Training Log Archive: Bash

Hard Core DVD. Can't remember the last time I did this, but it needs to be more often! Let's hope my freshly-toned abs will squeeze my stomach smaller so that less turkey and plum pudding will fit inside.

'Bent and I went to Albion HIlls to enjoy the trackset trails before all the rain and high temperatures - the forecast calls for 9C and showers on Sunday !@#$#!$! It was above freezing, and our skis were sluggish, but there are no bad days on the ski trail. Well, maybe Sunday won't be so great.

Came home to munch on some yummy dukka with macadamia nut oil. Who knew you could get such a thing? This treat was courtesy of our culinary-talented friend, Crash.

Also in the "who knew?" department... 'Bent's sister (a vet) recommended that we order some Dog Appeasing Pheremone for BulletDog as a tool to help calm her down during her recovery from surgery. Amongst other things, we can spray it on her bed in her (detested) crate or put it on a bandana around her neck. The hope is that she might be a little less likely to leap around excitedly on her hind legs every time we return home. I figured it couldn't hurt. That should be an interesting experiment!

I should have gone to Caron's class, but instead I stayed home and did her new yoga DVD. There's been too much going on lately, and I don't want to go home for Christmas feeling totally wired. 'Bent and I were couch potatoes tonight.

Reporting on my 1st day on the coffee / juice / cookie / almond bark diet:

--- Down 2.2 lb. - the lowest I've weighed since September.

Seems to be working quite well. I wonder if nutrition is really all that important in the big picture.

The National Ballet of Canada's Nutcracker is a Christmas tradition, especially popular with families. For the first time ever, they are broadcasting a live HD presentation of the show at 69 theatres across Canada this Sat. Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. My little brother is the Associate Director, and because he comes from a musical performance background, he gets the blood-pressure-raising responsibility of calling the filming of the show, including every camera angle change, for 2 hours. It's very difficult because the timing of every scene has to be absolutely perfect to the second, and the cameras have to be set in places that will not bother the live audience in the theatre. Should be awesome - but I'm going to find it absolutely nervewracking thinking of Dave in the booth!

By noon on the day after my coffee /juice /cookie /almond bark grazing, I am RAVENOUS. Give me pasta! Give me salt! Give me vegetables! Nothing sweet! Not even (gasp) chocolate!

So much for that weight loss scheme.

Gorgeous sunshine and the snow is still fluffy - at least until tomorrow, when the temperature rises. Even though time was extremely tight today, I just had to get out and enjoy it! I went to Albion Hills and did a loop on my own as a prologue. Then I met up with Leanimal and Slice, and we explored the woods in a different direction. It was so nice that I didn't keep my eye on my watch, and it ended up being a rush back to the car, a quick drive home, a 15-minute clean-up and change, then another quick drive to the Town Council meeting. No lunch. And actually, since the the meeting ran so long, and since we were having a get-together at our place at 7:30, I didn't end up eating dinner today either. Much to my horror, my entire sustenance after 9 a.m. consisted of coffee, juice, cookies and almond bark. Is it possible to die of malnutrition after only one day?

Fun group night ski to welcome VO2Max back to Ontario for the Christmas holidays. Crash, Coach L-D, 'Bent, VO2Max, Mike and I did a tour of Palgrave West, including some good steep climbs where we got to use all our herringbone muscles in the deep snow. It was more about being social than about getting the heart rate up though. The moon was bright enough that we were able to turn off our lights after the first few minutes, and it was absolutely glorious out there. We need to do more night skiing.

It's not often that Ontario people get to talk about "a big dump of pow" in their logs, but those were the ski conditions in Palgrave West today. Lots of work breaking trail through the deep snow. Because time was short, I'd decided to take the risk that Saturday's leftover wax would still work. It didn't. So this turned out to be an excellent upper body strength workout in addition to being an absolutely *beautiful* day in our very snowy forest. Nice!!!!

Poor little BulletDog... We saw the surgeon today, and she figures that the ACL is about 80% torn. Early in the new year, she will be getting TPLO knee surgery - a technique that changes the biomechanics of the knee so that the ACL isn't needed anymore. It involves cutting the bone and installing plates and screws - pretty big stuff for a little dog. It has a high success rate in larger, more active dogs, and she's young enough that this might get her back into trail running again. So January and February will be recovery-from-surgery months. When ThunderDog had her back surgery, we had to turn all the furniture upside down whenever we left the house to prevent her from attempting to jump up. It's going to be the same with BulletDog except we'll also need to figure out a way to keep her from standing up to look out the front window.