Training Log Archive: Bash

Today I unveiled the grand prize for the most deserving GHO member attending the Flying Pig. It's a battery-operated flying pig, of course! I have committed to developing stringent criteria for awarding this prize immediately following the last race at the Pig. It could reward the top orienteering performance, but maybe it will go to someone who distinguishes themselves in some other way. :-)

Thomass orienteering race in Palgrave. I often have to drive over an hour to get to O events, and road conditions can be bad in winter. It was a real treat to just grab a house key and run 800 meters down our road to the starting line of today's race!

As I already knew from my run earlier this week, it was a tough slog with all the snow today. My legs weren't feeling too springy on my warm-up run, and I realized that I will need to start incorporating more running into my training soon. I've been doing lots of other stuff, but running didn't feel as natural as it should.

I don't think I dropped the best controls in the Thomass Box (based on age/gender handicap), but I was first out of the Box anyway, and was surprised when I continued to see no other footprints in the snow ahead of me. But within 150 meters of the finish line, with one control left to go, Hammer passed me. Grrrr! I forgave him immediately because he took 2nd prize (an orienteering calendar) and let me have 1st prize (ice wine and chocolates). Yes, I can be bought pretty easily - and hey, let's face it, I've gotta be happy with 2nd place. GHO runners were also 3rd (Marianna) and 4th (Bob), and we had others in the top 10, including 'Bent!

Snowshoeing with 'Bent from our place to and from the Duffy's Lane entrance to Palgrave. We encountered a very embarrassed gentleman with a chocolate Lab, standing in this remote parking lot beside his car, which was locked with the engine running and the keys inside. After some cell phone trouble as we tried to reach his wife in Bolton, we delivered him to our neighbour, another chocolate Lab owner. When we finished our excursion much later, his car was still in the parking lot, but no longer running, so I guess the poor guy didn't have a great day.

Contours-only Line-O exercise with 'Bent in Palgrave on snowshoes. We didn't finish the whole thing today, but we'll go back again. It went fairly smoothly with a few minor bobbles. We tried to go for several minutes at a time without looking at the map, and just talked about what we expected to see next. I've done a lot of map memorization lately in different contexts, and it is becoming a more natural skill.

Snowshoe orienteering at Glen Haffy on a crisp, sunny afternoon with 'Bent, MrPither, Hammer, Etoile, Adventure Girl!, ThunderDog and BulletDog. Hammer kindly agreed to give a running commentary on what he was thinking about as we went around our training course. One of the things I noticed was that if you have absolute confidence in your ability to match map to terrain (which I still do not), then you approach things differently sometimes, e.g. you choose routes that are less safe, you know when the map is drawn incorrectly vs. you being lost, etc. It was a useful exercise for me, since I've found that progress for an intermediate orienteer is slow, consisting mostly of individual practice and lessons from trial and error.

Wonderful sunny ski around Palgrave East and West with 'Bent, ThunderDog and BulletDog. Much nicer than post-holing in the snow yesterday as I ran beside the trails. Conditions are awesome for snowshoeing and very good for skiing (best on the less-used trails). We figured that we'd better get out and enjoy the trails now before everyone (including 50 orienteers) puts footprints in them over the weekend. Pooches are comfortably sprawled by the fire now, and I'm wishing I had time to join them.

While hiding from view on the southern part of our long country driveway, which can't be seen from the road. But my clever scheme didn't work, because Crash drove up to the house and caught me in the act!

Running to Palgrave Conservation Area and back. It took 7 minutes to get to the closest access point by road - and 18 minutes to come home cross-country, slogging through the snow!

Ran around Palgrave East, taking down flags from the Tree Hugger race. I'd planned to take them down much earlier, but people kept wanting to use them for training. Anyway, the time has finally come - I promised the race organizer for this weekend's Thomass that I would get rid of the ribbons to prevent confusion.

Wow, this was TOUGH. I always try to avoid running on XC ski trails, which meant that I was slogging through powder snow on top of breakable crust that made each footstep feel like being caught in a leghold trap. Most of the time, the snow was up over my ankles, and in a couple of places, it went over my knees. The most annoying thing about it was being forced to go on foot because the flags were well off-trail, when I would have loved to have been skiing out there today. It would have been better on snowshoes, but I haven't gone for a run in awhile, and thought I should do that. I must get out for a ski tomorrow before the trails are trashed by Sunday's O race. The winning speeds will be lower than usual, I think.

Unscheduled rest day - there is something energy-draining about spending the day in downtown Toronto, and it totally sapped my desire to work out. I have a lot of respect for the folks who are able to keep up with both commuting and training, because it sure never worked for me. The lucky ones are people like Bent and Jon T, who can combine their commuting with their training. And now Wil S is actually training *while* he is working - as a medical doctor, yet - which really takes things to a whole new level of training dedication.

While watching the Daily Show, where Jon Stewart discussed Harry Whittington's apology to Dick Cheney upon his (Whittington's) release from hospital after being shot in the face, heart, etc. Stewart says that Cheney has not yet decided whether he will accept Whittington's apology.

Skied all around Palgrave West with BulletDog - amazing conditions. My wax wasn't grippy enough, so I got more of an upper body workout (and less of a leg workout) than I'd planned. I'm feeling great aerobically - apparently I still have some of those extra red blood cells from spending a week at altitude. I had a slip near the beginning as I descended a steep slope going off-trail through the forest, and my knee bent back 180 degrees. Now it is hurting - sigh.

The wind came up while we were out, and the trees started making lots of those creaks and gunshot sounds they make before big branches fall down. Thus my speed increased significantly toward the end.

ThunderDog and I did a beautiful trek through hilly forest covered in fresh, deep powder snow, with big fluffy snowflakes coming down. No, we're not in central B.C. anymore. This is Palgrave! :-)

You know your vacation is over when... it's time for Hard Core Mondays again. Bent and I did Caron Shepley's "Hard Core Conditioning" routine before dinner. Note to self: never have a slice of pizza as a pre-workout snack.