Training Log Archive: Bash

Peak-2-Peak training session at Mount Nemo. I took the "training" vs. "competition" aspect of the event to heart more than I should have! I re-ran a section of trail to pose for a photo, said hello to a bunch of friends on the course, and stopped several times to perform acts of O-vangelism, i.e. explaining to other park users what the crazy map runners were doing - and petting their dogs too. In one section where I was running well for a change, I got a thorn in my toe through the sole of a double-tied shoe - sigh, another long stop. Bottom line... I had a great time running around in the woods and I found all the controls - but I was seriously unfocused. On the bright side, I got to do a 14 km run on a 10 km orienteering course for just $15! :-)

A friend got tickets from Russ Courtnall for Battle of the Blades tonight. Always fun to be in the audience of a TV production! Dr. Wells treats the athletes and was kind enough to take me on a backstage tour where I saw all the performers. Cool!

Paddling in the basement. Not as boring as I thought it would be which is good because I'll probably be doing a lot of it before Coast to Coast in February.

'Bent and I and others spent a couple of hours carrying boxes and furniture to help a friend move out of a legally awkward domestic situation. Boys and girls, choose your partners carefully and be *especially* cautious about the decision to move in together. 'Nuff said.

Report and pics from Wednesday's Wilderness Traverse course test have been posted below.

The following event announcements were made on Facebook yesterday:

"Mark your calendars and get ready to explore the Canadian Shield! On Sat. Sept. 10, 2011, Logs Rocks & Steel will move to an exciting new host venue in Muskoka - YMCA Camp Pinecrest in Torrance."

"Mark your calendars... Wilderness Traverse 2011 is happening on Aug. 19-21 - great summer weather and no bugs!"

If you're on Facebook and want to "like" either event (which sends occasional updates and photos to your news feed), these are the links:
Logs Rocks and Steel
Wilderness Traverse

While you're at it, why not "like" Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Adventure Running too? :-)

Our nordic skier friend VO2Max texted to say that the AP nickname I've assigned him is apparently a reasonable choice. In this week's testing, he had the highest VO2Max at the Alberta World Cup Academy! (73.5)

Hard Core Live with Caron.

A "Hard, Harder, Hardest" class where we moved through progressions of poses. Caron's husband Barrie Shepley asked whether she might do an "Easy, Easier, Ridiculously Simple" class some time. Nice to have 'Bent at Core/Yoga tonight. He's still rehabbing but he's on his way back!

(Actual time on trails 1:50.) Volunteered at the Caledon elementary school cross-country running meet at Albion Hills. I thought I'd be working the finish line but signals got crossed and they were counting on me to ride my bike as the "rabbit" in front of the runners. I didn't have my bike so I offered to change places with the "turtle" who rode at the back and said I could be the turtle on foot. So I ran at the back as sweep in five different hilly trail races. I wasn't dressed for running at all except for my XT Wings!

I've learned that up to Grade 5, kids only have two speeds - walking and 20 kph. In Grade 6, they can run 2.8 km without stopping. Even the slowest boys on the Grade 6 cross-country teams were darned good runners so I got a decent workout. It was fun encouraging the younger kids, "Come on - let's run this downhill section." One little 8-year-old boy kept asking, "Is this downhill?". He honestly couldn't seem to tell. He then explained (from the back of the pack), "I'm a very good runner but my best sport is sky diving." "Oh... really?" "Yes, I take my parachute and jump off the second storey of our barn." Hmm...

Considering that I'd planned to rest my legs after yesterday's big course test, I've earned some serious chocolate today!

It's getting late in the season and Bob M. and I needed to get out one more time to test an epic trek we're planning for Wilderness Traverse 2011. (I'm assistant race director for next year.) There's a distinction between course scouting, which we did last weekend, and a course test. Scouting is exploration - maybe looking for a portage between two lakes or checking a trail to see if it would be good for biking. In a test, we start at a CP and go to one or more CPs in sequence using the same mode of travel that the competitors will use.



Unlike scouting expeditions, where my Garmin Forerunner and - surprisingly - my iPhone can provide helpful info, we only allow ourselves to use map and compass to navigate - the same tools the competitors will have. We test in daylight because of the things we're looking for but we have to consider any implications related to the time of day when different types of competitors will do the section.



This year I've been learning about the incredible number of variables involved in planning a long adventure race course - safety considerations (e.g. navigation catch features, rescue routes for first aid crews), landowner permissions, establishing CP locations that will be accessible by volunteers, squinting at satellite maps, learning about trail networks and designing the course with their existence in mind, setting up interesting route choices, selecting terrain for each discipline that is challenging but not too unpleasant, planning short course options that are fun and worth doing, finding TA locations that are big enough and thinking about gear transportation between them, solving the tricky puzzle of linking all the different sections together, and finding/booking a host venue of the right size that happens to be appropriately located for the finish of a wilderness race.

Respect to all the race directors out there who do this work so we can indulge our adventure racing habit. This stuff may look simple when we arrive at the race venue and get our maps and instructions but there's a huge amount of time that goes into it and nobody is getting rich from AR.



Today's trek was longer than either of last year's WT trekking sections. We explored a few trails out of curiosity, which increased our distance, but it would still be a 30+ km trek if we had just travelled directly between CPs. I felt that the navigation was more intricate than last year's long trek. Most bodies of water were smaller so they didn't provide the same huge targets and handrails that we had in 2010. It's not the kind of course where the best navigators will just set a compass bearing and bash through the woods for 5 km but there are handrails and landmarks that will allow midpack teams to navigate safely with a little less precision.



Bob and I are accustomed to being the primary navigators on our respective teams so it won't surprise anyone that we often debate who is going to navigate. What *might* surprise people is that the discussions go like this: "No, YOU navigate this section. I navigated the last one!" Outside of a race context and accompanied by another navigator, I'm afraid we get lazy! However, after the initial agreement about who's going to be in charge, we both follow the map with an eagle eye, talk about features we're seeing and offer "helpful" commentary to the current lead navigator. For the most part, we like the same types of route choices although Bob will follow a trail longer than I will. That's probably because he makes me run the trails so I'm always keen to bushwhack since it lets me catch my breath!



We hit the nav well today - a nice improvement compared to our WT2010 tests when there were a couple of legs with too much AR chat and not enough compass.

There were some beautiful open areas where we could make good time.



There were also some alder-filled wetlands - but fortunately nothing as bad as that heinous bikewhack during the first night of Untamed New England. That's the standard against which I now evaluate every wetland bushwhack.





We missed having Hammer there to tell us whether we were splashing through a fen, swamp, marsh or whatever.

There was one large area where it looked like a microburst had caused significant blowdown of huge trees. This was a little disconcerting given that we had inadvertently gone into the woods on a day with 70 kph wind gusts. That, along with the limited hours of daylight, kept our pace up.



The water was cold but - unlike last year's WT course - it was rarely more than knee deep and there were no tempting route choices that involved swimming. I went up to my waist once because I couldn't jump across a creek after Bob succeeded but that's as wet as it got. Since next year's race is in August, conditions probably won't be much wetter and the water will be warm.





Bob has a roaring metabolism and never brings enough food. Good thing we found this moose.



Once a Tree Hugger, always a Tree Hugger...



Great terrain!







And that's the end of course testing until next spring but the most important scouting/testing is done and the host venue should be announced shortly.

Getawaystix and I tested an epic trekking section from Wilderness Traverse 2011. Great day and now I can eat all the chocolate I want for the rest of the week.

Photos and report are now posted for Saturday's Wilderness Traverse course scouting trip.
http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_920/pe...

For the first time ever, 'Bent and I went to a candidate's party and held our breath as we watched municipal election returns trickle in over 2 hours. The cheering and excitement was greater than any sports event because the results actually affect us in our small town.

For those of you in Toronto... you have my sympathy. Here in Caledon, we've had an incredibly rough few years. At the mild end of the scale, developer-supported lobby groups have spread misinformation - even setting up their own propaganda-filled newspaper - and have done their best to prevent our local government from moving forward on important issues.

Things got much nastier - threats, multi-million dollar lawsuits, a complaint leading to a police investigation into the Mayor's records that showed no evidence of wrongdoing, and even a violent physical assault on her cancer-stricken husband after she refused to vote as they wished.

I'm one of many people who couldn't just watch this happen, so I got involved back in 2008. Since then, I've attended dozens of meetings, read hundreds of pages, written letters and press releases, circulated a petition and exchanged countless e-mails. And last night, passing over a slate of developer-supported candidates with glossy campaign literature, the citizens of Caledon came through, voting in an honest, hard-working Mayor and Council who will work well together and who share a progressive vision for our town. I wouldn't have believed it possible to come home after a local election with a sore throat from cheering and tears in my eyes but I was far from the only one. The next four years won't be easy but tonight was a terrific start.

Photos and report are posted below from Friday's course scouting for Logs Rocks and Steel.

Today's highlight was seeing 'Bent run past the window during his 20-minute post-surgery rehab run with BulletDog. He was smokin' fast!

This was intended to be a warm-up before strength training but the resistance was turned up too high so it ended up being a mini-workout.

While watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report.

Bob M. and I travelled to, um, elsewhere - a faraway place where GPS tracking doesn't work - to scout portions of the Wilderness Traverse course. This wasn't a full course test yet; we were just making sure the puzzle pieces fit together properly. We did a bit of running and a bit of biking.

There has been a lot of rain lately so conditions were about as wet and muddy as they will ever get. That's always a good test when you're planning a race course. In some areas, the trails were so well-drained that it didn't matter. In other areas, it was a slippery gong show as we tried to pedal through mud on semi-slick tires. Man, I hope people appreciate how much we have to suffer to ensure that the WT racers will have a good time. ;-)

We ran into several moose hunters, a group of friendly dirt bikers and a gaggle of ATVers. The interesting thing was that we did much better on our bikes on ATV trails than any of the rest of them could do in the muddy conditions. We had no trouble staying ahead of the ATVs, and both the ATVs and the dirt bikes turned around when the trail got too difficult. Heh heh. It was interesting to hear the dirt bikers' comments about the ATVers causing too much trail damage. I guess there's a social hierarchy in the woods that I never knew about.

It's a beautiful wilderness area and it was awesome to have relatively warm, sunny weather in late October.

Check out those getaway sticks!





Hey, look! Is that a muscle in my calf?



Fairy tale forest.





Knew we couldn't avoid the mud forever after all that rain.





So *that's* how the trails get that way.





It wouldn't be course testing with Miller if I didn't have to wade. To give him credit, this was the first time he didn't send me through water over my waist.

Course scouting with Getawaystix for Wilderness Traverse 2011.

More WT course testing. Photos and details to come.

Bob and I headed up to Muskoka to scout a potential new area for Logs Rocks and Steel. The Frost Centre has been a great location but it's closed now, so the event needs a new host venue and will likely move to the weekend after Labour Day.

Today's exploration started at YMCA Camp Pinecrest and travelled some of the trails that could form the run/bike sections of the Championship and Frost courses. (Click the little globe to see where we went.) Before finalizing the details for 2011, Bob needs to contact landowners for permission and run the date by a few people, but the official announcement should be made soon. If it all works out, the new race course is going to be truly awesome with a very different character from the previous course. Bob called it "the best day of course testing EVER" and it was some of the coolest mountain biking I've ever done - a little taste of Moab, Ontario-style.

After driving north in a blizzard, we were relieved to have a gorgeous but chilly morning for riding.



There was a little ice on some of the shady ponds and puddles.



If anyone wondered why we were wearing such bright colours, it's because this week was moose hunting season.



The scenery was excellent and the Barrens were amazing.







There are nice single and double track trails in the area with surprisingly little mud, considering how wet it looked elsewhere.



The best part was riding on rock in many different forms. Like Moab, some of the trails are marked on the rock using paint. You can see a white trail marker painted on the boulder in the first photo.

















Here's where I had my one bad fall of the day - a photography injury. I was nowhere near my bike when I slipped on wet rock and landed on my elbow while walking in cycling shoes. Ouch.



I like the shot below. Bob hates it. Log commenters are invited to take sides.



Even the snowmobile trails were mostly very good riding. One thing I realized today is that I need to learn how to lift my front wheel up higher to climb vertical granite faces that are more than about a foot high. Bob climbed them easily while I tended to bash my front tire into them and come to a complete halt.



Here's a short hike-a-bike that we scouted but it probably wouldn't make the cut for the race course.



The back roads we biked on were quiet, scenic and sometimes paved in places where you wouldn't expect it. Although I finished with popsicle toes and a ravenous appetite, today was loads of fun in an unexpectedly beautiful part of Ontario. I'm surprised more people don't go there to ride - it would definitely be worth the trip.

Heading north shortly to test the proposed new course for Logs Rocks & Steel. Looking forward to a high of +4C tomorrow - brrrr!

Interesting... The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority dropped by today to discuss their landowner programs and mentioned that our neighbours (the ones who started the 70-acre forest fire) have a big patch of giant hogweed beside their driveway. Naturally, I had to check it out!







At least, I assume that is it because of the distinctive stems. The leaves don't look exactly like the photos I've seen before. I certainly wouldn't have recognized it if I'd run through a patch of it in the woods.

Hard Core DVD. Hurts so good...

Mark Arnold's Adventure Race Podcasts are now online. Attackpointers were interviewed for 3 of the first 5 podcasts - the Phattycast, the Doboscast and the Bashcast

http://www.adventureracer.ca/Adventure_Racer/Podca...

Just booked our flights to New Zealand for the Coast to Coast World Multisport Championship! :-)))

Trail run with BulletDog around the single track of Palgrave East. I just didn't have it today - whatever "it" might be. Single track is always slow but this was ridiculous - like I was wearing lead socks. Forest is beautiful right now so it wasn't a total loss. And BulletDog had loads of fun.

2011 Tour de France route has been announced. Except for the sprinters, it looks like most of the excitement will be in the 2nd half of the event.
http://www.livestrong.com/teamradioshack/news_bruy...

Unfortunate timing for the headline in the Style section of today's Globe and Mail: "How to pull off Military Chic".

On the final day of the Georgian Bay Storm Gathering, we all paddled from Snug Haven to the Snake Islands in several groups. The idea was to go someplace where paddlers could play in the wind and surf. If the weather looked too tame, some of the more experienced kayakers planned to head home early - but it didn't disappoint. As the day went on, we had winds of 20+ knots (small craft wind warning) and big waves that hid surrounding kayakers in their troughs.

If you squint, you might be able to see the Snakes in the distance on the horizon. The open crossing was several kilometers and the wind made for a slow trip. (We haven't hit the waves yet in this pic.)



Great clouds! Using what we learned in our weather lecture on Friday night, we could expect the paddling fun to increase as the day went on.



After some bouncing and sloshing, we made it to the Snakes. Great place for a lunch break.







After lunch, some people headed back, some stayed around the islands and some of us headed out to play in the surf.





In this pic, 'Bent models what the fashionable kayaker wears on the way to the surf, including drysuit and helmet. 'Bent was worried about what might happen to his knee if he got knocked out of his kayak, so he and another guy hovered behind some rocks to wait for us.



For obvious reasons, I didn't take any photos of our surf play session. It was just within the limits of my paddling ability and comfort zone. Just! Someone said the waves were 3 meters at the highest point and they were disorganized - crashing in from different directions because of the shallow shoals. I was fine going upwind but it was nervewracking when the time came to turn broadside to the waves before surfing back downwind. It was eye opening to see how hard it was to turn my boat in 20-knot winds.






One of the paddlers dumped in the big surf and had to be rescued. I'd like to have seen it - I can't imagine how hard it would be to rescue someone in crashing surf.

On the return crossing, the guy in front of me was knocked over by a wave, so I got to see Tim Dyer of White Squall execute a speedy rescue in good-sized waves. I think 'Bent and I should plan some practice next season since we've only ever tried kayak rescues in calm water.

Amazing day - lots of fun, good company and some character-building white knuckle moments!

We couldn't leave Nobel without visiting the stunning new home of Wil and Katta Smith - and of course we had to trespass on Hammer's new property on the same road.

"Working with Wind and Waves" workshop with Scott Ewart and Rick Wise. Started on land then headed out to practise some of the concepts on the water. The level 4 effort in the session was when I was towing other kayakers.

'Bent and I headed up and down the channel on the east side of Franklin Island at a good clip. Perfect autumn weather.

Mark Scriver set me up to try a couple of different stand-up paddleboards. No unscheduled swimming and I managed to make it past the kayak polo game a few times without getting tackled. Fun!

We're up in Snug Harbour on Georgian Bay - near Hammer's property on Big Sound Rd. - for the Georgian Bay Storm Gathering organized by White Squall. So cool - about half the people here are kayak guides/instructors from across eastern Canada and it's a fun end-of-season weekend for them too. We'll be doing sessions on surf paddling, rescues, rocks, etc. as well as some day paddling and hopefully SUPing in a beautiful area. In the evenings, we're all staying in warm cabins and meeting with the 40-50 other paddlers for dinner and slide presentations. For once, we actually need all that gear from our basement - drysuits, neoprene hoods, heavy paddling gloves, etc. It's going to be a frosty morning! Looks like we'll be needing paddling helmets too - thanks for the loan, Goose.





After 'Bent's knee surgery, he's looking for a more manageable canoe to portage. This 4-footer seems about right.

BulletDog and I met Sherpa, Harps, Ciara, Arleau, Kona and Trek for a beautiful autumn hike north of Hilton Falls. Great to catch up with friends!



Sherpa demonstrated compass technique using her Blackberry. It even understands declination! (Doesn't she look great for 8 months pregnant? She even went mountain biking earlier this week.)

Since we'll be paddling all weekend, I moved Saturday's "2-hour hills run" back to today - but apparently I need to find a longer route next time! Ran the Bruce Trail side trail up K2 to Glen Haffy, then up and down some big hills in the park, then back home. Running feels great right now and after a 50K race, every training run seems mercifully short.

A little culture for a Wednesday morning - the story of "Hamlet" told via Facebook statuses.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story...

Rode to Albion Hills for a sunset tour of the single track surrounded by spectacular autumn leaves. Couldn't wipe the smile off my face. This is why I ride a bike! :-)

This is the week I'm starting to semi-follow the Coast to Coast training program. It's the beginning of the 8-week "Phase 2 - Speed and Endurance" segment. I missed "Phase 1 - Strength and Endurance" but hope that my regular training and racing was enough.

Steve Gurney's companion notes are very practical. He gives advice about moving training sessions around in the week (OK if you don't do two hard running sessions on back to back days), moving workouts from different days onto the same day, cutting back training hours if you don't have enough time (reduce the cycling), and tapering if you have a race that the training program doesn't include. With all that flexibility, I should be able to let the program guide me.

The kayaking is going to be the hard part in Canada. We have a kayak erg in our basement but it's booooring so I'll be looking for water to paddle on. 'Bent and I are attending the Georgian Bay Storm Gathering in Nobel this weekend so we'll be doing lots of cold water kayaking with some amazing people. Should be fun!

It's a big day for us... 'Bent and BulletDog are hiking home from work - a little over 4 km cross-country. This is 'Bent's first major expedition on foot since his knee surgery 18 days ago. He plans to ride his bike in tomorrow. I've got his ice pack waiting!

Update: 'Bent and BulletDog are home. No knee pain and he even jogged for a minute - yay!

Joined 'Bent for an easy kneehab ride. I took Princess to test her toughness on gravel and uneven ground. She did fine on her skinny tires, even when I had to bounce through the grass to avoid hitting people. 'Bent was riding well!

GLOF Long / Ontario Championship - Almost all my A Meet Long orienteering races plunge into disaster, usually on a long leg. It makes no sense that an adventure racer should be good at Sprints and bad at Long courses, but that's how it is. Maybe it's a concentration problem. I go into every Long race believing that I'm finally going to banish the curse - and so far, I've always been wrong. But today I came close.

Running down the hill from the start, I was surprised to see that the first leg was long - over 1 km with no obvious route choice. There was a curve in the trail and I started away from it in one direction, then circled back to it. (Luckily, I couldn't hear Hammer laughing at me from above.) I took a fairly straight route to #1 using trails where I could. In spite of the time wasted scratching my head at the start, this might have been my best-ever result on a long leg - 3rd fastest split of 28 men and women on our course (13:51). Yahoo!

The leg to #3 was another long one - about 1.2 km - and I wasn't as lucky. After doing the hard part, I had an easy trail run to an obvious attackpoint for the control but I got over-enthusiastic and decided to cut the corner between two trails instead of running to their junction. Unfortunately, when I left the trail, I wasn't where I thought I was. I had to scramble across a steep-sided creek instead of crossing a nice bridge, then when I reached the main trail up above, I wasn't 100% sure which direction to turn. I guessed incorrectly (although in hindsight, the first guess should have been the other way) and had to turn around. Argghhh!!! About 7-8 minutes wasted there. Then I made what felt like a minor error on the way to #4 but Winsplits tells me it was worth 3-4 minutes. That must have been a bad route choice as well since the error didn't take that much time.

I punched #4 and BOOM, someone slammed a baseball bat into my skull. WTF??!!? I was seeing stars - and when they cleared, I also saw a log at forehead level which my hat brim had hidden from my peripheral vision. I was shaken up and in pain and wondered if I should stop racing. As I stumbled down the hill, I saw Valerie and told her what had happened - just in case I didn't show up at the finish. From that point on, I kept trying to analyze whether I was getting stupid or uncoordinated. The problem is, I always spend part of any orienteering race feeling stupid or uncoordinated, so it was really hard to tell!

It seems that a good smack on the noggin was exactly what I needed, since my orienteering and running improved steadily after that. My splits for #8/#9/#10 were 2nd/3rd/2nd of 28. I finished 2nd in my category (9th on the course), 8 minutes behind Marketa, which was just fine by me. I didn't quite banish the curse but this Long race was much less disastrous than usual.

So over the weekend, I came home with a full set - Ontario Champs gold, silver and bronze . Using the cool race analysis tools, it appears that my speed, endurance and strength were fine but navigation skills were the limiting factor. On average, my route choice and execution were good but not great. I haven't orienteered much this year and you just can't fake it at a meet like this. But that's OK - at least I know what I have to work on.

Awesome weekend overall. Excellent job by all the GHO volunteers and Valerie!

Long 5 - Splits

Event: 2010 Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest
 

Thanks to all the volunteers who worked so hard to bring us another amazing Golden Leaf Orienteering Festival. Canterbury Hills Camp was a perfect venue with a grassy central amphitheatre where people could socialize, picnic and watch racers come into the finish. Cabins and meals were available onsite. All 4 races of GLOF weekend started at or near the camp and shared the same finish chute, yet the 3 races that I did each had their own distinctive character. Everything about GLOF was top notch - new maps, interesting courses with tough route choice, warm sunshine and none other than Valerie Meyer managing the SI.

GLOF Sprint / Ontario Championship - This was a forested sprint so I wasn't sure how it would go for me. For some reason, I've been doing well at park and campus sprints over the past few years. Over the same time period, I've lost my touch for Middle distance so the change has not all been good.

As it turned out, the forest part wasn't the problem. The only control I blew was #1, less than 100 m from the start - before we even entered the forest. I wasn't paying attention to the map and I got drawn to the wrong flag, which wasted about 30 seconds. After that, it felt like things went OK but I wouldn't have said it was outstanding.

As it turned out, it was my best run of the weekend and it stood up pretty well. I won my age group and took home a pair of the awesome new red Canada mittens from The Bay. My best two splits (2nd of 30 on the course) were late in the race on legs that involved steep climbs up big, slippery embankments. I guess everyone has his or her specialty and mine is a little weird! I'm sure we'll need to do some steep climbs in Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Raid The Hammer so I'll get to practise this again soon.

GLOF Middle / Ontario Championship - Glenn B. finished this course before I did and complained of a huge error he'd made on #2 due to inattention. As a result, I was super-careful up to that point, then I totally blew #3, just 200 m away. It was in a busy area of the map with spaghetti-style ridges and re-entrants, and my plan for the leg was too imprecise. I got what I deserved - a seemingly endless period of wandering along the hillside as I tried to relocate. Turns out it was only a 5-minute error but it sure felt longer!

Thanks to WinSplits analysis, I realized that I also made a really bad route choice on #7 and lost several more minutes. I took trails where a cross-country route would have been more efficient.

Other than those glitches and some slow-as-molasses running on a couple of legs, the race went fine. I squeaked in 3rd in my age category. Huge congrats to Trudy D who finished 2nd on a tough course and came close to beating Marketa. Seriously impressive!

Sprint 3 - Splits

Middle 5 - Splits

Leanimal and I went to Forks of the Credit Park for an autumn photography session. We were there for most of the morning and given that we travelled several kilometers, climbed up and down the escarpment, and bushwhacked through goldenrod over our heads, I figure we can log some of it. We should have some nice pics.

For the first time, I used my shiny new iPhone to check the Internet from the woods. Untamed New England and Guats weren't quite done the AR World Championship yet but they are done now. Congrats, all!

Core class.

Class with substitute instructor. Caron had told her that we "like to work hard" so she ramped it up. This would have been a great class for anyone who thinks that yoga shouldn't be logged on Attackpoint! (Although I don't log the relaxation - ya gotta have some standards.) One of the tougher things for me was the series of linked one-legged balancing poses where we had to close our eyes - yikes! Most people depend on a visual focal point to keep balanced so this required lots of little foot and leg muscles to work hard and stay in control.

My muscles were screaming at a number of points in the class so I tried to use it as mental toughness training, i.e. do I *really* need to stop doing this or is my brain just telling me that it's painful?

This is just too good not to share. (Bender, please forgive me!) There were pro photographers at the Toad offering many different photo products after the race. The e-mail sent to over 1,000 participants included these examples of the new Trading Card and Magazine Cover we can get made up with our pics. Obviously, they picked a hot guy who they figured would sell a lot of photo products for them. I think we were all expecting this but now it's official... Bender has become the newest male model in our midst, joining the likes of Hansel and Zoolander.

If anyone would like to buy a Bender trading card, I'd be happy to direct you to the website. :-)

First run since the Toad. Around Palgrave West under the careful supervision of BulletDog. Felt surprisingly energetic but could tell that my quads/hams would start to hurt a lot sooner than usual if I was foolish enough to attempt a long run.

Anyone know what the deal is with Gun Time vs. Chip Time? Until recently, I assumed that Chip Time would be used for rankings but in the last two races I've done, the rankings have been done based on Gun Time. I guess it's important to line up near the front of the pack - although I thought that was the whole point of the Chip?

For example, the 28th place runner in the Toad 50K had a faster Chip Time than the 27th place runner. I saw a lot of this at the Centurion too.
http://www.roadraceresults.com/display-race-result...

So here's the progression:

Sat.morning - This is awesome! I love running 50K trail races.
Sat. afternoon - This is painful! But I have to finish.
Sat. night - That may have been my last 50K. I'm not sure it's my distance.
Sun. morning - Ouch!!! I can't believe how many different muscles are hurting. Richard, please bring me coffee.
Sun. afternoon - Hey, I can do stairs again.
Mon. morning - Hmm, when is the next 50K trail race?

This was the first time I've taken Princess - my new road bike - out for a spin in the past two weeks. When I found her in the corner of the garage, a cobweb dangled accusingly from her handlebar. :-( I drove to the corner of Hwy 9 and Concession 3, then rode up into Adjala near the area where Crash and I went riding. A few good hills but this was mostly just a chance to move my legs after Saturday's race. I practised the "half-shift" that repositions the front derailleur depending on which side of the back ring I'm using. Still need more practice to make it a habit.

Ouch!!!!

We're lucky to know a number of talented trail ultrarunners; I'm jealous of the beautiful places they visit and I love hearing their stories. (Although I'm still freaked out by the one where Mrs. Gally went blind when her corneas froze!) I've been talking about ultrarunning forever but so far it's been too much talking and not enough running. Today I finally tried a trail race longer than a marathon. For those who didn't know me two years ago, my one and only road marathon went really, *really* badly. However, with the optimism typical of endurance athletes, I thought that running on uneven terrain and adding an extra 7.8 km might be just the ticket. So I signed up for the Run for the Toad 50 km.

As a multi-sport athlete, I never do a great job of preparing for single sport events. On the days when serious runners would be doing hill intervals, I am paddling or bumping over logs on my mountain bike - and that's how it should be. But I had great intentions of building up my long runs to 35-40 km before running my first 50K. I did the Creemore Vertical Challenge 25K in early July to kick things off. Then along came an unexpected - and welcome - opportunity to do Untamed New England, which effectively wiped out August with all the tapering, packing, racing and recovery. Then I did Logs Rocks and Steel on Labour Day just to make sure there was no chance of getting back into a training rhythm. It's easy to understand why 140 people paid for the Toad 50K but only 100 actually showed up to run it yesterday.

One of the things I like about single sport events vs. adventure racing is how much easier it is to pack. So it was a forehead-slapping moment when I realized (about an hour from home) that I'd left my carefully-prepared Camelbak bladders and eLoad behind. A real ultrarunner wouldn't carry a hydration bladder, of course, but that's how I trained and I was planning to use two packs with bladders - one for each 25K. I would get food at the aid stations. Luckily, Kirikou took our emergency call and directed us to a cycling shop in Cambridge for a last-minute purchase. Argghh.

Several of our friends were also doing Run for the Toad and a big part of the fun was hanging out with them and their families. My parents live nearby and it was cool to have them there for a couple of hours. With the marching bagpipe band, national anthem, flag raising for Canada & U.S., and speeches from local dignitaries, this was a little flashier than my usual events. Mom and Dad had fun.



Hansel's family was there too.



And Gazelle's family. (New baby Kyle was there but isn't in this photo.)



Andrew was cheering on Funderstorm.



'Bent hung out at the aid station we passed at kms 6 and 9, supporting Gazelle with a detailed list of instructions and occasionally handing me cookies. He started helping the volunteers pour drinks too, since he hates sitting still - but he respected his doctor's orders to sit with his leg up at times.



Alas, we have no pics of Bender or Trav, who both went so fast in the 25K that it was physically impossible to photograph them, according to 'Bent. Trav ran it in Five Fingers! At the opening ceremonies, he told me, "50K is just a decision." Those were wise words that came back to me.

Hansel looked great out there. He finished the 50K in 3rd overall (2nd male) in a speedy time of 4 hrs 2 min!!! The overall winner (by 18 minutes!) was Ellie Greenwood.



Gazelle looked great out there too. He was 9th overall in 4:29. So nice to see him racing in Canada before he and Gazette head back to Tajikistan.



The photos show me landing hard on my heels in spite of best intentions to improve my running form. Clearly, it's time to get the Five Fingers out again. In this pic, I've got my arm warmers rolled down ready to pass to 'Bent.



So... what was it like to run 50K for the first time? At the beginning, it was very, very easy. I'd hoped for a negative split but I realized early on that I wouldn't achieve it. I'd underestimated the "power of the pacer". During the first lap, I fell into the rhythm of the runners around me. It didn't feel like I was even breathing hard but I could see that my pace was much faster than planned. I thought about consciously slowing down but I was feeling so good that I couldn't bring myself to do it. When I finished my first lap (of four) in 1 hr 16 min, I knew that I wouldn't come close to a negative split.

The 2nd lap was the same - 83 seconds longer but it included a break in the campground washroom. (Sinks, soap and flush toilets during a race - luxury!) In addition to the positive effect of having pacers around me, there was no feeling of pressure because 90% of the people in the race were doing the 25K distance, so I didn't care what anyone else was doing. As directed by Dee, I speed-walked up half a dozen of the steeper hills and if someone was running the same hill, I knew they were probably on the final lap of their 25K, so there was no anxiety.

Bender was waiting for me after my 2nd lap and ran a short distance with me to find out how I was doing and update me on his awesome 25K race (1:51!). So nice to see a friendly face. It was also great to see Charlotte V and Gary B at the nearby aid station - and also Kinga and Stephan M at the next aid station. I switched packs and headed out for the 3rd lap.

Omigod... the 3rd lap. This was by far the hardest lap from a mental and physical perspective. There was still a looooong way to go and it was lonely out there. The 25K runners were mostly done and the 50K runners were spread out. I passed a lot of 25K walkers but it was rare to see another runner so I had to monitor pace with my Forerunner to make sure I was on track. A couple of things had started in the 2nd lap that became steadily worse in the 3rd lap. First one hip flexor and then the other began to hurt. Then the pain/stiffness radiated from my hips down the sides of my thighs, then it converted to pure quad pain. Ouch.

The other factor - which was tough but favoured me and our adventure racing friends - was the constant cold rain. By the end of the 2nd lap, there were hills where the mud was so slippery that I hauled myself up along the edge of the trail by grabbing goldenrod and saplings. Going downhill required spastic, ankle-protecting, full-body dance moves. Much of the Toad trail is off-camber, and with 5-10 cm of goopy mud on its surface, people were falling or sliding right off the trail even in "flat" sections. This required slower, more cautious running but it also helped me gain time on runners who don't orienteer or adventure race, so I can't complain.

My 3rd lap was 6 minutes slower than the 1st lap. Not good for a negative split but it could have been a lot worse. Bender was there to cheer again - thank you! I'd been following a woman for the final km of the 3rd lap, and as we headed out for our 4th and final lap, the announcer called out her name. I was simultaneously thrilled and disappointed to recognize the name of the 3rd place Masters Woman from the 2009 race. The "thrilled" part is self-explanatory. The "disappointed" part is because I thought she looked under 40 from behind, i.e. not in my category. I pulled up alongside her and she turned, smiled and said, "Well, *now* things start to get interesting!" She pulled into the aid station but I didn't need to because of my hydration pack (woo hoo!)

For the entire 4th lap, I imagined that she was right on my tail. The spectre of an invisible competitor is very powerful! I ran up a few hills that I'd walked in the first 3 laps - because Dee said I could. ;-) The final lap was much easier mentally. At every kilometer marker, I counted down the number of kilometers left. "No problem - anyone can run 6K!" I wondered when I would hit the 22-mile "wall" people talk about in road marathons. By the time I worked through the calculation, I realized that I'd passed it 6 km earlier. Yay. At the 42.2 km mark, I'd shaved 21 minutes off my road marathon time. (I hit my personal wall at 17 miles in that event.) I passed a few men on this final lap because they were run-walking or taking the mud more cautiously. I was a little kamikaze in the mud but I was hurting pretty badly so did my best to stay upright.

I pushed hard in the last couple of kilometers and was *very* happy to cross the finish line in 5:21. Funderstorm said she crossed the finish line feeling like she could keep going. I'm impressed because I just felt really, really, really glad to be done.



Check out those muddy legs!



Funderstorm had the best smile as she got her finisher's medal and recorded her 2010 PB in very tough conditions!



Conditions slowed the race down this year and I was lucky to place 3rd of 22 Masters women (8th/35 women). The two women who finished ahead of me were in a completely different league - 40 minutes faster! Renowned ultrarunner Laurie McGrath was 1st and Robin Todd, who recently ran a 3:21 marathon, was 2nd. The woman I'd passed at the start of the final lap finished 13 minutes behind me and claimed 4th place.

So... I will donate $50 to Myeloma Canada after beating my 5:40 target. I had no idea what to expect at my first 50K - obviously! I'm not sure if 50 km is my distance though because it hurts soooo much now! Who knew that every muscle in your body is involved in running?! On the other hand, I felt relatively stronger compared to other racers in the second half of the race. My final lap was faster than the final lap of a third of the people who finished ahead of me. So maybe I will just have to suck it up and get better at suffering because I know I can't be competitive at shorter distances. My longest training run was only 27 km so it's entirely possible that proper preparation would have eased the pain somewhat.

I didn't come close to the negative split I was aiming for but it could have been worse. The difference between my slowest and fastest laps was 8.5 minutes. Of the 30 people who beat me, all but three of them had a bigger difference between their slowest and fastest laps, so my consistency was OK. Interestingly, those three people were women - Ellie and the two Masters Women who finished ahead of me.

I have a new theory about the negative split concept. I think in a long race, it is less about time and more about perceived effort. I didn't push in the 1st lap and I pushed hard in the last lap. However, my body couldn't achieve the same pace for the same effort as the day went on. What seemed to matter was that I saved enough energy to run up a few hills in the 4th lap and I felt strong even though I was going more slowly. Or maybe I'm just making this stuff up so I'll feel better about totally blowing it! :-)

Anyway, it was a fun learning experience and it was great to see all our friends do so well. Thanks to 'Bent for standing in the chilly rain and cheering and taking photos and handing me snacks. Next time I hope he's out there running too!