Training Log Archive: Bash

An online training log is supposed to improve accountability but you guys are too easy on me!

Way back on Nov. 17, I complained about injuries and a bunch of you ganged up on me to convince me to try swimming. I had a long list of reasons why it wasn't a great fit but then - because I hate it when people make excuses - I committed to trying it by the end of 2011.

Well... the attempt to fit the public fitness swim schedule with my schedule was as complicated as expected, and I finally made it there today after several failed attempts. It was a 50-minute return drive. By the time I paid, showered and changed before and after, it was close to a 2-hour investment for a 45-minute swim, not counting packing my gear at home beforehand. That's a lot of overhead.

However, the swimming part was good. I had been ridiculously concerned about this. I googled the proper etiquette for lane swimming, bought swim goggles and located my old swim cap. I cut my fingernails and removed my watch to avoid injuring my fellow lane swimmers.

But I got there and the pool was empty except for a few giggling teenagers chatting in one corner. All but one of them left shortly after I arrived. The lifeguard said she could make more swimming lanes if others arrived but I could swim anywhere I wanted. Coach Huet arrived shortly before I left so we shared the 5 lanes. It was not *nearly* as nervewracking and embarrassing as I'd imagined.

When I arrived, I explained to the lifeguard (Anne) that I'd never done real lap swimming and that I would appear to be incompetent but likely wouldn't drown. She was terrific - even watched me for a few laps and gave me tips to improve the efficiency of my stroke. The laps were about 50% front crawl, 25% breast stroke, 25% side stroke, plus I tried a little water running with the belt for a break in the middle. Like skate skiing, I'm not good at swimming so it's an intense workout.

Definitely a positive experience and I will go back for sure, but it's so time consuming that it won't become a regular thing.

Each week I get a detailed report on the Orienteering Ontario website, including the countries from which people have accessed it over the past 2 weeks. It is common to see a single random visit from a country like Romania or Switzerland one week, then nothing else from that place for many weeks. I was curious to see that we had a visitor from Libya two weeks in a row - surely an anomaly. Well, this week we had *3* visits from Libya! What are we doing to increase our popularity in Libya???

As a reward to myself after a week of illness + major volunteer effort, I headed up to Highlands Nordic for an afternoon ski. It wasn't in the plans but when I saw the forecast for rain and +7C tomorrow, I dropped everything.

It's very wintry up there. It has been wet snow recently, and lots of people had skied there so the tracks were fast and slick. Even with waxless skis, the conditions required me to focus on good technique, which I need to do more often anyway. It was absolutely wonderful. Other than the gaggle of schoolkids near the chalet, I met one other skier on the trails in 2 hours. Light snow began to fall early on. Awesome. For the first time, I skied part of the time with podcasts - Endurance Planet (thanks for the tip, Harps). It went pretty well.

We all know that money can't buy happiness, and new gear can't make you go faster - but new gear *can* buy happiness so I now have my first-ever pair of classic racing poles. We do so much off-trail classic skiing that I've always just used medium baskets and sturdier poles, even when we're at ski centres. I did my 2nd loop with the new poles and felt much more professional. ;)

This was a Laurel and Hardy-esque burst of activity around mid-day. I'm lucky it ended up being a comedy and not a tragedy. BazingaDog escaped from the house, chased a squirrel, then ran over to our neighbour's 45-acre forested property. I couldn't chase him because he thinks it's a game but I couldn't let him out of my sight so close to the road either. So this "workout" was a series of 15 meter snow sprints (which seemed effective at catching his attention and attracting him) and a couple of football tackles where I attempted to grab him.

He'd originally escaped through the garage when I'd cracked open the door from the house to hit the garage door opener. The first time I caught him, I managed to haul him back to the house with great effort, and I used all my strength to heave his unwilling 71 lb body through the front door. I'd forgotten that when he bolted in the first place, I hadn't had time to close the inside door from the house to the garage, which is right beside our front door. So as I stood outside bent over with my hands on my thighs, panting after the effort of catching him and relieved almost to the point of tears that he hadn't been killed by a car, a black puppy dashed out of the garage and down the driveway. Argghhh!! So I did two repeats of this workout. It turns out I'm pretty good at football tackles. Who knew?

The final Thomass Caledon is in the books. We had perfect winter weather - sunshine and a good amount of snow. Last night's gusty winds died down at breakfast time, thankfully.

We had a couple of big glitches and a lot of small ones that hopefully stayed behind the scenes but kept the volunteers hopping. The big glitches were that two SI unit batteries apparently failed between yesterday (when they were all tested) and today. Unfortunately, one was the Finish unit so it's going to take some detective work to get a set of results. We know the sequence of arrival of the competitors and we have some of their times. We know the time of the last control before the finish, of course, and it wasn't that far away.



I see that many racers set a stopwatch to time their race. If you did, please e-mail me the time you measured for yourself. We'll take that info into account along with the other info we have.



That's the sort of thing you wish wouldn't happen but it's not in our control. The glitch I'm more bummed about is that control #2 was hung at a control location from the first version of the course (where a ribbon had been hung awhile ago). Luckily, it was in a fairly visible location and not too far from the new location but it was wrong and caused confusion. What's amazing is that Keith and I visited it several times in recent days - and so did an independent course vetter from another club. By that stage, the organizers aren't looking closely at the map anymore so it's easy to fool us. Major lesson learned. Apologies to people affected. (Naturally, this was one of the controls whose battery died - just to add insult to injury once people got there.)



Congrats to Hammer on taking the win, closely pursued by Getawaystix. It was an exciting finish, with or without a finish control.

It was great having Pat-hetic here to provide a half-day of his Adventure Running Kids program. Parents and kids were full of enthusiasm about ARK Snow Day. They seemed to have an excellent time.

It was great to see so many friends although I didn't have much time to chat this time around. Looking forward to racing in the next Thomass! And hoping that winter will stick around awhile.

(Elapsed Time 1 hr)

Keith and I divided up the remaining controls and put out all but a couple near the start/finish. It's been snowing lightly all day and shortly after I came home, a blustery wind blew up. It's going to be nice tomorrow - a true winter orienteering race!

The day before a volunteer-operated event, I can almost hear the hum of activity around town. Before Keith and I met, he got the maps and waivers printed up. While we were finishing up in the woods, Raymond was vetting the course and Pat-hetic was heading out to set up the Adventure Running Kids course. Goose was working on the SI software and assigning rental cards. I was answering last-minute e-mails from the course. (A new record was set last night when someone missed the midnight registration deadline and e-mailed me 2 minutes later to ask me to enter them into the system manually!)

Crash has been making chili and brownies since yesterday and had to return to the grocery store today after yesterday's surge in registrations. 'Bent went shopping for last-minute items including a new portable power supply since I just learned last night that ours no longer works. And various other volunteers were collecting their gear and setting their alarms early. Phew!

Thanks to all the volunteers and to all the participants for your support. Should be a great send-off for the former Caledon Navigators club! :)

(Elapsed time 2.5 hrs)

Went back out to Glen Haffy with a bag of parachute cord so I could hang controls and flags from tree branches (for the newer BSF8 controls that can go out now) and set up control stands and tie them to saplings (for the older BSF6 controls that aren't going out yet). A much better feeling of accomplishment today!



We had rain, then snow overnight and it is really quite wintry here now. I'm glad it's snowy because Thomass and ARK Snow Day registrations have gone through the roof today, and it's not over yet!



There isn't enough snow for snowshoes but shoes with good traction (e.g. Spikecross) are recommended. It is now less icy than it was, thanks to the layer of snow/slush that came down over the past 24 hours. While I was out today, an ice pellet storm blew in for 10 minutes which felt quite adventurous. We're supposed to get another 5 cm of snow tomorrow.

The one control stand I managed to put up yesterday was looking *very* wintry after 24 hours in the forest.



I stayed out until it was almost too dark to see - such a nice time of day to be in the woods. Meanwhile, 'Bent drove into the Heart of Darkness (downtown Toronto on a Friday afternoon) to pick up a friend from the hospital after his wife fell ill and couldn't go. Busy afternoon at the Campbehrlich household!

Today is the last call to register for Sunday's Thomass Caledon. Hope you can make it!

So... Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich - who is on his 3rd wife after fooling around on the first two while they were ill and asking one of them for an open marriage so he could continue an affair - has now equated gay marriage with paganism. "The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization."

!!! How the eff do these guys get away with this hypocrisy?!?! Why isn't Newt simply an object of ridicule? I can accept that some people believe that a politician's morality - or lack thereof - in private life has nothing to do with his or her ability to do a good job. But how can even *they* sit back and listen with a straight face while he says this crap? His actions have made it clear how he *really* views the sanctity of marriage "between one man and one woman". It's not even my country's election and it's making me sick.

Hard Core Live with Caron

C3 class. I needed this.

BazingaPuppy and I went to Glen Haffy with the plan of putting up 8 control stands for Sunday's Thomass Caledon. Registration closes Friday night, btw, and our professional chef is busy preparing yummy treats for our racers!

This outing was useless from the perspective of getting important work done in a very busy week. There is snow - but not enough to support a control stand. The earth beneath is frozen hard from all the rain, temperature fluctuations and minimal snow cover. After repeated attempts, I managed to get exactly one control stand installed on a rock pile where there was enough dense snow between boulders to support it.

Naturally, having BazingaPuppy with me on leash (as he currently must be) increased the degree of difficulty. We visited most of the control locations and kept trying to pound stands into the ground until I felt that the dog had had enough exercise and I'd had enough failure.

The End. :(

Elapsed time 90 minutes.

This has *not* been a typical cold... it's like I was hit by a train on Sunday evening and on Monday, I could barely move due to a foggy brain and zero energy. Three days later, I'm feeling about 80% healthy. I decided not to push my luck too much today. No cardio - just some leg work and The Daily Show. Tomorrow I'll test my lungs.

Many of you have already seen this - Pathetic's GoPro view of Sunday's Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Snowshoe Raid condensed into a 2.5 minute film. I miss winter - sniff!



Another thing many people have seen but is so cool that I'll put it here anyway... a GPS replay of the Snowshoe Raid showing routes on the map of Foreigners (1st overall, 1st Male), Tree Huggers (1st Female), Two and a Half Meniscuses (1st Masters) and Sweet As Canyonero (4th Overall). Note that Norton Anti-Virus thinks it's a threat because it's a .exe file that it's never seen before.

Still feeling under the weather so I didn't get to enjoy National Peanut Butter Day celebrations. The tide has turned though and I think I'll feel mostly human by tomorrow.

Zoolander has started to blog about ultras for Canadian Running Magazine. Great job!

Sh&* Cyclists say

Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Snowshoe Raid - Blue Mountain, Collingwood

After five great years at Horseshoe Resort, the Snowshoe Raid moved to a new venue. It's fun to navigate in different places and Collingwood is a great place to spend a weekend, so a record 117 teams signed up. Half the participants were women, which was nice to see. Many thanks to Dee and Logie for hosting us at their beautiful chalet.

Dee and I raced together again this year and planned our route with mapboard, pins and string. We weren't the only ones to do it but as usual, we got a few comments!



(This is one of Frankenjack's excellent photos that I've "borrowed".)

Dee doesn't look at the map much while we're racing but she reviews it carefully beforehand. She asks good questions and challenges our assumptions so we definitely end up planning a better course together than we would separately.

Harps and Logie got some outside assistance from Harps' daughter Sara, who is clearly a budding orienteer.



The challenge this year was that it was a rogaine-style 3-hour course where we also had to get a fair distance from point to point. We started in Loree Forest where there were a number of checkpoints to find in hilly terrain, then we had at least 7.5 km of running on roads and trails to get to the finish line, not counting any extra distance to look for a few CPs along the way.


Hammer and 'Bent

About 70% of the points were in Loree Forest and it would take good planning and will power to leave that area soon enough to get back to the finish within the 3-hour time limit. I predicted that 1 out of 6 teams would be overtime but I was insanely optimistic. Less than one third of teams finished the course within 3 hours!

We were bussed up (up, up, up) to the starting line. Dee and I ran a clockwise loop around Loree, dropping the three northernmost CPs, including the highly valuable #62 (a choice we struggled with and still aren't sure about). We also dropped 74 & 75, which were low value. We'd set a couple of cut-off times where we might have gone for additional controls but we were running a few minutes behind there so we kept going. We left the aid station near the southeast corner of Loree Forest with 80 minutes to go, right on our plan.

With a 3-month-old baby keeping her up at night, Dee had worried about her return to fitness but she was strong today. In the snowy hills, we moved at a similar pace but on the flats, she pushed the pace higher than I would have gone on my own. I felt sluggish for some reason so this was really helpful.



My nav was fine but not stellar - no disasters but a little sloppy in places. Snowshoe navigation is different because you have to balance the benefits of your personal route preference vs. the ease of following tracks that help you move faster, even if they aren't going exactly in the direction you want. A couple of times, I got careless and we had to move along a narrow ridge looking into re-entrants on both sides until we spotted our flag, since I wasn't 100% sure which ridge we'd ended up on. Dee asked good questions, shared local knowledge and spotted flags in the distance.



The last section of the course was a 5-CP Matrix that travelled downhill through an unused ski area. We could have split up to get CPs separately but elected to work together and get four of them. We finished with 9 minutes to go so we probably had time for another control but if the time had been tighter, we probably wouldn't have had the nerve to stay out in the Matrix for as long as we did. We defended our title in the female division with 520 of 740 points. Thanks for a fun day of playing in the snow, Dee!



Hammer and 'Bent won Masters, and Phatty and Leanimal won Coed, so there was a good showing from the Caledon contingent.





Congrats to Nick and Feet for winning overall (again)!

Great to see so many friends. Big thanks to Getawaystix for all his hard work in organizing another excellent event!


Harps (3rd overall with Logie), Sara, Amy


Tiny and M&M - 2nd Coed


Rick and Keith - 2nd Masters


Ace Photographer, Frankenjack


Mrs. Tiny, volunteering for two


AdventureGirl! - 1st Junior with grandparents Mr. & Mrs. GHOSLO


Etoile and GHOSLO


BugsinTeeth, Simpy (unable to smile after coming in overtime) and Funderstorm (who had a great race with Marcus)

I started sneezing in the car and by the time we arrived home a few hours after the Snowshoe Raid, I had a full-blown cold with no forewarning. It's no fun to be sick but it's nice to know that there may have been a reason for the lack of zip in my legs today.

Easy ski at snowy Scenic Caves. Beautiful! Pics later. Getting ready to Snowshoe Raid!

'Bent and I just registered for our first-ever marked course ski race - the Cookie Race in Kananaskis Country, Alberta, aka the Kananaskis Ski Marathon. (We've done the Canadian Ski Marathon a few times but it's a tour, not a race.) We're doing the 42K marathon distance. We'll probably only do this race once so we might as well go crazy. Carbon and Mike will be racing too!

The bad news: Many of Canada's best nordic skiers, including the national team, are based in nearby Canmore. So we will get our butts seriously kicked.

The good news: Homemade cookies at all the aid stations!! And dinner afterward with Carbon and Mike. :)

Roads were slippery and I had to take a big detour around a minor accident that was blocking the road into Caledon East. So... not much of a core workout, unfortunately.

I need to get back on top of my yoga. I'm way too tight!

A few of us have been working to get ready for Thomass Caledon (fun winter orienteering race) and ARK Snow Day (activities and a short race for kids aged 6-16, no nav experience needed) on Sun. Jan. 29 at Glen Haffy Conservation Area.

Traditionally, the Caledon Navigators orienteering club have put on Thomass Caledon each winter but the club dissolved at the end of 2011. A few former members are holding this event as our grand finale with the support of GHO (my main club). We want to go out in style so we've hired a professional chef to prepare the post-race snacks. Hope to see a bunch of you there! :)

Princess and I did our first-ever Computrainer session at RIDE Milton. Thanks to Harps for inviting me to fill in when one of the regulars couldn't make it. It was cool that 4 of the other 7 riders were Attackpointers and adventure racers - Nosnhoj, SistaP, Mrs. Gally and Harps. We did a course with a fair bit of climbing in the first half, including one section so steep that I could stand on my pedals in my easiest gear. On the downhills, it's harder to generate power so cadence was key.

Mrs. Gally calls this type of training a "pukefest". No question, the element of competition guarantees a hard workout. At all times, you can see your position in the race, how close you are to the other riders, how many watts and watts/kg each rider is generating, how fast you're all going, etc. This is more intensity than I've done in awhile but I managed to hang with the midpack so I was happy. Harps crushed the rest of us, as anticipated.

Went out afterward for drinks, pub snacks and good conversation with last year's ESAR team (Mrs. Gally and SistaP). :)

Average Watts: 158 Average Speed: 24.9 kph

Leanimal and Weeanimal.



Leanimal, Weeanimal and MyAnimal (BazingaPuppy).



BazingaPuppy, you are *such* an animal!

Sob! :(( One of the leading researchers on the heart benefits of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, has been found guilty of fabricating and manipulating data for the past 7 years. He has published 26 articles in scientific journals using this data.

A small beacon of hope... red wine may still have heart benefits. But the evidence may not be as compelling when the real data is used.

I guess I can accept this sad news but I sure hope the researchers looking into the health benefits of dark chocolate are a more honest lot.

Interval session with BazingaPuppy on leash in Palgrave West. All of it left-handed (which I am not) since I am nursing a rotator cuff strain.

1) Warm-up - None. Right out the front door, it was, "OMG!!! there's a SQUIRREL!!!!! Climbing that tree over there!!!"

2) Sprint - 10 minutes, icy trails, taut leash. Parts of this were much, much faster than I can actually run - but my legs had to keep moving or else. Similar to being on a tow rope behind Goose. :)

3) Doggie bathroom break. Sniff a few trees.

4) About 20 repeats of:
1 min X Deer/squirrel/bunny sighting (pace = frantic)
1 min easy run

5) Cooldown - None. Post-run recovery dog biscuits consumed with gusto.

Using heavier weights lately. I've got some big mountains coming up!

Many of you have seen this elsewhere on Attackpoint but it's so cool that I'm including it here too. Pathetic has taken the Garmin Forerunner tracks of 4 racers with various handicaps (Pathetic, Bender, 'Bent not taking his handicap points and me) and turned it into an executable where you can watch Sunday's TOC Thomass race play out on the map . I think a 5th racer - a first time Thomass racer - will be added shortly. Really cool - thanks, Pathetic!

For those who aren't familiar with the Thomass format, we are assigned a handicap based on our age and gender. We all have to visit the numbered controls but when we get to a "box" of lettered controls, all racers except elite male are permitted to drop 1 or more controls of their choice. This replay is especially fun since three of us with different handicaps entered the 2nd box at the same time so you can see how well the handicapping worked.

A few notes:
- The map didn't reflect the terrain well near #7 which is why both Pathetic and 'Bent overshot.
- At F, I came back up to the main trail because I had been followed into the gully by a chocolate Lab carrying a frisbee; I knew he was a long way from his owners so I didn't want to go down to the road until I sent him on his way.
- 'Bent didn't do this as a race - he did it as a training exercise where he visited all controls without taking his handicap and made a conscious effort not to follow anyone, even if it meant making an unusual route choice.

Btw, Norton Anti-Virus kept deleting this file immediately after I downloaded it because it was an unfamiliar (to Norton) .exe file and therefore labelled as a threat. I had to disable my anti-virus for a minute to download the file and move it to a safe place.

Thomass TOC at Greenwood Conservation Area. It was sunny and below -10C - a beautiful morning to run. Fields were coated with soft snow and trails were covered with crunchy snow and occasional ice patches. I meant to use my ankle brace but realized a few minutes before the race that I'd forgotten it. So I inadvertently took another step forward in my recovery and luckily, nothing terrible happened. My SpikeCross shoes were perfect for these conditions.

I enjoyed the course layout - lots of different types of running. The map was imperfect in a few places but for an adventure racer, it was no big deal. It was the first time in a few months that I've felt I had flow on an orienteering course. It felt like I was running slowly since the race course was unfolding at a very understandable rate. At the last two Thomass races, I've run faster than my brain worked. Today was actually faster though. For me, 7 min/km is fast orienteering (even though that statistic is normally calculated using the straight line distance between controls, which I don't know). So it is progress.

For the most part things went smoothly, although one control was so well hidden in the boughs of a big spruce tree that I ran right by it and wasted about 20 seconds being confused. There were also two situations where unleashed dogs started running with me; as a dog lover, I had to take a little time off from racing to shoo them back toward their owners. At control F, this meant climbing south out of the gully toward the owners instead of continuing north down to the road I was headed for. Couldn't take a chocolate Lab to a road. Finished 6th overall, 1st female.

Thanks to Ralph and Raymond for their hard work in putting on today's event!

Good times afterward as 11 of us went out for lunch/brunch. Great to spend some relaxed time with fellow racers indoors.

Highlands Nordic got a dump of powder last night and today was high -10C with some wind chill and light flurries. Awesome! I picked up my new Christmas skis today but figured I'd still need to use my rock skis. However, for the first time this year, it was *not* rock ski weather. Yahoo!



Skied by myself for awhile and with 'Bent for a bit. (He looks chilly!)



It took a few tries to get the new skis sufficiently grippy, which meant a few stops early on since the first thing you do at Highlands is ski up the escarpment. It seemed like everyone was there - Tarno, Frankenjack & friends, Nick & Val, CraigK, KD (and probably Doughtys unseen) and the Follas family. Great day.

Yahoo! It's a couple of weeks late but we received our Christmas card from Joy T., the person 'Bent and I both want to be when we're 87. I worry every year until we hear from her. We met this amazing British Columbian when we paddled down the Nahanni River together when she was merely 70.

She did hiking trips in Kananaskis and Turkey last year. One day she did 3,000' of elevation gain but she suspects that may be the last time. She's got another 2 weeks of hiking planned in Croatia this spring before her 88th birthday, then for a break, she's cruising the Arctic in September.

What impresses me is that she did this sort of thing when she was younger but then she married a man who didn't share her love of backcountry travel, so she spent years doing more civilized trips. She didn't get back into serious outdoor activities until her retirement years. So cool.

'Bent is so restless from the lack of snow sports that he is practically ricocheting off the walls. Wheeeee!! There he goes again! In an attempt to harness this excess energy, I invited him to join me for a nice ride from Las Vegas up into Valley of Fire State Park - in our basement.

Our local bike shop carries the "Rides" DVD series and said this one is a favourite in their spinning studio. It focuses on strength and recovery, i.e. hill climbs and fast downhills where we pedal at high cadence rather than resting.

As a mountain biker, I've had to work over the past couple of years to increase my cadence. It's hard to make any cadence of 90+ feel like "recovery". We had intervals up to 110+ but at least they didn't try to pass *that* off as recovery. I was dripping with sweat after the first couple of "hills".

I enjoy watching The Daily Show or a movie on the trainer (as much as any trainer ride can be enjoyed) but it takes a DVD like this or a Spinervals session to make me work really hard. I get a lot of data from the power tap trainer and it's possible to work with the DVDs to make use of the data. It wouldn't be as interesting without at least a cadence meter and heart rate monitor - although 'Bent only has HRM and he liked it OK. I spent most of my time looking at cadence and wattage with occasional glances at HRM.
Average cadence: 83
Average wattage: 151 Max: 248
(Go ahead and laugh, Harps!)

Post-Thomass brunch this Sunday at the Safari Bar & Grill in Ajax. Who's in? Not many people are signed up and registration closes at 6 p.m. today.

Another day hijacked partway through - a good argument for scheduling training in the morning. We pushed dinner back so I could have a short trainer session with little high intensity thrown in. I've been focusing on running for so long; it's nice to be back on the bike. Being outside would have been better but today's weather was evil and useless. Rain, ice, slush, fog, mud. What are we supposed to do with that? Such a ridiculous January!

P.S. Hoping to pick up my new Christmas skis this weekend. Sigh...

My Death Race book arrived... too early to start cramming for the test?

I'm not usually one for trite motivational posters but maybe ultrarunning has changed me. ;)

Needed to deal with some surprising issues on a volunteer project after spending a long day in the city. No time to get on the spin bike as planned. Argghh.

On a happier note, I'm doing way more strength training now that I've switched from a time-based goal to a "get stronger" goal.

Ottawa folks... Into The Arctic II is coming to town on Feb. 2. Cory Trepanier, the artist who made this film about his Arctic painting adventures, is a friend and past AR teammate. It really makes you appreciate how much more difficult it is to paint a wilderness landscape vs. taking a photo. And yes, he ran into polar bears. (Nice polite ones who kept their distance with some prompting.)

There's not enough snow to ski, and the forest trails are really icy so I cracked out the new Salomon Crossmax Climashield shoes and ran around the block. It was a mix of mud, slush, wet pavement and slick ice - especially slippery on the northern portion of Duffy's Lane which features the steepest hill. This is a hilly route all the way around and I felt strong today. I've been working to get rid of some extra holiday weight; there is more to go but it's helpful to have a little less Bash to push uphill.

Today's workout was inspired by Carbon's scientific spin classes, Baloney who is the Consistency Queen when it comes to Indoor Biking, Trav who is giving it a decent shot, Harps / SistaP / Gallys / Slice on their Computrainers, Hammer who does paperwork on his bike, Frankenjack and Hodgepodge pedalling in the garage, JayXC biking indoors because there's no snow, Cookie Monster's winter biking, Funderstorm and Mrs. Tiny who get up (or *not*, in Mrs. T's case today) for ridiculously early spin classes, WandAR's spin intervals, Hansel's rides to work and - of course - STORM with his Stupid Spinning... (And there are more!)

I finally set up my power tap trainer for the winter yesterday. Today was the first workout just to remember what all the buttons do. I've got a bunch of DVDs that are designed to increase wattage over a period of weeks. So that's what's on (power) tap over the next while!

The female teammate of my Finnish friend Tuomas Sovijärvi has had to drop out of the Patagonian Expedition Race on Feb. 14-22. Tuomas is a nice guy and this is a good team with international experience although I cannot pronounce their name. ;) Tuomas can be reached on Attackpoint.

I've been thinking about 2012 training goals some more. I think it will motivate me better if I have a results-type goal for the Death Race, rather than "just crossing the finish line", which is the goal I keep setting for events where my abilities are unknown. I would have raced the TNF 50 Mile Championship differently if I were aiming for the best possible result vs. just finishing within the time limit, and I ended up missing the age group win by 7 minutes. I don't regret it but it has made me think.

I have a lot of respect for the Death Race and know several runners much stronger than I am who have not finished in their first attempt. Only 38% of the women who started last year's race made it to the finish. I know it may kick my a** long before the finish line. But anyway... after reviewing past results and consulting a friendly Death Racer, my goal is to finish the 125-km mountain race in 22 hours. In 2011, this would have been 16th/73 women and 3rd in my age group. In most other years, it would have won the age group. So... let there be intervals!

Just a reminder that the Thomass Winter Orienteering Series resumes this Sunday with TOC Thomass at Greenwood Conservation Area. Registration closes on Friday at 6 p.m.

Hilly, icy trail run in Glen Haffy with 'Bent, BulletDog and BazingaPuppy. Lots of dog-related stops deducted. Most of the run was on smooth, polished, uneven grey ice with a few millimeters of fluffy snow on top. It wouldn't have been possible without spikes - and even with them, we still had to be super careful. As always, Glen Haffy provided a great hill workout.

It was 'Bent's turn to hold BazingaPuppy's leash while I got the easy job of controlling angelic BulletDog when we approached roads. In today's treacherous conditions, I don't think I could have handled BPuppy without getting hurt. Even 'Bent had some trouble when a squirrel dared to flaunt itself about 20 m off-trail ('Bent got dragged almost as far as the squirrel tree!)



BulletDog turned 9 years old this weekend so it's a doggie celebration around our place. 'Bent is currently barbecuing steaks for the dogs and me - a tradition on the birthday of the oldest dog in our household, starting when Tobler turned 10. 'Bent doesn't eat meat so I'm usually vegetarian at home since he's the chief cook. Really looking forward to dinner. :)

Increased reps on several exercises. Added Leanimal's FHL stretch.

Just ordered a book: Conquering the Canadian Death Race.

I've never liked the word "conquer" to describe things like climbing Everest or finishing a wilderness event. These feats deserve far more humility and respect than that. But it's not as if I had a wide range of Death Race books to choose from! :)

Note to Death Racers: I'll share any juicy stuff that I learn.

Right shoulder, which always hurts a little, hurt a little more today. Boo. I guess there's been more arm work over the past week than I've done in a long time - skiing, snowshoeing with poles and upper body strength training. So it's fair enough, I guess, as long as it feels better in a day or two.

Year End Review Part 3 of 3 - 2012 Training Goals

I've been stalling on my 2012 training goals since I don't know what I'm training for. In 2011, I focused on skills, endurance and running at the expense of speed and strength. I can't have it all at the same time so it's risky to tinker with the balance without knowing where the new emphasis should be.

In an ideal world, I'd plan my year around a couple of expedition adventure races in wild locations like Patagonia or Tasmania. However, most of my past teammates aren't training for AR anymore and I would only want to do tough events like that with people I trust - not with strangers looking for a "mandatory female". The harsh truth is that I'm not - and never will be - fast enough to race with most people whose AR/outdoor skills and experience are similar to mine. So it's time for more realistic plans.

Events with navigation are my favourites, the longer the better. Rogaines and mountain marathons are easiest to plan since they require minimal gear and only one teammate. Long races of any kind are good - ultraruns, long paddling races, solo multi-sport, etc. I may not be fast but I have plenty of endurance. Maybe I could aim for the Trans Andes Challenge mountain bike stage race in Patagonia next year. The Dontgetlost adventure runs and a few sprint ARs will remain on the schedule because they're fun, challenging and social, and we've got some great local race directors who deserve our support.

The only big event I'm committed to so far in 2012 is the 125-km Canadian Death Race. I'll be training differently this time. For my 50-miler, I tried to follow an ultrarunning training plan but it was derailed by injury. Since the race went fairly well in spite of that, it looks like the multi-sport training and racing I did earlier in the year was good preparation. As a bonus, it was a lot more enjoyable than just running! I hope to run less often this year but increase the length of some of my long runs. I will add specific training for downhill running, which is what gave me the most trouble.

I liked the rest days in my ultra program, not just because they refreshed my body but because they gave me more time for other parts of life. I'm not aiming to specialize in ultrarunning but I think ultras will complement my adventure racing and other sports.

With all that in mind, here are some fairly general training goals for 2012:

1) Do one or two 24-hour rogaines. Run the Canadian Death Race [edit - in 22 hours]. Train appropriately so that a multi-day adventure race would be possible if the stars align.

2) Quality training - Focus on becoming stronger on uphills and (especially) downhills, and throw in occasional speedwork.

3) Running - 150 hrs (mostly in non-winter months since I'm not trading skiing for running). Work on form, cadence, drills, etc. Include some longer long runs.

4) Become stronger overall - upper body, legs, core. Lower body strength is the top priority.

5) Improve biking strength and power, completing the power tap trainer program over the winter and increasing mountain bike hours in 2012.

6) Stay healthy - sufficient sleep and recovery time, good diet and hydration, maintain appropriate weight, etc.

I started the day with a short loop of skate skiing because it's good for me. Most people I know are happier on skate skis than classic, and I sure wish I could get closer to that point. I started classic so much earlier in life that it feels like the natural way to move across snow. My skating skills are so-so and because I don't do it very often, it's just not that much fun! The silver lining is that I got a great workout since I was using a few muscles that haven't seen much action lately and reaching a level of intensity that I haven't hit since the 50-miler training began. ...yahoo...

It was +4C when we arrived and the guy in the ski shop said the wax of the day was "waxless". It certainly was! I was alone for the first part of this ski, then I joined Coach LD and 'Bent.

It wasn't the best day for skiing but the tracks were in good shape and it was great to be out there after such a lousy December for snow. I could go straight up steep hills without any herringbone because the snow was so soft, and by the end, we were double poling to get all the way to the bottom of the hills. Today looks like the worst day for weather, then we should get some colder weather and snow again.

Hard Core Live with Caron. Just a short one tonight to ease us into the new year.

This was a good reminder that my sprained ankle still has some healing left to do. It's not unstable anymore but my foot is stiff. The class seemed to improve the mobility a little between the balance poses and stretches.

Looking around the room tonight, I counted more men than women. I'm guessing this is unusual compared to most yoga classes but it feels totally normal since we're training with a triathlon club whose members do yoga as part of their injury prevention strategy.

Quick trip up to Highlands Nordic to enjoy the 25 cm of snow they got in the latest storm! My time was tight since BazingaPuppy was home alone but the fun was worth it. (Except for the part where my much-desired lunch got taken, kinda by mistake.) Driving conditions were still sketchy starting around Creemore; the storm must have been impressive.

Trails were in great shape although they could still use more base. It was beautiful up on the escarpment.



I used waxable racing skis, and with the temperature around 0C and fluctuating with elevation and time of day, I didn't always have the best grip. That didn't matter; it was just *so* great to be out in wintry conditions, and hey, I needed an upper body workout anyway.



I thought I'd parked next to the Doughty Prius but it was probably the Follas Prius since I saw three Follases and no Doughtys. I also ran into Jacquie Tarno and C & M Huet. It was crowded on the trails near the chalet but once I got on the far reaches of the red trail, I spent most of my time alone. Really nice. :) I'd planned to finish with a short skate ski but it would have been on the busy trails so I saved it for another day.

The new year triggers thoughts about good habits I'd like to have. When the time comes (and it ain't now), here are some video clips showing proper technique for running drills. Am I the only one who feels totally uncoordinated when attempting "B"s?

For those of us aiming at UTMB in 2013, here is some info about how hard it is to get into the different races in 2012. Registrations are *way* up. They have previously offered preferred status in future years to runners who don't succeed in the lottery. With so many applications, I wonder if they can continue doing that.

In 2012, how the h&*% is it possible for someone who believes state governments should have the power to outlaw birth control and gay sex to be a leading U.S. presidential candidate?!?! I've probably already driven away any Republicans who might ever have read my log so I doubt I'll get enlightened on the importance of these election issues.

Dual purpose outing:

1) Vet race course for Thomass Caledon. (Success)

2) Tire out the puppy. (Failure)

BazingaDog had several firsts today: his first time orienteering, his first time snowshoeing and his first time at -16C. He lifted up a couple of frozen paws early on and I had to warm them with my hands. After that, he was enthusiastic and full of energy. He has to stay on leash, so this was a full body workout - upper, lower and core. He pulled me onto my face in the snow a couple of times. Of course, he had no idea; he was just chasing deer.

We've all had the experience of bushwhacking behind someone who isn't very good at choosing a line; that's what it's like to hold BazingaDog's leash in a thickly vegetated place like Glen Haffy. Lots of stepping over big logs, squeezing under low branches and passing the leash around saplings when we ended up on opposite sides. He is a lousy map reader and makes inefficient route choices. Lucky for him, he is very cute and has a sweet personality so I will take him orienteering again.

Brrrr, nice to have real winter here. Today was crazy busy but I'm hoping to head north to go skiing tomorrow.

Year End Review, Part 2 of 3 - Report Card on 2011 Goals

I received useful feedback from many of you during the year. Much appreciated; that's one of the reasons I make my goals public. I feel more accountable when I say something out loud, even though people rarely give me a hard time when I blow it. (Btw, please do!)

Here's how things turned out:

1) Do an expedition adventure race (3+ days non-stop), at least one 24-hour rogaine and at least one other 24+ hour adventure race. Run my second 50 km trail race. Consider a 50-miler if my joints are happy. Finish Speight's Coast to Coast.
Did a 4-day expedition AR (APEX), two 24-hour rogaines, Equinox Traverse (46 hr AR), a 50K and a 50-miler. Biggest fail was missing a time cut-off in Coast to Coast. At APEX, an ill teammate dropped out and we were short coursed. The other events went well and, honestly, I'm just happy to have attempted everything on the list. There are always going to be a few failures. If there aren't, then I probably need to set my sights higher.

2) Quality training at least once a week - hills, tempo or speed intervals.
This was on and off. I got distracted by a busy race schedule in spring/summer, then by an injury in the fall. This is a high priority for 2012, as the emphasis on endurance has made me slower.

3) Running - at least 2 hrs/week on average over the year
Yup, averaged 2 hrs 40 min / week.

4) Strength training - at least 1 hr/week
Averaged about 25 min/week. Ridiculous! I don't want to let go of this priority but I need to rethink the goal or the approach because it's not working. I got lots of good advice on this a few months ago - thanks.

5) Total annual training - 550 hrs.
612 hrs, which I don't expect to repeat.

6) Get 7+ hours of sleep on most nights.
Yes on most nights, but I could still use more sleep. I'm learning that more training hours = more recovery needed.

I had an informal goal to train and race with a wide range of people, which happened and was so rewarding that I plan to keep it up.

I added some mini-goals during the year and for a couple of them, I only scratched the surface:
- Increase running cadence.
- Get my kayak roll back.

There's one that I haven't done anything with yet:
- Get training in Pose or Chi running.

And a couple that achieved the desired results:
- Do more training with HRM.
- Buy bike computer with cadence and work to increase cadence.

Now... what to do in 2012?

For those interested in doing the Canadian Death Race on Aug. 4-5, the website has been updated and the registration date has been pushed back to Feb. 1 for Solos and Feb. 8 for Relays. So this gives us more time to collect a few more friends to come along. LosDobos is the latest to throw his hat into the ring for both CDR 2012 and UTMB 2013.

The weather forecast called for snow squalls in many parts of Ontario so the skiing should be better tomorrow. Unfortunately, 'Bent is working tomorrow so we packed our winter gear and headed to Dufferin Forest 30 minutes north, intending to ski their ungroomed trails. It was close enough that the drive home wouldn't be too bad if a storm came in, and we expected to find deeper snow up there. Alas, there were just a few cms of powder coating rock hard ice, similar to our back yard.

We backtracked to the Hockley Valley for some snowshoe hill training instead. The Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Snowshoe Raid is less than 3 weeks away and my teammate Dee is looking strong. For people familiar with the Hockley Loop, we went to the Town of Mono's Shelly Anderson Tract, the forest on the northeast corner of the loop with insanely steep hills. There wasn't a ton of snow but our poles and snowshoe cleats were very useful.

We explored the Mono Trails network and also did some bushwhacking - so exciting to discover unfamiliar terrain close to home! We've still got more trails to explore and we found some terrific hills for mountain race training. Now I need to find a map so we know where the public land ends.

Year End Review, Part 1 of 3: Training

After almost 7 years of logging on AP, the trends are getting easier to spot.
2011 training totals by activity.

Training volume went way up in 2010 (608 hrs) and stayed there in 2011 (612 hrs).

Specifically:
- More running than ever before (138 hrs vs. 101.5 hrs last year, my previous highest)
- More paddling than ever
- Biking was about the same but a third of it was on trainer or road bike so technical skills suffered.
- 2nd biggest year for adventure/multisport racing (163 hrs)

Top 5 activities were:
Adventure Racing 163 hrs (I don't break it down by discipline)
Running + Snowshoe Running 138 hrs
Mountain Biking + Road Biking 89 hrs
Paddling 73.5 hrs
Orienteering + Snowshoe Orienteering - 73.5 hrs (includes 2 rogaines)

I think the higher volume has helped although I'm appreciating rest days more as I increase my running. Winter sports suffered between our trip to New Zealand in February and the lack of snow so far this winter. Orienteering hours were also down. Hope 2012 will be better for both these sports. It wasn't intentional to cut back.

Up next: Final report card on 2011 goals, then plans for 2012!

The Great Escape - Highest Intensity

At 10 months old, we thought BazingaDog might be mature enough for some off-leash play with BulletDog after our New Year's Day family hike.



Nope. The little guy took off at full speed, zooming through our forest and into our neighbour's forest, leaping over logs and flying up and down big hills on their 45-acre property. 'Bent, BulletDog and I went after him but he quickly disappeared from view. I was able to stay on his tail (as it were) better than 'Bent, which was unfortunate since 'Bent is a faster runner. We listened for BazingaDog's bell and caught occasional glimpses of him galloping like a greyhound in random directions. He thought it was a jolly game of chase, so he bounded away with his tail wagging if he saw us coming.

Thank God, after swinging by our neighbour's place, he turned toward home instead of heading onto the road or further into the forest. I finally got near him by anticipating a trail junction he would pass. I dove onto the snowy ground which confused the heck out of him. He circled me quizzically from a few meters away, then allowed 'Bent to grab his collar when he arrived a minute later.

Phew! It could have been a Crappy New Year but it's all good now. Wishing all the best to you for 2012!



P.S. Needless to say, BazingaDog is back on leash for the foreseeable future.

Got the new year off to a good start with an hour of strength training. The fact that it was pouring rain and slushy outside made it a little easier to stick to my resolution. I watched old Daily Shows that I'd missed.

Welcome to 2012! On a cold, windy, rainy Sunday, a little armchair navigation practice sounds like good training. Here are two excellent resources:

1) Peter Gagarin's orienteering maps for 2011. As many of you know, PG is one of the most respected and experienced orienteers in North America, and the only one whose photograph has been featured on a Wheaties box! He has drawn in his routes on most - if not all - of these maps, so you can compare your choices and get some ideas.

2) World of O Route To Christmas. Starting Dec. 1, an interesting leg from an orienteering course somewhere in the world was posted each day. First you look at the leg and think about what you would do. Scrolling down, readers have the option of drawing in their leg. (At this point, you can just see what the "community solution" was.) There is usually some information about how the different route choices played out for the top racers so it's not just theory.