Training Log Archive: Bash

Limitless Vertical Challenge, Day 7
Pandemic Back Yard Hill Repeats

On the final day of the Run Steep Get High Limitless Vertical Challenge, I did 22 loops around the back of our property in an hour. Depending on whether you believe Suunto Movescount, Attackpoint or Strava, my elevation gain was 366, 414 or 452 meters. One of my goals was to reach my Level 3 badge using Attackpoint elevation gain. Strava is used for the challenge but I think it's overly generous.

This wasn't as boring as it sounds but that's only because it was a spectacular, cool morning, and I'm a numbers geek who got curious about what was possible. Now I'll sit back and see what all the other runners from around the world do on their final day of the challenge. :)

Limitless Vertical Challenge - Day 6 Results
The top 21 competitors have already reached Level 6, Double Everest - 58,058 feet. About half of them are running outdoors, which is impressive!

I'm happy to see a woman in 1st overall with 93,153' of climb on a treadmill but I'm cheering for the guy in 2nd place, who has climbed 88,180' outdoors. That means he is also doing some descents - maybe even all of them. He's not doing this in a mountainous area. Today he was out for more than 10 hours doing 200 m hill repeats in Pennsylvania. That's the elevation gain at Blue Mountain.

Limitless Vertical Challenge, Day 6
Hockley Valley

'Bent and I planned to run in Hockley Valley but the parking lot was a zoo with hikers milling around and cars parked in places that weren't places. We turned around without stopping. The only part of the Bruce Trail that's open in Hockley is the provincial park so we were thinking of Glen Haffy again until I remembered the 5th Line Hill.



I've done hill repeats on the road there before but I usually mix it up by doing some climbs or descents on the two Bruce side trails. This wasn't too bad, though. As roads go, 5th Line is a lot like a trail - rutted, steep, scenic and poorly maintained. In the first hour, only one car went by.







There was even some poison ivy growing right on the road.



I was doing hill repeats for a good cause - my vertical challenge - while 'Bent tried his best to keep up a brave front in spite of extreme boredom. If he didn't hate intervals and hill repeats so much, he would be a competitive age group runner. But nope.





This got me to my goal in the Limitless Vertical Challenge - Level 3: Mount Mitchell, North Carolina. Level 4 is 14,505 feet (4421 m), which was never in the realm of possibility.

Limitless Vertical Challenge, Day 5
Disappointment at the Palgrave West Roller Coaster

I had a much shorter sleep than expected when I awoke to the sound of 'Bent yelling, "Brody! BRODY!!!! No! NO!!! NO!!!" I flew out of bed and ran down the stairs, nearly turning an ankle. I assumed he had escaped through the gate. But it was a skunk attack.

AdventureDog took it hard. He's the loyal sidekick - not the ringleader - so he didn't have his face right in the skunk's butt like BazingaDog apparently did. But A-Dog is a scaredy-dog who takes things personally. He was too upset to look us in the eyes. He was sure he'd done something wrong. The skunk shampoo worked pretty well on him.

BazingaDog has been through a couple of iterations of skunk smell remover and he still smells pretty bad.





After the dust settled around home, I went for a short run to Palgrave East. After yesterday's run on our property, I imagined I could collect some elevation gain by running the roller coaster double track. Unfortunately, the rolling hills are a little lower and my Ambit barely noticed some of them. I did some repeats of the biggest hill and came home. It wasn't a big day but I think I should be able to reach Level 3 in the Challenge over the next two days. It's weird that I barely felt my sore heel yesterday in the cool weather but in today's warm weather, I felt everything.

Limitless Vertical Challenge, Day 4
Pandemic Back Yard Edition

It was raining outside and storming at work so I didn't get out until later. I decided to try today's run entirely on our property in the true spirit of the pandemic lockdown. I mostly stayed on our south hill where we have trails but I headed to the north hill partway through because it's steeper and a little higher. It turned out to have a healthy crop of poison ivy so I bailed out after some cautious bushwhacking.

I managed to climb 326 m - over 1,000' - in just under an hour in our back yard with some bushwhacking on each lap. Kinda funny!

My body was much happier with rain and cooler weather than it has been with heat and humidity.

Bunnies (we assume) have ravaged the kale and chard in our veggie garden. I made sure 'Bent repaired the fence before I planted but he discovered a hidden hole today. I'm hoping some of the plants recover. We've been enjoying fresh asparagus every night this week - mmm.

Our back yard hill is in the distance in this photo.

Mrs. Gally agreed to start an after-work Zoom body circuit class on Wednesdays at 5 pm. Browner, Alisha, Lynn and I attended the first one. If anyone is interested in joining us some time, it's a cardio-strength workout using a resistance band, dumbbells (not too heavy) and a mat. $10 each. It will probably be 5-10 minutes longer in future.

Limitless Vertical Challenge, Day 3
Glen Haffy

After yesterday's half-a$$ed outing, I went to Glen Haffy with 'Bent so I could reach the very achievable "Level 2 - Camelback Mountain" in the Limitless Vertical Challenge. It was SO hot. If it were like this all the time, I would just give up, eat cookies and get fat(ter).

They're using Strava elevation gain so I'm now at 20.7 km and 926 m. "Level 3 - Mount Mitchell" will require some real effort since I have to reach 2,036 m in the next 4 days - and I'm just getting back to trail running. If the weather cools down, I might be up for that. My heel is sore but it gets sore when I go grocery shopping so I'll see how this week goes. This may just be my new normal.







The time is the elapsed time in days/hours/minutes/seconds from the time I started my first run in the "race".

Limitless Vertical Challenge, Day 2
Palgrave West

Very hot run/hike on hills near our place in between tasks. I only went out on the trails because I'm in the vertical challenge so I guess that's good. The farm dogs got through their fence, followed me and barked at me so I did one hill repeat while holding a thick, 2 m stick that I was ready to use to enforce physical distancing. Between that and my scary yelling, they retreated after a few minutes. I doubt they are dangerous but their owner doesn't live on the property so they're a bit wild. If they got excited and nipped me, I would have no way to reach him. I doubt they are vaccinated even though they run around with wildlife all the time.

More excitement! Shortly after I arrived home, Coach LD dropped off beefsteak tomato and red kale seedlings while she was out biking. The kale seedlings look *so* much better than anything I've planted so far. I hope the critters can't get through our upgraded garden fence.

And then I received my Level 1 badge for the Limitless Vertical Challenge. Yes, this is what a finish line looks like in 2020 - although in this case, it's just an interim result. I'm currently the 15th Female. That's probably going to be my high point, haha.

Limitless Vertical Challenge, Day 1
Glen Haffy

I ran up Caledon's K2 in the Dingle part of Glen Haffy then did a few hill repeats down to the creek and back up. It quickly became apparent that there wasn't going to be much uphill running in today's oppressive heat and humidity. For a change of pace, I ran north to Coolihan's Sideroad and did a hill repeat on the road and another one on Glen Haffy Rd. before starting back to the car.

I consider it progress that I didn't think about my injured foot - only how terrible the heat made me feel! I did choose my footing very, very carefully to avoid any ankle sprains. I haven't been running on trails at all so this was a huge step. We'll see how my foot feels later.

It was a beautiful day, marred only slightly by discovering the first poison ivy of the season - much later than usual. I guess the day was also marred somewhat by a face plant on the downhill run to my car when I didn't lift my lazy feet and tripped on a root. I sliced the heel of my hand a little and packed the cut with dirt, which meant I got to use my first aid supplies when I got home. But I didn't land in poison ivy, and that's a win in my books.

This got me to Level 1 in the Limitless Vertical Challenge, aka the Empire State Building. Given that Level 5 is Everest and Level 6 is Double Everest, I'm not likely to achieve too many more levels. Strava said I climbed 475 m - more than Attackpoint and that's the result they'll use. OK, fine. :) I have to get to 825 m in the next 6 days to reach Level 2, Camelback Mountain. That's very achievable but Level 3, Mount Mitchell, is 2,036 m. I'm not so sure about that but it's in the realm of possibility if I can stay inspired.













Boo.

'Bent tried to ride the trails he'd raked on our back hill yesterday. Some of it went really well, some of it less well because the trail is still soft - but there is a ton of potential. This is going to be fun!

I didn't feel great today so I stayed home and did some tasks inside and out. I never do well when the weather suddenly turns hot. I'm hoping that's all it is.

Yesterday when I was still feeling energetic, I registered for my first virtual race - Limitless Vertical Challenge by Aravaipa Running. So far I haven't felt inspired to pay $50 to do a short virtual race on our trails although I'd probably do it for a race director I know well. A lot of the virtual challenges have been about going fast or going far, neither of which seem advisable when I'm recovering from injury.

For Limitless, there are 6 different achievement levels for vertical climb over a 1-week period from tomorrow to next Sunday. The lowest level is 1250 feet of climb in a week (381 m) and the highest level is double Everest. This will give me a theme for the week and maybe take me to some different places nearby.
https://runsteep.com/limitless/

This morning's planned run before SMT Zoom ended up being 600 m with a long break to chat with our next door neighbour in person for the first time in several months. He's a working engineer in his late 70s and is always running around with a chainsaw or small tractor. He and his wife are in excellent health and we'd like to keep it that way so we've made a point of giving them plenty of space since the pandemic started. He's a ventilation expert with lots of ideas about air exchange in dental offices, which is a really hot topic.

The more we stay home, the more ideas we have about how to make home better. We decided to build our own mountain bike single track trail. 'Bent flagged a route on our back hill as Phase 1, and I walked it with him so we could make final tweaks to the route. He started raking it and made terrific progress. We may be able to ride the first stretch within the next day or two.

Since outdoor interactions are safer than indoor ones, I decided to resurrect the old fire pit near the back of our property and create a campsite for visiting friends. It would be a great place to sit under the stars and enjoy campfire treats at a distance.

The problem was, the old fire pit was completely overgrown by dense weeds, and only a few of the old stones were visible under a mess of soil and thick, knee-high vegetation. It would be a huge, time-consuming job to clear the area so I texted another neighbour - a high school student. His Dad runs a construction company and got him a mini-front end loader when he was 4. His skills with machinery are amazing. He expects to become a contractor but I don't know if he has what it takes because:

1) He offered to come over 5 minutes after we exchanged texts.
2) He looked at our insanely difficult job and said it would be pretty easy.
3) He returned a few minutes later and did the insanely difficult job in 30-40 minutes with two different machines.
4) I tried to pay him and he refused even though I made three serious attempts. "We have to help each other out," he said.

Really nice kid.

I spent a while digging out buried stones and carrying them to a pile. Basically, it was CrossFit. :) We're going to rebuild the fire pit and move it over a little.

Since I was already dirty, it was a perfect time to plant the vegetable garden and pull some weeds. If I can face the line-ups, we could use another few seedlings but we'll be OK either way. Fingers crossed it rains tomorrow!

Overnight, some critter ate the red kale that was waiting to be planted in our veggie garden - some of the seedlings that were so hard to find yesterday after waiting in various socially distant line-ups. All the other vegetable seedlings were untouched. That reminded me that a critter ate the red kale in our garden last year too. I'm torn between wanting to plant some because it's obviously yummy - or planting something else that isn't delicious enough for critters to eat. Hmm.

'Bent and I drove to Albion Hills on a spectacular and very warm spring day. (We drove because foresters are working along our neighbour's trail to the conservation area and our road is being torn up so we're trapped.) We rode together for the first half hour then spun off to do our own thing. I rode mostly different trails from Wednesday - kinda cool there is so much variety.

I was leaning aggressively on the corners, enjoying terrific grip - until I hit 8 cm of sand on the outside of one corner. I slammed down instantly, ramming the end of my handlebar into my left quad. That's going to be a really pretty bruise.

Conditions are mostly excellent other than a few deep ruts on double track where logging crews drove in mud. Until this week, I'd forgotten how rooty and rutted the Albion trails had become because they're so heavily used. It makes for a tough workout because you need a lot of momentum to get uphill. Good practice, though. I still love my Pivot 29er. :)

I thought Albion Hills would be crowded at noon on a Friday when it's only been open for a week but I only saw three other riders. We'll be steering clear of the crowds on the weekend. It's only fair, given that some people are actually working and paying taxes so we'll happily let them ride on Saturdays and Sundays.

Getting seedlings for the vegetable garden turned out to be a challenge. Because of the weather forecast, I waited until this week but I should have predicted that everyone would become a vegetable gardener while baking loaves of sourdough bread.

After waiting in a distanced line to get into the place where I usually buy seedlings, I discovered that most of the plants I wanted were sold out. I only got zucchini and a few tomatoes. On the bright side, I discovered the existence of "Campbell Tomatoes". They'd better taste mmm good.

Then I went to the larger garden centre down the road. I started waiting in their long, distanced line but bailed when I realized that the plants in my car would die in the sun before I ever got inside.

Heading back north, I noticed that a grocery store had a small garden centre in its parking lot. I scored big time there - kale, chard, basil, cilantro, arugula and cherry tomatoes. I'm still hoping for more seedlings but this should be enough to get us fresh veggies on a regular basis.

Last but not least, I bought my first tank of gas for my new car, which I drove home from Toronto just over 10 weeks ago on March 11. I still had a quarter tank left!

Somehow everything takes longer these days so I never got around to running.

As restrictions have eased in Ontario in recent weeks, it's been concerning to watch the Covid 19 numbers. Things are not moving in the right direction.

Ontario's Active Cases had plateaued after starting their downward curve. For the past 4 days, they've been going up again. (Click if you want to see the depressing fine print.) Let's hope that's a blip, not a real trend.



Hospitalizations have remained steady for the past few weeks at the flattened top of their curve (we hope). Some patients stay in hospital a long time. The good news is that ICU and ventilator requirements have decreased significantly.



And it's not good to see Rt above 1.0 again.



We're all eager to get back to something closer to our normal lives, and a lot of people are in trouble financially. I just hope things aren't moving too quickly.

Reference: Dr. Jennifer Kwan on Twitter - a Burlington physician who produces an interesting collection of Ontario graphs each morning.

Sadly - but not unexpectedly - UTMB 2020 has announced its cancellation. As an event that runs through three countries and brings together 10,000 runners from 90 countries along with family members, spectators and volunteers, there was no way it could happen in its usual form this year. I feel for the runners who had spent years qualifying, training and going through the lotteries. One friend finally got into Western States *and* UTMB in 2020 after years of trying. Sigh.

Dr. Theresa Tam has officially recommended non-medical face masks for indoor situations where physical distancing is difficult or impossible, including public transit and shopping in crowded stores. Without a working sewing machine, my homemade face mask is taking forever and doesn't look very good. I looked online last week and found lots of expensive masks, mostly sold out. I ended up getting us locally made cotton masks from a leather studio in Rockwood, Ontario. Most of them are only $15 and they're giving some to midwife clinics. As masks go, they're nice looking and sometimes even fun. I got #14, Moose'ly Canadian.
https://www.hidesinhand.com/masks.html#!/MASKS/c/4...

Another gorgeous day! After the ordeal of grocery shopping, I rode through Palgrave Forest to the village, up the sidewalk to the rail trail and into Albion Hills for the first time this year. The park is closed but the trails opened up last week. There appears to be some legal parking for visitors along roads at the north edge of the park. The northern trails were busy enough that I almost bailed but on a hunch, I rode to the south end, which would normally be busier because it's closer to the main (closed) mountain bike parking. Today it was relatively quiet. This was my longest ride of the year and my legs were feeling it!

I ran into Crash and her pooches near home and had a nice chat - better than Zoom.

After turning my ankle in Sunday's hike, I figured I'd better do a run on the treadmill to make sure my foot is still operational. Yup. It's still a little sore like it always is - maybe a little more - but I think I can go back to gravel road running.

I'm thinking about the Aravaipa Running Limitless Vertical Challenge virtual race next week. I can hike or run so it doesn't matter that I'm not doing much distance these days. For sure, I could get up to Level 2 (Camelback Mountain) in a week. I'd have to work really hard to reach Level 3 (Mount Mitchell) around here. They're thinking the people at Level 6 (double Everest) will almost have to run on a treadmill where they can do all uphill without any downhill.
https://runsteep.com/limitless/

This asparagus thief was caught red-handed and thrown in jail. Unfortunately, our vegetable garden is inside the jail.

For our 2nd adventure of the long weekend, 'Bent and I drove a short distance to the Humber Valley with the plan of finding some of Coach LD's orienteering controls. It took us a while to find a place where it appeared legal to park. The police were towing cars away from the edge of Palgrave Forest yesterday. They seem to take a dim view of parking along a road near a closed parking lot so we went to the Castlederg entrance to the Humber Valley Trail, knowing we might not end up spending much time orienteering after all.

That was just as well, given that one of us, who shall remain nameless, had carefully packed his map case, compass and pen but left his map and instructions on the kitchen table. I had mine but it's more fun when we're both navigating. Anyway, we had a long hike to Duffy's Lane so it didn't matter much. Unbelievably, I turned my right ankle within 10 m of the start on flat trail with a small root sticking up. Although it's my right heel that's injured right now, my left ankle is the one that usually turns. I didn't go over too far; I'll call it a 2 out of 10. Then it started to turn again on a small root late in the hike - just a 1/10. I had Barefoot Science insoles in a shoe with a pronounced arch and I think it was just too much force pushing my ankle to the outside.

Aside from that, it was a beautiful hike. We saw our first two trilliums of the season although they're still not out in great numbers. Everyone was polite. We had a couple of nice, distanced conversations with strangers. One was O-vangelism after a fellow noticed my map. He'd orienteered as a child and was interested in getting back to it so I shared some info. We had a longer chat with a kindergarten teacher, Ruthie Sloane (?), who is training for a 100K race.

When we got to the Duffy's Lane parking lot, we decided to turn back and return another day when we both had our maps. Even though we didn't do the orienteering, it was great to be out on different trails!

For the past 7 weeks, 'Bent and I have exercised at home or from home. Compared to most people, it's really easy for us to do that so we figured it was one way we could do our part in the pandemic.

We still don't feel right about going to Collingwood and we couldn't do a lot of the things that we usually do up there anyway. So to celebrate the long weekend, we treated ourselves by expanding our horizons with a 5 km drive to Glen Haffy for a hike with AdventureDog and BazingaDog. It was unreasonably exciting to go to a different place, even though Glen Haffy is one of our regular haunts.

Good news for small business owners - the extension of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) until the end of the summer. I just submitted our application for the 2nd month of CEWS for dental office employees. I now have some experience with CEWS, the Canada Emergency Business Account ($40K loan, $10K forgiven if you repay by Dec. 2022), Canada Emergency Response Benefit (a simpler form of EI) and the upcoming Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program. The money has all been paid out very quickly and for our business, it's been a very welcome lifeline.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/wage-subsidy-covi...

I didn't have quite enough time to work out between admin work and my Zoom drink with Dee and Mrs. Gally. Tomorrow looks gorgeous then it's supposed to rain for the rest of the long weekend.

Another gravel road run from home to the keyhole parking lot in Palgrave Forest + a little extra trail to make up the 5K distance. Almost identical to Saturday's run. My foot is sore tonight but not too bad.

It looks like orienteering will be able to start up again in modified form when Ontario's post-Covid Phase 1 begins on Tuesday:

"Allowing sport activity for individual/single competitors, including training and competitions conducted by a recognized Provincial Sport Organization, National Sport Organization, or recognized national provincial training centres. This includes indoor and outdoor non-team sport competitions that can be played while maintaining physical distancing and without spectators, such as:
- water sports on lakes and outdoor bodies of water (no swimming pool sports), such as rowing and sailing
- low-contact racquet sports like tennis, badminton, pickleball and ping pong
- athletics, such as track and field, gymnastics and figure skating
- animal-related sports, such as horse racing"

Also, Albion Hills quietly removed the line on its website that prohibited cycling! Parking still isn't permitted though so they're trying to limit it to locals. Unfortunately, three of the next four days are supposed to be rainy so a bajillion mountain bikers will come on Saturday. We'll postpone our return until next week.

Another spectacular spring day! I went for a sunny - albeit chilly - midday ride around Palgrave Forest. It was moderately busy but everyone was well-mannered. Fun!

Then 'Bent and I attended a webinar where dentists from Italy, Singapore and Kentucky talked about what it's been like to return to work in the new normal with Covid 19 around. Interesting. The dentist from Italy said she looks like an astronaut now with all the PPE she has to wear. She said she's exhausted at the end of the day. Most patients are coming back although some are nervous. Staff were definitely nervous at first. They can't see as many patients with all the new protocols. But they were all positive and said it felt easier as they went along so that was encouraging.

Rodney Yee - Yoga for Flexibility

This one used to be my "go to" yoga workout and I still enjoy it. (Although I hadn't played a DVD for so long that the batteries had corroded into the remote - oops!) I haven't been doing much yoga lately for a few reasons:

- Caron fell ill last year so our regular Thursday night yoga and core workouts stopped after more than a decade.

- My injured foot doesn't bend forward very well so things like Downward Dog are a bit lopsided. Hopefully, that will improve.

- More annoying is the Dupuytren's Contracture that started in the palm of my left hand in June 2018. This is a thickening of the fascia that pulls my little finger toward the palm so it's painful to flatten it on the floor for push-ups or planks. It's an uncommon condition and often hereditary; my Dad had it too. When I'm no longer able to flatten the palm of my hand on a table, I can get surgery but it sounds like it doesn't always go well, and it isn't a permanent fix.

So yoga isn't as relaxing these days as it's supposed to be! But it's still great for improving mobility and strength so I'll try to do it more often.

It was snowing hard when I woke up today. We may have ticks, unseasonably cold weather and a plague - but on the bright side, I haven't seen any poison ivy yet.

One hundred years ago on May 7, an exhibition opened at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the AGO). The headline in the Toronto Star was, “Seven Painters Show Some Excellent Work”.

Last Thursday, May 7, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection presented an interesting virtual curatorial talk to celebrate. Bruce Cockburn played a song at the end. It's available online now.
https://mcmichael.com/event/g7virtualtalk/

'Bent, the dogs and I attended on Zoom. BazingaDog turned out to be quite an art fan.



Although it was a bit long for him.

Wishing a very Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there.

Last year, Mother's Day came less than two weeks after Mom's funeral. I barely remember May 2019 - thank goodness. Today I'm remembering Mom with love and gratitude. I played her piano this afternoon; she would have liked that. :)

I didn't want to push my luck after yesterday's outdoor run so I did another treadmill run today - a ladder of speed changes to keep it pseudo-interesting. My heel doesn't hurt while I run but if I sit for a while, there's a little extra pain at the usual spot - the upper outside edge of the right calcaneus, 1+ cm from the centre of the Achilles. It's much better than it was but there's always a twinge in that spot, whether I run or not. I'm assuming it's related to the Achilles insertion - maybe some calcification. Dr. Google has some ideas but he/she isn't as helpful as Dr. Thumbs-of-Death or Dr. Bell.

A mix of sun and heavy blowing snow on May 9! This is the front part of our property as seen from the road. There was once a Raid The Rib control on top of that hill.



Since yesterday's treadmill run didn't leave me limping, I pushed the boundaries today with a 5K country road run. The surface isn't as flat as a treadmill but it's flatter than the trails and much more interesting than our basement so I'll be more inspired to run if I'm able to do this. The jury will be out for the next 24 hours but so far, the pain is minor.

The winter closure of north Duffy's Lane has continued so we have a lovely little stretch of car-free road with some hills at the north end.



I followed the driveway in to the old keyhole parking lot for Palgrave Forest but that didn't quite get me to the 2.5 km turnaround point. So I ran a little double track to get the rest of the distance. Here is the start of some MTB single track. The double track has sometimes been crowded lately. The single track is usually not bad - on weekdays, anyway. Or on May mornings with blowing snow.



It is traditional to take this photo of the Palgrave Forest pond every spring.



Although the TRCA has kept its trails open, they warn that the trails are unmaintained. So I never go around blind corners too fast on my bike.



When I got back, the dogs were romping in the yard in a brief period of sunshine with blowing snow. This is their favourite weather - both outside and inside, where the fireplace is roaring once again.

Next step to (possible) recovery: I ran for half an hour instead of alternating running with walking.

More work than play today and definitely no exercise.

Two of our family members are loving the pandemic!

Beautiful, sunny, single track ride, mostly in Palgrave East. It wasn't too crowded but there were some head-on meetings on single track that kept things entertaining. I'd thought about riding up to the Caledon Trailway for the first time this year but conditions were too nice on the single track so I'll save that for another day.

Facebook told me that yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of my Pivot 29er bike. I celebrated by falling off for the first time in 2020 after losing too much momentum on a rooty, steeply banked uphill turn. I fell head first downhill with my bike on top of me but was lucky to land in soft pine needles, missing all the trees and pointy sticks.

I met Tammy P. hiking with her neighbours and had a brief chat from a distance. As I was leaving on Duffy's Lane, I veered around a group of adults standing near four illegally parked cars, holding disposable coffee cups and getting ready to hike (and probably drop the cups, based on what we've seen). One of them called out to me, "This is a blended family!" As if it was any of my business. What a weird world we live in now.

My right heel didn't feel too sore for too long after Sunday's gravel road run so I tried hiking on uneven ground, which is the other thing I've been avoiding for the past few weeks. AdventureDog joined me for the experiment. Running on a flattish surface isn't painful while I'm doing it; my foot gets sore later. But when my heel tilts side to side while hiking on uneven ground, there's some pain while I'm doing it so I kept it short. It doesn't feel too bad tonight. If I weren't trying to recover from an injury, I wouldn't log this but it will be helpful to have a record if I look back.

Upper body strength - TRX, weight machine and dumbbells.

Then 'Bent and I had yummy Cinco de Mayo Taco Tuesday takeout from Gourmandissimo. Today was Gilles and Adriana's 30th wedding anniversary (they're the head chefs) so their son Christian did the cooking.

Tour de Palgrave East in sunny, 9C weather. Crowds arrived here over the weekend but for the first time this year, I didn't see another bike or meet anyone on the same trail. I saw a couple of hikers on nearby trails. To take advantage of the solitude, I rode most pieces of single track in their less-travelled direction and toured the roller coaster double track trails that used to be groomed for nordic skiing. Most groups of hikers stay on the double track trails so I've been avoiding them lately. This felt like brand new fun in our back yard. :)

I do have a bit more pain in my heel after yesterdays run-walk on gravel roads. Not too surprising. There was more running than walking, and the downhills increased the impact compared to the treadmill. But it doesn't feel like a setback with structural damage. Maybe some post-run soreness is my new normal. The Barefoot Science insoles seem to be helping a lot, even just walking around the house in my new indoor shoes. I'd tucked the insoles away in my closet and forgotten about them for the last couple of years.

For weeks, I've been buried in administrative work between pandemic-related work for 'Bent's dental office and several tax returns for Mom and my parents' corporation. Most of the heavy lifting is done for now and I might finally have time to scan in some photos, get back into yoga and clean out some cupboards. Yay.

We're all in this together. Right? Well, not if you're Comfort Dental, a corporation with more than 100 U.S. franchisees, aka dental offices. This is their idea of a professional, caring ad to post during a pandemic when some of their competitors are running out of money due to government-ordered shutdowns.
https://www.facebook.com/comfortdental/videos/5679...

They're not making it up. They *did* stay open to treat patients when other dentists closed - and the State of Colorado slammed them for it!
https://wp-cpr.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/04/Co...

It was a glorious spring day and I had a letter to mail so I pushed my luck and did a run-walk to the nearest mailbox on gravel roads. It wasn't as flat as the treadmill but it was smoother than our trails. There were 17 vehicles illegally parked at the northwest corner of Palgrave Forest; that's the reason I'm no longer going there on weekends. That's just one of several places where people are parking.

Turns out the mailbox is a 4.82 km return trip so I had to do a short out-and-back on our driveway to get a nice even number. :) After that, I made my first-ever rhubarb-apple crisp and gave my foot the afternoon off even though I was keen to do yoga, lunges or foothab. If it's sore tomorrow, I want to know for sure that the run was the problem.

The treadmill walk-runs haven't hurt my foot so far so I increased the time and bumped the ratio to 1:3 walk:run.

Tonight we're watching the Trail Running Film Festival online. You can buy a $10 ticket until Monday at midnight and watch any time before early evening Thursday. They're also accepting donations for a Covid 19 Emergency Relief Fund.
https://www.trailfilmfest.com/

Errands take soooo long during a pandemic but there were a couple of good ones today. I made a curbside pickup at our local independent book store. I actually have a good supply of unread books but I know they need the business. Then it was the first pickup of the season for our CSA farm. It used to be a social event where we selected and weighed our own vegetables while eating homemade muffins and chatting with other community members. Now we line up our cars, pop the hatch open and wait for people in masks to bring our food. It's the first year they've sold all their farm shares; people are thinking more about food security.

Treadmill walk-run - 1 minute walking to 2 minutes running. Bumping it up because Wednesday's session didn't bother my foot.