Training Log Archive: Bash

This is the run that almost wasn't - I'm proud of myself for not blowing it off when the schedule got tight, because I sometimes do that... I tried to stay in my 60-70% HR Karv zone for a run around the block. The books say that low intensity overdistance runs will feel really slow, but I'm so slow normally that I don't always notice. However, today I really had to hold back to stay in the zone - and didn't quite succeed, since my average HR ended up being a little high. As Crash must have experienced many times, Duffy's Lane is a steady uphill for a good distance coming north from Patterson, and it's tough not to push there.

I had to choose between cleaning my kitchen before Sherpa arrived or going out running. Apologies to Sherpa, but I went running. On the bright side, it's a sign that you've moved into our inner circle of friends if we let you see how domestically challenged we really are.

I parked at the north end of Albion Hills and ran away from the sign that said "Trail Closed - Logging Operations". As I ran, I heard logging machines and the huge cracks of trees coming down, which kept me very alert. I'll have to check with the superintendent to find out where I'm allowed to send the racers for the Tree Huggers Invitational in mid-November. I turned west to get away from the imminent risk of death and continued to run a big random loop, mostly on single track. The trails are so familiar from all our biking, and it's surprisingly fun and different to run on them - especially in the opposite direction of travel from usual. Beautiful autumn day!

Sherpa dropped by with her two Labs. BulletDog and ThunderDog had stayed home from work especially for the occasion, so we had a 4-dog hike. There was much excitement! BulletDog and Arleau may have set a new land speed record as they ricocheted around the woods. Ciara wasn't far behind, and even the senior ThunderDog surprised us by doing a few aerial 360s after all four of them went for an unscheduled swim in our little pond. Nice to catch up with Sherpa, and great to have a couple of dog-tired pooches tonight.

'Bent and I met with the orthopaedic surgeon today. Based on the MRI, he's not as certain as the radiologist about the fracture in the femur, so he sent 'Bent for an X-ray to gather more evidence. He thought it might be an avulsion, meaning that in the fall, 'Bent may have pulled away a bit of his own bone thanks to his massively strong leg muscles. (OK, he didn't quite say it that way.)

Anyway, bottom line...
- MCL is 70-80% healed, but it could take up to a year to heal completely.
- The suspected fracture is at the place where the gastrocnemius (calf) muscle attaches, and the hamstring is nearby, so that would explain the deep pain in the knee and 'Bent's current inability to recruit much hamstring strength. There is a lot of marrow edema there. Over time, it should heal.
- Yay, no surgery needed, and the doc advises that 'Bent let pain be his guide. If you're making it hurt, then you're not letting it heal. But otherwise, there are no restrictions - not even running. A knee brace to prevent lateral movement of the knee could be helpful for awhile. He doesn't think 'Bent will be racing the winter adventure race in January. :-(

Overall, this was very good news. 'Bent will be less grumpy about giving things up in the short term if he knows that he'll be able to do them eventually.

'Bent and I and the pooches did a full tour of Palgrave West on a sunny autumn afternoon - really nice. We were going to hike in Mr. K's woods too, but we could hear so many gunshots (probably from Islington Shooting Club) that I got a bit nervous about the possibility of meeting deer hunters on private property. They can't use guns in Caledon, but we're in the middle of their 3-month bow hunting season, and apparently there is someone who illegally takes a bow into Palgrave West sometimes. Having already been a little too close to a gunshot in a recent adventure race, I'm a bit skittish right now. Also, it's almost exactly a year since a hunter killed a hiker on public land just north of here, thinking that the woman in the red sweater was a deer. Yes, I know there are lots of responsible hunters out there, but it only takes one who is irresponsible...

Tomorrow we see the surgeon and find out the prognosis for 'Bent's knee. A nervous time.

Event: The OMM
 

Got 'Bent's MRI results yesterday. The good news is that his meniscus is fine, which is a pleasant surprise. His medial collateral ligament is badly torn, and that usually repairs on its own without surgery over a few months, but perhaps with the use of a brace while exercising. It would have been better to know this earlier because he probably overdid it at the start. (It's almost 8 weeks now.) The weird thing is that he is not just 'Bent - he's broken! As part of the twisting injury, there's a little fracture at the bottom of his femur at the back of the knee joint (lateral femoral condyle), but it is still sitting in the right place. Luckily, the appointment with the surgeon is Monday, so we don't have to wait long to find out what happens next.

Put out 16 SI controls for the Cadets meet this morning at Palgrave. There were 180 people in the old parking lot off Duffy's Lane, including a whole bunch of remarkably well-behaved teenagers. ("Ma'am! Yes, Ma'am!!") The rain was coming down quite hard for awhile, but hopefully things will get better later today. Always nice to see young people learning the sport.

After placing each group of controls, I got to do some trail running. Not that I really needed it after last night!

Trek or Treat Trail Race - Kortright Centre

Plans are coming together nicely for this year's AR End of Season celebration at Albion Hills on Nov. 17. This is the latest evolution of the Tree Huggers party, but this year, we'll give the overall event a generic name, reflecting the fact that it now belongs to the AR community as a whole. The fun race will still be the Tree Hugger Invitational. Budgeting is still in progress, but the price will probably be around $30 for the entire event, or $15 for race-only or dinner-only tickets, and free for kids aged 12 and under. Any profits will go to a charitable cause, as yet undetermined.

BTW, everyone is welcome, so let me know your e-mail ID if you haven't been to a TH party in the past, and you'd like to be invited to this one. We just need to monitor the RSVPs so we have firm numbers for maps and food.

We're very lucky that so many people have offered their help over the past few days. Along with the Tree Huggers, the event will be co-presented by ESAR, STORM, FAR, ARC, DontGetLost.ca Adventure Runs and (probably) CARA. Confirmed evening slideshow presenters include the incomparable Slice (RTNX), the long-pedalling AndyCam (Tour d'Afrique) and pro navigator Milhouse (Keen AS Games). Thanks to everyone for your support, and a special thanks to Mark and Heather at Hark Events, who offered major help to make sure this event would happen when they heard that I'd decided not to hold it because it had outgrown our home.

Trek or Treat Night Trail Run. Great costumes on almost all the runners this year! I dressed in a generic jack o'lantern theme, all orange and black. Slice went as a Conscience (angel wings & devil tail), and Leanimal was coated in spiders and webs. I admire creativity in costumes - I've never had the knack!

Most things were done really well - this is a class event. Lots of great volunteers, nice indoor facilities at the Kortright Centre (handy since it was raining on and off), baskets of Hallowe'en candy, free pumpkins to the first 100 entrants, hot pizza afterward, and plenty of spooky decorations. Unfortunately, some of the course markings were damaged by racers, and Flatfoot thought that some may even have been stolen. The bottom line is that Slice, Leanimal and I ran three different distances, all greater than 10K, and an unknown number of people ran a shortened course, and based on who we saw out there, not all of them spoke up about it.

It was loads of fun, it was spooky in the mist, and there were some very scary haunters along the route, but unfortunately the results are suspect - particularly Slice's result, since we're pretty sure that she was the 1st woman to complete the full course, but the award was claimed by a woman who ran without a headlamp! (Darned near impossible, I'd say.) Slice and I met at the 2K mark. I had missed a turn, along with a bunch of other people, after someone had kicked down some flagging tape and a right turn arrow. I'd actually looked down the trail to the right and noticed reflectors, but there was nothing at all marking the corner, so I thought I'd better keep going with the rest of the runners, since maybe the regular trail markings at Kortright just happened to be reflective too. Unfortunately, I arrived at the finish line 200 meters later and had to dash back to the turn which was being tied off again as I arrived. Shortly after that, I saw the 2K marker (a jack o'lantern), then Slice ran back toward me saying that she had seen the 9K marker. Because of my earlier error, I knew we were on the correct path, and I had a vague recollection that the race map had indicated that we would run a few of the same trail sections more than once. So Slice turned around and was off like a shot. I knew my time didn't mean anything anymore, which was bad of course, but also good because I felt relaxed after that, and took the time to think about running form and other things that don't usually come to mind during a race. Meanwhile, Leanimal fell in with a bad crowd of fast runners early on. They ended up in places with no one around, then they got back to the finish line too early. Leanimal decided to keep going to make it a good training session (maybe 13+ km?), but believes that some runners finished early. Oh well - at least we had fun! And it was great that 'Bent came out too - nice for him to hang out with some other adventure racers who weren't racing tonight.

First C3 training night of the season. Barrie Shepley coached our run, and it was an exercise that should get you to your anaerobic threshold, which seemed to be about 166 or so for me. We were running on a paved road with a couple of hills, and we would start at the stop sign, then go relatively hard for 2:30 before turning around and coming back for 2:30. Then we got 2 minutes rest and headed out again. Repeat 5 times. There were a couple of things to work on:
1) After running out 2:30, the 2:30 run back should bring you back to approximately the same place you started.
2) Each time you run out for 2:30, you should get to about the same place. If you can't, then you went out too hard at the beginning. I was really worried about that, but I found that I went a little farther each of the 5 times, which probably just shows how long it takes me to warm up. The 2:30 return run was a difficult push every time - I guess because I didn't get to rest first.
Fun!

Hard Core - Live with Caron Shepley. Since I think I've done about half a DVD's worth of core exercise since Caron's classes ended last spring, I was prepared for some shaky collapses when I finally couldn't hold the tough positions any longer, but things went better than they deserved to. My core must have been getting some exercise somehow!

Power Yoga class.

After all 3 parts of today's workout, I know I'm going to feel some fatigue in the muscles tomorrow. Not the best way to go into a 10K race, but fortunately it is a fun Hallowe'en event, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Beautiful fall weather has arrived, and it's great to have a fire burning in the fireplace at last. (It's always nicer when the fires aren't burning in our forest.) Unfortunately, the cool weather has taken us into an unprecedented, major war with the local mice. As country residents, we've often had to dispense with a few stragglers in the depths of the basement each fall, but it's usually over in a few days. This year, they're a lot healthier for some reason. I think I'll blame it on the high Canadian dollar. 'Bent is getting used to hearing me shriek at the top of my lungs as I find yet another dead mouse in an odd place. (Is it merely coincidence that he never finds them, or am I being set up? Hmmm...) The most recent critter was found inside our airtight fireplace, which is what made me think of it today. I was cleaning out some ash and reached my hand in to pull out a big piece of charcoal - which turned out to be furry... yyyeeeeeEEEEEEEKKKKK!!!! We love our dogs, but frankly, they're just for decoration when it comes to "guarding" our house. Maybe we need some cats too. (And I *don't* mean cougars.) (Or Bobkittens, although they're always welcome.)

Looking out the window, this was one of those days when the great outdoors just wasn't that appealing - 10C and lashing rain. But luckily, our phone line was cut by a construction crew yesterday, so I missed Leanimal's phone calls and thus avoided the risk that one of us would say, "Hey, this weather is ridiculous. Let's skip it." Because I know we were both thinking it.

It was so nasty just walking from the house to the car that I hurriedly shut the car door on the last few inches of BulletDog's tail by accident and felt like a real cad when she yelped. Fortunately, no damage was done, but she stared at me with a mournful expression during the entire ride. Oooh, it's like a knife to the heart.

I met Leanimal in her office, and we agreed that today was the perfect example of why it's a good idea to plan to run with another person. Neither one of us would have gone out by ourselves, but we didn't want to let the other person down. And as always happens, the weather seemed horrible until we got into a rhythm on the trail, and then... well, no, it actually seemed horrible the whole time. Let's not romanticize this too much! But we were warm enough and had fun and the usual good chat, and BulletDog was in 7th heaven. The trail was coated with slimy mud, so there were some places where we slid around like novice skaters, and we had to be really careful of the slippery wooden bridges. Alas, I wasn't careful enough on one of them, but fortunately it only bridged a tiny ditch, so I just got a bit muddier, which made me look like a real trail runner.

I'm coveting Leanimal's new Salomon XT Wing shoes! (Although they don't look new anymore after today.)

Incredible "summer" day out there, 24C and sunny. A little strange to realize that the autumn leaves are past their peak, and we're still running around in shorts. Today's plan was indoor exercise - a return to Hard Core Monday - followed by a trail run tomorrow with Leanimal. But tomorrow's forecast is rain and 13C, so how could I stay inside all day? So I postponed a deadline and took my bike down the road to Albion Hills for a spin around the northeast trails. I kept getting big colourful maple leafs caught in my tires, and finally I gave up and just worked a little harder while listening to rasping sounds. Fantastic day to be out.

It's been 2-3 years since I've worn my HRM for biking very often, and the HR numbers today were lower on the same trails going at what I think was about the same speed as always. I don't know if that means that my max HR for biking has decreased a lot, or whether I was taking it easier than I thought today, or whether I'm more fit, or whether I'm less strong for biking now and can't push the HR up as high. Gotta experiment some more, I guess. Nice to *not* see any 220 HRs today.

Hansel and 'Bent are local celebrities this week.

A cautionary note today... A friend's Mom banged her toe, and it stayed discoloured over a period of months. Her toenail split in two during this time, but neither she nor the docs got too concerned because of her traumatic injury. It took almost a year before someone recognized it as a melanoma. Her big toe has been amputated, and she awaits results from lymph node tests to see if it has spread.

A lot of us bang our fingers and toes on a regular basis, but make a note to keep an eye on any dark marks under your nails. Apparently, subungal melanoma tends to look like a streak, and it is often under a thumb or big toe nail. If you can't remember an injury, or if a dark spot seems to be getting larger, see a doctor.

Peak-2-Peak race on a fantastic autumn day. (Although you gotta wonder, should it really be possible for people to stand around in sleeveless tops in Canada in late October?) I haven't orienteered much this year, so it was great to get out in the Dundas Valley and get some practice before RTH. Unfortunately, I got a heart arrhythmia just after #4, so I walked much of the way to #5 with the usual feeling of doom. It occurred to me that I was wearing my HRM for a change, so I glanced down and noticed that I was up to 220. When walking and deep breathing didn't do the trick after 5 minutes, I finally tried Valsalva, and that stopped it immediately. Interesting to watch the instantaneous drop to 124 on the HRM. After that, I was feeling cautious, so I ran, but didn't push it. (Hard to do in a race where the entire point is to find controls on hilltops!)

This isn't the first time it's happened, and when I had all the cardiac tests a few years ago, they insisted that they found nothing interesting, even though there were hints to the contrary. The cardiologist said she couldn't guarantee that endurance exercise wouldn't kill me, but she figured that giving it up was more likely to be harmful to my health, so she wouldn't advise me to stop. Regardless, I'm doing some googling on arrhythmias and hoping that it's paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, which sounds bad but is supposedly "not usually dangerous and tends to occur in young people - can happen during vigorous exercise". Not that I'm terribly young, and not that I was exercising that vigorously, but maybe by medical standards, I'd qualify for both.

I'll be looking back on my log entries if this happens in future, so here are a few possible factors - just getting over being sick, coffee in a.m., poor warm-up.

Other than that annoying, scary incident, it was a fun day out. Great to see good friends and practise navigation in more difficult terrain than I've been in recently. In spite of the heart thing, I wish I'd signed up for the long course, since I could have used more practice.

Rail trail run with 'Bent (on bike) and BulletDog (who was basically towing me to keep up with 'Bent). This was a first attempt to stay within the 60-70% (Karvonen) heart rate range, which is supposed to improve endurance through physical changes such as increased capillary density, mitochondria proliferation, etc. (This is from the book "SERIOUS Training for Endurance Athletes", recommended by Urthbuoy.) As expected, it felt a bit slow - as the book said it would. Supposedly, many endurance athletes spend most of their time training at a slightly higher intensity than this, which is too fast to get some of the physiological benefits, but not fast enough to get the benefits of higher intensity training. Of course, really I should have gone for longer than an hour, but it's my first time running since my cold started to ease off.

Still no details on 'Bent's MRI other than the isolated words "grade 2-3 tear". We may have to wait 9 more days till the surgeon appointment, but we're hoping for some news sooner. In the meantime, he's gone back to light biking and hiking to stay mobile.

Boo, hiss, still sick. This week I really want to train, but my lungs are telling me to avoid the aerobic stuff a little longer. Tried a sauna and it seemed to help. Maybe some yoga later...?

Canadians with Paypal accounts, take note. Paypal "improved" their computer system sometime in August, and this included the conversion of some Canadian credit cards to U.S. dollars, seemingly at random. Took me awhile to track this down after seeing a $23 overcharge (admin fee + conversion loss) on my credit card for the recent FAR adventure race. FAR didn't get the extra money - my bank did. And now I've told Paypal that they need to refund it to me...

This felt great, but I can see how much work is needed to get my strength and flexibility back to where it was last spring. That's OK - winter is a good time for that. I think the cold is fading away - should be able to run tomorrow.

Felt worse today. More tea and honey. Maybe a sauna tonight to broil those viruses. Took BulletDog for a slow hike in the woods, and she rolled in something disgusting, so I had to bathe her when we got home. Dogs can be such animals.

On a more cheerful note, Leanimal and I are local celebrities today!

My new reading glasses arrived.
Thoughts:

1) Damn, I look intellectual.

2) Wow, I see why they call them "reading" glasses. I can't even focus on the other side of the couch from here. So much for reading a map and running at the same time. ("OK, I'm looking for a pit behind this hill - ooooOOOOPSSSS!! Yup, there it is.")

3) Can't believe I waited so long to be able to see properly up close. I've just discovered that I've been following Hansel's and Zoolander's logs and didn't even want to.
;-)

I spoke too soon. I stopped my cold prevention regimen on Monday around noon, and 48 hours later, I've got a sore throat and slightly murky brain. Perhaps yesterday's run wasn't quite what the doctor would have ordered for my immune system, even though I felt great afterward. I'm going back to Cold FX and Vitamin C, and I've added old-fashioned tea and honey to my arsenal. If you're in the neighbourhood, Crash, could I please borrow a thimbleful of that oregano oil you're using for cold prevention? Where do you buy it? Do you think I could do something with the acre of oregano that we are growing in our garden?

ThunderDog made it clear that we were going for a hike. That was about all I was up for today anyway. It doesn't count as training, except that it reminded me of how good the fresh autumn air smells, and I'll be inspired to get out again very soon. T-Dog made her feelings known by swinging her tail in a 180 degree arc pretty much continuously. The burnt forest looks more ominous at this time of year, and I'm sure it will look worse when all the leaves have fallen. Two people in the past few days told me about hiking around the burnt area on Thanksgiving. They weren't together and don't even know each other, but they both said the same thing - it looks a lot worse than they had expected, even after seeing photos.

BTW, I started taking Cold FX early Friday afternoon, and went through the full 3-day regimen. The sore throat and pre-cold feeling were gone by Saturday morning. I'm not sure that I missed the cold entirely, but any symptoms were fairly insignificant. I was also doubling my Vitamin C dose on the same days, so it's not a good scientific study.

Tuesday Gurlz Run with Leanimal. As part of my campaign to get 'Bent to go easy on his injured knee, I promised to give BulletDog a good workout today, so she joined us too. She fit in nicely, since she is one of the Gurlz, and she is more of an animal than even Leanimal. I was tempted to keep her on leash to help me up the HVT hills, but she was much happier running ahead of us to set the pace, with occasional dips in the Humber River, after which she shook all over Leanimal every time. (Good doggie to keep Mommy dry!) Wonderful cool weather today - great to be out!

I wore my HRM for the first time in ages, since I'm getting ready (I hope) for a slightly more formal training program for next season. Turns out it was out of memory, so I don't have the stats, but it seemed that I was in the 80-90% (Karvonen, for those who care) range for much of the run, with occasional uphills pushing me a bit higher and downhills dropping me a bit lower. So it's a good anaerobic workout when I run with Leanimal, which is ideal, since I don't tend to push myself that hard on my own.

Couldn't resist hanging 'Bent's MRI images on the window next to mine to see what a layman might notice. We think his meniscus looks a lot like mine - which is neither good nor terrible. ACL and PCL are in the right place. To my uneducated-but-well-googled eye, it looks like he's got fluid accumulated in the centre of the joint just above the ACL, possibly from the trauma. This might be part of what prevents him from bending his knee beyond 90 degrees - but I don't think it would explain the medial pain. Hopefully we'll have the report from the *real* radiologist in a few days.

'Bent has just been given an appointment with the surgeon in 2 weeks. Preliminary MRI report has already been received by Dr. Tarno's office - very impressive for an MRI that took place 48 hrs ago on a Saturday. Unfortunately, it was largely illegible to Tarno's assistant due to being handwritten by an MD. I cajoled her into reading me the few random words that she could decode, and it sounds like there's enough going on to make it worth seeing a specialist. Sigh. At least we don't have to wait long. Good thing - 'Bent is finally getting grumpy.

'Bent had adjusted the gears on Gorgeous' bike, and it was time to take it home. We started riding from Town Hall in Caledon East and took the rail trail to Inglewood. Lots of people out today enjoying the autumn weather.

Ran back from Gorgeous' house in Inglewood to Caledon East. 'Bent was still on his bike, and I'd imagined that he would spend lots of time waiting for me, but his front derailleur wasn't working well, so we played leapfrog. Felt pretty good in the cool weather. Nice to have real autumn at last!

Left before sunrise to drive to Buffalo for the MRI on 'Bent's knee.

When we finally reached the front of the line to enter the U.S., 'Bent held out his passport and turned to get mine. The border official didn't take his passport, barking, "That's right, come on, gimme both of them at once. I don't need that aggravation!" We both stared at him with polite, expectant tourist smiles, waiting for him to chuckle - but he was serious.

"Purpose of your visit?" "Medical appointment," 'Bent answered. "Medical appointment. *Really.* Where are you going?", the official sneered. "Erie County Medical Center." "So you're coming here for a medical appointment!! Sounds like you've got *real* problems up there in Canada. No hospitals, huh?! No hospitals and no stores up there!!" "I'm just here to get an MRI." "There are no MRI machines in Canada? Tsk, tsk. No hospitals and no stores in Canada. Yup, real problems up there." (Plus assorted other nattering to ensure that he had properly conveyed his utter scorn for us.) Shaking his head, Mr. A**hole-in-charge-of-homeland-security then demanded that 'Bent open the windows so he could stick his slimy face into our van to look for contraband. As he shrugged us away with a clear look of disgust on his face, 'Bent said brightly, "Have a great day!"

Talk about pissed off. In spite of having many fine American friends who would be horrified by the way we were welcomed to their country, I was now determined not to spend a single penny in the U.S. other than the MRI. Not a coffee, not a tank of gas. Definitely no stores. And not one extra minute spent on that guy's side of the border beyond what was absolutely necessary.

It wasn't so much the incident, which was over, and we had made it into the U.S. on time. What bothered me was thinking about what it represented. This guy obviously feels that he can get away with this behaviour. It's apparently acceptable within his workplace culture. I seethed at the thought of him treating someone my parents' age that way.

We are lucky that we seldom experience feelings of total powerlessness around nasty government officials, but this was one of those times. He could be as insulting and abusive as he wanted, and he knew we were unable to respond because we didn't want a full body cavity search or our names added to a "watch list" or whatever else he can do to people at random if he feels like it.

I wonder... how bad does this guy get? We were a clean-cut, 40-ish couple in a new vehicle, heading to a medical appointment at 8:30 a.m. Pretty boring, really, for someone with a mission of stopping terrorists, and - right or wrong - we seldom seem to meet whatever criteria they have for attracting suspicion at border crossings. What would this jerk have said to our friend Hingo, whose East Indian appearance frequently leads to extra attention at the border? Then I imagined what it must feel like to be a member of a minority group that often gets treated badly or with suspicion by public officials. For example, in Toronto, there are some young black men who say that they would never dream of approaching police officers for help because of their past treatment. What happened to us was nothing by comparison, but it gave me a tiny taste of the powerlessness, anger and disrespect for authority that they must feel, and I can only imagine how it must change them over the years, and how friggin' bad that is for society.

What I wanted to say:
"If you really don't want Canadians spending our $1.01 dollars in your country, then you're doing the right thing. If you're lucky, traffic volume will decrease, and they'll be able to lay off some border officials, and you can find work you actually enjoy."
OR
"I get a dozen e-mails every day that say they can help men with your problem. Would you like the website for Megadik?"

The MRI was uneventful, other than the fact that the clinic's heating system seemed to be broken. I was cold in the waiting room wearing my jacket. 'Bent was put into a frigid MRI machine for 30 minutes in T-shirt and shorts, and asked not to shiver, please. We'll get the report in a few days, and in the meantime, we can look at all the films and speculate on what looks normal and weird. The good news is that 'Bent thinks the sharpest pain in his knee is starting to subside. That's great - it seems that my MRI cured my knee problem as well. ;-)

Felt unreasonably tired in the morning, then got a sore throat and cold-ish feeling around mid-day. Going to try Cold FX and hope for the best.

Pathetic week of training, but not the end of the world, since I'm in a recovery period between AR season and XC ski season (which is a fitness building phase with little racing), so if I must be pathetic, this is the time.

Hosted the GHO Training Night at Kerncliffe Park. Cool rainy weather meant low attendance, and forgetting my shoes meant no chance to go out into the cold rain in the dark after the participants had returned. Oh well!

Frontier Adventure Challenge results were finally posted yesterday. Interesting that I came home feeling that my chicken-hearted technical mountain biking was our team's biggest weakness, but actually we were within 6 minutes of several top teams on an off-road section more than 3 hrs long. (Some navigating involved.) However, we were 15-20 minutes behind them on a road biking section that was just over an hour. Hmmm - it totally felt the other way around. The road biking time includes our paddle/bike transition, which was a slow one due to my hypothermic fingers lacking dexterity, and because I changed into dry clothes, but that can't account for such a large difference. Yuck, I don't want to have to do road biking training, so I'll need to think of something else!

As expected, paddling was our best discipline - and hopefully will be better in future, since my stupid hanging seat collapsed last weekend, leaving me on the floor of the canoe for most of the race, but I will have my fancy new collapsible stool next year. Most of our trekking legs went well too, but we apparently needed to push harder on the first bushwhack, since we followed our intended route, but lost considerable time to the leaders. Very impressed at our friends, the Bobkittens, having the fastest final split in the race - a 1+ hr paddle followed by a short run through the campground!

Tuesday Gurlz Run with Leanimal. We ran the section of HVT to the west of Duffy's Lane, then ran 3 km back on the road to our car. The road running wasn't as pleasant as the trail running, but the hills and country views were pretty decent, and it was nice to do a loop. We finished by munching on a couple of nice, tart apples from a tree growing wild near the road. I picked the first one for Leanimal, then wasn't able to reach another one due to not being Leanimal's height, so she kindly picked one for me.

'Bent and I paddled out to the canoe campsite on Joe Lake where we were married. It's often occupied when we try to visit, so it was good to see one of the campers piling packs and paddles near the water. It took him awhile to get his friend ready to leave, so we had lots of time to casually check out the island across the way, a little inlet, and a bunch of brilliantly coloured trees. Then we walked around our wedding site and thought about the friends and family who were there with us eleven years ago. It's always special to go back. We paddled on to Camp Arowhon and explored the shoreline thoroughly. All the campers have gone home now, so it was deserted. Then we paddled back to Arowhon Pines lodge for one final yummy meal with dessert buffet before heading home to lose weight.

Since we didn't make it all the way to Camp Minnesing on Burnt Island Lake yesterday, we decided to go there by canoe this morning. On the river leaving Little Joe Lake, we saw a pair of inexperienced foreign canoe trippers flip, so we stopped to take all their gear on board (including unwaterproofed iPod, digital camera and cell phone floating around loose, a big backpack and a long drybag that wasn't closed) then did a canoe-over-canoe rescue and got them back into the boat. Nice guys, and they were with friends in another canoe who managed to stay dry. When we saw them on our return trip, they had taken our advice to go to shore and get into dry clothes, and they still had big smiles on their faces.

Camp Minnesing is an abandoned lodge that was run by the railroad company in the old days. There are several large stone chimneys and fireplaces spread throughout the forest, along with a few bits and pieces that have survived for more than 60 years since the lodge closed. A portion of the former wagon trail to the lodge now forms part of the Minnesing Trail.

I was interested to see that the flagged White Trail from Arowhon Pines lodge continued past Camp Minnesing as a White & Orange flagged trail. We followed it a short distance and came to what looked like the old wagon trail, with one side of it flagged and looking to be in pretty good shape. Now I'm intrigued. We were out of time, but I want to know where that trail goes! It's only 4 km cross-country from there to the Minnesing Trail, and perhaps there is a nice route joining them. It would make an awesome winter trip to snowshoe into a camp on Burnt Island Lake, then head over to ski the 24K Minnesing Trail as a day trip. I looked at a 1964 map that appears to show the old road. Adventure racing season might be over, but this girl is obviously not over it yet!!

Because of 'Bent's knee, portaging was my department today. The canoe weighed somewhere around 50-55 lb, I'd guess, so it wasn't too terrible. I've portaged in adventure races with all-female teams, but it's been a long time since I've picked up the canoe and put it down without help, which is the hardest part for me. Today we had 4 portages totalling about 1 kilometer, so I've had lots of practice now. It was getting better by the end. 'Bent got a few smiling comments from passing canoeists, but he didn't even mention his bad knee - just acknowledged that yes, he *was* lucky that the wife was willing to carry the boat.

Across Little Joe Lake, to and from the far entrance to the White Trail.

Hiked the White Trail until we ran out of time, passing by Little Joe Lake, Lost Joe Lake and Baby Joe Lake (who *was* Joe anyway?!) before stopping at a nice site at the tip of Burnt Island Lake. The colours are probably 5-7 days past their peak, but it's still spectacular up here - and Burnt Island Lake is especially nice. 'Bent made good time with his ski poles, and the hiking didn't seem to make his knee worse, even though there were a few short, steep sections. His MRI is scheduled for next Saturday, so we'll know what's going on soon. (Thank you, Tarno!)

Old Railway Bike Trail from Mew Lake to Rock Lake. We've always biked the more technical Minnesing Trail when we've come up to Algonquin, so 'Bent's injury is allowing us to see some new sights. As rail trails go, this one is lovely. It passes along lakeshores and rocky hills, and at this time of year, the colours are wonderful - both in the trees and on the trails.

Wildlife Report: One annoyed moose about 5 meters away, crashing into the brush to get away from me, but remaining parallel to the trail. 'Bent didn't get a good look, but it's not wise to mess with meese, so we carried on.

Another fun Bullfrog Power birthday party last night, this year at the Steamwhistle Brewery. 'Bent had been advised that he was going to receive a Splash Award for contribution to the environment, and it was especially cool when the presenter turned out to be Hansel, looking very corporate in his suit, tie, and fleecy lime green bullfrog toque with little eyes poking out the top. (Yes, I got a photo for the newspaper.) Even cooler, it turned out that 'Bent and Hansel were the opening act for Gord Downie, lead vocalist of the Tragically Hip, who is another happy Bullfrog customer. That's not something that many people ever get to do!

Finishing making all the arrangements for our early season XC ski trip to Silver Star to celebrate 'Bent's birthday. Lots of Aeroplan flights were available in November. Sweet! :-)

Quick canoe tour around Little Joe Lake after arriving at Arowhon Pines Lodge in Algonquin Park. Sunny and warm today - very weird for October. Hooded mergansers were hanging out at the far end of the lake. My parents just got back from the U.K. yesterday, and my brother is packing to move next week, so our family has postponed Thanksgiving. We'll get more than enough calories here!

Taking a break because your knee hurts? Turned your ankle one too many times this year? Well, have I got an offer for YOU! If you or someone you know can't compete in Raid The Hammer on Sun. Nov. 11, but you still want to be part of the social event that will close the 2007 adventure racing season, GHO still has a few (OK, many) prestigious volunteer roles available to qualified applicants. Come on out - you know you want to see your friends! FB? Gally? 'Bent? Contact Nina AT dontgetlost DOT ca. Thank you!!

As I headed downstairs in my running clothes, ThunderDog ambled into the kitchen and stared meaningfully at the cupboard where the dog treats are kept. She normally chooses food over any of life's pleasures, but when I saw her resigned-looking face, I just had to ask her if she wanted to come out with me. My senior dog morphed into a dancing puppy on the spot, leaving the treat cupboard behind. That never happens! We ended up doing a longer loop than usual, and she galloped much of the time in spite of the hot day, which allowed me to do a slow run. She has now arranged two throw pillows nicely around herself on the couch and will probably snore for the rest of the afternoon.

Hot day! I decided to add a twist to Short Bruce Loop by introducing a hill progression near the start. First a moderate hill (fire road around Thinker's Hill up to the lookout) with a good recovery, then a medium hill (Raspberry Hill) with a short recovery, then a big-*ss hill (Big Hill). At the end of the Loop, just when my heart rate was returning to normal, I came up Hawk Hill to Thinker's Hill lookout, then back home. Fun way to add some difficulty, and it's nice to have good hills 3 minutes from our back door. The medial side of my left (good) knee is slightly painful when I run, as it was after the trek portion of Saturday's race. I think it will heal soon enough, but I'll take it easy this weekend.

The running was supposed to be a warm-up for Power Yoga, but today's training clock has officially run out of time.

After a long day of laptopping, I was about to start the power yoga DVD when 'Bent called to say that he'd be home from work early. Since "early" = 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, I got dinner ready instead. This week I've been making an impressive effort to achieve a full recovery from Saturday's race, much like my fabulous display of tapering last week. It's gruelling stuff. Hmmm, 39 days till Raid The Hammer. OK, gotta get moving tomorrow.

Caledon Navigators training night, thanks to Keith Sanger. The only attendees were Goose, 'Bent (using ski poles as crutches), BulletDog and me. To keep it social without harming 'Bent's knee, we did it as a group map walk where we picked up the controls as we went. Goose is a good navigator, but still relatively new to orienteering maps, so we talked about how to glean a little more info from an O map.

Hard to believe that I came out of an 11-hr race practically unscathed. I've got a little bruise below one kneecap and a tiny scrape on two knuckles, but that's it. No blisters, no joint problems, no cuts - just some mild stiffness from all the paddling in my awkward bottom-of-the-canoe position. I've done a LOT more damage to myself in a 1-hr orienteering race!