Training Log Archive: Bash

Algonquin Park canoe trip - Day 3

'Bent, BulletDog and I went for a paddle this morning and discovered that an awesome campsite we'd seen yesterday had been vacated early. It was perfect - or so we thought. (Foreshadowing!) We paddled 5 minutes back to our own campsite and threw everything quickly in the boat so we could move up to this "mansion".



There were big rocks to swim from and relax on. Great views.





Nice area for tents and walking.





BulletDog explored everywhere and enjoyed the new smells.



Unlike ThunderDog, we often have to encourage her to swim and cool off. The slippery rocks at water's edge are a little scary for her, we think. A game of "toss the stick" always gets her in though.





After setting up our new camp and eating a snack, we put together our 5-piece kayak paddles and headed out for a training session in a stiff breeze. All our paddling on this trip was done at a good level of intensity to get some training value out of it, particularly the kayak paddling. I ended up with sore muscles.

Nearly all the other canoeists had cleared out by Sunday afternoon on a holiday weekend. Big Trout Lake was deserted. Cool!

Note that BulletDog is the only family member who wears a bear bell. We figure it's only fair to give the bears a chance.





We went up to the Lake La Muir portage (2.6 km) and ran it out and back. BulletDog was getting hot and the FDFs had found us, so we decided against a second trip.









When we got back, we set up the Thermarest chairs. Ahhh, refreshing breeze, wine, books, podcasts.



Then we made dinner and I took the bowl to my chair. About 90 seconds later, a mouse raced across the rock in my peripheral vision, heading straight for me. Normally I'll do anything to avoid injury but in this case, the priority was saving the only dinner I was going to get tonight. I shot out of the chair and dove face first to the side away from the mouse, holding my dinner bowl up like a football player making an amazing catch. I smacked my knee hard on a rock. Ouch. Blood.



Oh, and there was also a blood curdling shriek. I can't deny it. While I'm happy to rappel 200' off a cliff or race in the dark in bear country, I scream like a little girl if mice get too close. It's not as if I'm unfamiliar with them. When I was single, I lived in a log house where I had to set traps and empty them myself, but I'm much happier when mice keep their distance. 'Bent is not fond of my mouse shriek since he feels it should be reserved for *real* danger, like a bear attack.

Since I'd scared the mouse off, I sat down to finish dinner. Within 60 seconds, the evil little guy ran up the back of my chair and down my left arm toward my dinner bowl. Another speedy leap, another shriek. I finished dinner standing up, watching the mouse cruise our kitchen, jump onto the mouthpiece of my water bottle and stand bravely nose-to-nose with my curious, unhelpful "guard dog".

He was a deer mouse and we decided to name him. My first thought was "Dexter the Deer Mouse" but I couldn't do that to Baby Kirikou. Then 'Bent suggested "Darth", which stuck.

I managed to suppress my shrieking for the rest of the evening. If we were going to live with Darth, we'd have to learn how to live in peace. But when I visited the thunderbox after dark, I opened the lid and in my headlamp beam, a mouse scurried out of the hole and shot across the toilet seat. I screamed like I'd been stabbed. Back in the tent, 'Bent sighed mightily and politely asked if I needed help. For the rest of the trip, I always kicked the thunderbox first to let animals know I was there. For some reason, even though we spent two more nights at this campsite, we never saw Darth or his friends again - but we were always watching for them!

Algonquin Park canoe trip Day 2 - McIntosh Lake to Big Trout Lake



For much of today's journey, we travelled along winding rivers and through wetlands filled with frogs on lily pads.



In the middle of Grassy Lake, a large wetland area, I made a 20-minute nav error and took us along the wrong creek until it became unnavigable. (Lots of other people had done this too, which is why the creek stayed navigable for quite a distance.) Funny that I had more trouble with the Algonquin Park canoe routes map this time, largely because I took it more seriously than I used to in the days when I did less navigating in the rest of my life. Some of the info on the map is approximate and often it's best to just go with the most likely looking route in the terrain. We met some other paddlers who had made the same wrong turn using the free Algonquin Map from the Internet. As soon as I looked at their map, I knew where we needed to go. In this case, the Algonquin Map was more accurate than the official canoe route map.

BulletDog tried out a few different things today. For awhile, she waded and swam in the river beside the canoe.



Later, she climbed into the bow and cuddled up.



Big Trout Lake is well into the park and it was surprising to find ourselves in a 4 p.m. rush hour for campsites, as if we were playing musical chairs. We ended up on a small island across a narrow channel from a noisy but happy family. Not what we had in mind but nothing to be upset about. This was Saturday night of the long weekend and by the next morning, almost everyone had gone. After that, Big Trout Lake was like a ghost town!



We sat out in the evening light and went for a sunset paddle. Nice.



Looking up.





Sunset.

Algonquin Park canoe trip - Day 1

'Bent, BulletDog and I headed into the backcountry for a week of peace and relaxation. Well, sort of. We both have races coming up so we planned to do some training, but there was plenty of time for swimming (which doesn't count as training at our skill level), reading, listening to podcasts and just admiring the view.



We were going to revisit some of the lakes we paddled on our honeymoon 15 years ago in September. We weren't adventure racers then but we were definitely canoeists. We travelled about 9 hours each day and did 37 portages in 5 days, ranging from a hundred meters to several kilometers. This time we were planning a lighter schedule. After all, BulletDog was with us and we didn't want to be cruel to animals.

We put in at Canoe Lake, one of the busiest access points in the park on the Friday before the long August weekend. Really good thinking, Bash. Naturally, the beach was packed but it was still beautiful. (I didn't start taking photos till we were past the main crowd.)



We got out on the water along with lots of others. Many canoes were fishtailing up the lake with three people flinging their paddles frantically from one side to the other. I couldn't suppress my inner racer and every time we passed a boat (which was often because we were paddling hard), I caught myself thinking, "Ha! There's another coed team." There were boats with coolers and folding chairs, boats with 20-something guys who yelled constantly about nothing just to hear their own voices, and paddlers of both sexes who were exposing far too much skin on a sunny day and would regret it when they portaged tomorrow.

Instead of being turned off by the crowd, I had a feeling of camaraderie since we were all (or mostly) Canadians who had chosen to spend our holiday weekend in a canoe. So in spite of how different we might have seemed from one another in some ways, we had something fundamental in common that brought us all together from different walks of life.

Eventually, we moved away from the crowds.



Joe Lake.





The canoe campsite on Joe Lake where we got married in front of 100 friends and family members, most of them sitting on their PFDs.



Our trip from this point on was going to be a loop that would return to our wedding campsite after 6 days, then we'd head back to Canoe Lake.

BulletDog was an excellent canoe trip companion.



We headed up to Tom Thomson Lake then portaged into Ink Lake. I once read in a backpacking guide that a woman should never carry more than 25% of her body weight in her backpack, and a man should carry a maximum of 30%. Using that rule, we would both need to weigh 360 lb to get all our stuff over the portage in one trip! I carried 90 lb on the first day before we started eating the food. The Ink Lake portage is a tough, rocky, rolling 2.3 km slog and I decided to count portaging as CrossFit-type strength training instead of mere "trekking".

This photo shows my "short, lazy" portage method. For longer portages, I attached everything to the big pack. I can only do one rep of flinging 90 lb onto my back, so it's risky. If it had ever backfired, I would have needed to rest a minute before trying again - although I'd probably have wrecked myself on the first try.



'Bent had about 110 lb including the canoe. Not much fun but we have an inviolable "1-trip portage" rule, sort of like the K2 Rule in Hamilton.



We followed the creek into McIntosh Lake for our first night.



There was a stiff breeze with weird clouds so we grabbed one of the first open campsites we found in case a storm came in.



After dinner, we used some of our precious duct tape to repair our wine. I'd been pleased to find 1L tetrapaks of wine as a luxury item - white for 'Bent and red for me. What I didn't realize is that tetrapaks disintegrate when they get wet, so it was an ongoing battle to preserve the remaining wine. We both lost wine that ran out into our packs over the first two days. It was so frustrating to have to ration myself to a small daily glass when I could smell red wine on everything in my backpack - even the toilet paper! The silver lining is that the wine wasn't very good. And here I would have expected that only the finest vintage would be put into a tetrapak.



The storm didn't come but the west wind kept blowing into the evening and the clouds remained unusual - also very beautiful.





The clouds grew quickly and we witnessed a wild type of weather phenomenon, maybe a gust front. In less than a minute, we went from a stiff breeze from the west to a strong wind blowing from the east. We ran around camp making sure that nothing could blow away. Blackness fell around us as the wall of dark cloud moved across the sky leaving only a little strip of clear sky.



We went to our tent, expecting a thunderstorm to follow since we'd seen some lightning. I had a bad feeling about the strong wind and told 'Bent I wanted to move the tent over a few meters. I didn't like the look of the white pine above us. 'Bent extolled its virtues, pointing out its obvious health and greenery, but I couldn't shake the thought and invoked the "square dance rule". 'Bent agreed to move the tent. This rule in our marriage dates back to the time when we arrived at a community hall for a reunion that included a square dance. As a structural engineer, as soon as I walked into the place, I felt uncomfortable about its structural soundness and the plan to hold a square dance there. 'Bent thought I was being silly - until the floor collapsed during a group photo long before the dancing began. Ever since then, he is more inclined to go along with my instincts, even when he thinks I'm overreacting.

We took out all the tent pegs and started to slide the tent over with all the gear inside. As we did this, I was hit by a small branch that stung more than I would have expected. The process was awkward and slow, and we suddenly heard a huge crack from the tree above. Aaackkk!! We yelled in the darkness, encouraging BulletDog and each other to run away. A huge, deadly branch crashed down a few meters away. We pegged the tent down in its new location but didn't want to go in yet. We stood near smaller trees for a few minutes until the wind faded a little. Then we went into the tent where I couldn't fall asleep for awhile. Ahhh, sweet, relaxing vacation.

Here's the branch when we checked it out near our tent the next morning. Ouch. Yes, that is my "I told you so" look.

How does this always happen...? Up after 3 a.m. packing for canoe trip and cleaning for house sitter. Turns out a week's worth of food weighs a heck of a lot! Who needs strength training when I'm going to be portaging 437 lb for 20 km? Looking forward to it anyway! I'm off the Internet till Thurs. night. Catch you on the other side.

I tweeted with a hashtag for the first time today. I feel soooo cool... ;) I'm finally up to date for 2009.

2011 Tour de France... it had everything!

Exciting, hard fought bike race in gorgeous scenery.



A worthy champion.



Raw emotions. This is Frank Schleck comforting little brother Andy when he was fully spent after the time trial, where he lost the Tour. I love the juxtaposition of the intimate connection between brothers and the swarm of media.



Fabian (le sigh...) ;)



A great collection of pics is at:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/07/2011_tour...

Twilight run in Palgrave West with BulletDog. Once I'd warmed up, this felt really good - maybe a 12K race pace. (Until I'd warmed up, it felt horrid.) For some reason, I was loving the uphills today.

BulletDog and I took a break to pick raspberries - both of us. I had a pang as I remembered all the things Tobler taught her "little sister", including the fine art of gently pulling berries off a stem without getting pricked by thorns.

FDFs cut our berry picking break short.

Looking ahead at the rest of the year, I'm thinking about how to re-jig my training. There are only two more races in my current plans that have biking or paddling - the Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race and Logs Rocks & Steel. They're both solo events so I can choose how hard I want to race based on what else I'm trying to do in the same time period. Everything else is on foot - the CNYO Rogaine in late August, Run for the Toad 50K in early October, Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Raid The Hammer in November, and likely a 50-mile trail running race in the final 3 months of the year. So I guess I should be training to be a runner for a change.

Science supports the belief that cycling has become a cleaner sport. In the Tour de France, racers are riding more slowly than they did a decade ago and - more importantly - within the predicted physiological capacity of humans.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/2...>

(Bike computer time excluding stops and starts.)
Rode around Forks of the Credit Provincial Park to hang flags and punches for today's C3 Day Camp orienteering session.

Attempted to explain the basics of map reading to a gaggle of kids aged 6-11.

Sample conversations:
Bash: Everyone please look at your compass and point toward north.
Kids: Can we start now?
Bash: The black dashed lines on your map are trails.
Kids: Can we start *now*?

The next part of my day involved riding frantically around the same trail sections, herding kids who were travelling at different speeds and making a variety of route choices over the 3 km course. The other adults and teenaged counsellors were on foot so I had allies but they weren't as fast. I turned around a few kids who had started sprinting to the next town along with their counsellor. The camp director had put several bags of candy at each of the three bonus CPs and most kids skipped them once word got out that the candy had all been claimed. (This would have been nice in Equinox Traverse.)

Brief panic at the end because the camp director was expecting 20 kids but we could only account for 18 after what had seemed like careful sweeping and herding of the troops throughout the session. My heart rate reached a new max as I imagined them plunging over Cataract Falls or wandering into the village of Belfountain at the bottom of the escarpment. (Those of us without kids are bigger worriers than actual parents.) Fortunately, one of the counsellors announced that only 18 kids had boarded the bus that morning, so two had stayed home. Phew. The kids did a great job and chattered away afterward, sharing war stories about deadly raspberry thorns and plants over their heads.

Rode around the course one last time to take down flags before rewarding myself with lunch at The Shed. Any excuse for an iced latte. :)

The Might Tiny (is that an oxymoron?) and I teamed up for the CNYO Rogaine last year when his regular partner M&M was off crushing everyone in the Canadian Death Race (7th/418). This year my speedy partner will be JayXC. Watch your backs, Tiny and M&M! Remember Nova Scotia. ;)

P.S. On the off chance you should beat us, we're actually not in your category due to our, um, greater maturity.

Anyone else coming on Aug. 27-28? Not much info posted yet but this is always a good event.
http://cnyo.us.orienteering.orgs

Just booked a 1-week canoe trip in Algonquin Park, revisiting some of the lakes we paddled on our honeymoon 15 years ago. BulletDog hasn't been on as many canoe trips as Tobler so this will be a great experience for her. We're looking forward to some quiet family time and will definitely miss the 75-lb pooch who used to crowd us off our Thermarests on most nights in the tent.

Since we both have races coming up, we are figuring out ways to fit training into a relaxing holiday. We'll bring canoe and kayak paddles so we can do some power paddling after we've set up camp, and we're setting up base camp on a backcountry lake near a 2.6 km portage so we can go trail running. We can do some form of strength training, and lots of swimming is a given. When we get back, Attackpoint will tell the tale of how dedicated we were!

Fun Bruce Trail run as a part of today's Super-stravaganza. After 46 hrs and 22,000 feet of elevation gain last weekend, I didn't expect much spring in my step today but the legs weren't too bad. Just in case, when we did the car shuttle, I requested an early drop-off at Guelph Line along with Raf. Hansel, Turbo, Bender, Super and 'Bent continued on to Rattlesnake Point to get in a few extra kilometers before heading in our direction.

Great technical run with lots of rocks, roots, uneven ground and steep little climbs, broken up by some fast hard-packed trail sections and a splash of pavement. I worked on converting Raf to the joys of trail running with some success. At first he was hating the rocks and looking forward to the smooth sections but by the end, he was surprised at how much easier it was on his body than his usual city pavement runs.

Just before we headed down off the escarpment at the lower end of Mt. Nemo Conservation Area, we phoned the main peleton to see where they were. They were just entering Mt. Nemo so we ran back a kilometer to a lookout where we took a break to wait for them.

Turns out the boys had suffered major attrition due to injury and deerfly attacks. Only Bender, Super and 'Bent remained, and Bender was sporting impressive, bloody trail rash on his right shoulder and left upper thigh. I can't picture how he managed to land on only those two body parts but I'm told he made quite an impression on a group of passing hikers.

Back to the beautiful Casa del Super for an awesome BBQ and pool party. We were joined by Trav, Baloney and various other pooches and human family members. The Mini-Supers did a great job of dog-sitting BulletDog while we ran. Jildo and 5-week-old Kaden stopped by. Hansel demonstrated that he is loved by both babies and dogs - maybe a future career in politics?

Great to see J-Ro again after hanging out together at the Boston Marathon. As Super pointed out, it's been an awfully long time since this whole group has had a chance to hang out in person. Although it seems like we chat all the time on AP, there's no substitute for getting together in real life. Much thanks to Super and J-Ro for taking the initiative to make it happen! :)

What an exciting Tour de France THAT was!!! (Well, technically it's not over yet.)

At Forks of the Credit hanging flagging tape and checking control locations for an orienteering session at a kids' day camp next week. They're very enthusiastic but I am unspeakably bad at (a) wrangling children and (b) teaching beginners how to do just about anything. Ya, this should go well. :)

Just a quick workout in front of le Tour because I want massive pipes like my hero Andy Schleck.

Tooooo hot to go outside when I don't have to. Legs were sluggish; apparently a 46-hour adventure race causes a wee bit of fatigue. My muscles and joints have been relatively pain-free since ET. The one exception is my stupid, stupid headlamp injury. Never take off a 24 lb pack while your headlamp is on your helmet and your battery is in your pack. Especially if you forget about the battery part. The pack yanked my neck hard to one side. Whiplash!

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Equinox Traverse 46-hour adventure race
Ohiopyle State Park, Pennsylvania

Mountain biking - 236 km
Trekking - 64 km
Paddling - 17 km
Total elevation gain: 6700 meters (22,000')!

JayXC's report with detailed breakdown by discipline

Sony's report with elevation gain for each section

This event attracted a good field of racers including 3 of the top 4 teams in the Checkpoint Tracker Series. I was racing with Team Checkpoint Zero/Tech4o, the team currently leading the series (gulp!). JayXC (Jason Urckfitz) and Sony (Jeff Woods) are very experienced competitors (formerly Team Eastern Mountain Sports) who are accustomed to racing with speedier women like Jen Shultis and Jenny Johnson. But they knew they were racing with a non-Jennifer this time, and they'd cheerfully agreed to dust off their tow ropes. The three of us had spent time together at the APEX Race in Switzerland in May where each of our teams failed to complete the course after a team member had trouble keeping food down. For all of us, the main goal of Equinox Traverse was to get to the finish line with a decent result, something that eluded us in Switzerland.

JayXC lives in Rochester and we needed a place to leave one of our cars in Buffalo. Attackpoint to the rescue! Dave Cady (Dcady) generously offered us a secure parking place in his fenced yard in Buffalo. How do you recognize an orienteer's house? It's pretty easy, actually.



It took 9 hours to get to Ohiopyle State Park from home. Maps were distributed at check-in and we had to transpose the points and forbidden routes from master maps onto our own. The course was bike-heavy with 20 mandatory checkpoints and four optional trek or bike rogaine sections set up at CPs along the way. We would get each rogaine map when we arrived at that section. This type of course design is a good way to minimize the spread between teams but I would prefer to get all maps up front. Otherwise, there is a major element of luck since you can't plan strategy properly when you don't know what is coming up. Should we skip optional checkpoint 12 because it may be easier to get optional checkpoint 19 on a map we haven't seen yet? Who knows?!

We were only going to see our gear bins once about 5 hours into a 46 hour race. That is a lot of stuff to carry! Food, clothing, batteries for two nights, trekking shoes (to carry during bike sections), etc. Our packs each weighed in at 23-25 lb with no room to spare. JayXC carried the team gear and had to leave out things like his trekking poles and the "recommended but not mandatory" snakebite kit, lovingly known as The Extractor.



Since we didn't have the kit, we kept our eyes open for rattlesnakes and copperheads. Apparently you are supposed to put your foot onto a log and step away from it rather than stepping over a log and possibly annoying a snake huddled against it on the other side.

The boys did the lion's share of the map work. Outside maps were permitted and pretty much required for a good result. The map prep included a lot of conversations like, "OK, which trail did we take here last time?" We consulted Google maps on my netbook now and then. Because I'd just received the news about Tobler, I could barely think clearly enough to pack my gear so I wasn't much help.



It was a nice surprise to learn that I wasn't the only Canadian in the crowd. Hammer and Laura raced together.



And Owen and Barb Steele were part of a team of four. Barb distinguished herself later in the race by launching like a rocket off her bike, landing hard on her chin on the handlebar end. Ouch. She kept going, of course.



We had a quick race briefing just before the 10 a.m. start.



Here are JayXC, me and Sony, ready to rock 'n' roll.



We lined up on the rail trail where teams went out at 15-second intervals.



We soon turned onto a technical mountain bike trail that climbed up toward CP1. It was rocky and rooty with some logs to hop - a very fun trail in a non-race situation. We were doing OK and passed a couple of teams in rough sections, but something was wrong with my legs. My brain issued the standard command to generate power from my quads/hammies but they responded like jello. I knew I'd let my heart rate get too high on a hot, humid day but this was still weird. My legs seemed completely fatigued before they'd even done anything. I'm still not sure what the problem was but I'll have to see if I can recreate it so I can understand how to prevent it. Perhaps it was caused by going anaerobic uphill off the start without a warm-up or maybe it was the initial shock of pushing hard in heat and humidity. It also might have been the 3-hour sleep I had the night before. Because it was so unusual, I wonder if my body was mirroring some of my emotional shock. My head felt fuzzy from crying the night before; for hours I wondered if I had nutrition/hydration/electrolyte issues but that's not what it was, and it cleared up by sunset.

One of the reasons for how awful I felt became clear on the descent from the high point above CP1 to the bike/paddle TA. We rode a rough gravel road that went down, down, down followed by down, down, down, down. Our destination was an upstream put-in on the same river where we'd started, i.e. this crazy-long descent was actually less vertical drop than our climb up had been. Maybe it wasn't so weird to feel pooched.

The paddle took us down the Youghiogheny River (yeah, I had to google the spelling) back to our starting point. It was several hours of shallow, rocky current through fabulous highland scenery. Earlier in the year, this section would have lots of class 1 and probably some class 2 rapids. We hit some fun wave trains and JayXC ensured that I got nicely splashed and cooled down. It was a fantastic break on a hot day.



Our boats were self-bailing duckies so we sat in water all the time, which felt good even though the boats were annoying and slow. We had to use rental kayak paddles which felt sooooo heavy compared to my lightweight carbon paddles. This was the first of two occasions in the race when I noted that more upper body strength training would have come in handy.

Sony was in a one-man ducky, paddling strongly.



JayXC and I shared a less-inflated boat that seemed to suffer from extra drag. We christened it the Lame Ducky. The main challenge of this section was avoiding boulders since the rubber ducky stuck tenaciously to rock. Even when we paddled hard, it felt like we were crawling through flatter water, but whenever we went through rapids, we gained time on other boats. JayXC read the river very well and chose great lines, which is difficult in low water. I was in the bow on watch for hidden rocks. Alas, several of them were really good at hiding!





We came off the river in Ohiopyle and ran to our vehicles to grab our rappelling gear. It was just a short jog up the rail trail to a high bridge over the river. We rappelled about 100' off the bridge then ran back up to the van.





This was our only gear bin visit so we'd planned a major stop even though it was early. Eat, drink, put on sunscreen, change into dry clothing and load a whole pile o' crap into our packs for the remaining 40 hours of the race! Then we set off on a 4-hour trek where we were required to stay on the Laurel Highlands trail for the first section. Beautiful, scenic rocky trail, lots of climb and descent. I was glad to have my trekking poles.





We did the AR shuffle on the downhills and some flats and a lot of speed hiking too. There was lots of racing left and our packs were ridiculously heavy. Mine added almost 20% on top of my body weight - much more than I usually train with.





At a certain point, we were no longer required to stay on the Laurel Highlands trail and that's when we should have forded the river and used the rail trail. Instead we followed an ATV track on our side of the river which looked flatter on the map than it turned out to be in real life. We lost time to a few teams here and, with 20/20 hindsight, we should have bitten the bullet and soaked the dry shoes and socks we'd just put on.

Shortly before the TA in the town of Confluence, we stopped at a gas station for the luxury of ice cold water to refill our bladders. Coke too - yum. (In real life, I can't drink the stuff.)



Then we picked up our bikes at the TA where friendly volunteers gave us a good send-off.







JayXC offered his tow rope as we started the climb out of Confluence. Yessss! He's a road bike racer with huge calf muscles and legs shaved more nicely than mine so I ended up getting bike-towed more in this race than in any other event. We towed on some rugged terrain and luckily I only tried to knock him down a couple of times. As darkness fell, my legs started to feel great and I began climbing well on my own - a huge relief after the weakness this morning. An orange-red moon rose on the horizon and fireflies were everywhere. It was magical.



The next few hours were spent climbing, climbing, climbing, descending, climbing, etc. on a mix of road types. At one point, I started seeing a lot of squished rattlesnakes on the road but Sony, with the benefit of his superior state of wakefulness, assured me they were mere hallucinations. I'm not sure which was worse.





Then we got to the first trek rogaine. We were told we had a deadline of 8 a.m. and they didn't expect any teams to have time for the bike rogaine at the same location. Fine. Great! It took a little time to get maps ready and each of us carried a different map of the area, all of which were useful at different times. It was cool to be on a team with three engineers who all navigate, and JayXC did a great job of leading the charge.





For the most part, things went smoothly and we picked up 5 of the 9 optional points. It turned out to be farther to the finish than one of the trail maps indicated at a glance, so we ended up doing a sprint with me on tow, arriving 4 minutes before the deadline. Oops. Then we learned that the deadline for the bike rogaine had been moved later so we'd be heading back into the same area right away. To be honest, we'd been OK with the idea of missing the bike rogaine since various body parts were telling us that we'd already done a *lot* of biking!





Early in the bike rogaine (about 9 a.m. on Day 2), I started weaving and realized that caffeine was no longer working for me, so we lay down and set the alarm for 10 minutes. As always happens with catnaps, I couldn't fall asleep right away but even a few minutes were enough to get me back in the game. We started out planning to clean the bike rogaine course but after 4 of the 5 optional points, the guys suggested that we move on. For some reason, I'd got it into my sleep-deprived head that we only had one more trek rogaine with 5 OPs, so I convinced them to stick with the original plan. Bad idea. Very, *very* bad idea. We invested about 90 extra minutes on some extremely unpleasant trails to pick up the final point. We whined a bit; I invited well-deserved abuse to be heaped upon my head. We'd been picking up OPs at a rate of about 1 per hour so this was almost certainly not worth it - although one can never be sure without seeing the maps for the upcoming rogaines. As Sony pointed out, we used a lot of energy in the heat of the day in those trail conditions, and that was probably more significant than the time we spent.

On our way to Hidden Valley Ski Resort, we stopped at another gas station for an early afternoon refuelling stop. I had a sandwich and pasta salad, Coke and two bottles of Starbucks iced mocha Frappucino, one of which I used to fill my bike water bottle. Yum, why have I never tried *that* before? We refilled our bladders with cold water too.

We picked up the next trek rogaine map at the ski resort and counted a *lot* of contour lines on it. Man, do I look tired in this photo!



Things went well here. We picked up another 5 OPs by doing a good job of route planning, speed hiking and navigating. We were working toward a 10 p.m. deadline and, just for a change, we thought we'd try to finish early enough that we didn't have to sprint back! We had to skip the final OP we were aiming for but we got back to the resort with time to spare.







Back on our bikes and up, up, up through the ski resort after a break to get water from the main lodge. Then some fun downhill as a reward followed by a couple of hours where the climbs just kept on coming, usually on rough gravel road or ATV trails, with a couple of inadvertent detours.

It's always a bonus when you stumble upon a map on a sign in a remote area. Unfortunately, in some parts of the country, it is apparently traditional to blast out the "You are here" section with a shotgun.



We followed some technical single track next to a steep drop, then crossed a creek several meters wide on slick, mossy rocks while attempting to keep our slippery-soled bike shoes dry, using our bikes for balance. It felt like we were in Cirque du Soleil!

After picking up a few CPs, we returned to Confluence where we took another 10-minute catnap because both Sony and I were starting to fall asleep, which is never good on a bike. Another quick nap did the trick (along with copious quantities of caffeine) and we were both fine until the end of the race.

We had to ride up Sugarloaf on Fire Tower Road - about 1500' (?) of steady climb on a rough road with some loose rocky sections that took a lot of power to ascend. Unfortunately, we had a deadline to get to TA6 on the other side of the mountain, and it was going to be tight. We'd already done 20,000 feet of climbing in the race so far, and in trying to follow JayXC's line up one of many rocky sections, my legs ran out of steam, and I hit a small rock and tipped over. Argghh. After that, I realized that I'd have to walk some of the nastier sections to keep my heart rate down and save power for the more easily rideable parts of the climb. It didn't make a huge difference to my speed anyway but it would have been nice if my legs had cooperated, given the approaching deadline. When we got to the mountain ridge, it was great to go fast again but it still seemed to take forever to make it to Hopi Camp where TA6 was located. Once there, the map was relatively useless in finding the TA staff in the network of roads and trails, and we cut it very close to the wire. Luckily, we were given the green light to continue to the finish.

We had to climb again (of course!!) before descending to the finish. Much of our return route followed the same mountain bike trail we'd taken at the race start. It was a continuous rocky, rooty downhill - challenging riding - and I could see why my legs had protested on the way up. This long, bumpy descent also showed me another good reason to beef up my upper body strength training. Boy, did I have to hang on hard to my bike!

We crossed the finish line at 7:24 a.m. with over half an hour to spare. Phew, I'd been so afraid we would DNF because I couldn't ride fast enough in the final two hours. I could start breathing again!



After an amazing breakfast buffet in the sunshine at the Firefly Grill, we snuck off for showers and returned for the awards ceremony where we took 3rd in the Coed Elite category, 4th overall of 23 teams/solos. It was encouraging to note that 2nd overall would have been very possible without being physically stronger - just a few different strategy choices. Team SOG Knives won the event by a landslide on their home turf and I don't think anyone could have touched them. My prize is a SOG knife, coincidentally!



It was great fun to do this event with strong, experienced, skilled racers who know how to work well as a team and never lose their sense of humour. It was a tough weekend for me and I really appreciated their support and understanding.

On the drive home, I explained the post-race Dairy Queen tradition to JayXC and he graciously put up with me searching on the GPS and leading us into Deepest Darkest Shopping Mall Land until my quest for hot fudge had succeeded. Harps would have been proud. Thanks, Jay.

Equinox Traverse

Equinox Traverse

Before writing about the race, a few words about a very difficult weekend... Tobler was in great form when I left for Pennsylvania on Thursday morning but she faded quickly in the afternoon and died at dinnertime. When the situation became clear and Richard contacted me, there was no time to get home. I will always regret that I wasn't with her. Richard, Mocha and his vet sister Mimi were with Tobler so I know she was surrounded by love, but I feel like I let her down even though that isn't rational. Tobler was very secure; she knew I loved her. She didn't need a final hug to tell her that. But still...

Down in Pennsylvania, I got the news shortly after maps had been distributed and instantly became useless in spite of my best efforts to stay focused. I felt sorry for JayXC and Sony, who had only met me a couple of times before and were now stuck with the awkward situation of an intermittently weepy woman. I would have liked to make it easier for them but it wasn't like I was upset about something minor like our house burning down or getting fired from a job.

The guys were awesome, taking care of all the map and strategy details so that I only had to pack my gear - which was still difficult with my mind all over the place. I slept about 3 hours the night before a 46-hour race with my brain racing and tears flowing. During the event, I tried to "change the subject" whenever my mind wandered in that direction but I still ended up crying quietly behind my sunglasses once in awhile. Much gratitude to my teammates for their understanding and support. Not an ideal situation, to be sure.

August 6, 1996 - July 14, 2011
Rest in peace, Tobler.



Tobler (aka ThunderDog on AP) was born shortly before Richard and I were married in 1996. We met some chocolate Lab puppies on Richard's birthday and one of them bounded happily around the yard at his side. We had been chosen.





We were a newlywed couple but Tobler taught us how to be a family. We shared the silly fun of her puppy years and the joy of her maturity, followed by the bittersweet privilege of caring for her in old age and saying a tearful goodbye.



Tobler knew she was loved and always carried herself with dignity; she brimmed with confidence, independence and strong opinions. She was remarkably adaptable and resourceful in new situations - riding in a canoe, sleeping in a tent, walking across a teeter totter, chasing mountain bikes, meeting new dogs, working in a dental office, and sharing her home when Mocha joined our family. She took life in stride.





She was skilled at comforting sick people and crying children. She showed incredible creativity and perseverance in obtaining food - off the counter, from the garbage pail, out of people's backpacks and in the woods.



She loved the outdoors; she joined and inspired us on canoe trips, bike rides, hikes, swims, skis, snowshoe treks and runs. Winter was her favourite season. She loved to chase us on the trails and make dog angels in the snow before curling up by the fireplace. She took our fitness up a notch since she was never content to sit around indoors.









Tobler stayed with us until just before her 15th birthday, a ripe old age for a Lab. She loved life till the end. She played with toys, explored our yard and gobbled down food even as her breathing became more difficult and her joints got sore. From the way her legs churned sometimes while she slept, we knew that in her dreams, she was still a puppy running in the forest. In our dreams, she is the same way.









She was frisky on Thursday when I left for Pennsylvania. She accompanied me to the front hall, stared at the dog treats until I got the hint, then sat at the door and tilted her head as she watched me drive away from her forever. Her breathing became laboured a few hours later, and Richard called his sister, a vet, to come over to help. There was no decision to be made; after a long life, it was her time to go in peace in Richard's arms.



Richard and I are heartbroken and miss her terribly but are thankful for the time and love we shared. If you have a pet, please hug him or her today in Tobler's memory. She would have liked that.

Almost finished packing for Equinox Traverse, a 48-hr adventure race (Friday a.m. to Sunday a.m.) in Ohiopyle State Park, Pennsylvania. I'm racing with Team Checkpoint Zero/Tech 4o with JayXC and Sony. The website still has some of last year's info on it so I don't expect they're high tech enough to provide live coverage. I'll fill you in when I get home.
<http://americanadventuresports.com/traverse.htm>

Wildermess Traverse is sold out at 40 teams! :) Getawaystix will maintain a waiting list for teams and is also happy to hear from individuals who are available to race if teams need replacement members as the event approaches.

Thanks for all the support!

Packing, tapering, packing, tapering.

U2 Concert with 56,000+ in the audience. Dome was open. Coloured lights on the CN Tower became part of the show.



Saw Bono in person!! ;)

Harps, 'Bent and I managed to make our three different training plans converge for part of the day. Harps wanted a 4-hour ride; 'Bent's coach had assigned a 3-hour ride with easy 1st/3rd hour and moderate 2nd hour, and I was looking for 1-2 hours of climbing and bumps to test the adjustments 'Bent made to my mountain bike last night. (Thanks to Harps for switching his plans from road to MTB to make this work.)

Harps rode from Campbellville; 'Bent rode from Palgrave, and I drove to Inglewood to meet them, then we rode trails from Inglewood to Belfountain. As if ascending the escarpment on rocky, rutted trails wasn't enough of a challenge, I realized after the first 10 minutes of climbing that I'd left my wallet, keys and iPhone back in Inglewood - *hopefully* inside the van but, well, you know, maybe it was on the ground beside my shoes... say, you guys wouldn't mind going back down and doing that climb again, would you? :)

The reward, as it often is in these parts, was an iced latte and treat at The Shed in Belfountain - sitting in Muskoka chairs under the big umbrella watching the world go by. Ahhhh.



Dave and Eddie Corner (Shed owners and 'Bent's WT teammate) came in on their road bikes while we were there, as did a bunch of other cyclists. It was tempting to just hang out but we headed back on a slightly different combination of trails. We got creative and took random turns on trails between The Grange Rd. and Inglewood. There's really no way that you won't eventually get where you're going since the block of land is fairly small but I've never mastered the spaghetti network of trails. It'll be interesting to check the Garmin track to see exactly what we did.

Fun day - legs felt good after I'd warmed up. Bike worked fine. Thanks, 'Bent and Harps!

In light of my pathetic strength training program, 'Bent made me carry the big plastic box around the LCBO and across the parking lot. We're all stocked up for the final 2 weeks of Tour de France viewing. C'mon over!

1 set of:
6 reps X organic lager
5 X apple cider
4 X Mike's Hard Limeade
4 X Cabernet Sauvignon

Ya ya, OK. :)

While watching le Tour.

The last time I rode my mountain bike, it was complaining at times in the small chain ring so today's goal was to test every gear combination under load to find the exact problem. Got it! Looks like something 'Bent can fix, so I shouldn't need a tune-up before next weekend's 48-hr Equinox Traverse in Pennsylvania.

Holy Poison Ivy, Batman! Much of the single track in Palgrave East was lined with the stuff and I couldn't wait to get home to rub Tecnu on my legs. It's a bumper year - another one of those climate change things, I'm told.

After 4 consecutive weekends of racing or course testing, I'm going to take it easy leading up to the race. "Recover" and "Taper" periods have totally overlapped over the past month and I think I could use this week to build up reserves.

The Run for the Toad 25/50K trail race on Oct. 1 is 85% sold out. I'm not sure it will fit in the schedule but it's a great event so I've signed up for the 50K just in case.

This high noon run around our hilly country block was intended to be heat and humidity acclimatization for next weekend's Equinox Traverse. It was only 26C though - warm and humid enough but not stifling like last weekend.

I trust that JayXC and Sony are doing some bad music acclimatization in preparation for listening to me sing to stay awake at 3 a.m.

I worked on a few things today - pushing up the hills including a good effort up Noxon Hill on Duffy's Lane near the end of the run. Also worked on posture, forward lean from ankles and quicker cadence, especially uphill. The latter was interesting since I realized that my complete lack of fast twitch fibres makes it really hard to increase cadence. I can shorten my stride but if I can't maintain higher cadence, all I'm doing is running more slowly. Grrrr, stupid muscles.

I also tried to lift my right arm up higher since it had been too low in a couple of the Creemore photos, and now I know what the problem is... That's the elbow I smashed on a rock during the Wilderness Traverse course test after banging it on a kayak rack earlier in the week. It feels like I've got a big bone chip loose and if I keep my elbow at a 90 degree angle while I run, my hand goes numb. Adventure sports... so great for your body!

This is a route that I've sometimes used as a time trial in cooler weather. Although I tried not to think of it that way today, I ended up equalling my previous PB which is probably worth a Dairy Queen reward. Apologies to any teammates who may need to tow me over the next couple of weeks.

It was announced this week that the 2014 World Rogaining Championships have been awarded to the Dakota Rogaining Championships - Aug. 16-17, 2014. Several of us made the trip to the inaugural Dakota Rogaining Champs in the Black Hills last year. It's a beautiful area with lots of wildlife, and the event organizers are terrific. They were previously involved with Primal Quest in the same area. If you have a 2014 calendar, mark it now! :)
http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me...

Fyi,
2012 WRC - Czech Republic
2013 WRC - Russia (Although the world championship normally happens in even years, a good bid may be accepted for an odd year.)

Training in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area is so hot right now! I met Funderstorm for an early evening paddle down the Grand River from Inverhaugh to West Montrose.



Funderstorm and I both have Jackson Hero whitewater kayaks that are overkill most of the time in southern Ontario. They're designed to be able to jump off waterfalls (although we are not). We've been planning to get them together for awhile.



This is a beautiful, quiet section of river with lots of riffles to keep things interesting. It would be fun to come here earlier in the season for a class 1 paddle.



We had one portage around a huge fallen tree.



Funderstorm was braver about her launches than I was. This one was a re-launch since the first attempt without a skirt ended in major dampness.



Whitewater boats don't like going in straight lines which actually made it a better workout!



We took out at Ontario's last remaining covered bridge at West Montrose. Cool!




Fun paddle with great conversation on a lovely summer evening!

I just watched a TED Talk that said you are more likely to achieve your goals if you *don't* share them with people. The act of telling people makes you feel good, as if you've already made some progress. In fact, that good feeling is so satisfying that you become complacent and less inclined to work toward your goal.

But I don't think it works that way for me, so here I go ignoring the psychology studies!

Mid-Year Report Card on 2011 Training Goals

THE GOOD

24-hour rogaine - Did Eco-Endurance Challenge with Crash.
24+ hour AR - Doing 48-hr Equinox Traverse in Pennsylvania with JayXC and Sony next weekend.
Running 2+ hrs/week - Pretty close and I've done a fair bit of running during other types of logged training. I'll need to step it up in the second half of the year though, since I'm aiming to race longer distances.
Total annual training 550+ hrs - On track for over 600 hrs.
Make an effort to train/race with more people more often - Yup, and it's been fun!

NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD
Expedition adventure race - Attended the 4-day APEX event in Switzerland but didn't race it due to teammate illness. We did get to enjoy some of the most beautiful parts of the course unofficially. Probably won't do another exped race this year and undecided about doing any in future.

THE BAD
Quality training, any discipline 1+ sessions/week - Started the year off well then fell off the bandwagon when racing season arrived.

THE UGLY
50 km trail race and maybe a 50-miler - Thinking seriously about Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc in 2013 preceded by Sinister 7 in 2012. So I really need to schedule my next 50 km and plan my first 50-miler. No longer considering the Coastal Challenge stage race in Costa Rica. Forgot I'm a cold weather girl!
Get 7+ hours of sleep on most nights - Not so much
Strength training 1+ hrs/week - Racing season is always busy but grrr, I'm not even trying. Need to think of a different way to approach strength training because I do need some.

February mini-goals:
Get my kayak roll back - Did pool clinic. Just got permission to access a clean body of water where I can practise.
Get a bike computer with cadence and work on increasing. - Yup.
Start using HRM again - On again, off again. Very useful at the Creemore Vertical Challenge.

New July mini-goal:
Increase running cadence.

Fourth of July Tour de West Caledon

Thanks to Harps' flexible job which permits him to celebrate a wide range of national holidays, Princess and I met him for a hot, hilly, chatty road ride today.

I drove to Cheltenham, then rode 8 km southwest to meet him since I'd misinterpreted the route map he'd sent me and thus we'd inadvertently planned for him to ride 60 kph to reach our intended meeting place. Oops, tee hee. So I got in an extra 16 km of training which was just fine.

After plunging back down the Cheltenham valley, we rode up, up, up to the Badlands - where we stopped, of course, because we were being tourists today.



Then down, down, down into Inglewood then uphill into a headwind to the beautiful Forks of the Credit Road, then up, up, up, up Alpe D'Huez into Belfountain for lunch and iced lattes at The Shed Coffee Bar.



Then west toward Erin, then south and downhill at last. At Sideroad #32, Harps turned west and I headed into Terra Cotta (giving Princess an unexpectedly bumpy ride on a rough gravel section of Winston Churchill) and back to Cheltenham. Fun ride!

Note to self: Average cadence was 80, which is fine since cadence is 0 on downhills when I'm not pedalling much so that will always skew it lower.

Event: Creemore Vertical Challenge
 

Creemore Vertical Challenge 25K trail running race

Fatigued legs when I woke up today - not a good omen before this hilly race. I'm not sure how much last weekend's 22-hour Wilderness Traverse course test is still affecting my body but I guess it would be naive to think that I could be totally back to normal. Regardless, Creemore has such a fun race atmosphere that I was looking forward to it.



Tizzle, Amber and me at the start.



'Bent very kindly came along so there are lots more pics than I'd normally have. Here are Tarno and Frankenjack leading out the race.



Frankenjack leading around 11K. These three guys ended up being the overall podium.



Logie coming into the aid station near the front of the race. He finished 6th overall and 2nd in 40-49.



Dee, at 5 months prego, rode 43 km to cheer us on at a twice-visited aid station. Isn't she looking awesome? :) It was great to have her there since she's a natural coach and called out good advice as we went by.



Jokeysmurf was one of the top female finishers. She looks like a pro when she runs!



Charlotte did the 50K with a big smile.



Back to the leaders.



Me coming into the aid station. Right arm too low but otherwise the running style isn't *too* awful. I'm about as far from a natural runner as one could possibly be. Whenever I clear up one bad habit, another becomes painfully obvious.



Later when I got tired, I put on a clinic in heel striking. Ugh. Frankenjack saw me twice on the course and advised that I need to work on increasing cadence, which would rule out heel striking. I've been doing this on my bike to good effect and I've *thought* about doing it in my running but haven't gotten around to it. Will do.



I started closer to the front of the pack than I usually do because the course starts on narrow technical trail. In previous years, I've been caught behind cautious people for 2K. I know many of them can pass me on the road but I figured I might as well use one of the few advantages I have.

It was cloudy when we started then after about 8K, the sun came out and the temperature rose to 31C with smog and humidity. The 25K race started at 9 a.m., an hour later than usual, to give the 50K runners their own start. Probably a good idea, especially after STORM won the 50K by a landslide last year after spending the first half running with a 25K runner by mistake. :) This meant a hotter run for us and my legs turned to jello when the sun came out. My first 10K was a little faster than last year but I felt like I was done. I stopped doing math - no more comparing my time to last year's younger, better-rested, slightly cooler self. I would just try to hold my position relative to the women around me, and that made me feel more positive since nobody seemed overly energetic in the heat.

I always monitor my pace when training and racing. Today I was wearing my heart rate monitor intending to look at the data afterward since I'm hoping to get back into HR-based training. Although I had no intention of making decisions based on HR, it was easy to see that my body was reasonably functional at 150 but turned into Gumby near 160 - not good for careening down steep hills. So I ended up watching HR more than pace as the sun beat down harder. My race wasn't pretty. It was mental. I focused on eating, drinking, electrolytes and HR, hoping to fend off effects of the heat. I saw a few overheated runners, including one woman who left in an ambulance.

At the front of the race, Frankenjack beat the course record! Alas, so did Kyle Aitken, who beat it by 67 seconds more. So it was a silver medal for our friend.

I definitely didn't feel as perky as usual in the final 5K but I passed more people there than in any other part of the race. Several runners were literally standing still. One friend was walking but told me he had stopped running because he was overheated. It took me a couple of tries to grab the right saplings to haul myself out of one of the steep gullies near the end, then it was all flat or downhill to the finish. Soooo glad to see the line and 'Bent smiling at me.

I was almost 5 minutes slower than last year although the first 10K (mostly cloudy) was 90 seconds faster than last year. Wow, did I ever fade big time! Looks like my overall rank in the race was about the same so the heat must have affected a lot of people.

The post-race experience is the absolute best. Free Creemore beer on tap followed by a cooldown in the Mad River.





Believe it or not, it got even better!



On my third attempt at Creemore, I was lucky enough to win my age group and get one of the nice pottery bowls handmade by one of the race directors. I also got a litre of local maple syrup and a big bag of Creemore Coffee. Love these prizes!



Tarno was the only guy on the 40-49 age group podium who stayed for awards, so he picked them up for everyone!



Brother and sister prize winners. Jokeysmurf was second in the under-40 age group. Frankenjack was awarded 1st in the under 40 age group.



These guys look like they're posing for their engagement photo...? Logie swears they're just good friends.



'Bent says he's just friends with Dee as well. :)



Fun day! And as always, there is more work to do.

The Creemore Vertical Challenge 25K is tomorrow and I'm still feeling the Wilderness Traverse course test in my legs, so I was going to take Canada Day off. But it was just too tempting to join Bender, Harps and 'Bent for the first part of their ride through the Rocky Ridge / Hilton Falls area. I tried hard to keep my heart rate down and not use any muscles that I might need tomorrow. :)

This will be my third time running Creemore. The first time I came home empty-handed; last year I was 2nd in my age group and won a cool pottery mug handmade by one of the race directors. This year I'd really like to win my age group so I can bring home a big, gorgeous handmade pottery bowl. But I haven't exactly prepared well so I'm not clearing off a shelf for it just yet!

Our ride had great single and double track. It was a good reminder that rocky escarpment riding is different from the other technical riding I've been doing. I should get down there to practise once in awhile. My problem there is largely mental; if I don't psyche myself out, I can ride a lot of that stuff just fine but I keep thinking how painful it is to fall on rock. As the ride went on, I got less chicken-hearted.

I can't think of a better way to kick off Canada Day than with good friends doing fun things outdoors!



Afterward, we enjoyed coffee with the Piller family in the screened-in deck outside their beautiful, historic stone farmhouse. At last, we met 12-week-old Matteus Piller; the cute little guy was very fine company indeed. Check out his awesome Canada Day shoes.