Training Log Archive: Bash

Turkey Trot 'A' Meet at Albion Hills, put on by the Ukrainian Club. Fun, challenging course set by Eugene. Other than NavStock and Forks of the Credit, I don't think I've done any regular orienteering races in 2007. It felt great to be back among friends, enjoying a high-quality map on a beautiful fall day. I felt rusty, but luckily, I didn't feel super-tired after yesterday, even though I couldn't take it up to full race intensity. I did the Long course, about 7K. No major errors, probably some less-than-optimal route choices, and one leg near the end that I took too casually because I was losing concentration, looking forward to the finish. Lucky for me, there were a couple of big features to steer me into that control!

Not a bad result - about 6 minutes behind Elena, who always provides good competition and shows me whether I had a good or bad day. When we last met at NavStock, she beat me by 84 seconds in a 2-hr race! I'm just going to have to keep trying. Luckily, she's in a younger age group in most events - phew!

The bad news is that my new Active Ankle gave me a blister at the back of my heel. When I started to feel it, I stopped and removed my shoe and the brace. Ironically, I was wearing the brace to prevent any last-minute injury before next weekend's long course adventure race, but now I have a different injury to heal!

'Bent tried running on the rail trail, as the chiro had suggested. No dice, he's not ready. I feel so sad for him.

Lost my first post-rogaine toenail today. It looks like there will be a couple of others.

Event: Storm the Ten - Adventure Relay
 

At a time when the sport of adventure racing seems to be in decline, we've been fortunate to have two brand new multi-sport events in Southern Ontario, two weekends in a row. Last week was the Adventure Sports Games in Collingwood, six separate races over a 2-day period, testing skills in paddling, running, biking and navigation. After each race, we drove to the next race location, changed our clothes, had a snack, and started whenever we felt like it within a 1-hour period. High intensity, no transitions.

This weekend was Storm The Ten at Kelso Conservation Area, which took almost the opposite approach. The 10-hour race was set up like the popular mountain bike relays, with a mix of running, biking and paddling in each lap, and a variety of team configurations. Solo racers were at the hard core end of the spectrum, and at the other end were more fun-oriented teams of six, who raced their laps in pairs. Teams set up tents in a base camp area around the start/finish area where there was music, a concession stand, Axis Gear shop, and a friendly, fun atmosphere. The weather was perfect.

Each lap started with a run down a grassy slope to 6 (?) steep sets of stairs leading to the beach at Lake Kelso. Then we hopped into our kayak (or canoe, for teams racing in pairs) and paddled to the far end of Lake Kelso - only 7-8 minutes, much of it spent dodging canoeists who didn't know the J stroke! Then we ran up and over a hill, then under the railroad tracks to the bike transition. From there, we rode to the west side of Kelso and ascended the escarpment in a series of big single track switchbacks on the Bruce Trail. I've climbed the escarpment in many places, and this was about as painless a way to do it as I've ever done. (Although I was always happy to get to the top, especially in later laps!) The trails we rode at the top of the escarpment were mostly fast and non-technical. There were occasional rocky or loose sections, but much of the time, I could stay in my big gear. At the far end of the bike loop, there was a SportIdent control to punch. Upon returning to the top of the ski hill, we dropped our bikes at a beautiful viewpoint and went for a rocky, rooty trail run - about 3K, I'd guess - with another SI control halfway around the loop. Then we grabbed our bikes and rode down beside the ski hill to the bike transition. Total biking was about 6 km. Then we ran back over the hill (a ski bunny hill) to our boats, paddled back down the lake, and ran up, up, up all those stairs to the tag-off area where we would pass our SI card (carried on a cord around our neck) to the next racer. So there were 8 transitions per lap, and the fastest racers finished their laps in just under an hour. Phew!

I tried to reduce the impact of the transitions as much as possible, so I wore my bike helmet and running shoes for the entire lap, using platform pedals with PowerGrip straps. Thus the bike/run and run/bike transitions only took a few seconds. The paddling transitions were longer, since we had to wear PFDs and haul our boats to appropriate parking spots. If I were doing this race solo, I think I would take the time to change shoes at the end of the paddle before starting to run, rather than having wet feet all day. Today I was racing in the tag team format with Mrs. L-D, so we were able to dry our feet out between laps.

A big step up from last weekend, there actually was one other team in the female tag team category! They were good competition, taking a 7-minute lead on us in the first lap, which began with a surprise distribution of a map showing a control that racers needed to find to before starting the paddle. I'd guess that it added about 1.6 km of running to that lap. Mrs. L-D ended up trapped at a dead end in a park works yard with several other racers, and they had to roll under barbed wire to get out! A bit more adventure than they were counting on, and it meant that the teams involved had to play catch up. We slowly gained time on our competitors, passing them in our 4th lap. I think we finished about 19 minutes ahead at the end of 8 laps, but I was always looking over my shoulder, knowing that one flat tire could make a huge difference!

As expected, there was great race organization by Storm Events. It was fun to do a different race format, and - like last weekend - this was high intensity stuff. There were several highlights, including biking behind Gally (the captain of Team GimpKnee) as he impressively towed a teammate up the escarpment on twisty, rooty, rocky single track. Wow, I wouldn't even be brave enough to accept a tow in that terrain! Given all my recent falls while trail running, I was feeling quite smug since I was wearing a bike helmet. Naturally, with this increased level of protection, I managed to stay on my feet. 3PinJim and daughter Skye dropped by to visit, as did Smash (Mrs. L-D's husband) with their two kids.

We had a candlelight awards ceremony down on the beach - very nice. Lots of categories and lots of draw prizes, which makes it fun for everyone. The overall winner was the speedy Jason Lane, who somehow managed to squeeze in 10 laps, which STORM had believed was impossible. Particularly impressive after his 2nd place finish in last weekend's Adventure Sports Games. I think the 2nd place male solo managed to do 9 laps, then the winners of most categories had 6 to 8 laps.

We did 8 laps, and both female tag teams finished ahead of the two coed tag teams. (There weren't any male tag teams.) Mrs. L-D was a strong partner, and I enjoyed the tag team format, since it enabled me to push harder when I was racing, knowing that I'd get to rest for an hour in between. It was kind of like doing adventure racing intervals! My laps were all about the same - 1:05, 1:04, 1:07, 1:06. I think I'll log the approximate time doing the different disciplines, rather than logging it all as adventure racing.

Attended my first USOF rogaine committee conference call last night. Good group of people. I'm impressed at the capacity that some clubs must have to be able to put on these major events - and some of them do it year after year! My local club has two active volunteers (including me) and very little going on. My main club, GHO, has more volunteer capacity, but it's still a significant challenge for our resources to put on 5 O events and 3 adventure runs each year, along with a handful of club training nights. Even to do that, we had to hire a professional race course designer for one of the adventure runs - the Snowshoe Raid - because it wouldn't have happened otherwise. The volunteers are just stretched too thin.

Are there any Ontarians reading my log who have ideas about how we could put on a rogaine here? Perhaps not as long as 24 hrs, to make it easier. We could hire Bob again, as one idea. Or perhaps several clubs could go together on it. Where could we hold it?

A quick Bike-Run-Bike outing at Albion Hills with Mrs. L-D, my tag team partner for Storm the Ten. One final pre-race test of my PowerGrip pedals. Glad I decided to use them, as last night we received a map of the 10K relay lap. It's going to be Run-Paddle-Run-Bike-Run-Bike-Run-Paddle-Run. We'll be climbing and descending the escarpment on our bikes. Some of the runs are short, e.g. getting from the lake to the transition area, about 150 m. Anyway, this race will be all about the transitions - with 8 of them happening in each lap, and each lap taking about an hour! I'll be wearing running shoes and bike helmet for the whole lap. For such a short lap, it won't be worth carrying a lot of water. I'll have to think about anything else we can do to improve efficiency.

Trail run in between our two bike loops.

Great turnout for the Wednesday group ride in sunny weather - Crash, Leanimal, Stanimal and his friend Rob, who used to be a bike mechanic at Sporting Life before he became an Air Canada pilot. This background turned out to be handy when Leanimal traded bikes with him so she could try out his bike - just as her front tire went flat. (Coincidence? Hmmm...)

It's that time of the year when there isn't much bike racing left, so our elapsed time on the trails was a fair bit longer than my logged riding time. I think we stopped to chat almost as much as we rode - which was just fine on a sunny fall morning. This was a speedy group, and I was even farther behind than usual as I practised doing single track with my Powergrip pedals in preparation for Storm The Ten this weekend (I don't plan to change into and out of bike shoes during every multi-sport lap). We heard all about Bromont, where Crash will be spending the weekend with "12 tall men" (better than 7 dwarves), since Rob was quite familiar with the area. Sounds like fun, although Leanimal and I agreed that we are probably too wimpy to point ourselves down a ski hill, even though we'd love to get a photo wearing all that cool armour.

As requested, here is the reminder: The general store at Sutton has an excellent bakery with lots of yummy food. Crash must visit it, and she must return with gifts. (OK, I made up that last part.)

Gurlz Run with Leanimal on the HVT. My painful upper quad is not a factor when I run, nor when I try to lift the leg in different directions. Leanimal advised me to keep checking for lumps that might be contusions. Funny how something can hurt so much without bruising, swelling or affecting the movement of the muscle. Anyway, it's improving, so I guess the mystery will remain, but the problem will hopefully go away.

We had a nice run through the countryside in moderate temperatures. The sounds of nature were interrupted by crunches when Leanimal turned first her left ankle, and then her right ankle, at almost the same spot on the trail near the start and finish of our out-and-back run. When she hit the ground in the second incident, I think I looked like Macauley Culkin clutching his face in "Home Alone". I've had enough bad ankle moments to feel a rush of immense empathy! I hope there's no swelling or bruising now...?

No training today! There's a story from the weekend that still makes me smile. On Saturday, Bill Trayling smoked the field in the Beaver River paddling race. Chris Owen Halper got a fantastic photo of Coach Bill in (perfect) mid-stroke wearing the facial expression of a serial killer. There was a small rapid in the river at one point, and Bill was using one of those toothpick boats that weigh about 300 grams. He went downstream over the rapid, but on his way back upstream, he hopped out of the water as he approached it. In his bare feet, with his boat on his shoulder, he ran a short distance and found himself standing bewildered in a field with no water anywhere in sight. It turns out that the river made a big turn there, and he'd been too focused to notice. Yes, that's right - he made a nav error while travelling up a river that he had just paddled down!! This sets a new standard for all those trail runners who have gotten lost while following supposedly marked race courses! Anyway, Bill gritted his teeth as he jogged in his bare feet back to relocate the river, then he kept it in sight as he went past the rapid. He still won handily, but he (and everyone else) had a good laugh afterward.