Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: 2010 Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest
 

Thanks to all the volunteers who worked so hard to bring us another amazing Golden Leaf Orienteering Festival. Canterbury Hills Camp was a perfect venue with a grassy central amphitheatre where people could socialize, picnic and watch racers come into the finish. Cabins and meals were available onsite. All 4 races of GLOF weekend started at or near the camp and shared the same finish chute, yet the 3 races that I did each had their own distinctive character. Everything about GLOF was top notch - new maps, interesting courses with tough route choice, warm sunshine and none other than Valerie Meyer managing the SI.

GLOF Sprint / Ontario Championship - This was a forested sprint so I wasn't sure how it would go for me. For some reason, I've been doing well at park and campus sprints over the past few years. Over the same time period, I've lost my touch for Middle distance so the change has not all been good.

As it turned out, the forest part wasn't the problem. The only control I blew was #1, less than 100 m from the start - before we even entered the forest. I wasn't paying attention to the map and I got drawn to the wrong flag, which wasted about 30 seconds. After that, it felt like things went OK but I wouldn't have said it was outstanding.

As it turned out, it was my best run of the weekend and it stood up pretty well. I won my age group and took home a pair of the awesome new red Canada mittens from The Bay. My best two splits (2nd of 30 on the course) were late in the race on legs that involved steep climbs up big, slippery embankments. I guess everyone has his or her specialty and mine is a little weird! I'm sure we'll need to do some steep climbs in Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Raid The Hammer so I'll get to practise this again soon.

GLOF Middle / Ontario Championship - Glenn B. finished this course before I did and complained of a huge error he'd made on #2 due to inattention. As a result, I was super-careful up to that point, then I totally blew #3, just 200 m away. It was in a busy area of the map with spaghetti-style ridges and re-entrants, and my plan for the leg was too imprecise. I got what I deserved - a seemingly endless period of wandering along the hillside as I tried to relocate. Turns out it was only a 5-minute error but it sure felt longer!

Thanks to WinSplits analysis, I realized that I also made a really bad route choice on #7 and lost several more minutes. I took trails where a cross-country route would have been more efficient.

Other than those glitches and some slow-as-molasses running on a couple of legs, the race went fine. I squeaked in 3rd in my age category. Huge congrats to Trudy D who finished 2nd on a tough course and came close to beating Marketa. Seriously impressive!

Sprint 3 - Splits

Middle 5 - Splits

Leanimal and I went to Forks of the Credit Park for an autumn photography session. We were there for most of the morning and given that we travelled several kilometers, climbed up and down the escarpment, and bushwhacked through goldenrod over our heads, I figure we can log some of it. We should have some nice pics.

For the first time, I used my shiny new iPhone to check the Internet from the woods. Untamed New England and Guats weren't quite done the AR World Championship yet but they are done now. Congrats, all!

Core class.

Class with substitute instructor. Caron had told her that we "like to work hard" so she ramped it up. This would have been a great class for anyone who thinks that yoga shouldn't be logged on Attackpoint! (Although I don't log the relaxation - ya gotta have some standards.) One of the tougher things for me was the series of linked one-legged balancing poses where we had to close our eyes - yikes! Most people depend on a visual focal point to keep balanced so this required lots of little foot and leg muscles to work hard and stay in control.

My muscles were screaming at a number of points in the class so I tried to use it as mental toughness training, i.e. do I *really* need to stop doing this or is my brain just telling me that it's painful?

This is just too good not to share. (Bender, please forgive me!) There were pro photographers at the Toad offering many different photo products after the race. The e-mail sent to over 1,000 participants included these examples of the new Trading Card and Magazine Cover we can get made up with our pics. Obviously, they picked a hot guy who they figured would sell a lot of photo products for them. I think we were all expecting this but now it's official... Bender has become the newest male model in our midst, joining the likes of Hansel and Zoolander.

If anyone would like to buy a Bender trading card, I'd be happy to direct you to the website. :-)

First run since the Toad. Around Palgrave West under the careful supervision of BulletDog. Felt surprisingly energetic but could tell that my quads/hams would start to hurt a lot sooner than usual if I was foolish enough to attempt a long run.

Anyone know what the deal is with Gun Time vs. Chip Time? Until recently, I assumed that Chip Time would be used for rankings but in the last two races I've done, the rankings have been done based on Gun Time. I guess it's important to line up near the front of the pack - although I thought that was the whole point of the Chip?

For example, the 28th place runner in the Toad 50K had a faster Chip Time than the 27th place runner. I saw a lot of this at the Centurion too.
http://www.roadraceresults.com/display-race-result...

So here's the progression:

Sat.morning - This is awesome! I love running 50K trail races.
Sat. afternoon - This is painful! But I have to finish.
Sat. night - That may have been my last 50K. I'm not sure it's my distance.
Sun. morning - Ouch!!! I can't believe how many different muscles are hurting. Richard, please bring me coffee.
Sun. afternoon - Hey, I can do stairs again.
Mon. morning - Hmm, when is the next 50K trail race?

This was the first time I've taken Princess - my new road bike - out for a spin in the past two weeks. When I found her in the corner of the garage, a cobweb dangled accusingly from her handlebar. :-( I drove to the corner of Hwy 9 and Concession 3, then rode up into Adjala near the area where Crash and I went riding. A few good hills but this was mostly just a chance to move my legs after Saturday's race. I practised the "half-shift" that repositions the front derailleur depending on which side of the back ring I'm using. Still need more practice to make it a habit.

Ouch!!!!