Training Log Archive: Bash

Starkey Hills Thomass on a sunny, snowy day - perfect winter orienteering weather. Good turnout, including lots of adventure racers. A number of longtime orienteers have made positive comments to me about the AR community's involvement in Thomass events. It's a great way to spend a winter morning, and it's fun to see so many friends running around the woods.

I had a sloppy race. The first 7 controls were on features close to major trails, so I kept my brain on "lazy mode", which was sufficient. #8 took us a short distance away from the trail - still no problem. Then there were a few controls where I needed to focus, and I simply didn't make the switch to concentrating properly. I could see before we started that the Thomass Box design wasn't going to give masters and women an equal chance to finish near the top, so I wasn't too concerned about where I finished. Still, it was frustrating to get passed by sooooooo many people when I made a major screw-up between G and H, running about 300 m too far, then coming all the way back. Ugh.

Slice and I had a nice little run around the rockpiles together, then parted company on the way to #13. She and Leanimal ran the male elite course and put a few of those guys in their place! Between #13 and the finish, I somehow got my compass cord tightly wound around a branch and shared a laugh with Sid as he sped by toward the finish.

Skied around Palgrave West with 'Bent. A very different ski from yesterday because the temperature has increased from -10C to +1C, so we both used waxless skis. That solves the wax problem at higher temperatures, but they sure are pigs! Regardless, it's always nice to be out in the woods in winter. This early snowfall surprised a few trees that hadn't lost their leaves yet. We had to weave our way through low-hanging branches and bent-over saplings in a number of places. Fun outing! That'll probably be our last ski in this snow, since the forecast is for warmer temperatures.

Speaking of warmer temperatures, we went to a good workshop today on carbon footprint and carbon offsets with Dr. Ron Dembo, founder of Zerofootprint. Before going to the workshop, we were encouraged to use their calculator to determine our own carbon footprint - something I'd done a few years ago with a different calculator. Some things don't change, and by far, the largest contribution to my footprint is flying, so it's helpful that we've been purchasing offsets for our flights.

See:
http://www.zerofootprint.net
http://www.greenmyflight.com

Met Coach L-D to go skiing on a Christmas-card-perfect morning. We warmed up by taking the rail trail from Patterson to Humber Station Road, then headed into Albion Hills to explore the trails. We had to climb a few fences at first, but once we got into the main park, we found ski tracks on a lot of trails. (Thanks, Crash!) Great fun and spectacular winter scenery. Good thing this is all supposed to melt before we head out west or else we'd be disappointed to be going away.

Big snowfall to start our winter off right - fantastic! Leanimal and I should have planned to go snowshoeing instead of running, but that didn't become clear until, oh, about 10 steps into our run at Albion Hills. And by then it was too late because we hadn't brought our snowshoes. It reminded us of how the running feels in Thomass winter orienteering races - a hard slog, and some of the energy is wasted because your foot doesn't find traction on the ground. I confess that I was a wimp today, suggesting routes that would minimize our hill climbs, since we were already working hard enough on the flats. As usual, the limber Leanimal kept up a good pace. I wished that I'd brought a camera because it was absolutely beautiful.

Surprisingly, there were no other footprints on such a nice day. Or maybe not so surprisingly, because when I got into my car and drove to the grocery store, suddenly it seemed like a nasty, slushy, slippery, frigid day. It's amazing how different it feels to spend time outdoors vs. being indoors and just stepping outside for a few seconds.

ThunderDog and I headed out into the forest shortly before sunset - a fairy tale scene of pink clouds and glowing snow-draped branches. T-Dog is 11.5 yrs old, and I'm *so* glad to see her romping full speed in her excitement at another winter snowfall - one of her very favourite things in the world. We stopped in the meadow where she always makes dog angels, and it took her a minute to remember, then she dropped to the ground and started rolling enthusiastically. Nice to be out in the snow, and I hope to get out XC skiing in the morning, since today really flew by.

Hard Core conditioning, live with Caron.

Power Yoga class

Crash and I had planned a 7:30 a.m. run to kick off a productive work day, and when the alarm went off at 6:45 a.m., the feeling of virtuousness practically oozed out of my pores. However, over the sound of the oozing, it soon became hard to ignore the pelting rain, growing steadily louder as the temperature crept just above 0C. When the phone rang, I pounced on it, hoping that our run was cancelled - and indeed, Crash was on the verge of a cold and preferred not to head out in this weather. YES!!

The weather didn't change much, but I figured that I'd do a little Tour de Palgrave West before going for my flu shot. I try hard not to be judgmental about weather - almost every kind of weather is good for some human, animal or plant. But I can't think of many superlatives to describe a run in the rain at 2C. Big snowstorm in the forecast tonight. Bring it on!!!

A young friend of mine who is training at the national team level sent a very interesting description of their "mental toughness camp".
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We did pretty much every type of workout imaginable. We did 4 hour roller-skis, ski walks, strength circuits, agility circuits, time trials, races, swamp runs, and intense interval workouts. The most interesting workout we did had to do with decision point training. A decision point is where you are faced with a fork in the road and you have to choose a path. In high performance sport, that decision point usually comes at the end of a race, or hard interval workout where your body says, "I need to stop, or slow down." At this point you let your mind take over the situation and you make a decision. You can either give into the agonizing pain or dig a little deeper, push a little harder and go further and further into the "pain cave".

The pain cave is that dark hole that every athlete is afraid of. You know you have successfully entered the pain cave when your body is on that fine line between blowing up and hanging on minute by minute. At this point it is all in your head. The only thing keeping you from going over the edge is your mental capacity to embrace the pain and push through. Eventually everyone gives in and comes out of the pain cave, but races are won and lost by one's ability to enter the pain cave and remain in there, with the walls slowly closing in, and not come out until you have done what you need to do. That's why training this mental ability is so important.

At the camp we did a series of intervals ski striding up a steep hill. The coach would not tell us how long each interval was going to be until 30 seconds before we started. Some intervals were only 15 seconds while others went up to one minute. The idea was to get to that decision point as quickly as possible, enter the pain cave and get used to the feeling of pushing your body when it is screaming out in pain. The rest between each interval was also not known until after the interval was complete. By doing numerous intervals that varied in time, we had lots of opportunities to make the decision. If you felt you gave in too early on the previous interval, you had a chance to prove to your self that you can go farther and harder on the next set. I would have to say that this was probably my favorite workout of the week.

Cover Story of the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Canadian Geographic magazine:

"THE CAT IS BACK: Cougars Prowl Ontario Again"

I'm hoping that this will inspire me to work on improving my running speed - something that has been on my to-do list for far too long.

Spent the day in downtown Toronto. If I were there every day, I would quickly come to dislike Christmas carols. MEC has been completely changed around since my last visit. I am drawn to backpacks the way Imelda Marcos was drawn to shoes, and I spent quite awhile ogling the Gregory Jade 50 for "lightweight weekends or fastpacking". As if I actually *do* that very often these days. And as if I didn't already have 3 packs that would do the job. Hmm... the price is very reasonable, and the women's model is a cute pale blue...

I drove to Crash's place to drop off her containers for the yummy brownies we ate at the party. Then I ran down Duffy's Lane into Albion Hills to pay for the Chalet rental, then ran back to get my car. I felt slow and heavy today, which may have something to do with those yummy brownies! Ah well, it was worth it.