Training Log Archive: Bash

Went to Gros Morne on a rainy day. It was still beautiful there, but we weren't inspired to get our race clothes soaked by hiking in them. It cleared later in the day, and we watched a fantastic sunset with crashing ocean waves at the Lobster Point lighthouse. We stayed in Rocky Harbour and hosted Team Salomon Suunto for an Olympics-watching night.

People in Newfoundland are soooo friendly. We went into a small craft shop, and the owner mentioned that he knew two families from Ontario. We just smiled politely since there are *lots* of people in Ontario, but it turned out that we did know one of the families. They live in Caledon, and he had sold them a house just down the road from the craft shop. (They're involved with whale research.) Small world.

Flew to Deer Lake with Phatty, Leanimal, Tiny, Pixie, 'Bent and a big pile of AR gear. The Air Canada agent got snippy when so many of us appeared with bike boxes and large gear bags. Phatty & Leanimal got a partial break due to his Elite Aeroplan status, but the rest of us were charged $275/person for travelling with bike box ($75), overweight bag ($100) and oversized bag (same bag - another $100). This is only a 1-way fee, so we'll see what happens at the other end. Good thing 'Bent and I were travelling on an Aeroplan ticket, but this sure doesn't encourage us to fly to adventure races in future!

Nice birthday dinner with the gang at the Irving gas station restaurant in Deer Lake. 'Bent surprised me with a fantastic cake baked by Crash. Thank you!

Got everything settled with our house and dog sitters, fine-tuned our packing one more time, and we're off in the morning. This is the 2nd time I will have spent my birthday travelling to an Endurance Aventure event. Hopefully I'll have a nice day-after-birthday, because a day spent with airlines can rarely be described as fun.

The new excess, overweight and oversized baggage fees implemented on May 15 might stop us from flying to future adventure races - on Air Canada, anyway. We've already been billed part of the fee, but if we get billed "by the book" for our large hockey bag + bike box each, it would cost 'Bent and me over $1100 in baggage fees for the return trip. Glad we're flying on points - that's just crazy!

If you're interested, you can follow the online coverage as the Tree Huggers and Team Salomon Suunto race. In our case, I use the term "race" loosely, as we have agreed to approach this as a low pressure event, taking advantage of this amazing opportunity to explore a fascinating corner of Canada while doing some of our favourite outdoor activities. I've been tapering for about 6 weeks, so I am, like, totally ready.

Coverage will be at http://www.coastraid.com/en/index.html from Aug. 21-24, and we'll be carrying GPS tracking units that should show where we are at any time. As I've already told some of you, if you notice our little dot drifting out into the Atlantic, please alert search and rescue personnel!

Reverse 5K trail loop in Palgrave West with BulletDog. I'd planned to follow up with some yoga, but I met someone on the trail (which never happens around here) and used up my yoga time chatting.

Goose and Coach LD hosted a terrific Coast Raid send-off dinner for 'Bent, Leanimal, Phatty and me. Then we went to say a quick farewell to Gazelle and Gazette, who will be returning to Tajikistan with baby Justin around the time we get home.

I unpacked all my Coast Raid gear and went through it item by item to get the weight of my bag down below Air Canada's limit. It's a new hockey goalie bag that we bought on eBay - awesome, but it weighs 13 lb empty. I took out a few items, including a lightweight fleece jacket that I might regret, but the real trick was identifying and removing some of the things with the greatest density. We're each allowed two carry-ons of limited size that can weigh 22 lb each. I'll be nowhere close to that, but I've now got an eclectic mix of non-terrorist-looking (I hope), heavy stuff to carry on - a kayak bilge pump, my shockingly weighty new cycling shoes, batteries, a thermos (hope that doesn't frighten the airport security folks), 2-man inflatable pack raft, etc.

The taper continues, albeit not intentionally. I followed up on my chilliness during Monday night's swim by getting a good portion of my hair cut off today. Now it should all fit under my neoprene cap, and hopefully it will dry faster.

The 2008 Adventure Sports Games have been cancelled due to lack of registrations. Too bad - it was high quality and excellent fun last year, and it would have been nice to see BobTheNavigator take it to the next level. Last year's title sponsor, Keen, has moved on to support the Bruce Trail instead, which probably made things difficult.

Yup, that's right - 5 minutes - just a night-time test of my lighting system for the Coast Raid. And yes, as a matter of fact, I *did* have a little more planned for today. I thought I had about half an hour of work on my bike, then I'd go for a little ride. It turned into the Afternoon From Hell as I realized that my new bike's handlebars are so fancy that for night riding, I need to choose between having a light or having my map board, because I can't have both. These aren't the only things that have to fit on and around the handlebars, of course, so there was much fussing and tightening and untightening and switching things around and dropping of tiny parts in the gravel and occasional sharp uttering of bad words that woke the dog from her nap on the patio. In the end, no success - and no bike ride.

When 'Bent came home, he went into the basement and within minutes had installed a different type of map holder that rotated without hitting my handlebar light and still kept my bike computer visible. My hero - it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Bicycle Repairman!!

If I really wanted to grasp, I'd log an additional two minutes of swimming and call it a brick for today. Just before sunset, when we hoped that everyone had left the beach, 'Bent and I snuck over to Lake Albion to test out our new paddling suits. We looked so silly that I really am sorry I forgot the camera. To an outside observer, it would appear that a couple of people in matching hazmat suits parked their car, strolled down to the beach and walked right into the lake. We tried wading, floating with PFDs and swimming without our PFDs to test the neoprene neck, which isn't as watertight as the latex neck on a true drysuit (for twice the price).
http://www.kokatat.com/product_paddlingsuits.asp

When we first strolled into the water, water pressure pushed the air toward the top of the suit, giving us that trendy StayPuft Marshmallow Man look. We burped the suits, although in a real situation, that air might make nice insulation. With our PFDs on, it was virtually impossible to get water into the neck of the suit. With our PFDs off and half a dozen dips under water, I managed to get some dampness into the top few inches of my shirt.

The eye opener was how *cold* I was - and it's August! I know that these suits don't provide any insulation, but I'd figured that with the air temperature at 17C, I'd be OK with polypro top and bottom. Wrong. To paddle in 4C water, I'll have to dress a lot more warmly. And the kicker is that we hope to *never* go into that water, so I'll be roasting as I paddle if all goes well. The other thing I noted is that wet hair is really chilly. I'd better get some of it cut off before the weekend.