Training Log Archive: Bash

Around Albion Hills with Luscious using Giant's Rib Raid map. Luscious did all the navigating and it's clear that she paid good attention in her nav clinic. Hingo and Bent also went out with the GRR map, practising their team dynamics (I guess) for the upcoming North Am Rogaine Champs.
Followed up with brunch and a much-needed bike repair seminar at Hingo & Luscious' place. We had another heavy hailstorm this afternoon. Will spring ever come??

Training Hours for April 2005: 48.5
(First full month of logging in Attackpoint)

Nice morning run in the Rouge Valley with Skidder and Shifty, who politely let me set the pace. Lots to discuss with so little time to get ready for Appalachian Extreme (AppX). Getting excited! Legs felt good but my lungs still haven't recovered fully from being sick. Today's wildlife: Great Blue Heron, several Mallards, Red-winged Blackbird and a Kingfisher (heard, not seen).

Upper Body weights while watching Just For Laughs.

Hiking with Bent's family and the pooches at Glen Haffy. Out for 90 minutes, but I'll call it 30. Still feeling like my head is full of cotton balls - hope I'm not coming down with something else. Not much wildlife today - just one wild turkey and an unidentified raptor. Lots of early wildflowers, especially trout lilies, blue cohosh and trilliums in bud. It's about time for spring to be sprung!

Today's weather in Caledon appears to be broken. Even the dog won't go outside. We had a heavy snowstorm around mid-morning. (Snow didn't stay.) Then we had pea-sized hail pelting down at lunchtime, then we had a repeat of that a few minutes ago. I hear that a few swarms of locusts are scheduled to arrive around 2 p.m. And then maybe I can finally go for my run...

Trail run around Palgrave East & West with BulletDog. Light head and heavy legs - a bad combination. Needed to take more walking breaks than usual. Threw in some aerobic intervals on rolling terrain to make Hammer happy. Intended to do 3 min., but holy crap, it turns out that's a long time for a non-runner to sprint, so I did 4 reps X 2 min. instead with 1 min. rests. It got easier each time - it'll probably go better another day. Today's wildlife: 2 white-tailed deer, 1 wild turkey.

So... I have been training to peak at a 36-hour race in late July. But now I find myself preparing for a 78-hour race in three weeks. Might need to change my strategy a bit, eh? Where to begin??

Last hydrospinning class of the season, so we'll be out on open water soon! :-) We'll miss Coach, but we won't miss the 4:20 a.m. alarm on Wednesdays. I sat behind Bent today, whose technique was really on - and whose high cadence was a challenge to keep up with. It's a good thing we never put him in the bow! More intervals and less drill than usual, so it was a tough workout. For the last post-class trip to Starbucks, I finally indulged in the Ultimate Blackout Cake with my latte. Mmmm... Unfortunately, a traffic accident at 427 & 401 resulted in a 3-hr trip home (it took 40 min. to get there) so all of our schedules are messed up - especially Thumbs-of-Death, who arrived 2 hours late for his first patient.

Haven't done much biking since winter, so it's time to get going even though it's too early to go on the wet trails. Our first spring adventure race is just 10 days away - eek!
Finnerty to Innis Lake Rd. Hill intervals on Innis Lake Rd. (6 reps X 40 sec uphill, 90-120 sec rest). Then south to the rail trail to Duffy's Lane, Finnerty and home.
Hill intervals felt a lot more natural than the ones I did on foot yesterday. Truth be told, I probably did more running up hills yesterday than I do in an average calendar year. (To save you the trouble of doing the math, that was 270 seconds.) I guess it's a lot harder to cheat on a bike, so I actually have learned how to ride up the odd hill. However, in a couple of weeks, K/O's plan calls for us to do 3 minute hill intervals, which will be much tougher. (The toughest part will be... where the heck will I find a 3-minute hill around here?)

Today's Wildlife Report along the roads and trails: A flock of 8 wild turkeys, a Pileated Woodpecker, and a baby porcupine crossing the road all alone. (I stopped to make sure he made it.) Oh, and then there was the quiet gentleman on a remote part of the rail trail, dressed in camouflage from head to toe, polishing his shotgun. I gave him my friendliest hello at the same time as I flicked into the big chain ring and got the heck out of there. Yikes.

Around Palgrave West and Hardwood Forest with ThunderDog. We finally have a few early spring flowers and wild onions, and the grass is greening up. Big twinge on the left side of my right knee today, so lots of stretching afterward.

Hill intervals. 6 reps X (45 sec. full-on followed by 90 sec. return to the bottom). Each time I got a little further up the hill in 45 seconds, which I guess is probably the idea. In an uncharacteristic show of loyalty, T-Dog accompanied me up and down the hill for all 6 intervals, although she did pause to roll her eyes at me each time we turned around.

Planned to get up early and do the upper body strength workout that I missed last night when I accidentally fell asleep at a reasonable hour for a change. But now it is too close to tomorrow's paddling class for any upper body work. So I will just have to race with strong teammates this year instead.

Yahoo, I'm finally starting to recover - slowly. Bent says that I no longer have a deep sexy voice, which in this case is a good thing. ThunderDog and I went for a gentle run/walk around Palgrave. Managed to find some snow for T-Dog to roll in, but the ground is almost entirely bare - finally. Trails are still too wet for bikes or horses, not that it's stopping people, so there is considerable damage and churned-up muck in places. Grrrrr. Yes, I'd like to be riding my bike on single track now too, but there's a good reason why the trails are still closed around here.