked up the so-called aisle here", "Our guests sat on their lifejackets on this rock", etc.

This has undoubtedly improved her story for future years and it has given us a wonderful story of our own! The campers insisted on pouring small glasses of wine for all of us, and we toasted our improbable meeting along with our anniversary. Awesome. :)

I’m an inefficient swimmer! It’s way too much work the way I do it.