Training Log Archive: Bash

Thomass UKR at Vivian Forest. Slice arrived with a fancy new Brunton thumb compass, and the M-Elites looked on with fear. (She runs on their course - and managed to kick most of their butts today.) Eugene had designed an interesting race format where our age/gender handicaps came into play in several different areas of the map.

It was one of those rare days when everything went according to plan, although in retrospect, I can see a couple of legs where I could have made more efficient route choices. When I'm running, I have a tendency to glance too quickly at the map, and twice today I missed trails that could have been helpful. But it turned out to be enough, and I got my first Thomass win in awhile - plus a bottle of wine. I was excited to see 'Bent arrive in 5th place (out of about 50 racers) after his bad luck with navigation yesterday.

Great morning in the woods - a layer of fresh powder and a bright sky. Fun as usual to see so many friends out. 'Bent and I made the most of our excursion by having brunch at Cora's in Newmarket on the way home, then visiting Nature's Emporium - a large grocery store full of organic, vegetarian and otherwise good-for-you stuff. I let 'Bent do most of the shopping, but made sure that we came home with a big jar of organic fair trade dark hot chocolate - yum.

Power Yoga for Flexibility with 'Bent. I think I could do forward bends all day - mmm, relaxing.

Event: Stars Winter Adventure Race
 

[Note: Our race time will be longer, but this omits the time that I spent waiting.]
They're a new club, but the Waterloo Stars do a great job of putting on creative, ambitious events - and the rest of us are very lucky that they do! Today you could do a Snowshoe-O, a Ski-O or a Winter Adventure Race that included both snowshoeing and skiing.

The Tree Huggers, consisting of 'Bent, 3PinJim and myself, chose the adventure race. We knew that Team Hotshot - Tiny, Bender and Nosnhoj, aka the Milton Basement Racers - were faster, but we were determined to give them a good run for their money.

We started with a Snowshoe-O. We had to run together to control #1, then split up to do 8 lettered controls before meeting back at the chalet. The twist was that one team member had to do at least 6 controls. So we assigned Mr. SpeedyPants 3PinJim the 6 controls in relatively flat terrain, while 'Bent and I each went partway up different places on the escarpment to pick up one control each.

We changed to classic ski equipment and - when our team was back together - headed up the escarpment a few minutes behind Team Hotshot. Much of the challenge of the ski-O came from choosing routes that obeyed the rules - always travel the correct direction on one-way trails, and never skate on a classic ski trail. There were some ungroomed, unbroken trails marked on the map that were available as options in many places. It was a clever course design that didn't give a clear advantage to either skate or classic skiers. We used classic equipment, but skated as much as we could when it was legal, even though it was a little awkward.

We skied from #2 to #5 together, then split up to gather 6 lettered controls. This time one team member had to collect at least 4 controls. So we sent our strongest skier, 'Bent, out to gather a loop of 4 controls while 3Pin and I headed out to get one distant control each. I made it out and back to #6 in half an hour, and two members of the Tiny Talent Team were waiting. Bender sailed in a couple of minutes later, so they left, then 3Pin arrived a few minutes after that - greatly relieved that he wasn't the last one. 'Bent was expected around the same time, but he didn't show up. We drank, ate snacks, put on warmer layers, and eventually started to speculate that he'd twisted his knee out there or worse. The nav wasn't that hard, and he's a much faster skier than we are. The 3rd place team arrived and said they'd seen 'Bent at the control that I'd visited. (This turned out to be incorrect, fortunately.)

After half an hour of waiting, I'd decided that it was time to pull the plug on the race and go back to see what had happened to 'Bent. I saw Race Director Nick through the trees and headed over to let him know. And then I saw 'Bent skiing with Nick! He was purple-faced - and no wonder, based on the sky-high numbers on his HRM download. He'd had some navigation issues looking for control E, but the final straw was that he thought we were meeting at #5 instead of #6. Because he had to avoid one-way trails, he'd bushwhacked for 3/4 km along the top of the escarpment through steep terrain and deep snow. As Nick describes it, when he discovered 'Bent, he was actually hugging a tree - or more accurately, hanging from a tree on a steep slope by one arm - so now he knows where our team name comes from! Nick was kind enough to inform 'Bent that he was heading to the wrong meeting place.

From there, we had a quick ski back to the chalet, picking up several more controls on the way and unfortunately falling into the crater that Tiny had left partway down one steep hill. We were handed 3 small map fragments with one control each, and we could pick them up any way we wanted to. Mine was at the top of the big hill by the chalet, so I skied up and down. The boys also decided to ski to their controls on the flats. Amazingly, we still squeaked out 2nd place by a minute or so, but we were a good half-hour behind Bender's Boys.

So... it wasn't our best performance, but it was still fun, and it was a great chance to have lunch, then hang out and catch up with various AR and orienteering friends. Hope the Stars do this again next year!:

Feeling tired. Need to rest before the Stars Winter Adventure Race tomorrow - especially now that Tiny, Nosnhoj and Bender have entered a speedy team with excellent nav skills. We can only hope that there's LOTS of skiing in the race, since they've been spending their winter mostly running.

Hurtn and I did a bushwhacking snowshoe tour of the hills and valleys in Palgrave West and the Koturbash and Wheelie properties. Big snowflakes were falling fast when we first headed out, then we were treated to a pink sky, then orange, then a glorious sunrise through frosty trees. Since I had an artist with me, I made sure to visit several scenic lookouts. Unfortunately, he didn't bring a canvas and I didn't bring a camera, but the countryside was really beautiful in the morning light.

The house that 'Bent and I were checking out from a distance on the weekend has sold already - wow! I noticed the "For Sale" sign less than a week ago. The house two properties to the east of us has also sold after more than 2 years on the market while it sat unoccupied as far as we could tell. Hey, there's a boom in our neighbourhood!

For the 2nd year in a row, the Under-23 and Junior World XC Ski Championships have had to be postponed because there's not enough snow in Europe. So VO2Max and his teammates will have to hold their peak for 3 more weeks. Climate change - it's no fun.

Caron's Hard Core class. She was without mercy tonight, and we began to think of crunches with legs straight up in the air as our rest position. 'Bent is a princess when it comes to those. He made some impressive grimaces.

We held our poses longer than usual tonight - for 5 long inhales and exhales. For some poses, this was tough! I'd noticed that the class was quiet tonight, and Caron commented on it too. I think we were all concentrating more than usual and didn't have energy left over for the usual light-hearted banter that makes our yoga classes extra entertaining (although they might not appeal to the "yoga as meditation" crowd).

Gurlz Ski with Coach LD at Albion Hills. Conditions are great right now - a total contrast to last week's ski there. We did the Red and Blue trails at a good pace (Coach's preferred pace). Excellent way to start the day.

Out the back door into a winter wonderland - a fresh layer of power, fine snow swirling down, -5C and a hint of sunshine. No one else had been out in Palgrave West yet (except for the short stretch where I overlapped 'Bent's commute) and every time I came around a bend, it was another Currier & Ives Christmas card scene. Good thing, because the skiing was a bit of a slog. Not sure why it was quite so difficult. I was breaking trail almost the whole time, which was certainly part of it. In spite of making what seemed like a decent wax choice, my grip was so-so, and my glide was bad. So it was a bit like skiing through oatmeal with maple syrup, but it was so beautiful that I stayed cheerful anyway. High winds predicted for later today, so we'll probably get more trees down again. There are more than half-a-dozen big, branch-covered trees down across the trails in various places, which led to a few surprises when the trails were so fast on the weekend! I moved some of the smaller logs today.

Now that I'm almost better (although sniffly again after yesterday's run), it's time to get back to my New Year's resolutions!

Hard Core Monday with 'Bent, who *really* doesn't enjoy doing crunches with both his legs straight up in the air. Me, I save my whining for the plank section near the end. Ooooffff.

BulletDog got her sutures out today and had a hydrotherapy session. So cute!! She and the dog physiotherapist went into a little plexiglass enclosure with a treadmill on the bottom. Then the door was closed, and it began to fill up with water until her legs were completely submerged. (BulletDog, not the physiotherapist.) Then the treadmill was started, and somehow BulletDog knew that she should walk on it. If it were me, and nobody could explain to me what a treadmill was, and the ground started to move while I was with a stranger in a small container quickly filling up with water, well... I think I could be forgiven for freaking out. But BulletDog acted like this sort of thing happens every day.

So we've survived the first 13 days of her post-surgical recovery. Today was the first time that they mentioned that it's normally a 3-6 month recovery, not a 6-8 week recovery. Say what?!? But the good news is, she's right on track, and we've got a whole bunch of new and even more time-consuming physio to do with her every day. There are a lot of tricks to get her to put her weight on her sore knee. Maybe some of them will work on 'Bent's bad knee, e.g. the "neck twist to eat a cookie being held near his hip" could be fun.