Training Log Archive: Bash

Slowrunner, Rocky and I headed out onto the HVT from the Wellness Centre on a sunny day. Slowrunner pushed the pace enough to keep me uncomfortable all the way to the turn-around point, but not so much that I disappeared from view. I did fall twice, but that's to be expected. Rocky assured me that they don't usually run that fast - this was specifically to torture me. (And it's exactly the torture I need as I get ready for my first marathon.)

A minute after we started back, Slowrunner screamed as we started down steep steps. Not some wimpy "I saw a snake" scream, but a serious pain/fear scream as she stepped on a tree root hidden beneath leaves and twisted her ankle hard. She's tough, and she doesn't have girlie ankles, so she handled it better than most people could, even though she was showing signs of shock from the pain. Eventually she dispatched Rocky and me to get the car so that she could walk to the nearest road while swearing, without worrying about offending anyone.

Wishing you a very speedy recovery, Slowrunner!

Hard Core Live with Caron. Went fine, except I learned that I can't do very many standing, one-legged oblique crunches without falling.

The recurring theme in tonight's class was quad stretches, which was handy, since that's the stretch I'm supposed to be doing to help my bad knee - which is actually feeling much improved after two treatments with Leanimal. (Thank you!)

This morning I attended a Region of Peel air quality strategy planning meeting as a volunteer - and came home quite a bit poorer!! I don't get to cities much, so I stopped at Henry's to buy a camera case for my point-and-shoot - and came out with a Canon EOS 50D with the new 18-200 IS lens included as the kit lens. These have been impossible to find, and this one had only been in the store for a few hours, so what could I do? :-) Leanimal, this is good news for you in the lens department!

To take advantage of my new toy, I went to Chapters to get a book on Lightroom 2. It's a new version, so only two books to choose from - the thick Adobe textbook crammed with big words vs. "Lightroom 2 for Dummies". Much internal debate ensued, since as an engineer and IT professional, I felt like I should buy the serious book. But the Dummies book looked like it would suit my random software learning style better, so I figured it would be OK as long as no one ever saw me with it. That worked for about 20 seconds until I ran into the former Senior VP of Information Technology at Loblaws, who was my boss' boss for 5 years. Nice guy, hadn't seen him in a long time, and fortunately he has a good sense of humour!

Oh, and no time for exercise today. Meetings, meetings, meetings. And shopping.

Yay, I've won a SPOT Satellite Messenger and a year's free service in a random draw among people who submitted photos to the Nov/Dec issue of Get Out There Magazine. Cool! Danelle Ballengee could have used one of these. I'm curious to see how it will work out for me.

BTW, if you check the latest edition of Get Out there Magazine, my Coast Raid photo is on p. 26. See whether you think Tiny is showing a little too much skin for someone who is immersed in a 12C ocean.
http://www.getoutthere-digital.com/getoutthere-ont...

Leanimal and I both did leg strength exercises yesterday, so we did speed intervals instead of hill intervals today, hoping to focus more on cardio and less on muscles. We ran to Edelweiss Park, then did our intervals on the grass, which was kinder to our bodies. The wind was howling, and the temperature was just above freezing, so it was a good day to try to push a little harder. We did out-and-back intervals based on time, and since Leanimal wasn't wearing her watch, I had to make sure to save enough breath to yell "Turn!!" into the wind whenever we had run the required time. It was a good workout to take our minds off the chilly weather and our tired legs - and there's no way I would have been out there if not for a friend with similar motivation! :-)

1-2-3-4-3-2-1 pyramid of intervals, probably at 5K race pace for me. It sure felt good when the pyramid started to descend!

Felt very proud of myself for fixing my broken computer using only a toothbrush, a nail file and a pimped Princeton Tec Apex headlamp. The girlie dentist's wife adventure racer strikes again!

Leg strength exercises in hopes of making my knee a happier camper - while watching the first part of the movie "The Queen".

GHO Peak-2-Peak training event at Mt. Nemo. 5K of orienteering in intricate terrain, followed by 5K of Walk The Line on a map with only limited detail. This was my first time attempting to orienteer in my new sports glasses with the little reading glass insert. I think it's going to work, but it'll take getting used to. On my way to #1, I had to cross some broken rocks, and I looked down at my feet. Naturally everything looked distorted, and within seconds I crashed onto my bad knee on a rock. Given that my top goal for the day was not to wreck the knee any worse, this was a bad start. It also distracted me enough that I ended up at the trail and had to go back to get #1.

For the most part, my orienteering was as rusty as expected, but I didn't have any big trouble. Where I had to choose between physical effort and navigational effort, I always slowed down, since today was a good chance to practise. I managed to hyper-extend my bad knee, so it's definitely less happy than it was.

The Walk The Line section was tough and went fairly well, although I was getting nervous until I saw the 4th and final flag near the end - phew!

As the Adventure Running season gets underway for another year, it was nice to see friends and to carpool with 'Bent, Phatty, Leanimal and Goose. A group of us had a good lunch at Gator Ted's afterward. Glad so many people were able to attend the adventure run brainstorming session - lots of ideas. The only bad part of the day was seeing Goose's wings clipped after he wrenched his back a few minutes into the race.

Trek or Treat 10K Night Trail Run at the Kortright Centre. This event is loads of fun - some great costumes, lots of mini-chocolate bars, nice variety of trails, and kid-friendly (5K event). It was about 5C, and luckily the heavy rain held off until after the race, so conditions were perfect.

After letting Leanimal abuse my bad knee earlier today, I felt great while running. (When I'm not running though, I can feel the places where she dug her evil thumbs into my ligaments.) At first I settled in behind a couple of women who looked like real runners in their early 30s. I was feeling good, and at the 1 km mark, I pulled out and passed half a dozen people. After that, I spent the next 7 km mostly alone (other than some *very* scary haunters leaping out of the bushes). Then a woman passed me, and she had a great pace. I was reminded of the effect that Slowrunner and Leanimal have on me, pushing me to do better. But it turned out that she *wasn't* exactly like them because on the final, HUGE hill up to finish line, she slowed right down to a plodding pace. I encouraged her, but I think her iPod was turned up too high, so I just kept going up the hill and left her well behind. That's the kind of terrain where adventure racers have an advantage over road runners, and we did the hill twice in two 5 km loops.

I was 1st in the 40-something age category with two 5 km laps that were about the same pace - exactly the pace that I need for Boston. However, I was tired in the final kilometer, so I couldn't have done that for very much longer. Still some work to do.

'Bent had expressed some concern when I reminded him of the race - it's only been five days since his first marathon, and he's supposed to be recovering. So... here's how 'Bent recovers from a marathon... He led the race for the first half-kilometer until Martin Rydlo passed him. Then he held 2nd for awhile until Bob McGrath passed him. Then he kept Bob in sight for the rest of the race and finished 3rd overall, 1st in the 40-something category. Yup, 'Bent and I RULED the old people's division!

Great event, *very* well-marked race course, scary haunters, lots of great volunteers, nice prizing (we got attractive Saucony fleece jackets), hot pizza, Starbucks coffee and Hallowe'en candy. What's not to like?

OK, it's official. I give myself less than a 50/50 chance of qualifying for Boston, but now that 'Bent is going, I have to give it a try.
http://www.tucsonmarathon.com/

Unlike natural athletes 'Bent and Goose, I'm going to do a little training for my marathon. In my case. this consists of shopping around different 36-week marathon training programs, then starting to do whatever they're doing in Week 30. So it may not work any better than B&G's technique!

Today Slowrunner kindly agreed to be my trail running pace bunny, pushing me faster than I would go on my own. She seemed to be listening to my breathing and modifying the pace accordingly. For example, if I *was* breathing, then we could go faster. (Just kidding, she was very patient, and I'm sure she had to restrain her own speed considerably - except on the hills, which she flew up as if they weren't there.) Beauty day!

Knee still hurts. Time to take it to Leanimal or Thumbs-of-Death.

Registration closes at midnight tonight for tomorrow's 5K or 10K Trek or Treat night trail run at the Kortright Centre. Come on out, walk or run, wear a costume or run naked, beware of haunters (not hunters) waiting in the woods, and bring an appetite for candy. This event is always fun!
http://www.trekortreat.ca

Oooff - tonight was Caron's toughest core class of the year so far. 'Bent has missed a few classes, so he hadn't built himself up to this, and there was a bit of whimpering coming from the mat next to me. Ha! Sure, he can do a 3:18 marathon, but can he do oblique crunches with one leg straight in the air and the other hovering horizontally an inch above the ground?

Mmmm, yoga. The only problem is that I can't do anything with weight on my right knee when it's bent back to my bum. That meant cheating on one side for several poses tonight. Off to Albion Hills Chiropractic tomorrow morning!

It snowed for the first time yesterday, and here's what it looked like today!





I went for a run all around Palgrave West, including some out-and-back sections. I got within sight of the Russells' barn before it occurred to me that running around with a white hat during white-tailed deer hunting season was probably not the best idea! (Especially since I know there were hunters in there last year.) Gorgeous, cold day. My knee still hurts from Storm The Ten. What the heck did I do to it?

After my run, ThunderDog led me on a hike, taking me to the secret place on F&M's property where the deer sleep. She was bouncing around today! When we got to Mad Dog Meadow, she determined that the snow depth was sufficient to make her first doggie snow angel of the season. She loves that! She's getting older, and every spring I make a little wish that she'll get a chance to make another snow angel next winter.

While watching the news. I'd hoped to sneak in a short treadmill run before an evening meeting, but the weird basement TV/video system defeated me (again), which took too big a chunk out of my potential running time.

Watched Rick Mercer show in hopes of seeing his visit to Gravenhurst on Thanksgiving weekend, where he was scheduled to go tubing behind the Segwun steamship. We saw him on the dock when we were passing by in my brother's motorboat. He waved, and his cameraman got a 30-second shot of us. Maybe we'll be famous! But not tonight...

I ran to the village of Palgrave and back - needed to mail some letters and visit the bakery before Leanimal's visit tonight. Our husbands (!!!!) are both away, so we're going to have dinner and look at photos.

I took different trail routes in each direction and tried to focus on quicker turnover. I tend to hit the ground pretty hard. Note to self: It was 11C and cloudy, and I was too warm in tights. I think 3/4 tights would have been perfect, and I rolled up the sleeves on my shirt.

No bears. Good.

What an amazing day for the Toronto Marathon! Brilliant sunshine and temperature rising to over 10C. It was a great day for running, but for me, it was all on sidewalks in my street clothes. More on that shortly.

Rather than watching the start, I parked near the top of the Hogg's Hollow hill, around 4-5 km into the marathon. Great view of the sea of runners coming out of North York!



Bender came by, right on pace for a 3-hr marathon - yay!



The 3:10 pace bunny showed up soon afterward, and not far behind him were 'Bent and Goose! Aacck - too fast! It was the first marathon for both of them, and they had decided to run it only five days ago. It was too late to do real marathon training, so they mostly just tapered.



Then I drove downtown with the plan of parking near the finish, then meeting the boys at the 21 km mark with full bottles. I was also going to take their extra layers from the start of the race. But the traffic was so snarled in downtown Toronto that I ended up parking some distance away, and I ran for 15 minutes to the corner of Wellington and York where I was supposed to meet them. (Ouch, I didn't have the right shoes for that.) I got there just before Bender - phew. The boys still seemed to be the same distance behind the 3:10 pace bunny, so I guess that's the pace they ran for the last 16 km. They looked relaxed and seemed to be having a blast.



I walked up to the finish line at Queen's Park. The winner came in at 2:29, and there were only 5 runners under 2:45. Bender sailed in at around 3:08.



Goose had told 'Bent to go ahead at 40 km, but they still finished 6 seconds apart! 'Bent's time was 3:18:52, well ahead of his 3:30 Boston qualifying time - woo hoo!





The guys didn't even have the decency to look tired afterward. They'd been aiming for 3:20, but it looks like they should set their sights higher if they do another one (other than Boston, which isn't so good for PBs).

Event: Ottawa Orienteering Club Rogaine
 

I interviewed someone for an article in Bolton this morning, then parked 'Bent's van behind Leanimal's office and ran back to Palgrave! I'd been thinking about doing the Toronto Half Marathon tomorrow while Goose and 'Bent do the full marathon, but the late postponement of the CN MTB-O event meant that I would have to go to the Running Expo in downtown Toronto to enter the race in person, since the online registration was closed. I figured that I'd save $80 and just run my own half-marathon (+ 400 m). My time was sloooow, but it's a very hilly route, mostly on trails, with a significant net climb.

Route was Leanimal's office to Hwy 50, back to Goose's Corner, then over to the Humber Valley Trail, which I followed for its full length, finishing where the rail trail meets Humber Station Road. Then rail trail to Duffy's Lane to the Bruce Side Trail by Crash's place, then home. I had my only face plant of the day on the Bruce about 2 meters west of Duffy's Lane. Crash probably heard it. I'd been running much of the day without being able to see the roots, rocks or trail surface due to the multi-coloured carpet of leaves. I'd had one half ankle turn and left the trail briefly on two occasions, but the only place I tripped was on a section of trail that I've probably travelled a thousand times!

It was a spectacular day to be out in the woods - brilliant sunshine and the final weekend of awesome autumn leaves. I was a little overdressed, but otherwise felt good until the final few km when I was really dragging and looking at my GPS a *lot*.

So now I'm all set to be support crew for 'Bent and Goose at tomorrow's marathon!

For those who may not have heard, the Caledon Navigators have postponed this Sunday's MTB-O event until 2009.

Hilly 5K trail loop in Palgrave West. The autumn forest was spectacular in the late afternoon light - wish I'd brought my camera. The cold air felt fantastic. I'm such a princess when it comes to warm weather.

Unfortunately, Caron broadened her horizons over the summer. Painful new exercises have suddenly appeared in her workouts with explanations like "I saw this on YouTube" or "This comes from Brazilian Martial Arts". And we haven't even progressed to the *really* scary time of year - after she's got us all broken in... Nice to have 'Bent there tonight.

Tonight's yoga included a lot of shoulder stretching. Ouch, my shoulder *likes* being locked in one place.

Since a few people have asked about it, I'll mention it here... After a good 4-year run, we will not be holding the Tree Huggers AR End-of-Season Party this year. I hope that someone else will take up the torch, as I would love to attend as a guest some time!

I ran around our block on a beautiful autumn day - a nice hilly route on country roads. Now I know how the road bikers feel - a cargo van veered onto the shoulder toward me, and the guy driving it flashed me a silly grin. Yeah, he's hilarious.

I was trying to keep the pace up, but not expecting much due to my sore knee, the remnants of my cold, my 4 extra pounds, and my reduced training level since the spring. I haven't found all my previous log entries for this route, but today's time is the lowest I've found so far, which is a pleasant surprise. However, I think I felt more exhausted at the end of today's run than I usually do.

Rodney Yee's Yoga for Flexibility. Need to do more of this!

'Bent and Goose decided this afternoon to do the Toronto Marathon next weekend. 'Bent has been sick, so he's not sure whether to start training or start tapering. Since he had very little free time today, we did some race pace intervals on the Bruce Trail - 2, 3, 4, 3, 2. Other time was warm-up, cooldown and in between.

My knee is still bugging me, atlhough I think it's improving. In any case, it's time for my leg strength exercises after a long hiatus.

Shorter paddle on Lake Muskoka today. There were more boats out there, so we got to test our boats in waves. Not so bad for me on the surf ski, but 'Bent found it challenging in the open water kayak.

Hiked the 3K loop of the Hardy Lake Trails with Dad, 'Bent, ThunderDog and BulletDog. Incredible autumn scenery! Logged @ 50%

'Bent and I were up at my bro's cottage in Muskoka for the weekend, so we took our tippy boats out for another paddle. I spent 3/4 of the time on the surf ski, which nobody has managed to tip yet - surprisingly. I gave the open water kayak another try and managed to stay upright. I think I'd need to try it in warmer weather if I was going to learn to love it. It's one of those things where you need to push beyond your limits so that you learn where your limits are - but I really don't want to go swimming again at this time of year!

Feeling much improved today, but still not recovered. For the past few weeks, I've been way too busy with an average of 5-6 hrs of sleep per night. Amongst other things, I had four writing deadlines close together, including a 3000-word article for Breathe Magazine on the Coast Raid. It was fun to relive our amazing experience on the Lower North Shore! I'm told it will be in stores within the next couple of weeks.

'Bent has borrowed some cool boats for the weekend, so we made plans to meet Goose at Albion Hills for some paddling. Between hurting my knee at Storm The Ten, getting bogged down in work, then getting sick, my training has been pathetic for the past couple of weeks, so I decided to make this into a multi-sport workout. The first step was riding my bike to Albion Hills and doing some single track while Goose and 'Bent paddled the two boats.

'Bent is testing out speedier boats, so he's borrowed a surf ski and an open water racing kayak, which is a little less tippy than a K1 - but could stand to be even less tippy than that! Neither of these boats is much wider than me! We all did well on the surf ski, although we couldn't imagine using it in 16' waves in Hawaii, which is what people sometimes use these things for. It is the faster boat of the two. Angus got it up to 14.7 kph, according to the GPS.

Angus was the first to dump the open water boat, but luckily for him, he did it in the beach area where he could stand up to get back in. Silly me, I dumped it at the far end of the lake beneath the mountain bike lookout point, which was bad for a few reasons: (a) deeper water, (b) Keith S. happened to be at the lookout and watched the whole thing, and (c) Goose was disappointed that he was deprived of the fun of watching me try to get back in.

And oh, how I tried! I was wearing my paddling suit, so even though the water was October-cold, I figured I'd give it a chance. I tried sliding gingerly on my stomach along the boat from the stern end - and then from the bow end when that didn't work. I got sooooo close. Finally, I had to swim it to shore. Amazing how long that took in a paddling suit, shoes and PFD while pushing a boat, and I didn't even have to worry about the paddle because 'Bent was watching it. I wouldn't want to dump that boat in a race. Unlike the surf ski, it fills up with water, which is an extra element to deal with. This is the boat I thought I'd prefer, but I'll need to test it some more this weekend.

Not traditional swim training, but it was very, very intense!

I put my bike into 'Bent's van and ran home from Albion Hills. I ran into Keith S. and chatted, then ran into VO2Max and chatted some more (chatting not logged - I already had 4 different activities today!) Then I realized that the sun had already set, and I had no light. That speeded me up! Every rock or stump was a potential black bear, but the only scary thing was when a black pick-up truck flew past at 100 kph on Duffy's Lane, then when I came over the next rise, the truck had turned around and parked on my side of the road, and the two guys were getting out and walking to the road side of the vehicle. But they just smoked and watched me run by, and I suspect that a little drinking was next on the schedule. I was doing mental calculations on the relative distance to Crash's house vs. VO2Max's house in case they turned out to be psychos!

Knee only felt so-so after 2.5 weeks of rest. :-(

My Phatty and Leanimal wedding report with photos is now posted.

http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/pe...

Rode my rebuilt Gary Fisher Sugar (cracked frame replaced on warranty after 6 years) to my dentist appointment and back - it's going to be a nice alternate bike! My knee felt great, so I hope it still feels great when I go back to riding my new Specialized Epic. Nice to see VO2Max in the other dental chair. It'll be easier to talk tomorrow at dinner with Goose and Coach LD when - presumably - our mouths won't be full of dental instruments.

I hear that a black bear was spotted less than a kilometer from our house. Apparently our fight against urban sprawl into Caledon has been more successful than we ever dreamed!

Well, you asked for it - here's the detailed report from Phatty and Leanimal's wedding!

At breakfast, Phatty displayed his ringless fingers for the last time.



Meanwhile, Leanimal lost a lens duel with wedding photographer Chris Owen Halper. Apparently, sometimes size *does* matter.



After breakfast, 18 teams took part in the Geneva Park Adventure Fun Session. The overall winners (who coulda predicted this?) were the Zietsmas.



However, even *they* didn't always agree on the navigation.



Heading to the main event, I couldn't help noticing the abundance of Scots.



The bridesmaids looked fantastic.



Here comes the bride.



A beautiful ceremony by Lake Couchiching.



And a beautiful bride too.



Here they come, Mr. and Mrs.



PhattyJR was best man.



Zoolander was in the wedding party.



So was Deep Bakes.



Slice was a bridesmaid. Beautiful teeth!



Other adventure racing friends were there too.











This was near the end of the formal photo session.



After dinner and speeches, we had a Scottish Ceilidh!



STORM and Jildo really got into it.



Phatty's dancing skill increased proportionally to his blood alcohol level.



Who knew that PhattyJR could break dance?



As the evening came to a close, Leanimal suddenly remembered that she hadn't logged any training for the day.



Congratulations to two very special friends!

I know that some of you like to see reports posted in a timely fashion, so you'll be happy to know that no person present could think of any reason why this man should not wed this woman. :-)

Stay tuned - more to come...

Dancing at the Scottish Ceilidh at Phatty and Leanimal's wedding. Lots of fun and plenty of laughter. Fortunately, there were a number of genuine Scots to help keep us headed in the right direction. BTW, this log entry seriously underestimates both time and effort, but I'm afraid that I'll be given a hard time for even mentioning it!

(Logged at 50%.) Geneva Park Adventure Fun Challenge - Phatty had put together an adventure challenge for interested wedding guests to do in the morning before the afternoon wedding. Weather was great; competition was good-natured. Our categories included "Phatty's Former Bosses", "Team With Baby" and "Oldest Combined Ages".

I was delegated to tabulate results, invent categories (after the race) and run the awards ceremony at the reception. Thus I ruled myself ineligible for prizing even though Phatty gave me the answer key in a sealed envelope. I carried a digital SLR around the course to help document the event. I placed 3rd of the 18 teams, narrowly edging out a well-known, highly successful, feline female team. 'Bent had the fastest time by far, but probably should have slowed down to read a few of the clues more carefully. The Zietsmas were the overall winners - surprise!

Week 2 of Caron's classes, and it's "no more Ms. Nice Guy"! The one-legged standing oblique crunches were an unkind twist (hehe) this early in the season. Nice to see the De St. Croix clan out.

The recurrent theme in tonight's class was placing one or both hands on the small of the back while pulling the shoulders back. We did this while doing a number of different poses, and my shoulders can feel it now!

It's been a pathetic week for training. Too many meetings and deadlines crowded into the same time period (which extends for another week), not to mention the difficult choice of which Salomon shoes to wear to the Cameron-Mueller wedding. That, and my knee hasn't been super-happy, so it didn't seem like a bad idea to try a few days of rest.