Training Log Archive: Bash

Tested the Salomon Snowshoe Raid course at Horseshoe Valley. I'm logging the time as 50% orienteering and 50% snowshoeing so that my training hours reflect both activities, but this was just one long outing.

As I wandered for hours in the wintry forest without seeing anyone, I was pleasantly conscious that my love of the outdoors is a wonderful gift - and the ability to chase down little flags in obscure places makes it even better. I smiled a lot. Not that it was perfect - my feet got cold early on. It turns out that my summer-weight Sealskinz socks are intended to be worn in summer - who knew? But marching up and down (and up and down and up and down) scenic hills in fresh snow was fantastic.

I should offer a warning: Last year a team that reads Attackpoint used my course testing time to help determine their strategy in the race, and it backfired on them. I won't name names, but let's just say that they do some basement racing. :-) Course testing takes a lot longer than racing the same event. When one of Canada's top navigators wants to know if his flags (lots of them!) are in the right place - and he honestly wants the truth - it's a time-consuming job. If a flag is missing, I put a new one up, but I also check adjacent features to make sure the flag wasn't in the wrong place - as opposed to just blowing away in the wind. You're always supposed to see the feature before you see the flag, and in course testing, I try extra hard to do it that way, instead of looking ahead for a fleeting glimpse of orange, like I would in a race. Once I find the flag, I usually take a look at it from a different direction of approach, just to be 100% sure - or to look for any safety or mapping issues. And if I think a flag is in the wrong place, I'll spend a *long* time making sure, given the high skill level of the course setter. (For the record, I only moved one flag 10 meters, so our Race Director is as awesome as advertised.)

Since some Attackpointers are doing the race, I guess I can't go into too much detail. You might want to do some hill intervals and practise running on your snowshoes. I don't know what the snow will be like on the 23rd, but it was fresh and deep yesterday, and almost no one had been out, so I got a great workout. During the race, many of the trails will be broken - with the added bonus of trails leading right to the flags, unless you're the first person in. So for a lot of reasons, you'll be going faster than I was! My other tip would be to practise reading map contours, since you could walk right across a summer trail without seeing it in the terrain, so you don't want to rely on trails to navigate.

I didn't allow quite enough time, so had to make a dash for Horseshoe Valley Road at sunset. I'd found a big VHF radio on a snowmobile trail labelled "Horseshoe Riding Adventures" (extra weight for my workout), so I found a place to turn it in before heading home in the dark. Excellent day!

Should have brought ski poles instead of trekking poles - baskets were too small!

Toured around Mansfield with Knobless and 'Bent in fantastic snowy conditions. Knobless is getting ready for the Canadian Ski Marathon next weekend. When we got to the far end of the Blue trail, 'Bent took us on a Tour of Shame, showing us exactly why it took him so long to find Checkpoint E last weekend, and why 3PinJim and I ended up freezing as we waited and worried at CP6. I offered helpful guidance, explaining why his approach to finding it was FLAWED, and it was clear from the way that his skiing suddenly got faster that my dear husband was really inspired and appreciative of my concern and insight. Although there were lots of skiers near the lodge and in the first kilometer, the trails were mysteriously empty beyond that point - and really beautiful! Nice outing.

Snow day! Even though I don't get a day off school anymore, I still love it when we get a storm. 'Bent and I skied out the door in 15-20 cm of fluffy new snow and spent most of our time in Palgrave East. There is rock-hard ice underneath the snow, so it was hard to get our pole tips to dig in, and it wouldn't have been great to fall, even with the new snow. Avalanche Risk: HIGH

Hard Core Live with Caron. Felt pretty good - probably because it's only half as long as the Hard Core DVD!

Power Yoga class. Stretched some parts of me in places where I didn't know there were parts. There was an extended balance section tonight, and I reached the happy realization that I am no longer "pathetic" at balance. I honestly think I've graduated to "average". 'Bent also thought that I was moaning a bit less than most people in the upper body strength section, which was good to hear. When I started back into yoga last fall, my arms would shake in "upward dog", so there was a lot of room for improvement. (And there still is.)

'Bent very kindly installed a female-friendly bike seat and a special trainer tire on my old road bike, then put it onto his trainer and cued up the VCR to a show he thought I'd enjoy. (Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls - a Survivorman-type thing.) I encouraged him to do this in hopes of instilling a sense of GUILT if I didn't go down there and ride. It was a busy day, but our cunning strategy worked, so I rode the trainer for the first time this winter. It wasn't the most fascinating way I've ever spent my time, but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected, and hopefully I'll do this more often.

3.5 weeks after ACL surgery, and BulletDog has HAD it with her "controlled recovery". She's not supposed to run, jump, climb stairs or clamber onto furniture. Amongst other things, we've turned our couch around so that it faces away from the living room, forming part of the wall around the small area where she is normally confined these days. Yesterday she showed her disdain for the rules by lightly leaping up onto the back of the couch from the floor, then balancing like a cat. That's a heck of a leap for a 30 kg Lab, even one who isn't recovering from knee surgery, and we had to grab her to make sure she didn't jump back down and set her healing back a few weeks. I sure wish I could explain it to her.

I'm working toward a deadline for a magazine article, and as of 3:40 p.m., I'm still a laptop potato - other than one doggie physio walk. Ironically, the subject of my article is the high level of motivation that people feel when they commit to an outdoor fitness program, and I'm just writing the section on how anyone can squeeze a workout into a busy day. Oooh, the irony.

This wasn't supposed to be a day off, but 'Bent was tired from the weekend, so I was left to do Hard Core Monday alone, which I didn't feel like doing. Bad, unmotivated girl.

In happier news, the doggie physio had authorized BulletDog to start climbing hills today, which is her ticket to freedom around here, since we live on the Oak Ridges Moraine. No more boring loops around the house - yay! She can do up to three 20-minute walks daily on a short leash and is still banned from running, jumping, clambering onto furniture and climbing stairs. She's supposed to lift her legs to step over obstacles on uneven ground, so we went bushwhacking up hills today. Probably a little more action than the physio had pictured, but she was ecstatic.