Training Log Archive: Bash

Rode with 'Bent to Albion Hills and around some of the trails. Beautiful day with perfect trail conditions, although a cool breeze would have been a welcome touch. I hate to confess that I'm so absorbed in packing and logistics for next weekend's Raid The North event, along with the other tasks that need to be completed before we go, that today's outing felt more like a training requirement than fun. I hope I'm not as out of shape as it seems when I compare myself to 'Bent. We were only on vacation for 2.5 weeks, so I shouldn't have lost that much fitness. But somewhere along the line, he's gotten fitter!

'Bent, the dogs and I had a great hike in Palgrave with Sharon, who is home for a brief visit from Bangkok, where she now lives. She and Terry are keen to do the marathon on the Great Wall of China. I've been thinking of running a marathon once in my life, so maybe that would be a good time for us to visit them? :-)

Wow, today's TDF time trial was riveting till the very end!!!

'Bent and I did my old 30K training loop in reverse, since we needed some bum-in-saddle time after our backpacking trip. The loop is mostly dirt roads and rail trail, with a few km each of paved roads and hilly trail riding. For the locals: Finnerty - Centreville Creek - Coolihan's - Glen Haffy road allowance - Innis Lake Rd. - Rail Trail - Duffy's - trails to home. (The real training loop leaves Glen Haffy and heads back to Centreville Creek, but we forgot, since we were doing it backwards!)

When we got to the rail trail at Humber Station, we met three 11-year-old boys who had hiked from their campsite at Albion Hills and were eager to find their way back. They were city boys, and they all had backpacks and water, so they were actually pretty well-prepared, even though they didn't have a clue where they were. They'd been out for 3 hours at that point. So we took a break from our biking and slowly escorted them to the back road that leads into the park. Along the way, we showed them how to recognize poison ivy, and we all took a break to eat black raspberries. Beautiful sunny day to be out and about!

Didn't feel great most of this week. Had a headache that lasted several days, and felt jet-lagged and fatigued. When 'Bent came down with his cold Tuesday afternoon, I expected to be next - but it looks like all the extra Vitamin C is doing its job. 'Bent has improved quickly with Cold FX.

The Raid The North Competitor Update #1 arrived tonight at last - one week before our departure. For those of us who have seen RTN newsletters before, there is little new information in this one - and I'm not sure that I trust any of the course info, since the document is a modified version of a previous newsletter. For example, the type of trekking to expect near Sun Peaks, B.C. is described at one point. (This was the location of a RTN event in a previous year.) Much of the text looks word-for-word familiar from the RTN Champs in 2005, e.g. there are supposed to be two ropes sections - a rappel and a zip line across a waterfall. Maybe some of that stuff is true for this race course too, but it would be an unusual coincidence!

Anyway... the good news is that I think it's finally safe to believe that the race is really going to happen. A couple of important Raid The North events have been cancelled in recent years, so e-mails have been flying around between racers who have wondered about the lack of race info until today. Guess I'd better get serious about packing! It's too late for the training.

After a 3-week break, it was great to head out with Leanimal for our Tuesday trail run, in spite of the hot, humid day. Fun to catch up on all the stories that we've missed while we were away. There wasn't much spring in my step, but our standard route took about the same running time as usual, even though I walked a couple of hills that we usually run. I made a point of saving my best stories for those hills so that Leanimal would have to slow down too, heh heh.

Back home again! The air is full of monarch butterflies, and the forest is full of lush poison ivy. ThunderDog and I went for a walk which culminated in a soapy dog bath after she plunged into a big patch of poison ivy. Normally 'Bent does the dog baths, since he seems to be immune to PI. He wasn't around, so I had to follow the dog bath with a soapy shower of my own - and now I'll keep my fingers crossed!