Training Log Archive: Bash

I now have Attackpoint info for 2006-2009 plus over 9 months of 2005 - enough data to make a geek quite happy!

My 2009 training summary is here. A few observations:

My training increased to 455 hrs in 2009, about 30 hrs more than last year but considerably less than the 530+ hrs I did in 2005 and 2006. The decrease is largely due to reduced adventure racing hours - and that's a result of the lower number of overnight and multi-day races in Ontario. I did plenty of single sport races such as XC skiing, orienteering, mountain marathon and trail running, but only one overnight race - the North Am Rogaine Champs. Too bad - I love overnight racing! But I don't love travelling long distances with all my AR gear, which is why we have focused on single sport events when we've travelled further afield.

My top 5 activities (and hours) this year were:
Orienteering (88) + Snowshoe Orienteering (17)
XC Skiing (76)
Running (63)
Cycling (55)
Trekking (50)

Adventure racing has been my 1st or 2nd activity most years, but it dropped to 6th this year. (!!!) Kinda weird when I still consider AR to be my primary sport. After doing very little orienteering in 2008, I got out a lot more this year and felt like I started to get the hang of it again. Last year's Tucson Marathon inspired me to do almost 50% more running in 2008 compared to this year, when I did the lowest amount of running since starting on AP. On a more positive note, I spent a record number of hours XC skiing in the terrific snow of 2009 and did a lot of backpack trekking in Sweden. I only spent 10% of my time skate skiing (probably because of training for the Rock & Ice Ultra), which explains why I'm not getting more comfortable with it. Cycling hours remained about the same, but that's because we bought a second trainer so that 'Bent and I could bike together in the basement in the off season. My outdoor cycling hours went down because the wet summer softened the trails, making them susceptible to damage from riding.

Other activities on the list included yoga, strength training, paddling and snowshoeing - all about the same amount as in previous years.

Next step for tomorrow: set some goals for 2010.

Beautiful, wintry day, mostly spent with friends arriving at different times (not to mention cleaning up before friends arrived!) 'Bent, ThunderDog, BulletDog and I went out for a quick spin around Palgrave West, on and off trail. It wasn't our plan to take ThunderDog that far, but she was having such a great time that we didn't have the heart to go back to the house to drop her off. It was fun playing in the snow all together!

Rodney Yee Yoga for Flexibility. I still felt a little stiff by the end, so clearly a lot of work is needed.

Baloney and Trav had the great idea of a Waterfall Challenge to kick off the New Year. They asked Hammer to design a trail running loop from their (gorgeous!!) home in the Dundas Valley, visiting the maximum possible number of waterfalls in 2 hours. Over a dozen of us headed out on a very chilly morning - and what a fantastic time! I don't run much in winter, but it wasn't too painful. As expected, I only caught occasional glimpses of the main group of runners after the first 10 minutes. I met up with them after taking a shortcut (thanks to Hammer for the great map that allowed several shortcuts!), then Baloney and I ran together until I suggested that she and Trav go ahead at their speedier pace to prepare for the lunch crowd that was about to invade their place.

It was a beautiful day with excellent escarpment scenery followed by delicious bagels and soup, terrific company, and mugs of dark roast, fair trade organic coffee - yum. I was happy that 'Bent and his recovering knee were able to stay in the front group of runners; only 3 of them made it to all 32 waterfalls. (Interesting fact: In preparing for this event, Hammer discovered two waterfalls that were not on the City of Hamilton's Waterfall Map, and the City is now going to add them!)

The frontrunners didn't meet the 2-hour target, however - they ran 40 minutes overtime, so technically I think the judges would have to DQ them. Since Etoile was the only person to finish a shortened version of the course in under 2 hours, I guess she is the Waterfall Challenge record holder for now. Yay! There is now talk of a Waterfall Century run...

Thanks, Trav and Baloney! :-)

Course vetting for Phatty's Thomass Caledon course on Jan. 17. It's going to be a good one, kids! Better start your hill training now though. I did some fast hiking, some running, some slogging through crusty snow, some very steep climbs and descents, some wading through thigh-high vegetation, some explorations in different directions to ensure that control placement was accurate - and had lots of fun. Big snowflakes were falling the whole time, and even though the temperature was up near freezing, the wind made it surprisingly chilly. 'Bent and BulletDog did the "handicap 2" version of the course, then went back to get the final 3 controls that they'd skipped. Yes, that's right - 3 controls! In a tricky twist, Phatty is allowing every racer to drop one control *plus* their handicap number of controls. And that's just the twist in the *first* Thomass Box. Be there or be square!

The plan had been to ski here on the new snow that was supposed to fall overnight, but that didn't come to pass. So... 'Bent, Knobless and I made a last minute plan to drive up to Highlands Nordic for a fun classic ski. After slipping around a few days ago in slightly cooler temperatures, I went crazy with the wax and was punished as soon as we gained a little altitude. One of my skis was sticking, but the other one would slide, which led to a couple of dangerous moments and one good crash. So I did a bunch of scraping, and my wax was perfect after that! Great snow, excellent company, nice scenery, not too crowded once we got away from the chalet area.

On the way out, we ran into Coach LD and Goose with a busload of their high school skiers playing a form of tag where you only wear one ski. I'm sure if I'd spent my teen years doing stuff like that, I'd be a much better skier now!

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best for 2010.

Fun New Year's Eve snowshoe around the wilds of Palgrave West with 'Bent, Slowrunner, Goose and Coach LD. The "blue" moon lit our way, shining through a layer of cloud. Perfect way to see out 2009 and celebrate the 20th anniversary of when 'Bent and I started dating. :-)

No friends of ours would be satisfied without tacking on a little strength workout, and tonight was no exception. Our old TV, which weighs just under 200 lb, needed to get from our basement (via toboggan) into the van for a drive to Bolton, then through a narrow door and down a stairway to land on a TV stand at the Goose Nest. There were some nervous moments but all went well. The line of the night belonged to Slowrunner: "You couldn't have given them a coffee maker?"

Argghh - mild cold and nasty headache. It would have hurt my head too much to do anything active, so I supported the economy by taking advantage of a couple of Boxing Week deals. You know it's bad when Visa asks the cashier if they can speak to you to make sure you haven't lost your mind over the last few days. "Your pattern of transactions is very suspicious, ma'am." Ironically, what raised the biggest red flag was a bunch of year-end online charitable donations - not my Boxing Week shopping. Apparently they put through 1 cent transactions each time before processing the real donation, and that's what a crook would do too.

As a former IT professional, I'm always impressed when their system catches me acting in an unusual manner. The last time my credit card *was* stolen, they'd cancelled it 5 hours before I knew it was missing. That's OK by me.

Last night we only got a few cm of fluffy new snow - not enough to smooth out the bumpy ice-crud, so I was just planning to spend an hour on the bike trainer. But then VO2Max skied up to our front door with the news that skate skiing conditions were pretty good in the woods of Palgrave West. He was right - it was SO much fun!

I followed his tracks for awhile, and it looks like he had a good time too. Since VO2Max is one of the fastest skate skiers in the country, it was like being coached to watch the length of his glide, the location of the pole plants and the places where he doubled poled instead of skating. Needless to say, my gliding could use some work by comparison! Conditions were excellent on most of the double track, but there was still some bushwhacking, scrambling over logs and ducking under fallen trees. I love this type of skate skiing - it's such an adventure. I was happy to run into CrashNoMore, who was out on the trails with Skyerocket. Both of them are becoming more fit every day.

The one down side of skate skiing on ungroomed forest trails is the possibility of catching your ski tip on something and going down suddenly, often with your knees in an awkward position. That happened to me near the end, and I saved my knees but somehow managed to smack my forehead hard into the pointy handle of my planted ski pole. Holy CRAP, that hurt. My only fuzzy thought was that I had to get up and push for home in case I passed out. With VO2Max and Crash already finished their time on the trails, the next person to pass by would likely be 'Bent. That wouldn't happen for 5-6 hours, and with today's frigid temps, I would turn into a Bashsicle before he arrived. My final km was just silly - I was rattled by the pain and not paying attention, so I fell twice on uphills. Now that I'm home, I've grown a little goose egg above my right eyebrow and it hurts to have any facial expressions. But that's OK - it's a small price to pay for a fun ski in beautiful, snowy woods!

'Bent and I did a tour of Highlands Nordic this morning and had most of the Red trail to ourselves. There was a chilly wind, my grip and glide were only so-so, 'Bent's knee twinged a little, and I wasn't feeling energetic, but it was still great to be out! All the black diamond loops are open now, and we took a detour onto a mysterious groomed side trail that seemed to lead onto private property. The trail was sprinkled with turkey feathers, so we think we found the secret barnyard that held the Christmas turkeys we'd heard about - all ex-turkeys now, of course.

Post-Christmas weight = 10 lb above the weight I'd like to be for running in 2010. The target isn't out of reach - I've been within 2-3 lb of it within the past year. OK, time to start shrinking!