Training Log Archive: Bash

This has actually been a rest week, not just a rest day. I couldn't decide whether I was recovering from last weekend's 36-hr adventure race or tapering for the 24-hr North American Rogaining Championship next Tuesday. In the subsequent confusion, I ended up doing nothing but carb loading and never got around to any physical exercise. We're off to Vancouver in the wee hours tomorrow, and I'm sure that we won't be able to resist running along the waterfront trails (in between visits to various good restaurants).

Raid The North Deerhurst adventure race, Day 2.

The biking was exhilarating, but not exhilarating enough to keep Bent awake, unfortunately. He started seeing double and veering in odd directions, which is never good when you are riding on roads. We took four nap breaks - with the slight problem that I don't nap. I just get chilled in my wet cycling clothes - brrrr! We had a couple of problems where mapped back roads didn't exist in real life, but for the most part, we were going in the right direction - slowly.

At sunrise, we met up with our awesome support crew, had some food and coffee, then headed out on foot toward a beautiful rappel site overlooking a lake. We bushwhacked back to a road, then followed roads and ATV trails for a several hours until we reached the Big East River, where we had to travel in the riverbed (no more than 2.5 m above water level) for over an hour. With the switchbacks and the varying water depths, this was actually kind of fun, except for all the sand we got in our shoes. Then we switched to canoes and paddled for hours to get to downtown Huntsville, where people were watching us as they sipped beer at pubs. It was tempting to stop, but we still had another hour of paddling across lakes to Deerhurst Resort.

Friends met us at the finish line and whisked us over to the banquet, which everyone else had finished. Luckily, the buffet was still well-stocked, and because this was a Deerhurst Resort meal, it was really, really good. In fact, I'm not sure that food has ever tasted so good to me (remember that I'd eaten nothing but gel, chips and sports drink for the past 6 hours). We went to our motel and were overjoyed to discover that the final leg of the Tour de France was on. Unbelievably, after following it so closely all month, I fell asleep with the TV blaring, shortly after the riders hit the Champs Elysees. However, I was able to guess who won.

As for me, I'm grateful that the North American Rogaine Championship is next week, because I really need to get back on the horse and try again.

Raid The North Deerhurst adventure race, Day 1.

In theory, our team planned to peak at this race, but as it approached, I didn't have a good feeling. When race day arrived, we seemed jinxed from the start. Bent's painful, infected finger started ballooning, and he needed to get antibiotics. Changing bike gears hurt him. The Minister arrived with a splint on his arm from dragon boating, I think. Hingo had a killer headache all night and threw up hours before the race began. I felt good and the mapwork went smoothly - except for losing Hingo partway through.

The race began on foot north of Algonquin Park. We ran 8 km along ATV trails and, much to our surprise, found ourselves in an unexpected swamp along with a number of other teams, instead of at the tiny lake where CP1 would be found. Teams took their own approaches to relocation from there. The sad and embarrassing truth is that our team never made it to CP1. With 20/20 hindsight and discussion with other navigators who faced the same problem, I can see what happened. The ATV trail on the map only matched the ATV trail on the terrain for part of the way, then we spent the last 2 km on an unmapped trail, unbeknownst to us and everyone else. When there are 120 people running in the same direction along a road in the dark, there is a tendency to assume that things are going OK and to forgive some differences between the trail and the terrain. ATV trails are always a bit dubious on topo maps anyway. Because I didn't doubt the trail as much as I should have, we made corrections based on my assumption that we were north of the CP, which is what most teams thought. Unfortunately, we were south. We finally bushwhacked east, hoping to hit some features, and knowing there was a road to act as a backstop and give us a known attackpoint to return to the CP. Finally, we ran out of time and will, and returned to the start, where we caught a ride to the TA. :-(((

Lessons learned:
1) Keep actively navigating in a crowd, even if it means that everyone passes you. (Although sometimes you do this at your peril, based on my experience in other races, because the teams that follow the top teams often get to CP1 fast.)
2) Challenge all assumptions. Consider the reliability of the information they are based on.
3) Remain constantly suspicious of any trail, regardless of how well it has corresponded with the map so far.
4) Bring an altimeter.
5) Track distances, times and bearings religiously - even on CPs that look easy, as this one did.

From there, we moved ahead to a 6-hr paddling section, mostly along a shallow, rocky, twisty river. Hallelujah, I actually made a good nav decision by portaging 2.5 km along a logging road. The course designer figured that it saved 1-2 hours, and most teams didn't do it.

As the final light faded, we hopped on our bikes for what turned out to be 100 km on rolling paved and gravel roads. It was such a treat to be out in cool air after the steamy summer we've had! On good days, Lance says that his bike "has no chain". Well, tonight my bike had no chain. It didn't hurt that our route was predominantly downhill, even though we had a few climbs to warm us up.

Raid The North Algonquin

Another one of those rest days that wasn't intended to be a rest day... All the packing and gear-fiddling required for a 36-hr adventure race has made me nostalgic for the elegant simplicity of orienteering! We have a first-time support crew, so I offered to bring all the stuff they will need, plus I've booked the accommodation, coordinated the travel details, bought the team's food for transition areas, etc. All while recovering from jet lag and a red-eye flight from B.C. Phew - is it any wonder I'm always exhausted at the starting line? (Given that the race starts at midnight this Friday, I expect that everyone will be pretty tired.)

Trail ride in Palgrave Conservation Area. My favourite bike mechanic made some major improvements to my bike while I was at COCs. It rides like a dream now and makes me climb like Spiderman, but I need to test all the gears, stretch the cables and so on. Unfortunately, I will do terrible things to it in this weekend's race, so my poor bike will be back to its usual condition by Monday.

The trails suffered a lot of erosion damage from the deluge that flooded our basement while I was in B.C. The wild raspberries were at their peak today and the mosquitoes mostly stayed in hiding. The only wildlife was a group of 8 horses and their riders, whom I met several times because they didn't follow the trail directional arrows. They weren't any happier to see a biker than I was to see 8 horses - especially ones whose riders were clearly inexperienced at controlling their animals, so I had to dive into the poison-ivy-filled woods to make sure that none of them got hurt. Other than that minor inconvenience, it was a great day to be out in the woods! (There aren't many bad days.)

Weight machine - upper and lower body workout while watching the final TDF stage in Les Pyrenees. Last strength workout before RTN this weekend. Hope I've done enough to prepare for some power paddling!

Red eye flight home from Vancouver with awesome northern lights, but very little sleep. Ontario is still having a nasty heat wave, and I'm already looking forward to our next trip to B.C. in just 12 days. I was too groggy to be effective today, but I need to change gears fast and prepare to leave on Thursday night for the 36-hour Raid The North adventure race.

Canadian Orienteering Champs - Classic Day 2.

It was bound to happen eventually - I really messed up two of my first three controls. I was depending too much on trails that were often hard to see, and got muddled and uncertain about whether I would ever get relocated. I suppose the good news is that I got angry at myself but didn't get flustered. I eventually figured out where I had ended up and maneuvered back to the elusive controls. It was interesting later when I asked Hammer to show me the routes he would have chosen. In the other races, most of our route choices were reasonably similar. But on these controls... not so much. A good learning experience - and a reminder of the importance of choosing good attack points.

Other than spending almost 18 minutes on two controls in a 14-control race that our age group winner completed in 47 minutes, I suppose things went OK. The end of the course was rather boring, with 7 consecutive controls just northeast of Pipeline Rd. The 1 km leg east from #3 to #4 (almost identical to a leg on the M-Elite course) was really interesting though.

Final result in the 2-day Classic: 9th overall, 5th Canadian. Achieved my goal of top 50% in every race, but wish I had been sharper today. Next time!

Canadian Orienteering Champs - Classic Day 1.

Reviewing the detailed results from yesterday, I noticed that I didn't win any of the splits - and, in fact, rarely came close. So it wasn't that I went particularly quickly on any of the controls - I just didn't screw up anywhere (for a change). So... that put the pressure back on. "Yeah, I should do OK in this field - UNLESS, of course, I should happen to screw up. Even once." Luckily, my goal coming into this weekend was just to be in the top 50% in every race, so I tried to stay calm.

Today was a challenging and interesting course - although still quite short at only 4.3 km. I have a habit of finishing races without being particularly tired, so today's goal was to push myself harder in the middle of the race. It worked pretty well, except for the place where I got my Camelbak stuck on a barbed-wire fence as I tried to roll underneath it. (For this reason, the Camelbak stayed in the car on Day 2 - and 24 hours later, I still have the dehydration headache to prove it.) I couldn't reach back to untangle myself and, seeing a sympathetic-looking M70 racer, I asked if he could please detach me from the fence. He didn't quite step on my face as he hurdled over it, but neither did he speak nor stop to help. Realizing that I couldn't depend on the kindness of fellow orienteers, I ripped my pack and continued on.

About 500 m from the finish line, with a couple of easy controls left, I made a Fatal Glance At My Watch. Wow, was I ever doing great. With another late starting time, I knew what some of the finish times had been. Awesome! And then I lost my mind. Several of us were together and I was heading roughly east into a re-entrant. We all stopped and scratched our heads. I hit a trail that was supposed to be my backstop, got sucked into a different system of re-entrants, and actually ended up back at the previous control after a well-meaning gentleman told me that the re-entrant was just behind him. (Not his fault - I was so messed up by then that I was willing to believe anything.) After the shock of realizing that I had punched the same control twice, I took advantage of the fact that I had been relocated. In the end, it took me 7:53 to go 125 m, which really took the wind out of my sails. Finished 9th of 26 overall and 5th Canadian, which actually was fine. It would be rare for me to run two consecutive races without one serious error, although I do wish it had happened on a control that had at least some measure of complexity. I would have enjoyed the opportunity to whinge about ambiguous mapping or incorrect control placement (neither of which was the case), rather than my own general silliness!

Canadian Orienteering Champs - Short Distance event.

I don't have much experience running in my new age group - or, frankly, in any age group - and was disappointed to see that this race was only going to be 2.4 km. I prefer longer races where my endurance might come into play (since I don't have speed) and there is more time for my mistakes to be absorbed. This race sounded like a sprint to me - darn!

It was a day of ups and downs...
UP: Nice, cool weather with a touch of light rain. Such a relief after Ontario's ridiculous summer weather.
DOWN: Start time of 2:50 p.m. after the delay. Hammer and Griz had time to return to the hotel and shower before I even started.
UP: Ted said hello at the start line. ("Wow, Ted knows my name? Cool.")
DOWN: Newbie confusion... Didn't realize that start triangles aren't always at the start line (although it was clearly stated in the event notes). That only threw me off a little bit. What REALLY threw me off is that I was physically unable to see the start triangle on the map. Looking at the map now, I can't imagine how I missed the line from Control 1 back to the beginning. Obviously, there was a bit too much adrenaline flowing, and a lot of A Meet inexperience showing. I stood still and contemplated either returning to the start and throwing in the towel, or just slitting my wrists with my new $100 compass and getting it all over with. Next I ran a few tentative steps in a couple of different directions, then settled on the correct direction, since I knew where I was relative to the road and a large field. Somehow that improved my vision. I was able to see the start triangle as soon as I settled down and started doing the right thing. Go figure.
UP: Very strange, but today it felt like most of the controls had magnets on them, drawing me over to them. Maybe this is what people mean when they talk about "flow", which has thus far eluded me. After the bad start, I only wasted a few seconds here and there, but no major errors. Compared to the model event, the running was faster and I didn't constantly feel like I was going to turn my ankle on a fallen tree.
DOWN: Arrived at the finish chute to see Hammer animatedly discussing his map with someone, rather than taking the promised finish line photo. Instead, I now have a lovely action shot of me downloading my SportIdent. (I should hasten to add that he did pay more attention over the next 2 days, so all is forgiven.)
UP: The reason that Hammer wasn't looking was that I finished 10 minutes ahead of my predicted time! :-) I ended up 3rd of 26 women in my category - the second eligible Canadian - and received a silver medal, which I still can't really believe. Yahooooo!!! :-))))

Event: Canadian Orienteering Championships 2005
 

Canadian Orienteering Champs - Model Event. It is SO awesome to be in B.C. surrounded by beautiful scenery and, even more importantly, enjoying temperatures 10-15 degrees lower than home. It's ironic that I'd thought that one of my biggest training challenges would be preparing for the heat at my two events in B.C. this summer. If it stays like this, the Ontarians at this event will be very, very happy. In fact, we might stay. (Just kidding, Bent.)

The terrain is more challenging than I had imagined - although today's course was nearly flat, which I definitely hadn't imagined. The difficulty came from the fallen or falling trees, often tangled together and obscured by other vegetation on the ground. I didn't want to run too much in the forest for fear of turning an ankle, since I have two expensive team races happening in the next three weeks. My strategy was unsuccessful - I managed to turn my ankle anyway - OW. I ignored it, carried on, and ended up with a sore knee. Go figure.

Got a demo of a silly walk from Jon T. It's very John Cleese-like and fun. Returned to find Hammer and Griz waiting by the rental car, looking fresh in clean clothes. We all started at the same time and I think the course took them, oh, maybe 20 minutes or so. Ah well, good thing I left my ego at home.

Wildlife Report: 1 deer, 0 grizzlies, 0 cougars. Just the way I like it.

Flew to Vancouver with Hammer. The Minister met us at the airport in a white convertible and we rode like royalty to the Tree Hugger Condo in downtown Vancouver. We took a fun walk along the sea wall, then followed up with an awesome Mexican dinner. Later in the evening, we got back in the convertible, turned up the tunes and went to pick up Griz, who at first looked like he wasn't sure whether he wanted to be seen with us. Great hospitality from The Minister - looking forward to our Tree Huggers Go West party in two weeks when we return for the North Am Rogaine Champs.

With forecast high temperatures of 34C for the next four days, I would rather have done my taxes this morning than go biking. But, well, it's not tax time, darn it, and the mercury had dipped to an icy 28C, so my excuses were running thin. I headed out the door with a feeling of doom combined with a sense of obligation to my adventure racing team to ride my bike more than once in July, given that our most important race of the season is just ten days away.

To avoid injury before tomorrow's flight to the Canadian O Champs, I'd planned to ride on gravel roads and the rail trail, but it quickly became apparent that I would have to ride in the shade or else my feelings of doom might come to fruition. So I went into Palgrave Conservation Area to do some single and double track in the forest. Then a funny thing happened... I started to have fun! I was going just fast enough to feel a bit of a breeze, the forest was filled with amazing smells, and I glimpsed a couple of deer. No need for boring energy bars - I could stop and pick succulent wild raspberries along the trail. And maybe this is a bit Pollyanna-ish of me (if you read yesterday's diatribe on my orienteering skills, you may doubt that I'm so inclined), but I thought I felt stronger from my two weeks of leg weights. When I reached my planned turn-around point, I was enjoying it so much that I decided to take an extra loop.

By the time I left the forest for the ride home, it was too hot for humans. The honeymoon was definitely over. I got home and turned on the radio to hear a doctor talking about how particulates from air pollution enter our red blood cells and cause heart disease. So... given the smog advisory for this afternoon and the rest of the week, I'm glad to be flying to a somewhat cooler place.

Weight machine - upper body strength workout while watching the most interesting Tour stage to date.

Just checked the results for yesterday's O race and - woo hoo! - I was the top Canadian-born woman in my age group, possibly in the entire event. (I didn't do a passport check.) Yes, sometimes I really need to grasp at straws to feel even remotely successful at orienteering. Sigh... On a positive note, it has helped my AR navigation a lot, which is why I originally got into the sport. Also, the good orienteers need people like me to keep racing so they have someone to beat.

I've been negligent about biking lately, but when the temperature crept above 33C in the morning, I just wanted to go somewhere to hibernate and wait for autumn. Today was Ontario's 34th smog alert day of 2005 - yikes! In honour of the occasion, I spent some time working on our town's smog response strategy today.

As a compromise, BulletDog and I went for a relatively short trail run with two dog swims along the route. For the first time, I started thinking that triathlon might be a good sport for me. Wouldn't it be great to have to go swimming on steamy days like this?

I'm excited to see that it's cool enough in Williams Lake that I will need to pack a sweater for the evenings. Yahoo!

Weight machine - lower body exercises that I didn't do yesterday. No Tour de France to fend off boredom today, but at least the basement is the coolest room in the house.

Toronto Orienteering Club Championship - long course. Greenwood Conservation Area, Ajax.

When the alarm jangled after 5 hrs of sleep, I stayed in bed and listed reasons to skip orienteering today. It's too hot, Ajax is too far to drive, I don't feel great, I should be tapering for the Canadian Champs, Bent wants to go biking, and so on. Nah... I was just in a lazy mood. After a big cup of strong coffee, I hit the road.

It was a good course with varied terrain that would have been nicer in spring or fall. I was in poison ivy at least 25% of the time, so my fingers are crossed that I won't get an attack before heading to B.C. on Wed. Note to self: must get better at noticing stinging nettles before I'm already in the middle of them - aieeEEE!! The other Fun With Vegetation came from the fact that several flags were invisible in long grass from even a short distance away, leading to a couple of unnecessary run-arounds on my part.

It didn't feel like a particularly good or bad race for me, but since I was aiming to beat 90 minutes - and did so by 9 seconds - I guess I'll count it as a success.

New Gear Update: Some 2005 purchases that have been worth the investment include my new orienteering compass, O pants, and cool fluorescent yellow SportIdent. Now if I could only run...

Weight machine while watching Le Tour. Upper body and abs only. My legs got enough of a workout this morning leaping over noxious plants.

Paddling at Island Lake with Hingo and Bent. We brought a canoe and a single kayak, then took turns in different boats and positions. What a great way to spend a sunny morning! We were only out for 90 minutes, but all ended up with blisters on our hands. Tsk, tsk - clearly we haven't been paddling enough.

Wildlife Report: About five hundred gazillion Canada Geese. This may explain why the Conservation Authority had to close the beach due to high bacteria count.

Bent and I went to Copeland Forest to pick up controls from NavStock. It's great terrain with a terrific trail network, but we didn't see anyone else in the woods in our 3 hours of exploration. Plenty of mosquitoes while we were untying the flags. In the southern part of the course, we picked up more golf balls than controls. I think Bent may have found his favourite orienteering event - picking up controls. He is bound to become quite popular with race organizers!

Wildlife Report: Porcupine at eye level in a tree right beside us - always a bit of a surprise!

Natural Phenomenon Report: For quite awhile on the drive home, we saw an intensely colourful rainbow against a purple-black sky, with a paler rainbow just to its right. The latter ended at our house, but we were unsuccessful in locating the pot of gold.

Weight machine workout #1 while watching Tour de France. Another nail-biting finish today.

Orienteering at Hilton Falls with Sherpa and NewSherpa on another hot day. I must weigh a lot less now, because I lost several liters of blood to the swarms of mosquitoes. Sherpa and I are preparing for the North American Rogaine Champs, so this was a good chance to discuss gear and logistics while getting some nav practice. So far, only 3 female teams have entered NARC, so we are guaranteed a podium finish! ;-)

Trail running at Hilton Falls as part of the same training session. It was nice to outrun the bugs for awhile.

On the way home, I realized that with our long-lasting heat wave, I have become almost completely incapable of driving past a Dairy Queen without stopping. Help, I am becoming an ice cream addict! I guess it's OK as long as I stick to recreational treats like small shakes. But if I start craving the hard stuff, e.g. Peanut Buster Parfaits, Bent may have to put me into rehab.

Weight machine workout #2 while watching the Tour de France team time trial. To avoid spoiling the excitement for anyone who plans to watch it on tape delay, I'll just say "Wow!".

Too hot to exercise, but too close to the Canadian Orienteering Champs to skip a workout. Did two loops of trail running around Palgrave - one loop of DNI (Dog, No Intervals) and a loop of IND (Intervals, No Dog). As part of the run, I did my "time trial" loop from last week, and things are looking up:

June 29 - Comfortable Pace With Dog Swim (CPWDS) - 45 min.
June 30 - Sprint Race Pace Without Dog - 38 min.
July 4 - CPWDS - 42 min.

It really didn't feel like I was pushing it today. If it cools down, I'll try another "time trial" at sprint race pace and see if my time improves at all. I'm still waiting for Jon to send me a photo of his silly walks, since that is undoubtedly the secret to his success - and a lot of fun too.

Interval portion of the trail run above. 5 repetitions of 4 min on, 1 min off. Each time I would think, "This is ridiculously hot. I'm stopping after this one." And then I would finish and think, "Aw, just one more." After the 5th interval, I felt dizzy and refreshingly cool - which is never a good sign when it's 32C and you're wearing long sleeves to keep the sun off. I figured it was time to head toward home so the paramedics would have a better chance of finding me unconscious in the forest...

Weight machine workout #1 while watching Tour de France coverage. Hey, this is two strength workouts in 5 days - and I'm pretty sure that hell hasn't frozen over. Maybe I'll be able to get into the habit at last - especially with Lance et al to keep me company on the basement TV for the next few weeks.

Attended opening night of "Jesus Christ Superstar" at the Sunshine Festival in Orillia. My little brother was the director and co-producer, and his partner designed and built the sets. Support the arts - get your tickets now! :-)

Happy Canada Day! :-)

Long, relatively slow ride around Albion Hills and Palgrave trails with a great group of friendly Canadians - Bent, The Minister, Hingo, The Newlyweds and Their Minister (not to be confused with The Minister from our AR team, who is not actually, you know, a minister). Hot day, but a refreshing breeze came up later in the morning. It's been awhile since we've done a social ride and we were reminded that this was one of the reasons we found mountain biking so much fun when we first started.

Arrived home to a power blackout that has continued for almost 4 hours. Living in the country, this meant no shower for the muddy mountain bikers (well pump needs electricity). Our solar power system disconnects automatically in blackouts to avoid electrocuting hydro workers, so ironically we are generating electricity in our back yard, but it is of no use. Luckily, there was power at Bent's dental office, so we made an emergency trip to town for much-needed showers. We're starting to worry about the freezer contents in this heat...

Power just came back on! Apparently, all I had to do was whine a bit in A/P about it.