Training Log Archive: Bash

A recent study shows yet another reason to exercise in the morning (which I'm very bad at):

"UV exposure in the morning is much less damaging than an identical dose of UV exposure later in the afternoon. This has nothing to do with cloud cover or sunlight intensity – it’s all about the body’s circadian rhythms.

The problem with UV light is that it damages your DNA; your body fights this ongoing damage by trying to repair the DNA. The levels of a key protein responsible for this repair process fluctuate during the day, with a maximum early in the morning and a minimum late in the afternoon. In contrast, the process of DNA replication, which can cause the errors in damaged DNA to spread, is slowest in the morning and fastest in the afternoon. So UV damage in the morning should be less likely to spread and more quickly repaired; in the afternoon, it’s the opposite."

http://runningmagazine.ca/2011/10/sections/trainin...

While watching The Daily Show.

As always, I bought 100+ mini chocolate bars for Hallowe'en. Not a single kid has come to our door in a decade. Looking forward to the leftovers. :)

Peak-2-Peak training event. Until a few days ago, I hadn't planned to do this but I decided to give it a go. Raid The Hammer is only two weeks away and I need to know how my injured ankle feels when I go off-trail.

There were 119 advance registrations and it was great to see so many friendly faces - although I would have loved to have an hour just to chat! Sometimes I forget how long it's been since I've seen a person face to face because many of us communicate regularly online.

Backwoods expertly led the mini-nav clinic with Pat-hetic and me as her loyal sidekicks. It was awesome to see so many inexperienced people trying this event. It was an absolutely spectacular autumn day so I hope they had the same great experience that I did.

After we'd filled up the newbies' heads, I set off on an ankle-friendly version of the 10K course. I wasn't sure how much to do but in the end, I only skipped one control that was somewhere along a 2K "walk the line" mostly on trails.

I wore my ankle brace and walked when I was off-trail. I did some easy running on trails - maybe half the time. I felt excruciating pain whenever my foot was extended unexpectedly, e.g. when my heel landed on a tree root and my toe lurched forward toward a pointed position. That is the normal motion of the foot so the ankle brace doesn't prevent it. There were a few times when it hurt so much that I had to stop, bend over and gasp for breath. That was all though - no other ankle issues.

The big news is that I was able to do a good test of my new Salomon SpikeCross shoes. Ancaster Creek has steep-sided slopes covered with wet leaves and mud at this time of year. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect testing ground! To be honest, I wasn't sure about trying new shoes with an injured ankle. I'd brought my trusty XA Pros to change into just in case. As it turned out, the SpikeCross were stable and snug-fitting, and I was super-grateful for the traction in the steep ravines. It was like the security of biking on a rough trail with clipless pedals vs. platforms. I felt safer knowing that my ankle was protected because my foot wasn't going to skid and do something unexpected. So the SpikeCross will be my shoes for Raid The Hammer - and I have to admit that I wasn't thinking I'd try anything new with my gimpy ankle.

I needed a take-out lunch for the long drive home so I googled the famous Domestique cafe and let my iPhone lead me there. Yummy sandwich, brownie and latte for the road!

Trail run to Glen Haffy and around with 'Bent. Trails are fairly gnarly and leaf-covered so this was a tough test of the ankle brace. It worked OK (although I was still in pain) but I turned my good ankle, probably because I was favouring that leg. Unlike my other ankle, it still has plenty of ligaments so after a few minutes of scowling and walking around, it was fine. 'Bent confirmed that I really do have an obvious limp - it's not just in the way I am perceiving my running.

The clouds looked full of snow but we didn't get our first real flurries yet. It has to be soon!

(Left GPS off for one section so had to fix data.)

Quote from two women to the clerk as they entered the Salomon Store today: "We're here because we have a Salomon problem."

I would have laughed - but what the heck was *I* doing there?! :)

I got most of the way home OK. I was on Fogal Rd. waiting to turn right onto Gore Rd. when I felt a big thump from behind. My head was flung forward, then smacked back onto the head rest. Luckily, the seat wasn't reclined at all so my neck didn't snap backward. I was - and still am - pretty freaked out by it.

There were only scratches on both cars but I wanted to exchange information in case something came up later with the car or my neck. The young woman, not originally from an English-speaking country, spoke with the older woman who was with her, but I couldn't understand. She was polite but didn't write anything on the paper I'd given her. She eventually phoned her husband and he wanted my name and phone number, which I wrote down, but he still didn't want her giving out her info. She finally suggested that I talk with him. I pointed out to him that I already had the licence number so I could contact them through the police if need be. He saw the logic and gave her permission.

How weird it must be to feel obligated to get your husband's permission to do what any responsible driver should do! Yet I know this is *nothing* compared to what women are subjected to in many parts of the world. At least this woman was allowed to drive a car (even if she wasn't paying attention).

Hard Core Live with Caron - back for the fall session!

C3 Yoga. Nice to have Crash there too. My ankle can't handle side planks on the left, and chair pose makes me want to scream. But mostly, this was great ankle rehab.

Upped the ante, taking a lunchtime run on somewhat gnarlier trails in Palgrave East while holding a leash attached to an unpredictable puppy. My ankle survived it all and continues to hurt a little less and feel a little stronger each day. I am going to put on the ankle brace and do Peak-2-Peak verrrrry carefully this weekend!

This was BazingaDog's first 10K - almost double the distance of his longest run to date - and the little bugger fella didn't have the decency to seem winded in the slightest. In fact, after stopping over and over and *over* to sniff things in the first few kms (I kept turning the Garmin off), he got the idea and started trotting along like a real runner. He's napping like a champ now even with a bunch of roofers making noises that sound as if our house is being opened by a giant can opener.

(Lost satellite early - fixed distance.)

Several causes for celebration today:

1) 'Bent's laptop booted up for the first time in over two weeks and important data was retrieved with a technician's able assistance. He is a much happier camper - and thus so am I.

2) After 12.5 years, I attended my final meeting of the Caledon Town Council-appointed environmental advisory committee. It's been a great run and I've learned a lot about topics ranging from climate change to forest stewardship to politics. Now it's time to pass the torch and move on to new things.

3) Last year my training goals included losing 15 lb. It had been on my "to do" list for awhile and the reason I finally succeeded was that my cholesterol shot up and I got scared. I learned today that the numbers are back to where they were 16 years ago. Yay. I stifled the urge to go out for a burger to celebrate.

TRAIL run, baby! I warmed up with a two-dog forest hike in my grippy new Salomon SpikeCross shoes. No ankle brace. So far, so good. Then I changed into my Old Faithful XA Pros with ankle brace and ran around Palgrave West in the rain. The trails are familiar and not overly rough, and there is still some gimpiness in my gait due to ankle pain and weakness. I'm not ready to run Lion's Head just yet. But the improvement in my ankle since Monday's appointment with Thumbs-of-Death is significant. Yahoo, I'm not condemned to staying on roads all the time.

Thumbs-of-Death (sports chiro) inflicted excruciating pain on my foot yesterday, as requested. I don't think soft tissue is the big problem anymore; the bones in my foot don't feel quite right and ToD did his best to get them back where they belong. There is some improvement since yesterday (and quite a lot since a week ago) but it's going to take awhile for my foot to feel normal.

In the meantime, I went on a run east of Palgrave, starting and finishing on the rail trail. I headed south on Mount Hope Rd. to Old Church Rd. then over to Mount Pleasant Rd. and north to the rail trail. As the road names would imply, there were some good climbs and descents.

I rarely run on roads and I'd never been in this area on foot. This area is not on the way to anywhere I usually go, so I'm rarely on these roads at all. It was kinda cool - I had no idea you could see downtown Toronto and the CN Tower (an hour's drive from here without traffic) from a hilltop so close to our place. If I'd had a better camera than my iPhone, I would have taken a photo.

A positive aspect of all this road running is that I'm pounding my legs harder on the downhills than I do on trails, even though I'm running less than I would like. I need that to prepare for a mountain ultra.

I've got a 50-miler in six weeks but my gimpy ankle is making it a challenge to train the way I'd like to. I wore an ankle brace and did a slow-paced run mostly in the area between Palgrave and Caledon East, traveling on rail trail and hilly paved and gravel roads. There is a surprising amount of climb from Caledon East to Palgrave. There was some good country scenery and I was listening to tunes but it was still boooooring. If road running were my only option forever, I would give up running. Nice to see Keith S. on his way home from mountain biking - amazingly the only familiar face I saw all day.

We're on puppy watch for the next few days. BazingaDog ate the bones of an entire cooked chicken. So now we wait and hope for the best. Fingers tightly crossed.

Included extra ankle strength and flexibility stuff. While watching The Daily Show.

Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Raid The Hammer is sold out!

My ankle felt improved yesterday after strength/flexibility exercises and a bit of treadmill running, so today I strapped on the Active Ankle brace and my ultra-stable Salomon XA Pros and went for a run around the block. We live on a big country block that is hilly by road running standards. About 2/3 of the route is gravel road.

I've usually done this as a tempo run but today was just a test of my ankle. It was stiff at the start but improved steadily. The only noticeable issue was that I wasn't always committing to the injured leg so I ended up with more fatigue in the other leg - same thing I noticed after Sunday's long run. I'm happy with this progress. The trails in my 50-miler are not that technical, according to Dee - just hilly. So I guess there will be some country road running in my future.

Charm has sent me some great info on other types of ankle braces. I'm keen to experiment.

A few years ago, there were several cougar (aka mountain lion) sightings near our place. When looking into it, I learned that cougars are not considered to be native to our area anymore but they show up in southern Ontario, and the Ministry of Natural Resources believes them to be escaped captives. A local veterinarian told us that he has treated well-fed pet cougars up to 400 lb.

So the recent exotic animal incident in Ohio is interesting and scary. Here's a crazy fact... According to a recent World Wildlife Fund report, there are an estimated 5,000 captive tigers in the U.S.—a number that far exceeds the approximately 3,200 individuals believed to exist in the wild in Asia. Wow!

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2010/10/21...

Alas, they are saying that my boy Andy doesn't have much of a chance in next year's Tour de France, given the emphasis on the individual time trial and the reduced emphasis on climbing. Should be another good year for Cadel.
http://www.outsideonline.com/blog/outdoor-adventur...

Wouldn't normally log this dog hike on uneven trails wearing an Active Ankle brace but I'm trying to track what I do for reference the next time I turn an ankle. (And of course, there *will* be a next time!)

Two big trees are down on the 1K F&M Loop. When you live beside a forest, you develop a lot of respect for the wind. 'Bent was officially banned from commuting home via trail last night.

Just long enough to realize that the bike trainer isn't any easier on my ankle than walking or running. And I had to use my hands to unclip from the pedal, even wearing an ankle brace. Boo.

Unfortunately (because I dislike it more), the treadmill felt better. I just ran for a short time to test the concept and see if it makes my ankle sore later. At least it is specific training for my upcoming events. Sort of.

With extra emphasis on ankle strength and flexibility. This all felt really good.

I'm a little behind (everything takes longer with a puppy in the house) but here is my report from our Wilderness Traverse course scouting trip last week.

As I'd asked him to, Thumbs-of-Death spent considerable time causing extreme pain today as he attempted to jam bones into the correct place in my foot. Apparently, when you have messed up the ligaments with enough ankle sprains in your life, the bones go their own merry way and you end up with a tight calf and all sorts of other problems.

He's cleared me to do most activities wearing an ankle brace - although 5-hour runs are not on the list for a little while. I can and should work on ankle flexibility/strength exercises even if they hurt. It's important for the scar tissue to form in such a way that I have the right range of motion. I should avoid situations where the ankle could turn again, hence the brace.

I'd hoped to ride the trainer today since my ankle isn't ready for running yet. Turns out it isn't ready for the trainer either. Ice, compression, ibuprofen, rest, elevation... I got exactly what I deserved from running 5 hours on a sprained ankle so I'm not moping about it. It is swollen and colourful but it is improving.

Ya gotta love a guy who does his first marathon at 89. If you ever think it's too late to achieve an athletic goal - or any other kind of goal - remember 100-year-old Fauja Singh who in today's Toronto Waterfront Marathon became the oldest person to ever finish a marathon in a time of 8:25. He holds a bunch of other records too, all of them achieved over the age of 80.

My 50-miler training program calls for a couple of longer-than-usual long runs in addition to a 50K "race" at training pace (Run for the Toad). Goose kindly offered to join me for today's long, sloooow run. Good company made 5 hours on the trail much more pleasant.



It was a perfect day for running - cool, mostly cloudy with a few sunny breaks. Light rain began to fall in the final kilometers. We started at 5th Sideroad east of Airport Road and ran about 6K on the Bruce Trail to the Hockley Loop. After completing the Loop, we ran back along the same route. (Sort of - we messed up a trail detour in one direction.) It's a very hilly route, mostly on trail with a few short dirt road sections. I aimed to run it at a slow 50-miler pace, walking on the uphills and taking it easy on the body on the downhills. It was still faster than the 50-miler should be but there will be bigger hills and my legs will get sore.

I turned my ankle *hard* after 10 minutes - argghh. As always seems to be the case, my ankle was just fine when doing tougher stuff - testing the Wilderness Traverse course off-trail earlier this week. But when I was running on a nice, leafy trail... CRUNCH. Not sure why but this one scored 11/10 on the pain-o-meter and it didn't settle down until I took an ibuprofen a few hours later. (Not sure... maybe it would have been better to do this sooner but I didn't want to mask the injury.) Goose and I pulled out the magic Leukotape immediately to strap my stoopid ankle. I felt like I had a limp for the next couple of hours and I was very cautious but at least it was possible to keep going.

It was my second time running with poles - not necessary for this route but potentially useful for mountain races. I'm still trying to work out how best to use them. So far I use them the same way I use them for trekking - hauling myself up hills and offloading weight to make downhills safer and less jarring. I've been wasting the poles on flats and gentle slopes but Goose was diligently using them for forward propulsion like the good XC ski coach he is. He gave me some great ideas that I'll keep working on. Because my ankle hurt so badly today, I used the poles almost as crutches sometimes on technical terrain so it wasn't the best day to work on technique.

We met a few interesting people along the way - a group of ultrarunners including Stephen Bradshaw, a friend of Slowrunner. It was funny because we'd both commented on a photo of hers on Facebook yesterday and had learned that we would both be running in Hockley Valley today. Although we'd never met before, he and I immediately checked each other's identity as soon as we met them! There aren't a lot of runners on the trail.

At a lookout, we met a family and the man said, "Hi Barb". Turns out it was a teacher who remembered me from volunteering as sweep at a school XC running meet last year. He knows Goose's wife, Coach LD.

Last but definitely not least, we met a man working hard on the Bruce Trail northeast of 5th Sideroad and Airport Rd. We made a point of thanking him for his work and he described the sections of trail he is responsible for. In reference to one section, I said, "Oh, that's a beautiful new section with Dave's Pinnacle and Sally's Pinnacle." He smiled and said, "I'm Dave. And my wife is Sally." And then I knew who he was since I had read about them in a Bruce Trail Club newsletter. He and his wife generously donated land to the Bruce Trail organization and allow the trail to run through their land just north of where we met him. No wonder there are so many interesting side trails in that area!

Dave commented that there are 400,000 Bruce Trail uses each year but only 8,000 paid memberships. I notice that Keen Canada is subsidizing 50% of new (not renewed) Bruce Trail memberships until Oct. 31, so if you are a trail user, consider signing up soon for a 1-year membership for just $25 .

We were the very first people to run through a brand new section of trail that Dave had just re-routed. Nice! Also nice was a latte and chocolate chip shortbread cookie from the Hockley General Store afterward. :)

Easy treadmill run instead of braving the 80 kph winds in the forest. Just making sure the legs still work after Thursday's trek. Tomorrow is a loooooong run.

Bob and I have barely finished our follow-up for Wilderness Traverse 2011 and it's already time to start planning WT 2012! We're moving to Muskoka next year, probably finishing in Bala. The date should be announced shortly, likely mid-to-late August.

A couple of weeks ago, we got together with our laptops and collections of Ontario maps and books. It takes awhile to sketch out (and agree on) an interesting 24-hour race course on paper but that is just the beginning. Next we have to visit and travel through the terrain, determine whether mapped trails and roads really exist (and whether there are more), look for potential safety issues, and choose fair CP locations based on the map and terrain and our desire to provide route choice. There are also practical details, including researching land ownership and obtaining permissions. This can involve time-consuming processes such as going through municipal bureaucracy. We have to look for transition areas with sufficient space for our needs and ensure that the race finishes near a venue that can hold about 50 teams. It's a huge, intricate, real world puzzle. I've learned a lot working with Bob over the past couple of years.



Although we can do some course scouting and testing in winter, most of the meaningful field work needs to happen when there is no snow on the ground. Since Bob is heading to Tasmania for the Adventure Racing World Champs next week, we had to make a trip before mid-October. Autumn course testing can be a little chilly but it is an incredible time to be up north.



You can see the full set of photos on Facebook. If you're on Facebook, please "like" the Wilderness Traverse page to receive occasional updates.

If you're not on Facebook, you can see the pics at this public link.

Today Bob and I checked out a portion of one of the trekking sections. Fantastic terrain!



Wide open forest with mossy rocks and rolling hills.



Long, rocky ridges.





Bodies of water. Lots of them.







All the water made things interesting on this October day. It was cold enough that we didn't want to spend too long immersed so we'd brought a pack raft. For our biggest crossing, we crammed ourselves into it and took turns using the ridiculous mini-paddle that comes with the raft. It ended up being a reasonably efficient way to travel, even including the time for inflation and deflation of the raft. Also, it made us laugh because - let's face it - pack rafting is inherently silly. If we stick with this version of the race course, some teams may find pack rafts useful.





For shorter crossings, we waded and swam. Brrr.





Bob is lucky that he doesn't have to worry about getting cold from having wet hair.



It was hunting season for both bear (gun) and deer (bow). We dressed brightly and luckily didn't run into anyone. In theory, we're supposed to wear blaze orange but when so many leaves are orange, I'm not sure if that's really the best plan. Last fall we were course testing in moose season and ran into several hunters.



At one point we had to cross a wetland, teetering and jumping between little pieces of sphagnum moss that started to sink as soon as we put our weight on them. I focused my camera on Bob every time he took a step but alas, he did not oblige me (or my blog readers) by falling in.



Bob passed the map over at half-time so we each had a chance to navigate in this interesting terrain.



Unfortunately, we got started late due to some administrative chores we had to do in the area, so we turned back before reaching our goal. That's OK - it just means we have more exploring to do another time. What an awesome way to spend an October day!

My share of the pack raft paddling when Bob got himself all worn out.

Wilderness Traverse course scouting with Bob.

Ontario is one of the best places in the world for canoe tripping, so if we could imagine an ideal WT paddle section, we would want racers to feel like they're on a wilderness canoe route. For this scouting expedition, we looked at a map and linked together some lakes and sections of rivers, hoping we would find portage trails in places where we needed to make connections. The map showed a few rapids and I'd wondered whether I should bring my bike helmet, but the water was low enough at this time of year that our only worry was whether we could get through a few places where beavers had been very busy.





We didn't always find trails in places where we'd hoped portages would exist so we bushwhacked instead. I carried the canoe pack and paddles, leaving Bob to lug the heavy whitewater canoe through the rocky forest. (Hey, you're training for the AR World Champs! I'm doing you a favour, dude.)







Hmm, where does the canoe go next?



I suspected that Bob wasn't paddling in the back so I took this photo to prove it.



When we're course testing, these strange trees sometimes appear along the shoreline. ;)



The paddle was awesome, varied, beautiful and wild - the highlight of this week's scouting trip, although the trek came a very close second. We didn't see anyone although I was really hoping for a moose. The weather was cool and eventually turned rainy but it was still a fantastic day for paddling.

Next on the agenda was a bike ride, some of it on snowmobile trails we're hoping to use on the race course. I guess Bob must not be very experienced at this stuff because he brought two left gloves. ;)



Unlike ATV trails, snowmobile trails have an added element of surprise since the neat dashed line on the map may cross a pond or bog in the real world. We can zoom in on Google Earth to get an idea of whether a trail is passable but the only way to know for sure is to start riding and see how deep the water gets.



We usually do our initial course scouting in daylight since we want to see the terrain and any potential issues (private property signs, safety concerns, new roads, etc.) Today we started riding about 90 minutes before darkness fell and it was a little darker than usual due to the rain, which got heavier as we went.



We emerged onto a road at dusk and the plan was to continue for another couple of hours on unfamiliar snowmobile trails in the dark. At this point, Bob mentioned the option of 20K on roads back to the car and I'm embarrassed to admit that I folded like a cheap tent. Not only would the snowmobile trail be a trip into unknown, squishy territory on a wet night, it would likely mean that we'd finish after all the local restaurants had closed, so we'd end up scarfing raspberry gels and eLoad instead of a hot dinner. Because I'd been sick and without appetite until yesterday at noon, I was worried that I wouldn't have any extra energy if something went wrong on the trail.

Even on roads, the ride back in lashing rain was an adventure. On paved sections, the shoulder kept shrinking and expanding randomly, our bikes started to hydroplane in puddles, and cars would rush by, surprised to see two cyclists out after dark in nasty weather. Later, when we were sitting in a nice, warm restaurant in dry clothes, Bob confessed he was glad to be sipping hot chocolate instead of riding. We'll check out that snowmobile trail another day.

Packing for two days of Wilderness Traverse course testing. Not fully recovered yet but I'd better be ready to go by 7 a.m. tomorrow. Getawaystix has planned a busy couple of days for us!

Beautiful day and I spent it feeling lightheaded and unable to stomach much food. (Naturally, I didn't lose an ounce - sigh.) I lay on our back lawn for awhile just so I didn't miss the gorgeous weather entirely. No wonder I felt so awful at the start of yesterday's run. Hope it's a 24-hour bug. :(

Hockley Loop with 'Bent at what I think might be a 50-miler pace, i.e. walking briskly up most of the hills - and there are a *lot* of hills. It was interesting how much easier on the body the run felt this way, and it only took about 10% longer than my PB on this version of the Loop.

I tried running with light poles for the first time, and as long as there weren't any hikers around to avoid skewering, it was fine. I've used them a lot for trekking and I'm thinking they might be useful for the steep hills in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, I felt sick today and the 27C temperature made things considerably worse. Regardless, it was a gorgeous autumn day and I was lucky to be out. Fingers crossed that 'Bent's knee will feel OK tomorrow.

Andrew (of no fixed AP nickname) and Funderstorm took Bugsinteeth and me for a full tour of the Hydrocut mountain bike trails in Kitchener. What an incredibly fun place to ride!! We were lucky to have a beautiful day for it. Andrew was laughing at Funderstorm and me because we kept chatting most of the time regardless of whether we were riding uphill or downhill or negotiating an obstacle. Funderstorm and Bugsinteeth noted that today's ride was 15 minutes faster than their last tour of the same trails, and they agreed it was because Simpy wimped out on the ride this time. ;)

Charlotte and Chris are married!



Among the guests were some familiar faces to Attackpointers. Baloney and Trav were my table neighbours.



And on the other side were ThreePinJim and Fiona.



Also at our table, LoTox.



And Los Dobos.



'Bent was away for Yom Kippur so Baloney posed in the photo as my date. She even chicken-danced with me too.



Lots of ultrarunners in the crowd. Congrats, C&C!

How much should we worry about heel strike?

Check out pics of the fastest runners at Boston in this article on variability in running form.

There are other interesting links in this article about Chris McDougall's (Born to Run author) criticism of Lance Armstrong's running form. I thought it was interesting that that 75% of elite half-marathoners observed in a study were heel strikers. Elite runners at shorter distances tend to be forefoot strikers.

So take heart, Bender! :) Btw, this "trading card" from last year is still available to be ordered in poster size.



He's not alone, of course...

Nicely done.


By Jonathan Mak, age 19, a student at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University School of Design. Guess what? He's already had a job offer.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/06/us-apple...

Tired body, busy week!

Ang was in town for a business trip and brought her cyclocross bike along so she wouldn't miss out on a beautiful day. We met in Terra Cotta and rode the rail trail east at a good clip. The late afternoon light made the autumn colours even more vivid. We took a couple of tourist breaks on roads - one to ride up the looooong hill to the Cheltenham Badlands and another to check out the Caledon Hills Cycling shop.



Outside the shop, Ang pointed out a cyclocross bike that could be all mine for the low, low cost of $1,100. I managed to resist.

I pointed out the little offshoot trail that winds into the north end of Albion Hills and it proved irresistible. We went in and rode the Tea Cup before heading to the Duffy's Lane bridge where 'Bent was waiting with the van to shuttle us back to Terra Cotta. I tried out Ang's fancy cyclocross bike before we put it in the van - soooo light!

We all had a great dinner at the Terra Cotta Inn before sending Ang on her way back to Rochester (and a 5:45 a.m. swim training session - yikes!)

Ran an initial loop in Palgrave West with BazingaDog. His Sniff:Run ratio was higher without BulletDog as his pace bunny so we did not approach his 5K PB. After I dropped him off, I ran via Bruce Side Trail to Gore Road and back.

Over the past 6 days, I've run 75 km, biked/rollerskied for a couple hours and eaten less than I wanted to. Did I lose a single gram? Nope. Arggh.

Phone line is working again after a road construction crew cut it yesterday morning - yahoo! Bell promised it would be fixed by 10 p.m. but the crew refused to do it when they came last night because "it was dark". They probably could have looked that up on some web site and saved themselves a lot of driving.

iAdmire
:(

Fun, chatty Albion Hills ride on a beautiful day with Mrs. Gally, WandAR, SistaP and seven of Mrs. G's gang from Georgetown. This is the riding time - our elapsed time was considerably longer due to the range of abilities. We would ride a section of single track at our own pace then wait at a trail junction and continue our conversation from the previous trail junction. Nice to spin out my post-race legs - they're feeling pretty good today.

Bricked the bike ride with a Palgrave West run with BazingaDog and BulletDog. The training plan called for 1.5 km longer today but I think I made up for it.

First real attempt at rollerskiing. I parked by the Palgrave Equestrian Park and headed east on the rail trail. It's hard-packed sand covered with finely crushed gravel in this section and it was pretty good "skiing". There was one area with grass in the middle of the rail trail so that was the stretch where I practised double poling. My first skate ski of the season always reminds me of a few muscles I don't use as much for anything else. One is the tibialis anterior and the other is the same muscle on the outside of my hips/legs where I felt discomfort during the 50K. Awesome, this is why I wanted rollerskis now!

I kept it short today to avoid overdoing it. Also, I really need to get the ferrules and brakes set up before I do too much. (I did quite a bit of legs-only to save my pole tips.) I don't think I could call this fun but it's definitely a great workout. Caledon skiers are welcome to try them out. You need boots with Salomon pilot skate bindings. Mine are size 39 1/3 and the bindings were set up for them. I'm not sure how much difference it will make for people with larger or smaller feet.

Only two months till my mountain 50-miler. It's easier to follow the training plan these days due to the sheer terror. The Toad was a good reminder of how much it's going to hurt!

This is a rest week with "only" about 60 km to run, i.e. more than I usually do. Today I took the Bruce Side Trail heading west from our place and ran into Crash. She's keen to meet for some trail runs - awesome.

For the past 24 hours, I've been fighting off Dad's cold and seem to be winning - so far. I don't have time to be sick!

2011 Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Raid The Hammer in a Nutshell:
(for those who didn't see Hammer's comment on Nevmonster's log)

Road run, hilly bits, hillier bits, lots of woods running, hilly bits, trail run, tough nav and really hilly bits, trail run, easy nav, get muddy, road run, track run.

So now we know how to train.

Rainy, rainy day so I finally gave up and dug out the trainer from the corner of the basement. Felt nice to get the legs moving!

Mom and Dad met BazingaDog this weekend. After breakfast, he made himself at home.

Run for the Toad 50K
Paris, Ontario



Last year this was my first 50K trail race and this year's edition was my second. It's a large (1350 participants), well-organized event held near my parents' place so 'Bent and I made a weekend of it. It's entertaining for Mom and Dad as spectators since it has a formal opening ceremony with a bagpipe band, national anthems and speeches from politicians. Now they probably think all my events are big deals. ;)

Lots of friends were there. In this pic: M&M, WandAR, Mrs. Tiny and me.



STORM (although I didn't see him), Tiny, Funderstorm and Shannon were also there, among others. 'Bent, BazingaDog and my parents came for the start, and 'Bent was nice enough to cheer and take photos till the bitter end.

What a perfect autumn day for a trail race! A little cold and windy to start but the sun eventually came out and racers shed any extra layers they'd started with. The breeze continued and it never got warm enough to be uncomfortable.

STORM ran a blistering first lap but was forced to withdraw due to injury.



Shannon had an incredible first 50K, finishing 10th female overall with 4:50.



M&M withdrew with hip pain but ran a good 25K before stopping.



Tiny had a great first 50K (his only previous ultrarun was a 50-miler!) - 4:52.



WandAR had an awesome race too - 5:05.



There are no pics but Mrs. Tiny and Funderstorm both had great 25K results.

According to my 50-miler training plan, I wasn't allowed to "race" today. I was supposed to treat it as a long run and "learn to be at peace with a slow pace in a race". (Hahaha, as if I've ever had any trouble with *that*.) I wasn't sure how to accomplish this but decided to aim for a moderate 140-ish heart rate. I also prepared myself to feel calm about runners passing me. Given that over 800 runners were starting the 25K race ten minutes behind us, I knew there would be lots of passing, most of it unrelated to my event. The measure of success today would be the consistency of my heart rate over 4 laps of 12.5 km.



The first lap was the only one where I felt that I had to hold back to maintain the heart rate. In the other three laps, I felt like I was running in my training comfort zone and the only difference from racing was that I never tried to push beyond it. Strangely, I was a minute faster in my first lap than I was last year. That improvement didn't last, however.

At the 9K mark, I ran past 'Bent and my parents. Note BazingaDog watching me.



At this point, it is essential to the story that I go back in time to a conversation before the race.

Me: "BazingaDog's collar is too loose again." (...an ongoing source of domestic disagreement...)

Spouse Who Shall Remain Unnamed: "I'll tighten it a little but I don't want him to be uncomfortable. Don't worry, I'll be with him."

Fast forward to the 9K mark shown above. About 20 seconds after that photo was taken, an uncollared black puppy shot past me on the race course. He ignored my frantic calling and continued a short distance to a junction where the runners turned left onto a park road (a road we shared with *cars* - aack!) BazingaDog bounded happily among the volunteers who were stationed at the corner and made short dashes toward various racers who caught his fancy. I went off course and performed several reps each of Lab Lunges and Puppy Intervals while calling his name in a panic. By then, 'Bent had arrived to assist. I finally grabbed BazingaDog's hind end and 'Bent took over from there. I believe I said something along the lines of, "My dear husband, it appears that my assessment of the dog collar situation this morning was accurate." Except that my wording was far more succinct - ahem. In spite of that heart rate spike, I still had a good first lap.

The second lap felt fine but was over 6 minutes slower at the same heart rate. This included a 2-minute break in the washroom building but it was interesting to see the deterioration of my pace at the same heart rate. Maybe it's because I haven't done enough long runs this year. There were a lot of 25K walkers on this lap and I sometimes had to dance to get around them.

Last year Hansel and I agreed that the 3rd lap felt interminable and painful - a real mental challenge. I was waiting for that but it didn't materialize this year. The *mental* pain didn't happen, that is. The *physical* pain started around 27 km and seemed to be the result of pounding down hills earlier in the race. (I purposely didn't do anything to protect my body on the downhills since I'm trying to build up strength for a mountain race.) Like last year, the pain started at the side of my lower hips and radiated down the sides of my thighs, stopping a few inches above the knee. I think this would be the ITB? (Leanimal?) I'm guessing that ITB stretches and abductor strength training may help, as well as lots of downhill running. The 3rd lap was almost 6 minutes slower than the 2nd lap. I'm pretty sure I passed more people than passed me though. My cautious start had put me in the right part of the pack. It was peaceful because the 25K runners were finished so I only saw the occasional walker now.

The 4th lap was great mentally since I was doing every part of the course for the last time. After running 45 km, it felt like nothing when I had only 5K to go. The only minor down side was that a lot of spectators, volunteers and racers had left so the air of excitement was largely gone. Until now, I'd been happy that I'd chosen not to wear headphones because there was plenty of friendly chat on the race course but for this lap, I would have enjoyed some tunes. My 4th lap was a little faster than the 3rd lap.

I finished in 5:32:51, 11 minutes slower than last year when I "raced" it. That was enough for the 3rd place plaque in my category behind two very experienced runners I could never catch no matter how hard I tried.



Lap 1 - 1:15:45 - Ave HR 144
Lap 2 - 1:22:01 - Ave HR 142
Lap 3 - 1:27:51 - Ave HR 141
Lap 4 - 1:27:33 - Ave HR 140

I'm happy with the consistent HR although I'm not sure what else to take from this. Maybe the pace I was running in the final two laps was the pace I should be running from the start in a 50-miler? I will *not* be wearing my HRM in the 50-miler. My major post-race pain after the Toad was from HRM chafe! (Yes, I could solve the problem but I don't think keeping my HR down will be an issue for 50 miles so I'll just use pace and perceived effort.)

Aerobically, I felt fine due to the moderate heart rate. Bonkwise, I was a little light-headed for the second half. I didn't eat as much as last year but I drank about 2.5 L of eLoad which brought in some calories. That doesn't sound like a lot of fluids but I had two "nature breaks" and didn't feel dehydrated. I wore all my Salomon compression wear and it felt great. Although I felt localized hip/thigh pain during the race, that went away soon after I stopped, and the delayed onset muscle soreness the next day was minor. I even wore my calf sleeves under my dress pants for Sunday brunch wih my family!

Congrats to my friends who did so well at the Toad! Now I need to focus on the North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler in 9 weeks. I've got a Pacer/Coach Extraordinaire coming to San Fran with me - the one and only M&M. I'm excited and honoured at this amazing opportunity to learn from an expert trail runner!!