Training Log Archive: Bash

A social lap of Island Lake on a breezy morning with 'Bent, Goose and Coach LD. Then we headed to our place to cheer on les boys in le Tour. The next few days will be interesting...

Rode the Palgrave single track under ominous skies (which haven't turned into anything yet). Today's focus was riding faster and more efficiently on technical trails that I'm familiar with - different from yesterday when I was aiming to do a decent job on technical trails I didn't know.

Palgrave has a very healthy poison ivy crop this year, which provided more than the usual incentive to stay upright. I'm particularly proud of one save where my bike hit soft sand and tried to buck me off like a bronco. I bucked right back and somehow, as the bike and I twisted and rebalanced in mid-air, I managed to stay up and avoid a full body landing in the ivy. It's not all bad - raspberries are fantastic at the moment. No need to carry gels for training sessions these days!

While watching Colbert Report / Daily Show.

As far as I know, the Sage Rogaining Champs near Kamloops B.C. on Aug. 28-29 is the only 24-hour rogaine happening in Canada for the rest of the year. Sounds like a good one!

'Bent, Coach LD and I explored Copeland Forest (Horseshoe) by bike while Goose went roller skiing nearby. We always had a rough idea of where we were from skiing and orienteering up there but we don't know the single track, so our route was totally random and there were lots of surprises. The trails were in awesome shape and there were a couple of fun roller coaster descents that had us whooping out loud. Like last weekend at Dufferin, the training goal (other than fun) was to do technical riding on unfamiliar trails. As much as we love the great trails at Albion Hills, we know what's coming up, and that makes them easier.

Had a great time! Took a couple of breaks to pick raspberries and to pat Bill Trayling's dog as we passed by his place. No sign of Bill, however. We twisted the arms of Coach LD and Goose to let us take the long way home via Sojourn (excellent outdoor gear store) and Starbucks in Barrie. They somehow managed to entertain themselves. ;-)

First course planning meeting with Getawaystix for Wilderness Traverse 2011. It's looking good - hope to see you there!

Hard Core DVD. Felt strong but I've got a long way to go to catch up with Valerie, the queen of the DVD!

While watching the Colbert Report.

Another exciting TDF stage today. Can't wait for the Pyrenees!

Thanks to a last-minute schedule change, I had time to sneak in a hilly Hockley Loop today. At 30C and humid, it wasn't my kind of day but I felt reasonably OK with 2L of strong eLoad and some Saltsticks to keep me going. I had to stop the clock a few times to pick raspberries or dip my hat in a creek, and I walked any hills steep enough that I thought I would walk them in a 50K race. (Hockley has a few *very* steep hills.)

I was looking forward to listening to my marathon mix on the iPod, forgetting that I'd loaded it with talk radio podcasts for driving. This didn't help my pace but it was more educational. The most interesting piece was about a Human Library Project where you "check out" a person for 30 minutes in a conversation room to discuss a particular topic, e.g. there was a devout Muslim who talked about his religion, a woman who discussed her cancer experience, etc. Another podcast I enjoyed was a reading from Douglas Coupland's "Generation X", a book I read years ago and would have assumed had no relevance today - except listening to one chapter made me want to read it again. So I missed dancing to my tunes, but this was fine too.

The loop has been re-routed around Hockley Resort so there were a few km of hot, dusty pavement at the end where I fantasized about a post-run trip to Dairy Queen. Fortunately for me, there was an obese family ahead of me in line, so it was easy to talk myself into a small DQ treat instead of what I *really* wanted.

The Wilderness Traverse trophy, aka "Bob", makes perfect sense now. Turns out the beaver is the most powerful animal in Algonquin Park! Who knew?
http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/programs/TheRaven20...

So... within 24 hours of letting some silly AR-related stuff get me down... the phone rang and it was an engineering classmate I hadn't spoken to in several years. He's been off work for 14 months getting treatment for a difficult cancer, and he's just been declared cancer-free at his 2-month post-surgery check-up. Next check-up is another 6 months. But that's not why he was calling. He wanted to let me know about another engineering friend who died of a massive heart attack last week while taking a break between chemo sessions for his own cancer. My closest friend in our class was an avid runner and biker until he died suddenly at age 39 of a heart attack while running. All these guys were Dads.

So that sure puts things in perspective. Life is amazing. I'm very blessed.

Humid ride around Albion Hills with 'Bent. Perfect trail conditions! 'Bent provided ongoing TDF commentary as we rode the hilly northeast section: "And they're working together to drop the field, but OH - there he goes! Ehrlich has ATTACKED. Can Campbell answer? NO. She tries to get across the gap but she has CRACKED. She's a great descender though so she'll take some risks and catch him in the next kilometer..."

I worked on braking less to maintain higher speed on twisty single track. No disasters ensued other than smashing my little finger into a tree on a corner where the trail used to zig, but now it zags. I broke a spoke at some point but I'd planned to drop the bike off for a tune-up afterward anyway, so the timing was good. Chico Racing has done an awesome job on the Albion trail network this year - we're so lucky to have them working in our back yard.

While watching Daily Show / Colbert Report.

How about that tough TDF stage in the Alps today? Wow!

Crash graciously offered to help with two of the 2010 training goals on which I've been failing miserably. We planned to meet at 7:30 a.m. ("training before breakfast" goal) to do speed intervals (another goal). But the Caledon Navigators summer BBQ ran a little late here last night with presentations from Leanimal & Crash on Ecuador, me on Scotland, and Phatty and Scooby on Wilderness Traverse (with back-up from Goose, Crash and Rocky). So we postponed our meeting until 8:30 a.m. I was afraid my legs wouldn't move in the morning so I did some separate warm-up first.

5 X 500 m trail intervals between posts 2 and 3 with approximate 3 minute rests. The trail is relatively flat but mostly slopes toward the east, making intervals #1, #3 and #5 a little easier.
2:17
2:20
2:17
2:21
2:08

Great to have someone to chat with and ease the pain; the time and distance flew by. I think we would have been tempted to stop after 4 intervals if we were alone. For some reason, the 4th one felt particularly hard, and I got bonus points for inhaling a big bug on the uphill and sputtering/choking/coughing (*so* classy) for the next 100 m.

Had to turn off the Garmin on the way home so I could stop and scarf down fresh raspberries. Soooo good!

The Good News: 'Bent has an appointment with a good knee surgeon in 2 weeks.

The Bad News: The doc thinks 'Bent needs an appointment with a good knee surgeon. (Torn meniscus.)

Fingers are tightly crossed that he'll be ultrarunning by next year!

In the meantime, for the moment, I'm the last Tree Hugger standing. We're an endangered species! Our other regular teammates have mostly retired or graduated to better things, and it looks like 'Bent may be out of commission for awhile longer. So I need to re-evaluate what I'm training for in the second half of 2010. I still train as if I'm getting ready for Raid The North, but that makes no sense!

We're still going to do RockstAR at a knee-friendly pace because it's such a fun weekend, but my only other planned summer multi-sport race before next May is Logs Rocks and Steel. So... how should I be training and should I be considering different types of events? More solo? More nav? Less multi-sport? Less racing and more tripping? Female team? Hmmm... lots to think about. Perhaps some red wine is required.